My esoteric uncle Jules

Chapter 160 The Rise of the Tide?

The courtyard was desolate, overgrown with weeds, and filled with a damp, rotten smell.

Jules glanced around to make sure there was nothing else amiss, then headed straight for the villa's main entrance.

Ram followed closely behind, whispering:

“Sir, this place looks like it hasn’t been inhabited for a while.”

Yule narrowed his eyes and said:

"There's no one here, but other things can live here."

Upon hearing this, Ram was startled:
"Could it be the work of a ghost?"

After meeting Jules, everything that happened to him was somewhat beyond his previous imagination.

Therefore, he is now particularly sensitive to these supernatural—or rather, mystical—things.

Jules glanced at him and shook his head, saying:
"Not necessarily, let's go in and take a look first."

Just now, he did indeed sense the aura of the Winter Rule surging within the villa.

He gently pushed open the villa's main door, and a smell of frost and decay wafted out.

Upon seeing the scene inside, Jules couldn't help but sigh.

It was truly a vast expanse of white, utterly clean—all the antiques inside had been moved out. Apart from a pile of broken furniture and boxes lying on the ground, there were a few shattered pieces of porcelain scattered around. Perhaps the movers thought it was worthless after it was broken, so they didn't bother with it anymore.

He bent down and picked up the shards of porcelain.

The fragments had been lying on the ground for who knows how long, and the once smooth and clean glaze no longer reflected light, but was covered with a layer of dull dust.

"It seems these robbers really do rob everything they can..."

Jules smiled slightly, turned around and walked straight upstairs.

At the same time, he said to Ram, who was still looking around:

"No need to look anymore, everything that could be taken has probably already been taken. Let's go straight to the second floor."

The fluctuation of the Winter Rule came from the second floor.

Soon, the two went up to the second floor.

As soon as he went upstairs, Jules's eyes were fixed on the end of the second-floor corridor.

There stood a half-closed door.

The aura of winter principles emanating from it grew stronger, carrying a familiar chill.

Ram followed behind, whispering:

“Mr. Jules, something feels off.”

Jules waved his hand and said:

"Don't worry, it's probably not a ghost."

Having previously been in close contact with Matilda and personally experienced the power of the rituals she set up, he could sense that this aura had a touch of Matilda's.

Without hesitation, he stepped forward and pushed open the door.

The room was very dark, and the windows were boarded up, with only a sliver of light filtering in through the cracks.

Scattered on the ground were scraps of paper and rags, and several cracked wooden crates were piled in the corner.

In the center of the room, a cracked mirror stood alone, its surface covered in dust, yet it faintly emitted an eerie fluctuation.

Jules approached the mirror, his gaze slightly narrowed.

The icy aura he sensed came from the mirror.

To his surprise, this mirror gave him a sense of familiarity.

"This color, these cracks... isn't this the mirror that Uriel brought back before?"

However, the mirror he saw before him now was completely different from the one before, except that the materials were the same.

Just as he was about to explore the secrets of the mirror, the dust on it suddenly began to fall off, replaced by a thick layer of frost.

Beneath the dense frost, the reflection in the mirror began to subtly change, finally settling on a sickly figure he knew all too well—

It was Matilda.

"Jules, I knew you would come back. This is a bronze mirror that I specially had brought here to deliver this message to you."

Matilda in the mirror suddenly spoke, causing Jules's gaze to sharpen.

"What's your situation now?"

However, Matilda seemed not to hear him, and simply continued to speak to herself:

"You don't need to talk to me. I am just a lingering memory, a fleeting shadow."

“I used the power of winter to conceal the existence of this place, making it difficult for outsiders to detect anything unusual. But you are different. As long as you return, the ritual power remaining on your body will surely attract you here.”

"What I am about to tell you, do not tell any outsiders. If there are outsiders around you, ask them to leave the room and close the door."

Jules glanced at Ram, who nodded and obediently left the room.

After Dram left, he looked at Matilda in the mirror.

But then something strange happened—her lips were moving, but no sound came out.

