Whispering Verse

When Shade opened his eyes on Monday morning, the first thing he heard was the sound of rain hitting the bedroom window, and his mind was still recalling the party last night, as if his nose could still smell the perfume on the girls' hair.

Probably because of the dances at the banquet, he had a strange dream last night.

At the beginning of the dream, with the melodious saxophone playing in the background, he was playing Rhodes with someone whose appearance he couldn't see clearly. Then Miss Bayas emerged from Shade's cards, casually raised Shade's entire deck, and pulled him to dance with him in the rain of cards falling from the sky like snowflakes. But the girl with beautiful long brown hair who was dancing suddenly changed into Mia.

It’s not Miss Mia Sang-Gold, whom I haven’t met yet, but the lazy and timid Mia cat.

Shade was severely frightened in his dream when he realized he was dancing with a giant cat. Then due to the weird reality, he immediately realized that he was in a dream.

Just after he realized this, he returned to the familiar field ridge in his dream and looked up at the huge silver moon disk above his head.

Because the experience in the dream was so exciting that I still had a headache after waking up.

Sit up in bed, collect yourself, and plan a new day. The cat lying next to the pillow was awakened by Shade's motion to get up. The small cat jumped up and looked around for a while, and then jumped onto the quilt.

The two front paws are stretched forward, the front half of the body is pressed down, and the rear half of the body is tilted upward, making a stretching posture. Then he meowed at Shade and walked up and down on the quilt, apparently wanting Shade to prepare breakfast as soon as possible:

"Good morning, Mia..."

Then I immediately thought of last night’s strange dream:

"As expected, you are the cutest if you maintain this figure."

he sighed.

"Meow?"

The cat was rubbing its little head on the back of Shad's hand.

Summer itself is the rainy season in Tobesk. The foggy city located in the north of the Old World is affected by the cold air blowing from the far north all year round. And because there are no tall mountains blocking it from the west coast to Tobesk, the weather from the ocean is not blocked. The warm air flow can reach the inland areas unimpeded and meet the northern cold current above Tobesk, resulting in the local rainy monsoon climate in summer.

After breakfast, Shade read the newspaper for a while. Seeing that the patter of rain outside showed no sign of stopping, he carried Mia and went out under an umbrella.

The orange cat rarely goes out on rainy days, and remained curled up in Shade's arms throughout the trip.

When Shade knocked on the door of Quill Street and was led to her apartment by Miss Louisa, the cat relaxed a little and looked around at the slightly unfamiliar environment.

"Mr. Knight came to me so early. What's wrong?"

Because it rained today, Miss Louisa had no plans to go out. Dressed in homely clothes, she entertained Shade in the living room. The first sentence he spoke was a joke. Xia De saw that the newspaper on the coffee table had been turned to the second page, which showed a photo of him when he was awarded the medal.

Due to the limitations of printing and photography technology, the photo is not very clear. As long as Shad wasn't walking around in this suit, it would be basically impossible for strangers to recognize Shad just from the photo in the newspaper.

The king in the photo indeed looks taller than Shade.

"Do you need me to congratulate you? Although the knight class has disappeared for hundreds of years, and people today no longer think knights are nobles, this also means that you have taken a big step."

The blonde girl asked while preparing tea for Shade.

"It's me who needs to thank you, Miss Louisa. I heard from Miss Carina that it's Princess Lesia..."

"She just wanted to thank you for saving her mother."

Miss Louisa said, and then she looked at the cat that Shade was holding. The small orange cat immediately meowed softly twice, which is how animals intimidate their enemies.

Shade then got down to business:

"I didn't come here specifically to say thank you today. I have something to ask you for help. I'm really sorry to say it."

He put the cat he was holding on the armrest of the sofa. The orange cat barked uneasily, swung its tail and patted Shade's arm. Shade looked at the cat and said to Miss Louisa, who had sat down opposite him. :

"I'm going on a long trip today, and I'm not sure when I'll be back. It might be right away, or it might be in a day or two."

Shade didn't know whether the waiting time for teleportation existed for the statue of the Ancient God [Primal Crack] in the basement, but because of the divination of the "Red Moon Witch", he believed that even if there was a gap between the use of the statue, it would not be too long.

"So, I want you to help me take care of this cat for the time being. Of course, it doesn't matter if you don't have time. Priest August said that the nuns at Dawn Church can also help take care of it, but after all, you are more reliable. "

As he spoke, he reached out and stroked Mia Cat's head. The orange cat squatted there and narrowed his eyes to receive the pat.

"Take care of the cat temporarily? Of course, no problem."

