According to the contract signed between Mr. Mandis and the late Detective Spyro, when Mr. Mandis proactively announced the termination of the commission, he was required—in addition to the deposit—to pay an extra fee not exceeding one-third of the total amount, depending on the progress of the investigation.
Shade had no intention of taking the man's money, though he wouldn't refund the deposit, but Mr. Mandis insisted on paying. In the end, Shade received 13 shillings as the commission fee and left Mr. Mandis's residence with the maid.
It was four o'clock in the afternoon; at this time in late summer, there was still no sign of twilight.
"I suspect this money will only be enough to cover our carriage fare for today," the maid said to Shade as they returned to St. Delan Square.
A pair of cotton stockings cost around 5 shillings, a high-quality women's work suit was 1 pound, and boots were 11 shillings. The cost of a hired carriage within a 4-mile radius of the Yodel Palace area was generally 1 shilling for the first 2 miles, and 5 pence for each subsequent mile.
Thus, Tifa made such a remark based on the prices she knew.
"Yes, if you add in the preliminary investigation work done by Detective Spyro, this commission was undoubtedly a loss. But for me, isn't this a huge windfall?"
Shade shook the black iron ring on his finger, and the black-haired maid also revealed a smile.
"Looking at it this way, the detective profession is truly suited for Ring-casters."
"No, no, it's just a coincidence that this matter happened to be linked to a Relic. Generally, the commissions I take are ordinary things like playing cards or finding people," Shade said, taking out the roll of parchment.
"I happen to recognize these ancient characters. Tifa, let's have dinner together; you can leave after I've decoded these texts. Don't be quick to refuse; you helped me a lot today, and treating you to dinner is my way of expressing my gratitude."
The black-haired girl thought for a moment.
"Alright, but I cannot return too late, otherwise, the Young Lady will have objections."
The two first returned to St. Delan Square, then went out with Mia and found a decent restaurant in a nearby block. Shade rarely cooked at home, so he knew very well where the food was good nearby, and the local restaurants were already quite familiar with the young detective who brought a cat along.
After eating, they strolled home together. When they returned to St. Delan Square, they unexpectedly saw a slightly plump man wearing a wig and a red coat, standing anxiously in front of Number Six.
Shade was curious about who this was. Upon seeing the two approaching, the man immediately stepped forward to meet them on the ring-square street at the edge of St. Delan Square.
"May I ask if you are Hamilton of Reged? Oh, Miss Servit, good afternoon."
He spoke with an exceptionally standard Tobesk accent, and his voice was somewhat high-pitched.
He bowed slightly to the girl beside Shade; from his expression, he seemed very surprised to see her here.
Tifa introduced the man's identity to Shade
"Mr. Hamilton, this is Mr. Miral Formans, the herald of Yodel Palace."
"Good evening, Mr. Formans. May I ask what this is regarding?"
Shade was also very surprised, until he saw the invitation the man handed over and understood.
"Hamilton of Reged, Queen Diana formally invites you to attend her birthday banquet, to be held at Yodel Palace on the night of the twenty-eighth day of the Month of Blossoms, next Wednesday."
The herald handed the invitation to Shade. Although it was the Queen's birthday banquet, the style of the invitation was very ordinary; perhaps this was to showcase the frugality of the royal family.
"Knight, may I ask if you will attend?"
"Oh, of course, I will certainly be there," Shade said.
Mr. Formans nodded, bid Shade a respectful farewell, and turned to leave, not even giving Shade a chance to invite him upstairs for tea.
Shade opened the door; the cat on his shoulder darted in first, with the maid following behind.
"Why is that Mr. Formans's voice so high-pitched?" he asked as he tossed the keys into the biscuit tin.
"Did you notice that his chin was very smooth, without a beard?" the maid asked.
"Hmm?"
Shade thought for a moment, slowed his pace, and asked in surprise
"A eunuch?"
"Yes. Although this is no longer popular in modern courts—people consider it inhumane—most of the trusted attendants by His Majesty's side are eunuchs. Therefore, there are rumors in the court that if one wishes to gain His Majesty's trust, one must have the heart to..."
She did not continue, and Shade nodded to indicate he understood.
Larus III was a king with a truly iron grip and outstanding personal ability. As the ruler of the kingdom, he happened to coincide with the wave of the Steam Age; the appearance of such a king was extremely fortunate for Delarion.
However, a hard personality and the immense power inherent to the kingship could also cause certain character flaws. The tradition of court eunuchs had vanished from civilization hundreds of years ago, and the current eunuchs had voluntarily given up their bodily structure for the sake of power. Larus III's tacit approval of this for the sake of power drove this trend, which was one of the few things people criticized him for.
Of course, His Majesty the King had nothing to do with Shade, so he didn't care whether the man had psychological issues.
After returning home, Shade used the excuse of needing to consult some literature to enter the study and translate the contents of the parchment alone. He had originally thought it only introduced the red potion and the effects of the [Demon-Hunting Seal], but he didn't expect it to contain a story about an ancient inheritance and the location of another extremely powerful Relic.
"Doctor Alfred's ancestor found the relics of a Demon Hunter who died in the Third Epoch within a ruin. Besides the seal, there was also a longsword that had become a [Relic]. It turns out that the [Demon-Hunting Seal], besides being more likely to appear in areas infested by demons, also actively attracts sufficiently powerful transcendents. And that longsword was hidden by him in the Sikar Mountains..."
