Whispering Verse

While Captain Rades was calling the police who happened to arrive to search the secret room, and the whole castle's attention was attracted, Shade once again found him in Professor Dunn's office. After explaining the situation, the professor looked grim. Very sad:

"That bronze pot was used as a container for boiling corpses? Oh"

"Yes, the captain said that Henry Val was looking for antiques with a certain age to use as containers, and then you happened to get the bronze jar, and he took a fancy to it."

"Oh, my God, that's an old antique. Heating it with fire will damage its appearance!"

What worries the professor is not the fact that the jar contains the corpse.

"But in short, the investigation of the antique is over. I think Ms. Xina Cassandra can get the antique used as evidence out of the police station."

Shade said, and the professor nodded:

"I really didn't expect this to happen. I have time to go find Ms. Cassandra and apologize. I didn't take care of her properly and I am also responsible."

With that said, he opened the drawer and took out a ten-pound note and handed it to Shade. After Shade thanked him, his face became serious:

"So, Professor, can you talk to me now about the local customs of worshiping the Twin Gods?"

"Oh, yes, I think so."

Talking about his major, Professor Dunn also temporarily put aside his regret that antiques may be damaged:

"Sit down, let's talk slowly. Then Mr. Watson, let me think about where to start. Yes, the worship of the Twin Gods is a very, very old worship of the old gods in the Midhill Fort area. In addition to the local evidence, In addition to traditional traditions, there are also excavations of prehistoric remains..."

What ordinary people call “prehistory” actually means pre-era.

"My teacher once assisted the church and participated in the excavation of the Sikal Mountain ruins, and left me some information. The stone slabs excavated at that time contained a lot of information about religious rituals and strange rituals. Unfortunately, all of them were lost to the church. It was taken away. But the diary in the teacher's relics once mentioned that in prehistory, the great ones from the sky, the old gods - [Twin Gods], once truly set foot on this land."

Shade frowned slightly, which seemed to depict a seance ceremony.

"Of course, there is still controversy in the academic community as to whether the so-called [Old God] really exists, but we are discussing this purely from an academic perspective, so we do not intend to blaspheme."

Professor Dunn took out a pipe and motioned to Shade. Seeing that he didn't mind, he knocked the ashes and said:

"Those ancient texts record a lot of things. He, please forgive me for using this word to refer to him, ahem, when his sect first appeared in the local area in prehistory, it called for the arrival of the great one in the local area and gave him the symbol of black and white. Bai's twins gave them a very powerful blessing. I'm sorry, I don't know the specific gender, so I used a neutral one to give them great power and defeat a terrible enemy."

Although the professor was discussing things about gods as an ordinary person, because what he knew was only very vague, the professor did not feel any strange because of the knowledge he received.

"This is indeed more specific than local traditions and customs. In addition to the ancient texts that were collected by the church, do you have any other information?"

It was impossible for Shade to go to the church to ask for information.

Professor Dunn lit the tobacco in his pipe with a match and took a nice puff:

"Of course, these stories that happened in prehistory have long become part of the local ancient legends of Fort Midhill. If you often go to the tavern, you can even learn some very inaccurate stories from the local bards. .After all, bards use exaggerated stories to attract people, and we folklorists are responsible for sorting out those contents."

The professor pushed up his glasses:

"Mr. Watson, even though the ancient faith is long gone, Fort Midhill is still deeply affected.

The cult of the Twins continues in this city to this day. If twins are born in a certain family, it will be regarded as a very good omen by the locals and neighbors. This tradition even radiates to the entire Sikal Mountains and can be seen in Kasenlik at the southern foot of the Rommel Mountains. "

“So faith becomes culture and thus forges part of civilization?”

The outsider asked. Professor Dunn glanced at him unexpectedly and adjusted his chair with his pipe to face Shade. He was sitting sideways just now:

"Yes, your words are very consistent with my views on folklore. When faith becomes culture, then have the old gods who have left in legend really gone? Maybe the great ones and Indescribable natural phenomena are just with us and our world in another way.”

Professor Dunn's words were very good, and Shade nodded thoughtfully:

"Yes, I have always thought that maybe the old gods just left temporarily. Faith becomes culture. So if I want to continue to delve deeper into the twin worship, what should I do?"

The worship of the twins is not only related to this city, but may also help solve the problem of Dorothy and Lesia, so Shade is very concerned about it:

"My teacher has passed away, but the folklorists and archaeologists who participated in the archaeological excavation should still have some information. Please wait."

The professor got up and rummaged through the bookshelf on the wall beside the office door for a while, and found a notebook that had obviously not been taken out for a long time.

