Whispering Verse

"Pudding Lane? What's that name?"

Shade followed the narrow alley to the intersection, read the street signs, and continued walking toward the west. Not long after, we found No. 8 Pudding Lane. There is a simple yard outside the low shack. At this time, the older girl in the yard is holding the boy's hand and playing, while the woman with a numb expression is in front of the basin, struggling to beat the clothes with a clothes pestle.

There were mountains of clothes piled around her, and the yard was filled with washed clothes. Obviously, this is a washerwoman who washes clothes for others, and the family's income probably depends on her.

The afternoon spring breeze from the Duin River blew toward the yard in the fog, causing the clothes on the clothesline to sway slightly. But this scene does not have the feeling of spring vitality at all. Instead, it looks like a group of people hanged here and let the wind blow their bodies.

"Hello."

Although the door to the yard was open, Shade knocked on the wood instead of walking in directly:

"Does Mr. Jack Sybil live here?"

This is the name of the tomb robber:

"I have something to ask him about."

The girl, who looked no more than ten years old, took her brother's hand and hid behind the clothes drying rack. The woman doing the laundry looked up at Shade, and then nodded dully:

"He's here, but he can't talk to you."

"He... passed away?"

Shade asked with some regret.

"No, but he's crazy, completely crazy."

The woman said, but Shade still walked into the yard:

"It doesn't matter, it's not like the madman can't speak."

As he said that, he took out a handful of coins from his pocket. The change totaled about two pounds:

"I'm going to interrupt for about half an hour."

He handed the money to the laundry woman, who wiped her wet hands on her apron and subconsciously wanted to catch it, but withdrew her hand and held up the apron instead, letting Shade put the change. Put it on the apron.

"Sir, he is in the east room, on the bed. Please be careful, he can hurt people sometimes."

The woman said, Shade nodded and walked across the yard into the house.

Although this family cannot be called a bare-bones family, the degree of poverty is clearly visible to the naked eye. The only furniture in the house, such as tables, chairs, and cupboards, were old, and there were no decorations on the walls. Even Shade couldn't find a gas lamp. The oil lamp on the table was the only lighting tool.

The person Shade was looking for was lying on the bed in the innermost room. He was a thin man, covering himself with a quilt and looking at the ceiling with his eyes open and trembling. His right hand was exposed from the quilt and tied with a rope to the rusty iron railing at the head of the bed.

Hearing Shade's footsteps, he shivered even more, but at least he didn't try to get up and attack Shade.

When he came to the bedside and looked at the man's appearance, Shade also understood why "Bad Eyes Barry" said he didn't have long to live. The appearance of this man at this time was exactly the same as the appearance of Detective Sparrow Hamilton that the outsider saw on the first day he came to this world. This is the last struggle before death, and it also represents the irreversible end of life.

"Can you still communicate with me?"

Shade asked softly. The man with white lips was trembling, staring at the ceiling with wide eyes, and said something difficult to understand from his throat.

Even if Shade is proficient in the language, he cannot fully understand its meaning, which means that it is the ravings of a meaningless madman. The few that can be understood in the Delarian and Kasonric languages ​​have meanings such as "return", "monster", "ghost", "underwater deep diver" and "illegal wealth".

Shade then put a finger on the opponent's skinny right wrist. The blue blood vessels on the wrist protruded, making the arm look as scary as some kind of diseased tree roots.

After waiting for a while, "she" said softly:

[The mental state is extremely poor, there are impurities in the soul, and an unknown curse has caused such a result. To put it simply, he is crazy. Note that his vitality is extremely weak, and excessive mental stimulation will cause him to die prematurely. 】

"I see."

So Shade first took out some holy water and fed it to the man on the bed. After helping him up and sitting up, he took out his moonstone ring. Gently kiss the ring surface, sending the hazy yellow moonlight to the other person's eyes:

"confusion!"

This is a thaumaturgy obtained from Miss Olanold when he was in the library of Gaddis. It can confuse summoned objects and make people crazy, but it can also temporarily wake up the madman.

In the light of the yellow moon guiding the direction in the night sky, the trembling man's nervous and timid eyes turned into a little confused. Then the confusion subsided, and the wisdom of humanity was illuminated in his eyes again.

Shadra pulled a chair with one leg missing and sat down, giving the man some time to recover before speaking:

"I came here for the things you stole on the central island of Green Lake. You know what I'm talking about. Now, please tell me what happened on the island, why your companions went crazy and died tragically, and how to lead you to the island." Where did the man with the mysterious power from the island go?"

