Blood tax

Chapter 459 Strange Story of the Castle ([-])——What is a Miracle?

it is alive

Neferti's fingers trembled slightly.Despite Naira's warnings that she was forbidden to come to Verona for a camping trip, the Marquise of Odessa felt that she had not obeyed her brother who was a few seconds older than herself.Moreover, she had a premonition that if she missed this trip, she would regret it for the rest of her life.

The wind direction outside the window is changing drastically.

Thick clouds pressed low on the roof and towers of the old castle, huddled together like a group of hibernating snakes, never drifting away.A dense atmosphere enveloped it.It was shimmering, flickering on all the ground objects around it, and flickering under the churning and surging mist.

Neferti was oppressed by some inexplicable and unbearable feeling, like a poisonous snake lurking near a little rabbit, unable to breathe.At this moment, a bolt of lightning struck the spire of the tower, illuminating the room brightly.

"what!"

Nefertti groaned softly.

"what's the situation!?"

The fellow Desai ran over.He was on guard in the corridor, and all the blood in his body had already evaporated.

Neferti hesitated for a moment.When she saw clearly the sergeant who had disrupted her destiny, she puffed up her chest and held up the demeanor of a marquise:
"It's nothing."

Desai looked at her and said indifferently:

"The captain of Ophelia's preparatory assault squadron asked everyone not to leave too far. If there are any clues about the Viscount's family, they need to be collected as soon as possible."

Nefertti glanced at him: "Bayeran's military order is only valid for brave officers and sergeants. But I, an honorable citizen of Odessa, am not bound by you."

"Miss is right," Desai replied as if endorsing, "Then, as Captain Griffith's agent, I will remind Miss Marquis that the captain will join us at any time."

"Will the knight come!?" Neferti exclaimed in surprise.

what--!How could I say such a thing, as if I was looking forward to his coming... Neferti blushed immediately, and lowered her head.

"..." Desai didn't expect the title of captain to be so effective.He froze for a moment, until Neferti handed over the diary in his hand.

"If you can't read, I can teach you to read."

"Thank you, Miss Marquis, my education in the NCO school has enabled me to be competent for my job, so don't bother me."

Neferti immediately blocked back:

"Oh~ I can't imagine that you soldiers have something else in their heads besides muscles and obedience~
"That's a good thing, otherwise, with a barren brain and a stuffy lid, the top of your head will be barren in a short time!"

It's not very happy to hear this... Desai grinned and wanted to laugh it off.He suddenly felt that the helmet seemed really boring, so he took off the heavy protective gear, and prepared to calm down and refute.

Before he could say anything, Neferti suddenly touched the cherry red mouth with her index finger.

"Hush! Did you hear anything?"

The rags and broken wooden poles on the wall were blown by the north wind and fluttered back and forth on the wall, rubbing against the stone surface uneasily.I don't know why, maybe it's out of instinct—when the gust of wind paused, a depressing and vague voice came from nowhere.

Desai listened.Soon, he also heard something.

"Hiss - Li Li Li!"

This is an ethereal, long and illusory flute sound.

Accompanied by the howling wind, an inexplicable fear seeped into his body and weighed on his heart.He panted, struggled to shake his body, tried his best to get rid of this strange feeling, and stared out of the window——

There's something out there!
Like the trill of a rattlesnake trembling its deadly body, far and near.The sound seemed to be passing through the sky.

The windows of the castle suddenly dimmed.In an instant, there seemed to be extremely fast dark clouds covering the glimmer of the sky, making everything plunge into darkness.

It came and went, and when the light came back into view, Desai saw a long shadow flicker across the floor lit by the light from the window.

"Hiss - Li Li Li!"

This rattlesnake-like flute sound quickly went away from the top of the head, and it made people feel that it would come back at any time.

"Let's go!"

Desai and Neferti said at the same time.They ran out of the study to join the others.

The two walked through the corridor and found that there were portraits of the ancestors of the Kloseer family that they had not taken along the way.Near the end, Ophelia is looking up at a portrait.

"Captain Ishtar, Miss Marquis found a diary." Desai reported.

However, Ophelia did not respond to him, but continued to stare at the portrait.She inexplicably felt that her mind was a little confused and her sanity was not very clear.

The two also cast their eyes on the painting, and saw a calm and resolute middle-aged man in the painting.

There is a brief introduction of him beside the portrait.

"Count Wesker de Crozel"

He was the father of Viscount Iseus de Crozier, a famous and outstanding figure, but he ended up tragically. He died silently in an investigation operation in the southern forest.His fall pushed the Klosere family to a steep slope of decline, and they have not been able to recover until now.

"Come on people!"

Just then, someone shouted from another place.

"There is a wizard's workshop here!"

