Eleven fifty-five.
It was five minutes before zero hour, and the bustle of the inner city was beginning to come to an end, with fewer pedestrians on the streets and riders patrolling specific routes with iron whistles and rifles.
Although the bustle was beginning to fall, you could still hear the chanting that surrounded the buildings, and the intoxicating scent of wine sweetened the air. A thick white mist rose slowly, steam from the ground, but unlike the simple, brutal emissions of the outer city, they rose silently from the cracks in the ground, enveloping everything underneath it.
It was rare for Iguan to see the inner city late at night, usually by this time she'd be ensconced in her soft bed instead of wandering around with a psychotic detective.
Looking to the side, Lorenzo beside her kept looking at the time on his pocket watch as if he was waiting for something.
Lorenzo had been like this since the two left the restaurant, the big detective constantly looking at the time and around as if he was looking for something, not saying a word, Iguan could only keep following him like this.
The mist covered everything, looking down from the zeppelin above that night sky, this place was a sea of white, spires and bell towers rose out of this gray mist, lights of electricity dotted them as if they were fireflies.
"We're here."
Suddenly Lorenzo said this, leading Iguan to stand at the curb.
"Here?"
Iguan was a little puzzled, they were on top of a platform, this was the stop for the steam trolley, but judging from the sign, the last last train had stopped running two hours ago.
There was a hazy gray mist all around them, and the hot steam heated the evening breeze, blowing against Iguan's face, as if a monster lurked behind the mist and sent currents of breath.
The girl subconsciously gripped her skirt, under which hid not slinky thighs, but a dangerous weapon.
"Yes, here."
Lorenzo said suddenly and quietly, gazing beyond the mist.
"The steam trams of the old Turin were actually always in the red, the fares for transporting passengers just weren't enough to cover the costs, and it was always the taxes of the big entrepreneurs that supported those, so to alleviate that, the steam trams were also rented out and sold to the public."
The eyes moved under the platform, the metal rails reflecting a sheen, but as Lorenzo watched the sheen quivered.
"That's something the aristocratic class like you should have access to, the company would rent or sell carriages to private individuals, and when they needed to travel they would just call on the front end to run it, and you Fenix's were stronger, you got a train straight away."
The nobles would usually decorate the carriages with immense splendor, like a small palace, and when there was a banquet this moving palace would pull up in front of the guest's house, and the attendants would bow and salute, waiting for them to go to the meeting.
Lorenzo spoke of what Iguan would not know.
"But there would be some other use, like a certain count, who would take his lover and embrace in the carriage, which would be completely isolated from the cab, and the driver would have absolutely no idea what was going on in the carriage behind him, and they would keep traveling on the rails of the old dunlin until the count asked to go home."
Iguan frowned slightly with a somewhat disgusted expression.
"How do you know that?"
"Because that earl's wife is my client, and you may not believe me when I tell you that I'm very popular with those rich women.
Lorenzo's eyebrows were raised.
Since the first mistress case, the lady introduced Lorenzo to more troubled noblewomen, who appreciated Lorenzo's brutal yet soothing approach, and for a while a detective called "The Mistress Killer" circulated in the upper social circles.
The count's case is the pinnacle of Lorenzo's career in catching mistresses, the employer knew that his husband had done something good but could not be caught, and then it was entrusted to Lorenzo, who followed him for a long time before realizing that the count had actually bought a carriage for the mobile palace.
Eventually Lorenzo gave his employer a location where he created a tram derailment accident.
"You'll never guess the look on those two's faces when they fell out of the carriage naked!"'
Looking at Loren this and that excited look, Iguan had a black face, this detective was no longer a matter of bad character.
"Then why don't you continue doing it?"
"Doing this is too defeating, it's hard to avoid three cuts and six holes."
Lorenzo looked noble, but in reality the answer was that the count spent three months in psychotherapy after all, suddenly standing naked in a crowd of anyone's spirit can not withstand the shock, after recovery the first thing he did was to buy Lorenzo's dog life, for which Lorenzo hid in the Burrow for nearly a month.
