On an affiliated island near the main island of the Moncarlo Islands.
Under the dark night sky, the sea breeze howled, and surging waves washed over the beach one after another. Listening to the sound of the waves, Dorothy's consciousness gradually cleared. Having just woken up from a dream, she slowly opened her eyes. What appeared before her was the endless black sea and the vast beach, as well as a familiar figure standing not far away with her back to her.
"Hmm… woo woo~~"
Having just woken up, Dorothy couldn't help but yawn. Her movements attracted the attention of the figure in front of her. Naifnis, wearing a light casual dress, turned around and looked at the awakened Dorothy, saying with a smile:
"Miss Dorothy! You're awake. How was it in the dream?"
"Hmm… in the dream… it was alright. Everything went pretty smoothly. Those who should be killed were killed… those who should be taken were taken…"
Rubbing her eyes, Dorothy said with a hint of sleepiness. Listening to her words, Naif, who was standing beside her, couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed, thinking, why does that sound like we're robbers?
"Um… since the plan was completed successfully, let's hurry and leave. That Scarlet Arch-Pirate might still be looking for people everywhere. It's best not to stay in Moncarlo for too long." Neff continued to say to Dorothy. Listening to her words, Dorothy also nodded silently, then prepared to stand up and leave. But as soon as she stood up, she noticed a small problem.
"Huh? Senior Nefelnis, did you change my clothes?" Looking at what she was wearing, Dorothy asked Neff curiously. She remembered that before entering the dream, she was wearing a Moncarlo City Guard uniform, but now it had changed into her own large, loose-fitting long dress, so she couldn't help but ask Neff.
"Yes, I changed them for Miss Dorothy. They are my own clothes. After I controlled your body to swim over from far away, the clothes you were wearing were completely soaked. I was worried that you would catch a cold if you were still wearing them after the effect of the rune seal wore off, so I took them off and changed into a set of mine. My luggage was also moved here in advance. As for Miss Dorothy's things, they might be related to something mysterious, so I didn't dare to touch them casually."
Listening to Dorothy's words, Naifnis paused slightly before speaking frankly. Hearing Neff's words, Dorothy was momentarily stunned, and her mind began to involuntarily ponder.
'I was… changed clothes by someone else… That is to say… I was seen… I was touched… and it was a girl… This…'
"Ah, is there any problem? Miss Dorothy, did I lose something of yours when I changed your clothes?" Looking at Dorothy's somewhat dazed expression, Neff asked curiously. Hearing Neff's words, Dorothy also came back to her senses and quickly spoke.
"Uh… no, no, thank you. I'll return the clothes to you later. Anyway, let's go to the designated location first!"
"Okay, then let's hurry. I'll go get my luggage first." Saying that, Naifnis walked towards the other side. Dorothy watched Neff leave, and also let out a slight sigh of relief, then gently tapped her head and thought to herself.
'What am I thinking… I'm a girl now too…'
After thinking that, Dorothy began to pay closer attention to Neff's figure on her body. Her clothes were definitely loose on Dorothy, especially in certain areas which were particularly obvious.
While examining the clothes on her body, Dorothy used her hand to hold up the large mass of loose fabric on her chest, trying to support it and comparing it to her own. Upon seeing the difference, she couldn't help but swallow.
'This… the difference is not just big… I'm fourteen this year, Neff is eighteen. How much difference can four years of development shorten?'
Dorothy thought this in her heart, then she shook her head and shook off these inappropriate thoughts, and then began to get down to business.
Afterward, Dorothy took out her own clothes from her magic box, changed into them, and returned the clothes to Neff. After all the traces at the scene were dealt with and the things were packed, Dorothy took out a spare magnetic levitation carpet. After she and Naifnis got on the carpet, Dorothy controlled it to fly over the sea, flying quickly into the distance at a low altitude, away from the main island of Moncarlo.
After reaching the destination, Dorothy naturally wouldn't stay in Moncarlo for too long, so as not to be found by Edward using some strange method to find clues.
In order to get away smoothly after succeeding, Dorothy had made preparations. During the day, she had secretly stolen a small ocean-going yacht through various means and sailed it to an outlying island of the Moncarlo Islands to dock, using it as her means of escape. Moncarlo is surrounded by reefs, and without a guide and without understanding the specific sea conditions here, it is actually very difficult to sail a ship out. But fortunately, Dorothy had found and recorded the sea chart, so these were not problems.
