“How does the consumption feel?”
Miss Sylvia, her eyes narrowed, asked from by the wall. Maintaining his casting posture, Shade replied
“The consumption isn't too great—at least not while I'm not under attack.”
The “Divine Afterglow” state enhanced all of Shade's oddities and spells. Regarding the enhancement of the [Heaton Seal], it didn't make an immobile oddity mobile, but rather allowed a shield with a fixed protective volume to expand further.
The [Heaton Seal] did not limit how many people the user could protect besides themselves, but the volume of the shield summoned by the seal itself was a fixed value; it was barely enough to fully protect two hugging adults. However, for Shade, he could achieve an expansion of the shield's volume by paying additional Spirit. This expansion also had an upper limit, but it was more than enough to protect two versions of Shade standing side by side.
Therefore, the enhancement provided by “Divine Afterglow” to the oddity [Heaton Seal] increased the oddity's value significantly. When Shade had first demonstrated the oddity, he had already made the golden shield's volume exceed the scale recorded in the texts, but Miss Sylvia seemed not to notice this strange anomaly and continued to say to Shade
“Next, let's test the defensive strength. Don't worry, I will control my force.”
She was very enthusiastic about this test.
Next, she used a gently tossed pebble, a slowly approaching Mia, Shade's revolver, a pebble thrown with full force, a fireball summoned by the spell [Flame Manipulation], a Document-grade relic [Anesthetic Pocket Watch] carried by the witch, and the oddity [Spatial Severance] to probe the seal's strength.
The firearm was completely unable to break the golden shield, merely causing a few ripples on the surface;
The cat walking slowly toward Shade scratched the shield a few times with its claws but failed to penetrate;
The gently tossed pebble was similar to hitting a wall, while the pebble thrown with full force shattered into powder upon contact with the shield due to the pebble's own structural strength;
The anesthetic needle fired by the relic [Anesthetic Pocket Watch] perished along with Shade's shield, but this relic itself was not known for its offensive power;
The fireball controlled by the witch had the best effect. Had Miss Sylvia not stopped in time, not only would Shade have nearly been blown away, but his basement would likely have gained a deep crater;
As for [Spatial Severance], the [Heaton Seal] provided no protective effect against spatial forces. Miss Sylvia, who excelled in spatial power, had anticipated this; thus, under her precise control, the power of the oddity [Spatial Severance] only cut through Shade's outer coat without leaving any mark on his skin.
As for the second effect of the [Heaton Seal]—which was to cancel the spell the moment an attack touched the shield, causing the shattering shield to deal powerful explosive damage to the enemy—Shade did not attempt this. Firstly, the timing was difficult to grasp and required extensive practice; secondly, he worried that the so-called “explosive damage” would directly blow up his basement.
Although he had cleared out some space, the basement still contained compartments for storing piles of magic potions and his crude alchemy workshop. He didn't want to damage his own house just to practice an oddity; Miss Galina's manor had plenty of space for him to practice, or if all else failed, he could go to Coldwater Port and cause trouble for the fishmen.
“Overall, aside from the inability to move while casting, this is nearly a perfect oddity.”
As he walked out of the basement, Shade praised Miss Sylvia while holding the cat. The young Great Witch chuckled
“This is a signature oddity of the Church of the Sun, passed down for who knows how many generations. However, when you use it, make sure you aren't discovered by the Church. Normally, this oddity does not leak out; after all, the core material for learning it is that piece of parchment you burned at the end of the ritual. The Church of the Sun numbers every single piece of parchment.”
Of course, the witch did not ask Shade where he had obtained the parchment containing the ritual data. But Shade had a feeling that Miss Sylvia had already guessed the truth and simply hadn't said it.
Just like the first visit last week, Miss Sylvia did not leave St. Delan Square that evening. She discussed the thesis that Shade had already sent to the Old God with him until late at night; Miss Sylvia even intended to publish the thesis and make Shade the first author.
Beyond discussing the thesis, upon learning that Shade was preparing for the year-end exam week, she enthusiastically helped him answer some academic questions and helped him analyze his current Ring Warlock system construction.
Miss Sylvia believed that although Shade's low-four-ring structure was not centered around a specific spirit rune, his study of oddities was comprehensive enough, and he had found his own way of fighting. Regarding the [Spatial Stability Aura] and [Lagley's Leap], she gave Shade more suggestions on their application, even suggesting that Shade try practicing [Lagley's Leap] while carrying a living being.
“This oddity does not allow carrying other individuals, but just as you expanded the range of the oddity, when you can use your own power to change an oddity, you will find that some flaws can actually be avoided.
The sublimation of the spell [Blood Echo] into the oddity [Blood Echo] that you mentioned is a manifestation of artificially changing the casting effect. However, I don't suggest you try carrying a person directly; perhaps you can start with ants. I'll give you some casting suggestions and tell you about a supportive potion. Even if you can't carry living beings while leaping at the fourth ring, you should be able to learn this technique once you enter the middle rings.”
Miss Sylvia still seemed not to have given up on grooming Shade as her apprentice, but she didn't bring it up proactively, instead enthusiastically providing any help Shade needed.
Shade never accepted favors for nothing, but Miss Sylvia simply smiled and stated that she could accept a breakfast from Shade tomorrow morning as thanks. Shade was inclined to let Miss Sylvia pick a piece of jewelry from her jewelry box, but he ultimately didn't, as that would make him seem too opportunistic.
So, before the night ended, Shade proactively spoke to the witch about his adventures in Huntington City. He didn't mention the angel, only saying he had found the “Goddess in the Lake,” and then mentioned [Akenora's Arrow of Knowledge] as a second, unrelated matter
“I snatched it from the [Pantanal Voodoo Society] and tried to fire it. But those Ring Warlocks ran too fast; I only drew the bow and never found a chance to shoot. That feeling was truly terrible, like tens of thousands of Mias crawling over my body.”
