Chapter 2243: Maid Outfits and Crows

Chapter 2243: Chapter 2243: Maid Outfits and Crows

Shard shook his head with a smile, also missing them dearly:

"So, Detective Sparrow and the informant known as ’Bigmouth Sparrow’ exchange information at Karas Mountain on an annual cycle. It seems this ’Bigmouth Sparrow’ holds quite an unusual status. Such a secret meeting place, such a lengthy meeting cycle... That was more than ten years ago, I wonder if in recent years, they have still been in contact with Detective Sparrow."

Shard thought to himself, picking up the photo stuck between the pages of the notebook:

"So, Detective Sparrow went to Karas Mountain as well, but only due to work reasons. Coincidence... No, I never believe in coincidences. Although it’s best not to set a position prematurely, I still believe that Detective Sparrow’s multiple visits to Karas Mountain are definitely related to my affairs."

The voice beside him suddenly spoke tenderly:

[So, are you going to find that ’Bigmouth Sparrow’?]

"Yes."

Shard gently stroked the little head of the cat beside him with his free hand, his eyes slightly narrowed:

"Anything related to Karas Mountain, I cannot overlook. I am now quite familiar with the agents’ affairs. This kind of secret informant, Detective Sparrow will not leave any clues pointing to his identity, I’m even sure, even Grey Glove headquarters may not know about such an informant."

He put down the photo, held Mia, and went to the study window, watching Tobesk’s night scenery from there:

"I can only let Margaret investigate in the past few decades, in the submissions from those ’grey-headed eagles’ that are related to Draleon, which one of them has problems... No, I’m afraid even Margaret cannot easily investigate this. Do I rely on divination... but divination also requires basic intelligence to proceed, blind divination has a high error probability... If Margaret could investigate even the vaguest clue, having Miss Belindel and Luviya divining together might work."

Mia lay unusually obediently in Shard’s arms, the Outlander looked at the night view outside the window and remained silent for a long time.

The more he wanted to delve into past events, the more he found various coincidences seemed to weave into a big net. His first encounter with Karas Mountain was on his first day in this world when he saw the news about the collapse of an ancient high tower at Karas Mountain in a newspaper at home.

Now thinking about it, the news happened to be printed on the day he came to this world, could it also be some coincidence that needs investigation?

[Are you too anxious?]

"Her" tender voice seemed to have some helpless emotion, Shard pursed his mouth:

"I just want to know what actually happened in the past. When I, when exactly did I come to this world."

[Someday you will know.]

His ears seemed to feel warm breath from behind, Shard looked at the reflection of himself and the cat on the glass window:

"Yes, someday..."

Despite all the worries, life still needs to go on. Perhaps seeing Shard had encountered some trouble again, when Shard came out of the study holding Mia, Luviya ambiguously smiled and told Shard there was a surprise waiting for him tonight.

Shard knew that Miss Galina also planned to stay over tonight, so he was initially curious about what the so-called "surprise" referred to. But when the lights were turned off around ten at night and everyone was preparing to rest, Shard saw Miss Galina, wearing a black and white maid skirt, come out from the side bedroom. Luviya behind her was actually dressed the same way.

"Look at his surprised look now."

Luviya smiled and said to Miss Galina, the red-haired "maid" was also quite satisfied with Shard’s reaction:

"Our Mr. Knight seems to be particularly fond of maid outfits."

Just for a moment, Shard didn’t know what to say, and he was taken aback as they both laughed, holding the skirt hems on both sides, left foot forward right foot back, making a standard skirt-lift greeting. When they stood straight again, Luviya asked:

"Guess, what color are our stockings?"

"This..."

"Luviya, look at Shard’s dumbfounded look."

The complicated skirt hem was lifted again, first revealing black little shoes, then exposing black and white fabric, but they didn’t stop and continued upward...

Until that night, holding the ladies’ smooth shoulders to sleep, Shard was still curious whose idea it was.

(Mia running...)

Miss Galina never liked waking up early. If she was alone staying at Shard’s, then in the morning she would hold Shard to not get up. But if Luviya was around, Luviya would not agree to such "decadent" lifestyle.

"We wake up together on the same bed, and you think waking up late is more decadent than this?"

When the maids were dressing the two, the Witch astonishingly asked.

This morning, No. 6, Saint Delan Square received a letter sent by Iluna, she had already left this morning aboard a steam hover Zeppelin and was expected to arrive at Moon Bay by Saturday, a day earlier than Bittifa and Angelina’s group. Since she had already bid farewell to Shard and Luviya in advance, and last week to Miss Galina, she didn’t visit them separately to inform them of this news.

