Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 1727 - 1726: Probing the Soul

Although she couldn’t go to the Green Lake region with Miss Galina and her other siblings like Angelina, which made Lecia a bit disappointed, the thought of staying in Tobesk and being able to see Shard more conveniently eased her emotions quite a bit.

Perhaps trying to vent her frustration or possibly taking advantage of Miss Galina’s departure to visit Shard, Her Highness the Princess borrowed Dorothy’s body and completely relaxed on this Saturday evening.

The result of this was that early Sunday morning, when Shard prepared breakfast and called for Dorothy to get up and eat with Mia, the golden-haired girl pulled the quilt up, covering her bright white shoulder shining in the warm sunlight and most of her face:

"Please don’t call me before noon... Next time, I must teach Lecia a lesson."

The voice was very lazy, and considering today was Sunday, Shard did not disturb her.

Thus, Dorothy did not get to see the blind nun coming out of the basement half an hour later; Dorothy probably did not hear Shard say he was going to meet Priest Augustus and would return at noon to bring her lunch.

So Mia stayed at home, and Shard and the nun who came early in the morning boarded a carriage at the doorstep, ready to head directly to the Three Cats Inn in North City to meet with Priest Augustus.

It’s worth mentioning that due to the need to move around the crowded Tobesk, Sister Delphine wore a different outfit instead of her usual gray-black nun’s robe and silver eye mask. Today, she donned the attire she wore when she and Shard visited Joey Barton at the Raven Club in Midshire Fort City, pretending to seek divination help.

Sister Delphine was wearing a simple gray long dress with a black cloth strip as a belt at the waist. The silver eye mask was replaced by a thin veil, behind which white cloth strips wrapped around her eyes to cover her naturally unusual eyes.

This was the second time Shard saw Sister Delphine in such attire. He had to admit that this outfit, combined with her inherently cold and reticent demeanor, made the nun increasingly...

"What am I thinking?"

He admonished himself in his heart, suspecting he hadn’t yet emerged from the recent days of exertion, hesitating on whether he should compliment Sister Delphine’s dress today.

On the carriage heading to Hymn Square, Shard didn’t forget to chat with the nun about recent events in the Green Lake region, happily announcing he had found another demon, and soon there would be new demon remains to burn as firewood in the Primal Fire. Sister Delphine’s expression didn’t change much, but she told Shard that although there is no Serpent Heart Hospital in the Green Lake region, she’ll arrive soon with Granny Cassandra:

"Probably next weekend, or the week after."

Her words were still brief; her tone was so calm that Shard suspected whether she possessed a "coldness" Spirit Rune.

[Primal Fire burns fiercely within her soul.]

"She" suddenly said, and Shard blinked suspiciously:

"So..."

"She" smiled gently but refrained from continuing to tell Shard about Sister Delphine.

"Shard, you need to pay attention to Wednesday’s lunar eclipse."

Sister Delphine added, and Shard nodded. The nun had mentioned this last time. But Shard evidently misunderstood; Sister Delphine’s mention of the lunar eclipse now wasn’t about him:

"The cyclical recurrence of the Moon and Sun is the most crucial power in maintaining the material world’s order. The occurrence of lunar and solar eclipses causes a brief imbalance in the world’s order, having a larger impact in places like last autumn’s Midshire Fort, where the order of life and death was already imbalanced."

"But hasn’t that already... oh, in places naturally imbalanced."

He realized what Sister Delphine was concerned about.

Priest Augustus and Durut Giles were very punctual. When Shard entered the Three Cats Inn hand in hand with the "disabled" nun in his true appearance, both were already seated on the first floor.

Durut Giles sat near the stairs on the first floor, with a package from the doctor on the table, focused on dealing with his breakfast while Laster Edwards continuously made faces attempting to catch his attention.

Priest Augustus sat not far from them near the bard performance stage, though nobody was performing so early. A cup of tea and an empty plate were placed in front of the priest, and he was engrossed in a newspaper. The outward-facing page featured a picture of Miss Galina and King Larus III waving farewell to the crowd yesterday evening.

Even at the right edge of the image, Angelina could be seen.

"Two cups of tea, and a plate of snacks, not too sweet."

