Chapter 3208: Spider Silk and the Spinning Wheel

"Meow~"

After climbing ashore, Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya quickly shook her body twice, flinging the wet seawater off her all at once. With a look of distaste she refused to touch Xia De, who was still drenched, and instead glanced up at the moon, then stood on a high, dry reef and meowed at him.

Moonlight fell on the cat's body. For a cat who rarely went outdoors, tonight had already been exciting enough, and she was urging Xia De to head home with her.

"Are you all right?"

Xia De helped Miss Reinhart to her feet, summoned flames to steam-dry the seawater from both of them, but they still felt very uncomfortable—it looked as though only a bath could make them truly clean.

The witch shook her head. She had no spatial talent, and that long-distance teleportation just now had made her feel a little queasy:

"I'm fine for now. Sorry—huff, huff—do you know those mermaids from earlier?"

"Of course not."

Xia De supported her as they walked toward the shore, casually scooping up the cat and setting her on his shoulder.

"Then why were they toward you... hmph, didn't expect mermaids to be that kind of looks-first creatures too... I mean, it's good they could send us back. Seeing the snow mountain put my heart at ease. The mermaids' strange arts and secret methods are very different from humans'; in the sea they can do many things human ring-mages cannot."

She lightly patted her own cheeks to perk herself up:

"Let's drop the mermaids. The important thing is getting back safely. Come back to Huicheng with me and have a look—I don't know what happened to that alley."

The two flew directly to make better time. Since their current position on the island's south shore was not far from Time Wheel City, they were back in the city alley in no time. The unconscious big-headed cultist and the pocket-watch-shaped relic that had summoned the bronze dial were both gone now, but thankfully the shadow lurking in the darkness had also vanished.

"Really gone?"

Miss Reinhart hid behind Xia De and asked cautiously. Xia De nodded with great certainty:

"Really gone."

Because the earlier "confrontation" had not actually caused much of a stir, the Church had not been drawn over. There were still people inside the second-hand clock shop, so when the re-disguised Xia De and the witch burst in, they even startled the three people from Sexes Higher Medical Academy.

Miss Reinhart's childhood companion—the woman in men's clothing—was treating her two incapacitated companions. Although she had not recognized Claire Reinhart, she knew the two of them had just saved them. After the two sides exchanged a few words, she began to describe what had happened:

"I ran out to the street and waited half an hour. Later I really couldn't set my mind at ease, so I came back. All of you were gone, so I went back into the shop and saw the two of them unconscious."

Miss Julia Meyer's two companions were one man and one woman, a five-ring and a four-ring respectively. Both were sitting on the floor against the counter, smiling apologetically at Xia De and the witch.

"What was this deal about?"

Xia De asked, his eyes sweeping the second-hand shop. He found nothing else out of the ordinary, and Miss Meyer did not hide anything:

"Some time ago our group acquired a precious material on the black market. Not long ago someone offered a very high price to buy the material from us. We originally didn't want to sell, but they really did offer an extremely high price.

So they probably never intended to pay from the start. The material has been snatched away now too."

"We're lucky to be alive."

The bespectacled four-ring Mr. sighed as he spoke. Miss Reinhart, standing behind Xia De, frowned and asked:

"So you didn't know beforehand that your trading partners were cultists."

The three shook their heads together:

"We didn't know, we really didn't. If we'd known beforehand, we wouldn't have come at all. Although the price they offered really was very high, we wouldn't take that kind of risk for a bit of money."

"What exactly was that precious material? Cultists acting like this tonight is rare too."

Xia De continued questioning. The three seemed to find it hard to speak. In the end it was the slightly older five-ring lady who gave the answer—she was probably the group's leader:

"The material was actually illegal. Before Year-End Festival, St. Byrons Comprehensive Academy carried out a large-scale off-campus mission. That mission produced a special material called 【Fate-Weaver Spider Silk】. Locally, someone intercepted part of it and let it flow into the black market."

"Fate-Weaver Spider Silk?"

The witch tried hard to recall whether she had heard of this material. Xia De, meanwhile, hadn't expected that someone had actually dared to intercept the spider silk from that mission. At the time, Dorothy and Luvia had had the same idea, but the Misses ultimately didn't do it. After all, the Academy would later sell some of the spider silk to correspondence students—although the price was certainly steep, there was no need to break school rules.

The three from Sexes Higher Medical Academy soon left. As for her childhood companion becoming a ring-mage, Miss Reinhart would investigate that herself later.

The two watched the three disappear down the alley, then turned together and came out onto the main street from another direction.

The formal dress and suit prepared for the dinner party were both a mess by now. Walking side by side down the main street, they both felt a touch melancholy.

