Chapter 2212: A Calm Saturday

Chapter 2212: Chapter 2212: A Calm Saturday

"But if things like this really keep happening, I’m afraid not lighting lamps at night will actually become the norm... but what about daytime?"

Shard asked again. Although both incidents had occurred at night, there was currently no evidence proving that the Light Fusion phenomenon only happened at night.

"That’s for the Church to worry about. Oh, do you want to go with me to see last night’s scene? The traces left last night are much more obvious than Thursday night’s—I think you’ll find them interesting."

The crime scene was at the exit of a small alley that connected to the street. A streetlamp at the mouth of the alley happened to illuminate part of the alley, and it was precisely this glimmer that had caused last night’s tragedy.

That place was of course already sealed off by the Church now, with ordinary people forbidden to observe or enter. But for Miss Belindel, who wasn’t good at fighting yet excelled at other means, this was no obstacle at all.

After confirming that the local Thirteen-Ring Sorcerer "Radiant Hand" Joshua Brooklyn was not present, the Witch simply took Shard and slipped past the blockade into the alley.

The Circle Sorcerer’s directly spellcast earth wall blocked the alley entrance solidly, and behind that wall Shard saw a region that radiated an extremely intense white glimmer even in broad daylight, as well as a black shadow branded onto the side wall of the alley.

It wasn’t space itself that was glowing, but the actual matter—the soil, the alley walls, the wanted posters on the walls, the trash on the ground. And that black shadow was the last trace left by the unlucky soul who had "melted into the light" last night.

As Shard and the Witch approached, the Circle Sorcerers from the Dawn Church were running an experiment—throwing a white mouse into that glowing zone.

After the mouse walked in, at first it was only a bit tense from the abnormal light, but outwardly nothing seemed different. Very soon though, the onlookers observed that the white mouse’s fur was showing an extremely faint tendency to turn transparent. But this change progressed very slowly, and once the mouse was pulled out of the region, this extremely mild "Lightification" could no longer be reversed, yet also stopped spreading.

Shard and the Countess did not stay there to discuss. Instead they returned to the manor, and only when the two of them were walking side by side along the garden path did they speak.

"This situation really is worse than Thursday night’s. I didn’t expect the residual light to actually seep directly into space and matter. It’s just that the duration was too short—we don’t know yet whether this contamination can be cleared away."

Shard said, then thought of his own Light Spell. After he performed the Light Spell, the nearby material would be left with Moonlight, but that glimmer would at most linger for a dozen minutes, then vanish to the naked eye.

"I’ve studied the disaster conditions in regions where the Chosen once appeared. By the usual pattern, the initial manifestations shouldn’t be this severe—this looks more like a mid-to-late stage of the event."

The Countess spoke as she reached back for the Divination Cards the Maid handed her:

"And now we’re already at the point where the Chosen are about to appear, yet the disaster of runaway glimmer is only just surfacing. That’s wrong too—the disaster should break out earlier than the Chosen’s appearance. It looks like someone suppressed the early-stage catastrophe that ought to have erupted, and only now, when they can’t hold it back anymore, has the disaster begun to show itself."

"It’s the Light Worshipper Training Association, isn’t it? The glimmer they used before, wasn’t that uncontrolled light?"

Shard brought this up, and the Witch instinctively pressed her right shoulder, a resentful expression appearing on her face:

"If that’s really the case, then on the good side, they successfully avoided unnecessary casualties in this region; but on the bad side, they used that glimmer to kill quite a few innocents here, and the Church couldn’t make targeted arrangements based on the early anomalies."

She lowered her hand and continued to shuffle the cards in her grip:

"What’s more frightening is that the Light Worshipper Training Association has always proclaimed their ultimate goal to be the Transformation of all humans into glimmer, which they regard as a form of evolution. Now that they’ve mastered such a dreadful method, all they need to do is find a way to expand the range of the abnormal glimmer, and wiping out a city would be entirely trivial."

Shard thought of Mr. Benhart’s memories before his death in the Bygone Era—he had died in just such a wide-area strike. The scene of the Vampire Viscount’s death was a city with arches, and now it seemed very likely that this was Moon Bay under his feet.

When Shard had first arrived here, he hadn’t understood this, but now he could guess that the arched Moon Bay Bridge, once completed, would look exactly like that arch in the memory.

Only the events in that memory clearly took place in a more distant "future", since right now that bridge was still under construction. The timeline of the Bygone Era differs from the Present World—many things have already proven that.

