Chapter 855: The Vines and the Witch
"You men."
Miss Masha suddenly laughed, then stood up from the sofa:
"My luck today is really bad."
"Miss Masha, don't worry. Once the Gray Gloves find the real murderer among the three of you, you'll naturally be safe to leave."
Colonel Wood, the only one present who didn't know the true culprit, said, moving slightly closer to Miss Masha. He didn't seem to believe that the glamorously dressed lady in front of him was the poisoner.
"No, when I said my luck was bad, I wasn't referring to being forcibly identified as the murderer by you."
The woman held her left arm across her chest, supporting her right elbow, and placed her right hand near her ear, her alluring eyes looking at the Colonel:
"I meant that I didn't expect Princess Margaret Anjou to appear here, and that Earl Sachia just happened to die in front of her. If it weren't for such an unlucky event, I wouldn't have been forcibly detained by you."
Colonel Wood just smiled and didn't answer. Miss Masha's eyes swept over the leather gun holster at his waist, and she continued:
"So, according to the plan, there's no way you could have found evidence of my poisoning. But now, because of Margaret Anjou's arrival, you're skipping the evidence and directly accusing me of being the murderer. This is really bad luck. When planning, who could have foreseen something like this happening?"
"What, you..."
Colonel Wood was greatly surprised and was about to say something, but Miss Masha's raised right hand simply waved gently in front of him. The captain of the Royal Guard immediately slumped to the ground, unconscious. The alchemical ring on Miss Masha's finger must have the effect of making ordinary people faint.
As the Colonel fell, she skillfully grabbed Mr. Wood's gun holster, pulled out the pistol, and pointed it at the other two men standing near the door.
"Don't shoot!"
Xia De and Mr. Bernhardt immediately raised their hands in unison, standing side by side, looking at her:
"Miss Masha, is it really you?!"
Mr. Bernhardt asked, still "shocked."
"Yes, there were no flaws at all; ordinary people couldn't detect the poison, but still, because of such a ridiculous reason..."
Although the woman still had a smile on her face, her tone was full of unwillingness:
"Gentlemen, don't let me catch you making any small moves. Once I leave, you will naturally be safe."
"No, you absolutely wouldn't dare to shoot."
Xia De said in broken carson rick:
"Colonel Wood's .46 modified 8-type pistol, without a silencer, can alarm an entire building with one shot. And outside right now, there's not only the Royal Guard but also other escorts and servants who have rushed over from the manor where the Princess is staying. If you dare to shoot, you won't be able to leave today, no matter what."
"Are you deliberately provoking me, Mr. Delarion?"
Miss Masha's smile disappeared as she asked softly, switching the gun to her left hand and aiming it at Xia De, then walking towards the two of them:
"If I remember correctly, you were the one who suggested I was the murderer just now. A guy like you, who habitually uses power to wrong ordinary people, truly deserves to die."
As she spoke, the ring on her right hand suddenly flashed at Xia De as well. Xia De froze, then also fell straight down.
Mr. Bernhardt, still holding his hands up, looked at Xia De on the ground with a slightly open mouth and surprise, then said to Miss Masha:
"What kind of trick is this? A magic trick?"
Miss Masha didn't even bother to respond to him. She waved her ring at the Viscount as well, and so Mr. Bernhardt also fell down. He fell very skillfully, not pressing down on Xia De next to him.
Kicking Mr. Bernhardt, Miss Masha carefully touched her ring:
"The crack has become so big; I can only use it twice more."
She then walked to the window and pushed it open. Outside the window was the alley behind the White King Club where trash was kept. She glanced down, took out her portable rouge box from her pocket, opened it, and placed it on the windowsill. Then, she opened the wardrobe in the corner and pulled out a few clothes before walking into the room's private washroom and locking the door from the inside.
Xia De and Mr. Bernhardt, who were on the ground, immediately opened their eyes. Xia De casually threw the silent Ling Rune that Iluna had given him onto the ground, and then he and Mr. Bernhardt got up together:
"Whatever the other party's reason for murdering the Earl, it has nothing to do with us. Next, we'll continue to pretend to be unconscious. Once she leaves, we'll shout loudly and wake up the Colonel."
Xia De suggested, and Mr. Bernhardt immediately nodded:
"In a moment, I'll use my dream-entering talent to enter Colonel Wood's dream and stabilize his mind, which has been affected by the ring. Then I'll alter his memory, making him believe that this matter only concerns the woman in the washroom and won't implicate us."
Xia De nodded, then motioned for Mr. Bernhardt to lie back down on the ground with him. But before he could speak, his expression suddenly changed dramatically:
"Oh no?"
"What's wrong?"
The Vampire was puzzled:
"The other party is just an ordinary person with an alchemical item. What could be so bad?"
Then he saw Xia De clutching the pendant on his chest, looking in the direction of the door with a terrified expression:
"My badge is heating up, there's..."
