Chapter 4046: Skin and Mermaid

Winnie naturally could not provide an answer. Xia De gestured for her to leave the box with him:

"Since someone was able to come looking for us, perhaps Vigo might run into trouble on her side as well. Let's go, let's reunite with Vigo and the others first. It seems we won't be able to finish watching this opera tonight."

Winnie followed behind Xia De:

"I didn't sense any large-scale traces of whisper elements. Perhaps things aren't that bad yet."

Although there was no private washroom in the box, the second floor of the opera house was equipped with four public washrooms for the guests to use.

Vigo had certainly gone to the nearest one, and since it was not yet intermission, there were not many people in the corridor, so Xia De led Winnie straight in.

Miss Luo Lin and the other two maids were currently guarding the entrance to the washroom. Seeing Xia De barge in, the housekeeper wanted to stop him, but then remembered that she had ruined her master's good deed last time, so she withdrew her hand:

"Mr. Watson, what is this..."

"Besides you, has anyone else been here just now?"

Miss Luo Lin shook her head:

"After the master went in, you were the first person to come by... Do you wish to go in?"

Vigo had come to change her clothes, so she was not in front of the sinks but had gone into an internal stall. Besides Vigo, there was also one maid with her, helping her change.

Xia De shook his head:

"I will wait here; something happened just now. Winnie, you go in and check the situation."

"Alright."

Winnie, who had restored herself to her flesh-and-blood state, walked in quickly. This time, Miss Luo Lin did not stop her. Voices were soon heard from inside the washroom, and before long, Winnie returned to the entrance:

"Everything is fine inside."

Winnie had already informed Vigo inside the washroom about the news of the skin-object appearing in the opera house, so Vigo quickly changed her clothes and hurried out.

When she returned to the box with the maids, Xia De was examining the fat woman frozen in the ice block.

The fat woman was just an ordinary person, looking to be in her forties. Winnie knew that they still needed to find clues from her, so the fat woman had not died from being frozen. Winnie had already thawed her head and was hypnotizing her to ask questions, but there were not many clues obtained from this person.

"Vigo, is the troupe performing tonight the 'Holborn Opera Troupe'?"

"Yes, they are a quite famous local opera troupe. Although they cannot compare to the world-renowned Golden Dawn Opera Troupe, they are almost the top-tier in the Arcadia region."

Xia De then said:

"This fat woman was originally just a laundry woman hired by the Holborn Opera Troupe. While working for the troupe, she envied those young and beautiful actresses, and sometimes would take the opportunity while washing clothes to steal and wear their outfits."

She said that last summer, a young girl in the troupe discovered her actions but did not blame her, instead asking her if she also wanted to become beautiful, if she wanted to attract men's gazes again, and if she wanted to become the focus of young men. After the fat woman agreed, she obtained this layer of skin and subsequently became a servant in this opera house."

That layer of skin-object was still frozen in ice by Winnie at this moment. The fat woman naturally did not know what a "skin-object" was, and as an ordinary person, having worn this layer of skin for half a year, her appearance had undergone permanent changes. After peeling off the skin-object, her facial features had almost completely melted, and her body was covered in scars of varying depths. In a few more months, she would likely have completely merged with that layer of skin.

Vigo frowned:

"What did the person who provided her with the skin want her to do? This certainly wasn't free."

"The other party had her work here, recording the identity information of other actresses in the opera troupe who were also young and beautiful, as well as the maids working here."

Xia De replied, and Vigo blinked:

"Is this wanting to collect more beautiful skins... Well then, who is the person who gave her the skin? Is it the lead actress of the opera troupe?"

"According to the fat woman's confession, besides the first few contacts, that person had been communicating with her through letters ever since, and also informed her of the precautions for using the skin-object. If her description is not wrong, that person should be the third female lead performing tonight."

Vigo then listened to the sounds on the stage:

"It has just reached the end of the second act, and the third female lead doesn't have much of a role coming up. Let's not take action yet; wait until the intermission ends, and then go to the backstage to find her."

"No problem."

Subsequently, Vigo asked again:

"However, how did you discover her? When I came to this opera house before, I also encountered this maid, but I never noticed that she had a problem."

Xia De shook his head:

"It wasn't me who noticed it; it was Winnie who noticed. This fat woman wore the skin-object for too long; if it weren't for close proximity, it would have been very difficult for me to detect traces of whisper elements."

"I have a strong ability to perceive such non-natural existences."

Winnie explained, freezing the woman again.

