Whispering Verse

Her Royal Highness the Princess recognized such a beautiful cat almost immediately, and she thought no one would be able to misidentify this cat. And the appearance of this cat means that

The young man in a black coat, holding his black top hat high, cheered and saluted the successors of the United Kingdom together with others around him. Although the face looks a little different, no matter the height, expression or Mia, it no longer proves who it is:

"Welcome to Randall Valley City!"

Shade in the crowd shouted loudly to Her Royal Highness the Princess. Although the voice was quickly drowned in the noisy background, Margaret still heard it completely.

She looked away, waved to the people with a formulaic smile trained by the royal family. However, no one could know the joy in her heart. Her Royal Highness the Princess knew that her short visit to the Randall Valley would probably be more interesting than she imagined:

"What's even more interesting is that Teacher Sylvia is not with me now."

Although he wanted to meet Margaret immediately, Shade also knew that she came to the local area with a mission, and this visit was not just about her. Therefore, although he saw Margaret at the train station on Friday morning, Shade did not go to see her alone.

After all, there will be many opportunities in the future, and Margaret currently does not have time to spend a long time with Shade.

The most critical task today is to meet with the local witch Miss Benanis in the afternoon. Shade had already anticipated many possibilities before that, but for the sake of safety, he asked Luvia to help him with divination at noon that day while having lunch with Luvia.

The purple-eyed girl has a lot of work to do locally. While the Prophet Association is in contact with the local secret order that owns the Book of Ascension, she also shoulders the task of observing the local stars given by the Astronomy Academy, and the Prophet Association asked her to Come and have the paperwork processed locally.

Even if she takes time to eat with Shade at noon, she must return to the association as soon as possible. When she heard Xia De's request, she shook her head slightly:

"You are someone outside of fate. Most of the results obtained by divination for you are completely unbelievable, otherwise the church would have found you long ago. Shade, don't use divination as a tool to peek into the future. We must respect fate."

In fact, what she meant was that she didn’t want to divine every little thing. From Luvia's point of view, there is no possibility of failure in the communication and negotiation between Shade and the witch.

Seeing that Shade wanted to say something else, Luvia, who was controlling the knife and fork, asked again:

"Why did you bring little Mia here?"

"Meow?"

The well-behaved cat looked up at Luvia when he heard someone mention his name.

"Dorothy is going to the publisher to discuss the royalties issue with the editor of Steambird Daily and her lawyer during the day today. She can't help me take care of it."

Shade patted the soft cat:

"You are not in Tobesk, so I can't entrust it to you. Miss Carina and Tifa are still in Saladir County. Although there are maids in the manor, there are no acquaintances to take care of them. I am still worried, so So I brought it. After all, today is just a meeting with the witch. No matter how much she hates me, she will not do anything to little Mia. This will only increase my winning rate."

Luvia smiled:

"You still meet at the Wilde Opera House? I heard in the association that there have been some minor problems at the opera house in the city recently."

"what is the problem?"

At this moment, Shade remembered that Miss Aurora also mentioned yesterday that the witch in Randall Valley City was tracking down a sage relic related to the opera house.

"Someone was turned into a puppet. I don't know the specific circumstances, but it is said to be related to the uncontained relics."

Luvia shrugged:

"Who knows whether it's a Keeper-level relic [The Clown King's Magic Handkerchief] or an infectious disease-related Keeper-level relic [Puppet Syndrome]? The local Creation Church is responsible for solving this matter, but it is said that it may also be a sage Level. Oh, my dear Mr. Detective, every city has its troubles, and it is obviously impossible for us to solve every problem."

After lunch, Luvia said goodbye to Shade and returned to the Prophet's Association. There was still some time before three o'clock in the afternoon. Shade originally wanted to pay a visit. Priest August mentioned during exam week that he owed the old priest 10 pence from a bet, but little Mia was already too sleepy to bear it at this time. , Shade was also worried that he would not be able to find the priest in a short time, so he returned to the Church of the Forgotten and went home to take a nap.

When he returned to Randall Valley City at 2:30, Shade still took the cat with him. At this time, a layer of white mist of unknown origin arose in the city, and the cat wore a [Metamorphosis Ring] and a [Fish Training Ring] on its tail. This was a reward for being so obedient today.

The distance from Cherry Leaf Street to the Wilde Opera House was not far. Shade counted the time and it was two-fifty when he got off the carriage at the door of the Opera House.

