Although Father Nobel looked like a middle-aged man of similar age to Doctor Schneider, Xia De only noticed his very obvious graying temples after he sat down.
Mr. Bernhardt and Xia De sat on the same side. After learning that Xia De hadn't had lunch yet, he called the waiter to reorder.
Father Nobel extended his hand to Xia De very kindly. After Xia De shook his hand, he confirmed again that the other party was an Eight-Ring Warlock.
"This is the friend from out of town I mentioned," Mr. Bernhardt introduced, then winked at Xia De. "This Father Nobel and I have known each other for many years. He is a devout, loyal, and trustworthy clergyman. I have already explained that you are also one of us, so you can trust him."
Xia De nodded understandingly, and Father Nobel also accepted Mr. Bernhardt's praise.
"Good afternoon, friend from out of town. You're looking for information from common era 1842, right?" He lowered his voice. "I won't ask what you want to do, but you must promise not to cause trouble for this City."
"Yes, I can swear on my soul... Even if I cause trouble, I will solve it. I am a peace-loving person, Mr. Bernhardt can testify to that."
"Yes, this autumn, this gentleman helped me sort out a lot of big troubles. He indeed loves peace," Mr. Bernhardt immediately echoed. Father Nobel then raised his wine glass.
"To peace!" he said solemnly. Xia De and Mr. Bernhardt also raised their glasses together.
"To peace!"
The three wine glasses clinked above the table. After drinking this glass of wine, Xia De clearly felt that the priest opposite him had a milder attitude.
The middle-aged priest with graying temples took out his spectacle case from his pocket. After putting on his small gold-rimmed glasses, he took out his notebook.
"Bernhardt asked me to find information from 1842 last week. In fact, after his description, I pretty much knew what you were looking for. Many things happened in common era 1842, sir, and you can imagine that in a big City like this, there is never a shortage of strange things. As for the events that match your description and correspond to the time you mentioned, the specific event..."
He flipped back a few pages in his notebook.
"There was a Sage-level (Level 2) relic out-of-control incident in the City. That time, with the help of Success Higher Medical College, it took us several months to quell the incident."
The Five Gods Church and the Three Great Arcane Academies have an agreement to inform each other when a sage-level relic appears, so it is normal for the Church to receive help from the Academies in containing relics.
"sage-level relic? I have some impression, but it turned out to be that incident?" Mr. Bernhardt frowned slightly. "I was only in my twenties back then, far from as mature as I am now. Yes, I remember it seemed to be an arrow. I haven't encountered many sage-level relics in my life, and this relic left the deepest impression on me."
"What's its characteristic?" Xia De asked curiously. Father Nobel was enigmatic. When he spoke, Xia De seemed to feel that even the lights in the Club's interior dimmed a lot. The fog outside the window swirled and spread as carriages hurried past. On a slightly gloomy winter Monday afternoon, the atmosphere became even more oppressive. The priest's words took the three of them back to that time more than a decade ago.
"The sage-level relic 【Aiken Ola's Arrow of Knowledge】. The relic's appearance is an arrow, or more precisely, a golden arrowhead with bronze patterns forming a cipher. The wooden arrow shaft was added later; the arrow shaft is not important."
Father Nobel's voice was low and hoarse; that memory was not pleasant for him.
"One of the characteristics of this arrow, a very rare characteristic, is that after piercing an ordinary person's body, it can directly awaken ordinary people who will become Gifted in the future; for ordinary people with no talent, it will gradually cause them to go insane, fear light, have auditory and visual hallucinations, enhanced motor skills, and contract a rather terrible purulent plague, until their internal organs fail and they die."
"Accelerate Ring術士 awakening?" Xia De was very surprised. "There's such a relic?"
"Yes, more accurately, it accelerates the awakening of transcendent beings, but this acceleration will lead to very unstable Ring術士 who take up positions. It is rumored that this arrow comes from a time older than the third epoch, and it may even be... It has a history of being contained countless times in the long river of time, but it is always used at certain specific moments. Although it is only Sage-level, this relic... is very ancient, powerful, and mysterious."
Mr. Nobel looked at the two. "If you understand the ancient Herman language of the fourth era, you should understand that 'Aiken Ola' means..."
Because he pronounced it correctly, Xia De gave the translation: "The wisdom of the Crown."
Mr. Bernhardt showed a disgusted expression.
