Chapter 719: The Great Fog of Midhillburg

After returning home that night, Xia De, though very tired, still went to Quill Street, found Dorothy, and invited her out for a late-night snack. Dorothy could tell that Xia De had a lot to say, so after putting on her winter coat, she followed him out.

There was a restaurant on Quill Street that was about to close. They chose a table against the wall, with a gas lamp hanging on the wall just above the table. Xia De ordered food for the two of them and the cat, then said with some sorrow:

"Don't wear the Red Butterfly pendant anymore, and tell Lei Qianya not to wear it either."

"Why?"

The blonde girl asked curiously.

"Because it's very unlucky."

While waiting for the food, Xia De briefly told the story that had lasted from the Fifth Era to the present. After hearing it, Dorothy covered her mouth, her eyes slightly red. It wasn't until the waiter brought the deep-fried shrimp balls and butter bread that she recovered:

"This story is really too... why must such things happen? They were clearly sisters who had promised to be together forever."

"This was Grace and Helen's own choice; we are merely bystanders. So, don't wear the Red Butterfly pendant."

Xia De used a fork to pick up a shrimp ball, looking at the female writer across from him under the gas lamp:

"Your ending will definitely be better than this. I swear."

After speaking, he took the food off the fork and handed it to the cat, which had been stifled in the box all day. The latter used its two front paws to claw at the warm food, looking at Xia De with some worry; it could also tell that Xia De was in a bad mood.

"Are you very tired?"

Dorothy took the pendant from her waist, placed it on the table, and then looked at Xia De across the table to ask. Xia De hesitated for a moment, then nodded:

"I've experienced so many things, but this matter alone..."

"I understand."

She leaned forward slightly, grabbed Xia De's left hand that was resting on the table, and met his gaze with her emerald eyes. Xia De could see that strong soul.

"Although I don't know what exactly you are doing in Midhillburg this autumn, Lei Qianya and I both know that you have always wanted to help us. Actually, there's no need to work so hard. Maintaining the status quo, being able to have a soul that is tethered to each other from a distant place, we are already very content."

"Your other self is merging; this cannot be considered maintaining the status quo."

Xia De shook his head. Dorothy looked at him under the tipsy gas lamp, watching the shadows on his three-dimensional face as he lowered his head, and for a moment, she didn't know what to say:

"Xia De."

"What's wrong?"

He raised his head, but the blonde girl smiled and shook her head, saying softly and gently:

"Nothing. I was just thinking, if one day, Lei Qianya and I could really look at each other face-to-face, and even touch and hug each other, we would definitely give you a very special gift."

St. Deran Square No. 6 was calm and peaceful tonight, and Xia De had a good sleep. Perhaps because of the many experiences during the day, he had a strange dream.

In the dream, he somehow arrived in a forest, following a beautiful red butterfly as it kept flying through the forest, until he saw an ancient castle located in the center of the forest.

Then the dream became strange. First, Luweiya, wrapped in raging fire, suddenly appeared and attacked Xia De, and then Mia the cat, whose body had expanded into the shape of a big tiger, had the character "King" written on its forehead by someone, and it was also holding the 【Night Watcher】 in its mouth; it also wanted to kill Xia De.

This strange dream scared Xia De awake, and by this time it was already Tuesday, and the sky was already bright.

He sat up, covered in sweat, feeling his breathing still labored. Suddenly awake, the images from the dream still lingered in his mind, so much so that for a moment, he couldn't distinguish reality from the dream.

【This is reality.】

"She" whispered gently.

"As long as it's reality. Oh, what a strange dream. I would rather spend the whole night looking at the moon than have these messy thoughts entangle me."

He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and sat up, looking at the bedroom in the dark.

The weather had turned cold, and he had already replaced the thin summer quilt with a thick one. In a while, the Steam Company would send someone over to discuss this year's heating fees. The price was not fixed for the whole city, and Xia De also needed to prepare firewood for the winter in advance.

He planned to use the fireplace in his home. This was not only because the notes of Detective Sparrow mentioned that there were more detective commissions in winter than in autumn, so he wanted to create an atmosphere of a "professional detective," but also because relying solely on pipe heating was not enough.

After all, this house is simply too big.

"Meow~"

A soft cat meow came from his side, followed by the itchy feeling of Mia the cat rubbing against the back of his hand. He reached out and touched the cat that had just woken up. Somehow, he thought of the "big tiger" Mia in his dream and couldn't help but reveal a smile.

The story of the Red Butterfly Twins was very sad, but Xia De's story had to continue.

When he stepped into his slippers and went downstairs to get the newspaper and milk, he realized that the birthday gift Lei Qianya had asked him to send to Miss Miss Lu Lu Lu Yisha had already arrived. An exquisite but not particularly expensive red gift box wrapped the gift, and a blue silk ribbon was tied into a beautiful butterfly knot outside the box.

