The cheers and excited chatter were so loud that Shard, unable to be a part of the scene, clutched his ears in pain.
Shard's expression was serious as he stared intently ahead, looking for an opportunity. He squeezed through the crowd behind him to step back, preparing to make space to jog a few steps before accelerating into a leap, sprinting across the street before the procession arrived.
A middle-aged man about ten people away from Shard, amidst the chaos and joy of the moment, slowly took his right hand out of his coat's inside pocket.
His eyes were firmly fixed on Queen Diana in the approaching procession, not glancing aside for even a moment.
Miss Beyas and her team members, escorting the Thirteen-Ring Sorcerer from afar, stood at the station entrance. Her vision was excellent, and she spotted Shard's tall figure in the distant crowd, a smile forming on her face, wondering whether to greet him or not.
Dr. Schneider, who had come to the clinic with friends to see what the fuss was about, also saw Shard and shook his head with a smile, amazed that the detective also liked to join the crowd. He was about to greet Shard when he opened his mouth.
Miss Galina, sitting next to Queen Diana in the carriage, noticed Shard on the side of the road. The red-haired Duchess had no intention of greeting him.
Captain Lades on the other side of the street, his muscles tense, was busy lunging at a fat woman and did not notice Shard.
Mr. Anlos, Director of MI6 standing amidst the crowd, noticed Shard up close. But as they had met only once, he hesitated before recognizing him, unsure of what the young detective was planning to do with his strange pose.
Taking advantage of the officer in front of him looking to the left at the arriving procession, Shard took a small jog forward.
The middle-aged man gazed at Queen Diana's face through the carriage window, his right hand slowly pulling out of the inner pocket.
The crowd's cheers grew even louder, and the band waiting at the station entrance struck up their music, adding to the already festive and chaotic atmosphere.
Shard frowned, pushing past the policeman in front, using his legs to forcefully sprint forward over the human wall.
The middle-aged man about a dozen people away suddenly pulled something out of his pocket with his right hand.
Shard leaped beside the policeman.
The middle-aged man pulled a handgun from beneath his coat.
Shard, feet off the ground, soared through the air, his forward momentum swift.
The gunman could not hesitate and lifted his hand to aim straight ahead, pulling the trigger.
But in the split second after his finger moved, he saw a person suddenly appear between the gun barrel and the carriage window.
A huge blast as if exploding right next to his ear, Shard, caught off guard in midair, was propelled toward the carriage by the enormous force. Hit with unerring accuracy amid the gunfire, he clutched his chest as he fell to the ground, rolling twice, then lay still, face upwards.
Screaming, the echo of gunshots, shouting, curses, the neighing of horses... these sounds faded in Shard's ears as he lay on the ground.
Lying on the ground, his gaze drifted over the fluttering garments around him to the thin mist overhead, then to the blinding sunlight piercing through the mist. The sunlight bathed his face—a face devoid of any color.
Time seemed to stop in that moment; he didn't know what had just happened, only that he had been shot precisely in the left chest.
"So, this is bad luck..."
The sound of footsteps spread chaotically around him, shoes tapping the ground, skirts brushing against his legs, and more incomprehensible noises mixing together. But none of that mattered anymore. The cold earth lay beneath him, and above was a dark, oppressive sky.
"Hamilton Detective!"
The crowd was moving away from him, and in a daze, he saw Miss Galina on the carriage, saw Captain Lades tackle the overweight woman, saw Miss Beyas coming over to check out what had happened, saw the panicked look on Dr. Schneider's face as he stood on tiptoes at the back of the crowd, and saw Mr. Anlos frantically trying to grab the man who had fired the gun.
But they were too far apart for Mr. Anlos to make it through the crowd immediately.
The middle-aged shooter looked at the young man lying on the ground, let out a bitter smile as if mocking himself, and pointed the gun at his own head.
Shard averted his gaze, lying there looking up at the murky, fog-enshrouded sky, the scenes from this world he had come to flashing before his eyes. His expression became calm...
Then he heard laughter beside his ear, a sound that was unmistakably mocking.
"That's not right, I only threw a nine, so how could I end up being shot dead and left lying in the street?"
Amidst the astonished gazes of Miss Galina, Captain Lades, Miss Beyas, Dr. Schneider, Mr. Anlos, the onlookers, the police maintaining order, the Royal Guard, and Queen Diana, who was being urgently protected, Shard deftly sat up from the ground.
He patted the dirt off his clothes and looked at his body:
"Why doesn't my chest hurt anymore?"
Muttering to himself and under the gaze of everyone nearby, he touched his left chest. The specially made gun and bullet were indeed powerful, and he felt the pocket over his shirt. He hesitated, then took out the object.
Circular, exquisite, small, cold, the silver material reflecting the sunlight that was piercing through the clouds and dense fog.
The bullet had lodged precisely in the center of the "Dawn Chapel 1053 Holy Prayer Day Commemorative Coin," the silver coin indented, but the ring of the Holy Emblem tightly gripped the bullet.
He scratched his head, feeling an inexplicable urge to laugh, and stood up to look at everyone around him.
In the distance, the shouting continued, and the noisy sounds persisted; the sound of police whistles echoed under the sky. Police were cordoning off the nearby streets, and more plainclothes officers and additional members of the Royal Guard were rushing over.
But at least the people around the Royal carriage, those Royal Guards, police from Riddlevitch Field, citizens of Tobesk City, and friends that Shard knew, were all looking at the silver coin in Shard's hand.
The sunlight shone down on Shard as he held the coin, with the body of the suicide lying in front of him. At that moment, he actually felt there was a sense of absurdity to it all.
Looking up at the sky, then back at the people around him:
"Bad luck led to being shot in the street, but since I didn't ask for much, the bad luck wasn't that bad, and I just so happened to survive... Fate is fair, the manipulators won't die a good death... Ha~ I get it now~"
She laughed softly in his ear.
He looked down at the silver coin he was holding:
"I dare not manipulate Fate again."
He thought to himself.
"I'm going to more money to Dawn Chapel."
He said this aloud, winking covertly at Miss Beyas and Dr. Schneider to signal he was okay, then, amid the gasps of the crowd, he collapsed to the ground with an expression of pain, clutching his chest and moaning:
"Oh, I've got internal injuries, the force of the bullet is too..."
Shard passed out next to the body of the suicide, his head landing on the soft corpse, so he didn't get hurt.
Of course, the fainting was feigned.
The smoke from the muzzle of the gun rose into the sky, far from the noisy and chaotic streets. Today's Tobesk, though still shrouded in a dingy fog, was particularly lively.