Chapter 847: Professor Drake's Story

Xia De hadn't made an appointment for this visit in advance, but when the professor heard that he was a writer from Delarion visiting specifically for material for a new book, he was still very happy to invite him in and received Xia De in the study.

Professor Kansas Drake was a thin old gentleman, wearing a pair of brown-framed reading glasses, with a red blanket with a plaid pattern covering his legs, so Xia De couldn't see below his waist. Unlike the Delarion people Xia De often saw, Professor Drake had the standard appearance of a southerner of the Old Continent, that is, his face was very long, his skin was slightly dark, and his eyelashes were slightly upturned.

Xia De first entered the study, and then the maid pushed Professor Drake in. He ordered the fat maid who looked like she did things reliably to prepare tea, and then chatted with Xia De.

Xia De wasn't the first time pretending to be a Delarion writer, so he could talk freely about this profession he hadn't engaged in. He quickly transitioned from the topic of local folklore to the legend of the "Lady of the Lake".

"Yes, I have indeed studied this legend. Mr. Watson, you should also know the general content. In a certain lake in the west of Huntington City, there lives a goddess who can realize people's wishes."

The old professor solemnly drew the holy emblem of the Church of Nature on his chest. This was a loyal believer of the God of Nature:

"Mortals always yearn for such legends, but most research believes that perhaps in the ancient era, a woman living alone lived in the lake area in the west of the city. Local villagers occasionally saw her bathing in the lake, or saw her walking in the forest on a foggy morning, so the rumor of the Lady of the Lake spread. You also know that country people always like to exaggerate their experiences, and those stories passed down by word of mouth became the legends we know now after several eras."

"But is that really the case?"

Xia De asked suspiciously. The facts were of course not like this, otherwise Sister Daifulin and Mr. Edmund wouldn't need to recommend Xia De to come here.

"This is just the most widely spread statement, and it is also the common view of scholars who study local history and folklore in Huntington."

The professor shrugged and answered Xia De in Delarion language. Although Professor Drake was a southerner, he had lived in the North for a long time when he was young, and his Delarion language was very good.

"Then what is your view? Viscount Bernhardt, who introduced me, said that you are a scholar with your own ideas."

Xia De complimented slightly, and Professor Drake also showed a smile:

"Young people today speak so nicely. I know what you want to understand from me, and you are not the first person to come to ask me this question. Yes, I do know some things that ordinary people don't know, but I can't tell you directly."

"Do you need crowns? No problem, I am willing to sponsor your research."

Xia De put down the teacup and said he was going to take out his wallet, but the professor shook his head slightly:

"Young man, I will ask you three questions. The answers you give will determine whether you can get the answer from me."

Xia De didn't expect to encounter this kind of request, but still nodded:

"No problem. Although I don't boast too much about my wisdom to others, just three questions, I can probably handle it. Professor, please."

A sparrow flew in from outside the window and stopped on the windowsill of the study. The professor looked at the sparrow and sighed softly:

"In my opinion, wisdom is equal to wealth. I don't want your wealth or your wisdom. Please listen carefully, Mr. Watson. If you met the Lady of the Lake and she gave you the opportunity to make a wish, what wish would you make?"

Xia De thought for a while:

"Besides wanting to collect material, I am actually looking for something lost recently. If I really met that goddess, I would let her inform me how to find the lost thing. Or, she might be able to give me that thing directly."

Xia De said, and his eyes also saw the sparrow on the windowsill, so he thought of Mia who was still sleeping when he left home. That cat might have woken up now and was "inspecting the territory" at home.

"The second question, if the Lady of the Lake can help you realize your wish, but realizing the wish must pay a price, are you willing to pay?"

The professor, who was disabled, asked again, his eyes sharply examining Xia De. Xia De thought about it:

"Is it an equivalent exchange? Or do I have to pay more?"

"You don't need to pay, but when you get what you want, some subtle change has already happened."

Old Professor Drake said in a low voice. Xia De raised an eyebrow:

"Then I won't make a wish. Although I want to find a certain item, there are actually other ways to try. There is no need to take risks. After all, I have too many life treasures that I don't want to give up... Professor, what is the third question?"

"If killing the Lady of the Lake could realize your wish without any price, would you do it?"

The professor asked finally. Xia De shook his head:

"Although I don't think the Lady of the Lake in the local rumors is a true great being like the Mainstream Gods, I think it shouldn't be so easy to kill such a legendary creature, right?"

"Assume the other party doesn't resist at all."

The professor stared at Xia De. Xia De still shook his head without hesitation:

"Professor Drake, this question is really strange. But a long time ago, when I was still immature about this world and my own life, I once told my friend: murdering others for one's own purpose will only result in the guilt that one must bear for a lifetime."

This was the content of Xia De's conversation with Priest Ao Gu Si and Doctor Shi Nai De. That was still in the summer.

