Chapter 306 Aiwass's Death Card
"A haunted hotel?"
The pastor held the bread in his hands and fell into deep thought: "I seem to have some impression, let me think about it..."
Aiwass, who asked the question, sat quietly by the side drinking tea.
As the only pastor in Eagle Point Village, his family was relatively wealthy. At least the tea he served to his guests was of good quality. While not as good as the tea Aiwas had tasted on Glass Island, it was still considered a fine product.
The breakfast the old pastor treated Aiwas and his companions to was also delicious—pork with a hint of fat, stewed with tomatoes, sugar, beer, and butter, then ground into a meat sauce. This meat sauce was then sandwiched between bread... though it was leftover bread from the previous day, it had been reheated. The flour used to make the bread wasn't particularly fine, and it wasn't exactly soft and sweet, but the warm whole-grain toast still had a rich wheat aroma.
To round it off, it could perhaps be considered a type of pork bun with ketchup.
The way to eat is self-service. Prepare the bread and meat sauce, and then spread it on yourself.
Perhaps because the food was still quite warm, it tasted surprisingly good, at least better than the sandwiches sold on the streets of Glass Island. Even Sherlock ate a few more slices.
By now, Aiwass and Sherlock were full, while Lily only had a small taste, waiting for Haena to finish.
Haina quickly ignored the anomaly that startled her before, and happily introduced it to Aiwass: "This is my favorite food when I was a child!
"I don't know if this dish exists outside or what it's called, but we kids like to call it 'Bishop's bread' because some people say it's what bishops eat. They spread butter on it and eat it with milk-white bread..."
As she spoke, she couldn't help but laugh awkwardly: "Of course, these are just the children's guesses."
Because she suddenly realized halfway through her speech that three of the four people present often had breakfast at the bishop's house.
“…Is that what you call it?”
The old priest couldn't help but laugh. "My father taught me this. He did learn the craft from Glass Island, but it has nothing to do with the bishop. This is a kind of meat sauce my father had at the hotel where he stayed when he went to Glass Island to receive the miter. He thought it tasted delicious, so he asked for the recipe, but the chef didn't tell us.
"So my father went home and tried many times based on his memory. Although he still couldn't figure out the recipe for the meat sauce, he accidentally created a new meat sauce. Later, the method was fixed.
"If anything, it should be called 'Eagle Point Meat Sauce'."
It seems that talking about the past awakens memories. At this point, the old pastor clapped his hands, as if remembering something: "I think I remember that haunted inn you mentioned... but it seems like it was a long, long time ago. Probably from when I was a kid."
Aiwass nodded. "It must have happened about sixty years ago. Since it's 'haunted', I thought you might know about it."
Because Aiwas had seen the familiar sapphire lake in the first dream of the advancement ceremony. It was the famous Sapphire Lake in Bagpipe Town.
The haunted hotel seemed to be halfway up the mountain, and from the window one could vaguely see the circular village at the foot of the mountain.
Aiwass made a mistake at that time.
At that time, he believed that one of the reasons why that layer was still a dream was that the forest had not suffered any damage after the storm.
After a normal storm, there should be branches, broken wood, garbage and dead animals everywhere. He believed that was because Dai Ya lacked life experience and did not have enough imagination to understand the storm.
But now it seems... although Aiwass's result was right, the process was wrong.
——The reason forests remain intact after a storm is because they actually survive the storm intact.
Eagle Point Village was so called because it was sandwiched between a low mountain and a high one, with Bagpipe Town located at the foot of one of those mountains. To get from Eagle Point Village to Bagpipe Town, one had to first climb up the mountain and then descend—of course, one didn't have to climb from the highest point; the highest point in the dense forest where they entered the village was only one-third of the height of the mountain top.
The entire Eagle Point Village lies within a basin, connecting two lakes and a swamp. This is the area between two mountains. Logically, this terrain is easily flooded by heavy rain.
So when Aiwas saw that the village at the foot of the mountain was safe and sound, he immediately concluded that it was fake.
...But now it seems that Dai Ya was right.
Aiwass laughed at her for not understanding storms, and she laughed at Aiwass for not understanding Eagle Point Village. She must have actually seen a storm here, which is why the scene was so deeply impressed.
Since the Haunted Inn can clearly see both Sapphire Lake and Eagle Point Village, but cannot see the other side of the lake, it must be on the hillside of one of the two mountains, and facing the direction of the other mountain.
