“But even if it’s to curry favor, to give this…”
Dorothy’s gaze lingered on the pearl on the table, looking much like a cat caught by Xia De:
“It’s a pity to give away such a pretty pearl, ahem, I mean, if it’s to please the Queen, for a possible future title, this is just right.”
“Title? Dorothy, I don’t care about that.”
Xia De shook his head and said,
“If you like this pearl, keep it.”
Although Xia De always felt he was short on cash, he actually had many valuable items that could be converted into money.
“No, no, better to give it away. Even if you don’t care about a title, but…”
Dorothy looked up at Xia De, and Xia De looked back at her. The blonde, blue-eyed girl didn’t speak immediately, waiting for several seconds of mutual gaze before looking at Xia De and softly finishing her sentence.
Xia De truly couldn’t guess what thoughts were hidden in her pretty eyes:
“Leia cares.”
“Meow?”
The cat in Xia De’s arms stared with eyes even more beautiful than those of pretty girls, curiously looking at Dorothy, while Xia De’s mouth slightly opened in surprise.
Because of that sentence, Xia De was lost in thought all day. Even the report paper for Professor Garcia’s Closed Space course, which he had planned to complete during the day, was delayed until evening.
Although the report was long, when he placed the final period on that parchment, there was a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment:
“Mia, get away!”
The cat was trying to smudge the still-wet ink with her paw.
He had agreed to meet Priest Augustus at midnight, but the meeting place was in the northern suburbs of the City, so Xia De set off early, around ten in the evening. After much thought, he decided to bring Mia, who wanted to stay home, with him. In Xia De’s opinion, Priest Augustus was a very reliable person; since he said it was nothing major, it probably truly wasn’t.
In mid-August, the night in Tobesk still held little coolness. He found a carriage at the intersection of Saint Delan Square, but when the coachman heard they were going out of the City to the cemetery nearby, he absolutely refused to take Xia De. Even when Xia De promised to pay double the fare, the cautious coachman was unwilling to take the job. In the end, Xia De could only have the coachman take him to St. Anthem Square in the northern City, then find another carriage from the bustling Lower City near St. Anthem Square, which would take him to the City’s edge, and then he would proceed on foot towards Hanging Ghost Path.
The night in Saint Delan Square, in the center of Tobesk City, was quiet and peaceful, with only the patrolling police and an occasional wild cat bringing a slight sound. The strange light of the three moons and the elegant gas streetlights illuminated the ground together.
Near St. Anthem Square in the Lower City, however, it was noisy and dangerous, with streetwalkers, gamblers, and drunkards lurking about. The light of gas lamps and kerosene lamps was dangerous and full of temptation.
As for the small villages outside Tobesk, they were utterly silent. This was still a civilized area, even separated from the urban area only by low City walls, remnants of an old era, yet the flames of the steam era abruptly ceased here.
The residents outside the City had no spare money to waste on kerosene lamps at night, and whether this area was connected to the City’s basic gas pipeline infrastructure was something only the City Hall civil servants knew.
Even carriages from the Lower City were unwilling to take Xia De out of the City at that hour. Therefore, just like his previous visit to Mr. Corpus’s cemetery with Dorothy, Xia De walked through the small village outside the City.
The buildings were low, but the straw by the walls and the chicken coops built next to the yards filled the place with a sense of life.
Xia De’s biggest complaint wasn’t the terrible smell that neither he nor the cat wanted to breathe, but the uneven ground beneath his feet. Fortunately, Tobesk hadn’t rained yesterday, otherwise, it would have been a muddy swamp.
The small village he was passing through was called Upper Glen Village, and like Lower Glen Village, located in a low-lying area a few miles away, both were villages outside the City bordering Tobesk’s Lower City. After passing the small village north of the City, going further north meant completely leaving the capital’s boundaries; that was the true Tobesk countryside.
The road named “Hanging Ghost Path” was not far from Upper Glen Village. Besides a road sign, Xia De could only confirm the existence of this road on the edge of the detailed City map left by the former Detective.
The nameless cemetery that Hanging Ghost Path led to was a communal cemetery for several nearby villages. Although it was a countryside cemetery, it was fully equipped with a crematorium, a sexton’s hut, a church, and underground catacombs.
And the withered tree on Hanging Ghost Path where Priest Augustus and Xia De agreed to meet was at the end of the path; beyond it was the gravel road laid by the villagers for the cemetery.
That withered tree far exceeded Xia De’s imagination; he originally thought it was just a small dried sapling, but it turned out to be a towering tree that didn’t grow any leaves even in Summer.
It stood bare in the middle of Hanging Ghost Path, its branches extending from the main trunk in all directions, like spreading tentacles in the dark night, or the hands of an old witch in a fairy tale.
