Chapter 2298: The Fourth Holy Sword

Chapter 2298: Chapter 2298: The Fourth Holy Sword

Miss Eles uttered something remarkable and gently squeezed Shard’s hand:

"Even I myself am unclear about what exactly I count as. A dragon? Certainly not. A ship? Doesn’t seem entirely right either. Perhaps, I am merely a fairy born of the sea.

But now those ladies from the Fifth Era are not by your side, it appears the witches of the Sixth Era are not very adept at taking care of you, so I think I cannot leave your side anymore. Soon, introduce Bella Belindel to me; I could stay at Belindel Estate for the time being."

Shard nodded immediately:

"Can I tell them who you are?"

"Of course you can, the Witch Council should welcome an existence like me. Speaking of which, the Council’s observer qualification that Miss Violet granted me back then should still be in effect now."

She sighed softly and then looked up at the moon, Shard also looked up at the three moons:

"I’m actually very curious now, and I want to get answers from you about how Miss Violet and Miss Teresa are doing. But I know, if I inquire about it, you’ll only say you don’t know what happened after sleeping, so I won’t ask."

She said instead:

"If you ask, I’ll tell you the truth."

"No, I don’t ask."

Shard shook his head and, looking ahead again, saw the grape arbor at the end of the path:

"Don’t talk too much about things from the Fifth Era, I need to find the answers myself. But you should know about the Whispering Verses anyway, as Miss Violet was one of the Witch Empresses who left behind the poem Chapter."

"Yes."

The blue-eyed girl nodded:

"Do you know about the Sword of Light?"

"Of course, now there are at least three Holy Swords present locally: Night Watchman, Sword of the Wind King, and Sorrow of Blood."

Of course, only Shard’s Night Watchman is Angel-level, the other two are somewhat lesser.

"As far as I know, there is at least one more Holy Sword locally that satisfies the conditions for drawing the sword."

She gently touched Shard’s right arm:

"Do you remember what measures the Angel-level relic in this era?"

Each level’s measuring object represents the most dangerous relic of that level, like the Sage-Level’s measuring object is the Philosopher’s Stone.

"Heart of the Evil Angel. But I remember that it’s not a sword, right? It’s a piece of malformed, pulsating black heart-shaped flesh."

Shard asked, and Miss Eles nodded, walking together with Shard under the grape arbor:

"The relic I’m talking about is related to this. The Heart of the Evil Angel is said to indeed be the heart of an angel, and the Angel-level relic Angel’s Right Arm is also said to be an angel’s right arm."

"Angel’s Right Arm?"

Information about high-risk relics is itself a source of contamination, thus not disclosed freely, and Shard had never heard of this relic:

"From the name, this doesn’t sound like a sword."

"The Angel-level relic Angel’s Right Arm, its most well-known trait is that this sword seems to be a living thing. Even if someone finds it and owns it, it will suddenly disappear one day. When it’s discovered, it always appears as the right arm of an angel stone sculpture or plaster statue creation. But before the right arm of the statue is taken off, this relic cannot be detected in any way."

"Is that also a method of containment?"

Shard asked, and Miss Eles nodded:

"Once the right arm is attempted to be removed, the entire statue will come alive due to the right arm, and the petrified angel then is equivalent to a complete Sage-Level relic or an incomplete Angel-Level relic, its power not weaker than the similarly angel-related Weeping Angel.

After defeating the animated statue, the right arm will shed itself and metamorphose into a cross sword. Before it disappears again, most people can use this sword."

She gestured in the air with her empty left hand:

"About this long, resembling the shape of a cross quite closely. What specific effects this sword can exert I am not sure, but its power likely doesn’t match the same Angel-level Night Watchman."

Shard nodded:

"From which angel did this sword originate?"

Miss Eles thought for a moment:

"I don’t know, there are too many related legends."

"Where is this sword now?"

The girl then smiled and winked at Shard:

"Can you dance with me later? No, this isn’t an exchange; whether you invite me or not, I will tell you."

"Whether you tell me about that sword or not, I will invite you."

The deep blue eyes watched him, and then she held Shard’s hand, walking together towards the entrance of the estate’s mansion.

Dancing is often the most important segment of a banquet, and as the protagonist of this party, Margaret must of course participate in the opening dance, at least for one dance.

According to established custom, if she does not bring a dance partner herself, young members of the Seven Great Families of Moon Bay will try to invite her.

