Chapter 1276: Chapter 1276: Safe and Safe
“Luviya Annette?”
Her Highness the Princess murmured softly, then nodded in understanding:
“Go ahead if you have things to do, but don’t forget to make time to go on a date with me afterward.”
When Shard returned to Stonemason Street where the Stonemason Guild was located, it was already five in the evening. He passed through the bustling crowd and entered the lively tavern, scanning the room until he spotted Mr. Antonio seated in a corner by the wall.
After the waiter left, Shard sat down next to Mr. Antonio and apologized softly:
“Sorry, I might be a bit late. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to meet Old Hack.”
“No need to apologize, I think even with the Earl’s influence, it would be hard to have you meet the prince’s assassin for such a reason.”
The middle-aged playwright understood this, and Shard added:
“Of course, although I couldn’t meet him, I investigated his neighbors and exchanged a few candies with the children for some stories.”
The local honey beer from Randall Valley was a specialty, and each of them ordered a glass. Shard was never fond of alcohol, so he just took a sip to broaden his horizons.
“It’s good to achieve the purpose. Do you have any good stories to share with me?”
“Of course.”
Shard then recounted the story he heard this afternoon, and Mr. Antonio eagerly noted it down. Once Shard finished sharing his findings, the middle-aged man began to share his own:
“I inquired in the guild about Old Humphrey, who was crushed to death last year. The middle-aged stonemason we met in the afternoon didn’t lie, he was indeed crushed to death by a toppled full-body statue during the autumn earthquake last year. The injury was to his head.”
He pointed to his own head to indicate the specific spot:
“It’s said he died instantly, with both red and white on the ground…”
Mr. Antonio’s mouth twitched slightly, evidently uncomfortable with the topic:
“Interestingly, ever since Old Humphrey died, there have been occasional sounds of stone being carved at night in the Stonemason Guild, which is the prelude to the haunting rumors. Because of this, the guild’s upper management called in the local Sun Church for an exorcism.”
He lowered his voice slightly:
“A friend in the church told me that there really was a ghost in that incident.”
This world was already rich with ghost stories and legends, so it wasn’t surprising for ordinary people to know about such things. What couldn’t be casually spread were matters regarding relics and gods, while ghost stories of a dubious nature were often used to obscure dangerous information.
“But after the church’s exorcism, if there were ghosts initially, they should be gone now, right?”
Shard asked, but Mr. Antonio shook his head:
“Since then, the carving sounds still occasionally occur. However, even after a thorough search, nothing was found, and no one has encountered danger because of it. I later heard from an architect that it was the sound produced by the deformation of materials inside the building due to the large temperature difference between day and night as the house aged… I don’t know if you believe it, as for me… I’m not sure if I should.”
“In that case, we have so many stories in hand but no clues for the next step in our investigation.”
Shard said, holding his glass, but Mr. Antonio laughed instead:
“Mr. Watson, didn’t we come here just for the stories? Investigating the truth isn’t our goal. You’ve gone too far and forgotten your initial objective.”
“That’s true, today’s stories are more than enough. Even our investigation process is worthy of being called a good story.”
Shard said, and Mr. Antonio deeply agreed. So the two chatted for a while longer with their drinks, exchanging the information they had gathered and jotting it down, before going their separate ways.
Or rather, Shard remained seated while Mr. Antonio took the initiative to get up and bid farewell, suggesting they meet to play Roder cards at the Prophet’s Society when they had time.
Shard continued holding the slightly dirty wooden beer mug, his eyes scanning the surroundings:
“Mr. Antonio is gone, next I should go find Luviya…”
“What are you looking around for?”
“She” suddenly asked in Shard’s ear.
“I was wondering if Mr. Sean Asmon, the demonologist, might suddenly step out from the crowd. Since the Randall Valley might harbor an evil fiend, we can’t rule out that it might be a demon.”
But it seems that the demonologist, who always coincidentally meets Shard, is probably not local now.
After leaving the tavern, Shard went to the Abundant Land Inn and found Luviya, who had just gotten off work. After hearing about Shard’s investigation this afternoon, Luviya was also quite interested, so she agreed to accompany him in the evening.
Of course, before that, the two had dinner together. Luviya smiled and said that since she went on a business trip to Randall Valley, she had more one-on-one dinners with Shard than in Tobesk.
This was probably hinting at something for Shard.
