Oops, I became the witch's substitute

The cat girl was confused: "I don't know if you are kind or not, but I steal from everyone..."

Fili interrupted, "No distinction between rich and poor? You are such an equal person that you don't even let go of the elderly and children."

The cat girl immediately got angry: "I only steal from rich people like you!"

Fili couldn't stand it any longer: "What kind of logic is this? You just stole Carol's wallet, and she looks like a rich person? Do you know how she saved all this money? She worked hard to run the alchemy workshop, only had one meal a day, and repaired her clothes. She looks like she earned her money bit by bit."

"Hey, why are you saying this? Kids don't understand." Carol was lazy and a stay-at-home, absorbed in her research, and indeed she was so lazy that she only ate one meal a day.

In this way, the thief and the person being robbed had a heated exchange of views.

The cat girl felt more and more powerless as she spoke. She realized her mistake. She did not identify the target accurately enough and stole blindly. Although she was a little tough, her attitude was sincere. She bowed deeply to Carol and apologized: "I'm sorry, I thought you were rich people..."

Fili reached out and knocked on the cat girl's head: "It's still wrong. If we pursue fairness, then there is at least a rule that those who don't work don't eat. Carol and I both produce from our labor, so it's wrong for you to steal from us. And your ideal target of theft is the rich who exploit others, right?"

The cat girl's eyes lit up: "Yes, yes, that's right."

The cat girl lives in her own world and her thinking is not mature enough. I don’t know if it’s because she struggles to make ends meet every day, so she doesn’t have time to think about these things.

After all, people like her can more or less figure things out by going to Longchang to meditate for a while. Unfortunately, her own strength has hindered the progress of her thinking. A thief who is a natural hero may not be caught by ordinary people.

After Fili's things were stolen, her first thought was to retaliate against the other party. Sending the cat girl to jail was her first choice. Considering that the prison standards in this country were not very good, selling the cat girl and letting her help count the money was obviously a better way.

Fili herself also has the mentality of being a fun-loving person. Catgirls are obviously tsundere at first glance, so how can we quickly recruit her to join the group?

The cat girl scratched her head and turned around to go to the next house: "Forget it, there is nothing to say to you..."

Fili asked, "If you ask me, your method of stealing is not good, and it doesn't make much sense."

The cat girl was immediately unhappy: "What did you say! You can look down on my identity as a thief, but you can't look down on my ideals as a thief."

Fili pulled up her sleeves and asked, "Let me take you to steal. Tell me, who is the richest person around here? Or do you have a target? Don't be afraid of how powerful your target is. There is no lock in this world that we can't pick."

Carol's mouth twitched. "What are you trying to do? If you delay it too long, Anila's body will start to smell."

Fili pulled the cat girl and said, "Come on, follow us. We'll go to Anila first."

Anila's spirit popped its head out from behind Fili, and the cat girl was immediately frightened. Her pupils turned vertical, and her tail and ears exploded.

“Is this a ghost?”

"I'm still alive!"

"Why should I go with you?"

No matter what, Fili caught the cat girl and left. This kind of wild talent cannot be let go easily, and she must be won over as much as possible.

There were many alchemical puppets wandering around the streets of Bereda. Fili was amazed at the life-size figurines made here, and was surprised at the sophistication of these constructs. In another world, they would be considered intelligent robots.

The puppets here possess low-level intelligence. They have artificial spirits in their bodies that mimic life. They gain spirituality faster than machines, but they do not have the computing power of machines.

What's ironic is that not far from the brightly dressed puppets, there are ragged vagrants, lying lifelessly in a dark corner. When the cat girl passes by, she secretly drops a few silver coins while people around her are not paying attention, and then continues walking forward as if nothing has happened.

Soon they arrived at Anila's home, which was an ordinary alchemist family. They lived in an ordinary residential area and ran an inconspicuous alchemy workshop.

"Carol, you take care of her and protect her. You wait here for me." Fili made some arrangements and then walked into the workshop.

There were customers wandering around in the workshop, and the owner was operating as usual. Fili pretended to go shopping and had a brief conversation with him. She confirmed that this was a family workshop and no outsiders were hired. The owner and his wife were busy, with no sadness on their faces, and it seemed that nothing had happened.

Fili came outside the store: "Anila, are you sure those are your parents?"

Anila glanced at it and said, "I'm sure. How about I go and yell for my parents?"

Fili pressed her hand and said, "Please be patient. It seems nothing happened in your family."

