After returning home that night, although Shad was very tired, he still went to Quill Pen Street, found Dorothy, and asked her to go out for supper. Dorothy saw that Shad had a lot to say, so she put on a warm coat and followed him out.
There was a restaurant on Quill Pen Street that was about to close. They chose a seat against the wall. The lotus-leaf-shaped gas lamp was on the wall above the table. Xia De ordered food for the two of them and the cat, and then said with some sadness:
"Don't wear the red butterfly pendant anymore. Tell Leicia not to wear it either."
"Why?"
the blonde asked curiously.
“Because it’s unlucky.”
While waiting for the food, Shade briefly told the story that had lasted from the Fifth Age to the present day. Dorothy covered her mouth with her hands and her eyes turned red. It was not until the waiter brought the fried shrimp balls and butter bread that she came to her senses:
"This story is so... Why did this happen? They were sisters who had promised to be together forever."
"This is Grace and Helen's own choice. We are just bystanders. So, don't wear the red butterfly pendant."
Xia De picked up a shrimp ball with a fork and looked at the female writer opposite him under the gas light:
"Your ending will be better than this. I swear."
After saying that, he took the food off the fork and handed it to the cat that had been stuck in the box for a whole day. The cat picked up the warm food with its two front paws and looked at Xia De with some worry. It also noticed that Xia De was in a bad mood.
"Are you tired?"
Dorothy took the pendant from her waist to the table, then looked across the table at Shad and asked. Shad hesitated for a moment and nodded:
"I've been through so many things, but this is the only thing..."
"I see."
She leaned forward slightly and grabbed Xia De's left hand on the table. Her green eyes met Xia De's, and Xia De could see that strong soul.
"Although I don't know what you are doing in Middleburg this fall, both Lecia and I know that you have always wanted to help us. In fact, there is no need to work so hard. We are already very satisfied to maintain the status quo and have a soul connected to each other in a distant place."
"Your alter ego is merging, which doesn't count as maintaining the status quo."
Shade shook his head. Dorothy looked at him under the slightly drunken gaslight, and at the shadow on his three-dimensional face when he lowered his head. For a moment, she didn't know what to say:
"Shad."
"What's wrong?"
He raised his head, but the blonde smiled and shook her head again, saying softly and tenderly:
"Nothing. I was just thinking, if one day, Resia and I can really look at each other face to face, or even touch and hug each other, we will definitely give you a very special gift."
It was peaceful at 6 Saint Teresa's Square tonight, and Shad had a good sleep. Perhaps because of his many experiences during the day, he had a strange dream.
In his dream, he somehow came to the forest and followed a beautiful red butterfly through the forest until he saw the ancient castle in the center of the forest.
Then the dream became strange. First, Luvia, who was surrounded by flames, suddenly appeared and attacked Shad. Then Mia the cat's body swelled up like a big tiger. Someone wrote the word "King" on its forehead, and it held the Night Watch in its mouth. It also wanted to kill Shad.
This strange dream woke Xia De up directly, but it was already Tuesday and daybreak.
I sat up sweating, but my breathing was still short. I suddenly woke up, but the dream scene was still lingering in my mind, so much so that I couldn't tell the difference between reality and dream.
Now it’s reality.
she whispered softly.
"I wish it was reality. Oh, what a weird dream. I would rather look at the moon for another night than be bothered by these messy thoughts."
He wiped the sweat from his forehead, sat up and looked at the dark bedroom.
The weather was getting colder, and he had already replaced his thin summer blanket with a thick one. In a while, the steam company would send someone to discuss this year's heating fee. The price was not fixed for the whole city, and Shade also needed to prepare firewood for the winter in advance.
He planned to activate the fireplace in his home, not only because Detective Sparrow's notes mentioned that there were more detective commissions in winter than in autumn, so he wanted to create an atmosphere of "professional detective", but also because relying solely on pipes for heating was not enough.
After all, the house is really too big.
"Meow~"
A soft cat cry came from beside his hand, and then there was the itchy feeling of Mia the cat rubbing against the back of his hand. He reached out and touched the cat that had just woken up. Somehow, he thought of the "big tiger" Mia in his dream again, and couldn't help but smile.
The story of the Red Butterfly Twins is very sad, but Shade's story continues.
When he went downstairs in his slippers to get the newspaper and milk, he found that the birthday present that Leicia had asked him to send to Mrs. Louisa had arrived. The gift was wrapped in a delicate but not particularly expensive red gift box, and a blue ribbon was tied into a beautiful bow on the outside of the box.
