Chapter 576: Expectations
On a subsidiary island near the main island of the Moncala Islands.
Under the pitch-black night, the sea wind whistled, and the surging waves crashed rhythmically against the beach. Listening to the sound of the crashing waves, Doro’s consciousness gradually regained clarity. Just waking from her dreams, she slowly opened her eyes to find herself facing an endless expanse of black sea and a vast sandy beach, along with a familiar figure standing not far from her, turned away.
“Um… Woo…”
Just awakened, Doro couldn’t help but yawn. The movement caught the attention of the figure ahead, and Nephnis, dressed in light casual attire, turned around. Seeing Doro wake up, she couldn’t hide her joy and said, “Miss Doro! You’re awake! How was your dream?”
“Um… the dream was… well, everything went pretty smoothly. We did what we had to do… took what we needed…”
While rubbing her eyes, Doro replied with a hint of drowsiness. Hearing her words, Nephnis couldn’t help but feel a bit embarrassed, thinking how it sounded like they were robbers.
“Well… since the plan was completed successfully, we should hurry up and leave. That Red Tier pirate might still be searching for people around here, so it’s best not to linger in Moncala.” Nephnis continued to say to Doro. Listening to her, Doro nodded slightly, preparing to get up and leave. However, as soon as she stood up, she realized a small problem.
“Uh? Neph, did you change my clothes?” Doro curiously asked, looking at her outfit. She remembered that before entering her dreams, she was wearing Moncala city guard clothes, but now she was in a loose-fitting dress of Nephnis’s.
“Yes, I changed you, Miss Doro. It’s my own clothes. After swimming with your body from so far away, your clothes were completely soaked. I was worried that if the sigils’ effectiveness came through, you might catch a cold, so I took them off and put on a set of my own. My luggage was already moved beforehand, and I didn’t want to touch your things since they might be tied to something mysterious.”
After Doro’s question, Nephnis paused slightly before speaking plainly. Doro stood there, momentarily stunned, her mind involuntarily racing.
‘Wait… someone changed my clothes… which means… someone saw me… and touched me… and it was a girl… this…’
“Ah, is something wrong? Miss Doro, did I lose something of yours while changing?” Noticing Doro’s dazed expression, Nephnis asked curiously. Doro came back to her senses quickly and spoke.
“Uh… no, no, thank you. I’ll return your clothes later, let’s… let’s just go to the designated place first!”
“Alright, let’s hurry then. I’ll go get my luggage.” Saying this, Nephnis headed to the side, while Doro let out a small sigh of relief watching Nephnis leave. Then she lightly tapped her head and thought to herself.
‘What am I thinking… I’m also a girl now…’
After thinking that, Doro began to pay more attention to Nephnis’s figure. The clothes were definitely too loose on her, especially in certain areas, which was quite obvious.
While examining her outfit, Doro lifted a large amount of loose fabric in front of her chest, trying to compare it with her own. Upon seeing the difference, she couldn’t help but swallow hard.
‘This… the difference is quite significant… I’m fourteen this year, and Neph is eighteen. How much can four years of development close the gap?’
With such thoughts racing in her mind, Doro shook her head, dismissing those inappropriate ideas, and started focusing on the task at hand.
Afterward, Doro took out her clothes from her magic box. After changing back into her outfit, she returned Nephnis’s clothes. Once everything was tidied up and the traces of their stay were cleared, Doro pulled out a spare magnetic levitation carpet. After both she and Nephnis boarded the flying carpet, Doro controlled it to fly over the surface of the sea, skimming low and quickly heading into the distance, away from Moncala’s main island.
Once they reached their destination, Doro naturally wouldn’t linger in Moncala to avoid being found by Edward through any strange means.
In her preparation for a swift escape, Doro had previously stolen a small ocean-going vessel during the day and docked it at the edge island of the Moncala Islands for her getaway means. The area surrounding Moncala was full of reefs, making it quite difficult to navigate without a guide and knowledge of the local sea conditions, but luckily Doro had found and recorded the sea maps, so it wasn’t an issue.
