Chapter 923: The Witch's Night Visit

After the doctor entered the dream, he altered Mr. James's memories, making him believe he had simply drunk too much and passed out. So when he woke up in his room at half past four that afternoon, the gentleman had no idea at all what had happened that afternoon.

But when he was apologizing for his loss of composure, he suddenly froze, then a look of pleasant surprise crossed his face:

"Doctor Shi Nai De, that fatal sense of crisis that troubled me like a long snake coiling around my body is gone!"

Probably because he was too excited, even his wording had become overly literary.

Mr. James strode to the window and shoved open the narrow room's window. The choking smell of smog poured in from outside, and Xia De and Doctor Shi Nai De hurriedly stepped back, but Mr. James instead took a deep breath, then started coughing violently:

"Cough cough, I mean, cough cough, oh, that's quite something. Doctor, I feel completely cured, yes, now I can even stand by the window without feeling any danger."

"For God's sake, close the window quickly."

Doctor Shi Nai De said hurriedly.

"Doctor, how did you do it?"

Mr. James closed the window and asked in great surprise. Doctor Shi Nai De thought for a moment:

"Before you slept, you challenged your own courage with Detective Hamilton's pistol. After falling asleep under my assisted hypnosis, in the dream you must have recalled that near-death sensation because of this matter."

"You probably can't clearly remember what happened in the dream, but the people in the dream will subconsciously lower their psychological defenses, bringing you closer to death than in reality. This is also why some people can be scared to death in dreams."

Xia De said with a perfectly straight face, and Doctor Shi Nai De nodded:

"Yes, this is my unique hypnotherapy. Although the dream experience has been forgotten, the subconscious still remembers that it once died, that it has already passed through a life-and-death crisis. So when you wake up, you feel completely normal."

"Then will this completely rob me of my sense of danger?"

Mr. James asked with some worry again, so Doctor Shi Nai De looked at Xia De. Xia De nimbly drew his pistol, held it with both hands and aimed it at Mr. James, who immediately raised both hands in surrender:

"Oh my God. Detective, please put the gun away."

"How do you feel now?"

Doctor Shi Nai De asked with great interest, taking out his notebook to record.

"I'm quite certain my perception of danger is still normal. Doctor, I promise I'll pay you the full consultation fee, so please ask the detective to put the gun down... You two really are quite the pair."

In any case, that afternoon's adventure with Doctor Shi Nai De, although it encountered a few mishaps, was not particularly dangerous overall. Apart from each receiving the 20 pounds given by Princess Margaret, Mr. James also agreed to take out his "family heirloom" for the two of them to admire.

Just as Xia De had guessed, it was an ancient holy emblem. The emblem was roughly tree-shaped, about half a palm in size, and Mr. James had placed it very carefully in his travel suitcase.

The emblem was made of a half-metal, half-wood material; even after a thousand years, it only had some barely noticeable scratches on its surface.

After getting permission, Xia De reached out and touched the holy emblem, confirming that it was indeed a divine artifact. Unfortunately, the deity had departed a thousand years ago, and without divine maintenance, this item was about to completely degenerate into a mundane object. Although it was still a very valuable antique, without the protection of miraculous elements, the holy emblem would be worn down by time again, and in a few hundred years at most, it probably wouldn't even keep its current appearance.

Neither Xia De nor Doctor Shi Nai De had any designs on Mr. James's family heirloom, so after settling the consultation fee, they took their leave. Doctor Shi Nai De believed that Xia De also deserved credit for the patient's cure, so before parting, he split Mr. James's generous treatment fee with Xia De, giving him 5 pounds.

Because of the large earnings that afternoon, Xia De even took the cat to a restaurant outside for dinner that evening, and during the meal instructed Xiao Mi Ya to thank Doctor Bill Shi Nai De for that sumptuous supper.

"Meow~"

The cat, in a hurry to eat, completely ignored Xia De.

At eight in the evening, the second-floor study of 6 Saint Delan Square was lit. Xia De, who had spent a fulfilling day, was buried in his thesis in the study. And at the street corner of Saint Delan Square, illuminated by the streetlamp, a royal carriage procession slowly rolled up, and the most luxurious carriage among them stopped beneath the streetlamp.

