With nervousness and curiosity, Agatha secretly looked at this place.
It looked like an ordinary house. Most of the furniture was slightly old, but it was kept clean. The air in the room was also very fresh. Maybe the windows were opened not long ago to let in the wind. The sound of boiling water came from the direction of the kitchen. It sounded like the sound of a samovar.
This is not like a "descending place", it is completely a private house.
Of course, Agatha knew from the beginning that this place was really just an ordinary house - until a few days ago, it was listed in the registration book of the Citizen Help Center as a house for rent. She just thought... ..Since an unnameable visitor chose this place as his temporary residence, shouldn’t this place be somewhat special?
But she found nothing.
"Would you like tea? Or would you like some coffee?" Duncan came to Agatha and asked casually.
Agatha suddenly woke up and looked at Duncan sitting opposite in surprise. After a moment of reaction, she realized what the other person meant and quickly waved her hand: "No...thank you, I'm not thirsty."
"Don't be formal, just like you are at home," Duncan smiled, sat down on the sofa opposite Agatha, and said in a very easy-going manner, "Let me think about it... If I am not wrong, You should be the gatekeeper of this city-state? The one who came to the gate at this time is unlikely to be an ordinary guard."
"Gatekeeper Agatha," Agatha nodded immediately, trying to sound calm, "you knew I would come?"
"You will definitely come, or it will be other church leaders," Duncan said calmly, "Anne will tell the tombkeeper about me, and the tombkeeper will report the situation to the church. I only need to After waiting for this, you can meet with the higher-ups of the church in this city-state."
Agatha adjusted her sitting posture slightly and looked at the tall figure in front of her with a more solemn attitude: "I want to know... your true purpose. Who are you and why did you come to Hanshuang?"
"Didn't I say it?" Duncan raised his eyebrows, "It's to solve the problem that happened here - I thought I had already written it very clearly in that report letter."
Agatha opened her mouth, obviously still a little uncomfortable accepting such a simple answer. After two or three seconds, she hesitated and said: "Really... Is it just like that?"
"If you need a darker reason and a more complicated conspiracy to think this is reasonable enough, then I can make one up right now," Duncan said casually, "Which style do you prefer? Doomsday or King's Landing and Conquest?"
Agatha's body became visibly tense.
"Ahem, you scared her," Vanna suddenly coughed twice behind Duncan, "this gatekeeper lady will take it seriously."
"Is that so?" Duncan turned his head slightly in confusion, "I thought the joke was quite obvious..."
"According to my experience, yes," Vanna sighed helplessly, "In this business, your nerves are always tense, so you can't joke around."
Duncan didn't know what to say for a while, while Agatha looked at the extremely tall woman with confusion. For some reason, ever since she entered the room, she always felt that the other person's eyes were on her intentionally or unintentionally, as if... ..seemingly observing something with great interest.
But that wasn't important. What was important was that she confirmed that the superior being in front of her was just playing a joke on herself - a bad and scary joke.
"Please forgive my sensitivity," Agatha said sincerely, "Recently, the anomalies in the city-state have become more and more serious. Everyone's nerves are tense. I even suspected..."
She hesitated to say the next words, but Duncan continued with a familiarity: "Have you ever doubted me? Don't be nervous, it's reasonable. After all, I showed up at the right time, and I followed the Annihilation Cult the first time I came here. Dealing with fakes."
Agatha didn't say anything, but looked a little embarrassed.
"I want to know the progress of your investigation," Duncan said without paying attention to the other party's reaction. He just said to himself, "Any clues?"
Agatha hesitated, wondering
She wondered whether she should reveal too much internal information about Frost to the mysterious "visitor" in front of her, but after a moment she still considered it before speaking: "After getting your warning, we did catch some Annihilation cultists, but Almost no effective information was obtained - those heretics who are deeply symbiotic with the deep demon are extremely tough and often choose to commit suicide at the last moment. The few who are captured alive are fringe characters and do not know the full extent of the plan... .
"Until now, we can only confirm that the frequent replicas in the city are indeed caused by the heretics, and they have indeed built a hidden and huge lair in Frost City. However, the specific location of this lair... still remains no idea."
Having said this, Agatha paused and continued: "As for the Dagger Island you mentioned in that letter... what's even more disturbing is that it has disappeared." "I know." Duncan said calmly. said.
"You already know?" Agatha said somewhat unexpectedly, "This news should still be sealed..."
Duncan said calmly: "I also have my own intelligence channels in the world. Even if I don't leave the city-state, I still know some things happening on the open sea."
