Edward took a step back and roamed into the Astral Plane.
He went straight to the steampunk nation of the "Steam Muscles," and once again saw that burly science-nerd male deity.
Last time, although the other party had allowed him to roam in His domain, He'd never spoken to him at all—He had just been engrossed in studying His gears, bearings, and whatever else.
Edward mustered up his courage and greeted this long-misunderstood muscular science nerd:
"Good evening, Your Excellency."
"Steam Muscles" Stiano slowly looked over. His tone was flat and completely emotionless, "What is it?"
The Seven Gods tolerated this "Wanderer" Edward roaming their Divine Kingdoms mainly because they valued his identity as the Owner of the Sefirah Castle—it was an investment into the future, and nothing more.
"I wish to borrow a sealed item stored in the Trier Cathedral."
"What?"
"The 'Antigonus Family Notebook.'"
"No."
…Cold. Way too cold.
Edward hesitated for a few seconds. "I can…exchange something with You."
"No trade."
Edward silently took out a mechanical-related book and held it out.
Stiano paused, adjusted His glasses, accepted the book and opened it. His calm eyes showed a faint ripple of surprise—although this book was written in English, it was accompanied by mechanical principle diagrams.
He quickly flipped through to the end, then turned to look at the pile of things He'd been tinkering with earlier. Suddenly, a giant iron hammer appeared in His hand—and He immediately smashed those things into scrap.
Then He said lightly, "That notebook is only something someone deposited in My Cathedral. I do not have the authority to dispose of it."
Edward carefully probed, "May I ask…is it Her Excellency the Evernight Goddess?"
"Mm."
As expected—Antigonus Family Notebook appearing in the Church of Steam and Machinery—was deliberately set up by the Evernight Goddess.
Then, if I go and borrow the book directly from Her, would She agree?
At that moment, Stiano suddenly said faintly: "Unless you can produce more books. And translate them all into Intisian."
"??"
Edward froze—dumbfounded at this muscle science guy. His expression remained flat, as if He'd just said a completely ordinary sentence.
"I have them! I have them all!"
Edward hurriedly took out more than ten remaining books all at once. These were the extra ones he had bought while helping the Goddess with her procurement before. He respectfully held them out. "You may read first. I'll start translating in the next two days—"
"Translate now."
"…Fine. I'll translate now."
Edward picked up the book on top—when suddenly something occurred to him. "Um…do You need to go inform the Evernight Goddess first? In case She—"
Stiano lifted His chin slightly. "I…am not afraid of Her."
…Did I say You were afraid of Her though…
Wait...did You just leak out a subtextual truth of Your heart there?
Then why, in the original story, did You still side against the Evernight Goddess at the crucial moment? Was it just lack of strategic flexibility? Couldn't read the situation?
"Forget it. Work first. Finish the translations."
———
Trier—Roselle's mansion.
After several days of tormenting himself with indecision, Roselle finally made his choice:
Regardless of anything else—he needed to first confirm exactly where that notebook sealed item was stored.
Whether to steal it or not—he would decide based on circumstances.
The carriage rumbled on the cobblestone road. The closer they got to the Cathedral, the more nervous Roselle became: unlike the previous times when his "stealing" had just been pranks, this time it would be an actual crime—well, to be precise, the scouting beforehand was already part of the crime.
Around midnight—
When Roselle jumped down from the carriage, the square in front of the Trier Cathedral was crowded with believers who'd come to pray. They looked devoutly at the magnificent divine symbol shining atop the Cathedral—amid the hiss of steam, ceremonial cannon firing, and the flapping of released white doves—offering a prayer destined to receive no response, to the God of Steam and Machinery currently obsessed with "high-tech books."
As a Son of Steam, Roselle instantly put on a pious posture—but in his heart he prayed, "May You bless me so I won't get caught when I steal that notebook later."
Stiano:You brat, you want me to bless you so that you won't get caught stealing my stuff inside my own cathedral? You sure have some guts!
After more than ten minutes of prayer, all the believers entered the great cathedral in an orderly fashion, while Roselle followed a priest to the back of the church.
Soon, Roselle arrived at a workshop where Artisans forged items.
"Mr. Gustav, this is it. Here are all the tools and materials you could ever need. More than enough for you to create the majority of things."
"So big?"
Roselle felt like he had just walked into a small factory.
"Yes. After all, all the church's craftsmen need to use this place."
The moment he walked in, he heard the sound of hammering coming from further inside.
The priest added, "You may choose any unoccupied workbench."
"All right, thank you."
Roselle walked in two steps, then suddenly looked back and asked, "By the way, is His Grace the Archbishop here?"
"No. He left for Backlund two days ago on some matter."
"Ah. I see."
If the archbishop wasn't here, then who could he ask about the Sealed Artifact?
The Machinery Hiveminds?
But he didn't really know them.
Damn…he had spent so much psychological preparation to come here and scout the place, and it looked like everything was already over before he even began.
