On the lower side of the L-shaped Grande Funeral Home was the kitchen and dining room. The rectangular wooden table was filled with food by Alice. Louise and Jim sat restlessly at the table. Jim also had a short axe in his hand under the table, and two daggers were hidden in his boots.
"Do I have to be here?" Louise asked anxiously, if she could, she wanted to hide in the basement.
Alice picked up a plate of egg rolls and walked to Zach's office under the call of the bell. When she walked past Louise, she stroked her trembling shoulder: "It will be fine, I didn't 'see' anything."
Louise smiled reluctantly. She and Alice had established a friendship. The banshee did not hide her ability. So Louise was very clear about what Alice meant by didn't "see" anything. But she still leaned carefully towards Jim, who had prepared the weapons. But after thinking about it, she changed her direction and leaned towards Benjamin, who had turned his ears into pointy wolf ears near the office.
Alice carried the plate, walked out of the dining room, passed the empty stairwell, and pushed open the back door of Zach's office.
"So, you haven't killed anyone," Zach said to the man sitting opposite the desk, and then nodded at Alice when he saw her coming in.
Alice handed the egg roll to the man and took away the plate in front of him. She, who was still wearing the makeup that Louise helped her to put on, smiled slightly at Zach, and exited the office with the used plate.
The man did not mind oily egg rolls, he picked up an egg roll and sent it to his mouth, and then uttered something unclear, "@#€^¥^~√`^" (No, I don't want to do that)."
Then he looked at the half-eaten egg roll, nodded, and said calmly, "This is the best egg roll I have ever eaten."
"Oh?" Zach was interested, "I didn't know that shapeshifters also have a sense of taste, I thought you would eat everything."
"You are not wrong." James finished the remaining half, "We cannot sense the taste. However, we can still feel the texture of the food. I like soft or crispy food. But I don't like hard stuff."
"Like bones?" Zach asked with a smile.
"Yes, like bones." James nodded and had begun to eat the second egg roll with a serious expression.
Zach reached out and took away the egg roll that James was about to eat, and put it aside with the plate: "Well, James, overeating is one of the original sins, don't make the good impression that I have just developed about you, disappear. Now, tell me everything."
James looked at the food that was taken away. There was still no expression on his face. He wiped the oil stains on his clothes.
"You won't like it." James turned his head and looked around at Zach's office. "How many vampires are here?"
"Only me." Zach was not in a hurry. He had already asked the nonhuman in front of him earlier. He was not the one, who was causing troubles in Barton City, "and a werewolf, it was him, who went to the Barton police station and left you the number. There is also a banshee, it was the girl you just saw, and also the person who made the egg rolls."
"Werewolf, Banshee?" James's face had a puzzled expression for the first time, "So, what are you all doing here? Opening a monster Museum?"
Zach chuckled, "did you not see our signboard when you came? [Grande Funeral Home], so stop asking such meaningless questions."
"So your surname is Grande? How long have you been living here." James asked indifferently.
Zach shrugged his shoulders, "ten years."
"So, Barton City is your territory." James nodded and then shook his head again, "I've never heard of it."
"Are you here to take our territory?" Zach's mouth twitched slightly, without denying James' words.
"No." James continued to shake his head: "I said you will not like what I am going to say."
"There is no need to concern my preferences. Say it."
"Among the underground creatures, there is a rumor saying that Barton City is an ownerless land."
Zach stroked his chin. He indeed didn't like this rumor. This meant that there would be countless nonhuman creatures pouring into Barton City, treating it as their own paradise.
"The rumor is false. I am here, this is my city." Zach said coldly.
"This is your words against thousands of others' words. You should understand the meaning of 'rumors'." James said very resolutely.
"Who started such rumors. Is the vampire clans?" Zach stood up and poured himself a glass of bright red 'wine'.
James's eyes moved with Zach, his distracted thoughts disappeared instantly, and he continued to say in a plain tone: "No. If it were those people, I wouldn't have been here. Rumors began inside Barton city."
Zach looked up, drank 'wine', frowned: "This is impossible."
Zach trusted Anthony. As the mayor of Barton, Anthony would not let those nonhumans enter Barton city.
James shook his head, "you vampires always only pay attention to the upper-class society. The composition of human society is not just the upper class. Like us, there are vampires who consider themselves to be nobles, unrestrained werewolves, banshees, who have gradually been eliminated by the times, and me, a shapeshifter with a low bloodline."
"What do you want to say." Zach turned to look at James. Was there an underground nonhuman organization in Barton city already? This was even more impossible.
"As I said, rumors are circulating among underground creatures, especially those lower-level nonhumans."
Zach frowned, and asked the previous question again, but did not give his own assumption, "who started the rumor? How did it spread out?"
"I only knew it today." James pointed to the phone on Zach's desk, "a nonhuman, he controls Bartron's phone line. I think if my partner Detective Coulson is not wrong, his name is David, a regular employee of Barton Telecom."
Cross Zach's office, through the empty stairwell, inside the dining room of the Grande Funeral Home.
The claws inside Benjamin's fluffy fingers suddenly extended on the rectangular wooden dining table. Five deep scratches quickly appeared on the table with the dry scratching sounds!
The body of Louise, who was close to Benjamin, shuddered, "What, what happened? Benjamin, what did you hear?"
"Nothing." Benjamin shook his head, and the fluffy hair on the wolf-shaped palms faded away, turning into normal palms.
Louise carefully moved the chair to Jim's side...
It was 3:21 in the afternoon.
"Attention, the 3:30 service to Bartron City will depart from platform XXX soon. Passengers who wish to travel to Barton City please board the train as soon as possible. Attention, the 3:30 service to Bartron City will depart from platform XXX soon... "
A man with a black wide-brimmed hat lowered the brim, blocking his eyes, and at the same time tightened his not-so-warm coat. His clothes looked very old, but fortunately, it was still clean. He took a small bag, took out a ticket from his pocket and handed it to the train conductor.
"I wish you a pleasant journey," said the conductor, who was taller than the man. He glanced at the ticket indifferently and handed it back.
The man nodded, 'I hope that this trip is worth it, and I will be really able to live in Barton City happily.' The man thought and then boarded the train.
There were not many people on the train. The east of Barton was Massa Bay, so the people who were still on this train were the people whose destination was Barton city.
The man looked at his seat and found that someone was already sitting opposite his seat. He didn't want to have any conversation with other people, so he walked to another empty seat.
After sitting down, the man put his handbag in his arms. This was his only possession. More than two hundred Dor, and forged identity documents.
The man was relieved and only took off the slightly old gloves and put it on the small table without taking off his hat. He did not want others to notice his special hair color. The man looked out the window, wondering what would happen in the future.
He hoped that it would really be a paradise like the rumors said.
Although creating suspense is very important, but I don't want people to treat this somewhat lonely man as a bad guy, so, I think, I should tell everyone:
This man was me.