Chapter 1248: Chapter 1248: Date
Shard spent the remaining hour of his morning learning basic photography, with a focus on developing film in the darkroom. It wasn’t until 11:50 in the morning that he called a carriage to transport the equipment back home with Dorothy.
However, after moving the camera to the door of No. 6, Saint Delan Square, Shard did not immediately open the door. Instead, he smiled and suggested to Dorothy:
"How about I take a picture of you here?"
He pointed to his own front door:
"You stand on the steps, holding your handbag in front of you."
"Oh, this won’t do. I haven’t put on makeup seriously. Besides, there are so many people here, let’s not get in their way."
The golden-haired girl blushed a bit as she spoke, but she was already a little tempted. In fact, there weren’t that many people in Saint Delan Square at noon, at least not in front of Shard’s door.
Unable to resist Shard’s persuasion, Dorothy finally agreed to his suggestion:
"I’ll go inside first. Call me when you’ve adjusted the camera..."
So, on the not-too-crowded winter street, with his back to the pedestrians and slowly passing four-wheeled cabs, Shard spent more than ten minutes setting up the camera and flash. Since he had no assistant, he had to hold the flash and operate the camera by himself. Once everything was ready, he knocked on his house door. A golden-haired girl, seemingly having applied some light powder, unwillingly brought out Mia in her arms.
"Meow~"
It meowed at Shard, sounding like it was pleading for help.
Dorothy paid no mind to this; she adjusted her hair, holding Mia with one hand and timidly pressing down the hat on her head with the other. She tilted her head slightly, her emerald eyes looking at the lens, showing some shyness and a hint of excitement.
"Are you ready? Please look at the lens!"
This line was directed at the cat.
"Three, two, one!"
Bang!
As the flash exploded and smoke drifted towards the foggy sky, Dorothy, standing on the steps of Shard’s door with Mia in her arms, was captured forever.
Just then, neighbors Mr. Elder Smith and Mrs. Smith, returning home, saw Shard taking a picture of Dorothy. After greeting Shard, they went back to their house, but with his excellent hearing, Shard still heard Mrs. Elder Smith’s complaint from behind the door:
"When you were young, you never had such a romantic air like Hamilton next door."
Dorothy also heard them, her face slightly red as she fumbled with her keys to open the door. Leaving Shard alone outside to pack up the photography equipment, his basement was spacious enough to store it all.
Having lunch together with Dorothy in Tobesk City, Dorothy seemed to be in a particularly good mood. She learned that Shard planned to photograph a statue in the Randall Valley and heard that Shard would be working with Luviya:
"Don’t come home tonight; stay in Randall Valley with Luviya."
Miss Writer said softly, gesturing at Mia:
"If you want to bring this cat along, bring it; if not, leave it for me to take care of."
Thus, Mia, having had her fill of lunch, left with Dorothy.
At two in the afternoon, Shard met Luviya at Church of the Forgotten as planned. To prevent leaking information about the church, Shard used an Illusion Technique to dim the light inside, making the statue’s background pitch black.
Once everything was set, the photo he took included only the statue of the middle-aged man and part of the bench on which the statue sat. The statue wasn’t even particularly clear. But that was just fine, as he didn’t want any additional disturbances arising from searching for clues around this statue.
Developing this photo still required some time. If Shard handled it himself, he could directly control the temperature during the final drying, so it would only take about twenty minutes to complete.
The basement at home served as the best darkroom, and he had already prepared all the necessary chemical materials for developing photos. However, he did not proceed with the work immediately. He returned the camera, then went back to Randall Valley:
"Luviya, I’ll develop the photos when I get back. This afternoon, let’s wander around the city together."
"Aren’t you eager to find Mr. Thomas Granger?"
Luviya asked curiously, and before Shard could answer, she naturally took his hand.
The city of Randall Valley City has an area about two-thirds that of Tobesk City, but if you include the outskirts and the northeastern mountains, the total area defined as the "Randall Valley Region" is actually not smaller than Tobesk.
After arriving locally, Luviya has been busy with the work assigned to her by the Prophet’s Society and the Academy, and hasn’t had the chance to rest properly. That afternoon, invited by Shard, she finally had the time to enjoy the winter scenery of the unfamiliar Southern Nation city.
