How to become a sea witch

Looking at the opened envelope and the scattered letter papers of various colors on the table, Bernice almost stopped her heartbeat for a moment.Immediately afterwards, she grabbed a few of them at random, and quickly wrote a few words of the same sentence on the blank space at the end of the paper with a pen, trying to compare and find even the slightest evidence of imitation.

But no matter how she identified it, the handwriting of this letter looked exactly like hers.Except for her slightly sloppy writing due to emotional fluctuations,? Even the habit of abbreviation and continuous writing is exactly the same.

For a moment, while Bernice felt extremely unbelievable, an uncontrollable disgust and anger welled up in her heart.

She quickly recalled what Grendel said about her past during the interrogation, and couldn't help thinking about the question that made her unable to figure it out:

She never disclosed her past to the other party, why did Grendel know it all?

There are also these letters that she obviously didn't write, but they obviously match her handwriting...

Bernice looked at the letter papers in front of her with a terrible expression, and suddenly realized that maybe even the curse on Sabrina was aimed at herself.

Who is trying to put all this, such as the Kamchatka incident she participated in when she was just out of prison, and the candy house incident now? All planted on her head.

After putting down the letter paper in his hand, Tiago looked up at the Archangel who still didn't quite understand what was going on, clasped his fingers and asked, "This is all the letters I got back from Sabrina's residence. ,Yeah?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. Before coming,? I have already checked with her, and it is indeed these." Gabriel replied.

"She didn't rest?"

"No. Looks like she's still in a state of shock,? When I went to see her,? She was praying."

"Okay." Tiago touched the corner of his lower lip slightly, and put on a hallucinatory habitual smile, "Thank you for your hard work. As for these letters, put them here first, and you should go and rest first."

"As ordered."

After he left, Thiago didn't immediately discuss handwriting with Bernice. Instead, after staring at each other for a few seconds, he got up and poured her a glass of sea salt water, and then covered the corner of the table. Not long after returning, the sea snuff bottle was uncovered again.

The pure white mist flowed out like water and dissipated into a very light and special fragrance.It made Bernice feel as if she had suddenly returned to the most peaceful and peaceful place on the bottom of the sea, and was embraced by the current to relax, and even the tense and depressed emotions just now were greatly soothed.

"What is this?" She raised her head in confusion, and saw that the smoke was continuously flowing out.

"The gadgets of Yuanhai Shenyu, which are used to relieve emotions and relax." Thiago said, pushing the sea snuff bottle closer to her, and then sat next to her naturally, asking, "Would you better?"

Bernice nodded, and immediately felt that the effect of this thing seemed to be too obvious, and it could actually relax her to the point where she no longer subconsciously resisted and stopped as before when facing Tiago's approach and staying too close. want to escape.

At the same time, she suddenly realized a somewhat inexplicable problem:

Why is there such a thing here in Thiago?

Is he in a bad state recently?

Sensing the other party's hesitant eyes, Thiago comforted: "Don't worry too much. The letter, as well as the things that Grendel said about you before, will be investigated, I assure you .”

It was obviously not the first time I heard him say such words, but the strange feeling that followed a slight tremor in my heart was the first and real.It seemed that his unsuspecting attitude towards her gave Bernice great comfort and peace of mind.

She felt that she couldn't find anything to say again, and all the good words were far away from her. This feeling made her depressed and embarrassed.

So, after a few seconds of silence, Bernice asked, "So, don't you think this matter might really have something to do with me?"

"Why do you think so?"

"Because these letters... and Grendel's words are all true."

"Maybe. But to me, you are the real thing."

She froze for a moment, and heard him continue to say in a very calm manner: "I believe in you and my own judgment, and this will not change."

Skipping the topic she was not good at in the first half, Bernice directly advanced the topic to the second half: "Judgement?"

Thiago smiled: "These things are too deliberate, aren't they? All of them are aimed at you, and there are very clear hints about you. But normally, who would do these things Why are you still so proudly leaving a sign related to yourself when you were young, waiting for us to find out? If it was you, would you?"

indeed.