As they were talking, the workshop owner called out Anila, and the ghost Anila responded subconsciously. Fili hurriedly covered her mouth and stuffed it behind her back, hiding it with deception magic. Then she and Carol stretched their necks to look at the reaction in the store.

Sure enough, a living Anila walked out of the inner room. Her face looked lifeless, and judging by preconceived notions, that was a sign of very old age.

Carol pulled out a monocle and said, "Sure enough, the soul of the old wall lamp has gone over and Anila's body has been taken over."

Fili suddenly realized and was afraid that Carol would reveal some data like experience points.

Anila screamed helplessly in the realm of deception: "Ah! How could this happen! Is that person my ancestor? Is there any ancestor who treats his descendants like this? I want to argue with her!"

Fili added: "It could be a man."

Anila squatted down with her head in her hands: "I'm not married yet!"

Carol couldn't help but take another look at the ghost girl: "Is your focus wrong..."

Fili touched her chin, then patted the cat girl's tail. The cat girl was startled, straightened her body and covered her buttocks: "What are you doing!"

Fili pointed at the people inside and said, "Actually, this is what happened. As far as we know, someone in this country created a philosopher's stone that can occupy the bodies of others. You have stolen from many people here. Have you ever encountered such a situation?"

This is also one of the reasons why Fili grabbed the cat girl. As a thief, she must have sneaked into various occasions, seen all kinds of things and treasures, and perhaps seen some secrets.

The cat girl frowned: "I don't really understand, can you be more specific? If there's nothing else, I'll leave..."

Fili took out two gold coins and said, "Consider me hiring you. This matter is very dangerous and important. To be specific, um, someone's personality suddenly changes 180 degrees. The body is still the same, but the way they deal with people has changed. They may even quickly contact people they didn't know before."

The cat girl was startled. "I'm sure I thought of someone. She's Sister Hermis. She runs an orphanage alone. The orphanage has always been in financial difficulties, but with the help of neighbors, it can barely make ends meet. I often go to help, but just a few months ago, it was said that a war broke out in a foreign country, and some nobles set their eyes on the orphanage's land, saying that they wanted to build a workshop to support the rebels. Since last month, they have used various reasons to try to bribe it, but they were all blocked by the nun. But since last week, Sister Hermis has become a different person. Not only did she refuse help from me and other neighbors, she also sent the children away for various reasons. I don't see her praying every day, and she often goes out early and comes back late to meet some suspicious people. I talked to her, and she seemed very impatient, as if she didn't recognize me."

Fili asked, "Has she changed at all?"

The cat girl nodded: "It seems, it seems like she is wearing a necklace. I have never seen her wearing jewelry before."

Fili nodded gently and patted Carol: "You and Anila stay here and stare at her body. Catgirl and I will go to that church and take a look."

Anila hesitated: "Can I return to my body?"

Carol comforted him, "Your current situation is probably because someone has used the Philosopher's Stone to occupy your body and banished your soul to a faraway place, and you are treating this as a joke. The person who occupied your body is probably quite powerful. To ensure that there is no mistake, we need to analyze the working principle of this magic, and it would be best if you can be returned intact."

Because she didn't know where the Philosopher's Stone was, whether the other party had any backup plans, or whether Anila's soul would have any sequelae, Fili planned to investigate further. It wouldn't take too long, maybe one or two days at most.

Chapter 209: We are both thieves, but you are so weak, Cat Girl

In the Philosopher's Stone incident, the currently known victims are Anila, the nun, and the one whose identity was found by Miriam.

As for the nuns, Fili, with the help of Catgirl, quickly found the orphanage. After a quick look, she found that it was an orphanage converted from a church. The previous missionaries might have carefully selected the location, but later they evacuated due to other reasons. The nuns who stayed behind should be locals. When they went in, they found that it was still the Arian Church.

This means that this nun is a follower of Marian, and they have set their sights on the clergy?

"Visit the orphanage, then I..." Fili walked into the orphanage. She didn't want to go to such a place empty-handed. Out of basic sympathy, she decided to visit the children here and bring some candy gifts.

Just as Fili was reaching for her wallet, the cat girl next to her handed her a familiar wallet, which was hers.

Fili was in a very bad mood. She took the wallet expressionlessly and found that there was no money missing. The cat girl felt a little embarrassed.

The cat girl scratched her face and said, "I just stole it subconsciously. After all, I came to the orphanage and it would be embarrassing to be empty-handed. I stole it and then I remembered it was yours."

Fili sighed in her heart: "How did you do it? Your strength and skills are just average. I can't tell that you have practiced advanced martial arts. Why didn't even I notice it..."

