Regardless, with the first floor of Saint Delan Square now open, the house suddenly gained a large amount of space, and Xia De still needed to consider how to best utilize it.
Returning to the first floor from the basement, Xia De, knowing the new secret, was in a very good mood as he looked at the open space:
"The ancient god statue is underground, and based on a hundred years of experience, this will affect ordinary people upstairs. So, if I want to rent it out, I can't rashly rent it to ordinary people."
Renting to Ring術士 wouldn't require similar concerns, but Xia De didn't know any Ring術士 with whom he had a good enough relationship to cohabitate. Among the other four members of the group, besides Louisa, everyone else had good residences. And Xia De hadn't been so reckless as to invite a single, unmarried Golden-haired girl to live with him.
But thinking about it carefully, he wasn't really short on money right now. If he wanted to buy expensive relics and Knowledge, rent alone wouldn't be enough, so renting out the house wasn't something he absolutely had to do.
Thinking of this, Xia De temporarily abandoned the idea of renting out the first floor.
He walked up the stairs to the second floor, planning his future:
"When I have money, I could consider hiring a maid to help with cleaning, like Professor Manning; cleaning the house myself is really a waste of time... For now, I'll use the first floor and basement as storage space for miscellaneous items. Mia will probably also like having a place to walk around... But even so, it will still cost a sum of money to reconnect the steam and gas pipes..."
He thought about the trivial matters in his life as he walked up the winding stairs, feeling that reopening the first floor seemed to increase his expenses even more.
When he opened the door to the second floor, he looked up and thought about the time; it was only eight o'clock in the evening. There were still two hours until the time he and Louisa had agreed to visit the girl Sophie.
So, taking advantage of the time, he first wrote the report requesting to consult the codex of sublime and sent it to the academy via the manuscript pages in his hand. Then, he opened and read the story pages borrowed from Louisa's friend.
Mia, who was confined to the room by Xia De, wanted to play with Xia De for a while, but Xia De, who was very much looking forward to the handwritten copy of the translated version of the translated version of that story draft, could only refuse the orange cat's request, but still found a ball of yarn for it to play with by itself.
After washing his hands, he solemnly sat down at his desk and then opened the cloth wrapping the pages.
It seemed that books documenting mysterious powers did not like using ordinary paper as a medium. The book Louisa lent to Xia De used unknown leather material for its pages, which felt very smooth to the touch.
At the top of page number 1, the name of this story was clearly written in an ancient language—
the little match girl.
"This is it!"
He looked at the first page with anticipation, carefully reading the dense, strange words that looked like dancing matchsticks. Then, he spent about ten minutes carefully and earnestly reading the story of the poor match girl in the snowy night from beginning to end.
Nothing happened.
Even though these were pages with special power, the feeling after reading them completely was not even as strong as when he had told the story to three children in the past.
"This is a bit troublesome... Do I really need to find the original manuscript to gain powerful strength?"
He looked at the Moonlit night outside, thinking annoyingly, then lowered his head to look at the letters on the page. He admitted it was a good story, but Xia De didn't like stories with sad endings.
Louisa knocked on the downstairs door just as the ten o'clock bell chimed. Xia De, who was already prepared, left with her immediately. Incidentally, he also returned those story pages to her:
"Are you done with these already? Can you really understand the words on them? Is the 【Time-Space】 rune really that powerful?"
Louisa said as she rolled up the pages and put them into her pocket. Ring術士 needed casting materials for their spells, so even in summer, they mostly avoided wearing clothes without pockets, which was also why Xia De wore a coat in summer.
In this world, there were no convenient items like "spatial rings."
The steam bomb explosion happened last night, and that alley was still under lockdown. Although the merman was blown to pieces by Louisa, the remaining traces still attracted the attention of the Church.
Therefore, when heading to the little match girl Sophie's home, they deliberately took a detour, avoiding the location of that alley.
The girl Sophie Dace came from a poor family; otherwise, there would be no need for such a young child to sell flowers. The Dace family lived in the slum district by the Terraril River, near the Terraril River. A family of five squeezed into one room, and the size of that house was similar to Xia De's basement.
Last night, the two of them had sent the girl to her doorstep and watched her enter her home before leaving. But today, they had to see the girl with their own eyes to confirm whether she was healthy, so they had to think of another way.
When they set off with the Golden-haired girl Writer, they could still see the starry sky, but halfway through, a thick fog rolled in, making Louisa complain about the factories in the city.
