The fresh news heard in the teahouse concerned the disasters caused by the heavy snow.
Roughly half an hour ago, a train arriving from the north had finally pulled in, delayed by a full twenty hours. The train had encountered an avalanche midway through its journey, leaving the entire carriage of passengers facing the predicament of being unable to move forward as the tracks were buried.
During the forced stop, a series of appalling events had occurred within the VIP carriage. These included cultists, illegal organizations, and brutal murders, but fortunately, the matter had been resolved by an unidentified detective in the VIP carriage.
Sister Devlin was somewhat interested in this, so she sent her "servant"—who was actually a witch follower arranged by the Council to wait locally and receive the two witches—to investigate the cause of the incident.
The young girl dressed in a maid's outfit returned quickly. She hadn't uncovered exactly what happened on the train, but she had heard that the train was transporting a relic. Due to the delay, the Church of Creation, responsible for receiving the relic, had to make temporary arrangements for an antique shop owner and his apprentice to collect the goods. Consequently, the two had lost the relic, and the thief had unfortunately met a gruesome death; the alley where the murder occurred had now been cordoned off.
"So, this snowfall will change the fates of many... Two Ring-Wizards, and their relic was stolen by an ordinary person. The peripheral clerical staff of the Church are truly careless," Shade said with a smile, sitting in the warm teahouse and looking at the heavy snow outside through the window. He knew what a snowfall of this scale meant for this era; for most people, this winter would be quite difficult to endure.
"Hmm?"
While reflecting in his mind, Shade suddenly froze. He saw a familiar figure hurrying past the window.
Shade immediately set down his teacup
"Liggins Prishia?"
"Oh?"
Sister Devlin handed her hand to the maid beside her and stood up with her support
"Which direction?"
"I'm not sure if I saw correctly, since it was through the glass and he was on the other side of the street. The direction is a left turn out the door. He's wearing a black bowler hat, a brown plush scarf, a black overcoat, carrying a cane, and wearing white gloves."
This was the standard winter attire for a Southern gentleman.
"Sister, let's split up to search. If we don't find him, we'll meet back here in half an hour."
The Sister nodded and left the teahouse first under the "support" of the maid. Shade, however, remained seated at the table. He waited two minutes before pretending to be leisurely as he called the waiter to settle the bill, not forgetting to praise the tea as delicious while leaving a tip.
Only after leaving the teahouse did he run quickly in the direction Liggins Prishia had gone.
There were no clues for Shade to track the figure he had just seen; he couldn't even see the Sister and the maid who had left before him. Thus, Shade could only walk forward, turning at alleyways or street corners according to his own intuition. He didn't stray too far from the vicinity, essentially circling around the Huntington City railway station.
Naturally, this method of searching was unlikely to find Sir Prishia, unless there truly existed a so-called "gravitational pull of fate" between Shade and the Chosen. Therefore, upon confirming he hadn't found his target, Shade wasn't particularly disappointed. Calculating the time, he planned to return to the teahouse to see if Sister Devlin and the maid had found him.
Unexpectedly, as he passed the entrance of a small alley marked as "Ancient Tree Lane," a figure flashed out from within. Although Shade hadn't found Sir Prishia, the latter had found him.
"I felt a familiar silhouette from the window just now. As expected, it is you, Mr. Hamilton."
Shade was currently wearing the witch's eyeshadow, and since this eyeshadow only worked on people unfamiliar with him, he was recognized by Sir Prishia. Compared to when they left Tobesk, this Southern gentleman hadn't changed much. Standing at the mouth of the alley on the snow, he smiled and pointed behind him
"Come inside and take shelter from the snow."
Number One Ancient Tree Lane was a very small private book club. Shade did not refuse and followed the Knight up the steps and inside. The warm interior was lined with bookshelves, and a fireplace burned on the side. A servant tried to take Shade's overcoat to help clear the snowflakes, but Shade declined.
The light inside was very soft, but on this snowy morning, there weren't many people; the library was so quiet that one felt embarrassed to speak.
A slightly foul smell of ink diffused through the air, but that was simply the scent of ink in this era. To avoid disturbing other readers, Sir Prishia led Shade to the second floor, standing on a small balcony adjacent to the alley, talking to him while watching the heavy snow outside
"This is a club I am very familiar with; I visit here every time I come to Huntington City. The owner of the club is a distant relative of mine and always reserves newly acquired books for me."
