Whispering Verse

"Dacheng players? Oh, yes, there are betting boards outside the venue. Speaking of which, do you know the situation of the contestants now?"

Shade asked absentmindedly, always feeling like there were eyes looking at him from behind. Of course, this was a complete illusion. The two professors chose a corner position to sit down and chatted in low voices, not even noticing the "stranger" with his back to them.

Shade carefully took a sip of the strange drink in the cup.

"Not yet, but I heard that there are actually [Original] series Rhodes card holders appearing this time."

"Ahem~"

Shade coughed and waved his hands to indicate that he was fine:

"That's very good. The newspaper should record the key game information."

He said softly, trying to keep his presence as low as possible, planning to get up and leave after a while. Otherwise, it would be very strange for him to leave as soon as the professors come in.

"I have no chance to go to Tobesk, and even if I had the chance, I wouldn't be able to get tickets to watch the players play live. When it was held in Cold Water Port twenty-one years ago, the ticket price was equivalent to several months of my salary. , it will only be more expensive now.”

The bartender shook his head regretfully, then moved his head in the direction of Aurora Manor, and said while wiping the glass:

"Sometimes I really envy the rich. Do you know how many gold pounds that manor was sold for twenty years ago?"

"How much? Do you know this?"

Shade asked in surprise.

"I worked in this pub twenty years ago, and I heard it from the boss here."

The bartender dipped his finger in some water and wrote a few numbers on the wooden board on the counter. Shade raised his eyebrows and calculated the prices and purchasing power of money twenty years ago. If he could prove that the house in St. Teresa's Square was not haunted, then the selling price of Aurora Manor would only be higher than that of the one in St. Teresa's Square. A house is more expensive.

"In other words, if I sell No. 6 St. Teresa Square and add some money, I can buy a manor with a beach, courtyard and garden in a place like Coldwater Port."

My mood suddenly lifted. Even if I don't sell, knowing what I have can make the owner of the house happy.

"Speaking of this manor, when my father was a child, the manor was here. The history of the manor is no shorter than those old streets in Nancheng District."

The bartender continued.

"Isn't that hundreds of years old?"

Shade asked, then turned sideways and risked a glance. Sure enough, the professors didn't pay attention to him.

"I can't tell you the specific situation, but I know that the original owner of the manor was a wealthy local businessman thirty years ago. He had special access to the jewelry from sunken ships or the pearls from the seabed for sale. . Then one day, the wealthy businessman disappeared, and the house was mortgaged and sold."

The bartender shook his head and wiped the glass in his hand, as if lamenting the impermanence of the world:

"But it used to be very gloomy. Even though it's so glamorous now, when I was young, the whole house was like an underground cave that had been soaked in water for a long time. Every night, you could even hear the sound of wind passing through the glassless windows. Strange noises."

The more Sha De heard, the more something was wrong, and the uneasiness in his heart gradually increased.

He continued to chat with the bartender, but before Shade was about to leave, the two professors from St. Byrons actually stood up first and left the bar into the rain outside.

Of course Shade didn't dare to follow.

The time at this time was 4:30 in the morning on Wednesday, about two hours before sunrise in Coldwater Harbor.

After sitting on the high stool at the counter for a few more minutes to make sure that the professors would not turn back, Shade took the weird-tasting drink and sat in the corner where the professors were sitting just now.

The bartender felt very sorry for not being able to sell those strange medicinal wines to Shade.

The professors didn't leave anything here. After putting down the cup, Shade tried to use the thaumaturgy [Echoes of the Past] to try his luck.

But this was a tavern, and someone was talking almost every moment for 48 hours, so he didn't have high hopes.

First try.

"Star 8, look at my 20 points!"

It seems like they are playing Rhodes cards.

Second try.

"Oh my Maya, my Maya"

There was a man crying, probably because his wife or daughter had passed away.

"Why did you abandon this family and leave me?"

Maybe it wasn't death, but that his wife suddenly disappeared.

"I have raised you for three whole years, and I have saved all your cat food money until after 1856."

Shade didn't comment and tried a third time.

"So, Mafal, it's a pity that we didn't invite professors from the School of History to come with us this time."

Shade was startled. This was the voice of Professor Sanchez. And judging from what was heard, it was indeed the professors at St. Byrons who were talking in low voices.

"When did I have such luck?"

I thought in confusion, but continued to listen.

"Oh, Professor Sanchez, who would have thought that something like this would happen here?"

The middle-aged professor known as "Mafal" sighed:

"Who would have thought that that manor was one of the ceremonial nodes of the Sea Return Ceremony? The Scarlet Secret Cult spent a lot of money and used relics [no entry signs]. Now people outside can't enter, and people inside I can't get out either. If there is a professor from the School of History here, I think we can probably find a way to let at least one of us in from a space perspective."

The surprised expression on Shade's face could no longer be suppressed.

"The manor itself has problems. We are starting from the direction of the capital flow of the cult these days. Preliminary investigations have proven that the owner of the mansion cooperated with the Scarlet Secret Cult thirty years ago to circulate funds for the cultists and murlocs. I think that the mansion Preparations for the 'sea return' have already started since then."

Professor Sanchez said, and then there was the sound of the cup being put down:

"We just looked there. With the current means, no one can get in within a few hours, unless the high-level warlocks responsible for other nodes are mobilized. It's just that other nodes are equally important. I'm afraid there are Lacey's in other places. Question. But we don’t have to worry too much. Didn’t the Church of Nature say that they received the news in advance that there was a suspicious person at the banquet, so there was a full team of ring warlocks in the manor? News came from that team, and both sides There is a confrontation, and neither of them plans to start a war again.”

“That’s pretty good.”

Professor Mafal pondered for a moment, but immediately realized the problem:

"However, in this situation where the whole city is short of people, how could the Church of Nature want to secretly mobilize a whole team of ring magicians and lurk in the banquet without telling us? They probably don't know that under the Aurora family's manor , there are ritual nodes, otherwise it would be solved in advance. Could it be said that the Natural Church has found the second one?"