Miss Witch's Forbidden Book Secret

Old Carter finished eating, wiped his mouth with a tissue, and said helplessly, "Vera, you have to at least let us know what's going on."

Vera then had Herlan deliver copies of the documents to the three of them one by one.

The document's contents were not complicated; it merely contained the commission task mentioned by the Gem Isle Merchant Guild yesterday, the situation of the Holy Festival in the city that Vera had sent people to investigate early this morning, and information about the city hall's budget expenditures and special Holy Festival activities that she had purchased additionally from the Gem Isle—this part of the document did not increase in price from the Gem Isle.

According to data provided by the Gem Island Chain, the expenses of this year's Holy Festival in just one week amounted to the expenses of the entire month last year. The city hall not only provided free drinks and venues, but also exempted all businesses from taxes—in order to celebrate the blessings bestowed by Wallonia.

At the same time, the Council of Six increased the import of slaves, especially from the Empire and the Celestial Empire. A large number of death row inmates from the Empire and the Celestial Empire were sent to the Golden City, along with defeated prisoners of war imported from the Southern Continent. The death row inmates were used for blood sacrifices, while the prisoners of war were bought to build the "Vallon Statue" for the city hall.

City hall officials claimed this was to commemorate the millennia-long contributions of Valon, the god of reversal and victory, the crown of the seven islands, and the crown of the wind god, to the city of gold and the land of the seven seas, in order to encourage the citizens of the confederation to work hard and to foster a sense of unity among the seven islands.

But old Carter quickly realized something was wrong, his brow furrowing as he asked, "What is the Golden City doing! Isn't the main body of Valon a crown? Why did they create a human-shaped statue?"

Sif also realized what was going on and suddenly looked at Xia Mi, "Brother."

Xia Mi whispered, "The Council of Six still hasn't given up on that plan."

Old Carter asked in surprise, "What plan?"

Xia Mi recalled the past, her voice trembling slightly, "They wanted to raise Valon to the surface—they started doing it last year. Because they didn't have the help of alchemists, they'd been searching for a suitable vessel within the island. That's why I escaped the Seven Seas. Later, my brother came after us for this too..."

Instantly, all eyes were focused on Xia Mi.

Herlan suddenly realized that Old Carter's expression was not good. Tia also nodded slightly, playing with Vera's hair.

Vera scratched her head, looking bewildered, and said, "We also believe that the Council of Six wants to raise Valonra to the surface. But why do you know so much about this, Shami?"

"Should Vera repeat high school...?"

As soon as Vera finished speaking, she heard Tia breathing softly in her ear, making her feel ticklish.

Tia and Sif said in unison, "Because Shami/Brother was the physical vessel originally reserved by the Council of Six."

"what!"

Vera then belatedly realized what was happening and clapped her hands, saying, "Oh, oh."

Carter's face gradually darkened, and he said in a deep voice, "All signs do point to the Council of Six plotting something under the guise of Holy Day. Sif, since you all know this, you shouldn't have come back at this time."

Sif nodded, saying helplessly, "That's true. Although Father assured us that he has lost his eldest son and will protect his brother, the last heir, as long as he returns, we are still worried. But our mother is still here... At least we need to take her away first."

Carter's expression softened considerably, and he suddenly spoke in a clear voice:

"In any case, the affairs of the Council of Six are beyond your control. Saint Engard will do everything in his power to ensure your safety, especially yours—Miss Vera."

Vera was trying to think about how to handle the work ahead when Tia said, "Let me use your body."

"what?"

"Relax. It won't hurt too much."

Vera hesitated for a moment, then felt a crackling sound like electricity running down her spine, followed by a hot, swollen, and uncomfortable feeling in her lower abdomen. Her vision blurred, and she felt dizzy, as if she were experiencing a benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) attack.

But the nun spoke in Tia's ethereal and clear voice, saying steadily, "Since Vera's safety needs to be guaranteed, Mr. Carter—is it inappropriate for your side to dispatch several teams of Silver Knights for close protection?"

Upon hearing the unfamiliar voice, Carter's eyes narrowed. He had already guessed that Vera wasn't possessed, but he still asked incredulously, "You are...?"

Tia gently placed her hands, crossed, on the conference table:

“I am Tia Sulph. Of course, you can call me by a longer title if you wish: Lord of the Tower, Successor of Ulrich, Honorary Mentor of the Alchemy Society, Guardian of Nuremport, Silver Castle and all of Ansu, whatever you like, and of course, the temporary master of Elvira Salvia—we just signed a two-month master-slave contract.”

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Chapter 469 Holy Knight Sig

The practice of projecting one's soul into a distant, foreign land is, frankly, not uncommon.

However, normal projection relies on alchemical dolls without autonomous intelligence—autonomous dolls are absolutely unacceptable, not to mention dolls implanted with artificial souls.

Once the latter projects their soul, it will cause serious disorder in their own consciousness, and in severe cases, it may even directly lead to the projected soul being restricted by the soul or intelligence of the puppet.

