As An Antique Shop Owner, It's Only Reasonable That I Know A Bit Of Magic - Chapter 114

That lightning! It wasn’t just a natural element!

The intense agony almost robbed Lasher of his basic ability to think!
His aura instantly withered!
“Lasher!”

Back in Cortland’s room, Deirdre sensed something was wrong and immediately recalled Lasher!
His figure vanished from the spot in the blink of an eye, as if he had never been there.

At almost the same time, startled by the commotion in her room, Ron rushed to pull back the shower curtain, not even bothering to cover herself.

The room was empty, but on the floor, not far from the bathtub, was a charred, black mark!

Ron grabbed a towel, hastily wrapped it around herself, and stepped out of the tub to get a closer look.

She discovered the shattered talisman pieces on the floor.
Knowing this was bad, she immediately grabbed her phone from nearby and dialed that number.

“Master Fan Su…?”

…

“That looks like the mark left after a lightning strike…”

Xip couldn’t help but crouch down to examine the charred residue on the floor closely.

“It was lightning. You can still smell it in the air—that’s ozone, produced when lightning pierces the air…”

Ron explained.

“And when it happened, I heard a very distinct clap of thunder, and a bright light illuminated the entire room…”

Xip looked up at the ceiling.

A lightning strike couldn’t just appear suddenly in a sealed indoor space like this. The only explanation was…

Both Ron and Xip turned their gazes to Su Fan, expecting a reasonable explanation from him.

“The Five Thunder Talisman, just as the name implies, is a talisman that uses the power of lightning to destroy evil entities. What’s strange about that?”

After hearing this, Ron was deeply shocked.

She had felt that the Calming Talisman and Evil Warding Talisman were useful before, but she had never witnessed such a tangible display of supernatural power.

A human could summon lightning out of thin air using a piece of paper to harm an enemy? This truly exceeded her understanding.

“I thought the so-called Five Thunder Talisman just used the sound of thunder, or maybe… some other form of manifestation…”

Xip wasn’t doing much better than Ron.

Commanding lightning exceeded the scope of ordinary witchcraft; it could even be called magic.

Only now did he realize that the exorcist he had impulsively invited was far more capable than he had anticipated.

Judging solely by the abilities Su Fan had just displayed, taking down Lasher didn’t seem impossible.

But Su Fan himself was frowning.

The lethality of the Five Thunder Talisman wasn’t the issue; as the creator, he knew that better than anyone.

But it hadn’t achieved the ideal result in the end.

He had given Ron five talismans, and four remained in the room.

That meant Lasher had escaped before the remaining talismans could be triggered in a chain reaction.

He had taken a direct hit from a Five Thunder Talisman and still managed to flee the room quickly.

That demon really had some skill; he was no pushover.

A direct confrontation was still necessary.

“Master Fan Su, can I leave my room from now on?”

Ron asked cautiously.

She knew very well what the activation of the Five Thunder Talisman and the shattering of the Home Protection Talisman represented.

“Of course you can move around freely as long as you carry the talismans I gave you. Don’t worry about Lasher,” Su Fan replied casually.

“Pack your things. We’ll go check out the Mayfair house this afternoon.”

…

Deirdre, through her connection with Lasher, had helped him escape that dangerous room.

The sudden turn of events filled her with both shock and anger.

“What was that? Why was there something like that in my daughter’s room?”

“It’s that man of unknown origin. He’s blocking all my perception of Ron… He’s trying to control her.”

Lasher’s voice in Deirdre’s ear carried undeniable weakness.

“I need to rest for a while…”

“Of course, rest well…”

Thinking that Lasher had been injured because of her, Deirdre felt a surge of guilt.

At that moment, Cortland finally spoke.

“So? Did you find your daughter’s whereabouts?”

He was carefully observing Deirdre’s expression.

Ever since she started, his niece’s expression had been off; clearly, things hadn’t gone very smoothly.

“Yes. She’s here in New Orleans.”

“When do you plan to go find her?”

“Right now.”

Without hesitation, Deirdre stood up immediately.

She had already wasted too much time.

The child she had longed for day and night had come looking for her mother of her own accord.

How could Deirdre, as the mother, remain unmoved?

She quickly hailed a taxi and soon arrived at the hotel where Ron was staying.

Although the time had been brief, through Lasher’s eyes, she had seen the room key and its number.

Deirdre stepped quickly into the elevator and pressed the button for Ron’s floor.

…

Ron, now packed, arrived at the entrance where Su Fan was already waiting.

“Where’s Xip?”

“He just got a call from the Priests organization. He has something to deal with.”

The thought of soon meeting her birth mother filled Ron’s heart with anxiety.

“Master Fan Su… do you think I was right to come here?”

“You mean, what’s my opinion on you returning to your family?”

Su Fan glanced at Ron beside him.

“No particular opinion.”

That was the truth.

