The princess recognized the beautiful cat almost immediately. She thought no one could mistake it. The appearance of the cat also meant...
The young man in a black coat was holding up his black top hat, and he and the others around him were cheering and saluting the successors of the United Kingdom. Although the face looked a little different, the height, expression, and Mia clearly proved who it was:
"Welcome to the city of Randall Valley!"
Shade in the crowd shouted loudly to Her Royal Highness the Princess. Although his voice was quickly drowned out by the noisy background noise, Margaret still heard it completely.
She looked away, and waved to the people with a formulaic smile trained by the royal family. However, no one knew the joy in her heart. Her Royal Highness knew that her short visit to the Randall Valley would probably be more interesting than she had imagined:
"What's even more interesting is that... Teacher Sylvia is not with me right now."
Although he wanted to meet Margaret immediately, Shad knew that she came to the local area on a mission, and this visit was not just for her. Therefore, although he met Margaret at the train station on Friday morning, Shad did not go to see her alone.
After all, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future, and Margaret currently doesn't have time to spend a long time with Shad.
The most critical task today was to meet the local witch, Miss Benannis, in the afternoon. Shade had already anticipated many possibilities, but for safety reasons, he asked Luvia to help him with divination while having lunch with her at noon.
The purple-eyed girl has a lot of work to do locally. While the Prophet Association is in contact with the local secret cult that possesses the Book of Ascension, she is also responsible for observing the local stars given by the Astronomy Academy, as well as the clerical work that the Prophet Association asked her to handle locally.
Even if she took time to have lunch with Xia De at noon, she had to return to the association as soon as possible. Hearing Xia De's request, she shook her head slightly:
"You are outside of fate. Most of the results obtained by divination for you are completely unreliable. Otherwise, the church would have found you long ago. Xia De, don't use divination as a tool to peek into the future. We must respect fate."
In fact, what she meant was that we should not use divination for every little thing. In Luvia's opinion, there was no possibility that the communication and negotiation between Shade and the witch would fail.
Seeing that Shade wanted to say something, Luvia, who was manipulating the knife and fork, asked again:
"Why did you bring Little Mia here?"
"Meow?"
The well-behaved cat looked up at Luvia when he heard its name mentioned.
"Dorothy is going to the publisher today with the editor of the Steambird Daily and her lawyer to discuss royalties, so she can't help me take care of it."
Xia De patted the soft cat:
"You're not in Tobesk, so I can't entrust it to you. Miss Carina and Tifa are still in Saradir County. Although there are maids in the manor, there is no one familiar to take care of it. I am still worried, so I brought it here. After all, today I'm just meeting with the witch. No matter how much she hates me, she won't do anything to Mia. This will only increase my chances of winning."
Luvia smiled:
"Are you meeting at the Wilde Opera House? I heard from the association that there have been some minor problems at the opera house in town lately."
"What's the problem?"
At this moment, Shad remembered that Miss Aurora had mentioned yesterday that the witch of Randall Valley City was tracking down a sage relic related to the opera house.
"Someone was turned into a puppet. I don't know the details, but it is said to be related to the uncontained relics."
Luvia shrugged:
"It could be the Secret Keeper-level relic, the Clown King's magic handkerchief, or the infectious Secret Keeper-level relic, Puppet Syndrome. Who knows? The local Church of Creation is responsible for solving this matter, but it is said that it could also be a Sage-level one. Oh, my dear detective, every city has its own troubles, and it is obviously impossible for us to solve every problem."
After lunch, Luvia said goodbye to Shade and returned to the Prophet's Association. There was still some time before 3pm, and Shade had wanted to visit the old priest that Father Augustus mentioned during the exam week, and he owed him 10 pence for the bet, but Little Mia was too sleepy to bear it, and Shade was also worried that he would not be able to find the priest in a short time, so he returned to the Forgotten Church and went home to take a rest.
When they returned to Randall Valley City at 2:30, Shade still brought the cat with him. At this time, a layer of white fog of unknown origin rose in the city, and the cat wore a life-transformation ring and a fish-training ring on its tail, which was a reward for its obedience today.
The distance from Cherry Leaf Street to the Wilde Opera House was not far. Xia De calculated the time and it was 2:50 when he got off the carriage in front of the opera house.
