[Under your insightful and easy-to-understand instruction, Simon completed a mysticism lesson. His mysticism ability has increased.]
[Simon has acquired a new specialty: Mysticism LV1.]
Only LV1 this time? After taking my lesson, you’ve only just reached the beginner level? What a terrible student!
Elisa conveniently ignored the fact that it had taken her an entire year to reach that level herself and began criticizing her male servant’s aptitude.
The sky outside had already brightened. Her personal maid Eve was sitting on a stool waiting for her. As soon as Elisa woke, Eve immediately came over.
Elisa had grown accustomed to being attended by her maid. She stood still and allowed Eve to dress her.
She closed [The Young Lady’s Late-Night Lessons] and opened [Simon’s Log].
[Simon had a terrible dream.]
A terrible dream? Because of the dream classroom? I was actually wondering whether you’d have an erotic dream, considering I dressed up as your favorite kind of mature lady.
Hmm, the nightmare must have been caused by [Hermes]. Practicing mystical languages is always a little frightening. When you pronounce mystical words, unknown visions appear in your mind.
That’s also a useful little trick for checking whether your pronunciation is correct.
The corners of Miss Elisa’s mouth curled upward in smug satisfaction. Although the nightmare had been unexpected, it still counted as a little revenge against her male servant.
She continued reading to see what he had dreamed about, hoping it would be as terrifying and disgusting as possible.
[Simon dreamed that a boy was chased down by two giant hornets. As the boy stared in despair, their stingers plunged into him, and two huge pus-filled swellings bulged from the boy’s flat chest!]
Miss Elisa’s smile froze.
Who are you calling a boy?! And what do you mean, pus-filled swellings?!
Come to think of it, after she had padded her chest yesterday, her male servant’s gaze hadn’t grown heated… it had grown horrified.
What a miscalculation. She hadn’t even bothered to hide from him while adding the padding. She’d assumed he wouldn’t remember anything from the dream classroom, but she never expected it to turn into a nightmare!
Miss Elisa reflected on her mistake.
[After recovering from the nightmare, Simon discovered that a mysterious language and several small mystical rituals had appeared in his mind.]
[Confused by this, he decided to try out the rituals after breakfast.]
[Simon went to the butler’s quarters for breakfast. His conversations with Eve and Maria, along with the comfort of delicious food, left him feeling relaxed in both body and mind and reminded him how wonderful life at the manor could be.]
[Intimacy +3.]
As the head of the male servants, Simon now ate breakfast in the butler’s quarters instead of the servants’ dining hall. The personal maid Eve and head maid Maria also took their meals there.
With better food and the company of two beautiful maids, the Intimacy Simon generated had increased as well, rising from +2 to +3 each day.
Miss Elisa was very pleased with this.
She continued reading. The servants woke earlier than she did, and by the time she got up, they had already finished breakfast.
[Simon asked Eve and Maria whether they had lost anything recently. Eve had recently lost a handkerchief, while Maria had lost a silver brooch.]
As Elisa washed up, she thought, This male servant is pretty clever. He chose that ritual for his experiment.
The [Finding Ritual] was a favorite among beginners in mysticism. It was used to recover lost items.
However, there was no way her male servant could use the [Finding Ritual] to locate something someone else had lost. His attempt was doomed to fail.
If I were the one performing it, I could easily find the maids’ lost belongings. But my male servant doesn’t have my mastery of mysticism, nor does he possess any spirituality of his own.
Beginners could only find things they had lost themselves, and even then, they succeeded only once in ten attempts.
Elisa waited to see her male servant fail, her eyes fixed on [Simon’s Log].
***
After returning from the butler’s quarters, Simon gathered the necessary materials while updating his log.
The [Finding Ritual] was a minor ritual that required few materials, all of them ordinary objects. He soon had everything he needed.
Back in his room, Simon cleared his desk, washed his hands and rinsed his mouth, straightened his clothes, closed the doors and windows, and sprinkled a circle of salt around the desk.
These were the preparations for purifying himself and the ritual space.
