Approaching mid-November, just a few days before the deadline for the mission, the old Viscount once again held a social banquet.
Varina finally got the chance he wanted.
Just like last time, he and the gardener changed into the costumes of male servants during the preparation stage of the banquet. Together with other servants, they shuttled through the huge hive in the main building like hard-working worker bees.
Entering from the main door, passing through a spacious and elegant foyer, you arrive at the main hall, which can accommodate dozens or hundreds of guests for dancing.
The center of the main hall is covered with colorful, thick and soft carpets, surrounded by bright and clear marble floor tiles. There are pianos, stone sculptures and other items placed, and stone pillars inlaid with ornaments are supported to support the second floor.
On the left side of the main hall is a side hall connected to the main hall. It provides a temporary place for rest, conversation and food for the guests of the main hall. Long tables are placed there. When the banquet begins, Full of all kinds of food.
Outside the right side of the main hall are green lawns and blooming gardens. Through rows of floor-to-ceiling windows, guests can enjoy the carefully maintained landscaping.
There are stairs on both sides of the main hall leading to the second floor.
The cloister on the second floor is square, and the vacant part in the center is just the carpeted dance floor in the main hall. Guests can leisurely enjoy the dance below while standing behind the railings.
There are many rooms on the second floor, including a living room, a lounge, a living room, a dining room, a bathroom, a billiard room, and a large number of bedrooms. If guests need to stay overnight, they will stay here.
Of course, these are the passages for the master and the guests, and the servants naturally have another servant passage.
In a hidden place on the right side of the main building, there is another corridor with stairs - this is the hub of the servants' passage.
Through it, the servants can pass through most of the main building without the sight of the master and guests, except for the third floor-that is the master's private space, and only personal servants are eligible to go there.
During the preparations for the banquet, Varina had been busy walking through the aisles, carrying and arranging items.
Just after eight o'clock in the evening, guests began to arrive.
By this time, because the preparations had been completed, the servants were relatively relaxed. Many of them even had a short break and could rest against the wall in a remote place.
This was the time for action Variner had been waiting for.
He found an opportunity, quietly came to a lounge on the second floor, turned on a gas lamp near the ground, then opened the glass lampshade that had been specially blackened, and extinguished the light blue flame.
This does not affect the lighting in the lounge as there is also a brighter chandelier on the ceiling of the room.
In fact, the light that Varina turned on should not be turned on now.
Only when the banquet is over and the over-exhausted old Viscount Stott comes here to rest and recuperate as usual, his valet will open it and turn off the chandelier at the same time to create a lighting environment suitable for the old Viscount to rest.
It was after Varina understood this that he came up with his original idea.
In this era, although the development of medicine has begun to get on the right track, it has not actually achieved much results due to the development of chemistry, biology and other related basic sciences, as well as the suppression caused by extraordinary medicines with miraculous effects.
Gas poisoning is one of those blind spots.
With the large-scale application of coal gas, of course some people will die from gas poisoning, but because there is no clear understanding, the causes of death are attributed to other basic diseases such as lung disease, asthma, or evil spirits, and not enough attention is paid to them. of attention.
When Varina thought of this method, he couldn't help but feel dissatisfied with Russell in his heart.
He has brought so many changes to the world, and even almost single-handedly set off the wave of the industrial revolution. This is certainly a very high achievement.
But teaching people how to fish is not as good as teaching them how to fish!
Scientific discoveries, the most important ones are those inventions, are those laws?
No, absolutely not.
The most important thing is scientific thinking.
Scientific logical thinking is like a beacon in the darkness, always shining on the way forward for scientific development. With its guidance, someone will always reproduce the findings of predecessors, and eventually build the edifice of scientific theory again.
Obviously, Russell failed to bring this.
Of course, from this perspective, the "God of Steam and Machinery" who symbolizes human civilization and was once the "enlightener of civilization" is even more shameful than Russell. He was once known as the "God of Craftsmen" ?
How can this look even remotely like a "civilized enlightener"? No wonder even the potion couldn't be fully digested.
The banquet continued, and Varina kept counting the minutes.
When it was past nine o'clock, he quietly came to the lounge on the second floor of the main building and turned off the gas lamp again.
In this way, when the valet came to light the lamp, he would not be able to detect anything unusual.
At this point, everything Varina can do has been done, and all that is left is expectation and waiting.
Old Viscount Stout lived up to his expectations.
Around ten o'clock, after greeting several important guests one by one, he came to the lounge on the second floor alone, followed by Te's valet.
In the lounge, after the old Viscount sat down comfortably on the lounge chair, the valet turned on the gas lamp near the ground, turned off the chandelier, then closed the door and exited.
He shook his head to get rid of the slight feeling of dizziness and waited patiently at the door.
Downstairs, the banquet continued without the old Viscount present.
At nearly eleven o'clock, the guests were about to leave. The footman followed the old Viscount's instructions and came in to wake him up so he could say goodbye to the guests.
However, he failed.
The old Viscount was lying peacefully on the armchair, having stopped breathing. His eyes were wide and protruding, looking terrifying and weird.
The poor manservant was frightened. He screamed and stumbled out of the lounge, stumbling and repeating the same sentence——
"The old Viscount is dead...the old Viscount is dead..."
The panic started from the footman and soon spread to everyone, including the guests attending the banquet.
This panic did not last long.
There were also some calm people among the guests, and there was even a high-ranking official from the police headquarters. Under their command and orders, some of the partially recovered servants were responsible for controlling the scene, and some were responsible for going to the nearby police station. and St. Samuel's Church Annunciation.
After the situation was initially under control, Little Stout came to the lounge with several important guests to check on the old Viscount's death.
After some inspections, the home nurse hired by the old Viscount's family came to a preliminary conclusion:
"The old Viscount died of suffocation caused by acute respiratory failure."
Little Stout was a little dissatisfied with this conclusion: "Although my father coughed occasionally, he had no lung disease. How could he suddenly die of respiratory failure?"
The home nurse nodded obediently and stepped aside, not daring to say more.
Under such circumstances, the Nighthawks team from the Church of the Night Goddess arrived.
