Lord of Mysteries: Yao Guang

The next morning, Barnabas happily shared his good news with the two of them:

"My friend is already on the way. We will go to Barnacle Pier tomorrow afternoon to wait for her!"

"Barnacle Pier? What a strange name." Esther said as she drank the Tyana juice in her glass.

"That pier is private. Pirates or smugglers often land there, which is equivalent to the barnacles that live on the back of the reef, so it got this name." Because the matter has nothing to do with him, Mateo showed a lack of interest. Glancing at Barnabas, he said, "Isn't that really your girlfriend?"

"There is a huge difference between a female friend and a romantic relationship. A virgin like you who is pure and self-sufficient won't understand."

Mateo's ears gradually turned red: "What are you proud of!?"

Esther was flipping through today's newly printed news in her hands. The "Roseid Islands Daily" was all spread out, completely blocking her face, so that Esther didn't have to show the look of disdain on her face directly to the table.

Barnabas was the latest to get up. The other two had already finished breakfast. Now he is the only one who is still fixing the slices of bread and bacon on the plate: "But my friend has a more irritable personality. Esther must be okay. She has the ability to enhance intimacy. Just stop provoking others, talk less and pretend to be mute."

Mateo's face darkened: "Aren't you the one who should pretend to be mute here?"

Esther turned the next page of the newspaper and saw the "Wanted Column" unique to the Rhoad Islands newspaper. She stared at Gehrman Sparrow's bounty with wide eyes and double-checked the number that followed the gold pound figure. Zero—fifty thousand pounds!

The wanted man mentioned by Mr. "The Hanged Man" is true! So much money!

The only people who can be completely unmoved in the face of so much money are people who have completely broken away from the secular realm...or "thieves" who have broken away from the moral realm.

Fifty thousand gold pounds, if converted into equivalent gold, could kill someone.

After Esther sighed with emotion, she put down the newspaper and interrupted the increasingly heated "conversation" between the other two people:

"Matteo, I have already contacted people I know. If you can make up your mind, go to Bayam on May 20th and we will go to the Cafe Tejana at 19 Tejanas Street. ', someone will take you on board then."

After she wrote to the "Queen of Mysteries" last night, she received a reply very quickly, which made Esther wonder if the other party had already predicted this.

Along with the reply came two empty test tubes. The price Esther had to pay was her blood. In exchange, Bernadette asked Esther to give one of the tubes to her, and the other to Aaron and the others directly when they met in the cafe.

Esther was helpless when she received the test tube, and the "Mysterious Queen" seemed very sure that she would agree to this condition.

In mysticism, blood is a very important medium. Esther knows that the combination of her blood and Zoya's power is very special and contains abundant spirituality that is far higher than that of other extraordinary people.

Sitting at the breakfast table, Esther was waiting for Mateo's reply. In the end, as the "Mysterious Queen" expected, Mateo did not refuse:

"If it's someone you know, of course I have nothing to mind. But is this really okay?"

Esther threw the newspaper to Barnabas, who opened his hands to her, and asked Mateo with a smile: "What's wrong? Are you worried about something?"

"You said you were contacting acquaintances, not friends. This wording makes me a little confused." Mateo said slowly, and you could see that he was sorting out his thoughts. "The same thing happened with Vika. Now help arrange for me to get on the ship. Too……"

Banabei's face was hidden behind the newspaper, but his smacking voice was clearly audible: "Tsk, tsk, you really do your best and take care of them like a nanny."

Matteo turned red from his ears to his cheeks this time. Before Esther scolded Barnabas, he spoke first and said, "Actually, he is right. We are still under your care until now. It's all thanks to you." Your help."

Esther was silent for two seconds and raised her eyes: "If you want to repay this, just like Vika, read my honorable name every Sunday morning."

After a pause, seeing Mateo's thoughtful expression, Esther quickly added a few words: "You don't need to report to me what happened on the ship. I have no intention of placing an informant in the fleet. It's not that I want to You go and spy on the other party!"

Barnabas sneered and snapped his fingers behind the upright newspaper. Soon the smell of smoke wafted out, making Mateo wrinkle his nose in disgust.

But Mateo didn't say anything in the end, and just looked at Esther: "Then is there anything else I need to pay attention to?"

"Probably not. There are very good people on that ship. As long as you are recognized, they will be closer to your ideal 'companion' position. You can also ask them about your promotion. They are basically Inti Sri Lankan people."

The newspaper lowered slightly, and Barnabas looked past the news of "The Father of the Second Generation Difference Engine Passes Away": "You seem to be very familiar with them?"

