Chapter 3149: Hot Spring

Louisa had guessed what gift Xia De would give this year, but she never expected it to be this. She tried her best to control her smile and looked up at Xia De:

"This idea is really... You know, I don't think any girl could see this kind of gift and not want to kiss her lover. But before I kiss you, I want to know why this gift has an expiration date?"

"To prevent you from not using it. This isn't a collectible; I hope you can really use it."

Xia De answered very honestly, and so Louisa held those cards and kissed him.

The year 1854 was about to pass, and Luvia Anate would not miss it, for she looked forward even more to 1855, which she would continue to walk through alongside Xia De.

Princess Lei Lei Qianya and Princess Ajielina arrived at nearly eight o'clock in the evening. After the royal banquet, the princesses had accompanied their mother to watch this year's fireworks display, and only then did they return to their respective rooms under the pretext of wanting to rest.

Because it was inconvenient to take a carriage on the streets, which were almost empty tonight, they ran over in high heels. Of course, most of the journey was covered by Lei Lei Qianya's spatial movement.

As for the gifts for the Cavendish princesses, Lei Lei Qianya received the same bark manuscript as Duo Luoqian. While hugging Xia De to express her gratitude, she did not forget to lower her voice and remind him:

"The Day of the Red Butterfly has begun~"

Ajielina, on the other hand, received the textbooks Xia De used when he was in the lower grades. Xia De encouraged her to read more and study in advance.

Lei Lei Qianya was very satisfied with the gift Xia De gave her sister, while Ajielina had an expression of being betrayed. However, after she brought that stack of books back to the room she shared with Yin Luna and Amelia, she discovered the clues hidden under the covers of three of the books.

Of course, those three novels were all carefully selected by Xia De, and they contained no inappropriate content. In fact, those three books were chosen with the help of Duo Luoqian, so Lei Lei Qianya knew about this; she simply tacitly approved of Xia De's approach.

So, it was fine for Ajielina to read them secretly, but if she dared to wave those three books in front of Lei Lei Qianya and say, "I'm reading Xia De's old textbooks," then the little princess would likely face a very miserable end.

Since the princesses had arrived, everyone, having packed their clothes and hot spring supplies in their rooms, prepared to set off. But Grandmother Cassandra did not go this time; she wanted to leave the time to the young people, and she was not used to not resting so late. However, she would celebrate the New Year with the young people after everyone returned.

Little Mia didn't go either. Although Xia De wanted to spend the last day of the year with the cat, that cat really hated the wet hot spring.

Everyone first traveled from Xia De's home to Miss Jia Lin Na's manor located in the south of the city. Then, Lei Lei Qianya, Duo Luoqian, Grace, and Helen, the four-in-one Chosen of the Butterfly Wings, waved their hands to open a portal to the Vesta Forest, and everyone happily arrived in the snowy woods together.

Suddenly arriving in the silent, uninhabited woods from the bustling and prosperous "City of Steam," the sudden change in sensory input was a bit overwhelming. Snowflakes were still drifting in the sky above the woods. The butterfly-winged girls did not stop and set off again for Schluch Lake.

As for the current "Moon Sanctuary," it was already very different from when everyone left a month and a half ago. The hot spring itself had not changed, but the pebble path surrounding the hot spring had been further widened. Outside that circle of pebble paths was a larger circle of corridors. Both sides of the corridors had hand-carved wooden fences, with eight entrances to the hot spring on the inside, and several pebble paths branching out on the outside, leading to other buildings outside the corridors.

And beyond the functional buildings such as changing rooms, saunas, kitchens, tea rooms, and tool rooms, a super-large-scale ritual jointly constructed by the eight Great Witches enveloped the surroundings, ensuring the absolute safety of this place.

It was just that for some reason, when designing the functional areas here, only female changing rooms were designed, with no male changing room for Xia De to use. Miss Feilian smiled and explained that this was unnecessary. Therefore, when the witches and girls began to take turns going to the changing rooms attached to the corridors to change clothes, Xia De sat on a chair in the corridor and watched the snowy forest scenery.

And Margaret was brought over soon. She almost vaulted over the outer railing of the corridor and pounced into Xia De's arms:

"Xia De!"

When she saw Xia De rising to greet her, all the grievances of the blonde princess erupted at once. On one hand, she was the only one who almost didn't make it today; on the other hand, the last time the two met in Schluch Lake, all her preparations had been preempted by Sylvia.

"Alright, alright, hug later, go change your clothes quickly."

The butterfly-winged girl transformed back into four people. Lei Lei Qianya patted Margaret on the shoulder, then pulled her away from the corridor together with Duo Luoqian.

Many of the maids and followers of the witches also followed. Everyone chatted and laughed as they went in and out of the changing rooms and entered the hot spring, which showed that they were all in a good mood. Soon, the girls had all changed into their clothes and entered the water, and Xia De also wanted to go to the changing room, but Louisa called out:

"Leaving you for last, of course, isn't to let you go to the changing room, just come over directly!"