If it was really her, Bernice would definitely try her best to destroy all clues related to herself, especially the overly obvious traces of handwriting.

After thinking of this, she was completely relieved, and drank more than half of the sea salt water in her hand in one go. When she was about to wipe the water stains on her mouth with the back of her hand, the other party touched the corner of her mouth with a silk scarf first.

Ignoring Bernice's eyes full of astonishment, Tiago carefully and gently wiped off the excess water drops for her, and his fingertips traced her soft lips intentionally or unintentionally through the thin silk, bringing a slight The itching made Bernice couldn't help but want to purse her lips, but she had to restrain herself because of the opponent's fingertips.

Soon, he withdrew his hand and said without changing his face: "Anyway, the information is still very valuable. At least from the curse he cast on Sabrina, it can be inferred that this should be a A lord-level sea demon, and he is very clear about your past and the details of the sea witch. Maybe..."

"Maybe I still know him." Bernice said, and at the same time quickly pursed her lower lips, subconsciously raised her hand that wanted to touch the corner of her lips, then stopped, and then went to scratch her hair, "Maybe it was Ursula's hand before." One of the people below. After all...I mean, his purpose of doing this should be to get revenge on me, otherwise he wouldn't need to go through so much trouble."

As for the reason for revenge, Bernice didn't think much about it, she just thought it was normal.

As much as she hated them, those former colleagues loathed Bernice as much.With this premise, Bernice would not be surprised at what they did.

"It's just that I don't remember Ursula teaching any demons." She carefully recalled the past that made her resist, trying to find some clues, but unfortunately she was unsuccessful, and even her tone became cold unconsciously, " She is very proud of her identity as a sea witch, and has never bothered to teach others, at least not in my impression."

As for revealing the weakness of the sea witch's alienation, it is even more impossible. Ursula's arrogance in her bones determines that she will never say it by herself.It was only because her extremely deformed and terrifying state could not be concealed afterwards, so the surrounding demons would know that although this kind of magic power is powerful, it will also make the host pay the same huge price.

"Magic power?" She murmured, and suddenly an idea occurred to her.

Could it be that all this is also due to magic?

After all, there were so many demons who wanted the magic power of the sea witch at that time, and each of them was more qualified than her, but she was the one who became the new sea witch in the end.

Thinking about it differently, if she saw that the powerful power she had coveted for a long time was obtained by a lowly creature that she usually despises the most, she would probably go crazy with envy.

In other words, the sea tribe who tried to frame her was probably a demon who had known her for a long time and was eager for the magic power of the sea witch.

After listening to Bernice's idea, Tiago thought for a while, and then asked: "So, do you still remember that at that time, he most wanted to inherit the magic power of the sea witch, and his own strength was the strongest, even the demons around him were too strong?" Most people think that the successor will be his demon? After all, judging from the magic power required to cast the curse, it is indeed a lord-level demon. But considering the situation decades ago, maybe he did not have it at that time to this level."

"Original most likely?"

Bernice quickly recalled, and quickly gave a very positive answer: "Hector! He was the closest to the lord level among all the sea demons at that time, and he was also the most combative under Ursula's hands. On top of that, he really, really hates me, and of course I do too."

After a pause, she began to hesitate again, her eyebrows frowned: "It's just..."

"But what?"

"It's just that in my impression, Hector is not a patient demon. Compared with planning and patience, he prefers to use pure force to directly solve the problem, and he is unlikely to act in such a detailed layout as he is now. Unless...he knows that there is no way to defeat me if he confronts me head-on alone now, so he has to change his method."

Thiago listened to her analysis quietly, but there was a hint of unhappiness in his heart.

It seemed that Bernice knew more about any creature than he did.

"Really? Then what ethnic group is he from?"

"Viper fish. They are born with the ability to transform into other sea creatures, but the time is usually not long."

