"I won't go upstairs."
Captain Rades followed Shad into the hallway, but did not even close the door, locking out St. Teresa's Square, which was also very busy today.
As the year-end approaches, although there are no noisy circus performances in the city center square, there are obviously many more vendors.
The captain smiled and gave Shad the gift of a visit, which was the bottle of red wine, and then he talked about his return to Tobesk in the hallway because of the award:
"The battle that blocked Mount Sikar in late autumn."
The middle-aged captain with a resolute face winked at Shade. At that time, Shade had sent him an amulet, which played a significant role when he led the team to guard the stronghold in the fog that night. It also made this ordinary person guess that perhaps there really was so-called magic in this world:
"I performed a meritorious service that time, and the church and my old friends in the city helped me make some arrangements, so I was qualified to return to Tobesk to receive the honor."
He said with a smile, showing no sign of the embarrassment he felt when Xia De first met him in the summer.
"That's really good news. Will you return to Midhill Castle in the future? Or will you find a job in Tobesk?"
Xia De asked while congratulating him. The captain shook his head regretfully.
"It's not that easy to stay in Tobesk. It requires not only luck, but also..."
He pointed upwards, and he and Shade showed a tacit understanding expression:
"Let's try our luck. If I can't move up a little bit, I'll retire in a few years."
He smiled and shook his head again:
"No matter what happens next, I will enjoy this year-end holiday first. Who can be sad on such an important holiday?"
The middle-aged captain in a neat military uniform extended his hand to Xia De, who shook his hand.
"Happy End of the Year, Mr. Hamilton."
"Happy End of the Year, Captain Raddes."
The captain smiled and nodded, then said goodbye and left. Standing at the door of his house, Xia De watched the captain walk away along the path he had cleared in the snow, feeling a little emotional.
The arrival of outsiders changed the fate of many people, and Captain Rades was the one who impressed him the most.
He turned around and walked back into the room and closed the door, then he noticed that his cat was on the shoe cabinet, sniffing the bottle of wine that the captain brought as a gift.
"Cats can't drink alcohol."
Xia De hugged it and thought of another thing:
"Since 1853 is coming to an end, how about giving Mia a bath during the year-end festival?"
"Meow~"
As if knowing what Xia De was thinking, the cat jumped out of Xia De's arms, jumped onto the shoe cabinet, and ran towards the stairs.
Shad smiled as he looked at Mia's agile figure, then raised his right hand.
Is that why you said that on purpose
As "she" laughed, Shade's fist passed through the drawn silver halo:
"Imprisoning Aura!"
Five halos flew towards the cat that was jumping on the stairs. One tied up the cat's two front paws, one tied up Mia's hind paws, one tied up the neck, one tied up the body, and the last one for some reason tied up the tail with the Transformation Ring and the Plague Doctor Ring, as if there was an extra circle of silver stripes on the cat's tail.
"Meow~"
Shade walked up the stairs and "lifted" the immobile cat, then held it again after canceling the spell. The cat's claws did not attack Shade, and the cat was not even angry. When Shade looked at it, the kitten raised its head slightly, and its big amber eyes looked at Shade pitifully, which made Shade feel strangely guilty, as if he had done something terribly wrong.
"Last night Luvia said that I have the ability to charm the opposite sex. I think Mia has the ability to charm humans."
He muttered softly and decided to go to the kitchen to find something to eat for the cat as compensation for what had just happened.
"She" chuckled in Xia De's ear. The soft cat lay in Xia De's arms with its eyes narrowed, looking very contented.
Miss Carina's visit came later than Shad had expected. Three minutes before three in the afternoon, Mia was comfortably lying on the windowsill of the study, taking a nap in the sun, while Shad was reading the "Secret of Immortality", hoping to learn some useful magic from it.
The heat of the pendant on her chest indicated the arrival of the witch. After opening the door downstairs, the duchess, who was wearing a red dress and a sparkling diamond hair ornament on her head, frowned and said half complainingly:
"Tomorrow is the end of the year festival. Don't you have any decorations at home? At least hang a mistletoe wreath at the door, right?"
This is a custom at the end of the year, representing the prayer for peace and luck in the coming year. It is said that the origin of this custom is related to the Natural Church in the Five Gods Church, and is also related to the White Sacred Tree of the Old God, but there are other theories.
"Tifa, arrange for someone to decorate St. Teresa's Square 6 tomorrow. It doesn't have to be too fancy, but at least it should have some festive atmosphere."
