Whispering Verse

After bidding farewell to the witch, Shade went to Spider Alley to meet Mr. Bernhardt, and then took a carriage together to the "Crowley Steam Bath" at No. 18 Greve Street in the north of the city.

Since it was determined that the secret laboratory that appeared in the memory of Herman Wood obtained by Shade was most likely connected to the steam bathhouse, the two decided to start from the secret passage in the steam bathhouse and walk through it completely. The road exiting the Tatton River.

Therefore, instead of taking off their clothes and entering the bathhouse as guests, they used illusion magic to cover themselves and then entered the wet bathhouse with their clothes on.

Although the place was still open early in the morning, there were not many customers. The room that had been used was empty at the moment. Mr. Bernhard fumbled on the wall and gently pressed a certain stone tile on the uneven gray brick wall used for decoration. Next to the cabinet, a hole for climbing down was immediately revealed.

Shade stood there and glanced down:

"I don't understand. Do they really think it's dirty if they go into a sewer like this after taking a shower?"

No matter how safe the selected channel is, a sewer that has not seen sunlight all year round is definitely not clean.

"Those people don't come here just to take a bath. Compared with the profits from shady business, what does this mean? I have done some research these days, and I can only say that the wealth of the nobles in Yuewan City is indeed justified. .”

Mr. Bernhardt clicked his tongue, but did not discuss the topic further.

Although there was an iron ladder nailed to the wall at the entrance of the cave, he and Shade jumped down from the entrance one after the other. The ground below was not far from the entrance of the cave. After landing, I looked around and found that the place was unexpectedly spacious. It was similar to the pipes where the autopsy room was located in Spider Alley in the lower city, and it could allow carriages to pass.

There was a faint smell of stench and mold in the air, and the soil on the ground was moist but fortunately there was no water. Of course there would be no gas lights in the sewers, so Mr. Bernhardt summoned two light balls to illuminate the left and right.

"Judging from the map, we are now walking to the left, which is the direction leading to the exit of the secret passage. If we go to the right, we will go deep into the urban sewer system, and the terrain there will be much more complicated."

"When I came down last time, I walked on the right side, but when I turned the corner, I could see the iron gate, and the lock on it was rusty. Georgia Black and his gang probably didn't pass that way."

Although he said this, he still took Shade to the right side to check. The dark sewers lead to deeper parts of the city, and the rust on the lock of the iron gate doesn't seem to be fake.

In order to prevent someone from mastering the power of time like himself - although the possibility was unlikely, Shade still split the door lock, and went to the passage behind the door with Mr. Bernhardt to check to make sure that there were really no traces. Then they walked towards the left side of the passage together.

The light ball guided the way in front. Shade looked down at the map and marked the places he passed. Mr. Bernhardt introduced the situation of the sewer:

"The construction history of Yuewan City's sewers cannot be investigated by an outsider like me in a few days. Today, the city's sewer system is still supporting the city's needs, but most of them were built in modern times. We are walking in the ancient times. Part of the sewer system is still in use, and part of it was abandoned due to problems such as land subsidence and groundwater. There are many different local legends about the sewer system.”

Shade raised his head and asked curiously:

"What legend can there be in the sewers?"

"It is said that before the establishment of Yuewan City, a huge ancient empire relic was buried under the land here. When the ancient sewer system of Yuewan City was established, it was accidentally connected to that ancient relic, and even connected the ancient relic with the Part of the passage was transformed into a part of the sewer. To this day, if you go into the depths of the sewer, you can still hear the wailing sound, which is the curse sound made by the ancient ghosts because their ruins were excavated."

"If there really was such a powerful resentful spirit, it would have razed the Yuewan City on the ground to the ground long ago. I think maybe the wails of the test subjects were accidentally heard when the [Dragon Feast Cult] was conducting experiments. The bums in the sewers heard it. Any other legends? This at least sounds interesting."

Turn left at the front corner. The green paint symbols on the wall are signs to guide the direction of the secret passage to prevent getting lost.

"There are many interesting legends. The Yuewan area has been controlled by the seven major families for so many years, and there will always be resistance. Historical records show that around 1577 in the Universal Calendar, there was a large-scale bloody war in the Yuewan area. At that time, Carson The United Kingdom of Rick has been formed, and the history books say that the two parties to the war are the officials of Yuewan City and pirates from the outer sea. But the actual situation is that some nobles in Yuewan City launched a rebellion in an attempt to overthrow the control of the seven major families."

