Chapter 2854

Miss Beiya, who looked exceptionally pale early in the morning, went to do as Miss Feilian instructed. After the young ladies dispersed, Xia De and Miss Deng En also walked into the suite's bedroom.

There was a fresh floral scent in Vanessa's bedroom, but because it was only a temporary residence, the furnishings in this room were the same as those in Xia De's room next door.

At this time, the bedroom curtains were tightly drawn, blocking out the somewhat gloomy morning. Lu Wei Ya and Miss Lu Yi Sha were standing on either side of the bed, while Vanessa had hidden herself under the quilt.

However, seeing Xia De come over, the young black-haired witch took the initiative to lift the quilt.

Vanessa under the quilt tried to resist her but clearly failed. So Xia De and Miss Deng En saw the blonde girl, wearing an ill-fitting nightgown, looking to be over 1.5 meters tall with long hair reaching her waist, but whose height, figure, and appearance had all shrunk severely, looking at Xia De with teary eyes.

But after just one glance, she buried her head under the pillow like an ostrich:

"Xia De, don't look at me!"

Then she grabbed the quilt that Miss Lu Yi Sha had lifted and let it cover herself and the pillow together.

"This..."

"Is she also shrunk in age like me?"

The red-haired girl was quite interested in this, but Xia De shook his head immediately:

"Definitely not a time curse, I can be sure of that. And although she looks smaller, Vanessa is still at the Thirteenth Tier."

"I didn't travel through time! I also used the 'Proof of Time' ritual!"

The muffled voice from under the quilt agreed with Xia De's opinion, so she wasn't speaking in a high-pitched voice just now; her voice had truly changed. On that overly young face, one could still see the peerless grace of the grown-up Vanessa; at this moment, she was probably not even sixteen years old.

"Power hasn't declined, and she hasn't been cursed, but to suddenly become so much younger... why do such good things always happen to other people around me?"

Miss Owl was still complaining in a low voice on the side, while Miss Lu Yi Sha smiled without expressing an opinion.

Lu Wei Ya also showed a smile, but she didn't forget to remind:

"It seems there is a whisper element, but our perception isn't very certain."

She signaled Xia De to investigate it himself. Xia De couldn't care about anything else at this moment and reached his hand directly into the quilt. Fortunately, Vanessa didn't resist but took the initiative to hold his hand with her small hand.

After waiting for a moment:

"Yes, a whisper element. Vanessa, where did you go in the forest yesterday?"

It was still too early, and the witches on the ship were not awake yet. Miss Beiya first went to the ship to find Miss Lu Yi Sha, then went one by one to find Miss Lu Weiya, Madame Sangmei, and Miss Jia Lin Na. Fortunately, they were all normal.

Or rather, except for Vanessa, everyone in the Weisi region belonging to the "Xia De-Witch Force" was normal.

Regarding the changes to herself, the Great Witch of the Earth clearly couldn't accept it for a while. However, after everyone's comfort, she described what happened to her intermittently:

"At least when I rested last night, I didn't feel anything unusual at all. Because I knew this city wasn't safe and something could happen at any time, I slept very lightly. This morning, when I turned over in a daze, I felt the nightgown on me was excessively loose, and only then did I notice the abnormality."

She sat on the bed covered by the quilt, still wearing that excessively loose nightgown. After all, even Xia De wouldn't have clothes suitable for her current body size:

"The other me didn't notice anything happening last night, but she reminded me that I had a dream last night, dreaming about when I was thirteen or fourteen."

The 1.5-meter-tall Vanessa sniffed, her long golden hair draped over her shoulders and piled up on the sheets, making her look very much like a princess character in a fairy tale:

"That's definitely not normal. For so many years, I have never dreamed about things from that time. My girlhood was ordinary, it shouldn't be such a coincidence that it appeared in my dream last night."

"A dream? But this still can't determine what it means."

Lu Wei Ya shook her head and then offered a suggestion:

"Although you are completely normal in other aspects except for your body becoming excessively young, this is definitely not a good thing. Why not go to your council and ask the Megan and Audrey sisters?

Although Miss Deng En and Madame Sangmei can't tell what's wrong with you, Edwards is the Great Witch of Knowledge and Wisdom, and they have the most knowledge about artifacts."

"No, I don't want more people to know about my current situation!"

Vanessa shook her head vigorously. Strangely, although her body had shrunk to the appearance of a fifteen or sixteen-year-old, that long hair hadn't changed at all.

"I understand how you feel."

Miss Owl echoed from the side:

"When Miss Deng En and I were first cursed, we also didn't want more people to know."

And the red-haired girl was rejoicing at this moment; although she had also become smaller, at least she was eighteen.

