Miss Witch's Forbidden Book Secret

The clerk said, "No, Miss Bonaparte declined the invitation, citing her visit to her deceased friend, Miss Brigitte."

"That's true..."

So many things have happened lately, one after another like an explosion, giving this deputy minister a real headache.

The clerk pulled out another document and placed it on top, reminding him, "Mr. Secretary, there's one last thing, concerning former President Durant..."

Scanlan exclaimed in surprise, "Found him? That's good news. Durant should know something about the potion..."

The clerk interrupted sternly:

"No, Durant is dead."

Chapter 259 Ritual and Funeral Rites

It was only noon, and the Castle District Police Headquarters—a place that citizens used to avoid like the plague—was packed with reporters who had caught wind of the commotion.

The reason why they flocked to it is self-evident.

This morning, the city hall released a bombshell announcement: on July 14, which was the day before yesterday, the Castle District Police Department stormed into the city hall and forcibly arrested more than a dozen important figures!

This, combined with the "Knight" ship that suddenly entered the port area a few days ago and the shelling that inexplicably aroused panic among citizens, further fuels the situation.

The two pieces of news instantly created a chemical reaction, attracting hundreds of reporters from newspapers of all sizes and styles to the scene, one hand holding a camera and the other waving manuscripts. The police had to be deployed to maintain order.

On this bustling street, Brigitte arrived by carriage and was startled to see a crowd of people surging toward the police station like zombies when she opened the window.

She's holding her funeral these days, which is a time when she needs to avoid the limelight. It would be very bad if she were seen by someone at this time.

Brigitte's silver-grey hair was hidden beneath the wide brim of her hat, a velvet cloak draped over her shoulders, and a spotless white satin scarf tied around her pale neck. She opened the window, glanced out, and said irritably:

"What are the police stations in the Castle District doing?! So many people are crowding here, are they planning a protest?! Nogi, take these promotion certificates to the police station and give them to Bona later..."

She was just about to order Nogi around when, in the brief moment she opened the window, she caught the eye of a girl on the street with an oversized magazine hat and sapphire blue eyes.

Based on Nogi's understanding of her young mistress, there are generally two scenarios when Brigitte takes a liking to someone.

The first type is a counterparty with high investment value or an important trading partner.

The second type is sexual repression.

But this time was an exception, because outside was Funina Bonaparte, who had hidden her hair.

Tia was terrified by the horde of zombies on the street. Upon seeing Brigitte, she immediately grabbed the yoke and nimbly flipped onto the car, making a surprise appearance.

Tia rolled into the carriage before taking off her hat, and said with lingering fear, "By the Father of All Things, thank goodness your carriage was parked here too. Otherwise, those people would have almost pushed me into the Broken Gold River. Are you going to the Star Gazing Platform now? You can give me a ride along the way."

"Bonaparte, you bastard..."

Bridget immediately slammed the car window shut and noticed the cavalry saber at Tia's waist. "You've disposed of Durant?"

"Brigitte, you are a brilliant strategist!"

"Ha! I am a Sequence 7 prophet, so what?"

Brigitte scoffed at this trick, retorting, "Durant is dead, so what are you going to do?"

"Leave the rest to Scarlett. Like Durant's position."

Tia crossed her arms over her chest and stretched, then asked, "How are you feeling?"

"How about it?"

Brigitte looked at Tia's face suspiciously and said with displeasure, "Is there a human head under that hat? You mean to entrust so many affairs and secrets of the city hall to an Anzu? Are you crazy or am I crazy? Are you suggesting that Iris surrender to the Anzu? What kind of Bonaparte are you thinking?!"

"I am also from Ansu."

You are different!

"You're getting a little carried away. Do you like me?"

Tia's main focus is on the lower part of the head.

The silver-gray-haired young lady, suppressing her temper, didn't let Nogi pin Tia to the ground. She banged on the table and said, "I'm saying that you have reputation and prestige now, while that Miss Scarlett has only gained a little fame and doesn't command any respect! You'd be better off in your position."

Tia crossed her arms and said, "This is outside the scope of our deal. Besides, Scarlett has the ability to do so."

"Whether she is or not is unimportant; the key is that she is from Ansu! The Iris Flower People never surrender to Ansu!"

