The candles on the candlesticks emitted a faint light, illuminating the room which was expected to be full of angels. There were angels in the paintings hanging on the walls, the carvings on the wardrobes, the ceramic dolls on the shelves, and even on the glass lampshades.
The late Griffin Ashburn thoroughly carried out his interest in angels. The entire castle is filled with angel elements, even the guest rooms for entertaining guests are no exception.
This is Gray's room, she is sitting on the bed in the middle of the room. Shinji is sitting on the sofa at one side of the room, bending over and writing and drawing on the coffee table.
After Kanono Hishiri announced his last words, the two began to wander around the castle. They wandered around for several hours, visiting every corner of the castle before returning to their guest room.
Two people, one room - the guest room corresponds to the invitation letter, and one invitation letter corresponds to one guest room. Of course, there is a servant room next to the guest room, which is specially prepared for the servants brought by the magician.
But Shinji didn't use it. It wasn't that he wanted to take advantage of Gray. He didn't even lay hands on the girl at home who got into bed, so why would he lay hands on the girl outside? What's more, she was the descendant of Altria. With this relationship, Shinji couldn't do anything out of line.
The reason why Shinji and Gray shared a room was entirely because of safety issues.
Gray is very strong. In terms of combat power, there is no one stronger than her in the whole city except Shinji. But Gray has an extremely serious flaw. She lacks combat experience and can only rely on physical attacks and rushes, which makes it easy for others to figure out her true colors.
If a fight really breaks out, she could be defeated by anyone—except the eight-year-old little girl Rosalind. Shinji promised Weber that he would guarantee Gray's safety, and unless he lost his mind, he would never let Gray live alone in a strange castle.
As for why Gray was brought here even though they knew there was danger, it was of course for training, which is the tradition of Scathach's lineage.
"Great, done."
Shinji threw away the pencil, twisted his body and stretched on the sofa, then rolled up the paper on the coffee table and threw it to Gray on the bed.
"Come, help me see if there's anything wrong."
Gray took the scroll and opened it carefully. On it was a pencil sketch - a diagram of the internal structure of "Stripping City".
"Hey, kid, what have you been busy doing for so long? Drawing a map?" Yad said as he put the map on the bedside table.
"Yeah, what's wrong?" Shinji leaned lazily on the sofa, reaching one hand into the backpack beside him and groping for something.
"I thought you had solved the puzzle."
"I'm not Weber. Solving puzzles is not my strong point. I prefer using my hands rather than my brain."
"I didn't realize you were quite self-aware."
"Nonsense, I'm not you - if you have the ability, you can solve it yourself."
"This isn't my strong point either." Yade is also single, "But I feel a little reluctant to give up just like that."
"Who said you were giving up?" Shinji smiled mysteriously, "Do you think I wandered around the castle for so long today just to survey the terrain?"
"So you are—"
Shinji didn't answer directly, but smiled and said, "Gray, remember one sentence - 'Every profession has its own specialty';. Everyone has his or her own area of expertise. Waver goes to teach, and I go to fight with others, so everything will go smoothly. On the other hand - do you think Waver can block Miss Luvia's gem curse bullet?"
Gray shook her head.
"So professional things should be done by professionals. We just need to wait for professionals to solve the puzzle."
"But what does it have to do with us if other people solve it?" Gray didn't understand.
"Girl, let me tell you one more very important thing - Waver, I, and even the entire El-Melloi classroom are actually outliers in the world of magic. The mainstream of the magic world is the law of the jungle, dark and cruel. It is common to fight and kill people over a disagreement, just like what you experienced today. Believe it or not, I am definitely not the only one waiting in secret. Once someone really solves the puzzle, it won't be long before a chaotic war breaks out that will involve everyone. Instead of being passively involved, it is better to take the initiative. It is always better to keep a few tricks in mind."
Perhaps it was because Shinji said too much and Gray couldn't digest it all at once, or perhaps it was because what she saw and heard was very different from her previous life, Gray sat on the bed in a daze, not moving.
Shinji snapped his fingers, awakening Gray from her chaotic thoughts, and continued.
"Don't worry if you can't figure it out. Take your time. Remember, it's never a bad thing to be prepared in advance. If you can't accept it and think you should abide by Grivin's will, we can help people solve the mystery and collect some rewards."
"...Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh??" Gray was stunned again.
Yade beside him laughed out loud: "I didn't expect it to be like this, silly Gray."
"No matter which choice you make, you need to be strong enough first, otherwise you won't be able to protect yourself. There is no right or wrong in strength, the key is how you use it. I'm stronger than Qingxuan and Luvia, so I can teach them a lesson without causing any harm to them. If I'm not strong enough, do you think I can still sit here and talk to you intact?"
Gray shook her head, then nodded: "I understand."
"Understand what?"
"I will practice what the instructor taught me."
"As expected, you're not stupid at all - here, your reward." Shinji finally pulled his hand out of the backpack and threw out a white cloth bag.
"What is this?" Gray quickly caught the cloth bag. The bag didn't look big, but it was quite heavy.
"This is a life rune. Put one next to your pillow before going to bed and activate it with magic. It will help relieve fatigue. You have been exercising a lot today. If you don't use this, you will inevitably have backaches. If you have nothing to do, go to bed early. You have to get up early to exercise tomorrow."
"Thank you, instructor."
"That's it. I'm going to go wash up. You should think carefully about my two battles today. I want to hear your thoughts tomorrow morning."
"Yes, instructor."
Amid Gray's lackluster response, Shinji walked into the bathroom carrying his backpack, closed the door, stood in front of the mirror, raised his left arm that was buried in the relic, and opened a barrier around his body.
"She is such a good student, so we can't let her see what happens next. It will affect her image."
When the backpack was opened, it contained the miniature coffin as expected, and a row of medical blood bags were placed around the coffin.
The moment he placed his hand on the coffin, an ominous blood-red glow spread. Shinji's expression suddenly became ferocious, his eyes were cloudy, and he kept growling like a wild beast from his throat.
He could not wait to grab a blood bag, bit it hard, let the blood soak his mouth and throat, and soon spat it all out with a "wow". After repeating this several times, Shinji's expression returned to normal, and he wiped his mouth and patted the coffin.
"Pah, O-type blood is so bad, when will this chronic torture end... When you get better, I will settle this account with you, so you must get better soon, my princess."
PS: Well, let me say this in advance, Erye is not a vampire, not a vampire, not a vampire, that's all. (Even if he wants to become a vampire, he has to enter his prime. Becoming a vampire means that his body is fixed, and Erye has not yet fully developed.)