Whispering Verse

In the past half week, at night in Cold Water Port, the police often had gun battles with some monsters that could not be told to the citizens. Most of the murlocs with strong self-healing abilities possess firearms. Before the arrival of the Ring Warlocks, the local police could only use firearms to contend.

Coupled with the fact that more and more ring warlock organizations have entered here, this has caused the night in Coldwater Port to become noisy.

The fishbone pirate ship continued to appear in the offshore area of ​​Coldwater Port, and among the eleven ring warlocks who escaped from the ship with Shade and the princess, one more was found by the church. But unfortunately, the other party was a middle-aged woman and was not Sha De's target.

Princess Lesia also relied on the intelligence department of Coldwater Port City Hall and the MI6 branch in Coldwater Port to find a target. This person is a male, but unfortunately Leziya can find him, and other organizations can also find him.

Before the princess showed up, at least three middle-level warlocks raided the police station at the Coldwater Port dock, leaving the unlucky second-level warlock and the ordinary policeman who had been implicated for no reason to die on the spot.

This made the church and the city hall very angry. Even the king as far away as Tobesk heard about the tragedy at the Coldwater Port dock and ordered the local governor to find the murderer as soon as possible.

In addition to this, there are also some news that even Lesia cannot judge whether it is true or not, spreading in Coldwater Port, which is gradually becoming dangerous.

For example, it was reported on the black market that someone was offering a high reward of 1,000 pounds for each piece of information to find the Ring Warlock who escaped from the fishbone pirate ship; for example, there were traces of mermaids in the offshore waters of Coldwater Port, and they were not ugly fishmen from the Evil God's Familiar Tribe. It is a truly heterogeneous species of mermaids; for another example, the professors sent by the three major colleges to Coldwater Port to solve the "Coldwater Port Shadow" incident fought with an unknown group of ring warlocks in the offshore area on Sunday morning, which directly affected the recent Two days of weather.

Excluding those uncertain news, the current situation is that, excluding the stranger and the princess, one of the eleven ring warlocks who escaped has died, the church has found three, and the identities of the remaining seven are unknown.

The church's high-level magicians have arrived, and professors from the three major thaumaturgy academies have also settled here. The bad news is that Shade will have greater uncertainty if he wants to find the target before they do. The good news is that there is nothing to worry about in the "Cold Water Harbor Shadow" incident.

"Ms. Sivi Avora, are you in Coldwater Harbor now?"

Lecia introduced the situation to Shade, but Shade suddenly asked.

The princess nodded in surprise:

"Why did you suddenly mention her? Yes, the businesswoman came to this city two days ago and planned to hold a dinner party at the Aurora Manor tomorrow night. She even gave me an invitation. Why do you want to go too? "

"Of course not."

Shade immediately shook his head. How could he take the initiative to bump into the witches before he could avoid them:

"Tonight and tomorrow night, I have to go to class. It is Professor Garcia's "Folding Space", which teaches large-scale ritual mystery. Class starts at six o'clock in the evening, two classes, four hours, no rest time, almost nine o'clock Only then can get out of class be over.”

"It doesn't matter, the banquet should be in full swing at nine o'clock."

Lesia smiled again and said, but Shade still shook his head. He would never go to that kind of place.

Taking advantage of the time, Shade also told Lesia the [Tree Kiss] that he told Dorothy in the morning. Even though the princess was one level higher than Dorothy, she still couldn't fully listen to Shade's story. But regarding the [Tree Kiss] spiritual rune, Lesia's views were similar to Dorothy's.

It is difficult for Shade to find the thaumaturgy that corresponds to this spiritual rune. He will most likely have to create it on his own, or try to convert the same-source spell [Key to the Door] into thaumaturgy, but he will not be able to do either of them. Simple. Lesia also planned to help Shade find information from Zarath Academy of Literature, which was proficient in thaumaturgy and conjuration research, but she didn't have much hope in this.

"Speaking of which, do you remember Professor Katya?"

Lesia seemed to have left this matter to the end on purpose.

"Of course you remember. After all, we rarely meet folklorists who are good at using two guns."

Shade nodded and looked at the steaming tea cup in front of him:

"I remember when we returned to Sophia's mansion last time, you mentioned that you would let them go free after making them forget about the fish-men."

