Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

"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.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

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..."

"Alright, alright, Luisa, stop joking, I'm awake. Young people, can't you leave some dignity for an older person... *burp*"

Professor Manning suddenly opened his eyes, then burped as well. His face somewhat pale, he got up from the floor and nearly fell, his legs weak, but Shard steadied him:

"Your body hasn't fully recovered, Professor. You're likely going to need a long rest in bed, and you must abstain from any sort of desire, especially from engaging in mental labour for extended periods."

Professor Manning covered his face with one hand. He had feigned unconsciousness to avoid bringing up this issue and had almost been drowned by Shard's water.

"Young people, would you just take that fountain pen and leave, please? You can even take everything in my house, as long as you pretend this never happened, and I remained unconscious."

The professor's expression of pain probably wasn't related to physical weakness:

"Why do you have to wake me? Oh, can't you leave a last shred of dignity for an old man?"

His face, which had been pale from weakness, was now flushed red. Shard glanced at Miss Luisa, who motioned for him to speak:

"Actually, we didn't know that in your dream you were with a black cat..."

"Ah, fine, what do you want to blackmail me for? Take anything, everything you fancy, as long as you don't speak of this matter. I just want my last shred of dignity."

"No, no, that's not what I meant."

Shard explained:

"I meant to say, about today's incident..."

"Nothing happened, and everything I saw will go to the grave with me! Nobody should even think about knowing what happened today! Absolutely not."

Considering Professor Manning's current state of excitement, his physical condition and mental state were much better than Shard had expected.

"Good, then this fountain pen..."

Shard shook the Relic, and Professor Manning glanced at it reluctantly before gritting his teeth and saying:

"Take it, take it away quickly! It's yours now."

Shard nodded in satisfaction and handed the fountain pen over to Miss Luisa, who played with the Scribe Level Relic, the Joyful Dream Pen, and seemed very happy.

They helped Professor Manning to a chair and sat him down, also drawing back the curtains to let the bright afternoon sunlight flood in. The frail old man squinted into the light, his expression relaxing significantly.

"Actually, we want to know, besides yourself, does anyone else know about this pen?"

Shard asked again, and Professor Manning stared into the sunlight, lost in thought, before he finally said:

"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.