The fellow first-year students finally found the secret library of the Kloseel family behind an angled wall.If you are lucky, you can collect some spell-casting materials, or use the magic circle here to ask for help from the rear.

All are in high spirits.After leaving the necessary support staff, Ophelia took Neferti, Desai and some people into the secret room.

Through a hidden step, they walked down until they came to the basement deep in the castle.

Tiny mildew spots and gray-white cobwebs covered the walls like vines, and there were some dents and damages left by the demolition of the walls between the support columns in the basement. It seemed that someone had repeatedly expanded the place.Many broken pieces of wood and glass were also found on the ground, as well as large wooden barrels containing a third of the remaining wine.Everyone searched carefully, but did not find the magic circle and precious materials.

"The owner here dares to use this secret room as a wine cellar," a first-year student said disappointedly. "The country nobles value their wine more than their lives. We can only find some empty wine barrels here!"

"No, there."

Ophelia's magic eye quickly found traces of psionic energy.She found a movable stone slab that was [-] centimeters thick, and it fit perfectly with the rest of the ground.When it is closed, outsiders will not be able to find the basement hidden deep in the mansion unless they lift the entire foundation.

Another section of stone steps with no end in sight, extending all the way to the prehistoric cave underground.

Everyone went down there to find bones strewn on the ground, and the weirdness in the air was disgusting.

"There is an echo circle here!" several first graders cheered.They found a usable magic circle on the floor, and as long as they added materials, they could communicate with the reinforcements in the rear.

This good news encouraged everyone.Although the environment is harsh, this carefully hidden basement must be used for mystical purposes.

Some people vigorously started to charge the magic circle, while others carefully groped and moved forward, and found some huge broken glass vessels. The turbid liquid dripped all over the floor, and the strange smell emanated from it.

"These glass jars are huge!"

"Dare to pretend that a ten-year-old child goes in."

Neferti followed closely beside Ophelia and Desai, not daring to move casually.It was only when everyone's wands were shining brightly that she realized that there was a large glass jar standing in the corner.

The curious boys and their Sutoral also noticed that, and immediately surrounded them.

"Nothing, nothing..."

They almost put their faces on the glass and looked inside from different angles.

Some kind of liquid was contained in the huge container, which was pushed and shaken by the crowded people.At this moment, a mass of objects suddenly rushed towards everyone's faces from the darkness.

"Wow--!"

Everyone took two steps back in fright.The thing hit the inner wall of the vessel and bounced back.

Someone had the guts to raise his wand and look over there...

He saw a hunchbacked and deformed creature like an ape floating in the liquid, with a humanoid skeleton and a face that was extremely weak and twisted into a creepy.

Neferti, who saw this clearly, almost fainted from fright, and even Desai gasped.

"I've seen the aliens in the east and the murlocs in the west sea," said Ophelia, rubbing her forehead, "but I've never seen anything like this."

"Come and see here!"

Someone shouted in panic and anger.

Behind the glass vessel, he found a square stone trough, and a pipe of unknown material was connected to the glass vessel.There are many human skeletons, or bones similar to human shapes, piled up in the stone trough.

Some relatively complete skeletons were lying on the ground outside the stone trough, maintaining a posture of trying to crawl outward.

This filthy and extremely evil scene made everyone extremely frightened.

All of this happened in the castle of a Viscount Byelan.Just when everyone was about to start panic associations, Ophelia suddenly shouted:

"Retreat. Everyone, get out of here!

"Contact Berthier and other teams, everyone gathers, we want to..."

"what--!"

A miserable scream interrupted her words.Those who remained at the upper entrance screamed and begged for mercy, and then their voices became a muffled reverberation in the throat, and finally, there were several spine bending and eerie popping sounds.

Without order, everyone took up their weapons and formed a battle formation with Transcendent Ophelia as the core.

"Do you know where this is? My lovely guests."

A footstep came from top to bottom, walking towards them.What followed was a cold and suppressed mad voice:
"Oh~~ This sweet breath, Miss Neferty, is it you?

"It seems that fate is indeed on my side, hahahaha."

The brilliance in Ophelia's demon eyes shone, and the pure spiritual energy turned into a scarlet moon scythe, and the power to tear apart the space lashed towards the evil enemies above.

"Bah!"

There was a loud sound of the shield being shattered in the air, followed by a crisp falling sound.A silver mask fell down the steps to the floor.

"You are……"

In the darkness, Ophelia was the first to witness the true face of the enemy.

"Enough of the useless resistance, it's too late, Ophelia," said the creature on the steps, "don't you want to know?

"Behind endless desire,
"Pursuing wild dreams in the name of progress,
"Stories of fools.

"After all, dear Miss Neferty, you are also one of the wonders of this miserable world.

"Yes, my friends—

"Miracle,
"Back to life is a miracle."

(End of this chapter)