Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 48 Like Falling into an Ice Cave (Foreshadowing Recovery)

   woke up from his deep sleep and saw a humanoid crawling into his bedroom through the window.

   The reason for using the term humanoid is because the object that climbed in was dark and strange, and in the moonlight, only the limbs and head could be vaguely distinguished.

   This humanoid also noticed that the owner of the bedroom was awake, and turned to look over.

   looked at each other, and there was no sleepiness in Winters' room.

   He immediately jumped out of bed to grab the Dussack machete hanging on the closet door.

   The time left for him to think is only a fleeting moment. No matter whether it is a human or a monster, he will get the weapon first.

   Winters pulled out his sword and rushed towards the humanoid creature. The opponent was forced to retreat to the corner, and while retreating, he drew a short gun from his waist and pointed it at Winters' head.

The    is not a matchlock gun, but the kind of short gun with a strange machine bracket used by assassins on the dock, the reed gun in the mouth of the lame.

   Winters recognized the musket and stopped abruptly.

The   humanoid was just about to pull the trigger, and when Winters stopped, he released his fingers and threatened in a low voice: "Don't move, don't make a sound, or I'll kill you."

As soon as    opened his mouth, the other party revealed his own information: not a monster, just a person, and a woman. Although the other party tried his best to keep his voice down, he still couldn't hide the female voice.

   "Don't... don't shoot. There are guards downstairs, and you can't run away if you shoot." Winters pretended to be panic.

   Actually, there is only one person living downstairs, Marita Mammy. In addition to the four family members in the whole house, this is the live-in maid that Kesha brought from her parents' house.

  Mamma is almost fifty years old and basically has no combat power. Winters is just bluffing.

"You'll be dead when the guards come up, too." The woman in black tights, with her face covered and only two eyes exposed, held the reed gun firmly in both hands, the muzzle never straying from Winters's for a moment. Head: "Put down the weapon."

   Winters found that the more critical the situation seemed, the clearer his thoughts became. The other party spoke for the second time, revealing more information.

The existence of the    guards did not make her feel disobedient, which meant that she knew the family's military background.

   But she didn't know that there were no guards in Serbiati's house, which showed that her intelligence was not in-depth, and she might just understand some content that could be obtained through public channels.

   "Don't kill me, there's some money in the purse on the table, take it all you want." Winters obediently threw the Dussack knife on the ground.

   He tried to be as weak and cooperative as possible, but he never stopped thinking about counterattacks in his mind.

   He desperately recalled the structure of firearms: a musket generally has a short delay from when the firing rod is pulled down to igniting the gunpowder, and there is a short delay from igniting the gunpowder until the projectile is fired.

   Look at the opponent's movements, dodge horizontally in advance, and avoid key parts. As long as the opponent shoots in the air, he will immediately subdue him with the advantage of strength.

   But Winters doesn't want to use this method unless it is absolutely necessary, because it is too risky, and it is best to find a way to divert the other party's attention first.

   What can divert the attention of the other party?

   Flying Arrow Technique? The ten steel cones were all on the desk, beside the woman.

Is there any other way? Winters racked his brains to think.

   "Don't you recognize who I am? Mr. Montagne." The woman in black spoke in a different tone, as if she was flirting. But she held the reed gun firmly in her hand.

   Winters shook his head, realizing that the other party had already figured out his name.

   The woman in black said bitterly, "You set my hair on fire half a month ago."

   "It's you?" Winters lost his voice. He never expected the female thief that night to chase Hailan.

   "It's me." The female thief said with a sneer.

   Winters felt inexplicable: "You go to the military school to steal something, I am in charge of patrolling, and it is my duty to stop you. There is no personal grudge between us, right?"

   "Who are you talking about stealing? I'm taking back my family's property from the thief!" The woman in black was obviously stinged by the word 'steal' and became a little excited.

   After she blurted out this sentence, she realized her gaffe, and feigned anger to cover up: "I haven't asked you to settle the account that you burned my head."

   "Then you set my hair on fire once?" Winters spread his hands: "And you wanted to kill me at the time, and you didn't allow me to defend myself? You stabbed my arm, but it hasn't grown up until now."

   "All of you Alliance soldiers deserve to die." The woman in black said hatefully. She found that she had been told too much by the other party, so she went straight to the point: "Give me back my things, I won't kill you, just clear it up."

   "What." Winters felt a chill in his heart, but he still lied without changing his face.

   "Where's my dagger?"

   "What dagger?" Really, Winters had given the dagger to Elizabeth, but he couldn't get his sister involved now.

   Elizabeth was sleeping soundly in the room a few meters away, who knows what this crazy woman will do.

   "Don't pretend to be stupid. I went back and searched carefully that night, but I couldn't find it. You must have picked it up."

   "You lost the dagger yourself and asked me for it?" Winters noticed that the logic of the woman in black was somewhat contradictory. When the woman in black fled that night, she threw the dagger at Winters in order to delay time.

   If she valued that dagger so much, how could she use it as a throwing knife?

