Whispering Verse

"who?"

The attendants and maids subconsciously protected Margaret, and Shade also stood in front of Margaret. But seeing that the old man had really fallen down, he squatted down and tried to help him up. The old man was not unconscious, and he wanted to struggle to stand up, but even though he held Shade's hand, he still couldn't get up:

"Oh, young man, I can't seem to feel my right leg."

he said as he groaned.

"Your right leg is still there, but you have no feeling? I'll knock it, do you feel it?"

Shade then patted the old man's right knee with his hand. When the old man once again expressed that he was unconscious, "she" gave the answer.

[The right leg shows signs of petrification. 】

"What?"

He was shocked, but there was clearly no sign of Crazy Earth around the Masons' Guild. So after getting the old man's consent, Shade rolled up his trousers. His right leg was not petrified, it was still flesh, but the color was very different from the color of his hands and face.

[It is most likely due to the influence of Crazy Earth, but the symptoms are very mild. 】

This was a big deal, and the association staff quickly came upon hearing the news and sent the old gentleman to the hospital.

Shade originally thought that the old man had come into contact with the black mud somewhere. All he had to do was investigate the corresponding location and then purify it. This would even allow him to obtain another Holy Grail. But the result was worse than he thought. After Margaret said goodbye to him and he took the carriage alone to the Wilde Opera House, while chatting with the coachman, the coachman also told Shade similar things:

"At around two o'clock this afternoon, when I was waiting for guests at the entrance of the Prophets Association in the city center, I saw people carrying out a stretcher, a young man whose appearance was unclear and wearing the uniform of the association. I heard that he suddenly died He was paralyzed and had no feeling in his entire lower body.”

This gave Shade a very bad feeling.

After hurriedly arriving at the Wilde Opera House, Shade quickly found Miss Benenice in the director's office on the third floor. When Miss Benanis saw Shade coming, she confirmed Shade's suspicion when she opened her mouth:

"Xia De, bad news. Starting from noon today, ordinary people with signs of petrification in their limbs have appeared in the city. It is not complete petrification, like some kind of physical disease, but the church has judged that this is related to the distortion of the earth. Madness related.”

Her expression was serious:

"This is an additional situation that we don't know about, and the current number of cases has exceeded 200 people. These people live in various locations in the Randall Valley and have no commonality at all."

"Is the water source polluted again? Or is the earth completely out of control?"

Shade asked in shock.

"The situation is unclear at this time."

Miss Lassers walked in from the door and said, she had just come back from outside:

"There is news from the information dealers in the black market. Currently, the patients whose limbs are showing symptoms of petrification have been fully taken over by the church. They are not directly and completely petrified, but have abnormal hardening symptoms of muscles or bones. The church has spread the word to the outside world. , calling the disease the 'petrified plague,' explaining it as a bone disease, will probably be in the papers tomorrow."

"Plague? Is it contagious?"

"probably not."

"Will symptoms continue to get worse?"

"meeting."

Miss Lassers said, turning around and closing the door:

"The first case appeared at 12:35 noon, and then similar cases appeared in various areas of the city. Because the emergence of a large number of similar cases in a short period of time attracted the attention of the Five Gods Church in this diocese, we investigated Out is related to the earth.”

The young girl had a worried expression on her face:

"I'm worried that this is a precursor to a complete madness on the land."

The witch frowned slightly:

"I will go to Parliament first and report the situation to the Speaker. Since there can be a hundred cases today, and there may be more tomorrow, we cannot assume that the church can control the situation in a short time. Really, although I thought this would happen sooner or later Serious problem, but I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.”

After saying that, she stood up and walked to the corridor outside. Miss Lassus asked Xiang Shade:

"Can we contact the guardians as soon as possible? At least we need to know what the situation is now."

Shade shook his head slightly:

"We can't get in touch. They are unwilling to show up easily now. Moreover, I doubt that even they can solve this matter."

Originally, Shade and Luvia made an appointment to go to the elf girl outside the city tonight to get back the "elf purified water" that Shade wanted. But Luvia arrived at the opera house twenty minutes later than scheduled, and her opening was due to the large number of abnormal cases in the city:

"The association is organizing a large-scale divination ceremony tonight to locate the possible location of the crazy land. Shade, I can't go outside the city with you tonight."

The purple-eyed girl apologized, and Shade shook his head:

"It doesn't matter, I can just go by myself. But what exactly is going on? Crazy Earth, has it appeared in the water source again?"

