Shade hurried over and knocked on the door of Dorothy's apartment in the dark. The landlady who opened the door certainly knew the famous detective from Tobesk. Although she looked down on the rumored love affairs of the detective, she still informed Shade of the writer's movements:
"After Louisa came back from the publishing house in the afternoon, she has been staying in her room. She didn't even go out for dinner. She is probably trying to lose weight again. This is not a good habit for young girls nowadays... Mr. Hamilton, do you want to go upstairs to see her? However, you can only stay until half past nine."
This apartment is only rented to women, and the rule when renting it is that men cannot stay overnight. Shade knew this before, so he thanked the landlady who seemed strict but actually took good care of Dorothy.
Just as expected, when Shad arrived at Dorothy's apartment on the third floor, he knew with his eyes closed that there was no heartbeat in the room, but he still used illusion to fake Dorothy's voice and invited himself in.
"Is this Shade? Please come in."
Then there was the sound of a door opening, faked by an illusion. Shad did not have the key to Dorothy's apartment, but the spirit power consumed by the "Door Key" to deal with this kind of door lock was not as fast as its recovery speed.
"Good evening, Dorothy."
He said to the empty room, and then walked in. Shade had been to this apartment more than once. After closing the door, he quickly checked the room and then saw the manuscript being written at the desk.
The manuscript was interrupted at the word "corpse", with two letters left to write. And Dorothy's favorite chair behind the desk was placed in a way that looked like it was being used:
"Disappear on the spot?"
If only Leicia was missing, then the princess should have informed Dorothy of the matter through her ability to communicate across space. Therefore, before coming here, Shade guessed that Dorothy might not be there either.
He took a deep breath, then used magic to create an illusion of Dorothy and asked her to go downstairs with him. Then he told the landlady that he was going to travel out of town for a few days to collect materials.
Because Dorothy had done similar things before, and although Shad had a bad reputation in his private life, the "famous detective of Tobesk" was only discussed in his private life. Therefore, the landlady, as an ordinary person, did not doubt it, but only asked the writer to be careful.
Having thus given a reasonable explanation for Dorothy's disappearance, Shad threw away the crystal slippers and returned home.
"Meow~"
"Mia, I don't have time to play with you for now. I have something urgent to do... I don't know what time I will be home tonight. Please come with me."
Shade came out of the bathroom and said to the surprised cat, then scooped it up and quickly went to the basement, entered the hidden space behind the wall, and picked up the butterfly flute from the shelf on the wall.
This is a gift from the butterfly god Thousand Eyes Illusion Butterfly from the Fifth Era to Shade after the adventure in the Worm Cave. It is a genuine divine item. It can be played to summon butterflies and can enhance the power of magic and spells related to butterflies. However, Shade has kept it with Helen and Grace to help them fight against the revived Whispering Relic.
When the Red Butterfly girls were about to leave Middleburg with Cassandra, they gave the flute to Shade so that he could play it to call them. Shade thought it was useless, but he actually used it.
Because he had a vague guess in his mind, he did not play the flute at home, but turned around to touch the statue and went to Green Lake. He just came to Green Lake Hotel with the cat and just came out of the hidden wall, he felt something was wrong.
"Undead... Space... What happened locally?"
He did not go through the newly opened door in the basement, but still went through the side door of the kitchen, and then came to the alley behind the hotel. The night was gloomy and scary, and in Shade's eyes, countless phantoms were circling in the clouds in the night sky, and the number was astonishing.
This is not Midhill Castle, and these souls are extremely unreal and almost like projections. They will not affect the city and its residents for the time being, but this is still very wrong:
"What's going on here?"
But Shade didn't have time to deal with this matter for the time being, and the local church would naturally handle it. He said hello to the boy John who had "returned home" and told him not to "go out" casually tonight. After going around to the main entrance of the hotel, he first asked Mr. Soren Green and learned that Reverend Augustus had not yet checked in. Then he returned to the room on the third floor and blew the silver flute in his hand in the room.
As the flute sounded, hundreds of phantom red butterflies appeared around Xia De, gradually turning from illusory to solid, which surprised the cat on the sofa. But before it stretched out its claws to catch the butterflies, the phantom red butterflies gathered in front of Xia De, outlining the appearance of two fifteen or sixteen-year-old girls.
