Chapter 2068: Cursed Letter

Eating breakfast, Xia De asked why Emilia came so early. As expected, she ran out secretly again:

"The three of us agreed to meet in the hotel lobby at 7:30 every day for breakfast. I got up an hour early to avoid them."

Saying this, she even looked very proud, but she didn't forget to explain the reason for coming here:

"We have been staying at the Three Cats Hotel for half a week. The task assigned by the academy to track down relics is fine, but since I moved into that room, I have started to have strange dreams frequently."

She held a fork and frowned. In Xia De's house, she didn't wear a disguise spell, so she still looked youthful and beautiful:

"If it was just a dream, that would be fine, but I was woken up by a nightmare early this morning and saw a letter in the room. Oh, cat, do you want to eat?"

Little Mia on the side walked away in disgust and lay down by Xia De's hand again.

Emilia didn't care, and took out the letter and handed it to Xia De. Xia De touched the envelope and confirmed that the paper was very ordinary. He looked at the stamp and address again. The stamp is the cheapest 1-penny stamp, which means this is a letter sent within Tobesk city. It's just that the pattern on the stamp is a bloody hand on a black background. Xia De is very sure that regular stamps will not have this pattern.

As for the address, it is a string of strange tadpole characters.

"I don't recognize this kind of text."

The elf eating fried eggs said in a low voice. Xia De didn't recognize what this text was either, but he could interpret it, and this is an address belonging to the city.

Taking out the letter, the text on the letter was written in the common language of Delarian—

【Hello stranger:

This is a cursed letter. After seeing this letter, you need to send the letter to at least three different people, otherwise you will die miserably in seven days, and your soul will be burned by the devil's fire for forty-nine days.】

Below the short text is a bloody handprint suspected to be drawn with blood, but Xia De smelled it and knew it was red ink.

Then he looked at the back of the letter paper, and there was nothing. Touching the cat that raised its head with interest, Xia De frowned and thought for a while:

"Prank letter... No, there are indeed traces of whispers, but very weak."

"Are there?"

Emilia raised her head in surprise. Although her perception is also very strong, it is still in the category of ordinary elves:

"I don't know if this is a real cursed letter or a prank, so I came to you. Go to the academy, once it is confirmed that it is really a relic, the family will definitely use the reason that I encountered danger to let me go back."

"It is highly likely to be a real relic. Although it looks like a malicious prank, the traces of elements cannot be forged."

Xia De, who originally wanted to follow Luweiya's words and go to Moon Bay City to see Miss Lei Qianya, also gave up the plan to go far away this morning. He adjusted his sitting posture and said very seriously to the elf girl holding a fork:

"Report it to the academy, this is no joke. Safety first."

"But, but..."

Emilia pursed her lips, looking very aggrieved:

"In this way, the academy will definitely ask us to go back. It's not easy to spend the summer outside the academy. You haven't taken me to see Tobesk, Miss Anate said she would go shopping with me on the weekend. And Miss Louisa, I want to visit the apartment where she created the 'Hamilton Detective Story Collection'."

She lowered her head, but her big emerald green eyes looked up at Xia De, looking really pitiful:

"Help me, find out what kind of relic this is. I promise, if we can't handle it, I will report it to the academy immediately. I, I, I can pay you a reward."

"Hmm... When you were at school, did you also plead with the professors like this when you couldn't finish your homework?"

Xia De asked. The elf girl pursed her lips, looking like she was really going to cry, so he nodded:

"Okay, okay, don't be like this, I'll help you. You know I will definitely help you, otherwise you wouldn't come to me, I certainly won't let you down."

Saying that, he picked up the cat watching the fun:

"But you have to guarantee that you can't run around when you are by my side."

"Okay!"

"What about your companions? They are probably worried about you now."

"It's okay, I left a letter at the hotel front desk, they know I came to you, I will go back before evening."

Involving unknown relics, naturally, one has to find an elder of high prestige to identify it, that is, Old John.

So after Emilia finished breakfast, Xia De left the cat at home and went to Old John's pawnshop with her. Early in the morning, the pawnshop naturally had no customers. The old man behind the counter was leisurely reading the newspaper, and the front page was still a big photo of His Majesty the King. Hearing the bell at the door, he looked up, and then raised his eyebrows in surprise:

"Good morning, detective... Elf friend?"

"Hmm? Isn't there a disguise spell?"

"That can only fool others. Visiting my business early in the morning with this strange elf lady, detective, do you need me to say thank you?"

