Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 226: One hundred and sixty-eight: Crossroads (3)

Chapter 226: One hundred and sixty-eight: Crossroads (3)

For Malin, City Hall was a familiar place due to two reasons. Firstly, as a distinguished taxpayer in the past two years, Malin made significant tax contributions to the city. Secondly, it was because of his identity, as Faye’s lover. Over these years, who in Carterburg didn’t know that Faye of the Mowish family had a specially approved boyfriend, acknowledged by the legendary battle mage madame herself.

So when Malin, accompanied by his sister, walked into City Hall, he was immediately welcomed by the receptionist. Upon hearing that Malin was there to investigate Carterburg’s old residency archives, the receptionist was somewhat puzzled but still handed over the keys to the archive to Malin.

"Thank you," Malin said with a smile as he took the keys, then led his sister up to the second floor—the archives of City Hall were located on the second floor, with a separate staircase.

Upon entering the archives, Malin didn’t immediately start looking for birth records because he didn’t know the exact year that Sofia was born. The old photo was so unclear it didn’t even show the facial features clearly, let alone the time it was taken, the ages of the people in it, and the name Sofia—unlike Malin, a rather unique name in this world, especially since, at least within Carterburg’s bounds, Malin hadn’t come across anyone else sharing his name.

The reason why Malin was named Malin was that he was found in the year of the Horse, hence the surname Ma.

Back to the matter at hand, the first thing Malin looked for were the archives of the Goddess of Harvest Church apprentices—these apprentice files were updated very promptly, and Malin even found his name in the latest files from this year.

Going back thirty-five years, when Gaiate was fifteen, there were two sets of archives for that year. Malin and Maya each searched one, and in the end, Malin came back empty-handed, while Maya came across their father’s name.

"No Sofia?" Malin was taken aback, as this differed from what he had expected, but it didn’t matter much. He quickly arranged a new task, "Maya, continue checking the apprentice files, go back from the year we just checked to four years prior, when they were ten. I’ll look for birth records."

After assigning the tasks, Malin walked over to another rack to start looking for birth records. He had his reasons to set the initial search fifty years back, believing the girl must be younger than Gaiate since she appeared smaller than Gaiate in the photo.

However, after searching for seven years in vain, even though Malin found seven Sofias, none of them resembled the one in the photo.

Out of the seven, two were elf half-bloods, and one was a Thanan half-blood—these three were immediately excluded because the Sofia in question had round ears and could definitely not be an elf half-blood, nor a Thanan half-blood—the record of the Thanan half-blood clearly stated she had black hair, which would appear differently from light-colored hair in a black and white photo.

Of the remaining four Sofias, Malin investigated their surnames and found out that one died of sudden pneumonia during a trip, at the age of eight; another was kidnapped with her mother at the age of five, ending up tragically killed.

After eliminating these two, the remaining two seemed quite similar at first glance, but further scrutiny revealed that one of them is now the grandmother of Logan’s classmate. Given Gaiate’s situation of searching for a mother, she was definitely not the one he was looking for.

The last remaining Sofia, though she had married far away, considering she had married a Thanan man, Malin thought it unlikely that Gaiate, even if senile, would be so confused as to go looking for her in the Eastern Kingdom.

The investigation hit a deadlock, but Maya found a new clue—Sofia Dani Mischael.

She appeared in the apprentice files of the Goddess of Harvest Church thirty-eight years ago, absent from the records of thirty-seven years prior. Her files could be traced back for a period from thirty-eight to forty-five years ago, which explained why Malin hadn’t found her at first.

"Mischael... it’s the Mischael family, isn’t it?" Maya thought of Mr. Mischael.

"How did you think of him?" Malin realized that if it weren’t for his sister’s reminder, he wouldn’t have thought of the man who could portray a victim so elegantly popular.

"Because there’s only one Mischael family in Carterburg," said Maya.

Her statement was quickly confirmed, as Faye and Jessica, carrying lunchboxes, appeared in the archives. As the daughter of the Mowish family, Faye was well acquainted with all the nobles of Carterburg.

"Doesn’t Mr. Mischael have a first name?" Malin was very curious.

"No, it is a tradition of the Mischael family. The head of the family is uniformly referred to as Mr. Mischael. Mischael is both his first name and his surname," explained Faye, glancing at the old photo in Malin’s hand, "Does Uncle Gaiate have some connection with a female member of the Mischael family?"

