Chapter 870: New Mission for Gray Hawk

From arriving in Huntington City for the first time on Thursday to seeing the mysterious lake on the edge of the Great Swamp under the guidance of a resurrected wild wolf on Sunday evening, Xia De only spent three days to get close to the truth of the legend.

But he couldn't spend all his time and energy in Huntington City; there were many things waiting for him to deal with in Tobesk on Monday.

At 6:30 on Monday morning, when Xia De woke up on time, he felt as if a stone was pressing on his chest.

"Ghost pressing the bed?"

There was also such a saying in this era.

When he opened his eyes, he knew it wasn't a ghost pressing the bed, but a cat pressing the bed. Little Mia, who was waiting for breakfast, was standing on the quilt on Xia De's chest, looking at him with bright eyes.

"Guess, what is this cat thinking?"

Xia De asked in his heart while smiling and grabbing the cat and sitting up from the bed. His fingers moved slightly, and the curtains automatically pulled open with a clatter.

The voice in his ear chuckled:

【Probably dissatisfied that your life is too lazy.】

"Lazy? In order to prevent the 【Laziness】 spiritual rune from affecting my spirit and personality, I didn't even associate any miracles with this spiritual rune. And the laziness of this cat is stronger than any human I know."

The cat, which was being held by the back of its neck, looked at Xia De pitifully, its big eyes showing very human-like aggrieved emotions, its white whiskers trembling slightly, and its small nose twitching with its breathing, just short of writing "want to eat" on its face.

A new week also meant that Xia De could take out new gifts from the 【Gift Box of the Gods】. When he went downstairs to get newspapers and milk, he moved the metal box from the basement to the upstairs.

While looking at the news of Princess Margaret Anjou's visit today in the newspaper at the dining table, he was still thinking about what kind of strange items would be taken out this week. But no matter how strange the weekly gifts were, Xia De was still happy to try. This kind of "lottery" activity where he couldn't guess the result at all but might have valuable items appear was one of the few hobbies of the Outlander in this world... Actually, thinking about it carefully, the hobbies he had developed in this world, including but not limited to Rod cards and Little Mia, were already many.

This time, without waiting to finish breakfast, Xia De, who couldn't suppress his curiosity, pushed open the lid of the gift box.

When he reached his hand into the box, he didn't touch any items for the first time, which meant it wasn't a large item this time. He continued to grope downward until he touched something with a cold metal touch at the bottom of the box:

"Ordinary item."

Although he made such a judgment, Xia De was still interested. Taking that thing out of the gift box, he found it was a small silver box inlaid with broken diamonds on the surface. The box had a shield-like appearance, and judging from the weight, luster, and touch, it was highly likely to be pure silver jewelry box.

After opening the box, a beautiful emerald was indeed lying in the red velvet lining. That gem was the shape of a goose egg, and although it was only the size of half a fingernail, it wasn't very valuable, but the surface was polished with layers. The sunlight shooting in from the window made the gem shine, which was an absolutely precious piece of jewelry.

"An emerald in a silver jewelry box, this actually counts as an item, the box and the gem are counted as one."

Xia De thought curiously, twisting the gem out to observe carefully. Mia, who was licking goat milk with her head down, also stretched her small head over, widened her eyes, sniffed twice with her pink nose, and immediately lost interest.

"The quality of the gem is very good, even for rituals with harsh requirements for ritual materials, they wouldn't refuse this level of jewelry."

He put the small emerald back into the shield-shaped silver box, thought for a moment, turned the box to the back, stretched out his finger, and the light of the silver moon appeared from his fingertips:

"Gifted by Hamilton of Leged."

He spelled it while engraving this line of text with the silver moon at his fingertips. This was a skill he had before truly mastering the 【Moonlight Greatsword】:

"It happens that I'm going to attend that princess's wedding on Tuesday, taking this as a gift shouldn't be shameful."

He appreciated the letters he engraved, but wasn't satisfied and took a deep breath, using 【Breath of Time】 to wipe away that line of text:

"The letters are too ugly..."

Finally, he only engraved the initials of his name to indicate his identity, which looked much more beautiful.

As for the task corresponding to this jewelry, it was to buy groceries alone twice this week, which was indeed very important for children.

Confirming the gift for this week, Xia De read the newspaper while eating breakfast. After finishing breakfast, he went to look at the three letters for today.

One was sent by Priest Augustus. The Dawn Cathedral would distribute cathedral gifts to core believers in the early winter season, reminding Xia De to go and collect them. This year, they distributed a small piece of soap engraved with a holy emblem, an unframed cathedral oil painting, and some seasonal vegetables.

Although in the eyes of nobles these gifts were not worth much, this tradition of distributing gifts to core believers according to the season was quite important.

