Chapter 180 Secret Gathering
On Friday afternoon, Angel had dinner early, changed into light clothes, and put the magic pocket watch, three sleeping spells, and several sets of spare pistol bullets in different pockets of his body. The pistol and dagger, the magic wand and the magic mirror were also in their respective places.
"It looks like we're going to the battlefield..."
After looking at himself fully armed in the full-length mirror, Angel put on his cloak, took out the file bag containing the differential engine manuscript from the study, and left home.
Instead of taking a hired carriage, she walked to the Dominican Federation and Sonia's home in the East District, one to digest the dinner she had just eaten, and the other to record the route in detail and understand the surrounding environment.
The East District seems a little more "peaceful" during the day than at night. The homeless people in the street corners and alleys are driven to invisible corners by the occasional patrolmen with batons. The shops on the street also clean up the piles of smelly garbage, making the East District, where the poor gather, still look a bit like the capital of the kingdom.
But at night, the ubiquitous wanderers would pour out from everywhere, looking for any place to rest, any food to eat, any items to exchange for money...
This was Backlund's East District, a region with a population several times greater than Tingen City, but more like a region composed of countless Tingen City's Iron Cross Lower Streets.
No, at least there was order in Lower Iron Cross Street, and a glimmer of hope... Angel thought of Tromi, a young working woman living in Lower Iron Cross Street. She should still be working as a maid in the Moretti household, learning to cook. I wonder how many dishes she'd already mastered...
Walking through these streets filled with despair, Angel felt his heart gradually becoming numb, until he saw the strangely shaped apartment building, climbed the stairs, and came to the door of the Dominican Federation on the third floor.
“Dongdong——”
Not long after she knocked on the door, the face of the Dominican Federation, which she had always thought deserved a beating but now looked extremely vivid, appeared through the crack of the door.
"So early? Wait a minute, I'll change."
The door closed again, and about five minutes later, the Dominican Commonwealth, wearing a cloak, walked out of the room and locked the door behind him.
"Where's your Sonya? Isn't she going?"
Angel asked curiously. She remembered that this guy had just said two days ago that he didn't dare leave the "fortune teller" who had no fighting ability alone at home.
"Now I feel it's more dangerous to be with you than in the East District. She's resting somewhere else."
The "provocateur" returned to his true nature and spoke sarcastically.
Another place? You used to live together...
Angel guessed that the Dominican Federation had found another safe house in the past two days and placed Sonia there to avoid the embarrassing situation of not daring to fight or escape on the night of the manuscript seizure.
Maybe I also need to rent a house in a place like the East End, which can be used as a hiding place when necessary, or as a place to live in public to avoid exposing the 20-pound rented house...
As her thoughts raced, she watched as the Dominican Federation pulled out two masks made of cardboard and rough cloth from under his cloak and handed one to her.
"Here, you'll need it later. This belongs to Sonya. Don't break it."
Angel took the mask and saw that the cardboard had several holes cut out in the same positions as the facial features. There was a cute cat face painted on the front, and even two big ears were cut out on the top. There were cloth strips tied on both sides of the cardboard that could be tied behind the head to fix the mask.
This must have been drawn by Sonya for herself.
The Dominican Republic was holding a clown mask painted with red and green paint. The face was distorted and the colors were weird. It was obvious who made it.
Is he planning to conceal his identity at the rally? That's right, with a transaction involving thousands of pounds, being spotted would be very troublesome...
Angel guessed, followed him downstairs, left the apartment, and took the steam subway to Queens in the northwest.
Following the evening crowd leaving the subway station and returning to the surface, the dilapidated streets had been transformed into magnificent buildings in the Loen style, interspersed with many large Gothic-style buildings.
"I originally thought this kind of rally would be in a dark corner of the East Side or the docks, or at least somewhere like the South Side of the Bridge where there's a large population and it's easy to hide. I didn't expect it to be in Queens."
Walking on the spacious streets, Angel felt that the cloak she was wearing was a little conspicuous by the strange glances from passers-by from time to time. She said to the Dominican Federation with some dissatisfaction.
The latter didn't care about other people's opinions and answered with his back straightened:
"I didn't expect you to be so ignorant. This is a high-end gathering. Otherwise, no one would be willing to spend 2,000 pounds to buy such a complex mechanical design manuscript that will probably not be manufactured for decades."
The 2,000 pounds is mine!
Angel protested silently in his heart, clutching the document bag under his cloak.
After passing the busy streets and entering a quiet residential area, the two came to a building that was indistinguishable from the houses next to it. It had an independent garden and fence, but there were no guards or servants.
Arriving at the side door of the house, the Dominican Federation signaled Angel to stop, took out the clown mask and put it on carefully before knocking on the door.
Three long ones, then two short ones...
Angel, wearing a kitten mask, memorized the Dominican Commonwealth's knock code.
The door was opened from the inside, and the two of them squeezed through the crack one after another and came to a spacious hall. There were already many people sitting scattered inside. Some of them were hiding their faces like her, or wearing strange masks, or covering their faces with cloaks. Some of them showed their true faces, not caring about the eyes of others.
"There are no fixed seats here, you can sit anywhere. Let's go to the corner and wait."
The Dominican Federation whispered, and took Angel around some occupied armchairs or sofas, and found two empty armchairs in the corner of the room to sit on.
Angel now had time to carefully observe the gathering place.
There were more than 30 chairs in the room, but only about 20 people were seated there. Most of them had their faces covered and were wearing cloaks or large windbreakers, making it difficult to even identify their gender.
The chairs were vaguely arranged around a single sofa, on which sat a man in a black robe, with most of his face hidden in his hood. He slowly shifted his gaze, looking at each visitor, like a condescending aristocrat looking down at the common people he despised.
"That's the organizer of the rally, a powerful Beyonder," the Dominican Federation said quietly after sitting down, leaning forward next to Angel. "I estimate he's at least Sequence 6, maybe Sequence 5. I heard from other attendees that on several occasions, some Beyonders attending the rally targeted him with ill intentions. There were even Sequence 7 Beyonders who tried to unite against him, but the result was always the same: no one saw them again."
"Sounds powerful, so what's his method?"
Angel followed his lead, lowering his body and asking in a low voice.
"Ha, if I knew, I would have been rotting in a stinking ditch like those brainless challengers," the Dominican Federation sneered, and replied, "After the deal with him is done, you can go and test his extraordinary abilities. Don't say you were with me when he tortures and kills you."
Ignoring the sting in the words, Angel asked in surprise:
"He is the one who is prepared to buy the manuscript for £2,000?"
"Yes, it started out at 1,000 pounds, but no one knows where the manuscript is, so the price has gradually increased to the current 2,000 pounds. If I wasn't in a hurry to use the money, I would have wanted to hold off a little longer, maybe waiting for Mr. A to post a higher reward."
A...A what the hell?
Angel felt cold sweat on his back instantly, and the black-robed man in the middle of the room glanced at him from time to time, which seemed to have a deeper meaning.
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