Today was Monday. Because he had gone to the Prophecy Association early in the morning, Shade hadn't had time to collect his gift.
Since both Luvia and Iluna happened to be there, Shade suggested retrieving this week's gift in their presence.
Telling Iluna to hold the cat tightly to prevent it from darting into the box again, Shade reached his hand into the metal box.
More than two months had passed since he obtained this Sage-grade relic. Aside from the money-printing master plate, which had brought him some surprises, most of the gifts had been largely dispensable.
But this time, Shade's luck had finally arrived.
"Oh!"
His eyes suddenly widened. His fingers had touched a key at the bottom of the box, and he immediately sensed that it was a relic.
"Finally! Finally! My luck has been great lately; first I got the [Corpse-Hiding Mirror] in Mi-burg, and now I've actually received another gift!"
Struggling to keep an exaggerated expression off his face, Shade pulled out the somewhat cold, black-iron colored large key. The key itself was about the length of Shade's palm, and its teeth consisted of small squares—the kind of key commonly used for large locks of the Old Era.
There were barely visible engravings on the metal surface, consisting of long, thin ancient letters resembling earthworms. Once translated, the meaning was
[The only lock that cannot be opened is the lock of a maiden's heart.]
"This is it? So, it really is possible to get a relic from the [God's Gift Box]," Luvia commented from the side.
"What is this?" Shade asked curiously.
Iluna, who was well-versed in the knowledge of the Church, also recognized it: "A Poet-grade [Universal Key]?"
"Yes, a Universal Key. A one-time-use relic of unknown quantity and origin. Its property is simple: it opens any lock unconditionally," Luvia nodded to Shade.
"Yes, it's very similar to your [Key of Doors]. But the advantage of a relic is that it doesn't consume the user's Spirit; even opening a Maze-Lock would cost nothing. Furthermore, while holding this key, one's ability to see through illusions is enhanced. Aside from being single-use, the drawback is the resulting spatial instability."
Luvia thought for a moment. "A Ring-caster holding this key is more likely than others to encounter accidents in areas where space is already unstable. A small example: if you took this key to Midhill Burg, the probability of being accidentally swept into the [Interstice of Life and Death] would be higher."
"That's a pity then. You two take it; I already have the [Key of Doors], so I don't need this."
Shade placed the key on the table. Although he had no use for it, he was still very happy to have obtained a relic.
The purple-eyed diviner and the seventeen-year-old long-haired girl looked at each other.
"Keep it with you," Iluna volunteered. "I have to go to Midhill Burg in a few days, and I don't want Shade to have to go back into the Interstice of Life and Death to rescue me too."
"Fair enough. I'll find an opportunity to compensate Shade."
Luvia put the key away and then asked Shade, "So, big boy, what kind of task did God give you this week?"
Both she and Iluna laughed. The "collecting gifts" property of the gift box could only be triggered by children; Luvia referring to Shade as a "big boy" was indeed quite amusing.
"It's simple. At least it's simpler than last week's task of swinging a knife 100 times a day for three days. It seems the difficulty of the weekly task has nothing to do with the value of the gift—give my pet a bath," Shade said.
"Meow?"
Little Mia, held in Iluna's arms, suddenly poked her head out. Her large amber eyes looked at Shade, and her tilted head was incredibly cute. Shade smiled and took the cat back from Iluna's embrace.
"The weather is about to get cold, so I'll give her one more bath after autumn begins. I often hear people say it's best not to bathe cats too frequently, so if I wash her now, I won't have to do it again in winter."
Because of this thought, on Tuesday morning—the first day of the tenth month of the year, the Month of Withered Leaves—Shade and Mia fell into a "conflict" sparked by the bath.
The winner of this conflict was, of course, Shade. He first lured the cat into the washroom, where hot water had been prepared, using food. After closing the door, he engaged in a chase with Mia in the narrow space and emerged victorious.
No matter how agile a cat might be, it could only be defeated before someone like Shade, who possessed spatial movement abilities.
Despite having seen the ocean and having been bathed before, Little Mia still let out a "tragic scream" when Shade placed her in the bathtub.
But after that single cry, the cat looked around in confusion. Seeing that the warm water caused her no harm, she suddenly became obedient, rubbing against Shade's hand while letting him wash her, without even resisting.
Although this cat seemed very clever at times, in the end, she was still just a cat.
After finishing the bath, Shade did not go to Midhill Burg immediately. Instead, taking advantage of his free time today, he took the dried Mia to Tobesk to handle the monthly bills, taxes, and advertising fees, and to collect his salary from MI6 for the month.