Of course, pets are not allowed in the opera house, but after Shade showed the ticket for the box, no one stopped him. When Shade followed the waiter of the opera house to the stairs, he didn't feel the badge on his chest heating up, which meant that Miss Benanis hadn't arrived yet.

"Speaking of which, since His Royal Highness the Prince and the Princess are visiting this city, will they watch the opera in this opera house?"

Shade asked the waiter who led the way. The latter said proudly:

"Sir, you are not from Kasenlik at first glance. In fact, every time members of the royal family of this country visit this city, they will watch the performance of the Golden Dawn Opera Troupe at our opera house. Although I don't know the specific time, But the opera house has already started arranging security work. Did you know that Ms. Bernanice of the Golden Dawn Opera Company is planning to acquire our opera house recently, which is really a great honor."

After carrying little Mia into the box, it was the final waiting time. Shade kept thinking in his mind what he should say when he saw the witch later, and what time would be more appropriate to give away the harmonica. He even thought about offering his wrist to Miss Benenice to hold. Witches always liked this.

As for Mia, the cat lay down on Shade's lap quite lazily and took a nap. Three o'clock in the afternoon was its customary nap time.

There were actually not many guests in the opera house during the afternoon session. At three o'clock sharp, as the soaring soprano sounded from below, Shade knew that the time had come.

"Why haven't you come yet? You're in trouble. Did I remember the time correctly?"

[I remember correctly. 】

He stood up and paced suspiciously, while little Mia was left on the sofa. The cat opened one eye and saw that Shade had not left. It swung its tail, squirmed and found a more comfortable position to sleep.

"Is it because I refused to meet immediately yesterday, so the witch was angry and deliberately late today?"

He thought about it in his mind, but felt that the other party should not be so naive. So he used thaumaturgy to confirm the time again and determined that it was already past three o'clock.

"Strange"

In a meeting between strange ring magicians, once someone misses the meeting time, the other party will usually leave immediately, because this often means unpredictable danger. But this meeting is not a complete stranger's meeting, and if Miss Benanis, who is not good at fighting at the eleventh level, really encounters some trouble, even if Shade can't solve it, he still has to find a way to figure out the situation.

"I hope I'm just late."

He waited for another five minutes, but there was no response from the badge on his chest. Knowing that I couldn't wait any longer, I turned around to pick up little Mia and go outside to check the situation.

At this time, there was a very slight knock on the door. But Shade had been standing at the door just now, and he was very sure that there were absolutely no footsteps outside:

"What's going on?"

He vaguely sensed that he might be involved in some trouble.

"Mia, lie down here and wait for me. Don't wander around."

After giving instructions to the cat, Shade took off the [Fish Training Ring] from its tail and put it on his finger. Drawing out the scarlet "Moonlight Greatsword" in the style of a short sword, he held it in his left hand behind his back. Shade leaned against the door and felt it. After making sure that there was no reaction, he gently opened the door.

The curtains on the other side of the corridor opposite the door were all drawn up to cover the windows at some point. Those scarlet velvet curtains completely blocked the sunlight in the foggy city, making the entire corridor look gloomy. Not only is it gloomy, everything feels normal inside, but when you open the door you immediately notice the whispering element.

"We really had an accident."

Shade remembered clearly that opposite his door, on the wall between the two window sills, there was originally an oil painting of an old man in white robes sowing seeds to the earth, but now it turned into hands. Portrait of lady-like puppets posed together.

The portrait was extremely realistic, even showing the wood texture on the puppet, as well as some cracks in the material and uneven color patches of paint.

Looking up at his feet, he saw a puppet floating in mid-air. The limbs and head are connected with five thin wires, and the thin wires are connected to the inner cross disk floating above. This is a standard string puppet used in puppet shows. The workmanship of the puppets is extremely fine. Not only can the limb joints move freely, but the details of the hair and clothes are also extremely realistic.

The dress is a very common maid dress, and the puppet's face has been carefully designed. Even a layman like Shade can easily see that this is definitely not a mass product produced with a mold.

The puppet "pinched" the letter in his hand and handed it to Shade while he lowered his head.

"This letter is for me?"

He asked hesitantly, reaching out to take the letter, and then he saw the brown wooden inner cross disk floating above the puppet swaying gently, as if it was being controlled by invisible hands. Thin wires control the movement of the limbs, and the puppet staggers away under control.

Shade looked at it, watched it go to the door of the next room, and then "walked" in through the crack in the door.

.