Whispering Verse

, murmuring poems

I walked downstairs in slippers to get milk and newspapers, and moved the "God's gift box" from the basement to the upstairs. This week’s gift is a thick brown wool scarf, just right for the season. As for this week’s tasks, it’s “no tasks.”

When Shade got this information from "her", he thought he had heard it wrong, but then he learned why it was like this:

[The creators of Innocence believe that children sometimes need a break. 】

"That god is so respectable."

Shade muttered under his breath, putting away his scarf and preparing to wear it when it snows. While they were "fighting" for ownership of the scarf with the cat lying on it, there was a knock on the door downstairs:

"Is it the client?"

But when Shade opened the door, he saw Dorothy with her head lowered. The blonde girl looked a little haggard and seemed to have come here after simply freshening up.

"Come in, oh, Dorothy, don't you have the key? Why are you knocking?"

Shade let Dorothy in:

"Why are you here so early? Have you had breakfast? If you haven't, please have breakfast first before talking about business. I can give you little Mia's goat milk. I tasted it secretly last time and it tastes very good."

"Meow?"

The cat high up the stairs looked at Shade's back.

"No, I have something to tell you. There was a theft from my place."

Dorothy stood in the hall and said, Shade was stunned:

"Stolen? Oh, it can't be the way you look. It must be that relic, [Jack Thief], right? My Dorothy, don't be sad. It's normal to lose things. Yesterday I heard that even the Zhengshen Church The ring warlock team’s station has lost something, after all, it is a sage-level relic.”

He took Dorothy's hand:

"Go upstairs first before talking. What did you throw away? Is it valuable? Isn't it also a relic?"

Shade comforted:

"The church has also lost a Keeper-level relic. That relic is so arrogant, something will happen sooner or later. There is a lady's sunshine gun ready to go. God will also curse such a shameless thief."

"You didn't lose anything valuable, your stuff was stolen."

Dorothy was held by Shade's hand, and she lowered her head and said.

"My stuff?"

Shade blinked and couldn't remember what it was for a moment.

"Letter, the letter you got from Professor Manning. I helped you sort out the contents yesterday and put them on the desk. When I woke up this morning, I found that the window of the study room had been opened somehow. Among the letters Two letters are missing.”

She raised her head and looked at Shade worriedly, but she saw that Shade breathed a sigh of relief:

"Dorothy, you really scared me. When you came to me so early, I thought it was something big. I probably understand why Dr. Schneider is unwilling to see me early in the morning. It's just a few letters, it doesn't matter, I will If you apologize to Professor Manning, the professor won’t mind too much if you think about it.”

The lively cat led the way, and Shade held the blonde girl's hand and continued walking upstairs.

"Is it really okay?"

Dorothy asked in a worried whisper.

"It doesn't matter, but do you still remember the specific contents of those two letters? The relic [Jack Thief] will not steal worthless things. Since it only took those two letters, it means that I am looking for information about Huntington. The clues to Professor Lake are in those two letters."

The blonde girl nodded:

"I helped you summarize the contents of each letter and recorded all the doubtful points. Although I cannot restore all the details of those two letters, I remember the general contents."

"That's good, thank you for your hard work, Dorothy."

Shade kissed the side of the blonde girl's face, and the latter seemed to be in a better mood.

[You really don’t care about those two letters being stolen? 】

"She" asked softly as she walked into the room on the second floor.

"How could it not care? How dare it steal Dorothy!"

With a smile on his face, Shade brought the prepared breakfast to the table, but Dorothy asked Shade to sit down and she would do these things.

"I'm very angry right now~"

Especially when I say this in my heart, my anger becomes even stronger. Dorothy was still preparing breakfast in the kitchen and would not notice Shad's psychological changes. However, the cat on Shad's hand tilted its head and looked at him, and then whispered "Meow~". The cat magically sensed Shad's change. De's emotions, it seems that domestic pets have this strange ability.

[Note that after absorbing the divinity of the old god ‘Raging Storm’, the divinity will also affect your character in a short period of time. 】

"She" said softly,

"I understand, but this anger is definitely not just because divinity is affecting me. It actually dared to steal Dorothy."

The blonde girl wore an apron, turned on the gas, and lit the somewhat rusty gas stove with a match. She obviously thought that the breakfast Shade made was not enough for two people and one cat.

Shade looked at the figure of the blonde girl:

"Sometimes appropriate anger helps to stay awake and motivated. I will definitely take revenge!"

Although two important letters were lost, Dorothy had sorted out the contents of all the letters and summarized them in excellent writing.

Specifically, judging from the letters between Professor Manning of Tobesk and Professor Drake of Huntington, Professor Drake is a rather "ambitious" and enterprising person. He is very purposeful in doing research, and while full of awe for the unknown and ancient history, he always wants to know more.

Professor Manning had warned Professor Drake many times that there was some knowledge that they could not explore at will, but Professor Drake's reply was quite perfunctory.

