The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

After returning to the apartment, Leo threw the invitation on the table, asked the housekeeper to prepare hot water, and washed up. After coming out of the bathroom, the housekeeper waited at the door, holding a tray with a cup and a letter on it. letter.

Leo took a sip from the wine glass, then took a look at the letter, and found that there was no information on it, so he couldn't help asking the housekeeper, "Who sent this from?"

"After you left, it was put in the mailbox." The butler replied, "It has been tested, and there is no danger on the surface, but the envelope is the Mesia envelope of the French Empire, which is only used by nobles."

"French Empire?" A figure appeared in Leo's mind, and then he waved to the butler to signal that he could go down, and he returned to the room with the envelope and wine glass, and sat at the desk.

After cutting the envelope with a paper knife, Leo took out a piece of hard cardboard with only one address written on it, 137 Long Palm Street, Pender Harbor, Maris Kingdom.

Although it was just a simple address, Leo already knew who sent this letter. Another note with the same font was sent to him with the king and queen not long ago. He puts it in a box.

‘The Kingdom of Marris again? How is it such a coincidence? Leo looked at the letter in his hand with some doubts, and turned his head to look at the invitation beside him. He felt that this incident was too coincidental. He got an auction from the black market that would be held in the Maris Kingdom. After meeting the invitation, a letter with the port city of the Kingdom of Marris was delivered to him. This is an incredible coincidence.

If it is, most people will think that this is just a coincidence. After all, life will always experience such a coincidence once or twice, but Leo is different. His thinking is more rational, and the Earth Federation has conducted a large number of experiments to prove that the so-called coincidence is not a coincidence. .

In the research, the scientists found that there are many factors that lead to coincidences, either it is an event or a decision that one made inadvertently in the past, through a series of subsequent developments, and then turned into a coincidence, or the coincidence is a prior event. Arranged.

All in all, there is no such thing as a coincidence that is the natural law of its own course. The reason why it is considered a coincidence is that the original factor that caused the coincidence has not been found.

Leo put down the letter in his hand, picked up the invitation card, opened it, and looked carefully. There was still an address on it, but this address was the address of Padu City, Maris Kingdom.

Although the invitation card looks very simple, it seems that you only need to take the invitation card to the above address to participate in the auction, but in fact, the moment the invitation card was opened, Leo discovered that there was something hidden in the decorative patterns on the surface of the invitation card. Other content.

Leo quickly started to decipher the pattern, and while deciphering it, he was amazed by the knowledge of the person who designed the invitation, because he found no less than seven ancient languages ​​in the pattern, and when these languages ​​were combined, A new address was formed. This address is also in Padu City, but it has changed to a different city, and there is still a time at the new address, which will be three months later.

Seeing this, Leo also realized that it might be a black market method to test whether the invitee is eligible to participate in the auction. If he didn't find the secret in the pattern, it was really at the wrong time to go to the invitation. If it is the address at that address, he may also participate in an auction, but he will not see what he wants at the auction.

"Three months is enough." Leo put away the invitation again, calculated the time a little, and said to himself.

In the past, traveling from the Kingdom of England to the mainland of Minsk would have required more than two months at sea. This was still under good weather conditions. The port is being repaired, so more time is consumed on the road.

However, now that there is an ocean-going ship that combines machinery and sails, the speed is much faster, and it has been compressed into more than half a month, so he still has enough time to prepare.

In fact, before seeing Sylvia's letter, Leo already had the idea of ​​leaving for the Minsk continent, but this was not entirely for the auction, but more for the ruins of the lost civilization in the desert , he felt that he might be able to find something interesting there.

Leo temporarily scheduled his trip to the Minsk mainland in half a month, so that he would have enough time to deal with Sylvia and the auction.

After making a decision, Leo called the butler and asked him to book an ocean-going ship ticket to the mainland of Minsk in half a month.

"For half a month," the steward thought for a while after hearing the order, and said, "After half a month, a new ocean liner from Xinxing Shipping Company will start its maiden voyage. It is said that it is the most luxurious and fastest ship in the world right now. The steamer is completely powered by steam engines and has no sails, do you want to take that steamer?"

"First voyage? Nova Shipping?" Leo frowned slightly, thought for a while, and asked, "Is this shipping company a company that once belonged to the Royal Shipping Group?"

"Yes." The steward nodded, and said, "Xinxing Shipping Company was originally a company under the Royal Family Shipping Group, but the royal family was only the largest shareholder of the company, not the absolute shareholder. A few days ago, the Xinxing Shipping Company The second largest shareholder seems to have obtained a large amount of funds. With this fund, he bought a large number of retail stocks from the market and became an absolute controlling company. Because the royal family lost their absolute controlling rights, they sold the shares of Xinxing Company. Nova is now an independent company."

After hearing this, Leo was silent for a moment, shook his head, and said, "Don't book a ticket for that new ship, book a ticket for another ship!"

"Okay, sir." After the butler got the response, although he was puzzled by Leo's decision, he suppressed the doubts in his heart and retreated without asking any questions.

Leo naturally has his own thoughts in making such a decision. In his opinion, there is something wrong with Xinxing Shipping Company leaving the royal family shipping group, because the royal family itself is not short of money, whether it is the wealth accumulated by the royal family in the past or the sea god scepter. , The huge profits gained from the exclusive ocean trade during the storm period are enough to support the royal family's acquisition of more than a dozen large companies like the Nova Shipping Company.

However, this time Xinxing Shipping Company broke away from the control of the royal family too suddenly. It wiped out the stocks in the hands of retail investors in the market in a short period of time and obtained an absolute controlling stake. It is absolutely impossible for such a large-scale operation to be done silently. Therefore, the royal family must also know the news, but the royal family did not take any measures to deal with it. It is against common sense to allow Xinxing Company to acquire enough retail stocks and become an absolute holding company.