Miss Carina said to the black-haired maid who followed her down the carriage, and the latter nodded slightly. Shade thought about it and didn't object. He originally wanted to buy some ribbons to decorate the windows after dinner. Outsiders are interested in the festivals of this world, but they are not very involved.
Miss Carina's visit was for the ice crystal that Shade brought back from the winter of the Fifth Era 903. Before this, she and Tifa had heard Shade talk about two adventures in 903, and the third adventure, which was the most important, took place by the Pantanal Lake. So when taking out the ice crystal and Miss Carina cast a spell to freeze it, Shade talked about the last section of the snowy mountain.
As for the part about the old god Winter Maiden, Shade was brief because the story of the gods would have a great impact on mortals, but he still told most of the story. In order to prevent the details from being wrong and causing problems in Miss Carina's next research, Shade even said that the ice crystal was spit out by himself after the kiss.
Hearing this, the Duchess raised her eyebrows in surprise, while Tifa had a faint smile on her face.
"That's about it."
After saying this, Xia De held the cat, who was dozing with squinting eyes, and picked up the teacup:
"The ice crystals have been washed away by time, and a small part of the outer ice layer has disappeared, but it does not affect the letters inside the ice layer. I tried to look at the contents against the light, but the characters were very small and they were not any words I knew... Fortunately, I could understand them."
"But I don't understand."
The gas lamp had been turned on. Miss Carina held the ice crystal against the light and examined it. The ice crystal shone brilliantly under the light:
"I have never seen such writing before. I think it should be earlier than the Fifth Age."
"This ancient rune has a lot of meanings. One rune can represent a lot of things. When different runes are connected together, they form new meanings. I can be sure that what is recorded here is indeed the content of Miss Chloe Yin's path to becoming a demigod. But the problem is that it does not involve the specific content of the ritual. It only points out how she honed her soul and climbed the Silver Mountains under the guidance of the gods."
In today's world where there are no more righteous gods except the five, it is quite difficult to repeat this process.
"It doesn't matter. After all, even if I hold the promotion ceremony after the year-end festival, I am only at the twelfth ring, which is still a long way from the thirteenth ring. The content here is enough for reference. Xia De, you probably don't understand that compared to the specific ceremony, the witch gave you the most critical information."
The golden eyes looked at Xia De and sighed softly as if singing an opera:
"A knight loved by witches~"
"I am here, oh, fair duke, what can I do for you?"
Xia De smiled and said, and Miss Carina was very satisfied with this:
"Find some time to copy down the runes in here and give me a translation."
"That's easy, after the end of the year."
Xia De nodded, and Miss Carina smiled teasingly again:
"Keep the ice crystal for yourself and don't let anyone touch it. After all, it was given to you by a lady who had a crush on you."
The ice crystal floated in front of Shade, and the dozing cat immediately raised its body to try to touch it, and then Shade gently placed the teacup in his hand on the cat's head. Of course, he controlled the strength, and the center of gravity was still on his fingers.
"Meow!"
Holding the ice crystal, Xia De smiled and put it in Xiaomia's arms. Unexpectedly, the cat just cried out in complaint without any other big reaction.
"I've processed it. As long as you don't put it in the fire or keep it in a high temperature place for a long time, it should be fine if it doesn't melt for a long time. In addition, I will teach you a very simple spell - Carina's ice spell. I improved the original ice trick, and now it looks like this."
Her red lips opened slightly, and as she exhaled, an extremely cold chill emanated from them.
The learning ritual for this spell is quite simple, and you just need to learn the basic spell of calling water first. With the blessing of the winter god, Shade has no difficulty learning similar spells.
After learning the spell, he demonstrated it to Miss Carina:
"Look."
He blew gently towards the teacup in his hand. As the red tea in the cup formed ice crystals, an ice crystal flower floated on the water.
"The control is really strong..."
She praised Shade, but this was actually the result of Shade combining the Ice Curse with the Flying Flower Curse. There were petals in the cup of black tea. He twisted the ice crystal flower, turned it into a toy and put it in his pocket for later use. This was a very good spell material.
At the same time, the Duchess waved to Tifa behind her. Tifa took out a long black paper box from the pocket of her maid's long skirt and handed it to the Duke:
"Shad, I like the gift you gave me. This is a gift for you."
It was a pull-out paper box. When I opened it, there was a tie inside.
Shade looked at the red-haired witch in surprise, and the latter looked at him with a smile:
"Happy end of year, my knight."
Although a tie is not particularly expensive, it is not a gift that can be given casually.