The notebook was very old. Professor Dunn returned to his desk and opened the notebook. The pages inside were yellowed and even had traces of moth damage. Some names and addresses were recorded on it, but most of the names had already been marked. Last date of death:

"This is what the teacher left to me. They are his friends. After all, those in our profession need to travel to various places to study and communicate frequently, so it is always good to have more friends."

He quickly found the name of the person left behind during the archaeological excavation at the northern foot of Mount Sikal thirty years ago:

"Oh, fortunately, there are still a few old professors alive during the archeology that year. But they are all in other places. Let me take a look and I would recommend this one."

"Who is the other party?"

Shade also tilted his head to check. Professor Dunn pointed to the writing on the notebook:

"The other person is a professor of archeology in Tobesk. He should have retired long ago based on his age, but such a senior professor should be rehired. I looked at the address. Yes, it is this person, Tiris Manning, who lives there. At No. 17 Mao Tail Lane in the University District of Tobesk City. I visited him when I went to Tobesk for a meeting five years ago. Professor Manning seemed healthy at the time, but I don’t know how he is now.”

Professor Dunn indicated that Shade could copy the address in his notebook and write to Professor Manning for help.

"Professor Manning"

The past memories of the professor, Mengbi and the cat popped into Shade's mind again.

With a smile on his face, he copied down the address that he was very familiar with. In his mind, he was thinking about how many archaeological excavations Professor Manning, as his friend, had participated in. A month ago, when Miss Aurora took him to the rural town next to Coldwater Port to search for the [Shocking] Spirit Rune, she also met an old man who was related to Professor Manning.

"Okay, I will come to you again if necessary. So farewell, Professor Dunn."

Shade stood up and left, and Professor Dunn also sent Shade out the door. When he closed the door and continued writing the report, he muttered again:

"Ms. Cassandra, why are you so obsessed with that worthless bronze jar? You even sent someone to investigate."

Put down the pipe and think again:

"Could this be related to Miss Helen Black who just returned to the academy?"

Now that he has the next clue, Shade can leave Fort Midhill. Before leaving, he also said hello to Captain Rades, gave him the reward of 5 pounds, and left the address of the House of the Blind as his mailing address.

The captain is very enthusiastic and wants to entertain Shade as a guest at the Red Water Camp on the Windy Trail. Of course, Captain Rades cannot come in and out of the military camp at will, but he can come out when he is on vacation next Thursday.

The Windy Trail is the most important mountain road through the Sikal Mountains. Next to the Red Water Camp, there is a camp where merchants and travelers gather. The captain won the [Gun of Kindness] by playing Rhodes in the tavern there.

When he said goodbye to the captain, the sunset had just appeared on the horizon, but by the time Shade walked through the forest and came to the ruined tower in the mountain, the last ray of the sun had actually disappeared on the side of Mount Sikal.

The end of the Harvest Moon is here, and the days are getting shorter.

When she returned to Saint Teresa Square, Luvia had already arrived and continued her stargazing on the third floor. She didn't have time to talk to Shade because she was a little behind schedule.

"Want to have dinner together?"

"Oh, Shade, go ahead by yourself, I'm busy here."

The voice came from the third floor.

"Then let me bring some back for you!"

Shade stood at the stairs on the second floor and shouted. After receiving the answer, he looked at the Mia cat at his feet:

"Did you have dinner?"

"Meow~"

Mia ran down the stairs quickly. She probably hadn't eaten, so she wanted Shade to think of eating.

Because he had to deliver food to Luvia and didn't want to take Mia to Professor Manning, Shade sent the cat home after dinner. When going upstairs, he happened to meet Luvia who came down from the third floor to serve tea. The latter thanked Shade and asked curiously while holding the tea cup:

"I've already helped you feed the cat, why did you take it out for dinner again?"

"Um?"

Shade looked at the orange cat lying in his arms with narrowed eyes:

"But it ate very happily just now. It doesn't feel like it has had dinner at all."

"Meow!"

The cat purred softly and rubbed the clothes on Shade's chest. The purple-eyed girl smiled and said:

"Looks like you were tricked by a cat."

When Mia was left to run around the house, she went straight to the third floor instead of going to the second floor to sharpen her claws. Shade didn't care about it. A run after eating would also help the cat stay in shape.

After saying goodbye to Luvia and explaining that he might not be home until very late, he went out again in the night and headed to Professor Manning's house in the university district.

Of course the professor was at home at such a late hour, and he was very happy to receive him after finding out that it was Sha De who came to the door. After the usual greetings, Shade asked about the Twin Gods and Twin Worship. The old professor, who was wearing pajamas at home, was quite surprised to look at the young man behind the desk at the edge of the gas lamp:

"Oh? Why did you suddenly mention such a thing?"