After returning to the city from the outskirts of Randall Valley, Shad went straight back to Tobesk's home. Considering that they had to spend the night in the wild, Little Mia must not be brought with them. So Shad hurriedly took the cat to find Dorothy, but Dorothy was not at home that afternoon.
After asking around, Xia De finally found the writer who had just finished her speech in the lecture hall of the Second Institute of Mechanical Engineering in Tobesk.
She was invited to give a special lecture on popular novel writing today, so she put on light makeup. Seeing Shade waiting for her at the door, the blonde happily invited Shade to have dinner with her tonight, but Shade refused:
"I'm staying in Randall Valley tonight, oh, don't get me wrong."
Shade saw the teasing look on the blonde's face:
"Not at Luvia's place. In fact, I haven't been with her since Luvia left Tobesk... I have to spend the night in the wild, waiting for something to happen, so I'll ask you to take care of Mia tonight."
He handed his cat to Dorothy. Dorothy had been helping Shad take care of it recently, so Mia didn't refuse:
"Just be careful and be safe. Remember to come to me as soon as you come back. I will probably be worried all night long."
After saying this, he was very satisfied to see the guilty expression on Xia De's face:
"Shad, this is just an exaggeration. Be safe and remember to come back early."
After looking around and making sure that no one was in the corridor, she calmly fiddled with the hair by her ear, then stood on tiptoe and kissed Shade on the side of his face. A faint blush appeared on the face of the blonde girl. If it was the soul of Leicia, she would definitely not have such a shy expression:
"Also, don't neglect Luvia. Really, it's not like Resia and I stay at your place every night. If you always go home every night, Luvia will misunderstand me."
After dealing with Mia's affairs, Shade took the Night Watch and returned to the Randall Valley. When they met up with the witch at her manor, she was surrounded by three nine-ring sorceresses and five middle-ring sorceresses. It was obvious that she attached great importance to this operation.
Miss Lathers was not in tonight's operation. Before everyone set off, she reminded Miss Shade and Miss Benannis to be careful. Such a large team was divided into three carriages.
As for the Night Watchman, because it was placed in the scabbard made by the old witch, it did not arouse Miss Benannis's suspicion. If it was not necessary, Shade would not use the power of this sword at will tonight.
When they arrived at the Green Grass Farm, the sun had already set below the city, leaving only the last ray of afterglow to fill the city, making it golden. The group of ten people changed at the Green Grass Farm and rode into the woods, and the white little beast followed them as expected.
Miss Benanis and Shade wanted to stop it, but even a young unicorn was not so easy to deal with. The other ladies in the team were particularly happy about the appearance of this little beast, which greatly improved the morale of the team.
When we arrived at the campsite under the cliff we found in the afternoon, the sun had already set. The dark forest in the stream was a bit scary, but because I had companions with me, the feeling of terror was not that serious.
Without Miss Benannis and Shade having to do anything, the witch's followers began to build camps and bonfires, and arranged defense, vigilance and reconnaissance measures nearby.
Shad and the witch sat by the campfire waiting for dinner. The pure white beast lay beside Shad, and the night watchman lay in front of him. The firelight illuminated Shad's face, who was wearing a cold-proof cloak. Miss Benanis held a teacup and said curiously to Shad sitting next to him:
"How interesting! Unicorns really like you. Unicorns obviously prefer pure girls and ignorant children, but you don't meet any of the requirements."
"I don't know."
Shade touched the little beast's forehead, and the beast squinted its eyes, enjoying the touch. It must be admitted that the touch of its fur was almost as good as that of little Mia.
"In fact, many things have happened to me that I still don't understand."
Xia De looked at the young brown-haired girl, busy grilling meat by the campfire. The girls in the troupe were very good at cooking, much better than the outsiders:
"When I have time, I can tell you my stories, many stories."
The witch smiled:
"I haven't forgotten that I lost the horse race this morning. We probably have to wait until very late tonight, so I just happen to have some time. What story do you want to hear from me?"
Xia De thought about it:
"I heard from Miss Carina and Miss Aurora that you met Miss Lathers when the original Golden Dawn was close to collapse. I don't understand how she could become the leader of the Old God Cult when she was so young? Because her father disappeared? I heard you talk about this on Sunday."
Even in the age when the old gods left, the leaders of the cult were usually elders.
