Iron Powder and Spellcaster

Lieutenant Colonel Field, who had vomited all his bile, was obviously not in the mood to return to the army headquarters. The lieutenant colonel now smelled a peculiar smell all over his body, and he just wanted to go home and clean himself.

He picked up his dark horse and told Winters as he walked: "Take these two files back to the military police office, let Moluc file them, and let him copy two more copies."

After walking back to the rammed earth road from the drainage ditch on the roadside, the lieutenant colonel got on his horse, looked at Winters who looked as miserable as him, and said in a hoarse voice: "You are very good today, you did not embarrass the Army. Send the file After giving it to Moluc, you should go home directly, take a good wash, and get some sleep, it’s been a hard day today.”

After saying this, Field clamped his legs around the horse's belly, waved his whip, and galloped away, seemingly heading home directly.

Although as a pragmatist, Winters deep down believes that it is meaningless to earn face in this ruthless way. But being verbally praised by his boss still made him a little happy.

Warrant Officer Montagne, a newcomer to the workplace whose threshold was still relatively low, checked the two files in his saddle bag. After confirming that they were complete, he mounted his horse and headed straight for the army headquarters.

He returned the horse, returned to the gendarme, and handed the file to the blond scribe Moluc, but Winters did not go home directly. While Moluc was immersed in copying the file, he took the autopsy report and sat on the bench to read it carefully.

Although Winters did not know the specific details, he judged from the words of Customs Officer Lopp that the task of investigating the dock assassination case had obviously been handed over to Lieutenant Colonel Field.

If that was the case, even if the lieutenant colonel didn't speak, he thought he should try to learn the relevant information.

Another reason is that as a witness to this case, or even the first witness, he really wanted to know what the customs had found.

The customs autopsy report was very detailed. The three passengers with intact bodies all died of sharp force injuries, with multiple important organs punctured, and eventually died of massive internal bleeding. The doctor responsible for the autopsy speculated that the sharp injury should have been caused by a narrow-edged straight weapon.

This coroner has some skills, Winters thought. He recalled the one-handed sword in the black-robed man's hand that was as flexible as a poisonous snake. It was indeed a narrow blade with a straight body.

As for the specific weapon, the coroner believed that the most likely weapon was the Rapier.

Swift sword? Winters had heard of this weapon in military school, but he had never seen one.

He continued to look down and saw that only one of the three passengers who were supposed to be escorts died from frontal wounds, while the other two suffered fatal injuries on the sides and rear.

Winters thought: The person who died from frontal wounds should be the one who was attacked in the beginning. The other two died from the side and rear, which shows that these guards were also good at swordsmanship, and the men in black robes could not quickly deal with them one-on-one.

The rest of the autopsy report contains scattered information such as height and hair color.

The coroner determined that the three men were approximately 25 to 30 years old based on the degree of tooth wear and other factors. He has a strong body and good posture. Judging from these two points, his social class will not be very low. At least you can always eat meat on weekdays, because you can't build such muscles just by eating wheat flour.

The coroner concluded: "The hands and palms of the three deceased people had hard calluses. Considering that the three deceased people were obviously not farmers who needed to work, these calluses should be traces of weapon training all year round. It is speculated that the three deceased people They should be people like mercenaries, or craftsmen and businessmen who are wealthy enough to have time to practice weapons, or maybe..."

The text ends abruptly at the word "maybe", and the rest is erased by ink.

When copying documents by hand, clerical errors will always occur, and it is normal to make mistakes. When Moluc copies, he will naturally ignore the deleted content, and the newly copied document will end up at "Artisans and Merchants". This document was obviously an original handwritten by the coroner.

Winters couldn't see what was being smeared out, but he could guess what the coroner meant - military personnel.

The word "soldier" is even somewhat inaccurate, and a more accurate description should be "officer".

The soldiers at the bottom also have a hard life on weekdays, and they don't have the pampered demeanor of the tourists. The officers fit the description of practicing cold weapons all year round and having good food and drink conditions.

The coroner wrote the officer as one of his speculations in the report, but the customs obviously didn't want to make matters worse, so they blacked out this part.

It would be fine if there was conclusive evidence. If there is no conclusive evidence, it would be said that the three deceased were officers. The Army, which was already so angry because of the unreasonable detention of trainee officers, why not blow up?

Winters began to understand somewhat why the case had been handed over to the Army.

If he had not witnessed the entire incident at the first scene, Winters would have scoffed at the customs speculation that the three people might be officers.

But he kept thinking about the traveler who could use deflection. Because the musket had poor accuracy, Winters did not dare to conclude that the shot that missed must be the effect of deflection, but he kept tensing up in his heart. Take this string.

"Should I report this information to Lieutenant Colonel Field?" Winters held his forehead and thought, feeling a little headache: "But I have promised to discuss this matter with Major Moritz in secret."

If that person is really an Army spellcaster officer, the nature of this matter is very serious.