He raised his eyebrows at Shade:

"With the seven major families occupying so many seats in the city council, there will always be people who are dissatisfied or want more. But the rebellion was finally suppressed, so there were rumors that the rebels had a quite rich treasure. Put it underground in this city, waiting for new rebels to appear and use that wealth to overthrow the seven major families."

"Well, are you sure this is not news deliberately released by the seven major families?"

Schad asked, and Mr. Bernhardt laughed:

"There are other stories, such as the rumors that are very popular in the city recently. No, I am not talking about the one about the dragon and the city. That story has been circulating in Moon Bay since ancient times and is not a recent product. This is also the story I learned from Toler not long ago. What I heard from the secret: The cursed foreign prince turned into a monster, living in sewers of Yuewan City, longing for a kiss to restore himself to his original appearance. And the girl who can give this kiss will receive countless gifts. wealth."

Shade looked at him in shock:

"First of all, the liar who created this scam has not starved to death, which is enough to show that the anti-fraud awareness of the citizens of Yuewan City is too weak. Is the City of Fortune rich enough to support such liars? Secondly, the prince of a foreign king? De Although there are many princes in Larion, no one is missing. Could it be referring to the princes of the small principality? Finally, is this story really not adapted from a fairy tale? Honestly, what normal girl would go into the sewers for such rumors? Not to mention finding people in such a dirty environment, just getting them to find the entrance to the sewer and jump down is already a huge problem."

Mr. Bernhard also laughed:

"That's why there are interesting urban legends, such as ghosts in sewers, stories about sewers that are actually alive and can eat people, etc. I won't tell you, those are boring."

"As long as there are no water ghosts here, I have seen a lot of these things in Green Lake. I have heard of someone raising water ghosts in the sewers of Tobesk and selling them to the local black market for huge profits. Now it is 1854, and that person was arrested I have been here for thirty years, but I don’t know if I have been released.”

The two of them followed the arrows drawn with paint on the side wall of the sewer and reached the other end of the secret passage smoothly. The exit here doesn't have any mechanism, it's just a door that can only be opened from the inside and automatically locks after closing.

Because it was daytime, there should be many people in the row of houses on the river beach, so the two used the illusion again before walking out. Mr. Bernhardt pointed out the bloodstains that had become increasingly blurred to Shade. After confirming that there were no clues outside, they returned to the sewer.

When they passed through the sewer just now, Shade had already marked the path they took on the map given by the countess. However, this map is still different from the actual environment. There are three or four forks missing on the map. At the same time, because the sewer has an upper and lower layered structure, the actual environment is more complex than imagined.

Even though Shade had "strong spatial perception" to obtain the general terrain, in order not to miss any clues, they could only search "carpet-style". But fortunately, Miss Belindel had done some divination beforehand and had marked several crossroads on the map where clues might be found.

It would certainly be more efficient if Mr. Shade and Mr. Bernhardt searched separately, but neither of them had any intention of doing such irrational behavior even though they knew there was danger here.

So starting at 9:30 in the morning, the two of them started walking together through the sewers that branched out from secret passages to various parts of the city.

Of course, this kind of time-consuming and laborious work cannot be completed in one morning. They temporarily left the sewer area at noon. Shade went home to visit the elf girl at home, and learned that she had gone to Father John to purchase the [Oak Lucky Potion] to lift the curse of the [Ghost Bone Tree], but Shade himself aroused the disgust of little Mia because of his smell. After he and Mr. Bernhardt met up in the afternoon, the two of them bit the bullet and got into the ground again:

"If I can really catch the guy doing experiments underground, I must make him look good!"

Fortunately, the great witch of fate is indeed very good at divination, and Shade and Mr. Bernhardt are not very lucky either. There were obviously no clues in the morning, but something unusual happened in the first sewer branch that Shade and the others entered after they met in the afternoon.

"The traces of the soul and the resentment are really not small."

The light ball led the way in front, and two dark shadows swayed on the wall on the side of the corner. Then they turned the corner of the pipe together and felt the ambient temperature drop suddenly.

The resentment carried by powerful resentful spirits will always affect the surroundings by lowering the temperature, spreading terror, and absorbing light. Realizing that they have finally discovered something, the two people are excited and ready to fight. Mr. Bernhardt had a special thaumaturgy for detecting ghosts. After pinching a handful of powder from his pocket and throwing it into the air, he took a sharp breath, then choked on the smell of the sewer and retched:

"Come with me, I remember the smell of the wraith. I feel like I'm going to spit out the sandwich I had for lunch. Damn it."

That last sentence is a swear word in local slang.

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