Whispering Verse

"Miss Carina even doubted whether I was a man."

Shade stood on the ramp in front of the bridge entrance, looking at the river to search for the occasional red halos, while explaining to Luvia:

"This is really funny. God has admitted it himself. I am a man."

"That's good."

Luvia looked like she wanted to laugh.

After entering the lower city in the north of the city, Darkness gave up swimming at the bottom of the river and instead moved quickly near the water. When he finally chose to go ashore, in order to avoid being discovered by the church, he chose to move through the dark vortex, directly from the water to the shore.

Without the water blocking the line of sight, it was easy to find the moving direction of those bloody haloes this time.

Shade and Luvia were chatting as they turned from the tree-lined road along the river into a side alley. Darkness did not pass on other people's roofs. Instead, every time he encountered a fork in the road, he would use his dark talent to move, leaving no trace at the fork in the road.

He walked around the neighborhood several times very cautiously, so that Shade and Luvia, who were wandering around, almost attracted the attention of residents in nearby blocks.

Finally, Darkness suddenly walked out of the alley, and then moved all the way to the east.

He did not leave the lower city area, but he probably thought that he had escaped pursuit, so he did not circle again. Finally he got into Rotten Fish Alley, the alley where the blind musician Mr. Mendis once lived.

Walked under the gray suspended corridor between the two towers, then passed an empty building that had suffered a fire and entered a slightly more open alley. Continuing eastward, we passed through the dilapidated apartment buildings with peeling walls that stood in the lower city, followed the direction of the steam pipes, and finally came to the five-way intersection with a large locust tree as the center.

"I walked this road when I came to see the late Mr. Mendis, the blind musician."

Shade and Luvia said, knowing that there was an alley filled with feces and garbage in front of them, so they covered their mouths and noses with their collars in advance.

"So where did you come from?"

Luvia asked.

"Chant Square, which is the center of the lower city."

"I come here often. The black market of ring warlocks in Xiacheng District accounts for 60% of the city's share."

The two of them almost walked in reverse along the path that Shade took last time. After walking out of the intricate slum alleys, they came to the streets in the northern part of Anthem Square. Then on this mist-shrouded morning, together with the bustling crowd, they actually entered. Anthem Square.

"His destination is actually near here?"

Luvia looked a little surprised, while Shade stood by the square, watching the bloody halo targets go straight into a place he was very familiar with:

"There is something even more surprising."

"What?"

"He lives here."

Following the direction pointed by Shade's finger, Luvia passed over the vendors and people in the square and saw the hotel occupying most of the eastern part of the square. She saw the image of three cats on the wooden signboard, as well as the words "Three Cats Hotel" "The name.

"Are you sure he lives here?"

Luvia couldn't believe it. On the way here, the two of them discussed possible hiding places for Darkness, such as the underground sewer pipes in the lower city, such as the drainage ditches next to the river, such as the cracks in the wall at the end of the alley, such as abandoned A haunted old house that has been uninhabited for a long time.

But the only thing he didn't expect was that the other party actually stayed at the Three Cats Hotel.

"I can't believe that even though he lives here, the church still can't find him."

Shade was also a little stunned, but the echo of blood was unmistakable. This is the tracking of the three powers of blood, time, and space. Unless Darkness realizes that someone is using this ability to track him, it is absolutely impossible to take countermeasures.

"The other party may have the ability to disguise himself. Maybe when we find him, he will look different from what you saw."

Luvia reminded, Shade nodded and hesitated;

"Although we are sure that the other party is at the Three Cats Hotel, for the sake of insurance, we still go in and take a look. We don't have to see him with our own eyes, but we need to determine the specific location of the other party. Once confirmed, report the information to the church immediately."

In such a crowded location, Shade and Luvia didn't want to get into a fight with Darkness.

"No problem, but wait a minute."

Luvia took out a coin and tossed it:

"No problem. Although the divination results may not be completely correct, at least I am sure that our lives are not in danger on this trip."

"Well, please come with me."

From the intersection on the edge of the square, it merges into the Anthem Square. The late summer noon sunshine shines in here from the back of the ring square building. It was already ten o'clock in the morning. As Shadra pulled Luvia through the crowd, he even thought that if things went well, they could have lunch together at noon.

And if there are no accidents, this should be Shade's last adventure this summer.