Thus, after flying against the sea wind for about ten minutes at high speed, Doro and Neph finally found the prepared boat on the edge island. Doro released her zombie puppets to serve as sailors, guiding the boat into the night-shadowed sea. During this process, the behaviors she learned from her time on the boat were of great assistance.
Doro steered the boat, avoiding various reefs and the operational marine sentinels of Moncala. Finally, when they sailed out of the Moncala Islands’ area, she truly let out a sigh of relief.
After the vessel completely departed Moncala, Doro returned to her designated cabin. Sitting down securely, she took out her “Navigation of the Literary Sea,” flipped to the communication page for Little Fox, and began writing about the completion of her tasks.
…
Under the night sky, in a sea area far from the Moncala Islands, a large passenger ship was sailing forward. In one of the comfortable cabins, Little Fox Shalia was sitting on her bed, placing a thick book before her, anxiously waiting for something. Nearby, a black cat sat on her bedside table, its expression heavy as well.
After finishing her last task of helping Doro hypnotize a group of auction staff, Shalia, together with her black cat, left Moncala on the passenger ship in the evening, as arranged by Doro, to withdraw from Moncala. Doro knew that Shalia absolutely could not be in Moncala while Edward was searching for dream extraordinary beings.
“Oh! Grandpa, there’s finally a response from Ed! Their plan was a complete success. Dry Wing was used to find Edward, and that guy was directly killed by the Rosy Cross while escaping. The Illusory Scales Lantern is now in their hands!”
Sitting on her bed, Shalia excitedly spoke, looking at the words manifesting on the thick book before her. Hearing her words, the black cat was taken aback for a moment, then suddenly stood up and couldn’t help but exclaim.
“Successful… they really succeeded?! Dry Wing has fallen… they just lost one of the pseudo moths? They only had four complete pseudo moths to begin with… and now they’ve lost one?!”
The black cat muttered, sounding incredulous to Shalia’s news. After thoroughly distancing himself from Moncala and confirming that they were not being monitored by the Rosy Cross’s elusive puppets, he finally dared to speak in front of Shalia.
Although the black cat had let Shalia participate in the Rosy Cross operation, he had little hope that the operation would succeed. To him, securing the Illusory Scales Lantern was already a great result. He didn’t expect they’d manage to k*ll Dry Wing! This reduced the Black Dream Hunter Group’s precious complete pseudo moth count to just three, significantly damaging their overall strength.
“Is that really true? That’s a mature pseudo moth, an Extraordinary Being of Red Tier, just like that, gone in a short time? Could it be that the Rosy Cross has secretly come to Moncala with Red Tier support?”
With a serious expression, the black cat inquired, while Shalia, after engaging in simple communication with the text before her, responded.
“Um… I’m not too sure about that. They only mentioned that during the fight between Edward and Dry Wing, Dry Wing was injured in the battle. They seized the opportunity to k*ll Dry Wing on the way while it was escaping, but they didn’t disclose any further details. If their story is true, and Dry Wing was indeed injured while escaping, I think it might have been possible to k*ll it even without Red Tier support, Grandpa.”
Pointing her chin with the pen, Shalia pondered. After listening to her words, the black cat solemnly spoke.
“The chasm between White and Red is the biggest dividing line in the conventional extraordinary promotion chain, the boundary between the immortals and mortals. Only those above Red Tier can be called high-tier extraordinary beings. Therefore, even an injured Red Tier being… isn’t something an ordinary white chalk can handle.
“The actions of the Rosy Cross are meticulous and cautious; it’s impossible for them to scheme against another Red Tier without having one as back-up… Moreover, strictly speaking, they’re not scheming against just one Red Tier; it’s three of them… I don’t believe they’d dare to take such a huge risk without a Red Tier as their trump card. In the end, there must have been a Red Tier emerging to help them wrap things up…”
As the black cat analyzed, Shalia, after listening to the analysis, also seemed contemplative.
