Whispering Verse

Chapter 2757: Ghosts, Secret Chambers, and Fire

"We folklorists will not easily believe in supernatural phenomena."

The professor emphasized immediately, but lowered his voice:

"But this statement is likely to be true, and I have seen similar records. Also, do you know where the bodies of the Hoy family were found after the fire was put out?"

Seeing that Shade and his "female assistant" were shaking their heads, Professor Wood said mysteriously:

"The whole house was almost burned down, but it is strange that the tables and benches in the banquet hall on the first floor were only burnt black. And those charred bodies were all sitting around the table after the house collapsed. It is said that several people who put out the fire were scared crazy on the spot."

After the manor was rebuilt, the banquet hall of that year was still a banquet hall, or the layout of the first floor of the rebuilt building was almost exactly the same as that year. This sounds quite unlucky, but no one knows what Director Kant is thinking.

Today, the banquet hall on the first floor was also used as the auction venue, and it was the most important venue in this charity auction. Out of curiosity, Shade wanted to see if he could really encounter a ghost, so after saying goodbye to Professor Wood, he went back to the first floor with Miss Danister to check the situation.

Although he didn't see the ghost, Shade saw something that surprised him:

"Arrow?"

In the display cabinet against the wall, there were the "elf antique arrows" that the elf girl had been asking Shade to find. Although he didn't touch them directly, Shade had found two of them and would definitely not be wrong.

The label of this auction item was "Antique Arrows Excavated from the Vesta Forest", and the starting price was 10 crowns, which was about 130 pounds. Even at the price of a charity auction, it was a bit too high.

"You definitely want this."

Miss Danister looked at the other information:

"The auction time is 8:15 pm. Let's buy the book and come back. But, do you have so much cash?"

"Of course, how could I come to the auction without money?"

There was no trouble buying "Riverwood Town and World Tree". Only a few people were interested in this unknown ancient book. Seeing that Shade was determined to raise the price, no one competed with him.

But it was a bit troublesome to go back to the first floor to auction the arrow. Shade didn't know why so many people were interested in it. In a short time after the auction started, the price of the arrow increased from 10 crowns to 50 crowns.

But Shade was determined to buy this arrow, so he would continue to bid no matter who bid. People gave up one after another, and in the end, only a very familiar young man was left to bid with him.

George Kant, the son of Director Kant who woke up from the Love Lake. He also noticed Shade, and after bidding with Shade for several rounds and pushing the price up to 80 kronor, he finally stopped bidding.

Therefore, Shade bought the arrow at a price 8 times higher than the reserve price. Although he no longer cares about money, it does not mean that he is happy about this happening.

"The sign says that this is an antique donated by Director Kant himself. Why would his son want to bid with you for this? This is too rude."

Professor Wood, who was sitting next to Shade, asked. He also raised his sign to bid, but gave up after the price exceeded 20 kronor:

"That young man, is he maliciously trying to raise the price? Mr. Watson, did you know him before?"

Shade shook his head:

"Of course not, but I heard that he had a serious illness some time ago. Did he recover so quickly?"

Although he spent more money, it was good to buy the arrow. However, the arrow was not delivered directly to Shade. He had to pay the money with others after the auction and get what he bought.

However, Shade was not interested in other things in the auction. After he was sure that he had bought the arrow, he wanted to leave with Miss Danister and go to other corners of the manor.

He just tilted his head to talk to the red-haired girl, but suddenly noticed a dark translucent figure appeared next to the auctioneer. When he swept his eyes a few seconds ago, he was sure that there was nothing there.

"Is there really a ghost?"

The figure was obviously severely burned, so it could only be seen that it was a middle-aged man. It was obviously facing Shade, and when Shade looked over, it stretched out its hand and pointed in the direction of the door of the banquet hall.

"What are you doing?"

Shade was surprised, and heard the red-haired girl complaining again, and then he noticed that his tilted head had rested on her shoulder.

The 18-year-old girl gently pushed Shade, but the force was not strong. She probably thought Shade did it on purpose:

"This is a public place, be more cautious, or have you done something similar to Flora?"

"Sorry, you can't see that?"

Shade pointed to the soul next to the auctioneer, who still stretched out his right hand and pointed to the door.

"What?"

Miss Danister also looked over, and then asked suspiciously:

"I didn't see anything here, what did you see?"

