Free Web NovelChapter 2053: Chapter 2053: Half a Life, Not Yet Dead
The protagonist of the phantom remains the golden-haired girl wearing round-framed glasses, but she has grown a lot compared to before and now looks fifteen or sixteen years old. Her hairstyle is no longer braids but rather fluffy curls. In both childhood and adulthood, Miss Teresa’s golden hair was straight, so this must have been styled with a curling iron.
At this moment, the girl, once again showing a troubled expression, stands at the blackboard holding a piece of chalk. On the blackboard is a large pentagram ritual circle filled with dense ancient runes.
Shard recognizes this as the ancient rune course, which doesn’t require translation but instead calls for identifying errors within the rune ceremony array and making corrections.
This is already a domain that only transcendent individuals can delve into, so Miss Teresa should be a witch by now. Her troubled expression immediately reminded Shard of the look Margaret had when discussing the math homework Miss Sylvia left her.
"This ritual is... deviated pentagram, holy blessing runes, Shanman language series... Sun Church’s divine ritual?"
Though surprised, fortunately, this still counts as basic runology content. Shard has never seen this ritual circle; the difficulty level, compared to the education Shard received at Saint Byrons, is roughly equivalent to fourth or fifth grade.
Having never seen the ritual circle, he could only guess the ritual’s purpose—"Peaceful Sleep and Beautiful Dreams"—based on the runes’ meanings. Then, applying basic runology and relevant knowledge from "Witch Echo," Shard erased three runes from the blackboard and corrected them to what he deemed correct using chalk.
"Is this it?"
After finishing the modification, the golden-haired girl holding the chalk muttered to the blackboard suspiciously. But then, she laughed and tossed the chalk aside:
"No worries, making three corrections is good enough! There’s still time for learning later; don’t be too hard on yourself."
Saying this, she pulled Shard’s sleeve:
"Try again; the fishing spot was right; your luck was just a bit off."
She laughed and looked up at Shard, akin to Grace and Helen’s state, with Miss Teresa affectionately winking at him:
"I’m actually quite good at runology."
[Outlander, Witch Echo: Teresa, has received further correction.]
More profound and complete knowledge of ritual studies filled Shard’s mind as the smiling young girl vanished.
"The ease and openness of adolescence become the foundation of adult personality. People often lament their past mistakes as adults but seldom recall the joy in making immature decisions."
The deity, in child-like form, seemed to sigh as Shard covered his head to absorb the knowledge, and then added:
"Helping them, you’ll gain too. When the dream realm reflects upon our side, is it us dreaming of them or them dreaming of us?"
The questions of dreams versus reality were already highly complex, only growing murkier with the involvement of deities. Shard cast his line a third time, waiting two minutes before receiving a response. This time, the power transmitted along the taut fishing line was greater, nearly dragging Shard into the water.
He felt as if he were grappling with a dragon underwater. Had this fishing rod not been lent by the deity, it likely would have broken. With no leverage, Shard gradually slid towards the water from the edge of the plank, while the deity merely smiled and observed.
Suddenly recalling the fishing session with Mr. Edmund, Shard’s hands sparked dim thunder. But this time, instead of casting a thunder spear into the eerie sea, he let the thunder travel along the fishing line into the water.
The straining at the hook eased somewhat, and Shard, whose arms were trembling, ultimately achieved victory, managing to retrieve the ribbon attached to the glasses. Only then did the deity stroke the ribbon, which emitted a pale blue glimmer, and Violet’s voice unexpectedly reached:
"Is your trip going well?"
"What?"
Shard was startled, realizing this wasn’t addressed to him. Below the unlit sky, the long-missed Witch Empress, appearing more ethereal, stood before her young distant niece.
The Phantom of Miss Teresa, dressed identically, smiled, nodding at her, the ribbon tied to her hair:
"Radiant Messenger set out two days ago; the trip is interesting, and Miss Maxim is quite attentive to me. Aunt, thanks again for sponsoring my graduation trip."
It seemed she was communicating remotely from a ship with Miss Violet. The Witch Empress, her eyes filled with sparkling glimmers, nodded in satisfaction, surrounded by a phantom silhouette of the environment she was in: a vast alchemical workshop:
"I’m glad you enjoy the trip. It’s night; you’d best rest soon. Even after graduation, keep the habit of rising early. Oh, I received news this morning—the Radiant Messenger’s route, two months ago, saw the emergence of something unexpected. Care to guess? The clues are: black lightning, storms, decapitated schools of fish, frogs falling from the sky, and the invisible player."