The two first visited the city museum— the ticket price was quite staggering, but at least the exhibition was interesting enough. The museum has a special "Stone Hall" dedicated to displaying stone statues discovered during local archaeological excavations. Among the artifacts unearthed in the Randall Valley Region, stone figures are the most common. This is known in mysticism as the "Earth Center", with a long-standing tradition of worshipping the earth and stones.
After the museum, it was Wilder Opera House, where Shard had greeted Miss Lathis in advance to buy two tickets for the evening, and then took Luviya to visit the backstage of the opera house. They met Miss Benanis again, but the Grand Witch seemed a bit embarrassed in front of Luviya, probably because she hadn’t forgotten the incident caused by drinking the essence from the pink bottle at Saint Perry Cemetery.
Borrowing a horse from the opera house, Shard rode with Luviya out of the city. Following the route pursued to Saint Perry Cemetery last time, they first arrived at Green Grass Farm owned by Miss Benanis, and then set off from the farm into Eldron Creekland.
Luviya also loved the scenery of Creekland Woods in the snow, with her purple eyes, wearing a brown cloak and lace-up brown boots trailing behind, while the Knight in a black coat led the horse, leaving two adjacent sets of footprints and hoof prints in the snow. As Luviya and Shard chatted and laughed, she would occasionally turn her head to look at his face, wishing that time could stop on this afternoon.
By sunset, the pristine snowfield was also dyed orange. The horse was tied to a tree, and Shard and Luviya stood on the branch of a tall Randall Pine, looking toward the sun spreading the sunset westward. At this time, half the sun was hidden below the city, the remaining half dyeing the city sitting on the river valley plains golden. Shard unconsciously thought of the half-moon of the Nether Moon in death, also spreading light toward the calm water surface.
But then realized such a thought was quite normal, as equating death with Randall Valley always gave a sense of impending doom for the city.
After getting down from the tree, Shard was prepared to ride back to the city with Luviya, but she, thinking of something, gently pushed Shard against the tree, kissing him passionately.
Shard didn’t resist but held Luviya in return, feeling her passion. Just then, a "hnng~" sound interrupted them, followed by the joyful sound of four hooves trotting on snow.
Luviya heard it too, thinking it might be a wild boar or a stray goat from the village wandering nearby.
Turning around to drive away the approaching wild animal, she was surprised to see, under the sunset, a golden-horned small animal with pure white fur happily running toward them.
"A unicorn?!"
The little creature ran swiftly in the snow, eagerly nudging Shard’s right hand with its horn upon reaching him, circling around him and the tree.
"Is it the same one from last time?"
Shard asked himself, then heard "her" laughter:
[Of course, you should be able to guess from its behavior.]
So he extended his hand, and the unicorn obediently stopped to accept his caress. Luviya stood by watching this scene in awe. Though Shard had mentioned the unicorn before, seeing it with her own eyes was quite unbelievable:
"Even I’m starting to doubt now, what is your gender exactly?"
"You of all people should know my gender best."
Shard said casually, realizing what he had said, causing Luviya to blush and smack him lightly. The purple-eyed girl couldn’t resist trying to touch the unicorn herself. As Miss Benanis said, most girls had dreamt about such a rare and beautiful creature.
The small animal appeared slightly reluctant but still let Luviya stroke it.
"I think our plan to return to the city might be delayed, we can’t leave it here alone. The elf girl in charge of taking care of it should come soon."
Considering from last time it took most of the day for the caretaker to notice the unicorn went missing, "soon" wasn’t precisely accurate.
"Indeed, with a unicorn here, who wants to watch the opera? Oh, such a pity I didn’t bring a camera, or I’d definitely take a picture with it."
"Then let’s camp here... why do you always run out from Saint Byrons, with so many bad people around, what would you do if you met someone other than me?"
The latter half was said in Ancient Elvish Language.
Luviya agreed very much with Shard’s suggestion, as she saw today mainly as a date with Shard, and the location didn’t really matter.
Although they didn’t prepare beforehand for camping in the wild, Shard had ample supplies. Setting up wooden fencing on the snow, lighting up a bonfire, and pitching a tent, the simple campsite was ready.
Luviya took over preparing dinner, while the pure white little beast lay beside the campfire at Shard’s request, its azure eyes fixated on the pot in front of Luviya, in a manner very much like Mia.
"The Ancient God- [Earth Mother Goddess] governs earth, keystones, seasons, and memory. May the earth remember this moment..."
Luviya, believing in fate, prayed to the ancient deity, unaware that the shadow behind her also had its eyes on the man beside her.