For example, if a self-disciplined doll specifically designed for sweeping is projected onto a normal superhuman, unless their own soul strength is extremely high enough to break free from the restraint, they will be forced to follow the doll's actions, sweeping, collecting garbage, and taking out the trash at fixed times, and will not be able to perform any other unnecessary actions.

Even if their clothes are stripped off by their master, they are licked from head to toe, or they are beaten, they cannot do anything extra.

As for projecting that onto sex dolls—that would be terrible.

If one projects their soul onto a human, the projected soul will most likely be annihilated the moment of contact, thus weakening the soul's strength.

If the projection is onto a high-sequence superhuman, there is a risk that the other party could capture it and trace it back to the user's physical address.

Sif and Shami may not understand these things, but Carter, who understands spirits, knows the difficulties involved.

What Tia displayed before him was beyond his comprehension, almost describable as a "miracle"—unless Tia was not human but some kind of deity, but deep-sea deities are incompatible with human pathways, let alone the path to sainthood.

Carter immediately promised, "Saint Engard will dispatch two teams of Silver Knights and two Sequence 5 Knight Commanders to protect Miss Vera's safety."

“Thank you for your help.” Tia nodded slightly, then looked at Shami and Sif and said, “I still need the assistance of the Langhilde family.”

"Sif, right?"

Sif bowed respectfully and said, "I am. Princess Sulph—"

“No need to say more, I know what you want.” Tia held up a finger and said, “You, or rather you all, need my protection, right?”

"...That's how it is. The Langhilde family is not a benevolent place. Although our brother Bell is unconscious and we are considered to be factors in the succession, many in the family believe that he can recover, even our father. We need your protection, just as children need elders and fish need water."

“I will keep the shrike in the City of Gold.”

"Really!"

Even the usually reserved Sif was surprised and speechless. She quickly added, "Your Highness Sulph! Is there anything we can do to help? My brother and I will do everything we can!"

Tia said, "I need your cooperation with Vera's operation. Vera and I really need the help of the locals right now. After all, it's not easy to transport anything here. It's no easier than the battle of wits and courage we had in Ansu and Avalon."

"We will do everything we can to help!"

"can."

After Tia finished speaking, she glanced at Carter, nodded slightly, and released the control over Vera's body. Vera immediately felt dizzy and couldn't say anything.

However, having given her most of what she needed to say, old Carter looked grave and, not wanting to linger, quickly took his leave.

The elderly Grand Knight went downstairs to the hall of the guild hall, immediately ordered a knight to prepare a room, and arranged for people to block all probing and prophetic rituals, and immediately activated the communication ritual.

Soon the knight's portrait on the wall gradually changed, becoming a young boy with short blond hair, fair skin, wearing a priest's robe, small boots, and a child's riding crop hanging from his waist. His face was indistinguishable as male or female, but behind him, beside the wheat field in the oil painting, was a tall, chestnut horse with a heavy hammer that could open cans for plate armor tied to its saddle, and a three-meter-long, bladed, barbed, silver-plated axe-spear.

Old Carter, who had been feeling rather somber, couldn't help but exclaim upon seeing his Grand Master's attire, "Sigurd! We, Saint Enggard, are a knightly order, not a childish kindergarten!"

Sieg smiled and said, "Alright, alright. The older you get, the more stubborn you become. Let's get down to business. What's the matter that made you so anxious to see me? Did Sulph scare you?"

"You knew she was coming?"

"Ha! I knew Miss Vera was here ever since she landed on the island, but I didn't know where she was hiding. Now I know a little bit. Alright, you wouldn't understand even if I told you, you old stubborn fool, hurry up and tell me what it is?"

Old Carter then recounted the intelligence Vera had sent him and the anomalies surrounding the Gem Island Chain.

Sieg pondered for a moment and said, "So that's all there is to it?"

Old Carter said sternly, "What do you mean by 'just this'? Sig, listen to what you're saying. Is this the kind of thing a knight should say? If Valon is really pulled to the surface, regardless of whether there are any casualties, it will undoubtedly be a dereliction of duty on our part, Saint Enggard!"

"Don't worry. He can't climb up."

"Ok?"

"Because Valon is cursed by Saint Engard, he can only exist at a depth of 10000 meters. If he could break the curse and rise to the surface with the help of the Saint, but the Sanctuary was sold to the Prophet by the Council of Six a few months ago. Valon will never rise again."

Sieg said, "We don't know what the Golden City is up to. But you guys better be careful not to ruin our relationship with the Seven Seas. As for the Gem Island Chain, we'll deal with that later. Don't worry about it. We've withdrawn too much of our main force. Let Sulph and the others handle it themselves."

"Alright. Hojir sent me some incredible news from Iris. Things are really lively over there in the Great Icefield, but unfortunately, I still have to watch over this mess in the Seven Seas..."

The children in the painting gradually returned to normal and became burly knights. The hammer and axe also became lances, and only the wheat fields remained endless.

Carter had just finished the communication ceremony.

