Hearing Xia De's question, the doctor holding the fishing rod looked at him suspiciously:
"Don't make deals with demons. This is common sense. Why would you really want to make a deal with them? More importantly, how do you know you can't defeat them?"
"Because I don't have it..."
Halfway through the conversation, Xia De finally realized what the doctor meant and couldn't help laughing.
The doctor shook his head.
"I can't stand seeing demons taking away souls. Since you said I definitely won't encounter them, I'll assume you don't have any help."
In fact, there is also the high-ring witch Miss Higgins, but she is suppressed by the Black Mist Camp, and if a real fight breaks out, even Shade might not be able to win, so Shade didn't mention her.
"The devil of greed can inspire greed in mortals, but it is also greedy itself. Find a way to make it agree to bet with you, and then use that soul as a bet. This way, maybe you don't even need to fight."
The doctor reminded him, and Xia De nodded. This method is indeed good:
"But I may not win the bet."
"That's right, so you have to cheat. This is a just cause. There's no need to talk about morality with the devil. You bet with it on the heads or tails of a coin. It itself is made of coins, so it will definitely agree. I'll give you a coin I made in advance so that you can deceive it and win. Of course, if you can't win, you can find a way to let the other party absorb the coin... Then you don't have to worry."
The doctor easily solved the problem that Xia De thought would be troublesome.
"Detective, when do you want to use the coins? Although it's not difficult to make, it takes a long time. It will probably take a week to a week and a half before I can give you the finished product."
"It's okay, let's deal with the maze first. I'm not in a hurry."
"Okay."
The doctor nodded and was about to talk to Shade about the anomaly in this lake area, when suddenly the fishing rod in his hand shook and he actually caught a fish:
"You're finally here!"
The doctor didn't even bother to talk, and suddenly jumped off the coffin, turning the roller to reel in the fishing line. However, the force in the water was so strong that the doctor staggered and almost fell into the lake:
"Detective, help!"
“Here it comes!”
Shade also reached out and grabbed the fishing rod, and then he also felt the huge force in the lake. Whatever it was, it definitely couldn't be a fish, unless there was a whale in Green Lake.
But no matter what, seeing that the doctor's hands were emitting black air, he was obviously using magic, so Shade also activated the power of the red dragon. So under the power of the dragon and the devil, the thing caught in the water finally moved closer to the shore as the two retreated step by step. The two sides wrestled for ten minutes, and after repeated pulling again and again, the glass bottle filled with colorful smoke was finally pulled ashore by the fishhook.
When it flew out of the lake with water droplets, Shade could even see the surprised expression of the blue "giant" in the bottle.
"Oh~"
Now Xia De understood what the doctor was doing here so early in the morning.
Dr. Schneider grabbed the glass bottle hanging on the fishhook and popped the cork off neatly. As colorful smoke came out, the blue giant appeared in front of Shade again.
The Sage-level relic Greed's Reward contains the "Demon of Wish - Zatanna". This is the third time Shad has seen it, including the encounter during the "Seven Days Journey" in the Fifth Era.
This time, after the blue "giant" appeared, it did not immediately mention the three wishes, but rather questioned Shade in dissatisfaction:
"We already agreed at the time that I would give you clues and you would let me go. Why are you breaking your promise now?"
Being questioned by a demon for having no integrity is probably a rare experience.
So Xia De, who thought he was very honest, still defended himself:
"Look at what you said. What does this have to do with me? I didn't fish you out! And you stayed at Green Lake? What were you thinking?"
"Detective, I told you yesterday that the chaos and depression in the Green Lake area are very attractive to demons. Although it has become a relic, the demon's nature has not changed. Now that it's here, how can it leave? When I set out from our city, I thought of looking for it, and you see, the plan went smoothly."
The doctor smiled and a dark red light flashed in his eyes:
"Do you know me?"
The giant then turned to look at the doctor, hesitated for a moment, and shook his head slightly:
"Maybe. But since you ask, I definitely don't know you."
"Well, I have some troublesome matters to deal with in Green Lake. I need your help. After I leave Green Lake, I will let you go. I can sign a contract to guarantee this."
After that, he explained to Xia De:
"Although Yaru is not very strong, you said there are many dangers on the island. To be on the safe side, it would be better for us to find a helper."
Xia De also felt that the doctor's arrangement was appropriate, and he was worthy of being a person who had made three plans before leaving Tobesk.