That morning Shard did not run into Miss Eles, and of course he had no way to take the initiative to seek out that lady. As for the Countess, who had no idea what Shard was really doing in Moon Bay that morning, she proactively invited Shard to stay for lunch.

This time, however, Shard declined. He still had a meeting at Dr. Schneider’s in the afternoon. After returning home, he took Mia, grabbed a quick bite, and headed to the doctor’s place.

Ever since the doctor learned of the Demon of Misfortune’s existence, Shard had not contacted him again. But it was easy to imagine that the doctor must have been busy these days making that Alchemical Weapon. So that afternoon, Shard went early to the Schneider Psychological Clinic, and sure enough, the doctor pulled him aside to brief him on the current progress:

"We’re doing pretty well. Thanks to the metal you provided, most of the troublesome materials have already been gathered. If the weather and stars cooperate over the next few days, I’m confident I can finish the weapon before next Thursday."

Although it was midsummer now, the daily temperatures were actually more like autumn. Inside the clinic, however, the blue-eyed middle-aged psychologist wore only a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, looking very efficient and brisk.

While they spoke, Shard caught a quite strong smell of pomegranate juice coming from the doctor—apparently something he’d gotten on himself while preparing the Alchemical Weapon.

"Can you tell me what form the weapon will take? A sword? A dagger? A bow and arrow? Bullets?"

"No, no, this is a weapon made specifically for that Demon. It won’t be in any common weapon form. I’m not sure what shape it will finally be molded into—you’ll see when the time comes."

Everyone attended the meeting that afternoon, and the doctor once again emphasized the end-of-month summer exams. The exam date was now fixed: the last Sunday of Thunder Moon, July, which was the 27th. And today was July 12th.

"I know you all have things to take care of. For example, Priest Augustus has to prepare for the Dawn Church’s Holy Prayer Day. But please take your exam revision seriously, and while there is still time, submit your course-end reports to the Academy. Don’t push everything off to the exam week at the end of the year."

Although the doctor used the Old Cleric as his example, Shard had the feeling he was looking at him.

Since everyone had a lot on their hands with exams approaching, this meeting went on until four in the afternoon before ending.

Priest Augustus and Dorothy had already turned in a large number of term papers. Luviya was thinking about her elective courses for the second half of the year, and so had consulted the Astronomy College in advance. Dr. Schneider had applied to the Library for a brand-new Arcane Technique and purchased some Special Materials for it.

But Shard, knowing the inside story, understood that the doctor’s true objective was those hard-to-acquire Special Materials—the Millennial Living Golden Scarab and the Eyes of the Sinner (active). Under normal conditions, the Academy does not sell these two materials separately.

As for Shard himself, aside from submitting a report on a Time Expedition that afternoon, he had no other tasks. But just as the group meeting was about to end, Miss Danester sent Shard a letter via the verses paper the doctor kept, asking him to project himself to the Academy Library at seven that evening to meet.

The others assumed Miss Danester wanted to talk with Shard about his recent studies; even Luviya only guessed that Miss Danester wished to discuss the situation in Moon Bay. But Shard could roughly guess that tonight’s conversation was probably about the Elf Girl who would arrive in Moon Bay tomorrow.

The "night class" for this Saturday night would be taught by Dorothy. But because Shard had to meet Miss Danester at seven, Dorothy didn’t rush to start the lesson after dinner. Instead, she and Shard took the cat for a stroll in Saint Delan Square, and only when the sky was fully dark did they return home.

At seven o’clock, when Shard saw Miss Danester in the Academy Library, the first thing she brought up was indeed related to Emilia:

"Regarding the Demon, right now only the headmaster and I know. After all, if we’re going to dispatch a Unicorn, I can’t go around the headmaster."

She opened with that, and Shard nodded to show he understood:

"How do you plan to send the Unicorn to Moon Bay? By sea? By land?"

"No, for safety’s sake we’ll use the World Travel Manual to send it directly. This Relic can’t be used multiple times in a short span, but fortunately it hasn’t been used much this year. When are you free tomorrow? Once you send over the photograph, we’ll open the door from our side."

The Librarian asked, and Shard thought for a moment:

"Tomorrow... nine in the morning, I guess. But where are we going to settle Emilia and the Unicorn? I’ll go ahead and get familiar with the place."

Hearing that, Miss Danester blinked in puzzlement:

"Hold on, isn’t it you who’s going to arrange things for Miss Sianod and the Unicorn? The Academy only issues the mission and has the three of them split up. You know we can’t let too many people in on this, so aside from you, no one in Moon Bay knows about the Demon."