“You said Miss Jialinna is from the Witch Council?”
He had only learned about this organization in detail from Miss Annette during the day, and not long ago, the maid Tifa had directly admitted it. He hadn't expected Miss Louisa to also know about this organization.
“Not only Galina Cavendish, but her personal maid Tifa Servett should be as well. The Witches claim to inherit the legacy of the last Thirteen Witch Emperors of the fifth epoch, forming a council with 13 Great Witches as its core. All other members are also female.”
Miss Louisa smiled:
“For those in the know, the Witch Council has another ‘elegant name’.”
“What?”
Xia De asked curiously.
“The Handkerchief Enthusiasts Association.”
“Hmm?”
Xia De was stunned. He quickly “flipped through” the “delarion common language Dictionary” in his mind and then understood that “handkerchief exchange” also referred to impure relationships between women.
“Oh~”
He let out such a sigh.
Miss Louisa’s intelligence once again confirmed the saying that “the Witches of the Witch Council do not like men.”
After concluding their discussion about Xia De’s employer, the two officially began to talk about the evening’s events.
First, of course, was Xia De’s curiosity. With a reverent expression, he asked:
“Miss Louisa, you even carry steam bombs when you go out?”
Of course, he highly approved of this practice. If he had money, he would also want to carry them.
“Safety first, you know. I bought them from the black market, 10 pounds each. There’s no guarantee they’ll be effective, are you interested?”
The Writer asked. Xia De immediately shook his head. That amount of money would be enough for Miss Gaode to have Hamilton Detective search for a cat again. Even though he had earned money from Miss Jialinna, found Sparrow Detective’s wallet, and even had an income from the Prophet Association in the autumn, there was no need to waste it like this.
“But I only have one, and steam bombs do not have a very significant impact on mysterious events. If I hadn’t known that thing’s weakness was cold and frozen it this time, I’d bet that even if I shoved the bomb into that disgusting thing’s mouth, it might not have killed it.”
Saying that, Miss Louisa placed the small bottle containing the fish scales with a thud onto Xia De’s coffee table.
The orange cat’s eyes lit up, then it was grabbed by Xia De by the scruff of its neck, placed on his lap, and petted. The cat let out a lazy meow, resting its chin on Xia De’s leg, accepting the petting while turning its head to curiously look at the small bottle on the table with its amber eyes.
Its small ears twitched with Xia De’s petting, and so Mia ultimately did not dart out.
“Are you interested in using this relic? To study ichthyosis, or simply as a swimming tool.”
The Writer asked.
Xia De imagined himself turning into a merman, then thought of the scene of Mia chasing him, and decisively shook his head:
“No interest. We don’t live in a coastal City like Coldwater Port where we might need to go out to sea, and I certainly don’t want to turn into something strange.”
“I’m not interested in keeping it either, it’s so ugly… Well, then in a while, I’ll sell it to Old John, or directly contribute it to the academy. Once we get the money, we’ll split it. I defeated the monster, but finding it was thanks to you, so we’ll split it.”
The Golden-haired girl suggested, which was very fair.
The reason for not selling it to Old John now was because the incident had just happened, and Miss Louisa believed Old John would use the excuse that “this thing is involved in a case and difficult to get rid of” to lower the price. Not immediately handing it over to the academy was because she wanted to first inquire about Old John’s offer.
After all, neither Miss Louisa nor Xia De were in a hurry for money at the moment.
Xia De certainly wouldn’t rashly let the young girl stay overnight at his home. Although his house was indeed very large and Sparrow Detective’s empty room could be used, the relationship between the two was not yet good enough for an overnight stay at home, and he himself was very respectful of ladies.
Therefore, Miss Louisa changed into a warm coat, had another cup of hot tea with Xia De on the sofa, and then left. Before leaving, Miss Louisa also mentioned that although her Ring術士 friend, whose identity was inconvenient to disclose, was temporarily not in Tobesk, she had still borrowed a handwritten copy of the translation of the original text of “the little match girl” fairy tale book. She would bring it to him tomorrow, which was Saturday afternoon, at the study session.
“Do I need to thank you? And about the Steam Bird Daily advertisement.”
When the two were saying goodbye in the downstairs entryway, the Detective holding the cat still asked.
“If you want to thank me, then tell me your Detective stories sometime. After the exam season in July ends, ‘The Mystery of the Bloody Word’ will be officially serialized in the Steam Bird Daily.”
She stood on the stone steps at the doorway and said. She looked left and right to see no one in the square, then asked again:
“Tomorrow night, I plan to go see the girl, little Sophie, from earlier, to confirm she hasn’t been too affected by the ichthyosis. I’ll go secretly for a quick look, probably around ten tomorrow night. Interested in coming along?”
Xia De leaned against the door and thought about his schedule:
“I can go with you. Anyway, I’d just be reading at home, so it’s better to go out for a walk… Since we’re on this topic, Miss Louisa, what are you doing the night after tomorrow, which is Sunday night?”
Miss Louisa eyed Xia De:
“What, are you trying to ask me out? I’m sorry, Luvia has invited me to see an opera.”
