Chapter 1989: New Adventure

"Moon Bay area? This is indeed uncertain news, but it is worth me going to Moon Bay to take a look. The plague near Miss Gao De's hometown has not yet subsided, and I have nothing else to do recently."

The back of the letter wrote the news inquired by Miss Beiya's friends, and Xia De could follow those clues to investigate.

Miss Miss Jia Lin Na's eyes were filled with worry, and she said again after Xia De finished reading:

"Actually, the friend who provided the information to Vanessa is another Great Witch of the Council."

"Oh?"

Xia De raised his head and looked at her:

"Which one?"

"The Great Witch of Fate."

The Duchess replied, but did not mention the other party's name:

"Eleventh tier, the tenth seat of the Council. She has some peculiar skills. If we introduce her identity and name to you in detail, she might perceive it. So without involving her name, I can only roughly tell you her background for now."

"No problem, please introduce it."

Xia De then sat up straight.

"Just said, the actual ruler of the Moon Bay area is the City Council of Moon Bay City. Most of the councilors in the City Council come from ancient families that existed when Moon Bay City was established. 'The Seven Families of Moon Bay of Glory' is what they call themselves.

In the modern era, the impact of the steam revolution has led to the rise of emerging nobles, but there are still three families that firmly control the power passed down by their ancestors—Hawthorne, Eddington, and Belindell. The Great Witch of Fate belongs to one of the families and is quite famous in the Moon Bay area."

Miss Miss Jia Lin Na also did not forget to remind Xia De:

"The Great Witch of Fate is of course also a diviner, but don't judge the witch diviner by your impression of Luweiya. She sometimes has some... extraordinary actions. If you say that the madness of Megan and Audrey before was because of the chaos of the soul, then she might really have a mental illness."

"Sorry, what does this mean?"

"The Great Witch of Fate believes in and fears fate too much, is too persistent and cautious, which instead makes her fall into the trap of fate. The Speaker has criticized her many times, but she never changes. For any decision she makes, as long as there is a choice, she must divine to determine the direction of fate. Although this is exaggerated, Xia De, can you imagine a person who has to flip a coin to decide which foot to step out with before going out every day?"

Xia De laughed. This is a classic joke of diviners. It means to satirize those guys who have to divine everything and have to "ask" fate before doing anything. Although Luweiya's divination talent is excellent, she almost never does this in daily life.

"However, that diviner who once held the 【Hope Diamond】 wouldn't be this witch, right?"

Miss Miss Jia Lin Na shook her head:

"Of course not, this point can be guaranteed."

"I roughly know. However, the Moon Bay area is so big, the clues given by Miss Beiya are in the Lower City District. The probability of me meeting that lady from a wealthy family shouldn't be high, right?"

"Oh, knight, it would be strange if you didn't meet her. Besides, didn't you tell us that it was Miss Mana Feilian who gave you the task to let you master the witches?"

"It's to master the Council, not to master the witches."

Xia De corrected in time, and the red-haired Duchess teased with a smile:

"This is not important. Sometimes I even doubt whether it is fate guiding you to find witches."

"Why would fate do such a boring thing?"

So Miss Jia Lin Na Cavendish looked at him and said very gently:

"Because we, at least the ones you know, really need you."

On the brand new Tuesday, Xia De and Miss Miss Jia Lin Na also had things to do. After holding a party for a whole day on Sunday and Monday, they couldn't continue to stay in the manor today.

Miss Miss Jia Lin Na and Xia De

"You are absolutely not human."

The Great Witch of Balance was not teasing or sighing:

"Although I anticipated the possible situation for your birthday 'party', you actually... I don't believe this is something an ordinary Seventh-Ring sorcerer could achieve; I am at the Twelfth Tier. Xia De, perhaps you should investigate your own past. Did the background check St. Byrons conducted on you really find nothing at all?"

Her golden eyes held some worry and full concern. When her hand pressed against Xia De's chest and touched the cross embedded with the Philosopher's Stone, she guessed again:

"For instance, whether this body of yours is also a product of human alchemy. Or perhaps you possess a high-level bloodline that even the relics at Grandma Cassandra's place cannot identify. Or perhaps... a certain god, that ancient Moon God you refuse to tell us about, has placed a heavy bet on you."

"This body of mine couldn't possibly be made by the Philosopher's Stone, could it?"

Xia De wanted to put her at ease, so he joked:

"As everyone knows, the Philosopher's Stone will fuse with another Philosopher's Stone upon contact, but I have touched the Philosopher's Stone many times without seeing this material enter my body. Rest assured, I know my own affairs quite well. Besides, Miss Feilian and the others have also promised to help me check if there is any problem with my blood."

Xia De was now completely clear and certain about why he had come to this world. The only remaining question was what exactly his relationship was to the ancient high tower that collapsed in the spring of 1853 in the Karas Mountains.

"She" chuckled gently in Xia De's ear.

Xia De did not get off at St. Deran Square but got off early, taking Little Mia to Old John's pawnshop. When he pushed the door open to enter, Old John was reading a newspaper behind the counter and only looked up at Xia De upon hearing the door open:

"Oh, it's the detective. You've come at a very opportune time; I've managed to get three more antiques you were looking for. Try them again this time; I refuse to believe none of them meet your requirements."

