Chapter 2612: Mermaid Shadow

"Judging from today's performance, this 【Damaged Antarctic Constellation Clock】 should be classified as Sage-level to be reasonable. If it weren't for you being here, not many people in the entire Tobesk parish could deal with this thing."

Iluna continued, while Xia De was puzzled by the scene he just saw:

"The man just now was wrapped in tree branches and was not affected by the relic's effect. What is the principle of this?"

"This... I don't know either. This requires investigating his identity and background."

Although Iluna was answering the question, her eyes were actually staring at the weapon in Xia De's hand:

"This staff of yours is really powerful."

"That goes without saying, this is a branch of the World Tree."

"You know?!"

Iluna was startled, and then asked:

"Then can it still grow into the original World Tree?"

Among the five conditions provided to her by "If" to help Xia De ("Fire, Cards, Resurrection, Power, Love"), "Resurrection" should refer to resurrecting the World Tree (2016). It's just that "If" also said that this matter could not be told to Xia De, so she could only ask after Xia De knew.

"This is a dead time key, of course it cannot grow again. What a strange question."

Xia De shook his head, put away the staff, bent down and covered the dial of the fallen grandfather clock with that red velvet cloth:

"It is estimated that the people lost in the time gap will return. I will leave here first, and you can solve the remaining things. Remember to think clearly about how to explain it. I will be in the opera house until ten o'clock in the evening. If anything happens again, remember to come find me."

Iluna also returned that jar of umbilical cords to Xia De. She actually wanted to stay with Xia De for a while longer:

"If those lost people don't come back within half an hour, they probably won't come back. I'll come find you in the evening. It seems that I also have to find a way to improve my time resistance."

Vanessa and the others were not surprised that Xia De solved the problem so quickly. After seeing Xia De return, they arranged for everyone to have dinner here together.

Although the opera house had such an incident, it had not received a notice not to open tonight, so the girls of the opera troupe still had to perform on stage tonight.

Vanessa seemed to often have dinner with her followers backstage like this, and everyone was laughing and talking around the dining table made of multiple tables put together.

And the rain at night gradually stopped, so when the well-dressed men and women boarded the imposing steps at the entrance of the opera troupe as usual, people were not holding umbrellas.

The audience tonight also filled every seat that could be sold as expected. Xia De sat in a remote corner with Vanessa and Siris and enjoyed the opera together.

At nine o'clock in the evening, the opera ended, and the audience talked about the wonderful performance tonight and left one after another. Tired Iluna found Xia De, who was preparing to take Little Mia home, backstage again:

"The investigation has results."

The girl who had been busy all night sat on the chair in front of the dressing table. Siris, who felt sorry for her, poured her a glass of water, and Iluna drank the whole glass of water gulp by gulp before continuing to say to Xia De:

"That dead man was a handyman in the theater, and that grandfather clock was bought from a local second-hand store. That second-hand store also sent people to investigate. The grandfather clock was acquired from an out-of-town merchant more than ten years ago and had never been sold. The account book can prove this."

That is to say, the source of the relic could not be traced, but it seemed that no one deliberately wanted to cause damage.

"That handyman bought the grandfather clock because he wanted to put it in his own home. According to the trace tracking conducted by the church on his home this afternoon, he seemed to have discovered a containment instruction about the grandfather clock inside the grandfather clock, but it was not a containment report from the church. It was probably left by other organizations that had contained it before.

We found that instruction written around the year 400 of the Sixth Era under his mattress. Besides explaining 'Time Stasis,' it also wrote that using the method of binding specific tree branches can make people immune to the time stasis effect of this relic for a short time."

Saying that, she took the teacup handed by Siris, but this time she just held it in her hand.

The thirteen-ring Great Witch confirmed:

"So the truth of this matter is: the man who coveted beauty was driven by desire and greed, of course, and also the influence of the relic's whispering elements, which caused the relic to lose control and cause today's consequences? This is not a good story, but it does have a warning effect."

Xia De originally thought so too, but didn't expect Iluna to shake her head:

"It's not that simple. The other protagonist of the story, the girl wearing a costume, didn't come back and was one of the victims this time. But we also carefully checked her apartment... Simply put, she also has problems."

Seeing everyone looking at her unexpectedly, Iluna continued to explain:

"Is it normal for that handyman to be so obsessed with her? Xia De, you and I both saw the past scenes. I admit that men will do many unreasonable things when obsessed with girls, but isn't that handyman's obsession a bit too much?"

