Chapter : 1357

  "Stolen," the guard repeated firmly. "Thieves broke in. Smashed the case. Took the Heart. Left a mess. Now move along, citizen. Investigation in progress."

  Lloyd stumbled back. This was a catastrophe. Without the Heart, he couldn't scan it. Without the scan, he couldn't build the brain. Without the brain, the Aegis was a statue. Without the Aegis, Beelzebub would turn him into paste.

  "This is bad," Lloyd muttered. "This is very, very bad."

  He retreated to a nearby bench and sat down. He needed to think. Who would steal a relic that didn't work? It was a paperweight. A heavy, useless paperweight. Unless... unless someone knew what it really was.

  As he sat there, wallowing in his misery, he saw a familiar figure approaching. It was Mina. She looked refreshed and ready for a day of research. She was holding a notebook.

  She saw the guards. She saw the tape. She saw Lloyd sitting on the bench looking like his puppy had died.

  She walked over to him. "Lloyd? What is happening?"

  "It's gone," Lloyd said hollowly. "The Heart. Stolen. Last night."

  Mina's eyes widened. "Stolen? That is impossible. The museum has magical wards."

  "Apparently, the thieves had a key," Lloyd said. "Or a really big hammer. The guard said it's a crime scene."

  Mina looked at the museum, then at Lloyd. She sat down next to him. "This is... unfortunate."

  "Unfortunate?" Lloyd laughed bitterly. "It's a disaster! My entire plan relied on looking at that thing!"

  "Mine too," Mina said. "I needed to study the runes."

  They sat in silence for a moment, united in their disappointment. Two scholars, defeated by a burglary.

  "Well," Lloyd said, standing up. "I'm not giving up. I didn't come all this way to look at an empty pedestal."

  "What will you do?" Mina asked.

  "I'm going to find it," Lloyd declared. The "humble professor" mask slipped, revealing a glimpse of the Major General. "I'm going to find the thieves, kick down their door, and take my rock back."

  "That sounds dangerous," Mina noted.

  "I'll be subtle," Lloyd lied. "I'll use my contacts. Ken's friend, Silas. The bookshop owner. He's a retired thief. He'll know the underground."

  "And I," Mina said, standing up as well, "will use the official channels. I have academic clearance. I can access the city archives. I can look at the police reports. I can research the history of thefts in this city."

  Lloyd looked at her. "We're splitting up?"

  "It is more efficient," Mina said. "You go into the shadows. I will go into the light. We will see who finds it first."

  "It's a race," Lloyd grinned. "I like races. Loser buys dinner."

  "Deal," Mina said. "But be careful, Lloyd. If someone stole the Heart, they are not simple bandits. They are professionals."

  "I like professionals," Lloyd said. "They usually have better loot."

  Lloyd left Mina and headed for the lower districts of Ramos. This part of the city was darker, dirtier, and smelled of sulfur. It was where the miners lived. And where the criminals hid.

  He found the bookshop Ken had told him about. It was a small, dusty place called "The Silent Page." The sign was hanging by one nail.

  Lloyd walked in. A bell chimed. Behind the counter sat an old man with a glass eye and a scar running down his cheek. He was reading a book about gardening.

  "Silas?" Lloyd asked.

  The man looked up. "Who's asking?"

  "Ken sent me," Lloyd said. "He said you owe him a favor. Something about a poker game in the capital."

  Silas grunted. He put down the book. "Ken. That big stone wall of a man. How is he?"

  "In love," Lloyd said. "It's disgusting. Anyway, I need information."

  "Information costs," Silas said.

  "Ken said the favor was free," Lloyd countered.

  "Ken isn't here," Silas grinned, revealing a gold tooth.

  Lloyd sighed and slapped a gold coin on the counter. "The Golem Heart. Stolen last night. Who did it?"

  Silas snatched the coin. "Big news. Everyone is talking about it. But nobody knows who the crew was. It was clean. Too clean. No alarms. No magic signatures. Like ghosts."

  "Ghosts don't steal rocks," Lloyd said. "Someone hired them. Someone local?"

  "Maybe," Silas said. "There's a man. Lord Wilfred. He owns the mines. He's the richest man in Ramos. He's been trying to buy that Heart for years. Offered millions. The museum always said no."

