Miss Witch's Forbidden Book Secret

Mayor Rafa reflected for a moment and reminded them, "Gentlemen, Mercury over there has already finished arguing."

Tia and Vera both fell silent.

Anne, who had just received a guarantee from Evelyn, breathed a sigh of relief. When she came to her senses and saw Vera there, she realized that the second batch of research vessels had arrived.

"Ugh, it's all Evelyn's fault. She suddenly wants me to go back now... Vera! Hehehe, let me hug you!"

"Wow!"

Anne stepped forward and hugged Vera cheek to cheek to show her enthusiasm and welcome.

Vera was quite receptive to Anne's enthusiasm, unlike when she went to an academic conference and turned into an academic locust, frantically devouring food and completely avoiding social interaction—mainly because Anne was naturally very outgoing, and the two were already quite familiar with each other.

After giving her a tight hug, Annie gently tapped her forehead and said with annoyance, "It's all... humph, it's all because Tia said such nice things just now, making me almost forget something important."

After saying that, she quickly looked at Tia and said, "The Philosopher's Stone is almost finished. There are probably four or five more days of construction left, after which the reddening will be completed."

There really is a philosopher's stone...

Vera had absolutely no idea what was going on.

Tia patted her chest happily, "Master Ibn's work is going very smoothly."

The blonde heiress held her head high, practically saying, "Praise me! I helped out too!"

"Yes, Annie was a big help too!"

"......but."

"but?"

Tia paused for a moment and then said, "I'm afraid there's something important coming up next, right?"

Anne straightened her face and said cautiously, "It might be considered... Actually, Mr. Marn asked me to pass on this message. I was just about to tell you about it, but you distracted me."

"Hehe."

"Damn it, stop acting cute! You're messing with my mind again."

"Okay."

"Mr. Marn said that he contacted Tower Street in Mistmoon City in his nightmare this morning, but lost contact with the councilor on Tower Street in the nightmare when he suddenly floated up. He then tried to contact the Constitutional Council in Mistmoon City using a backup ritual, but to no avail..."

Upon hearing this, Tia's expression gradually turned serious.

"Did you try to contact them again afterward?"

"Mr. Marn arranged for two members of the Alchemy Society in Golden Moon Bay to go to Mistmoon City, but there has been no reply yet. So he specifically asked me to convey his message to you, to ask if you have any ideas?"

"Within Fogmoon City... it's possible to make contact. The doll is still there, and Holly and Scarlett are also there."

Tia asked疑惑地, "But the problem is, what exactly happened on Tower Street? We can't get in touch with Santis and Sazdal?"

Tia suspected the two giants who had infiltrated Fogmoon City.

However, Maximilian, the witch of the Seven Winds and daughter of the Frostlands, arrived too late and went to intercept Balrogs at sea, but found nothing. So she returned to Mistmoon City to sell her assets and purchase machines and alchemy equipment to improve the lives of the bandits.

In other words, Maximilian is at least still in Mistmoon City.

Meanwhile, there are four or five other renowned figures in Mistmoon City—even if half of them are scholars, would Santis and Sazdive dare to act so rashly?

Tia was puzzled, and at the same time, she was preparing to use the puppet to project onto Mist Moon City.

In the conference room, Lovisa came out and said, "If needed, Saint Engard can activate the Knights' ritual at any time to try to contact Mistmoon City."

Chapter 395 The City of Barriers

Next to the city hall, outside the Knights' headquarters.

The Knights of St. Engard's headquarters is located three kilometers east of the city hall; it was originally an ancient military castle used for tourism.

A long row of three-meter-high red walls runs outside, and behind it, a fortress with red tiles and red walls is surrounded by tall watchtowers. On both sides of the main gate, there are heavily armed knights on guard duty, but they are all dressed in casual clothes and not armored. They all sit in the guardhouses on duty, collecting entrance fees from tourists through glass windows.

Outside the gate, a carriage came to a sudden stop, and Marn Cullen got out and walked straight to the guard post at the Red Wall Gate.

Upon seeing the knight, he removed his top hat and immediately said, "I am Marn of the Alchemy Society. Where are Knight Lovisa and Envoy Sulph now?"

Upon hearing the name, the still somewhat drowsy knight immediately sprang to attention, clenched his fist, patted his chest, and saluted, saying, "Mr. Marne! Go straight ahead to the castle, and you'll reach the third floor! The Grand Knight Commander and the special envoy are already trying to contact Mistmoon City."

