Chapter 280: Ownership of the Ring

"Please believe me, absolutely do not drink too fast."

Seeing Miss Galina take the water cup, Xia De, who had learned his lesson, kindly reminded her. The Duchess looked at him suspiciously, then held the cup and took two small sips. Following the swallowing action, her throat moved slightly on her fair neck.

She followed Xia De's suggestion and only took three sips before closing her eyes. After a full half-minute, she put the cup on the coffee table:

"There is some effect."

She made no other comments. It seemed that although there was an effect, the effect was not obvious.

Xia De no longer mentioned helping with treatment. After taking out the jewelry box containing the necklace, he talked about what happened in the ruins last night.

The fighting process omitted key information, only talking about the final result, but still talked about when he was held by the neck by the vampire, the 【Ancient Witch's Gold Necklace】 suddenly glowed.

"There are two things wrong. First, I was indeed in direct contact with him at that time, but I did not have a severe allergy; second, what is going on with the necklace glowing? Does this necklace still have this function?"

The black-haired maid took the necklace out of the jewelry box and put it on for Miss Galina. The Duchess was not surprised by this:

"This necklace gives the wearer the negative characteristics of the magnified witch's curse, which is useless to the witch herself. Otherwise, a necklace that protects the witch herself would instead aggravate our curse, isn't that ridiculous?"

"Useless to the witch herself, then I..."

Xia De was surprised and only thought of himself, saying in his heart:

"You still say you are not..."

【Listen on.】

"You are definitely not a witch. A witch's sensing of her own kind is more sensitive than her reaction to men. My guess about you now is that your gender is in a blurred state in concept. You can be male, you can be female, you can also be a witch, so the witch's curse, gender potion, and this necklace all have strange reactions to you."

The Duchess said.

"No, no, I am definitely a man."

He added "God said so" in his heart, then shook his head, not wanting to discuss this topic:

"Then what is that golden light?"

"Of course it is the miracle I left on the necklace to protect you. Otherwise, why would I ask you not to lend the necklace to others? Just because I don't want others to touch my jewelry? Of course, it's not just that. While my miracle protects you, it will have an effect on anyone else. After all, I don't have the ability to make it accurately judge who is touching the necklace."

Miss Galina said. Seeing Xia De wanted to thank her, she told him not to speak:

"Providing you with so much help is because your action this time has value. Then, have you brought what I want?"

"Of course I brought it."

In front of the two ladies, Xia De used a handkerchief to restore the Silver-Eyed One's corpse and the blood-sucking species hanging on his waist, and pointed out their identities:

"This one without a head is the Silver-Eyed One, the head was evaporated. This one whose original appearance cannot be seen clearly is a vampire, called Mr. Madis by the people of Mercury Blood, from 【Blood Spirit School】. Although the corpse is incomplete, but..."

Miss Galina sat up straight immediately, with a flush of excitement on her face:

"Vampire? Madis? Oh, I think I know who it is. Useful, very useful."

She didn't care about Xia De throwing the corpse on the study floor, but took the gloves handed by the maid, bent down, and reached out to check the corpse:

"You said he was originally active near Tobeisk? Then in this way, the two members of 【Blood Spirit School】 who rushed to this city from the New Continent, although they have already disembarked at Cold Water Port, will probably not continue to advance according to the plan. With this corpse, I can also explain to the council, very good, detective, very good. This vampire is an important member of 【Blood Spirit School】, this is too valuable."

For the first time today, she showed a smile. Then she took the letters from the vampire from Xia De. She couldn't decipher those ciphers for the time being, but the Witch Council had plenty of ways to understand the content of the letters:

"The harvest is even more than I thought. It seems that lending you this string of necklace was correct. In this way, maybe we can directly get information about the 'Creation Room' from this vampire, it's really good. Detective, you are really good, of course, my eye for people is also really good."

Later, she heard about the relics Xia De obtained from the enemy, the blood-stained scissors and the small bottle containing mercury. She didn't know what they were either, but she knew the fangs in the vampire's mouth:

"Document-level relic 【Vampire's Fang】, that tooth is one of the tokens inherited by the blood-sucking race. It can be used by implanting it into the body. For the blood-sucking race, it strengthens their own racial talent. For other creatures, it can allow the user to obtain part of the blood-sucking race's abilities. This fang is said to be related to an Ancient God. Implanting the fang into the body will not only suffer from symptoms of fear of sunlight and blood-thirst, but may even be affected by the power of the Ancient God remaining in the world. Detective, sell this fang to me. The Silver-Eyed One's corpse was originally promised to me, but the blood-sucking species' corpse was extra given to me by you. Adding the fang, letters, and corpse together, I will give you..."

She glanced at Xia De's clothing. Xia De didn't have many coats. Except for formal wear, he seemed to be wearing this set of clothes every time he saw Miss Galina... That formal wear was given by Miss Galina when he played cards with the Duchess.

"1200 pounds? This number should be enough."

"Oh, yes, enough. You are very generous."

"You are worth this value."

Xia De and the two ladies would not use a relic like 【Vampire's Fang】 that needed to be implanted into the body, so selling it to Miss Galina was the most appropriate. He knew that the price of 1200 pounds was actually on the high side, because the corpse, relics, and letters had important significance to the 【Witch Council】, so the Duchess was so generous... or maybe she had always been generous.

