Whispering Verse

Father Nobel's information shows that the seven-ring sorcerer of the Pantanal Voodoo Society who used [Aiken'ola's Arrow of Knowledge] more than ten years ago was originally named Halder Ondiba. He was born in the "Lower Wood Village" in the Pantanal area. When he was about 16 years old, he was discovered by a pharmacist who settled near the village of the Pantanal Voodoo Society. meeting.

This seven-ring warlock was eventually surrounded by the church in Rust Alley in the west of Huntington City and was killed after a fierce battle. After his death, Rust Alley and the village where he was born were searched by the church, but they still could not find the Arrow of Knowledge of Iken'ora.

The last time that arrow was used was three days before Ondiba was rounded up by the church, and that arrow was not used in the final battle when Ondiba was rounded up by the church.

Although Shade knew very well that the church would not miss details, considering that the church also believed that No. 6 St. Teresa Square was now safe, he still went to Rust Alley that afternoon to try to find clues left many years ago.

Rust Alley is a street in the slums west of Huntington that slopes to the northwest. Both ends of the alley are inside the slums, and the surrounding alleys extend in all directions. Under the low sky shrouded in thick fog, the old buildings look more like old people than the poor people living here. This place is like the black, imperceptible rotten spot on the crystal clear purple grape of Huntington.

When Shade came to Rust Alley that afternoon and stepped into the narrow and long alley, he vaguely felt that he could hear the city groaning. This is of course his psychological effect, but it also means that it is far more difficult than imagined to find clues from more than ten years ago in a place like this.

Both sides of Rusty Lane are lined with undulating old-era houses. Shade described it as "rolling" because most of the houses were built on the original basis using what seems to be a very magical construction method. One or two floors higher.

These illegal buildings, which are not uniform in style but are all very dangerous, are nestled together, providing a resting place for the city's large number of poor people at night. It was Monday afternoon, but there were still many people in the alley.

Winter is coming, but the residents of Rust Alley still dress like it’s autumn. Women took advantage of the sunny weather to dry their clothes in the alley with their sleeves rolled up, and carefully looked at their neighbors, fearing that their clothes would be stolen if they turned around. The barefooted children gathered together in twos and threes, playing with each other or chasing wild cats and dogs running around.

Relatively speaking, Shade's appearance in this alley was very unexpected, but fortunately, the life wisdom of the people living in the slums told them that it was best not to provoke strangers.

Of course, this is also related to the gun bag that Shade inadvertently exposed.

The church's action more than ten years ago caused extensive damage to two or three houses in the middle of Rusty Lane, with two or three houses collapsing. But now there are no traces of that battle at all.

The collapsed Nos. 13, 14 and 15 Rust Lane have long been renovated, and now the three houses are crowded old-style rental apartments and slum shops selling low-quality tobacco, spices and daily necessities.

Nos. 13 and 14 are rental apartments facing each other. Each building is four stories high. The walls of the house were yellow and dirty, and sewage flowed along the drainage pipes to the walls, and then fell into the ditches in the alleys. Some uncivilized patterns were drawn with chalk on the walls. Tall and narrow, these rental apartments are less than half the size of Six Sainte Teresa Square but house three figures of residents.

The landlord separated the interior space with thin wooden boards and rented out small cubicles to poor people who had no place to stay. Hundreds of people share a bathroom and kitchen, making the sanitary conditions here extremely poor. This situation can be seen in every city in the material world, but people who are tired of earning money for tomorrow's meals have no intention of caring about whether the epidemic will spread as a result.

The chaotic apartments of Nos. 13 and 14 have had countless tenants in the past ten years, so Shade gave up looking for clues there and instead walked directly into the "Pig Shop" at No. 15 Rusty Lane.

"Pig" is a rather contemptuous word in Huntington language. Using this name as the name of a store can also show the informality and randomness of the store.

The first floor of No. 15 is the shop, which is almost messier and more crowded than Old John's pawn shop. The store owner's counter is right at the door, making it easier for him to monitor whether customers have stolen goods. Although it is said to be a store, in fact, everything is accepted and sold here.

The middle-aged man, who looked to be in his forties or fifties, and whose left ear looked like it had been bitten off, met Shade in a daze that afternoon when he opened the door and walked in.

Hearing the door open, he dazedly took out his glasses with broken lenses glued on from the counter and put them on. He randomly swept the illegally printed colored books and periodicals on the table under the table, and then yawned and asked:

"New face? No, you definitely didn't move here. Are you a policeman? A detective? Or a new gang member from the city? Oh, I paid protection money for old Midillac."

"I'm not here to cause trouble."

Shade looked at the store. There was a pile of yellowed sheets and cotton piled in the southeast corner, and bottles and cans were placed in baskets hanging from the ceiling. In addition to the owner's arms, there were piles of matchboxes, metal thimble rings for needlework, and inferior straw paper for hand-rolling cigarettes on the counter. There was an iron cage pressed on the straw paper, and a white mouse in the iron cage was using it. Red eyes looked at Shade.

