Chapter 3328: Waiting

The carriage stopped at the entrance of the town, and then Xia De carried the ghoul up the mountain first. Miss Larson returned the carriage and inquired about her teacher's current climbing progress, then met with Xia De on the cliff outside the town.

The low cliff she pointed out was easy to find. It faced the town and the sea, and the view was exceptionally open, which even made Xia De feel that this was a good place for a picnic.

"Meow?"

"It's not that I want to have afternoon tea; I'm just sighing. Wait a minute, I'm just sighing in my heart, how do you know what I'm thinking?"

"Meow?"

"You think the ghoul is very smelly? Sorry, sorry, I'll stand upwind."

It was past three o'clock in the afternoon when Miss Larson came to meet Xia De. Although the sky in winter gets dark very early, the sun was still in the sky at this moment. Standing here in the sunny winter day looking at the scenery at the foot of the snowy mountain and the small town not far away also made people feel comfortable.

She brought Xia De news of Claire. The witch had successfully passed the most dangerous section above the mountainside, and was currently passing through the castle ruins left by an unknown era above the mountainside, climbing toward a higher place. If it goes smoothly, she will reach the summit at dusk.

"I will fly directly to the finish line in a while, which can save some time. Elder Harald was injured after all, and he is also very busy, so he won't go to welcome Claire. Then, do you want to go together?"

Xia De also extended an invitation to Miss Larson. The white-haired girl actually hadn't been to the summit position either. She very much wanted to agree, but thinking that she still had to let Xia De hug her and fly up, she felt a bit embarrassed:

"Would that be very troublesome for you?"

"Troublesome? Isn't it that I have to ask Ai Li for help?"

So the witch apprentice blushed immediately.

Ai Li was seriously injured because of Friday's incident, but thanks to the treatment of the great witches that night and the unicorn supplement specially made by St. Byron sent by Emilia, although it still looked sickly, it actually only needed to recuperate.

Emilia also instructed Xia De to find time on the weekend to have someone take Ai Li out for a walk; unicorns cannot always shrink in the nest, so Xia De thought of asking Ai Li to carry the white-haired girl up the mountain in a while.

But obviously, the witch apprentice didn't think of this point just now.

While waiting for Mrs. Otto and Mr. Meyer to arrive, Xia De and Miss Larson also discussed what to do later. In order to prevent the fragile old lady from really passing away because of excessive sadness, Xia De prepared 【False Immortality】 to save people in advance.

And Miss Larson is responsible for keeping an eye on the ghoul at all times to prevent it from suddenly jumping up and hurting people:

"Mr. Watson, you said it has recovered its reason, or has it not recovered its reason? Can it recognize Mrs. Otto in a while?"

The ghoul is currently lying in a pit dug shallowly by the grass on the edge of the cliff, and Xia De is not very sure either.

He thought of the thought of "she is still waiting for me to go back" that he felt when he peeked at the ghoul's memory with 【Contact Death】 just now.

It was also this kind of thought that supported him for fifty years. Even if the body had long since died, after unfreezing, he still walked out of the castle with stumbling steps, relying on the instinct driven by obsession to step onto the road home.

"We are just providing him with an opportunity. After this, no matter what, we must send him to death."

"Then is Mr. Otto currently a ghoul or a ghost? I have never seen such a peculiar existence."

"This is probably something that can only be born under special circumstances. I don't know what this counts as, but if not handled, the obsession with a shell can probably be active in the world of the living for a long, long time."

Mrs. Otto and Mr. Meyer came slower than Xia De thought. It was already 4:30 in the afternoon when they appeared. In this way, he had to be quick when he went up the mountain in a while.

The old lady's legs were inconvenient and she needed a wheelchair, so the hired carriage sent her all the way to the small path leading to the cliff.

The carriage couldn't go any further on the subsequent path, so Mr. Meyer personally carried his aunt on his back. Naturally, he really had two "bodyguards" with robust physiques by his side. It was just that the two bodyguards looked like locals hired from Kyle-Todd Town; Mr. Meyer might have considered that they were more familiar with the situation at the foot of the mountain, but since they were just ordinary people, it didn't matter.

"Here!"

Xia De waved to the group, and after meeting with Miss Larson, he took the initiative to introduce the situation:

"My friend and I came here to see the scenery this morning, and it was my cat that smelled a strange smell, and then I dug it out from underground... Mrs. Otto, are you sure you want to see it yourself?"

The businessman Mr. Meyer was wearing very ordinary winter clothes for going out, while Mrs. Otto was wearing a gray wool coat reaching her ankles, and there were complicated black silk velvet bows at the collar of the coat. Inside the coat was a quite old-fashioned dark green long skirt, with twenty pearl buttons arranged on the front placket to the top of the high collar.

