Chapter 3847: The Scarlet Deception

Xia De picked up the wine glass containing fruit juice:

"In this way, the authority of the Red Moon overlaps with the authority of creation."

"Yes, but the two are not exactly the same. Most of the knowledge you obtained from me in the past was related to combat, but this cannot well reflect the fundamental nature of the Red Moon. Your transformation technique, the 【Active Soil】 that turns soil into flesh and blood, and the 【Blood Seed Parasitism】 you obtained from the pseudo-human, can better reflect the power of the Red Moon."

Danister said, picking up half a steak with a fork and throwing it to the ground. Then, the steak squirmed and turned into a red rabbit and ran to Xia De's feet.

Xia De felt it:

"Although there is no soul, it is full of vitality and spirituality. This is not a simple transformation."

"This is the Red Moon triggering the mutation of flesh and blood."

Danister explained:

"I know you don't have much demand for this aspect of power, but in order to feel the essence of the moon more deeply, you also need to come into contact with this part of power when you are at the Tenth Ring."

The two continued to chat about the moon while eating the midnight snack. The midnight snack included steak, which was not wasted, because Danister was really a bit hungry. The amount of exercise at night was too large, and she intended to continue the second half, so of course, she had to restore her physical strength.

After eating the midnight snack, Danister, who felt that she still needed to rest for a while, went to the study with Xia De. She asked Xia De to hold her and read books with her.

Since they just talked about the essence of the Red Moon, Danister, who was enjoying the pleasant night, told Xia De a very interesting fairy tale:

"The Red Moon shines on the forest. Under the scarlet moonlight, squirrels, foxes, rabbits, and hedgehogs intend to distribute a pile of pine cones they found together to every animal."

All four animals wanted to get more. The rabbit thought it had contributed more, the fox thought it was the only one that hadn't stolen food, the squirrel thought it needed more pine cones the most, and the hedgehog thought it was the strongest and should get more."

So they invited the wise owl to provide them with a solution. The owl looked at the scarlet pine cones reflected by the Red Moon and adopted the fairest method—one of the four animals was selected to divide the pine cones into four piles, and the other three animals chose the separated pine cones first."

The story reached here, and it sounded normal to Xia De, praising the role of fairness and wisdom, but then the story became a bit strange.

"Finally, the fox was selected, and it divided all the pine cones into four parts. But the cunning red fox played a trick. It cut off its own flesh and blood, disguised it as pine cones under the Red Moon, making three of the piles of pine cones look larger."

The rabbit, hedgehog, and squirrel chose the three piles of pine cones that looked larger, so the fox mocked them and took away the pine cones that were actually the largest in number. The other three animals were annoyed and angry, so they swarmed up, cut off the fox's meat, and tried to use its flesh and blood to fill the deficit of their respective pine cones."

Under the Red Moon, the blood-stained treasure made the four robbers go crazy, and they killed each other. Finally, they all fell to the ground. So in the camp, the traveler who was invited to help divide the treasure got everything and walked away with the treasure stained with blood."

Danister finished the story, and Xia De blinked:

"I admit that this story is very thought-provoking, using animals to divide pine cones to reveal the self-destruction caused by human greed, deception, and violence. But can this also be called a fairy tale? Can this also let children hear it?"

The sorceress smiled:

"What I told is just the dark version of the story. In the more common version of the story, what is disguised as pine cones is actually the fox hair pulled off by the fox, not any flesh and blood."

The ending of the common version is that the clever fox is plucked of all its hair by the other three animals as punishment, and the four robbers implied by the animals did not all die, but the traveler took advantage of their fight to roll away their treasure."

Danister asked:

"Look, in this way, isn't this story a standard fairy tale? Simple and easy to understand, the story itself is also very interesting."

"Yes, if it's just fox hair, this story has a fairy tale style. What is the name of the story? "Bloody Horror Story" or "Night of Eating Flesh and Blood"?"

Xia De asked, and the sorceress was amused:

"What are these strange names? The most common name for this fairy tale is "The Scarlet Deception." It is widely circulated in the eastern part of the Old Continent. Adults will use this story to warn children not to be greedy, and even more not to play tricks, otherwise, the one who suffers in the end will definitely be themselves."

The girls all knew that Xia De would sometimes show a certain degree of lack of common sense, so Danister didn't ask how Xia De hadn't heard this story:

"Xia De, your childhood education is not my business. I mentioned this story because some researchers believe that this story actually has metaphors about the Red Moon. After all, three moons hang in the night sky, but the story only mentions the Red Moon."

