Turning to look out the window, at the very back of the crowd, the two indeed saw Iluna, whom they hadn't seen for over a week.
Everyone in her Ring術士 team had come to the station to pick her up; the men were helping with the luggage, while the brown-haired girl smiled and chatted with the purple-lipped lady beside her.
"She's back."
After more than a week, Iluna didn't seem to have changed much, aside from the fatigue brought on by the journey.
Xia De and Luvia remained seated in the restaurant, waiting for a full twenty minutes before they saw Iluna hurrying along the street.
The two also walked out of the restaurant to meet her:
"Oh, I'm back!"
After all, she was only seventeen; although she had experienced many things, she still seemed immature.
Right there on the street, Iluna first gave Luvia a warm hug, then looked at Xia De with a bright smile:
"Good morning, Xia De, how have you been lately?"
Her face was beaming with a smile, more radiant than this misty morning.
Xia De really wanted to say that he had been very leisurely lately, with a good income and not much to do. But neither the exam week a week ago nor the recent Coldwater Port mermaid incident allowed Xia De to say such words.
"Did you run into trouble again while I was away?"
The young girl said with a smile, her expression quite understanding:
"Things always await us, but we can solve them together. Xia De, Luvia, now that I'm back, leave everything to me!"
Unsure of what she encountered at the Holy See, Iluna was quite confident:
"I've gained more information and secrets from my status as The Chosen; some things I haven't even told the Holy See. But there's no time today, I need to report back to the church and deal with some delayed work. How about we meet tomorrow?"
"No problem."
Xia De and Luvia both said so, and then Iluna took out two items from her pocket and handed them to the two:
"Travel souvenirs."
The purple-eyed Diviner received a string of bookmarks made from leaf specimens, nine in total, each one a different leaf.
As for Xia De, he received a book with some cats wrapped in yarn printed on the cover in ink, titled "Rimter's Cat Rearing Guide." Opening the table of contents, he indeed found content about bathing cats in the third chapter.
Xia De smiled:
"A very nice gift, I needed this!"
The three didn't stand on the street for too long, as Iluna was eager to return to the church to report back, so they quickly parted ways. They agreed to meet tomorrow morning at Xia De's house to exchange information.
Luvia still had work at the Prophet Association, so she didn't stay long either. After Xia De parted ways with the two girls, he returned directly to Saint Delan Square.
He had an appointment with Priest Augustus to meet at ten o'clock this morning, but it was not yet nine when Xia De returned home, and the Priest was already standing at the entrance of Saint Delan Square Six.
On Wednesday morning, the misty square was sparsely dotted with vendors selling spices and trinkets. On the side away from Xia De's house, a group of citizens were watching two middle-aged gentlemen in formal attire demonstrating their major invention, the "Colored Bubble Manufacturing Machine Based on the Principle of the Third-Generation Civilian Steam Engine."
The square was quite clean, with not much litter visible. The Boy selling newspapers, in between his calls, would stand by the fountain in the center of the square, watching the lazy pigeons walking around.
This was a very ordinary Wednesday. The Priest standing at Xia De's doorstep, after the carriage carrying Xia De stopped, almost grabbed the young Detective who was walking out of the carriage with his head down:
"Wait, Priest, I haven't paid the coachman yet!"
The Old Priest pulled Xia De, wanting to tell him something, but still waited for him to pay the fare first. The Priest was holding a paper bag, looking sweaty as if it were hot, but because it had rained yesterday, the temperature was clearly not very high.
"Priest, let's go inside and talk, what's wrong with you?"
The old man seemed to have encountered some major accident, panting and not saying a word. After entering the house, closely following Xia De who opened the door with a key, he slammed the door shut with a bang, then grabbed Xia De's wrist, widening his eyes:
"That potion! The potion you asked me to appraise on Tuesday, where did you get it?"
"Meow~"
Mia's sound of running downstairs could already be heard. Xia De didn't react at first, but when he saw the Priest take out the bottle of purple-glowing liquid from the paper bag containing Holy Prayer Festival souvenirs, he realized it was the one he got from the Fishbone Pirate Ship.
"I won it playing rhode cards with someone at the tavern not long ago..."
This was the most reasonable and unsuspicious answer. Of course, Xia De didn't forget to add:
"...It wasn't that I wanted to gamble, but the other party insisted on gambling my special card. His stake was this bottle of potion, but the other party only knew that it was related to the elixir of immortality..."
Putting the key from his pocket into the cookie box on the shoe cabinet, Xia De bent down and picked up the cat that had already run downstairs, then motioned for the Priest to follow him upstairs:
"Priest, is there something wrong with that potion?"
Because the Ling Rune 【greed】 and those ten coins were too important, Xia De didn't pay much attention to that potion. Now, seeing the Priest's attitude, he realized that the potion the captain took out of his stomach during the second gamble was not an ordinary item either.
In fact, if you think about it carefully, if it were an ordinary item, it couldn't have been preserved in his body.
"This is Potion - Mermaid's Elixir of Immortality!"
On the stairs, the Priest said in a low voice, his eyes wide as he looked at Xia De. But there was no one else in the house, so lowering his voice was completely unnecessary.
"I know it's an elixir of immortality."
Xia De nodded:
"Isn't that the name I told you?"
"Oh, Xia De, your first-year course 'Basic Potionology' didn't cover this kind of thing, but this is a genuine elixir of immortality. No one in the sixth epoch could make this, and even in the fifth epoch, only the most powerful Witch Emperor could obtain such a potion as an offering from Xenomorph mermaids. In other words, this is a precious potion that only Witch Emperor-level figures can use."
Xia De turned slightly to look at the Old Priest. The professor shook the potion in his hand, the purple liquid gently swaying within it:
"This is a true master-level potion, even a Thirteen Ring Sorcerer can't make it. And do you know what the most precious thing about this potion is?"
Priest Augustus asked. Xia De hesitated for a moment, then, holding the cat, replied:
"It... hasn't expired?"
"Yes! This potion actually hasn't expired! Oh, Mr. Dawn, this is simply a Miracle! Could it be that someone in the sixth epoch can still concoct this? Or was this potion preserved using a special method?"
The Priest became more and more excited as he spoke. The two had already reached the second floor. After pushing open the door, Xia De put down the cat and prepared to hang up his coat:
"Priest, then is it possible to use this potion to re-discover the lost potion concoction techniques?"