Whispering Verse

The rest in the morning was enough. Both Shad and Dorothy still had things to do in the afternoon. After bidding farewell to Dorothy at the intersection, Shade carried the sleepy cat to the Prophet's Association, and then informed Luvia about Yin Luna's sudden visit at noon today and what was wrong:

"It's unusual. Yin Luna is usually positive and cheerful. I rarely see her so troubled."

The purple-eyed girl patiently listened to Shade's narration, frowned and thought for a moment:

"Are you sure you didn't say anything wrong at noon?"

Shade immediately denied:

"It's probably not my fault. After all, she looked unhappy when she came to see me at noon. I asked her what she had done in the morning, and she said she went to the warehouse area to investigate what happened last night."

"Is it because you are worried about us? But this time is not as dangerous as the Battle of the Chosen...Leave this matter to me, I will communicate with Yin Luna."

Luvia said, and Shade nodded, but still a little worried. But he thought about Tifa telling him to visit Miss Carina on the weekend and bring flowers and gifts, so the visit could be scheduled for Sunday. Sunday is also the time when Yin Luna goes to the witch for training. Shade should still be able to meet Yin Luna.

"Also, besides Yin Luna, I have to worry about you. I saw you last night and you were stared at by that corpse."

The purple-eyed girl continued, looking at Shade with worried eyes:

"You don't need to explain to me that you are okay. I can make my own judgment on whether you are okay or not. Dorothy took a nap with you in the morning. You do look better, but you can't completely rest assured. In the past week, you should not come into contact with those who will Be careful of relics that affect your mood, and those that can evoke your empty mental memories of last night. I think you should be fine after a week."

She seemed to have a lot of experience in dealing with such negative emotions. Shade knew that Luvia was concerned about him, so he nodded in agreement:

"Yes, it is an angel-level relic after all. I will be careful and tell you as soon as possible if anything happens. I don't want to recall that kind of indifference anymore. However, you must also have some confidence in me."

Afterwards, Shade returned home, put little Mia on a soft cushion on the windowsill of the living room on the second floor and let her take a nap, then he went from the basement to the Green Lake area alone. Bad-eyed Barry's clues about the tomb robbers should have been found, and Shade was looking forward to meeting the bold group of tomb robbers.

As for the information dealer's identity as a ring warlock and the smell of water ghost pheromones on his body, we can investigate together if we have time.

The last time they met, Bad-Eyed Barry gave Shad a business card with his address in the city. That was not the gang leader's residence, but a detached four-story building located in a slum area in the southeastern part of the city.

The neighborhood is the oldest residential area in Green Lake City, so the buildings are also very old. In addition to being dilapidated, some of the buildings were actually crooked. After Xia De got off the carriage and entered the alley, he heard that all the buildings here were crooked to varying degrees due to unstable foundations.

The city's gangs and shady shops are hidden here, and police patrols will not go deep into this area. The numb poor people have long lost their longing for the future because of the hardships of life. But this is also the only place in the entire city where you don't feel the tense atmosphere arising from the negotiations between the two countries.

After all, for the poor people who live a hard life, Delarion, Kasenlik, peace and war, borders and trade routes have nothing to do with them.

Bad-eyed Barry's four-story building is the base of his gang - this is what Shade, who has never been in contact with such gangs, thinks so. Shade followed the dilapidated building signs and stepped on the muddy ground. When he came here in the afternoon fog, two bare-armed men guarding the building with sticks refused to let Shade in.

It wasn't until Shade took out his business card that one of them opened the door and led Shade in, and warned Shade not to walk around or talk nonsense.

After entering the building, Shade discovered that this was the Rhodes Casino. The choking smell of tobacco is suffocating, but the interior decoration is much better than the dilapidated building on the outside. All kinds of people gathered here to fight against each other at the gambling table. Shade even saw a well-dressed nobleman leaning on the table with a cane decorated with gold ornaments, and a fat-bellied businessman, gambling among a pile of banknotes.

Outsiders would not be willing to come to such a place unless necessary.

The first and second floors here are Rhodes Casino, and the rooms on the third floor are where the casino minions rest and eat. The fourth floor is occupied by offices to maintain the daily operations of the casino. Bad-eyed Barry was in the fourth-floor office. When Shade followed the man who led him in to the end of the stairs, he happened to see a man who had been beaten so hard that he couldn't straighten up and was dragged down from the fourth floor. stairs.

"Look who's here, Captain Rades' friend!"

The one-eyed man used an exaggerated tone and clapped his hands behind the desk to welcome Shade. Everyone else who was in the room temporarily left, and the man who led Shade upstairs closed the door.

Shade sat on the chair outside the desk and glanced at the windows on the wall and the small doors on the left and right sides:

"Good afternoon. Have you found out the news about the tomb robbers?"

"Yes, here."

He took the document bag to the table and pushed it to Shade. Shade touched it:

"Maybe I misunderstood, but why is it so thin?"