Xia De did not reveal the true function of the "Butterfly Cards," but he had told Old John that he needed the cards to seal items. Old John only assumed they were some sort of peculiar alchemical items, so he did not probe further, though he was quite curious about what kind of items those cards really were.

"New goods have arrived, that's truly great. However, I still want to acquire items that increase one's own luck; yes, just like before."

"No problem, I have those too, just waiting for you to ask."

Xia De walked to the counter holding the cat, then saw the newspaper the old man had put down, which wrote about the measures taken in Tobeisk to stabilize grain prices:

"Is the price going up again? Autumn hasn't even arrived yet."

"Looking at the recent weather, we don't need to wait for autumn; even those nobles in the city who can't tell wheat from rice know that there will definitely be a big problem with the grain this year."

The old man, who was rummaging under the counter for the storeroom key, shook his head and asked Xia De to wait a moment, while he went up the stairs to the second floor.

With nothing to do, Xia De let Mia lie on the counter and not move around, while he flipped through the newspaper; he hadn't read the morning paper yet today. Old John had been looking at the third page of news, and the second page ahead reported on the pandemic situation in the country.

When Xia De talked to Miss Miss Jia Lin Na about the plague in Miss Gao De's hometown at the beginning of the month, the Duchess had said it was only a situation occurring in individual cities. But now, more than half a month later, similar pandemics were appearing in more and more places, so the Kingdom finally began to take it seriously.

Currently, there were still no reported cases in the Tobeisk region, so the citizens only learned the news from afar through the newspapers and vigilantly watched every "country bumpkin" who did not speak the Delarion language with a Tobeisk accent. The Five Gods Sect was cooperating with various city halls to actively carry out plague prevention work, so although the aftereffects of this strange great plague were severe, the mortality rate was actually not high.

Although the church would not use supernatural means to cure patients, the understanding of diseases promoted by potions and alchemy had significantly improved the medical standards of this era, which was one of the benefits of the supernatural world.

Continuing to flip forward to the front page, the newspaper was still reporting that the conflict between Delarion and Kassenrik was further escalating. A month had passed since the end of the Green Lake negotiations, yet there was not the slightest glimmer of hope for a restart. The voices of the war hawks in both countries occupied the dominant position, wanting to teach the Southerners/Northerners a lesson. It seemed that the Old Continent had been at peace for so long that people had forgotten what war actually meant.

It was just that the upper echelons of the Kingdom were full of concerns. Xia De had heard Miss Miss Jia Lin Na say that King Laruce III actually did not mind using a war to vent the economic and political pressures facing the country. It was just that starting a war casually was not a good thing after all, and no one could guarantee victory once a war began, so Tobeisk currently maintained a strange situation that seemed to clamor for war while everything was actually calm.

But everyone knew that this calm would not last long. Especially after the autumn grain harvest, once the rise in grain prices drove the skyrocketing of other commodity prices, then whether or not to fight a war would no longer be something that could be reversed by personal will.

Old John soon returned holding a box. Seeing Xia De reading the newspaper, he chatted with him about how the world had become worse in the last two years. The two had previously discussed the Battle of Green Lake, and the old gentleman from the Light-Seeking Cult sighed repeatedly. He told Xia De about the recent measures of the Cult that Mr. Edmund had mentioned, and even told Xia De the location and construction plan of the "refuge" that the Cult prepared to build in the Tobeisk region.

The land price in Tobeisk was incomparably expensive, and in order not to attract too much attention, the Cult chose undeveloped land in the northern suburbs of the city. Everything was just beginning now, and the construction of the refuge was divided into three phases, which would take at least two years to complete.

"Detective, these are the things you wanted. Take a look for yourself."

Xia De then took out the blank "Butterfly" card to touch the three antiques one by one. Finally, the card reacted to a broken blade. The rusted metal strip originally belonged to a longsword; now it was severely corroded and existed only as an ordinary cursed item, not even counting as an alchemical item.

If such an item were not an antique, it could only be considered the alchemical material "Cursed Ancient Metal." Therefore, although the price was also very expensive, it was relatively cheap compared to relics and ancient alchemical items.

Old John gave the origin of this broken blade:

"The religious story 'Day of Rebirth' from the early Fifth Era. A certain region was cursed by the Great One, and all the deceased would be reborn after a week, and the pain of death would be retained after rebirth. Only by being killed by another cursed person could one completely fall into eternal sleep, but each cursed person could only permanently kill one person; they could not be killed simultaneously, nor could they commit suicide, so in the end, one unlucky fellow remained.

The last survivor then prayed to the gods for forgiveness, enduring a century of punishment in pain and torment. Finally, he obtained the sword he had used to personally end his own cursed father, and with this sword, he gained the qualification for death... Ancient religious stories are always of this style. But this is just a story, and no one can say for sure how much it differs from what actually happened. But at least the broken blade in your hand is definitely related to the prototype of the story."