After handling these matters, he took the cat for lunch. By the time Shade entered the urban area of Midhill Burg, it was already three in the afternoon.
Fortunately, he had nothing important to do today; he simply wanted to help Lacia inventory the goods in the warehouse at No. 19 Punjab Street to determine exactly how much the local "rats" had stolen.
Punjab Street was a street in the city center, adjacent to St. Carla Street and Perfume Street. It was mostly home to the headquarters of multinational trading caravans. It was usually bustling, and on the first day of October, it was even more crowded as merchants from various countries sought to finalize important commodity trades before the arrival of winter.
Numbers 10 through 20 on Punjab Street were all warehouses, but when Shade arrived, the first thing he looked at was not No. 19, but No. 18, which had a red doorplate.
The intelligence received by the Grey Gloves indicated that the goods would arrive at Warehouse 18 on the last day of last month—yesterday. And if Shade guessed correctly, the agent who came to collect the goods had already died last week on the fourth floor of the Sicar Hotel.
Among the trio sent to collect the goods, the one who knew the address was shot, and the one responsible for security committed suicide at the local police station. Only Professor Higgins remained alive, and he was suspected of stealing the pen—which no longer contained intelligence—on the night the gunman committed suicide.
"Theoretically, the goods are likely still here. Under normal circumstances, there is no possibility that a professor of linguistics would know this address."
Shade stared at the doorplate of No. 18 for a while, then reached out and tapped the door of No. 19, and the lock opened automatically. Looking left and right, although the street was crowded, no one was paying attention to this spot. He lowered his hat with his right hand and slipped inside.
Warehouses located in the city center were generally not very large. Of course, for the sake of land-use efficiency, they naturally wouldn't have only one floor. Besides the main entrance on Punjab Street for pedestrians, there was a large door on the other side for transporting goods, but that door was currently locked from the inside with rusty hinges, so Shade didn't have to worry about anyone entering from the other side.
Shade didn't know what reason Lacia had used to rent this place, but on the surface, it appeared to be storing some maintenance parts for steam engines.
The interior of the warehouse had little decoration; the floor was simply leveled and the walls painted. A very distinct smell of oil permeated the air, which originated from the crates of metal parts.
"Lacia told me to check the third floor."
Between the first, second, and third floors, there was a lifting platform powered by a steam engine, which was very convenient to use; one simply had to stand on it and press the central protrusion to activate it. However, starting the steam engine power source required a special key, and the key was not currently present.
Moreover, the device was very noisy, so Shade didn't use his lock-picking奇术 (odd-art) to activate it. Instead, he chose to open the iron door at the stairwell and take the stairs to the upper floors.
He didn't forget to lock the door behind him.
The second floor consisted of rows of shelves, also holding scattered steam engine parts. There were even some outdated decomposition diagrams of small steam engines pasted on the walls, specifying dimensions and alloy types.
Shade stood by the wall and looked for a while, then opened the iron door again to go to the third floor.
The layout of the third floor was similar to the first, consisting of wooden crates. Shade found a crowbar by the wall and pried open the boards nailed shut with iron nails. He saw straw inside, and lying within the straw was a machine gun powered by a hybrid of steam and gunpowder.
The gun had a black metal body; the eyepiece, magazine, steam chamber, and other small components were disassembled and placed to the side. This was controlled weaponry that foreigners could only see in books, a lethal weapon of immense power in the wars of this era.
"Oh, Lacia is actually in the arms trade, and a multinational one at that. Who is she selling these to?"
Shade muttered softly to himself, though he wasn't entirely surprised. After all, Lacia and Miss Aurora were able to partner to open a shipyard and build ships that had "military potential but she didn't know how to modify," so selling a few crates of arms wasn't unimaginable.
"The arms trade seems very profitable."
Muttering to himself, he pulled a toy notebook from his pocket, restored it, and recorded the number of crates while inventorying them. Occasionally, he would pry open one or two crates to confirm that they contained those kingdom-controlled weapons.
After working for nearly an hour, Shade finished the task.
He carefully retraced his steps, trying not to make too much noise. Fortunately, Shade's luck was still good; by the time he slipped out of Warehouse 19, he hadn't attracted anyone's attention.
Lowering his hat, he walked down the steps and along the wall toward the street corner, thinking of returning to Tobesk immediately to tell Lacia the results. But because he was walking with his head down, after a few steps, he accidentally bumped into the shoulder of a stranger walking in the opposite direction.
PS: Besides the two great kingdoms of the Old Continent, there are a series of small principalities, so Lacia isn't necessarily selling Delarion's arms to Carsonric.
(End of Chapter)