Chapter 3317

Xia De's luck seemed quite good today. He had just stepped off the carriage in the square in front of the clock tower when he caught sight of Miss Larsen walking toward him, clutching a paper bag.

Her white hair was simply too conspicuous, so she wore a hood when going out, which was considered normal attire in snowy weather.

The hot badge on his chest alerted Xia De to the young lady's location, and Xia De walked quickly to meet her. Miss Larsen also saw him from afar, and after the two met, she immediately shook her head and said:

"Don't ask me; the Young Lady won't let me say where she went."

"With such heavy snow, how could she let you come buy things by yourself? Your body is only temporarily fine; I thought you would stay at the Snow Mountain Hall to recuperate."

Xia De said, pointing to the side before the white-haired girl could speak:

"Let's not stand in the snow to talk; let's go sit in the tea house nearby."

"Okay... the Young Lady won't let me tell you where she went."

This was the city center of the City of Time Wheels. Although the City of Time Wheels was a remote city, the interior decor of the tea house was still sophisticated.

Round carved wooden tables were paired with white high-backed chairs, the tabletops were covered with white lace tablecloths, and the walls and ceilings were covered with floral-patterned wallpaper, complemented by dark wooden wainscoting. Naturally, there was also a gorgeous chandelier in the center of the ceiling as decoration.

The porcelain tea sets, as well as the silver teaspoons, sugar tongs, and milk jugs, were quite high-class. Being able to sit in a warm room on a snowy day, drinking tea and smelling the sweet aroma while having nothing to do, was a rare happiness for most people.

Of course, Xia De was not idle.

On the table, besides the tea set containing black tea, there were seven-colored macarons and sugar-frosted cookies in a small, hand-woven basket. Little Mia squatted on a high stool nearby, eager to try them. Because there were few customers and the tea house was quiet, the maids stood behind the counter in the distance, whispering about this cute cat.

After the white-haired girl took off her hood, she used a simple illusion to make her hair color look like black. She didn't touch the black tea or the desserts, keeping her hands on her knees:

"I won't leak the teacher's whereabouts. I'm not the kind of girl who will say everything just because someone treats me to tea."

She said with a straight face, not knowing that this look of feigned expressionlessness to cover up her rich inner thoughts was truly very interesting.

Xia De picked up his teacup and took the opportunity to feed the cat a small cookie:

"Claire went to the snow mountain, right?"

The white-haired girl pursed her lips, her pale golden eyes staring at Xia De without blinking at all.

Xia De shook his head in denial:

"No, I haven't learned mind reading; it's just a guess. I walked around the town and didn't see her. For her, the most important things on this island are that small town and the snow mountain... Don't waste the black tea; it won't taste good if it gets cold. Black tea and snacks are perfect, aren't they?"

Only then did the white-haired girl carefully reach out to take a cookie. After taking a small bite like a hamster, she said again:

"Since you've guessed it, what else do you want to know from me? The Young Lady only said she went to the mountain to clear her head; I don't know exactly where she went either."

Xia De poured some more sugar into his teacup:

"Hmm... how is her mood right now?"

Miss Larsen struggled for a moment before answering:

"The Young Lady can't even explain her own mood, and I can't describe it either, but you should be able to guess some of it."

She took another bite of the cookie, thinking about the things she learned last night. Because she was lying in a hospital bed, she missed the "Truth Meeting" in the next room. It wasn't until after Xia De and the witches left that she learned from Claire the true identity of the man in front of her: he was the recognized strongest person in the material world.

And the hand currently holding a teacup not far from her had, at some point in the past, been manipulated by a god to fight another deity.

Thinking of this, Stella Larsen felt that everything in the fragrant tea house at this moment seemed absurd. However, in fact, her perception of the man in front of her was not bad. Or rather, because he was a student of Saint Byron's, because of his care for the unicorn, and because of the good things Emilia had said about him, the white-haired girl actually had quite a favorable impression of Xia De.

It was only because of her teacher's orders that she was pretending to be indifferent at this moment.

"I can guess her mood. After all, I was the one who did wrong in this matter, and I admit that."

The girl eating the cookie in small bites didn't actually think he had done anything wrong. If she had such a complex and mysterious identity, she wouldn't tell others casually either. In her view, the man in front of her had actually done very well.

However, she didn't voice her thoughts, but reminded him:

"The teacher isn't angry—well, she is a little angry, but not at you. She just... doesn't know what to do next. Confused? That's about it. The 'surprise' you and the other ladies gave her was simply too big; the teacher seems to be having a hard time accepting it all."

