Chapter 1198: Chapter 1198: The Tardy Witch
Her Highness the Princess imdiately recognized the exquisite cat; she believed no one could mistake this cat. And the appearance of this cat ant that…
The young man in the black coat was raising his black top hat, joining others in cheering and saluting the heirs of the United Kingdom. Although his face looked sowhat different, there was no doubt about his height, deanor, or Mia that testified who it was:
“Welco to Randall Valley City!”
Shard shouted loudly to Her Highness the Princess from within the crowd, and although his voice was quickly drowned in the noisy background, Margaret still heard it clearly.
She averted her gaze, waving to the crowd with a formal smile cultivated from royal training. However, her inner joy was known to none; Her Highness the Princess knew that this brief visit to Randall Valley would likely be even more interesting than imagined:
“What’s even more interesting is… Teacher Sylvia is not by my side now.”
Though he wanted to et Margaret imdiately, Shard knew she was on a mission locally, and this visit wasn’t centered solely around her. Therefore, though he saw Margaret at the train station on Friday morning, Shard didn’t seek her out alone.
After all, there would be plenty of opportunities in the future, and currently, Margaret didn’t have ti to spend with Shard for long.
The most crucial task today was the eting in the afternoon with Miss Benanis, the local Grand Witch. Shard had already anticipated various possibilities for the eting, but for safety, he requested Luviya to do a divination for him during lunch.
The purple-eyed girl had much work to do locally, managing communication with the secret order possessing the Sublimation Codex within the Prophet’s Society, handling the astronomical observation task from the Astronomy College, and docunts from the Prophet’s Society.
Even having lunch with Shard at noon, she needed to return to the society quickly. Upon hearing Shard’s request, she shook her head slightly:
“You’re soone outside of fate, and the results of divination for you are mostly unreliable; otherwise, the Church would have found you long ago. Shard, don’t treat divination as a tool to peep into the future; we must respect fate.”
She ant not to use divination for trivial matters. From Luviya’s perspective, failure in Shard’s negotiation with the Witch was impossible.
Seeing that Shard still wanted to say sothing, Luviya, managing her knife and fork, asked:
“Why did you bring Mia here?”
“ow?”
The obedient cat looked up at Luviya upon hearing its na ntioned.
“Dorothy has to discuss royalties with the editors of the Steam Bird Daily and her lawyer at the publisher today, and she can’t take care of it for .”
Shard patted the soft cat:
“With you not in Tobesk, I had no choice but to bring it along. Miss Galina and Tifa are still in the County of Saradiel. Although there are maids in the manor, there’s no one familiar to look after it, so I wasn’t at ease, and thus brought it along. After all, today is just a eting with the Witch; even if she disliked , she wouldn’t harm Mia, which would actually increase my chances of success.”
Luviya smiled:
“Are you eting at the Wilder Opera House? I heard in the society that the opera house in the city has encountered so minor issues recently.”
“What issues?”
Shard recalled hearing from Miss Aphrola yesterday that the Witch in Randall Valley City was investigating a Sage’s Relic related to the Opera House.
“Soone turned into a marionette, the details I don’t understand, but it’s said to be related to an uncontained relic.”
Luviya shrugged:
“The Keeper of Secrets Level Relic ‘Jester King’s Magic Handkerchief,’ or perhaps a transmissible relic like the Keeper of Secrets Level ‘Puppet Syndro,’ who knows? The matter is being handled by the local Church of Creation, although it’s also said it might be Sage Level. Oh, my dear detective, every city has its own troubles, and we obviously can’t solve every problem.”
After lunch, Luviya bid Shard farewell and returned to the Prophet’s Society. With ti left before the 3 PM eting, Shard initially thought of visiting the old priest to whom Priest Augustus had ntioned owing 10 pence during the exam week, but Mia was already too sleepy, and Shard was concerned about not finding the priest in a short ti, so he returned to the Church of the Forgotten and then went ho for a nap.
When he returned to Randall Valley City at 2:30 PM, Shard still had the cat with him. At that ti, a layer of unexplained white fog had settled over the city, and the cat wore both the Transmutation Ring and the Fish Training Ring on its tail, as a reward for being so well-behaved today.
The distance from Cherry Leaf Avenue to the Wilder Opera House was not far, and Shard tid his arrival perfectly to step off the carriage at the opera house at 2:50 PM.