"Because they are all dead and only one is alive."

The one-eyed man put his hands together on the table and briefly introduced:

"After that visit to the island to rob the tomb, although the people who came back made a lot of money, they all went crazy one after another. The remaining one's mental state was not very good either. You are lucky to have investigated in time. If it had been a few weeks later, he said He might also die."

"Is the other party still living in Green Lake City?"

"Yes, the specific information is in the file bag. However, there is a high probability that you will not find the stolen items. The guy who was lucky enough to survive until now is already penniless. If he still has valuables in his hand, he will not be able to find them. I would have sold it for money a long time ago.”

"It doesn't matter, at least there are clues."

Shade took out his wallet, paid the balance, and then stood up with the document bag to leave. But the one-eyed man behind the desk stopped him:

"Are you interested in doing something for me? It's also related to the central island of Green Lake. Maybe you can solve it while investigating the tomb robbers. I can offer a high price, and you will be satisfied."

"No, not interested. I just want to find tomb robbers."

Shade said, after pulling the door handle, he saw a strong man standing outside the door blocking the way, preventing him from passing through the door.

He turned to Bad-eyed Barry and said:

"Are you sure you want to offend Captain Rades' friends?"

The strong man in front of him finally gave way. Shade uttered a curse word in the local dialect, put his hands on his waist, and left along the stairs.

No one blocked his way as he left the casino, and he arrived outside smoothly. But Shade didn't go far. Instead, he circled around the area. Sure enough, in the garbage pile between the two houses, he saw the man he met on the stairs just now, who was beaten badly and dragged out.

He was thrown here like garbage. Although he was still conscious, he could only moan and couldn't move.

In order to test whether he could still move, Shade threw two coins in front of him. The man came to life immediately. He quickly picked up the coins and held them in his hand. Then he looked up at Shade. He was beaten. The swollen blue-purple eyes were squinted, which looked ridiculous.

"what you up to?"

"Why did they hit you?"

"Because I saw them insulting women and then going to stop them."

Shade turned around and left. The man on the garbage pile quickly changed his words:

"I owe them money, damn, I thought I was going to win today. I just had bad luck today, damn, I always have bad luck."

"Tell me about bad-eyed Barry, whatever you know."

Shade shook the two 1-pound bills in his hand. The man looked at the bills and nodded immediately:

"Bad Eyes Barry is not a local. He came here from other places more than 20 years ago and became powerful after killing a local gang boss whose name is no longer known. He is now very famous in Green Lake City. Intelligence , casinos, illegal drugs, smuggling, he does all kinds of business. I heard that even MI6 and Gray Gloves can buy intelligence from him. "

"Is he not a local?"

Shade was slightly surprised:

"You can't tell the accent, but that's right, after all, it's been more than twenty years."

"No one knows his origins. We can only confirm that he used to live in Delarian."

The man continued, catching the banknotes that Shade threw to him:

"No one dares to offend him here. Anyone who offends him is dead. If he owes money, he is even more cruel. He is a very stingy guy. And this man is very wise and will not provoke the church, the city hall and the army. He also donated money to help the poor in the slums in spring and winter, so for so many years, no one wanted to bring him down."

"Which god does Bad-Eye Bali believe in?"

Shade asked again. This was very crucial information, but the man thought about it and shook his head:

"I don't know. I have never heard of such a person praying... But it is said that he was seen praying in the windowless room on the fourth floor of the casino. I have only heard this statement. , not sure.”

Shade looked at him suspiciously:

"How do you know this kind of thing? Don't tell me, you heard this from the tavern."

The man smiled awkwardly:

"I thought about getting some valuable things from the casino, selling them, paying off the money I owe, and then leaving Green Lake City. Maybe I can live a normal life."

Shade shook his head, threw the other bill to him, and then turned and left.

Seeing Shade being so generous, the man stumbled up and wanted to catch up with him and say a few words to him. But by the time he chased him outside from the garbage pile between the two houses, Shade had disappeared.

Shade has no hobby of prying into other people's privacy, and it has nothing to do with him that a strange ring warlock works incognito as an intelligence dealer and gang boss. If it weren't for the fact that he cared about the water ghost, Shade actually didn't want to know who Bad-Eyed Barry was.

After getting information from the man in the garbage dump, Shade planned to take a look in the innermost room on the fourth floor of the casino. But the time is not now, but after the sun sets. He waited until the low-level warlock was no longer here before taking action. After all, the most important thing now was the whereabouts of the group of tomb robbers.

Bad-Eye Barry's investigation was quite detailed. Although the description of the situation of the dead tomb robbers was not particularly clear, at least the current address of the living one was indeed true.

The address of the insane tomb robber is also in the slums southeast of Green Lake, but it is located on the bank of the Duin River. A series of low stilt houses are located on the east bank of the Duin River, with crows circling in large numbers, and the background of the shacks is a gray misty sky.

This is in sharp contrast to the relatively prosperous urban area on the west bank of the Duin River.