“But speaking of which, the prototypes of most old witches in existing fairy tales seem to be Witches from the fifth epoch,” Xia De thought to himself, but it was difficult to equate a pretty lady like Felianna with a hunched old witch.
This tree, despite appearing lifeless, still stood there. Several crows perched on its branches at night, and with Mia’s meows, they flapped their wings and flew into the distant night sky.
Xia De arrived twenty minutes early. He held the cat in the night wind, standing under the tree and looking up at the trunk. He had to admit, if anyone wanted to hang themselves, this tree would be the perfect spot.
Not only could people of various heights easily find a place to tie a rope, but being so close to the cemetery, there wouldn’t even be a need for a special carriage to transport the body; the sexton himself could drag the body into the burial area.
The cat, usually timid, was very interested in this eerie environment, constantly looking around while held in Xia De’s arms. Xia De, meanwhile, was guessing Priest Augustus’s intention in asking for his help. Although the Priest was not a Ring術士 of the Church, if he encountered trouble, he could seek help in the name of a Church clergyman.
Unless he didn’t want the Church to know about this matter, or there was a significant benefit involved, or the Priest believed he could solve the problem himself.
Just as he was thinking, the figure of the Priest finally appeared from the other side of Hanging Ghost Path. He was still dressed as a clergyman, panting and carrying something as he walked over. Seeing Xia De under the Moon and the mysterious cat in his arms, he waved his hand as a greeting.
It wasn’t until the Priest got closer that Xia De saw he was actually carrying two shovels:
“Oh, my Lord of Dawn… ah, this… this thing is much heavier than I imagined.”
The Priest dropped the shovels under the tree, then leaned on the trunk, breathing heavily.
Xia De offered him a test tube filled with water, which the Priest thanked him for and drank in one gulp.
“Shovels? Priest, are you planning to dig something?”
Xia De asked curiously. The Priest, still leaning on the tree and panting, nodded at Xia De:
“Of course, otherwise, why would I carry such heavy things? Am I going to sell them to the sexton?”
“So what are we digging for? Is there something under this tree? Treasure? A relic? Or a body?”
Xia De and the cat were both very curious about this.
“Who said we’re digging the tree? We’re going to dig over there.”
Priest Augustus pointed towards the dark cemetery nearby.
“What’s buried in that corner of the cemetery? Or are there secrets in the underground catacombs or the sexton’s hut?”
Xia De asked again.
“Don’t overthink it, we’re just here to dig up a grave.”
The Priest finally regulated his breathing, tossing one of the shovels to Xia De and keeping the other for himself:
“Follow me, we need to be fast. The best time for the ritual ends at two in the morning. I noticed you brought your cat, that’s excellent; a smart cat helps increase the success rate of the ritual.”
“Wait, Priest, are we really going to dig up someone else’s grave?”
Xia De hurriedly followed the hurrying Priest. The two left Hanging Ghost Path and officially stepped onto the gravel path in front of the cemetery gate.
“That goes without saying, we really are going to dig… Oh, I understand.”
The Old Priest turned his head, looking at Xia De by the Moonlight:
“Do you have a psychological barrier?”
“No, of course not.”
Xia De immediately shook his head:
“I’m just surprised that it’s you leading me to do something like this. If it were Doctor Schneider, I wouldn’t be surprised. In my mind, you’re the type of person who strictly adheres to Church rules.”
“Don’t just stand there, Detective, hurry and follow me. Also, why is the Doctor’s image so bad in your mind? Tonight we are not blasphemy of a corpse; it’s about dealing with an incident. I’ve always believed that human nature is evil, but if it’s for doing good, then some questionable methods are acceptable. Everything is for the Dawn and for Justice.”
A nameless cemetery in the countryside naturally had no competent sexton. Priest Augustus originally intended to knock the person out to make tonight’s operation easier. But when the two used Xia De’s illusion to sneak to the window of the sexton’s hut, which was lit by a kerosene lamp, they found the Old Priest was already dead drunk, lying unconscious on the bed, clutching a wine bottle.
Even when Xia De and Priest Augustus broke into the hut, they couldn’t wake him.
So Xia De kindly covered the reeking Old Priest with a blanket and kicked his shoes under the bed. Priest Augustus kindly extinguished the kerosene lamp in the room and took a portable lantern to prevent fire.
In an era when most poor people suffered from night blindness, even if the sexton woke up and couldn’t find his shoes, the first thing he would do would definitely not be to look outside, but to light the kerosene lamp.
This way, Xia De and Priest Augustus would always know if the other person had woken up.
Besides the drunk sexton and the two sneaking figures, the living creatures in the cemetery included the cat on Xia De’s shoulder and the wild animals living there. Xia De was very glad that Mia didn’t have a habit of meowing randomly, otherwise, if he suddenly heard a cat meow in the cemetery while the night wind blew, he would definitely be scared.
