Whispering Verse

"I had a strange dream last night. In the dream, Lesia and I held hands and turned into a red butterfly, and then flew, flew, and flew. We were hit by the red light spread by our wings. The people in the city also turned into red butterflies. In the end, everyone turned into red butterflies and everyone flew together."

"This is indeed strange. What's the end?"

Shade asked curiously. The blonde girl carefully picked up the bacon with a fork. The cat lying on Shade's lap sniffed and opened its eyes:

"Then I saw little Mia squatting on the top of the bell tower under the setting sun, and then she pounced and swallowed us up."

"Meow!"

Mia jumped from Shade's lap to the table. Even if she didn't intend to grab the food, she would at least have a sniff. However, Shade, who knew the cat's nature well, grabbed the back of its neck, picked it up and put it back on his lap.

Dorothy looked at the scene in front of her with a smile. She felt that in the rainy weather, watching Shade play with the cat was a good enjoyment:

"What do you think this dream means?"

"Well, if you miss Lesia very much, don't worry, isn't this Saturday the new Red Butterfly Day?"

He was then rewarded by Dorothy's "interpretation of dreams" which she ignored for several minutes.

The wooden boat that Shade brought back from the bottom of the island on Monday night has been repaired on Megan and Audrey's cruise ship after a day of processing yesterday. The power of time was not used to repair the wreckage of a hundred years ago, but the repair work was completed with ingenious craftsmanship.

That morning, Shade handed the cat to Dorothy and came to the cruise ship docked on the Duin River under an umbrella. In addition to Megan and Audrey, Miss Sylvia was also here.

"Good morning, Shade."

The black-haired space witch greeted Shade and took Shade to the cabin of the cruise ship. Megan was standing in the innermost drainage compartment, looking at the repaired boat in front of her. Originally, she had two arms stretched out behind her, gesturing as if she was going to cast a spell. Seeing Shade coming, the two real arms immediately retracted:

"Good morning, Shade."

Shade's purpose in getting the ship out was to find a way to reveal the boatman's soul and obtain the key. Megan and Audrey repaired the ship and even invited Miss Sylvia, who was supposed to handle the affairs of the City of Glass. Naturally, they had their own ideas:

"We don't know if we can still summon souls after leaving that island, but we have to try anyway. Therefore, we must restore the environment where this soul appeared as much as possible, that is, the chaotic state of water and space. In addition, normal The method of stimulating the soul must also be tried, which is to repeat what the boatman did during his lifetime.”

She handed Shade and Miss Sylvia exactly the same information:

"I have checked, and if there is no mistake, this boat belongs to Old Renault, the second-to-last boatman in Green Lake Town. He inherited the responsibility from his father and is responsible for the ferry work in Green Lake Town."

"Wait a minute, that town is so big, and it usually only relies on a small boat. How can it maintain the connection between the townspeople and the outside world?"

Miss Sylvia asked a question, and Meghan replied:

"Of course we don't just rely on this boat. Green Lake Town belongs to the Kingdom of Delrayon, and there is usually a daily big boat to communicate with Green Lake City. If any residents miss the big boat at ten o'clock every morning, Old Renault will be responsible for it. Send them to the lake. Sylvia, don’t think that the town more than a hundred years ago was as prosperous as the ordinary towns now. At that time, the wave of the steam revolution was just beginning to take shape. How many townspeople in the countryside do you think? Travel needs?”

"You said he was the penultimate?"

Shade also raised questions.

"Yes, he disappeared before the town of Green Lake was abandoned. Judging from the current situation, he set up a boat alone and sank in the lake. After that, his son became the town's new boatman and escaped that night. Green Lake Town. Today, the descendants of the boatman old Renault's son still live in the village of Pukhov on the lakeside. My girls found them while investigating the descendants of Green Lake Town and got this."

She showed off a rusty and simple silver pendant that looked like a ship anchor:

"Their family heirloom is not sterling silver. It is said that this thing has been passed down in the family since the days of Green Lake Town. I checked, it is just ordinary silver jewelry, and it is said to be a family heirloom. It is a little extra 15 pounds. It is easy to buy it. I got it, I might be able to use it soon."

"15 pounds."

Shade once again felt that the witches' view of money was different from his own. You must know that Miss Mia Gold only sent 10 pounds a month.

"Something is wrong. Shade said that the location of the sunken ship is very close to the shore. Moreover, it is impossible for the boatman to not know how to swim. I don't understand, how did old Renault die as you mentioned?"

