Whispering Verse

Iluna paused and stuffed the roll of parchment back into her small bag:

"However, judging from the current situation, the church speculates that there is a high probability that a vampire has appeared in the local area. It sucks the blood of pure virgins, but it does not dare to harm their lives because it is worried about the church's retaliation. The only doubt is, Why do the victims all work as flower sellers? Does that vampire have some weird obsessive-compulsive disorder?"

"I haven't heard of any blood-sucking species in the Randall Valley. They usually do serious business in the northern part of the United Kingdom, near the city of Huntingdon."

Shade said that although he thought it might be a vampire brought by the [Blood Spirit School], he instinctively thought that the matter couldn't be that simple:

"The land in Randall Valley is currently in turmoil, so it will attract relics related to the earth. Just like the Middleburg incident and the Pantanal incident, the distortion of the local environment will attract relics that do not often appear. Go and investigate. Any clues now?"

"I have the addresses of the girls who have gone home."

Iluna stood up and patted her skirt lightly:

"Go and see those girls who have lost their memory. I hope you can gain something."

Every city has slums in the traditional sense, and because of the special valley topography, the actual slums in the Randall Valley are mostly concentrated in the southwest of the city, as well as in small villages that exist on the edge of the city.

The city of Randall Valley itself is not very square. It is long from northeast to southwest along the river and short in other directions, so it is very convenient to visit the flower girls living in the villages outside the city.

Shade and Eluna then got on the carriage at the entrance of the Fertile Land Hotel and got off at the edge of the city. While passing by the city walls and gates left over from the ancient city-state, I saw police interrogating the identities of outsiders. Perhaps they were also looking for clues about the missing flower girl.

After leaving the city, walk across the wooden bridge over the moat outside the city gate. On the other side of the moat is a small village with dilapidated buildings. On Friday morning, it was quite lively here. Country people preparing to enter the city rested here. The owners of horse-drawn carriages and donkey carts carrying goods were discussing business loudly. Travelers passed by in a hurry, covering their noses to cover their urine. The smell of chicken, duck and goose.

There is no house number in the small village, but the information Iluna received said that the little girl she was looking for lived by the river, and there was a dead willow tree at the door.

This was a fairly obvious feature, and soon they found the small two-story house surrounded by a fence. It is said to be two stories high. In fact, the first floor is a common adobe house nearby, and the roof is simply built with bamboo and wooden boards to shelter from the wind and rain. Because of the continuous earthquakes in the past few days, Xia De even felt that those The boards are a little skewed.

The woman carrying a baby and wearing a headscarf was washing clothes on a washboard at the door while chatting with a neighbor's woman who was drying her quilt when they came over. Iluna had already obtained her ID from the local police station. After briefly explaining her identity, the woman doing the laundry stood up and stopped the boy running around at the door.

After the boy received the "order", he ran towards the north of the village on his patched cloth shoes. After a while, the twelve-year-old girl whom Iluna was looking for ran up with him, carrying a bucket in her hand. Inside the bucket was a small crucian carp.

The boy carried the bucket into the house, and the woman carrying the baby didn't seem to trust the young-looking Iluna, so the conversation was held in another corner of the yard to ensure that the girl did not leave the woman's sight.

The little girl named Mary Kara lowered her head nervously, playing with her fingers and talking to Iluna. She didn't seem to want to communicate with strangers.

"Mary Carla, right? I am a police officer from the Randall Valley Police Department, and this is my assistant. This visit is still related to your disappearance for a week. Since you were asked last time, you recalled Any new details?”

Iluna said while holding the notebook. The little girl lowered her head and played with her fingers and was speechless. So Shade rummaged through his pocket and found a white sugar cube and handed it to her.

The girl glanced at her mother at the door of the yard, and quickly pinched the piece of candy from Shade's hand:

"I can't recall anything, it's like I slept for a whole week."

"Have you ever sold flowers since then?"

Iluna asked again, and the girl shook her head:

"My father and mother said it was too dangerous. They asked me to stay at home recently. If I am taken away by human traffickers next time, I really won't be able to come back."

Her accent was a bit thick when she spoke, and Iluna, who was new to the local area, no matter how good she was in Kasonrik, could only fully understand it under Shade's low-pitched translation:

"That's fine."

Iluna glanced at Shade sadly, but she didn't expect that there was really no clue at all:

"So, do you mind if we touch your forehead? It is said that some of the girls who came back have symptoms of low fever."