The witch wanted to apologize to Xia De for involving him tonight, and was thinking of inviting him again to dine together at a restaurant in the city next time. But Xia De was thinking about other things. Before Miss Reinhart could muster the courage to speak, he suddenly asked:

"Cultists of the evil god 【Mr. Misfortune】 have appeared locally. Do you think this is a sign that the Chosen One of Fate is about to appear?"

"What?"

The witch was startled by his words, thought it over carefully, and asked:

"Are these two things connected? Although that god's domain includes a part of fate, that doesn't mean wherever his worshippers appear... Do you know something?"

Xia De hurriedly shook his head:

"I don't know anything yet, I just suddenly thought of it. But do you know the cult of the evil god 【Mr. Misfortune】? That man who sacrificed himself earlier seemed to mention a spinning wheel."

The witch frowned in thought, but couldn't come up with an answer either:

"I don't know, but the spinning wheel might be related to the spider silk. I have to admit, what I've run into on this trip home has already exceeded my expectations. This is only my second day back..."

It was so late that even the hired carriage company had already closed, so in the end the two flew back to Kyle-Todd Town. Xia De parted ways with the witch at the village gate. It was getting late, and he needed to head home too:

"Whether to inform the Church about the cultists is up to you. See you tomorrow then. Cultists aren't the focus of our investigation anyway—I just hope the investigation into the demon sword can yield new results."

He waved at Miss Reinhart, but was called back by the witch. She pressed her lips together, looked at Xia De, and after a long moment said softly:

"Thank you for today."

Xia De smiled at her:

"No need to thank me. And if you still need my help tonight, just go to Victoria Street."

The Miss with the beautiful platinum-blonde long hair covered her mouth and laughed demurely. She stood at the village gate, watching the man walk all the way down the mountain until his figure disappeared from view. Only then did Claire Reinhart turn with a smile—and immediately spotted her grandfather standing not far away.

The girl, who had been feeling a little buoyant just now, immediately reined in her smile, clasped her hands together, and even felt a bit shy:

"Grandfather, when did you arrive?"

Elder Harald looked past her shoulder toward the foot of the mountain, then let out a long sigh:

"Just pretend I just got here. I saw you hadn't come back so late and got worried, so I came to wait for you... Just now I was thinking, if that boy got improper and tried to kiss you, I'd have to smack him just like I smacked your father with a long staff back in the day."

"Honestly, Grandfather, what are you saying?"

The witch complained softly, but she did not deny that she did harbor some such thought. The tribes at the foot of the snow mountain were a little different from "city folk"—the girls here had always liked to express their feelings directly. And although Claire Reinhart had been away from home for many years, she was still a girl who had grown up at the foot of the snow mountain:

"We ran into danger tonight, and you don't even ask how I am."

"Because I saw you all come back safely. Come on, your students were very worried about you, and even wanted to come with me to wait for you. You've really changed a lot these years you weren't home. Last time you left, I was truly worried that what you said about finding a pretty Miss to settle down with someday was just angry talk. Looking at it now, it's fine, it's fine..."

"Grandfather!"

Xia De, who had thrown the crystal slipper back home, this time appeared on the attic. So he first retrieved the Moonlight Water and Solar Fire that the two rituals had recently gathered, and only then went downstairs with Xiaomi Ya.

He had thought no one would be home, but unexpectedly, Lu Lu Weiya, Jia Lin Na, Lei Lei Qianya, and A Gao Jie Li Na were all there.

Lei Lei Qianya was sitting on the short sofa opposite Lu Lu Weiya playing chess, A Gao Jie Li Na was obediently holding a book and sitting on the right side of the long sofa studying, Jia Lin Na was staring at a document in her hand, and Miss Miss Difa and the maid Young Ladys were all busy in the kitchen.

The firelight from the fireplace illuminated the girls' delicate faces. Hearing the footsteps from upstairs and the cat's meowing, the previously silent room suddenly livened up. The girls on the sofa stood up to greet Xia De. When the three Misses and ladies of the Cavendish family stood together, the scene was especially pleasing to the eye.

"What happened to your clothes?"

Lu Lu Weiya asked Xia De with some concern, while Jia Lin Na asked whether Xia De and the cat had eaten dinner.

This is the feeling of coming home. Xia De liked this feeling of being cared for by others.

Although Xia De had only set out for Fatou Mengsite Island that afternoon, the experiences of the afternoon plus the evening were truly rich. After changing his clothes, he sat on the sofa with a teacup and briefly described the matter of encountering the cultists with Miss Lai Yin Ha Te after dinner.

?? PS: This chapter's illustration "The Cavendishes".

? Left: Jia Lin Na, Center: Lei Lei Qianya, Right: A Gao Jie Li Na.

? (End of this chapter)