Whispering Verse

After leaving the Wilde Opera House, Shade braved the snow and carried his suitcase to the local Prophets Association. Although it is snowing and freezing, it still cannot affect people's enthusiasm for Rhodes cards.

There were countless carriages parked in the square in front of the Prophet Association, and people were also coming and going on the escalators on both sides surrounding the fountain statue at the entrance of the association. Shade was originally curious as to what day it was, but only after meeting Luvia did he learn that today a new Rhodes card deck "Phantom Opera House Series" was released simultaneously throughout the Old Continent.

The so-called "Phantom Opera House" is not a real opera house, but a made-up name that refers to the general opera house. This deck is not a reprint of cards, but a brand new series. All the cards issued include more than a thousand cards with special card faces and a total of 52 special rule cards. That is, each of the numerical suits other than the King and Queen corresponds to a special rule card.

There is a superstition among Rhodes players. If you buy cards on the first day of the deck's release, you are more likely to encounter cards with special rules. Therefore, even though it is a snowy day, there are still so many people coming to the Prophet. Association participation in activities. The local association holds regional competitions, and the top three winners receive ten, five, and three boxes of brand new cards for free.

"You are actually unmoved by this matter."

The Prophet's Association in Randall Valley City covers a larger area and has more rooms, so Luvia randomly found an empty room to talk to Shade. She doesn't work as a fortune teller here, so Shade can't ask her for fortune telling.

"When have you ever seen me take the initiative to buy the issued playing cards?"

Shade smiled and said:

"My cards are all earned."

"It's hard to imagine how you insisted on not gambling when I first met you. You don't need to explain. I know you still don't gamble, you are just interested in Rhodes itself."

Luvia knows Shade very well:

"You should have gained something important by coming to me so early, right? Yesterday, you and the lady were at the Night Temple. In addition to getting the Sand of Time soaked in the night, you also found new clues?"

"There are indeed new clues, but they are few. The point is that the seventeen-year-old girl in Tobesk got new information from the place where she works."

Shade handed over the notebook, trying to avoid speaking out key information directly in a place like the Prophet's Association.

Luvia frowned and glanced:

"Except for the third item in Heart of Stone, which is a bit obscure, the rest is completely consistent with your guess."

"Yes, but it only confirms my guess. I need to contact the guardian again as soon as possible to confirm my idea. But if this time goes well, we will have a stronger one than Sister Devlin. The Chosen One.”

Luvia nodded:

"So what are you going to do today? Visit Lord Granger and get that antique key?"

"The Earl won't be back from outside the city until tomorrow. I'm going to visit the haunted Watson Manor today."

"Hela Oxenfurt's family. Be careful."

Luvia said softly. Seeing Shade standing up and carrying the suitcase to leave, she stopped him again:

"Since you have come to the Prophet Association, I will give you a small gift. Wait a moment, I will buy a pair of newly released cards. You can keep them as a new backup deck. And I am using my status as an insider. , the price is very cheap.”

Seeing her say this, Xia De didn't object. Luvia came back soon after leaving the room and handed a very ordinary flat wooden box to Shade.

The decks sold by the Prophet's Association that may contain special cards are all packaged in this way, while the playing cards that definitely do not contain special cards are available everywhere and are packaged in cartons. In order to prevent people from using strong light to determine whether there are special cards in the deck when buying cards from the Prophet Association, the outer packaging of the Rhodes cards are all made of wood.

Of course, compared to the lacquered wood deck storage box that Shade got when he exchanged "Wise Man's Pyroxene" with the association for "Foundation Knowledge", this kind of wooden box was much simpler.

This was the first time for Shade to open a brand new Rhodes deck. Although he claimed to be not interested just now, after getting it, a smile appeared on his face. Luvia was naturally very happy to see him like this.

Due to packaging costs, there is no mechanism to open the wooden box. The box itself is composed of upper and lower parts, which are connected together after the joint is sealed with wax. Shade used a knife to peel away the layer of wax, and after opening it, he took out fifty-four brand new Rhodes cards.

The smell of ink hits your nose, and the smell of brand new playing cards is intoxicating.

He weighed the deck happily, then pressed it on the table, pulled it sideways, and arranged the cards in an arc on the table. In this way, you can see at a glance whether there are special patterns among the fifty-four cards:

"Oh, look, Luvia, you are really lucky!"

