Whispering Verse

"So Mr. Watson, can the story be called "Heart of the Ocean"?"

Miss Princes suggested, her hair fluttering slightly in the sea breeze.

"sure."

Shade nodded, then coughed:

"Then I'll start telling it. This is a true story that happened not long ago, maybe..."

Regarding the story of the sinking of the ship that has been circulated in my hometown for a long time, it can be told without changing many details. After all, the era in which the story is set is not very different from the contemporary era.

Facing the sea breeze and watching the scenery of Coldwater Harbor gradually disappearing, Shade narrated the story while Miss Princes put her hands on the railing and listened while looking at the sea.

Her long golden hair swayed slightly back in the wind. She originally just wanted to kill time before the auction, and by the way, she found an excuse for Shade to have a drink with her. But when Shade's story ended, the young girl no longer cared about drinking.

"...The sapphire necklace was thrown into the sea by her. The sea swallowed it up, just like the ocean swallowed up her lover on that disastrous night many years ago. Watching it disappear without a trace, The white-haired old man seemed to have returned to that night many years ago, back on the ship. She transformed back into the young blonde girl, and together with the man beside her, she walked into the ballroom with the sweet sound of violins."

Shade ended the story with his voice gradually weakening. He was also moved by the story he told, and admired his storytelling ability very much, which was also one of his strengths. Beautiful stories, full of charm in any world.

He turned to look at his companions beside him. Unfortunately, he was wearing a mask and could not see the expression of the girl in the blue dress. He could only see those beautiful eyes:

"That's it. How was the story?"

"very nice."

The voice was normal, and no emotion could be heard. Maybe Miss Princes didn’t feel deeply:

"Do you... often use this method to tell stories to girls?"

she asked softly into the wind.

"What?"

"No, it's nothing."

The girl whose hair faded and the red color could already be seen at the tips shook her head slightly, and then looked at the sea again:

"Well, you don't have to drink. I admit that this is a very good love story, very beautiful... Although, I suspect that you omitted some content. For example, when you mentioned the plot of the painting, it was very... Obviously some content was skipped, making the story incoherent.”

She glanced at Sha De and saw that Sha De had no reaction, so she sighed:

"For someone like me, who's dying, it's great to hear stories like this."

"Don't say that your life is about to end. There must be a way to eradicate the curse."

Shade had to speak now. Although he had only known Miss Prince for half a day, he already regarded Miss Princes as a friend and did not want anything to happen to her:

"But this is not the story I wrote."

Even if no one can expose him, Shade will not take other people's stories as his own, otherwise he would not even have the shame to meet Mia:

"The story is what I heard from others. It is a local story that has been circulated for a long time."

"I hope this is just a story and not something that really happened, otherwise it would be too sad. I hate tragedies very much... Of course, I also admit the charm of tragedy."

Miss Princes took a deep breath, as if to get rid of all the bad emotions:

"After the auction, we will separate. Maybe we will never have the chance to meet again in this life. Mr. Watson, since we are lucky enough to meet today and come here together, why can't we enjoy the banquet?"

"Why, do you want to experience what it's like to stand on the bow of a ship, like in the story?"

As he spoke, Shade opened his arms and gestured, and the girl wearing the mask smiled:

"No, there's no beautiful sunset shining over the sea, and there's no band playing that off-key tune you're humming. If you get a chance, use my boat... I mean, the auction starts in fifteen minutes , would you like to dance with me?"

She extended her right hand to Shade. Since this was not a formal banquet, she was not wearing gloves. The white hand gestured in the air:

"Want to dance?"

Shade thought for a while and thought that the other party seemed calm, but he was still affected by the emotions he felt when he listened to the story just now:

"No problem at all."

He raised his right hand and let Miss Prince's hand rest on his:

"If you don't mind, of course that's fine with me. Just one dance."

He emphasized that he was actually not very willing to dance with strangers, it felt weird.

"Just one. I thought you would refuse because you can't dance."

Miss Princes said with a smile, then let go of Shade's hand and pulled the hem of her skirt and turned it around. The blue skirt unfolded like a flower, and she turned back to look at Shade:

"Don't go to crowded places over there, just stay here. You can also hear the music here."

"no problem."

Shade nodded, not forgetting to explain:

"I'm not good at this, I'm just a beginner in dancing. I went to a very important banquet not long ago, and two beautiful girls taught me how to dance. At that time, I stepped on them several times."

