Whispering Verse

Shade had already learned a lot about the multiple versions of "The Lovers of the Clock Tower" from Dorothy and Lesia during his studies every Saturday. The piece performed by the "Golden Dawn Opera" this time is closer to the original version of this fairy tale recorded in ancient documents unearthed in the Fifth Age.

Most of the original versions of fairy tales had nothing to do with descriptions such as "innocent and kind". On the contrary, they were extremely realistic and even had some elements of terror. Probably the young witches of the Fifth Age were considered to need to be exposed to such stories from an early age.

Although this kind of story is not suitable for children in today's sixth era, it is indeed suitable for adults.

In the light-off box, while Shade and the blond princess were being affectionate, the grand performance downstairs had already attracted waves of applause. The reputation of the "Golden Dawn Opera Company" is not only supported by Miss Bernice, who has not performed on the stage for many years. When Shade hugged Margaret and thought about this ancient fairy tale, he really felt that every great lady In addition to her own strength, the witch must also have other advantages.

"Hold the snow on the top of the snow mountain and watch the sun in the depths of the desert."

"If you can meet us, dear girl~~"

"Please call our names softly and ask your doubts."

"Where the lilies bloom, or, to the west, where the sunflowers bloom."

Margaret didn't care about the performance downstairs, but hugged Shade's neck and hummed softly the songs of the witches. Seeing Sha De looking at her, she smiled and said to him:

"It's such a wonderful life like this. Why don't you open a detective agency in Willondale?"

"Judging from my experience, wherever I go, big trouble will happen, and the people of Willondale will not welcome me."

Shade said cautiously, then lowered his head and gave the squinting Princess another kiss. The latter became even happier:

"My decision was indeed right. Becoming a witch's apprentice is what I want. I can get it."

Biting her lower lip with her white teeth, her eyes were roughly at the same level as Shade's nose, so she had to speak from an angle of looking from below:

"Everything. Shade, come to Willendale City as soon as possible. I made a promise to you. As long as you see me in Willendale, I will definitely give you a gift."

As he said that, he held Shade's neck and wanted to change his sitting position, but suddenly he saw Shade turning his head and looking out the door:

"There are a lot of footsteps and a lot of heartbeats. There are a lot of people coming, and the heartbeats are very fast."

Sure enough, a few seconds later, the door was knocked from outside, and the knock was quite urgent:

"Your Highness! Your Highness!"

"what happened?"

Margaret then stood up, smoothed the wrinkles on her skirt, made sure that her upper body was fully clothed, and finally moved her long hair behind her shoulders. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to let the blush on his face subside. He used thaumaturgy to calm his mind and then opened the door.

Outside the door, in addition to her maids, there were also several royal attendants who were originally at the stairs. In addition to the people who were here, among the strangers, Margaret recognized the chief of the Police Department of Michaela Blast Furnace City, whom she had only met twice, and the agents of Gray Gloves who secretly protected her. Margaret looked directly at the tall and thin man among them. The latter looked ordinary, but he was the leader of this special operations team:

"Your Highness, there was a shooting in the alley on the north side of the Opera House. It was a shot fired with a silencer, at least twenty minutes ago. The deceased were cleaners of the theater, and their clothes were stolen. We suspect that at least three gunmen entered Here it is.”

Margaret's face darkened, and she just opened the door of the private room a crack to ensure that people outside the door could not see the sofa due to the angle. She looked back at this moment, but she didn't see Shade. She only saw a silver cat standing on the back of the sofa, looking at her with bright silver eyes.

Although she had not seen Shade's transformation with her own eyes, she had heard about it from Miss Sylvia - the latter had heard about it from Audrey Edwards. So he immediately understood what Xia De meant and said to the nervous people outside the door:

"Don't panic, I need to leave now, right?"

"Yes, Your Highness. I'm sorry to disturb your mood, but according to our security regulations, you'd better leave here now. Your Highness, the carriage is ready, and the streets are quiet now."

The tall and thin man said, and Margaret looked like she was sighing, but she still said helplessly:

"Okay, I won't make it difficult for you. But wait a moment, I have to pack my things."

"Okay Your Highness, for your own safety, please do it as soon as possible."

No one asked Margaret what she wanted to pack in the box at the Opera House. After the princess called her two personal maids in, she asked them to clean up the traces on the sofa while she herself put away Shade's belongings. , then picked up the silver cat and put it on his shoulder. Shade released the illusion and hid himself. The spellcasting ability of the cat form has been weakened a lot. Fortunately, the cat is smaller, so it is still easy to hide yourself from others.

