Chapter 2344: Investigation of Three People

“The Chosen One?”

On the terrace, Emilia, who was speaking alone with Luviya, finally felt slightly relieved after finishing the conversation. The girl with pointed ears looked at the gaslit city from the terrace, at the night sky shrouded in black fog. Although her earlier answer to Grandma Keesara at the Clan Holy Land was that she did not want to become the Chosen One, she hesitated to reject Luviya’s inquiry now.

Recalling the city’s distress she witnessed last Sunday night while out with Shard, remembering the burning city and the monsters everywhere, and recalling the two Elf Hero statues she recently saw in Creekland at the foot of Vulture Mountain, she felt her thoughts had changed somewhat:

“I still don’t want to bear it, but if you need me to draw the sword again… can I think about it?”

“Of course, until the last moment, you have time to ponder.”

Luviya spoke softly, patting her shoulder:

“Shard doesn’t wish to involve you, nor do I want you to fall into the whirlpool of fate. We will both protect you, Emilia.”

A long-haired figure, unseen by them, was leaning on the railing, gazing at the Moon Bay scenery. Listening to her own conversation with Emilia, she sighed at all this, ultimately realizing it was because Shard had changed.

Wednesday was followed by Thursday, and early in the morning, when Shard rose from the entwined embrace of Miss Galina’s red hair, he realized that today marked the thirty-first day of Thunder Moon, and July was ending.

And the end of July meant that half of Tobesk’s summer, according to tradition, had passed. This summer left Shard with many memories, and the most significant was how cold this summer truly was.

“It’s snowing.”

The lazily waking Red-Haired Duchess pointed at the curtains, and as they opened, the snowy grey morning scene of Tobesk emerged. Outside the door came the sound of a cat pawing at the door, followed by Dorothy’s voice:

“Shard, get up! Is it that woman again who won’t let you rise?”

It seemed it wasn’t Miss Writer but Her Highness the Princess.

“You’re not feeling well yourself, so don’t blame me.”

Galina smiled, speaking to the door, then also sat up, hugging Shard and giving a gentle morning kiss. The Witch’s body was truly special; having just woken up and not yet freshened up, she still exuded a charm that ordinary girls could not compare to.

[Angel’s Right Arm] was now housed at Belindel Estate. That day, Shard prepared [Night Watchman] and [Madeline’s Love] before setting off for Moon Bay. He still entered the city from Saint George Stone Bridge, observing the gradual recovery from last Sunday’s unrest.

When he arrived at Belindel Estate with little Mia, he found the Grand Witch was absent, but Luviya was chatting with Miss Eles on the second-floor terrace, holding teacups.

The Blue Dragon Girl was somehow a bit shy facing Luviya, but upon Shard’s arrival, they shared new information with him:

“Today, when you go out, be cautious. Miss Belindel says the police will conduct a city-wide search today, apprehending the gangs who attempted to storm the core district of Moon Bay during last weekend’s riots.”

“But aren’t most of the gangs in Moon Bay controlled by the Hawthorn and Black Families?”

Shard curiously asked, and Luviya shook her head:

“Additionally, there were seven ‘Light Fusion’ incidents in Moon Bay last night. Early this morning, I accompanied Miss Eles and Miss Belindel to inspect the crime scene nearest to us. The deceased were two cleaners from Council Square. The issue is quite serious; not only did the bodies and clothes completely vanish this time, but there’s also an affected circular area over 30 feet in radius on the square.”

“The Church, inspired by your Dragon Language Spell, is attempting to restore that glowing land to normal by absorbing light. However, progress isn’t ideal, so if you later see a conspicuous temporary small wooden house on the square, please don’t be surprised.”

Miss Eles also spoke, prompting Shard to gaze from the terrace towards the distant Belindel Big Bell:

“The restlessness and unease of this city are already like a volcano accumulating power.”

“Oh, Miss Belindel asked us to inform you that the Church is attempting once more to contact you through [Witch Council]. This time they mainly want to ask if you have a way to expel those Exotic Light Seeds.”

The Dragon Girl added:

“We know your [Power of the Earth: Healing Aura] and the Dragon Language Spell: Sword of Light can both work, but you probably have no interest in appearing before the Church, right?”

Shard decisively shook his head:

“Still waiting for the Chosen One of Light to appear, so that he or she can solve this issue. It should be soon; now that the five Holy Swords have gathered at Moon Bay, the final showdown is coming.”

“It’s six swords.”

