"Thank you, sir."
Soul avoided the sunlight and bowed slightly to Shad in the shadows. Shad shook his head to indicate that it was nothing.
Mia looked towards the spirit, but Shad didn't notice the cat's actions.
"I don't know if you still remember, but we met once in the church. I didn't notice anything wrong with you at that time, otherwise maybe..."
“I don’t have any ifs anymore.”
The soul smiled bitterly and said that compared to the souls that Shad had met in the cemetery, which were related to love, family, and love and hatred spanning half a century, Mr. Freeman was more like a human:
"I know I shouldn't stay here. I should leave. But I want you to do me a favor."
He bowed again, and Shade thought for a moment:
"Tell me what you want to do first. I won't make promises to others casually."
"I actually saved a sum of private money. I don't know if you are married. Married men all have this habit."
He smiled embarrassedly and continued to explain:
"That sum of money was about 50 pounds, and I had saved it for ten years. I had originally planned to buy something that my wife thought was a waste of pounds, such as a handmade brass battleship model of Carsonrick, or a commemorative stamp worth collecting... The money was hidden in our original home, in a hole under the attic floor..."
Perhaps the hole where the money was hidden was too small, so Shad and the priest didn't find it when they checked it in the morning.
"Please give this money to my family. It is very important to them now... You can take half and give the remaining half to them."
He gave Shade an unnatural smile, obviously worried that Shade would take it all for himself. But he had no other choice, after all, he was just a soul.
"In that case, I promise Mr. Liming that I will only take the round-trip carriage fee and the commission fee of 1 pound. Although I am not a rich man, I will not make this kind of money."
Shade said softly, Soul's expression froze for a moment, then he bowed to Shade for the third time, and then disappeared into the shadows when Shade blinked.
He continued walking and went to where he was supposed to go.
When Shad returned from Hangleton Gardens with the money, Mrs. Freeman and her group had not yet returned home, so he opened the door of someone else's house without permission, went to the second floor, deducted the carriage fee and 1 pound, and put the remaining change into the opened moving box.
Of course, the painting was still in the folder and had not been touched, so the relic's properties did not take effect.
In order to prevent Mrs. Freeman from seeing the money, Shad thoughtfully placed the bills on top of the sundries and pressed one side with the children's cloth toys.
But probably because the well-made cloth toy was also in the image of a cat, Mia was very dissatisfied with being held by Shade. If Shade hadn't stopped her, she would have even wanted to rush into the wooden box and fight the "cat" to the death.
Although Mia is timid, once she encounters someone she thinks is not her opponent, she will show great courage and strength, which is why Mia was able to impress the owner of the pet store.
"You've been good today, let's go get something nice for dinner."
Xia De said happily while holding the orange cat, he really liked the feeling of self-satisfaction that doing good things brought him.
Walking from the Freeman family's temporary apartment to Dr. Schneider's clinic, Mrs. Freeman was about to return home with her two children.
Dr. Schneider had returned to the clinic and had wasted some time blurring the family's memories, which was why they met Shad at the door of the clinic.
The memory was already blurred, but Mrs. Freeman's impression of Shade did not fade away so quickly. When she met him, the middle-aged woman thanked Shade again, and then left with her two children.
Xia De stood at the door and watched their backs disappear into the distance of the street. Thinking about the relationship between mystery and ordinary people, he shook his head and turned to enter the clinic.
The doctor and the priest were waiting for him in the study on the second floor. When Shade entered, Dr. Schneider was listening to Priest Augustus telling him what they had done today.
"Very good, Shade. This is the standard procedure for collecting relics. Discover a problem, investigate. When you encounter danger, solve the problem and collect the relics. This time you followed Father Augustus, and you gained more than you did with me or Louisa."
The doctor praised, and the old priest smiled and squinted his eyes, saying modestly that all the credit today belonged to Xia De.
Xia De was in a good mood and sat down, then showed the doctor the painting. As expected, a new house model appeared in the painting, which was exactly what the clinic looked like.
But because no one touched it, the painting could be taken out of the clinic, and when entering the next house, the model on the table would be transformed into a new one.
"Based on your description, I think it's more likely that this relic is of clerical grade (level 4)."
After careful consideration, the blue-eyed doctor made a cautious judgment and explained the reasons:
"When you first encountered it, you didn't realize that it could transform wood into real objects. Compared to the bandaged puppets that chased you around the house, the transformation of wood into real objects, and the costless generation of the interior models of complex buildings, are the most valuable features of this relic."
"But at present, we still don't know how to make puppets that can be accepted by this painting, except for the puppets that Shade made with thaumaturgy, which were originally real objects."