"Careful!"
Mr. Bernhardt suddenly pushed Xia De. The next moment, a green vine, like a flying arrow, shot from the window, passed through where Xia De had just been standing, and directly embedded itself into the wall.
"Who?"
Both of them looked towards the window, only to see dense vines extending in from outside the window, until a short, stout man with a bald head and scars along the edge of his scalp was pulled up from outside.
He wore a brown wool vest over his black outer coat, a necklace made of bone artifacts hung on his chest, and vines were tied around his right wrist. After crossing the windowsill, he first picked up the metal rouge box, then took off his hat, revealing a blue tattoo on his bald head, and looked at Xia De and Mr. Bernhardt with a frown:
"Masha sent a signal asking me to help her escape, and it's because of you two?"
His Carson Rick was very strange, with a very heavy accent, not like someone from a big City.
【Middle-Ring, PentaCircle, or Hexacle.】
The voice by his ear quietly reminded Xia De. Xia De still clutched the increasingly hot pendant on his chest with his left hand, while Mr. Bernhardt frowned, scrutinizing the other party, especially the strange tattoo on the bald man's head:
"Are you... from the Pantanal Voodoo Society? Are you that bold? Murdering an ordinary Earl? Do you really think the Inquisition doesn't exist?"
"Since you've seen us, then..."
Before the short, bald man could finish speaking, Xia De interrupted him:
"I have a suggestion. Although there's a silent Ling Rune here, how about we try to fight quietly? It's best not to use Miracles or curses, just hand-to-hand combat, and preferably not even hand-to-hand..."
The Destiny Ring of the PentaCircle Sorcerer appeared, and the blasphemy Ling Rune 【Vine】 shimmered with spiritual light. Vines, as if growing from the bald man's body, stabbed towards Xia De. Xia De immediately dispersed into a swarm of butterflies, allowing the vines to weave through the butterfly swarm. Then the vines, like poisonous snakes, stabbed towards Mr. Bernhardt. The latter grabbed the green vines, and the vines immediately wrapped around his wrists.
"Both of you, keep your voices down!"
Xia De emphasized again in a low voice, dripping the "weathervane bluegrass extract" onto his tongue, then stepped forward directly to the bald man's side:
"Keep it down!"
The two-handed Moonlight Greatsword fell silently, its brilliant Moonlight seeming capable of splitting Space directly. But in the end, what Xia De split were only a few vines. the moment the Moonlight Greatsword was about to strike, the bald man actually swapped positions with the vines that were entangled with Mr. Bernhardt.
"No matter who you are, since you know the truth of this matter, you will all die!"
The bald man shouted loudly, punching Mr. Bernhardt, but the Hexacle Vampire Viscount grabbed his wrist with a backhand and then slammed him onto the ground.
"Space Stabilization Aura!"
Xia De stomped his left foot hard on the ground to prevent the other party from swapping positions with the vines again, then raised his sword and slashed:
"I told you to keep it down, didn't you hear me?"
The Moonlight Greatsword successfully struck the opponent's shoulder, but it didn't cut off the man's shoulder as Xia De had imagined. Inside the skin, there were wriggling green vines. As those green vines broke through the layer of human skin, chaotic vines swayed in the air like giant worms, spewing highly corrosive poisonous liquid around them, forcing Xia De and Mr. Bernhardt to retreat. The vines, however, took this opportunity to dash to the doorway, and at a distance of five meters from the door, they re-converged into the bald man.
"Poison Vine Magis of the Pantanal Voodoo Society!"
Mr. Bernhardt finally recognized the person, then quietly said to Xia De:
"The Natural Church has a bounty of 3000 pounds on him."
"Forget about the bounty for now."
Xia De said anxiously, looking at the door behind the bald man with some dread:
"I told you to keep it down, but you didn't listen. Now..."
The doorknob turned, and as the metal parts inside the door made a sound, the tightly closed door was pushed open.
A young lady with short black hair and a shawl, wearing a red long dress adorned with eye-shaped gemstone decorations, walked in from the doorway. Her high heels clicked pleasantly against the floor, and the hem of her skirt swayed with the breeze, making her appear even taller. Her brows were slightly furrowed, but this did not detract from her beauty, which surpassed that of ordinary people. Her eyes held a hint of confusion, but it could not conceal the brilliance within her sharp gaze.
She looked to be around twenty years old, with a fair complexion and a beauty that made one's breath catch. If the beauty of Princess Margaret Anjou, whom they had seen not long ago, was almost incomparable, then the beauty of this lady, who closed the door after entering, was definitely incomparable.
Great Witch Emma Sylvia, the Thirteenth Seat of the Witch Council, arrived before the Outsider in an unexpected manner on this surprisingly early winter afternoon. The vineyards of the southern wine Capital no longer held the beautiful scenery of midsummer this season, just as Xia De's current mood was enveloped by a bone-chilling cold.
