Chapter 1246: Chapter 1246: An Encounter That Had Already Happened
The white mist lingered in the cemetery left by the [Ancient God of Death]. Shard crouched before a gray stone rectangular tombstone, while Iluna stood behind him, watching as Shard earnestly engraved the information he currently knew:
[Thomas Granger (Sixth Era · 1739-1780)]
[Second son of the Granger Family, missing person.]
[Died by suicide.]
Stone flakes fell off as Shard attached Mr. Granger’s personal letter to the tombstone, but the tombstone showed no reaction.
“It seems it’s the second guess.”
He used the [Breath of Ages] to erase the words he had just written, then rewrote the content:
[Thomas Granger (Sixth Era · 1743-1780)]
[Second son of the Granger Family, missing person.]
[Gave his life to save the Mad Land.]
[Died of the curse of the Mad Land.]
The stone flakes disappeared into the swirling white mist on the ground, indicating that Shard had guessed correctly.
“So, Mr. Granger indeed told the truth in his will! He truly died because of a curse. At that time, I didn’t expect that the curse he mentioned was the curse of the Earth.”
[Place of death:]
As these words appeared, the changes abruptly stopped. Shard stood up, somewhat surprised, and Iluna couldn’t understand what happened either:
“Why did it stop showing? Do we not have enough information?”
As soon as her words fell, small letters continued to appear. Shard and Iluna lowered their heads together to read the continuing words, both widening their eyes in surprise:
[Place of death: Old Continent, United Kingdom of Carsonrick, East suburb of Huntington City, basement of the White Valley Vineyard, beside the statue of the Ancient God [Primordial Rift].]
“What?”
Iluna looked at Shard with confusion, while Shard suddenly recalled the unidentified male remains he saw on his first visit to Huntington City in early winter (Chapter 845).
“Oh, Mr. Granger, so… we’ve already met.”
The skeleton in the White Valley Vineyard, which Shard intended to bury when he first saw it, remained there unburied. Because he spent the entire autumn running around for the Keeper of Secrets’ test, he hadn’t even touched it.
Iluna had never been to Huntington City, so after learning of the outcome, Shard went there himself to verify that the skeleton was still there—he only needed to go downstairs to reach it directly.
Seventy years later, the skeleton still lay peacefully next to the Ancient God statue, leaning against the circular wall. Shard was curious what thoughts ran through Thomas Randall’s mind before his death, but luckily, there was still a chance to ask this question.
“He obviously died because of the Mad Land, but neither his corpse nor spirit petrified.”
When Shard emerged from the basement again, Iluna remarked softly. Shard speculated it was related to the special place of death, as the power of the [Primordial Rift] statue was sufficient to completely dispel the curse of the Mad Land.
And since they’d found the remains, locating the soul that hadn’t yet departed was quite straightforward. Especially for diviners, corpse divination is the most basic learning content.
On Friday morning, just at dawn, Shard barged into Old John’s antiques shop. Though Old Man John opened his shop early, at just seven o’clock, he still appeared sleepy:
“Detective, what do you need so early? Introducing another customer?”
“Not a customer. I need to buy a coffin to store a skeleton, something pricey is fine. I knew you’d have one here, so I didn’t go to the coffin shop outside the city, it’s too far.”
He was about to pull out his wallet when Old John, though intrigued by Shard’s hecticity, complained:
“Selling a coffin as the first transaction early in the morning, I’m going to be unlucky all day.”
Grumbling, he led Shard to the backyard. Shard wanted to take the skeleton back to Randall Valley City and certainly couldn’t carry it there directly.
Disturbing Old John so early was because Shard wished to intercept Luviya before she went to work at the Prophet’s Society. Under Old John’s watchful eyes, he transformed the coffin into a toy using a big tarp, then went home, taking the cat with him to Randall Valley City.
He brought the cat along because he hadn’t made breakfast this morning and left for Old John’s shop without doing so. The Abundant Land Inn also served breakfast, so he could eat there. However, the cat, unaware of Shard’s plans, had become extremely agitated since it hadn’t been fed breakfast before leaving.
The Abundant Land Inn, where Luviya was temporarily staying, is fairly close to the Prophet’s Society of Randall Valley, even on the same street. Hence, she didn’t need to get up too early every day and could leisurely enjoy breakfast before walking to the society.
This somewhat ordinary Friday morning, after completing her morning routine, the purple-eyed girl complained in her heart about Shard not staying over, as she headed from the upper floors to the first floor of the inn.