As for the wish demon Zatanna, it saw Shad and the doctor talking, and shook its bottle violently to escape, but the bottle was firmly held in the doctor's hand. Seeing the blue-eyed middle-aged man looking at it suspiciously again, it could only sigh:
"I knew I should have just left here. Fine, I can help you. But my help is not free."
"We can talk about this later."
The doctor was very satisfied with the result, so he asked Xia De:
"I'm going to walk around the lake for a bit and then go in to check out the situation. Do you want to come with me? Can you introduce me to this place?"
Xia De shook his head regretfully:
"I have other things to do. I will go to the outskirts of the city to investigate a circus. That circus is involved in many things, and it is related to the Gray Gloves."
This is the task Margaret gave to Shad.
"It is also suspected to be related to a relic."
This was on the witch's task list, and since the two tasks were in the same place, Shade decided to go and solve them. The mushroom samples he obtained from the last mission with the earl and the poisonous mushroom were very useful, and he wanted to see what he would encounter this time.
"Well, go do your thing. I'll leave you a message at the inn once I'm ready. So far, things are going well. I thought I'd have to fish all day... I'll remember the coin thing, too. Don't worry about that."
The doctor said with a smile, and Shade waved goodbye to him and left.
After making sure that Shade was far away, the doctor looked at the giant spirit still floating in the air, and the latter also looked at the doctor. The man and the demon stared at each other for a long time, and then the "giant spirit" folded his hands in front of his chest and asked:
"Your friend once asked me some interesting questions... The Devil..."
"Are you really going to say it?"
The psychiatrist asked, and the Giant nodded:
"What do you want to do? I am warning you, the guys on the island are not so easy to deal with."
The circus that Xia De was going to investigate today was not a local performance organization. They were a troupe that traveled around the Old World and made a living by performing. The reason they chose to come to Green Lake City was naturally because the number of outsiders in the Green Lake area had increased dramatically recently due to the negotiations between the two countries. Now that they came here, business would be quite good.
A group of people called "Blue Star Circus" are now stationed in the southern suburbs of Green Lake City, setting up camp and performing in a small village adjacent to the city. Although it is a village outside the city, it is a major transportation route and the only way from the southwest of Green Lake City to the Glass City, so people entering and leaving the city can see them.
Moreover, this location allows for performances in the city at any time, so it is a very convenient campsite.
Margaret's mission is to have the "Grey Eagle" find out what her brother, Prince Samuel Anjou, has done in Green Lake City by sending the Grey Gloves agents. On the witches' mission list, the Great Witch of Time suspects that there is a relic with cognitive-altering effects hidden in the circus, and does not recommend that girls below the middle ring go to investigate alone.
When Xia De went out of town to find a doctor just now, he had already asked the coachman about the circus, so he found their location easily.
The village of Kozvolcs, with a somewhat difficult name, is actually right next to the city. It doesn't even have a moat or a city wall, and only a dirt road separates the city from the countryside. The Blue Star Circus' camp is in the threshing ground outside the village.
In the spring, the villagers did not need to use the place frequently, so they rented it to the circus. The circus then formed a large circle with more than ten carriages and set up several stalls selling various souvenirs, forming a small camp.
But it was Thursday morning, and the circus was apparently without shows. The animals were all locked up in the tent, and the troupe members were gathered in twos and threes, playing cards or hanging out clothes.
Three policemen from the city were asking a man in a black silk hat about the information of the circus members; on the open-air wooden stage in the southeast corner of the camp, a middle-aged man holding a dagger was gesturing at a target ten steps away; the middle-aged bald man guarding the souvenir stall sat on a chair, yawned with his hands on his chest; in the temporary stable not far away, the groom was brushing the back of the red horse with a large brush; the most lively place was the open space on the west side of the camp, where a young juggler stood on a wooden high stool, surrounded by the children from the village, and performed to them the act of throwing three red balls at a time.
When he was throwing the ball, he would occasionally deliberately make tricks that he almost couldn't catch. Whenever this happened, the children would exclaim "Oh~" together and applaud together after the young man caught the ball.
The weather outside the city was good. Just looking at this camp, although it was possible to detect extremely low-level elemental reactions, a closer look did not reveal anything unusual. When Shade walked over, no one stopped him. After all, even if the circus did not perform, it could still sell souvenirs.