The Knight introduced this with a smile. A servant brought two glasses of wine on a tray, both chilled, which was the Knight's preference
"Mr. Hamilton, I didn't expect you to arrive in Huntington City so quickly."
"I wanted to give Her Highness a surprise. She will likely be very happy to see me when she gets off the train."
Shade picked up his glass and swirled it slightly, asking Sir Prishia with an unchanging smile
"Sir, I recall you left with Her Highness. How did you arrive in Huntington City first? Did you encounter some trouble?"
"Yes, some of my collaborators asked me to attend their event as soon as possible. After this glass with you, I shall likely meet up with them in the city."
The Knight gazed at the snow and drank the chilled red wine, a look of intoxication appearing on his face
"My favorite thing is to watch the snow in the snowy winter while tasting the best red wine of the year."
He let out a hearty laugh and reached for the bottle on the tray on the small table, intending to pour himself more, but Shade stopped him
"I have a better wine here."
He produced a bottle of red wine from his overcoat. The Knight smiled and raised an eyebrow
"That's wonderful."
Taking the bottle from Shade, he blew a breath onto it, and a chill immediately covered the entire bottle.
"No need to decant it, just drink it directly," Shade reminded him, finishing the red wine in his own glass. Sir Prishia then poured the new red wine into the two glasses.
The two clinked glasses on the small balcony. Sir Prishia couldn't wait to take a sip of the new wine, then half-closed his eyes and let out a sound of rapture
"Oh, this wine... this wine is truly unbelievable. Mr. Hamilton, I cannot believe you were willing to carry such a fine wine with you!"
He praised in astonishment. Although Shade had given Margaret a batch of red wine at the end of autumn, it was clear that Sir Prishia's status hadn't been enough to taste them—or at least, not many of them.
Shade set down his glass, steering away from the topic of wine
"Before leaving Tobesk, I went to visit Mr. Booker. That poor fellow is dead, and his library was destroyed by fire. According to the investigation, the fire occurred on Tuesday night, which was the time Her Highness Margaret held her banquet."
Sir Prishia smiled and took another sip of the red wine
"What a pity."
Shade didn't know what this Southern gentleman found "pitying." He continued
"My diviner friend helped me perform a divination, but unfortunately, there were no results. However, the Church soon investigated a few things; perhaps this matter is related to you."
Shade looked into Sir Prishia's eyes. The latter did not flinch and looked back at him. After a brief silence, the Knight nodded slightly
"Yes, that's correct. It was indeed me."
"For those old books Mr. Booker cherished and refused to sell?"
"Of course. What else could it be for?"
"Inviting me to help recover the relic on Monday was to scout the location?"
"It was also to recover the relic. No one stipulated that one cannot use one event to achieve two goals."
The Knight shrugged. Throughout the brief conversation, the two kept their eyes fixed on each other.
These answers did not surprise Shade; he had known long ago and even completely understood how Liggins Prishia thought. Shade knew very well that the other man was absolutely not the same kind of person as himself
"Actually, for a while, I thought we could become friends. Our discussion regarding wisdom and knowledge at Her Highness Lecia's reading salon was very harmonious."
His voice was very soft.
"Yes, we talked very harmoniously then. Then you should understand. Knowledge is power, and wisdom is wealth. I have power, and I crave wealth."
The right corner of the Knight's mouth curled up imperceptibly
"Wealth should belong to those who deserve to possess it. In other words, it was a waste for those books to remain in the hands of Mr. Booker, who treated them as mere collectibles. Given to me, I would read them and, at the appropriate time, donate them to a university or a public library; that is the true destination for those books. Sacrificing one person in exchange for the dissemination of knowledge—I cannot say it is reasonable, as life is priceless, but at least I believe it is not wrong."
Joey Barton knew he was doing something wrong but did it anyway; the man before him, however, likely truly felt he had done nothing wrong.
"At the wedding feast at Lakeside Manor, you once said you wanted to popularize education and liberate the workforce. Isn't the first step in doing so to liberate these books, which aren't expensive to print, from the hands of collectors?"
The Knight asked with a smile, and Shade smiled as well
"To call your reasoning far-fetched would be an understatement; it is utterly far-fetched."
Sir Prishia nodded while laughing
"Yes, yes, of course it is. Very well then."
He looked at Shade, a smile on his face, but his gaze held only coldness
"I did it simply so that I could have those books."