After hearing this answer that seemed to be infinitely close to the truth, Thiago did not immediately express his views on this guess, but after thinking for a while, he suddenly asked an unrelated question: "Do you know U When did Su La decide to make you his heir?"

Bernice was stunned for a moment, then shook her head: "I don't know...I mean, I never understood why she chose me. She doesn't seem to have any intention of choosing a successor at all, because she has always been She was thinking about how to keep the magic power of the sea witch forever. That's why she... I mean, I don't know why she would do this."

"That's why she wants you to get the heart of the ocean for her, so that the sea witch's blood curse can be lifted, and she can live forever." Thiago bluntly added what she avoided, with a gentle attitude, "It's her problem, not yours. So you don't have to be so careful with me, Bernice."

"And the reason why I suddenly asked this is because I thought of what Grendel said."

"Is it about what happened in the country in the north?"

"That's right." He nodded, "If we follow our speculation just now, it really looks like what a demon who hates you for getting the magic power of a sea witch will do. But this guess can't explain what happened in Regarding the matter of the northern kingdom, after all, I don’t understand why he started pretending to be you to approach other demons before you became a sea witch, what good would it do him?”

"Is it still for revenge? What is the reason for revenge?"

This question made Bernice slightly shocked.

"If it's still for the attribution of the sea witch's magic power, doesn't that mean that he already knew in advance that you would definitely inherit the sea witch's magic power?

And as you said just now, what Ursula was still planning at the last moment was still to lift her own curse.So I think that while Hector sounds a lot like the sea demon we're looking for, it's not. "

He was right, Bernice thought disappointedly.And even if Ursula was really determined to choose herself as the successor, there was no reason to tell Hector in advance, that was not her style.

To Ursula, Hector is just a loyal and useful servant, and she never trusts any living beings.

"What's more, the matter of pretending to be you, in the light of the situation at the time, is actually not a kind of revenge. After all, no one noticed it at that time, and it didn't have any impact on you, until today .”

today?

Bernice was touched by this word, somehow in her mind, she thought of Sabrina being tortured to the brink of death by the curse, and the fact that the same curse existed on the mutants she encountered in Kamchatka.

And the magic mirror.

Since the mutants who obeyed the magic mirror at that time were all created by the sea demon who pretended to be himself, the magic mirror obviously also met the other party.

Reminiscent of the fact that the magic mirror cannot act by itself and must rely on others to take it to other places, Bernice suddenly realized a place that she had never thought of before:

After the queen of the Kingdom of Macedonia was arrested for trying to murder the princess named Snow White or Ice Snow, she once argued in the Senate trial of the Holy See that all her actions were instructed by the magic mirror and that she would Every detail of the magic mirror and how the spirit in the mirror is summoned is confessed.

However, the Holy See did not find this mirror in the palace at all, so it was later ruled that the queen was lying, and then sentenced her to be beheaded. 【1】

When was the magic mirror taken out of the palace?When was it brought to this new world?

She had never noticed this problem before.

Thinking of this, Bernice suddenly trembled and almost dropped the cup in her hand.

She quickly turned her head and looked at Thiago with wide eyes, with a bright light in her light green eyes: "Your Majesty, we can still find that... er, sorry, I don't quite remember his name, That is the sheriff I met in Kamchatka. You said that he is also from the original world, and he is also a hunter whose family has served the Macedonian Kingdom for generations, right?"【2】

Thiago blinked and put the water glass aside for her: "Maxim Sidorov. Yes, I remember him. Why did you suddenly think of looking for him? Because of the magic mirror ?”

Bernice nodded: "Since he is the royal hunter of Macedonia, and he has done things for the owner of the magic mirror at that time, that is, the queen who was beheaded later, there may be more than one thing. Then I think, maybe He'll know something."

"Okay, come with me."

It was also after walking out of the observation center that Bernice noticed that the sun had just risen from below the sea level.