She added, and after the girl agreed, she and Shade touched her forehead. Eluna felt nothing, while Shade frowned slightly. He felt the whisper element, but it was very weak.

"So do you have anything else to tell us?"

So Iluna asked again, and the little girl looked at Shade, who gave her another candy knowingly.

"If you want to ask for information, you can go to the intersection of Mason Street in the city and find little Lianna. She is the best florist among us, and she is also the most well-informed. If anyone knows the information, it must be her. "

Although Shade was skeptical about this statement, Iluna still wanted to investigate, so the two planned to return to the city. When he said hello to the woman carrying the baby on her back and left, the woman was at the door of the yard talking to a man who looked like a carpenter. The woman had a sad look on her face:

"I know the house won't survive the next earthquake, but we really have no money."

She turned to look at the second floor of the house:

"Now I can only pray to the gods to prevent another earthquake."

The carpenter with a scruffy beard was also in a dilemma:

"I know that everyone is having a hard time this winter. Didn't the thirteen-year-old son of the village widow go up the mountain just a week ago and was beaten to death by an unknown beast with great force? You also want to take care of the people in the village. Consider that if your house collapses, your neighbor Larry's family will also suffer."

"Didn't Larry's family run away from the village because all the fish they raised in the fish pond during the winter died due to water quality problems?"

The woman asked immediately, and the carpenter shook his head:

"But as long as the house still belongs to them, the village should consider these things and borrow money to repair your house. Although I can ask for a very low salary, the material cost still has to be paid, right? My apprentice has petrochemical Plague, I am the only carpenter who can work in the village now. If you don’t come to me in the past two days, I will have no time at all when the weather gets warmer in a few days.”

The things they talked about seemed to be related to the disaster in the Randall Valley since this winter.

Iluna looked at Shade. In just a few words, she understood the impact of the disaster on the ordinary people living in this land. She wanted to speak, but Shade stopped her.

Shade knew that she wanted to give the woman money. The cost of materials to repair such a dilapidated house was actually very small. But Xia De believes that if you can’t do something like giving money for free, don’t do it:

"How much will it cost to repair this house?"

So he walked over and interrupted to ask. The carpenter looked at him and stretched out his finger:

"Two ores and six pfennig are enough."

1 krone is equal to 7 euros, 1 krone is also equal to 95 pfennigs, and 1 krone can now be exchanged for about 13 to 14 pounds. So, it doesn’t really cost a lot of money.

"In that case, I'll lend it to this lady. Although we don't talk about this anymore in this era, I still have some chivalry."

Shade said, turning around and looking at the house:

"I know that you villagers need to use your savings to buy seeds and find a blacksmith to repair farm tools during spring plowing, so I will come back in the summer to ask for the money back. I will give you the lowest interest, and you will pay me back 2 ores and 19 pfennig in the summer. .”

Iluna also came over at this time and listened to Shade's words.

"I'm not worried that you won't pay back the money."

Shade pointed to the house:

"Your house is here, and it has been newly renovated. It will definitely not run away. If it runs away, it means that your family is facing a dilemma of not being able to even get a house. Even if I want you to pay back the money, you can't pay it back. Therefore, it is relatively safe to lend you this money.”

The woman then stammered and wanted to thank her. After all, that house was indeed too dangerous now. She just said that the carpenter didn't want to repair it, but that he really didn't have the money.

Shade shook his head, took out the change from his pocket, then wrote an IOU, asked the woman to put her fingerprints on it, and then left with Iluna.

"Will you come and take that money back in the summer?"

The seventeen-year-old girl asked curiously. She thought what Shade had just done was right.

"If I could remember it, I would come."

Shade replied, stuffing the IOU into his pocket, and whispered in his heart:

"No need to remind me about this."

"She" smiled softly. Although the air in the countryside was a bit unbearable, the wind in the countryside was so gentle. Today is the last day of the Moon of Thin Stars, and spring is really coming.

Mason Street is the street where the Randall Valley Masons Association is located. Although it is located in the old city, it is quite lively with people coming and going. On the way, Shade explained to Iluna clearly what he had learned about the grudge between the Stonemasons Association and the Kasenlik royal family in the past two months, as well as Princess Margaret's preparations for this.

When the carriage arrived at Mason Street, the driver did not turn and stop as Shade asked, but instead stopped the carriage in advance:

"Sir, I'm afraid we can't go any further."