Miss Witch's Forbidden Book Secret

The next morning, the morning sunlight streamed through the floorboards and into the living room of 16 Crown Street.

Tia went out and hailed a carriage. Once inside, she took out some coins from her purse and handed them to the driver, saying, "To Silver Castle."

Seeing this, the coachman smiled sheepishly and said, "Sir, you'll get two shillings now."

"Why has the price gone up now?"

"Sigh, isn't this suffrage reform? I heard they're going to give voting rights to property owners, so they're going to raise taxes on those of us with a little income."

For a moment, Tia didn't know what to say. After paying more, a tall black horse in front of her started moving slowly.

Silver Castle isn't exactly close to the city center, and Tia was going up the mountain instead of down to the foot of it, so it took her more than thirty minutes to get there.

As soon as she arrived at the mountain, she passed through the ticket office and the gates of the fortress that had already been raised, walked straight through the fountain square in front, then turned a corner, went upstairs in the wing in front of the blooming rose garden, and headed straight for the Foreign Affairs Office on the second floor.

As soon as she arrived at the office, she heard the noisy chatter of her beloved brother Albert and his second-in-command, Sir Roman Williams.

"Go to hell, Albert! You're just a damn academic, if you can't handle governing, you might as well hand over the throne to me! Your electoral reforms are just raising taxes on the middle class?"

“You said the right to vote will be given to those with an annual income of 100 gold pounds. If they have the power, they should at least take on the responsibility of being taxpayers! What’s wrong with me asking the cabinet to raise taxes? Besides, you’re a literature major, a literature graduate.”

"I've had enough! How could I have a monarch like you? Can't you ever think straight? I proposed the middle-class electoral bill to force those old fogies to agree to abolish those stubborn constituencies that are just as old-fashioned as they are, not to expand suffrage for you!"

As soon as Tia entered, Albert shrugged and said, "Since the tax law has already been changed, I might as well propose a radical bill for universal suffrage reform later. That way, your proposal will seem more acceptable. Don't you think so, great writer?"

"Why don't you change your throne to a system of universal suffrage too!" Roman cursed, unleashing a string of elegant Ansu profanities.

Albert stroked his chin and pondered for a long time, feeling that the title of "elected emperor" was quite appealing.

Although the above conversation makes him sound like an idiot, well, the tax increase is pretty stupid too—Albert does want to expand suffrage.

It's not as simple as abolishing a few abandoned electorates and adding new ones. It's about genuinely expanding suffrage, starting with the middle-income class, possibly followed by women, then the lower classes, and finally, universal suffrage. But what comes after that is a matter for future generations.

This was not intended to diminish the authority of the monarchy; on the contrary, he wanted to strengthen it.

As for the democratically elected emperor—well, he certainly has a certain appeal.

However, to avoid the Moen family being exiled the next day, he abandoned the dangerous idea of ​​universal suffrage for the throne, and turned around to greet her, "Sulph? What brings you here? Are you also interested in suffrage reform?"

Tia sighed and said, "I'm not interested in watching turtles crawl."

Albert said unhappily, "How can you say it's like a tortoise crawling? Tortoises run very fast. Our proposals don't move that quickly. But you didn't come here to ask about that, so it's probably about the Great Ice Age, otherwise you couldn't have come here to discuss literary matters—"

"Hmm. I also found out about Bernice's situation last night. If you're worried, you don't have to..."

Tia said, "I've prepared the ship for tonight. I'm only here today to say goodbye. Otherwise, it wouldn't be very polite."

"what?"

Albert and Roman were both stunned.

He muttered, "You're being way too polite, you almost scared me. You're not thinking of taking Eleanor to the Great Icefield too, are you?!"

Tia waved her hand and said, "At least for now, I don't have that idea."

"That's good!"

Albert breathed a sigh of relief, patted Roman on the shoulder, and said thankfully, "Roman, our saint is gone. Aren't you going to use your eloquent rhetoric to commemorate him?"

Roman grinned and said, "Let's not talk about rhetoric. Don't you know how dangerous the Great Icefield is?"

"I know, but what can I do? Can I stop you? You're right, right, Sulf? I can't stop you at all, otherwise you wouldn't even be able to take a step out of Ansu."

As Albert shrugged, Tia added:

“You’re absolutely right. After all, Ansu is an authoritarian country.”

Chapter 497 Farewell to Silver Castle

"That's absolutely right—the way of authority and order!"

Albert sighed, had Roman refill his teacup, then sat down on the sofa, picked up the newspaper, and said, "I really can't say whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. The matter of George III, and the matter of Eleanor... Sigh! Roman, if the universal suffrage reform were to succeed, and the power of the royal family were to be broken down and decentralized, could it at least decouple Ansu, or at least the Moen family, from the path of the king?"

Tia felt that Albert's approach was somewhat unconventional.

It's fine, though.

In this new era, it's okay to be a little unconventional. Princesses are lesbians now, so what's wrong with princes wanting universal suffrage?

Roman felt his head was about to explode, and he rebuked her mercilessly:

"If you actually succeed in the universal suffrage reform, the royal authority of your Moen family will only last forever, because you, you beast, will never delegate power. You'll only let your subordinates get a few petty benefits and then be grateful to your Moen family!"