This description was completely different from the Professor Drake who had a broken leg that Shade knew. The Professor Drake he knew was obviously a man of few desires and lived like a plant.

Dorothy's notebook also contains the general contents of the two lost letters.

That was sent by Professor Drake to Professor Manning, asking about visiting scholars from the two schools next year. This is not an official letter from the school, but an exchange of opinions and greetings between two highly respected professors. Among Professor Manning's letters, these two letters did not attract Dorothy's attention at first. Like Shade, she was more concerned about the academic discussions between the two professors.

According to the information written down by Dorothy, Professor Drake described his health problems in both letters. But he was not sick. Instead, he praised his excellent health and even mentioned running races and staying up late with the young people at school.

If viewed from a normal perspective, there is nothing wrong with this letter, but if it is assumed that there is something wrong with this letter, then Professor Drake's "physical health" seems to be quite problematic.

The tone used by Professor Drake in those two letters was quite enthusiastic and positive, even too enthusiastic. He seemed to have encountered something wonderful, and he excitedly envisioned the follow-up of his research, and planned to personally lead a team to participate in the archaeological excavation in the forest south of Kasenlik. He claimed in the letter that "I have mastered my physical potential and I can still work for another 20 years."

Considering Professor Drake's age at the time, this was quite a feat.

Two days before the last of the two letters reached Professor Manning, and the third day after this letter was sent from Professor Drake, Professor Drake set out to search for the "Lady of the Lake" and Had an accident. Therefore, Shade had reason to believe that some unknown phenomenon affected the professor and made him "very healthy." But then the professor realized that there was something wrong with his health and that it was fatal, so he set out for the Lake of Cherubim.

The three clues obtained from Professor Drake include, in addition to letters, diaries and books. In the diary, Professor Drake claimed that "double images appeared in front of his eyes", and there were strange words written in the books [knowledge, that is] It’s power].

The former may be related to Professor Drake's "physical health". The investigation of the latter allowed Shade to discover that the strange writing originated in the Fourth Age, but there was no clue other than that.

"From this cryptic information, it can be basically inferred that the 'Lady of the Lake' not only erased the professor's memory, but also erased other traces."

Shade said to Dorothy while eating breakfast. The blonde girl was still sorry for losing the important letter. After hearing Shade's words, she nodded:

"Yes, so did the old professor come into contact with some kind of relic, or was he targeted by something more terrifying?"

"It's all possible."

Shade touched little Mia beside him:

"I also entrusted friends from Huntington to go to the church to investigate what happened in the city that year. If we can find the incident involving Professor Drake, and then compare it with the clues currently in hand, we should be able to know what happened to the professor that year. the truth."

In this way, it means that the second of the four tests of the Lady of the Lake has been completed. But Shade knew that things would not be so simple. Maybe the trouble back then had not been completely resolved. The real purpose of the "Lady of the Lake" test was to let Shade solve that matter.

After breakfast, Dorothy said goodbye to Shade, and told Shade that if there was a way to capture the relic that had stolen the letter, he must call her to help. The blonde girl was really very guilty about this.

Considering that his home might be stolen, Shade reconfirmed that the valuables in his home had been moved to the basement before taking Mia out.

Today, Tobesk, the steam capital, is still shrouded in heavy fog. After going out, Shade turned directly in the direction of Silver Cross Avenue. When we arrived at the door of the Prophet's Association, the Prophet's Association was already open.

Shade noticed that the association's sign had been replaced with a new one, and the bulletin board had also been replaced with a new style. This should not only be because Princess Margaret wants to attend the reading salon here, but also because the Prophet Association has so many gold pounds that there is no place to spend Rhodes cards, which is a very profitable business.

As usual, he used the excuse of fortune-telling for cats to meet Luvia during her working hours.

The staff of the Prophet Association were already used to Shade's approach. When they saw him coming with the cat in his arms, they went directly to inform Luvia who was on the second floor.

When Luvia opened the door to the divination room, Shade was "fighting" with Mia with his right hand, that is, playing with the cat. The girl with purple eyes smiled and sat down:

"You really can find fun at any time. Oh, I just met Vice President Mark. He heard that you were coming and asked me to ask you, do you want to participate in the Rhodes Competition of the Prophet Association at the end of this year? If so, , we can help you sign up now.”

At the end of the year, whether it is an official institution or a steam factory, whether it is a noble club or a large institution such as the Prophet's Association, some activities will be held to commemorate the coming to an end of the year. It may be the year-end summary given by the Parliament to His Majesty the King, it may be some remuneration given by the factory owners to the workers, it may be the gifts given by the high-end clubs to the members.

But for the Prophets Association, the best way to celebrate is to host a Rhodes tournament, which is also an annual practice.

"Sign up first. I will participate if I have time."

Shade skipped the topic of Rhodes cards:

"I need your help with something."

He placed the remaining two coins - [Coin of Wisdom] and [Dandelion Coin] on the table:

"Help me divine something."