Miss Difa and Matilda, who had also changed into bathrobes and coiled their hair up, walked over barefoot on the pebble floor. First, they smiled and pulled Xia De to the side of the hot spring, and then, ignoring his opposition, changed his clothes for him.

However, the attire of men soaking in hot springs in this era was not complicated. With a knee-length bathrobe wrapped around his body and a belt tied, Xia De was pushed into the water.

He himself possessed the ability of "underwater breathing," and this ability also made his vision underwater exceptionally good. Therefore, after opening his eyes, he could see dense white thighs. Xia De thought that "Desire" had struck, and was so frightened that he stood up from the water at once. Louisa then smiled and asked:

"Xia De, what did you see?"

When Xia De sat down very comfortably on the edge of the pool in the middle of the long side of the hot spring, Lei Lei Qianya and Duo Luoqian walked over from the left and right. Xia De subconsciously opened his arms to embrace them, and they leaned into his arms very naturally.

"Hmm?"

Xia De only then realized what he had done, and then discovered that all the girls in the pool and the female sorcerers by the pool were looking at him. Although the hot spring attire in this era was relatively conservative, the scene of so many girls wearing bathrobes, no matter how conservative the clothing, was not conservative at all.

Everyone laughed. Lei Lei Qianya thought Xia De would push them away, but Xia De did not.

He sighed long and closed his eyes. Lei Lei Qianya and Duo Luoqian beside him were both very fragrant:

"Busy for a year, it's time to let me rest. Once a year, I don't care about anything tonight."

"That's more like it."

Miss Feilian, not far away, said with a smile, her eyes examining Xia De's figure above the water surface. She hadn't been able to see it so clearly when she looked through the crack of the door last time.

Miss Jia Lin Na beside her picked up a wine glass from a tray floating on the water and added:

"See the wooden house nearby? I arranged for maids to provide service inside. If you want to take a sauna, you can. Also, Xia De, you probably don't know, I've prepared a lot of hot spring games."

Sylvia's big wavy hair was also coiled up. Although the witches didn't lose hair, no one wanted floating hair everywhere in the hot spring. She smiled and narrowed her eyes:

"Xia De, do you want to play a game of Luo De cards with us?"

"Hmm?"

Xia De, who had just closed his eyes, opened them again at once. And Lei Lei Qianya, who had just quietly reached her hand under the water on Xia De's left, put her head on Xia De's shoulder to cover her movements:

"Look, Mr. Detective is excited."

This was the year-end festival gift they had prepared for Xia De:

"Xia De, do you want to play a multiplayer card game with us? The winner can unconditionally order the loser to do anything."

Vanessa said, holding Xilisi's arm, thinking about providing an opportunity for Xilisi. Their hair colors were both golden, but it was obvious that the older Vanessa's figure looked more plump, while Xilisi had a very girlish feel.

But unexpectedly, Xia De shook his head:

"I bet I definitely won't lose... and do you all have some misunderstanding about me? I just like collecting cards, not playing them... *cough cough*, at least not the kind of person who forces everyone to play cards with me during this year-end festival."

Everyone is celebrating the festival tonight, don't deliberately take care of me. Cards, chess, riddles, water polo, you can do whatever you want."

Rhesa's hand was doing something very excessive under the water, so he had to control his emotions as he spoke:

"We expect to head back at 11:30, so there are still over three hours left. Everyone, please enjoy this festival to the fullest; I will arrange better activities next year."

"So, the reason we people are gathered here by you is probably not because of some destiny, but because of your own charm. Sometimes it's truly strange how someone like you even came to be."

Luvia laughed, and then everyone scattered in twos and threes to play and frolic. She walked toward the three people huddled together and said to Rhesa:

"You wouldn't be wanting to... do that here, would you?"

The red-haired Princess, eyes half-squinted, naturally denied it:

"Although today is the Day of the Red Butterfly, I'm not so... proactive as to be that way in front of so many people; I'm just taking advantage of Xia De. But you should keep an eye on Megan and Audrey. We all know they can manifest their own... in the palms of their hands."

"Did someone mention us?"

The Edwards sisters walked over at this moment, both wearing the same style of bathrobe, holding a deck of cards in their hands, though it didn't look like Tarot cards:

"Want to play cards together? During the summer, Xia De mentioned many card games to us when we were chatting, and one of them was very interesting. We tried to recreate it. What was it called again?"

Megan answered her sister's question:

"King's Game."

PS: Figure 1 of this chapter, "Rhesa Cavendish";

Figure 2 of this chapter, "Moon Sanctuary."

This depiction of Rhesa is better than the previous one, so I will use this as the character design image for now.

(End of chapter)