The familiar white mist appeared around Shade as he took a step. Entering the adventure of the past time made Shade feel relaxed, as he no longer needed to think about or care about anything at the current time.
Continue moving forward, and the curtain of the scenery of the Eternal Night City in the Fifth Era slowly opens.
The sound of rain was pattering, and the night drowned out the glowing mist. However, this time, Shade did not appear on the rainy streets, but directly appeared on the terrace of the castle in the center of the city, in an area known as the "Dusk Place".
In the semicircular area, there are tightly closed double metal doors on the wall where the straight edge is located, and in the two corners there are floor-standing candle lamps with the color of the sunset.
And under the curved wall near the outer edge of the terrace, there is a small tent surrounded by three-color moonlight thorns.
At this time, the tent was open, and the big-tailed red dragon girl was sitting on the soft bedding, wearing Shade's coat and a pair of small glasses that came from nowhere. She lowered her head and knitted something with a sweater under the illumination of the flame at the tip of her tail.
"Um?"
Although the scene is warm, it does not fit in with Shade's understanding of this place.
This scene once made him think that the final test of Evernight City was to break the illusion. But then Fiona noticed his appearance, and hurriedly hid the things she was knitting behind her, and when she stood up, she almost knocked down the tent. This scene made Shad realize that everything in front of him was real.
With a snap of the fingers, the tricolor moonlight thorns disappeared, and Fiona also walked out of the tent.
She said nothing, but opened her arms and hugged Xia De. Xia De thought that she had been alone here for too long and felt sad because of loneliness, so he hugged her too, but he didn't expect that the red-haired girl would push him again and kiss him directly.
This was the first time Xia De had encountered such a welcome.
"I said I'd be back."
Until Fiona was finally willing to let him go, Shad still thought that the red-haired girl was depressed, which led to this series of actions. Fiona said nothing, and when she tried to reach out and try to take off Shad's clothes (note), Shad finally realized that something was wrong and stopped her:
"Wait a minute, what are you going to do?"
"Really~"
The witch lady of the Fifth Epoch complained softly and gave up her action:
"Welcome back, Shade."
The topic seemed to be getting on track, but the Red Dragon Witch suddenly twitched her nose and sniffed at Shade's neck, then asked with considerable concern:
"Why does it smell like evil spirits and demons invading it?"
She placed her hand on Shade's left chest to feel his heartbeat, then frowned deeply:
"Shad, what did you just go through?"
"I encountered an ancient evil spirit. The Stone Mirror Demon - Goethe."
Shade said honestly that for the powerful witch of the Fifth Era, this was not a very taboo knowledge.
"Isn't that one of the oldest demons mentioned in the teacher's book?"
Fiona became even more worried.
"Oh, don't worry, my friend has resealed it. I suffered some minor injuries and I'm recovering now."
Shad patted his chest. Fiona also saw that Shad was recovering, but she was still worried about his encounter with the demon:
"I don't have the knowledge that my teacher and my teacher's teacher have. I can't solve your problem in a blink of an eye like them."
She said this in a somewhat depressed tone, and Xia De no longer wanted to continue this topic, so he asked with concern:
"Come to think of it, why didn't you sleep this time?"
As he spoke, he motioned to Fiona to help him pack the luggage in the tent.
"I slept too long the first two times and wasn't sleepy at all. So after waking up early, I found something to do."
The red-haired girl yawned softly and ladylike:
"I discovered that the curtain made by Teacher Filianna, although it requires constant attempts of luck to go to a place you have never been to, the curtain can allow the user to return to a place they have been to unconditionally."
While Shade was bending over to turn the quilt into a toy, she quickly put the things she had not yet finished knitting behind her:
"So I went to cafes, watch shops and art galleries to see if I could buy anything useful."
"What did you get?"
Shade asked curiously, and Fiona shook her head regretfully:
"I recovered some of my lost luggage and bought some wool and other sundries... But it wasn't completely fruitless. I finally remembered what kind of price Teacher Feliana and Teacher Orlanod wanted to pay to obtain the territory of the future school from the god we are about to meet."
"Very good!"
Xia De was delighted. He didn't expect that the second major event of the night could be solved so easily. If Fiona could remember everything, he wouldn't have to work so hard to find a way to get the Old God to agree to Miss Fiona's request.
"What is the price?"
