Chapter 429: Mermaids, Kisses, and the Moon

"Although this matter is over, I don't think the failure of the Scarlet Secret Sect was because of insufficient preparation."

Xia De suddenly said.

"Then why was it?"

The witch who continued to dine asked.

"They chose the wrong time. If it hadn't been during Darkness's stay in Cold Water Harbor, if it hadn't been after the God-Descending event in Tobesk, the church and the academy certainly wouldn't have invested such great power to deal with them."

Xia De answered, using a dining knife to peel the fish meat from the skeleton on the plate.

The witch thought for a while:

"But anyway, this time it was still the victory of the church representing the positive image... Just like in Tobesk, and that God-Caller has the qualifications to become a legendary figure in stories after thousands of years... He will probably also be printed on Luo De Pai."

Compared to the reputation that annoyed him, Xia De was quite looking forward to the possibility of becoming a Luo De Pai card face.

After finishing dinner, neither Xia De nor Miss Aurora attended the banquet. Driven by curiosity, Xia De finally followed the witch to the beach behind the manor to see the mermaids.

Miss Aurora's personal maids carried golden candlesticks, following Xia De and the manor's hostess through the garden to the beach. Then, in the moonlight, the young girls took off their shoes and walked into the water, lining up in two vertical rows, extending from the water to the shore of the beach.

Miss Aurora took Xia De to the end of the maid's long line, watching the swaying candlelight extend deep into the sea. The sea breeze blew the maids' skirts and long hair, and also let the candlelight drag short lines from the candle wick to the shore. This scene under the moon looked quite miraculous.

Miss Aurora took off the small conch pendant hanging on her chest, bent down and dipped it into the seawater under her feet, and the pendant wriggled and became larger. As the witch blew the conch, the long and ethereal sound of the conch spread from the shore to the seabed.

That sound made Xia De seem to hear the waves of the deep sea, and also seemed to feel the seawater moisturizing his skin. After Miss Aurora chased Darkness and jumped into the hole under the temple, the sound Xia De heard was this kind of sound.

Mermaids have male individuals, but the number is very small. And due to the witch's curse, Miss Aurora is also more willing to be close to female mermaid girls.

They are also creatures with high intelligence, but unless special magic potions, spells, strange techniques, or even relics are used, individual mermaids cannot turn their tails into beautiful long legs like in stories.

Therefore, under the harbor behind the Aurora Manor, there are temporary residences built specifically for them. And as Miss Aurora blew the conch, the mermaids on the seabed gradually moved to the position of the water surface, and then poked their heads out in the shallow sea.

They moved closer to the shallow beach following the guidance of that long row of candlelight, but in order not to run aground, they could only swim at the end of the light. Miss Aurora also took off her high heels and walked into the water. Xia De looked down at her feet stepping into the relatively clear seawater under the moonlight, and then realized that this was very impolite.

So Xia De also followed, walking into the shallow beach between the two rows of maids.

Because of racial culture and living habits, mermaids are very timid, which is about the same as Little Mia. At first, even with Miss Aurora, they were unwilling to approach Xia De, but gradually trusting Xia De, they dared to swim to the shallow beach to greet him.

Most of them understand the Delarion common language, but they like to talk to each other in racial language. Xia De certainly understood this language, which was very similar to the fish-man language, and heard the mermaid girls praising his good looks, good smell, and the beautiful moonlight on his fingertips.

Miss Aurora and the mermaids all thought Xia De couldn't understand these words, but Xia De actually understood them, and in this situation, he couldn't say he understood them.

These lives living in the water like to use shells and water plants as clothes, so as they got closer, Xia De even had to move away the silver moonlight on his fingertips to prevent seeing things that shouldn't be seen.

Although this was not Xia De's first contact with alien creatures in this world, the contact with strange intelligent races still made him feel very novel.

And Xia De's main purpose for seeing the mermaids, besides satisfying his curiosity, was also to inquire about things related to 【Desire】. That intelligent Grade 0 relic, which looked like a mermaid, might not be a coincidence. Ancient alien races might have clues.

"In the past, the mermaid race was a symbol of desire. Sailors rumored that they would use their singing to lead large ships into the center of storms or deviate from safe routes."

In the mermaid race, there was no news about that relic. It was Miss Aurora who gave some explanations when Xia De slightly mentioned the symbolization of mermaids in occultism.

"Perhaps 【Desire】's appearance, which resembles a mermaid, is caused by this rumor. People's thoughts and culture are also affecting 【Desire】, which claims to be born of desire."

This was Xia De's thought.

Although there were indeed mermaid girls who were very interested in Xia De, Xia De did not stay in Cold Water Harbor for long. After seeing the mermaids and talking to the witch about the follow-up news of the Cold Water Harbor shadow, he said goodbye and left.

