Prit, Tivian.
In the South District of Tivian, at the crossroads of Blackwater Street, a rare alms-giving event was still ongoing. The poor people from all over Blackwater Street were joyfully queuing to receive one batch of supplies after another. Amidst this excited and lively crowd, there was a thread of emotion that was extremely out of sync with the surroundings.
'What's going on... How did that Boyle family butler... suddenly run out?! How were the others guarding him? Or, is this guy really the Boyle family butler? If not, he looks too much like him, exactly the same... Are they brothers?'
Standing at the end of the crowd, completely hidden by a cloak, the masked male figure stared at the figure on the carriage top who was presiding over the alms-giving under the gaze of the crowd. Extremely confused, what he most urgently wanted to know at this moment was the truth of this strange scene before him. That old butler should be imprisoned in their temporary base right now, so what on earth is going on with this one?
'Never mind, the most important thing now is to inform the others about the situation here. This matter is too strange, and Captain A Tiff must know immediately.'
Thinking this in his heart, the man inadvertently began to quietly leave the scene. After a while, he silently withdrew from the bustling crowd and then quickly walked towards a certain direction.
And as he withdrew from the crowd, on the other side of the crowd, Adele, also in disguise, had already left the crowd and walked into an alley entrance. Unnoticed, Adele took out a small, motionless crow from her small bag. After taking out the crow, she placed it in her hand, and then the crow slowly began to move with a series of twitches. After standing up in Adele's hand, it flapped its wings and flew into the air.
This was a crow puppet controlled by Dorothy, unlike ordinary animal Corpse Puppets. This crow puppet was made using the method of making Living Puppets. The principle was to catch a live crow, stun it, and then draw a puppet mark on its body.
Dorothy can use information channels to extend spirits silk, thus extending a Living Puppet spirits silk with Adele or Grego as nodes to control the puppet. This gives her Living Puppet manipulation almost no distance limit.
Under the will from a distant direction, the crow in Adele's hand flew into the air, flew over the low buildings of Blackwater Street, and looked down from above. It quickly found the hooded man who had just withdrawn from the crowd.
After leaving the crowd, the man began to quickly walk through Blackwater Street, constantly looking back to check if he was being followed. After passing through several streets and alleys and turning several corners, the man came to a very secluded corner of Blackwater Street.
After turning the last corner, the man came into an empty alley where grass grew in the cracks of the paving stones. After walking to the end of the alley, he opened an iron door beside him, then walked into the stairs behind the iron door, and disappeared downwards into the darkness at the end of the stairs. On the clothesline not far away, the black crow watched all this happen.
After entering the iron door, the man walked all the way down. After a while, he came to the door of a basement. Looking at the iron door of the basement lit by a lit gas lamp, the man reached out and knocked on the door of the iron door with a rhythm. Soon after, the door was opened, and behind it appeared a bald man with a slightly darker complexion.
"Hardi? Aren't you on watch? What happened?"
"There's some situation outside, let me in, I need to see Captain A Tiff."
...
In the dim small room without windows, only a few weak gas lamps illuminated the surroundings. On the dirty ground was a complex magic circle drawn with white bone powder. In the center of the magic circle was a closed giant eye. On that eye symbol, a bound figure was lying.
Covered in blood, clothes torn, and unconscious, Nu Nuo Te, the old butler who had served the Boyle family for decades, was tied up and thrown in the center of the magic circle, motionless. In front of the magic circle was a middle-aged man wearing a robe, a headscarf, and a thick beard.
This man was sitting cross-legged in front of the magic circle, his breath short and rapid. He looked serious, and wet sweat dripped from his forehead, appearing somewhat tired, as if he had just experienced something physically exhausting.
"Captain A Tiff... How is this guy's condition now?"
Beside the man named A Tiff were several other anxious figures. Among these figures, a man in ordinary clothes and a short hat asked, and A Tiff, after pondering for a while, slowly spoke.
"My attempt has been effective. The soul protection mark on his body is starting to weaken. If I try a few more times and find the right method, I should be able to remove this mark in one go..."
"Although the soul protection mark on this Old thing is very precise and complex, it is clearly imprinted by a master. It has many more variations than conventional soul protection and is clearly designed to prevent treasure thieves. It is difficult to remove with ordinary methods. But fortunately, I have now figured out the way..."
Looking at Nu Nuo Te, who was covered in injuries in the center of the magic circle, A Tiff said directly. Hearing his words, the people around him couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"Finally... is it effective? That's great, as long as we can summon this guy's soul, then we'll have a clue about the whereabouts of that staff!"
"Captain, how long will it take to specifically remove it? After summoning the soul, we still have to steal something again. If the total time is too long, I'm worried that it might exceed our deadline?" At this time, another figure asked A Tiff anxiously, and A Tiff spoke directly.
