The sky was dark red, and seemed to get darker the moment he stepped out. Vendors with two-wheeled trucks lined the street, and children running and screaming seemed to have been put into dressing boxes in other dimensions and disappeared without a trace.
The empty streets and alleys left only mud on the ground, rotten paper in the mud, insect corpses, black bread crumbs as big as rice grains, blood clots, and a bitter fishy smell lingering. Occasionally, one or two hurried spellcasters with their faces hidden under their hoods passed by like ghosts.
Nese walked towards Boni Street.
Do not go to bright or dark places. The ones illuminated by red torches, leaning in small groups on the street corner, were the gangsters from the Red Face Society, and the ones with blue fluorescent patterns on their belts were the men from the Feibo Society. If you walk in a dark place, you will often trip over the livid ankles stretched out by the person lying there.
He turned into the final fork in the road.
An uphill climb. The circular gate of the cemetery at the far end is like a high-hanging winch, and the air of desolation blows in your face.
There was a familiar unpleasant smell coming from the side.
Glancing at it, I saw a series of dark narrow alleys. There were some dying sparks and a few people on the ground, with only one standing, stepping on the rest.
The man noticed the noise and turned around.
Sparks reflected in her bright eyes, and there were cyan tattoos on her face.
It's Winnie.
They stood there for a while, glaring at each other, each wanting to wait for the other to be ashamed first.
At least that's what he thought.
Winnie kicked the people away from her feet and walked towards him. Nesse remembered that it was definitely time for him to go.
"What are you doing here?" She frowned and stopped two meters away.
For some reason, Nese felt a little relieved. "Dix Detective Agency," he said shortly.
"Dix? You'd better stay away from him." Winnie said coldly.
"Why?"
"Because I told you so."
Winnie's eyes moved to the back of his hand, with a smile on her face, "Have you been to Upper Semoland? How was it?"
"I don't want to talk about this."
Nese felt her breath being held in her throat and stared at her, "Let me ask you, why don't you let me find Dix?"
"You won the fighting competition?"
Wei Ni seemed not to hear it and leaned down to look at the broken sword mark carefully. "That's great. Did you get any good rewards?"
Nesse took a step back violently.
The back of his hand brushed against the tip of Winnie's nose, and she didn't even dodge.
This made him angry.
"Why can't I see Deeks?"
OK Towels and cakes work great. He didn't feel much pain anymore, and the swelling in his eyes was almost invisible.
OK Now those pains are back on me and it's really unpleasant. "Is it because he is generous and willing to help others and does not abide by the selfish and hesitant rules you have here?"
Winnie straightened up, put her hands on her hips, and looked at him silently, the smile in her eyes disappeared.
She was going to hit him, absolutely.
"Do you think there are such people here?" she said coldly. "I mean, except in the fantasies of your little head."
"You are not the only one who is right. Winnie. Haven't you seen any kind-hearted people? Then you are really pathetic."
It might hurt her to say that, so he said it. Isn't she the same?
"Dix is a well-intentioned man. Anmeses V is an elegant, wise leader. Maybe he has his own considerations.
However, they don’t have to act angry, they can eat, talk, and sleep at night while fighting to the death with others. You may not have thought of it. "
Nesse gave a sarcastic smile, "Some people, even if they come to Semeran, will not join in the same trap with you."
"us?"
Winnie laughed, but there was no smile in her eyes. "who are we?"
Nesai stared at the half-extinguished sparks on the ground, which were fragments of a red-faced torch. He recognized it. "You work for the Feibo Society. Stop pretending."
"Then what?"
"Then?" Nesai looked at her.
Seriously, he felt angry and deflated at the same time.
"I don't know anything about you. I'm so sorry." He waved his hand stiffly. "Don't you know yourself well?"
His legs were a little heavy, but he turned around and strode out.
If she tried to stop me, I would knock her unconscious and throw her over the wall into the crocodile den outside. Nese thought.
Winnie didn't catch up.
…
"You look so scary."
Dix poured hot black tea into a porcelain cup, pushed it over, and frowned at him. "Looks like you're having a bad day."