The man's eyes reflected his home. He opened his mouth and looked at Shade:

"Can I... have a word with my wife in a moment?"

"no."

Shade shook his head decisively. He didn't want to cause trouble for himself:

"If the information you give me is useful, then I can give your wife a sum of money so that she can live a good life with your children. If you don't agree, I actually have a psychic soul, and then I can ask questions Ability…you know what I mean.”

The man pursed his lips and nodded. He knew that the stranger sitting in front of him had no intention of negotiating terms with him:

"Although I've become like this, I don't know everything. I'm probably the last to die because I'm lucky... What do you want to know first?"

Shade wanted to know a lot, and he knew exactly what he wanted to know most:

"Did you know that among the burial objects you took from the grave of a member of the Edwards family, there were some finger bones?"

"Yes, sold to a wealthy businessman in the Randall Valley City of Carsonlik United Kingdom."

The man nodded:

"I remember very clearly. The businessman seemed even crazier than us at the time. He was mumbling that he had met a demon and must not look in the mirror. Those two phalanges were sold for a large sum of money. Everyone who was alive at that time They all received generous rewards.”

Shade frowned slightly:

"Only two?"

This number is correct. The phalanges Shade obtained from Hela's home were two.

"Yes, there are only two. However, there is also a similar bone product. The merchant didn't want it, so we gave it to Ferrero."

Harder Ferrero was also one of the tomb robbers, but he died six months ago. The few information about this person in "Bad Eyes Barry"'s intelligence was only the time of death and the place of burial. Shade took note of this clue and continued to ask:

"Since you sold two finger bones for so much money, how did you become so poor?"

Shade pointed to this house:

"It's only been two years since you landed on the island. Did you waste it too quickly? Are you playing Rhodes? Or did you encounter a scam or trap?"

The man leaning on the bed replied with a wry smile:

"Although I am a shameful tomb robber, yes, I know this, but I never gamble. As for the scam, I used to be a liar and thief. I actually sent all the money back to the island."

"oh?"

Shade looked at him carefully, and the man continued:

"You also know that since our group came back from the island, everyone has gone crazy. But it's not crazy, it's... we encountered some terrible situations on the island."

He suddenly frowned, then groaned and covered his head:

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. I forced myself to forget those things. The person who took us to the island also erased our related memories so that we could leave the island safely. I can no longer tell you what happened on the island. The details are gone. I only remember the heavy fog, the screams, the fish-headed corpses, the tentacles...oh."

His whole body started to tremble again, and Shade fed him some more holy water to stabilize his condition.

"Originally, our symptoms were very mild after leaving the island. But as everyone spent the gains, the headaches, nightmares, and the feeling of being spied on all the time became more and more intense. I thought, this is the Devil's Island A curse for everyone. I spent the least, so I went crazy the slowest. In order to survive, I was willing to give back all the money, so I died the last."

He smiled palely and told Shade the specific location where he buried those things. It was a clearing in the woods that connected the dock to Green Lake Town. He did not dare to go deep into the island himself:

"Looking at my current physical condition, I probably won't survive until the end of spring."

He was so optimistic that Shade even felt that he might not survive until the end of this month:

"So, you actually know nothing about that experience? Well, next question, how much do you know about the guy with mysterious powers who led you to the island?"

The man shook his head hard:

"Remember what I said? In order for us to leave the island alive, he erased most of everyone's memories. This also included his memories. I only remember that he summoned us in this city and After robbing the tomb, he left the island with us, taking with him the collected notebooks, the inscriptions on the rubbings, and a small number of burial objects. We secretly hid those finger bones. He was a man in his forties. In appearance, wearing glasses, he looks like a writer or university professor."

According to Megan, the other party was just a low-level warlock, and Shade didn't know what his abilities were.

"Besides that, don't remember anything?"

The man shook his head and couldn't say anything. Shade, who was frowning, lowered his head and thought for a while, then took out the pen he picked up from the bottom of the lake:

"Do you recognize this pen and this name - Durut Giles?"

The man finally showed a surprised look this time:

"Yes, yes, that's the name of the guy who hired us to land on the island and had strange abilities. I remember that he did have a very expensive pen on him, but I haven't touched it, so I'm not sure if it's this one. .....I remembered it, it was a very fond memory!"

He covered his head and his face became paler, but part of his memory was indeed reviving:

"It was a dark night with heavy rain when we escaped from the island by boat. There were monsters under Green Lake at that time! Yes, my God, how could I forget this! There were monsters under Green Lake, and they attacked us, Originally three boats escaped, but when they returned to the shore, only two boats were left!"