He didn't go home immediately, but swam in the sea for a full hour, avoiding the church's patrol boats, and relying on the strong memory of the voice in his heart, he found the 【Soul Fishing Rod】 inserted into the seabed under the Cold Water Harbor bay. Only then did he swim to the cave under the cliff and return home through the hidden wall.

Xia De, dripping with water, returned to the first floor from the basement. Although he had only left home for a day, Xia De missed his house incomparably while breathing the air in the house.

It was probably his footsteps that startled the people upstairs. Before Xia De approached the stairs and opened the door of the hall, he heard fast and loud footsteps coming from upstairs and getting closer and closer.

"Xia De!"

First, the Mia cat rushed over, but it was not it who was speaking. The blonde girl behind the cat rushed over almost directly.

She opened her arms, not caring at all that Xia De was soaked all over, and hugged him. Before he could react, she kissed his lips.

"Woo~"

Xia De made such a sound with his nose. The cat, which was waiting for him to hug it, supported its body with two short legs, grabbed Xia De's trouser legs with its front paws, and waited for a long time without seeing Xia De bend down, so it returned to all fours, looked up dissatisfied, and then its amber big eyes showed curiosity.

Xia De, even with the 【Time Perception】 spell, could not measure the length of this kiss. He felt it was fast, but also incomparably long.

After finally being let go by Dorothy, he breathed deeply and looked at the girl in front of him in surprise:

"Wait, are you Dorothy, or Lei Qianya?"

"Does this question matter?"

The blonde girl wiped her mouth with a blushing face. Xia De noticed that she had put on light makeup and even specially applied lipstick.

"Of course it matters. I at least need to know whose... whose soul kissed me."

She laughed, looking at Xia De with green eyes at close range:

"Then you can assume that we are both kissing you at the same time. Xia De, thank you for saving Lei Qianya Cavendish, and the princess didn't even have time to say goodbye to you. This kiss is gratitude, and also an apology... Also, you have to do fewer dangerous things in the future."

"At the same time? Can you think like that?"

Xia De asked back in surprise.

Dorothy didn't care what Xia De thought. As she spoke, she hugged Xia De strongly and wanted to kiss him again, but was pushed away by Xia De. He looked at the blonde girl in his arms very seriously:

"Before that, you also need to know one thing: that relic 【Scales of the Drowned Fish-man】 belonging to both of us was destroyed by me."

Dorothy looked at Xia De in surprise:

"Now? At a time like this? Xia De Hamilton, you actually want to tell me this?"

"I want to compensate for your loss."

"You... then take this as compensation."

Then she kissed him again. The force of holding the back of his head was very strong, and Xia De even thought his lips were going to be broken.

The first floor of St. Deran Square No. 6 had no gas lamps, only the light from the gas street lamps outside the window extended in, letting them stand in the square light extending from the window above the floor, and the shadows of their embrace stretched to the wall.

A carriage drove past the window, and the sound of crushing the road surface was rhythmic. The moment it passed the window made the shadows sway on the wall. The moonlight was beautiful, but Little Mia meowed dissatisfiedly. It had been waiting for a long time, and Xia De hadn't come to hug it yet.

The girl's kiss lasted for an unknown amount of time before it ended. She looked at Xia De with a slightly red face, and Xia De also looked at her. Although Xia De, who was still affected by that piece of 【Desire Flesh】, thought of more things, he still had reason, so he didn't turn the messy thoughts that appeared because of this kiss into reality.

The two talked until 10:00 PM that night. They talked about Xia De's experience in Cold Water Harbor, talked about Xia De using the power of the 13th-level Ringed Shushi he used at the Lakeside Manor again, and even talked about Xia De seeing mermaids just now.

Dorothy laughed and complained that even though Xia De had taken a bath, he still had a fishy smell, and then jokingly called him "The Mermaid Angler of Cold Water Harbor".

And until he sent the blonde girl to the carriage at the street corner of St. Deran Square, Xia De was still not sure whether the person talking to him tonight was Dorothy Louisa or Lei Qianya. Although she had the action of touching her ears, that might have been faked.

【Outsider, I am a little surprised that you didn't keep her overnight at home.】

"Why keep her?"

Xia De stood under the yellowish street lamp with his hands in his pockets, watching the carriage drive toward the university district.

【With her mood tonight, if you issued an invitation, she wouldn't refuse.】

"When did you start expressing opinions on my life?"

Xia De said with a smile, turned around and walked through the quiet square toward the door, and kicked the stone at his feet. The orange cat Little Mia poked its head out from behind the half-open door, worried about Xia De going out at night, but it didn't dare to run into the dark night by itself.

"I know if I invited her, she might stay."

He said in his heart.

【Then, why not?】

"As you said, this is because of her mood tonight. I wouldn't do such a thing."

【Then I understand.】

She chuckled in his ear.

Xia De also smiled, walked into the door, and held the door handle from the inside, wanting to close the door. But he suddenly turned around and poked his head out to look at the moon above St. Deran Square outside the door.

The silver moon tonight was so bright. ===== CHAPTER 430 =====