Nothing new happened in the Duke's Manor on Friday night, but perhaps because of Leicia's kiss that tasted of tears, Shad had a strange dream. After waking up, he felt that he liked his own bed better than the exaggeratedly large bed in the manor's guest room.
On Saturday morning, after saying goodbye to Miss Carina, Shad and Lecia took a carriage back to the city. In the afternoon, Shad went to Dr. Schneider's clinic on time and attended the group study session.
The events in Midhill Castle were abuzz with excitement, and the news of the two gods descending in the Sikar Mountain area had naturally spread to Tobesk. Although on the surface, this matter had nothing to do with the correspondence ring magician group far away in Tobesk, the four of them still spent most of their time discussing the Midhill Castle issue during this week's study session.
Although Shade was sure that no matter who got into trouble, the old priest would not get into trouble, the most important thing was still to care about the safety of Priest Augustus. Another thing worth mentioning was that Dr. Schneider was very happy to say that Tobesk did not seem to be the most unlucky city this year:
"Oh, friends, I'm not gloating. I also feel sorry for what happened in the Mountain City in the east of the Old World. But this at least shows that bad things can happen anytime and anywhere, and the city we live in is just the first one to be unlucky, not always unlucky."
Doctor Schneider was very optimistic about this, and then changed the subject, asking Shade to find a way to go to Midhill Castle in the near future to check on the current situation of Father Augustus. After all, he was the only one who could travel between the two cities conveniently.
The study session ended at around 4pm, and Luvia hurried to the Prophet's Association. Shade made an appointment with Dr. Schneider to visit him at 10am the next day, and then he and Dorothy went to Roentgen Avenue, ready to take the carriage at the corner.
The weather in Tobysk was nice today, and people were wearing more clothes in late autumn. The blonde was wearing a red scarf that looked like it was made of pure wool.
"Lecia is acting strange today."
The two walked side by side on the busy streets of the city's eastern district. The metal pipes hanging on the towering buildings around them sparkled in the autumn afternoon sun.
Dorothy whispered to Shad:
"This morning she suddenly exchanged with me, but it only lasted for a few dozen minutes. She left a very strange message in my diary..."
Passing by a fat woman holding a bag of bread, the writer whispered:
"It says—Dear Dorothy, You are me and I am you."
She added in annoyance:
"It's strange. There is only this paragraph, and this sentence was written down after being repeatedly erased. There are also wet marks next to it. I think it might be tears. I am a little worried, Xia De, don't you have a channel to contact the Yodel Palace?"
"Come to think of it, there's something I haven't said yet."
Shade, who was standing on Mia's shoulder, said immediately, slowing down his pace, taking out a folded envelope from his pocket and handing it over:
"This morning, Resia's maid brought me a letter and asked me to give it to you after the study session this afternoon."
Mia on his shoulder called out a few times toward the alley nearby, scaring a wild cat that was looking for food in the alley so much that it quickly fled deeper into the alley.
"A letter? What needs to be written to Lecia? Wouldn't it be more convenient to exchange letters directly and then write in a diary? And why should it be delivered through you?"
Dorothy became even more suspicious, and opened the letter as she walked, without pausing in her boots.
She first found a few petals in the envelope:
"What does this mean? However, it is indeed Lecia's handwriting, and the stationery is also the one Lecia often uses. Shade, you know how expensive this kind of stationery is..."
When she saw the contents of the letter, she was suddenly stunned. When Shad saw Dorothy stopped, he and Little Mia stretched their heads to read the contents of the letter. It said:
You and I are like the front and back of a mirror. Although we can never meet, I feel complete just by relying on you.
"Look, it looks like a love letter."
Shad joked as he stopped with the blonde writer, waiting for the workers in front who were carrying heavy objects and wearing patched clothes to cross. They nodded to Shad to express their gratitude.
Dorothy looked unhappy:
"She must have encountered something. Normally, Leicia wouldn't say something like this."