Luviya corrected:

“Last night, I had a private conversation with Emilia. She said that the Moon Creek Clan holds an Angel-Level relic long sword named [Time Flute]. That’s the Blade of Time, stored in the Holy Tree, but if Emilia speaks to the clan, that sword can be at Moon Bay by tomorrow.”

She looked at Shard with a questioning gaze, asking if he needed the sword to be brought here, but Shard just shook his head:

“Don’t involve Emilia easily, at least not now. She lacks the resolve of Sister Delphine, Iluna, and the Guardian of the Earth, and she doesn’t have the special opportunities of Grace, Helen, Dorothy, and Lecia. The identity of the Chosen One would crush her.”

“No problem, all matters will be decided by you, you are the master of this house.”

The purple eyes revealed a gentle expression, while the Dragon Lady beside them coughed once and, seeing they both looked at her, she then spoke with hands behind her back:

“Shard, don’t worry too much, I still have the Dragon Language spell that Miss Violet asked me to teach you. Although it can’t help you defeat the Deity, it should handle other situations.”

Luviya planned to stroll around Moon Bay with Miss Eles; she seemed to have many topics with the Blue Dragon Girl. And hearing that today they were going to take a boat to see a nearby island, the Elf Girl and Little Princess also decided to join.

This gave the Little Unicorn more chances to go outside; compared to the city, the surveillance from the Church at the port close to the sea is slightly weaker.

As for Shard, after leaving Mia in the care of Tifa, he went to the morgue at the end of Spider Alley to meet Mr. Benhart. ℯℯ𝘭.

Mr. Ptolemy Albert, the Coroner, was also waiting for them; today he wanted to act together with the two. Now, the days for vampires in the city have become increasingly precarious, and he too wanted to contribute.

“The divination of those letters yielded results.”

Shard brought good news, and Mr. Benhart’s investigation also had significant progress. In the morgue, the three exchanged information; the diviner Shard found was able to divine such precise information, which greatly surprised the two vampires.

What Mr. Benhart discovered was even more shocking to Shard:

“After investigating Mrs. Jude, I unexpectedly found that others alive have received similar letters. They are also of our kind and familiar to you. Captain Rudolf and Marquis Mosen, the former challenged you arm wrestling, and the latter we deemed bloodthirsty.”

“Didn’t they sense any danger upon receiving the letters?”

“Danger from what? They have many enemies and indeed those letters didn’t have special element reactions. In fact, if I hadn’t specifically inquired and investigated, they wouldn’t even have realized those letters differed from other ones.”

Mr. Benhart said, and Mr. Albert nodded:

“Though it was difficult to track those corpses from the Lower District who died of heart attacks, I did find similar letters. It’s basically possible to link those deaths from heart attacks with Mrs. Jude’s threat letters. Mr. Watson, fortunately, you always asked me to focus on those corpses, otherwise, this would be hard to investigate.

So today, our task is to go see Captain Rudolf and Marquis Mosen, in the afternoon see Mrs. Jude. Since the diviner says Mrs. Jude will face danger tonight, at least today the day we don’t need to worry about her safety.”

“Then let’s set off now. Who to find first? The Captain or the Marquis?”

“I’ve sent visitation letters, but the problem now is they are in different places. The Marquis is at the racecourse in the north suburbs, the Captain is in the south city port at his own ship in the morning. Considering that we definitely can’t fly around the city, we must hasten the speed… let’s first head north, I heard Princess Margaret is also there.”

Mr. Benhart said, and Shard nodded indicating he had no objections. Then the coroner proposed he needed to change clothes before leaving, so they waited a while, soon seeing Mr. Ptolemy Albert in a brand-new brown cloak, with a brown satchel slung over his shoulder.

Apart from the cloak being newer than the original workwear, it was essentially the same style.

Probably worried that his scent would affect others, when they got on the carriage, Shard smelled the perfume Mr. Albert had on. It wasn’t the pungent kind Shard disliked, and he asked the coroner about it, the latter shared his own created floral scent perfume recipe.

Since the carriage was heading out of town across Saint George Stone Bridge, the three on board inevitably discussed the aftermath of last weekend’s turmoil.

The coroner, who was well-connected at the local police station, shared his insights:

“Ordinary people can only deal with ordinary people, and recently the police had a major operation against city gangs, I think they’ll soon fill the prisons. But the Hawthorn Family and Black Family were surprisingly cooperative, even proactively helping to locate people in the city. Now, except for the waterfront gangs which were hardly affected, almost all gangs in other parts of the city were involved.”