"What kind of Miracle is this? Can it have such an effect at just One Ring?"
Even Miss Louisa was surprised by this; she asked for some water to taste, then told Xia De to continue feeding water to the Old Professor.
As expected of a Four-Ring Warlock, Miss Louisa easily analyzed something Xia De hadn't:
"Is this truly a Miracle of gluttony? It can actually convert emotions to replenish life energy. So that's it, it achieves healing by replenishing vitality. The feeling of fullness increasing in the body isn't an illusion; it genuinely brings the body to a state of satiety. It can be learned at One Ring, and it can even be used on others. Currently, the only side effect seems to be a significant short-term decrease in the desire to eat. This really is... *hiccup*~"
Xia De turned to look at her in surprise, even stopping his action of feeding water to the Old Professor. Miss Louisa's face visibly flushed, and she closed her mouth tightly, shrugging her shoulders upward, forcefully suppressing the urge for a second hiccup:
"What's wrong? Haven't you ever seen a lady hiccup?"
For some reason, Xia De connected her attitude to Mia's constant hiccups after drinking water yesterday, which made her angry at herself.
"Quickly wake up Old Professor Manning. I... I'm going to the washroom to touch up my makeup, and also to tell the maid downstairs not to panic. You be careful here too."
Saying that, she stood up with a red face and walked out of the bedroom without looking back.
Listening to Miss Louisa's receding footsteps, Xia De looked at the small water bottle in his hand:
"This probably counts as a side effect too."
Miss Louisa didn't return from downstairs for quite a while. Xia De, being sensible, didn't bring up the hiccup incident again.
Xia De only stopped when he confirmed that Old Professor Manning couldn't drink any more water. From his appearance, his body no longer looked so terrifying, but the Old Professor still hadn't woken up.
"Why isn't he waking up? Could it be that the dream pen of joy caused too much mental damage? Yes, my Miracle can't heal mental damage."
Xia De said, stuffing the bottle back into his pocket.
"I think this has nothing to do with mental damage, Detective. Do you know who cannot be woken up?"
Miss Louisa glanced at the Old Professor's condition and roughly understood the reason.
"You can't wake someone who's pretending to be asleep... Oh, I understand!"
But Miss Louisa shook her head:
"No, only dead people cannot be woken up. Since the Old Professor can't wake up, then we'll..."
"Alright, alright, Louisa, stop joking. I'm awake. Youngsters, can't you leave an old man with his last shred of dignity... *hiccup*!"
The Old Professor suddenly opened his eyes, then also let out a hiccup. He got up from the floor with a somewhat pale face, his legs giving out, almost making him fall. Xia De reached out and helped him up:
"Your body hasn't fully recovered yet, Old Professor. You'll probably need to rest in bed for a long time, and you must abstain from desire and avoid prolonged mental labor."
Old Professor Manning covered his face with one hand. He had pretended not to be awake precisely because he didn't want to bring up such issues, and he had almost been drowned by Xia De's water just now.
"Youngsters, can you take that dream pen of joy and leave? You can even ransack my house; just pretend this never happened, and I'm still unconscious."
The Old Professor's current pained expression likely had nothing to do with physical weakness:
"Why did you have to wake me up? Oh, can't you leave this old man with his last shred of dignity?"
His face, which had been pale from weakness, was now flushed. Xia De glanced at Miss Louisa, who motioned for him to speak:
"Actually, we didn't know you were in a dream with a black cat..."
"Oh, fine, what do you want to extort from me? Take it all, take whatever you fancy, as long as you don't speak of this matter, take whatever you want. I just want my last shred of dignity."
"No, no, that's not what I meant."
Xia De explained:
"I meant to say, what happened today..."
"Nothing happened! Everything I saw will go with me to the grave! No one will ever know what happened today! Absolutely no one."
Judging from Old Professor Manning's current excited state, his physical and mental condition were much better than Xia De had imagined.
"That's good. So, this dream pen of joy..."
Xia De shook the relic. The Old Professor looked at it reluctantly, then gritted his teeth and said:
"Take it, quickly take it! It's yours now."
Xia De nodded in satisfaction, then handed the dream pen of joy to Miss Louisa, who played with the Document-level relic, the dream pen of joy, looking very happy.
He helped Old Professor Manning to sit on a chair and also pulled open the curtains, letting the bright afternoon sun shine in. The weak old man squinted at the sunlight, his expression much more relaxed.
"Actually, we also want to know, besides you, does anyone else know about this dream pen of joy?"
Xia De asked again. Old Professor Manning stared blankly at the sunlight, and after a long while, he said:
"How could I possibly tell anyone about something like this?"
"Then how did you know how to use this dream pen of joy? Did that Old Writer tell you?"
Xia De wanted to confirm that there was nothing strange about this matter.
"Of course not, I dreamed it. On the third day after getting the dream pen of joy, I suddenly dreamed it, and for some reason, I wanted to try it..."
He suddenly paused:
"So, the death of the previous owner of this dream pen of joy... was because of this?"
"If you continue to possess it, your fate will probably be more tragic than death."
Miss Louisa said, but her tone was completely opposite to the gentle tone she used with Xia De:
"You should be glad you fainted just now and didn't see what happened. You are also a university Old Professor, how could you not have realized the strangeness of this thing?"
"I just... couldn't resist the desire."
The Old Professor lowered his head. Xia De coughed once to summarize the matter:
"Old Professor, since we saved your life, this dream pen of joy will be given to us as thanks. At the same time, what happened today will be as if it never occurred, and no one can speak of it."
"I have no problem."
Miss Louisa, who had obtained the relic, said.
"I have a problem!"
The Old Professor suddenly looked up and said:
"Louisa won't speak of it, but what if you do?"
Xia De said in surprise:
"Why would I speak of it? You probably guessed that we are not ordinary people; how could we risk exposing our identities..."
"I've seen many things in my life, you don't need to explain. I'll give you some benefits, consider it hush money, how about it?"
He probably thought that since Miss Louisa received "hush money" and the Detective didn't, he might bear a grudge. Xia De originally wanted to be polite, but unexpectedly, the Old Professor directly called the plump maid on the second floor and had her bring something to Xia De.
It was actually a rhode cards, and one with special rules at that.
"Northern City, Coldwater Port City," Moon 7. After drawing this card and actively displaying it, if the number of cards already used in the deck exceeds half, choose one of your cards and shuffle it into the opponent's deck.