"That's hard to say. Durant might just take it."

"I'll go to hell with you...&"

Brigitte couldn't help but swear, but after calming down, she stopped causing trouble.

Whether Tia wants to stay in the political center or not is entirely up to her. The Montelli family's agreement with her is a transaction, not a contract with supernatural force. At most, they use personal relationships to keep her in check.

Of course, Brigitte had considered other methods to win her over, such as seduction. After all, birds of a feather flock together, and she knew about Tia's unusual sexual orientation.

But it was no use for her.

This little white-haired woman had a whole bunch of rituals to enhance her image and allure, making her look like a succubus. If the two of them actually took off their clothes, she would probably be the one seduced first.

So this approach won't work.

Moreover, those who maintain such a large number of rituals are either kept canaries or scheming con artists and fraudsters with ulterior motives. But regardless of their identity, unless they are not human, maintaining so many rituals over a long period of time will definitely cause psychological and physiological problems.

This Funnina Bonaparte was even more of a pervert; not only did she maintain this series of rituals for a long time, but she also seemed to have a fairly healthy mental state.

Therefore, Brigitte kept her distance from the physical body of this Funina Bonaparte.

This allure is too captivating, it's not human.

After scolding her, Brigitte said impatiently, "Bonaparte, I've prepared the promotion ceremony for you. Take it and get out of the car now."

Tia took the ritual parchment scrolls. There were five in total.

The two are Sequence 5 and Sequence 4 of the forging hammer's "fire in the furnace," which are also the most precious.

However, Tia felt a little dizzy after reading the Sequence 4 ritual, just like reading the Book of Red Roses, and immediately put it down.

—This is because the knowledge of the ritual has almost exceeded the limits of his own deep dive, and because it is knowledge from other paths, it conflicts with his own extraordinary elements and cannot be easily read.

The remaining three are Sequence 6 and Sequence 5 of the Alchemy "Displacement Scholar" and Sequence 5 of the Sheathless Blade "Red Knight". The Alchemy and Sheathless Blade promotion rituals are not particularly rare in Iris itself and are of slightly lower value, but they are still worth 20,000 gold shields.

Tia put away the parchment scroll and looked out the window; they had arrived at the observatory.

Are you heading out of the city?

“I’m going to the horse farm. I can’t stay in the city any longer. I’m still a dead man—you know what that means? I’m going there to lay low for a while.”

"So you're going horseback riding? Is your butt all better? Don't go riding and your butt will crack again."

"Thank you for your concern! My injuries are almost healed now!"

Brigitte said irritably, "In short, I won't be returning to the city before the funeral."

When Brigitte mentioned the funeral, a smile crept onto her face, and her tone became subtly cheerful.

"And when will the funeral be held?"

Tia was also going to offer condolences to the young lady—although it was rather strange, as she was still alive at the time, and they were burning incense for the living. But Brigitte didn't care about such things, and Tia was happy to join in the fun and return the favor.

After the funeral, she was able to take the time to handle the promotion ceremony.

"November 7."

"The day of the parliamentary reorganization? Wait, you're not planning to hold a funeral at Fontaine Palace, are you?"

Tia felt that Brigitte's hasty arrangements were full of wicked humor.

The Iris has a parliamentary tradition: a small council on Tower Street and a large council at Fontaine Palace. During the Kingdom era, the small council was held twice a year, and the large council once every two years.

Since this is a reopening of parliament, it is natural to choose the more solemn Fontaine Palace as the venue for the grand parliamentary assembly.

The Montelli family mansion is right next to the Palace of Fontaine!

This is as if they're afraid no one will know they're dead...

“Of course…the death of Lady Brigitte Montreal is quite interesting.”

"interesting?"

Brigitte casually remarked, "It's a family matter. The trouble I'm getting into isn't just with my two good-for-nothing brothers. Things will get interesting after the funeral—Nogi, stop at the Observatory Hospital up ahead."

"I understand, whatever makes you happy."

Tia raised her hands in surrender, not wanting to get involved.

Chapter 260 Vera's Redemption and Hell

Just as Tia was bringing ice wine and fruit to comfort Holly, a light river frigate was sailing into the Gold Rush Castle section.

