Chapter 350 Night Exploration
Two strange guys, Ryan thought.
Judging from his behavior and conversation, the black-haired man seemed to be an aristocrat, or at least a well-educated and cultured person, but those noble masters would not let their feet touch the dirty soil of the slums.
Despite his cold tone, his attitude was quite friendly. Several courageous laundry women approached him, hoping for help relieving the pain from their heavy labor. The dark-haired young man carefully answered each of their questions, recommending no expensive medicines but instead some common herbs or folk remedies.
This quickly won him the welcome and favor of the women. It was not until night fell, Ryan's father came back, and dinner was cooked at home that the laundry women left reluctantly, chattering.
The brothers' father was an old soldier who was not good at speaking and walked with a limp. When he saw his surviving youngest son, he just patted him on the shoulder and solemnly expressed his gratitude to the two professors.
After listening to his youngest son's incoherent story, the old soldier sat at the dining table in silence for a while, then slowly said, "I've heard that in the past few months, people have been disappearing frequently in the surrounding area, including the city of Osiris."
His voice was hoarse and low, and he didn't look at anyone. "At first, there were beggars and prostitutes, scum that no one cared about... It is said that there were also slaves brought in from other places, who entered the city gate, left the city gate, and disappeared without a trace."
"Then there are the homeless children on the street. Their parents died in battle, from illness, or as refugees... What a sin." The old soldier shook his head and shoveled a spoonful of thin bean soup into his mouth. "Not long ago, that red-haired kid from nearby who was always getting beaten for stealing money also disappeared. He was only slightly older than Cole."
Cole's mother hugged her son tightly, fear appearing on her face, fearing that her son, who had been lost and found, would disappear again in the next second.
"What does it say?" the professor asked calmly. He ate very little, and didn't even touch the precious butter and turbid, sour beer that were placed before his benefactor. Only his smoky gray eyes looked extremely sharp and bright under the dim oil lamp.
Azuka sat beside him, his hood pulled low, covering most of his face, like a dutiful guard - most mercenaries were dangerous people with strange behavior, so no one had any objection to his outfit.
"What the hell else can I say?" The old soldier scoffed. "Those people 'ran away' and went to join the Limin Army. If we ask too many questions, they'll accuse us of meddling. If we hinder the grain transport, they'll kill us."
He raised his head and took a big gulp of beer. "The people's army is making a big fuss out there. The higher-ups are scared to death. How can they care about the lives of a few homeless people?"
"Has anyone seen anything unusual?" the professor pressed on. "Like unfamiliar faces from outside the city, or a transport convoy leaving the city at odd times?"
The veteran paused, a sharp look of vigilance and suspicion flashing in his cloudy eyes - the man who claimed to be a pharmacist asked too direct and too precise questions.
Seeing that he didn't answer, the other party calmly lowered his eyes: "It seems that both are there, but you are not allowed to explore."
Ryan, who also felt something was wrong but couldn't put his finger on it, frowned: "You..."
At this moment, a rapid and heavy knock on the door interrupted the depressing atmosphere in the shed.
"Captain Ryan! Is Captain Ryan here?" a young patrolman shouted anxiously outside.
Ryan and his father exchanged glances, and he raised his voice and replied, "I'm here! What's up?"
"Emergency assembly!" the patrolman shouted through the door. "We don't know what's going on yet, but the order just came down, demanding weapons—I need to call the others, hurry!"
Cole's mother's face immediately turned pale: An emergency assembly at such a late hour, and having to bring weapons, is not a good thing to think about.
"Ryan, Ryan!" She leaned over, grabbed her eldest son's arm tightly, and asked in a trembling voice: "Are they going to send you to the front line?!"
The Crescent Castle granary is located in the rear area after all. Although it is a little poor, at least it does not have to collide head-on with the civilian army, which is as ferocious as ghosts and beasts in the words of Marquis Ravel, and lose its life.
"I don't know, Mom." His mother's nails almost dug into his flesh. Ryan hissed and patted her arm soothingly - but he also looked extremely nervous: "Don't think too much. Maybe they just discovered spies of the People's Army who had sneaked into Crescent Castle, and they want us to increase patrols."
Sitting on the side, the biggest rebel leader of the People's Army: "..."
He calmly lowered his head and took a sip of bean soup.
"...Gods." The woman let go and slumped back into her seat. Bewilderedly, she glanced at her tall, handsome eldest son, then at her silent husband. Faintly, she suggested, "If you really have to go to the front, could you please ask the leader to take you off and not let you go..."
"I'm the captain, Mom, and I get an extra ten copper coins every month." Ryan said with a wry smile, "If I don't go, then it will have to be Dad or Cole. Otherwise, even if we're deserters, our whole family will die."
He put on his patrol uniform jacket, grabbed the belt and sword hanging on the wall, and stuffed a small pistol into the back pocket of his pants. Before leaving, he quickly kissed his mother's forehead: "Don't worry, Mom, I'll be back soon. Cole, Dad is very busy every day and he's injured. I'm relying on you to take care of Mom at home."
Cole nodded vigorously, his young face full of confusion and nervousness.
His father stood up, hugged his son, and briefly warned him, "Be careful and don't be stubborn."
The hurried footsteps faded away, and only the heavy breathing and the dim light of the oil lamp remained in the shed.