Just like that, after about ten minutes of high-speed flight against the sea breeze, Dorothy and Neff finally found the ship they had prepared in advance on the outlying island. Then Dorothy released Corpse Puppets to act as sailors, and sailed the yacht into the vast sea under the night sky. During this process, the sailor behavior she had learned on the ship before helped again.
Dorothy sailed the ship, avoiding various reefs and the still operating Moncarlo sea outposts along the way. Only after finally sailing out of the range of the Moncarlo Islands did she truly breathe a sigh of relief.
After the ship completely sailed away from Moncarlo, Dorothy returned to the cabin she had reserved for herself. After sitting down steadily, she took out her "wen hai hang zhi" and turned to Little Fox's communication page. On it, she began to write down the completion of her work.
...
Under the night sky, in a sea area far from the Moncarlo Islands, a large passenger ship was sailing forward. In a comfortable cabin on the passenger ship, Little Fox Shaliya was sitting on her bed, placing a thick book in front of her, waiting quietly for something with an anxious expression. On the bedside table not far from her, a Black Cat was squatting, with a hint of solemnity in its expression.
After completing her final task, helping Dorothy hypnotize the auction staff, Shaliya and her Black Cat, under Dorothy's arrangement, took the passenger ship that left Moncarlo in the evening and evacuated Moncarlo first. Dorothy knew that when Edward was searching for Extraordinary dreamers, Shaliya absolutely could not be in Moncarlo.
"Oh! Grandpa, Ed finally has a response now! Their plan was a great success. Ku Chi was found by them using Edward. That guy was directly killed by the Rose Cross while he was escaping. The phantom scale incense cage is now in their hands!"
Sitting on her bed, Shaliya said excitedly, looking at the words displayed on the thick book in front of her. Hearing her words, the Black Cat not far away was slightly startled, then stood up abruptly and couldn't help but speak.
"Succeeded… They really succeeded?! Ku Chi has fallen… Those traitors have lost one Pseudo-Moth just like that? They only had four complete Pseudo-Moths in total… Now one is gone just like that?"
Listening to Shaliya's words, the Black Cat murmured in disbelief. After completely leaving Moncarlo and making sure they were not being monitored by the elusive puppets of the Rose Cross, he finally dared to speak in front of Shaliya.
Although the Black Cat allowed Shaliya to participate in this Rose Cross operation, he had no expectation of the operation's success in his heart. In his opinion, leaving the phantom scale incense cage behind was the biggest achievement of this operation. He didn't expect them to directly kill Ku Chi! This instantly reduced the number of extremely precious complete Pseudo-Moths in the Black Dream Hunter Group to three, and their overall strength suffered a not insignificant blow.
"Is what he said true? That's a mature Pseudo-Moth, an Extraordinary creature of the Crimson Tier. It just disappeared like that in such a short time? Could it be that the Rose Cross also secretly came to Moncarlo at the Scarlet level?"
With a solemn expression, the Black Cat asked Shaliya. Shaliya responded after a simple communication using the text in front of her.
"Hmm… I'm not too sure about this. They just said that during the fight between Edward and Ku Chi, Ku Chi was injured in the battle, and they seized the opportunity to kill him halfway through his escape. They didn't reveal any more information. If their statement is true and Ku Chi was really injured when he escaped, I think even if it wasn't a Scarlet, there might be a chance to kill him, Grandpa."
Tapping her chin with the tip of her pen, Shaliya thought. After listening to her words, the Black Cat slowly spoke with a grave expression.
"The chasm between Chalk and Scarlet… is the largest one in the conventional Extraordinary promotion chain. It is the dividing line between immortals and mortals. Only at the Scarlet level and above can one be called a high-level Extraordinary. Therefore, even a severely injured Scarlet… is not something an ordinary Chalk can handle.
"The Rose Cross acts cautiously and meticulously. It's impossible for them to plot against another Scarlet without a Scarlet as a backup… Moreover, strictly speaking, they plotted against not just one Scarlet this time, but three… I don't believe they would dare to take such a big risk without a Scarlet as their trump card. In the end, there must have been a Scarlet who came out to finish things for them…"
Listening to Shaliya's words, the Black Cat analyzed. After listening to this analysis, Shaliya also spoke thoughtfully.
