The Beauty & Wine tavern is an old shop on Granton Street, and its cheap but lightly watered ale and hot hostesses have won it many customers, and Austen is one of them, but he is not here for pleasure today.
It was mid-afternoon, and there weren't many people in the tavern, except for a few regulars sitting scattered, and the owner, a white-bearded man in his fifties, was dozing off the counter with his hands on his cheeks.
Austin woke up Daddy Hörman with the crisp sound of silver coins hitting the counter, only to see him quickly sweep his arm, and the five silver coins scattered on the counter were received by him into the drawer of money under the counter, and then, as if he had just noticed Austin, he raised his head and asked in a weak voice that had just woken up, "What do you want?" "
A guest like Austen, who only comes once in a while and is not generous, the boss will naturally not remember, so he can't talk enthusiastically, not to mention that his energy has to be reserved until the evening to cope with the climax of the tavern.
"No, I don't want alcohol or food. I'm here to ask you if there was a girl on this street who was kidnapped or... Or the murder of things. "
"I'm looking for my sister Kelly, who passes by you every evening, but still hasn't come home, and I'm worried about her.... Will she meet the bad guys in the neighborhood. Austin then gave the boss a detailed description of what Kelly looked like.
Whitebeard Hman sighed lightly, then lifted his cheeks, frowned, and tried to remember, after all, there are all kinds of news coming out of Granton Street every day, and there are a lot of good and bad things, just like Austin wants to know about the girl's disappearance in the neighborhood, there really is, and there is more than one! I thought about it for a long time, because it was difficult to match Kelly's appearance provided by Austen with some information he knew, so he had to helplessly spread his hands and replied: " If it was yesterday, there was really some news, but if it wasn't your sister, it would be hard to say. "Well, to be honest, it's really strange lately, in the past, there was only a similar disappearance of a girl every ten days and a half months, but in the past few days, every day! According to some warblers standing on the street, they saw a black shadow that looked like a human being yesterday, very vague, so they hid in the alley, and then a girl passed there, and in the blink of an eye, it was as if they were dazzled, and the girl and the black shadow were gone! As for the girl's appearance, they couldn't tell, after all, the eyes of prostitutes were mainly on men. "
"Last night, there was a similar situation to you, but my daughter disappeared and came to me to inquire, hey, there have been girls missing on the street recently, and even the prostitutes have said that they dare not come out to stand on the street. Speaking of this, Homan couldn't help but sneer at his beard: "They are just worried, I have heard that a girl has disappeared, and I have not heard of a prostitute being taken away." "
The boss's voice was very loud, and he didn't deliberately lower it, which immediately caused the customers in the store to laugh, they liked this kind of topic about women, and since someone started it, they all started to talk, which suddenly swept away the dull and quiet atmosphere of the afternoon.
Austen suppressed the anxiety in his heart, and pricked up his ears to listen carefully to the conversation of the guests, hoping to get some useful clues, but what they said was similar to what Homan said, that is, a black shadow in the form of a human, which suddenly burst out and swept away a living person, leaving no trace. Knowing that he would not get any clues if he stayed here, Austin nodded to the boss and got up to leave the 'Beauty and Wine' he had been so obsessed with.
Who had kidnapped Kelly and the other girls? Austin was constantly thinking about the fact that he could capture a living person with lightning speed, and if it was a human being, it must be a profession of no low rank, and it was probably a thief.
The thought of the thief reminded Austin of the female thief who had stabbed him in the sewer earlier, and then immediately thought of the strange dagger she used. Master Jersey said, what is that dagger called....
Kelborot's Blade! Yes, that's the name!Austin patted his scalp excitedly. Now he completely remembered, and even the three functions of this dagger can be said clearly, one of them has already experienced the ability to create hellish dependents, this seems to have nothing to do with the disappearance of the girl, and the second ability to harvest the soul of the dead, if you want a soul, just kill people directly, can you use it to pick the girl to attack? But the last role: to offer sacrifices to communicate with the three-headed dog of hell, Kelberlot, and make a trade....
Austin felt like she had caught the point, the sacrifice... Sacrifice... The idea of using a maiden as a sacrifice came to him, and a cold sweat broke out on his back, and in his nightmares, he had learned what it was like to be sacrificed to Kelberlot...! He never wanted to go through it a second time!
