Chapter 2523: The Old Bennett Mansion

"Xia De certainly won't mind."

Miss Danister had seen Little Mia many times and knew that Xia De liked to have a cat by his side, so she teased him with a different kind of smile.

Xia De hesitated before nodding:

"Miss Winster, as long as you don't mind standing on my shoulder, I have no opinion... It's my honor."

So the witch took off her glasses again, and then turned into a gray-black cat in the gray-white mist. However, like that chubby owl, the face of the cat that Flora Winster turned into also looked round, and it was quite charming and beautiful.

Xia De squatted down and reached out his hand to her. The cat, which had just seemed indifferent, walked a few steps toward him, but before it really stepped its paw into Xia De's palm, it looked up at him again and then retreated:

"Well, I admit I'm not ready to make contact with a strange man."

She turned back into human form, set up her glasses, and signaled Xia De that they could go out:

"The Sage-level relic 【Confusion】 has the passive characteristic that once worn, unless I am willing to disclose my identity, strangers will never recognize me; the positive characteristic is hypnosis and rewriting cognition. Although it is troublesome to transform into a human, I can still maintain it. Let's set off like this."

"That's good, let's go to the old Bennett mansion first."

Xia De suggested, and Miss Danister asked:

"Are you coming back for lunch?"

"Not necessarily. If we don't come back before twelve o'clock, you can eat by yourself."

Miss Winster said, following Xia De out of the room. The eighteen-year-old red-haired female sorcerer watched them leave with a smile. After the door closed, she didn't pick up the book but let the small mirror under the coffee table fly into her hand:

"Eighteen years old..."

She sighed at the mirror, and for a moment felt that even if she stayed eighteen forever, it seemed to be nothing. But then she started to guess what Xia De and the witch would encounter today, and finally asked the mirror with a smile:

"Mirror, mirror, please tell me, will Xia De be holding a cat when they come back tonight?"

An ordinary mirror, of course, could not answer her.

That old Bennett family manor, which had stored the cupboard nearly a hundred years ago, was located on the northwestern edge of Creekwood Town in that era, but in the current era, it was located in the suburbs north of Vesta.

Because the development direction of Creekwood Town was toward the southwest, the manor was not surrounded by the city, but gradually surrounded by the forest.

And with the Bennett family being deprived of their titles half a century ago and various changes thereafter, although the manor still belonged to the Bennett family, it was almost completely abandoned and existed only as an ancestral home.

Moving from the city center to the old Bennett mansion required a carriage. Miss Winster, who followed Xia De downstairs, didn't communicate with him on the hotel stairs, but after the carriage driver rang the bell and the wheels began to grind on the road, the lady with gray-black long hair finally spoke:

"Did you tell Galina about me?"

She sat opposite Xia De, and no emotion could be seen in her golden eyes.

"Of course I did. She asked me if the rescue of Miss Danister to Vesta Forest went smoothly and if she needed her help, so I told her the whole process. I don't have the habit of lying to Galina."

Xia De said this, and Flora Winster pointed out:

"If you helped me hide this from her, you might be able to win my favor. Aren't you men all like this? You have already won the favor of a witch, I don't believe you have no other thoughts, I am very confident in myself."

"But no matter what, I shouldn't lie to Galina. Winning your favor is not as important as Galina's favor for me."

Xia De emphasized, and the witch wearing glasses laughed instead:

"Very good, it seems that although Galina hid important things, her vision is as good as ever.

Tell her if you want, at least it guarantees that if the three of us have problems locally, there will be follow-up people to save us."

Somehow, Xia De clearly felt that Miss Winster's favor for him was quite high. This was not the favor of "liking," but the favor of "friendliness." However, he was not stupid enough to ask this question, and the witch took the initiative to ask:

"You know that another Great Witch will appear in Tobesk, right?"

"Miss Vanessa Beninis? I know. The opera troupe will probably arrive a little later next week. They didn't take the direct train."

The lady with gray-black hair complained:

"I knew it, Galina must have told you a lot about us. As long as you say a few flowery words and smile at her, she will definitely not refuse to answer any of your questions."

"She just said things that might be related to me. For example, your business, I didn't know your identity at all before I met you that day."

"Love makes people blind, even someone as intelligent as Galina is inevitably affected."

