Chapter 2189: Calamity of Light

Chapter 2189: Chapter 2189: Calamity of Light

Shard heard from his superior, Director Anlos, that Velindale intended to take advantage of the upcoming completion of Moon Bay Bridge to organize citizens to march the streets and criticize the city hall councilors for their corruption during the bridge’s construction. Hence, he could roughly guess the purpose of this MI6 officer’s visit this time. However, Mr. Richard would definitely not put it that way:

"His Majesty is planning to send members of the Royal Family to visit Moon Bay. I’m here to do the preliminary security work."

Earl of Hawthorn and Miss Belindel exchanged a glance, the latter then smiled and asked:

"Do you know which one is coming? Prince Samuel Anjou? Princess Margaret Anjou?"

Carsonrick has three princesses and two princes in total. Among them, Samuel Anjou is the eldest, and the Second Prince William Anjou, due to his poor handling of the Randall Valley Stonemason Association matters earlier this year, is now disliked by "Lion Ryan," hence will surely not be tasked with this job. Margaret is the Second Princess, and her sister is already married. Although the Elder Princess still holds some power within the kingdom, it’s obvious she’s gradually faded from the political center of Velindale City.

As for the youngest prince, since he’s only 12 years old and not the kind of genius capable of accomplishing major tasks even before coming of age, he won’t be undertaking such a mission either. Therefore, those likely to appear in Moon Bay are Samuel Anjou and Margaret Anjou, who recently participated in the Green Lake negotiations... Among the offspring of the Anjou Royal Family, they seem to have the highest possibility of inheriting the throne.

"I’m really sorry, even if I actually knew the answer to this question, I couldn’t reveal it before the official announcement."

Mr. Richard replied with a smile:

"And it might not necessarily be either a prince or a princess; it could also be a duke or marquis highly favored by His Majesty."

But judging from the current situation, the Anjou Royal Family intends to not only win over the local nobles of Moon Bay but also send someone capable enough to maintain order, without being too high-profile as to prevent the local citizens from feeling pressured by Velindale. Hence, Samuel Anjou and Margaret are the best choices. And if Shard guessed correctly, Miss Sylvia and Miss Benanis would probably take this opportunity to come to Moon Bay and meet with him.

The party was originally scheduled to last until 10:30 pm. Currently, Moon Bay City is facing tumultuous times; nobody feels safe walking at night. However, plans always change faster than expectations. Around 9:40 pm, while Shard was sitting on the sofa with the red-haired Countess discussing the upcoming sale of beautiful long stockings next week with the Marchioness of Ankara and several other noble ladies, suddenly a scream came from the east side of the banquet hall, followed by chaotic voices saying "someone’s dead" and "where’s his head," and the place was thrown into complete disarray.

[Did you feel that?]

"Yes, the light in the room just now became very odd."

Thinking to himself, Shard almost immediately stood up:

"Ladies, please stay here and don’t move; I’ll go check out the situation."

The maids and servants had already come over to protect these ladies who must not encounter any mishap, and the Countess cooperatively urged Shard to be careful, allowing him to leave.

By now, the incident area was surrounded by a circle of people; even more people were trying to distance themselves from it. When Shard managed to reach the front, he saw that encircled by a wall of people was a corpse lying on the ground.

Saying "a corpse" wasn’t quite right; the body was only two-thirds. The upper part, including the head, neck, and top of the chest, had completely disappeared, leading to the shoulders’ disappearance and causing the arms not to connect with the upper body. Thus, this should be considered a dismembered corpse.

The severed edges of the corpse were remarkably smooth; even if Shard used a sword to chop, he might not manage to create such naturally seamless injuries. To avoid suspicion, he had no intention of squatting down to examine the corpse but learned the gist from the surrounding people’s description.

Returning to the sofa, the frightened ladies were eager to understand what had happened.

"Indeed someone has died; the deceased is Baron Mardul Bins. People said he was dancing with his partner, and then his body emitted a blazing light, like it was on fire, and shortly thereafter, part of his body vanished."

Shard said in a low voice, the noble ladies exchanging bewildered looks, unable to comprehend what had occurred. The Witch’s eyes were laden with concern, and upon meeting Shard’s gaze and seeing him nod briefly, she understood that Shard thought the same.

With something like this happening, the party certainly couldn’t continue. Police arrived quickly, and Earl of Hawthorn apologized to the guests, arranging for them to leave as soon as possible.

Shard also followed the Witch back to the estate. Once inside the carriage, Miss Belindel promptly said:

"The Headless Serial Murders."