"Mr. Montagne, you don't seem to understand the situation. Now I'm not asking you for it, but you are going to hand over my things in exchange for your own life." The tone of the woman in black began to turn gloomy: "If you If you don't cooperate, I don't mind killing you first and then finding it myself. Hand over my dagger!"

   Having had the last experience, Winters had no doubt that the woman in black could kill herself without hesitation.

  This woman doesn't seem to have any psychological barriers to taking a life, and in the encounter that night, every move was aimed at Winters.

   But Winters' sanity is warning Winters: Even if you give everything back to the woman in black, the woman in black will still shoot you in the head and disappear.

   The point is what a woman in black really wants. Is it a dagger? Obviously not. If she really cared about that dagger, she wouldn't throw it.

  Ask for a dagger? Winters shook his head inwardly, and he muttered, "But I really didn't find the dagger...I only found something."

The   bait has been hung.

   "What?" The tone of the woman in black was cold.

  The fish bit the hook.

   "A small notebook." Winters had thoroughly read through the mind of the woman in black - what she really wanted was that blank notebook.

The   dagger was just a cover, and Winters would not refuse to hand over something else if he compliantly handed over the dagger. The woman in black can retrieve the notebook by the way with just a few understatements;

  If Winters won't return the dagger, the woman in black won't reveal what she really wants.

  Ignorance is not the greatest obstacle, arrogance is.

   The woman in black looked down on Winters. She felt that it was easy to hide her true intentions in front of this immature young man, and she would pay for it.

   "Where? Show me." The tone of the woman in black was still cold, but Winters had already heard something different.

   "In that bag on the table behind you," Winters said nonchalantly.

   The woman in black immediately wanted to turn around to look for it when she heard the words, but suddenly stopped. She still held the reed gun steady at Winters in both hands, giving Winters no chance for a violent surprise attack.

   She tilted her head and gestured to Winters: "Go and bring it to me."

   "Can't you just take it yourself?"

"Do not talk nonsense."

  Winters dawdled to the edge of the desk, so reluctantly, that the woman in black never left him for a moment.

   But in fact, the idea of ​​the woman in black was in his heart, and Winters never expected to distract the other party's attention in this way.

   Winters put his right hand into the blood-stained satchel, and touched the notebook a few times, but didn't take it out.

   The woman in black froze after seeing Winters put her hands in the cloth bag, and urged, "Look for it."

   "Is this what you want?" Winters asked the woman in black with a laugh, pulling out the notebook from the satchel.

   Winters' smile looked crazy under the firelight, accompanied by a burnt smell and smoke of burning leather, the blank notebook that the woman in black wanted to get at the risk of her own life was burning.

   When Winters got the notebook, he immediately unreservedly released his magic, igniting it with a fire spell.

   The woman in black widened her eyes and let out a shrill scream.

It's now!

   Winters had a cat's waist, like an arrow from the string, and rushed towards the woman in black.

  The attention of the woman in black was no longer on Winters, and the trigger was not pulled until his hand was on the barrel.

   A loud gunshot resounded throughout the house, and a bullet hole was added to the wooden ceiling.

   Winters, who was close behind him, pushed up the barrel of the reed gun and knocked over the woman in black. Using her weight to put her weight on the woman in black, she restrained her.

   But the woman in black at this time has lost her previous fierceness and cruelty. She is like a helpless little girl, struggling, crying, and shouting: "Fire... put out the fire..."

   Winters had no time to notice the emotional change of the woman in black. He still had a vivid picture of the other party's violent murder, and Winters did not dare to be careless, and carefully searched out all the weapons carried by the female assassin.

After    searched behind him, Winters pulled off the sheets and tied the female assassin firmly.

   The woman in black uttered a heart-piercing cry, and even Winters could hear her despair and resentment. She murmured like a madman: "I'm going to kill you... I'm going to kill you..."

  Antonio, who was awakened by the sound of gunfire, hurriedly came to Winters' bedroom with a saber. He pushed open the door and saw that his nephew was riding on a dark thing with a sheet and didn't know what he was doing. There was still a fire on the ground, and he hurriedly stepped on the fire with his feet.

After    put out the fire, he realized that the dark thing on the ground turned out to be a person.

   "What happened?" Antonio was unusually calm.

  The sweaty Winters gasped and said, "A thief, this is a thief, and a killer, and he has been chasing him from the United States to his home."

  The female family members were also woken up. Elizabeth stared wide-eyed as her brother carried a man in black onto the bed, and Kesha took a while to light the candles.

   When there was a light in Winters' room, Kesha saw the figure of the man in black, and she exclaimed, "This is a woman!"

   "Female thief, female thief, female assassin." Winters replied.

  The **** female assassin suddenly screamed: "I'm going to kill you!"

  Kosa and Elizabeth were both frightened by this terrifying curse.

   "Save it!" Winters picked up the pillowcase and stuffed the female assassin's mouth tightly.

