Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Chapter 1900 - 1899: The Witches’ Dance

The Duchess merely laughed softly, then fell into silence without saying another word. Although Shard did not look at her expression, he also knew that at this moment, she certainly did not wish for anyone to talk to her. For a full five minutes afterwards, before Lecia and Margaret came over, no one stepped forward to engage her in conversation.

"Aunt, what’s that expression for?"

The only one who didn’t care about the Duchess’s mood was Lecia. Seeing Shard and Miss Galina standing neither too close nor too far, both silent, she guessed that someone had suddenly fallen into their thoughts.

After Lecia spoke, Shard felt the atmosphere around him suddenly change. He finally turned around, seeing the smile on the Witch’s face:

"A thoughtful expression, thinking makes young women wiser."

She said this, greeted Margaret, and then spoke to Shard in her mind:

"Anlos just asked to meet you at the washroom door."

She raised an eyebrow slightly, and Shard widened his eyes slightly:

"Just now? When?"

"About half an hour ago."

She smiled slightly, and Shard frowned slightly:

"Then why did you..."

"I knew he would surely involve you in trouble, so why still let you go."

She nodded satisfactorily at Shard, and Shard was somewhat confused:

"Now then..."

"I’ve figured it out, no matter what, we couldn’t possibly live in a peaceful era. I can’t stop you from taking risks for others. But at least I’m luckier than those witches of the Fifth Era; even if they became demigods, they couldn’t hold your hand."

She did not reach out to grasp Shard’s hand, merely looked at him with her golden eyes.

Their conversation just now was transmitted through the Witch’s unknown secret technique, therefore, in Lecia and Margaret’s view, Shard and the Duchess were merely holding their wine glasses while glancing at each other, then both stared at each other in a daze.

Lecia glanced at Angelina on the side, hoping she’d break the silence. The Little Princess knew this was best avoided, but under the pressure of her sister’s authority, she could only cough twice:

"Cough cough."

The silence was broken once again, and Shard and Miss Galina both shifted their gaze. Afterwards, Shard said something to Megan and headed towards the direction of the door. The three princesses and Miss Galina gathered together, the Witch gazing at the wine glass’s deep red liquid, softly asked:

"Do you think he sometimes feels tired? Does one person really need to bear such heavy responsibilities?"

Margaret pondered, thinking how the women of House of Cavendish really complained even when they were advantaged; Lecia watched Shard’s back, once again considering all he has done for them until this moment; and only Angelina also stared at Miss Galina’s wine glass, seemingly seeing much more in that deep red.

On the other side, although Shard was half an hour late, Director Anlos was still washing his hands at the washbasin on the second floor restroom. In front of him was a quality mirror, as the City of Glass across the lake produced glass, the mirror craftsmanship was quite excellent.

Director Anlos occupied this position, truly remarkable, he entirely lacked the intention of questioning Shard about why he was so late, and instead spoke straightforwardly through the mirror:

"Once again, the organization requires your services."

"Because of tomorrow’s event?"

"Because of tomorrow’s event."

Tomorrow morning, Miss Galina and Margaret would travel together by carriage to City Hall. When the Duchess waves to the crowd, someone would fire a shot. Subsequently, a minor skirmish would erupt between border troops of the two countries, but controlled. Due to this series of incidents, Carsonrick and Draleon would simultaneously announce the halt of talks and withdraw the negotiation delegations from the Green Lake Region.

Thus, after nearly two months of Green Lake talks, producing only slight achievements, they would officially terminate.

The deeper reason behind this is the True God Church preparing for the final battle over Green Lake. However, this cannot be known by everyone, and evidently, Director Anlos is one of those aware of tomorrow’s events:

"In our entire department, only four people are aware of the truth, including you and me. I know you will inevitably attend tomorrow’s event, there’s no need to act or such, the lady has likely already warned you about this, so I won’t repeat it."

He turned off the faucet and approached the mirror, wiping his brow with his wet hand:

"Do you remember that organization that attempted to incite conflict between two countries by assassinating their negotiation delegations?"

Shard certainly remembered, during his investigation of the Colored Mushroom, he encountered MI6 and Grey Glove meeting at a luxurious club in the City of Glass to discuss this matter. However, ultimately, Margaret, Prince Samuel, and Duke Simir were still subjected to assassination attempts.

"I remember."

"We suspect someone would exploit the chaos tomorrow, so we need you to be on guard secretly. Although the Church will send individuals to watch over the location tomorrow, after all, all eggs should not be placed in one basket."

