"There is such a thing? You don't have to worry, I just want to return the ring."
He told how he had found a pile of junk while looking for "water monkeys" yesterday afternoon. Miss Lathers had not seen Shad last night, so she didn't know about it:
"So Mr. Stone Oxenfurt, is he just an ordinary man?"
Before leaving, Miss Lathers confirmed it again and nodded:
"Yes, at least I think so."
Unlicensed horse riding is not allowed in the city core area near the Wilde Opera House, so Shad led the horse out of the neighborhood first, then crossed the city to the suburbs in the north of the city.
After getting used to riding in the snow, it was quite interesting to walk alone in the snow. During the journey, Xia De suddenly had an idea and wanted to know if he could make the horse run faster by using his puppetry skills. So Xia De, who was very experimental, put his hand on the horse's head while it was running in the snow.
The spirit turned into a thread to manipulate the puppet, and the puppeteering technique succeeded almost immediately. Then, the horse, which could not control its limbs, stopped abruptly, and Shade fell into the snow with the horse.
Fortunately, the snow was thick and the horse's limbs were not injured. This experiment taught Shade that it is best not to use magic unless necessary.
Although he knew from the map that Oxenfurt Manor was very remote, when he actually went there by himself, Shad found that the place was too remote.
After leaving the city, he first passed a small village that depended on the city, and then passed through a large beekeeper's farm on a snowy country road. Then he passed through a bare apple orchard in winter, and passed through a wasteland. After stopping his horse to avoid two rabbits that jumped out of nowhere, he crossed a short wooden bridge and entered the forest path. After leaving the forest, he saw the manor standing in the distance, but it took another ten minutes to actually arrive outside the manor.
According to Miss Lathers, this large manor was the old residence of the Oxenfort family. After the family fell into decline a hundred years ago, it was transferred repeatedly as an account offset. Therefore, when Shad approached, he did find that although it had been repaired, it still looked old.
There is a forest outside the manor, and the manor itself is surrounded by a square white low wall. Some withered vines are climbing around the outside of the low wall, and on top of the low wall you can see barbed wire and broken glass shards shining in the sun.
But Xia De was not surprised by this. After all, this place was a bit remote, and these measures were necessary for safety.
Oxenfurt Manor is adjacent to the Ailon River, and not far from the manor is the dock. It was still the ice age, so there were no workers on the dock, only some stacked boxes. The whole manor looked very quiet. When Shade dismounted in front of the black iron fence gate of the manor, although he could see that the courtyard was well-tidied and even a small flowerbed surrounded by white stones, there was no one in the whole courtyard.
He pulled the bell at the door and waited calmly. After hesitating for a moment, he reached his hand into the fence again:
"There is no problem with Crazy Earth."
He waited for a long time before an old man in a black coat finally walked out of the mansion in the distance. It was obvious from his appearance that he was the butler.
When the old man approached the gate, Shad introduced himself and claimed that he wanted to talk to Mr. Oxenfort about the Rhodes card. He did not mention the ring. After all, there must be a story behind the ring falling into the river. If others knew about it, it might cause family conflicts.
Sure enough, Mr. Oxenfurt had mentioned Shad's matter in his own home, and the old butler also knew the name of "John Watson", so he opened the gate and led Shad in by the horse.
However, Mr. Stone Oxenfurt was not in the manor now, but was in the city discussing business with someone. However, he would definitely be back before three o'clock in the afternoon, so Shad could wait a while, after all, it was almost two o'clock.
Just as Shade had thought, even though the Oxenfurt Manor had been repaired in recent years, it was still in a very bad state. It was completely different from the noble manors he had visited before. It was clearly in use but looked very dilapidated. Shade had never seen this before in other places.
It wasn't just the courtyard that was shabby. After entering the mansion, the floor was clean, the walls were well painted, and the oil paintings and ancient armor decorations were all in line with the status of a wealthy businessman, but Xia De still felt that this place was a bit too old.
The mansion was also very quiet. When the old butler took Xia De all the way to the reception room on the second floor, they did not meet a third person, and there was not even the sound of other servants. This made Xia De think that there were only two of them in the house.
But this idea was soon overturned, because Mrs. Oxenfurt, the owner of the ring, Hela Oxenfurt, came to the reception room with her maid to temporarily entertain the guests on behalf of her husband.
