Whispering Poems

Chapter 4078 Cats and Owls

The traces of "decay" discovered yesterday ultimately pointed to the ring that Xiaomia really liked. Whether today's traces point to relics or something else, Shad still wants to see for himself.

So he jumped into the carriage with Miss MacDonald and headed toward Greyrock Pass.

This was the first time that Xia De had spent so much time alone with this tall girl. In order to prevent the clues from really pointing to the devil, Xia De kept reminding this girl, who only lived in Central, of various precautions on the way.

The attentive and meticulous girl listened carefully, and only asked a question after Xia De finished speaking:

"Mr. Watson, you've dealt with many evil spirits and demons before, haven't you?"

"Yes, it's already in double digits."

Shad replied that this was no joke. Apart from exorcising demons with the doctor in the Sixth Age, he had occasionally encountered demons in the past, such as the Ice Demon in the hotel where he rescued Winnie.

The girl with beautiful rose-gold hair looked on with awe.
"You're planning to reveal your true identity to the teacher this week, right? Your real identity must be that of a very remarkable person."

Shad recalled something Margaret had mentioned during a date: the rumors about the "wrist" had spread from the North to the South. Everyone was interested in the gossip surrounding the most powerful Grand Duchess in the North, so Shad's true identity was, in a sense, indeed "quite remarkable."

"I hope you won't be too surprised when the time comes."

He said with a stern face, and Miss McDonald smiled:
"So, you're quite famous, aren't you? Are you perhaps a prince of the Northern Kingdom's royal family? Oh, I won't tell the teacher."

Shade shook his head:

“My last name isn’t Cavendish, but your guess is pretty close.”

Miss McDonald blinked, but still couldn't make the connection to "Shad Hamilton," though she was curious about other things:

"May I ask a question?"

As she spoke, she held up her right index finger to indicate the number "1":
"Since you know other witches, you must also know other witch apprentices, right?"

It seems that the young apprentices are very concerned about the other apprentices.

"Yes, do you want to ask about the other apprentices' ranks?"

Miss Stella Larson had asked this question when they were in the snowy mountains, but Miss McDonald shook her head:
"My teacher mentioned the ranking system to me. I wanted to ask, what is your relationship with that witch apprentice?"

Xia De hadn't expected her to ask such a question. Excluding Wei Ge, Xia De knew nine great witches, seven of whom had apprentices—

Tifa, Margaret, Miss Rita Swift, Matilda, Miss Charlotte Bell, Miss Stella Larson, Miss Hayley Aurora.

Apart from Shivi's niece, the relationships between the other six girls and Shad cannot be simply described as "friends." Even Tifa, Margaret, and Matilda all have more or less intimate relationships with Shad.

So when faced with Miss McDonald's question, Shad hesitated for a moment, then decided to take the average of his relationships with his apprentices:
"What exactly is this relationship that goes beyond friendship? Once you know who the witch I know is, you can ask your apprentice yourself."

Eve McDonald was much relieved. Last week, she found herself having inappropriate thoughts when she was embracing Shad and her teacher, and spent the whole weekend tormented by her conscience.

Now that she knew others were doing the same thing, she wasn't so conflicted. If others could do it, then she should be able to too. Wei Ge's students clearly shared similar thoughts with her.

So, on the rest of the journey, Shad noticed that the girl had become inexplicably warmer towards him. She brought up the topic of cats, explaining that although "Fragrance House" didn't have any pet cats because of Vigo, Miss McDonald often fed stray cats at school.

Shad was very interested in the topic and not only shared his cat-raising experience, but also persuaded Miss McDonald to get the cats on campus spayed or neutered.

However, once the carriage left the outer city and entered the desolate area between the outer city and Gray Rock Pass, the two stopped talking and each conducted some investigation and preparation.

The cemetery outside Gray Rock Pass is not part of the city cemetery; it mainly buries outsiders who died accidentally near Gray Rock Pass. The garrison of Gray Rock Pass also has a separate cemetery. The two cemeteries are adjacent to each other and are located in the mountains not far from the southern entrance of Gray Rock Pass.

Yesterday, the girls under Wei's command explored the cemeteries surrounding the city, and today they are investigating the surrounding villages and the area around Gray Rock Pass. Gray Rock Pass was originally their last stop; they planned to go back for dinner after exploring it, but unexpectedly, they discovered clues at their very last stop.