The red butterflies dispersed, and the twins appeared. The black-haired girl in the white dress and the black-haired girl in the black dress pulled the hem of their skirts and came to Xia De together:
"Good evening, sir."
"Good evening, sir... I feel the power of death outside my window, but not very strongly."
They lifted their skirts, knelt down and bowed, then looked up and smiled at Shade. The young girls looked very good and smiled sweetly. Shade wanted to smile at them, but he couldn't:
"Good evening, Grace. Good evening, Helen. This is Green Lake, and we are at the Green Lake Inn. I need help."
"Please go ahead."
The overlapping voices said that they noticed Shad's anxious expression.
"Do you remember the pair of red butterfly pendants you gave me? The two pendants that could bring together Resia and Dorothy, who could never meet. Can you locate the current location of the two pendants?"
If they can't do it, Shade will have to find Luvia. There is still one home coin left among the special coins, and she will definitely be able to tell the result.
Grace in the white dress responded:
"It is not possible to locate the entire world, and we do not have the means to leave a location on the gift we send you."
"But if we are in the same city or very close, sir, we can search for those forces of the same origin."
Helen in black dress supplemented.
"Okay then, now help me find the location of those two pendants."
So they held hands together and closed their eyes. After a moment, they opened their sky blue eyes:
"Sir... The spatial environment in this area is too chaotic, which seriously affects our perception."
"It's okay, try again. Can't you connect my power? Just like in Randall Valley, come on, try again."
Shade placed his hands on their shoulders, and the three of them cast a spell together.
"Strong Spatial Perception" helped Grace and Helen to the greatest extent, eliminating the influence of the chaotic spatial state. When the city scene centered on the three people gradually spread to the larger area around them, the first thing Shade noticed was that a similar force was approaching the Green Lake Hotel one street away.
Then the perception range continued to spread to the surroundings, and a similar power appeared on a ship in the Duin River, but it was not the red butterfly pendant, the True Red Butterfly, which was a sage-level relic, but the pendant that Luvia gave to Megan and Audrey in the morning.
The evidence is that as soon as the three people sensed that place, the power of the same origin was obscured, which means that the great witch discovered that someone was spying on her.
Even if Shade cast the spell to the limit, the final perception range only covered a small part of the outside of Green Lake City, and did not even extend south to the shore of Green Lake. But this was enough. The red dot moving towards the Green Lake Hotel obviously represented one of the girls Shade was looking for.
After the perception was over, Shad went downstairs with Mia, Grace and Helen. Mr. Soren Green, who was watching the shop on the first floor, was very surprised that Shad was alone when he went upstairs, and when he came downstairs, he was not only accompanied by the cat, but also by two girls aged fifteen or sixteen. This was obviously in violation of the hotel's rules behind the counter.
But thinking of the various girls and ladies who appeared around Shad, and his relationship with his aunt, Mr. Green just smiled and greeted him.
It took a long time to perceive with the Red Butterfly girls just now, so when the three of them reached the first floor and the door of the hotel was pushed open from the outside, Shad immediately thought that it was Dorothy or Lesia who came.
But then, he saw Dr. Schneider push the door open. The blue-eyed middle-aged psychiatrist also saw Shade who had just walked down the stairs. He was a little curious about who the twins next to Shade were, but more dissatisfied, he said to Shade:
"Detective, look at your expression now. Are you so disappointed to see me show up?"
"No, I am..."
"I'm not kidding you. Today I went to do some shopping at Grandma Natalie's place that you introduced me to. That old lady with a very nice personality also introduced me to a store outside the city to buy rare goods. You will never guess who I met when I came back."
He made way for the blonde girl, who looked a little uneasy, to come in. Dorothy saw Shad at a glance and naturally noticed the anxiety and expectation on his face.
"oh!"
There were other guests dining on the first floor. Shad suppressed the urge to call out her name, walked up to her and hugged her with his arms, and Dorothy also hugged him tightly.
The doctor shook his head, not knowing what he meant. Mr. Soren Green watched the scene from behind the counter, tapping his fingers on the table while recalling which one this was. Helen, in a black dress, poked her sister's arm and quietly pointed in the direction of the doctor. Grace nodded cautiously and whispered a few words in her sister's ear to express her agreement.