He Holds a Rose from the Abyss - Chapter 22

Chapter 22 – When Darkness Comes

Chi Lang’s heart trembled.

Sheffield and Luth were still talking, and Chi Lang found James while they were talking.

James was very surprised by Chi Lang’s questioning: “Why do you want to buy this… Its rate of fire is very slow…”

“Because of the loading method? It needs the bullet and the rifling to fit perfectly?” Chi Lang asked.

“Yes, this is the craft I learned from the dwarves… Although it is useless, I also carved a few magic circles on the rifling, which took a lot of materials and time, so it must be sold for at least ten gold coins.”

Ten gold coins? Chi Lang was intimidated by the price, and he continued to ask, “A magic circle on the rifling?”

“That’s right,” James raised his eyebrows, “It’s too hard to enchant the bullet, but it’s okay on the barrel, so the bullet will have a more stable trajectory when it is fired, and the bullet will be much more powerful.”

“That means you use the magic on the gun, but it doesn’t make much sense, right? If you are fighting with people, why not just use magic? Why use a gun as an intermediate medium?”

James scratched his head, seemed a little embarrassed, and finally sighed: “That’s because I’m not good enough, I’ve seen firearms that can fire continuously, but I don’t know if they made them through magic circles or mechanical craftsmanship.”

“If the firearm can fire continuously,” James looked at the ceiling, “it should be more efficient than magic, because this enchanted gun consumes very little magic power.”

“A gun that fires continuously?” Chi Lang repeated, he couldn’t believe it, “Impossible, breech-loading guns, theoretically…”

“I can’t say more. Anyway, there are a few masters in the Magic Research Society and on the dwarf side who may be able to do it.”

At this time, there was a sound of music from the direction of the hall. It sounded very mournful, like the music of a warrior going on an expedition, which instantly attracted everyone’s attention.

“The opera is about to start. If you want to buy it, you can come to me later. I need to go to the front hall now.” James waved to him hastily.

As if being summoned, the people in this hall stopped talking, looked in the direction of the hall, and then lifted their feet and went towards the hall.

Chi Lang was caught in the crowd and was a little overwhelmed. He wanted to ask Luth what his next plans were, and then he saw a man in a clown costume nimbly shuttle through the crowd, and soon disappeared.

Judging from his stature and height, it was undoubtedly Luth.

The next moment, Sheffield walked past him.

Sheffield always stood out in the crowd. He held the long sword and walked slowly, with a smile on his face, passing Chi Lang.

Chi Lang felt that his dress was indeed a bit funny, and it was only natural that Sheffield didn’t recognize him.

Sheffield took a few steps forward and suddenly turned his head to look at Chi Lang.

There were people walking by constantly beside them, and there were voices buzzing like mosquitoes in their ears. When it was so noisy and everyone seemed busy, Chi Lang could actually hear the sound of his own heartbeat.

Sheffield started to walk back, but he just walked back without squinting, passing Chi Lang once again.

Chi Lang turned around and watched Sheffield walk to the table and put the sword back in its sheath.

He felt a little lost, but he didn’t plan to meet Sheffield at this time, and was ready to head down the hall to look for Luth.

“Won’t you wait for me?” Sheffield’s voice came from behind.

When he looked back again, Sheffield had already put his sword at his waist, and he took off the white gloves on his hands, bent slightly, and extended his hand to Chi Lang,

— “Don’t want to go to the opera with me?”

His fingers were long and with well-defined joints, Chi Lang could even make out the tiny lines on them.

Chi Lang looked at the outstretched hand. He actually had a lot of things to say in his heart, but in this atmosphere, he subconsciously asked, “Shouldn’t there be only one seat per ticket?”

Chi Lang felt that his words had ruined the atmosphere.

“Many people just came in to participate in the ‘Palace of Knowledge’, there will be many empty seats, and, even if there is only one seat…” Sheffield smiled slightly.

Chi Lang was still struggling with the question of seats, he thought carefully about how two people share a seat, and murmured: “…what if there is only one seat, it’s strange for me to stand, do you want me to sit on your lap? No, no, no, it’s even more strange… I’ll go find Luth.”

Sheffield stretched his hand a little higher, seemingly delighted, and even smiled: “My seat is in a separate area, it can sit two people… But if you want to sit on me,”

He paused for a moment and smiled, “I don’t mind.”

Chi Lang held Sheffield’s hand, it was cold. Chi Lang was stunned for a moment, and simply wrapped both hands up and dragged Sheffield forward.

