Chapter 3137

"Luweiya, give the dice to Dorothy and let her roll them too!"

Xia De, still on the stairs, did not forget to remind Luweiya, and when everyone had reached the second floor, he thought of another matter.

"Amelia!"

The elf girl turned to look at him, and was then pulled into a deep kiss by Xia De:

"You really were a huge help this time!"

A blush spread across the little elf's fair face, as if she had been steamed. Luweiya pursed her lips in a smile and, together with Xia De, pulled Amelia's hand to keep her from standing motionless at the doorway:

"Sometimes I really feel like Xia De is just a child who hasn't grown up."

After returning to the second floor and sitting down, Xia De temporarily set aside the matter of meeting Miss Gao De and recounted his recent experiences in detail to Luweiya and the others.

However, the investigation conducted by the witches and the young ladies during Xia De's "disappearance" yielded no results at all. Whether it was the Chosen of Time or the Chosen of Space, none could detect any problems with the first-floor location that Little Mia had pointed out as the site of Xia De's "disappearance."

If Xia De had returned any later, Luweiya probably would have called over Yiluna, who was very busy at the end of the year, to help look for him.

"A space left behind by an Ancient God of Fate? It sounds like, theoretically, as long as the stake is sufficient, it is simply a universal wishing pool."

Miss Jia Lin Na said. Of course, the rational Great Witch knew very well what such a wishing pool that required stakes meant:

"Xia De, I am very glad you did not lose your reason and continue to gamble. Withdrawing in time was the right thing to do. Unless it is an absolute last resort, you must never enter such a casino where there is no upper limit to the stakes again."

"Is the story of fate about to begin?"

Amelia, whose face still retained a slight blush from shyness, asked with a mix of worry and excitement.

"We will not take any action before the Year-End Festival."

Luweiya replied, and Xia De then asked Amelia:

"Speaking of which, I haven't seen you for a week because of the exams at the Academy recently. Have you finished them? How do you feel you did?"

The little elf vividly displayed an awkward expression, but fortunately, Xia De realized he had asked an inappropriate question:

"Anyway, although I wasted three hours, not only did I not miss this meeting, but it was also very rewarding."

"Miss Jia Lin Na, is there still a plenary meeting of the Council before the Year-End Festival? There is, right? That's good. After the meeting, please notify Megan, Flora, Xiwei, and Beila, who are coming here for the holiday. Amelia, remember to tell Miss Dannister as well."

The witch and the elf both agreed, and Luweiya then asked Xia De:

"Although the 【Casino of Fate】 will not affect the people in this house for the time being, this incident should be considered a warning to you."

"Now that you have lived at No. 6 St. Theresa Square for a year and a half, there are still secrets that everyone is unaware of. So, what exactly is the situation here? Now, apart from the attic, problems have been discovered on every floor, including the basement. This is certainly not a coincidence."

"When I was in 1853, I helped Xia De investigate this house. For nearly a hundred years before 'Grey Hawk' Sparrow Hamilton moved in, this place was in a completely abandoned state. Although there are records from before that, most of them are just accounts of various residents encountering accidents."

Miss Jia Lin Na said:

"This house is the exact opposite of Xia De's currently investigated background. Xia De's background seems simple and ordinary, but everyone knows it certainly cannot be that ordinary; while this house has all sorts of oddities in the investigation results, yet our inspections simply cannot see any problems."

If Yiluna were here now, she would certainly have been able to deduce the special nature of this house through the Sparrow Hamilton she saw in the "What If" game, as well as her own experiences of rashly coming here multiple times and then "dying miserably," but unfortunately, Yiluna is not here.

"This house has no problems in terms of space or time."

The two Chosen ones said this, and the others wanted to continue the discussion, but were stopped by Xia De:

"Anyway, it's safe for now, and the casino won't open its doors to us again, so let's leave the matter of the house until after the Year-End Festival. Now I am more curious, Amelia, Dorothy, as Chosen ones, what is your opinion of that Miss Mia Gao De?"

"Beautiful."

"Elegant."

"She has a sense of dignity."

"But her temperament is warm, and sitting with her makes one feel very comfortable."

"Her hair quality is really good."

"Her skin is also well-maintained; I wonder what skincare products she uses."

"Alright, alright."

Xia De interrupted the discussion of the blonde young ladies, which was about to slide into other topics:

"Dorothy, Amelia, so what did you talk about?"

He was very curious about what Amelia and that Miss Gao De could have in common during the first half hour.

