Chapter 2369: Cream Scones and the Call of Demons

Chapter 2369: Chapter 2369: Cream Scones and the Call of Demons

"Meeting this afternoon?"

Dorothy declined to go with Shard, the blonde girl with blue eyes kissed Shard again:

"I want to stay home to meet a deadline. There’s nothing much happening this week, so help me excuse myself to the doctor, he’ll understand."

"That’s no problem, but won’t it be just me and the doctor then?"

Shard asked while holding Mia.

"Yes, enjoy your chat. Remember to buy some cream scones at the Betis Coffee Tea Room in the north of the city, thirty pieces. Yesterday, during the tea party with the noble ladies, Lecia heard from the Marquis Bonnan family’s daughter that the pastries there are delicious."

This kind of thing could actually be done by the maids, but Shard was indeed passing by, so he nodded in agreement:

"Isn’t thirty pastries a bit much? Are they for Lecia?"

Dorothy looked at him with surprise:

"What are you saying? Lecia and I both like eating sweets using each other’s body, so we don’t feel guilty. Even if Lecia wants to eat with her own body, she wouldn’t make you send them to Yordle Palace, she’d just have a servant go buy them. She’s very thoughtful about you.

Buying so much is actually to let you bring some to Angelina; she hasn’t been to Carsonrick, and Lecia is worried she won’t adapt to the food there."

But from the current situation, Angelina is very accustomed to the food there, and with Emilia and the little unicorn, she’s quite content; yesterday, she even started worrying about her weight.

"No problem, cream scones, right? I’ll bring them back."

After saying that, the Outlander strangely felt that his current life was wonderfully fulfilling, so he hugged Dorothy again and lifted her up:

"Let me see... you haven’t gained weight, rest assured."

"Who told you that?"

Miss Writer smiled and gently punched Shard’s chest, looked closely at him, and suddenly kissed the corner of his lips. When Shard asked what that meant, she laughed and ran away.

In the end, that afternoon, it was just Shard and the doctor at Schneider Psychological Clinic. Mia was brought out by Shard again, not to avoid disturbing the maid’s weekly cleaning, but to avoid disturbing Dorothy who was rushing to meet her deadline.

But thinking about it, even leaving Mia there, the cat would probably just lay on the windowsill and nap until Shard returned, so it wouldn’t make much difference.

"Just the two of us this time, do you have anything to talk about? I know you’ve been busy lately, if there’s nothing, just head home."

A week without seeing the doctor, he looked quite well. After absorbing the Misfortune Demon - Fanarius, the doctor officially began preparing for his promotion to High Ring. This wasn’t particularly troublesome, the ancient demon gave him a lot of power, and a year of continuous demon hunting provided him with a large amount of precious materials.

"I certainly haven’t much to talk about."

Shard leaned back on the soft sofa, feeling like he could temporarily discard most of his worries at the doctor’s:

"I’ve been busy with matters at Moon Bay recently. Did you see the unusual astronomical phenomenon last night? It’s worse over at Moon Bay."

The doctor clicked his tongue in amazement:

"The curtain merchants over there are going to make a fortune. But now with the anomalies directly affecting the whole material world, the matters over there should be ending soon, right?"

"By tomorrow at the earliest, and at most half a month."

Shard sighed, then stroked the cat on his lap to ease his troubled mind.

"So, do you need me to help? I’ve finished the summer exams, and aside from patients and the promotion, I don’t have much else on my plate currently."

The doctor eagerly asked, to which Shard, after thinking, didn’t refuse:

"But you can’t use the ’One-shot Deadly Pistol’ in the short term, can you?"

The doctor immediately laughed:

"I’m not the same as before; Fanarius’ power has given me more abilities that I hadn’t had before.

If you need my help at Moon Bay, I’ll give you a specially made mirror. Then at midnight, find an isolated crossroads, put the mirror on the ground, circle it three times to the left, three times to the right, and then call my name three times to the mirror.

Oh, remember to use my full name. Also, inform me of the time in advance; I need to find a mirror and wait in front of it. That way, I can appear in the mirror you hold from any mirror and walk out from it. This method of spatial movement is very secure, apart from the demanding time requirement, it has almost no flaws."

Shard sized him up in surprise:

"Doesn’t that sound a bit like a demon summoning method?"

