Nights in Backlund always come earlier than elsewhere. Although it is still at the end of summer, the sky has completely darkened at seven o'clock in the evening.
In the thick pale yellow fog, street lights slowly turned on, but even so, it could not increase the visibility on the street at this time.
Mr. Sherlock Moriarty, who had just settled down, put on simple makeup and came to the Backlund Bridge area. In the environment that reminded him of the daily life of Iron Cross Street, he showed a bright smile.
He opened the flashy gold watch with a snap, looked at the minute hand that was still five minutes away from reaching the top of the dial, pushed open the heavy black wooden door, and stepped into this full-filled house under the gaze of the strong man guarding the door.
A tavern that smells of alcohol and sweat.
Like those in Tingen, this tavern also engaged in dog-and-mouse gambling, while on the other side, two boxers were fighting passionately amid the cheers of the audience.
Gently pushing the gold-framed glasses used for disguise, Mr. Sherlock immediately saw the man sitting in front of the bar. Although he was wearing cheap work clothes, his handsome face that was hard to ignore was enough to make everyone look at him.
The sweeping gaze lingered on his face.
"A glass of Southwell beer, please."
As soon as Mr. Sherlock approached the bar, he heard Mr. Devil order a glass of beer. Before he could speak, the glass was placed in front of him, and Mr. Devil's magnetic voice also sounded at the same time:
"I thought he was a little guy, but I didn't expect that he was actually under the command of that adult. This is really a trick of fate!"
"Mr. Snow, do you know me?" Klein's heart suddenly thumped. Snow had only met him once, but he saw through his disguise at a glance. Doesn't this mean that his face...
"Let's go and talk somewhere else." Snow didn't answer his nonsense question, threw a few coins on the bar, got up and walked towards the door.
Klein hesitated for a moment, and with the idea of not wasting anything, he poured the Southwell beer in his hand into his mouth, and then followed him with an indecent burp.
Snow took Klein all the way to his safe house in the Jowood District. After entering the study, he took a small box from the desk and threw it to Klein.
Although he had undergone all-round divination before coming here, Klein, who understood that "divination is not everything", was still shocked. However, when he caught the box and opened it carefully, he was surprised and said:
"Makeup box?"
"That's right, your disguise is terrible. If necessary, I can give you a makeup tutorial. I only charge 10 sulers for a lesson. Tutoring is guaranteed, although you won't need it once you are promoted to Faceless Man.
, but that should take quite some time.”
Snow rolled his eyes, sat casually on the chair behind the desk, then looked at Klein with a scrutinizing look and said:
"Tell me, what information do you want to inquire about? But as I said before, although you are the favored person of that Lord, faith belongs to faith and business belongs to business. What I do is the work of an intelligence merchant. Unless you take that Lord's favor
order, otherwise I will give you a discount at most."
"It's easy to give orders, but Mr. Fool's character does not allow him to give such orders!" Klein felt his heart bleeding, but he still nodded and said:
"I hope to enter the circle of Backlund's extraordinary people, and I also need a gun, which does not require documents."
"That's it?" Snow glanced at Klein with a strange look, and then sighed, "For such a trivial matter, you use a messenger to find me? Forget it, you go to the Brave Bar to find Caspars, that's all
It's said that Snow introduced you there, and as for the reward, you can just give it to the old guy."
"..." Klein was a little embarrassed by Snow's attitude, but for the sake of the integrity of Mr. Fool's family, he continued:
"Besides, I came to Backlund on the order of Mr. Fool to track down an 'audience'. I wonder if you can provide some help?"
"!"
In front of Klein's eyes, Snow's expression instantly changed from lazy to serious. Immediately afterwards, Klein felt that the air around him suddenly changed. As a force spread, everything returned to normal.
calm.
"Things involving the audience must be explained immediately. Don't you understand this common sense?" Snow glared at Klein angrily, and then slowed down his tone and said:
"Before you came to my place, you didn't tell me the name of the audience, did you? Including the code name."
"No, but is there any problem here?" Klein's appropriately novice look made Snow a little confused whether to say that he cooperated well or to lament that this gentleman always acted recklessly at just the right place.
He took a deep breath, pretended to suppress his emotions, and said in a somewhat irrepressible tone:
"You don't know anything and you dare to trace the audience? No, that's not right, it's just because you don't know anything that you can trace..."
Having said this, Snow knocked on his head and said with some annoyance:
"High-sequence audiences have the characteristic of 'everything you say will be known'. In other words, when you know him, he will also know you. Although I can indeed help you block some of the audience's perceptions, if you personally
If you say the other person's name, you will still be noticed immediately."
"So that's it!" Klein suddenly understood why he could never find the house with the red chimney. With such a bug, no wonder Mr. Devil's ancestors hated the audience path so much.
"Okay, the basic teaching is over. Now it's time to quote. Since it's what Mr. Fool wants, I'll give you a 50% discount, 300 pounds. How about it?"
"Three hundred pounds?!" Klein was too hesitant to shout out directly. You must know that after paying the rent and advertising, he only had less than four hundred pounds left in his coffers. He would spend another three hundred pounds.
pound……
Klein had a headache for a long time, but finally gritted his teeth, nodded and said:
"No problem, but I don't have so much cash now. I will go to the bank tomorrow..."
"With Mr. Fool as a witness, you can pay it off within a week." Snow waved his hand, took out a charm that looked a bit like a penny coin from his pocket again, and flicked it towards Klein.
At the same time, incantations in ancient Hermetic language were also recited from his mouth——
"An Zhiyu!"
When the spell was triggered, the talisman suddenly dispersed into a handful of white mist, covering Klein's body like a drizzle, coating him with a barrier that blocked out his spiritual power.
"'How do you know the fish'? Why is this activation word so weird? Or is it just some other mysterious language like ancient Hermes?" Klein didn't seem to realize the connotation of this spell triggering word, and neither did Snow.
Noting the failure of this "character deepening", I just explained seriously:
"This layer of protection can make you a negligible passerby in the audience's perception. As long as you don't take the initiative to 'perform', the audience will not notice your existence. Even if they occasionally notice you, they will not pay attention to it.
Of course, as I said before, don’t name the audience, not even their code names.”