She sighed there, and Xia De really didn't want to talk about this topic, so he asked:

"Before the carriage arrives at the destination, let's talk about the Bennett family. You and Miss Danister should know more about the Bennett family than I do. How many people are there now?"

"Not many. The oldest member of the Bennett family is Thomas Bennett, the owner of the Accordion Hotel. The outside world evaluates him as a very stingy person, and his wife is a very typical sour and mean country woman, but her appearance is still quite beautiful."

Miss Winster said, wiping her face, and that beautiful face immediately turned into the face of a mediocre woman. Of course, it was still considered beautiful in the eyes of ordinary people:

"The couple has five children, the first four are daughters. Now the oldest one is engaged this summer, and plans to hold a wedding next spring.

In fact, old Bennett doesn't care about the children in the family, only the business. That Mrs. Bennett doesn't care about the moral and ideological cultural education of her daughters at all. Her only trouble is how to marry all her daughters decently as capital for her to show off."

The witch let her face recover:

"As for the youngest son of the Bennett couple, he is only 11 years old now. They don't live in the Accordion Hotel, but in a mansion three streets away from the hotel. They are famous rich people in the local area. The five children will also appear in the hotel occasionally, and you will have a chance to see them."

"Five children?"

Xia De frowned slightly. The "mermaid" said at the time that the transaction between Bennett and her "included three children," and also said that Bennett's wife died early, so she was lucky not to be in the scope of the transaction:

"So, isn't what Desire said Thomas Bennett?"

He guessed in his heart, and asked again:

"What is the situation of Thomas Bennett's father's generation?"

"Bruce Bennett, his family had already lost their title when he was young. He gave birth to three children, and now the only one still alive is the hotel owner.

Bruce Bennett died 7 years ago. I just conducted a superficial investigation. It is said that he contracted a serious illness. If you are interested, we can also dig up the corpse for an autopsy."

After speaking, she raised her eyebrows at Xia De:

"Looking at your expression, do you really want to dig up the corpse?"

"I might have some conflicts with the Bennett family. I suspect Bruce Bennett didn't die... well, just a guess. Let's go to the old Bennett mansion first, and hope to gain something."

In 1763, when Miss Winster and Miss Danister visited, the owner of the old mansion was the great-grandfather of the current hotel owner. After being deprived of their titles for protecting those musicians and political prisoners in the generation of the grandfather, the old mansion was abandoned.

Therefore, when Xia De and Miss Winster stood at the gate of the manor locked by heavy iron chains, what they saw was an overgrown, dilapidated courtyard and a building with severely faded wall skin.

But apart from that, it was well maintained. The iron fence was not rusty, and every window of the mansion building had glass. It seemed that although the Bennett family no longer lived here, they had not completely abandoned their ancestral home.

In 1763, after the Xia De cat chased the owl lady out of the manor, it was still the street of a relatively prosperous town outside. And in the era of urban development, the street where the manor was located had become desolate.

The main body of the street was very different from more than ninety years ago. A small amount of farmland and some low farmhouses were distributed nearby. The street that could pass carriages was now potholed like a country road.

Looking further around, the forest gradually surrounded the manor. The city was developing, but the old Bennett mansion had been abandoned in the past time and space.

"For me, it was only two or three days before it was abandoned."

Xia De heard the witch sigh on the side, and he asked:

"If the Bennett family still hires people to maintain this place regularly, is there a servant looking after the house now?"

"Maybe, but at most one or two. Let's be careful and avoid them."

Although there were people nearby, the farmers were busy in the fields during the autumn harvest, and no one looked in this direction. Xia De was still sighing about the poor grain harvest this autumn, when the witch beside him had already turned into an owl and flew over the fence.

And after she landed in human form again, the silver cat also drilled in from the gap in the fence.

The two walked side by side across the courtyard covered with fallen leaves. The door of the mansion was naturally locked, but Xia De reached out and knocked, and the lock popped open automatically. Pushing open the door and seeing the somewhat dim interior of the mansion, Xia De felt as if he had returned to 1763 in a trance.

Because compared to the desolation and dilapidation of the courtyard, the interior of the building, except for the lack of some furniture and oil paintings, was exactly the same as that snowy winter.

"Time."

【Rest assured, there is no time travel.】 ===== CHAPTER 2524 =====