In this way, on the sixth day of the Windy Moon, Margaret of Anjou officially completed the mission of Vanessa Benanis, the "Witch of the Earth", and became the witch's apprentice. The contradictions and conflicts between the Randall Valley Stonemasons Association and the Anjou Royal Family were finally resolved through various interest exchanges, mediation, and the "help" of the cultists.
Xia De sighed in his heart, wondering what kind of things he would encounter at Oxenfurt Manor at this time tomorrow night.
However, before Xia De could express his feelings, he heard "her" voice:
earthquake.
The wine glass in Shade's hand produced ripples, and then the whole house shook. Fortunately, because there have been many earthquakes in the Randall River Valley in recent times, people were not too panicked.
Everyone evacuated to the outdoor courtyard in an orderly manner. The thinly dressed ladies relied on their male companions for warmth, while the servants brought warm towels and a few clothes and distributed them to the people evacuating to the courtyard.
Miss Benanis refused the coat that Margaret sent and handed it to a young girl whom Shad didn't know, which made the young girl a little at a loss.
"Look over there."
Miss Sylvia suddenly said, and at the same time the crowd also noticed the abnormality in the night sky.
So Xia De looked up at the eastern sky. In the dark night, it was as if a transparent curtain had been lowered from the sky, or as if a constantly leaping flame had solidified in the night. Dreamlike colors appeared in the distance of the sky, winding and beautiful, even like a transparent colorful mountain had appeared in the night sky.
"aurora."
Miss Lathers said softly:
"I've lived in the Randall Valley for so many years and never heard that we would have auroras here."
Other guests in the courtyard also noticed the strange color of the eastern sky, and their discussion of the scenery diluted the chill of the late winter night.
"A precursor to a major earthquake."
Miss Benanis said with certainty:
“Even with my eyes closed, I could feel the ground stirring. It was almost as if... there was an active volcano beneath our feet, and an eruption was imminent.”
"In about 30 hours."
Shade said softly:
"I just met the guardian, and he told me that the fourth stage of the Crazy Land will appear in the early hours of Saturday morning."
"30 more hours?"
Miss Sylvia narrowed her eyes slightly:
"Time is really tight... Let's go back to Benanis's manor. There's no point in staying here any longer."
"OK."
There were quite a few guests who wanted to leave at this time, and the most important part of the banquet had already ended. It was not appropriate to continue with the panic-stricken state of the people. Shade said hello to Margaret and left with the other three ladies.
However, they were not going to take the carriage back, and Miss Sylvia planned to open the portal and leave directly. For a short-distance teleportation in a city like this, there was no need to worry about being detected as long as there were no other people within a hundred meters.
Of course, Miss Sylvia knew how to teleport in this short distance before, but only after she had the strange Enlightenment Weaving could she guarantee 999% safety. Moreover, the teleportation location needed to be arranged in advance, and she couldn't just leave at any time.
The four of them came to the temporarily deserted back garden. As the black-haired young witch raised her right hand and chanted a spell, a vortex of gold and black appeared in front of the low wall of the manor's back garden amid the sound of shattering glass:
"Let's go."
Miss Sylvia, Miss Benanis, and Miss Lathers walked in one by one, and Shade followed at the end. But before entering the vortex, he turned his head one last time, looking past the brightly lit manor house under the shadow of the moon, and toward the night sky with the aurora in the east:
"Finally, it's the end again."
She smiled gently:
The sixth era of the present world, the year 1854 of the universal calendar, the end of winter, the month of rising winds.
The colorful aurora is reflected in your eyes, and the cold night wind howls at you about the impending disaster. You are running around in this ancient blood city, and you finally get a glimpse of the final truth in the conspiracy of demons and cultists. The blood of the kingdom has completed its mission, and the girl who pursues her father has also seen the end of the road. Next, it is the last chapter of the story of the river valley. Strangers who step on the land, when lions and brown bears run in the river valleys and mountains, when evil people in black robes wait in the shadows, and when the loveless people with stone hearts in their chests pray silently, what choice will you make in the end
"When you say that, I get nervous all of a sudden."
Shade muttered softly, then turned and walked towards the portal. With another sound of glass breaking, the black and gold vortex shrank and disappeared, leaving only the silent night, as if frozen in the time of this catastrophe.