After reading the information and Megan's plan, Miss Sylvia couldn't help but ask again. Megan shook her head:

"If you are curious, you can ask him yourself later. However, I guess it has something to do with the ancestors. Although my grandfather destroyed the sealing ceremony on the island, allowing four people of my father's generation to live outside the island, but now it seems Come on, the ancestor was arranging the thirteen keys before that, so it’s hard to say whether he knows what his grandfather did. Let’s go, Sylvia, you brought that relic, right? ?”

The boat was transferred to the Duin River, and then Shade and the two great witches walked up together. This very primitive boat requires oars to move. Although the witches can make it move on its own, it is in the city, so it can only be rowed by Shade.

In order to restore the situation back then, Shade rowed the boat from the city to the mouth of the river until it entered Green Lake. This made him suspect that the two witches had found him just for the purpose of rowing. Fortunately, they were going downstream, so it wasn't very strenuous.

After the illusion enveloped the surroundings, the ship stopped on the lake. Megan dropped the obstructive umbrella and used an invisible stance to drain the rainwater above the boat.

She nodded to Miss Sylvia, who then took out two metal dolls, back to back and stuck together.

Both figures are palm-sized and roughly crafted, wearing buttoned coats, black boots and hats. The appearance of the metal dolls is exactly the same. The only difference is the color of the clothes and hat. One is all red and the other is green. Although it can be seen at a glance that it is made of metal, it is still a very cheap toy, the kind that Lesia and Margaret will never see.

Although the paint on the surface has not peeled off, it has already shown a worn appearance due to time. The faces of the two dolls are each engraved with some letters, which together form a complete sentence:

[Confusing colors means confusing the world. 】

"They have magnets on the back so they stick together back to back."

Miss Sylvia explained:

"Secretkeeper-level relic-[Red and Green].

The only detachable part of these two dolls is the hat. Under normal conditions, red clothes wear red hats, and green clothes wear cuckolds. At this time, they can be contained by putting them and a certain amount of green ridge ore in the same airtight container. Once the hats of the two are exchanged, the relic's characteristics will take effect, which will cause confusion in the surrounding space. During this period, everyone who witnessed the hat exchange process would see strange red and green lights alternately appear in their vision. Once a certain kind of light no longer flashes but appears for a long time, it means that the relic is out of control:

The red light always exists: with the puppet as the center, it gradually erases all entities in the surrounding space; the green light always exists, and the puppet is activated and transformed into an evil thing that I cannot name. "

Megan stood next to Shade and added:

"This is a more dangerous Keeper-level relic, almost as good as the Keeper-level measuring object [The Eye of the Keeper]. I remember it was Sylvia's teacher who completed the containment about 15 years ago. "

"Yes, when the teacher was still here, I often used this to practice my spatial awareness."

The black-haired witch recalled the past, sighed, and then revealed the purpose of asking Shade to come with her:

"This relic can easily get out of control. When the teacher was still there, she also had your ability to stabilize the surrounding space with a halo or a field. Although I have similar thaumaturgy now, spaces like Green Lake are inherently fragile. In this hellish place, no one can guarantee whether this relic will be in any other condition. So for the sake of safety, you must be present before we can use this relic."

"no problem."

For safety reasons, Shade even took off the black time key and turned it into the [Stand of Yggdrasil]. It was the first time for Miss Sylvia to see Shade use this angel-level staff weapon, but she was doing serious business now, so she didn't ask too much about the origin of the relic.

When Shade and Miss Sylvia were ready, Audrey's hand was stretched out from behind Megan and the hat of the doll was changed. This way, if something happened, Megan could react immediately.

The hats of the two dolls are also fixed by magnets, so they are easy to swap. When the exchange was completed, Shade felt that the raining sky suddenly turned into night, and then the red and green light of unknown origin flashed alternately, almost blinding his eyes:

"Wait a minute, why is it dark?"

"I don't know either, but the relic hasn't gone out of control yet and the space chaos effect is about to begin. Be prepared."

Shade's perception had already detected the power of the chaotic space of the Whispering Elements, so he held the long staff on the boat and waited calmly with the two witches. Megan also put the "heirloom" on the bow of the boat.

The plan went quite smoothly. At the specially vacated bow position, as the red and green light flashed alternately again and again, the ghostly green soul slowly took shape, and then he bent down and picked up the silver anchor pendant.

The boatman actually showed up.