The Sikar Mountains were located in the east-central part of the Old Continent, forming one of the borders between Delarion and Kasenrick. That place was too far from Tobesk; even though the parchment described the location where the relic was hidden, it was still impossible for Shade to go searching for it at this time.
He was still waiting for Darkness.
After some deliberation, Shade chose to hide part of the content on the parchment, telling Tifa only the information regarding the potion.
"These things really were left by Ring-casters! Doctor Alfred's ancestor was a powerful Ring-caster. According to the self-account on the parchment, he lived about 800 years ago and was a Ninth-Ring caster before his death."
The Ninth Ring was already high-tier; regardless of the era, such a person was a powerhouse.
"Then how did that gentleman die?" the maid asked, sitting on the sofa.
"I don't know. He wrote on the parchment that he was going to challenge a powerful enemy and fight an Eleventh-Ring caster together with his friends. Fearing he might not return, he left two items he no longer needed in the basement of the old house. He wrote in ancient characters in the hope that ordinary people who discovered these two items in the future would not touch them recklessly, but that a Ring-caster would be able to utilize them."
Here, Shade omitted the matter regarding the sword.
"He clearly didn't anticipate that his descendants would continue to live in that small town and still use the surname Alfred 800 years later."
The signature of that Ninth-Ring caster also bore the surname Alfred, so Shade knew this was the ophthalmologist's ancestor.
"The ring is a Secret-Keeper grade Relic. Although I've seen data on it before, I don't know its specific functions yet, but I do know the effect of the potion."
Shade placed the bottle of red potion on the coffee table. Because Doctor Alfred had used some of it, only about three-quarters remained.
"This isn't a magic potion, but a derivative product of a [Relic] obtained by a Ring-caster eight hundred years ago during an accident. The parchment doesn't mention which specific relic it was, but the effect of the potion is written very clearly."
He and the maid looked at the bottle together.
"Dropping the potion directly into the eyes can cause spells and oddities related to the eyes to further evolve and enhance. Preserving a Magic Eye in this potion can effectively suppress some of the negative effects that occur when a Magic Eye is detached from the body."
"Evolving oddities and spells? That is a very rare thing," Tifa exclaimed, covering her mouth. Shade nodded; unfortunately, [Time Perception] had no connection to the eyes, otherwise, he could have uncovered the truth.
Shade then pointed to the other half-bottle of bright yellow potion.
"The potions processed by Doctor Alfred are probably unusable. But with the remaining three-quarters of the red potion, I want to try evolving my [Blood Echo]. Tifa, could I ask for your help? I need someone to control the droplets entering my eyes and stop when I say stop."
"No problem, but what direction could the ability to observe bloodstains possibly evolve into?"
"Probably seeing things more clearly," Shade said, then lay down on the sofa.
The cat, who had been doing who-knows-what in the bedroom, immediately darted up and jumped onto Shade's chest, looking down at him. The cat wasn't heavy at all, but to prevent it from interfering with the process, Shade extended both hands and pressed it down against his clothes.
"Ready."
He opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling. Tifa pulled the stopper from the potion bottle and controlled the liquid to fly out in a string of droplets.
When the first drop entered his eye, Shade felt nothing. Then came the second and third.
He gradually felt his eyes warming up, though it wasn't scorching. As the number of falling droplets exceeded ten, the temperature around his eyes seemed to drop again, though it wasn't particularly freezing.
The spirit within the special potion gradually permeated the entire eye and interacted with the soul manipulating this body.
Along with the sound of steam whistles and bells, the Life Ring automatically manifested above Shade. While accepting the liquid into his eyes, Shade watched his own slowly rotating Life Ring.
Seven spirit runes flickered with powerful four-colored spiritual light, and the most dazzling among them was undoubtedly the miracle spirit rune [Echo], which had been washed by a drop of divinity.
"Blood Echo... [Echo]."
A thought formed in his mind, and as the thought arose, the rune with the dazzling golden spiritual light immediately burst forth with an even more intense radiance.
"Tifa, drop a drop of your blood into my eye!" he suddenly said.
The black-haired girl didn't ask why; she used a small knife to cut her finger and squeezed a drop of blood above Shade's eye. The light from above illuminated Shade's eyes, and reflecting off the eyeball, the red droplet and the crimson blood descended.
And at that exact moment, the bell of the city's clock tower rang in the distance. As the echoes lingered, a wonderful realization made Shade's scalp tingle.
"Her" voice finally appeared in his ear
【Blood and time, the crimson echo. Devour that blood, stain that light; you have encountered blood numerous times, and the power of blood shall eventually echo within your veins and soul, together with time and space.】
The power of the spell [Blood Echo] formed a mysterious connection with the miracle spirit rune. It did not disappear; it gained a brand new power.
【Outlander, you have obtained the Oddity—Blood Echo.】
Upon the rotating Life Ring, the light of the [Echo] spirit rune shone down on Shade like a sun, to the point where Tifa could not even look directly at the scene before her.
The golden light shone upon her, and even this Sixth-Ring caster and candidate witch could vaguely hear a phantom, grand, soul-shaking bell toll. Eventually, the Life Ring slowly vanished into the steam mist. Shade told Tifa to stop adding the liquid and slowly sat up, leaning on the sofa.
"How was it? Was it successful?"
She had likely never seen a spell evolve, and the scene just now was indeed startling.
"The effect is very good."
Shade closed his eyes tightly and then opened them. The blood-colored halo gradually receded into his eyes, and the moment the crimson vanished, a golden arc of light flashed through his eyes.
"Better than I thought. The spell actually turned into an Oddity."