"Although this man has all kinds of problems, I like that he keeps his word."
Shade muttered and put the cards into his deck. Although he tried his best to restrain himself, a smile still appeared on his face. This scene of smiling with his back to the woman's body on the bed and the weak candlelight next to the table was weird, but it was good.
No one can see it here.
After getting the cards, Shade's apparent purpose of visiting the manor tonight has been achieved, but he still has a lot to do.
Turning around to look at the woman's body, he whispered softly:
"Oh, now that Mrs. Haila has been killed, I may be able to find her murderer."
As soon as he finished speaking, the wind and snow blowing from the half-open window suddenly intensified. The howling wind sounded more like ghosts wailing.
When Shade turned to look at the window, he only saw a huge fire ball in the direction of the city in the distance, rushing directly into the night sky. Then there was a delayed explosion. It seemed that the church had begun to attack the front.
Meet the enemy.
【So, how do you investigate?】
"She" asked softly in Shade's ear. Shade looked at the body again:
"There are no wounds on the outside, and there are no traces of poisoning. Unless the body is dissected, I can't find any clues with normal means. But fortunately, I am a ring magician."
Take out the bone meal and sprinkle it on top of the corpse:
"Thumbology - Guiding Death."
The soul that was supposed to be channeled did not appear. Instead, from the perspective of the "seeing demon", the petrified rose vines squirmed and grew, fixing the corpse more firmly on the bed.
But Shade's thaumaturgy was not without effect. He heard the woman's sigh, and then saw transparent footprints appearing beside the bed. The footprints were pacing beside the bed, and then extended to the outside of the door.
From a normal perspective, the footprints are very blurry, but from the sight demon's perspective, the glowing footprints are even brighter than a candle.
Shade did not follow immediately, but used a knife to take a drop of blood from Helena Oxenfurt's finger, and then dripped it into his own eyes:
"Echoes of Blood."
A thaumaturgy that can see traces of blood in a normal state, but by dripping the blood of a dead person, one can see all the traces in the hour before death and the hour after death.
Sure enough, when the blood entered his eyes, Shade almost immediately saw the phantom appearing on the bed, which overlapped with the physical position.
But there was only such a shadow, which meant that she was lying in this position both before and after her death.
"Were you sleeping before you died?"
Shade was a little confused and took off the sapphire earrings from Haila Oxenfurt's ears. With a squeeze, the glass that sealed a drop of Stone Oxenfurt's blood shattered, and the drop of blood was under the curse.
Under the guidance of the magic technique, it floated into Sha De’s right eye:
"Echoes of Blood."
When the blood of a living person drips into the eyes, Shade can see the shadow of a target's movement trajectory within 24 hours in the next hour. He was originally looking for the missing Austrian at Fort Midhill.
Priest Gus relies on this thaumaturgy.
The bloody shadow of Stone Oxenfurt appeared in front of him. The position of his feet was the position of the footprints on the ground. He checked the condition of his wife by the bedside, and then walked out of the room overlapping the series of footprints on the ground.
.
Shade held the long sword in one hand and the candlestick on the desk with the other and followed.
With "Seeing Demon" and "Echo of Blood" working together, Shade found that he could see more details. It was almost like he was directly seeing what happened in the past.
The footprints extended to the corridor, and when Shade also stepped across the bedroom door, he actually took one step forward and appeared in the courtyard of the manor with gray snowflakes flying.
[Some kind of power connects the bedroom door and the manor door. Entering the room is a normal space, leaving the room leads to another space. Oxenfurt also left in this way. 】
"She" explained softly that Shade was also a ring warlock who had mastered the power of space and understood what "she" meant. And "she" was right. Whether it was the footprints on the ground or the bloody light and shadow in Shade's eyes, they were still in his mind.
It continues before my eyes.
The figure did not walk towards the door of the mansion, but turned around and walked towards the fence gate of the manor.
Oxenfurt's footprints clearly lingered for two steps on the right side of the fence gate, and the bloody figure reminded Shade that he had stuffed something into the crack of the brick.
Shade stretched out his hand and gently hooked it, and a piece of smooth gray stone floated out from the cracks in the bricks. The stone was covered with ant-sized demonic runes.
Shade thought for a moment, injected his own spirit into it, and then threw it into the snow.
Light and shadow rose from the snow, and the translucent figures of Haela Oxenfurt and Stone Oxenfurt, who looked much younger, appeared.
"I have bought back this manor that originally belonged to the Oxenfurt family."
In the illusion, Stone Oxenfurt was carrying his luggage and said to the girl beside him:
"After a while, I will go to your house to propose marriage. Now that I have money, your parents, Mr. and Mrs. Watson, will no longer reject me."