The blue-eyed middle-aged psychologist did not comment on this remark:

"The ability to shuttle through mirrors comes from the Stone Mirror Demon - Goethe that appeared in Randall Valley, and then further enhanced the spatial power through the essence of Maze Demon - Yaruu from Green Lake. The recent strength of Fanarius ’ignited’ this talent, allowing me to achieve this."

After speaking, he laughed again:

"I also learned a pretty good ability, look."

With a clear, not-too-loud bang, the doctor was enveloped in a cloud of black mist and a few scattered raven feathers. When the mist cleared, there was only a black crow left on the single sofa:

"My newly learned Transformation Spell, Shard, what do you think?"

asked the crow.

"Meow~"

The awakened cat rudely meowed at him. Little Mia was not afraid of such small-sized birds. Shard immediately patted the cat’s little head, urging it to be more polite:

"Looks good. Is this also Fanarius’s power?"

"Yes."

As he spoke, the doctor transformed back into human form and sat on the sofa:

"Initially, I thought I could use his power to explore how to gain better luck. But the power of that ancient demon is too vast; I have only grasped the basics now. Besides the Transformation Spell, I have learned some simple curses that can make someone’s luck worse."

"Misfortune Curse? That’s considered a relatively advanced curse. I’ve recently learned a type of Heart Curse. Speaking of luck, doctor, have you consulted with Luviya on how to improve luck?"

The doctor made a helpless expression:

"Of course, I asked a long time ago. She said that Diviners can indeed influence fate, but only with minor adjustments. Moreover, toying with fate will inevitably incur fate’s backlash, so she advised against it, or worse things might happen... Based on years of experience, this statement is entirely correct."

The doctor’s luck problem is fundamentally linked with demons, both he and Shard believe in this fact, so changing bad luck probably won’t be a quick matter either.

Dr. Schneider didn’t want to discuss this topic and switched the subject:

"I have indeed gained a lot of knowledge from Fanarius, not all of which is demon knowledge. When you have time, bring your ’Malbas Demon Book’, and I’ll write down the knowledge that you can access. There are some interesting rituals and Arcane Techniques in there, and if you’re interested, you can learn them at your leisure."

"So, from Fanarius, is there any... knowledge related to ’Demon King’?"

Shard again inquired, with the doctor looking at him in surprise before shaking his head:

"Yes, but let’s not discuss that for now. Even if I promote to Nine Rings, it’s just the starting point of High Ring, now is not the right time to explore those."

Shard nodded and did not ask further:

"Then what about the Sword of Light? That day on Belindel Big Bell, the crow clearly recognized the sword Emilia held."

"There is new information here, like Fanarius, such ancient beings have highly valuable knowledge in their minds. In the past, it encountered or heard of Sword of Light bearers many times. There are two ways to exist with this sword, one is using the Holy Sword, which you and I have mentioned; the other involves experiencing a trial to gain the sword’s recognition."

Shard perked up:

"Doctor, please elaborate on the trial, I’ve really never heard of that."

The doctor shook his head:

"I haven’t inherited all the demon’s memories, or otherwise, you’d wonder if I’ve become a demon. I just know that to permanently obtain the sword’s recognition, one must undergo a series of trials. It’s a kind of sword-drawing ritual; completing the ritual makes one the permanent holder of the sword."

Shard thought of the "Star Swordstone" known from the four Dragon Scales; he probably understood the function of this relic.

"And moreover."

The doctor continued:

"As I mentioned last time, the initial form of the sword is white light, then it evolves into different colors according to the user’s own characteristics, which is the second form, and finally, the ultimate form is transforming itself into light. However, in reality, it’s possible for two Swords of Light to appear at the same point in time."

"What?"

Shard’s voice was somewhat loud, disturbing the napping cat. Although it remained displeased, it did not meow at Shard but merely changed position and lay down again.

Shard furrowed his brows:

"Doctor, according to your meaning, is there more than one Sword of Light? No, I’m dizzy. You’re saying the Sword of Light is a conceptually existing entity."

The doctor smiled and nodded:

"Yes, you got it. The Sword of Justice, Dragon Sword, and Sword of Light are Divine Artifacts crafted by the body and power of an Ancient God. Their existence is mirrored in all Holy Swords born after they exist, hence they are conceptual entities. Meeting the criteria allows one to draw the sword, and if two people simultaneously meet the criteria, both can hold the ’Sword of Light.’

However, such a situation likely won’t occur, right? Even in Fanarius’s memory, the occurrence of two ’Swords of Light’ in the same era might not even happen once per era."

"Ha, don’t say that, saying that might actually make it happen."