  "Lord Wilfred," Lloyd repeated. "A collector?"

  "A hoarder," Silas corrected. "He collects weird stuff. Ancient weapons. Cursed artifacts. If it's old and dangerous, Wilfred wants it."

  "Interesting," Lloyd said. "Does he have a private collection?"

  Chapter : 1358

  "A fortress," Silas said. "Up on the High Crag. Guarded by mercenaries. Hard to get in."

  "I like a challenge," Lloyd said. "Thanks, Silas."

  "Watch your back," Silas warned. "Wilfred isn't just a collector. He's a tycoon. He owns the city guard. If you poke him, he'll poke back. Hard."

  Lloyd left the shop. He had a name. Lord Wilfred. The greedy mining magnate. It fit. A rich man who couldn't take 'no' for an answer hires pros to steal the toy he wants.

  Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Mina was in the Ramos City Archives. It was a beautiful building, filled with sunlight and the smell of old parchment.

  She showed her permit from the Royal Academy. The librarian, a young woman who looked bored, led her to the "Recent Crimes" section.

  Mina didn't look at the recent crimes. She looked at the property records. She looked at the history of artifact transfers.

  She found a pattern. Over the last ten years, dozens of rare artifacts had disappeared from private collections in Ramos. Police reports were filed, investigations were opened, and then... nothing. The cases were closed due to "lack of evidence."

  But Mina noticed something else. In every single case, shortly after the theft, Lord Wilfred's mining company made a large donation to the City Guard pension fund.

  "Bribery," Mina whispered. "He steals what he wants, and then pays the police to look the other way."

  She dug deeper. She looked for records on Wilfred. He wasn't just a mine owner. He was an amateur historian. He had published papers on "The Lost Technology of the Ancients."

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  She found a request form from six months ago. Wilfred had petitioned the city council to buy the Golem Heart for "preservation purposes." The request was denied.

  "He tried to buy it legally," Mina deduced. "They refused. So he took it."

  She wrote down her findings. It was circumstantial evidence, but it was strong. Wilfred had the motive, the money, and the history.

  She checked the time. It was late afternoon. She needed to find Lloyd. They had to compare notes.

  She left the archives and walked back towards The Scholar's Rest. As she walked, she passed a newsstand. The headline read: MUSEUM HEIST BAFFLES GUARD. LORD WILFRED OFFERS REWARD FOR RETURN OF ARTIFACT.

  Mina scoffed. "Offers a reward. How clever. He steals it, then offers money to find it, making him look like the hero. He is a snake."

  She found Lloyd sitting in the common room of the inn. He was drinking ale and looking at a map of the city.

  "I found something," they both said at the same time.

  Lloyd grinned. "You go first."

  "Lord Wilfred," Mina said. "He has a history of stealing artifacts and bribing the guards. He tried to buy the Heart six months ago."

  "Bingo," Lloyd said. "My contact said the same thing. Wilfred is our guy. He's a collector with deep pockets and no morals."

  "So what do we do?" Mina asked. "We can't just knock on his door and ask for it back."

  "No," Lloyd said. "We need proof. Hard proof. Or..."

  "Or?"

  "Or we break into his house and steal it back," Lloyd whispered.

  Mina looked shocked. "Steal it back? That is burglary!"

  "It's 'aggressive recovery'," Lloyd corrected. "He stole it first. I'm just returning it to its rightful owner. Me. I mean, the museum."

  "Lloyd," Mina warned. "He has a private army. Silas said his house is a fortress."

  "Every fortress has a weakness," Lloyd said. "We just need to find it. But first, I need to know why he wants it. Is it just for his collection? Or does he know what it does?"

  "If he knows what it does," Mina said gravely, "then he is not just a thief. He is a threat."

  "Exactly," Lloyd said. "So, tomorrow, we investigate Wilfred. We find out what he's hiding. And then, we plan a heist."

  "I cannot believe I am conspiring to commit a crime," Mina sighed. "My mother would be so disappointed. Or proud. It's hard to tell with her."

  "She'd be proud," Lloyd assured her. "Now, finish your tea. We have a crime lord to catch."

  The next day, Lloyd decided to dig deeper into Lord Wilfred's business. If Wilfred was just a collector, the Heart would be sitting on a shelf. But if he was something worse, there would be signs.