"Things are complicated. On the one hand, it's because Sirius was the strongest in the cult at the time."
Miss Benanis looked at the bonfire and recalled the past:
"She is now at the seventh ring. When I met her, she was already at the fifth ring at the age of fifteen. Even in the three major thaumatology schools, reaching the fifth ring at this age is enough to be called a genius, not to mention the dilapidated Old God Cult. You know how difficult it is for a ring sorcerer to be promoted without systematic training. When I met her, there were only five ring sorcerers in the entire cult, and Siris was the only middle-ring sorcerer among them."
This is much better than the Earth-Shaking Worm Cult which only has one old lady left.
Recalling the past, Miss Benannis smiled:
"By the way, Hillis awakened her talent at the age of seven, which is quite rare. But it is precisely because she was only seven years old when she awakened that she was able to achieve the results that she achieved later."
Shade nodded. Miss Lathers's awakening of her talent at the age of seven was as rare as Priest Augustus's awakening of his talent when he was old. The former was even rarer.
"That's one reason, but what about the other?"
Shade asked again, taking the cup from the sorceress beside him and thanking her quietly. The sorceress looked at the unicorn lying next to Shade curiously, but did not have the courage to touch it for the time being.
"On the other hand, as you said, the previous leader of the cult, that is, Sirius's father, Mr. Weilun Lathers of the Sixth Ring, disappeared inexplicably. Sirius's father is said to be very strong. Her ability to recover quickly from injuries while standing on the ground with her feet was taught by Mr. Lathers."
The witch shook her head slightly:
"There are many possibilities for the mysterious disappearance of the ring warlock, but for Siris at that time, it meant a change in the trajectory of her life. I had just taken over the teacher's seat and was traveling around the Old World, thinking about my future path. When I arrived here, I happened to meet Siris who was entangled with a troublesome relic. At that time, she was not only the leader of the cult, but also the only legal heir to the Golden Dawn Opera Company that was about to go bankrupt. After many, many stories, the current Golden Dawn was established."
It was a very interesting story, and quite long. It started before dinner and ended at around 10 pm. The relic that Miss Lathers encountered was a Secret Keeper-level relic, the Curse of the Black Gate. The only feature of this relic was that every door opened by the cursed person would become a "cursed black gate" leading to an unknown subspace.
Theoretically, as long as you don't open the door yourself and let others open it, the curse will not affect the cursed person, so the rating is only "Secret Keeper Level". But the problem is that the Black Door Curse was on the verge of getting out of control for some reason, making it possible for every door Miss Lathers passed through to be transformed into a "Black Door".
It took Miss Benanis half a month to determine the source of the Black Gate curse, that is, the location of the real Black Gate. Finally, she managed to introduce the "Black Gate" to the Parliament, and used the power of the Parliament to completely suppress it and contain it - this is one of the basic functions of the Parliament. After the incident was resolved, she was invited by Miss Lathers to stay, and finally formed a new Golden Dawn together.
This story was quite interesting to Shad, only slightly less interesting than Dorothy and Lesia's diaries. He carefully avoided the details about privacy and asked more about the "cursed" relics, and Miss Benanis was happy to answer for Shad.
The night was getting darker, but the ladies around had no intention of resting. The bonfire crackled, surrounded by whispers and murmurs.
While chatting with the witch, Xia De accidentally looked up at the night sky over the sparse treetops and saw the sea of stars hanging upside down above his head, and saw three moons hanging above the vast sea of stars. Although the air pollution is already very serious in this era, the wilderness far away from the city is different after all.
Suddenly, I thought of the many times I had whispered with different girls by the campfire in the dark. However, except for Yin Luna, those girls, those memories, and those past events were all things of the last era.
"Why do you have such an expression when you are talking? If Jialina knew, she would think I was bullying you."
The blonde witch laughed and joked. Shade shook his head and was about to say something when he suddenly heard the little animal beside him cry:
"Yeah~"
It immediately stood up and looked vigilantly towards the depths of the forest to the southwest. At the same time, it heard a sound like a strong wind blowing through the forest. This was because the outermost alarm had been triggered:
"Miss, someone is here. It's a living person."
Everyone in the camp stood up, the magic auras that disguised their appearance and voices lit up, and the ladies who were responsible for keeping watch on the periphery also appeared on the trees.