“Played cards all day? Oh, absolutely not, Leia, how could you think I'm that kind of person?”
Xia De quickly shook his head, but he was unwilling to explain about the Chosen One, the witch, the Blood Spirit School, and the Report letter. He had promised to keep these matters secret.
“However, I just encountered Ms. Hivi Aurora's carriage. I recognized the family crest.”
He added.
“Oh, you even recognize that?”
Leia asked with a smile, then introduced Xia De:
“It's fine to call her ‘Ms.’ in private, but in public, you should address her as ‘Duchess Aurora.’ Hivi Aurora inherited the viscounty of the Aurora Family, and not only is it a Delarion title, but due to business reasons, she also holds a Carson Rick title.”
“Viscountess? That's impressive.”
Xia De didn't really care about this. He completely didn't want to get involved with the witch again, so he shook his head and ended the topic:
“Leia, I'm here to say goodbye. I have some things to attend to back home, so I'll be leaving now. I'll come find you tomorrow morning. Please be careful. If you need anything, you can contact me through Dorothy.”
He paused, thought for a moment, and then added:
“Many strange people have arrived in the city recently. If it's not necessary, try to enter the city as little as possible.”
“Xia De, I'm a PentaCircle, and you're only a Second Ring. I think I should be the one worrying about you.”
The princess said softly. Xia De nodded, thinking she had a point. Just as he was about to leave, Leia called out to him again. The red-haired girl walked with Xia De towards the study, lowering her voice as she said:
“I heard news when I went into the city today. The City Hall will likely issue a tsunami warning for the entire city tonight, and newspapers will report on the red seawater phenomenon that has appeared in the sea recently due to water pollution. I have already contacted the academy and explained my curse. The academy believes that with my earrings, I can be completely immune to the effects of the Sea Return, so they haven't provided any additional help for now.”
“Does Zaras Academy understand this ritual?”
Xia De frowned slightly.
“About as much as the Church does. It's a ritual that calls upon the power of an evil god from the deep sea through sacrifice, to flood Coldwater Port with a tsunami.”
“The power of an evil god.”
Xia De nodded and continued to walk with Leia. His eyes narrowed slightly, and the girl beside him could never guess what he was thinking:
“Could it be, is it possible that...”
“Outsider, you seem to have come up with a bold guess.”
“But there is indeed such a possibility, so no matter what, I must participate in the Sea Offering Ritual.”
It was five o'clock in the evening when he returned home soaking wet. He had no idea how many times he had showered today, but he finally felt temporarily at ease.
“Xia De, what exactly were you doing running around all day?”
Dorothy was also curious about Xia De's itinerary, but to prevent being misunderstood as having played rhode cards all day, Xia De could only claim that he had encountered some trouble in Coldwater Port:
“Let's go eat as soon as possible. Oh, I also need to mail a letter. I have class at six in the evening.”
He held the cat, calculating the time, looking as if a pocket watch was hidden under the cat's backside.
“You're always so busy. I don't know where you find so many things to do.”
The blonde, blue-eyed girl grumbled, somewhat dissatisfied with Xia De's tight schedule. She had originally wanted to talk to Xia De more about the 【Kiss of the Tree】.
After going out for dinner together, Dorothy went back.
Xia De was in a hurry to go home, but he didn't forget to visit a photo studio in the city to inquire about taking pictures of the cat. He had thought that a professional photo studio would require an appointment, but to his surprise, as long as he paid, he could get them taken immediately, though it would take half a week to pick up the photos.
That was fine. Xia De noted the photo pickup on his schedule, then held the cat and a newspaper to take the picture.
The moment the old-fashioned flash bulb flickered, if Xia De hadn't been holding the orange cat tightly, it would have darted out.
But once the cat realized it was just a flash, its courage grew. Xia De worried one picture wouldn't be enough, so he took a few more for Ms. Mia Gold. When the flash flickered again later, the orange cat just meowed a few times in that direction, and seeing no response at all, it immediately lost interest.
“Meow~”
It opened its mouth wide, yawned, revealing its fangs and tongue.
Xia De had heard last time that this cat liked to sneak into the No. 2 room on the second floor when he wasn't home, so he had closed that door. The orange cat scratched at the door all afternoon, and Dorothy only opened it for her when Xia De was about to come home, so Mia's nap time was delayed.
The time came to five fifty-five in the evening. Outside the window, the setting sun had not completely disappeared. The pigeons in Saint Delan Square were enjoying the coolness of the summer evening along with the street vendors. From the window of No. 6, a cat was eyeing them covetously.
In the living room of the No. 1 room on the second floor, Xia De picked up the cat from the windowsill and then pulled the curtains shut. He then adjusted the gas light in the living room to its brightest setting. Four chairs were arranged in the open space, with a basin in the center. Three of the chairs had puppets with human bones tied to them, and he sat in the northernmost position.
Unlike summoning a distant guest to project into Saint Delan Square, this time Xia De was projecting into Saint Byron's. Therefore, the ritual steps were slightly different from usual. Instead of him actively throwing the parchment into the basin, he mixed some bone powder into the basin, stirred it clockwise three times, and then dripped in blood.
After immersing the parchment in the blood water, and after the corresponding parchment in the distance was also immersed in a basin, the basin here finally ignited with an ice-blue flame.
This ritual, classified as necromancy, was basically complete at this step. The curious cat lay on the sofa watching Xia De. To prevent being disturbed during class, Xia De not only left the Ring of Metamorphosis for it to play with but also prepared a few cat treats as a late-night snack.
After confirming that the cat was happily playing by itself, Xia De tidied his clothes and sat down in the chair. He closed his eyes and counted three numbers. When he opened his eyes, the smiling face of Professor Hesenge Garcia, the Vice Dean of History, appeared before him.
The professor, with slightly pointed ears, smiled a welcome to Xia De. When Xia De looked down at his hands, he indeed saw that his body had become translucent.
This state was very strange. He could feel the temperature in his living room and even hear the cat's occasional meows, but what he saw before him was the academy scene at the edge of the distant polar ice cap.
Looking around, the room had gray decorative walls, and on the walls were brass gas lamps shaped like the Saint Byron's school emblem. The lampshades of the gas lamps must have been cleaned frequently, as they were very bright, illuminating the classroom, which was about the size of Xia De's entire second floor.
The ancient classroom had gray square floor tiles and rows of long tables painted brown. This was a typical tiered classroom, with the podium at the lowest point, and then the tables and seats progressively rising.
Although the area was large, besides Xia De, there were only five students attending the class. Three men and two women. Two of them were roughly the same age as Xia De's body, one was a slightly more mature lady in her thirties, and the last two were middle-aged men in their forties.
Among the five, three were sitting in chairs in the other three directions, maintaining the projection ritual. They all gave Xia De polite smiles, after all, paying for an elective course and being invited by a professor to attend a class were completely different treatments.