To prevent Xia De from making mistakes, Lei Qianya gave him a letter. It was Lei Qianya's handwritten letter, which not only had her flowery cursive handwriting but also the scent of her perfume...

"When did my nose become so sharp?"

When walking up the stairs, Xia De put the milk bottle in front of his nose and sniffed hard, very sure that his sense of smell was normal (Author's Note).

The letter not only mentioned what the gift was, how much it cost, and where it was bought, but even wrote a sample of a birthday greeting for Miss Miss Lu Lu Lu Yisha, asking Xia De to copy it directly. The greeting was appropriate and fitting, with just the right amount of flattery and congratulations, neither humble nor pushy. The Outlander would still have to study the grammar of this world for a long time to have such literary talent.

"A white fox fur scarf produced in the Northern County of Delarion, and a newly published poetry collection, 'Love and Peace.' Oh, this gift was chosen really well."

The cat squatting at the stairs on the second floor was originally waiting for Xia De to go upstairs to heat the goat milk. Seeing him standing on the stairs reading the letter, it meowed, urging him to hurry upstairs.

It couldn't miss its daily meal time.

After eating breakfast, Xia De wrote the letter to the Miss Lu Lu Lu Yisha family in the study, and then wrote a letter inviting friends to his home tomorrow night to help hold a ritual to seal the boundary on the third floor, only then did he go out to send them all to the Tobesk Post Office—

The mailbox at the street corner could not deliver gifts.

Only then did he take Mia the cat to Midhillburg again, walking out of the mountain forest in the thin morning mist, heading towards the city at the foot of the mountain.

Midhillburg today was very strange; the density of the morning mist was actually comparable to the autumn smog in Tobesk this morning.

You know, Tobesk, known as the "City of Steam," was also experiencing such bad air recently because of the arrival of late autumn, and the steam factories wanted to complete the last batch of production before winter arrived and heavy snow blocked traffic. And Midhillburg in autumn, because of the mountain forests and seasonal winds, shouldn't have such autumn morning mist at all.

As Xia De arrived in the city, the fog not only didn't weaken but became even stronger. On St. Kara Avenue, where the Cassandra Auction House was located, Xia De stood at the street corner and could only see a distance of forty feet (about 12.2m).

Pedestrians on the street carefully walked along the edge of the street, and the carriages driving by had carriage lamps hanging in the front and back, and the coachman would even keep shaking the bell to remind people to avoid and be careful.

Just then, a newspaper-selling boy walked by from the other side of the street. Xia De waved to call the boy wearing a patched hat over, counted out five pence and handed it to him, then took the newspaper and asked:

"When did this fog appear? Eight o'clock? Seven o'clock?"

"No, sir, this fog suddenly fell from Sikar Mountain last night. I went to sleep very early, but little Lana who sells flowers said she saw the fog pouring out from the mountain when she got up at night."

The brown-haired boy answered, hesitated for a moment, and then whispered a reminder:

"This Sikar Morning News only costs four pence."

"That one penny is a reward for your honesty."

Xia De said, then turned his head to look at Sikar Mountain:

"What happened again? Could it be related to the awakening of the Red Butterfly Twins yesterday?"

Walking into the Cassandra Auction House, someone immediately led Xia De to the reception room on the top floor.

Grandma Cassandra was already waiting for Xia De as usual. Antique oil paintings hung on the walls, and knight armor from who knows how many hundreds of years ago stood by the wall. Although the old witch's decoration style was a bit old-fashioned, it unexpectedly fit Xia De's taste very well.

The young apprentice, Miss Rita Swift, temporarily acted as a servant serving tea for the two. Since Xia De had already met her, there was no need to hide the existence of "this kind of man" from Xia De anymore.

"Why don't I see Grace and Helen?"

Xia De was still thinking about meeting them.

The old witch held a teacup and revealed a smile, as if she had long known Xia De would ask like this:

"Because the ritual was just held, the Whispering Elements on the teachers are difficult to control completely. To prevent causing us trouble, they are temporarily living in a room in the basement of the auction house. The walls there have been professionally treated and are enough to temporarily contain Angel-level Relics; it has already been used many times."

"Then I..."

"Although it is still very dangerous now, you can go and meet the teachers. Ten minutes, at most ten minutes, you must come out. I think the teachers also want to see you very much."

Grandma Cassandra put down the teacup and looked at the fog outside the window:

"So many years have passed, even I am almost leaving them. I am really happy that they could still meet you."

She looked a bit sentimental, and her feelings for Grace and Helen were very deep:

"Grandma, do you know our story?"

"Yes, about the story of you and the teachers, I heard it from the teacher more than a hundred years ago when I was as old as Rita. At that time, no one could have imagined that you would really appear."

The old witch made a laughing sound from her throat:

"This spring, Teacher Helen Black suddenly appeared in front of me and told me that you finally appeared in Tobesk."

The old witch had a look of nostalgia on her face:

"That was one of the very few times I saw the teacher reveal a smile. She was really happy to be able to see you again." ===== CHAPTER 720 =====