Father Augustus said:
"So, I still think it's more likely that this item is of poet level."
Of course, the final rating of the relic depends on the records of the academy. If there are no records, it will be compared with the data of other academies and churches. If there are still no records, it will take a long time of testing to reach a conclusion.
The containment report for the relics cannot be written in one go, but the relics can be submitted directly to the academy. No one wants to keep such things in their home.
Of course, the relics submitted cannot be sent directly in the form of pages of poet Cohen's manuscripts. In order to prevent correspondence students from sending in strange things, the college usually stores the pages separately in a safe compartment.
The doctor first sent a note stating that the group was going to submit the relic. After receiving a reply from the academy, Xia De briefly described the relic's appearance and basic characteristics, and then sent the message to the academy.
This time, they waited for a full half an hour before the other side sent a message allowing the relic to be delivered. The academy used this half an hour to search for information and build appropriate containment measures. No one knew what the correspondence students were going to send.
The oil painting was rolled into a tube by Shad and placed on the manuscript paper in the doctor's hand. Shortly after it disappeared, a receipt appeared from the manuscript paper, indicating that St. Byrons received the relics sent by the students.
Another ten minutes passed before a piece of document with the St. Byron's school emblem printed on it was delivered.
This is the official letter for receiving the remains, which states the time and place, as well as the name of the student who submitted the remains, and the names of the professors from the Student Affairs Office and the School of Library Studies who are on duty that day.
The specific information of the relic is written in the middle, which means that the corresponding information of this relic has been found in the data and it is a known relic that has been recorded.
Dr. Schneider was correct, this was a clerical-level (fourth-level) relic.
Crazy Shaun's House of Paintings, works created by an unknown painter in the Fourth Age, were recorded in detail in the Fifth Age.
The specific characteristics of the relic were almost discovered by Shade and Father Augustus in today's adventure. The only thing they didn't know was what kind of puppet could enter the oil painting, and the answer to this was given in the academy's information.
"The puppets made with all the passion and heart are endowed with unique inspiration and creativity. For ordinary people, it will consume a great deal of mental energy and may even cause mental disorder. For the ring wizard, in addition to the superb artistic level, it also requires the soul and great passion and concentration.
A living person can send a puppet made in his own image into an oil painting, which can replace the puppet in the painting and enhance the puppet's intelligence and movement speed. If a living person affected by the relic dies, the puppet that enters the painting can become the carrier of his soul. Before the puppet is destroyed, the soul will not be absorbed by the painting.
Xia De read out the words, and Dr. Schneider smacked his lips while holding his glass. After returning from his visit, his work for the day was over, so the middle-aged man could leisurely drink his "after-get off work wine" and chat with the two of them:
"If someone really carved a puppet like that, but unfortunately died, the carved puppet would enter the painting after his death, and the painting would never be touched by anyone else. Doesn't this mean that the unlucky guy would have to deal with the bandaged killer puppet you mentioned in the painting for hundreds of years until he was caught or gave up on his own."
"That's right."
Shade nodded and continued reading the academy's documents.
"Shad, besides destroying the house in a painting like we did, is there any other way to contain this relic?"
The priest asked with great interest, saying that most people would never be able to replicate the method used by Shad.
"Indeed, the method we use is a rare case. The correct approach recorded by the academy is to find more people who are proficient in carpentry craftsmanship, have them work together to put their carved puppets into the oil painting, and then let those puppets defeat the bandaged puppet. In this way, all those implicated can be freed."
Xia De paused and turned the page:
"With this method, there will be no chance of the bandaged monster escaping into the real world, because it will be destroyed in the painting. Although our method is simple, we must face the final attack."
"What about containment? What happens if this thing gets out of control?"
"The containment method is very simple. Just store it in a normal way and don't let anyone touch it. The item will only go out of control when the characteristics of the oil painting are in effect. If someone tries to add content to the painting with a brush, the bandaged monster will grab the brush and walk out of the painting."
Shade said, and Father Augustus showed a thankful expression:
"Fortunately, we didn't think of this method. We are really grateful to Mr. Freeman for pointing us in the right direction."
"Run out? Like what happened to you and Father Augustus?"
The doctor smiled and asked:
"Isn't the other party very weak?"
The priest who looked at the document in Shade's hand shook his head:
"The academy said that what we encountered was an incomplete bandage monster because we have already contained it. The complete bandage monster carries the whispering element and is an extremely powerful evil creature that can only be dealt with by a ring sorcerer of at least the 11th level."
The three of them showed expressions of amazement at the same time.
"Fortunately I didn't go, otherwise I would have most likely proposed to change the oil painting with a paintbrush."
The doctor whispered.