So things started to get interesting.

Anyway, Shade first took her to say goodbye to Professor Wood and left the banquet hall. After arriving in the corridor and seeing that there was no one in the corridor, he whispered what he saw:

"A burnt ghost, but he just pointed to the door."

The red-haired girl was still puzzled:

"There are really ghosts here? But this is not right? Hasn't the church found anything wrong in all these years?"

Miss Danister was talking, and the soul appeared again on the east side of the corridor, still pointing out the direction with his finger, and still only Shade could see it. But after Shade took a few quick steps closer, the soul disappeared:

"Follow me, no matter what the ghost is, let's see where he wants us to go first."

Shade was not a reckless person. Of course, he considered that this ghost that only he could see was a trap. After all, its spirit was stained with the real power of the devil.

But the soul did not guide Shade to leave Hoy Manor, but led the two of them to leave the building first, and then went around from the courtyard in front of the manor to the garden in the back.

The charred soul was sometimes missed in the dark, but fortunately Shade's perception was very strong. They finally came to the back of the manor house and stopped in front of a low building in the corner of the garden.

This seems to be where the servants live. There is a well next to the building. The ghost finally appeared in front of the well and pointed at the well mouth with his hand down.

"Are you sure you want to go down?"

Miss Danister asked. Shade stood at the well mouth and looked down. He closed his eyes and used "Strong Spatial Perception" to determine the environment under the well:

"There is a small secret room under this well. I want to take a look. You wait here for me."

"I really can't do anything with you. I'll wait for you for ten minutes. I'll go down to find you in ten minutes."

Shade made a gesture to her that it was okay, and then jumped up and turned into a group of butterflies and flew into the well.

There was no entrance to the secret room at the bottom of the well, but the ventilation window of the secret room was opened on the side wall of the well. So the red butterflies flew in from the ventilation window. When Shade turned into a human form and stood in the secret room, he did not encounter the attack he had just guessed:

"So the ghost really just wanted me to find this place?"

Using strong spatial perception to determine the location again, it can be found that the real entrance to the secret room should be in the manor house. When Shade summoned the light ball to illuminate the surroundings, he saw a few lonely boxes placed in the corner.

There was nothing else. It looked quite strange to have such a large empty place.

The box was not locked. After opening it, it contained some gold and silver jewelry and antique oil paintings. Shade was not very proficient in antique identification, but at least he could be sure that the precious metals were real:

"Visual magic."

As expected, all the gold and silver jewelry and antique oil paintings had the power of the devil, which meant that these things were obtained through transactions with the devil. Of course, being contaminated with the power of the devil does not mean that these items are harmful to the holder, but keeping these belongings will definitely make the holder's luck worse.

There was not much dust on the ground. After a careful inspection, although these boxes were all styles from hundreds of years ago, they should have been transported in recently.

In other words, it was not the Hoy family three hundred years ago that left these things here, but the current owner of the mansion or someone who knew the location of the secret room who moved these treasures here:

"Is Mr. Kant making a deal with the devil?"

He continued to look at the antiques, writing down all their styles and appearances, intending to ask Miss Bell to confirm whether these antiques were from the same source as the antiques he found in the basement of Bennet's old house.

But soon he found that he didn't need to bother Miss Bell, because among those antique oil paintings, there was a portrait with a "Klein Hoy" nameplate:

"Is this an antique of the Hoy family?"

Shad was even more confused:

"So is the legend of the Hoy family's treasure true? Did the devil help Director Kant find the treasure? Or did the Hoy family make a deal with the devil back then, and Director Kant just accidentally discovered this long-buried treasure?"

Although the secret room and clues were discovered, the doubts did not decrease but increased, and Shad still didn't know what the vengeful spirit that guided him to discover this secret room was. The other party did not appear again, and there was no power of death in the secret room.

With this doubt, he turned into a red butterfly and flew out of the well, but as soon as he landed, he found that the night sky was reflected in red. Amid screams, the mansion of Hoy Manor suddenly caught fire.

The fire should have just started, and the location of the fire was above the front of the mansion, so Shade, who was in the back garden, could not see clearly which room was burning. Just listening to the sound, people were evacuating in a panic, and the fire should not have blocked the passage for people on the first and second floors to leave.