Professor Drake showed a smile:

"Very good. You are more rational and kind than most young people I know. I am actually curious about your growth environment."

He raised his hand and pointed behind him:

"Now, can you hand me that red photo album on the third shelf of the bookshelf? Please forgive the request of an old man with inconvenient legs."

Xia De got up and found the photo album on the bookshelf and handed it to the professor. The professor flipped it open with a nostalgic expression and pulled out one and handed it to Xia De:

"Mr. Watson, please look at this one."

The black and white photo touched his finger, and a sound immediately rang in his ear:

【You have touched "Whisper."】

This was an extremely weak whisper element. If there was no prompt from "She", Xia De wouldn't even have discovered it the first time. He was slightly startled, but didn't show too much surprise, instead looking at the photo itself.

The black and white photo was already difficult to distinguish very fine details, and this photo in his hand had been yellowed due to oxidation for a long time. Even though the professor's finger pointed out the clear position, Xia De still couldn't see any special scene. That was a landscape photo by the lake, and the photo was taken at least ten years ago.

He looked very carefully at the yellowed old photo. It was clearly a very normal landscape photo by the lake, but the more he looked, the more he felt flustered in his heart, as if staring at something terrifying, but there was really only an ordinary landscape by the lake in the photo.

"You feel it, right? Staring at it for a long time will make you feel uneasy."

The professor said softly, and then reached out and pointed to the photo:

"Look behind that tree, there is a human face here."

Xia De looked down at the tree suspiciously, trying to imagine the shadow behind the tree as a human face. Unexpectedly, as that group of black shadows slowly squirmed, the whisper element became rich in the photo at an extremely fast speed.

At the same time, in the position pointed out by Professor Drake, in that group of blurred black shadows, a woman with black hair—because the photo was only black and white—with a pale human face really appeared.

She hid most of her body behind the tree, and the upper body showing her shoulders looked like she wasn't wearing clothes. As the woman became clearer, the rotten silt on her body also appeared, becoming more and more real and vivid.

She looked at Xia De in the photo, her eyes would blink, and the malicious expression on her face was completely undisguised.

"Relic?"

Although the Divine Radiance still existed, without divinity, the cold feeling immediately spread from his fingertips to Xia De's body along with the curse, and then was suppressed by the First Fire flowing in his body.

Xia De let go of the photo and looked at Professor Drake in surprise, but found that the other party seemed not to have seen the increasingly clear woman, instead looking at Xia De with hesitation:

"Mr. Watson, what's wrong with you?"

"The professor can't see it?"

Xia De was a bit puzzled, but immediately understood. Professor Drake's inspiration was probably very weak, not enough to capture the malice of the blurred human face in the photo. And Xia De, with extremely high inspiration, captured the malice, so he was targeted by the curse.

This photo was definitely not the relic body, just that the relic's power was recorded by the photo and thus spread the curse. Xia De had heard of this kind of item, and it could be considered a relic derivative, but the effect was not strong.

"I saw that woman, yes, very blurred, only a silhouette."

Xia De said vaguely:

"Is this the Lady of the Lake?"

"Of course not. This was a photo sold to me by a local many years ago. This photo proved to me when I was young that there really existed some things in the west of Huntington that normal people find difficult to understand. This world is actually not simple."

The professor said, throwing the photo on the table. The sunlight outside the window shone on the photo. As the two people no longer stared at the photo, the whisper element on the photo also returned to an extremely low level.

Xia De nodded immediately. Now he knew that there was at least a curse-type humanoid relic with the image of a woman with disheveled hair in the west of Huntington City. The relic level was at least Sage level (Level 2). Now the curse was still suppressed in his body. After leaving the professor here for a while, he had to find a way to solve this curse.

"You started from that time, transforming from an ordinary scholar into a folklore scholar who studies occultism part-time?"

"Yes, I used to think that legends were just legends, but later I started to try to study folklore from the perspective of occultism. Of course, the field I involve is very shallow, because this is quite dangerous. As for the existence of the Lady of the Lake, there is actually a lot of evidence. Young man, you probably don't know that the scope of the Pantanal Great Swamp area has been shrinking in the past five hundred years."

"Oh?"

Xia De raised an eyebrow and turned to look at the tourist map of the city hanging on the wall of the study:

"You mean, the location where the Lady of the Lake appeared was once the area of the Pantanal Great Swamp?"

"Yes, I have studied the folklore and legends of the Pantanal area in depth. Oh~ that is very strange, evil, and twisted stuff. I even often regret provoking those things when I was young."

The professor shook his head and said to Xia De again:

"But contacting those terrible materials is not completely without harvest. I am very sure that the 'Lady of the Lake' in the local legend really exists, and it is in a certain lake in the east of Huntington City. The location of that lake is not fixed. According to a certain rule, only special people can contact it." ===== CHAPTER 848 =====