Xia De nodded hesitantly, and suddenly had some bad guesses:

"You continue."

"The church investigated that she herself was not a well-known actress. Although she belonged to the Tobesk Art Performance Troupe, she was at most an unimportant supporting role.

In order to become famous and be liked by more people, that girl set up a... ritual in her own home."

The witch, Siris, Xia De, and the two high-ring girls listening on the side all shook their heads. Iluna, of course, understood what they meant:

"Yes, it is the kind of event where ordinary people are involved in the mysterious world. It's just that I don't know which book she found that ritual from, but it was not a regular ritual. From the traces left at the scene, she paid some kind of price in exchange for a bottle of magical perfume that could make herself very charming."

"What a silly girl, so she died because of herself?"

The witch sighed softly, and Xia De asked:

"Did the church confirm that the perfume catalyzed this incident? Then what did she trade with? A demon? It couldn't be an evil god. I think gods shouldn't easily make such trades with mortals."

Gods are not wish-granting machines, and communicating with gods is not something ordinary people can easily do.

"It shouldn't be a demon; the church's detection ritual didn't find traces of demons. It shouldn't be an evil god either; we didn't find blasphemous elements. The ritual set up by that actress should have had no effect. What took effect was a stone wrapped in seaweed."

She paused slightly:

"I didn't follow when investigating that actress's apartment, but I heard that the stone looked like a mermaid.

Also, the remaining half bottle of perfume was found in that girl's makeup bag. The ingredients are not yet determined. But it is certain that it was indeed her use of too much perfume that made the handyman who bought the grandfather clock have ulterior motives. Simply put, both people have responsibilities.

As for that perfume bottle, before I came here, I heard from a colleague that there is an abstract mermaid symbol at the bottom of the bottle."

She stopped talking, because the witch and Siris both looked at Xia De at once. So the thirteen-ring Great Witch waved her hand to let the girls who were listening to the story step back temporarily. She personally cast a spell to block the sound nearby. This time Iluna looked at Xia De and said:

"Last autumn, the church discovered traces of a certain extremely dangerous unknowable-level relic in Cold Water Port and has been tracking it for the past year.

In fact, within this year, events similar to this one have appeared in every corner of the Old Continent, and this event is also suspected to be related to that unknowable-level relic. The Holy See directly paid attention to this relic out-of-control event. Although the impact caused this time was not large, only more than ten people died, and no property damage was caused, but...

If there are no accidents, Miss Benanise, Miss Lasers, and the Golden Dawn Opera Troupe will probably have to perform in another place later. The team sent by the Holy See will thoroughly search the Queen Maria Opera House."

Vanessa and Siris didn't say anything, but continued to look at Xia De.

Although Xia De had never taken the initiative to say "Desire," he had mentioned that his perfume bottle was related to a mermaid. And in many events since last autumn, many girls had come into contact with that "Mermaid" head-on around him.

For example, in Moon Bay, Miss Belindell saw the beautiful woman's head appearing in the water while being held by Xia De on the reef under the Earl of Dalmanin's manor; and during the Green Lake incident, Megan turned her back to the big lake and Xia De, and also heard the other party's voice.

As for Iluna, the evaluation of "She is really too simple" made by "Desire" to her on the shore of the lake heart island in Pantanal is still something she holds a grudge about even though she is now eighteen (Chapter 1112).

"I think it is probably that thing."

Xia De nodded gently, but comforted them:

"Don't worry, she is not in Tobesk. The lost actress praying to her should just be an accident. Since she broke free from the seal of the fish people in the Cold Water Port incident last autumn, I haven't found anyone in the material world who can seal her again until now."

After hesitating for a moment, he said:

"Actually, I am very sure she is in Moon Bay now. However, she promised me that she would not provoke Miss Belindell and anyone around her. I know it might be wrong to say this, but for the time being, we can only treat her as a mobile natural disaster."

Unless he burns his divinity, Xia De feels that even if he reaches the thirteen rings, he will be powerless against her. And she has helped him so many times that even knowing she is evil, Xia De cannot really take action without hesitation.

Even until now, he still owes a "debt collection" job that hasn't been completed. The time line in the Vista forest land is quite chaotic, and he is still not sure which generation of "Bennett" he is looking for. ===== CHAPTER 2613 =====