"Yes, but after you left that day, I asked some interesting things. I knew Mr. Jude, and it was my spies who received the information deliberately released by the other party, but the two folklorists went to Mr. Jude, Guess who introduced it?"

Lesia asked, holding her face in one hand, looking at Shade with her beautiful eyes, and slightly raising the corners of her mouth into a smile.

Shade thought for a moment and frowned. He heard some things using [Echoes of the Past] in Mr. Jude's mansion. Mr. Jude clearly asked the murlocs to stop abducting ordinary people. So it was indeed a bit strange that the two scholars, who were ordinary people, appeared at that time. What a coincidence.

"who is it?"

"The Ring Warlock, a Ring Warlock who is infected with the curse like me. The other party also heard the news released by Mr. Jude, but unlike us going to see him directly, the people behind it first sent two ordinary people to explore the way."

"Is he also someone who escaped from the fishbone pirate ship? Or is he a local victim who touched the mermaid statue?"

"One of the seven left, and we've met him."

Lesia said softly.

"Mr. Darkness? The guy who changes the cards when I play cards!"

Shade stood up immediately, and the princess nodded with a peaceful smile:

"Yes, I know you are looking for him, so I spent a lot of effort in the past few days to find Mr. Darkness along the clues provided by Professor Katya. I received the news last night. The other party thought that Professor Before I went to see Mr. Jude, the old street occupied by the fishmen was taken away by the church, so I haven’t suspected that the person who has been in contact with him in the past half week is actually one of mine."

"Where?"

Shade spoke quickly.

"Oh, Shade, don't be impatient. My father often told me that being impatient will only increase the probability of bad results. I know you don't want the church to find him first, so I haven't alerted him for the time being."

She motioned for Shade to sit down:

"The other party is deliberately concealing his identity, not because of the curse on his body, but because he seems to be worried about being discovered by the church. That Mr. Darkness is probably not a good person."

"It doesn't matter if he is a good person or not, I just want to meet him."

Shade said, and Lesia nodded:

"There are more than ten companions around the other party. I am not sure whether he is a ring warlock, but the probability is very high, so my people did not rush to check the information. If you want to see him, go to this address. Oh, I also Know that this group of people is waiting for the ship to the New World.”

The bartender at the Seven Broomsticks Tavern also mentioned this matter.

She handed the document bag to Shade, which was a preliminary investigation conducted by the princess.

"I can't take any chances with you today, Shade."

While Shade was looking through the documents, the red-haired girl said melancholy:

"Father has urged me to return to Tobesk, and I will probably leave after being returned by sea. In the past few days, I will meet with the nobles who are seeing them off at Coldwater Port, attend a local public gathering to say goodbye to the citizens, and there will be several banquets to attend. join."

"It doesn't matter, I can handle these things myself."

Shade looked through the documents and said that he actually did not want to involve Lesia in the matter of the chosen one:

"I will probably be active in Cold Water Port for a day. I will come back in the evening and say goodbye to you before leaving."

"Okay, then I wish you good luck today, Shade. Oh, my maid will do your makeup in a while, and then arrange for the servants to take you into the city."

"Okay, then I wish you a happy day..."

Shade stood up, but paused and looked at the princess wearing a silver crown behind the desk:

"Oh, I heard from Dorothy that you and Miss Carina have a conflict?"

"Why did you mention that woman?"

Lesia, who was in a good mood just now, shook her head:

"This is my family matter."

"Oh well."

Shade didn't ask any questions and walked out of the room with the document bag. The princess was left sitting behind the desk looking at his back. After a long time, she sighed and looked back at the files on the desktop.

She did not want to involve the innocent and kind-hearted detective in the power struggle within the royal family.

The rain was still falling in Coldwater Port, and Shade, holding an umbrella, was walking on the streets of the ancient seaport city. Instead of going to Mr. Darkness first, he went to the Seven Broomsticks Tavern and bought some expensive alchemy materials in the Tavern.

Shade had heard of all the materials needed to make the Detection Witch's badge, but it was troublesome to find them all in Tobesk, so he purchased them at Coldwater Port. Of course, because he was very unconfident in his alchemy skills, Shade bought enough of each material to make it three times.

