The rain in Tobesk is much gentler than the rain in the port city. The rain that lasted for a day greatly weakened the polluted fog covering the city and also made the air in the city fresher.
Summer is a hot and humid season, but when you travel in the summer rain, you don’t feel any heat at all, nor do you feel the excessive humidity like in the rain in Lengshuigang City.
When Shad knocked on the door of Miss Louisa's apartment with a paper bag and an umbrella, the rain poured down from the eaves onto the umbrella, and the landlady who opened the door looked a little unhappy.
It's not that I don't welcome the tenant's guests, but I'm blaming Xia De for disturbing me for the second time today. All the people living here are ladies, and the landlady doesn't welcome men to visit frequently, which is also a requirement in the rental contract.
Miss Louisa was even more surprised when she saw Shade. She was still wearing the same skirt she wore when they met in the morning. It seemed that she had not gone out today because of the weather.
"Shad, you haven't left yet? Is there anything else you want to tell me?"
"No, no, I'm not leaving. I'm back. Look, here's a souvenir I brought for you."
When he got to the living room on the third floor, he handed over a freshly dead fish wrapped in a paper bag, which had a strong fishy smell.
"Meow~"
Amid the cry, the cat that was originally standing on the windowsill suddenly pounced over. But Mia didn't want to pounce on the unfortunate fish. It jumped from the windowsill to the chair, from the chair to the table, and then hugged Xia De's arm at the height of the table, and never let go of its claws.
It meowed several times in a seemingly aggrieved voice, fearing that Xia De would abandon it again.
"It lay on the windowsill for almost the entire afternoon, staring at the street outside the window."
Miss Louisa said with a smile, then looked at the fish with disdain:
"Shad, what makes you think I know how to handle fish? I never handle such troublesome things. But this fish looks good. Did you catch it yourself?"
After asking, he looked at the fish suspiciously:
"But... it's very fresh and seems to be sea fish. Where did you go?"
"Well... this is a very long story. Please allow me to keep it secret for now."
In fact, I don’t want to reveal the secret of my house for the time being:
"I'm really tired today. I came here to pick up Mia and I have to go back to eat. Miss Louisa, thank you very much for helping to take care of the cat. I hope it doesn't cause you any trouble."
"This cat is very well behaved, but haven't you eaten yet?"
The blonde girl asked with concern, standing up from the sofa:
"Since you got a big fish, why don't we eat the fish together? It happens that your cat and I haven't eaten yet."
"You don't know how to handle fish? Oh, me neither."
"So let's go out to eat. I know a really nice restaurant that allows guests to bring their own ingredients. Also, I think your cat will like fish, but be careful not to get it stuck with any bones."
"Meow~"
Mia probably didn't hear what the blonde girl said. She was held in Shad's arms, squinting her eyes and concentrating on rubbing her face against Shad's clothes.
"Come to think of it, I forgot to ask you this morning, why did you suddenly want to go on a long journey?"
Miss Louisa went into the bedroom to change her clothes for going out, while Shade sat on the sofa without moving. The two talked through a door, but this was completely different from talking with Miss Carina through the door. Talking like this with the blonde writer only made Shade feel friendly and trusting, but talking with the unfamiliar witch at that time made him feel nervous.
“The reason to go out...”
Xia De thought about it and did not tell anyone about going deep into the ruins to face the Silver Eyed One. This matter was very dangerous, and there was no need to involve Miss Louisa. He held the teacup in one hand and stroked the cat with the other, and said to the closed door:
"It was just a sudden inspiration. As you know, a ring wizard can sometimes come up with wonderful inspirations. I recently had the idea to go on a long journey."
"It's great to have inspiration, but you must also be careful of the traps it brings, Ringwitch..."
She paused, and Shad's overly sensitive hearing allowed him to hear the sound of the closet door being opened.
"Sometimes, a ring wizard's inspiration does not come from what he thinks of, but from something that reminds him of something."
Miss Louisa continued to impart her experience through a door, her tone somewhat lazy:
“So, you must think carefully before doing anything, but you can’t be timid about it.”
He heard the hangers in the closet colliding with each other, heard footsteps, heard clothes being thrown on the bed, and then heard the sound of the skirt being untied...
The scene popped into Xia De's mind, and his face flushed.
"Oh, Miss Louisa, I need to use the bathroom. Mia's paws need to be washed. They have left two marks on my clothes."
"Okay... I remember its paws were very clean, right?"