He gazed at Shard in the mirror, Shard nodded:

"I understand. If a staged assassination becomes a real assassination, it would be ludicrous."

"Indeed, tomorrow, MI6 personnel will scatter along the street. However, of the operatives, only you would know the truth. Remember, the genuine assassination personnel’s distinctive characteristic is a silver fountain pen pinned to their chest. Without the pen, they are certainly fake. If matters link to that realm, the Church will undoubtedly intervene, but if it remains ordinary people’s actions, we can only rely on ourselves."

"Understood."

Shard nodded again, and Director Anlos didn’t say anything further. He took out a handkerchief from his pocket, wiped his hands, and turned to leave. As he passed by Shard, he patted him on the shoulder. This was likely just to encourage Shard, not an instruction for Shard to meet him at three in the morning.

To avoid suspicion, Shard didn’t leave with Director Anlos but instead went to the sink to wash his hands. As he looked up into the mirror, the soft voice of "her" whispered in his ear:

"What are you thinking about?"

The eyes of Shard in the mirror looked at the real Shard’s ear, confirming that there was no one there:

"This time, I’m truly witnessing history."

"Will it be that serious?"

"I hope not, hopefully."

That evening, Shard didn’t see Director Anlos again. This ordinary-looking middle-aged man always appeared at the right place and left at the right time.

For Shard, the grand banquet held this night was overall quite enjoyable. No unlucky cultists barged into the banquet, and no bizarre murders suddenly occurred.

After the ball officially started at nine-thirty, Megan partnered with him for the first dance, followed by Miss Aphrola for the second dance with Shard.

Once the dance music began, Shard barely had a moment to spare. Audrey was third in line, followed by Miss Benanis, the opera actress who had caused a scandal earlier that year in Randall Valley, who once again danced with a man, much to the excitement of the reporters present. However, Miss Benanis refused any further dance invitations after finishing her dance.

Megan justified dancing the fifth dance with Shard by claiming she was his partner, and Miss Sylvia danced with Shard again to a soothing tune afterwards.

Audrey demanded to continue dancing with Shard on the grounds that she was his partner. Though the other ladies did not bear the title of "Wisdom and Knowledge," they weren’t so easily fooled:

"You’ve already danced three times, oh, we’re counting by the body, not the soul!"

So Audrey was forced to sit down, watching Ciris hold the hand of Shard, who had once again changed appearance, and lead him to the crowd.

"You were just smugly smiling at me, now aren’t you sitting here with me?"

Miss Galina, with a wine glass in hand, teased with a chuckle. She seemed to enjoy herself quite a bit, and the brunette witch snorted:

"At least tonight I had fun not being forced to talk to strangers about dull topics, and I danced three dances with him. I really should thank you for teaching him how to dance. It’s clear he’s still a bit rusty, but that’s the charm, isn’t it?"

The red-haired witch swirled her wine glass:

"Oh, should I tell you, even though you danced with him tonight, he’s staying here overnight."

She winked with a grin:

"Don’t get any funny ideas, he’s just spending the night here. My grand-nieces are around, Princess Margaret is here, and there are many maids, I won’t be doing anything improper."

Audrey’s mouth twitched:

"Aren’t you worried I’ll really tell others about this since you’re being so blatant?"

"Will you?"

Miss Galina asked, taking another glass of wine from a maid and handing it to Audrey.

The two clinked glasses lightly:

"Of course not."

"That’s why, you girls should be a bit bolder. Look, I’m bold enough, which is why I got ahead of everyone else."

For Audrey and Megan, who already knew the secret, the red-haired witch could brag about this repeatedly, but she couldn’t boast about it in front of others.

"From when you first met Shard to when you thought you were bolder, how long has it been? Half a year? A year?"

Audrey suddenly asked, her right index finger, painted in pomegranate-red nail polish, pressed against her lips, revealing her own smile:

"You, bold? Duchess, I’ve only known him for two months."

The duchess’s expression changed slightly:

"Petty comparisons can make a girl’s spirit ugly."

"What are you two talking about? Why do you look like you’re enjoying yourselves so much?"

Miss Aphrola, who had just returned from the restroom with a wine glass, sat comfortably beside them, while her niece, Miss Haley Aflora, stood where Tifa should have been changing clothes.

Miss Galina tugged at the hair falling by her ear and exchanged a glance with Audrey, who was gently swirling her wine glass:

"Chocobo postpartum care."