The cat girl had no idea of ​​her own power: "Is this difficult? As long as I want, the wallets of people nearby will naturally fall into my hands."

Seeing her silly look, Fili probably couldn't get any information out of her, so she changed the question: "Do you think that this wallet will inevitably fall into your hands, and the process of stealing is not important?"

The cat girl scratched her head: "Probably."

Fili clapped softly: "Then you have quite a talent."

If it is true as Fili guessed, the cat girl's stealing skills may have some causal ability, just like Soqing and Shin's special attack on Panties, and the real God is just feeding her life.

If Fili had such ability, she might have made a fortune long ago, and then if she was poor, she could live out her life alone, or if she was rich, she could have many wives and concubines, and live the beautiful life she had always dreamed of.

The two bought some fruits and candies nearby, and then stepped into the orphanage to bring some small surprises to the children. However, after entering the orphanage, Fili felt that the atmosphere was not right. The environment here was very different from what the cat girl described, and it was very deserted.

"Sister Hermes~! I'm here to help today." Catgirl entered the orphanage carrying two bags of food. She often came to help, but later she disagreed with Sister Hermes and left in anger. In the following conversation, Fili realized that she was the child who walked out of this orphanage. "Sister Hermes, are you there?"

There was no one in the house, so the cat girl went straight into the back room and looked for anyone in the children's dormitory, but found nothing. The cat girl began to panic and had a bad premonition.

Seeing her running around the house with no idea what to do, Fili secretly sprinkled magic dust to sense the traces of the original owner's actions, and then found Sister Hermes's room. The room was locked, and Fili gently unlocked it.

Here, Fili saw the account book, and a closer look revealed that it was about human trafficking. Most of the children in the orphanage were "dealt with" by Sister Hermis and sold to two different workshops for drug experiments. There were also several children whose names were marked separately, saying that they were adopted by different people, but Fili had already predicted the worst.

Fortunately, the time is not long and there is still a chance to save it.

Fili's ears moved slightly, and her magic sensed a slight fluctuation nearby, so she reached out and fumbled on the wall, and found a mechanism. After opening it, she pried out a small black box with two bottles of potion inside. The two potions were exactly the same. Fili used the power of deception on one of the potions, charming the person who saw it to use it first, and then took the other bottle of potion, poured the liquid inside into the portable water bottle, filled it with ordinary water and put it back.

After finishing this, Fili suddenly heard crying. She walked out of the room and found the cat girl kneeling on the ground crying.

"Why are everyone gone? Is it because I've been out there making money for too long, and everyone has been sold out by that guy?" The cat girl shouted at the top of her voice, not afraid of being heard.

Fili felt a little distressed, but after thinking about the other person's age, she didn't care and hurried over to comfort him: "Okay, don't cry first. The children here have indeed been sold, and the land is about to be transferred, but there is still time to save them. The question is where is Sister Hermes now?"

Catgirl clenched her fists. "I will not give in this time no matter what. I will buy the orphanage! I will never let Sister Hermes continue to do what she wants. What happened to her?"

Fili pinched her chin and said, "Specifically, Sister Hermis herself may be in danger. The nun you see now is not her. She has been replaced."

In ancient times, there was a cat replacing a prince, and in another world, Film became Fili. Now the philosopher's stone has begun to transform living people. The black cat devil of a certain witch would probably be very happy to see this situation.

"As for you, stay calm when encountering things, don't cry or make a fuss. We are lucky that we haven't encountered any trouble so far, but have you ever thought about it? If there is any malicious intention towards us, what if your crying attracts those bad guys?"

The cat girl stopped crying, wiped her tears, and looked at Fili with tears in her eyes: "Miss, what should I do now?"

Little sister? Fili frowned and smiled. This was a strange title. Was it because the witch was petite and her age was assumed to be older? Or was it because she simply looked petite but mature? No, she was just playing a witch, not really a witch, so she shouldn't care about such details.

Fili has memorized the account book and can write it out when she returns. The important thing now is to ask Carol for help.

The two packed up their things and quickly returned to meet Carol. Fili handed the strange potion she had found to Carol for inspection.

"Take a look, what is this potion with powerful vitality used for?"

"This is the Living Water, the essence extracted from a special water element. Drinking it can keep the body active. Now all the evidence points to them using the Philosopher's Stone to replace their bodies."

Carol simply poured out the liquid, looked at it, sprinkled some powder into the sample, and determined the composition.

