After explaining his funeral affairs, the detective on the bed closed his eyes. Shade pursed his lips and waited for a while, then freed his hand and tested his breath and pulse.
"died?"
He couldn't believe that the other party died so easily, and it really took almost ten minutes.
Before he could make any further reaction, a black light suddenly flashed across the corpse's face. Shade's heart tightened for no reason, and extreme terror instantly overwhelmed him.
But when he came back to his senses, the black light dispersed in the air and disappeared.
As the light disappeared from the corpse, the body, which was as thin as if it had been starved to death, gradually became plump at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if someone was inflating the inside of the corpse until it turned into a normal corpse.
"How is this normal? What is happening now?"
In the silence of the room, Shade looked around with some uneasiness. The uneasiness was not about being alone in a room with a corpse, but about being in a strange environment. This world was not the world before. He had already seen a corner of the truth about the mysterious and dangerous world.
.
The woman's voice in his mind sounded again, as if to remind Shade that this was not a "person":
【You have come into contact with ‘Whispers’.】
"What contact? What whisper? Can you elaborate?"
But the voice still didn't give an answer.
[Whispers] is one of the "Four Mysterious Elements" that the detective just mentioned. Obviously, the so-called "Relics" and "Whispers" are the truth that led to his death.
Although Shade was overwhelmed by the suppressed and unknown truth, looking at the corpse on the bed, surprisingly he didn't feel too much panic.
"It would be great if someone was joking about all this."
At this moment, he hoped that this was an act, but he knew rationally that it couldn't be an act.
I stood by the bed in silence for a while, then I walked around the four-poster bed to the window as quietly as possible. I carefully and calmly opened the heavy curtains. Immediately, the weak morning sunlight filtered through the gray fog on the street and on the window.
The glass shines in.
This light seemed to temporarily dispel the uneasiness in my heart.
"It's morning now?"
Because of the heavy fabric curtains, he thought it was night.
Bang bang bang~
The sound of knocking on the door suddenly sounded at this moment, startling Shade. He subconsciously let go of the curtain, but immediately held it and opened it completely. He squinted and looked out the window. Outside this window was the street.
I didn't have time to look at the strange scenery of the steam age in the fog. I first looked down to make sure that the person knocking on the door was the corpse carrier. I could see the carriage pulling the corpse, and then I turned around and opened the door.
"Being able to accurately know the time of his death is why the body transporter contacted can arrive so accurately."
He said in his heart and pushed open the bedroom door. Outside was the living room, which also had gas pipes that seemed to be from the steam era climbing up the walls. Hand-polished solid wood furniture and various stacks of letters, books, and documents were scattered everywhere.
The small blackboard hanging on the wall, the very formal coffee table and fabric sofa combination also resemble the style of a detective agency.
The curtains were not drawn in the living room, allowing the dim morning light in the fog to shine in, and the light shone obliquely on the floor in front of Shade's feet.
In the light, the floating dust was floating quietly, like strange tiny creatures swimming. This sense of reality made Shade's hair stand on end.
Opening the cold latch and anti-theft chain of the door, directly opposite is the dark staircase that spirals downwards, and there is a door next door. In other words, there are a total of two residences on this floor, which is somewhat like an apartment building in a Sherlock Holmes novel.
He couldn't find a light, so he could only spiral down the dark and oppressive stairs. His heart seemed to tremble crazily with every step. In the dark environment, Shade, who was thinking too divergently, felt that there was some terrible existence peeking out.
Hold yourself.
From the second floor to the first floor, the stairs lead directly to the foyer. On one side of the foyer, the passage connecting the first floor is completely blocked by wooden boards, as if it were a sealed coffin, leaving only the foyer available on the entire first floor.
This scene made the already nervous foreigner even more confused:
"Why are you sealing up the first floor? What's going on here?"
He passed by the shoe cabinet, held up the fallen umbrella, and glanced at the gas lamp on the wall above the shoe cabinet. After carefully turning it on, the light made his heart calm.
Taking a deep breath, he opened the door.
The silent old man in a black coat stood at the door, with a sign of overlapping leaves hanging on his chest. Behind him was the gloomy sky and choking fog. The old man raised his eyes and glanced at Shade, and his voice was as low as the leaves.
Scratching the wet and cold ground:
"Shad Hamilton?"
The language he used was consistent with that of the dead detective, both of which were called Delarian.
"Yes."
Shade nodded somewhat cautiously and motioned for the numb-looking old man to follow him upstairs.
So the old man called to the depressed middle-aged man behind him who was calming the horse. The latter's face was gloomy, just like the current weather.
The three of them walked up the stairs together. Shade didn't know what to say, so he led them silently to the bedroom on the second floor with the door number "No. 1" on it.
Almost no one spoke during the whole process, and the old and middle-aged people all smelled of corpses. They first put on gloves and confirmed that the detective's body on the bed was really dead, and then handed Shade a document that he needed to sign.
It was a confirmation document confirming that the body had been handed over to the City Public Cemetery Management Office for processing. Below it were two official seals from the City Public Cemetery Management Office and the City Funeral Committee. At the bottom was a prayer for the deceased, which translated means "Let the living
Shade was very unwell.
