Chapter 101 Tussock Riverbank
In the west district of Tingen City, inside a house painted gray-blue on the west bank of the Tussock River.
The whole house seemed to be in the depths of winter, with the temperature at least ten degrees lower than outside. An irregular breeze blew through the hall, blowing the curtains covering the windows, letting a ray of dim sunlight into the room, then shyly closed the curtains, returning the room to darkness.
In the center of the first floor of the house, which was originally the location of the restaurant, there is a round table with a statue carved out of bones on it. It is about 30 centimeters tall and looks like a beautiful woman, but the facial features are blurred and the long hair reaches the ankles. The hair becomes clearer and thicker as it goes down, like a hanging poisonous snake.
The statue was surrounded by crudely crafted puppets, with only vaguely carved shapes and notes attached to them with various identity information written in red ink.
Two mysterious men, one tall and one short, wearing black robes with hoods covering their heads, were standing beside the altar, chanting obscure spells in a low voice.
"Bang——"
The yellow-green flames of the three candles placed in an inverted triangle on the altar suddenly increased in brightness, causing the light and shadow in the room to change and gusts of cold wind to blow.
The shorter of the two men relaxed his shoulders as if he had breathed a sigh of relief, and backed away from the altar, returned to the door, then turned around, pushed it open, and walked out.
In the corridor, the cold wind blew endlessly, and the curtains covering the windows blocked out the sunlight, leaving the entire first floor in darkness.
But the black-robed man's eyes seemed to be unconcerned with the darkness. He avoided the invisible and transparent figure wandering in the corridor and went up the wooden stairs to the second floor.
The temperature here is closer to the outside temperature than on the first floor. The man in black robe lowered his head and silently returned to his bedroom. He closed the door, took off his hood, hung the black robe on the coat rack, revealing a close-fitting gray and white long skirt.
"He" turned out to be a young and beautiful woman.
Her facial features don't look delicate when they are alone, but when put together, they have an attractive quality. After taking off her black robe, she walked to the dressing table, sat in front of the makeup mirror, stared at her appearance in the mirror, and started to feel dazed.
On the dressing table were various cosmetic boxes and a silver mirror that looked a bit old, so rubbed that the reflection was almost invisible.
As the woman basked in her own beauty, the silver mirror flashed an eerie, bright red light, drawing her attention like a blinding alarm in the lightless room.
Immediately, a trace of blood seeped out of the mirror and flowed along the edge onto the table.
The relaxed and gentle woman's face immediately darkened. She jumped up from the stool, walked quickly to the window, carefully lifted a corner of the curtain, and looked out.
——————
"Yes, it's this house."
Klein sat by the carriage window, staring out at a two-story house with a gray-blue exterior about 200 meters away, and spoke in a firm tone.
Leonard nodded without asking the driver to stop. The three night watchmen sat quietly in the carriage as if they hadn't noticed anything.
It was not until the carriage had moved forward for a distance and the house was almost out of sight that Angel stopped the carriage and got out first.
Leonard followed closely behind, leaving only Klein still in the car.
This was a countermeasure they had already discussed. If they successfully found the target building, Klein, who had the worst frontal combat ability, would take a carriage back to Zouteland Street and notify the captain to come for support.
Angel and Leonard stayed nearby, monitoring the building used as an altar.
Standing by the car door, Klein looked down at his two teammates and pursed his lips. He suddenly regretted choosing the "Fortune Teller", which forced him to take a back seat in every battle.
With a thought, he took out the copper penny that he had used for divination several times today, threw it into the air with a "thump", and performed a quick divination.
"Oh, what did our 'diviner' gain?"
Seeing that Klein was still performing divination at this time, Leonard couldn't help but laugh.
"You will all live well today."
"Fortune Teller" Klein looked at the coin in his hand, his lips curled up, and he told the result of his divination.
——————
The sun had gradually sunk below the horizon. On the facade of a two-story building not far away, the sunlight was gradually disappearing from bottom to top, making the barren garden appear even more eerie and terrifying.
Although this house is located in the western district of Tingen City, it is actually close to the suburbs. There are a few sparsely populated single-family houses around it. Further away are wheat fields waiting to be harvested. The Tussock River on the other side is shrouded in darkness.
Angel squatted beside a low fence on the side of the road, resisting the urge to open his spiritual vision and observe the house. He just stared at the building a hundred meters away with his naked eyes, watching its door closed and the windows covered with curtains.
"Be careful not to use your clairvoyance. I once saw a Nighthawk misuse his clairvoyance in Enmat Harbor and had to stay in bed for a whole day before he recovered."
Seeing Leonard Mitchell beside her eager to try, she quickly reminded him.
"Don't worry, it's still far away, and the ceremony shouldn't be complete yet, otherwise the affected area wouldn't be limited to this small building and the nearby garden."
Leonard seemed to have a deep understanding of this kind of evil ritual and answered without turning his head.
"Yeah?"
Angel thought about it and decided not to risk using her clairvoyance. Her clairvoyance could only roughly distinguish whether an object had spirituality or not, but even by looking directly at the building in front of her, she could clearly feel the extraordinary power surging from it.
Leonard squinted his eyes and observed for a while, but couldn't see anything special, so he closed his spiritual vision and moved closer to Angel.
"Who do you think is inside? A Sequence 7 'witch', or... someone like Madam Sharon?"
Is he referring to Sequence 6 like Madam Sharon?
"I'm not sure either, but if it was just a Sequence 7 Beyonder, they wouldn't dare commit such a massive crime, right? They let nearly a hundred people die prematurely, just to take their extra lives for sacrifice..."
"That's hard to say. Sometimes, the more newly embarked on the path of a Beyonder, the more ignorant they are. They are more likely to act recklessly and do surprising things."
"You seem to be very familiar with these matters. When analyzing the case earlier, your understanding of the curse ritual exceeded the knowledge of the Nighthawks. Is this what you call 'special'?"
Angel looked at the "Midnight Poet" crouching beside him. His short black hair swayed in the breeze by the river, and his eyes flashed with green light as the night gradually faded.
Hearing Angel's question, he pretended to be handsome, ran a hand through his black hair, and replied with a smile. "Yes, you can understand it that way. It's just like the special relationship between you and Klein. As they say in those adventure novels, the protagonists appear on the stage, and the wheel of history begins to roll forward."
"...The mud on your hands got on your hair."
Angel looked away with a smile on his face as he watched Leonard, the "protagonist of the novel," hurriedly brushing the dust off his hair.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