Of course, pets were not allowed in the opera house, but after Shad showed the ticket for the box, no one stopped him. When Shad followed the waiter of the opera house to the stairs, he did not feel the badge on his chest getting hot, which meant that Miss Bernardess had not arrived yet.
"By the way, since their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess are visiting this city, will they watch an opera in this opera house?"
Xia De asked the waiter who was leading the way forward, and the latter said proudly:
"Sir, you are obviously not from Kasenric. In fact, every time the royal family of this country visits this city, they will watch the performance of the Golden Dawn Opera Company in our opera house. Although I don't know the exact time, the opera house has already started to arrange security. Did you know that Ms. Benanis of the Golden Dawn Opera Company is planning to purchase our opera house recently? This is really a great honor."
After entering the box with Mia in his arms, it was time to wait. Shade kept thinking about what he should say when he saw the witch, and when would be the best time to give the harmonica to her. He even thought about offering his wrist to Miss Benanis to hold, as witches always liked this.
As for Mia, the cat was quite lazily taking a nap on Shad's lap. Three o'clock in the afternoon was her regular nap time.
There were actually not many guests in the opera house at the afternoon show. At exactly three o'clock, as the high-pitched opening soprano voice sounded below, Shad knew that the time had come.
"Why haven't you come yet? Are you in trouble? ... Did I remember the time correctly?"
I remember correctly.
He stood up and paced suspiciously, leaving Mia on the sofa. The cat opened one eye, saw that Shade had not left, and wagged its tail, then moved to a more comfortable position and continued to sleep.
"Could it be that because I refused to meet her immediately yesterday, the witch got angry and was late on purpose today?"
He thought about it, but he also felt that the other party should not be so naive. So he used magic to confirm the time again and found that it was already past three o'clock.
"That's strange..."
When strangers meet, if someone misses the meeting time, the other party will usually leave immediately, because it often means unpredictable danger. But this meeting is not a complete meeting of strangers, and if Miss Benannis, who is not good at fighting at the eleventh level, really encounters some trouble, even if Shade cannot solve it, he must find a way to figure out the situation.
"I hope I'm just late."
He waited for another five minutes, but the badge on his chest still showed no response. He knew he couldn't wait any longer, so he turned around and picked up Mia to go outside to check the situation.
At this moment, there was a very slight knock on the door. But Xia De had been standing at the door, and he was sure that there were no footsteps outside:
"What is going on here?"
He vaguely realized that he might be involved in some trouble.
"Mia, just lie down here and wait for me, don't walk around."
After instructing the cat, Shade took off the fish training ring on its tail and put it on his finger. He drew out the scarlet "Moonlight Greatsword" in the shape of a short sword, held it in his left hand and put it behind his back. Shade leaned against the door and felt it for a while. After confirming that there was no elemental reaction, he gently pushed the door open.
The curtains on the other side of the corridor opposite the door had been pulled up to cover the windows at some point. Those scarlet velvet curtains completely blocked out the sunlight in the foggy city, and the entire corridor looked gloomy. Not only was it gloomy, everything felt normal inside the room, but when I opened the door, I immediately noticed the whispering element.
"It was really an accident."
Xia De remembered very clearly that on the wall between the two windowsills opposite his door, there was originally an oil painting of an old man in a white robe sowing seeds on the earth, but now it was replaced by a portrait of a puppet like a noble lady with her hands clasped together.
The portrait is extremely realistic, even showing the wood texture of the puppet, as well as some cracks in the material and uneven patches of paint.
Looking up at the foot, a puppet is floating in the air. The limbs and head are connected to five thin strings, which are connected to the inner cross disk floating above. This is a standard puppet for puppet shows. The puppet is made with extraordinary fine workmanship. Not only can the limbs and joints move freely, but the details of the hair and clothes are also very realistic.
The costume is a very common maid dress, and the puppet's face has been carefully designed. Even an amateur like Shade can easily see that this is definitely not a mass-produced product produced using a mold.
The puppet was "holding" a letter in its hand and handed it to Xia De as he lowered his head.
"Is this letter for me?"
He asked hesitantly, reaching out to take the letter, and then he saw the brown wooden cross disk floating above the puppet swaying gently, as if it was being manipulated by an invisible hand. The thin wires controlled the movement of the limbs, and the puppet staggered away under control.
Xia De looked at it, watched it go to the door of the next room, and then "walked" in through the crack in the door.