Chapter 4177

Margaret not only said goodbye to Xia De, but she also brought new news for him:

"When Teacher Sylvia informed Duchess Miss Jia Lin Na of the news last night, even I didn't know what had been stolen from Willundale, but I heard my father and eldest brother talking about this matter at the dinner table this morning."

She said to Xia De:

"The Royal Mint was robbed."

"Oh?"

This was different from all the guesses from yesterday:

"What was lost? The master plate for printing banknotes? The master hand-carved mold for making coins? Trial samples of the new currency? Precision parts for rolling machines or stamping machines? It couldn't be that the precious metal reserves in the warehouse were stolen, could it?"

Xia De proposed many possibilities, but Margaret shook her head:

"I don't know either. The best outcome would be that the Mint lost the royal trial coins of past kings, which are more precious than gold; that could only be considered a royal scandal. If it were anything else, even if it were just minting archives, it would be enough to trigger a political tsunami or even turmoil in the domestic financial industry."

Sylvia then said:

"Although the Grey Gloves currently suspect that this is a major case committed by MI6 during the war years to stir up turmoil within the southern nations, Miss Jia Lin Na clearly stated that this was not MI6's handiwork, so there is likely a greater conspiracy behind this theft.

However, this has nothing to do with Margaret. Now that the two princes and Margaret, this princess, are leaving the capital together, King 'Lion Ryan' will personally investigate the theft case thoroughly."

Xia De nodded, and then thought of Miss Pawo of the 【Truth Society】 whom he had seen in the exhibition hall of the Printing Guild yesterday; the other party seemed very interested in the Mint. But if this matter really was done by the 【Truth Society】, there was no reason for Miss Pawo to have specifically gone to the exhibition area to see the exhibit.

And Xia De later remembered that there was still a set of Deraerion Pound banknote master plates in his basement. Those master plates were a gift Xia De had taken out of a gift box a long time ago; he was neither willing to destroy them nor had he found what this thing was actually used for.

Margaret and Xia De hugged and cuddled to say goodbye, and made an appointment with Xia De that when she arrived in Arcadia City, they must meet often. Her reluctance to part was somewhat similar to Miss Jia Lin Na's a short while ago.

Sylvia just hugged Xia De and promised to take good care of Margaret:

"If there are no accidents, Xia De, let's meet next week. I hope that when we arrive in Arcadia City, we won't happen to run into any major events."

"That really can't be said for sure."

Xia De answered with a smile and sent them to the portal room of the tower. Margaret entered the portal to Willundale while looking back every few steps. Sylvia, who was walking behind, kissed Xia De again before smiling and following Margaret away.

"Mint theft... could this be related to the events in Arcadia City?"

The Outlander had no answer for the time being.

After saying goodbye to Margaret and Sylvia, who were about to travel far, the only thing Xia De had to do today was to go to Daniste's place in the evening to open the tree hole and welcome the return of Miss Helena Carter.

Besides that, he had no must-do tasks, so he planned to visit Mr. Finch and Mr. Bernhardt in turn after seeing Vigo, and then go on a sewer adventure with the vampires to kill time before opening the tree hole.

At least when Xia De left the snow mountain, that was what he thought.

The gloomy weather that had started in Arcadia City yesterday afternoon continued until today. When Xia De arrived on the first floor of the Blue Ink Library, he heard the sound of heavy rain outside. While he was waiting for the carriage, the young lady in charge of managing the library also told Xia De that this rain had been falling since 10:00 last night until now.

Although it looked like heavy rain at this time, it was nothing compared to the downpour before dawn. The young lady was a local of Arcadia City, and she said she had never seen such heavy rain in the local area during this season, but fortunately, the sewer drainage system of this ancient city was quite good.

But Xia De believed that what this city built on a mountain really needed to worry about was landslides.

In the rainy weather, there was almost no one to be seen on the streets. The newspaper-selling boy was hiding from the rain under the eaves in front of the library. Seeing Xia De come out, he immediately wanted to run far away to avoid this place, but he was called back by Xia De:

"You can just stay here to hide from the rain, no need to leave."

It was hard to sell newspapers in rainy weather, but there was clearly a reason the boy was still out working. Most people in this era didn't live well, and Xia De didn't ask about the boy's story. The boy looked only eight or nine years old, about the same as Little John, whom Xia De knew and who had once lived in the trash alley of Green Lake Hotel; the number of newspapers he could carry was not large.

Xia De then spent money to buy all 20-plus newspapers in his hands and gave him a piece of candy as a gift.

He kept three newspapers for himself and sent the rest into the library for the readers who came today to take as they pleased.

The boy was still waving goodbye to him at the library entrance after Xia De boarded the carriage. Xia De unfolded the newspaper in the carriage and began what he considered to be an ordinary day...

"Ribbit~"

"Hmm?"

