Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 476: Enhancement of the Potion

The investigation was progressing very smoothly. After bidding farewell to Miss Mary, Shard and the maid with black hair returned to the Three Cats Inn in Hymn Square for lunch. They hadn't eaten earlier, and the Three Cats Inn was considered one of the better restaurants in this area.

While waiting for the food to be served, Miss Servit was examining the scores, and Shard was inspecting a potion in the light.

"Mr. Hamilton, do you really think Miss Mary didn't feel any regret or sorrow over Mr. Bondy's death?"

She suddenly asked, and Shard shifted his gaze from the bottle in his hands:

"Are you still thinking about that?"

He asked inquisitively, yet he provided his opinion:

"Mr. Bondy's relationship with her must have been closer than we thought, otherwise he wouldn't have left so many personal items behind. Especially this bottle—among the relics the Noan Opera Troupe received, there was only one empty bottle, and the landlord found nothing similar—it suggests that Mr. Bondy didn't have much potion left. But even so, he chose to leave half a bottle with Miss Mary. What does that tell us?"

The girl with black hair thought for a moment:

"Great trust, so much so that he was willing to place his hope for continued 'Brightness' in her hands."

"Yes,"

Shard nodded.

"But when you mentioned the musician's death earlier, she didn't show any emotion."

Miss Servit posed the question again, and Shard shook his head:

"She's protecting herself. If we were Mr. Bondy's enemies, do you think we would take our anger out on her? Besides, a woman with such rich social experience, working in a technical job at the lower rungs of society, has certainly been through a lot. It's not that she's heartless; she's just seen too much..."

"So you're saying that it's possible that after we left, she might have cried while holding the musician's coat?"

She asked Shard, her hand supporting her face; black hair brushed past her ear.

Shard shook his head again:

"In my view, she's more likely calculating how much money she can get from those relics. The citizens at the bottom, where do they have any concern for romance and love? Everything just now was our own speculation. It's also possible that she responded to Mr. Bondy's genuine feelings with fake emotions. I don't mean to disparage the profession, but those in it can be very good actors."

Miss Maid thought for a moment and nodded:

"Indeed."

"Moreover, this is someone else's story; we're merely witnessing it. What difference does it make between truth and falsehood? More than Miss Mary and Mr. Bondy, I'm more concerned about what this potion actually does."

Shard frowned, holding the potion bottle.

Circle Sorcerers rarely recklessly use a magic potion without knowing its effects, especially one that needs to be dropped into the eyes.

But Mr. Bondy had shown with his own experience that this bright yellow potion, oily in appearance, caused the user to see strange things that led to madness without causing direct harm. What Shard feared the least was psychic damage, for he had seen more terrifying things than most Circle Sorcerers.

And since Mr. Bondy had died from suicide rather than his head exploding outright, it suggested that what he saw wasn't extremely horrifying. Thus, before visiting ophthalmologist Jacob Alfred in the afternoon, Shard decided to experiment with using an extremely small amount of the potion on himself.

Miss Servit was, of course, very much against it, but Shard was confident, as "she", who whispered in his ear upon touching his fingertip again, still considered the potion harmless.

After finishing lunch at the Three Cats Inn, Shard rented a small room on the third floor of the inn. The room was not large—with a wardrobe, a bed, and a desk, there was scarcely any room left to stand.

Shard took off his coat and lay on the bed with the washed-out white sheets. Then, he had Miss Servit drop the potion into his right eye.

"Are you really sure it's safe?"

She was still very worried.

"Of course, I trust myself very much,"

Shard lay there and said with a smile:

"Besides, it took Mr. Bondy two months to be driven to suicide, and I'm a Circle Sorcerer, how could I be weaker than him. Come on then, after the experiment, we'll go find Dr. Alfred."

Shard patted his face and then closed his left eye while widening his right eye.

Miss Servit sat beside the bed with some difficulty, pulled the cork off, and with a point of her finger, a plump droplet flew out.

Visit frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓ for the b𝘦st novel reading experience.

"So Mr. Hamilton, are you ready?"

"Certainly."

The droplet hovered above Shard's eye, but the dark-haired girl hesitated to let it fall:

"Perhaps I should do it?"

"Miss Servit, Miss Galina said you were to listen to me today."

"The lady didn't say that; she said to be your assistant,"

She argued softly, and then let the droplet enter Shard's eye.

The liquid entered his eye, but Shard resisted the urge to blink. Most of the liquid moisturized the eyeball, a small amount slid down his cheek from the corner of the eye—much like using regular eye drops.

After getting accustomed to the feeling of the tiny amount of liquid in his eye, he lay on the bed with his shoes on, hands folded on his chest, and gazed at the yellowed ceiling.

A few seconds later, his right eye felt a cool sensation, followed by a slight effect of the Spirit in the liquid.

An almost imperceptible hue of blood appeared before Shard's eyes, and then the halo grew stronger until he could clearly see all the blood hues in his field of vision.

"What?"

He sat up suddenly.

"What's the matter?"

Miss Servit quickly supported Shard:

"What happened?"

"My Sorcery 'Echo of Blood' has activated on its own."

Shard sat up and blinked furiously, but the automatically activated 'Echo of Blood' showed no sign of stopping. Moreover, the effects of this sorcery were better than any previous instance.

He could not only distinctly see all the blood hue halos within the room but also clearly differentiate the age and layers of each by the colors, almost able to infer the cause of every bloodstain. Not even in a state of 'Divine Afterglow' could Shard achieve such an effect with his sorcery.

Not only his sorcery, but everything in his view had also become clearer than before. Shard's body was naturally strong, and his vision was exceptional. But now, everything he saw through his right eye had taken on an unprecedented clarity.

Even peering through the room's window into the hazy fog in the distance, he could clearly capture the outline of the city.

Then, when he closed his right eye and observed with his normal left eye, everything returned to how it was originally.

"This Potion can enhance ocular-related sorcery and arcane techniques for a short time, and greatly enhance vision!"

Shard came to a conclusion, then looked at the bottle held by Miss Maid. The enhancement of his vision was so profound that he could even see the subtle pores on her wrist and palms, leading to another conclusion:

"Miss Servit, your skin is really nice."