"Yes, it’s likely that in those cases, the deceased’s heads also suddenly shone and then disappeared. But the serial murders are most likely man-made, whereas tonight’s incident seems to be a natural phenomenon."

"Natural phenomenon?"

The Witch asked incredulously, receiving the divination cards handed over by a maid beside her. She quickly shuffled and drew three cards, placed them on her lap. After confirming the card faces, she groaned, covering her face with both hands:

"This really is... I’d rather tonight’s events also were a man-made incident."

Leaning against the carriage seat’s soft cushions, Shard gazed at the scenery of Moon Bay outside the window:

"It has finally begun... The calamity of the Earth originates from Earth; the calamity of Space derives from Space. When light too becomes a disaster, can people really abandon Glimmer?"

"At least until the matter is straightened out, we should best maintain some distance from brightness."

The carriage headed toward the sparsely starlit distance, and the light from the kerosene lamp inside the carriage was extinguished. Darkness enveloped the land of Moon Bay, and indeed, compared to brightness, darkness was safer now.

Until Shard accompanied the witch back to Belindel Estate, he then bade farewell and left. The Countess really seemed to want Shard to stay the night, but he insisted on leaving. So before departing, he accepted her gentle kiss as a token of gratitude for accompanying her to the banquet.

But Shard had to return the next morning; last Sunday, the cultists held a ritual near the coast of Moon Bay to summon the deep sea’s evil - the Seven-Tailed Player, and she had discerned some details. With this, Shard in his final time exploration in the Sea of Darkness finally reached the end.

The crystal shoe was thrown out, followed by the silhouette of the Outlander holding the crystal shoe appearing on the staircase of No. 6, Saint Delan Square’s second floor. Shard had just taken two steps up when he was greeted by the cheerful little Mia welcoming him. Upon reaching the second floor, he saw the house where the Elf Girl had stayed a few days ago, now transformed again to having only him. Even for an Outlander accustomed to solitude, it felt somewhat melancholy:

"I wonder where Emilia’s train is right now."

"Meow~"

The cat happily snuggled against Shard’s chest; any lady might be absent each night here, but little Mia would always be by Shard’s side.

After washing up, he returned to the bedroom, turned off the light, and rested. As he fell in Dream, gazing up at Silvermoon from what seemed like an endless wilderness on the edge of a field, Shard suddenly asked:

"Where did those who become light eventually go?"

[You won’t turn into light.]

"She" laughed gently, like a breeze across the wilderness, like the grass beneath Shard’s feet.

"Why?"

Shard asked, puzzled, thinking "she" was implying he need not fear calamities from the light.

"She" simply smiled without answering; Shard continued to look at the Moon, then suddenly smiled himself:

"Indeed."

He looked down at his glowing hands:

"The Moon and the Sun, they themselves are light."

After a night of sound sleep, time came to Friday. While going downstairs to fetch goat milk and the newspaper, Shard was still thinking about the upcoming Day of the Red Butterfly, and when he went upstairs to prepare breakfast for himself and the cat, he pondered whether he should use the Time Key when he next saw Miss Eles or after getting materials from Miss Belindel.

Without the girls’ presence, aside from the cat slightly disliking Shard’s cooking skills, not much else occurred during breakfast. The newspaper still featured His Majesty the King’s photo as the front page, and nothing significant happened in Tobesk City lately, though discussions on war and peace became critics’ topics; yet the Outlander didn’t care about that.

Having had breakfast, he intended to head to Moon Bay City, but the unexpected doorbell downstairs disrupted Shard’s plans.

Curiously opening the door downstairs, Bill Schneider stood outside. Shard was first surprised and then welcomed with a smile:

"Doctor, you’re back from an academic conference?"

The blue-eyed psychologist nodded with a smile:

"I returned last night. I received the letter you sent to me, didn’t expect that I’d be out just for half a week and you’ve encountered such things."

He removed his hat and entered, following Shard upstairs, listening as Shard recounted the rough happenings of the "Emilia’s Misfortune Story Collection."

"[Friendly Neighbor][Chain of Malicious Curse Letters][Ghostly Afterimage][Ghost Bone Tree], this really is... I haven’t heard of anyone encountering so many malicious relics in a week."

Even though the doctor had known the rough details from the letter, he was still quite surprised:

"But you all truly have the skills; you’ve managed to safely handle so many relics. However, does that Misfortune Cult actually have such capabilities?"

"That’s the only current doubt, but the captured prisoner has admitted it was indeed them who cursed Emilia."

Shard seeing the doctor concerned, added:

"Moreover, since the disenchantment, Emilia stayed at my place for three days, during which nothing happened."

"Could it be that your house itself is haunted?"