"From what we’ve seen so far, it seems so. He never married, and if it wasn’t for this Sofia occupying his heart, to the point where he had room for no one else, I can’t imagine why he would remain unmarried," Malin said with considerable empathy.

After the ladies joined as assistants, it took Malin several hours to make sense of it all.

Firstly, Sophia Dani Mischael was born forty-eight years ago. There are no birth records because at the time, she was born at home, and in that era, only children born in the hospitals of the Goddess of Harvest would have birth records—unless the baby’s family wanted to create one. Compared to other records, birth records are considered trivial, as the girls have all agreed, including Jessica who doesn’t even have her own birth record.

However, what comforts her somewhat is that her younger brother doesn’t have one either. It seems that old wolf really liked to take it easy.

Secondly, when she was four years old, as a family of followers of the Goddess of Harvest recognized for their ability in Assistance Magic, she was sent to the Church of the Goddess of Harvest.

This is why her name appears in the Church Apprentice archives from forty-five years ago.

That same year, Gaiate also enrolled. His father Semya was a regional Bishop in the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and had him, his only child, at the age of forty-seven.

He and she must have met in the first grade. According to Faye and Lillim’s identification, the construction seen in the background through the window of the photograph is likely the Central District’s clock tower, built thirty-seven years ago.

"The photograph couldn’t have been taken later than 1763 AD. This year is 1801, which means it was exactly thirty-eight years ago," Lillim wrote in her notebook.

Which means, Sophia died in 1763 or 1764.

"But Sophia in the photo clearly does not look to be eleven years old. She might be a Highlander half-blood, but without a birth record, we can’t confirm which member of the Mischael family she was the child of. She was indeed a beauty—at least I have to admit I’m not as pretty as her," Jessica said with a hint of unhappiness in her sigh.

To this, Malin laughed and touched her ear: "Don’t worry, it’s enough that I like you."

A shy smile appeared on the wolf girl’s face at a visibly rapid pace.

The little lamb smiled and then looked at Faye: "Sister Faye, according to the information we have, Sophia Dani Mischael most likely died in the Mischael family massacre, and she might have been among the first victims."

"The Mischael family massacre?" Malin asked with a questioning look.

"Obviously, you wouldn’t know about it. This trouble with the Chaos Cult and misfortune seems to have started entangling the family around 1764. From that time on, there had to be a family member die every year, regardless of whether they were in Carterburg or abroad. But we of our generation have only heard about it through the grapevine. If you want the full intelligence, it’s best to ask the older generation," Faye said with a troubled look: "But in Carterburg, I don’t think many want to mention it because it’s so unlucky. No one wants to be connected to this matter, including the current Mr. Mischael."

Malin nodded, astonished at the prospect of one death per year, as troubling to him as it had been to the girls.

The intelligence ended there, more or less, but whatever the case, Malin understood what his father had been searching for these years.

"In any event, Mr. Gaiate really is a man of deep affection. These years, he must have been on a quest for vengeance, most likely pursuing those Chaos members," Clovis mentioned, suddenly bringing her hand to the corner of her eye: "If one day, I meet an unfortunate fate, Mr. Malin will find the perpetrator for me too."

"Whether it’s any of you who is threatened, I will try my best to drown the perpetrator in the toilet before he even has a chance to commit the crime," Malin declared, borrowing the famous saying of the Emperor and planning to make good on it.

The girls naturally burst into happy laughter at this, with Jessica, the wolf girl, the happiest among them. She kissed Malin on the face, saying: "I will believe anything Mr. Malin says. If you could rescue Maya from a tight spot, you can surely save us from the covetous eyes of evildoers."

"Alright, it’s getting late. What shall we do about dinner?" Lillim, acting as the scribe for the day, raised this practical matter: "After dinner, we can continue our discussion. According to the information, Sophia died from a gunshot. I’ve found the scene report. Should we visit the original scene tomorrow to at least confirm how she died?"

"No problem," Malin agreed, liking the idea: "So the issue now is what we will have for dinner tonight."

"Why don’t we cook together? Since we’re free tonight, come to my villa. The kitchen is big enough to accommodate all six of us," Faye offered as the hostess.

Malin immediately agreed: "Tonight, I’ll cook you guys something delicious to showcase my skills in the kitchen."

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