  He met with Ken's contact, Silas, again. This time, they met in a back alley behind the bookshop. It felt more appropriately clandestine.

  "What do you have?" Lloyd asked.

  Chapter : 1359

  Silas chewed on a toothpick. "I asked around. The miners. The dock workers. Wilfred's been busy. Weirdly busy."

  "How so?"

  "He's not mining iron or copper anymore," Silas said. "He shifted his entire operation six months ago. He's digging for 'Aethel-Quartz'."

  "Aethel-Quartz?" Lloyd frowned. "That stuff is useless. It's pretty, but it's too brittle for jewelry and doesn't hold mana like a spirit stone. It's basically glittery trash."

  "That's what everyone thinks," Silas agreed. "But Wilfred is hoarding it. Tons of it. He's buying it from other cities, too. The price has tripled in the last month. He's creating a monopoly on a useless rock."

  Lloyd's mind raced. Why would a smart man stockpile garbage? Unless it wasn't garbage to him.

  "Does he export it?" Lloyd asked.

  "No," Silas said. "That's the weird part. It all goes into his fortress. Cart after cart. And it never comes out."

  "He's building something," Lloyd realized. "Or fueling something."

  He thanked Silas and walked away, his brain working overtime. Aethel-Quartz. He searched his memory. He searched the System's database.

  Material Analysis: Aethel-Quartz. Properties: Low mana capacity. High resonance frequency. Often used in decorative windows.

  "Resonance," Lloyd muttered. "Sound? Vibration?"

  He stopped in the middle of the street. He remembered something from his mother's stories. The Golem Heart wasn't powered by normal mana. It was powered by "Star-Fall" energy. What if "Star-Fall" wasn't a type of magic, but a frequency? A specific vibration?

  If Aethel-Quartz resonated at the right frequency, it could act as a conductor. Or an amplifier.

  "He's not collecting art," Lloyd whispered. "He's building a power plant. He knows how to turn the Heart on."

  This changed everything. If Wilfred activated the Heart, he wouldn't just have a cool rock. He would have a supercomputer capable of controlling an army of golems. And if he had tons of quartz...

  "He's not just powering the Heart," Lloyd realized with a chill. "He's building a body for it."

  While Lloyd was connecting the dots on the street, Mina was deep in the restricted section of the City Archives. She was wearing white gloves and handling a piece of charred parchment with tweezers.

  It was a fragment of a journal found in the ruins of Anubis's laboratory. It was thought to be lost, but a diligent archivist had filed it under "Miscellaneous Scraps."

  Mina squinted at the faded ink. The handwriting was frantic.

  ...the Heart is silent. It sleeps. Mana is poison to it. It needs the song. The song of the Whispering Crystal...

  "Whispering Crystal," Mina read. She checked a reference book of archaic alchemy terms.

  Whispering Crystal: A poetic name for Aethel-Quartz, due to the faint humming sound it makes when struck by wind.

  Mina gasped. "Aethel-Quartz."

  She read on.

  ...the crystal amplifies the command. It bridges the gap between the stone mind and the ether. With enough crystal, the Heart can awake. With enough crystal, the Guardian can rise again.

  Mina dropped the tweezers. She grabbed her notebook and scribbled furiously.

  The connection was undeniable. Wilfred was hoarding Aethel-Quartz. He had stolen the Heart.

  "He is trying to resurrect the Guardian," Mina thought, horrified. "The Guardian of the Sands. A war machine that could level cities."

  She packed up her things and ran out of the archives. She needed to find Lloyd. He needed to know that this wasn't just a theft. It was the prelude to a conquest.

  She found Lloyd in their "safe house" (the corner table of The Scholar's Rest). He looked grim.

  "Wilfred is buying all the Aethel-Quartz," Lloyd said as soon as she sat down. "He's stockpiling it."

  "I know why," Mina said, breathless. She slammed her notebook on the table. "Read this. Anubis's journal. The Heart needs Aethel-Quartz to function. It's the power source."

  Lloyd read her notes. His eyes widened. "The Whispering Crystal. Resonance. Of course! It's a sonic interface. The Heart is voice-activated, but it needs the quartz to amplify the frequency."