He asked with a smile. Emilia pulled Xia De's clothes and followed behind him. Sometimes Xia De didn't know whether she was bold or introverted:

"It is indeed patronizing the business. This time there are two things. This elf lady encountered some trouble, I want to ask you to see what kind of relic this is."

He let Emilia repeat the matter of the letter, and then handed the letter to Old John. The old man frowned and listened, looked through the letter and had the answer:

"It's getting stranger and stranger these years, and this kind of thing can appear in Tobesk. Keeper-level relic - Malicious Serial Cursed Letter, belongs to a relatively rare event-type relic, but it is still quite famous."

"Keeper-level? That's fine."

Xia De breathed a sigh of relief. If it was a Sage-level or even Angel-level, he would immediately report it to the academy.

"So, the curse on the letter..."

Emilia asked timidly, with less enthusiasm and more timidity. Only then could people realize that she was an underage elf in her fifties.

"It's true."

The old man nodded affirmatively, looking at the stamp on the envelope against the light:

"The origin of this kind of relic can no longer be verified. The view recognized by the academic community is that it is inseparable from traditional prank letters. Angel-level relic 【Corpse in the Wall】, Sage-level relic 【Friendly Neighbor】, Keeper-level relic 【Malicious Serial Cursed Letter】, Document-level relic 【Ghost Shadow in the Peripheral Vision】, Poet-level relic 【Footsteps in the Middle of the Night】, known as the five major urban legend relics, but appearing in a big city like Tobesk is something that has never happened before... They usually appear in closed and superstitious small towns, or old and declining cities like Green Lake City."

"If you follow what the letter says and spread the curse to the other three, what will happen?"

Xia De asked.

"On the one hand, it further spreads the curse, and on the other hand, it makes the person who sent the letter a puppet controlled by the curse, who will constantly send more letters until they lose their own form and turn into a malicious cursed object. The solution is not complicated, just break this."

Old John pointed to the tadpole characters on the envelope:

"Find the person who sent the letter, let this elf lady kill him, yes, remember, be sure to let the cursed person do it. In this way, the elf lady can naturally get rid of the curse chain, and even if she has already sent the letter, the new recipient can also get rid of the curse. Of course, if you can't find the sender, finding the sender of the previous link is also fine, but that is more troublesome. My news is very well-informed, and I haven't heard the news about this kind of relic in the city, so this should be a letter close to the origin of the curse chain. If you find a living person, after killing him, inform the church about this matter from the black market, the church should be able to follow the vine to find the source, and it will soon be able to completely expel this event. If what you find is not a human, but the source of this chain..."

He deliberately paused, Emilia showed a scared expression, pulling Xia De's hem and hiding behind him:

"Old gentleman, what will happen?"

"Then you are lucky. The source of this relic is something that is almost human-like but extremely ugly. If you can solve it directly, then even other curses currently in effect in the local area will lose their power because of this. Besides that, that kind of thing can be considered a strong aggregate of malice. Eliminating it might allow you to have one more spiritual rune."

Old John said with a smile:

"This kind of curse source can be divided into two categories. A very small part is transformed by humans because of extremely strong negative emotions and the whisper elements of the relic, but it is quite rare. The biggest ability is to use malice to form a different space like a maze, but defeating the main body can break it. Most of the time, it is a weak dark creature produced naturally, really weak."

The elf lady was very puzzled:

"Such a powerful curse, why is the source very weak?"

"Things that hide in the dark and wantonly spread fear and malice, how strong can they be?"

Old John asked back, and raised the letter in his hand:

"Detective, this identification will not charge you money, sell me the stamp above, this is a relic derivative, I happen to need it, is the price of 3 pounds 7 shillings okay? As for the tadpole characters here, do you need me to find an ancient text master for you? This text is very ancient."

"I will handle the text, you should remember that I am very good at analyzing this kind of ancient text. As for this stamp, this is not my thing..."

Turning to look at Emilia, the latter nodded:

"Sell it to you."

She didn't say she didn't want the money, but thought that after this matter was over, she would use the money to buy some pet toys for Little Mia as a thank you to Xia De... She didn't know that the cat didn't like toys, but only liked specific rings and Xia De.

Xia De then talked about the second thing:

"I want you to help me see what this is."

The anchor silver ornament given by Miss Ilese was taken out. ===== CHAPTER 2069 =====

The silver anchor ornament given by Miss Iliser was taken out by him.