Her answer was poised and generous. If Xia De had genuinely intended to ask the Golden-haired girl out, he would probably have been very disappointed.
But the young Outsider clearly didn’t mean that. He explained:
“No, no, no, I was just confirming you weren’t going to watch card games. Going to the opera is good, I wish you both a pleasant time.”
He said thankfully. The Golden-haired Writer frowned and gave him a questioning look. Seeing that Xia De had no intention of explaining, she waved goodbye to him:
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon. Detective, I’ll return these clothes to you after I’ve washed them. Good night.”
With that, she wrapped herself in her coat and turned to step into the dark night, leaving the Detective and the cat at his feet, gazing at the tranquil night.
The lights in the entryway cast long shadows on the Ring Square street. The swaying shadows seemed to foreshadow what was about to happen.
(Mia running...)
Outsiders in stories often arrive in different worlds with grand goals to achieve. Xia De’s goal was naturally the path of the Twelve Divine Radiance, but due to the slow upgrade speed of the Ring術士 system, what he could do now was to first take care of his daily life.
In the week after the Lakeview Manor incident, he came into contact with two relics: the dream pen of joy and the drowned merman’s scales, which also broadened his horizons. But with the attitude of trying to complete the tasks at hand, on Saturday morning, Xia De did not go out to “explore” the City, but instead diligently completed the translation of “The Four Elements of Pursuit: Wind and Fire,” which Miss Louisa had entrusted him with. And he strictly followed her request, only providing a general translation rather than a detailed one.
This was much more difficult than a direct translation.
If it weren’t for the “Divine Radiance” state, which could shield his mind from the pollution of abnormal Knowledge, Xia De might have needed an additional half-week.
After waking up on Saturday morning, he first prepared food for himself and the cat, then immediately began to work. The company Mr. Sparrow used to order milk from was also the Silver Parrot Milk Delivery Company, but Xia De didn't have time to go there for now, and milk was not a necessity, so he thought about it when he renewed Mia's goat milk at the end of the month.
His diligent work even made the other temporary member of the household, the small orange cat, somewhat worried about Xia De’s health. Xia De believed that if there were no mice in the house, Mia would very likely bring him a dead mouse to supplement his nutrition.
“Speaking of which, why do I feel like you’ve been getting smarter lately? Is it because I’ve used too many elements around you?”
He asked, holding the cat during a break, but the naive cat merely rested lazily in Xia De’s arms.
“Is Mia a normal cat?”
Since he thought of this question, he asked it in his mind. Such a scene was common in the stories Xia De had read.
【A normal cat, with no traces of elements or Ling.】
Although “She” couldn’t be omnipotent, if a Saint or similar being intentionally concealed themselves, “She” probably wouldn’t be able to sense it. But the coquettish cat in front of him didn’t look like something strange in disguise, so Xia De thought that Mia becoming smarter recently was probably just his own misconception.
Because of his special ability to understand text, helping Miss Louisa translate books was not difficult. On the contrary, after fully translating it, Xia De felt that he had understood something from the story of the book.
“The Four Elements of Pursuit: Wind and Fire” itself had the potential to yield Ling Runes related to “wind” and “fire,” and adding to that the sudden improvement of the spell “Ignite” that Xia De had recently gained after telling the story in the past—
He narrowed his eyes, looking at the flickering flame on his fingertip, but nothing happened. It seemed that the inspiration from translating the book was not enough to bring about a transformation. This accumulation would settle down until it was completely sublimated.
“However, translating ancient mystical books seems to deepen my perception of elements more than just reading them… Hmm, a very good idea.”
He had lunch at 11:30 AM, played with Mia for a while, then sorted out his recent financial situation, adding a note “Nothing happened today, savings decreased” to the diary left by the Detective, and then set off.
When Xia De handed “The Four Elements of Pursuit: Wind and Fire” and his handwritten translation to the Golden-haired Writer in the doctor’s bedroom on the third floor of Schneider Psychological Clinic that afternoon, Miss Louisa, whom he hadn’t seen for only half a day, was quite surprised:
“Detective, I thought you would be very busy. You didn’t spend a whole week translating this book, did you?”
“The end of this month is exam week. Since I’ve taken the payment, of course I won’t delay your matters.”
Xia De said with restraint, without showing a smug expression.
Miss Louisa lowered her head to flip through Xia De’s handwritten manuscript, quietly remarking that his handwriting was a bit messy. But this couldn’t be helped, Xia De wasn’t very accustomed to writing in alphabetical script.
Professors from Saint Byron's would be present at today’s study session, but before that, the five people still had to follow the normal procedure.
Everyone arrived on time, but it had only been three days since their Tuesday meeting, and the others didn't have much to share, mostly worrying about the exam week at the end of the month, which made Xia De feel like he was back in the past.
The window in the bedroom was open, and the warm summer sunlight streamed into the room, extending onto the bed, making the metal posts of the four-poster bed gleam and making the still-weak Doctor Schneider look a bit more energetic.
Although there was still fog in the City, at least the weather was good now.