  "He is not just a collector, Lloyd," Mina said seriously. "He is trying to wake it up. The journal says the Heart controls the 'Guardian'. Do you think..."

  "I think Wilfred has a giant golem in his basement," Lloyd finished. "And he just stole the key to turn it on."

  They looked at each other. The situation had escalated. They weren't just recovering a relic anymore. They were stopping a madman from unleashing a weapon of mass destruction.

  "If he turns that thing on," Lloyd said, "he could take over Ramos. He could attack the neighboring cities. He could start a war."

  "We have to stop him," Mina said. "Tonight."

  Chapter : 1360

  "Tonight," Lloyd agreed. "We break into the fortress. We find the Heart. We steal it back. And we probably blow up his quartz supply just to be safe."

  "You are very fond of blowing things up," Mina noted.

  "It's effective," Lloyd shrugged. "And it sends a message."

  He stood up. The scholar disguise was done. The "boring trip" was over. It was time for the Major General to go to work.

  "Let's go, Mina," Lloyd said. "We have a heist to plan. And a golem to kill."

  Mina stood up, her eyes shining with determination. She wasn't just a historian today. She was a hero. Or an accomplice. It was a fine line, but she was willing to cross it.

  "Lead the way," she said.

  Together, they walked out into the gathering dusk of Ramos, ready to face a lord, a fortress, and the beating heart of an ancient nightmare.

  Lloyd sat at a small, wobbly table in the corner of a tea shop across the street from the City Archives. He was wearing his "Professor Ferrum" disguise, which mostly consisted of a scarf that was too warm for the weather and glasses he didn't actually need. He was sipping a drink that claimed to be herbal tea but tasted remarkably like hot water that had once thought about a leaf. He wasn't there for the tea, though. He was there to watch the door.

  He had been waiting for an hour. He knew Mina was in there. He knew she was looking for the same thing he was, even if her reasons were different. He tapped his fingers on the table, creating a nervous rhythm. This was awkward. This was incredibly, painfully awkward. He was currently engaged to a princess, legally married to a woman who was acting like an ice queen, and now he was stalking his sister-in-law who he had accidentally proposed to a few weeks ago. His life was a soap opera written by a crazy person.

  "Just get the info and get out," Lloyd muttered to himself. "Keep it professional. Keep it cool. Do not propose to anyone today."

  Finally, the heavy wooden doors of the Archives opened. Mina stepped out. She looked tired. She brushed a strand of hair out of her face and adjusted her bag. But Lloyd’s eyes immediately locked onto what she was holding. It was a thick, leather-bound book. It looked old. It looked important. And most importantly, the title embossed on the cover was " The Lost Lineage of Anubis."

  Lloyd stood up, leaving a coin on the table. He crossed the street, dodging a cart full of turnips. He tried to look casual, like a man who just happened to be taking a stroll directly into the path of someone he knew.

  "Mina," he said, stepping onto the sidewalk.

  Mina jumped slightly. She clutched the book to her chest like a shield. When she saw it was him, her shoulders relaxed, but her eyes narrowed.

  "Lloyd," she said. Her voice was cool. "I thought you were investigating the underground."

  "I was," Lloyd said. "The underground is very dirty. And full of people who want to stab you for a copper coin. I decided to take a break and enjoy the fresh air. And by fresh air, I mean waiting for you."

  Mina raised an eyebrow. "Stalking me? How noble."

  "It’s not stalking if we are on the same team," Lloyd argued. "Are we on the same team? I feel like we are on the same team. We are both team 'Find the Rock'."

  Mina sighed. She looked around the busy street. "We cannot talk here. People have ears. And walls have ears. In Ramos, even the cobblestones probably have ears."

  "My tea shop was terrible," Lloyd said. "But it was quiet. Or we can go to a park. Pigeons are usually bad spies."

  "The park," Mina decided. "Walk with me. And try not to look like a spy. You look very suspicious when you try to look normal."

  "I have a natural air of mystery," Lloyd corrected, falling into step beside her.

  They walked in silence for a few minutes until they reached a small square with a fountain. It was relatively empty. They sat on a stone bench. Mina placed the book on her lap, her hand resting protectively on the cover.

  "So," Lloyd started. "I found out some things. Bad things. Or good things, depending on how much you like danger."

  "Tell me," Mina said.