"The ritual information of the murlocs? Is this all you want?"
In the living room on the second floor of No. 6 Saint Teresa Square, Miss Carina looked at Shade with a little surprise:
"Are you sure you don't want to order anything else? I've always been very generous to you."
"I just want this. Please collect as much information as possible."
Xia De nodded. It seemed that he was at a disadvantage, but in fact, even if there was only one sentence of clue, he benefited more from this transaction.
"No, this is not a fair trade. You have no idea how much this formula is worth to me... Come here, Shade, come to me."
The witch waved to Shad. Although this was Shad's home, Carina Cavendish was obviously not polite.
"You want to grab my hand again?"
Shade asked doubtfully, but he put the cat down and walked over.
Mia stood there looking at Shad.
Unexpectedly, when Shade came to her, Miss Carina stood up. The witch was only slightly shorter than Shade, and the two looked at each other for a moment. Before Shade could react, she tiptoed, pressed the back of Shade's head with her right hand, and gently kissed Shade's forehead.
"Oh, miss!"
Shade heard Miss Tifa Servet's scream and the meow of the cat on the armrest of the sofa, but before he could feel anything, the witch let him go.
Carina Cavendish had a charming smile on her slightly flushed face, and she brushed her lips with her fingers:
"Of course this is not as good as your recipe, but I guess our relationship doesn't necessarily have to be a fair trade every time."
"Yes... ... "
The stranger was speechless for a moment, took a step back, and looked at the witch in front of him:
"But I hope it won't happen next time."
"You don't like witch's kiss?"
Miss Carina asked, and Shade shook his head:
"Next time please tell me in advance what you are going to do. I want to feel it carefully. This is fair."
The Duchess's lips curled up into a smile, the maid at the table frowned and looked at Shade with some dissatisfaction, Mia raised her head and widened her eyes as if she wanted to "yell" at the women, and Shade looked at the red-haired witch in front of him, her eyes were very beautiful.
"Shadow, I thought you would blush and not know what to say, but... This is great."
The gas lamp on the wall was very bright, illuminating the three people and one cat at the moment.
Miss Carina kept her word, and the next morning, before Dorothy even arrived at the Shards' house, the maid, Miss Tifa, arrived at St. Teresa's Square in a carriage.
Considering the time it took to get from the manor outside the city to the city, she probably got up very early this morning. Shade apologized for this and invited the black-haired maid to have a cup of tea at home before leaving. Miss Servet hesitated for a moment, took out her pocket watch from her cumbersome skirt, looked at the time, and nodded in agreement.
She came to Xia De not only to drink tea, but also to explain to Xia De what she had given him.
First, the pendant, which Xia De took from her, was a silver round badge strung together with a rope. The badge had patterns of thorns, lion heads, and azaleas.
The pattern looked familiar, and Shade thought for a moment before remembering that it was the coat of arms of Carina Cavendish, the Duchess of Saradir. The thorns were the decorative pattern she had chosen herself, the lion was an element taken from the royal family crest, representing the royal identity, and the azalea was the symbol of Saradir County itself.
Although she was a member of the royal family, a duke with a fiefdom could have his own coat of arms. On Miss Carina's carriage, there were both the royal family crest and this pattern.
If Miss Carina is not a witch but a normal woman, her descendants will inherit this emblem and regard it as their family emblem.
"What does this mean?"
Shade asked confused, but still hung the badge around his neck.
"It means that you belong to the young lady. Even if you are unlucky enough to meet a witch in the future, she will not do anything to you after seeing this."
The maid said quietly, winked at Shade, and added:
"Also, this badge is useful in some situations. For example... if you bring this to Saladil County, restaurants may not dare to charge you."
This was probably just a little joke.
The cat, which had eaten its fill, stood on the armrest of the sofa beside him and yawned with its mouth wide open. Even a young cat could open its mouth very wide.
"Miss, I have tested it. The formula you provided is perfect. It is even more perfect than the one recorded in the data on the late stage of the Witch War that the Council has."
This may be because something went wrong with the technology during its spread in the Fifth Age, or because Miss Feliana provided her own improved version.
Shade played with the beautiful silver badge, which had already started to heat up because Miss Servet was in front of him. But because the black-haired maid was not a real witch, but only had the power of a witch, the fever was not serious.
A hole was punched on the badge and a string was put on it. Shad tied it around his neck and decided to wear it whenever he went out.
"Mr. Hamilton, here is the information about 'Sea Return' that the young lady found. The Council has already collected it in advance, so the young lady didn't have to spend much effort. The great witch, Miss Xiwei Aurora, who is already in Coldwater Harbor, must have seen it."
Miss Servet handed Shade another file bag, which contained handwritten information. There wasn't much information, and even with the black-and-white photos glued to the pages, there were only three pages. Shade glanced through it and found two points that were valuable to him.
The most important of these was that the parliament's data pointed out that the source of the power to launch the Sea Return Ceremony was the items left in the material world after the evil god's descent in the Fifth Epoch. This gave Shade more ideas.
And the other point is about saving the damned:
"Tie the fishing line of the fishing rod with extraordinary power to the body of the cursed. As long as you can pull the fishing rod, you can effectively prevent them from being called into the ocean by the power of the evil god..."
Shad read out what was on the paper, which was very similar to Miss Feliana's final prompt.
Seeing that Shade did not show any embarrassment on his face, the black-haired maid continued to explain:
"An ordinary fishing rod can only suppress the urge to walk into the red ocean, but a fishing rod with extraordinary power can greatly suppress it. The lady said that the evil god is the guardian of the fish people. He hates anglers, and even more so the losers caught by anglers. Therefore, fishing rods are what the god and his cult hate the most."
Xia De thought of more things:
"Then He must hate drowned mermaids more... Oh, I see. That's why the evil god, the God of the Drowned Deep Sea, who is opposed to the Lord of the Scarlet Spiral, is attracted by the scales of the drowned mermaid. It turns out that it's not just that little girl's soul that's peculiar."