"Played cards all day? Oh, absolutely not, Leicia, why do you think I am that kind of person?"
Xia De shook his head quickly, but was unwilling to explain the matters concerning the chosen one, the witch, the Blood Spirit School and the report letter, as he had promised to keep these matters secret.
"But I just encountered Lady Xiwei Aurora's carriage, and I recognized the family crest."
He said again.
"Oh, you know this one?"
Leicia asked with a smile, and then introduced Shade:
"You can call her Madam in private, but you have to call her Lady Aurora in public. Xiwei Aurora inherited the Viscount title of the Aurora family. Not only does she hold the title of Delarion, but she also holds the title of Carsenrick for business reasons."
"Vicomte? That's amazing."
Xia De didn't really care about this. He didn't want to have anything to do with the witch anymore. He shook his head and ended the topic:
"Lecia, I'm here to say goodbye. I have some things to do when I get home, so I'll leave first and come see you tomorrow morning. Be careful. If you need me for anything, you can contact me through Dorothy."
He paused, thought for a moment and then said:
"There are a lot of strange people coming to the city recently. If it is not necessary, try to avoid going into the city as much as possible."
"Xia De, I am a fifth-ring and you are only a second-ring. I think I should be the one to care about you."
The princess said softly, and Shade nodded, thinking it made sense. Just as he was about to leave, he was stopped by Leicia. The red-haired girl walked towards the study with Shade, lowering her voice and saying:
"I heard the news when I entered the city today. The city hall will probably issue a tsunami warning tonight for the whole city. The newspapers will publish the news that the sea surface has turned red in the past two days due to water pollution. I have contacted the academy and explained the curse on me. The academy believes that with my earrings, I can be completely immune to the impact of the 'sea return', so they are not offering any additional help for the time being."
"Does the Zarathus Academy know about this ceremony?"
Shade frowned.
"It's similar to what the church knows. Through sacrifice, they call upon the power of the evil god in the deep sea to flood Lengshui Port with a tsunami."
"The power of the evil god..."
Xia De nodded and continued to walk forward with Leicia. However, his eyes narrowed slightly, and the girl next to him could never guess what he was thinking:
"Could it be, is it possible that..."
Stranger, you seem to have made a bold guess.
"But there is indeed such a possibility, so I will attend the sea return ceremony no matter what."
It was five in the evening when I returned home, all wet. I took a shower for the nth time today, but I finally had some free time.
"Shad, what on earth are you running around for today?"
Dorothy was also curious about Shad's itinerary, but in order to avoid being misunderstood as having played Rod cards for a day, Shad could only say that he had encountered some trouble in Coldwater Harbor:
"Let's go eat as soon as possible. Oh, I have to mail a letter and I have to go to class at six in the evening."
He was holding the cat and calculating the time, and it looked as if there was a pocket watch hidden under the cat's butt.
"You are always so busy. I don't know where you find so many things to do."
The blonde girl grumbled, somewhat dissatisfied with Shad's busy schedule. She had wanted to talk to Shad more about the Tree Kiss.
After they had dinner together, Dorothy went back.
Xia De was anxious to go home, but he did not forget to go to a photo studio in the city to inquire about taking photos of cats. He thought that professional photo studios require appointments, but he did not expect that as long as he paid, he could take the photos immediately, but he had to wait half a week to pick up the photos.
It didn't matter. Xia De wrote down the matter of taking the photos in his diary, and then took the photos while holding the cat and holding the newspaper.
The moment the old-fashioned spotlight flashed, if Shade hadn't held the orange cat tightly, it would have almost jumped out.
But when the cat found out it was just a flash, it got bolder. Shad was worried that one photo was not enough, so he took a few more photos of Ms. Mia Gold. When the flash flashed again, the orange cat just called a few times in that direction, and when he saw that the other party really didn't respond, he lost interest.
"Meow~"
It opened its mouth and yawned, revealing its fangs and tongue.
Last time, Shad heard that the cat liked to run to Room 2 on the second floor when he was not at home, so he closed the door. The orange cat scratched the door all afternoon, and Dorothy didn't open it until Shad was about to go home, so Mia's nap time was delayed.
It was five fifty-five in the evening. The setting sun outside the window had not yet completely disappeared. The pigeons on Sainte-Teresa Square were enjoying the coolness of the summer evening with the vendors setting up stalls. They didn't know that a cat was staring at them hungrily at the window of number six.
In the living room of Room 1 on the second floor, Shade picked up the cat on the windowsill and drew the curtains. Then he turned the gas lamp in the living room to the brightest, placed four chairs on the open space, and placed a basin in the middle. He placed puppets with human bones tied to them on three of the chairs, and sat in the northernmost position.
Unlike calling for distant guests to project onto St. Teresa's Square, this time it was Shad who projected onto St. Byron's Square. Therefore, the steps of the ceremony were somewhat different from the past. Instead of him actively throwing the parchment into the basin, he mixed some bone powder into the basin, stirred it clockwise for three weeks, and then dripped blood into it.
After the parchment was dipped into the blood, and the corresponding parchment in the distance was also dipped into the basin, the basin in Shad's place finally started to burn with an ice-blue flame.
This ritual, which was classified as a necromancy ritual, was basically completed at this point. The curious cat lay on the sofa and looked at Shade. In order to prevent himself from being disturbed during class, Shade not only left the ring for it to play with, but also prepared some cat food for it as a midnight snack.
After confirming that the cat was having fun, Xia De straightened his clothes and sat down on the chair. He closed his eyes and counted three numbers silently. When he opened his eyes, the smiling face of Professor Hesenger Garcia, the vice dean of history, appeared in front of him.
The professor with pointy ears welcomed Shade with a smile, and when Shade looked down at his hands, he saw that his body had become translucent.
This state was very strange. He could feel the temperature in his own living room and even hear the occasional cry of a cat, but what he saw before him was the scene of an academy on the edge of the distant Arctic ice cap.
Looking around, the room was surrounded by gray decorative walls, and on the walls were brass gas lamps in the shape of the St. Byrons school emblem. The lampshades of the gas lamps must have been frequently scrubbed, so they were very bright, illuminating this classroom that was almost as big as the entire second floor of the Shade family's house.
The quaint classroom is paved with gray square tiles and lined with long tables painted brown. This is a typical lecture hall, with the podium at the lowest position, followed by tables and seats going up in sequence.
Although the area was large, there were only five students attending the class besides Xia De, three men and two women, two of whom were about the same age as Xia De's body, one was a slightly more mature lady in her thirties, and the last two were middle-aged men in their forties.
Among the five people, three sat on chairs in the other three directions to maintain the projection ceremony. They all smiled politely at Xia De. After all, paying for an elective course and being invited by a professor to attend a class were completely different treatments.