"I hope so."

Luvia and Miss Lassers’ concerns are surprisingly consistent:

"The association has communicated with the local church that this is not a source of contamination, but more like a plague."

She said this word with great difficulty:

"The earth is sick. The essence of the crazy earth is a local phenomenon caused by the madness of the earth. And now, this phenomenon has become more and more intense, so much so that it has also had additional impacts in areas where there are no strong symptoms."

Shade and Miss Lassers looked at each other:

"There's no way to treat it?"

"Hold the Chosen One Ceremony."

Luvia looked at Shade:

"Judging from the current situation, it can only be suppressed but cannot be reversed. According to the news from the association headquarters, the date when the first Randall flower will bloom normally this year should be two weeks later, in the first half of March. And in Until then, no one knows what will happen.”

"The witches should be coming to this city soon, right?"

Miss Lassus asked suddenly, Shade nodded, and Iluna would arrive soon.

Miss Benenice had not returned from Parliament until Shade rode out of the city. Therefore, only Miss Lassers stayed at the opera house to wait for the news, while Shade went to see the elf Miss Emilia alone.

This time, no accident happened. Shade lit a bonfire in the snowy forest. After waiting for less than twenty minutes, he heard a cry of "Ang~".

He stood up immediately, and sure enough, he saw the pure white beast emitting soft light, jumping out of the forest carrying the elf girl sitting sideways. The young unicorn was very excited to see Shade, but before running over, he carefully looked around him without knowing what he was looking at.

"Are you here again?"

Shade smiled and stroked the little beast's head. The latter's blue eyes were filled with excitement and he lay beside Shade docilely. The elf girl also greeted Shade and gave the bag she was holding to Shade:

"These should be enough for the materials you want."

Inside are small glass bottles, and the bottles are filled with "elf's pure water".

"That's enough, maybe even a little too much."

Shade said immediately, and the elf girl waved her hand to indicate that it didn't matter. However, she did not get up and leave immediately, but looked around vigilantly:

"Did something happen in the past two days? Why does this place feel a little different from when I came here on Monday? It's hard to say what it feels like. In short, something is wrong."

"hold head high!"

The little beast also barked in agreement.

"Your inspiration is quite keen. The curse of the earth is spreading."

Shade briefly told what happened in the city today, and the elf girl was greatly surprised:

"I didn't expect that what was predicted actually happened."

"prophecy?"

Xia De was stunned, thinking that the other party also knew the poem.

"The prophecy of the elves, it is rumored that after the World Tree disappeared, the power used to stabilize the foundation of the earth disappeared. Therefore, the earth of the material world under our feet has become unstable step by step in the changes of the era, until it has become completely crazy. And People living on the land will gradually become integrated with the earth during this process, and the initial manifestation is an almost petrified plague."

In order to describe more accurately, she used modern Elvish to describe these things:

"You and that lady, don't stay in the Randall Valley. Get out of here quickly. Even if the resistance of the Ring Warlock is much higher than that of ordinary people, problems will arise sooner or later if you stay in this land for a long time."

"The Randall Valley is considered by occultists to be the center of the earth in the material world. Sooner or later, this disaster will spread to other places."

Shade's hand gently stroked the hair on the unicorn's back. The elf looked at Shade's side face in the firelight and felt that at this moment, Shade's eyes seemed to be glowing:

"you want."

"Let's see here how the church will solve this matter. If I can do something, I will also lend a helping hand. This is a big event that may not happen once in an era. Even if you take these risks, leave It’s worth it to come down, I can’t let Miss Danister see me, after all, I am not reporting to leave the station.”

"Is the life of a correspondence student all like this?"

The elf girl thought hesitantly, looking at the bonfire lit in front of her, and stretched out her hands to feel the heat:

"Speaking of which, I was accepted by Miss Denister as the temporary librarian's assistant."

She said suddenly, and then thanked her softly amidst the crackling sound of the bonfire:

"Miss Denister said it was one of her students who gave the advice. Was it you?"

"It's just a small matter. Miss Denister happened to ask me, and I happened to see your application again."

Shade said nonchalantly, and the elf girl thanked her again with a blushing face in the light of the bonfire:

"Since we met, you have always helped me. I'm really embarrassed."

"Aren't you helping me with this?"

Shade pointed to the small bottles around him:

"Also, you'd better not appear in the Randall Valley too often these days. A lot of terrible things will happen here before spring comes. I hope this time is the last time we see each other before spring."