Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Chapter 1905 - 1904: Hide-and-Seek Wardrobe

Now, there are less than sixty hours left until Wednesday night, the Edwards Family Banquet mentioned on the invitation letter. Even though it’s still pouring outside, no one can stop to rest.

The good news is that the drainage system in Green Lake City near the lake is quite efficient. Even though the city is old, the ancient sewer system still functions excellently. This morning, six Grand Witches gathered at Green Lake Hotel to discuss Wednesday night’s plan with Shard, Iluna, and Luviya.

They not only brought the Ancient God power corresponding items prepared for Durut Giles and Laster Edwards but also handed the Dragon Feast Cult’s letter to Shard.

The Cult Sect scheduled the meeting with the "God Summoner" for nine o’clock tonight. If it rains, the location will be the Barking Dog Tavern on Black Dog Alley in the southeast slums of Green Lake City. If it doesn’t rain tonight, the location will be the first floor of the train station hotel northeast of Mikaela Ironworks City’s train station.

During the meeting, the Dragon Feast Cult’s representative will have a silver dragon head-shaped brooch on his chest, while the "God Summoner" must appear wearing both gold and silver rings.

"According to divination, although this rain won’t be heavy all the time, it will at least continue until the weekend before it stops. This isn’t an ordinary rain; it’s caused by the abnormal spatial phenomenon due to a rift in space. So, it will definitely rain tonight."

Luviya, being a Diviner, said this upon learning the contents of the letter, while the witches asked Shard if he needed others to accompany him to meet the cultists.

"No need, I can go by myself."

The city-wide lockdown that started on Monday morning was lifted in the early hours today. On this rainy Monday, the city’s citizens silently continued their lives, but everyone could smell the atmosphere that was even more terrifying than during the negotiations.

Draleon and Carsonrick both publicly condemned the vile assassination that occurred on Sunday in the Monday newspaper headlines and expressed their views on the border conflicts that erupted between the two countries yesterday.

Now, the armies of both countries are gathering towards the Green Lake Region, and both royal families openly stated they would temporarily recall the delegation to protect the safety of the negotiating representatives.

Although the two countries are slow in negotiating, they quickly maneuvered in the evacuation of the delegations from the Green Lake Region. Miss Galina, who came with Tifa in the rain this morning, said that their luggage was already packed, and they would take the train tomorrow morning to leave locally for Tobesk.

"I am finally going to be free, no longer need to attend those meaningless meetings every day."

The Duchess was quite happy about this, but she wouldn’t really leave. Not only she would secretly stay, but a group of maids, including Tifa, Lecia, and even Angelina, would stay as well.

Lecia stayed because Shard was worried she would come back even if she left, and Angelina stayed because Miss Galina wanted her to see the world before truly awakening, to understand what she would face once she became a witch apprentice.

Similarly, Margaret would nominally return to Velindale City with the negotiating delegation, but in reality, she would stay with Miss Sylvia and Miss Benanis to participate in the Green Lake battle as an official witch apprentice.

It takes two or three days for both groups to return to the capital on the steam train. During this period, the Green Lake battle will be completed, and once the space stabilizes, Miss Sylvia will open a portal to send everyone back.

Of course, that’s the best-case scenario. But if the situation in the Green Lake battle isn’t ideal... the Grand Witches naturally have different plans.

For the city and ordinary people, they don’t know what all this is about. They can only feel that the city’s atmosphere is more terrifying and oppressive. During lunch, Shard discussed with the witches about the news in the morning papers and the military actions in the Green Lake Region, heard from various sources.

Although the current troop mobilization is to cover up the many actions of the Church, no one can assure that the two countries will remain peaceful without incident. The negotiations temporarily ended without completion. Although Draleon and Carsonrick definitely won’t act before Wednesday, once the Green Lake incident ends and the Church stops interfering in the two countries’ affairs, the subsequent events are hard to predict.

Dark clouds hang over the Green Lake Region, and although the Council decided against immediate arrival of the Time Grand Witch to Green Lake City under the witches’ unanimous opposition, the Council still highly values the security issues surrounding Megan and Audrey. They opened the Council’s treasure to the six witches in Green Lake City, providing knowledge information, spellcasting materials, magic potions, alchemical items, and even relics.

Thus, some interesting and potentially useful relics were also delivered to Green Lake Hotel that day.

After lunch, when Shard finished reading the Dragon Feast Cult’s secret message, Audrey smiled and took Shard’s hand to go to the basement:

"Come with me, there’s something important to do related to the Council’s arrangements."

The glowing lights of the ritual made the basement not dim at all, and compared to when it was used to store vegetables and grains before, the basement now seemed larger. Audrey asked the girls guarding the ritual core to leave temporarily. Shard was curious about what she wanted to say, but unexpectedly Audrey turned around, hugged him, and kissed him.

