Dinner was cooked by the witch's chef using the bear Shard had hunted in the Sicarl Mountains, and even Mia got a share. The relic trade that evening went off without any other incident.
The doctor indeed had more influence; the person in charge of the Correspondence Circle Mage group from Zaras Literary Academy in Tobesk, a chatty man in his thirties named Neil Young, had already thought through the details of the trade.
After a brief discussion, the final settlement was that Shard received 102 pounds of compensation, completing the trade of the "Corpse-Hiding Mirror" and the "Traveler's Gate."
To bring that heavy door with a metal base home, Shard had to spend a lot of money renting a carriage. The doctor drove the carriage to No. 6, Saint Delan Square, then called Luviya, who was doing astrology on the third floor, to help carry the door upstairs.
Considering the purpose of this door, Shard didn't place it in the basement but instead in Room No. 2 on the second floor, which was temporarily vacant. Thus, the Shard Family's special "doors" increased to three. Although the "Traveler's Gate" was not comparable to the two doors in the basement, at the very least, this door was one everyone could use.
To celebrate acquiring this door and to ensure it didn't just become an ornament, Shard invited Luviya, who was sleeping on the first floor, to experience the door's function first thing on Tuesday morning.
The girl with the purple eyes had been feeling unwell since last week due to special physiological reasons, but when she heard that she could visit Midshire Fort, she happily agreed to Shard's suggestion at the breakfast table.
So, after breakfast, Shard led the way with the key from the "Traveler's Gate" towards Midshire Fort. After stepping up from the basement into the first floor of the Ruined Tower and walking around to the back of the tower, they reached a cliff overlooking half of Midshire Fort City Area.
Upon removing the key, he turned it twice clockwise and twice counterclockwise, and as the door materialized, the girl with short brown hair cautiously peeked out, then stepped through the doorframe and walked out.
She took a deep breath in, enjoying the fresh woodland air, and then stood shoulder to shoulder with Shard in the woods, looking out at the sprawling city of Midshire Fort City Area below:
"Is this the place? I haven't left Tobesk in a long time; the air in the mountains is indeed nice,"
Or perhaps, the air in Tobesk is quite poor.
"Can you feel anything here?"
Shard asked curiously, as Luviya, being a diviner, had a very strong intuition.
"It's a hard-to-describe feeling, specifically..."
She didn't continue, because Shard suddenly furrowed his brow:
"Luviya, wait a moment, something on me is vibrating; there's magic nearby... no, the pendant on my chest should be getting hot, it's something in my pocket that's vibrating."
Reaching into his pocket, the vibrating object was surprisingly the red Blood Coin; Shard immediately looked around:
"Blood Coin resonance! There are other Blood Coins nearby! But how is that possible, what's going on here? Every time I come to Midshire Fort, I stand here to look at the city, but why only this time... And, I've appeared in this city so many times and never experienced Blood Coin resonance; why did it happen immediately after you showed up, Luviya?"
Luviya just smiled and didn't speak; the two waited for a while and found that the frequency of vibration in the Blood Coin didn't change, which meant that the other "Pirate's Blood Money" wasn't far and hadn't moved.
"What's going on here? It appeared out of nowhere and now it's not moving."
"Shard, my time is up,"
the girl with the purple eyes reminded:
"Iluna said that the recent earthquake caused the evil spirits near Sicarl Mountain to strengthen overall, and at the same time, the chance of finding relics has increased. The 'Pirate's Blood Money' itself won't move; it might be brought here by something else, just like the pirate ship you encountered at Coldwater Port."
"I understand, you leave first; there's not enough time,"
Luviya nodded, stepping through the threshold again. Shard then picked up the fallen key and went back home through the hidden wall in the basement of the Ruined Tower, inserting the key into the door lock which couldn't be left unlocked for long.
"I need to investigate the matter with the other Blood Coin."
Luviya didn't say anything to stop Shard, after all, it was something that had to be done:
"You just need to go check out what exactly is going on there; if you can't handle it, aren't there helpers in the town below the mountain? Those witches."
Shard nodded, still not understanding how the Blood Coin had suddenly appeared on the mountain:
"I'm carrying a sword, and I'll have to go down to see Granny Cassandra to examine the Relic later, so could you take care of Mia for me today?"
"I won't be conducting Astrology here tonight, but I'll come over in the evening to help you feed the cat."
The girl with purple eyes said:
"Iluna should arrive at Midshire Fort today; you can go with her to find that Blood Coin."
Shard kissed her on the face:
"Then, wish me luck."
Still wrapped in the bedsheet around the sharp silver sword, Shard came up from the basement to Midshire Fort. Once he stepped out of the Hidden Space affected by the Ancient God Power, the Blood Coin started vibrating again.
Currently, the Blood Coin was in an inactive state; its ability to vibrate suggested that the other Blood Coin must be quite close by.
Depending on the strength of the vibrations, he followed the trail of the Blood Coin through the woodland. Actually, the destination wasn't very far from the Ruined Tower; Shard only walked upwards for less than twenty minutes before he saw a clearing and a large mansion on it amid the fluttering leaves of the dense forest.
"Outlander, you have contacted the Whisper."
The mansion was surrounded by an iron fence with black spikes at the top, and inside the fence was a three-story building with white walls, its size approximately five or six times that of No. 6, Saint Delan Square. From the gate of the fence, a small path made of crushed stones led to the distant forest, seemingly in the direction of the main road leading into the mountain.
"A location-based Relic, huh..."
Having recently seen the model of Sicarl Mountain at Red Water Camp, Shard was certain that there shouldn't be a mansion of this sort, which looked like a vacation home for nobles, nearby.
He stood in the woods, not daring to approach, but instead chose to walk around this flat woodland clearing within the dense forest. He discovered stables, a well, and a small flower garden behind the large, somewhat old-looking house, which appeared normal from the outside.
And when Shard circled near the small gravel path in the woodland, a strong impulse nearly forced him to step out of the woods and onto the path. Fortunately, this impulse, although similar to seeing a book out of alignment and wanting to straighten it, wasn't unbearable.
He just stood there in the woods, squinting at the gate of the fence. The black gate used complex ironwork, its frame twisted to resemble entwined vines.
And at the very top of the gate, those pieces of dark metal twisted together, forming a string of letters like black snakes:
"Sin Mansion? This kind of writing..."
He slapped his head, staring at those letters actually made him feel a bit dizzy:
"Well, it definitely is a location-based Relic."
Shard noted the location, then went down the mountain. Just as Luviya had said, he had no reason to barge in alone now.