Tonight, Dorothy was to hold a ritual in Xia De's attic, promoting from the low-rank Four Ring to the Middle-Ring PentaCircle, so Xia De did not plan to go to Middlesburg this Sunday.
However, after breakfast, Xia De first went to Old John's pawnshop. Because he arrived too early, Old John had just opened the door, and had not even taken out the small signboard placed outside:
"Coming to me so early, are you looking to buy something?"
The white-haired old man greeted his neighbor, then yawned and stood at the shop entrance, asking Xia De, who was walking along the street. Tobesk in the early morning was so peaceful, especially for those who did not have to worry about making a living:
"Detective, help me take the padlock from the door to the counter."
"Okay, but Old John, is your steam pipe outside leaking? Why is there a basin here to catch water?"
Xia De asked curiously.
"I've already notified the pipe company to fix it. This cannot be delayed, otherwise, it will freeze and crack when winter comes. By the way, what exactly are you here for?"
The two walked into the shop together. The morning light was not very good, and the gas lamp was on inside the shop.
"Do you have Moonlight Stone?"
"Of course, I do. Is today's first business so small? Detective, how much do you want?"
As he spoke, the old man rummaged through the inventory list under the counter, checking how much stock he still had...
"Just a small piece. One of my Miracles requires casting materials, but it only consumes a very small amount each time, so a small piece of Moonlight Stone can last me for a long time."
"Always carrying stones in your pocket must be inconvenient, right? And easy to lose."
Old John looked up at Xia De.
"So you mean..."
"I happen to have a ring made of Moonlight Stone here, and it has Ling Runes written on it in the fourth epoch ancient people's moon script, which can enhance the effect of Miracles. Not only that, it..."
"Just name your price."
Xia De said with a smile:
"So early, you're really eager to earn my money."
"Given that you introduced Louisa to me and she made a big order, I'm planning to sell this to you at cost price!"
Old John said, tilting his neck, and finally collected 1 pound 8 shillings from Xia De, handing him the ring that looked like it was made of gray stone.
The surface of the ring was relatively smooth, engraved with a circle of small, slender inscriptions. The letters looked like crescent moons.
The translated meaning was quite normal:
【May the Moonlight be with you.】
After returning home, Xia De did not wait for the Golden-haired girl, but instead, an unfamiliar carriage stopped at the door of his house.
Then, a middle-aged woman, who introduced herself as the "owner of Aikedi Garment Store," instructed her staff to carefully remove the two dozen or so clothes from the carriage and deliver them to Xia De on the second floor.
"Miss Princess ordered them for you. She gave us the size information."
A confused Xia De took the delivery note from the female shop owner, ready to sign for it, only then realizing that the clothes were sent by Leia:
"How many pounds did these clothes cost?"
The delivery note only contained information about these pure handmade clothes, but no price.
"Miss Princess's servant told us not to tell you the price. It was the young lady's request."
Xia De nodded and signed his name on the delivery receipt. This way, he wouldn't lack clothes to wear this autumn.
Xia De stayed at home all day, while Dorothy only arrived at ten in the morning. She looked a bit nervous, constantly checking the documents she got from the academy to see if there were any omissions in her ritual.
Xia De suggested inviting Luvia and Doctor Schneider to help in the evening, but Dorothy refused. Her ritual required as few people as possible to be present, otherwise, it might affect the success rate of the ritual.
To help Dorothy relax, after dinner in the evening, Xia De took Dorothy to the University District to walk the cat. Then, instead of going home, they sat together on the Terraril River embankment lawn, which cuts through the University District, watching the starry sky.
The two talked about many things, and such a conversation under the starry sky really helped Dorothy relax. In short, by the time they returned home at nine in the evening, the Golden-haired girl seemed completely fine.
The ritual was scheduled for ten o'clock that night. To prevent Mia from causing trouble, Xia De locked it on the second floor in advance, and prepared its favorite cat food and its two favorite rings, telling the cat not to make too much noise.
At nine fifty in the evening, Xia De and Dorothy went to the attic together. Xia De looked up at the star map drawn with chalk on the slanted ceiling of the attic:
"If all goes well, the ritual will be over in twenty minutes. But I'm curious, will Leia, who is a few streets away, have any reaction when you get promoted?"
"When Leia was promoted to PentaCircle, I just felt a bit warm, with no other abnormal phenomena. But once I get promoted this time, we will be at the same rank again, and our connection will also be strengthened. So, Leia hid in her room an hour ago to prevent any accidents."
Dorothy stood in the center of the floor, which was filled with ritual items, looking at the full-length mirror in the center of the ritual array. This mirror was an antique, said to have been used by the princesses of the Cavendish Family three hundred years ago, and Dorothy borrowed it from Old John.
Although Old John was a bit stingy, the goods in his hands were absolutely genuine.
Dorothy's core Ling Runes were 【The Writer】, 【Acting】, 【Another Princess】. In her low-rank, she used 【The Writer】 as the core of her system, drawing power from inspiration through fairy tales as a means of power, until she could summon characters from fairy tales to assist in battle as summoned creatures.