This river frigate, converted from the Ansu Standard frigate "Andrew-class", is now undertaking the important task of oceanographic research for the University of St. Genting. Naturalists and scientists from Nuremberg and St. Genting originally planned to travel to the Land of the Seven Seas to explore several uninhabited islands.

As a result of frequent rough seas, the plan had to be shelved, and the team instead went to Iris Garden for academic exchange.

Of course, this academic exchange had absolutely nothing to do with the incompetent Elvira Salvia.

While the scholars were preparing to attend an academic lecture at the University of St. Pansen, Vera secretly ate the fruit and cakes prepared by the hosts in the lecture hall.

After the first half of the lecture was completed, Vera wandered around with several scholars.

The geologist in front said happily, "Pastor Vera, St. Pantheon's reputation is truly well-deserved. Their research on recapitulation is really impressive. Their analysis of fin skeletal structure and their research on species evolution in the Pagos Islands are eye-opening even for someone like me who is not an expert... By the way, you are from St. Laurent, right? I remember that Bishop Famas of the Church also had strong opinions on the Tree of Life hypothesis. What do you think of it?"

"Huh? You mean me?" Vera pointed to herself, stammering, "I feel fine..."

She didn't listen to a word about species evolution, skeletal structure, the tree of life common ancestor hypothesis, recapitulationism, or evolutionary theory. All she remembered was that the banana cake in the lecture hall had too much sugar and wasn't as good as chocolate mousse...

That chocolate mousse was really delicious.

Vera glanced at the political propaganda posters outside the University of St. Pansen and quickly changed the subject, asking, "Hey, what are those things hanging outside?"

The poster was covering the wall, depicting the Iris Saintess and war hero "Charles Domrémi" holding aloft a sword and a banner, shouting amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Below were ancient proverbs about irises and a line of text.

The gist is: We are today, you will be tomorrow. Please cast your vote for the Constitutional Assembly and Fennine Bonaparte.

Vera looked completely bewildered.

She knew Charles Domrémi because she had appeared in Ansu's history textbooks. She was not only one of the few female generals, but also came from a bankrupt mountain village on the border between the Empire and Iris, and even had a religious faith.

Because she led her army to defeat the Anzu so decisively, Vera's history teacher at the church school sarcastically remarked: "The Luddite chivalry of the Iris people is entirely supported by women, refugees, foreigners, and pagans."

That being said, but—

Vera asked, bewildered, "Did Fernina Bonaparte learn it? Isn't the Iris only in the Ministry of the Interior? What's this Constitutional Council?"

The geologist who had just left with Vera suddenly realized, "Shouldn't this be a vote?"

"what?"

"It's only recently, I just found out about it myself, Pastor Vera."

The geologist spoke eloquently: "Actually, the Iris Party's Ministry of Internal Affairs is planning to reorganize the parliament, and then give some of the former opposition members an opportunity to form a party. It may also be because of the shelling of the rebellion some time ago. The Iris Party probably feels that it is better to guide than to suppress."

"That makes sense... but what does it have to do with this Fernina Bonaparte? Besides, isn't that General Domrémy on the poster?"

Vera was still completely confused.

The name suggests a woman, but looking at the surname—Vera is certain she has never seen this surname or any variant of it, either during this time or in history textbooks.

Could this be a newly emerging representative of the common people?

"Because the key lies with this Miss Bonaparte. She recently dealt with an attack on the nobles by the Empire; without her help, the entire group of high-ranking nobles would have been wiped out." The geologist explained, then added with some doubt:

“I remember this was reported in several major newspapers in Silverburg, and even in Newport. Didn’t you notice, Pastor Vera?”

Vera was drenched in sweat.

Aside from reviewing key points, she doesn't read books at all, not even newspapers.

Vera sheepishly replied, "I probably forgot because I read it too fast."

The geologist scratched his head, not paying much attention, and simply said, "But this Miss Furness is really popular in the Iris community. I was listening to a lecture just now, and even the professors from St. Pantheon mentioned her."

"It seems to be related to her lover."

Vera became interested when this was mentioned.

"Well, it's a bit sad to talk about. It's said that this Miss Fernina Bonaparte has two lovers."

shock!

Two more!