The urban area of Hoklin is wider than Blumnot, wide but empty, and there is a smell of depression in the wind. The fluff on Roma's cheeks swayed in the breeze, and the air flow was moist and heavy, seeping into her skin. It is adjacent to the lakeside, full of frogs and mud, and the fisherman's boat is rocking under a pine tree, with mottled paint.
She smelled something bad. "rot."
Sita raised her head: "What?"
"Something rotted in the mud, about four or five days ago." The little lion pointed to the water's edge with his tail, "There is a puddle under there."
They looked together and saw that there was indeed an untied wooden oar beside the boat. It had been loosened from the rocking ring and was half submerged in the lake. Hay as thick as a shoe sole covered the sides of the boat, and the center was sunken.
Dalton stabbed his sword in his hand and slowly approached. Nearly three yards away, he hid in the shadows. Roma saw the haystack rustle and tremble, then let out a deflated pop.
When he returned to them, the cursed sword was stained with blood. The night elf wiped it with bark: "The corpse eater."
"Not the Bansi Banshee?"
"Perhaps they have been here. The corpse eater is the corpse of the fisherman after his death. Its weapon is a harpoon."
"We came too late." York said, staring at the puddle. "But no matter what, we have found the trace of the Banshee Banshee." He turned around.
Roma grabbed him: "Where are you going?"
"Tell the Detective Queen. She needs..."
"A sighting from four or five days ago doesn't mean anything," she said. "You'd better not bother her with this kind of news."
"Except for yesterday's hotel, this is the closest trace of the undead we have found." Sita pointed out.
"I didn't know you were so careful."
He glanced at her accusingly. "I must say, Roma, this is not difficult for you. Smells are as conspicuous to you as dark clouds on a sunny day. I can't tell you what you use your nose for."
"Of course I'm reminding you. Maybe it also has the ability to speak." There was another reason for her slackness, "You should also be aware of the low temperature in the puddle, York."
"Dead people have no warmth."
"There's no hay or boats, is there?" The little lion flicked his tail. "Maybe what I smell is rotting fish, and you can't tell the difference between dead fish and dead people."
The men looked at each other.
"I didn't mean to mess with you, Roma." York said softly, "But you always let me know what I did wrong?"
His attitude was enough to calm anyone's anger, but now it could only make her feel even more uncomfortable. In her heart, Roma knew that her companions had done nothing wrong. She was the one who messed around, and yet she was forgiven by them. "No. That's not it." She sighed. "I'm so sorry, York. I should have said that."
"You look very troubled."
"It's more than just annoyance," Roma admits.
"As far as I know, you are more heartless than worried." Zhuoer glanced at him. His tone was surprisingly calm. "I'm just the opposite. You're not used to this feeling, are you? But there's nothing we can do about it."
"Helen's disappearance is just one of them," she muttered.
"What else? The undead? The Ministry of Foreign Affairs? The mysterious profession?"
Dalton saw through her: "You don't want Agatha to know the traces of Bansi Banshee?"
"She is looking for Helen." Roma confided, "I know she came for the undead, but now we have lost Helen, and I have no idea how to find anyone." She lowered her voice: "If I let Ah Gaza knows about the undead, maybe she will focus on her job.”
"But someone has to deal with the undead."
"Yes. But this person is not necessarily her. The most important thing is to find Helen now." The little lion emphasized, "As for the Bansi Banshee, to be honest, I think even if we let them go for a while, the situation will not be much worse."
"Your Excellency the Witch is a great astrologer. Your worries are unnecessary." Dalton said, "If you really want to join her as soon as possible, I suggest you go back to the headquarters and ask your mentor for help. He will definitely be happy. Although Miss Poirot It has a good reputation, but we have no clues to provide, so blindly searching for someone is a fool’s errand.”
"Let us deal with the undead, Roma." Sita also agreed, "Besides, the Witch is missing, and the Detective Queen may not be able to find it. She will find other astrologers..."
Roma stopped. Suddenly, she found it very difficult to understand. "But she will definitely be able to find the Bansi Banshee! Have you really thought about it..."
"What?"
"Maybe I shouldn't have brought you to Hokolin. At least not at this time."
Zhuoer frowned: "You won't make the same mistakes as Uriel, right? He has many advantages for you to learn from. You don't have to learn this."
"What?" Sita still didn't understand.
"The undead." The little lion pointed out, "At first, I thought there was no danger. The tower was very sure that there were no enemies here beyond expectations. But now that Helen is missing and the detection station has stopped working, I am afraid that the undead will throw more people into the empty island than expected. There will be a lot more." The scariest thing is that we are completely unaware...
Happily, her words got them thinking. "That makes sense." York shuddered. "Before we find Lord Helen, we'd better not encounter the undead first. If we encounter the demon lord again, I can't imagine the consequences!" He seemed to think of unpleasant memories.
Drow's expression was very similar to his. "Last time it was just a coincidence."
Roma could hear the reluctance in it. They were referring to the encounter at the Cathedral of Antrolos. Although Roma was just an outsider, she still remembered her horror when she heard that the law wizards and demon lords had appeared.
"Tattoo" died at the hands of the Black Knight, and the "Weird Expert" faked his death to escape. If Dalton and York hadn't arrived in time, Uriel would have lost his life. Of course, the most crucial helper is Sylvia. Heather bless them. The dragon followed Ms. Mabel to Flip-Angle City with her.
Dalton didn't want to bring up this topic, so he simply changed his focus: "I'm very grateful."
"Happy?" Roma didn't understand.
