William of Anjou pointed to the next door while speaking:
"Ossenfurt is next door. He just brought a more detailed report from his men who just returned. That's why I made up my mind. As for Ossenfurt himself, don't worry. He will invest all his assets in this. Counting the credit for discovering the open-pit mine, he will own 10% of the shares."
The blonde pursed her lips and frowned slightly:
"It sounds good, but it's increasingly looking like a trap. By the way, I haven't asked you how you and this Oxenfurt know each other."
"We met in Willendel in the summer of 1852. I was preparing a gift for my father's birthday at the time, and Oxenfort came to me and presented me with a small bronze statue. Yes, it is the one that my father has on his bookshelf now. He is a very capable man, although he does things by some unscrupulous means. But you should understand, Margaret, that nothing can be accomplished by just being honest."
Margaret smiled sarcastically:
"Is that why he burned down the warehouse last week and threw his pre-killed enemies into the fire?"
Shade in the cabinet frowned slightly. When Osenfurt said there were no living people inside, he didn't expect that this was what he meant.
"Margaret, do you really want to join this business? If you don't want to, you are not my only brother or sister."
William of Anjou asked seriously, and Margaret raised a finger:
"Give me a week to think about it and give me a copy of the information about the silver mine. This is not a small amount, I need time to think about it."
"No problem! Margaret, you know me. I can tell what is bait and what is fruit. As for Mr. Oxenfurt, I hope you won't have so much prejudice. If there is a chance, I can introduce you to each other at the banquet."
His Royal Highness left the room with a smile. Margaret sighed, then walked to the closet and opened the door.
"You heard everything, right? What do you think about it?"
In order to prevent herself from being locked in, Xiaomia immediately broke free from Xia De's hand and slipped out of the cabinet.
"My personal opinion is, don't get involved."
Xia De shrugged and tried to walk out of the closet. It was too stuffy in there.
"Well, I didn't want to get involved anyway. My brother is sometimes really short-sighted. Even if there really is such a large-scale mine, his little tricks can't be hidden from father. However, the information about the mine is still very useful."
Her Royal Highness the Princess said decisively that although she had known Xia De for less than three months, she was quite clear about Xia De's abilities.
As she spoke, she pushed Shade back into the closet, then took off her high heels and stepped into the closet as well. The closet door closed, leaving the surprised cat looking back at the shaken closet:
"Meow?"
It tilted its head and barked, feeling as if it had made the wrong decision.
I had lunch with Margaret at noon, and in the afternoon I took Mia to the Wilde Opera House to meet Miss Bernardine, Miss Lasser and Luvia.
The four of them summarized their respective investigation results. Miss Benannis did not decipher any new information from the notebook dug out from the wall, and Luvia only found a few words about "Guardian" and "Heart of the Earth" in the local Prophet Association. In short, it was almost the same as the urban legend, which was not even enough for Shad to activate the third Randall story of the Mithril Cube.
And Miss Lathers's gain was the greatest.
She re-examined Mr. Lasser's relics and found a large amount of research materials about the "Guardians of the Randall Valley". She was convinced that this was a mysterious group founded by local souls that silently guarded the earth and had saved the earth several times without anyone knowing.
The power of a ring warlock is composed of two parts: body and soul. A soul without a body will be greatly weakened even if it can still use extraordinary powers. And every spell that breaks the limit will consume the soul itself.
Mr. Lathers's research before his death believed that every time the "guardian" souls used the "power of the earth" to heal the mad land, they were most likely casting spells at the cost of the weakening of their souls themselves.
The demise of the previous generation of guardians was most likely due to this reason, and it is obvious that facing the increasingly frequent emergencies since this winter, Mr. Lathers and Mr. Thomas Granger could not hold on for too long.
"They didn't choose you as the next guardian, did they?"
Luvia and Shade sat on the same sofa. She asked Shade with some concern, but Shade thought it shouldn't be:
"Their choice should be more inclined towards the locals. Besides, I have met them twice, but they have no intention of guiding me to find the truth. Moreover, I don't want to sacrifice myself for this. I mean..."
"No need to explain this, so what is the next direction of the investigation?"
Miss Benanis asked.
