Early Saturday morning, after breakfast, Shade first went to Middlesburg and retrieved materials from the House of the Blind concerning local legends and Life and Death Limbo.
At the same time, he heard good news. The Order of Spiritual Cultivation had moved very quickly and had already found a suitable entrance to the Interstice. Preparing the ritual would probably take a day, and it could be performed tonight.
This was much faster than Shade had expected. In his imagination, even if the Cult did not demand anything from him, they would at least claim they lacked important materials and send Shade to gather them. Then he would have to complete follow-up tasks such as defeating monsters and evil spirits, delivering letters, mediating family disputes, and exploring ancient ruins before finally completing the ritual after countless hardships.
But it turned out he truly did not need to do anything. That was fine too. Rescuing the Priest sooner was better than constantly worrying about it.
It was already ten in the morning when he returned home. Shade took a carriage to Miss Galina's manor and retrieved the Abyss-Eyed Dragon Squid's blood. Of course, he did not mention what he planned to do that night. The witch would never have agreed to it.
Since they still had a meeting in the afternoon, he did not go out again after returning home. Instead, he carefully studied the materials he had obtained, preparing for that night's operation.
After lunch, Luvia, Dorothy, and Doctor Schneider arrived one after another. The Doctor shared the latest news with Shade, and it was good news:
"Because one of its students disappeared, the Academy pressured the Church to disclose Middlesburg's situation. The Church finally relented yesterday!"
The blue-eyed middle-aged psychiatrist looked quite pleased.
"Since the middle of last month, disappearances