Stray

Jesse Dillon groaned for the thousandth time, he sighed loudly on purpose.

Considering the different food preferences of different races, in order to prevent the emergence of snacks that smell too strong or too scary, the affiliated library of the Mercenary Guild Headquarters clearly stipulates that visitors are not allowed to bring food.

Similarly, noise is also prohibited, Mr. Dylan, who does not like to read books, lost his two favorite hobbies at one time.

Jessie was lying on the smooth and clean wooden table in despair, her blond hair dripping all over the table, and her whole body exuded an air of boredom to death.

The afternoon sun is very good, and the autumn sun is shining brightly with blonde hair. As Jesse's breath rose and fell, a dizzying white-gold halo slid across her hair.

Adrian Cross silently changed his angle to prevent his eyes from being caught by the dazzling brilliance. He turned his body slightly to the side by the window and continued to read the thick ancient book in his hand. The knight commander borrowed a lot of books, as if he planned to stay here until the museum was closed.

Books of different sizes are neatly stacked together, in Jesse's eyes like a doomsday fortress.

"Honey, haven't you found it yet?" Jesse desperately picked up the book "The Complete Book of Warcraft in the Northern Zone" at the top of the stack, and flipped through it for a while.

"No." Adrian turned to him and answered calmly, without raising his head. "That's where I've been spending a lot of time, not having the opportunity to go at work, Mr. Dillon."

"Okay, please go ahead. You read, I'll watch you." Jessie put her elbows on the table, one hand on the side of her head.

Adrian shook his head slightly and continued to flip the pages gently. The warm sun shone through the windows and the air was just right. The room was quiet, save for the screeching of cloth rubbing and flipping papers. He could hear the wind outside the window and the breathing of the other person beside him.

Time became sticky and slow, and instead of being bored, he enjoyed the atmosphere immensely.

The former Judge Knight Commander knew in his heart that if none of the scholars he had contacted had answers, he could not find any valuable clues by himself. But if he really wanted to talk about the remaining persistence in his heart, he could only think of this.

A little question that has not been cleared from the bottom of my heart for many years.

It may have been influenced by his teammates who love toss and toss, and he made such a useless and ridiculous decision subconsciously. Searching for a needle in a haystack in the world's largest library with a vague memory from many years ago. No matter how you look at it, this is a pointless and inefficient idea.

But at this moment, he felt inexplicably relaxed.

"If you are so boring, maybe I can ask you to help me with a divination?" Hearing the long breathing around him, Adrian asked in a low voice.

"Huh?" Jessie quickly wiped the saliva from her mouth, pretending she wasn't asleep. "Divination for what?"

"The answer I want will be in which book." Adrian glanced at the monster that looked like a giant bear on the last page, and gently closed the old book in his hand.

"No." Jesse pouted, "If you get the answer, you'll probably have to go back to your hotel room and wait - don't get me wrong, Ed, I like that you don't wear a shirt in front of me. , looks dripping with sweat. But I prefer you when the sun shines more clearly."

Adrian raised his eyebrows.

"After all, it's rare to see you taking the initiative to do something... Of course, if you choose to give up now, we can have a drink together, and then—" Jesse touched his lower lip ambiguous.

But Adrian didn't fall for him.

The provocation failed to divert his attention from a fact - Jesse Dylan uncharacteristically refused his request, leaving no room, not many cases See. This request is not difficult, so does Dylan "really don't want to" or simply "can't do it"?

】

Dylan once said this, combined with the other party's inexplicable interest in him...

Interesting.

Adrian retracted his gaze, picked up the "Northern Region Warcraft Complete Book", and began to read it carefully. Not surprisingly, the beast he was looking for was not included in this book either.

The giant beast in my memory has soft snow-white long hair, and its shape is between a fox and a wolf. To this day, he no longer remembered the shape of the strange long horn on the animal's head, only that it was astonishingly large.

Like a beautiful creature that only appears in religious legends.

As time went by, Adrian began to lose track of what it looked like, or even whether the memory was reality or an illusion. But he remembered those eyes, beautiful ice blue eyes, like...

A weight rested on his shoulders, and Jesse, who didn't get a response, passed the time and fell into a deep sleep again. Only this time, Mr. Dylan deliberately leaned his head over and rested on Adrian's left shoulder.

Soft blond hair slid across the pretty over-the-top face, scattered on the black monk's robe like molten gold.

He should have moved to the right, let the guy ruthlessly lean into the air, and threw himself awake—but Adrian hesitated for a moment and didn't move.

Perhaps the sun was too good, he couldn't help reaching out and gently pulling the annoying blond hair back behind the other's ear, letting the heavy head rest on his shoulders like this. Immediately, the knight commander turned his gaze back to the book and continued to quietly read the contents of the page.

It's just a little lighter.

At this moment, the other two of the tumbleweed were much more tense.

In order not to attract the attention of Della Lanene, Oliver had to leave his Pope in the most inconspicuous corner of the stable of the inn, and repeated to the horse at least a hundred times "Please don't use magic" request.

I don't know if the arrogant Pope listened, but now they need to worry more about the guy in front of them.

"Um...maybe I should say 'long time no see', you two."

Public red hair, exquisite round-frame glasses, and the eyes behind the lenses are a completely different gray-green from Oliver. The coat of arms, cast in white tin, gleamed on the leather armor, and a wolf's head mark was finely engraved on it.