The magnificent golden-red morning light smeared a large area of ​​colorful colors in the sky, so rich that it almost crushed the distant boundary between the sea and the sky, the entire sea looked like it was burning, and it also gave Thiago the light golden color floating in the sea breeze The long hair is plated with a light golden brown.

The too bright light burned the ends of his already thin hair to almost transparent.

She noticed that although the other party's brows and eyes were not very obvious, but could still be found under careful observation, she hesitated: "Why don't I go by myself? You may not have slept all night, and you look like a bit tired."

"It's okay, things related to you are more important." He replied simply, and at the same time held Bernice's hand, "Let's go."

All the way to the gate of the Meteorological Bureau, Bernice tried to shake her hand habitually, and was immediately squeezed even tighter by the other party.

Facing the gaze of those beautiful clear blue eyes, Bernice could only bite the bullet and say, "It's already here."

"so?"

???

Still so?

Did this fish do it on purpose?

Bernice pursed her lower lip in embarrassment, and glanced at the door not far in front of her from time to time: "So...they will see it after they go in."

I thought that after saying this, Thiago would let her go.Unexpectedly, he didn't intend to let go at all, instead he smiled slightly: "Are you afraid of being seen by them?"

Even though he was smiling, this kind of smile had nothing to do with any kind of happiness, and it was so bright that it made people shiver.

Bernice restrained herself from going back, and explained as earnestly as possible: "I just think that after a while, they should be the ones to be afraid of."

Although being able to scare an angel into tears is definitely a glorious deed worthy of the devil's pride, but Bernice felt that if she could, it would be better for her not to have this glory.

"Then it doesn't matter." After finishing speaking, he pulled Bernice past him and walked towards the gate.

Because it was still early, the number of angels was not too many at this time, and there were only a dozen or so in the lobby on the first floor.

Seeing Thiago, they didn't feel anything wrong.

In fact, after this period of adaptation, they can reluctantly accept the fact that Bernice is always brought by Tiago's side, which is obviously unbelievable no matter how you look at it.

But when they saw that they came in holding hands this time, the angels present still felt that they had broken their defenses collectively, and even forgot the most basic salute, so they could only stare at them with wide-eyed eyes. Confused, it seems that I don't know what kind of response to give.

Some of those who are weak in endurance have already begun to reach out and fumble for a chair to sit on, and take it easy.

Fortunately, Gabriel appeared in a timely manner, and he was not affected by the weird atmosphere at the scene. He still maintained his superb ability and neatness, just like an archangel should have.

After saluting to Thiago naturally, he didn't seem to see who he was holding in his hand at all, and he calmly said without changing his face and voice: "What orders does Your Majesty have?"

"Help me contact Maxim Sidorov of the Kamchatka branch."

Thiago said, "About the magic mirror."

"clear."

Soon, on the main screen in the communication room, Bernice saw the grizzled old sheriff again.Even in summer, the low temperature in Kamchatkan forced him to wear a thick woolen coat, the sun shone delicately and coldly on him, and the mountains in the distant background were still covered with snow.

After knowing that he was looking for something related to the magic mirror, he was taken aback for a moment, and then became a little nervous, but he was still very careful to cover it up, only scratched his eyebrows and replied: "I assure you, Your Majesty , I will truthfully answer everything I know."

"We know you were forced to do something for that Macedonian queen, don't you?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"So, did you already know about the magic mirror at that time?"

"That's true...not at first."

"Please tell me in detail."

After a few seconds of silence, Sidorov took a deep breath.

I don't know if it's an illusion, but Bernice always feels that he is glancing at her sideways from time to time, just like the first time she saw him in the new world.

This made her vaguely uneasy.

"The first time I accepted the task assigned to me by the queen, it was to go to the Moonfog Forest to find a rare potion material for her. Please forgive me, my little daughter was sick at that time, and someone like me Because of her status, she couldn't invite a therapist from the royal family, and she really didn't have any extra money to treat her, so she had to accept the queen's request.