No, it can't be like this, Austin is trying to get this horrible thought out of his mind, and his Kylie will be fine!
But when his thoughts turned to the devil, he couldn't help but think again: Was that very powerful female thief finally caught? Because Master Jersey and Eric Knight shot at the same time, Austin felt that the female thief could not escape, so if she was caught, or killed on the spot, wouldn't the dagger return to its original owner and return to the hands of the Earl? Could it be that the Earl was using it? It was he who was secretly capturing the girl and preparing to do something terrible?
As he thought about it more and more, Austin was also frightened by his own thoughts, but one thing was certain, the Count must have an ambiguous relationship with the dagger, otherwise how could he explain that he would have such an evil dagger from the East Ferraman?
In order to test his idea, Austin decides to find out the situation with his eldest brother Ritter, who he recognizes in the sewers, and although he is only an illegitimate son of the Haniri family, he lives in the castle of the Earl's family every day, and must know more than ordinary people.
So Austin ran non-stop to Hanirie Castle in the north of the city, and he had a feeling that Kelly's disappearance was most likely related to the big people in that castle.
But the castle of the city lord's family is so easy to enter, when Austin came to the towering Haniri Castle out of breath, he was immediately stopped by the castle guard knight, this is because he is dressed well, otherwise he will be directly grabbed and thrown aside.
Austin immediately realized how reckless his actions were, this was the castle of Count Hanirie, how could he, an ordinary pauper, enter casually?
"That, big brothers, I'm the apprentice of the Jersey mage in the Navia Manor outside the city, I have some friendship with the young master Rhett who lives inside, this time I came to find him, and I ask you to bother a few to give a briefing, is it okay?"
"Rite, young master?" the leading knight slowly muttered the name, his tone full of indescribable sarcasm. "Brothers, is there a young master named Rhett in the castle?"
"Yes? Why haven't I heard of it? There's a filthy mongrel who seems to be named Ritter, haha..."
"Yes, yes, there seems to be only one mongrel named Ritter in the castle, and that's probably this 'young master'?"
The other knights immediately chimed in, and laughed as if they had heard a great joke. This made Austin's face embarrassed into a pig's liver color, he really didn't expect the bastard son of the nobleman to be so unpopular at home, I used to listen to stories, mostly about the bastard being bullied by his brothers and sisters, but he didn't expect that even the gatekeeper could laugh at him unscrupulously! However, this is also Austen's humble background, and he doesn't understand the reluctance among the nobles, although the status of the illegitimate son will vary according to his father's liking, but it is true that he is not recognized by others, not to mention that the guardian knights in the castle are mostly served by the second sons of the small nobles, and they have pure noble blood in their bodies, how can they look down on an illegitimate young master?
Austen wanted to see Ritter, and knew that it was useless to argue with them, so she had to follow their words and say, "This is Ritter I want to see, Ritter, the illegitimate son of the second son of the earl." "
The knights also laughed enough, and the leader was not embarrassed by Austin, weighed the handful of silver coins in his hand, waved his big hand to let the subordinates who blocked the door return to their positions, and then said to Austin: "Since you are the apprentice of Master Jersey, go in directly." But don't go to the main fort, and don't wander around, that little mongrel lives in a small house near the stables, and you can go in and walk along the right-hand side and smell it. "
Austin felt that the changes were so fast, and he was a little uncomfortable, and he thought it would be very troublesome to wait for them to inform Ritter and get permission before letting him in, could it be that the name of Master Jersey played a role?
He guessed correctly, it was indeed Zecil's name that helped him enter the castle smoothly, you must know that Mage Zeciel is the only mage in the entire Oni City who has reached level 7, and even the Earl has to visit him in person if he wants to ask him for help, his reputation and influence can be imagined, but these must be known by people who have access to the upper circles, and Austin obviously does not know the gold content of the title of 'Attorney Zecier's apprentice'.
It can even be said that if Austin hadn't moved out of the name of Jersey Mage, and dressed like a mage apprentice, he would have wanted to trouble these guards who looked like uncles to report it, and it would not have been possible to go in without ten gold coins! As for going in directly? Even Ritter would have to be ridiculed and ridiculed by the guards at the gate every day when he returned to the castle, not to mention that he was a poor man with no name!