After the white-haired girl finished speaking, she also picked up her teacup and took a small sip, but unlike Xia De, she didn't add sugar to it.

Xia De sighed:

"I understand what you mean. Naturally, she would be confused after suddenly learning so many things. She was passively receiving information until we left last night and had no time to think. After we left, she probably thought about a lot of things... I'll go find her on the snow mountain in a while; I will explain everything clearly."

Miss Larsen then asked curiously:

"You have a way to find the Young Lady, right?"

"Not yet, so I'm going to search the mountain thoroughly."

"Hmm... you know how big the Fatumunster Snow Mountain is, right?"

"Of course I do, but I can't not go look. Besides, the demon was only defeated, not truly dispelled. Given her luck... I mean..."

Miss Larsen nodded to indicate she understood.

However, Xia De didn't get up to leave immediately, but asked:

"And about you, do you really feel fine now? It's snowing so heavily outside; do you need me to send you back to town?"

Miss Larsen shook her head:

"No need. The Young Lady's other followers are also in the city gathering information. We will take a carriage back together at ten o'clock."

"That's good. And about your own affairs, I don't know if you have any issues with the 【Winter Choir】, but if you need to, I can ask Miss Danister to put in a good word for you."

Xia De said, and the white-haired girl looked down at her teacup and said "Hmm." Seeing this, Xia De didn't feel it was appropriate to say anything more. He scooped up the cat, said goodbye to Miss Larsen, and went to the counter to pay the bill.

The white-haired girl had actually been watching his departing back, thinking to herself, "How could anyone be angry at a man like this?"

Just as Xia De said, he didn't have any good way to find Claire on such a large snow mountain. Perhaps the priests of the snow mountain possessed methods to seek help from the mountain, but unfortunately, Xia De did not.

Besides relying on luck, the only thing he could rely on now was Little Mia. This cat's sense of smell was sometimes excessively sharp, so after entering the snow mountain area, Xia De, acting on the idea that trying wouldn't cost anything, brought the gemstone Claire had given him earlier close to the cat.

When Little Mia encountered something unfamiliar, her first reaction was indeed to lean over and sniff it. So Xia De issued an order, or rather, a request:

"Can you find the original owner of this gemstone?"

"Meow?"

The cat meowed gently in Xia De's arms, with absolutely no intention of jumping down to tread through the snow to lead the way. Xia De felt that he was indeed being a bit whimsical, but considering the snow mountain was truly too large and grid-based searching was still too inefficient, he said to Little Mia again:

"I will now divide the snow mountain into three parts: upper, middle, and lower. Which part should I explore first?"

As he spoke, he extended three fingers in front of the cat one by one. The restless cat indeed pounced on his hand, and the first one it touched was "upper."

"Alright then, I will divide the snow mountain into four regions: east, west, south, and north. Which part should I explore first?"

The four fingers extended in turn were pounced on by the cat again, and this time the cat chose "east."

Xia De chose to trust the cat's luck. Although he hadn't specifically tested it, this cat's level of luck was probably the highest among all the creatures he had come into contact with.

The area on the east side near the summit of the snow mountain was actually still quite large, but the Outlander had always been patient. Starting the search at 9:40 in the morning, even though it was almost noon and he had found nothing, he was not disappointed:

"It seems I can only ask Luweiya and Dorothy to help me ask for leave. I'll go back tonight and talk to the doctor about the demon again... Is it possible that I might find the demon first, instead of Claire?"

While his mind was wandering, the cat suddenly poked its little head out from the gap between the buttons of his coat. Its furry ears twitched twice, and then it looked toward the right.

Xia De followed the direction Little Mia was looking. Before long, he also heard the ethereal sound of a flute echoing through the snow mountain, clear as a spring and distant as a dream, as if it were the chanting of spirits in the snow. Each note rippled and swirled in the empty valley, brushing past cliffs and melting into the vast wind and snow.

This was not a traditional flute but a local tribal instrument. Hearing this sound now, Xia De even felt his heart being fiercely squeezed—although that sounds exaggerated, this unique timbre combined with the distant melody made Xia De, standing in the snow mountain at this moment, truly feel an infinite sense of desolation.

He listened to the flute sound and continued flying forward, eventually landing on a small mountain path that was almost completely covered by snow.

Following the path upward, he then climbed up the cliff against the wind. His position now was quite close to the summit, and the time had reached noon. Raising his hand to block the sunlight, Xia De continued to walk forward and finally saw the girl with platinum-long hair, standing alone on the edge of a cliff high up on the snow mountain, playing the holeless willow flute in her hand toward the rolling mountain ranges.

(End of chapter)