Miss Teresa once again showed a troubled expression, then looked at Shard with a pleading look:
"What is it?"
Of course, Miss Teresa, who possesses a false body and a real soul, is still beside the fire basin at this moment; what’s here is just the phantom from that ribbon.
Normally, when encountering such strange questions, it would be Shard’s turn to search for information at his own time. But this time, after hesitating for a while, Shard actually felt he could give an answer.
Countless evil objects and even nameless terrifying creatures exist in the deep sea, for example, the thing that peeped at the inn through the "Seaview Window" during the Green Lake Battle. And according to the clues provided by Miss Violet, Shard indeed found a corresponding evil object.
However, even in the Fifth Era, that thing shouldn’t have appeared on the route:
"Evil of the Deep Sea - Seven-Tailed Player.
The main body is said to be an ancient stone statue sunk into the deep sea during the First Era, which gained life for unknown reasons. It has long entrenched itself in the deep sea, never recorded to have surfaced. Each tail striking the water could play different notes. The melody sounded from the deep abyss constantly lures the wise beings daring to peep into the deep sea, beckoning them to join it in the seabed abyss, dancing eternally with the music."
This knowledge comes from part of the fragmented knowledge contained in the divinity absorbed after taking in the divinity of the Evil God - Drowned One of the deep sea. This bizarre evil object obeys this deity, and Shard even understands a ritual knowledge called "Contact with the ’Seven-Tailed Player’," which can summon this evil object in oceanic regions. Of course, since the ritual requires a large number of live sacrifices, Shard would never use it.
"Correct, Schultz, I’m surprised you even know about this kind of knowledge."
The phantom of Miss Violet smiled and said to Miss Teresa, who seemed a little embarrassed:
"Aunt, did this dangerous thing appear near the route two months ago?"
"It shouldn’t be the main body, just reports claiming that the witch responsible for monitoring this area by the Council heard the peculiar music unique to that evil object, but no findings upon careful investigation. We’re still unclear about the reasons, just be careful."
"Yes. Then I’ll go back to rest, we’ll connect tomorrow. Good night, Your Majesty."
"Alright, we’ll connect tomorrow, have fun."
Miss Violet’s figure vanished, and Miss Teresa patted her chest with relief, then turned again to tug on Shard’s sleeve, prompting him to cast the rod again:
"Try again~ try again~ next time it’ll definitely work!"
With that, she disappeared, and Shard slightly frowned, asking the deity watching this scene:
"Could it be that the accident on the Radiant Messenger cruise is related to what the Witch Empress mentioned?"
The deity shook their head:
"I’m just here for fishing, as for the truth of the matter, if you’re interested, you can find it yourself."
Time was running out, and Shard cast the fishing rod for the fourth time. After waiting for several seconds, this time the force pulling the fishing line wasn’t very strong.
He carefully reeled in the line, using his own light, saw that this time what was "caught" was something very large.
"Finally caught something."
The deity said with a smile, but didn’t intend to help. And as Shard maneuvered the fishing line to bring the shadow to the water’s surface, he also saw a human silhouette. Having already guessed, he reached into the water and lifted Miss Schultz Teresa out of the water.
The golden-haired girl’s body was cold and her complexion pale. How long she had been submerged in the seawater was unknown, her breathing barely perceptible. Shard untied the fishing line binding her, brushed away the wet hair covering her eyes, and placed the glasses on her face. She instinctively clung onto Shard almost immediately.
The constantly trembling body seemed to absorb temperature from him. Shard didn’t push her away, but nodded at the deity, carrying her back to the side of the fire basin.
The ladies by the fire initially saw Shard carrying someone, thinking he encountered a new survivor. But when the familiar figure was illuminated by the firelight, the ladies shrouded in blankets by the bonfire turned completely pale.
Originally, only when Shard contacted the fake four bodies could they notice the complete loss of life force. The four were frozen there, and when Miss Teresa in Shard’s arms suddenly vomited seawater and then coughed violently, the other three sat there motionless in a daze, the false-bodied Miss Teresa stood up:
"So... so this is how it is."
She opened her arms and lunged like an evil spirit towards Shard, or rather the girl in his embrace.