In order to prevent Shade from making mistakes, Leicia gave him a letter. It was Leicia's handwritten letter, with not only her cursive handwriting, but also the smell of her perfume... ...
"When did my nose become so sensitive?"
As he walked up the stairs, Shad put the bottle to his nose and sniffed it hard, making sure that his sense of smell was normal (note).
The letter not only mentioned what the gift was, how much it cost, where it was bought, but also wrote a sample birthday message to Lady Louisa, asking Shade to copy it down directly. The message was appropriate, with proper compliments and congratulations that were neither humble nor overbearing. Outsiders still had to learn the grammar of this world for a long time before they could have such literary talent.
"A white fox fur scarf from the northern county of Delarian, and a newly published collection of poetry, Love and Peace. Oh, this gift is really well chosen."
The cat squatting at the entrance of the second-floor stairs was waiting for Shade to come upstairs to heat up the goat's milk. When it saw him standing on the stairs reading a letter, it meowed and urged him to hurry up.
It cannot miss mealtimes every day.
After breakfast, Shad finished writing a letter to Louisa's family in the study, and then wrote a letter inviting friends to come to his house tomorrow night to help hold a ceremony to seal the border of the third floor. Then he went out and delivered them to the Tobesk Post Office.
Gifts cannot be delivered to mailboxes at street corners.
Then he took Mia Cat to Midhill Castle again, walked out of the forest in the thin morning mist, and headed towards the city at the foot of the mountain.
Midhill Castle was very strange today, the morning fog was as dense as the autumn haze in Tobesk this morning.
You have to know that Tobesk, known as the "Steam Capital", has had such bad air recently because of the late autumn. Steam factories want to complete the last batch of production before winter comes and heavy snow blocks traffic. And Midhill Castle in autumn should not have such autumn morning fog because of the mountains and monsoon.
As Shad entered the city, the fog did not weaken, but became stronger. Standing on the corner of Santa Carla Avenue where Cassandra's auction house was located, Shad could only see forty feet away.
Pedestrians on the street walked carefully along the side of the street. Horse lanterns were hung on the front and back of the moving carriages, and the drivers even kept shaking their bells to remind people to stay out of the way.
It happened that a newspaper boy was walking on the other side of the street. Shad waved to the boy in the patched hat, counted out five pence and handed it to him, then took the newspaper and asked:
"When did the fog appear? Eight o'clock? Seven o'clock?"
"No, sir, this fog suddenly fell from Mount Sikar last night. I went to bed early, but little Lana, the flower seller, said that she saw the fog coming out of the mountain when she got up at night."
The brown-haired boy answered, hesitated, and then whispered:
"This Sicard Morning Post is only fourpence."
"That penny is a reward for your honesty."
Shade said, then turned to look at Xikar Mountain:
"What's going on? Could it be related to the revival of the Red Butterfly Twins yesterday?"
As soon as he entered the Cassandra Auction House, someone led Shad to the reception room on the top floor.
Grandma Cassandra was already waiting for Shad as usual. Antique oil paintings were hung on the walls, and knight armor dating back hundreds of years stood beside the wall. Although the old witch's decoration style was a bit old-fashioned, it surprisingly suited Shad's taste.
The young apprentice, Miss Rita Swift, temporarily acted as a servant to serve tea to the two men. Now that Shad had already met her, there was no need to hide the existence of "this kind of man" from Shad.
"Why don't I see Grace and Helen?"
Xia De also wanted to meet them.
The old witch smiled as she held the teacup, as if she had known that Shade would ask this question:
"Because the ceremony just ended, the whispering elements in the teachers are difficult to fully control. In order to prevent them from causing trouble for us, they are temporarily living in a room in the auction house's basement. The walls there have been professionally treated to temporarily contain angel-level relics. It has been used many times."
"Then I..."
"Although it's still dangerous now, you can go and meet with the teachers for ten minutes. You have to leave in ten minutes at most. I think the teachers would like to see you, too."
Granny Cassandra put down her teacup and looked out the window at the fog:
"After so many years, even I was about to leave them. I'm really happy that they still met you."
She seems a little sentimental and has a strong bond with Grace and Helen:
"Mother-in-law, do you know our story?"
"Yes, I heard the story about you and the teachers from my teachers more than a hundred years ago when I was Rita's age. But no one could have imagined that you would actually appear at that time."
The old witch laughed from her throat:
"This spring, Teacher Helen Blake suddenly appeared in front of me and told me that you finally showed up in Tobesk."
The old witch had a look of nostalgia on her face:
"That was one of the rare times I saw the teacher smile. She was really happy to see you again."
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