Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 650 - Lecias Arms Dealing Business

Chapter 650: Chapter 650: Lecia’s Arms Dealing Business

Chapter 650: Chapter 650: Lecia’s Arms Dealing Business

Today was Monday, and because Shard went to the Prophet’s Society early in the morning, he didn’t have the chance to pick up the gift.

Since Luviya and Iluna were both present, Shard suggested taking this week’s gift in front of them.

He asked Iluna to hold the cat tightly to prevent it from darting into the box again, and then Shard reached into the metal box.

It had been over two months since he had obtained the Sage-Level Relic. Aside from some surprises the printing plate had brought him, most of the gifts had been rather inconsequential.

But this time, Shard’s luck finally turned around.

“Oh!”

His eyes suddenly widened because his fingers felt a key at the bottom of the box, and he immediately sensed that it was a relic.

“Finally! Finally! My luck has been quite good recently, first getting the Corpse-Hiding Mirror at Milestone, and now another gift!”

Struggling to keep his expression from being too exaggerated, Shard took out the somewhat cold, black-iron-colored large key. The key was as long as Shard’s palm, and the teeth of the key were little square blocks, a type common to large locks from an old era.

The metal surface had very faint markings, like the fine letters of an ancient alphabet, wriggly as earthworms. Translated, they meant:

“The only lock that can’t be opened, is the lock of the maiden’s heart.”

“Is it this one? So it’s true, ‘God’s Gift Box’ really can yield relics,”

commented Luviya from the side.

“What is this?”

Shard asked curiously. Even Iluna, who was well-versed and had seen much at the church, recognized it:

“A Poet-Level Master Key?”

“Yes, the Master Key, a one-time relic, of uncertain quantity and mysterious origin. Its trait is quite simple, it can unconditionally open any lock.”

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Luviya nodded to Shard:

“Yes, it’s quite similar to your Key of the Door. But the advantage of a relic is that it doesn’t consume the user’s Spirit, so even opening a Maze Lock won’t use any energy. Moreover, possessing this key can enhance the ability to penetrate illusions. Aside from being one-time use, the downside includes the spatial instability that comes with it.”

Luviya thought for a moment:

“A Circle Sorcerer who holds the key is more likely to encounter accidents in areas that are already spatially unstable. A small example, taking this key to Midshire Fort, you have a higher chance of being swept into the Interstice of Life and Death by accident.”

“That’s too bad then, you guys take it. I already have the Key of the Door, I don’t need this one.”

Shard placed the key on the table. Although he couldn’t use it, he was still very happy to have obtained a relic.

The purple-eyed Diviner and the seventeen-year-old girl with long hair glanced at each other.

“Keep it with you,”

said Iluna, taking the initiative:

“I’ll be going to Midshire Fort in a few days too, and I definitely don’t want Shard to have to rescue me from the Interstice of Life and Death again.”

“Right, I’ll find an opportunity to compensate Shard.”

Luviya picked up the key and then asked Shard:

“So, big boy, what kind of task has God given you for this week?”

Both she and Iluna laughed. The feature of “taking gifts” from God’s Gift Box could only be triggered by children, so Luviya referring to Shard as a “big boy” was indeed amusing.

“It’s very simple, at least simpler than swinging a sword 100 times on each of the last three days of the week. It seems the difficulty of the weekly task is unrelated to the value of the gift—it’s to give my pet a bath.”

Shard said.

“Meow?”

The little Mia, held in Iluna’s arms, suddenly poked out her head. With big amber eyes looking at Shard and her head tilted curiously, she looked very cute. Therefore, Shard laughed and took the cat back into his arms from Iluna:

“Just as the weather is set to cool down, it’s best to give it one more bath after autumn sets in. I often hear that it’s not good to bathe cats too frequently, so with this bath, there will be no need for another during the winter.”

Because of this thought, on Tuesday morning, the first day of the tenth month of the year, the Month of Withered Leaves, Shard had fallen into a “dispute” with Mia over a bath, which broke out early in the morning.

Of course, the victor of this skirmish was Shard, who had first enticed the cat into the bathroom prepared with warm water using food. After closing the door, he engaged in a chase in the cramped space with Mia and emerged victorious.

No matter how agile the cat could be, it stood no chance against Shard, who possessed the ability of Spatial Movement.

Despite having seen the ocean and having been bathed before, when Shard placed her in the bathtub, little Mia still let out a “scream” of protest.

But it was just a single cry, and the cat looked around in confusion. Seeing that the warm water caused her no harm, she suddenly became cooperative, rubbing against Shard’s hand as he washed her, offering no resistance throughout the process.