After that, she came to me more and more times, and most of them were related to Her Royal Highness Snow White, which made me feel very scared.

Our Sidorov family has been loyal to the King of Macedonia for generations, so of course it is impossible to really hurt Her Royal Highness.So I tried to lie to her, but she didn't get me, and threatened me that if I didn't do what she asked and tried to fool her, she would kill my wife and all my children they..."

When he said this, the fear on Sidorov's face became more obvious.It seems that even after so many years, those experiences at the beginning still made him terrified: "Later, she asked me to take the opportunity to kill Her Royal Highness Snow White at the royal hunting party. I... I dare not agree, But I dare not refuse..."

"So what did you do?" Thiago asked.

"I brought the princess to the Moonfog Forest and asked the wood elves to protect her and not let the queen find out for now. I wanted to save my family by myself. The wood elves sympathized with my experience and gave me a powerful axe. Tell me I can use it to protect myself, and my family, if necessary."

"But……"

He closed his eyes, as if thinking of some very painful past, even his voice began to float, and subconsciously reached out to touch the hand-rolled cigarette in his pocket, but he restrained himself, and only continued after taking a few deep breaths : "I failed, failed to defeat the queen. Her mirror... I saw her mirror and thought my wife and children were dead. I was in pain and regretted..."

"So, when I knew it was an illusion presented by the mirror, I no longer had the courage to confront the queen..."

"So you begged her to give you another chance, right?" Thiago could basically guess.

"Forgive me, Your Majesty..."

"I can understand your feeling of having to protect your family, and I don't intend to blame you. Please continue."

"As you can guess, I begged her to give me another chance, and that's when I really relented. But the wood elves reminded me that if I did, then my family and I would live forever in repentance Medium. I didn’t know what to do, so I could only follow the Wood Elf’s advice and go to a shop called ‘March, Caterpillar and Laughing Cat’ to find a way to save my family.”

"The Cheshire Cat's shop?" Bernice suddenly recalled, "I remember, that's where I saw you."【3】

Sidorov nodded: "Yes...yes, I made a deal with you, and exchanged that gold gem dagger for a human heart that can prove that I did kill Her Royal Highness Snow White."

"It does happen," Bernice admitted.

"So what's next? Have you seen the magic mirror?" Thiago asked.

"Yes. That was the last time I saw it, because it was taken away by..."

"Who took it away?" Bernice asked hastily.

Sidorov was stuck in embarrassment. In the cold temperature of ten degrees Celsius, he wiped the cold sweat on his forehead with his sleeve. For the fourth time, he tried to reach into the pocket of his coat to feel for a stick that could calm him down. Rolling cigarettes.

"Please speak up." Tiago pondered his reaction, and almost already knew who he was going to talk about.

Sure enough, after glancing at Bernice nervously again, he said hesitantly, "It's...it's Miss Sea Witch."

"What did you say?!" Bernice was completely stunned, and she didn't care about anything else. She jumped over Gabriel and rushed to the screen, scaring Sidorov back two steps. He was flushed by the cold wind. His coarse face took on a sickly paleness.

"I took the magic mirror?!" she repeated in disbelief. "When? Did you see it with your own eyes?"

"Bernice." Thiago called her softly, put his arms around her shoulders and comforted her to retreat, "This is a good thing, it means that there are new clues now, don't be too nervous."

Gabriel turned his head in surprise, not knowing what was going on.

"Sorry, I'm too excited. Go on, just talk about that... tell me when 'I' took the magic mirror away?" Bernice frowned and shook her head irritably.

She held her hands, feeling a horrific coldness at her fingertips, and this coldness continued to spread to her whole body, swallowing all her body temperature bit by bit.

Sidorov looked quite panicked, and he couldn't even speak incoherently: "After I traded with you for a golden dagger, the queen let my family go. So, I took them to hide in the Moonfog Forest. Snow White Your Highness is a very kind girl... well, I mean, she doesn't mind that I almost hurt her several times, and she promised that when she returns to the palace and sees the king, she will definitely expose the queen's crimes and let the Holy See The queen will be brought to justice."