"I almost killed thirteen people, and indirectly killed my temporary classmates." Nesse said coldly.
"That's it...it's really hard work."
With sincere worry in his eyes, Dix nodded, "You can rest here for a while, if you don't mind. I won't disturb you now."
"Feel sorry."
Nesai rubbed his face, feeling a little ashamed.
He took the tea cup. "It's okay, please tell me. Is there any progress today?"
"It is inevitable that you will encounter this kind of thing here. You have just arrived and you are not used to it yet."
Dix looked at him understandingly for a while, then lowered his head and started flipping through the file. "I did get some information about the Featherless Ones."
"About Anmeses V?"
"how do you know?"
Dix was surprised, then shook his head and sighed exaggeratedly. "It seems I can't charge you more for this."
Nese smiled faintly and waited for him to continue.
"Annmeses V does possess information about the Featherless Ones. Unfortunately, I don't know what information he holds."
"How did you find out?" Nese asked, "Of course...if it involves industry secrets, you don't need to tell me."
"There's nothing I can't tell!"
Dix laughed, "My crystal ball saw his diary. There are some exciting contents. For example, the little dean is actually his..."
"Okay. That's no need."
Nese shook her head and couldn't help but laugh. "How many of his diaries have you seen?"
"It's just for today. I can't make it turn the pages."
Deeks shrugged, "If I were greedy and changed from 'watching' to 'manipulating', a magic hand would stretch out of my crystal ball and hang me on the chandelier. Ah, yes. I don't have a chandelier. Then hang it on the clothes rack."
"The Point Guard Is Here"
"What does the diary say?"
"'The name of the featherless man has been called again...'" Dix flipped through the fresh records and read as he read: "'I made a three-day appointment with a young man.'"
He closed the file and said with a smile: "So, that boy is you?"
"I have to admit it is."
"I was secretly peeping in the corner for a long time. But you were there!"
Dix rubbed the tip of a mustache, pretending to be annoyed, "I originally wanted you to follow this line, but it seems you are already doing it."
Nese smiled and said nothing.
Although Dix did not provide new information, he felt much better.
Dix added new fuel to the hearth, and the remaining bleak atmosphere was swept away.
After talking about the business, Dix brought over a shepherd's pie considerately, poured two glasses of Grape Tumult wine, and started chatting casually.
"Why did you open the store here?" Nese asked.
"What detective doesn't like cemeteries?" Dix laughed. "People often say that dead people don't talk..."
"This is nonsense!"
"Yes!" Dix said, "Dead people can speak much more fluently than living people."
…
It was nearly midnight when Neese walked out of the detective agency.
Despite Dix's repeated pleas to stay, he was still determined to go back to his old age.
He had already accepted too many affections from Dix. The rotten room was obtained based on his performance today. He was so confident that he could still have a few more roasted cows.
The road was dark at night, and a group of night crows passing by made a heart-wrenching scratching sound, but Nesse was relaxed physically and mentally. A couple of gangsters with red torches stopped him without knowing what was going on, and he was stopped in place with ease - —Timed for ten hours.
The happy mood did not subside until it reached the pulp.
Bono Doze had already gone to rest. There was silence in the tavern.
As soon as Nesse entered the door, he saw the inconspicuous copper key still on the table.
He grabbed the key, went upstairs and tried the lock. When he entered the door, he saw a pair of legs tied with belts and wearing brown leather boots resting casually on the tall cabinet by the window in the dark.
"Hey, you're back." The owner of the legs waved to him.
Until then, his good mood was like a mouse that suddenly ran away without a trace after seeing a cat.
"Winnie," he said stiffly. Not a step inside. "Get out of my room."
"I suddenly feel that what you said makes sense."
Winnie did the opposite of what he ordered - she rolled onto the bed, turned sideways, and supported her head. "You really don't know me very well. We should know each other better."
"Come here." She signaled with her eyes.
Nese clung to the door panel, motionless.
He felt that not moving at all was enough to prove his attitude, so he simply said: "I don't."
