"At the same time, residents who kept poultry in the nearby woodlands under their jurisdiction were also talking about the frequent loss of their poultry over the past six months, sometimes more, sometimes less. They mostly believed that the poultry had been stolen by coyotes or foxes, and sought help from the city guards but had not received any reassurance. One of the brave men volunteered to keep watch at night, but was found unconscious in his woodshed the next day. When he was awakened, he was bewildered and said that he had no idea why he was there, and almost all of his poultry had been taken away."
"The final piece of evidence comes from the city guards on night patrol. About seven or eight months ago, they caught two cases of child abduction. Both cases involved the same method: breaking into homes with children under ten years old at night, using anesthesia to put everyone inside to sleep, and then stuffing the children into sacks and carrying them away. But the perpetrator seemed to be inexperienced in this kind of thing, and gave himself away halfway through the transfer. He was stopped by the city guards who arrived in time, and had no choice but to abandon the children and flee."
"It's a pity that we never caught him. He seemed to have some way of getting out of trouble, and he would disappear without a trace every time we chased him to the dead end of the alley. After that, he tried to commit crimes several more times, but was driven away by the city guards who were ambushed by his family who had been informed in advance. After failing to succeed, he went into hiding."
"Is he still in the city?" I asked.
Yao shook his head: "No, he left a long time ago. Judging from the route, he went all the way northwest."
Northwest... Is Tianqi City or the Frozen Snow City?
I wrote this message down, intending to inform Miyuki when we meet later.
I exchanged some more opinions with Yao, such as the possible locations where the chimera might appear, the location of the entrance and exit of the laboratory that created it, whether its appearance this time was an accident or an intentional exposure by the other party, the possible reasons behind the disappearance of the World Tree, etc. Yao gave her her own opinions on everything she knew and instructed me to be sure to investigate the corresponding locations.
I would have gone even without her saying so.
Finally, before leaving, I remembered something and quickly asked, "Does Moore harbor any resentment towards the once-every-ten-year celebration at the Sacred Tree Wall, or have you had any interaction with it? For example, did something unpleasant happen that left you with bad memories?"
After gathering all the documents aside, Yao stared at the open pages of the book in his hand for a long time, seemingly searching for possible information between the lines. His polarized gem eyes remained fixed there, like a machine whose program was overloaded.
After a long while, she slowly raised her head, staring straight at me like a frozen doll, and replied softly, "He has no interest in those noisy activities and rarely participates, but he just dislikes them; he doesn't resent or hate them."
“If we’re talking about whether he had any bad memories…” she paused for a moment, her lips pursed, “the time when the beast tide that caused him to lose his family happened right after the city’s celebrations had ended, and he and his other friends who lived nearby were on their way home.”
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