Before Marne could even thank them, he hurriedly set off for the castle. As soon as he entered the castle gate, he went straight up to the third floor.

This castle is not a conventional stone structure, but a brick and stone mixed construction with bright windows and clean tables. It seems more like it was specially decorated for living than for military use, but it is indeed very old and has poor sound insulation.

He could hear Lovisa's voice coming from the small room at the end of the corridor from afar.

“Something’s not right… There was no problem with the ritual, nor was it interrupted by any external force.”

During the ceremony, Lovisa frowned.

The two knights who were activating the ritual on the ritual array nodded and said, "We also conducted a comparative test here, and the situation is consistent with what Lady Lovisa said. We have reason to suspect that the knightly ritual in Mistmoon City was disrupted."

"Impossible. There is still a Sequence 4 Grand Knight in Misty Moon City. Even if it was destroyed, he could at least send the message back."

Lovisa took a deep breath and said, "Then the remaining possibility is what Envoy Sulph mentioned."

Annie listened with bated breath.

Tia was eating sunflower seeds with Vera.

The matter has escalated considerably.

Saint Engard couldn't contact Mistmoon City, and even Tia couldn't project her soul to Mistmoon City—she tried repeatedly no less than ten times.

Nine times, he couldn't find his doll at all, as if it had been destroyed.

However, on the seventh attempt, she unexpectedly reconnected with the alchemical doll, but as soon as she projected her soul into Mistmoon City, she instantly felt that something was watching her soul.

Books may deceive, but the spirit will not.

Someone must have noticed that she had crossed the "barrier" that separated Mistmoon City, so Tia immediately cut off the projection ritual and tried to contact Scarlett.

But Scarlett didn't respond—which gave Tia a rough idea of ​​the current situation in Mistmoon City: someone had "isolated" Mistmoon City.

St. Engard conducted repeated tests, which finally alarmed the knights stationed there. They began to write a report and send it to Hogel, the vice-commander of the Politics Coast, requesting that the matter be reported to Jeremiah, who was in the southern counties.

The forced "quarantine" of the capital is by no means a "minor matter," no matter where it is located.

Anne saw Tia and Vera chatting and eating sunflower seeds next to her and whispered, "How can you two relax like this!"

Tia said, "It's not that we've relaxed, but rather that things are quite clear now. There's definitely a big problem in Misty Moon City. There's no use being anxious now. Let's wait for Marn to come over first. Didn't he send someone over in person? Let's see what he has to say."

Anne calmed down considerably and looked at Vera again.

This is truly relaxing.

Vera resignedly said, "I've only just arrived in Mistmoon City and I've already encountered a problem that I can't solve at all. I'd better just eat some sunflower seeds!"

This little nun is the one who's completely numb.

At first, she thought the main purpose was to help Tia—even if the enemy was powerful, at least the Ansu naval fleet was behind her!

It turned out that Tia was perfectly fine.

This was a win-win situation; she could go to Mistmoon City for an exchange and study, and also enjoy a paid trip with plenty of food and drink.

Then Fogmoon City was destroyed.

Just as Vera finished speaking, a worried voice came from outside the door.

“Your Excellency… Envoy Sulph. And the Grand Knight Commander.” Marn nodded, his face grim, and said, “The situation is terrible. None of the three Sequence Seven alchemists have returned.”

Upon hearing this, Lovisa and the Silver Knights' already grim expressions darkened further.

Tia gently removed the sunflower seed from her mouth and casually stuffed it into Vera's mouth.

Vera was chewing absentmindedly, looking completely bewildered, when Tia said something startling: "It seems the worst-case scenario has come true."

"Marne, your being sent to Golden Moon Bay is probably related to this, isn't it?"

Marn was slightly taken aback, not quite understanding yet.

Anne and Lovisa and the others all looked over—the situation was bad enough, but was Marne's being sent here related to this?

Tia analyzed, "Sealing off the entire Fogmoon City is definitely not something that one or two Sequence 4s can accomplish. Even a Sequence 3 would have to put in a lot of effort—it's the capital of an entire country, a city with hundreds of thousands of people."

"So the only possibility is that Sazdive and Santis, who just smuggled themselves into Mistmoon City, along with their accomplices, the Imperial Alliance."