Is she trying to convey a message through silence?

Having figured this out, Jules took a deep breath, calming his mind, and tried to grasp that peculiar state of silence.

Matilda had used this method to communicate with him before.

The instant he entered that strange silence, Matilda's almost inaudible, weak voice rang in his ears:

"...The wave is trying to revive in Lolita..."

She seemed to want to say something more, but some knowledge, even just spoken, can have tremendous power.

Before Jules could react, the entire mirror in front of him suddenly began to tremble violently.

First, the frost on it shattered with a bang, followed by a mirror-like surface.

The seemingly indestructible orogenic copper, now as fragile as paper, lost all its power during the violent tremor and shattered into dust.

Jules stared blankly at the empty mirror—how could the tide be trying to revive Lolita?

He had considered that the Wave wouldn't just give him something for nothing; sending a Lolita must have been for a reason.

But he thought he would have to wait until Lolita became much stronger before doing anything, he didn't expect it to happen so quickly!

A thousand thoughts surged through his mind, leaving Jules momentarily at a loss.

Suddenly, Ram's anxious shouts rang out from outside the door:
"Mr. Jules? Mr. Jules! How are you?"

It seems the noise of the mirror shattering startled Ram... Jules calmed himself down a bit and replied:
"It's nothing, I'll be right out."

When the door opened, Ram was stunned for a moment upon seeing the mess in the room.

But he immediately realized that Mr. Jules must have just completed some kind of special communication with the mirror—this is how mystical methods are, quite strange indeed.

He wisely didn't ask any more questions, but simply said:
"It's alright, I'm so glad you're alright. So, what shall we do next...?"

Jules was silent for a moment, then said:
"Go find Uriel."

The information Matilda had just conveyed to him was so explosive that he needed a while to process it.

……

The servant knocked on the wooden door in front of him, and after a while, a slightly impatient female voice came from inside: "Didn't we say we'd continue discussing the wedding arrangements tomorrow? What's the matter now?"

Even though no one was in front of him, the attendant still smiled politely and said:
“Miss Matilda, it’s time for dinner. His Highness knows that you don’t like banquets, so he sent me to bring you your meal.”

Matilda fell silent, and after a long while, the door slowly opened.

However, what appeared behind the door was not Matilda, but an old woman dressed as a maid.

Upon seeing the old maid, the servant was taken aback, trying hard to recall if he had a "colleague" who looked like that.

"Give it to me. I am Miss's personal servant. Miss has difficulty walking, so I will deliver it to her."

The servant nodded repeatedly and bent down to hand over the plate he was carrying.

At the same time, while bending over and moving forward, he secretly peeked into the room through the crack.

Her jet-black hair fell from her ears, revealing glimpses of her fair skin.

Even without seeing her face clearly, one could tell that the woman sitting in the chair was a beauty, and that she was frowning slightly, her face full of sorrow.

The servant was stunned for a moment. Only after the old maid coughed did he snap out of his daze, quickly get up, and awkwardly laugh:

"Excuse me, I'm sorry to bother you. Enjoy your meal, no, I mean, I wish your young lady a pleasant meal."

After the door was closed, the servant leaned against the door, looking completely exhausted.

"This is incredibly embarrassing..."

But when he thought back to that fleeting glimpse, he couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion:
"No wonder His Highness not only wants to marry Lolita, but also Miss Matilda..."

Unfortunately, for some reason, the prince eventually gave up and chose to marry only Lolita.

Perhaps his prince is a hopeless romantic! The attendant thought to himself, and slowly left the corridor, heading back the way he came.

……

After the door closed, the old maid did not rush to leave. Instead, she held the tray in one hand, supported herself with the other, and pressed her ear against the door, listening carefully to the sounds.

After a long while, he turned around and said to Matilda, who was deep in thought at her desk;

"Miss, the servant has left."

Matilda gave a soft "hmm," then suddenly turned her head and whispered:
"He is back."

"Him?" The old maid didn't react for a moment, but she immediately understood who Matilda was talking about.