"I won't ask about other things in the ruins, whether it is the 【Founding·Balance】 you mentioned, or the relics of the Ancient God cult that you are preparing to hand over to the church, you handle these yourself. I am very satisfied with you, detective, very satisfied..."

She suddenly coughed violently, and the maid patted her back worriedly. After a long time, the Duchess raised her head, brushed the red hair covering her eyes, and continued to speak:

"Although your action this time was dangerous, it was indeed very valuable. If I had known in advance that this vampire was also in the ruins, I would have let Tifa follow you. Cough cough, calling you here this time, I didn't expect you to give me such a surprise. What I really want to talk to you about is the Transformation Ring."

She pointed to the red velvet ring box on the coffee table, and the box opened automatically with a click. The familiar pebble ring lay in the ring box. This was the beginning of Xia De's contact with the supernatural.

"Detective, look carefully."

In front of Xia De, the Duchess picked up the ring and slowly approached her right index finger. None of the three spoke, but they all saw that as the ring approached the witch's finger, cracks appeared on the surface of the pebble. When the ring was almost about to be put on the finger, the pebble on the ring was almost about to split into two halves.

She sighed and took the ring away, and the cracks on the pebble slowly recovered.

"Look, I cannot use this relic, it would rather destroy itself than be worn on my hand. Detective, I promised you that if you brought the 【Transformation Ring】 to me, I could tell you all the secrets of the council. But the arrival of this ring was a plan I planned, and you executed the plan, so, I can only tell you one secret about the council for the time being."

"Please speak."

Xia De looked at the ring curiously, and looked at her curiously.

"The thirteen Great Witches of the council indeed possess both the witch system of the Fifth Era and the Shushi supernatural system of the Sixth Era at the same time. We are witches living in the Sixth Era. Although we are different from the witches of the Fifth Era, we are indeed still witches. The meaning of the council's existence is not to let witches huddle together for survival. The council has two common goals."

She paused to signal Xia De to listen carefully. Although she only told Xia De one secret, this time the Duchess made up her mind to give Xia De the greatest trust, because he showed value:

"First, find the Chosen One prophesied by the "Whisper Poem," I will discuss this with you in detail later. Another goal is to find a way to use the power of this era to break the curse on us without our own power declining. For example, 'Creation Room,' for example, this ring..."

The Duchess glanced at the 【Transformation Ring】:

"This is just a small attempt, as expected, it won't be that easy."

She suddenly laughed again, her complexion looking healthier and healthier, her dark golden eyes met Xia De's, and her tone suddenly became extremely relaxed:

"Detective, do you want to try this ring? You just suspected that you were a witch, now isn't there an opportunity to prove it?"

Xia De raised his eyebrows, picked up the ring and brought it close to his finger, but there was no reaction at all:

"Look, I am indeed a man."

While feeling relieved, Xia De put the ring directly back into the ring box on the coffee table. Miss Galina raised her eyebrows:

"I mean, put on the ring, recite the incantation 'The transformation between positive and negative is the beginning of a new life,' and see what happens. I am quite curious, whether a man like you who will not trigger the witch's curse is the same as us, and also unable to use similar relics."

"No, sorry, I won't use it."

Xia De shook his head and refused. This was a matter of principle, he would not become a woman.

"Try it, and I will give you a reward. For example... send you a kiss?"

She tilted her head and joked.

"No, no reward will work."

Xia De continued to shake his head, not only because of the negative characteristics of the ring, but also because the two consecutive owners of the ring died unnatural deaths, and more because he had psychological barriers and would absolutely not become a woman.

He thought Miss Galina would give more tempting conditions or force him to put on the ring, but he didn't expect the other party to stop there.

The Duchess said regretfully:

"Is that so... then alright. However, this ring is useless to me, and although Tifa is not yet a real witch, I don't want her to become a man either. The 【Transformation Ring】 belongs to you, detective, as a reward for showing concern for me."

This move of retreating to advance was very powerful. Although Xia De would not use the 【Transformation Ring】, he would not refuse to keep it temporarily. And this ring strictly speaking belonged to stolen goods. Not to mention selling it locally, even if he ran to Cold Water Port City to sell it, it was highly likely to be caught by the True God Church, which was now determined to catch all cultists. And selling it to the Academy, which shared information with the church, would require explaining the origin of the ring, and then it would involve the witches.

Miss Galina probably had the idea that if the ring stayed in Xia De's hands for a long time, he might use it.

The witch didn't want to hide her thoughts, but waited curiously for Xia De's decision. Xia De pursed his lips and considered, the finger on his knee trembled, his face was tangled, but finally he bent down and took the ring box on the coffee table into his hand.

After all, this ring was really valuable.

"Thank you for your generosity, I accept the ring... but I won't use it, after half a year when the limelight subsides, I will sell it."

Xia De emphasized again. Seeing him like this, even the black-haired maid standing behind Miss Galina showed a smile.

"Detective, I didn't say you would use it."

The Duchess joked, and the smile of the maid behind her became more obvious:

"But remember, if you accidentally, coincidentally use it, remember to tell me if it is useful to you. Regardless of the result, I will give you a... test fee, I like this saying."

"No, I won't use it."

Xia De emphasized again, and then put the ring box securely into his pocket.

"I believe you."

The Duchess was in a very good mood now.

【I also believe you.】

The whispering sound in his ear also carried a smile. ===== CHAPTER 281 =====