"People and animals under the Red Moon are true and false, and flesh and blood can be disguised as pine cones. This is all hinting that what happened in the story is perhaps a real but false phenomenon triggered by the power of the Red Moon."

After finishing the story, she asked Xia De who was holding her:

"After we come back from Mount Karas, you should have some time to study with peace of mind, right?"

"This... in fact, there are still some things to deal with. I promised Claire and Margaret some things."

Danister could guess what it was:

"It doesn't matter, you can always find time to study here with me. I can open an elective course for you alone, which can count for credits. Speaking of which, is your course progress after the Year-End Festival a bit behind?"

"Take advantage of the fact that there is nothing to do later, remember to make up the homework for the compulsory courses, otherwise even with my help, you will have big trouble before the summer exam week."

"Got it, Danister."

The eighteen-year-old red-haired girl showed a smile, and she felt that she had rested enough:

"Then, do you still want to read here?"

She looked up at Xia De, and Xia De read her thoughts from her eyes:

"I've read enough, so let's go back to the bedroom to rest."

"Is it not okay to rest in the study?"

"Of course it's okay, but isn't the table a bit hard? And the carpet is a bit too dirty."

"It doesn't matter, I know you can make my feet not touch the ground."

(Little Mia is running...)

Little Mia thought that Xia De, who didn't return home on Friday, would definitely be able to return early Saturday morning. As a result, when it really saw Xia De, it was already ten o'clock on Saturday morning.

The cat was a bit angry, so it decided to ignore Xia De and lay on the back of the sofa watching him without saying hello. But after Xia De touched it a few times, Little Mia started rubbing Xia De's hand as usual, so Xia De didn't find out that his cat had ever been angry.

Although he was going to set off for Mount Karas on Monday, and Danister said that this trip was an Academy mission, which could add practical credits for Xia De, Xia De himself didn't need to prepare anything extra.

All the materials for the ritual were provided by Danister, and Xia De only needed to carry common weapons and props. So he thought he could take advantage of the time in the last two days to learn that card sorcery.

He had already taken a bath at Danister's place, so after returning home, he simply tidied up, and then set off with Little Mia to Quill Street.

After having lunch with Dorothy, the two went to Dr. Schneider's clinic together.

Today is Saturday. The fog in the city is not as obvious as in deep winter, but the sky in Tobesk is still gloomy. The group meeting, which hadn't been held for two weeks, was finally convened again this afternoon. Although Luvia was absent, the other four were present on time.

The doctor looked in a good mood, which might have something to do with his booming business recently.

"The detective is also busy with the matter of the southern snow mountain. I need to remind everyone that it is now the middle of the Month of Wind, and the first half of 1855 has passed by half. Everyone must pay attention to this year's study progress."

The doctor said, mentioning what Danister had already reminded Xia De last night. Xia De knew they were right:

"I am going out with Professor Danister of the Academy on Monday for an Academy mission, and I will make up the courses after I come back."

"Are you coming to the meeting next Saturday?"

"Should be able to, it won't delay the whole week."

"That's good."

The doctor nodded, and then exhorted Father Priest Ao Gu Si and Dorothy a few more words, and then said:

"I originally wanted to take advantage of everyone's time to take a few local bounty missions. It's a pity that the fortune teller is not here. Without her assistance, let's not take risks."

"However, it's not that there is nothing to do next. Regarding the upcoming North-South War, the Academy has issued a notice, warning correspondence students not to easily get involved and cause trouble for themselves and the Academy."

"At the same time, the outbreak of war will also make illegal sorcerer groups such as 【Tyranny Club】, 【World-Swallowing Legion】, 【Conspiracy Council】, and neutral sorcerer organizations such as 【Lyre Alliance】, which are particularly active in wartime, more frequently active."

"The Academy warns us to stay away from these troubles and pay more attention to our studies and sorcerer levels. Once it is discovered that correspondence students use supernatural power to directly participate in the war of ordinary people, the Academy will send people to deal with the violators."

The doctor said while flipping through the official documents for everyone to read.

Father Priest Ao Gu Si also said:

"The Church has also warned the sorcerers under its jurisdiction to stay away from the war. Although the possibility of sorcerers belonging to the Church actively participating in the war is very small, it does not rule out that some people will be used by others for various reasons."

Dorothy read that document:

"But even if the Academy and the Church warn, there will definitely be people who profit from this, right? Selling some healing potions and lucky amulets is probably a small problem. What the official worries about is probably that someone will use this to seek noble status or use the war to carry out some illegal rituals."

PS: This chapter's picture "The Scarlet Deception". ===== CHAPTER 3848 =====

PS: The illustration for this chapter is "The Bloody Deception."