Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

The black-haired Maid hurried along the gravel pathway from the entrance of the estate toward the imposing three-story mansion. If Shard remembered correctly, she was the very maid who delivered the "Vampire Ring" to him on behalf of "that lady" on the third floor of the Lucky Southern Cross Club.

"'That lady' has come too?"

Shard stood by the long table, glanced up at the manor not far away, and could only see a few young ladies in formal dresses chatting with each other on the second-floor balcony.

One of them, holding a glass of wine, with long red hair, noticed Shard's gaze and pointed him out to her friends.

Seeing the girls from the second-floor balcony looking in this direction, although he did not want to invite trouble, Shard still nodded slightly as a salute before nonchalantly moving away from that spot.

"Seeing so many hair colors at once is indeed a novel experience," he thought to himself as he reached the backyard courtyard of the manor.

Shard was not clear about the exact size of the Lakeside Manor, but even without counting the racecourse connected to the manor and the nearby farmstead, the area far exceeded the imagination of an Outlander.

Behind the manor was a garden divided into different sections. Walking further back, the estate directly bounded Lake Schluch, and by the lake, there was even a small dock with boats. Shard had already seen young men and women boating on the lake with candles in hand.

He did not get too close to the lake, not because he did not want to admire the beautiful sight of the moon hanging over the clear waves of March at night, but purely because it was too cold by the lake.

The garden itself was enough for Shard to gain some worldly experience. Though he wondered whether it was customary, young lovers would always venture deeper into the garden. While they did not engage in indecent acts, merely confiding their feelings to each other on the benches still made Shard, who wandered everywhere, quite embarrassed.

His aimless wandering was purely to gain knowledge and better adapt to life in this world. He looked for things to do to pass the time, but he soon realized that he was down to the last few business cards in his hand, which were meant for the friends of Baron Lavende and thus did not need to be handed out anymore.

Thinking of finding a place to sit down, he saw that many more gentlemen and ladies had started to stroll among the flowers in the Garden Maze. So he left that area, intending to rest a while under the tulip sculptures on the other side.

But before he could take a few steps, he saw a group of people emerge from a small path surrounded by fresh flowers on the side of the manor. It was the side gate of the manor's garden leading to the racecourse, and under the guidance of an Old Man dressed as an old steward with an oil lamp, they hurriedly entered.

These were more than a dozen stern-faced individuals donned in uniform black coats, members of the clergy. Seizing upon Priest Augustus's recent talk about the Church Ring Sorcerer squad's dress code and weapon carry requirements, Shard concluded that they belonged to a church.

Although Shard did not see the Holy Emblem and thus could not determine which True God Church these people were from, there was no doubt they were dangerous.

With this thought, he naturally took another path in front of the garden, brushing past the group.

As they brushed past, the voice in his head concurrently reminded him of the presence of "miracle," "Enlightenment," and "Whisper" elements, which further confirmed Shard's guess about their identities.

Enjoy new tales from empire

"However, if every encounter with a Circle Sorcerer and the troop of the True God Religion provided such an obvious reminder, then what covert operations could they speak of... It can't only be you who can do this, can it? Lady claiming to be another 'me'."

"[Do I need to repeat myself?]"

"This is because of my soul's sensitivity," Shard said in his mind, and then heard the woman's pleasant laughter again.

In the group of more than ten, the leader was a middle-aged man almost as tall as Shard but as burly as if he could punch Shard and his orange cat, Mia, to death with one fist. Most of the team members following him were men, with two women amongst them. One appeared to be in her thirties with purple lipstick, while the other looked to be no older than eighteen with long brown hair.

Even Shard could tell she seemed somewhat nervous compared to the others.

"Is this her first mission... Why does she look familiar? Oh, that's right, I came across her the day I went to pick up Mia from Purple Iris Alley, and I had a strange feeling then (Note)."

Shard thought to himself and didn't look back at the group of people. Instead, the voice in his head spoke up, of course, not to tease him about noticing the strange girl:

[Outlander, you have seen Fate.]

"Hmm? Have I seen it? When did I see it?"

He thought puzzledly to himself but kept walking forward, afraid of being mistaken for a bad person by the True God Church's Circle Sorcerer squad.

"But when I think about it, why am I nervous? I don't seem to have done anything bad, so why the fear... I am a good person after all."

His pace slowed but he still didn't look back.

[It's hard to explain. Encountering her repeatedly, you've noticed something different about the strange young woman. You should have felt her difference, even if I didn't say anything.]

The voice whispered.

"Can you express it in a way I can understand?"

Shard retorted, pretending to be curious about the blue-winged butterflies in the flowers ahead.

He had expected not to receive a response, but this time the woman's voice seemed surprisingly understanding:

[The person chosen by Fate is here, which seems to portend something significant is about to happen.]

"'That lady' has arrived, and the True God Church's team is here too... Indeed, something seems off. So, should I leave?"

He asked inwardly but didn't get another response.

Shard knew he had to decide for himself and couldn't rely on the woman's voice that claimed to be his own.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

But after some thought, he chose not to leave. This was not because of the payment of at least half a pound and his yet-to-be-reimbursed travel expenses, but because suddenly leaving would be too conspicuous, and he was determined not to approach any dangerous places or to engage with trouble proactively.

"With the place being so large, as long as I don't wander off and intentionally pursue danger, with the True God Church's Circle Sorcerer squad here, how could danger possibly involve me?"

He thought to himself as he returned to the long tables laden with food.

Even among strangers, men could strike up a conversation over common topics. Shard, thinking of finishing his supper early, found himself unwittingly drawn into the discussion about the "feasibility of New World colonization."

The New World, discovered during the great geographical explorations fifty years ago, is vast in area with abundant resources and is dotted with mysterious ancient civilization relics and even tombs.

However, to this day, no traces of any live native inhabitants have ever been found in the New World. Therefore, scholars from the northern Draleon Kingdom and the southern United Kingdom of Carsonrick of the Old Continent unanimously believe this is abnormal and have advised against hasty population migration.

For this reason, so far, there have been no large-scale official colonial activities between the two continents, just numerous military pioneers, adventurers, and ambitious individuals, taking their families and friends to settle on that fertile land.

The kingdom's officials are also considering this issue. More than fifty years have passed since the great discovery, and the first generation of adventurers who set foot on the New World are now old, and some have spent their entire lives there without any problems arising. So, the debate has heated up in the past decade on whether official population migration is feasible.

Men by the dinner tables at Lakeside Manor, dressed in proper suits, enjoying the cool early summer evening breeze, engaged in a spirited yet inconsequential debate on the issue—novelty views that made Shard nod frequently, knowing that in any era, people always enjoy such conversations.