Chapter 1907: 【Sleeping in a Cold Dream】

"So cold..."

At the Green Lake Hotel, Angelina, who was holding her cat and watching the bonfire before her, suddenly nodded off, only to snap back to consciousness and realize she had actually fallen asleep.

The little princess was truly exhausted today; the shock and tension had caused her to drift off by the fire at some point. Now that she was awake, she immediately felt an abnormal chill in the surroundings. She parted her lips to sigh softly, only to discover that white mist was puffing out of her mouth—a phenomenon that only occurred in winter.

"What is happening?"

The cat in her arms was still being held by her. In this current environment, which was so abnormally cold that even the flames before her provided no warmth, the cat felt exceptionally warm.

Worried that the cat might be frozen, the kind-hearted Angelina even wanted to tuck it inside her clothes, but Little Mia struggled and refused.

She looked around. The rain outside the window was still pouring down, but by the three dim bonfires on the first floor of the hotel, she was the only one left. The temperature seemed to have dropped below freezing; the damp, slippery floor and tabletops were already covered in frost, making Angelina, who was still wearing summer clothes, feel even colder.

"Where did everyone else go?"

She stood up, shivering, but felt that doing so only exposed more of her body to the cold, making her feel even colder. She reached out to touch the flames before her, but even when she thrust her hand completely into the fire, she felt absolutely no warmth.

She felt that besides the cold, there was another kind of "cold" that made even her soul tremble, stiffening her body and causing her to feel both a headache and dizziness. The Whispering elements caused this seventeen-year-old ordinary girl to feel severe discomfort. At this moment, the only thing that comforted her was that the cat in her arms was still there, preventing her from being completely alone.

She wanted to look around to see what had happened this time, but when she tried to lift her legs, she discovered that her body had already stiffened to the point of immobility.

She wanted to cry in grievance again, but thinking that her sister, Xia De, and her mother were not here, and that no one would see her even if she did cry, she held it back. Pouting with red eyes, she looked left and right, and only then did she see a figure draped in a tattered black robe walking toward her from the darkness of the stairwell, extending a right hand from within the robe toward her.

For some reason, Angelina immediately thought of the Grim Reaper often spoken of in stories. She helplessly wanted to retreat, then realized her body had become even more rigid:

"Am I going to die?"

The young princess thought to herself, then remembered she still had many things left undone, remembered she had promised to help Xia De take care of the cat, and remembered that if Lei Qianya discovered she had died, she would surely be heartbroken, so she decided she absolutely could not die like this.

She tried hard to control her body to escape that hand reaching out from the darkness, only to find the light around her growing dimmer and the chill growing heavier; she even felt that her eyelashes were covered in frost.

She wanted to use her last bit of strength to throw the cat in her arms away, so that at least the cat might survive. But that lazy cat, which finally felt a bit cold, suddenly hissed at the black shadow before it:

"Meow—"

It bared its teeth, meowing with a "fierce" look. Seeing the black shadow still approaching, the cat coughed a few times, and when it meowed again, a small orange flame actually sprayed from its mouth.

The flame was very small, not at all eye-catching compared to the heatless fire behind Angelina. But when that flame appeared, Angelina felt her stiff body and her soul, which was about to sink into the deeper darkness, suddenly feel as if they had been thrown under the midsummer sun.

The sensation of dry heat not only helped her shake off the negative status, but even made her feel hot.

The black shadow immediately retreated. Seeing that its "intimidation" had been effective, the cat, which had always been a bully, suddenly gained more spirit. It meowed, wanting to bolt from Angelina's arms to continue pouncing toward the retreating black shadow, but fortunately, Angelina held it tightly.

Seeing the cat struggling vigorously, she had no choice but to take a step forward. The black shadow indeed retreated even faster, which made the cat even more excited; it continued to make sounds from its throat, the "meow-meow" sounds stringing together quite pleasantly.

Finally, Angelina, holding Little Mia, forced the black shadow to the stairwell. Just as she wanted to continue walking forward, a hand pressed down on her from behind, and then Angelina, by the fire, snapped back to consciousness.

She opened her eyes in a daze, immediately seeing the beautiful face of her great-aunt, Jia Lin Na Cavendish, looking at her with a worried expression.

Luweiya and Princess Lei Qianya stood to the side, while Dorothy was draping a blanket over her. The cat in her arms was struggling and meowing, apparently feeling that she was holding it a bit too tightly:

"Great-aunt, Miss An Na Te, did I... fall asleep? Oh! Great-aunt, you've finally returned!"

"Document-level Relic 【Sleeping in a Cold Dream】. You fell into the relic; if you hadn't been awakened in time, you would have eventually frozen to death in the dream. Do not recall that cold dream; it's alright now, it's alright."