[Wasn't it thousands?]
“I can understand that feeling. Forcing a termination after accumulating power—if you were using an oddity instead of a relic, it would likely be very damaging to the body.”
The witch on the sofa in the dead of night looked at the young foreigner and abruptly grabbed his wrist.
“Um, what is it?”
Shade asked. Miss Sylvia smiled and shook her head
“Nothing, just that your story piqued my interest.”
In short, the young Great Witch seemed to have become completely familiar with Shade's personality. After eating breakfast on Wednesday morning and seeing Miss Sylvia off at the door, the foreigner had to admit that the wisdom and talent of Great Witches were truly breathtaking.
Since [Gentleman Jack] still hadn't been caught, Shade brought Mia along when he went to Midhill Castle that day.
Walking out of the ruined tower on Mount Sicar, facing the knife-like cold winter wind of the mountains, he was surprised to see the mountain forests covered in white snow and saw snowflakes falling lavishly from the sky, dyeing the entire mountain white.
“It's snowing in Midhill Castle too! Oh, the snow has already covered the ground.”
Not only was Mount Sicar covered in heavy snow, but after descending the mountain, he discovered that the interior of Midhill Castle's city center had also turned into a silver-clad landscape. Shade inquired with a newsboy wearing an old cotton coat and learned that this wasn't the first snowfall of the week.
The lavish snow dressed the city in silver and truly heralded the arrival of winter.
Shade first went to the House of the Blind in Ruff Lane to deliver a letter to Sister Devlin, then headed to the Cassandra Auction House to wait for news from the sister.
The snow did not affect the auction house's business; people were still coming and going on St. Carla Avenue in the city center, and gentlemen entering and leaving the auction house were endless. As Shade stepped off the carriage, someone was melting snow at the entrance. People of this era, of course, would not luxuriously use salt to accelerate the melting of snow, nor did the auction house attempt to use pure manpower to shovel the ice and snow.
A sturdy servant was pushing a low-power steam engine to the door. After connecting it to the indoor pipes, he used the hot steam produced by the engine to sweep the ground. Before the water, which had cooled and liquefied from the hot steam mist, could be frozen by the low temperature, tools were used to quickly clear away the melted snow from the ground.
Probably only wealthy people like Grandma Cassandra could use such a luxurious method to clear snow. But passersby seemed accustomed to this scene; only a few people, like Shade, glanced over, watching the black smoke from the steam engine drift toward the sky in the snow.
The spraying of hot steam made the temperature at the auction house entrance slightly higher than the surroundings, but the real warmth was inside the auction house. After Shade entered wearing his thick coat, he even felt it was a bit hot; the heating at the Cassandra Auction House was definitely not the city's unified heating standard.
On this snowy day, the masters of the auction house were all present. Shade first met the witch's apprentice, Miss Rita Swift, who had beautiful flaxen hair and hurried down from upstairs upon hearing of his arrival, and then he saw Helen and Grace attending an auction on the second floor.
Grandma Cassandra, however, didn't appear until it was nearly time for lunch. It was the end of 1853; although the old witch didn't need to check the accounts personally, she had to personally meet the representatives sent from the auction house's branches across the Old Continent. This was one of the most important tasks of the year.
By noon, the blind sister also arrived through the heavy snow. The six of them had lunch together. During the meal, Shade heard that Sister Devlin's “Snake Heart Hospital” was being systematically established in the large cities around the Pantanal Great Marsh with the help of the Cassandra Auction House.
Relying on the already existing Snake Heart Hospitals, Sister Devlin intended to expand the influence of the [Spirit Cult] to the entire region surrounding the Great Marsh. Therefore, not only the city of red wine, Huntington, but even more cities including the kingdom's capital, Willondale, were the next key development targets for the [Snake Heart Hospital].
Since the end of the Battle of Midhill Castle, the Mountain City had returned to its former peace and tranquility. After passing through a dangerous and turbulent autumn, the winter city returned to an order dominated by ordinary people.
Snow drifted outside the window, and the atmosphere in the third-floor dining room was harmonious. Sister Devlin mentioned the strange dark clouds that appeared in Huntington yesterday, but no one could explain it. The old witch had heard about the events in Tobesk, so she also probed Shade about the progress of finding the fourth Chosen.
Seeing that the first snowfall of the year had fallen, the twin girls together asked Shade if they could visit Number 6 St. Delan Square today.
Whether it was Grace in the white dress or Helen in the black dress, both fifteen-to-sixteen-year-old girls were quite excited. But Shade regretfully told them
“I'm sorry, girls. Something will happen in my neighborhood tonight; a certain humanoid relic has invaded and is attempting to steal the property of me and my neighbors. I cannot involve you in this matter. If you want to visit my home, in fact, girls, any day but today will do.”
Helen, wearing the black dress, glanced at her sister; different expressions were on the two identical, exquisite faces. Grace seemed to accept Shade's explanation, while Helen asked curiously
“Sir, what grade of relic is it?”
“Sage-grade relic [Gentleman Jack].”
“Oh, it's only Sage-grade. Sir, we can help guard the house.”
Grace said, tugging at Shade's sleeve. Grandma Cassandra watched this scene with a smile.
“No, no, girls, your injuries haven't healed yet, and [Gentleman Jack] grows stronger when facing strength. I know you are more powerful than it, but you aren't in peak condition. If I let you help me guard the house, it's hard to imagine what would happen then.”
Shade explained patiently. Although Grace pretended not to care, she still sighed softly, and Helen looked displeased. But there was no other way; Shade truly didn't want the Red Butterfly Twins, who had finally obtained freedom and a peaceful life, to be dragged into conflict again because of him.
(End of Chapter)