The black crystal made by the doctor is absolutely reliable. Since the crystal reacts, it means that there must be corpses here that have been contaminated with "decay".

Xia De had already prepared himself to face the demon head-on. He had even planned that if the demon appeared directly in front of him, he would do everything in his power to protect the girls under Wei Ge's command.

As a result, when Shad and the three girls dug open the responding mass grave in the corner of the cemetery in the afterglow of the setting sun, opened the thin coffin and saw the corpse, he immediately felt a familiar whispering element from the highly decomposed body.

"Okay, so this corpse was also killed by the Night Watcher at the [Witherfire Ring]'s sewage treatment plant. Just how many people did they kill?"

Although it was a false alarm, it was ultimately a good thing that no danger was encountered. Afterwards, to apologize to the remains of the unidentified person, Shad found the cards in his pocket and discovered the spare coffin he had brought with him to cast "Coffin of the Underworld." He used that coffin instead of the thin one to rebury the deceased.

Although no ghost appeared in the sunset to thank Shad, Shad still felt a sense of accomplishment as he watched the earthen mound over the grave being filled back in.

This brought the investigation into the cemetery to a standstill. In two days, the girls had practically traversed all the cemeteries in and around Arcadia, almost reaching the cemetery of the Church of Creation, but Shad didn't believe that a demon would dare bury its victims there after committing murder.

Therefore, the next step is to wait for Vige to investigate the strange murders or disappearances surrounding the local nobles.

After leveling the grave, Shad placed a bouquet of flowers in front of it and then planned to return to the Fragrant House with the girls. He still remembered that he hadn't found a chance to greet Flora.

Miss McDonald was unaware of Shad's plans, so she wanted to ask him if he wanted to go back with them. But when the group left a corner of the cemetery and arrived at the center, Shad suddenly paused, then buried his face in Miss McDonald's arms.

"Oh!"

The tall girl gasped, but the other two girls beside her clearly saw that before Shad actually came into contact with Miss McDonald, he had already transformed into a beautiful silver cat under the glow of the silver moon.

Miss McDonald held the cat with some confusion, but she soon understood why Shad did this, because she and the other two girls from the High Rings had seen Vigo and Flora also come here.

This area is a public cemetery outside the Grey Rock Pass fortress. Although the scale of the graves cannot be compared with that of a regular city cemetery, there is still a proper chapel and a cemetery caretaker's hut. The uneven terrain makes the entire cemetery appear higher in the north and lower in the south.

In front of Miss McDonald and her two companions was an unmarked grave, behind which was a fence. Viggo and Flora led their group down two steps from the side of the fence.

"Huh? Eve, what are you doing here?"

Upon seeing her students and followers, Viggo asked curiously, while at the same time she saw the cat being held in Miss McDonald's arms in the afterglow of the setting sun.

"It's him!"

Vige, who had seen the cat last Friday night, recognized it immediately and realized that the group had probably discovered more traces of "Withering".

As for Flora, the artist with long, gray-black hair stood in the sunset, smiling as she looked at the silver cat.

The last time the two met was in the snowy mountains. Flora had been dealing with the Winslet family succession in Willendale, and had recently found herself with some free time. She originally wanted to visit Danest to solidify the friendship they had built in Vistalin, but unexpectedly, she met Shad directly in Arcadia first.

She winked at Shad the cat, without revealing the cat's identity.

“Teacher, we are investigating ‘decay,’ but this time it was still the relics that caused the death.”

Miss McDonald explained softly, somewhat flustered, because she noticed that both witches were staring at the cat she was holding.

"Withering?"

Flora showed an interested expression:

"Are you using this beautiful cat to probe the area? It doesn't look like a stray cat from the cemetery; its fur is truly captivating. But I remember, Viggo, aren't you not allowed to keep cats?"

She didn't give Miss McDonald a chance to say, "This is my cat."

"And why does this cat look so..."

Flora, a master of transfiguration, leaned closer to look at the cat. Apart from her, all the girls present held their breath, and then they saw Flora's hand gently rubbing the silver cat's little head.

"How can he be so cute?"

Everyone laughed with relief, except for Shad the Cat, who suspected Flora was taking advantage of him. And Flora did just that; although she wasn't in owl form, she still snatched Shad the Cat from Miss McDonald's arms like an owl hunting.

Before Vige could object, she saw Flora place the cat on her shoulder.