"The church bribed the chief witch of the Witch Council to find the more authentic source of the magical materials obtained by the students of Saint Byrons?"
Ignoring the so-called "reward" issue, Shade summarized the current situation:
"This is at least one-fifth of the votes of the chosen. Isn't the parliament interested in gaining control of this thing?"
The ownership of the wise man's pyroxene can only be transferred once and cannot be forcibly deprived or obtained by intimidation or deception.
"Currently, the only one who knows that the second pyroxene is in your hands is the Five Gods Church. I have not informed the other great witches that you have a pyroxene in your hands."
Miss Carina was very satisfied to see the expression on Shade's face:
"I will not actively involve you in matters related to the Chosen One, and you exposed this pyroxene, probably not because you want to trade with us."
She waved her hand and lowered her head to deal with the food on the plate:
"I was at a meeting just now, and the Speaker did mention that he wanted to buy the fragments of their poems from the Apna Library."
"The Apna Library has sold those materials more than once. I know of two times. If you need them, I can write them down for you."
Xia De looked at the information when he helped Old John pick up the goods. The only valuable thing was that this time the ceremony of the chosen one needed to be held on the water.
"What we want is the carrier itself. After all, it is a relic of the Witch Emperor."
Miss Carina said, motioning Tifa to continue pouring wine for her. She slid her right hand a few times, letting the knife cut the food on the plate by itself. She pressed her neck with her right hand:
"Don't worry about what happened on Wednesday. No one except the church and the Prophet's Association knows that you have the Wise Pyroxene. Just wait for them to make an offer. But Sylvia should have heard about this from Margaret Anjou. I will tell her to keep it secret. She admires you very much and will definitely be willing to keep this secret."
Xia De nodded, and the witch asked again:
"Have you ever thought about keeping this pyroxene? It can increase your wisdom and grant you extraordinary talents. Even if it is not a material for the chosen one's ritual, it is still an extremely valuable item."
"No, no, wisdom cannot be obtained with the help of external things. 'The wise never give power directly, the wise only give guidance.'"
Shade said with certainty.
"Who said that?"
"The old gods I met in the year 5177 of the Fifth Era."
Miss Carina's hand holding the wine glass trembled, and Shade looked down at the box at hand:
"Speaking of which, has the Council been able to decide on the fourth candidate?"
"New news came from Saint Byrons, confirming that the chosen one this time is still a man. It's incredible that three of the four chosen ones are men... There must be chosen ones near the places where those 'secret keepers' appeared. The church is comparing the guest list of the Lake View Manor banquet with the people around the abnormal phenomenon in the past few days, including the guests of Little Resia Salon. Of course, the church will definitely not suspect you."
She said with a smile, and Shade thought for a moment:
"There's no need to doubt me. Luvia said that anyone could be the chosen one, except me."
Miss Carina glanced at Shade and thought of the girl with purple eyes:
"What are you planning to do this time? I am actually very interested in your actions. Your actions were so successful the first three times, you can't just do nothing this time, right?"
"Once we determine who the chosen one is, we will have a specific action plan. Now we are just waiting for news and trying to collect pyroxene."
"How could the Chosen One be found so easily? Aside from Yin Luna being discovered by the Church in advance, Yin Fan Darkness had clearly been to Tobesk City, but was not found to be the Chosen One until he arrived at Coldwater Harbor. Joe Yin Barton was even worse. He had lived under the Church's nose for so many years, and only before the Battle of Midhill Castle did he come out and say he wanted to resurrect his lover. The Church didn't even know who he was at first."
The witch grabbed her knife again:
"Perhaps the chosen one this time will also jump out from nowhere, and then be bumped into by you for some strange reason, and finally fight with you for some strange reason."
The witch looked at Shade with her golden eyes.
"Yin Luna didn't fight with me at that time."
Shade retorted, and Miss Carina smiled and raised her glass to Shade:
"But I want to ask you something. After you caught Jack the Thief, was the box of jewels and diamonds really the one he gave you?"
"Of course not. I got the box of jewels from Huntington. Jack the Thief asked me to choose one of the three relics, but I asked him to take the letter he stole from my friend Dorothy Louisa, and to return the relic he stole from Yin Luna's team."
Xia De told the truth, and then saw the witch showing a strange smile:
"I was wondering why Yin Luna was in such a good mood when the church found me through Larus III. As for Louisa... If I remember correctly, the Miss Louisa you mentioned is the beautiful blonde writer who used to be with Leicia and you..."
“Ahem.”
Tifa coughed in time to stop the Duchess from saying something indecent.
Shade cut a small piece of beef from his plate and put it on the plate in front of Mia. The cat sniffed the smell excitedly. In order to prevent the witch from teasing him further, Shade opened the jewelry box and pushed it to Miss Carina:
"Want to pick one?"
"Lecia was at Yodel Palace this morning, asking me if I was awake. She rarely talks to me on her own initiative, detective. You are very resourceful."
As the witch spoke, she picked up a small silver brooch inlaid with diamonds from the box with her slender fingers.
She casually placed the brooch on the table, then shook her glass at Xia De:
"Before you leave tomorrow, remember to make more red wine. After drinking your red wine, other wines will be almost tasteless."
“Is it that exaggerated?”