Leia's low-rank also used similar methods, and both ladies planned to utilize 【Acting】 in their Middle-Ring. In addition to continuing to link fairy tale Sublimation Words and summon characters from the stories, they would try to "act" as those characters from the stories, allowing themselves to possess the power from the fairy tales.
Therefore, this promotion, in addition to completely linking the low Four Ring Sublimation Words—【Outside the Match's Illusion, The Writer Pities the Frozen Dead】—she also needed to activate the power of her core Ling Rune as much as possible, to prepare for the system construction after the Middle-Ring.
This led to Dorothy being dressed as the "match girl" at this time. That is, barefoot, wearing coarse patched clothes, with a headscarf wrapped around her head, her face smeared with soot, and a small basket slung over her arm, with matches inside.
Probably to show that "barely clothed" feeling, Dorothy's clothes were somewhat... unsuitable for an autumn night, but a Four-Ring Warlock would not easily catch a cold, so there was no need to worry about her health.
Now, on the ground, in addition to the ritual marks drawn with special chalk, the precious metal talismans bought from the academy, the potion bottles on the cabinet by the wall, and the antique ritual symbols, there were also matches standing upright. The matches were glued to clay, fixed to the floor so they wouldn't tip over. Fixing these matches was the most troublesome step in arranging the entire ritual.
"Attention, ten seconds left!"
Xia De, who could accurately perceive time, said, and quickly walked to the attic window to open it. The night sky tonight was still covered by a thin mist, but the Moonlight could still be seen.
The Moonlight shone on Xia De's body as he stood at the window and turned around:
"Five seconds! Summon the Destiny Ring!"
With hands outstretched, huge brass rings appeared simultaneously behind both of them, and four-colored spiritual light immediately overflowed in the attic.
"Three seconds! Silent Moonlight!"
Moonlight streamed in from outside the window, directly enveloping Xia De's body, helping him accelerate the recovery of his spirit. Of course, only he himself could see this beam of light.
"Two seconds! Mystic Lock, the little match girl!"
Xia De, being only a Three-Ring, certainly could not fully use this Miracle.
But as a One-Ring, he could summon snowflakes; as a Two-Ring, he could vaguely summon the moon above his head; in the Three-Ring state, while his spirit was rapidly depleting, his body and Destiny Ring resonated with the Moonlight outside the window, and then the starry sky and the star map on the attic ceiling vaguely overlapped, as if the ceiling became transparent, allowing the brilliant galaxy to directly hang upside down above their heads.
Large-scale rituals could also use Mystic Locks. Dorothy spent the prize money she won from betting on Great City Player earlier to arrange a Mystic Lock-like ritual, precisely so that Xia De could use 【the little match girl】 with as much power as possible at this moment.
"One! Dorothy, time's up!"
Dorothy stood in the center of the attic, eyes closed, facing the large brass-framed full-length mirror. The Moonlight from outside the window and the starlight from above simultaneously shone on her body, and snowflakes fell on her head and shoulders, then slowly melted away.
She carried the basket on her left arm, and held up her handwritten copy of "the little match girl" story with her right hand. This was the original version of the story provided by Xia De, the creator of the story, symbolizing the source of the Sublimation Words.
The parchment scroll automatically flew upwards, and the curled scroll slowly unfolded under the illumination of Dorothy's spiritual light. Then, a flame ignited from the bottom of the parchment and spread upwards.
The ritual array on the ground lit up, and the three hundred and sixty-five matches that had not been lit before, all lit up under the snowing ceiling.
Amidst the flickering flames, the surface of the full-length mirror, which had originally reflected the strange scene within the attic, gradually blurred. Eerie white mist covered the mirror surface after the parchment scroll was completely burned away. Dorothy remained with her eyes closed, elegantly swaying her right hand in front of her, and then a match appeared between her fingers.
She gently shook the match, and a flame appeared on the match head. She opened her eyes and lightly tossed the burning match towards the mirror surface.
Surrounded by hundreds of matches, surrounded by the ritual array lit on the ground, and surrounded by Moonlight, starlight, and spiritual light, the match ignited the white mist on the mirror surface. After the flame, a scene of a snowy street appeared in the mirror.
Xia De, who was struggling to maintain the starlight and falling snow, breathed a sigh of relief. This meant the ritual was proceeding very smoothly.
Dorothy, with her basket, stared at her reflection in the mirror, which showed her in a snowy town street. Her reflection in the mirror was curled up on one side of the street, with obvious frostbite marks on her fair skin, and a pale face as she looked at the snowy town.
"Outside the Match's Illusion..."
She whispered, and Dorothy's reflection in the mirror seemed to also notice "another Dorothy" in the mirror, trembling as she stood up.
Dorothy drank the pre-prepared potions bottle by bottle, then evenly sprinkled the dust, made from the forged philosopher's stone, at her feet.
The spiritual light on the Destiny Ring behind her shone even brighter. The burning matches on the ground did not diminish, nor did they gradually extinguish. The flames grew brighter and brighter, until they illuminated the entire attic as if it were daytime.