"It won't take long. According to my estimation, I can successfully remove it after trying about seven or eight more times. This should not exceed one day, which means we can summon this Old thing's soul at most tomorrow. Even if we include the time to steal from that house again, the total time consumed should not exceed three days."
"And the deadline given to us by that Prince is five days, so time should not be an issue..."
While calculating in his mind, A Tiff spoke to the people around him. After hearing A Tiff's words, the faces of the others relaxed, and their tense hearts seemed to ease a lot.
"If the time is like this, then that's fine. As long as we can steal the staff before the deadline, we won't be cursed to death..." After hearing A Tiff's words, a man beside him said, while another person nearby spoke with a hint of pessimism.
"Not necessarily... Even if we summon the soul, we will only know how to enter the secret room where the staff is hidden. What if there are other safety measures in that secret room? The person who built that secret room is a very experienced treasure thief, and if he has other tricks, it will be troublesome..."
As soon as these words were spoken, the atmosphere in the crowd, which had just relaxed a little, suddenly became much heavier. Everyone's face showed deep worry, and the atmosphere once again fell into stagnation. One person, seeing this scene, spoke again.
"Whatever is in that secret room, we will only know after we go in. Whether we can get the staff that the Undead Prince mentioned is related to the lives of all of us, and we can only do our best."
"Alas... Yes, as long as this damn positioning curse is still here, no matter what happens, we have to bite the bullet and face it, damn it... I thought it was just an ordinary tomb raid, but I didn't expect to encounter such a powerful undead..."
A complaint was spoken from the crowd, and then as if a valve had been opened, more and more complaints began to rise and fall in the crowd. Hearing the complaints around him, A Tiff frowned, and then spoke sharply.
"Alright, alright, things are finally making some progress, now is not the time to complain. Instead of complaining here, you might as well go and do something else practical."
"Practical? But Captain A Tiff... Aren't we just waiting for information about the secret room now? What else is practical to do..."
"Of course, it's to prepare for withdrawal. After the staff is in hand, we need to leave Tivian immediately, as stealthily as possible. Go and catch a few local acquaintances and kill them, and summon their souls to ask if there is any way to argue or bypass customs to go out to sea!" A Tiff shouted sharply at his subordinates. Upon hearing this, his subordinates immediately closed their mouths and did not speak again.
Afterwards, A Tiff reprimanded his subordinates for a while, then sent them away. Just as he was about to get up to rest and prepare for the next attempt at cracking, an unexpected figure suddenly rushed into this narrow ritual room and shouted at A Tiff.
"Captain, Hardi just reported that a large convoy doing charity has suddenly arrived on the street!"
"A charity convoy? What does that have to do with us?" A Tiff said with a serious expression, looking at his subordinate who had rushed in. After taking a few breaths to compose himself, the subordinate looked at Nu Nuo Te, who was unconscious inside the ritual formation, and then continued speaking.
"My Lord, according to Hardi, the person leading that convoy looks exactly like the steward Old thing we tied up."
"What..." Hearing his subordinate's words, A Tiff's eyes widened slightly.
...
In the afternoon, at the intersection in the center of Blackwater Street, many poor people were gathered there. The usually deserted intersection was now unusually lively.
Poor people from all over Blackwater Street were gathered at this intersection. Some were happily taking the supplies they had received back home, while others watched the empty center of the intersection, regretting that they had received the news and arrived too late.
"Is that... gone? Did those guys finish distributing the stuff so quickly?"
Standing on the edge of the intersection, the man named Hardi, wearing a cloak, murmured in astonishment as he looked at the scene before him. The convoy that had been distributing supplies here just a few dozen minutes ago had completely disappeared, and the old steward who had been directing from the top of the carriage was also nowhere to be seen.
Through relying on the souls of locals killed on the spot, Hardi, who knew prite language, could hear from the discussions of the surrounding people that the charity convoy was not just conducting charity in one place; they had already driven to the next stop.
"I really did see someone in that convoy who looked exactly like that steward Old thing just now. Although they're gone now, I definitely didn't lie to you, Captain."
Turning around, Hardi explained somewhat excitedly to a companion also wearing a cloak beside him. Hearing Hardi's words, the other person didn't respond directly but stared silently at the empty space in the intersection.
Afterward, Hardi and his companion returned to the stronghold and reported the situation at the intersection to A Tiff. After hearing their words, A Tiff fell silent for a moment, then began to ponder in his heart.
'Two people who look... exactly alike?
'If they're not brothers, then it's some kind of Extraordinary ability, an ability to change one's appearance. If it really is an ability, then perhaps it means... we've been discovered?'
A Tiff thought to himself like this, then he took out a bone shard from his body and released countless translucent Ghosts from it.
A Tiff controlled these Ghosts to cross barriers and conducted a detailed search of the surrounding environment within two to three hundred meters. After retrieving all the souls, he obtained the search results from them and, finding no abnormalities, breathed a sigh of relief.
However, to be safe, after a brief moment of relaxation, A Tiff became serious again. He then spoke sternly.
