Whispering Verse

[Outlander, you have returned to the present time. 】

"Oh, what happened just now?"

Shade, who was soaked all over, still had a look of surprise on his face when he stumbled out of the door of the room where he was lying on his side.

The last scene just now, the scene of so many corpses floating on the bottom of the sea with hands stretched out, was shocking, but it was not as shocking as when he fell into the water on the night of the lunar eclipse and saw the first drowned people.

He just didn't understand where that lightless sea was. Although there were many tourists and sailors on the "Brilliant Messenger", the number of corpses just seen far exceeded the scale of several thousand people.

"There are two things to do next. The first is to find a way to satisfy their wishes, and the second is to find a way to investigate the Radiant Messenger cruise ship."

That was something that happened in the late Fifth Era. The stories handed down from that time are relatively easy to investigate now in the Sixth Era. If the "Glory Messenger" was really that famous back then, then there would definitely be a few records of it in the materials that have been handed down to this day.

After all, thousands of people died because of the same accident, which is no small matter in any era.

Although little Mia liked Shade, she didn't like Shade who was soaked all over, so she didn't greet him immediately after he came back. But then, when Shade went to the flower shop run by Agelina's maids on Silver Cross Avenue to deliver a letter to Miss Carina, inviting her to meet in the evening, the cat rarely followed Shade after taking a bath. Go out together.

However, when Shade was about to set out again to visit the Moon Bay area, the cat once again lost interest in going out, as if the previous outing had exhausted its "outgoing quota". The cat lazily stood on the stairs at the entrance to the basement and greeted Shade, who was about to leave, then swung his tail and went upstairs.

This cat's life is more comfortable than that of a duchess or princess.

The new time key came to an end, and he met the witch at night before entrusting her to help with some investigations, so Shade continued his adventure in the Moon Bay area according to the plan.

When I walked out of the dragon's nest, I found that the weather in Yuewan City was gloomy again today. At 8:30 in the morning, Yuewan City under the clouds was as dark as night.

But this is not only because of the bad weather, but also because of the polluted air. As an industrial city, the steam factories near Yuewan City produced a large amount of harmful gases. The special coastal climate did not allow these exhaust gases to form Tobesk-like haze in the urban area, but instead formed a thick black haze above the Yuewan area. clouds.

According to statistics, such dim scenes occur here on at least one-third of the days every year.

Pass through the woods and enter the main road connecting the city and the countryside, then pass the ancient St. George Stone Bridge and enter Yuewan City again.

Unable to get enough of the unfamiliar city scenery, Shade got on the carriage and watched the street scene from the carriage window while chatting with the coachman about various rumors and interesting things in the city.

After getting off the carriage at Herring Street on the east bank of the Taton River, Shade officially started today's trip. He planned to spend half a day trying to find the rumored soothsayer in the nearby lower city. If you can't find it, go meet Lesia's men in the afternoon.

On the one hand, I can find some people who can help me, and on the other hand, I can also understand how to solve Lesia's little trouble.

Finding someone is never an easy task. The Xiacheng District of Yuewan City, centered on Herring Street, is quite large. It is impossible for Xia De to visit every household, so he can only start by asking for information.

He didn't go to the pub. Nine o'clock in the morning on a weekday was not a time when there were many people in the pub. Seeing three children squatting together and playing with glass balls on the street, Shade walked over and said to the alert eyes of the children:

"Can I ask you something? I can give it to you."

I want to talk about coins, but it doesn’t feel right:

"candy."

"My mother said you can't just eat candy from strangers."

The black-haired boy with a watermelon head said, then wiped his nose and stretched out his hand to Shade:

"Sir, are you a detective? If you want to find out about Uncle George's extramarital affairs, just giving us candy is not enough."

"Then what do you want? I don't have a glass ball on me."

Although Shade had a lot of toys with him, he didn't have everything.

"The grocery store over there sells glass balls."

Another boy with yellow hair then pointed to a store not far away:

"We want two each."

"No, there are three!"

the last boy corrected.

Shade laughed, not feeling like he was being "blackmailed":

"Okay, okay, I'll buy it now. But nine is not an integer. If the shopkeeper must collect ten before he is willing to sell it to me, how will you three divide it? Have you studied mathematics? Three people each have three Two, and who will have one more?"

The three boys looked at their friends, and something immediately seemed wrong in their eyes. Shade then went to the store with a smile, and soon came back with nine glass balls and the cheap lump candies he just bought.

The boys cheered and distributed the "trophies" uniformly, and then heard Shade ask a question:

"Are there any strange people living nearby? I don't usually say hello to my neighbors, and I rarely go out to interact with people on the street."

