Chapter 3862: The Life of Margaret Anjou

Seeing Xia De figure it out, Sylvia was finally satisfied.

Then one card after another and one toy after another were restored by Xia De, and Sylvia's followers on the island helped set up the tables and tableware in the garden in front of the house, and went to handle the expensive ingredients.

As for why Sylvia was willing to do such a big favor for Margaret, of course it was still because of how she had "kidnapped" Xia De before the Year-End Festival. And after this help, the great witch of the spatial domain no longer owed Margaret anything.

So Sylvia was also happy to do so at this moment.

"Margaret is in the house right now, isn't she?"

After handing over all the cards, Xia De finally asked Sylvia, and the black-haired witch reminded him:

"Don't be so impatient~ Although Margaret is a witch's apprentice, she is still a princess after all. If you want to steal a kiss before the wedding, you should at least let the Miss have some sense of ceremony."

She looked toward the four-story white building:

"But she really is inside waiting for you...... Treat Margaret well. Being able to make this kind of decision is not easy for her either."

Xia De nodded very seriously:

"I understand. I know it's not easy for any of you to be willing to do this. I'm a very lucky fellow, which is why I've won the hearts of all of you."

Sylvia's smile deepened:

"Save those sweet words for Margaret to hear. Still, I do like hearing them."

She kissed Xia De on the cheek, smacked her lips, then wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. Once she was satisfied, she used a handkerchief to wipe the lipstick marks from his mouth, then pushed Xia De into the building.

Since the island itself was a spatial anomaly, the inside of the house naturally wasn't normal space either. After entering, Xia De saw a massive entrance hall before him and corridors extending to the left and right. For a moment he felt as though he had stumbled into a noble's grand estate:

"The interior and exterior areas clearly don't match."

But at this point Xia De no longer needed to cast a spell to look for the next clue—photographs laid out on the carpet guided him forward.

He first bent down and picked up the first photograph from the doormat at his feet. The photo showed a newborn baby with closed eyes sleeping in a cradle. If one were to describe her in Eli's words, she was "ugly-ugly," but Xia De recognized at a glance that this was Margaret.

Then a short snippet of conversation appeared in Xia De's ears:

"Oh, this little Princess is truly beautiful. Has Your Majesty named her yet?"

"Yes, Margaret—a Miss like a pearl. Pure, precious, graceful, and resilient. I hope that when she grows up she can be as beautiful as the Wang Hou, and as brave and wise as Your Majesty."

The conversation ended, and Xia De looked at the photograph in his hand with a smile:

"This must be from when Margaret was just born...... She found a servant from back then, and had Hilles fix the memory onto the photograph?"

Margaret was Vanessa's apprentice, so it was perfectly normal for her to seek Hilles's help.

He continued forward and picked up the second photograph in the center of the entrance hall.

When he saw the little girl in the photo crawling across the carpet with a giggling laugh, a patch of light projected out from the old black-and-white photograph. Within that light the photo came to life, and several nervous maids watched young little Margaret playing with toys on the carpet.

Margaret at this point was probably only one or two years old, but the features between her brows already hinted at how she would look grown up. She laughed very happily. Perhaps she herself couldn't remember this scene, but some maid nearby still did.

The third photograph was on the staircase leading to the second floor, and this one was a family portrait of the royal household. Margaret's younger brother hadn't been born yet, so besides the young "Lion" Leon and the Wang Hou, the photo only contained four children—two boys and two girls.

Margaret was the youngest, looking no more than three or four years old, so she was held in the arms of the Wang Hou, who wore a kindly smile. But the little girl in the puffy princess dress, with a small toy Wang Guan perched at an angle on her head, looked thoroughly displeased. Xia De heard voices—

"Margaret, once the photo is done I'll give you candy."

"But Mother, I want candy now."

"Eating candy is bad for your teeth, Margaret. You should eat more vegetables—purple cabbage is a very tasty vegetable."

"But I don't like eating vegetables. Brother Samuel and Brother William don't like eating vegetables either."

The little girl spoke in a milky, childish voice, and the smile on Xia De's face grew ever brighter.

He continued up the stairs, then on the staircase between the second and third floors discovered the fourth photograph. In it, a Margaret of about eight or nine sat astride a pony, gleefully holding up a wooden sword.

The scene that had taken place in the outdoor riding ground then appeared beside Xia De in the form of a memory.

He saw the petite Margaret swinging the wooden sword and laughing on the pony's back, saw the surrounding servants anxiously urging someone off-frame to hurry up and take the photo, and so he knew this memory most likely came from the photographer of that day.

The fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth photographs, in order, recorded Margaret's tenth birthday banquet; Margaret at twelve attending the ribbon-cutting for the new Virendelle City Hall building with the Wang Hou; Margaret at fourteen sitting in a garden pavilion with a troubled look at her homework book; Margaret at sixteen holding flowers at her sister's wedding; and Margaret at eighteen wearing the Kingdom's Army uniform and posing for a photo aboard a warship with her two brothers, who wore the same uniform.

The photographs along the way—whether through real scenes or through dialogue—showed Xia De the course of Margaret's life from birth onward. And so in the space of a mere twenty minutes, Xia De had nearly seen through Margaret's entire life up to now.

The photographs led him to the building's fourth floor, and leaving the staircase, Xia De found that the fourth-floor corridor had been carefully arranged.

A brand-new red wool carpet lay across the floor, and on either side, every half meter, pairs of facing flower stands had been placed as decoration. The oil paintings on the walls had all been replaced with brand-new landscape photographs of Virendelle City, and the open door of the banquet hall not far away waited for Xia De's arrival.

Music drifted out from that door—symphonic music of the sort that only appeared at grand ceremonial occasions. But Xia De did not walk over immediately; instead he bent down and picked up yet another photograph.

In the photo, a twenty-year-old Margaret stood smiling alongside Sylvia, and Xia De heard their conversation—

"Teacher, when will I be able to become your true student?"

"Margaret, you know my requirements for an apprentice. The current you is still far from qualified."

"Teacher, I will patiently wait for the day you can accept me. But aren't your requirements for an apprentice a bit too high? Will you really be able to wait for that person?"

Sylvia's answering voice was very firm:

"I definitely will. I believe that. Margaret, when she appears I will introduce her to you. I can guarantee that she will be able to form an unbreakable bond with you as well. Although for now I don't wish to make you my apprentice, you will always be my student."

The photograph was carefully tucked away by Xia De. He continued forward and, two meters from the open doors of the banquet hall, picked up the last photograph.

This too was a two-person portrait, and Xia De recognized both of them.

The frozen scene seemed to be afternoon-tea time. Margaret Anjou and Princess Lei Lei Qianya sat on opposite sides of a small round table, with a hedge as the backdrop. The poised and graceful Margaret held a teacup and was saying something, while Lei Lei Qianya covered her mouth with a white-lace-gloved hand and laughed softly.

Then the scene from that moment appeared directly beside Xia De, and he watched the two Princesses he knew so well converse—

"Lei Lei Qianya, you're setting off back to your country the day after tomorrow, aren't you?"

"Yes. I'll first take a ship from the west coast back to Coldwater Port, and then take a steam train from Coldwater Port back to Tobesk City. During my time away from Tobesk, quite a lot has happened there too. A serial murder case occurred at the 'Lakeside Estate' outside the city—something that hasn't happened in many years."

Margaret then said:

"Then remember to write to me after you return to your country. I've never been to Tobesk—I wonder what the northern country's summer scenery is like."

Lei Lei Qianya replied:

"If you get the chance to visit Tobesk, I will certainly host you properly. But after I return to my country this time, there are still some matters I need to handle. My 'sister' has met a very interesting person."

Margaret assumed that "sister" referred to another Princess of the Cavendish royal house:

"What kind of interesting person?"

Margaret lifted her teacup, and Princess Lei Lei Qianya raised her right hand to cover her mouth, letting out a light laugh:

"This is temporarily inconvenient to tell you."

The scene froze at this point. When the Outsider first awoke in the summer of 1853, Princess Lei Lei Qianya was visiting the city of Warendale; she only met Xia De at Coldwater Port after the story of "Balance" ended and at the beginning of the story of "Darkness."

Therefore, during her stay in Warendale in the summer of 1853, Princess Lei Lei Qianya, who was already swapping souls with Dorothy and was still uncontrollable at the time, actually already knew the Outsider very well; the "interesting person" she mentioned must be Xia De, who is holding the photograph right now.

And now, two years later, one party in the photograph has already established the most intimate relationship with the "interesting person," while the other is about to promise a lifetime together with the "interesting person" in this southern capital.

At that time, no one could have imagined such a day would come.

Xia De carefully put away the last photograph, then walked along the red carpet into the banquet hall with its open doors.

Unexpectedly, there were actually many "people" here; the clay dolls wore decent formal gowns and walked around the hall as if a wedding banquet were truly being held, just like real humans; although they could not speak, there was indeed a buzzing sound of conversation in the background of the banquet hall.