"Well? Did you see it clearly?" Fors had just left the street where Viscount Stratford's mansion was located when he saw Hugh walking back with a gloomy and slightly bewildered expression.
Hugh nodded hesitantly:
"I saw it clearly..."
After saying that, she seemed to finally come to her senses and said, quite shocked:
"I know her, no, he!"
"Him?" Fors was confused.
Hugh habitually looked around before saying:
"He's Shermane! The Shermane I told you about!"
"He... he's turned into a woman!"
Fors was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously asked in return:
"What if you admit you've made a mistake?"
"Actually, she's Shermane's sister?"
Hugh shook his head firmly:
"No, she admitted it herself, and told me not to bother her, that she wants to completely say goodbye to the past!"
"But... how did he become a woman...?"
Fors's eyes flickered, and suddenly he remembered something, pondering as he said:
"It's not impossible... There's an Beyonder Pathway that can transform a man into a woman at a certain stage."
She remembered that Miss " Justice " had mentioned something similar during a free exchange.
"Huh? Really?" Hugh's eyes widened in disbelief as he asked.
"I'm sure!" Fors had already remembered the details and gave the answer with considerable certainty.
"This..." Hugh found it hard to accept, but couldn't find a way to refute it, so he could only ask, "Which way?"
Fors replied:
" Witch!
"Uh, the ' Assassin ' route."
" Witch... Shermane has become Witch..." Hugh repeated to himself.
Suddenly, her voice rose a little:
Could she be being used?
"No, I have to remind her!"
Before he finished speaking, Hugh turned around and ran wildly, trying to catch up with the taxi again.
However, she chased him for several blocks but couldn't find him again; Shermane and the carriage seemed to have vanished into thin air.
Hugh gradually slowed down and finally stopped, looking at the empty street ahead with a complicated expression.
Behind her, Fors broke through several walls and finally caught up.
"Gone..." Hugh whispered.
Fors also turned his gaze forward, and replied thoughtfully:
"We've been discovered..."
Before Xiu could speak, she turned around and sighed:
"Go back, we'll find another opportunity."
Hugh didn't move; he remained standing there.
After several seconds, she spoke under Fors's questioning gaze:
Now that they've discovered a problem, will they take action beforehand?
"Possibly! If they don't want their plans to fall apart, they might try one last gamble tonight, before we're ready!" Fors immediately agreed with Hugh's assessment. "Let's go back to Viscount Stratford's place, hide in a more concealed spot, and continue monitoring!"
Hugh nodded immediately and responded without the slightest hesitation:
"Good."
Inside a warehouse in the Dock Borough, where many goods were stored.
Shermane sat on the dirty wooden box, her hands tied behind her back, her body covered in thin, tough spider silk.
She was completely encased in a transparent cocoon, unable to even utter a sound.
"This isn't necessarily a bad thing for you," Trissy, standing in front of Shermane, holding a ball of jet-black flame. "At least you can be sure he truly loves you, or is deceiving you."
Shermane was both angry and terrified, and tried her best to plead with whimpering sounds, but Trissy was unmoved. She flipped her hand, which was holding the black flame, and pressed it against Shermane's stomach.
The flames seemed to possess Spirituality; they first dispersed like flowing water, then, as if without form, they penetrated the skin and flesh, attempting to burrow inside.
Trissy's smooth, jet-black hair began to sway against the laws of nature, pulled by invisible hands, extending outwards, so much so that the surrounding air seemed to be imbued with a strange scent.
The hairs subtly thickened, becoming more separated and distinct from one another.
From their bottoms, streams of deep, dark light emerged, carrying curses and words, flowing swiftly forward, merging with the black flames, entering Shermane's belly, and disappearing quickly.
Shermane's face twitched uncontrollably, but she felt no pain; it seemed to be just a purely instinctive reaction.
She quickly calmed down and saw Trissy's body, dressed in a dark long dress, gradually fade, become transparent, and disappear.
Shermane's pupils dilated, and she struggled again, but she couldn't break free from the restraints.
She exhausted herself time and time again, yet she started again and again, like a flood slowly rising centimeter by centimeter in a silent warehouse.
After an unknown amount of time, the warehouse door suddenly swung open with a loud bang, crashing against the walls on both sides.
A figure staggered in; it was none other than Viscount Stratford, who was already middle-aged.
Unlike his usual outings, he didn't wear a white wig, revealing a high hairline and rather messy black hair, which was stuck together in clumps, seemingly soaked by the downpour and then dried a bit. But for the past few hours, the clouds had been thin, the red moon hung in the sky, and it hadn't rained at all.
