Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Time passed swiftly, and during the first half of the Moon of Birth, due to another punishment by the Tree Father, Shard did not use any time key. He spent his time on his own life, enlisted Old John to help acquire new relics that could temporarily increase his luck, studied the "Immortality Magic" and the Demigod Ice Crystal of Witch Chloe, and even shared the skin care and youth-preserving techniques from the "Immortality Magic" with the women around him.

Of course, during this period, he also received letters from Miss Mia Sun Gold, the true owner of little Mia. The lady in the letter was very grateful for the photos of little Mia that Shard sent before the Year-End Festival, and this time, Shard finally joked in his reply that if it was inconvenient for Miss Gawder, she could leave the cat at Saint Delan Square for him to take care of.

He tried to make his tone in the letter seem like a joke and even asked Dorothy to help polish it. After sending the letter, he felt anxious about Miss Gawder's possible reaction, but the reply wouldn't arrive until the next month.

In the first half of January, besides two commissions to find missing pet cats, Shard also handled three slightly complex but interesting detective cases: "The Murder of the Heirs", "The Tobesk Country Villa Haunting" and "The Stolen Pendulum".

The first case involved a tedious noble family where brothers ended up killing each other over inheritance rights. Even though Shard was threatened with a gun to stop the investigation, he successfully dealt with the villains who tried to threaten him and Mia;

The second case involved someone pretending to be a ghost, trying to exploit Shard's fame to create rumors of a haunted house. However, Shard's investigation was so thorough that it uncovered a major case spanning two centuries, involving three noble families and affecting dozens of victims and three generations of emotional entanglements.

With the help of innocent spirits, he finally found a cellar where five victims and dozens of undeveloped fetuses were buried, ultimately sending more than a dozen people, including the client and their entire family, to prison... Nonetheless, at least Shard managed to obtain his commission fee reasonably and became quite famous in the city because of it.

The entire case from start to finish took only three days to investigate.

The third case initially aimed to help a local Earl find the whereabouts of a gemstone-adorned pendulum from an antique clock. But when Shard traced the lead through the confessing servant to a local group of gemstone dealers, it unexpectedly connected to another group of thieves who were attempting to break into Yordle Palace, having even dug a tunnel.

This matter quickly spread across the entire Old Continent with the news headline "Century Thief", and even Miss Galina in the distant County of Saradiel and Margaret in a foreign land wrote to inquire about the cause and process of the event. Unfortunately, since it involved royal secrets, Shard couldn't explain in detail in the letters, but at least he gained another opportunity for an audience with the King and Queen, much to Lecia's satisfaction.

Also, in these two weeks, the Draleon Kingdom's 1853 honors list was finally officially released.

At that time, the "Missing Pendulum" case had yet to be solved by Shard, so he did not get promoted from Knight to Baron due to his achievements, but he received the "Kingdom Special Contribution Award" medal and a generous bonus, and his military rank was promoted from Major to Lieutenant Colonel, indicating an increase in basic allowances.

Similarly, Captain Lades, who was also expecting the honors list, didn't get promoted from Officer to School Officer. However, he too received a "Royal Army Gold Star Service Medal" and was transferred to the newly formed "Pantanal Region Border Army Third Division" as a battalion commander.

Captain Lades was originally in the Sicarl Mountain Defense Zone, specifically managing affairs at the Red Water Camp, and although he could not stay in Tobesk, taking on the role of battalion commander was a real promotion.

Shard was very happy for the Captain, seeing him off before his departure from Tobesk. However, the formation of the Pantanal Region Border Army also indicated that Draleon and Carsonrick were once again focusing on the Great Swamp Area.

The Outlander sincerely hoped that this would not become a trigger for conflict.

As for the "Draleon Kingdom Literature Award" that Dorothy had been thinking about, the award list was also officially announced in the first half of the Moon of Birth.

Notably, the Kingdom Literature Award is not a single award but a series of awards, with the most important being the "Kingdom Achievement Literature Award".

Unfortunately, no matter how well "Hamilton Detective Stories" sold, in this era that is both conservative and open, popular literature could not win such a supreme award.

Yet, Dorothy's father, the esteemed Professor Luisa, was quite effective in his efforts, and as an originally unknown female writer, Dorothy surprisingly won the "Best Popular Literature Award".