Just the identity of an officer is sensitive enough. Who would do such a thing to kill an officer on the street in public? And the one who died was the caster? The dangerous smell emanating from this case was more pungent than the stench of the customs morgue.

If that person was not an army spellcaster officer, the nature of the matter... would be even more serious.

This means that either the results of the Magic Warfare Bureau have been stolen by the outside world, and the thieves have also trained spellcasters who can use advanced spells such as deflection;

Or... the dead traveler was the legendary court mage. I have never heard of anyone else using magic. But will the court mage be killed so easily?

The more Winters thought about it, the more headache he got, and he decided that if Lieutenant Colonel Field didn't ask, he would remain silent. Because he still trusted Major Moritz more than Field.

And since you didn’t take the initiative to ask, then if I didn’t take the initiative to tell you, it wouldn’t be considered a deliberate concealment.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel a little resentful: "Didn't we agree to discuss it in secret together? But why did the Major disappear? After I get home, I have to ask my uncle if he knows where the Major is now."

From the autopsy report, there was nothing unusual about the suspected spellcaster, and the three of them had no tattoos or obvious scars.

As for the passenger who was broken into several pieces, although the coroner did not give a cause of death, Winters knew that the cause of his death was that the assassin stabbed his left rib with a short knife. The explosion only accelerated his death and destroyed the body.

But for some reason, Winters always feels a little out of place, as if something is strange.

He looked over the autopsy report carefully again to make sure he didn't miss anything. But I still can't figure out where this dissonance comes from.

Moluc had already finished copying the investigation file from the Customs Guard Division, and remained silent, quietly waiting for Winters to read the autopsy report. Winters exchanged documents with the scribe apologetically and continued to read the investigation file.

The investigation file was actually shorter than the autopsy report.

The Customs Guard's idea was simple and crude, and they immediately started to find out who the assassin was. However, the assassins all wore masks and cloaks, and no one had seen the assassin's face.

It seems we can't find out who the assassin is for the time being, so let's find out where the assassin went, right? According to vendors near the pier, the assassin fled eastward along the road in a black carriage.

Now that we know that the carriage is dark and we know where to run to, we can just investigate the rest.

Veneta people like gorgeous style, so pure black carriages are not too common. Only some coachmen will use this kind of carriage.

But the Customs Guard's investigation encountered another problem. They followed the assassin's escape route and asked the shops along the way. They found that after six or seven blocks, no one had any impression of the carriage. Who would care about a mediocre car on the road? Where's the carriage?

When the Director of Security described the characteristics of the carriage in detail and asked questions again and again, these traders seemed to remember the carriage again. However, the directions given were varied, and several people even swore that they saw the carriage not coming out of the pier, but going to the pier.

In this regard, Officer Lopp believed that these testimonies were not admissible simply because the customs investigators described the carriage in too detail and questioned them too intensely, inducing confessions from vendors along the street.

Since we don’t know who the murderer is, how about finding out who the deceased is? But the Skua's sailors had no idea who the deceased was.

I wanted to ask the captain for questioning, but found out that the captain was just an acting captain, and the original captain was still leading the Good Luck floating on the sea, not knowing whether he was alive or dead.

The final investigation result was that the assassin could not be found, nor the carriage. There were several corpses at the port, but no one knew who the deceased was.

Winters also had to admit that, as Lopp said, this case was a mess, almost a definite unsolved case, and whoever took it would have a headache. It was no wonder that Lieutenant Colonel Field was so angry that he cursed people in the office today.

However, as a witness at the scene, Winters also had his own intelligence advantage. He discovered that the customs people had not discovered yet: the passenger who was blown to pieces was actually shot and killed by a dock worker disguised as a dock worker.

And apparently there are assassins among the dock workers. These assassins are not masked and may be able to provide a breakthrough.

Moreover, all the Army Warrant Officers were at the dock that day, and there were many witnesses. Maybe other Warrant Officers also noticed some valuable information that day.

Having finished reading the two files, Winters stood up and moved his stiff body. He suddenly remembered that he had not properly thanked Benvenuto for rescuing him from the water.

On the day they returned to Hailan, they agreed to meet in the evening. As a result, Winters was admitted to the customs prison that night, and they have not met until now.

Thinking of this, Winters thought he would take advantage of today's opportunity to go home, change his clothes, and clean himself. Later, when the dock workers have gone to work, they can go to Benvenuto's house to find Benwe.

He said goodbye to Moluc and headed home.

---Dividing line---

Winters returned home, and the daytime servant who did not live in the house opened the door for him. Kesha was sitting on the bench in the living room, with a small basket on her knees and doing some embroidery.

The general was sleeping next to her, but he was awakened by the sound of the door opening. He sat up and looked in the direction of the person with vigilance. When he saw that it was Winters, he lay back down again.

Seeing her nephew coming home, Kesha happily put down her needlework and stood up to greet her: "How was your first day as an apprentice? Where did you get the knife?... Ouch, where have you been? Why are you looking weird? taste."