Of course, no pets were allowed in the opera house, but once Shard presented his box ticket, no one stopped him. And as Shard followed the theater attendant towards the stairs, he didn’t feel the warmth of the badge on his chest, indicating that Miss Benanis had yet to arrive.
“Speaking of which, since His Highness the Prince and Her Highness the Princess are visiting our city, will they watch an opera in this opera house?”
Shard asked the attendant leading the way, who replied with pride:
“Sir, you are clearly not a Carsonrickian. In fact, every ti mbers of our country’s royal family visit this city, they watch the Golden Dawn Opera Troupe perform at our opera house. I don’t know the exact ti, but the opera house has already started arranging security. You know, Miss Benanis from the Golden Dawn Opera Troupe is planning to buy this opera house recently; it’s truly a great honor.”
Holding Mia as he entered the box, it was the final waiting ti. Shard kept pondering what to say when he t the witch shortly, and when would be the best ti to send out that harmonica. He even planned to proactively extend his wrist for Miss Benanis to hold; witches always liked that.
As for Mia, the cat lazily lay napping on Shard’s lap; three in the afternoon was its usual nap ti.
In the afternoon, the opera house wasn’t very crowded. At exactly three o’clock, as the high-pitched opening soprano rang out below, Shard understood that the ti had co.
“Why hasn’t she arrived yet? Is there trouble… Did I get the ti wrong?”
[You did not get it wrong.]
He paced suspiciously, leaving Mia on the sofa. The cat opened one eye, saw Shard hadn’t left, swayed its tail, and wriggled to a more comfortable spot to continue sleeping.
“Could it be that because I refused to et imdiately yesterday, the witch got upset and is deliberately late today?”
He pondered but felt the other party shouldn’t be that petty. So he used the Arcane Technique to confirm the ti again, confirming it was already past three.
“Strange…”
In etings between unfamiliar Circle Sorcerers, if soone missed the eting ti, the other party would generally leave imdiately because it often signaled unforeseen danger. But this eting didn’t count as a completely foreign eting, and if Miss Benanis, who really wasn’t good at fighting, encountered trouble, Shard had to find a way to understand the situation, even if he couldn’t resolve it.
“I hope she’s just late.”
He waited another five minutes, but his chest badge still didn’t react. Knowing he couldn’t wait any longer, he turned to pick up Mia and check outside.
At this mont, however, there was an extrely faint knock on the door. Yet Shard had been standing by the door and was sure there had been no footsteps outside:
“What is going on this ti?”
He vaguely sensed he might have gotten entangled in so trouble.
“Mia, stay here and wait for , don’t wander off.”
He instructed the cat, then removed the [Fish Training Ring] from its tail and put it on his own finger. Drawing the crimson short sword-styled “Moonlight Greatsword,” he held it in his left hand, resting it behind him. After feeling the door and confirming there was no elent reaction, he gently pushed it open.
The curtains on the opposite side of the hallway windows were drawn, entirely covering the foggy city sunshine, making the whole corridor appear gloomy. Not only gloomy, but opening the door imdiately revealed the Whisper Elent, while everything felt normal indoors.
“I’ve really encountered an unexpected incident.”
Shard rembered clearly, on the wall between the two windows opposite his door, there was originally an oil painting of an old man in a white robe sowing seeds to the earth, but now it had beco a portrait of a marionette with hands together like a noble lady.
The portrait was extrely lifelike, showing the wood grain of the marionette, so material cracks, and uneven paint patches vividly.
Looking down, he saw a marionette floating in mid-air. Its limbs and head were connected by five fine strings leading to a floating cross-shaped wooden disc above—this was a standard marionette for puppet shows. The workmanship was exceptionally detailed; not only could the joints move freely, but the hair and clothing details were also particularly realistic.
The outfit was a common maid’s dress, and the marionette’s face was carefully designed. Even an unskilled person like Shard could easily tell that this was definitely not a mass-produced product using molds.
The marionette “held” a letter in its hand and offered it to Shard as he lowered his head.
“Is this letter for ?”
He hesitantly asked, reaching out to take the letter. Then he noticed the brown wooden cross-shaped disc above the marionette gently swaying, as if an unseen hand was controlling it. The fine strings manipulated the limbs, causing the marionette to shakily leave.
Shard watched it, observing as it moved to the room next door and “walked” in through the door crack.
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