It was half past one in the afternoon when Shade came home from the north of the city. Little Mia, who had nothing to do all day and was living a happy life, had already eaten the high-end cat food left by Shade and was lazily lying on the window sill taking a nap in the sun.
.Although he was awakened by the sound of Shade going upstairs, he just ran to him and let him pet him twice. While Shade sighed, "This cat is really warm and soft," he jumped up on the window sill and continued his nap.
.
So Shade followed what Luvia said in the morning and went to Belindel Manor in Yuewan City to visit Miss Belindel. But unfortunately, the witch was not in the manor that afternoon. Fortunately, the maids in the manor knew
Shade, his "cousin," therefore informed him that Miss Belindel had gone to the city council to attend a meeting.
Since she still had things to do, Shade planned to wait until the evening to visit again. Taking advantage of the afternoon, he went to the Spider Lane autopsy room first, intending to inform "Shaun the Magician", a fellow vampire who went to the coroner yesterday.
I wanted to visit there, but at the same time I also wanted to inquire about the situation from him and see if Mr. Bernhardt's investigation had made any progress.
Unexpectedly, as soon as I reached the end of Spider Alley, I saw Mr. Bernhardt walking out of the Spider Hotel nearby, his face still a little ugly:
"Good afternoon. I just came out from Ptolemy's place. He is dissecting a corpse. I advise you not to go now. Even if you refuse because of shame, I will never watch his work again."
Mr. Bernhardt, who still felt uncomfortable in his stomach, didn't mind going back to the Spider Hotel to have a drink with Shade. When the two sat down, Shade first talked about what he had learned from Hawthorne's "interrogation" on the ship yesterday.
Talking about those dragon egg fossils and the erased memories. Mr. Bernhardt nodded, and the situation on his side was similar:
"I have been in contact with Georgia Blake, and he is in the same situation. I didn't even find any trace of his memory being wiped. Yes, there is no trace at all, but my instinct tells me that there is definitely something wrong with his memory. This is not an ordinary method.
, I suspect that the power of the relic played a role."
He took a big gulp of wine:
"But I haven't met the ring warlock with dragon scales you mentioned. I did some research around Georgia Black and didn't find that he had any contact with the ring warlock. Also, my acquaintances in the church told me that the church also
The true identity of the corpse has been found out, and the four people we are tracking will probably be investigated soon."
Shade frowned:
"This shows that the other party is really confident, and may even induce the church to investigate whether the deceased was attacked on the way home. I want to find a way to solve the memory problem. I know a girl who is very good at thaumaturgy related to memory.
Georgia Black and Freeman Hawthorne, we have no more contact with them. Now only Herman Wood is left, and I will see him tomorrow night."
"Tomorrow night?"
Mr. Bernhard thought for a moment, then was a little surprised:
"He is going to participate in a card game with Earl Eddington and Earl Belindell tomorrow night."
"Yes, Miss Belindle asked me to play cards for her."
"You are really as capable as before."
Mr. Bernhardt praised and clinked glasses with Shade:
"The other party is hiding deep, and the situation is worse than we thought. Ptolemy just told me that last night, a vampire injured someone in the city. Yes, this time it is definitely a vampire,
But it’s not humanoid vampires like us, it’s those hybrid hybrids, vampire monsters.”
Shade was a little surprised:
"I thought it was magical enough that there were werewolves in the local area. How could a vampire monster appear in a densely populated place like Moon Bay?"
"Vampire monsters" are also a member of the vampire race, but unlike the advanced vampire species that can stably switch their own forms, that is, Mr. Bernhardt and Mr. Albert, the physical and mental states of "vampire monsters"
They are extremely unstable and must frequently drink blood to maintain their survival.
They also look like humans during the day, but are very afraid of the sun. But at night, once they transform into giant bat-like monsters, their combat effectiveness is much stronger than ordinary low-level vampires.
As for Mr. Bernhardt's statement that this is a "hybrid hybrid", the reason is that most advanced vampires believe that "vampire monsters" are a race formed through experiments on human body refinement and the fusion of advanced vampires, bats, and beasts.
.But there is no evidence for this idea. After all, "vampire monsters" have been clearly recorded since the third era. Traditionally, they are considered to be a degraded vampire race.
Because of the chaotic state of "vampire monsters", they are rarely seen in cities where humans gather. It is said that large vampire monsters can only be found in the New World, the glacial areas in the northern part of the Old World, and the rolling Rommel Mountains in the central and eastern part of the Old World.
Beast colony.
"You said there are werewolves in the area?"