Shard said at the counter. Seeing Mrs. Sangmi the landlady giving the nun he was holding a once-over, he warned before she could speak:

"Ma’am, making jokes about disabled people is quite unethical."

"No, no, how could I do such a thing? Hamilton Detective, I was merely intending to joke with you."

Mrs. Sangmi laughed heartily, fortunately choosing not to voice the joke she had been contemplating expressing, and Shard knew very well what she originally wanted to say.

Neither Durut Giles nor the confused girl’s soul recognized Shard. So Shard sat on the opposite side, away from Priest Augustus, with Sister Delphine, allowing them to observe the girl’s soul from different angles.

Shard wasn’t sure what method Priest Augustus used to observe, but Sister Delphine’s method was much simpler. She only needed to "see" to uncover the deepest secrets of the soul. This was originally the nun’s talent, and after becoming The Chosen One of Death and recovering more than one Primal Fire Spark, along with the many pieces of firewood found by Shard, this "seeing" ability had become even stronger.

Without even removing her veil and the cloth in front of her eyes, she directly looked in the direction of the soul. Powerful souls can often sense "peeping," but unfortunately, although Durut Giles claimed the girl’s soul was strong, she still didn’t notice Sister Delphine watching her. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Shard thought the nun would need to look for a long time, but unexpectedly, it took only a dozen seconds before she withdrew her "gaze."

"It’s done."

The nun nodded slightly at Shard, and just at that moment, the inn’s servant brought the tea and snacks Shard had ordered. Leaving at that point would have been suspicious, so Shard thought of suggesting to the nun that they sit for a while before leaving. Unexpectedly, Sister Delphine took the initiative to pick up the teacup and tilted her head slightly, asking:

"Is something wrong?"

Priest Augustus never interacted with Shard and Delphine and soon got up and left. Twenty minutes after the priest left, Shard escorted Sister Delphine out of the inn.

They took a carriage back to Saint Delan Square and sure enough, they saw the priest who had arrived earlier sitting by the fountain where a girl was holding a water jug, feeding pigeons with breadcrumbs.

Shard opened the door, inviting the priest and Sister Delphine inside. The two of them and Shard, along with Iluna, had all experienced True Death together; although not very familiar, they knew each other, so Shard didn’t need to introduce them:

"How is the situation?"

Dorothy still hadn’t gotten up. Shard, holding Mia, sat in the living room with the nun and priest. The priest glanced at the bedroom door blocked by the Moonlight Thicket and carefully chose his words to speak first:

"The soul is incomplete."

His expression was sharp:

"The loss of memory and spirituality is due to the soul being incomplete."

He paused and looked very serious:

"Splitting the soul, no matter what era, is a very evil act. I recall you mentioning a prophecy about the Edwards family reuniting on that island. In this case, the other part of her soul should still be on that island, ensuring that she can return when necessary."

Sister Delphine clasped her hands together on her lap and nodded gently:

"In addition to this, Durut Giles’s soul has a peculiar connection with Laster Edwards’s soul."

The nun didn’t say much, so Priest Augustus added:

"To elaborate, although they have no blood relation, their soul vibrations are almost identical. This is very rare and suggests that their souls share a great similarity. Consequently, the girl’s soul, being in close proximity to Durut Giles for a long time, can slowly repair her soul. But even if fully repaired, the lost memories will surely not return."

"Will their souls merge?"

Shard suddenly asked, and Priest Augustus found this question odd:

"I see no sign of such a thing, why do you think two different souls with human nature would merge? That’s a peculiar question."

Shard quickly shook his head, sighed while covering his forehead:

"I’ve been encountering similar things recently... Sister, although Laster Edwards’s soul is incomplete, you should have seen some things, right?"

"Some incomplete memories."

Sister Delphine continued to nod:

"My ability isn’t to see a person’s entire life but to seek out the most profound scenes in memory or search for a particular memory with a purpose. I’m not well acquainted with her, so I saw very little."

She organized her thoughts:

"Laster Edwards has five most profound memory fragments. The most recent one was when she met you earlier this week. She thought you were a very frightening person."

"Am I frightening?"

Shard asked the cat lying on his lap. Mia squinted its eyes and purred softly, then rolled over, showing its snowy white belly. This was probably Mia’s way of saying Shard wasn’t frightening.