Because it is a brand new deck, the cards are arranged according to suit and number. At a glance, Shade saw the exquisite pattern on the penultimate card of the Moon suit, which was the Moon 12 card. After picking out the cards, I saw a line of small words printed directly below the card surface. This undoubtedly means that this is really a special rule card:

"Louvia, you are truly my lucky girl!"

The girl with purple eyes was also a little surprised. She didn't expect that she was so lucky today.

The picture of the card is divided into two parts: the upper left and the lower right. In the upper left part of the card, faceless dancers are dancing on a brightly lit stage; in the lower right part of the card, there is a dark, neatly arranged auditorium, with a vague figure outlined by a brush sitting alone in the second row of the auditorium. The center is the center of the entire card surface.

"[Phantom Opera House Silent Audience], suit: Moon 12. If when this card is drawn, the previous card is also the moon suit, all players except yourself will be forced to stop playing in this round."

He smiled and read out the rules of this card:

"This rule is really good, especially in multi-player games, the effect will be even greater. I'm really looking forward to it. I mean, I have one more special card, now it's 23."

"There are still 31 cards left to complete the entire special card deck."

Luvia concluded, Shade stood up and kissed Luvia gently on the forehead:

"Thank you so much, Luvia."

"I really hope you can use other reasons to kiss me, but that's fine, as long as you're happy."

Luvia doesn't have much objection to Shade's liking to play Rhodes. After all, except for Rhodes and Mia, Shade's private life is really boring. She and Dorothy actually had the same worries. Shade's low materialistic life seemed to be getting away from them step by step. So before Shade really wants to become a "saint", take the time to defile him.

"Speaking of which, I went to see those two ladies this morning. How did they say you were injured?"

Seeing Shade preparing to leave, Luvia asked again. Shade blinked and immediately shook his head:

"It's okay. There were indeed some accidents, but they were just minor accidents. Even the [false immortality] state didn't appear, so that's nothing."

The girl with purple eyes looked at him:

"I always feel that something is wrong when you say this. However, since you don't want to say it, I won't ask you. Just pay attention to your own safety. Also, who hurt you? The two ladies also said it Very vague.”

"It's the person who was hurt by me. Although I was hurt, it should be."

Luvia looked at him with an even weirder look:

"Your physical injuries are healed. Are you mentally affected? It's okay. I know you're fine. You don't have to prove it to me."

She gently kissed the side of Shade's face:

"Be careful and don't underestimate any opponent or enemy. The path we take is destined to be extraordinary, but don't be arrogant and think that we are the ones chosen by fate. Arrogance is the original sin."

But Shade always felt that this sentence was more appropriate to describe the long-haired Luvia than it was to describe him. The way the long-haired Luvia does things is very different from the short-haired Luvia.

After bidding farewell to Luvia, Shade braved the wind and snow and came to the street again, heading for today's real target, which was the family manor of Haela Oxenfurt, who had been brutally wiped out.

The Watson Manor is also not in the city. Although the Watson family was also a very successful business family back then, it was still far behind the established local nobles. The manor is located on the northern outskirts of the city, but fortunately it is not very far from the city.

Since he didn't know if something strange would happen near the manor, Shade did not go there on horseback. Instead, he took a carriage to the outside of the city and then walked to his destination.

Watson Manor has been abandoned for three years. Because of the rumors of being haunted, no one even dared to approach the surrounding woods. Three years is enough time for the weeds to submerge the original trail and enough time to eliminate traces of nearby human activities.

Shade relied on the map to find the location of the manor. At the end of the country road, he could barely distinguish the traces of the previously existing fork in the snow. Follow the traces of the forked road deep into the cedar forest. Among the gaps between the trees, you can barely see the manor standing not far away.

The closer we got to the manor, the darker the sky became. Although it is winter and there are no leaves on the branches, the branches are connected to each other with claws and claws, making the forest become a bit weird and disturbing.

The snow was falling heavier and heavier. Shade pressed his hat against the wind and moved forward. He squinted and watched the manor, which stood higher than the woods, getting closer and closer. Even in snowy weather, there were still three crows hovering above the manor. Gloomy black clouds were covering the place, and the knotted dry branches were twisted and deformed. Shade seemed to be in a horror story, traveling through the wind and snow to take refuge in a haunted house. The hapless protagonist.

The manor was right in front of him, but in the cedar forest in front, there were three figures sitting. As I got closer, I saw that they were not three living people, but three skeletons wearing rags.