He took out a white candle and placed it on the desk. In front of it, he set a bowl of clear water, then held a silver bracelet between his fingers, suspending it over the center of the water.
He had borrowed the bracelet from Eve, since he didn’t own any jewelry of that kind.
With everything ready, he closed his eyes and recited the incantation in [Hermes].
“Silent spirits scattered far and wide, nameless wanderers upon the roads, hear the plea of one who is lost.”
“That which once belonged to the people of this manor and has now gone astray. If it remains within the manor, reveal the path and grant me a glimmer of light.”
As the incantation ended, the silver chain swayed gently twice, then fell still.
With only LV1 [Mysticism] and the body of an ordinary person, trying to find someone else’s belongings was still far too ambitious.
This was within Simon’s expectations. He channeled the spirituality he had stored into the silver chain.
That spirituality came from Elisa. Miss Elisa believed that using [The Young Lady’s Late-Night Lessons] required her to infuse it with spirituality, and she wasn’t wrong. However, the amount actually required was far less than what she was expending.
Simon took ninety percent of it.
What platform doesn’t take a cut? Taking ninety percent was already pretty generous!
If he hadn’t been worried that taking too much would make Elisa stop using [Late-Night Lessons] out of concern for her safety, he would have liked to drain her dry in one go. After all, spirituality recovered over time.
With the help of Elisa’s spirituality, the silver chain began to sway again.
The end of the silver chain hanging over the water tilted slightly toward the southwest. At the same time, a blurry image appeared in the clear water beneath it.
[Simon successfully performed the Finding Ritual and received guidance from the spirits.]
Reading the words in [Simon’s Log], Elisa scratched her head in confusion.
That shouldn’t be possible. There shouldn’t have been any response at all! That male servant hadn’t even offered up any personal belongings belonging to Eve or Maria, and he hadn’t even mentioned their names! The words he used were “the people of this manor”!
Maybe some mischievous spirit had answered him.
Hehe, just because a ritual received a response didn’t mean the response was correct. It could very well point to the wrong place or the wrong item!
[Simon searched around the garden and finally found the location indicated by the ritual. Pushing aside the bushes, he discovered a bronze coin. A one-penny piece.]
Sure enough, he’d been tricked. It wasn’t Eve’s lost handkerchief, nor was it Maria’s lost brooch.
Still, that mischievous spirit was rather conscientious. At least the location it had given him contained a penny.
[Simon returned to his bedroom and performed the ritual again.]
Still not giving up? Elisa shook her head.
[Simon received a response, followed the guidance to the indicated location, and discovered a silver coin worth three pence.]
Elisa blinked, sensing that something was off.
[Simon returned to his bedroom and performed the ritual again.]
[Simon… discovered a silver coin worth two shillings.]
[Simon returned to his bedroom… and discovered a gold coin buried beneath the grass, worth one pound.]
“.…..”
What the hell have you been asking the ritual for?!
You haven’t been looking for the handkerchief or the brooch at all!
At this point, Miss Elisa had no choice but to acknowledge two things.
First, the male servant’s [Finding Ritual] had been astonishingly successful… and repeatedly so!
Second, the male servant hadn’t been looking for the maids’ lost belongings at all. He’d been searching for unclaimed money around the manor!
You bastard, put that money down! It’s all mine! It’s on my estate!
Elisa’s heart ached terribly.
Damn it, why didn’t I think of that? There must be coins scattered around the manor that the previous owners dropped! No wonder his incantation was “the people of this manor”!
In just this short time, the male servant had already pocketed one pound, two shillings, and four pence!
She rose to her feet, intending to dismiss the maid beside her, perform the ritual, and join the treasure hunt. She was confident that, if she took matters into her own hands, she would be much faster than the male servant!
But she couldn’t do that.
As the daughter of a wealthy merchant, she had to have a maid accompanying her. She couldn’t wander around the manor alone, searching for treasure. If anyone saw her, it would inevitably arouse suspicion and cause unnecessary trouble!
All she could do was stare at [Simon’s Log] and watch the male servant scoop up all the treasure.
My pennies, my shillings, my gold pounds… my heart aches so much!
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