Whispering Verse

"Tifa and I have met the Sisters of the Order in the Dark Realm, and we know some things."

Shade nodded.

"The reason why the [Spiritual Order] has a good relationship with the Parliament is not only because the Speaker has a wide range of friends, but also because of Granny Cassandra. She is really a native of Fort Midhill. She was helped by the Order when she was young, and also because of her mother-in-law Cassandra. I have helped the Order. Of course, this is also because, although there are men and women in the [Spiritual Order], the majority are women. Especially the nuns who are qualified to wear silver crowns as eye patches, their eyes are very powerful... ...Although these women are sometimes more arrogant than the soothsayers of the Prophet Association, they are very capable. If you need it, I can also give you a letter asking them to give you some help. But it can only be a recommendation letter and cannot reveal our relationship.”

But if it is just a letter of introduction and not the help of the local great witch Ms. Cassandra, the help and convenience that the [Spiritual Cult] can provide to Shade is obviously very limited.

Shade thought for a while:

"Anyway, let me contact the [Spiritual Cult] first. I would like to consider Ms. Cassandra's matter again."

"Okay, Tifa, give the letter I wrote to Shade and remember to stamp it. The [Spiritual Cult] is mainly active in the eastern part of the continent. They existed in Fort Midhill in the last era. Opposite Life She knows more about the boundary with death than I do. The current leader of the order is Sister Devlin, an eleventh-circle warlock. Although she is disabled, she is a very beautiful and elegant lady with a figure... ..”

"Ahem."

Tifa, who was opening the ink pad box on the desk, coughed suddenly. The witch glanced at her, stopped talking, and then smiled at Shade:

"Anyway, if you go to her with my letter, she shouldn't mind giving you some help. People in the [Spiritual Cult] respect nature and death, and believe that everything has animism. Other than that, there is nothing to avoid. .”

She picked up the tea cup and took a sip. Seeing Shade's thoughtful expression, she signaled to him that she could ask questions.

"How come Ms. Cassandra, who is over a hundred years old, only has ten rings? No, I'm not saying that ten rings are low, but compared to you..."

The red-haired witch put down her tea cup with a smile. Shade noticed that she was wearing a pair of white lace gloves today:

"I know what you mean. I am only in my twenties and already have eleven rings. Although Tifa only has six rings, she is younger. This is easy to explain. We have two extraordinary systems that promote each other. Next, the progress of witches is very rapid. But this kind of growth requires talent. We are very similar to ordinary ring warlocks. Ring warlocks just grow slower, but they will also encounter people who obtain spiritual talismans at a certain level. It’s an extremely difficult situation.”

Shade nodded to express his understanding. If everyone had the potential to become the Thirteenth Ring, that would be a strange thing. The middle-aged witch he met at the drinking party of the vampire god [Vampire Duke Loair] also took the risk to attend the evil god's drinking party because she wanted to gain the power to break through.

"My limit is almost around the eleventh level. To be honest, I have stayed at this level for more than two years. This is normal from the perspective of ordinary ring sorcerers, but to a witch it is almost equivalent to stagnation."

"So what's Tifa's talent like?"

Shade asked curiously.

"It's hard to say. Talent is not something that can be tested by touching the crystal ball in a storybook. But doesn't she have a gift from Feliana? If she encounters difficulties, just level up."

Miss Feliana's gift allows Tifa's witch level to be forcibly upgraded in situations other than the twelfth level to the thirteenth level. In other words, if Tifa can be promoted to an eleventh-level witch like Miss Carina, then she can immediately become a twelfth-level witch.

"It's so jealous..."

Miss Carina sighed softly, but there was not much jealousy in her tone:

"But fortunately, Tifa is mine."

The black-haired maid blinked at Shade, her slightly playful eyes not knowing what she meant.

Because he stayed at Miss Carina's place and talked with her about Fort Midhill until late at night, Shade did not go home that night.

Anyway, he brought Mia out, so he and the cat stayed at the witch's manor. Miss Carina specially arranged a room for Shade in the manor. From now on, Shade will rest here every time he spends the night in the manor.

Early on Friday morning, a carriage brought Shade into the city. He first went to the Prophet Association to sign some documents, receive other prizes for the "Big City Player 1854" champion, and chat with Vice President Mark for a while about this competition.

Then he went to Coldwater Port and asked Mr. Edmund about Fort Midhill and the [Chasm of Life and Death]. The old gentleman was very surprised after hearing what Shade said about what happened there, and said that he did know something.

"You should know that the Priory is a very ancient organization, and our research and records on it may be more detailed than those of the Five Gods Church. The boundary between life and death, a place that should not exist, is actually because of the world's Produced by mistake.”

"What is 'the world's wrong'?"

Shade asked curiously, and the old man answered seriously:

"The departure of the ancient god in charge of death [Ancient Death] has caused the instability of the rules of death itself."

He suddenly lowered his voice, which meant he was going to talk about those great people who really existed:

"Think carefully, young man, among the five righteous gods now, which one has [Death] in his main priesthood?"