While not particularly important in the "Kingdom Literature Award" series, for Miss Writer, it was quite significant and representative.

On the night of the award ceremony, she wore a long dress in pale gold and invited Shard as her escort to the banquet, and after the banquet, spent a memorable night with Shard.

Shard, who never liked having his photo taken, also left a photo with Dorothy, dressed in a gala gown and holding her trophy during the banquet. That black-and-white photo was placed by Shard on the desk in his study, where Dorothy smiled brightly.

Of course, since he planned to rest for a while, Shard did not forget to fulfill his promise, inviting Helen and Grace to visit Tobesk.

It was the second Sunday after exam week, the twelfth day of the Moon of Birth. The girls, dressed in black and white long dresses, with red scarves, walked with Shard through the hazy winter city streets, lingering on crooked alleys and bustling markets.

Shard had made quite detailed plans for the day's activities. He's very grateful to Helen and Grace, while Lecia insisted on paying for the entire day's activities herself.

The three of them visited the city museum, climbed the specially opened bell tower, went to the Three Cats Inn to see the "three cats," and toured the winter Regent's Park. They even insisted on an adventure with Shard, taking a stroll around Dawn Square and buying souvenirs from the vendors there, which were bookmarks made from plants native to Tobesk.

Although the Red Butterfly Twins are older than any girl Shard knows, walking with them on the streets of Tobesk gave him the mysterious feeling that they were girls of only sixteen or seventeen.

Time had left no trace on them, and repeated painful cycles brought them an eternally youthful mindset. Compared to other Immortal Beings, the cycle of painful reincarnation at least ensured that their hearts remained young.

In the evening of that day, after the three had dinner and returned to Saint Delan Square, they coincidentally encountered Luviya, who had come to Shard's house for stargazing.

At that moment, Grace and Helen didn't appear separately; instead, they combined into a figure that looked like a girl in her twenties, making it easier for Shard to appear with them in public.

"Shard, you're back? The association informed me that there will be special arrangements for my Sublimation Incantation, so they're preparing to send me on a trip to..."

Luviya, who was holding a pile of books on the stairs, blinked in surprise when she saw Shard and the girls behind him. Grace Helen looked at her even more surprised:

"You..."

Luviya's reflection fell into the eyes of the Red Butterflies, where the intersecting shadows revealed another figure that normal people could absolutely not see. The special Relic Properties allowed the Red Butterflies to glimpse a unique self within the mortal standing in front of them. They couldn't understand why that shadow was special, but before they could speak, Shard said:

"Luviya, let me introduce you. This is Miss Grace White and Miss Helen Black, whom I've mentioned to you many times. This is Miss Luviya Annette, my fiancée..."

"Lover,"

Luviya said proactively. Shard gently tapped the shoulder of the girl in the black and white long dress, who smiled understandingly and didn't bring up her discovery again. Then, among the fluttering butterflies, they turned into a slightly shorter Grace and Helen:

"Sister Luviya."

The two girls displayed a very well-behaved demeanor.

Luviya looked at the girls who seemed to be fifteen or sixteen years old, and then looked at Shard:

"I'd heard Shard talk about you a long time ago. Very nice to meet you. Although Shard introduced you, I must say, you really do look... young."

Shard felt a severe misunderstanding about himself from her eyes.

In any case, even without a method to get to Randall Valley City temporarily and not opening a new Time Key, Shard's life remained busy and fulfilling.

For an outlander, the City of Steam, Tobesk City, is so mesmerizing. He lingered in this metropolis, enjoying his peaceful life.

On the fifteenth day of the Moon of Birth, in 1854, on Wednesday, at 10 PM, at Queen Maria's Opera House.

As the high-pitched singing reached its peak, in the brightly lit opera house, the applause from the gentlemen and ladies sitting in row upon row of seats sounded almost like an exploding steam bomb.

This was a famous opera called "Revenge of Cedrian," the script written in the early Sixth Era, a time before the current Draleon and Carsonrick. And in 1854, it had already become one of the most famous operas in the entire human world.

The bustling start of the year 1854 had reached mid-month, and having dealt with many of the year's miscellaneous affairs, people could relax a bit. So Princess Lecia Cavendish invited her sister and Rejed's Hamilton Knight to join her in an opera house box on this lively night.