   Now the woman in black can only make a whimpering sound. She struggled desperately, but her hands were tied behind her back, her legs were tied, and she just fluttered back and forth in vain.

​​​​​​

  After arranging the female family, Antonio pointed to the woman in black and said to Winters, "Let's take this female thief to the basement first, and don't stay on the second floor to disturb your aunt and sister."

Mammy Marita, who lived on the first floor, was also awakened, and saw Antonio and Winters carrying a man in black who was desperately resisting from upstairs, and kept exclaiming: "God, gosh. ,What's going on here…"

   "Mother Marita, please hold the lamp for us and go to the basement." Antonio interrupted Mammy.

  The frightened Mother Marita walked in front holding the oil lamp, and kept mumbling, "Oh my God, my God."

  The female thief in black was carried into the storage room in the basement, and Winters briefly explained what happened to Antonio.

   The two men discussed it, and they both thought that although there were still many doubts about the whole thing, it was best to hand this woman over to the sheriff first.

   Send her to jail first, and then slowly interrogate her.

   Winters, who had just returned to Hailan for a few days, didn't know anyone, so Antonio rode to find the sheriff, and Winters stayed at home to guard the female thief in black.

   The woman in black no longer struggled uselessly, but the anger was burning in her eyes, and she stared at Winters.

  If the eyes can materialize, there are thousands of holes in Winters now.

   "Who is this person?" Elizabeth, who couldn't bear her curiosity, secretly ran to the basement. The girl was so bold that she tiptoed over Winters' shoulder and secretly looked at the woman in black.

   "Go out." Winters pushed Elizabeth out of the storage room: "It's just a thief... What's there to see, don't you want to accompany Kesha?"

   "Does your aunt still use me to accompany you? She's more or less the same as me." Elizabeth pouted in dissatisfaction: "Didn't I come to give you something."

   Elizabeth handed Winters the woman in black's reed gun. In fact, she didn't come to deliver anything, but to find an excuse to run from her mother to the basement to watch the fun.

   "Okay, I got it, you can go back to the second floor." Winters said helplessly.

   "And this." Elizabeth handed Winters a small folio with a burnt outer cover: "It's almost burnt out."

   is the small notebook that the thief wanted. The layers of paper are hard to burn through. Although Winters used the fire technique with all his strength, he still had half of the book left after burning for a long time.

   Winters shook his head with a wry smile: "I really can't figure out what this woman wants this blank notebook for."

   casually opened the half of the notebook that had been burnt to charcoal, and Winters was surprised to find that blue writing appeared in the place where there were no words.

The words of Lieutenant Colonel    Field echoed in his mind: Some people can't see the way to write information, this method is called steganography... Steganography is a riddle... A common method, nothing more than fire and water...

   So it is!

   The contents of this notebook are written in invisible ink, which only becomes visible after being baked by a flame.

  Winters turned to the first page of the notebook, and on the yellowed paper was written this passage:

   "To my dear Mary

  You are the flame that warms my skin

  You are the clear water that satisfies my longing

  You are my light

You are my everything

   When you left, my life no longer had any meaning

  —AL.D.L”

   This is a sad love poem, it seems that a man is crying for the passing of his lover.

   But at this moment, Winters, who saw this poem, was like falling into an ice cave.

   It is midsummer now, but he really feels his limbs are cold, and the air he exhales from his lungs seems to have frozen into ice.

   Not even when the dagger was just a finger from his neck, not when he was caught in the thigh by the oarsman in the cabin, not even when a musket was pointed to his forehead, Winters had never been so terrified.

   He turned two pages down with trembling hands.

   This page is a simple drawing titled:

   "The Fourth Improved Spell Talent Testing Device"

   A few more pages down:

   "Analysis of the Essence of Sound Spells"

   Winters reached out and grabbed Elizabeth. He felt dizzy now and had to hold Elizabeth to prevent him from falling.

   can't go wrong.

  AL.D.L is short for Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier.

   And Marie de Lavoisier was the wife of General Antoine Laurent.

   The L letter he saw at the end of the notebook before, represented Lavoisier, Lavoisier.

   This small notebook is the lost Antoine Laurent research notes.

   And he burned it with his own hands.

   "Grass!" Winters blurted out.

   I'm so sorry everyone, I'm really ashamed, thank you for reading this. Although I think the main line has already begun, it should actually be from the beginning of this chapter that the main line in the introduction will appear, that is, "a mass-produced magic warfare tool man learned the essence of magic". I often examine what I have written in front of me, and every time I can feel an air of immaturity that makes people want to bury their heads in the sand. If I were to write it again, I would probably make the content of this chapter appear before Chapter 5 (covering my face). Thanks to all the book friends who read this. Don't worry about this research note, half of it is left 2333

   Thanks to the book friend 20170726153222839 for the recommendation ticket, thanks to the book friend 20181013204343295 for the recommendation ticket, and thanks to the book friend Social Justice Pharaoh for the recommendation ticket. Thanks to the book friend Social Justice Pharaoh for the reward.

   (end of this chapter)