Shade did not answer, but walked quickly to the bathroom. The bathroom was far away from Miss Louisa's bedroom, so Shade could not hear the sounds he should not hear.
The bathroom in the apartment where the female writer rented was smaller than the bathroom in Xia De's house. The steam pipe was not buried in the wall, but went directly through the wall and climbed on the wall, making the area inside the bathroom look smaller.
There was a strong smell of spices in the bathroom, which was not because perfume had been spilled here, because the bathroom of the Shade family actually had a similar smell. The sewer system of this era was not very perfect, so in order to prevent the strange smell from appearing in the bathroom and spreading to the whole house, the poor used orange peels, and those with a little money would get some low-quality spices and put them at the bathroom door or the sewer pipe joint to cover the smell.
He reached out and turned on the gas lamp. Without looking around, he walked straight to the sink. The metal frame had a bright mirror in the middle, and the faucet under the mirror was brass-colored with a series of numbers printed on the side. He turned on the faucet again with a creaking sound. Clear water gurgled out a few times before flowing out normally from the faucet:
"When did my hearing become so good?"
He still blushed a little, holding the cat in one hand and looking at the mirror, while sweeping the other hand back and forth under the faucet, creating the sound of real water.
This must be the unimportant property of Thaumaturgy-Echoes of the Past, which slightly improved your hearing level. Otherwise, how did you keep picking up footsteps in the busy city
Although there was no one behind himself in the mirror, the sound still made Xia De believe that a woman was lying behind him, whispering in his ear.
He looked in the mirror and carefully touched his shoulders with his wet hands, but he felt nothing either inside or outside the mirror.
The woman chuckled in Xia De's ear, as if mocking his behavior at this moment:
But why were you blushing just now
"Why do you say I'm blushing?"
He asked back, looking at his obviously Western-looking self in the mirror, and waved at the mirror. Looking at his reflection in the mirror, he also laughed at his own stupid behavior.
"Meow~"
Mia Cat noticed Shad's movements, and she stood up by squirming in his elbow, and then waved her paws at the small orange cat in the mirror. After seeing the cat in the mirror waving its paws, Mia Cat made a threatening sound towards "it".
Outsiders are not good at cooking, so most of the time they eat at cheap restaurants around St. Teresa's Square.
The restaurant that Miss Louisa took Xia De to this time looked like a so-called high-end restaurant. Fortunately, it was not too high-end, otherwise they would have to change their clothes before entering.
The restaurant allows customers to bring their own ingredients, and the chef recognized that what Shad brought was a common sea fish on the West Coast called 'Orick'. Although it was dead, it didn't seem to have been dead for too long.
"Don't worry, your fish won't be wasted."
Shad still remembered Delarion's poor eating standards, so because of the chef's confidence, he was worried that he would see terrible dishes like "fish head pizza" next.
I didn't expect that I would end up enjoying delicious fish soup and fried fish with Miss Louisa and Mia.
They sat at a table against a wall covered with paintings of lavender fields and windmills.
Miss Louisa saw that Shade was worried, and during the meal, she tried to find out what he was doing, but was rejected by Shade in the end. So, she finally just hinted that he could ask her for help, but Shade really didn't want to involve Miss Louisa in that trouble.
But overall, the dinner was quite pleasant. Miss Louisa talked about the menu here with great interest, and Xia De talked about the interesting experience of meeting Professor Manning when he attended an academic lecture last Friday.
As for Mia, for the sake of the cat's health, Shad did not share the fish soup with her, but the restaurant's chef specially separated a piece of meat from the big fish with the fish bones removed. Mia the cat probably would not have time to pay attention to Shad before she finished her meal.
You also have to pay for the food you bring out, but when you leave, Shade just put the tip under the plate and doesn't pay anything else because Miss Louisa said that this meal should be put on the bill as before.
When they were holding umbrellas outside the restaurant in the rain, and Shade was about to take the blonde back to Quill Pen Street, Miss Louisa said that she didn't pay for the meal:
"Lecia is a regular customer like this. She often sneaks out to eat here, so just put it on her account."
The two walked together on the rainy street, with the cat curled up on Shade's shoulder. The gas street lamps were dim in the rain, and the three full moons were hidden behind the dark clouds. Judging from Miss Louisa's nonchalant tone, it was not the first time she had done this.
Her relationship with Princess Leia Cavendish, whom Shad hadn't met yet, seemed to be really good.