"If you want to pay attention to anything, it is not to mention my affairs to them, because they no longer remember." Esther said this, her eyes were gentle and indifferent.

Banabei swayed the cigarette in his mouth twice and asked curiously: "Because you stole all their memories?"

"I wasn't the one who stole those intersections. It was just an accident that was hard to change, not..." Esther's voice dropped.

Mateo pointed to himself: "Will I do the same?"

"I don't know." Esther said frankly, "So leaving that honorable name to you is my attempt."

"I want to know too." Banabei's eyes became brighter and brighter, and the curiosity inside could not be suppressed at all.

Esther shook her head at him: "Curiosity will kill the cat."

"I'm not a cat, do I care about this?" Banabei pulled up the newspaper, covered his face again, and read recent reports on it. The mountain on the cliff of Bayam Island was weathered and collapsed, "I just want to hear When I heard it, I didn’t intend to read it out.”

"I'm on guard against you. Names can reveal too many things. I don't care about Vika and Mateo, but I must be wary of you."

Banabei flipped the newspaper loudly, indirectly expressing his dissatisfaction: "You are too good at telling the truth. How on earth did you digest the 'scammer'?"

"Of course it depends on sincerity," Esther said casually, "deceiving people with the truth is the essence."

Mateo didn't quite understand what the conversation between the two meant, so he simply lowered his head and thought about Esther's proposal, gradually developing expectations for the future.

——

On the afternoon of the second day, we visited the famous "Barnacle Pier" on Olave Island.

Esther frowned and hid her cold eyes under the hood of her red cloak.

She saw several people dressed as sailors, driving the half-clothed slaves onto the ship without a flag. Most of the slaves were dark-skinned local residents. Many of them had numb expressions, bare shoulders, and The arms or legs bear scabbed scars.

Barnabas transformed into a female with waist-length black hair and a soft face early this morning, but she was still wearing the tuxedo with burnt marks and had no intention of changing her clothes.

Among the three people, Mateo was dressed the most normal-looking, and he was carrying a heavy backpack. He looked like a passenger going out to sea.

Seeing Esther looking at the slaves who had been whipped twice, Barnabas tilted his head and whispered to her:

"The slave trade at sea has become more and more rampant in the past two years. I have talked with several pirates I know before, but those guys whose brains have been ruined by women and alcohol are actually very strict in their words, and no news has been revealed."

"It's a bit suspicious. There should be a tighter organization behind this, and the power is not small." Esther said this, but what she was thinking about was the news mentioned by "The World" at the Tarot Conference.

Klein is also pursuing this matter. The man behind the scenes is likely to be related to the royal family and the military that control the "arbitrator" route...including the previous great smog. Thinking of this matter, Esther's heart is clouded. A layer of gloom.

Banabei nodded slightly: "Out of curiosity, I have been tracking them for a while, and the strangest thing is the whereabouts of these slaves. Because most of the slaves they capture are strong-bodied types, I initially speculated that they were for interests, focusing on plantations, factories, mines and other locations.

"But I found nothing. It was like these people disappeared out of thin air, went to a bottomless stomach, and their existence was wiped out from the outside. Adventures are exciting, but danger will only kill the reckless ones. , so I immediately stopped the investigation after provoking an 'interrogator' who concealed his identity."

Esther pulled her hood lower, and she noticed a few passing pirates looking at her: "If I hadn't met the 'interrogator', all this would sound very much like a cult." Action, isn’t it?”

"You can keep up with my thinking. It's not easy to be a smart person." Barnabas said something that was hard to distinguish between praise and blame. It sounded like he was exerting his narcissistic traits. "I thought so at the beginning too." , but no secret organization dares to be so bold and blatantly plunder the population in this sea area."

"This is Loen's colony." Esther said softly.

Banabei snorted from his nostrils: "Who knows, I always feel like there will be chaos soon."

Esther was a little surprised: "I thought you would be the kind of person who likes chaos. After all, chaos only gives a 'genius' like you the opportunity to develop your talent."

She didn't hide the mockery in her words.

Banabei looked at the line of sea level. The sky and water compressed into a flat horizontal bar at the junction: "Yes, chaos is good. I don't care how many people die, because I don't know them in the first place. To this world To people at the top, we are no different than a tree of ants."

"you are lying."

Barnabas raised the corners of his mouth grandiosely, even though Esther's hood blocked all his expressions: "You are very sensitive, but unlike chaos, lies are a necessity in life for people like me."