The sharp-eared little elf recalled, and her expression became strange:

"At first, she asked about my relationship with Xia De, which is normal, after all, this is Xia De's home. I said I was a detective's assistant here for an internship. Then, as she kept asking, the topic was somehow led by her, and later it felt like it had turned into... she was hosting me as a guest. She told me many stories about life in the city and small towns, and then I went to find Ajielina's flower shop."

It seemed Amelia had been completely suppressed by that lady.

"I chatted with Miss Gao De about Xia De's detective business; there are many stories in that."

Dorothy said this, and this topic was quite normal.

Xia De then lowered his head and looked at the cat lying on his lap:

"There is no need to deal with Miss Gao De's matter right now. I initially thought that there really was some so-called fate preventing me from meeting that lady today, but now that I think about it, my previous thoughts were indeed ridiculous."

He thought again of the words of the bald man who played cards with him in the "Casino of Fate"—fate is not a script arranged by an unknowable giant hand; all coincidences are the accumulation of all past inevitabilities, and the spiraling intertwining of inevitability and coincidence together forge the Ouroboros ring of destiny.

"Then, what inevitability led me to enter the casino before meeting Miss Gao De?"

Seeing that Xia De was fine, the young ladies dispersed. Amelia actually had one last exam left; she had come over at noon actually commissioned by Dannister to ask about the Year-End Festival arrangements, so she didn't stay any longer.

But to prevent Xia De from causing any more accidents, Miss Jia Lin Na left half of her maids at home, which of course was not just to keep an eye on Xia De:

"Just consider it as preparing for the Year-End Festival in advance; anyway, it was originally planned to start the big cleaning tomorrow. Tifa, you stay this afternoon too, and clean up the detective's precious house a bit better. I can't let Megan and the others say that I am the kind of witch who doesn't do housework."

Actually, she just doesn't do housework.

When Miss Gao De left, she not only left a Year-End Festival gift for Xia De but also left a letter for him because she didn't know he would return. Xia De went to check it after sending the young ladies off.

The letter and gift were placed in Xia De's study by Amelia. That letter was of course written by Miss Mia Gao De in Xia De's home; after all, if it had been prepared in advance, it would be equivalent to her knowing beforehand that she wouldn't see "Detective Hamilton" before she left.

The ink, fountain pen, and stationery were all things from Xia De's home; only the handwriting belonged to that lady who was becoming increasingly interesting. In the letter, she expressed regret again for not being able to see "Detective Hamilton," and at the same time thanked the detective for raising Little Mia so well.

According to Amelia, during the time the two were talking, Little Mia had been standing on the back of the sofa behind that lady, and it seemed she was also very close to her. It wasn't until later, when Luweiya and the others prepared to search for Xia De's whereabouts, that the cat ran downstairs.

Miss Mia Gao De would leave Tobesk today to return to her hometown. As of now, she had no plans to come here again before summer arrived. As for the gift she left, it was of course not another set of "Golden Lion Armor," but an ancient manuscript. The letter left by Miss Gao De also indicated the origin of the manuscript—

【When excavating the underground ruins beneath the ancestral home, the hired adventurers discovered this tattered manuscript. This can probably be considered an antique; I think you will like this kind of peculiar collectible.】

The carrier of the manuscript was parchment, and the rolled-up parchment was tied with a red thread. After opening it, the text inside was indeed not any ancient language Xia De had come into contact with, but the patterns drawn in red ink were genuine occult symbols.

Through the translation of the unique talent "Language Comprehension," Xia De roughly determined that this manuscript recorded knowledge related to the "Ring of Rituals."

Simply put, this was a method for transforming the shape of ritual arrays that were not standard circles, using the characteristics of the ring—"connecting head to tail / reciprocating cycle / flawless and leakless"—to convert non-circular ritual arrays into circular ones.

The ritual array after changing shape according to the "Ring of Rituals" method could still exert its original effect, but it might also undergo certain functional changes due to the change in shape.

Although the content was peculiar, because it was only aimed at simple and low-level rituals, the value of this knowledge was not particularly high. It was just that at the very bottom of the manuscript written in red ink, beautiful floral letters written in this language stated a possibility:

【The number "13" has an unparalleled peculiar status in occultism. If thirteen ritual rings that can complement and restrain each other are spliced together to form a larger ring, perhaps an incredible effect could be achieved.】

The content of the manuscript stopped abruptly here. Xia De frowned and pondered, while Little Mia leaned forward, rubbed the back of Xia De's hand holding the manuscript with her furry cheek, and gave a gentle "Meow~."

Xia De then smiled and touched the cat's little head. Even if there were more annoying things, at least for now, he just wanted to peacefully welcome the upcoming Year-End Festival.

PS: Extra update 2/2. The evening update will be normal.

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(End of chapter)