"To put it simply, how do we define death? Brain death alone is not enough. In the era before the spread of magic technology, there were records of doctors rescuing people who were diagnosed as dead by drowning. There are quite a few such records. Although some people became vegetative, there are also those who barely recovered to normal." Carol gestured with her hands, roughly imitating the appearance of a soul leaving the body. "Current research shows that the body and soul have a special connection. Once this connection is broken, whether the soul is still there or not, the body's heart will stop beating, and the bacteria in the body will begin to multiply rapidly without inhibition, and the body will decay. This living water is to inhibit this situation."

Fili lowered her head: "So that means Anila should have it too?"

Carol shook her head. "Anila's situation might be a little special. I also secretly observed nearby. It's very likely that the ancestor really took over the body. Because the blood has a special sense, the body made a wrong judgment, so the situation is not as serious as that of Sister Hermes."

Fili asked again: "Now that the nun's soul has returned to her body, can she be resurrected?"

Carol shook her head. "It's not 100% guaranteed. As you know, the soul will wear out after leaving the body. But the souls of clergymen should be more special. I guess there is still hope."

At this time, the ghost Anila popped out from the wall, scaring the cat girl so much that she trembled from the soles of her feet to the top of her head, but the ghost girl also seemed to be out of breath.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Yes, it's like this. I saw that it wasn't me who left with two mysterious people."

Fili thought about it and quickly understood the information. She gave Carol a look, asking her to protect the rear while she went to attack the enemy's high ground.

Following the clues provided by Anila, Fili quickly found this group of mysterious people, followed them and quietly came to the room of the hotel. Nothing evil happened here, she simply witnessed a transaction.

"How does your body feel now? Is there anything abnormal? Do you have any additional comments on this magic of soul reincarnation? In any case, write it down in a report."

"So, what else are you hiding?"

"Sir Ron, the content of our deal is that we provide the method and you provide the research data. Don't ask any other questions."

"Hmph, okay."

Fili slowly opened the door, and under the influence of the power of deception, she walked into the house as if nothing had happened, and sat beside them as a third party to listen in, witnessing the process of them writing the report. During this period, the mysterious duo and Anila's ancestors had a dispute over terminology. The former complained that the ancient alchemists used imprecise terms and the report was full of line spacing and font errors, while the latter complained that modern alchemists were not very capable and had a lot of problems.

Fili was impressed by them. Compared with these people who could steal other people's lives without any psychological barriers, the cat girl's petty theft was not a serious crime at all.

Chapter 210 I think Carol was once famous

The atmosphere in the room was becoming increasingly tense. It could be roughly described as an ancient alchemist master was writing a report, while two young men beside him were pointing and criticizing him, occasionally teaching him about the grammatical errors here and the incorrect line spacing there. Naturally, the latter could no longer tolerate it, and even Fili, who was watching, couldn't help but frown.

If this were a grumpy guy playing games in an Internet cafe, he would have swung his keyboard at the person who was talking nonsense.

"I can't stand it! The alchemists of your time can't even calculate the basic formulas, but you nitpick over the report format and wording. Are you really doing research?"

"We just can't understand. You are a famous ancient alchemist, but you can't even get the details like the format right. How can you do any research well? Can you really sort out the process of recreating this great alchemy?"

"This kind of alchemy of body replacement may still have flaws. I can also create it! You know, my soul has always been well preserved!"

"It's because you are a master of the soul that we considered resurrecting you! But you can't even write a report properly!"

"Fuck the report! Don't mention the report to me again! Instead of fixing the font, you might as well study alchemy!"

Before Fili made her move, the two groups of people had already started fighting. However, they still had to face the report issue after the fight. When Fili overheard this, she understood that behind the ancient alchemist and the two errand boys, there was a mastermind. The other party was a real alchemist with power, wealth, and influence, and he was the ruler of Bereda.

"So this soul possession technique has shortcomings? Can my descendants still take the body back?" The ancient alchemist who occupied Anila's body was still a little worried.

The two alchemists looked at the report and glanced at her: "That's right. As outsiders, we can only help you seize the body. If you want to completely eliminate the hidden dangers, you should find a way to convert the souls of your descendants."

The principle of alchemy is equal exchange, and its essence is that matter will not disappear out of thin air, but will only transform from one form to another. Now that the body has been seized using the philosopher's stone, after considering various safety factors, the original soul cannot be dealt with immediately and can only be exiled temporarily. Although it can be exiled thousands of miles away, there is always a chance of return.

Therefore, those who occupy other people's bodies have to find a way out themselves, such as trading the souls of their descendants for something, or simply asking a priest to send the original soul away.