If he failed the first two times, he would go to Iluna, who was good at alchemy, for help. Although Papa John's and the doctor's friends may be more powerful, Shade doesn't want to reveal the formula to anyone else.

After paying the deposit, writing a shopping list in the tavern, and making an appointment to pick it up in the afternoon, Shade officially embarked on a journey to find Mr. Darkness.

On the way, he noticed that there were more police than usual today, and they were focused on looking at everyone's faces. When encountering passers-by with special looks, they would come up and question them, obviously looking for fish-men.

During this period, people with problematic looks would probably have a very uncomfortable time in Coldwater Port.

All the way deep into the slums of the dock area, Mr. Darkness and his friends lived in the Pink Rose Hotel in the deep alley.

Despite the similarity in name, the hotel has no connection with the Golden Rose Hotel on Hoglenzstrasse where Schad stayed twice. This kind of hotel deep in a small alley is usually used to provide a place for stowaways with sensitive identities. Of course, judging from the name of the hotel, it should still be an illegal underground brothel.

Holding a black umbrella, Shade followed the address provided by Lesia and crawled around in the alleys of the slums in the dock area. Finally, he found a hotel with a row of faded pink scarves hanging outside the door.

This place is located at the corner of the alley and is as high as three floors. Because the alley is not very wide, anyone passing by will definitely notice it.

Unlike the common stone buildings in Coldwater Harbor, the Pink Rose Inn has a wooden structure. The hotel didn't occupy a very large area. After Xia De lowered his hat and pushed the door open and walked in, he didn't see the girl wearing very little clothes sitting around as he expected.

The first floor was just like an ordinary pub. On Monday morning, scattered guests had wine glasses in front of them and sat in front of the wooden tables chatting with each other. Wooden tables, wooden chairs, and wooden columns are rare in Coldwater Port.

The intelligence showed that Mr. Darkness and his party lived on the third floor, but of course Shade would not go upstairs directly, but walked to the counter on the side.

The middle-aged woman in an apron was keeping accounts. She looked up at the guest. When she realized it was a stranger, she asked suspiciously:

"What do you need?"

Although she looked to be over forty, she looked very... charming. Shade could only think of such adjectives, and reminded himself again what exactly this place was for.

"A glass of the cheapest rye beer. Also, are there any Rhodes in here?"

This is what Shade learned from the grocers in Anthem Square. Hotels and vendors often stock up on Rhodes cards with special patterns.

"Of course."

The woman first bent down to prepare beer for Shade. After placing the wine glass on the wooden table, she took out a booklet from under the counter:

"Please choose for yourself, here are the prices."

There are two Rhodes cards sandwiched in the booklet, and it can be seen that they have been carefully preserved.

Shade is actually not interested in Rhodes cards with special patterns. He prefers Rhodes cards with special rules. So I just pretended to look at it for a while, then shook my head regretfully.

After paying for the wine, he took the wine glass and sat down at the empty table. This kind of small hotel in an alley doesn't have good conditions. Probably even the windows are sealed to prevent prying eyes. There is only one gas lamp in the room above the counter, and in addition there is a kerosene lamp on each table, which is only lit when guests are seated.

This is probably the living conditions of the poor.

Shade's original intention was to observe on the first floor and try to find traces of the Ring Warlock next to Mr. Darkness. But he didn't expect that after he pretended to read the notebook for half an hour, the foam in the cup of low-quality beer with suspicious ingredients disappeared, and no one came down from the stairs.

Maybe that group of people weren't there at all, or maybe they were so cautious that they didn't show up easily during the day.

Shade was still thinking about things, but he didn't expect that someone would sit opposite him with a wine glass. This was not polite behavior.

It was a long-faced man with extremely short hair, with only furry stubble visible. The skin is a little dark, and the double eyelids on both eyes are extremely severe.

He looked to be in his thirties and very shrewd. After placing the wine glass on the table, he took the initiative to say hello to Shade:

"Friend, are you interested in Rhodes cards?"

A standard Delarian accent, probably the same level as the spokesperson of Tobesk City Hall.

"Sure," Shade shrugged.

"Interested in special cards?"

The long-faced man asked with a smile across the kerosene lamp.