There are two directions for the next investigation. On the one hand, the relics of her father found by Miss Lathers contain the complete "exploration" process of Mr. Lathers during his lifetime. He had left his footprints in every corner of the Randall River Valley, and the destination was the Forgotten Church. There are many vague places in these records, so Miss Lathers plans to retrace her father's "exploration path". Maybe when she also comes to the wall of the Forgotten Church, she will understand how to meet her father.
On the other hand, the records that Shad found from Cassandra's auction house were indeed useful, thanks to his reputation. After carefully looking at the photos, Miss Benanis identified three items that were related to the "Heart of the Earth".
"This china vase, this statue, and this key."
She selected three of the 21 records Xia De brought and placed them on the coffee table. Xia De took the files corresponding to the three photos and checked them. Then he was very happy to find that there were corresponding records when the three items were sold more than ten years ago, and the buyers were all locals. If he was lucky, he could find all these things in a few days.
"Should we search separately, or investigate together?"
Shade asked, and Miss Benaness thought for a moment:
"I will accompany Hillis to investigate Mr. Lathers's direction. But you don't have to investigate alone. I will send someone to investigate whether these three auction items are still in the hands of the buyers back then. Once the location of the three items is determined, you can pay a visit."
The reason why they didn't recycle them directly was because these three items might contain clues left directly by Mr. Lathers, so it would be safer to let Shade handle them personally:
"If you need help, come to me again. You can mobilize all the ring sorcerers of the Golden Dawn. But after what happened last weekend, the Orthodox Church in this diocese is very sensitive to all local affairs. You'd better not make too much noise... It's interesting to say that they think you who appeared at that time were the God Summoner."
Luvia on the side laughed:
"Whether Shad is a Godcaller or not is as obvious as the hickey on his neck that has yet to fade."
Now Miss Benanis and Miss Lathers also smiled.
Xia De hurriedly pulled up his collar, but felt that this was even more ridiculous. So he picked up the cat that was taking a nap nearby, and when the cat was half asleep and didn't know what was going on, he "wrapped" the soft cat around his neck, as if it had turned it into a scarf.
The preliminary investigation of the three auction items will be done by Miss Benannis's followers, which will take about one or two days to a week, so during this time Shad can relax a little and focus on other things.
For example, I went to meet the elf girl Emilia Sienold in the evening.
Most of the items on the "shopping list" she left for Shade were already in Shade's basement "freezer", and a few were purchased by him after a trip to Coldwater Port. The delivery job that evening was actually very simple, and he could go alone, but Luvia wanted to see the unicorn again, so she followed Shade.
The two of them still rode from the city to the suburbs and set up camp at the place where they met last time.
When it was time to cook, Shade stopped Luvia from getting up:
"I do it, I mean, I do it with my thaumaturgy. It was late last night when I got home, and I didn't use Fiona's domestic servants at number six St. Teresa's Square."
Luvia looked at Shade curiously as he took out a ruby from his pocket:
"Red dragons are good at kitchen work, so the spellcasting material is ruby."
He asked Luvia, who was wearing a cloak to keep out the cold, to hold Mia, and then put all the ingredients into the prepared pot.
After throwing the ruby, Shade activated the magic and threw the ruby towards the bonfire. But it did not land on the ground, and fell into the thick white fog. The thick fog quickly enveloped the bonfire and the pot with food. Even Shade could not sense what was happening in the white fog.
I just feel that this white fog looks very familiar.
The spellcasting process was not long, as the housekeepers were very fast. From the time the ruby, estimated at £154, left his hand to the time the mist dispersed again, it was only 7 minutes and 23 seconds. When the light of the bonfire illuminated the two people and the cat next to them, a sumptuous dinner had already appeared on a stone dining cart that seemed to be made from local materials.
The dishes were filled with delicious food, and the ingredients used were far beyond what Shade could provide. At the same time, there was a note in the corner of the dining car, written in an unknown language, which was most likely Dragon language after identification:
I hope you enjoyed this dinner and don't have to bring your own ingredients next time. The ruby is beautiful and I can provide you with three more meals.
Behind it is a playful hand-painted stick figure with a smiley face. The price of the domestic servant Red Dragon is surprisingly high, but its personality is much more lively than Shade expected.