Shard was unaware of what method Princess Margaret had used. When he and Miss Eles returned to the banquet hall where the ball was about to begin, before Shard could introduce Miss Eles, whose clothes had automatically transformed into a blue ball gown while passing through the garden, Miss Belindel proactively said to Shard:

"Just now, Princess Margaret wanted me to dance a piece with her. However, I think Her Highness Margaret should still join the young gentlemen for the opening dance."

As she spoke, she nudged Shard towards Margaret, and neither Earl Edington nor Earl Hawthorn objected to Miss Belindel’s suggestion.

Thus, when the violin started playing, Shard, a stranger with apparently Northern Country features, led Margaret onto the dance floor first. Others quickly followed, and Shard embraced Margaret’s waist and swayed to the soothing dance tune, softly asking:

"I’m curious, how did Miss Belindel agree..."

"She’s expressing gratitude for sharing the business profits of Teacher Sylvia with her."

The blonde princess replied with a smile, slightly tilting her head up to look at the man dancing with her:

"Now isn’t the time to talk about this. I can only dance one piece with you this time. Please focus, or I will get upset."

"Yes, yes, as you wish, Your Highness."

At this moment, the Great Witch of Destiny was sitting on the sofa against the wall, watching them. Then she turned to look at Miss Eles sitting beside her. The black hair and blue eyes barely caught the attention of the Countess, who had a striking red birthmark on her brow. Her gaze only contracted slightly in surprise when scanning Eles’ face, then pretending indifference, she asked:

"Good evening, I heard him call you Miss Eles... What is your relationship with him?"

The black-haired girl answered with a smile:

"We are friends."

"I see."

She nodded slowly, and the Diviner’s intuition told her that the girl in front of her was quite unusual. The Countess decided to probe her identity more subtly to show respect for Shard’s friends:

"When did you and he meet?"

Miss Eles thought for a moment:

"About two thousand years ago... around the year 5180 of the Fifth Era."

The witch blinked and sat up straight:

"I’m not joking."

"Indeed, I’m not joking either."

The black-haired girl observed her, increasingly finding witches from the Sixth Era to be quite interesting:

"I still retain my council observer status that the Witch Empress of my era granted me. I recall this privilege is still intact—should we verify this at the council now?"

The smile on her face became more pronounced, only to add before Miss Belindel spoke:

"No, not now."

She turned her head, looking far towards the crowd where Shard was dancing with the blonde princess:

"I’ll only reveal myself when he controls half of the council witches, as I really do not wish to listen to others. But whatever you plan to do, Earl Belindel, please wait until after this banquet concludes. He promised to invite me for a dance, and I ask not to interrupt this."

I’ve waited five hundred years; you should be able to wait an evening, right?"

Though the witch was indeed surprised earlier, she recovered by now. She had seen elderly women before:

"I’m very patient... He is my partner, and he agreed to dance with me too."

With a snap~ she closed the fan in her hand and handed it to Miss Matilda, who hadn’t spoken much all evening:

"Matilda, go and call Vanessa and Emma. What are they up to? Must they wait until the later part of the dance to appear?"

As she instructed her maid, she glanced at the graceful maiden:

"Have them come down now—yes, now. Tell them if they don’t come down now, they risk losing out, and I won’t help them retrieve it."

Thus, when Shard and the smiling, happy Margaret came to the sofa surrounded by the Royal Maids, Miss Sylvia, Miss Benanis, and Ciris all appeared as well.

They sat together with the Countess of Moon Bay and Miss Eles. Although the atmosphere was somewhat strange, Shard felt it still within an acceptable range.

He continued to sit beside the Countess, while Margaret sat beside Miss Benanis.

Miss Eles smiled at Shard and said:

"I’ve told them my story, and according to the witches’ understanding, I now seem to be considered a very old Blue Dragon."

Such a statement was not exactly wrong, and compared to "Ship Maiden," "Dragon Lady" or "Dragonborn Girl" were certainly easier to comprehend.

"The peculiar people always appear around Shard; it’s not surprising."

Miss Sylvia accepted this quickly; after all, compared to the genuine "Relics" Grace and Helen, at least Miss Eles was a normal dragon or dragonborn.

"Relics" cannot be viewed as sentient beings, yet Shard can still engage them, hence Miss Eles appeared quite normal.

Miss Benanis and Ciris shared similar views, so only the Countess found it somewhat hard to accept:

"I always feel that compared to me, all of you possess a unique way of perceiving this world."