The atmosphere livened up quite a bit with Lorenzo's farting around, the damp gloom receding a bit.
"Do you have room there?"
Pointing under Eve's skirt, Lorenzo snapped, not realizing how unreasonable he was being. "You ... What are you doing?"
Eve's cheeks flushed, the detective was a real psycho, you never knew what he would do next.
Lorenzo was seen pulling out a silver and white revolver from somewhere, the nest of bullets was engraved with ghosts and gods, heavy and filled with ammunition.
"I need you to hide it for me, that Sabo man is a rude Viking, but with the culture of old Turin, he's learned some manners at least. Attend one of his balls and he'll frisk the men thoroughly, even with that razor blade wedged in his ass groove, but he won't be disrespectful to the ladies."
Handing the revolver to Eve, Lorenzo stood beside her. Carefully straightening his clothing, the main event was next and he needed to be more serious.
Iguan was a little confused, but complied by tying the revolver to the ribbon, no white thighs, and under the long skirt was tight civilian clothes, so she could just rip it off and enter the fight whenever Iguan needed to.
Short dagger and gun, Iguan was never some ordinary noble girl, as a child of the Phoenix family other nobles were born with a golden spoon, then Iguan was born with a bullet in her mouth.
Phoenix family is in the ruins of the glorious war rose in the undead, even if the princess of the undead, Iguan body is still stained with the pungent smell of sulfur, this is engraved in the blood of the mark.
"Time's up."
Lorenzo said suddenly, Iguan still wasn't sure what was happening, she hadn't understood the developments since she and Lorenzo had walked out of the dining hall, but then the bell rang immediately afterward.
It was a long, silent, distant chime, coming from the tallest building in the inner city, and the murmur that followed the long chime wandered back and forth through the streets and alleys like a ghost that wouldn't go away for a long time.
Strange feelings surged through Iguan's mind, and she was suddenly afraid.
The cold ate away at the thin dress, cold as ghostly claws caressing her waist.
At some point she and Lorenzo were the only ones left on the street, and in the distance there was the soft sound of horses' hooves, the mounted guards that were policing the night, but Iguan couldn't see anything under the amount of fog, only the streetlights were scattered into a large halo, as if they were the glowing eyes of the monster behind the gray fog.
A cold wind brushed Iguan's cheek.
Turning back, Iguan felt that he almost suffocated.
The dark steam tram had stopped in front of the platform at some point, and the fog hid its arrival; there was no sound, not even a light turned on, only the steam that had just been released heating up the surroundings, as if it were a ghost that had come from afar. At this time of the day it was reasonable to say that there were no more steam trams in operation, but now there was such a weird steam tram parked right in front of one's eyes, with no license plate, no markings, and even that windshield was pitch black, so that Iguan didn't even dare to be sure that there was no one inside.
"Take my hand, we're a couple in tonight's script."
Lorenzo's voice came from the sidelines, and he raised his arm to signal Iguan.
A couple?
Eve instantly wanted to draw her gun and shoot the damn detective, Iguan's emotions were already on edge in this situation, but the sudden opening of the car door interrupted her thoughts.
It was the valet in black attire, who saw Lorenzo and nodded slightly in greeting, while Lorenzo skillfully took out two coins and handed them to him.
The engraving on the top of the coins was not a lion, but a burrowing bird with thorns in its mouth, it was like some kind of pass, the attendant sidestepped his body to make way for the two to get into the car, it was pitch black inside that door, nothing could be seen as if traveling to that bottomless abyss.
"Luo ..."
Iguan wanted to say something else, the uneasiness in the bottom of her heart had been scratching at her, she had always believed in her intuition, but at this moment Lorenzo didn't give her any chance to speak at all, with a smile on his face he took her hand and boarded the steam tram.
The steam tram started slowly, without any sound, just silently disappeared into the gray fog, as if it had never appeared.