The maid pushed a cart and prepared tea for the two of them. She was not very old, and Shade even glanced at the maid's skirt. Because of his familiarity with Tifa, Shade had a deep understanding of the shape, color, and unbuttoning method of maid skirts. Although the maid skirt of Mrs. Ossenfurt was a little old, it was not a big problem. It was just that the color of the skirt and the white part of the headband looked a little yellow. Shade was not sure if it was not washed clean.
As for Lady Hela Osenfurt, she looked to be in her thirties, a typical housewife. She had beautiful curly black hair and blue eyes, a high nose, and three-dimensional facial features. She wore a black veil when receiving guests, and wore a red and black high-necked floral dress at home. She was very tall, only inferior to most of the witches that Shade knew... ...Except for Miss Troyin, who was known to Xueshan, her skin was unexpectedly white. Although her face behind the veil looked a little melancholy, she still maintained the dignity of a hostess to receive Shade.
After the maid brought the tea, she left the study and let Shad talk to Mrs. Oxenfurt. This was completely against the rules in Shad's opinion. A stranger like him could stay alone in a room with the hostess, which was a treatment only for "adulterers".
Perhaps seeing Shade's confusion, Mrs. Oxenfurt said softly:
"Something happened a while ago. My husband dismissed the previous servants and hasn't had time to find new ones. There are a few people at home. I'm sorry."
"It doesn't matter."
Xia De sat on the small sofa beside the coffee table, facing the window. As he was talking, he saw that it was snowing outside. The weather was quite good when he came in just now:
"This time I said I was here to visit Mr. Oxenfurt, but it's not just for the Rhodes cards."
He took out the ring box from his pocket. He had prepared the box himself. The girls around him had told him many times that jewelry should not be placed directly in pockets:
"I found this in a fish's belly while ice fishing a few days ago. This should be yours, right?"
He opened the box and handed it to the tall woman in front of him. The latter looked at the ring with a slight surprise, and then glanced at Xia De before taking it:
"Yes."
Her temperature was a little low, but still within the normal range.
The voice of "her" came to his ears. Xia De did not have direct contact with the woman in front of him, but he was close enough when he handed over the ring just now.
"Although I don't know why it ended up in the fish's belly, I have returned it to its rightful owner... When Mr. Osenfurt comes back later, can I mention this to him?"
Xia De asked again, then picked up the teacup in front of him.
The pale black-haired woman held the box and shook her head slightly:
"There is no need to mention this matter. ... I can give you a reward, Mr. Watson."
"No, no, you don't have to pay me. I just have nothing to do. If my 'date' with that beautiful 17-year-old girl had been in the afternoon instead of the evening, I wouldn't have sent it back."
Shade said with a smile, then took a sip of the black tea.
no problem.
He had been on guard since he entered the manor, and there were strange things everywhere in the manor. But at least so far, he had not noticed any traces of the elements. Of course, this did not mean that this place was definitely normal. After all, Xia De was not arrogant enough to think that his perception was completely correct.
If his perception was omnipotent, the problems at 6 St. Teresa's Square wouldn't have popped up every few months.
He wanted to talk to the woman in front of him about her marriage problems and find out why the ring fell into the river, but it seemed that Hela Osenfurt was unwilling to speak, which made it impossible for Shad to bring up the topic.
So Shade changed the subject:
"This manor is really remote. If it weren't for the people from Aofei Village showing me the way, I might not have been able to find it."
"Yes, but this is our ancestral home, and we can't just move away. Although it's a bit empty and the gas and steam pipelines aren't very convenient, it doesn't have much impact on our lives."
The woman spoke again softly, her voice always being very soft.
Xia De nodded. Because it was far away from the city, the mansion didn't even have a gas pipeline installed. But there were steam pipelines here. The manors were equipped with steam engines and even underground steam boilers. Just now, I felt that the interior of the building was a little dim in the corridor because the kerosene lamps hung on the walls were not the new gas lamps:
"Does Mr. Osenfurt like Rhodes cards? I'm from another place, and I just heard about Mr. Osenfurt's story not long ago. He is really a very good local player."
"Yes, he likes Rhodes very much. Before he lost to you... it had been a long time since he lost."
This topic finally made Hela Osenfurt willing to say a few more words:
"Not only in Rhodes, but also in other aspects, my husband has rarely lost. In business, interpersonal relationships, and betting, he always wins, and wins completely."