"Tonight, we're changing our location..."
Just as A Tiff said these words, seven or eight hundred meters above their hiding spot, a small hawk, difficult to see with the naked eye, was circling.
...
For A Tiff and the others, changing strongholds was not a difficult matter, because they had already secured backup strongholds before hiding here. It was still within the Blackwater Street district, in an abandoned warehouse not too far from their original cellar hiding place.
This warehouse was on the edge of Blackwater Street, near the transaction factory area. The environment here was even more unbearable, more sparsely populated, and more secluded. A Tiff and his group didn't have much with them anyway, so they quickly moved everything over.
After moving to the abandoned warehouse, they quickly began to settle in. Soon after, the formation for dispelling the mark was drawn in the warehouse, and Nu Nuo Te was placed upon it. Around the warehouse, countless enslaved invisible spirits began to drift. As long as a stranger approached, they would emit an alarm that only Silence Extraordinary could hear.
Among A Tiff's subordinates, Hardi was assigned to the outer perimeter of the warehouse for vigilance, to more flexibly control the vigilant Ghosts. Hardi had no objection to this, as it was his turn to keep watch today, and his duty was inherently to pay more attention to movements outside the stronghold.
Soon, dusk faded and night fell. Just as the ritual to break the mark was being performed in the warehouse, Hardi, who was responsible for keeping watch, was patrolling around the warehouse with numerous invisible Ghosts.
Under the moonlight in the sky, Hardi walked around the abandoned warehouse again and again. Just as he yawned out of boredom, he suddenly heard a crisp strange sound from the dark bushes in the distance.
'What is that sound?'
Hearing this sound, Hardi fixed his gaze on the darkness in the distance. Immediately, a trace of curiosity arose in his heart. He wanted to know what was hidden in the darkness in the distance, and then he took a step and walked towards that direction.
This kind of behavior, for a Silence Extraordinary, was very reckless, because he could completely control a Ghost to go scout and then report back the scouting situation, without having to go to such an unknown place himself.
But the moment curiosity arose in Hardi's heart, when the thought of wanting to know the truth of the sound in the darkness surfaced in his mind, he didn't think about anything else. He couldn't stop himself from impulsively walking towards the darkness as if led by a ghost. After abandoning all cautious principles, he left the patrol range of the spirits and walked into that darkness. What he was thinking about at that moment was only to go and see what that sound was all about. He had never been so curious about something in his life, never wanted to know what something was like so much.
Just like that, in impulse, Hardi stepped into the dark bushes and came to a tree, where he saw a broken glass bottle.
'Oh, so it was the sound of a glass bottle breaking.'
Looking at the broken glass on the ground, Hardi said in his heart, understanding. Just as he had satisfied the greatest curiosity in his life, a pair of hands suddenly attacked him from behind, restraining him and covering his mouth.
"Mph... Mmmph!!"
Hardi, who was ambushed, began to struggle fiercely, wanting to break free from the restraint with his strength. However, the moment he exerted force, a stinging, numbing sensation he had never experienced before ran through his entire body.
Amidst this powerful numbing sensation, Hardi's whole body began to twitch violently, but soon the twitching stopped. In the current that penetrated his body, he completely lost consciousness.
Seeing that the restrained body before him no longer offered any resistance, Grego, dressed in black, released his hands and placed Hardi on the ground. After confirming that the other party still had breath, he couldn't help but exclaim.
"Is this the Detective's ability? To be able to use my body to make a Black Earth lose mobility so quickly, and without harming his life, it's truly terrifying..."
Wearing a face that wasn't his own, Grego murmured. Soon, another voice responded to him.
"Yes, a strange and terrifying ability, a keen mind, an unexpected nature. From any perspective, that Detective has a unique charm."
From the darkness, Adele, wearing a simple, fitted dress, a wide-brimmed hat, and a mask, slowly walked out, fanning the folding fan in her hand as she spoke. After hearing her words, Grego turned his head curiously and spoke.
"Unexpected nature? Madam, could it be that you know what the nature of that Detective is?"
"Ah... I know a little bit~ It's not like I understand much."
Adele covered the lower part of her mask with her folding fan and responded, saying in her heart that she at least knew that that Detective couldn't be called Mr.
"Alright, Shadow Masked Man, Mr., time is short. Let's not say anything else. Let's begin tonight's performance. Please take your position."
Adele continued to speak to Grego, and Grego nodded after hearing Adele's words, then gazed at the fallen Hardi. Then, Grego's face began to squirm. After a transformation, he completely turned into Hardi's appearance.
Then, Grego bent down, pulled open the unconscious Hardi's hand, and then took out a stamp from his body and stamped it onto Hardi's skin. After the stamp was removed, a mysterious inverted pentagram appeared on Hardi's hand.
Not long after, Hardi slowly opened his eyes and slowly stood up, standing beside Grego. At this moment, there were two identical people present.