Xia De was a little unconvinced.
"That's because you don't know how to taste wine."
The Duchess said regretfully, winking at Shade:
"Wine tasting is a necessary skill for nobles. You must know this. You will have a lot to learn from me in the future. It is not good to know nothing."
Shad originally thought that Miss Carina would also mention the "two dangerous beings that descended on St. Teresa's Square", but on Friday morning, when he met Luvia at the Prophet's Association, Shad learned that all the contents of the game of bravery were only known by the church.
At that time, the only people who watched the entire game were the church's ring wizard and three princesses. The church implemented strict confidentiality restrictions, and even though the Prophet Association knew that Shade had the Wise Pyroxene in his hands, they did not disclose the "danger".
Fortunately, before leaving, the thief Jack had informed the church that the "dangerous existence" had already left, otherwise St. Teresa's Square would definitely have been under surveillance for several months.
"That's it. I didn't give you a good look Wednesday night."
In the divination room on the second floor of the Prophet's Association, Shade handed the blue teardrop-shaped crystal to Luvia. He sat with his back to the window, and outside was snowing heavily. It was snowing heavily when he woke up on Thursday evening, and it was still snowing heavily on Friday.
Mia stood on the windowsill with her tail cocked up and her eyes wide open looking at the falling snow outside. This scene amazed the cat very much.
"One of the five Wise Pyroxenes."
Luvia's purple eyes looked at the stone that turned into a gray petrified state in her hand:
"There is one piece at Yin Luna's place, and one piece here. But these may not be all the pyroxenes, and the church may not have found out the locations of all the keepers."
"Yes, although we only know of two pieces at the moment, perhaps tomorrow the true chosen one will have obtained five pieces of pyroxene and held a ceremony."
Xia De nodded:
"Still haven't found the Chosen One? There are no clues from the witch side either. The Church should be making faster progress than us. They know that the other party is a man, but I'm afraid they haven't been able to find out his specific identity."
Luvia returns the pyroxene to Shade:
"The pyroxene in Yin Luna's hand is the first and only pyroxene in the open. The ceremony of the chosen one has officially begun at this stage. The forces of the three major colleges have been allowed to enter Tobesk directly. The professors of the colleges will arrive next week. Before that, I am afraid we have no other way to confirm the identity of the chosen one."
She sighed slightly:
"The Truth Society definitely has clues that we don't know about. Miss Paw's clone disappeared after taking a hit from Yin Luna's Sunshine Gun on Wednesday night. Now that I think about it, she didn't personally join the Dice Story Collection on Wednesday, but asked the professors of the Truth Society to participate. I'm afraid she wanted to confirm some things. I'm going to make an irresponsible guess. This lady is smarter than we thought."
"But you have already determined that she is at least not the first candidate."
"Yes, she is indeed not the first candidate, but she is very likely to be ranked later."
At this point, Luvia smiled again:
"In short, although the accident on Wednesday night was sudden, you and Yin Luna worked well together. We have two of the five pyroxenes in our hands. If we are sure that the fourth chosen person can cooperate, then this chosen person must have something to ask of us... We have the advantage."
"This is probably the best possible outcome. Besides, the church won't let a common person like me hold this stone forever."
Shade tapped the beautiful crystal, then turned in his chair to look at the cat in the window.
The snow is getting heavier and heavier. This snow is the heaviest snow in Tobysk so far this winter. The temperature is likely to drop rapidly in the next few days.
"The church will send a representative to talk to you soon. Have you really decided not to hand over the pyroxene to the academy? It is a sage-level relic."
Sage-level relics will not be circulated in the market, and they will never be found in the black market. The only sage-level relics in Shade's hands are the God's Gift Box and the Arrow of Knowledge of Aikenola. Apart from these, he only knows that the red earrings of Lecia and the Sage's Curse-Removing Stone are sage-level, and the Red Butterfly Pendant True Red Butterfly is sage-level.
God's Gift Box was obtained after completing a complete Time Key quest, accompanying Yin Luna into the underground ruins, killing the Silver Boy, and completing the Ceremony of the Chosen One; the True Red Butterfly went through the long story of the Red Butterfly Twins. After the God's Cocktail Party, Shade perfectly solved the twins' problems in this era, and the pendant came into his hands; even the simplest Arrow of Knowledge of Aikenora was related to a series of cases more than ten years ago.
Therefore, the Sage-level relic was quite tempting to Shade, but he still shook his head slightly:
"I want to trade this stone for something more valuable and safer."
The Wise Man's Pyroxene can only be traded once. After agreeing to the transaction with the church, the Pyroxene will still be kept in Xia De's hands. When the church needs it, he will transfer it to someone else. Therefore, agreeing to the transaction with the church does not mean the disappearance of the dominant power, but it means that Xia De can get some things that he cannot get normally.
What exactly you want is written right on your face.
Shade touched his face, and then he and Luvia saw Little Mia in front of the glass window, tapping the glass with her paws. The cat couldn't wait to touch the snow outside. Although Shade could control the snowfall, the natural environment of the city turned into silver-white, which was still very new to Little Mia, who was probably born in the spring of 1853.
Both Shad and Luvia smiled. Such a peaceful morning made life seem much calmer than it seemed.