Strange Gentlemen

Chapter 57: 23 Forest Witch

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Mei Li had been guessing who the "Mrs. Frizzle" that the owl had been talking about was, and now that he saw her in person, he immediately understood.

Judging from their looks, Mrs. Frizzle and Mrs. Peg must be sisters.

"Merry?" Mrs. Frizzle looked at her, stood up and walked towards her, her attitude was reserved and elegant, and her tone was filled with a gentle smile like an elder: "I have known you since you were born, but this is the first time we meet. You should have guessed the relationship between me and Peg."

"Indeed, you can tell it at a glance." Mei Li answered calmly.

Mrs. Frith nodded and said affirmatively, "Yes, Peg is my brother."

Mei Li: “???” What, what brother? Wait a minute, I really haven’t guessed this.

Ignoring the confusion on her face, Mrs. Frizzle looked at her carefully, raised her hand and stroked her brown hair, "You don't look like your mother."

Mei Li was still in shock, and for a moment the only philosophical question echoing in her mind was "Is it the mother or the father?"

She was quite sure that Mrs. Peg was a woman, to be sure.

So this "little brother" was teasing her

"You may have some questions, but you must be tired after traveling for so many days. You should go and rest first." Mrs. Frizzle changed her tone and made arrangements.

Mei Li was like a viewer who had been spoiled halfway. She wanted to continue listening and find out what they were doing, but they didn't want to say anything and just waved her hand to call two servants.

Two maids with strong arms, despite her resistance, took her to a room in the manor castle.

It's still locked from the outside.

The crisp sound of the lock reminds her that she is not invited as a guest, and she cannot take Mrs. Frizzle seriously no matter how polite she is.

Mei Li, who was almost escorted into the room, walked to the only window in the room and looked out.

The smooth wall below is probably ten meters high. If you jump down, you will either die or break your legs. If you want to escape from here, you may have to learn from Rapunzel and use your long hair as a rope to hang down.

Too bad she doesn't have that long hair.

In the garden, Alex knelt on one knee in front of Fres, holding one of her hands, "Fres, the person you wanted has been brought here. Aren't you happy?"

"Of course I'm happy." Frizzle smiled and put her hand in front of Alex.

Alex quickly untied the sapphire necklace wrapped around his wrist and handed it to her, then took out another emerald necklace from his chest and placed it in her hand.

This was what was left after Mrs. Peg's soul was torn apart by the goblins, and he picked it up.

Furis held up two necklaces in her fair hands. "This is the magic necklace that belongs to Peg. I made it for him."

Now the two necklaces are placed together, and the emerald necklace looks dull and dim.

"Fris, when are you going to hold the ceremony?" Alex asked.

"No hurry." Furis took another sip of tea.

"But," Alex turned and sat next to her, leaning closer to her, his expression showing worry and affection, "I can't bear to see you suffer anymore. You can't sleep every night."

Furis still had that dignified and elegant look, and smiled at him, "Don't be impatient, Alex, I want to see how her body has been transformed by my good brother. Although it is a masterpiece he spent a lot of effort on, it is also something I will use in the future. I have to test it myself before I can feel at ease."

"Okay." Alex changed his glib and flirtatious demeanor and became polite and well-behaved. He put her hand on his face and said, "I'm waiting for the day when Furis succeeds. When that happens, we'll get married and hold a grand wedding here!"

Frizzy patted his head, smiled and said nothing.

The next morning, Mei Li met Mrs. Frizzle again. She was waiting for her in the huge study, like a queen receiving her subjects.

Mei Li sat on the sofa opposite and saw a book open on her lap. An owl stood beside her, holding a feather pen for her attentively.

"How did you rest last night?" Mrs. Frizzle asked her with concern, like an elder.

Mei Li remained calm, "I didn't rest well. Before dying, people can't help but think too much. You should understand my feelings."

Mrs. Frizzle: "Oh, really? Then I'll teach you a sleeping spell so you can sleep better."

I don't know whether I should thank her first for anesthetizing the pig before killing it, or be surprised that she was willing to teach her magic.

Mei Li: "Teach me magic?"

Mrs. Frizzle: "Yes, from today on, I will teach you some magic."

Mei Li: "I thought you were going to kill me."

Mrs. Frith smiled: "There is no conflict between these two points."

Mei Li decisively shut up, "Okay, please teach me some powerful magic."

Mrs. Frizzle laughed out loud at her, "Child, why would I teach you this kind of magic and let you use it against me?"

The two of them sat together and talked, and if you didn't listen to what they were saying, it really did seem like a loving mother and a filial daughter.

The windows of the study were wide open, and sitting inside one could see the forest outside that stretched into the canyon.