At breakfast, Shard also discussed this matter with Luviya and Miss Galina, but they were all quite relieved about Iluna:

"Didn’t you say that you have a very important task on the weekend? If Iluna has time then, you can let her help."

Luviya said as she spread butter on the bread, then unexpectedly noticed Shard hesitated for a moment.

"It’s better not. I will handle that matter myself."

"What important task does Shard have this weekend?"

Miss Galina asked from the side, and Luviya shook her head:

"He didn’t tell me, just said it’s very important. Shard, is there something you can’t tell us? A dangerous relic, if spoken of, even we would be implicated?"

Shard immediately nodded:

"You can understand it that way."

Luviya looked at him skeptically, then noticed Miss Galina had a similar expression. The latter spoke further:

"I haven’t heard Bella mention this in the council. The council can block similar relic information transmission effects. If you’ve encountered trouble, she should have mentioned it in the council."

"It’s just a small matter that I can handle myself, no need to specially mention it in the council."

Shard said this, and Miss Galina nodded slowly, understanding that Shard probably encountered a big trouble that he needed to handle alone:

"We trust you in what you do, but if you need our help, you must speak up. You’re not living for yourself alone; you have us, and your cat."

"I understand."

Shard still didn’t plan to reveal that matter, at least not until it was resolved:

"I wonder how Sister Delphine and Miss Aphrola are doing in the New World. I hope everything goes smoothly for them."

After breakfast, Luviya and Miss Galina left with the maid each, while the lazy cat still didn’t want to go out. When Shard changed clothes, it played with him for a while, then went to the basement door to see him off, and finally ran to the second-floor window to bask in the sun and enjoy a ’cat’s life’.

As for Shard, after entering the Dragon Nest, he routinely touched the Dragon Altar to acquire a Dragon Scale Coin. Then he walked towards the exit while thinking about going to ask Mr. Benhart about the progress of his investigation.

Shard was already accustomed to the path leading from the Dragon Nest to the outside. In a matter of ten minutes, he left the cave opening and arrived in the small forest.

The sky was typically gloomy, and Shard stretched his right hand to grasp his left hand, extending both arms upwards for a stretch. He was about to ’lament’ in his heart why the ’City of Wealth’ wasn’t called the ’City of Darkness’ when he suddenly felt a strange sense of being watched.

[Look ahead at the three o’clock position and upwards.]

Shard looked up and saw on the branch of a cypress tree, a crow as black as night with crimson eyes watching him. Shard, with keen eyesight, could clearly make out the pattern of three petals in the crow’s eyes.

He blinked suspiciously and said:

"It’s truly a strange crow; its eyes are actually blood-red."

He waved to the crow, and it immediately spread its wings to fly high, leaving behind a single black feather fluttering down, eventually carried by the wind to land at Shard’s feet.

Shard did not chase the crow, which was not its real form, just a manifestation, but instead bent down to pick up the raven feather filled with a curse. He touched the iron ring on his finger, inside which was Emilia’s hair. This was the doctor’s shared method, allowing Shard to help Emilia bear part of the ’Misfortune Curse’, but the root purpose was to draw the demon’s attention to Shard, letting it know someone around Emilia understood a bit about demonology.

He lightly asked in his heart:

"If I’m not mistaken, am I already cursed?"

[Yes.]

’She’ spoke with a smile, as if Shard was not cursed but had merely stumbled while walking.

[Because three drops of divinity flow in your soul, this curse and the misfortune shared from the elf have been immensely weakened; because the glow of the Primal Fire warms your soul, the curse is slightly weakened; because of the blessings from various deities, the curse is weakened again.]

"So it won’t affect me?"

[It still will, but not as obviously as it does the young elf.]

Shard gently nodded, holding the raven feather that Old John might wish to buy for hundreds of pounds, and looked up towards where the crow had disappeared:

"The plan is going smoothly; it really took notice. After all, it’s an Ancient Evil Spirit. If it remained entirely complacent before we made a move, it would not at all live up to the doctor’s description of nearing the status of the First Demon. Now it has noticed me and probably sensed the [Demon Hunting Seal] in my pocket... Very good, when its attention is focused on me, the doctor’s sudden appearance can produce the best effect."

Moreover, if attention is not drawn from the Misfortune Demon - Fanarius to make it appear of its own accord, Shard would also find it difficult to track its traces on his own.