On Viscount Stratford's face, beads of sweat slid down his hard lines to his neck, and beneath his skin, countless fine black lines seemed to flow.
His body was slightly hunched, his facial muscles Distortion, and his eyes were filled with pain and worry.
Looking around, he was initially delighted to spot Shermane, but then became anxious and rushed over, almost losing his balance.
When Shermane saw him enter the warehouse, her face suddenly came to life, as if it had been bathed in light.
She immediately showed a mixture of worry and fear, and frantically tried to shake her head, but her neck was firmly fixed by the spider silk and she could not turn it no matter what she did.
She grew increasingly anxious, so much so that tears welled up in her eyes, drop by drop, glistening and fragile.
Just as Viscount Stratford was about to reach her, a loud bang suddenly erupted between them.
There seemed to be an invisible wall separating Viscount Stratford and Shermane on opposite sides, an insurmountable barrier.
"If you want to lift the curse and take her away, then answer my questions without any concealment." At that moment, a figure swiftly emerged from the corner of the warehouse.
Each of her features was charming, and together they created an exceptionally sweet beauty, resembling the lover every boy had dreamed of in his youth—the very Witch Trissy.
Before Viscount Stratford could respond, she raised her right hand, causing a black flame to burst forth.
Viscount Stratford's face, hands, and neck—all the exposed skin—suddenly became transparent, revealing his veins.
Within each blood vessel, black flames burned quietly, flowing silently.
The pain in Viscount Stratford's eyes reached its peak at that moment, but vanished in an instant.
His expression turned extremely cold, and his eyes even carried a hint of mockery, as if the one cursed was not himself, but Trissy was a long distance away.
Suddenly, a large amount of black flames rose around Trissy in the corner of the warehouse, illuminating the dense, invisible spider silk, but they could not be ignited.
In an instant, Trissy, like Shermane, was "sealed" inside a transparent "cocoon," unable to move or escape.
At the ventilation opening high up in the warehouse, another figure emerged. It was a woman whose exact age was indiscernible, dressed in a simple, pristine white robe. She had black hair and Blue Eyes, and possessed a refined and beautiful appearance with an indescribable charm.
" Katarina Pelle..." Trissy seemed to have used all her strength to finally utter a name in a low voice.
At that moment, Viscount Stratford reached out and pulled out a phantom doll tightly wrapped in black fire threads.
He glanced at Shermane beside him, then turned to Trissy and smiled:
"I never take matters of life and death lightly. After Sykes died, I knew that one day it would be my turn."
"Hehe, you're hunting me, but of course there are others who want to hunt you too. We've been very patient, afraid of scaring you away, so we haven't done anything and have waited until today."
"Also, your gift is very nice."
Upon hearing Viscount Stratford's words, Shermane, who was still habitually struggling, stopped all movement abruptly, her expression blanker than ever before.
Her eyes were wide open, but unfocused, as if she were sinking inch by inch in the water.
"Love..." Trissy suddenly laughed, a laugh that sounded both sarcastic and self-deprecating.
She showed no nervousness or panic.
At the Megro Manor, night had fallen.
Klein had just settled in for more than twenty guests and made preparations for the hunting trip the next day, suddenly woke up shortly after falling asleep.
His intuition kicked in, and a picture appeared in his mind:
Major General Qonas Kilgor, dressed in a shirt and trousers, stealthily flew out of the guest room window, Levitation outwards against the laws of nature.
This... I haven't even made a move yet... He came here for his own purpose... A thought flashed through Klein's mind, and he had already controlled a cockroach outside, transforming it into Marionette, using its "eyes" to observe the surroundings.
Almost simultaneously, Qonas Kilgor appeared.
After leaving the Megro Manor, the Demigod immediately lost his sense of "distance" and quickly arrived at the banks of the Tussock River, preparing to cross it.
The cockroach watched silently, without making any reaction.
He's going to the Tussock River... What is he planning to do...? He likes to hunt in the countryside, could it be to cover up such an activity? Was there a reason he introduced me to the Megro Manor? Klein lay in bed, carefully analyzing Qonas's behavior.
When that Demigod from Military Intelligence Section 9 actually set foot on the Tussock River, Klein suddenly remembered something:
After escaping from the underground ruins where Ince Zangwill and others were located, he appeared in the northwest of Backlund, on the Tussock River, not too far from the area where the Megro Manor was located.