Whispering Verse

It was Sunday noon when I received the letter from the doctor. The doctor has locked the demon's whereabouts and decided to launch an operation tonight. This time the devil did not go to the banquet. He hid in the "Royal Festival Hall" in the east of the city as Victor Fannie.

The Doctor's plan is a simple, three-step plan: infiltrate the concert hall, find the demon, and defeat it.

There are other possibilities for the simple plan. The demon has noticed that someone in the area wants to hunt it. It didn't know what the doctor was, but since it didn't escape the city overnight, there must be other tricks, so the doctor asked Shade to prepare for battle. He might encounter other situations tonight.

"Royal Festival Hall?"

I heard that Shade was going to the concert hall to hunt demons tonight. The writer, who was rosy and in good spirits, frowned slightly:

"Lesia and Princess Margaret are also attending the concert there tonight."

"Is it such a coincidence?"

This was somewhat beyond Shade's expectations, but the two things should not be related. The devil hiding in the concert hall was a helpless move forced by the doctor, and the princesses' appointment to go to the concert hall was an itinerary decided only yesterday.

Although the main force in hunting demons is a doctor, Shade will not let down his vigilance because of this. He prepared enough spellcasting materials for himself and took all the relics that might be useful with him.

After doing this, he left the cat and Dorothy at home after dinner. He took the [Night Watchman] and set off alone in a carriage, and found Dr. Schneider who had arrived one step ahead at the "Green Grass Tavern" in the east of Tobesk.

"Grass Tavern" is a regular operating pub located on Rodriguez Street, only 500 meters away from the Royal Festival Hall. It is famous for its special beer with a grassy flavor. Of course, after Dr. Schneider ordered a drink, he thought the wine tasted quite strange and thought the reputation of this place was just a boast.

On winter nights, once night falls, there will be many people in the tavern, and no one notices Shade and the doctor sitting by the wall.

There were newspapers, notebooks, Rhodes cards and wine glasses on the table between the two of them, and a violin case containing the "Night Watch" was placed on the chair beside them. Everything looked normal.

The violin case was also left behind by the former detective, and Shade doubted that the other man had bought the case just to hold the violin.

"I could feel that guy was inside the concert hall."

Dr. Schneider lowered his voice:

"I bought the architectural design of the concert hall from the black market. We will go in through the sewer in a while. Now it is"

"Seven minutes, thirteen minutes and twenty-one seconds."

Shade helps the doctor set the time on his pocket watch.

"Yes, the next concert starts at eight o'clock sharp. We left the pub at half past seven and sneaked in while the tickets were being checked at the opening. We entered the concert hall from the sewer at eight o'clock sharp. If the plan goes well, we can be there within an hour. come out."

The doctor handed Shade a small cloth bag, which contained various charms. In addition to the basic silencing spells, there were also spells to assist illusions, invisibility, eliminate odors, and suppress light.

As a student of the Mechanical College, the doctor is the best at alchemy among the five. In his opinion, the biggest question tonight is not whether he can defeat the demon, but whether he can hide it without being discovered.

"I made several backup plans."

The doctor showed Shade his notebook again:

"Even if something goes wrong with the plan, we have a way to remedy it."

Shade nodded:

"If so, I don't know if you have any preparation for the current situation. Two high-level warlocks have entered here now."

His eyes looked at the doctor, and his wine glass shook in the direction of the door.

Dr. Schneider glanced at the door, then his expression changed, and he lowered his head to look at the newspaper on the table, as if he was interested in the obituary on the left half:

"It's really strange that old Barkindo died. He was clearly on the eve of leaving office."

The doctor said in a pretentious manner, after confirming that the two gentlemen in black coats who entered the door did not come towards this direction, he carefully told Shade:

"I don't know the other one. The taller one is a professor at St. Barons Mechanical College. I have taken his elective course "Precious Metal Refining". However, what does the professor from the college do in Tobesk? ?Is it also for [Wise Man’s Pyroxene]?”

Shade also encountered this kind of encounter with the college professor in the tavern in Coldwater Port. Then he broke into the Aurora mansion and met [Desire] in the secret room behind the damp chapel.

"Professors don't come here just for a drink, right?"

Shade said, neither looking at them nor the doctor. The high-level warlock's senses are very sharp.

"It's hard to say, but it has nothing to do with us."

The doctor emphasized to Shade:

"Our target tonight is only that devil, don't worry about other things."