“So, to put it another way… apart from your unique situation, Grandpa, there should have been four Red Tier beings existing simultaneously on Moncala Island. I suddenly feel it’s quite dangerous… Luckily, they didn’t all get into a mess; otherwise, we wouldn’t have escaped…
“And also… I’m really curious about that hidden Red Tier of the Rosy Cross, what they look like… Could it be Lord Patunax?” Shalia asked curiously, to which the black cat replied.
“That’s impossible. Lord Patunax should be the apostle of the deity Akasha. Apostles only heed divine revelations; worldly organizations and societies have no power to command apostles. Given the current issues with the deities, it’s been a long time since an apostle intervened in the mortal world… The severity of this incident in Moncala likely hasn’t reached the point where an apostle would step in…”
After the black cat’s analysis, Shalia nodded in understanding, and the black cat continued to ask her.
“So, now that the Illusory Scales Lantern is in their hands, when will they give us a clear explanation?”
“About that… they said the Illusory Scales Lantern is currently in a dream realm state, so it’s stored with Lord Patunax in the dragon’s territory. After that, I’ll just go there to retrieve it. After I get it, they entrusted us with helping to restore it to its original state. Then, when they need it, they will borrow it from us, and at that time, we’ll send it to them through the White Stone Craftsmen Guild.”
Shalia explained this to the black cat. After listening to her, the black cat pondered for a moment before slowly speaking.
“Regardless, we have successfully retrieved the Illusory Scales Lantern; our goal has been achieved. If the information from the Rosy Cross is true, and Dry Wing is really dead, then that group of traitors has indeed suffered a heavy blow. This is undoubtedly great news for us. Perhaps from now on, we’ll need to change our strategy, no longer endure in silence, and actively gather strength…”
“Reorganizing our strength! So… you’re finally thinking about restructuring the ideology, Grandpa?” Hearing the black cat’s words, Shalia exclaimed with excitement, and the black cat silently continued.
“At least we can start preparing accordingly. After this matter, the Rosy Cross and those traitors are now in a situation where they can’t coexist peacefully. We can trust the Rosy Cross even more and consider forming an alliance. If we can obtain their backing, we can openly confront those traitors again.
“Of course, before that, we need to gather enough strength that the Rosy Cross cannot overlook; at least we need to regain our Red Tier power. Otherwise, they won’t look at us. However, with the Illusory Scales Lantern as the support for the ritual, returning to Red Tier will just be a matter of time.
“If we return to Red Tier and successfully ally with the Rosy Cross, then those traitors will only have that one ‘Gu Mian’ who is almost turning apostolic to worry about…”
The black cat said, envisioning a bright future, and his tone even lightened. Shalia, beside him, joyfully spoke.
“Yay! Finally, I see hope! I said, Lord Dragon and his subordinates are reliable people; this operation has yielded abundant rewards!
“Grandpa! Grandpa! You always scold me for being too naive and lacking cunning, saying I would suffer big losses. But look at my performance over these past two days! I collaborated with the detective from the Rosy Cross to get a lot of important information! I absolutely made a significant contribution! Are you starting to see me in a new light now?”
Standing up from her bed, Shalia proudly placed her hands on her hips, speaking toward the black cat on the bedside table. But to her surprise, when the black cat heard her words, his face suddenly darkened, his already black-furred face seemingly darkening more.
“You shouldn’t have brought this up; now I’m angry! How can you act like a child dealing with unfamiliar extraordinary beings? You believe everything they say and answer everything they ask! A little flattery and your guard goes down completely! You’ve revealed all the details of your abilities! Thank goodness they didn’t have any thoughts about you; otherwise, you’d be in deep trouble now!
“Have I taught you for so long for you to still act like a child? You treat everything I said as nonsense, right? You’re looking for a beating, aren’t you!”
Saying this, the black cat leaped up, pounced straight at Shalia, and began scratching her skin with its claws, causing Shalia to cry out for mercy.
“Oh! Stop scratching! It hurts! Don’t scratch! If you keep scratching, I won’t give you any dried fish next time!”