She held Shad with one hand, put all her weight on him, and then closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the cat on Shad's shoulder did not warn her. It was still Dorothy:
"Lecia rejected my exchange!"
Dorothy looked very unhappy, and her speech became faster:
"She has never rejected me before. I can't remember how many times we have exchanged identities. She came to experience the ordinary day of a common girl, and I went to experience the busy life of a princess. In the end, we recorded our experiences in our diaries, complained to each other and enjoyed each other's lives. And now, she actually rejected me..."
With his right hand he grasped Shad's arm tightly:
"Did something happen to Lecia?"
Shad frowned, and walked forward with Dorothy. He also had a worried look on his face.
"Maybe it's something else... Let's go, we're going to Mary Jane's Flower Shop on Silver Cross Avenue now, where we can contact the Yodel Palace."
Dorothy was really worried, and Shade hurried along. The two took a carriage from the East City of Tobesk all the way to the city center.
Dorothy was shocked when she pushed open the wooden door of "Mary Jane's Flower Shop". The whole shop was filled with bunches of red, pink, white, yellow and blue bouquets. Those bouquets filled almost every corner of the shop, and there were even flowers in the hanging baskets in the air.
“Is someone planning to have a wedding in a flower shop?”
"Shad asked in surprise, but he still walked quickly to the counter. Dorothy stayed behind and looked at the flowers, while Shad went to talk to Princess Ajelina's maid in the flower shop.
Not long after, Xia De came back worriedly:
"The maids in the flower shop can't pass on messages to me. Last night, Ajelina told the maids in the flower shop that if I come today, I can only hear one question: What is your sister's favorite flower?"
Dorothy said almost immediately:
"Her favorite was white lily. I still remember that after we got to know each other, she insisted that I replace the plants in the flowerpots on the windowsill of the apartment with lilies. We argued about this for several days, and finally she agreed to help me write the manuscript, and I agreed..."
Dorothy looked nostalgic as she spoke:
"She is really... Let's look for Bai Baili here."
The servants of the flower shop got the news in advance and could not help the two to search. So Shade and Dorothy could only search in this "flourishing flower field" by themselves. Although there were many flowers, Bai Baihe only had one bouquet, and there was a note in it:
Blond girl, do you still remember our first meeting
"What does this mean?"
Shad was very confused and left the flower shop with Dorothy.
"This is... our first exchange."
Dorothy stood by the road, looking across the crowd of people in autumn clothes on the Silver Cross Avenue toward the Yodel Palace:
"I was very panicked that time, thinking that I had lost control and was hallucinating, or that I was accidentally affected by the characteristics of some relic. That night, I ran out of the Yodel Palace using Leicia's body, and leaned on the street lamp on the side of the road, looking at the Silver Cross Avenue in the dark night with a tingling scalp... Even after a long time, Leicia would still laugh at my ridiculous appearance when she mentioned this incident. Later, in order to apologize to me, she wrote a letter on the back of the advertising paper on the street lamp pole and asked me to get it with my own body."
Dorothy's expression softened:
"That was one of the few real connections we had."
"What did the letter say?"
Shad asked with great interest. Dorothy shook her head:
"Shad, that's the girls' secret."
"Okay then, lamppost? Which one?"
Dorothy remembered the lamp-pole clearly, which was opposite the Yodel Palace.
But there were quite a lot of things posted on the lampposts. While Shad was searching among the auction house ads, steam company ads, and wanted posters at the city hall, Dorothy stood by with her lips pursed and waited.
Suddenly, a group of children in their teens came running over, laughing. Half of them were wearing patched clothes, while the other half were wearing brand new clothes. They held hands, sang nursery rhymes, and played as they passed in front of Dorothy. Goldilocks watched them go away, feeling deeply moved.
“Ha, found it!”
