Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Chapter 109 The Professor's Hush Money

"What kind of Arcane Technique is this, that it can have such an effect at the First Ring?"

Even Miss Luisa was amazed by this. She asked for some water to taste, then had Shard continue to water the professor.

Miss Luisa, being a Four-Ring Sorcerer, easily analyzed what Shard had failed to discern:

"Is this really Gluttony's Arcane Technique? It can actually transform emotions to replenish Life Energy. I see, it achieves Healing by replenishing Life Force. The feeling of fullness inside isn't an illusion, but a true state of satiety. It can be learned at the First Ring and can even be used on others.

As far as we can see, the only side effect is that the desire to eat declines significantly for a short period. This is really... *burp*"

Shard turned his head in surprise, even stopping the act of giving the professor water. Miss Luisa's face visibly reddened, her lips tightly closed, her shoulders shrugged, and she forcibly suppressed the urge to burp again:

"What's the matter? Never seen a lady burp before?"

Somehow, Shard was reminded of how Mia couldn't stop burping after drinking water the day before, and how she got angry at herself.

"Hurry up and awaken Professor Manning. I... will go to the washroom to touch up my makeup, and I'll tell the maid downstairs not to panic. You be careful here as well."

With that, she stood up with a red face and left the bedroom without looking back.

Listening to the receding footsteps of Miss Luisa, Shard looked at the small water bottle in his hand:

"This is probably a side effect as well."

It took quite a while for Miss Luisa to come back from downstairs. Shard was very conscious not to bring up the burping incident again.

Once he confirmed that Professor Manning could drink no more water, Shard stopped. From the outside, his body no longer looked so terrible, but the professor still did not wake up.

"Why won't he wake up? Could the fountain pen have caused severe mental damage? Yes, my Arcane Technique can't heal mental injuries."

Shard said, slipping the bottle back into his pocket.

"I think this has nothing to do with mental injuries, Detective. Do you know who can't be woken up?"

Miss Luisa glanced at the professor's condition and roughly understood the reason.

"People who are pretending to sleep cannot be woken up... Oh, I get it!"

But Miss Luisa shook her head:

"No, the dead are the ones who can't be woken up. Since the professor won't wake up, then we should just..."

"How could I possibly tell others about such a thing?"

"So, how did you come to know how to use this pen? Did that old author tell you?"

Shard wanted to confirm there was nothing suspicious about it.

"Of course not, I dreamt about it. On the third day after I got the pen, I suddenly had a dream about it, and somehow, I wanted to try it out..."

He suddenly paused:

"So, the death of the previous owner of this pen... was because of this?"

"If you had continued to possess it, your fate would have been worse than death," Miss Luisa said coldly, her tone in stark contrast to the gentleness she exhibited while speaking with Shard:

"You should be grateful that you fainted just now and didn't see what happened. You're a university professor; how could you not realize the oddity of this thing?"

"I just...couldn't resist the temptation," the professor bowed his head.

Shard coughed to sum up the situation:

"Professor, since we've saved your life, consider the pen a token of our gratitude. Also, let the events of today be as if they never happened, and nobody should speak of them."

"I have no problem with that,"

said Miss Luisa, having secured the Relic.

"I have a problem!"

The professor suddenly interjected, raising his head:

"Luisa may not speak of it, but what if you do?"

Shard expressed surprise:

"Why would I speak of it? You probably guessed that we are not ordinary people; why would we risk exposing our identities..."

"I have seen many things in my life; you don't need to explain. How about I give you a little something, as hush money?"

He presumably thought that since Miss Luisa had received hush money and the detective hadn't, there might be some resentment. Shard was about to offer a polite refusal, but the professor directly called for the chubby maid upstairs, instructing her to bring something down to Shard.

It was unbelievably a Roder Card, and not just any card, but one with special rules.

[Northern City: Coldwater Harbor], suit of Moons number 7. After drawing and actively displaying this card, if more than half of the cards in the deck have already been used, select one of your cards and shuffle it into the opponent's deck.