It was around 10:20 PM when they reached the vicinity of the slum by the Terraril River. On such a night, even the idlers wouldn't wander out.
Louisa had already made a very thorough plan, so after entering the dark alley where the Dace family lived, the two of them went straight to knock on the door.
There was no light in the alley, and poor families usually went to bed very early at night, so there was no light inside either. The sound of knocking seemed to wake up the nearby households; at least the Dace family was woken up.
The candlelight lit up inside the house, and after at least two minutes, a nervous man's voice came from behind the door:
"Who is it?"
Even where Captain Rades lived, there were occasional gunshots from gangsters. The slum where the girl Sophie Dace and her family lived had even worse public safety. Xia De could fully imagine that the man asking questions behind the door was nervously holding a kitchen knife or similar weapon at that moment.
Louisa glanced at Xia De, then took out a 1 shilling coin from her pocket and slipped it through the crack in the door.
"It doesn't matter who it is. You don't need to open the door. Now, have all the women in your family stand in front of the door crack, one by one, for ten seconds each. If you do it, there's more money. If you don't, it's a gun."
This was what Xia De said, straining his voice. In such situations, a male voice was more intimidating than a female one.
Immediately, there was a commotion inside the door. The heavily accented whispers of the family mingled together, making it hard to distinguish who said what.
"Okay."
After a long time, the middle-aged man's voice finally came. So Louisa gestured for Xia De to move back a bit, while she pressed against the door crack to look inside. For such a dangerous action, it was better for a higher-level Ring術士 to do it.
"Now, the first one."
Xia De said from outside the door, his eyes watching both ends of the alley to prevent anyone from appearing. After a while, he looked at Louisa again, and the Golden-haired girl waved, indicating it was fine.
"A foggy night, in a lightless slum alley, looking through a door crack to see if there's anything strange inside... Good material for a horror story."
He thought to himself, amused, and was about to speak, but the murmuring voice in his ear made him pause. He looked at the Sorceress's back with some disbelief, then said:
"And now the second one."
The light and shadow inside the door crack shifted, presumably a different person had replaced the previous one in front of the crack.
After another moment, Louisa waved again. Xia De narrowed his eyes, looking at her back, and said to the inside of the door:
"The last one."
They had already found out the composition of Sophie's family from the little Sophie yesterday.
The third person was also fine. The Golden-haired girl left the door crack, lowered her head, and nodded slightly to Xia De, hiding her face in the shadows. She slipped two more coins into the door crack, and Xia De watched this without speaking.
After doing all this, the two people outside left the alley in the night. The alley's exit faced the Terraril River, and under the thick fog, the riverbank was almost invisible; only the ships moored in the river could be vaguely seen.
The two of them slowed their pace at the alley entrance. Louisa was the first to stop, still with her head down. This district was only lit by Moonlight, and on a foggy night, Xia De couldn't clearly see her expression.
Her clothes had become damp at some point, and her body was hidden in the deepest shadow at the alley entrance. Xia De, standing downwind, could smell an unusual seafood scent.
"Detective, you go first. I still have something to do."
Her voice was a bit hoarse.
Xia De pursed his lips, scrutinizing his friend:
"I understand."
He looked down at his hand, then extended it towards the girl in front of him:
"Louisa, look what this is?"
The Golden-haired girl, still with her head down, leaned forward to look at Xia De's hand. Xia De whispered:
"Silver Moon."
A sacred silver Moonlight suddenly burst forth from his fingertips. Even though Xia De intentionally controlled the output power, observing and touching the Silver Moon's light at such close range still made Louisa gasp.
She covered her eyes and recoiled. When she looked up, Xia De finally saw that half of Louisa's face was covered in fish scales.
He didn't run away but followed two steps, pressing his entire right palm onto Louisa's face. The latter wanted to scream, but Xia De's other hand also reached out and covered her mouth.
She struggled fiercely but was still firmly pressed to the ground by Xia De. Muffled sounds of "woo woo~" came from her covered mouth, and her golden hair was scattered on the ground.
Xia De's two hands emitted a soft Silver Moon light. He squatted beside the Golden-haired girl, letting Louisa struggle fiercely, her fingers constantly scratching his wrist, but he absolutely would not let go.
Gradually, Louisa's resistance weakened until it completely stopped.
The surrounding area was enveloped in thick fog, completely obscuring the starry sky and the three moons. The wind also stopped, as if everything had become still at this moment.