"That is to say… back on Moncarlo Island, excluding your special case, Grandpa, there should have been four Scarlets present at the same time. It suddenly feels so dangerous… Fortunately, they didn't get into a free-for-all, otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to escape…
"Also… I'm very curious about what that hidden Scarlet of the Rose Cross looks like… Could it be Lord Paturnax?" Shaliya asked curiously. Hearing her words, the Black Cat replied.
"That's impossible. That Paturnax should be an Apostle of the akasha god. Apostles only accept divine oracles. Earthly cults and societies have no right to dispatch Apostles. And the current state of the deities may have some problems, and there haven't been any instances of Apostles interfering in the present world for a long time… The extent of this matter in Moncarlo shouldn't warrant an Apostle's intervention…"
After the Black Cat finished analyzing, Shaliya on the side nodded knowingly. Then the Black Cat continued to ask her.
"So, now that the phantom scale incense cage is in their hands, have they given us a clear explanation of when they will give it to us?"
"About that… they said that the phantom scale incense cage is currently in a dream body state, so it has been stored with Lord Paturnax in the Dragon's territory. I can go there to retrieve it later. After retrieving it, they asked us to help restore it to its original state, and then they will borrow it from us when they need it. We will then send the item to them through the White Stone Craftsmen's Guild."
Shaliya explained to the Black Cat. The Black Cat pondered for a while after hearing it, then slowly spoke.
"Anyway… this time we were able to get the phantom scale incense cage back, and our goal has been successfully achieved. If the information from Rose is true and Ku Chi is indeed dead, then those traitors have suffered a heavy blow this time. This is undoubtedly a significant positive development for us. Perhaps from now on, we need to change our strategy, no longer swallow our anger, and can reassemble our strength and act proactively…"
"Reassemble our strength! That is to say… Grandpa, are you finally planning to reorganize the sect?" Hearing the Black Cat's words, Shaliya said somewhat excitedly for a moment, while the Black Cat continued silently.
"At least we can start preparing the relevant matters. After this incident, the Rose and those traitors are already in a life-and-death situation. We can trust Rose more, or even directly form an alliance. If we can rely on them, we can also openly confront those traitors again.
"Of course, before that, we also need to form a force that Rose cannot underestimate. At least we need to regain control of the Scarlet level power, otherwise, they won't think highly of us. However, with the phantom scale incense cage as a ritual support, it's only a matter of time before we return to Scarlet.
"If we return to Scarlet and successfully ally with the Rose Cross, then for us, among those traitors, only the one who is about to become an Apostle, 'Gu Meng', is worth worrying about…"
Black Dream said so. Thinking of the good prospects for the future, his tone couldn't help but become lighter, and Shaliya on the side also spoke happily.
"Yay! Finally, I see hope! I told you, the Dragon and his subordinates are reliable people. The harvest from this operation was simply too abundant!
"Grandpa! Grandpa! You used to always scold me for being too naive and thoughtless, saying I would suffer a big loss later. But how do you think I've performed these past two days? I cooperated with the Detective from Rose and managed to get a lot of important information! I definitely made a great contribution! Aren't you looking at me with new eyes now~"
Standing up from her bed, Shaliya put her hands on her hips proudly and said to the Black Cat on the bedside table, seemingly wanting to hear its praise. But who knew that after hearing Shaliya's words, the Black Cat's expression suddenly darkened, and its black-furred face became even blacker.
"It's better that you didn't mention this, because now I'm angry! How can you deal with unfamiliar Extraordinaries like this? You believe whatever he says, and answer whatever he asks! Your guard is completely gone after just a little coaxing, and all the details of your abilities are revealed clearly! Fortunately, the other party didn't have any designs on you, otherwise, your current fate would not be surprising!
"I've taught you for so long, and you're still like a child. You've been letting everything I said go in one ear and out the other, haven't you! You need a beating again, don't you!"
While speaking, the Black Cat meowed and jumped up on the spot, directly pouncing on Shaliya and starting to scratch her skin with its claws, making Shaliya quickly beg for mercy.
"Ow! Stop scratching, stop scratching, Little Black Grandpa! It hurts! Stop scratching! If you keep scratching, I won't fry you any small dried fish next time!"