The carriage door opened, and the Great Witch Miss Sylvia stepped down:

"Your Highness, I'll disembark here. Please go back and rest. Tomorrow morning you still have to visit the Tobesk Art Museum."

She said to her student. Princess Margaret hesitated, then nodded:

"Teacher, is this the place you mentioned... where your student in Tobesk lives?"

"In this neighborhood, but I won't tell you the exact address. She wrote to me this afternoon, inviting me to check her thesis tonight."

Miss Sylvia said, the golden chain of her handbag wrapped around her hand:

"Hurry back, and remember to contact Sexes to hand over the relic. We'll try to complete the Fourth Ring to Fifth Ring sublimation ritual before you leave Tobesk."

She waved her hand. Princess Margaret actually really wanted to visit that "lucky girl" Miss Sylvia had taken a liking to, but seeing her teacher's attitude, she knew she didn't have that luck today.

"Teacher, will you come back tonight? I'll have the servants prepare a late-night snack for you in advance."

"Perhaps not. We have a lot to discuss."

Miss Sylvia thought for a moment and answered. Besides the mathematics thesis, Xia De also wanted to ask her about expanding the range of 【Lagrange's Leap】.

Princess Margaret showed a reluctant expression. Staying overnight at a student's home meant that the other party was truly being treated as the witch's apprentice. She nodded somewhat reluctantly. As the carriage slowly drove away, the princess thought again of the Xia De Hamilton she had met that afternoon, who seemed to live in a house beside this very square.

Margaret Anjou's lightly made-up face saw, through the carriage window, the blurred doorway of 6 Saint Delan Square in the thin mist. Seeing the second-floor gas lamp emit an ambiguous glow in the night fog, she knew the knight was home. The warm-yellow halo displayed a peculiar optical effect in the fog, ring after ring of halo making one unable to resist yawning.

She imagined what Xia De, living alone, might be doing. It wasn't that she suspected Xia De was Miss Sylvia's student—that was absolutely impossible—but she was considering whether knowing that Xia De was a very powerful Ring Warlock held any special significance for the rest of her journey in Tobesk.

"Speaking of which, the intelligence I've come across shows that Mr. Gray-Headed Eagle is also hiding in a neighborhood near Silver Cross Avenue, in a house from which a corner of Yodel Palace can be seen. I wonder where he is. What a coincidence—Rejade's Hamilton, teacher's apprentice, Mr. Gray-Headed Eagle all live nearby. Could there be even more outrageous residents living around here..."

The carriage carried the melancholy girl away, and her gaze thus left the doorway of 6 Saint Delan Square. Behind the dust kicked up by the carriage, Miss Sylvia quietly walked up the steps before the door of 6 Saint Delan Square, took off her wide-brimmed lady's hat covered with thin gauze, and looked up at the full appearance of the house in the dark night.

The outer wall of the house looked somewhat old, but bore traces of some renovation. Rusty gas pipes and steam pipes climbed the walls; the eaves of the high roof were blurred in the dark night, and there seemed to be bats hanging on them, but on closer inspection they were only peculiar shadows. All the windows had their curtains drawn, and on the windowsill of the second-floor living room there were several pots of flowers, which cast dark shadows on the curtains under the gas lamp's illumination. This looked very much like a lived-in home. ωω

"So this is where Xia De lives. Visiting a man who lives alone at his home—what an interesting experience... What would the famous haunted house from Tobesk's urban legends actually look like?"

She raised her knuckles, about to knock, but at that moment, Xia De, who had felt his Xiong Kou Hui Zhang grow scalding hot, had already come down the stairs.

"Good evening, Miss Sylvia."

Xia De opened the door and stepped aside, letting the witch enter the house. The young witch, wearing a long red dress, smiled and nodded:

"Good evening, Xia De. Oh, good evening, cute cat. This place looks very interesting. Do you mind if I stay late?"

The door closed behind the two of them, and darkness once again enveloped the front door of 6 Saint Delan Square. The gas lamp's dim yellow light could not penetrate the smog to illuminate the metal doorplate numbers on the door.

The light in the crack of the door went out, which meant the light in the entry hall had been extinguished. Then the sound of footsteps—deng deng deng~—climbing the stairs came from inside the door. Their figures appeared at the second-floor living room window, and then the two figures disappeared.

The Great Witch Miss Emma Sylvia officially began her first visit to the knight's home.