Winnie stared at him and suddenly smiled.
"I get it. You're not full yet."
She changed an incredible posture, put her other hand under the bed, pulled out something like a thick rope, and threw it at him.
That thing smells delicious. "Smoked swamp snake. I made it myself." Winnie said with a smile.
Nese stared at the rope-like thing in his hand and found that it was a smoked product that had been disemboweled and washed.
It was true that he wasn't full at Dix's place - at any time, he could eat more - the smoked snake made him salivate... but he still threw the smoked snake to the round table next to him, "I'm not hungry."
Winnie looked disappointed and blinked at him.
What is this for! Nese sighed, pulled up a chair and sat down. He didn't get much chance to rest from yesterday to today. He was really tired now.
"What do you want me to do? Winnie." He said softly.
"I tell you directly every time. But it's useless." Winnie said slowly, "I just told you not to go to see Dix. But you still went to see him."
"You have to tell me why. Really. Deeks is a trustworthy partner.
He is friendly, warm and sincere. I trust him and he can help me. I saw these and made my own judgment. Why can't you let me judge for myself? "
"He is good to you. Just believe him. What about me being good to you?"
"You are...good to me. But..."
"But you can't believe me? Because when you first met me, I was pretending to be Baron Miran's mistress, because I could kill and hit whenever I wanted, because I was a half-elf?" Wei? Ni sneered.
Nese paused for a while.
"Half-elf...there's nothing wrong with being half-elf," he whispered.
"The good thing about being a half-elf is that you don't have to worry about being the product of incest."
Winnie laughed twice. "So you don't become mentally retarded, or be born with half a heart, or have a chin that's further forward than your nose."
"That was not what I meant."
"Okay. That's not what you meant by thank you. You know what? It's so embarrassing."
She played with one of her gloves, "My shoulder is really hurting. Can you take a look at it for me?"
This is a trap.
Alarm bells rang in Nese's heart.
But it was a trap he couldn't refuse. He did hear a crunch when he pinched Winnie's shoulder that day. She had a broken bone. Of course, her recovery ability is not as good as his, and she may be in danger here - she is still doing those life-saving jobs every day.
"Don't move. I can spend some time curing you, and then you can leave, okay?"
"Of course." She narrowed her eyes and seemed to start dozing off immediately.
Nese carefully walked around to her back from the other side.
There are no eyes behind Winnie's back, he reminded himself repeatedly. Despite this, the vigilance in his heart did not diminish at all.
He sat gently on the edge of the bed, put a hand on her shoulder, and began to draw a spell with his right hand - he had to cast spells this way when in human form.
The life energy was concentrated and organized by the talisman, and was conducted to her shoulders along the gestures.
"It feels good. It's warm." Winnie said.
"Yeah."
"really not bad."
"That's good."
He really regretted saying this. Winnie jumped up like lightning and grabbed his shoulders with both hands. He saw a pair of bright and scary eyes.
"Are you okay? The bones are reattached?"
He reluctantly moved his lips, "Okay? It's time for you to go."
"Very good." She said with a smile, "I'm leaving."
"Yeah. Go ahead." What a nonsense. Why are you saying this? One of Winnie's knees was pressed against his stomach, her figure was slender and strong, and she was sitting in the crook of his legs. It took him a while to feel it.
"Come with me."
"You really lied to me." Nesse put her hand on the half-elf's knee, thinking - with just one knock down, her leg would be broken.
"Let's go find Dix," Winnie said.
Nese frowned.
"Why?" He had just come back from there, and Winnie knew it too.
"Believe me, you just have to believe that I get there - you just have to believe me. Just believe me once." Winnie smiled brightly, "Let's go. Go to the easternmost part of Semoland."
…
Nesse is sleepy and tired, and regrets trusting Winnie. But he persisted and came to the detective agency again.
The door of the detective agency is closed.
"He's resting. There's no need for us to disturb..."
Winnie kicked the door open.
The room was immersed in darkness and completely silent. Only a luminous stone on the table gave off a faint light.
Deeks isn't here.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
Or two chapters merged into one chapter?