"A madman from the Pantanal Voodoo Society mastered that arrow back then and tried to mass-produce Ring術士 in the City using the arrow. But as you know, there are not many Gifted among normal people, and even if they become Gifted, they may not be able to successfully take up the position of a Ring術士. If you check the newspapers from that year, you will find in the corner that a small-scale epidemic broke out in Huntington City in common era 1842, as well as news of madmen killing people. That was actually the terrible consequence caused by that arrow."
Xia De took a deep breath. Although there were various drawbacks, 【Aiken Ola's Arrow of Knowledge】 indeed had quite extraordinary characteristics.
"But this is not the main characteristic. You already know the effect of ordinary people being accidentally cut. If a Ring術士 is accidentally cut, they can directly gain some... strange Knowledge."
Mr. Nobel was unwilling to talk more about this topic. "This is just the case of a cut, but if this arrow is used as an 'arrow,' after a charging process, and is fired by a bow or crossbow..."
He drank the wine in his hand, his voice becoming even hoarser. The thin gauze curtains allowed faint sunlight to penetrate the room, appearing in a strange rose color due to the color of the gauze.
"Depending on the user's Knowledge reserve, that arrow can exert different effects. Theoretically, the more knowledgeable a person is, the more powerful the arrow they fire will be. This is not limited to ordinary people or Ring術士, but if an ordinary person uses this arrow, their own head will explode."
Mr. Bernhardt nodded cautiously. "I was still young that year and didn't directly participate in that incident, but many Ring術士 of the Orthodox Church sacrificed their lives back then."
"More importantly..." Father Nobel narrowed his eyes slightly. "In 1842, we defeated and killed the Voodoo Society member who held the arrow, but we did not find the relic. That matter has been over for more than ten years. The Church believes that other members of the Pantanal Voodoo Society took the arrow and contained and hid it."
"So are there other possibilities?" Xia De asked, and the priest of the Peace Church nodded. "Some people also believe that the arrow is still in this City, and the Ring術士 back then had other followers whom we haven't discovered. And what's very interesting is that in the subsequent investigation, we found that 【Aiken Ola's Arrow of Knowledge】 is very likely a weapon forged by a cult of an ancient lost Old God from a very ancient epoch."
Xia De remained silent, just nodding slightly. At this moment, the waiter pushed the dining cart over, bringing desserts for Mr. Bernhardt and Father Nobel, and preparing an appetizer for Xia De's lunch.
"Sir, do you have any clues about this relic?" the priest asked after the waiter left, holding his red wine glass.
"No, at least not yet. In fact, I'm not even sure if what I need to investigate is the accident caused by this sage-level relic."
Xia De shook his head slightly, Father Nobel's expression remained unchanged, and Mr. Bernhardt took a deep breath.
Judging from Xia De's recent performance, the middle-aged Vampire knew that he must be planning something big in this City. Now that a sage-level relic was involved, Mr. Bernhardt found it hard to imagine what else would happen in Huntington.
During lunchtime, Xia De, the Vampire, and the priest chatted leisurely at the White King Club. Mr. Nobel was a very interesting person. He clearly knew that Xia De's identity was certainly not just a simple foreign Ring術士, but he still revealed some local secrets to him. When talking about the Pantanal Voodoo Society, he was also happy to share with Xia De the Church's recent arrests of them. After all, before Princess Margaret left the area, these people indeed caused a big stir.
When Xia De left the White King Club in the afternoon, Mr. Bernhardt and the priest were still spending time in the Club. Xia De was very curious about the reason for their trust in him, and only later realized that the priest was trusting Mr. Bernhardt.
The local Vampire Viscount and the Eight-Ring Warlock of the Orthodox Church being able to establish a friendship of more than ten years must have many stories. If explored, the excitement would certainly be no less than Mr. Bernhardt's experiences in Middlesburg in the autumn.
Sometimes Xia De would also think that although he was pursuing the poem of destiny, in reality, the life of every person he encountered was a wonderful and exciting story. Although no one would write books for those who passed by, those stories did indeed happen.
If possible, he would like to witness those stories with his own eyes, and what he had to do on this increasingly cold Monday was to explore Professor Drake's past story.
Xia De now had reason to believe that 【Aiken Ola's Arrow of Knowledge】 was most likely the reason Professor Drake went to find the Lake Goddess. Professor Drake's description of his "physical condition" in his letter to Professor Manning roughly matched the consequences of being injured by the 【Arrow of Knowledge】.
But to be safe, Xia De still believed that he needed to find more clues to confirm this conclusion. Moreover, the questions he needed to answer for his second test were not just about Professor Drake's encounter, but also the price Professor Drake paid and the wish he made.