The red-haired Duchess gave her a worried hug and patted her back. This made Angelina think again that she was still in a dream; in her memory, she never remembered her great-aunt hugging and comforting her like this. Therefore, when Miss Jia Lin Na released her and asked if she felt any discomfort, she was so stunned she didn't know how to answer.

"If this is a dream, it's quite nice too; everyone is so kind to me..."

However, she did not forget the dream just now; on the contrary, she had a deep impression of it. Although it was indeed abnormally cold at the beginning, she did not remember herself almost freezing to death at the end. In fact, if she hadn't been called awake, perhaps something even more unexpected would have happened later.

She took the teacup with magic potion handed over by Lei Qianya and scanned the first floor of the hotel, which was half fog and half light. Although it was still night and the rain outside was still heavy, seeing so many ladies here and seeing the people who cared about her here, she inexplicably felt at ease.

Angelina quietly looked at the cat in her arms again; Little Mia had fallen into a doze once more, and no one knew if it was truly asleep or just feigning sleep. The little princess was not sure if the cat's abnormal performance in the dream was just her own imagination; after all, she didn't understand why there would be a cat in her dream.

But soon, holding the soft cat, she convinced herself:

"Are dreams and reality really that important? What I believe to be real is the truth."

Wrapped in a blanket, huddled by the fire, she sipped her tea comfortably. Amidst the crackling of the burning fire, a voice seemed to speak in the depths of her heart again:

【Truth.】

"Miss, you've returned."

Difa, with water still dripping from her hair, walked in from outside. The Duchess smiled and looked at her head maid and apprentice:

"Returned. I hope this isn't too late. You did well."

Having taken care of Angelina, Miss Jia Lin Na, who had just returned from the second floor, and Lu Wei Ya briefly understood the current situation from Difa. They learned that Xia De had left fifteen minutes ago and that Xia De's friends, the Doctor and the Priest, had also set out to find him not long ago.

Miss Jia Lin Na was more concerned about where Xia De was now, while Lu Wei Ya was concerned about other matters.

Thus, while the Witch communicated with her apprentice, she found Lei Qianya and Duo Luo Qian alone:

"Did Xia De say anything to you before he left?"

The red-haired Princess and the blonde writer Miss looked at each other:

"Xia De said not to let us leave here easily."

Lu Wei Ya pursed her lips, clutching that final 【Homeland Coin】 in her hand, wondering if she should perform a divination now to see if Xia De's worst-case scenario for tonight was the same as what she thought. But before she could make a decision, Miss Jia Lin Na walked over:

"Lu Wei Ya, thank you for your hard work in helping to divine the way back. Rest here for a while; Xia De needs help now, and I will set out immediately."

Lu Wei Ya also knew that even if she rushed over, she wouldn't be able to help much, and waiting here, she should soon welcome other Witches:

"Alright then, let me see where Xia De is now."

"You can divine Xia De's location?"

The Witch asked curiously. Lu Wei Ya shook her head:

"Of course not, but he is carrying my handkerchief with him today."

A teasing expression appeared on the red-haired Witch's face, and the purple-eyed Diviner acted as if she hadn't seen it:

"Although divination may have deviations, the general direction should be fine... Hmm? Wasn't he going to the Edwards Old House? Why is he at the shore now?"

"That must be the shore."

Saying this, she greeted the girls on the first floor and then dashed directly into the rain.

Miss Jia Lin Na did not doubt Lu Wei Ya's judgment, so although the direction she pointed out was quite remote, she still advanced toward there in the heavy rain.

Facts also proved that Lu Wei Ya had once again proven her correctness. Having left the hotel for less than three minutes, the red-haired Witch jumped onto a tree and saw in the distant fog a massive red moon rising in the night, but then it immediately plummeted toward the lake:

"Xia De..."

She quickly approached that direction. Because she couldn't move quickly in the fog to prevent falling into a state of spatial confusion, it took her a few more minutes to leave the woods and reach the shore. She watched Xia De on the beach fly up and kick a giant snowball descending from the sky; the snowball immediately turned into solid ice and fell into the lake, followed by a violent explosion that blew the black shadows in the water, who hadn't yet reached the shore, into pieces. Flesh and mechanical parts floated on the water's surface, but were soon submerged by monsters continuously rising from the lake.

Xia De held a card in his hand, looking at this scene solemnly. The endless water ghosts were a minor matter. The key was that the location of the "Door" he perceived was at the bottom of the deep lake. And at the bottom of the lake, a behemoth like a whale was guarding that place. ===== CHAPTER 1908 =====