If it weren't for the mask, Shade would definitely be able to see the expression on the face of the girl who calls herself "Miss Princes" at this moment. However, through such testing, Shade almost understood who the other party was, but in this way, the relationship between "Miss Princes" and Miss Writer was a little too outrageous.

He planned to expose this noble-born girl after the cruise ship docked safely. Now almost everyone knows it, but no one has revealed it. The foreigners who are eager to get more stories, and the princess who relaxes herself with a little joke, all want to enjoy this peaceful "Cold Water Harbor Holiday" quietly.

The sound of orchestral music came from the other side of the deck. The two people dancing in the night wind actually heard the loudest sound from the waves in their ears.

Although Shade had learned dancing from Luvia and Iluna, he was still very unskilled. Fortunately, Miss Princess took good care of him. Even if Shade clumsily almost stepped on the young girl's shoe, she just chuckled and didn't care at all.

Neither of them spoke during this period, but enjoyed the moment quietly. When the dance music stopped and Shade let go of his hand, Miss Princes paused for a moment before letting go, allowing Shade to retreat:

"Yes, you are indeed not very good at dancing."

She said in a joking tone:

"The feeling you gave me just now was like a clumsy elephant carefully avoiding the banana peel on the ground."

After saying that, without giving Shade a chance to speak, he pointed to the other side of the deck:

"Let's go, the auction is about to begin. Speaking of which, have you brought enough gold pounds? I brought a money order."

"I brought a lot of cash."

Shade replied.

"Yeah?"

Miss Princes looked at his clothes, wondering where the "large sum" of cash Shade had mentioned was hidden.

The auction was held at the very front of the deck, where wooden boxes were stacked to form a wall, allowing access to the front of the deck only through a guarded entrance between the boxes. Only guests with special invitations can participate in the auction. On the one hand, this is to prevent people with ulterior motives from getting on the cruise ship, and on the other hand, it is also to prevent ordinary people from entering the auction by mistake.

There were at least a hundred guests on the deck, but including Shade and Miss Princes, only twelve guests finally entered the auction.

Loose benches were arranged on the deck, and people wearing masks chose places to sit far away from strangers. Most of them came alone, but there were only a few like Shade and Miss Princes.

Time is limited and there isn’t much nonsense before the auction. In the sea breeze, the old gentleman with a white beard briefly explained the rules of the auction, and then the auction finally started.

There are a total of eleven items in the auction, five of which are [relics], one is an antique slate from the Fifth Era, one is a potion, two are pistol-shaped alchemical items, and the last are two old books. One is related to the spiritual rune [Soul], and the other is the study notebook of a certain seven-ring warlock who died in the New World.

There is no inventory of goods before the auction. Only when the lot is taken out can people know what it is, so it takes a lot of effort to inspect and see the goods.

The total number of recorded relics is only five figures, so five can be found in this auction, which is considered a big deal. Among the five [relics], three are poet-level, one is clerical-level, and one is keeper-level. But it is a pity that there are no coin-like relics that Shade needs, and there is nothing that Shade is interested in.

Instead, Miss Princes took a fancy to the Keeper-level relic [Sands of Time], which is a piece of sand that can very slightly affect the flow of time in the nearby area after being thrown out. But because there was competition, when the offer was raised to 460 pounds, Miss Prince gave up. This kind of relic sounds interesting, but it has no practical value. Most of them are bought for research.

Shade did not purchase the relics, but he became interested in the antique slates. The stone slab is half a person's height and comes from ancient ruins excavated in the New World. It records a sacrificial activity to pray for rain in the Southern Continent at the end of the Fifth Era. The words on the stone slab were not deciphered, but when Shade looked at the auction, he completely recorded this large-scale rain praying ceremony that required the participation of hundreds of people.

In this way, this slate is of no use to him. He can be regarded as using a small means to obtain useless knowledge for free.

The most sought-after item in this auction is not the five relics, but the bottle of magic potion. The potion was contained in a flat glass container, showing a very luxurious purple brilliance. It is called the "Grace of the Ring Warlock". Within an hour after drinking it, the soul will become extremely sensitive. The probability of obtaining spiritual runes through reading, touching, sensing and other means is greatly increased, and the probability of obtaining spiritual runes that cannot be seen at ordinary times is greatly increased. The probability of existence will also increase.

In other words, this potion with huge side effects can effectively improve the efficiency of obtaining spiritual runes. Even though this improvement was very slight, this bottle of potion was still sold at a high price of 210 pounds, which was higher than the price of the lowest-priced poet-level relic.