Vera had just recovered in the conference room upstairs when she stepped out and received a series of thanks from Sif. Xia Mi also addressed Vera as "Sister Vera" and said that Vera could visit them whenever she wanted.

Vera, however, was still confused and asked curiously, "Shrike alone can't possibly control your whole family! Shrike is completely useless."

This is the truth.

Sif could almost feel that the raven who was stealing wine from her cellar was about to choke. "It's not because of the shrike. It's because of the shrike—His Holiness the Shrike actually represents the protection of Saint Engard. After all, He is also the symbol of the Seal of the Crows."

The girl said somewhat uncertainly, "But after all, we have nothing but money and wine, and we can't say for sure that His Highness the Shrike will stay with us and protect us for a long time. So His Highness Sulph's grace is very important to us!"

What does it mean to have nothing but money and wine...?

Vera felt that with these two, she could easily persuade Shrike to become a guardian spirit beast, guest elder, or sect retainer in the Langhilde family. Vera had recently been reading fantasy novels in the temple, which were quite novel and enjoyable.

Vera felt like a salted fish, able to hand over her body to Tia for automatic management.

For some reason, after Tia finished incarnating and withdrew from her body, she hung up the phone but didn't call back for a long time, leaving Vera unsure of the situation.

But time waits for no one.

After Vera saw Sif and Shami off, she called Herlan over and asked, "How's our explosives preparation going?"

Chapter 470 Sudden Attack

Herlan was a capable man and quickly found a way to purchase illegal items such as explosives.

That's right, it's still the Gem Island chain.

It can only be said that the Gem Island Chain is extremely authoritative in the Golden City. If the Council of Six is ​​in charge of matters on the surface, then without a doubt, the Gem Island Chain is the master of the Golden City's underworld.

Four hundred kilograms of RDX have been shipped, but it is difficult to purchase this amount of explosives within the Golden City, so it was smuggled from other city-states. Ostensibly, it is a chemical raw material, and it will arrive at the port and be stored in the warehouse early tomorrow morning.

Vera felt relieved to hear that the explosives were in place, and she first sent Herlan with two extraordinary individuals who had passed through the Prophet pathway to the port.

She had previously commissioned people to hire mercenaries in other city-states, and now all of them had been gathered at the port, under the unified command of Herlan, in preparation for the bombing of the Gilded Square the day after tomorrow.

The bombing operation was primarily aimed at the prominent gold statue in the gilded square and the city hall.

The objective was simple—to cover Vera's actions.

Vera mobilized her troops, and the next morning, the two squads of Silver Knights dispatched by Saint Engard also arrived at the guild hall.

Vera met with the two knight commanders in the guild hall's conference room. Without hesitation, she took the seat of honor at the head of the conference table and stated directly:

"You two are knights of Saint Enggard, while I am a priest of the Holy Church. Although we are on different sides, since Grand Knight Carter has dispatched you here, please be sure to follow his orders."

The two knight commanders exchanged a glance and said in unison:

"Your Excellency Vera, please feel free to ask if you need any assistance. Sir Carter instructed us to do so before we came."

“That’s right. Besides, although the Knights and the Holy Church are on different sides, they share the same faith and are like brothers and sisters.”

Vera relaxed slightly and said, "I need you to join us in a surprise attack on the Gem Island Chain tomorrow night during the Night Festival celebrations at the Gilded Plaza."

"A surprise attack on the Gem Island Chain!?"

Upon hearing this, the two knight commanders were stunned and didn't react for a moment.

They have always believed that the Council of Six was behind the trouble, and Vera probably wanted to investigate the Council of Six and the false god Valon, and then work with Saint Engard to put pressure on the Council of Six so that she could trade intelligence from the Jewel Isle Chain.

But I didn't expect you to want to rush straight into the Gem Island Chain!

But the problem is that there's another Sequence 4 spirit in the Gem Island Chain called "Ms. Vona"!

Both knights believed the plan was a bit too radical.

Vera insisted, "We must go to the Gem Island Chain. To be honest, the matter with the Council of Six may not be resolved anytime soon. This is a historical problem for your Seven Seas, isn't it? It hasn't been resolved for thousands of years, so why should we outsiders be able to solve it in a few days?"

"Gem Island Chain raised prices rashly before, and the Council of Six is ​​deadlocked. Will they raise prices again in order to confront the Council of Six? If this drags on, we will never get any intelligence."

"The only way now is to finish this quickly. As for Ms. Vona, I'll take care of her."

Seeing Vera's persistence, the two knights were sweating profusely, unsure whether to agree or refuse.

If they agree, then Saint Engard and the Jewel Isle Chain will be enemies.

If they refused—Knight Commander Carter and Grand Master Sig had specifically instructed them to leave all authority to Ansu.

The Silver Knights uphold justice, mercy, kindness, wisdom, steadfastness, and the way of protection. However, their protection clearly does not include spirits, especially false gods who follow unorthodox paths.

They pondered for a moment, took a deep breath, and said, "We will obey your orders."

............

............

Tia's plan was simply to feint to the east while attacking in the west, and then strike directly at the heart of the enemy's stronghold.