Even with a happy childhood, even with loving adoptive parents, many adopted children still held a deep obsession with their birth parents.

Su Fan had no opinion on Ron’s actions.

As for himself, he had never once considered looking for his parents in this life.

The grace of upbringing outweighs the grace of birth.

The only person Su Fan had ever truly considered family was Old Man Su.

The elevator going down soon came back up. Ron was about to reach for the button when a hand stopped her.

“Wait.”

Su Fan was staring at the elevator doors.

He had a bad feeling.

Although confused, Ron didn’t question him, just obediently stood still.

In that moment, the elevator doors in front of them opened, revealing the figure of a woman.

The woman’s face was haggard and aged, her withered hair cascading over her shoulders.

The moment Ron saw her, her blue pupils contracted.

When she had spoken with Xip earlier, he had shown her some photos on his phone.

They were pictures of her birth mother, whom she had never seen.

She looked exactly like the woman before her now.

A sense of closeness, born from shared blood, made her instinctively smile.

But before she could speak, she noticed something strange.

The woman’s face was expressionless, her eyes dull, as if she didn’t see anyone in front of her at all. She made no move to exit the elevator.

Suddenly, a blood-red line gradually appeared across the woman’s throat. Dark blood gushed out, and she collapsed right in front of Ron…

Ron let out a cry of despair, rushing forward to catch her mother’s falling head, helplessly calling for help.

But as a doctor, she knew very well that her mother was beyond saving.

Seeing this, Su Fan just sighed and then dialed for an ambulance.

The police arrived quickly on the scene, and medical personnel appeared shortly after.

Ron, covered in blood, looked numb. After the police finished their questioning, she returned to Su Fan’s side.

“Why… why did this happen…”

Ron’s voice was hoarse.

“In the history of the Mayfair family, aside from you, there have been twelve witches. Not one of them met a peaceful end.”

“From the moment you get involved with a demon, you should be mentally prepared.”

Su Fan watched as the police and the coroner busied themselves, speaking calmly.

“Are you saying… Lasher did this?”

Ron trembled.

“Even if he didn’t do it himself, he’s involved.”

Su Fan wasn’t making baseless accusations.

Without a contract with Lasher, many of the witches were just ordinary people.

Power always attracts trouble. Whether the possessor is willing or not, they are inevitably drawn into the vortex.

If Dill were just an ordinary woman, would she have suffered thirty years of house arrest and died under mysterious circumstances?

Without sufficient ability to control power, the end result is inevitably tragic.

“I won’t accept a contract with Lasher.”

Ron’s eyes were lifeless, filled with a heavy air of death.

“He won’t get anything from me.”

Su Fan shook his head slightly.

In the original storyline, Ron had indeed refused a contract with Lasher in every way.

But after experiencing a series of his schemes,

All of Ron’s psychological defenses crumbled, and she ultimately became the thirteenth witch of the Mayfair family, allowing Lasher to return to the world.

But things were different now.

“The plans for this afternoon are canceled. Change your clothes. Don’t let the blood stain the talismans on you, or they’ll lose their effect.”

Ron stood up like a sleepwalker and returned to her room.

Losing both her adoptive mother and her birth mother in such a short time had dealt a significant blow to her spirit.

If not for the protection of the Calming Talisman, she probably wouldn’t even have the strength to walk now.

What she needed was rest.

And Su Fan stood up and left the hotel via the stairs.

Ron was just an ordinary person, of course she didn’t understand the madness of the Mayfair family and those associated with them.

All of this was just accelerating the transition from the twelfth witch to the thirteenth.

Freed from the twelfth witch, Lasher was now in a state without a contractor.

He could go anywhere he wished, guided by his own will.

Appear before anyone.

But Su Fan wasn’t worried that Lasher would escape.

Ron was Deirdre’s only bloodline, the one destined to resurrect Lasher.

He wouldn’t give up.

The reason Su Fan had gone out was simply to deal with the fools surveilling the place from outside.

They started with a big move right away and even set their sights on him.

Fine.

In his pocket, a deck of Tarot cards emitted a black aura invisible to ordinary people.

…

“The intel this time was quite accurate. That witch really showed up at this hotel.”

In a building across from the hotel, a slightly portly middle-aged man was talking on the phone about the day’s events.

On the table next to him was a plastic bag containing blood-stained clothes.

“…”

“Of course I took care of her… Pity there wasn’t enough time to dig out the witch’s heart.”

As he spoke, the man smiled.

“Just wondering when we can take care of the other witch and the man staying in that hotel.”

“That exorcist famous in the psychic circles… Hah… Any exorcist not recognized by the Church is a heretic!”

“They are followers of the devil, slaves of Satan! They must be eliminated! Burned at the stake!”

“…”

“Don’t worry, his every move is under my surveillance.”

The bragging man didn’t notice a black, shadowy figure slowly materializing beside him.