Chapter 1277: Chapter 1277: Unlucky Soul
When Shard took out the last signed document, Luviya reached over and picked up another framed document nearby:
"Look at this."
Shard glanced over and first saw the red seal in the lower left corner, the private seal of the King. It was not of the current King Margaret’s father, "Lion Ryan," but the previous king. This document was the letter His Majesty the King used to summon local stonemasons to Velindale to build the colossus. Unexpectedly, it was placed together with the document from when the Stonemason Guild was first established, which shows the importance of this matter within the guild.
Luviya looked at the letter with interest, while Shard tried to decipher the twisted Carsonrick Script from the Stonemason Guild’s founding contract. Although the stonemasons of that era could write their names, their handwriting was worse than that of the Outlander who just arrived in the world last summer and was still getting familiar with the local script.
Fortunately, he finally distinguished the surname "Fleming," indicating that indeed, someone named Fleming was among the guild’s founders. Then, looking at the simple contract, the founders equally divided the guild’s shares and agreed not to hand over this power to the rulers. Mr. Fleming also had a share, which was probably inherited by others after his disappearance, so few in the guild mention his name now.
"I found it."
Shard said softly to Luviya, pointing to the names on the document. Luviya leaned over to look and was about to say something when suddenly, a thumping sound came from the side. Both looked at the door in surprise; someone was knocking at that moment:
"Who’s there?"
The knocking sounded only three times and then ceased. Both Shard and Luviya were sure they hadn’t heard wrong.
Shard handed the document to Luviya and asked her to reset the safe, while he cautiously approached the door. Putting his hand on the door, he didn’t feel anything. And when he opened it, the pitch-black corridor was empty.
"Is this... stone dust?"
His eyes caught some traces on the ground, revealing stone dust only produced when carving stone statues. Listening carefully, a faint clinking sound came from afar, sounding like a hammer rhythmically striking a chisel.
Luviya, having locked the safe, also came to the door and could naturally hear the sound coming from the empty corridor:
"Did it really appear?"
She looked at Shard suspiciously, and Shard slightly shook his head, indicating he wasn’t sure what was going on:
"First knocking, then this sound, it’s a very standard horror story plot."
Luviya casually tossed a coin:
"Danger... not much, the risk of following isn’t great."
With a Diviner as a companion, everything becomes much simpler.
"Alright then, let’s follow and take a look. Be ready to fight, hopefully not causing too much commotion."
Following the faint sound, Shard and Luviya went from the third floor back to the second, then from the second to the first. But as soon as they reached the first floor, the clinking sound immediately ceased.
Fortunately, Luviya was by his side, and her divination guided them to the courtyard behind the Stonemason Guild building, then they entered the statue warehouse to the north, the same warehouse Shard and the playwright visited this afternoon.
The warehouse door was tightly shut. After Shard unlocked it, the inside was pitch-black, indeed giving a somewhat terrifying impression, as the middle-aged stonemason said. Facing such a situation, an ordinary person would better not enter; otherwise, it would be a standard horror story scene. But for Shard and Luviya, ghosts were nothing to worry about.
They went in together, but after making a round, they saw nothing. So they had to leave from the entrance again, not forgetting to lock the warehouse from outside.
"Oh, scared me, almost got discovered."
An elderly sigh came from the dark warehouse, followed by the appearance of a faint orange glow. The light from a fire at the center of the warehouse illuminated a small area inside.
The light didn’t come from a gas lamp or candle, but someone had set up a coal stove inside the warehouse.
At that moment, a massive shadow was cast by the stove-light on the warehouse wall, and the owner of the shadow was an old man with a bandaged forehead, wearing deep blue overalls with suspenders, and graying hair, carving a stone statue beside the lit coal furnace.
He seemed to be working on a standing human statue, and while the body of the stone statue had been mostly carved already, the face was still without features.
The old man put down the hammer and chisel in his hands:
"Even after death, I encounter such things, and that young man just now seemed even more frightening than last year’s Exorcist Priest from the Church."
He muttered softly, then suddenly realized the sound of stone scraping against the ground around him. He was shocked, and the Old Stonemason instinctively showed a frightened expression, then remembered he had died last fall:
"I am also an undead, who should I be afraid of?"