In this way, the corpses, ores and pens that Shade found in the water ghost's lair all belonged to this group of tomb robbers. The pen may have been lost by the low-level warlock.

However, the information provided by the man sitting on the bed could only indicate that the water ghost in Green Lake might be related to the island, but it still could not provide more precise clues about the owner of the pen, Durut Giles.

Shade asked questions in some other ways, but the information the man could provide was very limited. In the last silence, Xia De suddenly asked:

"Describe your nightmare. Don't use fancy words to exaggerate the atmosphere. Just tell me what happened."

"Sir, look at me, do I look like someone who can use very sophisticated vocabulary?"

The tomb robber smiled bitterly, and then described those terrible dreams:

"All the dreams happened on that island, as if we had never left there. The heavy fog, the monsters rushing out of the fog, and the laughter of the baby. Sir, you can imagine the big dream in the dark night. In the fog, all the terrifying scenes that humans can imagine appeared in our dreams. I have communicated with my companions and we all have similar dreams. This must be caused by our tomb robbing."

Shade didn't ask them why they didn't go to the church for help. He thought of another thing:

"Do you know whose tomb you robbed?"

"There were tombstones in that strange cemetery, but it was a dark night and very foggy. I just knew it was the Edwards baby who died young, but I didn't know who it was."

Shade frowned slightly:

"So...when you opened the coffin, did you see the ghost of the baby?"

Shade and Megan came into contact with three corpses when they landed on the island for the second time, and the last one did not reveal its soul. This is probably because they were not the first contacts, so the soul did not appear.

The man on the bed shook his head blankly:

"I'm sorry, I don't remember. I don't remember most of the things on the island. I only remember that it was very dangerous and there were monsters... But at least there should be no undead when I get home. I only have nightmares and headaches."

Shade nodded, and Thaumaturgy's time to stay awake was almost up. Seeing Sha De stand up, the man begged and said:

"Sir, what you just said..."

"I will leave a sum of money for your wife and children. But I won't give it to you. Someone will donate it after a while."

The man let out a long sigh and retreated into the quilt. After a while, the look in his eyes faded, and he began to tremble unconsciously again. Shade frowned and looked at him, and suddenly said:

"A corpse water ghost with a fish head and human body."

The man's trembling became more serious.

"So, here are three clues: the dead tomb robber Harder Ferrero who took the bone fragments, the owner of the pen, Durut Giles, and the water ghost are related to the central island."

Shade thought to himself and walked out of the house. Seeing the washerwoman looking at him, he shook his head;

"Sorry, but it really looks hopeless."

As he spoke, he walked towards the woman, took out a wad of banknotes totaling five pounds from his pocket, and stuffed them into the woman's hands. Seeing that the two children were not here, he reminded:

"When he dies, let's give him a decent funeral. He dug other people's graves while he was alive, and he hopes they won't be dug by others after his death."

The woman looked panicked after hearing Shade's words. But Shade didn't say anything more and walked out of the yard. As for promising to give the woman a sum of money, he could not give it now. Instead, he planned to see Megan next time and ask her to help her through the name of Paradise Island Pharmaceuticals. Or, after Yin Luna comes to the local area, it would be good to go through the name of the church.

Returning to Pudding Lane, Shade put his hands in his pockets and looked toward the mist-shrouded river bank, wondering whether he should go to Riverbank Street and then take a carriage. He turned around and walked slowly towards the entrance of the alley, turned left at the entrance of the alley, and disappeared. In the slightly empty alley, five or six minutes later, from the direction where Shade came from, Bad-eyed Barry wearing an eyepatch came over with two of his rude-looking men.

Barry stood at the door as two of his men entered the courtyard. One of them spoke viciously to the woman, while the other entered the house to check on the man. They quickly finished asking questions and told the one-eyed man the situation. Barry shook his head regretfully, and then the three of them left together.

On the rooftop opposite, the silver cat saw all this in the fog:

"Sure enough, it happened. When the tomb robbers escaped two years ago, they were attacked by water ghosts in the lake. It seems that it may really be related to Bad-Eyed Barry. Is he a collaborator of a hidden existence on the central island of Green Lake? Or maybe , are you also coveting the things that the tomb robbers took away from the island?"

[Compared to this, there is actually another question. 】

"She" suddenly said in the cat's ear.

"What?"

[Didn’t you say that you can’t easily turn into a cat? 】

"Well...the girls are not with me now, and Mia is not here either. What should I be afraid of?"

Amidst "her" soft laughter, Shade Cat jumped off the eaves lightly, transformed into a human form again on the ground, and then walked towards the river bank.