"Buried under all this snow and ice, there probably isn't anywhere here where we can try the key."
The Duchess sighed as she surveyed their surroundings.
"True."
More than ninety percent of Old Town must have been buried. Along the way down, they'd barely seen anywhere the key might be used.
Fu Qian nodded and took the Starlight Key from his pocket.
In the darkness, it still glittered brilliantly, clear as crystal, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
"Mm. Put it away for now."
The Duchess glanced at it, but didn't look particularly disappointed.
"The problem we're facing now is much more serious than the Loss of Color Curse. We can't afford to worry about this for the time being."
Mm!
Fu Qian silently put the key away.
In truth, he'd never planned to use it to open anything.
Having witnessed the Starlight Key's entire creation, he was quite certain that it wasn't meant to open locks.
In Fu Qian's judgment, the Witch had merely used it as a vessel, leaving a trace of her presence on it.
He'd already confirmed that the key hadn't changed. Otherwise, he wouldn't have shown it to the Duchess.
Of course, there was one thing he hadn't told the Duchess—at that very moment, not far from the top of the church, a stained-glass window was shining brilliantly, giving off a quiet, distant light.
There was no light source inside the church, so this shouldn't have been happening.
And judging by the Duchess's reaction, she clearly couldn't see it.
Something like this had happened before.
During the mission where he'd first met Su Gao, there had been a special cryptic message in the Ritual Notebook that no one else could see. Only he could.
Now that something similar had happened again, Fu Qian had