Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic
Chapter 954 - 954 Rust Alley

According to Father Nobel's records, the Seven-Ring Sorcerer of the Pantanal Voodoo Society who used the "Arrow of Knowledge of Aikenora" over a decade ago was actually named Halder Undiba. He was a villager from "Lower Wood Village" in the Pantanal Swamp Region. Around the age of 16, he discovered his innate talent after being noticed by a pharmacist residing near his village and subsequently joined the Voodoo Society.

This Seven-Ring Sorcerer was eventually ambushed and killed by the church in Rust Alley, western Huntington City, after a fierce battle. Even after his death, the church scoured both Rust Alley and his birth village, but they were unable to find the "Arrow of Knowledge of Aikenora."

The last use of the arrow was three days before Undiba was ambushed by the church, and during the final confrontation with the church, the arrow was not used.

Although Shard was certain that the church would not overlook any details, considering the church also deemed No. 6, Saint Delan Square as safe now, he went to Rust Alley that afternoon, trying to find clues left over from years ago.

Rust Alley is a street in the slums of western Huntington, sloping northwest. Both ends of the alley are within the slum itself, surrounded by a network of alleyways. The decrepit old buildings under the fog-covered low sky appeared older than the impoverished inhabitants living here. It was like a barely perceivable black rot on Huntington's sparkling purple grape.

When Shard arrived at Rust Alley that afternoon, stepping into the narrow and elongated alley, he vaguely felt as if he heard the city groaning. Of course, this was just his psychological impression, but it also meant that trying to find leads from over a decade ago in such a place was far more challenging than it seemed.

The buildings on both sides of Rust Alley are a haphazard mix of heights and levels. Shard described them as "undulating" because many houses were built higher by one or two stories with seemingly miraculous construction methods on their original bases.

These non-uniform but highly dangerous illegal structures leaned against each other, providing nighttime shelter for the city's vast number of impoverished. It was Monday afternoon, but there were still quite a few people in the alley.

With winter approaching, the attire of Rust Alley's residents still seemed suitable for autumn. Women took advantage of the clear weather to roll up their sleeves and hang laundry in the alley, cautiously eyeing their neighbors with concern that a turn of their back would lead to their clothes being stolen. Barefoot children gathered in small groups, either playing rough or chasing after wild cats and dogs roaming about.

Comparatively, Shard's presence in the alley was quite conspicuous, but fortunately, the wisdom of life taught the people in the slums not to provoke strangers.

Of course, this also had something to do with the unintentional glimpse of his gun holster.

The church's operation from over a decade ago caused the collapse of two or three houses and significant damage in the middle of Rust Alley. However, no traces of that battle could be seen today.

Numbers 13, 14, and 15 Rust Alley, which collapsed, had long been repaired. Now those three houses are crowded old-style rental apartments and slum shops selling inferior tobacco, spices, and daily necessities.

Numbers 13 and 14 are opposite each other as rental apartments, each four stories high. The walls of the houses were yellowed and stained, wastewater flowed down the drainpipes onto the walls, then into the alley's gutters, and some uncivil graffiti was chalked onto the walls. These rental apartments stood tall and slender, with an area less than half that of No. 6, Saint Delan Square, but housing hundreds of residents.

The landlord subdivided the interior spaces with thin wooden boards, renting out small compartments to the displaced poor. Hundreds of people shared one lavatory and kitchen, making the hygiene conditions extremely poor. Such situations could be found in every city in the material world, but people preoccupied with earning tomorrow's meal had no time to worry about whether the epidemic would spread because of this.

Given the chaotic turnover of tenants in numbers 13 and 14 over the decades, Shard abandoned the idea of searching for leads there and instead entered Rust Alley No. 15, the "Pig Sty Shop."

"Pig Sty" is quite a derogatory term in Huntington's language, using such a name for a shop also signals its irregularity and negligence.

The first floor of number 15 was the shop itself, which was almost dirtier and more cluttered than Old John's pawnshop. The shopkeeper's counter was by the door, making it convenient for him to monitor whether customers were stealing goods. Despite calling it a shop, it practically bought and sold anything and everything.

The middle-aged man, appearing to be in his forties or fifties, with a chunk missing from his left ear as if bitten off, was caught in a muddle when Shard walked in that afternoon.

Hearing the door open, he groggily fished out his glue-mended cracked glasses from the counter and put them on, hurriedly shoving the illegally printed colored magazines from the tabletop under the counter, then yawning he asked:

"A new face? No, you certainly aren't moving here to stay. Are you... a cop? A detective? Or the new mobster from the town? Oh, I've paid protection fees to Old Midilak."

"I'm not here to cause trouble."

Shard surveyed the shop, seeing a heap of yellowing sheets and cotton in the southeast corner, and baskets hanging from the ceiling filled with bottles and jars. Apart from the shopkeeper's arms, the counter was piled with matchboxes, metal thimble rings for sewing, inferior rolling papers for handmade cigarettes, with a metal cage pressing down on them, and a white mouse inside the cage was watching Shard with its red eyes.

