Chapter 2197: A Ray of Light

Chapter 2197: Chapter 2197: A Ray of Light

The soul agreed with Shard’s view, nodding without hesitation:

"Yes, I can tell you who the killer is. In fact, I can even sense the location of the killer right now, it’s a kind of..."

Shard finished the sentence for him:

"Instinct, the soul is just that magical."

"Then let me describe the location of the killer for you. Do you know Gray Street in the city? It’s..."

Shard stopped him:

"Hold on, you’re coming with us. Like I said, it’s getting late, and I don’t want to miss dinner time because we got the wrong person and have to run again."

As he spoke, he reached into his pocket. The soul wanted to express his dilemma, which is that he couldn’t stray far from his corpse, but Shard had already found the Raven Skull from his stash of toys:

"I’ve learned quite a few skills recently. This can temporarily store your soul. Don’t resist, don’t fight the pull... It seems to have worked. My craftsmanship is pretty good."

Carrying the soul with him, the detective who was holding a cat and the mysterious blue-eyed girl took a carriage back into the city. Although Shard considered this yet another troublesome matter, in reality, according to Mr. Gilot’s guidance, the group found the underground casino in the Lower District where the killer "worked" within five minutes of getting off the carriage.

It’s not far from Herring Street and Spider Alley. Crossing three alleys to the northwest, you can see the Taton River. The concept of the weekend had appeared in this era but was not yet fully widespread, so even people at the underground casino on a Friday afternoon were not as efficient and dedicated as usual.

However, Shard wouldn’t storm into this place and slaughter a whole building of people over a trivial matter. He merely activated his Illusion Technique and, along with Miss Eles, passed through the casino on the first and second floors to enter the restricted area on the third floor.

After knocking out a few unrelated people, Shard saw his target. The bald thirty-year-old man didn’t know what Shard was doing but chose to flee at first sight. He quickly ran out of the room, and Shard stood in front of the wall, counted down three numbers, and then punched—

With a "bang," his fist pierced through the thin wall, stopping perfectly in front of the bald man’s face. The latter stared in shock at the fist, his left eye looking right and right eye looking left, becoming cross-eyed, and then collapsed to the ground.

"Quite a punch you have,"

Miss Eles commented, as Shard tore down the room’s curtain, ripped off a piece of cloth, and stuffed it into the bald man’s mouth, who was now drooling and crying in terror. He folded the remaining curtains into toys and put them away, then carried the man like a wild boar, leaving the casino.

Upon finding the carriage, they went again to the City Cemetery, while the coachman, due to the Illusion Technique, seemed oblivious to the person Shard was carrying. After this round trip, when the man whose name Shard was too lazy to inquire about was thrown heavily in front of Mr. Gilot’s tombstone, the evening glow had already appeared in the sky.

The cat, well-rested in the afternoon nap, was now in an excited state—as it was almost time for dinner—and Shard’s afternoon hadn’t been completely wasted either. On the way back and forth, Miss Eles shared many interesting stories and legends related to the ocean, and the girl didn’t mind Shard probing her identity in a roundabout way.

But whenever Shard tried to delve into the real core of the topic, she would just smile discreetly and divert the conversation.

Releasing the soul trapped in the Raven Skull again, the soul manifested and looked grimly at the man who killed him, and when faced with someone who should be dead, the man with a cloth still in his mouth immediately wet his pants.

Miss Eles subtly stood behind Shard while Little Gilot continued to look coldly at his enemy:

"I was killed by such a cowardly person."

"You don’t seem to bear any grudge against him?"

Shard asked with interest, and the soul responded:

"He killed me, how can I not hate him? But I also know, they only wanted to rob me of my money, didn’t intend to kill me, my death was unexpected by all. I hate him, but I hate this fact even more, such a death made my life so meaningless."

As the sun set in the west, even the soul was dyed a layer of dusky halo. He just looked at the person who killed him, but eventually did not make a move, instead, he said to Shard:

"Sir, are you going to bring him to my father?"

"That depends on whether you’re willing to follow me, to see your father."

The soul, who had been cooperating with Shard’s actions all along, finally hesitated this time, and Shard also lightly sighed, standing under the big poplar tree looking at the setting sun hanging like an ornament on the tree branches.