After speaking, he stood up:

"But to be on the safe side, let's go outside for a walk now. It's no longer safe here."

Although walking on the street on a winter night was not a good idea, the doctor was obviously afraid that staying in the tavern would cause other trouble.

In short, the doctor took Shade to avoid the professors at the college and walked around the winter streets for twenty minutes, which could be considered a familiarity with the terrain.

Seeing that it was almost time, he took Shade to the alley outside the Green Grass Tavern on Rodriguez Street, and found an iron door in the middle of the alley that was almost integrated with the ground. The door was pressed under a pile of abandoned steam pipes. The doctor used his mind to move the entire pipe to the right. Only then did Shade see that the door was close to the wall. Judging from the degree of rust, it had not been used for at least three years. Have opened it.

"The entrance to the sewer is maintained, but due to the renovation of the city's underground pipelines, in order to prevent direct contact between biogas and gas pipelines, this section of the sewer has been abandoned."

As the doctor explained, he knelt down, took out a small copper key and inserted it into the keyhole on the side of the door. After twisting hard, the key broke directly into the keyhole.

"It's okay, it's expected."

The doctor laughed dryly, looked left and right at both ends of the dark alley, whispered a spell, and then slammed his right hand on the ground. With a muffled sound, the rusty iron door on the ground bounced open, revealing the dark passage below.

The doctor climbed down the ladder first, followed by Shade, who did not forget to close the open iron door again.

Compared to the cold ground, the disgusting-smelling sewers seemed damp and warm. Although the taste was bearable, Shade was still glad that he didn't eat much tonight.

"This way!"

Dr. Schneider, who was the first to reach the bottom of the ladder, took out two candle ends from his pocket, lit the candle ends, and let them float around him.

He checked his current location and checked the sewers for other "visitors." After confirming that there was no problem, he waved to Shade, and the two of them walked toward the depths of darkness:

"Doctor, you should have prepared a deodorizing method, right?"

Shade also didn't forget to ask. With the smells the two of them were carrying now, once they appeared in the concert hall, people might be able to smell them two corridors apart.

The dim light from the candles illuminated the way forward. In the dirty and narrow sewers, rats and cockroaches walked with them. Although accidents often occurred when working with doctors, it was probably because those "accidents" also disliked the smell of sewers, so they quickly reached the bottom of the concert hall smoothly.

This abandoned sewer was originally connected to the warehouse of the concert hall, but the exit was blocked many years ago. After checking the architectural map of the concert hall, the doctor found another way, which was to make a hole directly upward from the position closest to the ground:

"right here."

The candle flew upwards, indicating the location identified by the doctor. And there is no need for Shade to take action next. As a six-ring warlock, Dr. Schneider still has the ability to melt stone walls.

He stretched out his hand upwards, and then a ball of high-heat fire like lava appeared in his hand. The fireball continued upward, like a hot knife cutting through the snow, quickly melting the rock wall above the head. Shade recognized it as the fire of the Balrog, the way the doctor gained the power of the demon after devouring it.

The hole was quickly opened, and overhead was the spare parts warehouse at the backstage on the first floor of the concert hall. This will not be turned on during the show, so there will be no lights in the room.

So the two of them officially entered the concert hall smoothly, and the doctor gave Shade a brown leaf. After wiping the leaves on the clothes twice, the stench that had just been stained disappeared.

"It's not an alchemy tool, it's the leaves of a special plant."

As if he guessed what Shade was thinking, the doctor explained, and then gave Shade a white mask, which only exposed the eyes and mouth:

"This is an alchemy tool."

He puts an identical mask on his face, and as the mask "melts", the doctor's appearance changes into a different person. Shade followed suit. After the mask melted on his face, he felt as if his face was covered with a film of water.

"Even the devil can't easily see through this disguise. It's very expensive, so we must take advantage of this opportunity. Follow the plan and follow me."

After getting ready, the doctor leaned on the door to confirm that no one was in the corridor for the time being, and then opened the door a crack. When this middle-aged psychiatrist with blue eyes walked from the darkness to the light, the squirming black mucus wrapped around his shirt, adding a brand new piece of clothing to him.

Shade followed suit wearing the clothes he had just changed, stepping on the red carpet on the ground and looking towards the corridor which was empty but brightly illuminated by the gas lamp.

This means that the two of them have officially entered the concert hall, and it also means that Shade once again followed Dr. Schneider and broke into other people's houses without permission.