Whispering Verse

Next, Shade took Amelia to Old John's Pawn Shop. Only after getting off the carriage did he see the "out of business" sign hanging on the door handle of the pawn shop. Shade went to the coat shop next door to inquire about it. I just found out that Father John went out to visit friends today and probably won't be back until tomorrow.

"How about we solve this matter tomorrow."

Emilia tugged at the hem of Shade's clothes and said, not wanting to cause any more trouble to Shade.

"That's not possible. What if you encounter danger again during this period?"

She actually wanted to propose that she stay at Shade's house tonight, but Shade suddenly turned around and stared at her, making her face turn red:

"What's wrong?"

She was worried that Shade would see her thoughts, but Shade had other things on his mind:

"Emilia, have you been to church? I mean the church of the Righteous God Church."

"What?"

After getting on the carriage that had not yet left, the two went to the Dawn Church in Tobesk Parish. Now that the Feast of Holy Prayer at the end of the month is getting closer, the priests and nuns in the church are also busy with various things.

The elf girl believed in the ancient god Tree Father. As a pagan, of course she had never entered the church of the five righteous gods. She got off the carriage and hesitated to move forward, claiming that she wanted to see the scenery, so she waited for Shade at the door of the church, but Shade still pulled her in.

She was obviously more afraid of this place than facing the relics. She pulled the hem of Shade's clothes and almost pressed against his body, but Shade knew that as long as she didn't go to the back of the church, she would never meet a ring warlock who could break her illusion spell.

Just in the auditorium at the entrance of the church, Shade met Bishop Owen who was talking to the believers. When the old bishop saw Shade coming over with a strange girl, he smiled apologetically with the people he was talking to. Then he met Shade:

"Mr. Hamilton, long time no see. Why haven't you come to church often recently?"

"I'm really sorry, I'm a little busy these days, but I will definitely come during the Feast of Holy Prayer at the end of the month."

He introduced Emilia as a "client", and then told the elf girl that the person in front of her was the bishop of this church. The awe and frightened look in the blonde girl's eyes made the old man strange, but he still pointed out the current location of Priest Augustus:

"Later is in the back corridor, instructing the young people to change the oil paintings."

Emilia had only heard of the name Rat Augustus before, but had never seen him before. This afternoon was the first time she met him. When the old priest heard that Shade was here to seek help, he took the two of them to the basement potion workshop not far from the Dawn Church.

He listened carefully to Shade's description of what happened. When he heard that Emilia encountered relics twice within half a week, he asked Shade in surprise:

"Is this what you were talking about? The fate of the chosen ones?"

Emilia jumped up from the small bench next to the calcining furnace as if she was frightened. For some reason, that look reminded Shade of a little rabbit, and the pointed-eared "Miss Rabbit" was both excited and frightened. asked:

"Am I?"

"Of course not."

Shade pushed her back to the bench. If she was the chosen one, Luvia would have discovered it long ago:

"I suspect this is some kind of curse, but I don't know whether it is natural or man-made. Priest, please help to look at these three items. We originally wanted to go find Father John, but he is not here now to visit friends."

The withered leaf bookmark, the black 20-sided dice and the rusty silver-plated brooch were taken out one after another. Emilia sat on the small bench and waited for the "sentence" while looking at the potion workshop with her eyes. She also came from the School of Chemistry, so she can naturally identify most of the supplies here.

"I don't recognize this."

The old priest put the bookmark aside, frowned, picked up the dice and sniffed it, then looked at the brooch:

"This is."

His expression gradually became serious.

“There is an element of profanity in the dice, an element of whispers in the brooch.”

Shade explained, and Priest August nodded:

"This brooch is a very unique relic derivative. I am not an expert on this. But it is not as simple as silver plating. Didn't you find that it is a little too light? It is bone silver plating. Since John is not here, you can go there tonight Meet Mr. Copus outside the city, he might have the answer."

Mr. Copus specializes in selling various corpse materials, and he also purchased undead materials that he brought from Shade from the "Chamber of Life and Death".

"As for the dice, the dice were obtained before the brooch, right?"

"Yes, leaves, dice, and brooches, that's the order of acquisition."

Emilia replied obediently.