"That Jules really didn't die?"

Matilda smiled and shook her head:

"He may not be dead, but I can't say for sure how long it will take for him to be resurrected—but as things stand, he has at least been resurrected before the worst-case scenario."

The old maid was silent for a while, then said:

"Then it seems that what you did before was not entirely without value."

“Some knowledge is not allowed; it is forbidden. And forbidden knowledge possesses power.” Matilda leaned back in her chair, rubbing her eyes to relieve the fatigue from working at her desk.

Although this physical fatigue is insignificant to a superhuman of her level, habits formed over many years are not so easy to change.

“Only in this way can I ensure that he knows that crucial information and can respond appropriately,” she said.

The old maid nodded, and said with some concern:
"But... in this situation, can he really help?"

She was well aware of the dangerous situation her young mistress was now embroiled in.

Matilda pursed her lips and said:

“His identity is special; he may be able to help, or he may not—but it’s better than sitting and waiting to die.”

Her words were very calm, as if the impending death was of no concern to her.

Seeing this, the old maid sighed and said with some heartache:

"How heartbroken your mother would be to see you like this..."

Matilda forced a smile:
"Perhaps she will let me go directly, since I should have died a long time ago anyway."

The two looked at each other speechlessly.

All that remained was a deathly silence.

……

What Uriel said is indeed true.

Jules paid only a small sum of pounds and learned from the well-dressed gentlemen that the grand royal wedding to Lolita would be held at Windsor Royal Estate.

However, instead of going directly to the royal estate, he first followed Ram to the place where he had previously "paid his debts"—a pawnshop.

The boss could see from a distance that Ram was looking so timid and subservient behind Yule, his nostrils practically pointing to the sky.

As Ram approached, he still looked down on him and chuckled:
"Ram, you finally have enough money to pay off your debts? Did you earn that by working as someone's dog?"

Ram glared at the boss and said:
"Stop talking nonsense, I'm here to see Uriel! Don't tell me he's not here!"

"Hey, how dare you talk to your creditor like that?" the boss said, looking annoyed. "Lord Uriel is busy preparing for his wedding inside. You? You probably won't even get in the door."

Ram's face was grim as he said:

“I have reached an agreement with him. If I help him find the item, he will release my sister.”

The pawnshop owner shrugged, whistled, and said:

"What's the use of telling me? You have to go in and find Lord Uriel yourself, he shall."

He pointed in the direction of Windsor Royal Estate, looking on with an expression of anticipation.

Ram was about to argue when Jules stopped him.

The latter shook his head at him and said:
"Let's go."

Jules' tone was very calm.

He couldn't even be bothered to get angry—he felt it was beneath him to argue with such a nobody these days.

"Don't blame me for not warning you! If you're not invited and get kicked out like a dead dog, don't come looking for me!" the pawnshop owner shouted from behind.

Jules didn't stop walking, but Ram couldn't stand it anymore and picked up a dead leaf and threw it behind him.

"Would it kill you to talk less?!"

The pawnshop owner initially wanted to instinctively dodge, but seeing it was a withered leaf, he simply didn't flinch or avoid it, and instead mocked:

"What? You dare to lay a hand on me? I'm warning you, if you..."

He suddenly stopped speaking at this point.

Because he saw that the leaf that slowly slid down his arm had the sharpest edge in the world, easily cutting a large gash in his arm, the cut surface as smooth as a mirror.

"What happened?!" He was terrified and completely lost.

Ram was stunned, but he immediately knew who had made the move, though he didn't make a fuss.

He merely glanced at Yule and silently followed behind.

He also whispered:

"Thank you for your help, sir."

The fallen leaf instantly became sharp; this is a supernatural power that only Jules can possess!
Jules, with a playful smile on his face, said softly:
"What does this have to do with me? I didn't do anything just now. Don't talk nonsense. How could a fallen leaf cut someone?"

After saying this, the two looked at each other, burst into laughter, and walked towards the royal manor, leaving the pawnshop owner standing there at a loss.

(End of this chapter)