themonasnovels Chapter 76 The Secret of the Sacrifice
Chapter 76 The Secret of the Sacrifice
Zag had never heard of the Cecilius family.
Or rather, as someone from an ordinary commoner family, the original "Zag" couldn't possibly know much about these things, let alone a declining noble family.
"Have you met that Bernice, the one who's Mrs. Cecilius?" Zag asked. "I'm quite curious."
"Who wouldn't be curious? But she's a Viscountess, always keeping to herself. Even when she buys alchemical potions from me, it's that one just now, I heard she's the Viscountess's maid, who comes out specifically to pick up a batch of goods. Every time, she waits for the Viscountess to decide which ones to keep before compiling a list for me. I've never even seen her..." Rowan explained, "In fact, before the wedding, she already referred to herself as the 'Viscountess's fiancée,' and we did business together once. Just last Monday, she bought a batch of the kind of goods I sell to Quen Island, the kind specifically for noble ladies and wives, and said she'd consider buying a batch every week from now on."
"I suspect she has a better connection, maybe even the royal family of Quinn Island, who knows? Anyway, I'm not at a disadvantage."
Zag opened his mouth, wanting to advise Rowan to stop selling alchemical potions to Bernice, but he really didn't have the right to do so.
How should I put it? I can't just say directly that I suspect Bernice is a cultist, can I?
Completely oblivious to Zag's inner turmoil, Mrs. Rowan quickly launched into a long tirade of gossip about the Cecilius family: the passionate former viscountess who had fallen for the viscount's nephew and fathered an illegitimate daughter; the viscount's daughter who had sworn to renounce the Cecilius family and embrace the Pale King, and so on. Zag listened with great interest to all the gossip, occasionally letting out a few sighs of admiration.
The nobles really know how to have fun!
As the sun grew stronger, more and more customers came around noon. Housewives flocked to buy various spices and books written as "alchemy" but actually meant to teach cooking techniques, around 11 a.m.
The main reason is that the Norse people don't eat lunch. They eat a lot of carbohydrates and high-calorie foods in the morning, and then just have a quick bite at noon, sometimes just a baked potato or a cup of coffee, and they often don't eat until around 2 pm.
After that, they would enjoy a sumptuous dinner in the evening to mark the end of the day.
Zag once found this very incomprehensible: "Won't you get hungry?"
"A little, but isn't that normal? If you find the work too tiring, I can prepare some food for you to enjoy during your breaks."
Mrs. Marsh expressed her incomprehension but respect, and actually prepared "lunch" for Zag every day. Sometimes it was a creamy fish paste bread, sometimes it was grilled fish and potato pancakes, which was not much different from breakfast. Compared to other Northers, it was quite a feast, but for Zag, it was still very meager.
After all, as a Chinese person, it's hard to imagine someone skipping lunch.
In short, thanks to Tozag, not only Snowball and Herford have gotten used to having an extra meal at noon, but Mrs. Marsh sometimes cooks a pot of thick soup at noon and eats a few bites of bread with it.
However, as is customary, Mrs. Weyland's aromatherapy shop did not have a midday break. There was only a short break of about fifteen minutes around 1 p.m., which Zag planned to use to eat the mutton pie.
He simply can't stand not eating lunch.
After finally seeing off the group of guests at noon, Zhage was about to take out a mutton pie to eat when he looked up and his face suddenly changed color.
Standing outside the shop was an acquaintance he never expected: Liam.
"Good day, Sentry. Have a chat sometime?"
Liam pushed open the door and came in, still impeccably dressed, with a polite smile on his face, looking every bit the respectable person.
But Zag couldn't manage a smile. He tried his best to compose himself and explained to Rowan, "Rowan, this is Liam, the advisor at the Cabbage Town Anomaly Handling Association, from the Golden Palace. I..."
"I know, good day, Mr. Liam."
Unexpectedly, Rowan knew Liam and greeted him before Zag could finish speaking.