Mr. Bernhardt raised his eyebrows, and Shade shook his head:
"Yes, but it should have nothing to do with what we are investigating. Coming back to the topic of vampire monsters, it can't be such a coincidence. Just as the church linked the unknown female corpse to vampires, vampire monsters appeared in the city.
."
"It's definitely setting up the blame again. This is to confirm the accusation of the vampire. Even if the church will be suspicious, they still have to waste their manpower to catch the vampire monster first. And during this period, they can create more evidence.
To get rid of suspicion."
Mr. Bernhardt shook his head, knowing how good those "fellow beasts" who are more like beasts are at hiding at night:
"Ptolemy said that judging from the traces on the victim's body, the vampire monster is quite powerful. If you want to act locally at night, you must be careful. Oh, since you can see Herman tomorrow
Wood, I’ll leave his matter to you. I’m going to continue investigating the Crowley Steam Bath, I always feel like there’s something wrong there.”
"Okay, be careful. We should meet here on Sunday morning. Currently, surrounding this matter, there have been four forces: vampires, the church, the Dragon Feast Order, and the New World Mutual Aid Association. The truth will probably be far beyond our knowledge.
Expected.”
Shade talked with Mr. Bernhardt for a while, and then the two of them left separately. However, because of Mr. Bernhardt's kind persuasion, Shade did not visit the coroner again.
"Just to satisfy your appetite for dinner."
This is what Lord Vampire Seed said at the time.
Shade then went to the dock area from Spider Alley and asked "Princess Trading Partner" how the investigation on the "mysterious fortune teller" on Herring Street was going.
It was still Ms. Anne Bonny who received Shade. A week had passed since Shade asked them to help with the investigation. However, the Xiacheng District of Yuewan City centered on Herring Street was too large, so the current investigation had not been done yet.
Great progress.
Shade didn't pay much attention to this, and asked a few more questions about the three cargo ships, and then asked a very strange question:
"Ms. Bonnie, you have lived in the dock area of Yuewan City for many years, right?"
"If you include the time before I met Miss Prince, it should have been twenty years."
She seemed to have been a pirate before, and she frequently visited Moon Bay at that time.
Shade nodded:
"So have you heard any strange noises in the dock area in the evening?"
He squinted slightly:
"A long, ancient cry, like a wild beast."
The one-eyed woman thought carefully:
"I haven't heard of it, but your question reminds me of a legend on the dock. It's not appropriate to say it's a legend, it's just a story and rule circulated by dock workers. It is said that if the sailors and workers working at the dock,
If you hear strange noises at dusk and sunset, you must stay away from the dock as soon as possible and go to the church to pray. However, what they said is that there is a terrifying ghost in the dock area of Yuewan City, but they did not mention things like wild beasts.
.”
Shade nodded to express his understanding:
"Besides that, is there anything else weird about the docks? Especially things related to the calls and the dusk."
Ms. Bonny recalled again:
"Let me think about it. No, at least I can't remember it for the moment. When I was a child, the old fishermen living here always had all kinds of strange stories in their mouths, but now those people have passed away.
, the children who grew up at the docks of Yuewan City have never paid attention to these stories. The legends return to smoke and dust, and we are always saying goodbye to the past."
Thousands of years have passed since the divine war Miss Eleser mentioned. If there really was news that Shade could know by asking, the local church would have noticed it long ago. In fact, if it weren't for the long-haired Luvia,
Given the clues, Shade would not have thought that the densely populated pier could still have traces of the war between gods.
But since he couldn't find out what he wanted to know from the locals, he had no choice but to find it on his own. But before bidding farewell to Miss Bonny, she mentioned that someone had sent Shade a very thick package.
After receiving the package and seeing that the address was a bookstore in the city center and the sender was Mr. Dylan, Shade remembered that when he went to the local Gray Glove organization to help release Lesia's fleet, he asked local agents to help him in order to confuse the situation.
Some irrelevant matters were investigated. The huge package this time seemed to contain various accounts and lists of suspicious persons since the construction of the "Moon Bay Bridge". Other matters are still under investigation.
However, Shade didn't really care about this, so he didn't rush to check it out. Instead, he thought about taking it home and looking at it when he was bored to pass the time.
When we came out of "Princess Trading Partners", there was already the shadow of dusk in the distance on the sea level. Ship sails were scattered all over the port of Moon Bay, and people who had been busy all day were doing their final work before dinner.
Seagulls were circling over the port, making Shade worried that bird droppings would fall down. He touched Fiona's glove in his pocket, thinking that since he couldn't find any clues, he might as well explore it himself.
PS: Thank you to the reader @山河万多, the leader. Thank you for your support. I will add another chapter. Thank you.