Albert protested, "Who says it's impossible! Can't I be a little more open-minded?"

Tia took a sip of tea, then grabbed two oranges to try. Finding them quite delicious, she put two more in her pocket to take to Annie and Vera, nodding as she said:

"Hard to say."

"Why are you contradicting me, Surf? We're family!"

"So what do you think? Do you think Ansu should have a larger parliament as the legislative body and a larger government as the law enforcement body, allowing the most outstanding talents to be selected by popular elections or examinations to enter our parliament and government, with the government providing tax revenue, the parliament providing military funding, and finally the royal family not interfering in politics and law but only leading the army to protect the people?"

"In this way, the royal family transforms from the creators of order into supervisors and guardians, greatly reducing the influence of the King's Way on the Moen family, right?"

Albert slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "Sulph, you're practically my own sister! How did you guess so clearly?"

Tia said speechlessly, "You're talking nonsense about being enlightened. Why don't you just let Eleanor go to be the king?"

This is a pure dictatorship and tyranny.

Albert stared at Tia for a long time, then Roman woke him up. Roman agreed with Tia, saying, "Albert, I told you before, Sulph has literary potential; she silenced you with just one sentence."

This is indeed Albert's ideal kingdom. After all, he was raised from childhood to be the heir to the kingdom. Words may deceive, but actions speak louder than words. He is absolutely of impeccable lineage.

However, Albert wasn't that radical or conservative. He muttered to himself, "That's true. If women had the right to vote, I would support you, Sulph, as prime minister."

"Then forget it."

"How could I let it go? Your writing skills are already comparable to those of the gentlemen in the parliament."

"Hold on. If we're talking about literary talent, then we can take a cue from Charles, gentlemen."

Albert held up the newspaper, pondered for a while, and then said, "Charles, the one from the Friday Economic News? Come on, that kid is far from good enough. He's only just learned to swear, and he only does it in the editorial. But he swore at Cavendish, haha!"

Lord Cavendish was a nobleman member of the House of Lords who frequently disagreed with Albert.

"..."

That's really true.

Roman joked, "Sulph, you're really underestimating yourself. Or rather, why don't you show us your so-called literary talent again? At least Mr. Dickens should have left us a few masterpieces."

Roman knew that Tia had helped Charles a lot, one of which was writing a letterhead for him.

It was written right under his nose at the time, but he didn't sign it later.

"I am a saint! I am very polite and kind. People who are polite, kind and loving usually don't have much literary talent. But I have occasionally seen beautiful writing, and I can show you some of it."

After praising herself, Tia subtly mocked the two people present.

Roman was speechless for a long time after hearing Tia's words.

However, Tia didn't dwell too much on the issue of writing style. She racked her brains to find suitable content from her somewhat distant memories of Earth, and then blurted out:

"That's it. Gently I leave, just as gently I came; gently I wave goodbye to the clouds of the western sky. The golden willows by the riverbank are like brides in the sunset; their vibrant reflections in the shimmering water ripple in my heart..."

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

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

This is indeed a fine work; even Albert, who scoffed at poetry as a boring and frivolous affair, couldn't help but nod in approval.

After Tia said goodbye and left, Albert sat in his office, absentmindedly looking at a few newspapers, reminiscing: "That poem is really well written. What's it called again? Farewell, farewell..."

Roman flipped through the document, saying, "Goodbye Silverburg. Not bad, the level is probably... three or four stories high."

"Ah! Yes, Farewell Silverburg. It's so well written. How did Sulph develop such a good writing style? I need to ask her to teach me sometime; it's a great skill."

“Your Highness, Sulph said this wasn’t written by her. Even though you are royalty, you still need to respect the right to authorship. Please don’t disrespect the law; you know that even royal swans are punished if they commit crimes!”

"It's the same! Didn't I have the clerk check just now? Nobody's heard of it, not even you, a top student. If it wasn't written by her, who else could it be?"

Albert said confidently, “I also need to publish it in those literary magazines, and then have all the royal ink pens in the palace praise it. Such a good work deserves to be seen by everyone. Of course, it also needs to be attributed to the recommender and critic Albert. It can’t be done without Sulph’s name!”

Roman flipped the file over and tossed it aside, casually remarking, "Who knows? Didn't Sulph say that polite, kind, and loving people usually don't have much literary talent?"

He opened the lid of the tea canister, his eyelids twitched violently, and he became even more certain:

"Such eloquence, it must have been written by some immoral and uncultured guy. I dare say it's probably a poet from the Iris family. All Iris people are like that."

Albert, who was quite eloquent, abandoned his moral principles and indulged in a life of depravity. He said unhappily, "Sulph is my sister, Roman. You're slandering the royal family! You'll be in jail."

"Huh? So she's become your sister? Does Her Majesty the Queen know?"

"Never mind me, I say so. I'm a prince, fucking. Who the hell are you?"

"Alas, birds of a feather flock together."

"You dare to slander me? Roman, your life is over."

"Brilliant."