It would be fine if Xinxing Shipping Company is a company with serious losses and poor performance, but Xinxing Shipping Company is actually one of the three major ocean-going passenger shipping companies in the Kingdom of England. Yu Li's royal family, which is committed to regaining sea power, shouldn't let a big company like Xinxing Shipping Company escape from its own control.

But the fact is that Xinxing Company has indeed escaped from the control of the royal family, and the royal family did not seem to make any resistance, and honestly withdrew from Xinxing Company. This was the first thought that came to Ou's mind after hearing the news just now.

If the royal family didn't collectively become morons, then the royal family should have other deep meanings in doing so, and at this time Leo couldn't help but think of a person who seems to have nothing to do with this matter, Heel Bundy.

He thought of the experience of Heel Bondi and the sacrifice of the sea god, which made him feel that the maiden voyage of the luxury ocean liner of the New Star Company might be a big sacrifice controlled by the royal family behind the scenes.

Obviously, the royal family had removed themselves from this incident in advance. In the end, the sacrifice was successful. It was impossible for the relatives and friends of those sacrificed to vent their anger on the royal family, and they would only target Xinxing Company.

If it was before going to Death Valley, Leo might still have the idea of ​​meddling, boarding the maiden ship, and perhaps discovering more mysteries related to this world during the process of being sacrificed.

But now, the most important thing for Leo is to go to the wasteland of the Mosang Continent, find the lake where the Treant seeds were planted, and find the well-preserved spaceship.

In the next few days, Leo continued to stay at home, interpreting Sir Roland's notes. On the third day after Leo paid the deposit, the black market sent all kinds of wilderness materials they could collect to Leo's apartment one after another. Leo's The focus of research has also shifted to the wasteland.

However, a few days later, an unexpected news disrupted Leo's routine of life.

"Sir Roland is dead?" Leo held the new newspaper delivered by the butler, and saw the obituary published in a full page in the newspaper, a little unbelievable.

The butler said: "Not only did the Port of Sorset newspaper publish this obituary, but other major national newspapers also published Sir Roland's obituary. It should be true."

"What's the cause of death?" Leo frowned and looked at the obituary carefully, and couldn't help asking.

"It won't be written on it, and according to the rules, the cause of death will not be written on the public obituary." The butler reminded Leo, and then asked: "Do you need me to check?"

"Can you find it?" Leo asked.

The butler thought for a while and said, "The editor of the English Gazette should have found some information."

"Then go and check." Leo nodded, and after giving instructions, his eyes fell on the notebook of Sir Roland.

Although Sir Roland is dead, no matter what he thinks, he can no longer continue, but this does not mean that this notebook is useless. On the contrary, this notebook may hide some interesting secrets.

Now, Leo guessed that Sir Roland might have sent this note to him on purpose, and the purpose was not to let him decipher the content of the note, but to keep the note temporarily, because he found himself in a very dangerous situation, so I want to temporarily entrust the most important things to someone I can trust for safekeeping.

However, if Sir Roland is in danger, his friends will inevitably be stared at, and if he gives things to his friends, they may also fall into the hands of the watchers, so only those who have amazing knowledge and old friend Lun Bur Old man Lang has a student relationship with Leo, who is the right candidate. After all, he and Leo are not friends, and no one will watch them.

After about a few hours, the butler came back from the outside, handed over the coat to the maid, and went directly to Leo's study, and told Leo the news he got from the English Gazette.

"Curse?" Leo couldn't help being stunned when he heard the news.

"Yes, curse." The butler nodded, and added: "It wasn't an investigation after the fact, but Sir Roland himself said it before he died."

The butler then told the story of Sir Roland's death in more detail.

It turned out that after Sir Roland left the Kingdom of England, he went directly to the Kingdom of America with the Roosevelt family and temporarily lived in the Roosevelt family's manor.

During this period, Sir Roland was invited by the National Institute of History of the United States to participate in a research on the relics of ancient civilizations in the Mozambique continent. Afterwards, Sir Roland suddenly fell ill and had to give up the research and recuperate in the Roosevelt Manor. After half a year After more than a month of recuperation, his condition not only did not improve, but worsened. In the end, his condition deteriorated to the extreme and erupted suddenly, completely taking the life of Sir Roland. When Sir Roland was dying, he suddenly shouted that this is Cursed, died.

It was also because of Sir Roland's cry before his death that other people outside believed that Sir Roland's illness was related to the ancient civilization relic research he participated in, and the curse originated from that ancient civilization relic.

For this reason, the Kingdom of America had to stop the ongoing research and temporarily seal up the ancient civilization relic.

"Do you think this is a curse?" Leo asked suddenly after listening to the detailed description.

The butler was startled for a moment, then thought about it, and said, "Probably not, because according to the news over there, only Sir Roland was sick and died among all the people involved in the research. If it is a curse, it has something to do with the relics of ancient civilizations." Others who came into contact should also get sick, guess right, so many people think that maybe something else caused Sir Roland's death."

"The curse is not a germ, and it cannot be transmitted to all contacts." Leo shook his head, denied the butler's speculation, and then signaled the butler to leave, while he sat at the desk and thought about the cause of Sir Roland's death.

Although he only heard the information he inquired from the butler, after analyzing it, Leo felt that if all the information was true, then Sir Roland should have died of a curse, and he was probably studying the ancient civilization When picking up the relic, he accidentally touched the curse power contained in the item, and became the only research participant who died.

But compared to the fact that Sir Roland was already dead, Leo somehow felt that Sir Roland might not be dead. The so-called death was just a play. As for the reason, it was temporarily unclear.