The intelligence channel was of course Tirian - after all, Dagger Island disappeared in front of the Sea Mist Fleet, so Tirian would naturally report the situation to the Homeless Ship as soon as possible.
But even if he knew this shocking news for the first time, Duncan could only be shocked - he couldn't understand how such a big island disappeared out of thin air.
Judging from what Tirian conveyed, the island's disappearance was not that of sinking, but more like it melted directly into the sea water, and there were continuous big explosions before its disappearance, which looked very much like the people on the island had initiated something. Something - but other than that, no more information.
The information was scarce and the way of disappearance was too bizarre. No clues or traces remained after the disappearance. Dagger Island changed from a mystery to another bigger mystery. No one knew what happened there, let alone which island went there. Where.
"Do you know where Dagger Island has gone?" Agatha's voice interrupted Duncan's thoughts. The city-state gatekeeper raised his head and looked over with sincere eyes, "Do you know what happened to it?"
Duncan thought about it and felt that if he directly admitted that he had been thinking about it all night and couldn't figure it out, it might affect his image a bit, so he pondered for a while and pointed to his feet.
"Down below?" Agatha was stunned for a moment, "You mean, Dagger Island did indeed sink into the sea... But the witness report at the time said that there was no vortex phenomenon on the sea surface caused by the sinking of the island..."
Duncan didn't know how to answer - he was also curious about how such a big island disappeared out of thin air!
He continued to stretch his hand and pointed at his feet.
"You're not talking about Dagger Island...but the clue is at your feet?" Agatha seemed to react, and almost instantly, she recalled her latest conversation with Bishop Ivan, and recalled the details about the underground depths. The matter of the "second waterway"!
The city hall and the church have searched the entire city-state. The strict curfew system and large-scale investigations are theoretically enough to catch a large number of hidden cultists, but there are always only a few fringe cultists caught. The first waterway , subways, tube wells and other places where people can hide people have been searched, but there are no clues...
The city-state is so big. If there are no traces of heretics in the above places, then the only possibility is the second waterway.
Those collapsed areas, those caves plunged into darkness, those shafts and pipes covered in pollution... They may indeed be unsuitable for survival, but what if the Annihilation cultists really survived in those places?
Of course, searching for the "Second Waterway" was already in the plan, but she never dared to confirm whether this search operation, which was destined to consume an astonishing amount of money, was meaningful. Now, she finally found the most powerful support for this operation - a A friendly god-like being made it clear that you have to look further down.
"That's it - I understand, we are going in the right direction," Agatha suddenly stood up, her tone filled with surprise and joy. She looked at Duncan opposite, her attitude suddenly became particularly sincere and respectful, and deep. Bend down deeply, "
I get it – thanks so much for the heads up! "
Duncan kept his fingers and feet moving, looking at the bandaged woman who suddenly became excited in front of him in a daze.
What does she understand?
"We will immediately launch the next search, and this time we will definitely dig out the heretic nests." Agatha did not notice Duncan's daze. She just said confidently, and she was about to leave soon. "Then I won't waste your time - excuse me for disturbing you this time, I'm leaving."
"Um...Okay," Duncan stood up after a moment's delay and said subconsciously, "Then walk slowly..."
Agatha thanked her and turned towards the door, but then she seemed to think of something and stopped suddenly.
Alice, who was about to get up to see her off, almost bumped into her.
Agatha's eyes swept over Alice, but this time she didn't pay too much attention to the blonde woman without a heartbeat or breathing - a god-like being, and it was certainly normal for the followers around her to have some strange things. , not worth the fuss.
She turned her head towards Duncan.
"Don't worry, I will instruct the guardians of the church that no one will disturb you," Agatha said very seriously. "I hope you can live happily in Frost - if there is any new situation, I will personally report it to you." Come."
"Ah, of course that's good," Duncan laughed, which he was satisfied with. "I really don't want anyone to disturb me."
Agatha nodded, then turned and walked towards the door again, but after taking two steps, she seemed to suddenly remember something and stopped.
"There's one more thing, I almost forgot." The gatekeeper pressed his forehead awkwardly and looked at Duncan and said.
Duncan said with confusion: "Oh?"
Agatha hesitated for a moment, and finally asked the question that had troubled her and many others for a long time: "About the secret number you left at the end of the 'report letter' last time, , what does that mean? Please forgive our shallow knowledge, we have solved it for a long time, but still cannot understand the mystery you left."
Duncan: "...Huh?"
