Chapter 3198: A Slight Disturbance of Fate

Blowing in the sea breeze as he looked up at the three moons overhead, the island's sky was cloudless tonight—a fine night indeed. Xia De supported the witch as he prepared to escort her back, and of course did not forget to ask:

"What exactly happened tonight?"

"I......"

Miss Reinhart had only just opened her mouth, her eyes still sneaking peeks at Xia De's expression, when she saw his face suddenly change.

The voice in his ear said at that moment:

【Outsider, you have felt the slight disturbance from Fate.】

【Outsider, you have felt the slight disturbance from Fate.】

【Outsider, you have felt the slight disturbance from Fate.】

"She" repeated the same sentence three full times, but Xia De did not think she was emphasizing the importance of the words:

"Three attacks?"

While thinking this, his left hand had already drawn the 【Twenty-Sided Dice of Fate】 from his pocket and tossed it into the night sky. This Secret-Keeper-grade relic, bestowed by the History Academy when Xia De enrolled, had been kept on his person ever since he discovered that the ninth Chosen One was "Fate."

The Outsider's unique fate, combined with the relic's properties, could help him resist the majority of fate-type attacks.

In the past he had used this relic to fend off an attack from 【The Puppeteer's Script】. And this time, after the faintly cracked dice was tossed into the night sky, it actually hovered at its apex and kept spinning, as though different forces were nudging it together.

The witch also noticed this strange phenomenon; she did not understand what Xia De was doing, but as the dice spun and the elemental aura grew thicker, she vaguely realized that her "bad luck" tonight might have a reason behind it.

Vanessa and Sylvia in the distance also saw the scene; worried something had happened again, they were about to walk over, but then saw the glowing dice land back in Xia De's hand.

"She" reminded softly:

【Three relics capable of manipulating fate, at least Sage-grade, took effect against you simultaneously. The three relics most likely do not belong to the same person; the three fate disturbances conflicted with one another, which is why your dice ultimately deflected them.】

【And because of that, this rebound of ill fortune has not brought you any good luck.】

Xia De, still supporting the witch, quickly scanned his surroundings, but the one who had used those relics was clearly not nearby.

"Did something happen?"

Miss Reinhart asked carefully, and Xia De gave a slight nod:

"I felt a slight disturbance from Fate, and three of them at that. They should be relics that manipulate fate, something like 【The Puppeteer's Script】."

So the witch, being supported by Xia De as they descended the sea cliff, explained her "misfortune" tonight. From going up the mountain to investigate, to being corrupted by the snow mountain inside a cave, to encountering the 【Heartless Demon】, and finally nearly losing control because of the relic.

Xia De could almost be certain she was also a victim of the "slight disturbance of Fate." Bella's amethyst had been helping her fend off that ill fortune, until the string of amethysts completely failed after passing through the cave's stone wall, at which point she was driven to the dire state from earlier.

And by the time the witch finished her story, she was already in tears:

"I don't know how Sharlie, Maggie, Jessica, and Zoe are doing now either. Because of the relic, from that cave......"

Xia De guessed who those names belonged to:

"If you mean those four Misses who were in that corrupted cave, they're fine. Miss Benanis sensed the anomaly in the snow mountain, took us there, and we found them. When I left that cave, their injuries had already stabilized. They may not have woken up yet, but you can send someone to bring them back in a while.

Also, I took care of the corruption there while I was at it. I noticed you still have some traces of filth clinging to you; that can only be driven out by yourself."

"Thank you, thank you."

She hugged Xia De at once, but immediately flushed and let go of him.

Xia De then thought of another matter:

"This is yours, isn't it? And these too—when I came to find you, thanks to them lighting the way through the sea."

Xia De produced the broken amethyst pendant he had found on the beach, as well as the glittering gems he had recovered from the sea.

These things were of course all Miss Reinhart's; although only two-thirds of her lost gems had been recovered by Xia De, it didn't matter—as long as the person was fine, she could always craft more gems later.

She wanted to thank Xia De again, but felt that no matter how much she thanked him tonight, it could not express her gratitude.

Xia De did not care about such things; what he cared more about was "Fate":

"You've only just returned to Fatumonster Island, so how could you immediately run into something like this? Could it be because we left that demonic sword behind together? But why was it you who ran into trouble, not me or your grandfather? Or maybe someone doesn't want the Fatumonster people's All Souls' Festival to go smoothly—that would explain the elder's injury."

