"The pearl you mentioned, is it on that horrible corpse, or in the underwater city? Or is it in the hands of the ritual master of the Scarlet Cult?"
Xia De asked again.
"I don't know about that."
Mr. Edmund had a regretful expression on his face:
"I'm not a merman, and I've never been to the bottom of the sea. These are all recorded in stone tablets and documents. I can't even be sure whether the pearl is a relic. But you can't be mistaken. It's a golden pearl, about half the size of a fist."
Xia De frowned and thought about it. It seemed that the only way for him to find a way to directly touch the pearl that Mr. Edmund mentioned was to be able to determine whether there was what he wanted inside.
"I have another question. Apart from the evil god's followers, are there any other dangers in Coldwater Harbor? I'm worried that something else will happen by then."
"The Ring Warlocks from the New and Old Worlds have gathered in Coldwater Harbor to find one person. Is this dangerous? In addition, there are rumors that fishermen in the outer sea have witnessed mermaids, but that alien race is a peaceful race. Currently, there are only these..."
The old man thought about it again:
"Of course, this land is not short of ancient legends, and there are also many modern legends. For example, there were level 0 relics here, and this land was polluted by desire and sin, so it has become a paradise for smugglers and illegal immigrants in modern times. The light of civilization always attracts strange things... But I think these have nothing to do with this incident."
"OK."
Xia De nodded again and stood up to say goodbye.
"But if the fishman really has..."
The thought was still reverberating in his head.
... ... You will do whatever it takes to get it.
She whispered in his ear, like she was wrapping her arms around his neck and whispering behind his ear.
Not only did Shad want to leave, Mr. Edmund also asked Shad to leave quickly because the Orthodox Church might send people here, and some of these old lighthouses were still pouring out.
So Shade returned to the carriage under the cliff with an umbrella, and asked the driver to take him to the edge of the city. Because carriages were not allowed to enter Coldwater Harbor, he planned to walk into the city.
As expected, Shade was not stopped while traveling through the night in the rain. Although the city was under martial law, it was only strictly controlled near the dock. Shade was still able to find a carriage that took him to the Aurora family's manor.
The local manor of the Aurora family is located at the end of the coastal harbor street. The manor is close to the sea, facing the city in front and the beach in the back. It is a real "sea view manor". Although it is not as good as the royal family's Sofia Mansion, it is also an excellent building in Coldwater Harbor.
As expected, the area around Aurora Manor was strictly blocked by the church and the police, and no one was allowed to enter. Although it was raining outside, and Shade had magic that could be used at night, and he could even swim from the bottom of the sea and land on the beach, but in order to avoid being considered a strange person, he did not rashly break into the witch's manor.
After standing in the shadow of the street and observing for a while, I finally decided to take shelter from the rain in a tavern on Marina Boulevard where the manor is located, and by the way, find out what happened in the city tonight.
It was already four o'clock in the morning, but the Green Algae Tavern was doing quite well. Although not every table was full, at least a quarter of the tables were occupied.
A poet who came from nowhere was sitting against the wall, playing the lute and singing. Some idle people were around him listening. From time to time, sounds of laughter and discussion could be heard, encouraging the poet to play and sing vulgar country slang tunes.
When Xia De pushed open the door of the tavern, a thunderclap happened to streak across the night sky outside. People near the door subconsciously turned their heads to look at the door of the tavern, just in time to see the strange man with water dripping from his body, pushing the door with both hands, his shadow fell long on the brick floor of the tavern because of the lightning outside that illuminated the night sky.
It was obvious that they were all frightened, but when they saw Shad walk into the light of the tavern's gas lamps and shut out the rain and thunder, they breathed a sigh of relief and laughed at their companions' cowardice.
Xia De sniffed and walked to the long counter. He first asked for a hot drink to drive away the cold, and then asked the bartender for a dry towel.
He usually doesn't drink, but this time he was freezing in the rain, so he didn't insist on drinking water. He thought the bartender would give him a strong drink, but he didn't expect the bartender to bring him an amber drink with a herbal flavor.
"This is our exclusive recipe, half beer, half herbal wine, soaked with ginger and chili peppers, it can definitely drive away the cold. It is very famous locally and has a nice name, warming medicinal wine. Many sailors will buy a few barrels from us before sailing."
The bartender introduced it confidently.