Even so, Roselle couldn't just turn around and leave—he came here under the name of "digesting his potion." So he picked a nearby workbench cluttered with tools and books, grabbed pen and paper, and began drawing: he planned to create a camera.
With the super memory brought by the Savant pathway, plus the abilities he obtained after advancing to an Artisan, drafting the blueprint of the camera went extremely smoothly.
Next would be to forge each component according to the blueprint—entirely by "hand-crafting."
Although Roselle often envied the various miraculous abilities possessed by other pathways, he had never felt that the Savant pathway was inferior in any way. The combination of technology and Beyonder abilities allowed every high Sequence Savant to "hand-craft" high-tech items.
Today he could hand-craft a camera.
Tomorrow he could hand-craft a fighter jet.
The day after tomorrow—he could hand-craft a Gundam.
Now tell him—were you afraid or not?!
While fantasising that after reaching high Sequences, he would lead a few hundred Gundams to conquer the world, Roselle's hands didn't stop—he kept picking up different tools and operating them with practised skill.
Bang!
In that moment, he accidentally slammed his hands hard against a bookshelf at the edge of the workbench. The shelf toppled to the ground, and the books on it scattered everywhere.
Roselle's brows twitched instantly, his entire train of thought forcibly cut off.
He hesitated for a few seconds, then squatted down and first put the bookshelf upright again. Then he picked up the fallen books one by one and placed them back: Principles of Mechanics, Improvements to the Steam Engine, Speculations on Human Machinery, The Antigonus Family Notebook, Practical Mechanical Handbook…All these books shared one thing in common: the author was Roselle.
"Huh?"
He froze for a second: "Wasn't there something strange mixed among that pile just now?"
Roselle pulled one particular book from the shelf—a book whose entire cover was made of pitch-black hard cardboard. It emanated an ancient and distant aura, yet showed not the slightest sign of softening or rot.
There were no words on the cover, but the book's bellyband bore the Hermes words "The Antigonus Family Notebook," as if someone added that later.
"???"
Roselle blanked out for a moment. Was this really the notebook that Zaratul wanted him to steal?
But why was it here? Randomly stored among ordinary books? A Sequence 1 sealed artifact should be stored in the church's underground vault that specialises in storing sealed artifacts—shouldn't it?
"Hello? What's wrong?"
A curious voice came from afar. "Do you need help?"
Roselle's hands shook violently. He immediately put the notebook down and pretended nothing happened, replying, "No, thank you."
"All right. Be careful."
Seeing that person had no intention of coming closer, Roselle picked the notebook up again. After hesitating for a few seconds, he opened it. Half a minute later, he closed it again, breathing somewhat rapidly: this was the very notebook that recorded various mystical knowledge—the one Zaratul wanted!
Several pages were folded—those parts talked about knowledge related to the "ancient" Savant Pathway, the pure Artisan knowledge before it was influenced by "modern technology."
So someone must have borrowed this notebook to research the abilities of ancient Artisans? And after using it, they forgot to return it…or hadn't finished using it, so they just left it here?
If it were any other sealed artifact, Roselle wouldn't dare think like this. But according to Zaratul, although this notebook was classified as a sealed artifact, it didn't possess any supernatural abilities. It was listed as a Grade 1 sealed artifact solely because of the mystical knowledge recorded inside.
Thus, its supervision naturally wouldn't be as strict as that of other sealed artifacts.
Of course, this was all Roselle's personal speculation—he was just trying to rationalise why this notebook appeared here—then he fell into a dilemma:
"To steal, or not to steal."
Damn it.
He originally just wanted to scout the area and figure out where the thing was.
Why the hell did it suddenly appear, bright and shiny, right in front of him? Was this some kind of loyalty test for him?
Two voices screamed inside Roselle's heart:
One voice naturally urged him to take it. Such a once-in-a-lifetime chance—if he missed it now, who knew if there would ever be another opportunity?! Besides, even if he got caught, he could claim he thought it was just a normal book and took it because it seemed interesting.
Stealing a book—how serious could that be?
The other voice screamed back: Stop overthinking—f**ing hurry up and do it!
"But…what if the Church finds out I lied?"
Given his current relationship with the Church, how would they deal with him?
Outside, he was a "Son of Steam." Inside the Church, he was actually…nothing at all—his current status was entirely something the Church propped up.
Then—once they found that he had a problem, would they still be willing to "prop him up"?
Roselle stared dazedly at that pure-black notebook, as if he was holding a bomb—throwing it away wasn't right, taking it away wasn't right.
"But…this thing might be the key that changes the future where I fall out with Bernadette…"
Suddenly, voices from outside came.
Roselle's heart skipped a beat, his mind went blank, and before he even realised it—the black notebook had already vanished—he had stuffed it into his coat.
Soon, two people dressed like members of the Machinery Hivemind walked in. One headed to the workbench next to Roselle, the other to the one opposite. They quickly immersed themselves in their work.
Roselle shot them a glance and sighed inwardly: Sigh, you two have no idea how much trouble you've just caused me.
———
[Note]: Don't forget to VOTE. It keeps me motivated.