Oliver gasped. They recognize the mark, and they recognize the person.

One of the surveillance personnel during the Black Badge test, an old acquaintance of Ann, a member of the "Gel Wolf Mercenary Group" to which Fenrir Troy belongs.

"Thorn." The young and handsome red-haired mercenary pushed his glasses and introduced himself with a smile. "The name of this body."

The two looked at him incomprehensibly.

"Now let's put aside the feeling of reunion and talk about business." Della Laineen clapped her hands, not paying attention to the complicated expressions of the two. "I'm glad you were willing to satisfy my curiosity, but I have to say, Mr. Ramon—you've given me very little information."

"Oh," Oliver said dryly.

" But I do have an interest in the Flint Lopez discovery, which is good information. Speaking of which, now that we've decided to be as honest as possible in this deal - I'm sure both Know the basic information of the butcher shop."

Waiting for this sentence, Nemo rolled his eyes in his heart. The sage of the abyss will never stop his temptations.

"Yes." Mr. Demon King hurriedly brought out the information he got from the parrot. "The butcher shop is not a centralized organization, it is a scattered referral system. If the rumors are true, the top manager is the legendary Aurora. Talents and mages in need will find these through various channels. Introduce people and get demonic information from them."

"After the two sides reach an agreement, the superior demons will rush to the designated location on the surface of the abyss, attach their flesh and blood to the bodies of the middle and lower demons, and then the caster will summon these middle and lower demons." Oliver tried his best. With an unfathomable expression, he casually added.

The grey parrot on Nemo's shoulder snorted softly.

"That's right." Della Layne glanced at the parrot and touched her chin. "According to your description, your father is obviously not a demon warlock, so he may have asked for other services - such as exchanging knowledge and intelligence for recovered demon flesh, or specific abyss spells."

"For example, the 'domination' of the superior demon." Oliver closed his eyes and whispered.

The sage of the abyss nodded: "The information of the guests who summon the superior demon will be registered and shared among all the introducers of the butcher shop. I'm very sorry, the two of you, this kind of second-level transaction... I'm afraid Only the introducer knows the content. The knowledge exchanged is not forcibly shared, which is one of the benefits of being an introducer.”

"But you can get information." Nemo stared at the gray-green eyes behind the lenses.

"Of course." Della Lane's voice was full of reason. "According to Mr. Ramon's intelligence - our Flint may have made two transactions with the butcher's introducer, and the introducer is 80% of the gatekeeper's member. The transaction was twenty-three years ago, and the location was in Austria. The capital city of Ilburn, these clues are enough to narrow the scope."

Oliver frowned: "Twice?"

He thought there was only one deal - from Meders' account, Flint Lopez just repaired his arm with demonic flesh.

"Yes, twice." Della Layne took two steps forward, reaching for Oliver with one hand, before being pushed away by Nemo calmly. "...Well, I just wanted to say that a pure human being alone can't save a newborn's life from the erosion of Trent blight. Ah, provided you didn't specifically lie to me with false information."

"Dear hero Flint."

Dara Lane let out two low laughs from the depths of her throat.

"He was putting all his energy into the power of the baby, and he certainly couldn't take care of anything else. Human cubs are not so easy to survive. I guess he first went to the capital of Alban to have meat and meat. Shop deals in exchange for curse-busting, energy-saving tips."

"Unfortunately, after being reported by Mr. Meders, he lost his right arm, so he kept doing it, and our Flint simply came for a second transaction - a devil's right arm , a little abyss spell will undoubtedly make you grow up more smoothly, Mr. Ramon."

"Intelligence." Nemo interrupted coldly and brought the topic back.

"Yes, yes." The red-haired mercenary took off his glasses and wiped them leisurely. "I really know a butcher's introducer who was in charge of Alban's capital twenty-three years ago and was also a gatekeeper. But I haven't heard from him for a long time. As far as I know, he has never submitted any information. Gold-level knowledge or intelligence."

Nemo rolled back with a shudder, and he finally realized that the answer might come sooner than he thought.

After half a day, he retracted the idea.

Three people and one bird are standing deep in the vast frontier forest, in front of a dilapidated three-story wooden house. According to residents of the area, the "eccentric resident" has been missing for a long time. But no one would care about an old man who lived alone who did not appear often, and no one would come to the depths of this dangerous forest without incident. So no one knew whether the poor old man had moved away long ago, or if he had become dinner for the wild beast in the woods.

The night had already fallen, and there was no light in the overgrown wooden house in front of me. The night wind passed through the cracks of the planks, making a weeping sound. The inside of the long-damaged window was pitch black, and the outline of a single piece of furniture could not be seen.

There is no life in it.

Oliver and Nemo gave each other a hard look.

This is obviously not normal, even if it is really uninhabited, at least there will be insects, spiders or mice in the abandoned house. But that darkness envelops the true silence, a barrenness.

The two tumbleweeds swallowed, took a step back, and said almost simultaneously, "Please, Mr. Della Lanene."

Oliver and Nemo stood silently outside the house, they didn't even have to feel it, the creaking wooden floor always indicated the location of Della Layne.

First floor, second floor, and then the highest attic.

"I found him." The abyss sage pushed open the narrow window, stretched out a hand, and made a gesture. "Come up, you two."

There was pure joy in the demon's voice.

"...this is the funniest corpse I've ever seen."