The old man and the middle-aged man checked the condition of the body. Shade sat at the desk in the bedroom and picked up a cold pen.
His head is a little confused now, but he can also realize that he can listen and read, but he can't write. Fortunately, the knowledge he just received not only has the ability to speak, but also has the ability to write. Translate the name into a pronunciation similar to
"Draion, the common language of the North," he planned to sign his name.
There was nothing noteworthy about the content on the cold page. It was probably confirmation that the body had been handed over and that the money for the funeral had been paid.
"But judging from another signature on the document belonging to the secretariat of the committee, the name in this world is very similar to the West in the previous life. It is divided into three parts. For official documents, the middle name must be added. The first name is 'Xia De', and the surname can follow.
'Hamilton', but the middle name..."
The confused and uneasy strangers don't know for the time being whether the dead Mr. Hamilton gave the original owner of the body a middle name. But now is not the time to rummage through the room, he must immediately come up with a name for the time being.
【Suellen.】
The murmuring voice sounded in his mind again, and the whisper made Shade almost jump. The voice gave a word, which existed in both the ancient language used by the woman and the lingua franca of the northern kingdom used by the detective, and its meaning was
【Silver Moon】.
"I can use this as my middle name, but you'll have to explain it."
Shade tried to communicate again, feeling extremely nervous, and the woman's murmuring voice really sounded:
[This is fate, stranger, the silver moon is your destiny. When you gather the four elements, open the door to the extraordinary, and see this terrifying world, the meaning will naturally appear. 】
Frowning, Xia De suppressed the panic in his heart, thought for a while, and signed his name vigorously:
Shade Suellen Hamilton.
The corpse carrier did not ask Shade to provide a death certificate or cause of death report, nor did he intend to notify the police for an autopsy. It was as if the death of the detective was as normal as the departure of a wild dog on the street.
After getting the "Power of Attorney for the Transfer of the Body" from Shade, he gave him a receipt indicating the location of the grave, and then silently moved the body of Mr. Hamilton, who was wearing pajamas.
Shade sent them to the door downstairs without going out. He watched as the body was placed in the narrow coffin in the carriage. The coffin was covered with brown cloth, which seemed to be stained with blood.
The middle-aged man drove a carriage, carrying the coffin and the old man, and went deep into the thick fog far away in the street.
"Well, goodbye, Mr. Sparrow Hamilton."
Thinking silently in his heart, he closed the door and Shade stood in the dim light of the foyer for a while, and then went upstairs again along the dim stairs that frightened him. The stranger's steps were a little heavy, but there was no one else around him.
, amidst the tension, there is an inexplicable sense of relief:
"It was simpler than I thought. I didn't ask about the cause of Mr. Hamilton's death, or even cared about whether I was really Shad Hamilton. I didn't even ask for tips for moving the body... Detective Hamilton had indeed taken care of everything.
"
The corpse left here with many secrets, leaving Shade, the despicable foreigner who had taken over someone else's body, with countless mysteries. In fact, he still had many questions that he wanted to ask Mr. Hamilton, and countless questions waiting to be answered.
But people cannot be resurrected after death, so he must accept the fact that the other person is dead and try hard to gain a foothold in this world that seems very wrong.
The only good news is that the house on the second floor that used to belong to Mr. Sparrow Hamilton now belongs to Shade. He suddenly became a homeowner in this different world that resembled the Victorian era in the mid-19th century.
The first floor was boarded up, the room "No. 2" next to the second floor was locked from the outside, and the stairs leading to the third floor were completely broken. Therefore, only Shade was left in this empty house at the moment.
He returned to the room numbered "1" on the second floor and carefully checked every corner of the study, living room, bathroom and bedroom with the lights turned off. After confirming that there was really no one in the shadows, he took a deep breath and sat down.
Sitting on the sofa in the living room, Wei Wei tilted his head and looked at the morning fog outside the window with peace of mind.
Shade finally had time to sort out the current situation:
"I traveled through time and inherited a detective agency. The original owner of the body may have a brain problem, and was trained by the former detective to help him complete a seemingly simple task after death... Sparrow Hamilton
Detectives have secrets. There are mysterious powers in this world. The death of the detective and the voice in my head prove this. What I need is to gather the four elements. The death of the detective has brought me into contact with 'Whispers'...
."
He rubbed his face. Although he was worried, the current situation was at least not bad. Although Mr. Sparrow Hamilton died suddenly, at least Shade had a foothold in a new world.
This is enough to support him to live, explore the secrets of this world, and maybe find a way home.
Shade is not a person who takes things easy, but he is also not a person who complains about everything. It is unfortunate that he left his hometown for no reason and came here. All he can do for the time being is to accept it, live well here, and try to live a better life.
Go down.
"By the way, let's go and see this extraordinary world, the mystery of the steam age, those secret rituals and spells... How can you be willing to be ordinary?"
Shade sighed softly, and the woman's laughter sounded in his mind, as pleasant as the breeze blowing through the lavender field.