"Later, about a month or two later... I don't remember much. Anyway, Her Royal Highness sent someone to inform us that the queen had been arrested by the Holy See, and asked me if I would like to continue returning to the palace. To me As far as I am concerned, it is of course the best thing to be able to return to the place where my ancestors lived and served for generations, so I quickly agreed."

"Then what happened next?" Bernice couldn't help but asked urgently.

"Later? Then you came to see me." Sidorov looked panicked and confused, as if he didn't understand why Bernice had no memory of what he had done. "On the day I came back At night, you came to me and asked me to help you find something, and you paid for it with a string of precious red coral beads."

Giving red coral beads is indeed her usual style, just like after she accepted that Lambert paid for the ice cream on her behalf, she also subconsciously wanted to use red coral beads in return.

Thinking of this, Bernice suddenly had a more terrifying feeling——

Is it really just a coincidence that Dakota Colson, Lambert's mad love interest, looks so much like her?

For a moment, a cold and viscous feeling surrounded her like dehydration, as if being entangled by countless poisonous sea snakes, which made her feel so frightened that she wanted to vomit.

In a trance, Bernice only heard Tiago ask again: "The thing she wants you to find is the magic mirror, right?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, and..." Sidorov carefully looked at Bernice's extremely ugly face, swallowed, and considered whether it would be better to remain silent.

Thiago noticed his change, so he explained generously: "Relax, no matter what that person said or did to you, you can say it frankly, no one here will threaten you. Because that person It's not Bernice, she's just pretending to be Bernice, so we're trying to find out who she is now."

"Pretending?" Sidorov repeated blankly.Gabriel was also stunned.

After taking a while to digest this fact, Sidorov finally breathed a sigh of relief, raised the hand that was repeatedly pinching and pressing the hand-rolled cigarette in his pocket, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and then replied: "She ordered me to never Tell this to anyone, and want to kill me directly. Fortunately... at that time, the magicians of the Holy See of Light came, and they wanted to find the magic mirror. Hai... I mean the one who pretended to be Or, after realizing the intervention of the Holy See of Light, he left before he could completely kill me."

"Since then, have you seen the impostor?"

"There is no Your Majesty. Because we were worried that we would be found again at any time, our family has since then moved to the Moonmist Forest and lived under the protection of the wood elves. Until the latitude hole appeared, my family and I were separated. Finally came here."

"I see, thank you for telling us this."

"It is my honor, Your Majesty."

The contact was over, and Tiago stroked Bernice's stiff back gently without any aggression, looked down at the other's somewhat hollow green eyes, and said softly, "Don't worry, we will figure out what is going on Something happened."

After speaking, he turned to Gabriel again: "I'm sorry I didn't have time to explain to you, let's talk in another place first."

"As ordered."

After leaving the communication room, Bernice was still silent, and she was not in the mood to pay attention to the collapsed expressions of the oncoming angels when they saw her being held in Tiago's arms.

After it was confirmed that they could not see Gabriel and the others, those angels who had suffered severe traumas finally came back to their senses tremblingly:

"I... Is it because I haven't had a good rest for several days? Why do I feel like I just saw..."

"I haven't had a break for days either, and I saw that too."

"Me too."

"So, is it because we're exhausted that we're collectively hallucinating?"

"But." Another little angel tried to argue, "I just woke up from sleep."

After an awkward silence, the angel who spoke first looked at her and asked earnestly, "Are you sure you're really awake? I don't think you are."

"We feel the same way."

"...???"

The author has something to say: [1] The summary of the previous situation has been written in Chapter 12 in detail.

[2 and 3] The previous summary was written in Chapter 6 and Chapter 7. Sidorov was not normal when he saw Bernice at that time, but Bernice felt that it was because of her lie about the human heart that scared the other party , and scared him for decades.