Mystery: The Stranger

Chapter 35 The Cup of the Moon

This newly appointed viscount, born into a demon family, behaves in ways that surprise everyone. His submissive obedience and ambitious attitude are all too real.

But the more impeccably loyal he appeared, the more suspicious she became, feeling that something was amiss.

Why does this guy seem to be genuinely on her side when dealing with the problem?

Earl Cullen even secretly wondered if Snow's natural and unwavering stance might be because he had offended someone outside. Otherwise, why would he really act like a loyal subordinate? This act is too convincing.

......

After the banquet ended, the servants properly settled the drunken Snow in the prepared bedroom, tidied him up briefly, and then hurriedly left.

The bedroom was quiet. Snow, who had been lying unconscious on the bed, slightly raised his fingertip and moved it gently. Suddenly, the antique ring on his finger began to swirl with faint dark patterns.

In an instant, his body quietly switched to zombie form, and the dizziness and discomfort caused by the strong liquor filling his body were instantly suppressed and dissipated.

While it's true that a living person can die from drunkenness, a corpse wouldn't experience any intoxication from just a little alcohol.

If alcohol can suppress the instincts of the living dead, then there's no reason why the future Ms. Sharon and Marich wouldn't be two alcoholics.

Snow slowly sat up, raised his hand to brush away the messy hair, gently rubbed his throbbing brow, and looked up to see a pair of slender jade feet dangling in the air, their toenails carefully painted with a bewitching and alluring dark purple nail polish.

"Can you please stop appearing and disappearing like a ghost?"

Snow's tone was tinged with disgust and complaint. Frost swirled around his palm as he raised his hand and slashed through the illusory figure of Xaratas floating in front of him.

But the phantom did not disappear; it solidified again in an instant and quietly appeared behind Snow.

"What you've done today is nothing like your usual self." Saratas completely ignored his dissatisfaction, his tone filled with curiosity. "You used to hate these insincere noble social niceties, but today you seem to be enjoying them immensely."

As a close companion bound by a soul contract, she could clearly sense that Snow not only showed no resistance but was even subtly immersed in it, a behavior that was far too strange.

She had witnessed Snow's drinking and subsequent misbehavior, and she simply couldn't understand what was so interesting about it. She couldn't comprehend what was so enjoyable about it.

All she saw was that this guy was indeed feeling unwell from drinking, and she didn't understand what was so great about it.

I have absolutely no idea what Snow was reminiscing about.

Snow slowly suppressed the chill emanating from him, a calm and serene smile playing on his lips: "Of course, it wasn't necessary before, but it's different now. If we can get things moving at the banquet with just a few drinks, then we can save ourselves the trouble of coercion and enticement later on."

"Count Cullen wants me to continue to display my cruelty and despicable nature, using my infamy to intimidate the other nobles. I also want to use Count Cullen's influence at the banquet to let these nobles know who they need to fear and what the right choice should be."

"At least for now, they don't think I'm responsible for Viscount Carré's death. I'm just a spokesperson. There are other people they should really be careful about."

"They will use this as a stepping stone to make a smart compromise instead of continuing to put up meaningless soft resistance and inconspicuous tug-of-war. That way, they don't have to die, and I don't have to kill them. Everyone is relaxed."

Snow smiled, seemingly quite satisfied with his professional skills, which saved him a lot of subsequent work.

As for my previous indulgences, I occasionally wanted to use some excuse to vomit until I was dizzy and disoriented.

Saratas, growing increasingly impatient, immediately retorted, "But we can clearly take advantage of these nobles' lack of tact and openly harvest the souls and essence of living beings. They've all bowed down to Karen, how can we possibly make a move?!"

"Can't you just abandon these pointless worldly principles and outdated beliefs?"

Whenever Xaratas thought of Snow's long-held principle of not killing those who didn't need to be killed and not touching those who didn't need to die, that almost pedantic hypocrisy and laxity, he felt deeply depressed.

She had always admired Snow's decisiveness and adaptability, but his principle of not easily engaging in pointless killings always bothered her. She tried to subtly influence and change him, but each time she failed.

"Your soul is important to you, but it's not that important to me."

"Even if it requires burning one's soul, I can use the natural spirits that wander in the spirit world as a substitute. As for flesh and blood, that's the only thing I don't think I lack. They're everywhere, so there's no need to crave them."

"Besides, now we have the Cup of the Moon."

As soon as he finished speaking, Snow raised his hand and took out a smooth, lustrous silver vessel, which was the Moon Path Seal that Count Cullen had given him.

Its function is simple: it can bring a certain area into a full moon state, fostering spirituality, enhancing inspiration, and amplifying death.

This is a kind of domain-like ability. If the enemy is not good at spirituality or spiritual matters, it creates a "full moon" effect; otherwise, it makes the moon in that area disappear.

The downside is that under moonlight, you will suffer almost the same effects as your enemies.

The only side effect of this kind of domain-based ability is that, as a user, you don't receive any special treatment within the domain.

Rounding down, the side effects can be considered negligible, after all, it's a high-quality sealed... magical item. Another reason is that this cup cannot be used directly at any time. Instead, it needs to be placed under moonlight to allow the spiritual energy of the crimson moonlight to fill the cup before it can release a domain-level effect when used.

The advantage is that once it's released, you don't need to do anything about it. It stays in the background under a full moon state the whole time. In fact, the deep red moon dew in the cup is drinkable and can accelerate the recovery of spirituality, making it a pretty good magical item.

Because the God of Craftsmen had not yet appeared in the Fourth Age, and the extraordinary were directly active on Earth, there was actually no difference between sealed artifacts and magical items. Everyone used the same term and there was no special distinction. Since walking extraordinary beings were more dangerous than sealed artifacts, this made sealed artifacts seem less dangerous.

Compared to the powerful sealed artifacts like the Moon Cup and the Wriggling Hunger, which can herd souls across pathways and utilize the extraordinary abilities of those herded, the Moon Cup's function is somewhat limited.

But what Snow needed was a simple mechanism, one that didn't require carrying overly complicated sealing artifacts.

He already has the Baron's Gloves and the Ring of the Undead; one more active magical item would be too much of a burden.