"You want to get something out of me over just one glass of wine?"
"...You said alcohol is a cheating device, so I'll try it." Hesta thought for a while, then turned to get the empty glass on the table, "Are you trying to say that one glass is not enough?"
"That's enough," Anna pressed the rim of the cup, "I don't want to ask for trouble... What do you mean, Hesta, do you want to be friends with me?"
"Yes," Hesta replied in a low voice, "The kind that doesn't admit it when you sober up."
Putina looked at Hesta in disbelief, and a slightly surprised look appeared on Anna's face.
"...Okay," Anna nodded, "I like this statement."
Anna raised her glass and took a sip.
"When we drink, we become friends for a moment."
…
At nearly two o'clock, Rico and Si Lei returned to the room. They were moving quietly at first, but when they opened the door, they found that the lights were on. Rico glanced at the room - there was someone lying on Hesta's bed, but There was no sign of Chiba at all.
"Didn't Jane say before that Qianye would come? Did she let us off again?" Li Ge frowned, "Where did the smell of alcohol come from? Someone came here to drink?"
Si Lei sat down on the bed opposite Hesta, his eyes were distracted and his face was ashen.
Rico quickly walked to the bed, lifted a corner of the quilt, and soon saw a familiar head of red hair.
She just breathed a sigh of relief when she discovered a new problem - the smell of alcohol in the bed was obviously stronger.
Si Lei suddenly stood up, rushed to the toilet in six or seven steps, and started vomiting into the sink.
Li Ge put down the quilt and followed him to take a look, "What's wrong, Si Lei?"
"...It's okay," Si Lei replied intermittently, "It's just...disgusting."
"When we were in that study at night, you emphasized to me that you were a police officer, but in the end you couldn't stand this scene?"
Si Lei couldn't speak, so he just grasped the edge of the sink.
To be fair, what she saw tonight was not the most tragic scene she had ever seen in her career. However, when she thought of the young man's love mentioned at the banquet, and of the diary left by Robbeglier in the golden age, she thought of the first time. The first conversation with Anna under the Hard Rock Bar...she suddenly felt a mixture of malice.
These malicious intentions are soaked into each other and condensed into a mouthful of phlegm stuck in the throat, making people breathless.
Si Lei's vomiting sound hadn't stopped when Li Ge suddenly heard a noise coming from behind him. She turned around and saw Hesta stumbling towards this side, covering her head.
"simple……?"
Hesta knelt down in front of the toilet, hugged the toilet and vomited.
The entire bathroom suddenly smelled of alcohol.
"Have you been drinking...?" Rico was stunned, "No, where did the wine come from in our room?"
Hesta was also unable to answer.
For a moment, the sound of vomiting came one after another in the toilet, and the strong smell rushed out of Rico. She slapped her on the back of her head and looked at this and that with a complicated expression... not wanting to care about any of them.
If only Turan was still here.
Taking care of people is really tiring.
…
By the time the three of them sat down again, it was almost three o'clock in the morning.
Si Lei told in a low voice everything she had met with Rico tonight. Hesta was lying on her side on the bed with her face flushed, her eyes always closed.
"simple?"
Hesta opened her eyes.
"Did you hear everything I just said?" Si Lei asked, "Or we can talk tomorrow. If you feel uncomfortable now, just go to bed first."
"I heard it all..." Hesta murmured in a low voice, "I said what was 'youth's love', but it turned out to be 'youth's love'."
"This has long gone beyond ordinary murders. This is a terrorist act against dissidents..." Si Lei whispered, "If it is really Anna who is imitating the assassination in the golden age-"
"I thought it was a copycat crime at first..." Hesta said suddenly, "But actually...it's not."
Si Lei focused his gaze, "But didn't the report you found before say-"
"Yes, the same cruise ship killing happened once before in the Golden Age, but the initiator that time was Anna. In other words, this is not a copycat, it is the same murderer who commits crimes continuously...
"Anna, that's Albodonica."
Hesta looked at Su Lei, watching the other person's expression change from calm to surprised, just like her reaction at the Hard Rock Bar tonight.
"Impossible?" Si Lei was stunned again, "Such...this kind of thing——"
"...It's a bit exciting." Rico continued.
"I think so," Hesta whispered, "but Anna said that she was born on the eve of the Golden Age, and was a person of the same era as Robbeglier."
"Did she tell you this?" Si Lei asked.
"Yes, she said it herself." Hesta suddenly realized something, "...Of course, she may be lying to me, but I believe this statement for the time being."
"Why?"
"I have had this suspicion for a long time. When the bartender said that she was still a newcomer ten years after joining the ship," Hestad replied, "She said at that time that most of the more than two hundred people accompanying this trip They are all seniors.”
"It's not technically impossible," Rico looked at Si Lei, "Have you forgotten that document about ultra-long-distance travel? The one we found in Roboglier's study tonight."
Si Lei recalled the mechanical severed hand that hit her on the third deck, and couldn't help but shudder again.
"Could it be that the crew and guests tonight are all——"
Li Ge spread his hands, "Only Anna knows that, but I know that some core cities can indeed replicate the human body one to one, as long as the brain is still there."
Si Lei stood up and started pacing.
"...Is it necessary? Even if this voyage is fully booked, only seventy people can come on board. The previous accident at the Havre port scared away half of the passengers. Less than half of the people who actually boarded the ship. There are not many wily people here, but most of them are young people." Si Lei stopped and asked, "For these less than thirty people, are you planning an assassination of the same scale?"
"I find it a little strange, too," Hestad said softly, "but Robbeglier - I mean Rob Green, he claims that everyone who boarded the ship passed the test of a certain trial. I feel Rob is not a ruthless character, and he is less courageous than Danglars. When I chatted with him tonight, he confessed that the person who really created Eden was not him, but another 'big man' hiding behind the scenes."
"who?"
"I didn't go into details."
"Is this 'big shot' also on board?"
Hesta shook his head, "Probably not. Rob said that this big man usually stays in the core city, and whether he can be seen depends on which region he goes to."
"...So you not only met Anna tonight, but also met Robbeglier." Rico suddenly reacted, "These two people came to you for a drink at the same time?"
"Well...I went out for a trip."
"one person?"
"Alone," Hesta replied, "but you really don't have to worry, the ship is really safe for us now."
(End of chapter)
