100 Birkeland Street, Portland Momont's home, a corner of the garden.
The ants and bugs that had gathered there began to disperse, the eerie, cold feeling fading away.
The Beyonder here should have little experience... Hazel, seeing the effect had been achieved, gave a barely noticeable nod, then lightly turned and strolled along the path through the garden.
She didn't hurry back inside, instead enjoying the scarlet moonlight, the crisp air, and the faint scent of flowers.
Only after a long while did Hazel stop her walk, leave the garden, and enter the first-floor hall.
By then, aside from the guests playing Texas hold'em, many ladies and gentlemen had already taken their leave. Hazel had just found her mother, Lady Liana, when she saw her father, Councilor Macht, coming down the stairs with a few other men, chatting cheerfully, their expressions very pleased.
"Are you ready to head home? You have a very important guest to visit tomorrow morning." Liana, motioning for her daughter to come closer, walked toward her husband and asked with a smile.
Councilor Macht nodded. "If it weren't for this matter, I think I would have enjoyed another one of Portland's cigars."
Liana's gaze swept over Willis, Dwayne Dantès, and the others nearby, and she casually asked, "What were you all talking about? The subject seems quite interesting?"
Macht turned a little and said with a laugh, "Dwayne said he once encountered a ghost in the Southern Continent.
"He and his companion suddenly woke up at night but couldn't open their eyes. They felt a heavy weight on them, as if someone were pressing down.
"They struggled with great effort, finally freed themselves from that state, and got out of bed, only to find the room freezing cold. You may not know this, but in East and West Bailang, the weather is hot most of the time.
"Then Dwayne and his companion each grabbed a double-barreled shotgun and stood guard all night. As soon as the sun rose, they hastily fled that town."
After hearing this, Lady Liana looked at Dwayne Dantès with keen interest: "Is this true?
"Do ghosts really exist?"
Klein smiled and shook his head: "I can't be sure. Maybe my companion and I had just been through an adventure and weren't in a stable state of mind, and our physical condition wasn't great either, so all sorts of problems arose."
The story he told actually came from an experience of Anderson, the strongest hunter of the Misty Sea. When exploring a temple in the primal jungle, he successfully encountered a ghost and engaged in a large-scale night chase.
Ghosts... Hazel turned her head to glance at the garden, the corners of her mouth twitching slightly before quickly dropping.
She said nothing, quietly listening as her parents said goodbye to the acquaintances around them, and then returned home with them.
Late at night, changed into her nightgown, Hazel walked out onto the balcony, stood behind the gap in the curtains, and stared at the sewer entrance on Birkeland Street.
As she watched, her face gradually turned pale, as if she were reliving that painful and terrifying experience.
She forced herself to look away, took two deep breaths, then turned and walked toward the bed.
In the process, she bit her lip gently and muttered to herself silently, "That should be a vengeful spirit... definitely...
"I need a charm or an item of the 'Sun' domain..."
While Hazel was staring at the sewer entrance, Klein was also looking at it.
So many days had passed, he wondered how Triss, that Witch, was recovering. Had she left? Good thing I scared Hazel off so she wouldn't dare go near the sewer entrance... Klein's gaze swept over the iron-black gas lamp posts, and he nodded slightly.
He then opened the iron cigarette case and let his wraith puppet appear in the full-length mirror.
He had decided to send Senyor into the sewer to check things out and confirm Triss's condition, to keep that Witch from causing any trouble.
Moreover, the sewer was too close to the identity of Dwayne Dantès; Klein didn't want Triss to stay nearby for long. He only hoped she would recover soon, make her move, and get far away from Birkeland Street.
Hmm, "Blood Admiral" Senyor appears from time to time, which fits the character I set earlier: he doesn't live nearby, but because the sewer here hides a secret, he often drifts over to search... Klein thought as he let the puppet in the old tricorn hat use mirror jumping to land on the surface of the gas lamp on the street, then, in a wraith-like form, penetrate the manhole cover and quickly approach the hidden side tunnel where Triss was hiding.
Before reaching the end, Senyor, who had night vision, saw that the place was already empty.
Already healed and left? Klein ruefully let the puppet continue forward and stopped in the area where Triss had been sitting.
He found it very clean: not only was the ground no longer muddy and wet, but even the moss on the walls and corners was gone.
No food crumbs either... Did that guy become a neat freak after turning into a woman? No, maybe he was always like that... Klein, using the wraith puppet's vision, surveyed the surroundings and judged that Triss either hadn't left yet or had left less than a day ago; otherwise, it couldn't be so clean.
Just as this thought passed through his mind, the sound of light footsteps reached the puppet's ears.
Under his control, Senyor turned around and headed back outside, and as expected, saw Triss, dressed in a dull black dress.
This Witch's black hair fell softly, unlike other girls her age with various hairstyles—simple, plain.
Paired with her face, which had regained some color but was still pale, at that moment Triss was like a dreamlike flower quietly blooming in the night.
No wonder she's a Witch... Good thing I'm separated by a puppet, or I'd be hard-pressed not to stare at her... Heh, dead people can't be tempted! No matter how great a Witch's charm, it can't turn the dead into zombies crawling out of graves... Klein silently grumbled to himself, then said to Triss, who seemed absentminded but was actually wary, releasing invisible threads: "Where did you go?"
Triss raised an eyebrow. "Do you like relieving yourself where you sleep?"