Shade was already very familiar with the situation in the Three Cats Hotel. After entering the hotel, he did not approach the counter. Instead, he first found a table to sit down next to the female bard playing the lute, and called the waiter to order. Had some drinks and food.

Luvia observed the situation on the first floor and borrowed Rhodes cards from Shade for divination.

Shade's eyes carefully observed the stairwell on the first floor, because what he saw was the figure left by Darkness within 24 hours, so there was a lot of red halo on the first floor.

Through the depth of the color, you can effectively tell how far away these red halos are from the current moment. Shade found the halo that he had followed all the way, and then compared it with other halos. It was basically certain that Darkness did not come down again after returning here last night.

This created a new problem. Although no other traces of his movement were found near the Three Cats Inn on the way here, this six-ring warlock with a demon in his body may still be here, but it does not rule out that he can use other possibility of leaving.

The waitress carried the dinner plate and brought the Three Cats Hotel's specialty "goat's milk beer" to the two of them. Hops floated above the liquid surface, and when a full glass of drink was placed on the wood-grained tabletop, it made a loud sound.

Luvia took the cards back and returned them to Shade. After the waiter left, she whispered to the sound of the lute:

"Darkness is most likely still here, but I'm not entirely sure. Shade, for safety reasons, we can't go upstairs directly."

"Yes, I understand. But I can't just leave like this."

Shade raised his head and thought for a moment:

"It's now 10:03 in the morning. Let's sit here for half an hour and don't do anything else. After my blood echo state disappears, if Darkness hasn't come downstairs yet, I will think of another way. .”

"no problem."

Luvia said, picking up the wine glass and taking a sip, then frowned:

"Oh, this tastes really bad."

At 10:27 in the morning, Shade's eyes returned to normal, but Darkness still did not appear on the first floor of the Three Cats Hotel. During this period, four people came down from upstairs, and none of them were ring warlocks.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Shade brought Luvia to the counter. The innkeeper, Mrs. Sangmei, obviously knew the detective who had won the King's Secret Order and Substitute from her, so she wiped her hands with a towel and joked with a smile:

"Oh, isn't this Detective Hamilton? Here we are again? Look, you brought another girl this time. She's really beautiful. Is this your new assistant?"

Luvia raised her eyebrows.

"Mrs. Sangmei, good afternoon. I still have something to ask you for help this time, but this time I don't have time to play cards."

Shade greeted him familiarly and hoped that this time would go as smoothly as last time.

"Don't worry, I don't want to give you the cards I have collected so hard before I figure out how to deal with you."

Mrs. Sangmei put down the rag she was using to wipe her hands, and then asked curiously:

"So detective, who are you looking for this time?"

Shade didn't want to involve ordinary people in the ring warlock's grudges, not to mention Darkness was not an ordinary ring warlock.

Just as he was thinking about finding words to persuade the other party to give him the account book directly instead of asking for clues about the resident, a voice suddenly rang in his ear:

Strangers, watch your back. The high-level warlock has entered the inn.

"What? A high-level warlock?"

His eyes widened slightly, and then he shook his head at Mrs. Sangmei:

"This time I want to ask Miss Mary from last time. The client is really troublesome and has other requests. But this time I can't go to her directly. She is satisfied with lies. I want to know something about it from you."

Mrs. Sangmei didn't know Xia De's original intention, so she didn't notice that he suddenly changed the topic. But Luvia knew what Shade wanted to ask. Although she was confused, she stood aside and did not speak.

Coming in your direction.

"I really don't want to deal with this kind of technical worker, but she obviously had something to say last time. Oh, I even left Mr. Mandis's belongings to her, and she actually lied to me."

Shade complained as he stood in front of the counter.

"It seems that you rarely deal with such professionals. They have always been like this."

Mrs. Sangmei shook her head, as if she was used to it:

"I'm used to seeing people like them."

"Miss."

it's him.

The man, who was a head shorter than Shade and somewhat thin, walked to the counter, took off his hat, and knocked on the table while speaking. He looked quite nice, and looked sickly. The temperature was still not low at noon in late summer, but I was still wrapped in a coat.

The coat was dark red, almost black, with all the double-breasted buttons fastened, as if he was worried that he would freeze to death if he unbuttoned them.

He smiled apologetically at Shade:

"Sorry sir, I have something urgent to ask this lady. Can you let me speak first?"

As he spoke, he pushed a coin to Shade. Shade nodded to express his understanding and sat down slightly next to Luvia.