“Well? Did you see clearly?” Fors asked as soon as they were out of the street where Viscount
Xio nodded hesitantly.
“I saw clearly…”
After saying this, she seemed to finally come to her senses and said in shock:
“I know her—no, him!”
“Him?” Fors was bewildered.
Xio habitually looked around before answering:
“He’s Sherman! The Sherman I told you about!
“He… he turned into a woman!”
Fors was taken aback and asked reflexively:
“Could you be mistaken?
“Maybe it’s Sherman’s sister?”
Xio shook her head firmly.
“No, she admitted it herself and told me not to bother her—she wants to completely leave the past behind!
“But… how could he become a woman…”
Fors’s eyes flickered, then she seemed to remember something and said thoughtfully:
“It’s not impossible… There’s a Beyonder pathway that can make a man turn into a woman at a certain stage.”
She recalled that Miss Justice had mentioned something similar during one of the free discussions.
“Huh? Really?” Xio’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Definitely!” Fors had already recalled the specific details and gave a quite confident answer.
“This…” Xio found it hard to accept for a moment, but couldn’t find words to argue, so she just asked, “Which pathway?”
Fors replied:
“Witch!
“Uh, it’s the ‘Assassin’ pathway.”
“Witch… Sherman actually became a Witch…” Xio repeated as if to herself.
Suddenly, her voice turned slightly louder:
“Could she be used by someone?
“No, I have to warn her!”
With that, Xio turned around and ran at full speed, trying to catch up with that horse-drawn carriage again.
But after chasing through several streets, she couldn’t find the target. Sherman and the carriage seemed to have disappeared into thin air.
Xio gradually slowed down and finally stopped, staring at the empty street ahead with complex emotions.
Behind her, Fors, who had passed through several walls, finally caught up.
“Gone…” Xio murmured.
Fors also looked ahead and said thoughtfully:
“We’ve been spotted…”
Before Xio could speak, she turned and sighed:
“Let’s go back. We’ll find another chance.”
Xio didn’t move but remained standing there.
After a few seconds, under Fors’s puzzled gaze, she said:
“If they’ve noticed something is wrong, will they act ahead of time?”
“It’s possible! If they don’t want their plan to fall through, they might try one last gamble tonight, before we’re fully prepared!” Fors immediately agreed with Xio’s judgment. “We go back to Viscount Stratford’s place, hide in an even more concealed spot, and keep monitoring!”
Xio nodded at once, without a moment’s hesitation:
“Okay.”
…………
In the dock area, inside a warehouse filled with stacked goods.
Sherman sat on a dirty wooden crate, her hands bound behind her, and her body wrapped in multiple thin, tough spider silk threads.
She was like a transparent cocoon, unable even to make a sound.
“This isn’t entirely bad for you,” Triss said, standing before Sherman, holding a ball of pitch-black flame in her hand. “At least you’ll be able to know whether he truly loves you or is just deceiving you.”
Sherman, both angry and terrified, tried desperately to beg with whimpering sounds, but Triss showed no sympathy. She turned her hand holding the black flame and pressed it onto Sherman’s abdomen.
The flame, as if alive, first spread out like water, then seemed to penetrate the skin and flesh without a solid form, trying to burrow inside.