Facts proved that what happened to Vanessa was not an isolated case. At seven o'clock in the morning, Miss Deng En received an urgent message from the forest, and the church also shared the latest intelligence with the witches during breakfast around eight o'clock.

This "age abnormality" phenomenon also appeared in the church and academy's groups of Ringed Shushi, but the number was very small and they all had common characteristics:

"The victims this time are all Thirteenth-Tier and Twelfth-Tier Shushi. Among them, except for that Saint Knight from the past, the ages of all Thirteenth-Tier Shushi within the Weisi forest region have shown abnormalities. Yes, all of them."

"It seems the Weeping Blood One, Hermons, is also here."

Xia De mentioned it in passing, but Miss Deng En told him not to interrupt her:

"Only a very small portion of the Twelfth-Tier had problems. All victims, like Miss Vanessa, experienced age regression; there were no cases of abnormal age increase, and the ages after regression were all distributed in the range of ten to sixteen years old. For the time being, no pattern has been found.

In addition, except for the physical changes caused by age changes, the affected Shushi are normal in other aspects."

Miss Deng En sat on the sofa and summarized the current situation for everyone. The time when the Thirteenth-Tier of the church and academy discovered the problem was also around six o'clock this morning, which was consistent with Vanessa.

And the "Red Moon Witch," as a Thirteenth-Tier of Saint Byron, should naturally have been affected, and the response Miss Deng En gave this morning was "I am sixteen now":

"That Blade of the Firmament is unaffected, possibly because as someone summoned by the War of Time, he is protected by the power of the Tree Father and immune to such time effects. Those very few Twelfth-Tier Shushi who were affected were all people who had been promoted to the Twelfth Tier many years ago and were just one opportunity away from being promoted to the Thirteenth Tier."

Miss Lu Weiya, a Twelfth-Tier Great Witch, didn't know whether she should be happy or unhappy at this moment.

"So, it is basically determined that this attack is aimed at Shushi of a specific level. We are fine here, but the church is already in a mess. Even if their power isn't affected, this time all the Thirteenth-Tier Shushi in the local area have been affected by the artifact."

"Then what kind of artifact is it?"

Xia De asked her, but couldn't get an answer.

In the currently known records, there has never been such a time-type artifact specifically targeting Thirteenth-Tier Shushi. And considering that the previous 【Tree of Illusory Dreams】 also possessed time characteristics because of the sleeping worm, it is highly likely that this time it is still an artifact unrelated to time that has been endowed with new power.

The church and academy are looking for artifacts that possess both "influencing specific levels" and "dream" characteristics, but because this artifact may belong to any danger level, or may even be just an artifact derivative, it is quite difficult to find.

Therefore, although Vanessa wanted to change back immediately and even wanted Xia De to use the Misuo he used in the Battle of Moon Bay to accelerate time so she could return directly to her original age, her thoughts could only remain thoughts:

"This is just age regression, not fixing the age. So thinking in a good direction, even if the matter cannot be solved, in three years I will be a genuine eighteen-year-old girl in her prime... I still have to wait three years."

She said this while looking at Xia De quite mournfully. Only Lu Wei Ya and Duo Luo Qian knew what she meant—Miss Jia Lin Na was still bedridden.

"When the witches were checking Vanessa's body just now, they didn't say she was no longer a pure girl."

While everyone was comforting Vanessa, Lu Wei Ya whispered to Xia De on the side. Xia De looked at her in surprise:

"Even if she is still pure now, I couldn't possibly... she, she is fifteen years old."

The fortune-teller slapped him reproachfully:

"What are you thinking? I mean, she now also meets the requirements for the demon summoning ritual, doesn't she? A pure girl under 25."

Although once the "Watcher" or that black dragon "Kingsley" appears, the High-Tier Shushi must attack together in the appearance of children, at least the human power in the Weisi forest region has not been damaged due to this artifact accident.

So, Xia De's plan continued this Monday, only it was Miss Lu Weiya, not Vanessa, who led the team to the forest to find the dragon beast's nest. And Vanessa was finally invited by Lu Wei Ya to participate in Xia De's "Demon Calling" ritual.

The four "pure girls under 25" required for this ritual, besides Vanessa, also included Miss Pulin, Miss Xiao Miya, and Miss Beiya; the ages of the three witch apprentices were all suitable.

However, although he didn't need the help of Xi Li Si from Lu Anda, Xia De still had Princess Lei Qianya write her a letter to inform her of the situation here. Although Vanessa could take care of herself even after becoming fifteen, Xia De hoped Xi Li Si could come to visit her; Vanessa was truly devastated.