Shade thought for a moment, then shook his head in surprise:

"It seems not. The closest ones are the [God of Nature and Evil Thoughts], the Lord of All Creation, and the [God of Creation and Destruction] Lady Creation, but obviously those are not direct 'deaths'."

"Yes, the Priory believes that the emergence of the narrow space between life and death represents the initial sign of the world's demise. And the continuous occurrence of problems in the narrow space means that the end is getting closer."

Shade has not forgotten that this is an organization that advocates doomsday theory:

"But the appearance of the initial narrow space of life and death can even be traced back to the fourth era or even earlier eras. Did the destruction of the world begin then?"

He couldn't help but ask, Mr. Edmond was a little embarrassed:

"These have yet to be studied, but it is a fact that the world is getting more and more wrong."

Although Mr. Edmond didn't know how to rescue someone who accidentally entered the narrow space, his words at least told Shade how terrible this wrong phenomenon was.

Instead of having lunch at the lighthouse, Shade returned home before lunch. After lunch with the cat, around one o'clock, the doctor, Dorothy, and Luvia also arrived.

The doctor first divided the winnings they got from betting in the underground casino as the champion of the big city players. Since when the doctor went to place the bet, Shade was basically certain to advance to the finals, so the odds at that time were 1 to 1.51. Shade bet 1,200 pounds and got back 1,750 pounds after deducting the handling fee and the doctor's hard work fee. This money not only made up for the cost of purchasing the spell [Elf's Poison Removal Technique] last Saturday, it even made Shade's wallet a little richer.

If it hadn't been for Priest Augustus, this would have been something that everyone could be happy about. But the Padres were now dying, and they had no interest in celebrating their money win. Therefore, after congratulating Shade once again for winning the title of "King of Rhodes in 1853", others shared the different news they brought.

"The college has launched an investigation at Fort Midhill. They acted quickly and confirmed the disappearance of Priest Augustus. Although they were not able to take a look with Shade, they truly confirmed that the priest fell into the boundary between life and death. But I am also suspicious of the legend of Fort Midhill. Currently, St. Byrons is negotiating with the church and wants to find out the secrets of Fort Midhill."

After all, the academy is far away from the civilized world, and the Church of the Five Gods knows best the many secrets of the civilized world.

"The missing people are not just the August priests. More than ten people have disappeared in the city of Fort Midhill and the surrounding Sikal Mountains recently. The church is investigating this, but they refused to disclose the relevant information to St. Byrons. Details, because they think it has nothing to do with the three major thaumaturgy academies.”

"What does the church know? How come it seems like it's deliberately keeping it a secret?"

Shade asked doubtfully, and Dr. Schneider shook his head:

“I can only confirm that the local problem is huge.”

"The Royal Army stationed near Fort Midhill also had two missing cases, but because they were involved in frontline stations, they have not been reported to the church."

Dorothy said, Luvia and Dr. Schneider both looked at her in surprise, curious about her source of information.

"I tried my best to get a summary of the abnormal phenomena in Fort Midhill City over the years. You can check these yourself."

She gave Shade a large and exaggerated brown paper bag, and she didn't know how Lecia obtained so much information in half a day.

"Does the Prophet's Association have information about Fort Midhill?"

Shade asked Luvia again, who nodded:

"The association's records about Fort Midhill are very strange. They only mention that the association's ring magicians must not hold large-scale psychic rituals in that city, and prohibit any seers with strong divination inspiration from going there. More information You need permission to see it, and I need some time to apply. At the moment, I only know that the association is very afraid of the city of Fort Midhill."

"Well, both the church and the college should be trying to figure out what happened at Fort Midhill, but we can't do nothing."

Shade concluded:

“I’ve been going to Fort Midhill a lot lately, and I have a few friends there.”

"You have so many friends."

Dr. Schneider commented casually.

"The priest disappeared between two and four o'clock on Wednesday afternoon. According to the most optimistic scenario, he can survive on the border between life and death for a week. Today is Friday, that is to say, before next Wednesday, I I will be at Fort Midhill most of the day. Dorothy, please help me take care of Mia."

Only the writer lady who does not need to go to work every day has time.

"Okay, I'll come to your house every morning. I can write wherever I want."

"Doctor, please keep in touch with the college. I hope the college can come up with a solution as soon as possible."

The doctor nodded, but didn't look very optimistic. If it could save the August priests, even if the priests were only correspondence students, the college would certainly do its best to do so. But the problem is that the Five Gods Church does not intend to share with the college what is going on at Fort Midhill, and they have no information channels to inquire about the church's own actions. (Note)

"Dorothy, you still need to continue to work hard to obtain the information in the Prophet's Association. The college's knowledge of Fort Midhill is unexpectedly little. Apart from my friends and the church, we can only obtain it from the Prophet's Association. Looking for clues.”

"No problem, but I want to warn you, Shade, please remember. If it is not absolutely necessary, you should never enter the [Chamber of Life and Death]."

Luvia said very seriously, and the doctor and Dorothy nodded:

"We've almost lost the priest and we can't afford to lose another one."