The second letter was sent by Dorothy. On Tuesday afternoon, which was tomorrow afternoon, the wedding of Mona Cavendish and Randolph Esberg would be held at the Peace Cathedral in this city. According to Princess Lei Qianya's request, Xia De invited Dorothy as his female companion, and Dorothy wrote to inform Xia De of the time to meet her tomorrow.

As for the third letter, it was affixed with the lowest denomination stamp, and the return address was a street in the north of the city, without a more specific house number. Xia De only saw the ink color on it and knew that this was a letter for contact with the "Gray Gloves."

"Finally here?"

The expired revealing potion he got from Priest Augustus last time hadn't been used up. After drenching the letter paper written with "same as before" with the potion, dense numbers immediately appeared.

Finding "The Wang Hou and Her Lovers," "The Silver Knight," and "Gleanings from the Western Front" from the study for password decryption, he obtained a complete letter.

The content was not much, and it was indeed about Princess Margaret Anjou. The letter requested "Gray Hawk" to secretly protect the princess's safety during her visit, but under no circumstances should he expose his identity.

After the news of passing the "Difference Engine" data during the Great City Player period, "Gray Hawk" should have fallen into silence, "sinking to the bottom" again to wait for awakening. Less than three months later, he received an order again, which was probably the result of internal struggles within the Gray Gloves and considerations by the royal family.

Although the order asked "Gray Hawk" not to expose his identity, it gave him a set of special passwords that could expose his identity to Princess Margaret alone at a critical moment.

This task didn't have too specific requirements, but instead emphasized many times that Gray Hawk should not appear easily. It seemed that no matter what, the big figures in Kassenrick all assumed that the value of "Gray Hawk" was extremely high, and Gray Hawk absolutely could not sacrifice himself unless it was a last resort.

"The political struggle within Kassenrick is also not simple."

Although Xia De had lived in Delarion for a long time and could only be considered "Gray Hawk II," he could also hear thunder from this letter.

Even without this letter, he would protect Princess Margaret. On one hand, MI6 absolutely could not let the princess have an accident in Delarion, and on the other hand, this could be considered repaying the late Detective Sparrow.

Although he had the heart to go to Huntington to try his luck again today, because of the tasks of MI6 and the Gray Gloves, Xia De had to go and join the fun to welcome the arrival of Princess Margaret and her party. For this reason, he had already agreed with Miss Galina to go with her, which could also save the time of queuing to enter.

Although taking a steam airship from Huntington City, that airship wouldn't land directly in the city, but would land in Valhi Town, eight miles (about 12.9km) away from the urban area in the east of Tobesk City, and then the visiting group would take a special train to Tobesk Railway Station.

The train journey was actually less than half an hour, so the accurate arrival time depended on what time that airship could land safely. Fortunately, in the past few days, there had been no strong rain or snow in Tobesk City and surrounding areas, so there was no need to worry about the delay of the airship due to weather reasons.

Tobesk Railway Station was located in the north of the city, while Miss Galina's manor was located in the southern suburbs of the city. Therefore, the Great Witch arrived at No. 6 Saint Deran Square around eight o'clock with her maids, intending to wait here for the news of the specific arrival time of that train.

And the reason for not waiting at the Yodel Palace was because for the meeting between Larrus III and the Southern Princess, as well as the special lunch and dinner prepared for the visiting group, it was very busy there.

According to diplomatic specifications and general rules, the visit of members of the Anjou royal family needed to be welcomed by members of the Cavendish royal family in person. Among them, if it was a visit of the specification of a duke with real power, queen, or even king, Larrus III needed to go to welcome them in person, but this time only a princess came, so according to convention, Wang Hou Diana led the eldest prince who was not born by her and several princesses to the railway station to welcome them.

The party that should have set off from the Yodel Palace at this time should also be waiting for news. Only after the people from the Yodel Palace set off first would Miss Galina's motorcade join them.

"Although I am also a member of the Cavendish family, whether I should appear on such an occasion, my nephew has actually considered it many times. After all, the specification of a duke with real power like me going to welcome that princess of the Anjou family seems a bit high."

The red-haired witch sitting on the sofa said, she was in very good spirits early in the morning:

"Later it was decided that I should participate. MI6 received some news that this princess's visit was not just a simple visit; she brought a letter from the current king of the Kassenrick United Kingdom, 'Lion Ryan.' The other party seems to have the intention to negotiate on the balance of the number of troops. So in order to show goodwill, my nephew wrote to me to go to Tobesk Railway Station today as well."

"If he hadn't written, would you have gone?"

Xia De asked curiously, Tifa was directing the maids to prepare hot tea, and they didn't know how long they would have to wait.

"Of course I would have gone. As a member of the council, if Sylvia arrives in Tobesk and I don't go to welcome her, what would the other witches of the council think of me?"

7017k ===== CHAPTER 871 =====