He stopped the topic in time: “Let’s go, let’s go to the opera… Should I make up another ticket or something, I always feel a little guilty.”

The separate area Sheffield was talking about were seats that were floating in the air, there were twelve of them in total, floating about two stories high by magic.

When they sat up there, there was only one old man on the stage playing the accordion.

There were indeed many empty seats, which seemed deserted at first glance. Chi Lang asked in a small voice: “Where are they trading ah? This hall also does not look like a place to trade ah?”

“Underground,” Sheffield replied, “in the past, the entrance to the underground could only be opened after the opera was over, but then a lot of people got tired of the hassle and canceled it.”

“Then why don’t you just start trading directly? You must add an opera step?”

“The ‘Palace of Knowledge’ only happens once a year, so it stands to reason that the theme of each opera needs to be related to the major events in magic this year, so all magicians are required to appreciate it.”

Chi Lang understood that this was roughly equivalent to the annual summary meeting, but some people were bored and started trading resources directly.

“What is this year’s opera?” Chi Lang asked.

Sheffield’s eyes sank, he looked at the stage, and his tone was rather casual: “This year’s Palace of Knowledge happened to be arranged on the day of the Demon Lord’s birthday, and it also happened that they found Hubert’s magic handbook this year, so it should be an opera eulogizing Hubert.”

The amount of information in this sentence was a bit large, Chi Lang had no time to think about it, so he could only ask: “Has Hubert’s magic handbook been found?”

Sheffield smiled: “I heard some time ago that Hubert’s magic handbook will appear on this ‘Palace of Knowledge’… Although I think this news must be fake, I still want to take a look.”

“Why? Does the fake look exactly like the real one?”

“No,” Sheffield shook his head very slowly, the corners of his mouth raised, “because someone wanted me to come.”

After listening to this sentence, Chi Lang felt that he was almost able to string everything together.

All of a sudden there was darkness all around them, and then the stage brightened up a little, and the white light stretched the shadow of the old man.

The sound of the accordion stopped abruptly at a high pitch. The old man stood up, put away the accordion, and then someone walked out from behind the curtains, the priest who was seen outside Margaret’s magic tower that day.

The priest was wearing a white robe, which seemed out of place here, but he was holding a notebook in his hand. When everyone saw the notebook in his hand, the entire opera house was quiet, as quiet as the waters lurking in the undercurrents.

“As you can see, we recently stumbled upon the magical handbook of ‘Hubert’, the God of Magic, as you call him, and because it was found in the city of Zefnar, the Pope’s order was to give it directly to the ‘Palace of Knowledge’ here. “

Chi Lang subconsciously clenched Sheffield’s hand.

“Before I came, I visited Magician Margaret, and she said that maybe the seal of the Demon Lord is a little loose, and maybe he will use unknown means to grab the magic handbook, so I must hand this handbook to the ‘Palace of Knowledge’.”

Chi Lang suddenly remembered what Sheffield had jokingly said about the “Demon Lord” during the final assessment.

“The person in charge of the ‘Palace of Knowledge’ also said that this handbook will be properly handled, so I’m just here for a handover this time. You don’t have to be too wary of me as a priest.” Priest Raphael bowed on the stage.

Chi Lang remembered again, it seems that Sheffield’s hands have always been cold.

“It is also with some tiny hope to see if the Demon Lord of the Abyss will really return to the world?” Raphael glanced at the entire opera house, and his eyes stopped in a corner.

Chi Lang finally remembered the Demon Lord’s birthday and Sheffield’s birthday.

It was so obvious, but it made him a little less convinced.

The seats of the two of them were suddenly illuminated, and they seemed unusually abrupt in the darkness.

Raphael stood on the stage and asked politely: “Sorry, I used a magic trick, I hope I didn’t offend you. I just seemed to feel the breath of the abyss in this direction.”

Chi Lang released Sheffield’s hand.

He seemed to understand exactly what was going on.

He took out Luth’s flintlock gun, and then the bullet.

Chi Lang explained: “Ah, I used this bullet to kill monsters in the abyss before, and I always thought it was worth remembering, so I left the bullet behind. It should be the breath of the abyss that remains on it.”

Raphael narrowed his eyes, he only felt a faint breath of the abyss for a moment, and listening to this explanation made sense.

And from what he knew, that Demon Lord would never find an excuse to conceal himself if he was discovered.

So he terminated the magic technique again, apologized, and slowly stepped down from the stage.

Chi Lang was once again surrounded by darkness, and in this darkness, he felt a sense of security.

He felt Sheffield take his hand again and spread his fingers apart, interlocking them with his.