Professor Manning started a conversation with Miss Louisa very familiarly. From the content of the conversation, he seemed to know Miss Louisa's father:
"That fountain pen, I remember it. I bought it from an old writer who lived two streets away through a friend's introduction. The writer was in very poor health at the time, with dark circles under his eyes and a lack of concentration, as if he had myasthenia gravis."
The professor sat on a chair behind his desk, holding his hands together and speaking. Behind him was a wall of bookshelves, but the books were not arranged neatly, and some of the books even had notes stuck in them, swaying in the wind outside the window.
But Xia De likes this decoration style very much.
Miss Louisa glanced at Shade. The professor's description of the old writer clearly showed that he was addicted to the pen and his body was hollowed out. Before he died, he probably decided to sell the pen and stay away from those temptations, but it was too late.
Fortunately, Professor Manning was in good spirits. He probably never used the pen and just kept it as a collection.
"Yes, I just want to buy that fountain pen from you this time. To be honest, the old writer you mentioned was my friend who passed away two months ago."
Miss Louisa made a regretful expression, and Shade followed her example and put down his teacup.
"That fountain pen is probably a relic. I am also an old friend of that old writer, and I want to buy it back. You can name a price, and I think as long as the price is reasonable, I can accept it."
The professor thought for a moment:
"If it's a relic of a friend, I certainly won't refuse to sell it. So, I'll go to the collection room upstairs and get the pen back. Please wait for me for a moment."
He stood up and asked the maid to bring some snacks to the two guests.
So the maid and the professor left the study, and the black cat followed them. After confirming that their footsteps were far away, Shade said with a little relief:
"So that's all. I thought it would be troublesome."
"Look, I told you this is a very safe thing to do. Just take it as an example to learn something new."
Miss Louisa said.
Xia De nodded and picked up the teacup again, and asked curiously:
"So what are the side effects of the Clerical-level Relic Dream Pen of Joy? Does it just attract people to use it, and then the user's body gradually deteriorates?"
He was curious about this. Although he had quite a few relics in his hands, this was the first time he had seen something so novel.
"Not only that, if the Dream Pen is used for a long time, it will absorb too much mental energy and blood, which may make the things in the dream come true. The terrible things born from the Dream Pen can be simply regarded as materialized nightmares. Therefore, it is classified as clerical grade."
The writer explained, and Shad made an expression as if this thing was amazing.
As for Miss Louisa's desire for this pen, it was not because she wanted to try it out, nor did she want to hand it in to the academy for a reward. As a writer, Miss Louisa's own ring magician system also takes the writer's core rune as its core.
She had recently encountered a bottleneck in her study of thaumaturgy, so she wanted to find some relics with similar powers to gain inspiration, just like Shade bought the Silver Moon Orb to strengthen his study of the Silver Moon thaumaturgy.
The two chatted about the history of the pen, and mentioned that the dream pen is much more likely to be owned by a man than a woman.
At this time, they heard footsteps and realized that the maid had returned, so they turned to discussing the good weather today.
The fat maid with a headscarf brought them new black tea and a stack of snacks, which were some muffins with butter on the side. Professor Manning's living standard was indeed not bad.
"Sorry, I wanted to get something cats can eat, but I couldn't find it in such a hurry."
The maid apologized to Xia De again. Xia De shook his head and was about to say it was nothing, but suddenly realized a problem:
"You mean, Professor Manning, there's nothing for cats to eat here?"
His hand suddenly grabbed the armrest of the seat, and Miss Louisa also frowned and looked at the maid.
The middle-aged woman didn't know why the two had such expressions, but she nodded hesitantly:
"The professor doesn't have pets at home, so there is no..."
"Did you just see that?"
Xia De turned to ask Miss Louisa, who answered quickly:
"Of course I saw it, the black cat."
The two stood up almost at the same time, and Shad put Mia on the chair instead of carrying it.
"Please help me watch the cat here and don't let it run away."
He spoke to the servant, and Miss Louisa patted the fat maid on the shoulder, her tone becoming extremely soothing:
"Stay in your room and don't leave until we get back."
The maid's eyes immediately became distracted, and she nodded very stiffly. Shade had seen this trick before. In the garden maze of Lakeview Manor, the captain of the Orthodox Church's ring magician had used a similar ability, but it was probably not as good as Professor Sanchez's charm of humans.
Leaving the cat and the fat maid in the study, Miss Louisa walked in front, and Shade walked behind, and the two walked towards the third floor. As they stepped on the stairs, Shade did not forget to ask in his heart:
"Why didn't you remind me that I encountered the 'Whisper' element?"
Because I didn't feel it.
“But the cat was very close to me.”
It is not the real body. Since it was born in a dream, the probability of it revealing its real body to you is very low. What you see should be just a false illusion of nightmare. It is observing you.
"So the shortcoming of 'another me''s' reconnaissance ability is the distance."
Xia De concluded in his mind.
Following Miss Louisa up the stairs, the two stopped at the last step to the third floor. The third floor was still full of life, with photos of professors hanging in the corridor and cardboard boxes of unknown use stacked against the wall.
But there was no sound on the entire floor, and all the doors were closed. Miss Louisa called out Professor Manning's name tentatively, but received no response.
She said to Xia De cautiously:
"Follow me later. Although this is a nightmare born from a relic, judging from Professor Manning's condition, the nightmare born from the relic's loss of control should only be in its nascent form. When I patted the maid's shoulder, I checked her condition. She was very normal, which means that the nightmare didn't even have time to attack other people in this house."
Miss Louisa said to Shade, and as the steam gushed out behind her, the brass life ring was fully revealed.
Shade nodded and followed the blonde girl up the stairs to the third floor. Miss Louisa seemed to be testing something, pausing at each door on the third floor before moving on to the next door.
Her back was very beautiful. Maybe it was because the weather was too hot, but Miss Louisa's back was soaked. Near her swaying golden hair, her clothes seemed transparent, allowing Shade to see...
"Um?"
Xia De became alert and stopped. As a stranger, he had a wide range of knowledge, and the current situation made him have a bad guess.
"Could it be that now is..."
He looked down at his hands with a feeling. On the back of his bare hands, the smooth skin was cracked inch by inch, and golden light was shining under those cracks. He rolled up his sleeves, and the cracks extended from his hands to his entire body. In just a blink of an eye, his whole body was covered with golden cracks, and even his clothes had cracks.
Brilliant golden light radiated outward from the cracks, warm and gentle, yet extremely sacred and solemn.
This is just a visual effect. Xia De did not feel any pain. Instead, he felt a sense of fullness and warmth of power.
"This is..."
He said incredulously, and as his palms swung, a golden glow flickered in the air. As his body swayed, the hem of his clothes pulled back, leaving a golden light mark.
You don't think that the so-called afterglow is just talk, do you