The Stonemason Guild usually closed at eight in the evening, and after eight thirty, only three gatekeepers were left. Shard timed it well and arrived at Stonemason Street with Luviya around eight in the evening. They waited at the tavern until they confirmed the Stonemason Guild building’s lights were out before heading over.
The two didn’t choose to climb over the wall from the backyard. With Shard’s illusion technique, they directly pushed the door open and entered through the main entrance. The gatekeepers engrossed in playing Roder Cards didn’t notice them at all.
The Stonemason Guild interior mostly used stone statues as decorations. Without lighting, walking in such a place gave a rather eerie feeling. The president’s office was on the top floor. Following the door signs, they easily found the location.
Using the Key of the Door, Shard unlocked it and saw an office larger than his bedroom. The office owner had quite a taste; the floor was covered with not too luxurious carpet, and the wallpaper was dark brown. By the wooden bookshelf stood a stone stool, and a bust of a philosopher was placed on the small table beside the wall clock.
Luviya followed Shard inside and, after glancing around in the dark, immediately noticed the safe in the corner.
Shard went over directly, apologized softly, then tapped the side of the safe with his finger. Afterwards, the sound of gears turning and pistons sliding came from within the safe. After waiting several tens of seconds, with a click sound, five alloy metal rods popped out from the sides of the safe accompanied by steam, thus the safe opened automatically.
He crouched down to inspect it, and Luviya summoned a small ball of light to fly inside the safe for illumination.
“Let’s see what we’ve got, cash, a small bag of gemstones… gold?”
It was a rather poorly shaped gold bar, less than half the size of Shard’s index finger, wrapped in paper and placed in the corner of the upper layer of the safe. Shard did not unwrap the paper, but it was so thin that Luviya’s light ball could penetrate it:
“I didn’t expect the president of the Stonemason Guild to have such a collector’s hobby.”
Shard wouldn’t randomly touch others’ belongings; he was there to find contract documents. Indeed, the safe contained quite a number of documents, which Shard pulled out and then both he and Luviya examined separately.
Included were the president’s election appointments as well as the Stonemason Guild’s property and land contracts. Shard even saw letters sent to His Majesty the King of Velindale over the past few decades, but each envelope bore the blue post office stamp “returned,” a mark of rejection.
“Didn’t see that ancient contract.”
Shard muttered, and Luviya shook her head to indicate that the documents in her hands didn’t contain what he was looking for either. So Shard put all the documents back in place and, after restoring the safe, looked at the bookshelf at the back of the office:
“Could it be in the bookshelf? Library Retrieval!”
He reached towards the bookshelf, and though the sorcery was successfully activated, the area was judged as suitable for sorcery use, no ancient parchment-like items flew towards him.
“Shard, stop wasting time, let me handle it.”
Luviya said softly, taking out a half-thumb-sized amethyst tied with a fine thread, then letting it hang in the air. This was a more traditional Spirit Pendulum Divination, a compulsory course for diviners.
The common types of spirit pendulum hammers are amethyst or obsidian, but compared to cartomancy, Luviya’s talent for Spirit Pendulum Divination was very limited. And the art of Spirit Pendulum Divination itself is quite limited; however, when looking for lost keys, socks, and other small items, this divination technique is quite useful.
“The target is an ancient contract…”
Luviya murmured gently, infusing her spirit into the amethyst, then closed her eyes to clear her mind, allowing her consciousness to connect with the threads representing fate and time. As the amethyst emitted a beautiful glimmer, the initially vertically hanging pendulum began to subtly shift direction towards the side:
“Found it.”
“Speaking of which, can your Spirit Pendulum Divination be used to find cats? If it can, I, as a detective, would be out of a job.”
Shard asked curiously, and Luviya gave him a playful glare:
“You shouldn’t always ask such questions when we’re doing serious work… Any divination can find a cat, but diviners wouldn’t engage in such trivial matters… If one day Mia got lost, I could help you find her.”
For some reason, Shard suddenly remembered in the dream, a silver-eyed Mia being held by another Luviya.
The amethyst pendulum pointed towards the wall where the office door was located. Luviya followed the pendulum’s direction and indeed found an embedded safe behind the painting by the gas lamp, which bore the Holy Emblem of the Lantern Bearer of the True God Sun and Earth God.
Shard opened the safe as before, and this safe was noticeably emptier than the one out in the open. Shard immediately spotted the documents he was looking for. As these were documents from hundreds of years ago, each page was framed and meticulously sealed for preservation. Fortunately, the initial simple contract wasn’t long, only twelve pages in total.