Mrs. Frizzle finished laughing and pointed at the forest. "Peg and I are from the Noita family. We have the blood of forest witches, but in our generation, there are only me and Peg left. Witch blood only flows in female descendants. When Peg was born, she couldn't use magic."

"However, as he grew up, he was unwilling to be just an ordinary person. After appreciating the mystery and wonder of magic, he became addicted to it. At his request, I found a way to turn him into a woman. Only then did he get his wish and followed me to learn magic and became a forest witch."

Mrs. Frith sighed slowly, "However, I indulged him too much and let him go astray. We forest witches want to use magic, we must rely on the power of fairies, and he imprisoned and killed many fairies in order to gain more powerful power. Now he has suffered a backlash..."

Mei Li listened to these words without any reaction. She didn't really care whether Mrs. Frizzle was telling the truth or not, and she didn't really care about these things about Mrs. Peg. What she wanted to know most now was -

"Mrs. Frizzle, you asked someone to bring me here just for my body, right? Mrs. Peg wanted this body because she's dead and needs a body to revive. What about you? Are you dying too?"

Mrs. Frizzle sighed again, "Child, it is not a good habit to speak so directly."

Mei Li gladly accepted the advice and changed the question, "Okay, then may I ask if you have any incurable disease?"

Mrs. Frizzle could no longer put on that generous elder face towards her, and frowned, "It seems that Peg has not taught you etiquette well over the years."

Mei Li: "This has nothing to do with him. As long as you don't want to kill me, I can immediately become a good and polite child."

The two of them stopped talking. The atmosphere in the quiet study was tense. All that could be heard was the meaningless sounds of a frightened owl, such as "hiss... uh... guh..."

The two parties sat steadily while the owl, whose feathers stood up, stood restlessly on the table.

"Forget it." Mrs. Furis seemed to have given up bickering with her. She hooked her finger, lifted the red-covered book on her lap, and let it float down in front of Mei Li. "Let's learn magic."

"Okay." Mei Li took the book and behaved a little more obediently.

You can be rude to others, but you must learn magic. Maybe you can find a way to escape after learning it well, and if not, it will be a good experience.

With the intention of learning a foreign language and mastering a skill, she looked at the book and saw a bunch of words that looked like pictures, with no rules and sloppy strokes.

That's it? Can it be called writing

"This is the language of the fairies." Mrs. Furis pointed at the words on the first page. "Try to read this sentence first."

She said it with a look of someone ready to listen.

Mei Li was silent for a while, then picked up the book and asked her, "From where to where is a sentence? Is this dot a word or is this flower-like pattern a word? How do you pronounce it?"

Shocked by the ignorance of the poor student, Mrs. Frizzle, who was born as an orthodox forest witch, lost her smile.

It rained for three days in a row. It has been raining here since the day Mei Li was taken away by the knight.

The house, which was burned to a shell and a few walls, stood silently in the rain. For three days, no one or animal dared to approach it because it was the place where evil witches and monsters appeared.

Even the goblins no longer come near here.

The mud around the house had expanded greatly due to the rain, and it almost submerged the broom and rhododendrons in the garden.

Suddenly, a bubble emerged from the quiet mud, and then a hand stretched out from the mud, followed by a head, a hunched body, and thin shoulders and back.

The gray sculpture-like swamp monster crawled out of the mud, looked around at the dilapidated houses in a daze, stood in place and turned its head as if looking for something.

Of course he didn't find the person he was looking for, so he walked outside again with a shaky step and walked around the burned house.

Picked up a lantern on the ground outside.

He walked around the house with the lantern and then walked slowly towards the forest.

The small shed built on the tree by the forest and swamp has not been dismantled yet.

He walked into the shed and looked inside. It was empty, so he turned and left.

A water bird was resting in a clear lake nearby, and there were many wild flowers blooming on the shore. He walked past and saw two goblins hiding under the wild flowers whispering to each other. When they saw him turning around, they covered their mouths and hid again.

After a while, the swamp monster came out of the forest and returned to the outside of the burned house.

He kept his eyes out in the garden as before, but no one came out of the house to meet him.

After wandering for a long time, he finally left here again and went somewhere else.

"Last night, I seemed to hear something passing by my door. When I woke up in the morning, I found a lot of mud in front of the door!"

"I also heard that creaking sound, like a lantern shaking!"

"There's a new mud puddle near my home. Tell me, is this..."

"Shh, don't say anything. If someone hears you, you'll get entangled with me!"

"Didn't they say the witch was dead? How could this happen..."

There has been a lot of talk in the market recently about the witch, and people are already in a panic. Mud and mud marks have appeared near many people's houses for no reason, making people even more scared. Some people are even preparing to move away.

Unaware of the people's fears, the invisible swamp monster wandered around the market day and night, walking on streets he had never been to, following a faint scent that was about to disappear, holding a lantern, searching in vain and confusion.