The mouse was likely not for sale but the shopkeeper's pet.

"So what are you buying?"

The man, now awake, asked with interest, adding:

"From your accent, are you a Draleon? What are you Northerners doing in a place like Rust Alley?"

After over half a month's effort, Shard had made some progress in his Carsonrickian. Nevertheless, it was still easy for a true Carsonrickian to discern his identity.

"I'm not buying anything, I want some information from you."

Shard said, prompting the man behind the counter to rub his fingers together, and Shard tossed a 1 Finny coin onto the counter. As the coin spun with a clang, he asked:

"I heard this place was rebuilt over a decade ago? I'm commissioned to find information on the previous owner here. Was the owner before the reconstruction the same as now?"

"Of course not, I only moved here eight years ago. This house originally belonged to a fat guy who sold pork and offal at the market, but he went bankrupt and ran away."

"Went bankrupt selling meat?"

"Lost too much playing Roder Card."

The shopkeeper shrugged:

"I don't know where that guy is now, but he lived here for 20 years. I think the person you're looking for should be him."

"Ran away? Did he take everything with him?"

"Yes, just some old furniture left here, but even that was taken by creditors. When I moved in, there wasn't even a single complete gas lamp. If his creditors are looking for him, sorry, everything here is bought by me."

"Then have you ever seen him or heard him talk about the accident that happened here decades ago?"

"I haven't seen him, but I've heard the neighbors talk about that gas explosion accident."

At this point of questioning, Shard was certain that there were no clues left here for him. Before entering, he even tried using the [Echo of Blood] to observe the bloodstains in the alley, but those old bloodstains were mixed with various marks from the past ten years, completely insufficient for Shard to find clues.

Fortunately, he didn't have much hope in the first place, and knowing there was nothing valuable here, he was thinking of talking to Professor Drake about this matter. But before he turned to leave, the shopkeeper behind the counter added:

"Speaking of which, someone else asked me about him a few days ago. What kind of trouble is he in? Did he, in another city, lose all his property playing Roder Card and flee again?"

"Sort of."

Shard answered vaguely, resting his arm on the counter:

"You mentioned earlier that someone asked similar questions a while ago? Who was it? When did they come? What did they ask?"

Saying this, he tossed out a coin.

The man behind the counter slowly took the coin, his tone quite hesitant, his gray eyes appearing somewhat bewildered:

"About last week, what day... I don't remember."

"Did the person come alone?"

The shopkeeper recalled for a moment, hesitantly shaking his head:

"That afternoon, I hadn't woken up completely, my memory is very fuzzy... probably two people."

"Their appearance?"

"I really can't remember, but I do remember they bought a box of wax matches after asking questions."

Seeing the other person looking puzzled, Shard asked again:

"You don't remember what they asked either?"

"Vaguely remember it's similar to your questions, but can't say the specific content."

"If you want me to pay more, you can give me a number."

"No, no, if I could earn your money, I'd be happy to tell you what you want to know. But this time, I really don't remember."

The bald man with glasses muttered a sentence:

"It's really strange, Rust Alley doesn't get a few strangers in a week, how could I forget the customer's appearance?"

"Is there a problem?"

Shard asked in his heart.

[The time interval is too long, even if his memory was wiped by someone, it can't be investigated. Maybe you can try dream exploration, maybe there's some deep memory residue.]

"I'm not Dr. Schneider, how can I explore dreams?"

Shard thought as he silently reached into his pocket and pulled out a metal talisman:

"Do you recognize this?"

The shopkeeper behind the counter instinctively leaned forward to look, and the next moment his eyes closed with a strong drowsiness, then he collapsed onto the counter and fell asleep again.

Shard put away the talisman in his hand, having used his spiritual power to guide it, and with the hypnosis spell in hand, he hypnotized the shopkeeper. Normally, this talisman wouldn't work so quickly, but Shard had learned a spellcasting trick from the [Book of Pink], which dedicated an entire chapter to the topic of hypnosis.

"Abnormal forgetfulness suggests a high likelihood that memory was altered. And if memory was altered, it means the stranger who came by a few days ago is also a Circle Sorcerer. The True God Church's team would only alter memory when an ordinary person witnesses the extraordinary, so it's not the Church's doing. Although I can't explore dreams to dig into deep memory, but..."

Shard lowered his gaze and looked at the iron cage on the counter. Swiftly unlocking the iron cage, he grabbed the white mouse tightly. His palm held most of the mouse's body, only the two pink paws and tail of the white mouse's lower body were still able to move freely.

Holding the mouse with his right hand, Shard placed the wrapped [Night Watchman] on the desk with his left, then took out the [Fish Training Ring] he carried with him.

"Cats can't use it, but at least mice can."

Among the "Mia's Three Charms," Shard usually doesn't carry the [Transmutation Ring] because he doesn't know how to use it, and the [Vampire Ring] definitely can't be taken out casually in a city like Huntington, where there's a large community of the Vampire Kind. When he dropped the cat off at the Witch's Manor in the morning, he only took the [Fish Training Ring].