"And Marn, your reputation among the upper echelons of the Empire isn't very good. If something really happens to Mistmoon City, you'll most likely fall into the Empire's hands. Since President Jeremiah has considered this issue and even sent you to Golden Moon Bay out of personal favoritism, he probably already anticipated what would happen to Mistmoon City, right?"

Marn does have a bad reputation among the Imperials.

Because he took kickbacks too much—in order to pay off various debts and to bribe officials, Grand Duke Chapeel and the Imperial Department allocated 15,000 gold guilders to him every month, and he spent 10,000 of them on himself.

So much so that even the people of the Empire noticed something was wrong. The funding had been reduced from 15,000 at the beginning to 10,000 three months later, and now it's only 4,000!

And how much work did he actually do?

Grand Duke Chapeel, the Imperial Chancellor, pinned his hopes on the iris to create a "torn unity," but in the end, the constant bickering prevented them from accomplishing anything.

Yes, Marn did just that.

Since the convening of the Grand Council, his main task has been to propose a whole host of bills to please the Imperials, such as "providing the Empire with most-favored-nation status in exchange for peaceful and free trade," "introducing the Empire's advanced tactics and instructors," "peace negotiations," and "joint garrisoning."

Even the lowest-ranking commoners of the empire couldn't help but raise their chests high when they saw a foreign party leader cheering for his own country.

But any normal person knows that these bills have absolutely no chance of passing.

The result was that it did absolutely nothing except to incite the Iris people's resentment towards the Imperials and the treacherous Marn Cullen.

Anne and Vera were from Ansu and knew little about it. Lovisa, on the other hand, had lived in Golden Moon Bay for a long time and paid little attention to the power struggles in Mistmoon City, so she also knew very little.

But Tia knew:

Marne has never changed his ways; he has always been a fraudster!

Moreover, because the Emperor of Light had gone too far, if the Hand of Transformation really attacked Mistmoon City, the Imperials would definitely ask the Hand of Transformation to send Marn to meet the Father of All Things with a single shot.

Upon hearing this, Maren suddenly realized what was going on, but he wasn't embarrassed at all; such things were just commonplace for him.

It's just a little bit of weathering.

Tia had a premonition: "Sure enough... as soon as Jeremiah leaves Mistmoon City, chaos will ensue."

—I just didn't expect it to come so quickly.

Chapter 396 Tia: Then you came for nothing?

Evelyn was hanging up her computer by the door to the ceremony room.

She stood by the wall, her hands clasped over her lower abdomen, a hint of worry in her eyes—something seemed amiss.

Evelyn thought to herself: If I find something is wrong, I'll just kidnap the young lady and Sulph and send them back to Newport quickly.

But then she thought again:

No, that won't work!

She can't beat either of them!

Evelyn hesitated, then shut her mouth and continued to AFK by the wall.

On the other side...

Anne was also aware of the danger—but she didn't intend to leave.

On one hand, acquiring the Philosopher's Stone was indeed a valuable experience, and she wanted to complete this part of her studies. Moreover, Golden Moon Bay was relatively safe; the Ansu navy fleet was still at sea.

She was the eldest daughter of the Mercury family, not a spoiled rich man's foolish child. She knew very well which was stronger, the Ansu Navy or the Empire's cobbled-together fleet.

On the other hand, Tia can't leave.

She even had to go to Fogmoon City.

Although she has completed her "deal" with President Ulrich, and Ulrich's legacy of "Knowledge," "Sanctuary," and "Sanctuary Completion Sequence Advancement" has been ostensibly handed over, there is something else beyond the deal.

She obtained the Philosopher's Stone.

The Philosopher's Stone is made from Prestige Antimony, the key material Santis relied on to achieve "the origin of knowledge" and advance to Sequence Three. Tia has already forged an irreconcilable feud with Santis.

This is also part of the price to pay for gaining power.

At this moment, Scarlett and Holly are still in Mistmoon City—and logically and emotionally, Tia finds it difficult to abandon them. If she goes to Mistmoon City, she will inevitably face Santis and Sazdal, with no possibility of remaining uninvolved.

Tia glanced around at Annie, Vera, Marn, and the group of knights, and smiled with a relaxed expression: "The prophet who landed on the island earlier was outnumbered and outgunned. If he didn't return to Tianfang, he's probably in Mistmoon City."