Although trying to comfort himself, his aged soul was still somewhat scared. He nervously observed around and finally discovered something unusual. At the edge of the firelight from the coal stove, which emerged with his soul’s manifestation, there was strikingly a stone statue he hadn’t seen in this warehouse before.
It was an angel statue, but the statue looked strange. Normal angel statues would usually stretch their bodies to display divinity and compassion, but this angel statue’s wings were curled behind it, its body hunched, and both hands were covering its eyes.
The Old Stonemason was quite certain this was not one of the Stonemason Guild’s pieces. Then, childhood horror tales told by other elderly people surfaced in his memory:
"Weeping Angel? The terrifying protagonist of stories that can petrify any living being!"
Though unsure if the monster from the rumors was effective on souls, he followed the elders’ advice, covering his face with both hands and squatting with his back to the firelight. After the longest time without hearing a sound, just as he intended to sneak a glance behind, he heard footsteps.
"Footsteps? Not a statue?"
The soul of the Old Stonemason turned around, just in time to see Shard studying him. Startled, he stepped back two paces, then remembered that he was the Undead:
"Young man, leave quickly! There’s a terrible monster here!"
The Old Stonemason kindly warned, and Shard thought for a moment:
"Are you talking about this?"
He covered his face again, and the Old Stonemason stared at him in astonishment, realizing he had fallen into a trap:
"That girl clearly left with you!"
"Of course, it’s an Illusion Technique."
Shard said easily:
"Don’t leave. I’ll bring my companion in, and we’ll talk again. Don’t leave, I know you’re here, you can’t escape."
When Shard and Luviya returned to the center of the storeroom via the path between numerous stone statues, the soul of the Old Stonemason was carving a statue again. Although the old man appeared to be solid, both Shard and Luviya could see that he was indeed an Undead. However, this was merely the soul of an ordinary person, with some special means and a knack for hiding but far from being an Evil Spirit. Using sound to attract the two and control the statues here was the extent of his abilities.
As they stood by the glow of the furnace, the old man paused his work, placing the hammer and chisel on a nearby small cart. He gazed at his creation, his cloudy eyes gleaming in the firelight:
"You’ve caught me, but I still have to say—young people, stealing is wrong."
The soul turned to look at the two, and here "turned" literally meant a head turn; only the head moved, neither the body nor the neck moved:
"If you had just taken other valuables, I wouldn’t knock to warn you, but you shouldn’t touch those things in the safe, that’s the foundation of the Guild—so I’m not an Evil Spirit, please don’t eliminate me."
"We’re not here to eliminate you, as you said yourself, you are not an Evil Spirit. I must also declare, we are not thieves. Look, we didn’t take anything."
Shard spread his hands to show he was empty-handed:
"In fact, we’re here simply to glance at those documents, not for their value."
"Yes, sir, if we were villains, there are many ways to directly question a soul for answers."
Luviya added, and the Old Stonemason nodded, turning back his gaze to the stone sculpture he carved. Interestingly, the stone statue and the furnace were also part of his soul, a special ability of this Spiritual Body:
"It’s good if nothing was stolen, if nothing was stolen you have nothing to do with me."
The distant storeroom door creaked open, indicating he wanted Shard and Luviya to leave. But neither moved, as Shard curiously asked:
"Are you the founder of the Guild, Mr. Fleming?"
"Oh, no, young man, you’ve mistaken me for someone else, how could I be such a great figure?"
The old man quickly shook his head:
"I am John Humphrey, a very ordinary stonemason. Last autumn..."
"Last autumn, during the earthquake, you were..."
Shard suddenly realized, also understanding why the soul remained here even after the church’s Exorcism Ritual. Obviously, this was not an Evil Spirit, and among all the souls Shard had encountered, this one was among the most lucid. The Church likely discovered traces of this soul, but since it wasn’t an Evil Spirit, they wouldn’t have intervened too much. After all, souls lingering in the Material World would eventually depart.
He reached into his pocket for the Mithril Cube, recalling it had no reaction, as Thomas Granger left the Cube almost seventy years ago, while the soul before him died only last year.
"Yes, last year during the earthquake, I was the unlucky one crushed by my most perfect sculpture. Young man, do you know me?"
The old man seemed a bit surprised:
"Did you hear from the people in the Guild? To still be remembered, that’s truly nice."
He revealed a satisfied smile.