As for the head, she wore a black beaver fur hat decorated with silver ornaments, and the white hair was parted in the middle and combed into a tight bun and wrapped with a hairnet.

This appearance looked like a widowed woman, and also like she was going to attend a funeral. Xia De could understand her mood very well.

However, compared to a few hours ago, the old lady seemed to have accepted reality now, at least she looked very strong. Of course, Xia De couldn't be sure whether she was shivering at this moment because of the cold or because of her mood.

The wheelchair was moved by two bodyguards, and after coming to a slightly flat place, Mr. Meyer put his aunt on the wheelchair. For a businessman who doesn't exercise much, carrying an old lady for this distance was indeed exhausting.

"I want to see it with my own eyes, Barnard, push me over."

"Okay, Aunt, but you... if you feel uncomfortable anywhere, please tell me in time."

The businessman said while grabbing his hat worriedly. He also brought a doctor, but the doctor was waiting in the carriage on the small path and would run over immediately if there was a situation.

Xia De and Miss Larson stood by the shallow pit blocked by trees, and Mr. Meyer pushed his aunt over with difficulty. Complicated mood, both excited and sad, the old lady didn't care about the actions of the two young people at this moment.

So the wheelchair stopped suddenly, and then she felt her nephew seem to have fallen into the snow on the side.

He and the two bodyguards lay on the ground lightly without injury because of the influence of the spell. So Miss Larson took the initiative to walk over and was responsible for continuing to push the wheelchair.

Mrs. Otto didn't know what was happening, but before she raised her doubts, all the sorcery that imprisoned the ghoul was lifted.

While the wheelchair was heading toward the shallow pit, the ghoul stood up from the pit, shaking its body.

It covered its head, as if just waking up from a big dream. Subsequently, it saw the familiar yet strange woman sitting in the wheelchair, and the two were stunned in place.

For the safety of Mrs. Otto, Miss Larson didn't push her in front of the ghoul. The two looked at each other from a distance of five or six meters, and then with a plop~, the dripping tears wet the wrinkled hands the old lady clenched tightly.

She tried hard to stand up and reach out, but her legs were really too weak to support her body. Finally, Miss Larson supported her.

The ghoul also finally stopped being on all fours, but stood up in the pit with a hunched back in a very strange posture.

"Miranda, Miranda, I'm back, Miranda."

It was still saying this sentence. At first, it was vague as if a sticky phlegm was stuck in its throat, but the more this sentence was repeated, the clearer it became, until finally it was as if it were roaring out.

That sounded like a crying voice, but its current body structure was no longer enough to support it to cry out. The body covered with frost trembled uncontrollably, and the claw-like hands with yellow nails stretched forward:

"Miranda, Miranda, I'm back."

Xia De and Miss Larson, who was standing behind the wheelchair, looked at each other. The expressions of both sides should be very similar.

"It's him, it's really him. Young man, can you give us some time for us to talk?"

The old lady, who had already cried red eyes, subsequently made a request. Xia De had to warn her:

"You can see the state of this gentleman; he is no longer a living person."

"It doesn't matter, I have heard the legend of the snowy mountain ghoul, I know his current situation, I know everything... You finally came back, I thought you were really going to leave me behind."

She was already sobbing, and Xia De didn't know why he thought of Claire, who was waiting for him on the snowy mountain yesterday morning, saying "I thought you weren't coming to find me."

Miss Larson asked Xia De for his opinion with her eyes, and Xia De finally nodded lightly:

"Try not to have physical contact."

He signaled Miss Larson to push Mrs. Otto to the edge of the small cliff facing Kyle-Todd Town, while he himself watched the ghoul Mr. Otto walk slowly toward that side.

Actually, Xia De had encountered similar existences before; that was the father of the Green Lake Hotel's owner, the Green siblings, but there was no need to say this matter.

How much reason the ghoul had recovered, Xia De didn't know. After they moved to the edge of the cliff, Xia De and Miss Larson stood one behind the wheelchair and one beside the ghoul, watching them "chat" like this.

Facing the sun about to fall into the western sea and the small town where Mrs. Otto had lived her whole life, the wind blew the white hair. At this moment, only the old lady in the wheelchair opened her mouth to speak.

She talked about things after Mr. Otto went missing, talked about everyone going to find him together, talked about the story of her waiting alone in the old house under the care of neighbors, talked about spring, talked about autumn, talked about moving grain for the winter alone in the house, talked about the little dog they originally raised also dying more than forty years ago.

Sunrise and sunset, flowers blooming and falling, the street in front of the house turned into the town square, and the newlywed couple next door moved in as neighbors. The wardrobe in the house had to be discarded because of moth damage, but the blanket he draped over her when she eloped to the island was still kept in the cabinet.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3329 =====