Chapter 2087

As he spoke, Xia De thought again of the first god he had encountered, and thought of the young man wearing a clown hat in the toy store:

"He once created an eternal flame and an inexhaustible spring for the beautiful witch princess. But when the witch princess asked Him for immortality, the god left her."

Smiling as he responded to the joke mixed with slang that Mr. Anderson had told—which wasn't actually all that funny—Xia De summarized his own approach:

"Immature children always have all sorts of wishes. For those warm and sincere wishes, one must of course find a way to fulfill them. For those wishes that might have problems, one must correct and remind them. As for how to distinguish children's wishes and how to handle the thoughts of immature young people, that is what a qualified adult must do. The responsibility of adults toward children is probably just about that."

"She" was smiling even more tenderly in Xia De's ear, and in Xia De's pocket, the silver anchor ornament was also radiating a warm temperature. The anchor accepted this method of handling tasks, and Miss Eleise's second task officially ended here.

The meeting with the porter Anderson also implied Xia De's idea of wanting to make contact with the "Eternal Light." It was just a pity that Mr. Anderson did not loosen his lips until the end and did not tell Xia De how to contact the others in the "Eternal Light."

But at least he told Xia De the internal structure of the "Eternal Light," information that perhaps even the police had not figured out:

"The supreme leader is called the 'Archbishop.' I have never seen him, but people all praise him as a devout ascetic."

"Devout? Faith in whom?"

"Not a god, but Light itself. He and two cardinals formed a committee to jointly manage the Eternal Light. Of course, these are also things I've heard. Below the leader and the two cardinals are the high priests who oversee the gathering places in different areas, and then the ordinary priests who manage specific gathering places. Different gathering places have their own management personnel, which includes people who distribute flyers to the outside, people who manage strangers newly joining the society, and so on and so forth."

"That really is a massive organization. But as far as I know, because of the constant tracking by the police in recent years, hasn't the Eternal Light already gone underground, so the members are very few?"

The porter also answered Xia De's doubts:

"That's why those of us are not official members; official members generally wear robes. I have had the fortune to see them; every time they appear, they will tell us things like nobles and merchants are all bad things. However, their whereabouts are strictly kept secret. Even if you could find the gathering place through someone like me, I'm afraid you wouldn't be able to see them. Official members only appear in front of familiar faces who have participated in the gatherings for at least half a year."

Although he failed to make direct contact with the "Eternal Light," the information provided by Mr. Anderson was still quite useful. After lunch that noon, Xia De still chose to exchange contact information with the porter and his son; there might be places where he would need their help in the future.

It was already one o'clock in the afternoon. Standing on the pier trestle looking at the swirling snowflakes falling on the harbor sea surface covered with sails, this scene was even more romantic than imagined, but it was also very cruel to farmers.

The cat, having eaten its fill, wanted to take an afternoon nap, so Xia De had no choice but to send it home first. After dropping off the crystal shoe and returning home, he saw a letter on the coffee table in the living room:

"Miss Galina's handwriting. Oh, Miss Bernice has responded. Xilis has sent the things needed to recover memories to Green Island through Miss Sylvia."

The cat skillfully climbed onto the windowsill, basking in the sun, and narrowed its eyes. Its little ears listened to Xia De going down to the basement downstairs, and returning again ten minutes later.

At this time, Xia De had an extra wooden box in his hand. Inside the box, besides Xilis's letter, there was also a holy emblem of the Old God 【Forgotten Old Man】 radiating rich miracle elements, and a small, pocket-sized ladies' pistol. This pistol was the Sage-level relic 【Faded Memories】 left behind by Laplace Howard.

【Faded Memories】 itself was styled as a revolver. By adjusting the rotation of the cylinder, it could be divided into three modes: extracting memories and projecting them, extracting terrifying memories to make the bullets have high lethality, and extracting biological memories and projecting them into physical entities.

That diviner who surpassed the thirteen rings relied on this pistol to extract the memories of the eldest son of the three generations, confirming the truth he had glimpsed in the long river of time. In other words, "extracting memories" was the main function of this gun.

If Xilis had come to Moon Bay City in person, then just by relying on this gun, she could have obtained the memories Xia De wanted. But the blonde girl could not leave Willundale for the time being, so in order to assist Xia De, she temporarily lent her holy emblem to Xia De.

That holy emblem was a sacred object passed down by the successive bishops of the 【Order of the Forgotten】, and it was the strongest divine art item passed down by the now-declining order. With this sacred object, even if Xia De did not understand memory sorcery, he could easily cooperate with the relic to obtain memories. And the fact that Xilis was willing to lend this holy emblem to Xia De in itself represented the girl's feelings.