Vigo said with some worry:

"Can the person behind this fat woman help us find the main body of the 【Skin-Object Society】? Or is the person behind her the 'Skin-Craftsman'?"

The diffusion mode of the 【Skin-Object Society】 is very different from the 【House of Pseudo-Humans】; the latter usually involves the relic main body appearing in a certain place, and then a large number of pseudo-humans appear in the city over a period of time.

The 【Skin-Object Society】 usually first sends the relic derivative "Skin-Craftsman" to a place, and after developing a sufficient number of people using skin-objects, the relic main body will officially descend, subsequently developing more "members" of the society and filling the society's skin-object collection.

There is a theory that the "Skin-Craftsman" itself is also a normal life form that has worn a skin-object, only becoming part of the relic because it lived inside the society for too long. But the "Skin-Craftsman" does not just possess the technology to make skin-objects; their danger rating is between Document-level and Sage-level, and their combat ability absolutely matches their danger evaluation.

Although the relic main body appeared locally because the skin-object left by Vigo's mother was triggered, this does not mean there were no Skin-Craftsmen here before.

The group then waited patiently in the box. To prevent the fat woman's disappearance from attracting the attention of others, Winnie made another ice sculpture the size of a person, letting it wear the skin-object to temporarily carry out activities.

The danger of doing this was extremely high, increasing the risk of the skin-object going out of control, but fortunately, they did not need to wait too long.

After the intermission ended and the performance on stage resumed, the three maids stayed in the box, while Vigo, Xia De, Winnie, and Miss Luo Lin secretly left and headed to the backstage.

During the performance, anyone unrelated to the troupe is prohibited from entering or leaving the backstage, but this could not stop Xia De and the others. Vigo had clearly been here before, and she led the group to quickly find the actors' rest area.

Only, at this time, the actors and musicians backstage were still preparing for the subsequent performance, and Vigo could not find the third female lead immediately. So she led the group through the corridor and arrived at the storage room used by the troupe to store miscellaneous items.

Spare performance costumes, stage props, and the personal items of troupe members were all stored here. If there really existed a "Skin-Craftsman" in this opera troupe, I fear there would be other skin-objects in the troupe, so Vigo planned to search here simply first.

Rummaging through other people's things without permission is of course very immoral, and the search had only just begun when there was a harvest.

In the deepest part of the storage room were two rows of sliding clothing racks installed with pulleys, with gorgeous costumes hanging on them. And after pushing aside the clothing racks, on a table at the end of the room was a very beautiful oil painting. In the oil painting, it was a mermaid with dark red hair, smiling charmingly at the outside of the painting in the seawater.

"Oh, how beautiful~"

Vigo was immediately attracted by this oil painting. Xia De heard this and also looked over, his expression changing immediately. He walked over quickly and pressed the oil painting onto the table.

"What's wrong?"

Vigo asked curiously. She did not perceive any abnormality from the oil painting. The oil painting itself was indeed fine, but Winnie understood Xia De's approach; after all, on the second floor of No. 6 St. Derland Square, there was an oil painting with a very similar style and subject matter to this one.

"Do you remember Mrs. Connaught, whom I mentioned?"

Xia De asked softly, and Vigo nodded:

"That Viscountess who died in the church? Of course I remember. Afterwards, the church discovered that the one who died was just someone else wearing her skin-object, and she herself is still missing, but you said before that she might be related to..."

The witch also closed her mouth.

Subsequently, the four of them searched the room very carefully and discovered other items related to "desire."

Those items all had no elements, but mermaid pendants, emblems of monsters with multiple hands and feet, insignias related to "desire," and so on, all pointed out that some people in this opera troupe were "desire worshippers."

The worshippers might not even know what they were worshipping at all; they just thought that by carrying certain special accessories, they could make themselves more charming and attractive. But even so, this still belonged to high-risk behavior, and this was enough to explain that in Arcadia City, there definitely existed true "desire followers."

But although Xia De found these items related to "desire," he failed to find clues related to "skin-objects."

And just as Xia De and Vigo were discussing what to do next, someone opened the door of this room from the corridor.

The person entering was an elderly male; judging by his attire, he should have been playing the heroine's father on stage. After entering the room, he sat down on a chair next to the makeup table piled with things, looked at himself in the mirror and sighed, and only then stood up, took off his hat, and reached his hand toward the back of his head.

After fumbling for a while, he found that button, and after unbuttoning it, he slowly peeled off the layer of skin on his body. ===== CHAPTER 4047 =====