The mouse was probably not for sale, but the shop owner's pet.

"So what do you want to buy?"

The man who woke up said with great interest, and then added:

"The accent sounds like you're from Delrayon? What do you Yankees do in a place like Rust Alley?"

After more than half a month of hard work, Shade has made some progress in Kasenlik. But it's still easy for a true Kasenlicker to discover Shad's identity.

"I'm not buying anything, I just want to get some information from you."

Shade said, so the man behind the counter twirled his fingers. Shade threw the 1 pfennig coin on the counter. While the coin was spinning, he asked:

"I heard that this place was rebuilt more than ten years ago? I was entrusted by someone to find information about the previous owner of this place. Before it was rebuilt more than ten years ago, was the owner of this place also you?"

"Of course not. I just moved here eight years ago. This house originally belonged to a fat man who sold pork and sewers in the market. Later he went bankrupt and ran away."

"Can you go bankrupt selling meat?"

"You lose too much playing Rhodes."

The shop owner shrugged:

"I don't know where that guy is now, but he has lived here for 20 years. I think he is the person you are looking for."

"Run away? So he took everything with him?"

"Yes, only some old furniture was left, and it was moved away by the creditor to pay off the debt. When I moved in, there was not even a complete gas lamp. If his creditor is looking for him, sorry, everything here I purchased them all myself.”

"Then have you met him and heard him talk about the accident here more than ten years ago?"

"I haven't seen him, but I've heard neighbors talk about the gas explosion."

After the inquiry reached this point, Shade could confirm that there were indeed no clues left for him here. He even tried to use [Blood Echo] to observe the blood stains in the alley before entering the door, but those old blood stains were mixed with various traces from the past ten years, which was not enough for Shade to find clues.

Fortunately, he didn't have any hope at first. Now that he knew there was no value here, he wanted to talk to Professor Drake about it again. But before he turned and left, the shopkeeper behind the counter said again:

"Speaking of which, someone asked me about him a few days ago. What trouble did he get into? Could it be that he lost all his property playing Rhodes in another city, so he ran away again?"

"almost."

Shade answered vaguely, putting his arm on the counter:

"You mentioned just now that someone asked similar questions some time ago? Who was it? When did they come? What were they asked about?"

He said and threw another coin.

The man behind the counter slowly put away the coins, his tone was quite hesitant, and his gray eyes looked a little confused:

"Probably last week, I can't remember the day of the week."

"Did the other party come alone?"

The shopkeeper recalled it and shook his head hesitantly:

"I didn't wake up that afternoon, and my memory is very vague. It was probably two people."

"What about your appearance?"

"I really don't remember this clearly. I just remember that they bought a box of Candle matches after asking questions."

Seeing that the other party looked confused, Shade asked again:

"You don't remember anything you asked?"

"I vaguely remember that it's similar to your question, but I can't tell you the specific content."

"If you want me to add money, you can give me a number."

"No, no, if I can make money from you, I will definitely be happy to tell you what you want to know. But this time I don't want to increase the price. I really don't remember."

The bald man wearing glasses muttered:

"It's really strange. There are not many strangers in Rust Alley every week. How could I forget the appearance of the guests?"

"Is there a problem?"

Shade asked in his mind.

[The time interval is too long, even if his memory is washed away, it will not be possible to investigate. Maybe you can try it in a dream, maybe there are remnants of deep memories. 】

"I'm not Dr. Schneider, how can I fall asleep?"

While Shade was thinking, he silently put his hand into his pocket and took out a metal charm:

"Do you recognize this?"

The shopkeeper behind the counter subconsciously stretched his head to look. The next moment, his eyes closed due to strong sleepiness, and then he lay down on the counter and fell asleep again.

Shade put away the talisman in his hand. He had just relied on his own mental guidance to hypnotize the shop owner with the hypnotic talisman in his hand. In fact, normally this spell would not work so quickly. Shade learned some spell-casting techniques from the "Pink Book", and there was a whole chapter about hypnosis in that book.

"Abnormal forgetfulness means that there is a high probability that the memory has been modified. And the modified memory means that the stranger who came a few days ago is also a ring warlock. The team of the Zhengshen Church will only reveal the secrets when ordinary people witness the mystery. The memory will be modified in accordance with the regulations, so this is not done by the church. Although I will not go into a dream to dig deep memories, but "

Shade lowered his eyes and looked at the iron cage on the counter. He quickly opened the lock of the iron cage and grabbed the white mouse. His palms held most of the mouse's body, and only the two pink paws and tail of the white mouse's lower limbs were still free to move.

Holding the mouse in his right hand, he placed the [Night Watcher] wrapped in cloth on the table with his left hand, and then dug out the [Fish Training Ring] he carried with him.

"Cats can't use it, but luckily mice can."

In "Mia's Three Rings", [Metamorphosis Ring] Shade cannot use it so he usually does not carry it. [Vampire Ring] must not be taken out casually in a city like Huntington where a large number of vampires live. When Shade sent the cat to the Witch Manor in the morning, he only took away the [Fish Training Ring].