Xia De stood in front of a street lamp and pointed to a small advertisement that read "A retired Royal Army doctor from Woodlarion, specializing in treating various difficult and complicated diseases":
"Dorothy, what are you looking at? Look, it must be this. The City Hall clears advertisements from lampposts every day and will not allow such advertisements to appear on Silver Cross Avenue."
As he said this, he tore it off. Sure enough, there was a new sentence written on the back in familiar cursive letters. Shad and Dorothy looked at it together. It said:
In this late autumn, looking at the falling leaves, I want to kiss the side of your face.
"Lecia wants to kiss you?"
Xia De was stunned, then looked at the blonde girl with some surprise:
"You, I, you, I thought, I, am I..."
He was beginning to speak incoherently, and Dorothy gave him a reproachful look:
"Don't worry, both Lecia and I only like... men. Although we are just casual friends, we are not crazy women from the Witch Council. You have kissed us so many times, and you still doubt this?"
"What does this sentence mean?"
Shad pointed to the back of the leaflet for "Old Surgeon of the Royal Army of Woodlarion". Dorothy fell into reminiscence and then bit her lip:
"I think I understand. This happened three weeks ago. You went to Midhill Castle frequently at that time. I asked Leicia in my diary what you were doing recently, and then we talked about kissing you..."
Her face was slightly red, and she lowered her head and walked west along the Silver Cross Avenue with Shade:
"Lecia joked in her diary that although we are all willing to kiss you, we will probably never be able to kiss you at the same time. When I returned to my body, I saw that she had left a leaf in the diary with a red lipstick mark on it. She said..."
Xia De looked at him curiously. He really didn't know this part. The blonde girl suddenly turned around and walked towards the street corner:
"Detective, don't pry into the girls' privacy. I know you still miss reading our diaries."
Of course Xia De was thinking about this matter. Their diaries are definitely more interesting than most popular novels of this era.
"Let's go to my apartment. I made a specimen of that leaf and hung it on the wall. If I'm not mistaken, when Resia used my body this morning, she left a message behind the specimen... What on earth did she encounter that required her to be so cautious in delivering the message?"
The writer was worried, but Mia was not anxious at all. The cat could see that Shade was not anxious or worried at all. The cat just wanted to know what time dinner would start tonight.
The two of them and the cat got on a carriage again at Silver Cross Avenue and headed to Quill Pen Street in the university district. Dorothy rented Building B at 211 Quill Pen Street and she rented the third floor alone.
The blonde girl took out her key and opened the door downstairs. She ran into the landlady who was coming downstairs wearing a hairnet. The landlady frowned at Shad's coming again, and then said to Dorothy:
"Luisa, the things you ordered have all arrived. Are you feeling comfortable recently? Oh, young girls should save some money, otherwise you will end up relying on men for food. I've seen this happen too many times."
Shad thought she was probably warning him.
"What did I order?"
Dorothy frowned slightly and went to the third floor with Shad. When they opened the door, they saw the brass metal floor-standing clothes hanger in the middle of the living room and the red dress on the hanger.
Not only the skirt itself, but also the corset, stockings, black leather shoes, hair accessories, hats, and makeup are all available. Even for the most formal occasions, this outfit is more than enough:
"What exactly is Lecia going to do?"
If I was worried at the beginning, now I am a little angry.
The blonde entered the bedroom and tiptoed to take down the leaf specimen hanging on the wall beside the desk. She turned to the back and didn't see any letters or notes, but after opening the back cover of the photo frame, a long and thin piece of paper slipped out. As expected, it was still in the cursive handwriting of Leicia.
Dorothy turned around to look with Shad, but she saw Shad and Mia, who was looking curiously, looking at the photo frame standing on the desk:
"How rude."
Dorothy reached out and slammed the photo frame onto the table, but that did not prevent Shad from recognizing that it was a black-and-white photo of Lecia, cut out of a newspaper.
The new note also contained the following incomprehensible words:
It will always be a pity that we were not able to dance together at the Haigs dinner in midsummer.