He specifically seeks out children to ask questions, just to prevent unnecessary trouble. It’s the same reason why I didn’t ask the “divineer” directly. When you first come to the local area, you have to be careful about everything.

The three boys eating candies thought for a moment and gave different answers:

"Grandma Martha, who lives in the alley in Devon over there, doesn't go out very often. She wasn't like this before, but she became strange recently. Our paper plane flew into her yard yesterday. How could she? They also refused to let us go in to pick them up.”

"I know, I know. There lives above the shop at No. 37 Herring Street, a gentleman who doesn't go out much. That shop is owned by my uncle. He said that his tenants are very strange and often make strange noises at night. And he wasn’t allowed to check the room.”

"Are there any strange people nearby? I remembered. A new neighbor moved next to my house. I heard that he moved here because the original apartment was to be demolished. He works in the morgue. It is said that he is, um, a coroner. , it seems to be this word. My mother has a strong opinion on the new neighbor and always says that he will have infectious diseases that will be transmitted to our family."

Even in my hometown of foreigners, there are still some incorrect views about professions such as forensic medicine and coroner. And in this world where occultism exists, this type of profession is indeed worthy of attention.

Shade then wrote down this information, and then began his day-long visit.

He first went to "visit" Granny Martha who lived in an alley in Devonshire. Because he was not sure what was going on with her, Shade did not take the risk of using illusions to sneak in. Instead, he hid the relics on his body and then transformed into The adult cat jumped into the yard.

Just as the boys said, the old man was always at home during the day. After turning into a cat, although her spellcasting ability was weakened, her sense of smell and jumping ability were greatly enhanced, so Shade quickly discovered something unusual about her.

Shade smelled a strange smell in the yard, so after confirming that the old man hanging clothes was an ordinary person, he relied on [Raglai's Jump] to directly cross the glass window and enter the room, and finally found a body lying in the bedroom. On the bed, the decomposed body of an elderly male. The temperature this summer is weird, so the decomposition of the body is not serious. It can be seen that the time of death should be this week.

There is a rocking chair next to the bed. On the small table next to the rocking chair are balls of wool and a bamboo basket with one-third of the scarf knitted. The silver cat can even imagine the old woman in the yard, sitting on this chair, knitting a scarf, and chattering to the corpse:

"I'm here to find the fortune teller and the unknowable relic [The Diamond of Hope]. Isn't it a little too cruel to let me see this kind of story so early in the morning?"

So the silver cat quietly slipped out of the house, pretending that he had never been there.

He then went to visit the strange tenants who were renting above the shop at No. 37 Herring Street.

The store mainly sells fishing equipment, such as fishing rods, fishing lines, buckets, nets and various baits. There were many customers on Thursday morning, so Shade pretended to go in and walk around. He used the [Heart of Stone] to make sure there was no heartbeat sound upstairs, and then climbed up to the second floor from the alley behind the store.

The strange man who rented here was not at home, but before Shade tried to open the door with the [Door Key], he found a hair stuck under the door frame. The wind cannot move this hair, but it will definitely change direction once someone opens the door.

So Xia De opened the door generously and walked in, intending to use "Breath of Time" to restore the place before leaving.

The room is not big and a simple search found nothing. But after finding a hidden compartment on the floor, Shade found a pistol that had been dismantled into parts and two identification documents.

One set is named "John Farner", a grain merchant from Delrayon; the other set is named "Harry Hamilton", a jewelry merchant who has just returned from a long stay in the New World. The photos on the two identity documents are of the same person.

"Hamilton, what a coincidence that last name is."

Shade smiled and put everything back in its place, then exited the room. This Mr. Farner or Mr. Hamilton may be a spy, a killer, or another professional, but they don't seem to be the people Shade is looking for.

He finally went to see the coroner, who was of course not at home on Thursday morning. Shade originally wanted to break into someone else's home illegally again, but as soon as he arrived at the door of 13 Elm Street, he felt something was wrong.

"Echoes of Blood."

His eyes blinked, and clear blood marks were drawn on the metal door of the apartment, a symbol similar to an acorn pierced by a branch. This symbol is in the upper left corner of the door. It is not large, but Shade still recognized it:

"Vampire?"

Vampires who settle in cities usually leave special marks like this on the doors of their houses in order to easily identify their own kind. This means that you can protect your fellow tribesmen and allow them to come and harass you when necessary.

This belongs to the rules of modern vampires, and is an ethnic culture derived from the changes of the times. In addition to Shade's "Echo of Blood" and other abilities, only the vampires' own sense of blood can see such symbols.