The news provided by the guardians about the disaster in Randall Valley early Saturday morning, the resurrection of fossils, and his own problems were still passed on to the Witch Council by Miss Benannis, who then contacted the Church of the Five Gods and passed the news on.
Just like Miss Benannis said, if she hadn't found Shad and repeatedly showed that she had close relationships with men, it wouldn't be long before the church would have identified her as a suspect during the secret search for witches.
As for Shade, after returning to the witches' manor on Thursday night, he told the witches about his meeting with the guardian tonight. Because before that, Shade had speculated based on what he had seen in the past life, the sixth era, that there would be problems with the guardian before the chosen one's ceremony, and he told his speculation, so the witches in the manor were not very surprised by this result.
The upcoming battle of Randall Valley will probably be no less intense than the battle of Midhill Castle in late autumn last year. Because of the outstanding performance of the witches in the battle of Pantanal Swamp last year, the Witch Council has negotiated with the Orthodox Church to hire the witches to join the ranks of protecting the city, just like the spiritual cult in the Tobesk Darkness Incident and the Apna Library that helped guard the narrow space during the Battle of Midhill Castle.
Shade went to the manor on Friday night, and the turmoil and disaster came on Saturday morning. Even though the witches were short of manpower due to assisting the church, Miss Aurora, Miss Benanis, Miss Carina and Miss Sylvia still decided that at least one person would wait for news from Shade outside the Oxenfort Manor tomorrow.
The final candidate was Miss Sylvia, who had mastered the power of space. In this way, even if the entire manor was pulled into the subspace by the devil, Miss Sylvia would be able to find a way to rescue Shade.
So, in addition to Sister Diefflin, Ms. Marilyn Handel, Joeyne Barton and Dr. Schneider, there will be one more friend who will appear near the manor to help Shad tomorrow.
But Xia De actually felt that maybe he alone was enough.
That night, the lights of the Benanis Manor were on, and everyone discussed their plans until late. Although Miss Benanis strongly invited Shad to stay overnight at her manor, Shad chose to return to Tobesk's home.
It’s not that the environment of the manor is not as good as No. 6 St. Teresa’s Square, but only when he falls asleep at No. 6 St. Teresa’s Square can Shad feel that he is sleeping soundly.
There were no girls staying overnight at home tonight, so Shad packed up the relics and materials he would take to the Randall River Valley tomorrow, then washed up and went to bed early.
Mia lay peacefully beside Shade's pillow. Although it was unfair to the cat, Shade decided to take Mia with him to Oxenfurt Manor tomorrow. There was only one last chance to get the time key for the autumn of the fifth era 3028. Since he was not sure whether he would have to travel through the Evernight City, it was necessary to take the lighting equipment cat with him.
Shade knew how cruel it was to let this weak, pitiful and helpless cat go with him to the manor where the devil's power was entrenched. So when he fell asleep with a heavy heart at night, he had another rather bizarre dream.
In his dream, he was walking alone with a candlestick in his hand in the dark corridor of the Night Manor, which was similar to the place where the God of Vampires held cocktail parties. At the end of the corridor, in front of the door, lay Shad's own body.
When he walked forward to take a closer look, the corpse stretched out its hand and threw Xia De, who was looking at it, into the bottomless abyss behind the door. While falling, Xia De saw something glowing at the bottom of the abyss.
That was Mia, the majestic Mia who looked like a big tiger. She was wearing the golden armor sent by Miss Mia San Gold, and when she shook her tail, it looked like the sun falling into the abyss.
Golden Mia flew towards the falling Shad, but instead of saving him, she slapped Shad in the chest with her claws.
The claw in the dream did not cause obvious pain, but the strong shock still woke Xia De up:
“Oh my god~”
The stranger, awakened from his nightmare, sat up suddenly from his bed. He panted and looked at the bedroom scene, and when he recalled his dream, he saw the soft cat rolling from his chest to the quilt around his waist because of his movement of getting up.
After the cat struggled to stand up, it looked at him with a reproachful look.
I don’t know if it’s because of the dream just now, but when Xia De looked at the cat staring at him with its big amber eyes, he actually felt for a moment that the look was inexplicably... charming.
"Oh, what am I thinking?"
He was stunned for a moment, then slapped his face hard, and looked out the window again. It was still almost dark outside the curtains. At this time in late winter, the nights were still very long, and even at six in the morning, the night was still so dark.