"We can finally be together."
Because he had seen Mrs. Haila's expressionless face, Shade felt very strange about the happy look on Haila Watson's face in the illusion.
"Stone, can you tell me now what kind of business you are doing now?"
Haela asked again. She looked at her future husband with concern, while the slightly younger Oxenfurt smiled and said:
"You don't have to worry about this. I will become richer and richer. Yes, richer than any of my ancestors. Your parents will never look down on me again."
The illusion ended here. The function of the piece of stone was to release the illusion. So Shade continued to follow the footprints and the bloody phantom, still not heading towards the mansion, but towards the flower bed that had been covered by snowflakes.
Footprints lingered here again, and the bloody figure told Shade that Oxenfurt once again hid something under the snow.
It's still a smooth gray stone, and this time it's still an illusion.
Stone Oxenfurt stood in the middle of the flower garden, while Helena was painting in front of the easel. Helena Watson was very good at painting, and she worked as a model in the back garden when Shade came to visit for the second time.
"The wedding date is getting closer."
Oxenfurt kept moving, and his attire at this time was very similar to the first time Shade met him at Lord Granger's banquet.
"I received a letter from your father, and he gave me a prenuptial contract."
Haila Watson's oil painting hand paused for a moment, and she said softly:
"That was my father's idea, you don't have to worry about it."
Oxenfurt, who remained motionless, said:
"It doesn't matter, that contract is also necessary. It proves the property we each owned before marriage, and agreed on the distribution of property after divorce. In addition to the part that originally belonged to you, the contract also stipulates that once we divorce, under any circumstances, I
I will give you half of my personal property."
"I"
The woman in front of the easel had a guilty expression on her face.
"It doesn't matter. I left Captain Woody's ship and got this family fortune just to marry you. If one day I change my heart, I would rather give you my heart as compensation, not to mention half of my property?
"
Stone Oxenfurt, who had an extremely tough face, had always been considered by Shade to be more like a robber before, but now he showed a rugged handsomeness:
"I will love you for the rest of my life, no matter what the cost."
The illusion smiled and winked at the woman behind the drawing board, and Helena Oxenfurt also smiled:
"You love me without paying any price, just like I love you."
From a rough estimate based on the timeline, since he has become rich, Oxenfurt must have completed his contract with the devil at this time, so Shade can understand the determination of these words. And Haela Watson has finished speaking.
With this sentence, he hid his face behind the drawing board, so the owner of the manor did not see the slightly guilty expression that still existed on his face.
When the illusion ended, Shade sighed and shook his head in the snow, illuminating the snow with the light from the candlestick in his hand:
"Although everyone who knew Stone Oxenfurt said that he had always been deeply in love with her, I didn't expect that this would be the case."
【Will you let him go because of this? 】
"How can it be?"
The night sky in the west was suddenly illuminated by a golden light, and then a dull sound swept across. The ground shook slightly, and even the trajectory of the snowflakes was changed by the impact of the sound waves.
Shade glanced in that direction worriedly, and then continued to follow the footprints and the bloody figure. After leaving the flower garden, the footprints and bloody figure circled around the courtyard in front of the manor, and finally came to the door of the mansion.
The footsteps wandered again, and another piece of stone was hidden.
When the illusion was activated, the transparent figure that appeared at the door, in addition to Haila and Stone, was actually the former's father, Mr. Watson, whom Shade had met in the haunted Watson Manor. Of course, at this time
He does not look like an old ghoul with four arms, but a healthy living person.
The same translucent phantom carriage drove into the yard. Old Mr. Watson got out of the carriage, walked down with a cane, and then looked up at the manor house:
"This place is very open and looks nice, but it's a little too old. If you really want to get married, this place will need to be renovated."
"Father, Shi Dong said that it will be renovated soon."
Young Haela Watson said. Mr. Watson looked at his daughter and smiled. But when he looked at Stone Oxenfurt, the disgusted expression on his face was not concealed at all:
"I came here today to sign that prenuptial agreement with you. If Haila hadn't insisted on marrying you, I wouldn't have had any contact with someone like you no matter what."
Stone Oxenfurt is not actually a very good-tempered person, but although he is angry in the illusion, he still tries to endure it:
"Then let's go in and we can sign now."
"No, I will not enter such a dilapidated house. Although this is your ancestral home, in my opinion, it is not only dilapidated, but also the artistic aesthetic level is really poor."
Old Mr. Watson said, then put his hands in his pockets, turned his back to his daughter and future son-in-law, and turned to look at the scenery in the yard.