"Good day, Ms. Rowan. It's a pleasure to see you here, but I have some important business to attend to, so I apologize for disturbing you."
Rowan smiled and nodded, "It's alright, there aren't many guests right now anyway. There's a reception area over there. Would you like some dragon's blood tea?"
Liam shook his head: "No need, let's talk outside. It concerns the association's secrets."
"Then please."
So Zag followed Liam out of the shop and to a secluded spot, where he was shocked to see the other man pull out a tuft of white... dog hair!
That is the sample he gave to Fox on the black market yesterday!
"Sentinel, let me start by saying I believe you're not a member of the cult, but you'd better explain what the original werewolf's fur was all about. Also," Liam continued bluntly, startling Zag, "the Golden Palace's undercover agents tracked down an alchemist who called himself 'Zag,' and they thought you were their target, but thankfully I came and refuted that."
"Honestly, if you were truly a cultist, you wouldn't have brought Lanmir's werewolf-turned corpse to the outpost in the first place, nor would you have helped that father and daughter..."
"But, in order to clear your name, you must tell me everything you know, including the story of the first werewolf."
Zag was silent for a moment, unsure of what to say.
Does he claim to be a visitor from another world? Or does he say he can see fairies? Does he own a cat that's actually a fairy and a dog that's actually a werewolf?
Liam did not urge him, but waited patiently.
“It’s hard for me to describe, sir,” Zag began with difficulty. “I stole the Fireball spell from Flint—he doesn’t know that, and I dare not tell him because I simply cannot afford to buy a spellbook.”
"I want to use [Fireball] to bypass the association and privately handle some small requests... You know my mother's condition, I want to heal her, and one bottle of [Healing Hand] a week is really suffocating me."
These are all the truths, but only to a limited extent.
But Zag paused here, glancing at Liam's seemingly softened expression before continuing, "Then, I discovered the alchemist's affair, the traces of a cult... If you ask Mr. Matthew, you should have heard that one day I bought [Blessing of the Sea God] because of my burns, but out of concern for the flames caused by magic, I also bought a bottle of [Healing Hand], so that bottle of [Blessing of the Sea God] didn't have a chance to work, which was lucky."
"Actually, I got burned while practicing fire-related magic. I didn't have a teacher, so I just figured it out on my own, which is why I burned all the tables and chairs in the house."
It was the truth, not a single lie.
"Then, when I went to help Rosa find her father, I ran into Coal Ball, the dog I'm raising now—please allow me to explain, he was attracted by the werewolves created by the cultists, thinking there was some werewolf settlement here, but there wasn't..."
"In reality, he is a werewolf cursed by Dirac, who has the appearance of a werewolf but no werewolf ability whatsoever. He has never killed anyone because he does not possess any of the powerful strength that werewolves have. If you don't believe me, I can take you to verify this at any time."
"I took pity on him and heard that werewolf fur was a good magical material, so I adopted him and, through praying to Agora, granted him the invisibility magic to temporarily transform into the appearance of a dog."
"I came here because I wanted to sell the fur of the first werewolf to get money for my mother's medical treatment. She... she had a high fever a couple of days ago."
At this point, Zag tried to gather his emotions, his expression turning sad and frustrated.
Sometimes, to keep the real secret, you have to sacrifice another secret.
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【Dawn Magic Encyclopedia】: Werewolves are usually transformed from normal humans by a curse, and are considered a form of bestiality.
The first werewolves were born in Dirik's hunting grounds and were directly cursed by Dirik, so they were not corrupted and possessed normal intelligence. The Golden Palace Mage Research Institute of the Eternal High Kingdom even established the First Werewolf Protection Association to research treatments for the beastification disease, allowing the first werewolves to live in human society to a limited extent.
However, secondary werewolves, who are infected with the beast-like disease by the first-generation werewolves through a ritual, and second-generation and above werewolves, will have a decreasing level of intelligence and a more severe beast-like condition. The pollution is irreversible, and they are regarded as wild beasts and are not protected by the First-Generation Werewolf Protection Association.