Albert was about to leave when he opened the door and suddenly stopped, saying:

"By the way, before you go to jail later, remember to finish writing the documents for the Royal Society's transfer to the Great Icefield. Rashina has been cursing me several times, saying my mother is dead. I already lost my biological father when I was young, and I don't want to lose my biological mother in my prime."

Chapter 498 Rashina: The young couple's honeymoon has begun.

Tia's main purpose in going to Silver Castle was to say goodbye to Albert. As for taking tea, eating fruit, being sarcastic, talking nonsense, and joking around, these were just supplementary activities to relax her mind and body.

She has to come here for treatment once a month, otherwise she feels like she'll become depressed from being tormented by all sorts of divine beings and spirits that can never be completely transformed.

When they returned to 16 Crown Street, it was still early, around eleven o'clock. Tia's morning was quite busy, and Anne's was equally busy. She was having the maids from Newport pack their luggage and do some cleaning while she went to tend the garden.

While some people have a very fulfilling morning, for others, the day doesn't even begin until noon.

Vera woke up to find the world had collapsed. Her messy bedroom, where books and clothes were scattered everywhere, had been tidied up by the maids who had barged in that morning. Then she couldn't find her underwear and bra.

He was so naked that he was stamping his feet anxiously in the bedroom, and it took him a long time to find the clothes in the closet.

Just as she was getting dressed and about to go downstairs to wash up, Tia packed up her mithril operating table in the nearby ceremonial room.

—That's right, an operating table, an operating table used to dissect spirits.

Don't be fooled by this thing; it's just a big lump of iron. Its surface is covered with a thick layer of star antimony to create rituals. It can directly project souls into the deep sea at depths of 0-35000m, or perform an automated workflow of spirit detection, anchoring, capture, and surfacing within that depth.

At the same time, Tia also commissioned Bishop Famas of the church to consecrate the operating table—that is, to set up a triple sequence five "sacred realm" and "purifying aura" ritual on it, in conjunction with a spatial lock, so that the spirituality of all the spirits or human beings lying on it is greatly suppressed, and those below sequence six will even have their supernatural abilities directly nullified.

If someone were to buy this, Tia wouldn't know how to price it.

Of course, this thing is priceless and unavailable, and Tia has no intention of selling it. She wants to take it to the Great Ice Plains or a ship to study Vera.

Tia was deeply grateful for Vera's support and dedication. In return, Tia was willing to include Vera, along with all the transformed spirit teachers, in the tribute appendix when she published her "Sulph's Spirit Transformation" series of occult books in the future, as a token of her heartfelt gratitude and boundless respect.

After moving the operating table, Tia packed up the secret manual, the Victory Sword, and other miscellaneous items into her suitcase, created a temporary alternate-dimensional space, and carried it with her at all times.

With everything ready, Tia and the others bid farewell to Eleanor and boarded the carriage to Newport.

In New Orleans, the light cruiser "Madeleine" that received Tia and her companions, along with four frigates and several temporarily requisitioned armed merchant ships, totaling twelve ships, were all ironclad warships.

This ship was also one of Tia's familiar ships; she had ridden on it several times before. It was specially used to transport royalty, nobles, or political figures, so the rooms provided were 20 to 30 square meters, which was very spacious.

But even with the spacious ship, there wasn't enough room for an operating table. Tia's plan to study Vera on the ship using an operating table was scrapped, and she instead studied Vera in bed.

It's not a lewd description, but a very serious examination of Vera's body in bed.

Firstly, no matter how she studies her body, even without removing her clothes, Tia needs Vera's soul to be calmed down before she can study Vera's physical body; that is, Vera needs to be asleep or submerged in the deep sea. This must be done in a private setting.

Secondly, Tia, Anne, and Vera all share the same dorm room...

From Nuremberg to the Great Icefield, the route took the Empire's Coldwater Port. Although the Empire disliked Ansu, they still had to give the Saint face and granted the Madeline port rights and land passage rights.

The sea voyage lasted a total of three and a half days. Annie held Vera's arm and punched her into the deep sea. She also established sensory sharing with Tia. Afterwards, the two of them began to study Vera's body data. Tia physically touched Vera's body and used a ritual to modify her tactile function to directly measure the data, which Annie then recorded.

First, we need to find out Vera's height, weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, pulse, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, nervous system, skin, breasts, spine, limbs, anus and intestines, etc.

Westerburg is in the eastern part of the Empire, and it will take another two and a half days by land, with a combination of carriage and train. But we can't study Vera anymore during this time. Vera is also a bit exhausted and feels weak. She keeps protesting that she needs to rest.

Perfect timing, two and a half days of rest.

After entering Coldwater Harbor, the climate became less pleasant, especially as the temperature plummeted near the Empire's so-called "Northern Territory." Although it was already mid-April, the temperature remained below minus ten degrees Celsius, and trains were not running, so horse-drawn carriages were the only option.

Along the way, heavy snow often fell. As we approached Westerburg, we occasionally saw some tender green shrubs and grass on the bare ground, and we could also see some bright little flowers. But when we got out of the car and dug up the soil, we found that it was all frozen ground two fingers deep.