Xia De, who was just about to read the front-line news, frowned and looked out the window:

"Did I hear wrong? Just now, was there the sound of a frog?"

【You didn't hear wrong, there was indeed such a sound.】

Although it was strange to suddenly hear the sound of a frog, a single croak wasn't actually a very special thing. It was just that as the carriage continued to drive toward the Upper City, the frog croaks coming from the roadside appeared more and more frequently.

"In the Arcadia region, do frogs often appear in this season?"

Xia De asked the young lady driving the carriage. Vigo had arranged for a fixed carriage to pick up and drop off Xia De at the Blue Ink Library, and the coachman was that Miss Cruz who had once driven Xia De to the Grey Rock Pass fortress to find Vigo, only to run into Miss Sabel.

Her voice came from amidst the sound of the rain:

"Arcadia City doesn't have many bodies of water suitable for frogs to breed and live in, and I have never seen so many frogs in the local area either."

"Before I arrived, had you heard the sound of frogs?"

Miss Cruz recalled for a moment:

"I heard the sound a few times this morning while heading to the library to wait for you, but I didn't pay attention at the time... It seems that when it was pouring rain last night, there were also frog sounds in the rain, but I'm not sure if that was an illusion in my sleep."

The situation was clearly not right, because Xia De subsequently felt the extremely faint elements of whispers in the rain. And by the time Xia De arrived at the Fragrant Mansion to see Vigo, Vigo told Xia De directly what was happening at this moment:

"Sage-level relic 【Rain Man】."

Even though the lights were on in the study, because of the rainy weather outside, the interior still appeared gloomy:

"The relic itself is a male human mummy about the same height as you, wearing a coarse cloth raincoat of a low-level worker, with tiny greenish-grey frog eggs embedded in the seams of the clothing. The face is completely covered by the hood of the raincoat, with no facial features. The other party's hands are claw-like, with sticky black-brown silt remaining in the fingernails, and the whole body is surrounded by faint water mist; of course, this is hard to distinguish on a rainy day."

Vigo described it in detail. Before Xia De arrived, she had already sensed what this was:

"This relic is one of the few relics that originated from the Third Era but has a very detailed history. The other party was a worker clearing silt by the river during his lifetime, and he fell into a river channel that had bred a large number of deformed frogs due to being polluted by wastewater on a certain rainy day.

After drowning, the body was washed to the shore by the river water and was mistakenly believed by the ignorant refugees at the time to be some kind of messenger of a frog god, and they secretly worshipped it. Subsequently, the body somehow acquired supernatural abilities and then transformed into a relic at some point in time.

This relic only appears in rainy weather, and after appearing, it will present three stages of characteristics. Let me put it simply: in the first stage, a large number of frog eggs appear in the rainwater in the nearby area; in the second stage, large batches of deformed frogs appear everywhere; in the third stage, the nearby weather turns into a torrential downpour, and people who touch the rainwater mutate into the appearance of monster frogs, which is the so-called 'frog-ification'."

"It seems this is another relic that came because of abundant life energy. Life creation and flesh mutation, is it?"

Xia De summarized simply:

"Is it in the second stage now?"

"Yes, it should still be in the early second stage; the frogs hatched from the frog eggs are still normal in appearance. As more and more deformed frogs appear, the third stage will begin.

In addition, that mummy which is the main body should be wandering nearby. The other party's power and appearance will also change according to different stages. Once it completes the transformation of the third stage and becomes a deformed frog monster, it and the ugly frogs it leads will be enough to form a disaster on a legion scale."

Vigo was very clear about the dangers of leaving it alone:

"I can know what kind of relic this is, so the Church has probably already started a city-wide search for the main body of the relic. They should send me a request for assistance in the search; more hands mean more hope."

Xia De nodded:

"You don't go out, stay at home and watch the house; I'll go out to find the main body of that thing. Although it is a Sage-level relic like the 【Skin Museum】, the main body of this kind of range-type, stage-type relic is clearly not as troublesome as the museum."

"How many people do you need to take? There are still many high-tier young ladies in the mansion."

Just as Xia De wanted to answer, Miss Lorin knocked on the door in a hurry again:

"Ham... Mr. Watson, there is a friend downstairs looking for you, it is Mr. Finch from the Finch Gear Workshop."

The old gentleman came to find Xia De, of course, also because of the frog matter. The relic known as 【Rain Man】 appears once every few decades, and it is considered famous even in the current Sixth Era.

The old man came here to find Xia De, hoping to go with Xia De to find the main body of the relic. After all, he is a ring-warlock living in Arcadia City and would not be indifferent to this.

And Mr. Finch didn't just come by himself; he actually brought that "Doomsday Survival Carriage." This is the means of transportation prepared by this old gentleman of the Occult Society for a doomsday environment. That carriage can not only gallop across most terrains, but it is also equipped with quite a lot of protective rituals itself.