But Miss Reinhart could not say exactly what had happened either; however, those fate-manipulating relics surely demanded an enormous price to use, and combined with Xia De's counterstrike with the dice just now, they certainly would not attack again anytime soon.

Still not entirely at ease, Xia De took out two of the Fu Zhou he carried that could bring good luck and gave them to Miss Reinhart. Those had all been made by Luvia; the young Miss diviner, who rarely took part in direct action, could only assist Xia De in this way. Xia De had a great many similar Fu Zhou at home.

The witch knew these Fu Zhou were very precious, but at this moment she truly could not refuse. So after pocketing them, her heart grew even more uneasy. Recalling Sister Sister Daifulin's earlier "questioning" of Xia De about the granting of power, she even asked, quite anxiously, as the two of them walked along the beach:

"Have I brought you trouble?"

"What trouble?"

Xia De was quite puzzled, then shook his head:

"Although dragging me out here in the middle of the night is indeed a bother, it's worth it to save someone. And you should be thanking those two ladies even more—they gave up a lot."

The precious nighttime hours they had given up—Xia De could completely understand Vanessa's and Sylvia's annoyance.

"Yes, they...... I mean...... in any case, thank you."

She wanted to ask Xia De further about the stories of those two witches who had known him for so long, and also wanted to know what story there was between Sister Sister Daifulin, whom Xia De seemed quite "afraid" of, and him. But the two had only just left the sea-cliff area under the moonlight for less than ten minutes when Miss Stella Larsson, who had received the signal the witch had sent earlier, arrived with people.

Miss Reinhart spotted their figures from afar, then felt Xia De step away from her side and let her keep walking forward on her own. She understood what he meant; when she turned to look at him, she found him standing beneath the moon, smiling at her.

Somehow, the witch felt her face flush again—only this time it wasn't just half her face but her whole face.

"Miss! Are you all right!"

The young witch apprentice had already arrived with people; the white-haired Miss threw her arms around her teacher at once, and from the sound of it began to sob—she had been terrified tonight too.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Stella, you're a big girl now—be strong. Zoe and the others are still up the mountain; let's bring them back first."

The other Misses also gathered around to ask about the night's events. And by the time Claire Reinhart had soothed her followers and turned her head to look again, she discovered that the young man with the very nice smile had already vanished.

She felt a vague sense of loss, and did not know to whom she could speak of her feelings.

So she asked her apprentice softly:

"Stella, it was you who sent for Mr. John Watson, wasn't it?"

"Yes. After confirming you were missing, Elder Harald said we could ask him for help...... Mr. Watson has left, hasn't he? He's really amazing—before I received your signal and prepared to come find you, Lilian who had gone to deliver the message had only just gotten back to town. He found you here directly in less than half an hour."

But the witch knew that the man had actually first gone to notify the two great witches out of town, then climbed up the snow mountain, and finally come all the way here from the snow mountain. Even flying the whole way, that speed was astonishingly fast.

"He left a tracking wonder on me?"

She thought this, but immediately shook her head and denied her own idea:

"Fortune is fickle, so just because I've suffered misfortune, does that mean good luck will follow? Although the gem was lost, it became a beacon for him to find his way here... Also, I forgot to ask Vanessa and Sylvia how they got here just now—was it Sylvia's teleportation gate?"

At this moment she thought of many things, but in the end she gave her head a sudden shake:

"Let's head back, Stella. Get ready—we'll go up the mountain together in a bit. Zoe and the others are still up there, and there's still a tricky spatial-type relic up there."

"Young Lady, you should go back and rest first."

The white-haired Miss supported her own teacher, then felt that her teacher's arm was warm, as if something even warmer had been there not long ago.

"I'm the one who brought them up the mountain, so I should be the one to bring them down. Stella, you know I won't be talked out of something like this. And besides, I'm really fine now."

Claire Reinhardt said this, and it was not entirely a lie. She did not know exactly what means "John Watson" had used—his powers of frost and flame had completely suppressed the restless spirit energy within her. And his terrifyingly powerful soul force had forcibly pressed down the chaotic four elements within her soul; his power truly seemed to match her own remarkably well.

Although the witch still did not know where that man who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere—connected to Sister Sister Daifulin, Vanessa, and Sylvia—had come from, she now knew he was someone who could be trusted. So she recalled the figure that had appeared in a flash when she was falling off the cliff, and recalled his smiling face when they finally parted. The witch felt that tonight she might have to gaze at the moon before she could fall asleep.

(End of this chapter)