After getting ready, Margaret left the box and, under the nervous escort of everyone, came to the side entrance of the opera house from the hidden stairs on the side. The guards who had already gone downstairs in advance were guarding two carriages parked in the alley outside the side door.

Surrounded by a crowd of people, Margaret and her two maids boarded the first carriage, and two of the remaining maids boarded the rear carriage. The two carriages drove out of the alley one after another, but in different directions.

Among them, the carriage carrying Margaret drove eastward in the silent night along the Glass Bottle Avenue in front of the Glass Bottle Opera House. But within five or six minutes, he suddenly drove into a side alley.

The alley was specially widened to facilitate the passage of water trucks from the City Hall Fire Department, and it was not narrow at all when the carriages drove in.

The streets and alleys were indeed very quiet. There was only a gas street lamp every few hundred meters in the alley, but the coachman suddenly stepped out of the carriage in the dark area between the two lights before the people on the carriage could react. Jumped down.

He rolled quickly on the ground and picked up the pistol he had placed in advance from the trash can nearby. The horses were still moving forward, and in front of the alley, from the roofs, behind the garbage dumps, and even from the sewer entrance, dozens of people emerged together. Under the cover of the night, they aimed at the carriage that was still rushing forward due to inertia. Pull the trigger.

Because each gun was equipped with a silencer, and it was a specially selected pistol with low kinetic energy, the continuous gunfire did not disturb this silent night. The fire lights lit up one by one and then disappeared, and the muffled sound made everyone watching this scene feel more and more depressed.

Originally, the royal family should ride in an all-metal carriage, and the carriage should also be made of metal, but this time the carriage is made of wood. Holes were punched into the wooden walls. After the first round of shooting, the alley was filled with the smell of gunpowder smoke. The assassins skillfully changed their magazines and prepared for the second round of attacks. However, at this moment, a harsh squeaking sound was heard in the silent alley. Everyone saw that the carriage door was pushed open. Originally, only the princess and the two of them were supposed to be there. A man actually walked out of the maid's carriage:

"Where did you find this broken carriage? The metal shaft of the door can be used as a weapon for tetanus infection."

Shade frowned and said, jumping off the carriage. He opened his clenched right hand and let the metal slug fall to the ground with a clatter. The speed of the bullet passing through the wooden board of the carriage is really slow.

Looking around, even though there was no light, his eyes could still clearly see the positions of all the gunmen and confirmed that all the people present were ordinary people.

The gunmen were speechless. Suddenly, the driver next to the trash can pointed at his head and pulled the trigger. Shade didn't even turn his head. He quickly raised his right hand and clasped it in front of his shoulder.

He maintained this posture, then turned his head and looked at the coachman who couldn't believe what he was seeing, and then spread his palms.

Although there was no light in this specially selected alley, somehow the gunmen could still see a bullet-shaped object lying in the palm of the young man's hand. As the palm of the hand tilted, the thing fell to the ground, colliding with the warheads just now, making a clanking sound.

This was Shade's first time to catch a bullet with his hands. The outsider's thinking made him think that this was a very difficult thing, but when he actually did it, he found that it was very simple. With his current physical fitness, he can see the flight trajectory of bullets from this small-caliber pistol quite clearly. It is much easier to catch a bullet that cannot turn than to catch Mia, who is jumping around.

"That's why I say that only low-level magicians are afraid of weapons in the hands of ordinary people."

As he thought in his mind, the dark chains in his sleeves fell to the ground——

call out!

After raising his hand the next time, the sound of chains suddenly exploded in the alley. But the chain was quickly retracted by Shade. He turned around and spoke to Margaret in the car. Behind him, trash cans, standing metal pipes, and cabinets abandoned on the roadside were neatly divided into two. , and the bodies of the twelve living people hidden in every corner of the alley were quickly wrapped in pink crystals. After their whole bodies turned into pink crystal clusters, they exploded into crystal fragments one after another. The crystal fragments quickly and quietly disappeared on the ground.

"Solved, but how to explain this matter? Does the church know that you are a student of Serkeses Medical College? You should have this tacit understanding."

Shade asked Margaret in the carriage. The two maids beside her had fallen asleep.

"Don't worry about this. After you dispose of the body, it's my own business to explain it."

Her Royal Highness the Princess said, and then they both heard a slight explosion behind them. When he turned around, he saw a spinning black and golden vortex appearing out of thin air in the alley. Miss Sylvia, Miss Benanis and Megan, three great witches wearing high heels, walked out together.

PS: Illustration "Marguerite Anjou"