There were no black clouds outside the city as there were in the city, the splendid sunset bathing humans and ghosts alike. And when elongated shadows of humans mixed with those of numerous tombstones, it made this place seem quiet yet not at all lonely.

The warm light made Mia purr comfortably, and seeing the soul remain silent for a long time, Shard finally said:

"It seems I guessed right, your soul hasn’t departed, not out of hatred for your death. You’re staying here because you feel sorry towards your father, isn’t it?"

Mr. Gilot’s expression grew more complex, while Miss Eles suddenly asked from behind Shard:

"How did you figure it out in advance?"

Shard continued to gaze at that round sun:

"Isn’t it obvious? If this tobacco merchant was willing to act so impulsively after his son’s death, then when the gentleman was alive in front of us, he must have loved his son very much.

I know young people tend to overlook their parents’ care, but a boy who was raised by his father after losing his mother early, wouldn’t he in his heart say sorry to his father before he died?"

At this moment, the soul trembled violently, and then a milky white glow emerged from the translucent spiritual body. Little Gilot’s soul seemed to be drained of time, flickering at a frequency of once per second, but after stabilizing, it just made the soul a bit more solid.

He looked down at the terrified man on the ground who seemed almost faint, and only spoke a long while later:

"I don’t have the face to see my father. I didn’t listen to him and got addicted to the Roder Card Casino. Now not only am I dead, but my father has also died because of me. I can imagine how heartbroken he was when he found out about my death... My father is an honest and simple man, raising me with the tobacco shop. I can’t imagine how such an honest person would sell the shop, purchase such expensive Roder cards, and then go buy guns and steam bombs... He is a very brave person."

The glimmer of dusk fell on the Outlander’s face, and orphaned both in his hometown and here, he did not understand the meaning of these words. Everything he said was only dealing with the matter from a human perspective.

So he didn’t try to persuade Little Gilot to go see the soul in the Underground Cemetery, but instead asked:

"I will ask just once, if you refuse, I will crush this Raven Skull and restore everything to its original state. I need to remind you, I don’t have a second skull like this to temporarily let your soul leave the grave."

He placed the Raven Skull on the tombstone, and the dusk sun dyed it yellow as well:

"You really won’t go see your father?"

The soul looked toward the entrance of the Underground Cemetery, then at the terrified man in front of his grave, and finally at his own tombstone:

"Thank you."

The soul reached out to pick up the Raven Skull, paused for a moment, then smiled and asked Shard—this was the first time the soul smiled:

"Sir, see, I can now touch the physical world. Before I leave, would you play a game of Roder Cards with me? Put the [Holy Sword: Dragon Slayer] into the deck, and consider it fulfilling my final wish."

Shard turned his gaze from the sun to him:

"You scum who caused your father’s death because of card gambling, I won’t play cards with someone like you."

He stared intently at the young soul, whose smile faded. After bowing to Shard and Miss Eles, he walked toward the direction of the Underground Cemetery entrance illuminated by the sunset and soon disappeared from their view.

The two did not immediately speak but waited together in the light of the sunset. After a long time, Miss Eles finally spoke and reminded:

"Did you feel it? They all left."

"So how did I do?"

Shard asked, and the blue-eyed girl smiled back and asked:

"Why don’t you evaluate yourself first?"

"I did very well because you don’t care about revenge. You care whether the dead boy had the courage to apologize to his father."

Blue eyes sparkled like light under the setting sun. She suddenly reached out and tucked a stray strand of hair swaying with the evening breeze behind her ear, then watched Shard and asked:

"Do you know that sometimes your kindness and wisdom are almost like a crime?"

"I don’t really like people describing me as ’kind-hearted.’"

The Outlander took a deep breath:

"It’s not hard to guess your intention. After all, as you said, I gave that black cat a strand of light so it didn’t turn into a terrifying Fierce Spirit. So this time you appear before me, probably also hoping I would give this boy and his father a ray of light, letting them continue to find their way."

"Then, O provider of light, how will you judge him?"

Miss Eles asked again, pointing to the man on the ground who had completely passed out from excessive fear.