"Really? Is it really smelly? I thought it was just my imagination." Winters replied with a smile. He avoided the contents of corpses and murders: "The knife was lent to me by Lieutenant Colonel Field, he said Soldiers cannot do without their swords, and today I went to a particularly smelly place with the lieutenant colonel."

"Quickly change out of these clothes and take a good bath." Kesha wrinkled her nose and called to the servant softly: "Aunt Marita, please prepare some hot water for Master Winters."

"Don't bother grandma, I just need to take a cold shower. I always took cold showers in the military academy and I'm used to it." Winters's nature is that he doesn't want to cause trouble to others.

"The well water is too cold, you will get sick." Kesha ignored Winters's opinion and motioned to the maid to continue boiling water.

She suddenly said happily: "How about you accompany me to Meiwa's house [a famous tailor shop in Hailan City] later? I haven't been there for a while. I have to make you some new clothes. Look at you. Apart from military uniforms, It’s not okay to have nothing else to wear.”

Kesha's eyes lit up when she thought of going to the tailor shop, and she didn't know why she was so happy.

But Winters subconsciously wanted to refuse: "It's good for me to wear this military uniform. It's enough. I'm not used to wearing casual clothes. I'm still used to wearing boots."

"How can that be done? If you don't have decent clothes, others will laugh at you." Kesha knew that her nephew had not liked dressing up since he was a child, so she had to push him away: "Just leave it alone and just follow me. No. It will delay you for too long. I led him to make your uncle's clothes, so go ahead and take a shower."

Although Winters found it troublesome, he really couldn't find any reason to refuse his aunt. He estimated the time and found that Benway was still working on the dock. It wouldn't take too long for him and his aunt to go to the tailor shop. When they came back, they could go directly to Benway, so he nodded.

Seeing Winters nodding in agreement, Kesha was afraid that her nephew would regret it. While pushing him to take a bath, she happily ordered the servant to ask the stableman to prepare the carriage.

All Winters was thinking about was the case on the dock. His instinct told him that there must be some key point that he had not thought through, but this point was like a thick layer of leather. Can't touch or see clearly.

He took a hasty shower and went back to his room to change into a clean military cadet uniform. Winters will continue to wear the cadet uniform until he completes his probationary period, and will not be able to wear the lieutenant uniform until he officially obtains the rank of second lieutenant.

When Winters finished taking a shower and changed clothes and went downstairs, Kesha was not in the living room downstairs. Winters pushed open the door and walked out. The carriage was waiting at the door, and his aunt was not in the car either.

Where has my aunt gone? Winters was puzzled.

Winters' uncle did not use soldiers as servants like some senior officers. Except for the old nanny, all the servants in the family had been hired from outside since childhood. Major General Antonio's orderlies did not enter the yard.

The stables in Serb's house are not big, and they are all taken care of by a highlander in his fifties. This man has the functions of both a groom and a coachman, and can be regarded as a composite talent.

But Winters didn't know him. During the time when Winters went to the military academy in the United Provinces, the original coachman left and was replaced by this man.

Winters suddenly felt that he could ask the coachman for information about the carriage. He greeted the coachman politely, and the coachman was flattered and took off his hat in return.

"Can I ask you something?" Winters asked with a smile.

"You tell me, young master, just ask." The coachman nodded repeatedly.

The driver's seat was very high, so Winters had to raise his head to speak: "Do you know any other driver in Hailan City?"

"We know each other a little bit. The coachmen all know each other a little bit." The coachman blinked and added: "There are many of us Platoans working as coachmen here."

"Are there many black carriages in the city? Are there many black carriages with silver trim?"

"I don't know about that. Such plain cars are not very common, but there should be some. Some Puritans don't like too beautiful decorations. Hey, those guys don't like anything." The coachman obviously disdained the Puritans.

Puritans, Winters grasped an important point and repeated it several times in his mind.

"What if I want to find a car with black paint and silver trim now?" Winters continued to ask.

The driver scratched his head: "I'm not sure about this. Do you want to rent one or buy one? If you want to rent one, I can help you go to the brotherhood and inquire about it."

"What is the Brotherhood?" Winters heard another new term.

The coachman knew that he had made a mistake and said with a smile: "Did I say something? I meant that you can go find some fellow coachmen to inquire."

Seeing that the coachman was hiding something, Winters stared into his eyes and asked word for word: "If I want a carriage to disappear, can the brotherhood you mentioned help?"

The coachman did not dare to look at Winters. He avoided Winters's gaze and said with a wry smile: "I really don't know this. I'm just a bitter person. Just think that I didn't say anything just now. Okay." ?"

It's "I don't know", not "I can't". Winters already got the answer he wanted.

Thanks to Social Justice Lao Wang for his recommendation vote, thanks to book friend 20181013204343295 for his recommendation vote, and thanks to book friend 20170726153222839 for his recommendation vote. Let my four cats bow to you from afar.