"Both the leaves and the dice have elements of blasphemy. Maybe the last brooch is not important. It was the first two that caused the accident that happened to the elf lady, and then caused the brooch in Tobesk, and caused the two people you mentioned. A relic. So, this elf lady has actually encountered the relic three times in a week."

The old priest said softly, then picked up the dice and handed it to Shade:

"Crush it."

Shade raised his eyebrows:

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Shade looked at the owner of the item again, and of course Emilia said it was okay.

So he put the dice into the palm of his right hand, weighed it twice, and slapped his left hand towards his right hand. After the hands were separated, the metal dice had been completely crushed. He twisted the "metal cake" and soon tore the metal apart with a heart-wrenching sound. Judging from the weight, this dice must be hollow, and there is indeed something inside.

It was a square piece of paper cut from parchment. When Shade "teared" the metal just now, he accidentally tore it apart. A very conspicuous Holy Emblem was drawn on the piece of paper with bright red ink. After unfolding the piece of paper, Shade and Priest August recognized what it was at once:

"The evil god-[Mr. Doom]'s holy symbol?"

During Margaret's visit to Tobesk, the Order of Doom was cooperating with the Truth Society. One of the parties in the "Dice Story Collection" that Iluna participated in in the Prophet Association was this evil god. The believers then met the doctor and the priest at the door of Shade's house because they brought bad luck to both parties.

But that was not what the old priest was thinking about at the moment. His old eyes looked up and down at Emilia:

"I see. Now it makes sense. They are eyeing this elf lady."

"Mr. Augustus, what does this mean?"

Emilia showed a scared expression, stretched out her hand and grabbed Shade's sleeve and moved closer to him.

"The Evil God - [Mr. Doom] is the god in charge of misfortune. The most common thing his believers do is to select a person, give her or him a marker with the power of the Evil God, and then wait for that person to be in misfortune. Step by step towards madness and even death. They regard this behavior as a ritual to please the gods and gain power through this ritual."

The old priest simply described:

"I work in a church. Although people in the church may seem like ordinary people, I have also come across similar case investigation reports. This kind of thing is generally difficult to detect, because except for professional diviners like Anat, who wants to It is difficult to observe the unnatural curse of fate. You see how powerful Shade is, he only found traces of elements.

Since you obtained this dice on the train, you were probably targeted by this group of people on your way to Tobesk. The recent series of events are all due to the accumulation of bad luck on you. Anat said you have extremely bad luck, and that's probably why. The only problem now is that the bad luck spread by those cultists, I remember, should not be so obvious. I have encountered so many relics in just a week. Is it because you arrived in Tobesk? "

"so what should I do now?"

The elf girl almost leaned directly on Shade.

"There are three issues to solve now."

The old priest said:

"First of all, the brooch. I don't know what kind of relic derivative it is, but it must have taken effect on you, so you must go to Mr. Copus tonight; and then there is the bad luck curse cast on you by the cultists. , this problem should be solved by the Prophet Association. They are good at dealing with the curses of believers such as the God of Doom - [Mr. If I give it to you, I will definitely not let you out of their sight. They are near you, find them, deal with them, and then you can be safe."

After speaking, he hesitated again:

"In addition, we are not sure whether your bad luck has caused something else. We need to check your surroundings thoroughly. There may be something deadly hidden under your bed."

"ah!"

Emilia hugged Shade's arm and refused to let go.

"Priest, please stop scaring her."

Shade said helplessly. The priest who was still deep in thought did not look at him at all:

"This is just to consider this matter with the worst plan. Shade, deal with those cultists as soon as possible, otherwise even if you watch her 24 hours a day, something will happen to her sooner or later. I don't care about the elf who is favored by the cultists. Know whether they know her ethnic background, but don't let down your guard. Look for the worst in everything. As long as you are negligent, she may disappear in the blink of an eye. When you find her again, she will be gone. Maybe that’s all that’s left.”

The old priest did not continue. Of course, he was not joking or deliberately intimidating the two of them, but that was really what he thought.

Although Shade agreed with the priest's caution, it also made him wonder whether Dr. Schneider's psychological treatment had no effect at all.

"Don't tell the academy this time, okay."

The elf girl pulled Shade's sleeve and asked in a low voice. After being looked at by Shade, she shook her body, and then slowly lowered her head:

"Okay, I know."