Miss Louisa thought for a moment and nodded, then said casually:

"This is not a big deal, but you have to come back as soon as possible. Although I know that you probably won't tell me your destination, you may encounter danger, right?"

"Of course, there are dangers in everything you do."

With that said, Shade took out another yellow envelope and placed it on the coffee table:

"In the envelope is the cost of taking care of Mia. There is no need to refuse. I originally accepted the client's money to take care of her."

Miss Louisa didn't care about the money. She looked at the detective who sighed at the cat:

"Shade, if there is any danger, remember to come to me for help."

"Of course. I'll be back as soon as possible, don't worry about me."

He touched Mia's head with some reluctance, stood up and prepared to leave. The orange cat noticed that Shade was leaving, and immediately took off his clothes and let him hold him.

But this time Shade didn’t pick up the cat:

"Mia, I'll be back soon. Can you stay here for a while?"

Mia definitely couldn't understand human language, but it probably understood that Shade didn't intend to take it away. When Shade left Miss Louisa's apartment, the orange cat was held in the arms of the blonde female writer, looking pitifully at Shade holding an umbrella and walking away.

"Meow~"

That cry of grievance could be heard far away despite the sound of rain. Miss Louisa hugged the orange cat and laughed, while Shade held the umbrella and turned around to take another look, waving to one person and one cat. Only then did he really leave. .

After finding someone to take care of Mia temporarily, Shade officially started his plan to go out. Because I don’t know where I will end up, because for the sake of safety, I must first sort out my [relics] and choose the right ones to take with me.

[Earl's Left Eye] and [Other Face] will definitely be left at home, while [Gear of Kindness], [Pirate's Blood Money] and [Twenty-Sided Dice of Destiny] will be brought with them. As for the piece of paper that could contact the academy, Shade thought about it and took it with him in case of emergency.

In addition to the above items, the bag of unused frog legs and the brooch with the sacred emblem of the sun are also very important. As for the Rhodes card, Shade thought about it and decided to wear the card as well.

All the above items were packed in the suitcase. In addition, he also prepared an umbrella, a strong hemp rope and several sharp table knives, matches, candles and a whole piece of bacon.

Seeing that the box was not filled yet, he stuffed some warm clothes into it and felt relieved.

After getting ready, it was already ten o'clock in the morning. Lock the downstairs door from the inside, then go through the small door behind the stairs and enter the basement.

The life ring appears, making the hidden wall disappear. After entering the circular hidden snow area, take out the white stone crystal from the small box placed on the wall.

Taking a deep breath to adjust himself, he approached the statue of the two-headed man and reached out to touch the statue:

"May the original rift protect me in the infinite space."

A thick white fog immediately surged in, wrapping Shade in it. He entered the world wrapped in white mist again, and then he heard the whispering voice coming from his ears as expected:

[Outlander, you have entered the ‘space maze’. 】

[Message from the ancient god "Guide in White Robes": ]

[Existing space road signs: 1. 】

"Sacrifice this white stone crystal."

Without thinking, Shade immediately raised the white crystal in his hand upwards. As soon as the words fell, it disappeared silently into Shade's hands, as if blending into the thick fog.

As the white stone crystal disappeared, there was still only a wooden street sign representing "Saint Teresa Square" on the path in front of him.

[New information has been obtained and new spatial landmarks can be searched. Please choose a direction. 】

"direction?"

Shade stood in the fog and thought for a while:

"Can I only choose the direction? Can I choose the distance?"

[Information from this space: You can only vaguely specify the direction, and then this can be connected to a random statue of another ancient god 'Primal Crack'. 】

He wasn't worried about meeting other statue users, but he was worried about another thing:

"The academy prohibits ring wizards from setting foot on the New World. What if I accidentally end up in the New World?"

[The next ancient god statue you can link to at will, the closer the distance, the greater the probability. The possibility of you reaching the bottom of the sea is greater than the possibility of entering a new continent. 】

"Okay then, West."

Shade said casually that in fact, there was no difference between east, west, north and south to him. All he wanted was to try and see what kind of function this place could play.

[The ancient god-white-robed guide statue has accepted your sacrifice. 】

[Randomly linking space landmarks. 】

[Link successful, existing space landmark: 2. 】

A new road sign suddenly appeared on the trail in the white mist. It still had the dilapidated shape that seemed to have been ravaged by time for a hundred years. The arrow on the road sign pointed to the west.

Shade walked over quickly and stood there with his suitcase, waiting for a moment to make sure nothing else happened. Then he reached out and touched the new road sign.

[The guide will guide you. 】

The surrounding white fog dissipated.