Although the cat sometimes appeared very intelligent, in the end, it was still just a cat.

After bathing the cat, Shard didn’t head straight to Midshire Fort; instead, on this Monday, he took the dried-off Mia with him. In Tobesk, he took care of the monthly bills, taxes, and advertising fees, and also collected this month’s salary from MI6.

Having dealt with these matters and having had lunch with the cat, it was already three in the afternoon by the time Shard entered the Midshire Fort city area.

Fortunately, he had no pressing matters today; he only wanted to help Lecia do an inventory check of the goods stored in the warehouse at number 19 Punjab Avenue to ascertain just how much had been stolen by the local “rats.”

Punjab Avenue, located in the city center and adjacent to Saint Kara Street and Perfume Street, is teeming with multinational trading companies. It’s particularly bustling at this time of year; on the first day of October, traders from all nations throng the area, eager to finalize important deals before winter arrives.

The warehouses from number 10 to 20 on Punjab Avenue are all storage spaces, but when Shard arrived, his first glance was not towards number 19 but instead at the red doorplate of number 18 adjacent to it.

Information received by the Grey Gloves indicated that the goods were to arrive at the number 18 warehouse on the last day of the previous month, which was yesterday. And if Shard’s guess was correct, the agent who was meant to receive the goods had already died last week on the fourth floor of the Sicarl Inn.

From the three-person team meant to receive the goods, the one who knew the address was shot, the one in charge of security committed suicide at the local police station. Only Professor Higgins remained alive and was suspected of having stolen the fountain pen devoid of any intelligence the night the gunman killed himself.

“Theoretically, the goods are most likely still here. That professor of linguistics, under normal circumstances, would have no way of knowing this address.”

Shard stared at the number 18 doorplate for a while before pressing a button on the door of number 19, which unlocked automatically. Looking left and right, he saw that although the street was crowded, no one paid attention to this spot. So, lowering his hat with his right hand, he quickly entered.

These central warehouses are generally not large in size. But considering the land-use efficiency, they naturally have more than one floor. Apart from the main door on Punjab Avenue used by pedestrians, there’s also a loading door on another side, which was currently sealed with rusty hinges from the inside, so Shard didn’t need to worry about someone entering from that side.

Lecia had rented this place for reasons unknown, and at first glance, it seemed to be storing maintenance parts for steam engines.

Inside the warehouse, there wasn’t much in the way of decor, just a flattened floor and whitewashed walls. The air was thick with a distinct smell of oil, emanating from the metal parts contained in the boxes.

“Lecia asked me to check the third floor.”

The second and third floors were connected to the first floor by an elevator platform powered by a steam engine, which was easy to operate. If you stood on it and pressed the raised center, the platform would move. However, starting the power source—the steam engine—required a special key, which was not present.

Of course, the noise it made was also quite loud. So instead of using his Arcane Technique to start it, Shard chose to unlock the metal door to the stairwell and proceeded up the stairs to the upper floors.

He didn’t forget to lock the door behind him either.

The second floor comprised rows of shelves stocked with various steam engine parts. The walls even had outdated diagrams of small steam engines with detailed dimensions and alloy types indicated.

Shard stood by the wall examining them for a while before once again opening the stairwell door and heading up to the third floor.

The layout of the third floor was similar to that of the first, also filled with wooden crates. Shard found a crowbar by the wall and pried open the nailed-down boards, revealing straw inside which nestled a machine gun powered by both steam and gunpowder.

The black metal body of the gun with its sights, magazine, steam chamber, and other small components were dismantled and laid out beside it. This was a controlled military weapon, seen by Outlanders only in books, a formidable instrument of war for this era.

“Oh, Lecia is even dealing in arms, and international ones at that. Who is she planning to sell these to?”

Shard muttered softly to himself, not particularly surprised since Lecia and Miss Aphrola were capable of partnering to build a shipyard and craft “boats with military potential that she wouldn’t outfit.” So it wasn’t unimaginable for them to sell a few crates of military weapons:

“Arms dealing seems to be quite profitable.”

Musing to himself, he took out the toy notebook from his pocket, restored it, and started counting and recording the number of crates while occasionally prying open one or two to ensure they contained the Kingdom’s controlled military weapons.

After nearly an hour of busyness, Shard finally finished this task.

He carefully retraced his steps, making as little noise as possible. Luckily, his luck held out, and he managed to leave warehouse number nineteen without drawing any attention to himself.

Stepping down the stairs with his hat pulled low, he walked along the wall towards the street corner, planning to return to Tobesk immediately to report the results to Lecia. However, as he was walking with his head down, he accidentally bumped his shoulder against a stranger walking in the opposite direction.