She intended to order her usual breakfast from the server but unexpectedly saw the detective feeding the cat in the east wall position of the first floor.
Looking around to confirm there were no familiar faces, Luviya smiled and walked over. After petting Mia and amidst the cat’s discontented meows, she sat across from Shard:
“I remember last night, you and Iluna went to Heart Lake Island in the Pantanal searching for clues. Why did you come to me so early?”
Her arm rested on the table, supporting her face as she gazed at Shard:
“What, did you leave Iluna overnight and came to apologize this morning?”
“How could I do such a thing?”
Shard patted Mia’s head, signaling that breakfast was over:
“The clues about Thomas Granger have been found. To be specific, we’ve found his corpse.”
He briefly recounted the events of last night, and Luviya frowned slightly:
“Did he choose to die beside the Ancient God Statue himself to prevent the corpse from further polluting the earth?”
“But dying in Huntington City, that’s not normal at all.”
Shard called over a waiter to first prepare breakfast for Luviya:
“Thomas Granger died seventy years ago, at a time when the White Valley Vineyard had nothing to do with my friend, Vampire Kind Mr. Benhart. The vineyard’s owner in those years had long passed away, so I have no way to find out how Mr. Granger ended up in Huntington.”
But it would never be as casual as Shard establishing waymarks. Except for Shard, others must find the hidden space to touch the divine statue and establish a waymark.
“However, I have a guess.”
Shard slightly lowered his voice:
“Earl Granger told me his granduncle felt guilty about matters concerning the Farmer family before he disappeared. Is it possible that before dying, he wanted to go to the center of the Pantanal Swamp to solve the land’s problems but couldn’t bear his own curse, thus collapsing outside the swamp in Huntington?”
“That is indeed possible.”
Luviya nodded:
“In this way, everything is linked together. Next, we just need to find Granger’s spirit, and all those secrets will be revealed… Would you like me to perform divination over the corpse?”
“Yes, the coffin is kept at the Church of the Forgotten, and you can come with me after work at noon.”
Although they could also turn the coffin into a toy and bring it to Luviya’s inn room for divination, Shard didn’t want to place such an item where Luviya slept.
“No need to wait until noon.”
The purple-eyed diviner lazily said:
“I can simply take leave. After all, I don’t have much work here. I’m just waiting for the association to contact that unique Sublimation Codex from the Order. Once breakfast is over, I’ll apply for leave. Plus, with Saturday and Sunday as my off days, three days should be enough to investigate the results thoroughly.”
“Off days?”
Shard was somewhat surprised and then naturally extended an invitation:
“If things go smoothly, how about exploring the city with me? Or maybe we could go horseback riding out of town; the snow scenery in the Creekland and River Valley is quite pleasant.”
“I think that won’t be a problem.”
Luviya displayed a reserved smile.
At eight-thirty in the morning, Shard, holding the cat, returned together with Luviya to the Church of the Forgotten.
Given that the latter half of the church was mostly collapsed ruins, Shard placed the coffin in the church’s main hall, in front of the seated statue.
Once Shard opened the coffin, Luviya reached out to touch the skeleton:
“I can still sense the Miracle Element; only the power radiated from the Ancient God Statue is so mighty. It’s been since the Second Era that the Ancient God left, and now it’s the Sixth Era, yet such power still exists. Although the Miracle Element might interfere with the divination results, it shouldn’t be a big problem.”
Strictly speaking, the gap isn’t merely four eras.
After speaking, she handed Shard a piece of chalk, instructing him to write ancient rune symbols inside the metal coffin to aid the divination ritual.
So, the two got to work, while Mia was placed on a chair beside the statue.
The cat sat there watching them work, yawning broadly out of boredom, then cocked its head to one side to look at the stone statue, thus lifting its rear and inching away—preferring not to have too much contact with anyone other than Shard.
Once the inscriptions on the coffin were completed, Luviya performed her most-used cartomancy first. After consecutively drawing three cards: “Death,” “Guardian,” and “Fate,” she asked Shard to go home to get her spare crystal ball from the third floor. However, the crystal ball divination wasn’t particularly promising either:
“I saw some blurry images, but they are quite unreliable. His spirit seems to be in a very special state.”
After the crystal ball divination came the water divination. Pouring clear water into a basin, skilled diviners can see the insights of fate in the reflections. Yet, there was still not much to see, and eventually, Luviya even submerged her face into the water for a good half minute before standing upright again.