Xilis's letter explained how Xia De should use these two items. The greetings other than that were quite simple, but Xia De still read that letter several times. After understanding his own heart and desires some time ago, Xia De no longer struggled because of such things, but he still felt some guilt in his heart.

So he thought about planning a date next time he saw Xilis. Judging from the current situation in Moon Bay City, the Golden Dawn Opera Troupe would arrive there sooner or later.

Leaving the cat at home to take an afternoon nap, Xia De did not immediately return to Moon Bay, but took a carriage to Cat Tail Alley in the Tobesk University District to visit Professor Manning.

The old professor, who was retired and idle at home, although he would go fishing and visit good friends in the city on weekdays, and occasionally participate in some lectures and academic report meetings, Xia De could usually find him at his home under normal circumstances.

Today was the same. After knocking on the door, the servant saw that it was Xia De visiting, so he directly invited Xia De inside. At this time, the professor had other friends here. Xia De saw the floating Laster Edwards at a glance, and then saw Drout Giles sitting on the sofa talking to the professor.

After the matter at Green Lake ended, Drout Giles, who returned home, stayed in Tobesk and lived on as a history lecturer at the school, while Laster Edwards, who returned from death, naturally stayed by his side all along.

Xia De had visited them twice last month; he didn't expect to run into them again at Professor Manning's place today.

"Ah, it's you, it's you! Are you monitoring us?"

The girl was still as lively and spirited as ever.

"Mr. Hamilton, we meet again."

Drout Giles stood up and greeted him respectfully.

"Xia De, good afternoon."

Professor Manning greeted him with a smile. It seemed that the young history lecturer came here to discuss a paper that was about to be submitted with the professor. Seeing that Xia De had arrived, he exchanged a few pleasantries with Xia De, and then left with the girl who was full of joy.

While the servant was preparing tea for Xia De, the old professor said with quite some satisfaction:

"Giles is a very talented person. He couldn't settle down to do academic work before, but since meeting you and taking a trip from Green Lake, his mind has clearly become much more settled after returning. If those young people in the school could all be like him, that would be great."

"His encounter at Green Lake is something others probably wouldn't want to encounter in their entire lives."

Xia De smiled and shook his head:

"I came to visit this time because I want to ask you about some things. It still has to do with your experiences when you were young... Well, more than ten years ago, you went to Moon Bay, right? Moon Bay City on the west coast."

Professor Manning held his teacup and nodded, his expression very surprised:

"Yes, why, did you run into trouble in Moon Bay this time?"

"A gift for you."

Seeing the servant leave, Xia De took out a jar of honey he had bought from the Duke of Bees store before leaving Moon Bay City today from his pocket. Professor Manning saw the Karsinrik language label on the jar and nodded tacitly:

"I have only been to Moon Bay once. It was a summer, and the weather was much better than this year. The scene of standing on the pier watching the seagulls is still fresh in my memory. Back then, two colleagues and I went to Moon Bay City to participate in an ancient ruin excavation activity that could not be made public because of an academic exchange activity between Delyrian and Karsinrik. You understand, it had to do with mysticism."

The old professor held his teacup and recalled the past:

"The location of the ruins was very remote. If I were to go there again now, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to find it. But I remember that the characters on the stone tablets unearthed in the ruins were very strange. They were not any kind of characters I knew. Even looking at them for a long time would produce feelings of mental tension and fear. However, this was not the first time I had encountered similar things. When I was young, I saw even more strange things."

"Then did you privately keep any photos or fragments of the unearthed stone tablets back then?"

Xia De asked expectantly. Professor Manning shook his head decisively:

"Of course not, that's against the rules. This kind of excavation activity led by the church strictly forbids privately hiding any items, and even more strictly forbids leaving any unreviewed records. Detective, I have been able to travel all over the Old Continent and participate in archaeological excavation activities in various places, yet I can still sit here and talk to you at this age, all relying on this caution."

Xia De was slightly disappointed, but at the same time, he agreed with Professor Manning's approach:

"You did the right thing. Then I will go to other places to look for clues. This matter involves the legendary dragon. Yes, it's the one in the story. I don't know what will happen this time."

"Dragon? Now that you mention it, those strange patterns I saw back then actually referred to a dragon~ I thought it was a big lizard. I felt strange at the time; there are no ancient legends in the Moon Bay area that worship lizards."

Professor Manning suddenly realized, and then thought of another thing.