That means it must be very close to Eagle Point Village.
Sure enough, the old pastor soon remembered.
"That's the hotel in Alder Town to the south. Going there directly requires passing through the swamp, so we usually don't go that way."
He smiled bitterly. "As for dispelling the undead... we can't do that. The undead there are earthbound spirits. Not to mention me and my father, even a bishop wouldn't be able to solve it."
"Then just leave it alone?"
Sherlock takes full advantage of his appearance and speaks his mind.
"They did manage it to some extent," the priest confirmed. "The priest of Alder Town closed the inn.
"If the inn was demolished directly, it might drive the earthbound spirit mad; but if left alone, it would tempt passersby. So the priest sealed the inn and blocked the road. He then put up a warning sign far away—out of the reach of the earthbound spirit's illusions. There's a guard in front, and there's a roadblock in the middle... Not many people will pass by that way."
"...It's really a simple and crude way of dealing with it."
Haina was a little embarrassed: "Is it okay to just put it there?"
The old pastor didn't care at all and laughed, "You're still too young, little Haina. Extraordinary skills aren't everything, nor are they necessary. Problems that can be solved with simple methods don't necessarily require extraordinary skills.
"Earthbound spirits must feed on humans to survive, but they can't leave their homes. So, there's no need to sacrifice multiple priests to defeat them head-on—in a sense, earthbound spirits are harmless. We just need to isolate them where they can't come into contact with living people, and they'll slowly dissipate on their own.
"And to accomplish this, there's no need for any spells, divine arts, or rituals. All it takes is a sign and a few roadblocks. As far as I know, aside from some wanted criminals occasionally fleeing in panic, I haven't heard of many people going missing in that area. This proves it's quite effective."
The old pastor took a bite of bread with great satisfaction and said with a smile, "This is the wisdom of adults."
After breakfast, Aiwas asked the old pastor for the direction of the hotel and planned to leave.
Haena seemed concerned about where the dagger had gone... but Aiwass thought it might still be with Haena, or it might have fallen into Vivian's hands. In either case, it wouldn't be recovered in a short time, so he just pretended it didn't exist.
Haina and Lily went to prepare the materials for the ceremony that they would use tonight.
Aiwass and Sherlock planned to go to the hotel.
Originally, Aiwass had planned to go and see it on his own, but Sherlock also asked to come along, so Aiwass naturally accepted the offer.
He had no intention of hiding his card-making ability—or rather, as Aiwass produced more and more cards, it would eventually be exposed. As long as those who knew the truth were okay, it would be fine.
And Sherlock is obviously the one who can be trusted.
The Earthbound Spirit is a dual-elemental demon with both earth and darkness attributes. On the one hand, she is a skeletonless undead spirit, considered the second stage of the undead; on the other hand, her abilities are very similar to those of a nightmare.
There are two cards that can be used to seal the earthbound spirits, [Death] and [Tower].
Aiwass intends to use the Death card here.
Because the Death card belongs to the realm of amber, it can be crafted and summoned without using earth attribute mana - instead, it uses dark attribute mana.
So Aiwass took out his tarot deck and found the Death card.
I brushed a layer of benzoin resin on it, and after it dried, I buried it with grave soil. Then I kept it in this state and sealed it in a small box... and that was it.
He had already prepared the materials needed to seal the Earthbound Spirit—much cheaper than those needed by the Shadow Fiend. The core ingredients were a handful of grave dirt, some benzoin resin, and a piece of amber. The remaining materials could be made up of shrouds, coffin fragments, or any other items with Twilight affinity. Just be careful not to sacrifice living creatures or any of their own kind.
On Glass Island, he might have to buy some coffin boards and burn them into ashes.
But this request is too easy to achieve in Eagle Cape Village.
Aiwass headed straight for the swamp and filtered some muddy water from it. After using the ritual to test it, he found that the substance was indeed effective and of extremely high purity... So Aiwass simply took several more bottles, stored them, and put them in Lily's backpack.
Afterwards, Aiwass took Sherlock and flew to Alder Town in the south on the griffin Lizzie.
Update completed!
Suddenly I realized that Amu has already made one million! (Shocking sound)
When I started this book, the plan was similar to the player's, about 3.5 million divided into three volumes, which is almost a third...
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com