"Miss Feliana found a treasure from the First Age that records the stories of the ancient gods. It is a gift that even the gods cannot refuse."
Unexpectedly, the "treasure" mentioned in Miss Danister's information turned out to be real, so "evil beast" and "story" were both wrong answers.
"So the story on that slab is..."
Shade asked expectantly. Fiona thought for a moment and said softly:
"The ancient god of Silver Moon incarnated as a saint and came to the material world. Together with the sun god, he defined day and night. This is the most appropriate gift for the god of night that we are about to face."
Xia De's smile froze in an instant.
If he remembered correctly, among the treasures that Miss Danister had described as being collected by Saint Byron in the Sixth Era, there was the stone tablet that Fiona had mentioned. Miss Danister even said that she would take him to see the stone tablet when Shade reached the twelfth ring.
The obvious fact is that if Fiona at this time in the Fifth Era gave the stone tablet as a gift to the God of Night whom they were about to meet, then there would be no reason for the stone tablet to still be collected by St. Byrons College in the Sixth Era.
In other words, even though they had not yet pushed open the door of the Dusk Place and entered the hall, Shad already knew that Fiona would fail.
"What's wrong?"
The Red Dragon girl also noticed that something was wrong with Xia De. Because it involved things in the future, Xia De couldn't say too much in detail and could only give a simple answer:
"There's a high probability that this deal will go wrong... Miss Feliana and Miss Orlanod, do you have any backup plans?"
Then it was Fiona's turn to look sad:
"I remember there should be a backup plan, but I only remember that there was a backup plan, and I don't remember the specific content."
This time, it was the last time that Shade came to Evernight City. He had no time to wait any longer. Even if he was willing to fail this mission and leave by himself to give Fiona more time to recover her memory, the red dragon girl would never be willing to be left here alone.
She would rather face failure with Shad.
It was quite convenient to pack the luggage with toys. The two chatted and packed the things they wanted to take away. Only the ancient "Dragon Book" needed to be carried. Of course, Shad could leave at any time, so Fiona carried him.
In addition to the things she had knitted, Fiona also secretly stuffed Shad's coat into her small bag when Shad wasn't paying attention. When Shad turned his head, she pretended to wrap the night curtain around her waist and put it away.
But in fact, after Xia De put away his things, he also thought about his clothes, but he did not ask for them:
"Let's go. No matter what, we have to face the consequences."
Shade said, reaching out and pressing his chest. Mia was now stored in the form of a toy in the inner pocket of his coat. Shade was about to face the gods, and he did not intend to let the cat out.
He just thought that even if he failed to help Miss Feliana achieve her goal this time, he should at least send Fiona out of here safely. Life is only once, and the opportunity to try to make a deal with God is not the only one for the witch.
And since the option of "treasure" is obviously impossible among the three possible intelligence obtained in the Sixth Era, between "interesting story" and "released ancient evil beast", Shade is more inclined to the former.
Because he really couldn't imagine what kind of ancient evil beast would appear here.
"Please wait a moment."
Fiona called out to Shade again. She knew that this would be the last time Shade would appear in Evernight City. And since they could set off right after arriving this time, a few minutes of delay would not be a big deal in a 40-minute time frame.
"Well, I..."
Thinking of my behavior just now, I blushed again, so the words I wanted to ask if we could meet again turned into other words:
"Do you need me to tell Miss Feliana and Mr. Orlanod what's the message?"
Although she was annoyed at her dishonesty, Fiona was still very satisfied with this question. If she really couldn't bring back a single word, she was sure that even if she had perfectly completed her mission to Evernight City, the two ladies would still be very dissatisfied.
"This..."
To be honest, Shade had never thought about this question. He had been entangled in the problem of demons and guardians during his time in the Randall Valley. Even when he thought about the past, he was only thinking about Fiona's safety:
"I wish them good health. I believe we will meet again one day."
There is no need to overly influence the future with your own words.
After Xia De finished speaking, he added:
"Fiona, we will meet again one day. I believe this very much."
The tip of the Red Dragon Girl's tail gently tapped the ground:
"I will also remember our meeting... ... I hope that the next time we meet, it won't be many years later... ... It's okay even if it's many years later. I know from Teacher Orlan Nord that you are not the same as us... ... But since we can meet across the long river of time, I think fate must have given us a special relationship. We will meet again."