Cole's mother forced herself to cheer up, stood up, and poured more tea for the professor and the other two. "I'm so sorry I didn't treat you well tonight..."
"Don't mind it." The black-haired young man's voice was still emotionless. His smoky gray eyes once again fell on the veteran. "You mentioned earlier that among the missing people there were slaves brought in from other places?"
"It's just a rumor." The old soldier lit a pipe and offered two to the two men. After being rejected, he began to smoke. "I've seen it a few times. It's a black cloth caged cart used to transport livestock. It's covered with a layer of oilcloth used to transport grain. You can't see inside, but you can occasionally see traces of human hands."
"The ruts are heavy, the guy guarding the truck isn't a familiar face, and his accent suggests he's from out of town. He's definitely not a rookie. I feel like blood is coming at any moment." He lowered his voice even more, and looked at the black-haired young man in front of him thoughtfully: "Why are you asking all this?"
Those smoky grey eyes met his gaze calmly, without a trace of guilt: "To prove some speculations."
The old soldier stared at him for a moment, then slowly looked away, shaking his head and muttering something about young people being curious.
"It's late, let's all get some rest." He stubbed out his cigarette on the sole of his shoe, then carefully put it away, mumbling vaguely, "I'll have to take you to the registration office after dawn to re-record your identities, otherwise we'll get into big trouble..."
After a quick cleanup, they squeezed onto the cleanest and most spacious bed offered by the guard couple—a narrow bed against the wall, covered with straw and a coarse cloth sheet. The professor had pulled out his notebook, intending to use the last flickering light of the oil lamp to finish some work, but before he could write a few lines, his vision suddenly went dark.
A warm hand gently covered his eyes from behind.
The professor opened his eyes expressionlessly in the darkness: "...Let go, are you a child? Trying to pull that trick?"
Fearing to disturb the people outside the room, he lowered his voice, a hint of displeasure at having his train of thought interrupted. The black-haired young man couldn't help but reach out to pull away the hand, but someone grabbed his wrist gently.
"The light is too dim. It hurts my eyes." The savior's voice sounded softly from behind him, gentle but unquestionable. "Besides, you promised me, sir. It's not good to cheat on me."
The professor was silent for a moment, trying his best to divert his thoughts from the countless suspicious fragments of clues. He tried hard to recall and remembered that he seemed to have promised people to go to bed on time. He could only mutter a little dissatisfied, but still let go of the pen and lay down with a sense of resignation.
Azuka did not let go immediately. He slowly let go after confirming that the person next to him had really given up. Then he skillfully hugged the person in his arms, helping to isolate the person from the cold and hard bed board.
Marquis Ravel, coal concentrate, human experiments, the Protector Company's photo stone, slave trains disguised as grain shipments, deliberately covered-up disappearances... countless clues whirled through the professor's mind like a storm, connecting, reassembling. He leaned against his lover's warm shoulder, his nose filled with the clean, pleasant scent. These soothing objects, which should have brought him safety and peace, instead made him increasingly alert. His mind couldn't stop, and he was completely unable to sleep.
Finally, the professor couldn't help but gently poke someone's cheek, with a little childishness that he didn't even realize. His voice was almost inaudible, mixed with a little excitement of preparing to do something bad.
"Azuka, are you asleep?"
At this time, the shed was completely plunged into darkness. Only the occasional searchlight from the watchtower outside the window briefly passed through the narrow window and cast changing spots of light on the low ceiling.
Azuka reluctantly opened his eyes and met the eyes of the person in his arms, which shone like a cat in the darkness and looked almost hyper.
"Not yet." The savior's voice was also very low, with an almost indulgent sigh: "What's wrong?"
"I'm guessing the slave cart Ryan's father saw is still in Crescent Castle." The man's voice was filled with undeniable certainty, and his speech was faster than usual. "The last time they transported 'experimental materials' was three days ago, so there's no rush to 'restock'. The muddy roads caused by the rain will make travel difficult, so it's very likely that it's still stuck in the inner city of Crescent Castle due to the recent heavy rain."
"I think we should go search the inner city right now," the Great Demon King began to try his best to persuade the Savior to become his accomplice, looking eager to try. "If we can find it, my intuition tells me that we can discover something very important - and we only have these two days. If we delay any longer, Crescent Castle will be in complete chaos."
"...Okay, I admit you have a point." Azuka sat up helplessly and yawned lightly and elegantly: "I'll go there now."
"No, I want to go too." The professor also climbed up and protested in a low voice to the others in dissatisfaction when he saw this.
Seeing the disapproving look on his face, the black-haired young man paused, then tried to persuade his lover with a stern face: "First of all, I can't bear to see you stay up all night alone. Secondly, I'm a little hungry. Thirdly, I can't sleep without you. Finally, are you willing to leave me here alone?"
It was originally a very cunning rhetoric, but this guy applied it like a formula, which was really laughable and infuriating.
"...You seem quite energetic at a time like this." Azuka narrowed his eyes and stared at his old enemy with a half-smile, and in his heart he slowly and carefully took note of him.
The professor inexplicably felt a chill on his back, but he did successfully trick someone into taking him out of the guards' shack and sneaked into the night of Crescent Castle like a ghost.
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