Shard was unsure if she suddenly pulled him here because of another concern, but he still responded to the enthusiastic girl.

And it wasn’t until the kiss ended that Audrey laughed and revealed the reason:

"Shard, did you just sense something amiss?"

Shard thought for a moment:

"Hmm... what exactly do you mean... are you actually someone else in disguise?"

"It worked really well."

Audrey said, and then Shard heard a sound coming from the wall in the basement. Subsequently, a cabinet standing against the wall opened, and Miss Galina stepped out from it.

The cabinet looked like a wooden wardrobe, standing there completely unremarkable, and Shard had not even noticed this piece of furniture before the Duchess appeared. It was only when he noticed the wardrobe that a strange feeling instantly emerged. In Shard’s view, if an Evil Spirit jumped out after it was opened, it would not be surprising at all. This thing belonged in a horror novel.

What surprised him even more was that Miss Galina had apparently been inside the cabinet the whole time, yet he was completely unaware, even the heating degree of the chest badge only increased after the cabinet opened.

"Audrey, I only remember you saying to hide inside and then let Shard come to see if he could find me. I don’t recall you asking me to watch you two kiss in there."

The Duchess spoke fiercely, but Audrey laughed and said:

"This way the test is more accurate. You see, Shard really didn’t notice."

She said, not giving the Duchess a chance to continue complaining, and pulled Shard’s hand to introduce the cabinet:

"Keeper of Secrets Level Relic - ’Hide-and-Seek Wardrobe’. Open it, then hide inside. The person inside can look outside through the wardrobe’s door crack and can hear sounds from outside. While it’s hard for people outside to notice someone is in the cabinet, the cabinet itself has an effect similar to your Arcane Technique of becoming an Angel Statue, making it hard to attract others’ attention."

Audrey opened the auto-closing cabinet door again, letting Shard see that there was presently nothing inside:

"Although it’s only Keeper of Secrets Level, it’s considered a top-notch concealment-type relic. While hiding in the cabinet, you cannot perform spellcasting by any means or interfere with the outside world in any way; you can only look and listen, and the cabinet has no defense capabilities, but besides that, there are almost no drawbacks."

"Don’t forget the negative traits. Once the cabinet is opened, it actively attracts people to climb inside and close the door again. While hiding in the cabinet, it’ll subconsciously generate the thought, ’The outside is dangerous, just stay here, definitely don’t go out.’

The Red-Haired Duchess crossed her arms and said, though somewhat annoyed by Audrey’s earlier act, she didn’t mind this small joke:

"This is a relic contained by the Council, it’s said to be a creation from the Fourth Era. One day, a child who loved playing hide-and-seek hid inside an old wardrobe that had been abandoned for a long time and fell asleep. Meanwhile, a maid accidentally blocked the wardrobe’s door with miscellaneous items. When they reopened the wardrobe in the basement, the child inside had turned into a dried corpse."

Shard twitched the corner of his mouth:

"Do all these relics have such strange origin stories?"

The interior cabinet walls had no scratch marks, but on the top, there was a sentence written with an ink that seemed like it was written with a fountain pen, impossible to erase:

"The world is dangerous, stay here with me and hide."

"I highly suspect there might still be a Wraith Spirit attached to it... Audrey, do you mean for me to hide here and then go to the island with you? But isn’t this wardrobe too big?"

Shard asked the witch beside him, and Audrey shook her head:

"All methods need to be tried out; you avoid sightlines by transforming into a stone statue, so hiding after transforming will enhance security. Whether I can take the wardrobe with me is still uncertain, but trying it out surely won’t hurt."

"We’ve prepared three relics with similar functions, the other two are still on their way. They’ll arrive tonight or tomorrow morning, don’t underestimate the Council’s depth, Shard. The Council is surely more formidable than you think."

Miss Galina also said so, and Shard nodded, holding back the cat on his shoulder from jumping into the wardrobe, then took two steps back to look at it. If the wardrobe could be smaller, it would be just perfect. But the size, dimensions, and appearance of relics are difficult to change, which is a basic rule for these items attached with Whisper Elements. Otherwise, Shard would have tried to shrink the Night Watchman already, making it easily portable.

"Is there a way to deal with it? I mean, if someone uses this relic against us, how can we discover this wardrobe?"

He casually asked again. Knowing more about the relic, Audrey thought for a moment:

"This wardrobe can only be used for eavesdropping and spying, so even if used against us, it poses no danger. As for discovering it, it’s simple. For Circle Sorcerers who know about the relic, just focus their attention, avoid distractions, and encounter it multiple times; they can gradually realize its effect to a certain degree. After all, it’s just Keeper of Secrets Level."