Although Xia De was skeptical about the ingredients in this thing, he still took a sip. This thing tasted quite strange. After drinking it, the taste of herbs, alcohol, chili peppers and ginger water all hit Xia De's taste buds at the same time. Especially the chili peppers, the spicy taste made Xia De immediately feel a layer of sweat on his forehead, and when he wiped the sweat, he felt warm again, only his mouth was a little uncomfortable.
"very nice."
He looked at the remaining liquid in the glass in amazement. The bartender, whose hair had turned gray, showed a smug expression:
"This is our signature product. But what are you doing outside on a rainy day like this? We are under martial law now."
"Oh, my luck is really bad today. I lost all night playing cards and was questioned by the police as soon as I came out. I can only hide here and hope those damn police will leave quickly."
Shade said in a very rude tone, and the bartender was quite sympathetic:
"Then you'll have to wait for a while. In the first half of the night, there were continuous gunshots outside for half an hour. Yes, it was near the manor at the end of this street. Later, the police came. Although the gunshots stopped, no one dares to show up now."
He pointed to the guests in the tavern:
"These are the people who stayed here and planned to leave after daybreak."
"What the hell is going on out there? Damn, that casino... My friend's place is so soundproofed."
Shade said in distress.
"I'm not sure, but judging by the intensity of the gunfire, it seems like there's a war going on? Maybe the damned Carsenrick people have landed."
The bartender shrugged, amused himself.
"What about the people in the manor? Has anyone come out? If those nobles dare to leave, I think we can too."
Shade asked again.
"The manor is very lively tonight, as if a party is being held, but no one has come out yet. Perhaps they value their lives more than we do."
The bartender shook his head, and then tried to sell Xia De a wine in their tavern that could cure hemorrhoids. And it was not applied externally, but drunk directly. It was a new formula developed from the local traditional herbs that had been passed down for a long time, and the price was very cheap.
This sounded terrible, and Shade didn't need it, so he refused immediately.
Knowing that there had also been a fish-man attack nearby, although he didn't know why the people in the manor didn't leave after the danger was gone, Shade decided to wait until his body warmed up before entering the manor to see what was going on.
Just when he had changed the topic to the Rhodes cards and wanted to see if this tavern selling magical medicinal wine had any precious cards, the door of the tavern was pushed open again.
The cold wind and rain, along with the sound of splashing water, broke into this tavern with a slight smell of alcohol. Xia De looked back, then immediately turned around and pretended that he had not seen anything.
The guests who came in were an old gentleman wearing glasses and a middle-aged man who was also wearing glasses and had a mustache.
The old man with round-framed glasses and a formal black suit was even taller than Shade. There was a pocket watch chain sticking out of his chest pocket, tied to the button on his chest.
Shade lowered his head and said nothing. He had met this old man before. He was Professor Hames Sanchez, the vice president of St. Byrons College, the director of the Student Affairs Office, and the library management school. The last time they met at Shade's house, the old professor's spell "Charm Humans" left a deep impression on the stranger who had just arrived in this world.
Professor Sanche and his companions also walked to the counter, chatted with the bartender and ordered drinks, then went to look for an empty table. During this time, Shade kept his head down and played with his Rhodes cards, fearing that he would be recognized. Fortunately, he was lucky this time.
Professor Sanchez's companion was also a high-level sorcerer, and should also be a professor at Saint Byron. However, what Shade heard was that the three major thaumaturgy schools sent professors from the School of Political Science and Economics to Coldwater Harbor for the "Sea Return Ceremony", but Saint Byron sent the vice-president directly.
"But what are the professors doing in this pub? It's raining now. Even if they want to drink, there's no reason for them to come so far so late."
Strictly speaking, Aurora Manor is not in the core urban area of Coldwater Port, but on the edge of the dock area.
Xia De shrank his head, determined to leave this dangerous place as soon as possible. The bartender who had just talked to Xia De about Rhodes came up to him again after serving the guests.
Not only him, but when the maid of the tavern opened the wooden door leading to the back kitchen, a cat actually jumped out from behind the kitchen door. This cat should be raised by the tavern to catch mice. It looked around, then jumped onto the high stool in front of the counter, then jumped onto the counter, and very neatly sat down next to Shade's hand.
It was a very beautiful white cat. Although not as cute as Mia, such pure white fur was indeed rare.
"Where were we just now?"
The middle-aged bartender touched the white cat and continued chatting with Shade:
"Next month, the Big City Players will begin. This time the venue is Tobesk City. I am ready to place a big bet when the time comes."