After the waiter left, Mr. Rendall lowered his voice and asked Xia De, his brown eyes looking at the young Detective across the table.
“It’s me who is looking for you, I am the same as you.”
Xia De hinted at his Ring術士 identity, with his hands clasped together on the table. On the table between them, candles were burning in a golden candelabra. This was, of course, not for illumination; the gas chandelier disguised as crystal above their heads was the light source, and the candles were merely decorative.
The faint yellow light illuminated both their faces, allowing them to see each other's eyes.
“I’ve been looking for a ritual recently.”
Xia De also lowered his voice to prevent others from hearing him:
“It’s a very ancient ritual, so I need help from an ancient organization like yours. I have no ill intentions towards you, otherwise I wouldn’t have exposed my identity.”
Mr. Rendall nodded hesitantly:
“In this day and age, not many people know about us anymore. You seem very friendly and have no intention of hiding your identity. So what exactly do you need?”
“This.”
Xia De took out his notebook from his overcoat pocket, tore off the dog-eared page, and handed it to the other party. The latter glanced at it and frowned slightly:
“You actually think we would have something like this? This is a summoning… you know what this is.”
He nervously glanced around, which gave Xia De the illusion that they were secret agents on a clandestine meeting:
“Besides you, I can’t think of anyone else who would have it. Can you find this? If so, please name your price.”
He rested his left arm on the table and made a gesture of invitation with his right hand.
“I cannot answer you directly. I need to seek help from my companions, after all, I don't have a Library in my head. As for the price, Mr. Hamilton, if you can tell us how you came to know of our existence, then I can promise you that the Knowledge you seek can be sold to you at the lowest price.”
Mr. Rendall spoke very seriously. Although he was not a professor, his long-term contact with schools made him look like the qualified high-society gentleman described in books.
“time key.”
Xia De said the answer he had prepared without changing his expression:
“During my time travel in the fifth epoch, I saw your organization at the forefront of the river of time and heard about your affairs. I even personally heard one of you say that you would continue to exist until the final apocalypse and always uphold your beliefs. That’s why I thought of looking for you in this era. It was also unexpected good luck to be able to inquire about the Guiding Light Club and then contact you. Perhaps the arc of fate is pulling us.”
Although there was an element of lies, most of it was true. As for this peculiar way of speaking, with many descriptive adjectives, Xia De learned it from Luvia. It could make others think he looked very impressive.
Xia De stated his excuse, and Mr. Rendall did not speak immediately. After a long while, he nodded slightly, but his eyes remained fixed on Xia De:
“Okay, I can accept this reason, and I think the other members of the Hermit Order can too. I didn't expect us to be exposed for such a reason. However, please do not tell a second person about the Guiding Light Hermitage.”
“No problem, and please keep my identity a secret as well.”
So Mr. Rendall excused himself to the restroom and passed Xia De’s paper to his companion waiting outside. The two sat at the table chatting and eating their respective meals. Half an hour later, Mr. Rendall suddenly got up. When he returned, he was empty-handed.
“What, no news?”
Xia De asked.
“I have the news you want, but it cannot be written on paper, it’s in here.”
The middle-aged man pointed to his head. His body was sitting very straight, indicating that he frequently attended such occasions:
“Although since the sixth epoch, we haven’t liked to expose ourselves much, the principle of fair trade has never changed. The value of this ritual, I believe you also know, our asking price is—”
“Wait, I want to know the completeness of the ritual.”
Xia De interrupted him, and Mr. Rendall considered for a moment:
“If you only rely on the parts we know, you certainly won’t be able to complete the ritual. But if you have some information in your hand, you can cross-reference it and complete the missing parts.”
“What I care about is the last part, what the ritual is meant to accomplish in the end.”
This was the key. What Miss Felianna lost was precisely the last part of the ritual.
“We have this part of the information, hidden in a fairy tale. If you want all the information, 1300 pounds. If you only need the name of the fairy tale about the final ritual and its interpretation, 430 pounds.”
Strictly speaking, this was indeed the lowest price. Even if the ritual was incomplete, it was still a God-summoning ritual, and any Knowledge related to “God” was very expensive. This was a premium phenomenon accepted by Ring術士s.
“To be safe, I’ll take it all. Um, can I pay on credit?”
Xia De asked awkwardly again. Mr. Rendall clearly didn’t expect him to say that, and he shook his head regretfully:
“Sorry, Detective of Saint Delan Square, we only accept cash. Of course, we also accept relics, but the specific valuation still needs to be discussed.”
Unfortunately, Xia De had no relics that could be consumed. Dorothy, however, still had a scale from a drowned merman, but Xia De still had a use for that item.
“Can we trade tomorrow? I need to raise some funds. You know 1300 pounds is not a small sum. Tomorrow evening at six o’clock, go to Saint Delan Square Six.”
He wanted to sell that bottle of merman elixir to Miss Jialinna. But the Duchess was not so easy to meet; he needed to write a letter first to inform her of the situation.
“No, no, I would never enter a stranger’s home.”
Mr. Rendall hastily waved his hand. He thought for a moment:
“Tomorrow evening at sunset, by the fountain in Saint Delan Square, I will bring the document bag with the information, and you will bring the box with the money. We will exchange cash for goods.”
“Okay.”
After finishing their respective meals, Xia De and Mr. Rendall paid their bills separately, but Mr. Rendall voluntarily paid the tip.
Dorothy did not appear immediately after Xia De left the restaurant, but caught up with him from the thin evening mist behind him after he turned into Saint Delan Square.
“You’ve worked hard, thankfully nothing happened this time.”
Xia De did not forget to thank her. Dorothy shook her head, indicating it was nothing, and then asked if the transaction was successful.
Throughout the rest of the night, Xia De continued to study the story “Kiss of the Tree” with the Writer. There were simply too many versions of this ancient fairy tale, even one where the princess and the ancient tree walked into the end together in the firelight.
Dorothy really liked this ending.
At the same time, Dorothy was also trying her best to better master the power of “the little match girl” through Xia De’s Ling Rune before the promotion ritual at the end of this year.
Because of Dorothy’s unreserved help, the progress of learning “Kiss of the Tree” was much faster than Xia De’s solo study of “crazy light chaser.” He had a premonition that perhaps the Ling Rune of “Kiss of the Tree” would be obtained faster than 【Light】.