"Fortunately, Uriel is not here." Sita knew exactly what her partner meant. "Otherwise, we would never be able to go back until order is restored in Hokolin." The guy made a face. "Whenever someone in the city scratches his finger, he feels it's his responsibility."
"This is really not an exaggeration."
She was thinking of another possibility. "If he were here, maybe things wouldn't be like this." Uriel himself is an astrologer and can also use the magic of restraining the undead. For Huoklin, he is much more useful than us...
"That's not possible. Besides, I think you did a good job." York said bluntly.
Dalton was more tactful: "You can't imitate everything from someone. You're different."
"Indeed." I either rush to the end or hesitate. In the eyes of most people, the leader apprentice is a trustworthy and reliable figure, while she, Roma, is just a brat.
However, she was not jealous of Uriel. To be honest, Roma felt that she had never loved a peer so much - firm, kind, fair and compassionate. He has the courage to speak and does what he says. His little flaws are what make him perfect. He seems to be able to understand everyone's feelings and share all the sufferings in the world. Who can not like this kind of person?
If Roma were a girl like Sabina, she might fall in love with him. But the apprentices of the "Eye of Iron" are different after all. Sabina will become an excellent astrologer, thinking about love and horoscope trajectories, while she, Roma, will enter the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and face wars and conspiracies.
In fact, she was already in it.
I must make a judgment, Roma thought. Whenever she encounters difficulties, she will miss Uriel and Sauron. Sometimes Dalton can serve the same purpose...but if people don't need each other, they will grow further apart.
Dalton and York have no such worries. They are both high-level, one has no brains to think about problems, and the other one is, Roma thought to herself. I daresay he would have frowned upon it.
This guy just opened his mouth. "If you ask me, compared to the Bansi Banshee, the demon society is the enemy we have to worry about."
"Recently, associations have begun to attack towns aggressively." York said gloomily, "As for Hell Outpost Gavash, currently, only Hokolin has traces of the undead."
"Originally, there were banshees in Knox. They cried in front of the windows of the dying, which was an ominous sign." Dalton explained carefully, "When these banshees gather in groups, it means disaster is coming. Now there is a war going on in the mysterious realm.”
"Fighting." Roma repeated, "About?" She felt uneasy. "Look, Helen is missing and we are alone. They should have taken the opportunity to launch an attack, but in the end there are only a few mortals turned corpse-eaters in the city. Maybe Detective Poirot guessed wrong, maybe the situation is not that bad..."
"It must be a mysterious place." Zhuoer insisted, "If you ask me, a Sky Realm Nightingale who is proficient in assassination is rarer than a random mysterious phenomenon."
"Do you recognize this kind of person?"
Dalton frowned: "Sky Realm Nightingale? No. I just...well, there are such people in my hometown. But they can't come to Biniyao, let alone Huoklin. This island is in It's floating in the air, right?"
"Maybe Sky Realm can fly this high?" York muttered.
Roma got the key. He knew the nightingale in the Sky Realm. I see. she thought. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Tower, Dalton had previously served as the bodyguard of the Knight Bay Lord in Eastman and had not been exposed to nightingales and related industries. But now, this guy is so good at handling intelligence and assassinations that it is difficult for others to blame him. On talent. That nightingale is probably a relative or friend of Drow.
"What are the specialties of Nightingale in the Sky Realm?" she asked. "In my opinion, Nightingale's methods should be troublesome to them. He can solve most of the targets just by relying on his mystery. Why bother to be secretive?"
"We have different understandings of this kind of people." It was obvious that Dalton didn't like this topic either, but the situation was such that he didn't refuse. "Mysterious creatures who cross the ring steps and reach the Sky Realm do the work of nightingales. This is the simplest understanding. In fact, the descendants of these people can also be regarded as one of them. They have been nightingales since they were born, and they will inherit the ancestral business in the future."
"An excellent nightingale will definitely make a lot of money." Sita expressed understanding, "It's not bad to inherit the ancestral business."
"It's two different things. I mean the target."
"Target?"
Roma understood: "Nightingale in the sky. Assassins are also kind of nightingales."
"Is this riddle time?" York said unhappily. "What do you mean, assassin?"
"The Nightingale of the Sky Realm. It can also be said to be the hunter of the Sky Realm, which is the same as the Demon Hunter." Drow told him, "The hunters are not demons. But these people may be Nightingales of the Sky Realm level, or they may be specialized hunters. An assassin who kills mysterious creatures in the Sky Realm.”
York's eyes widened. "Hunting?"
"These people are crazy." Roma concluded, "They are really looking for death."
"Most of the time it is like this." Night Elf admitted, "There is a huge difference between Sky Realm and Ring Level. There is a high probability that the assassin will never come back, let alone leaving any foundation... But it is not completely impossible. Mr. Sky Realm is careless. , or be seriously injured, allowing Nightingale to succeed. In the final analysis, poison, traps and daggers are all about confrontation regardless of strength. Throughout the ages, countless heroes have died in assassinations, and Sky Realm is no exception."
"That's not what you said at the hotel before!"
"Because of the mysterious profession." Dalton explained, "Nightingale is an industry, and any mysterious creature can fill it, depending on the goal. If the opponent is a wizard, send warriors; if the opponent is a priest, send wizards."
"What about the astrologer?" York asked.
Roma shouldn't have liked the topic, but she was very curious. Dalton tolerated Nightingale's discussion, and I had to listen to them.
"Of course, find another astrologer to do it." Zhuoer said without hesitation.
After knowing Nightingale's combat strategy, his answer turned out to be so reasonable. "Could the person who attacked Helen be an astrologer?" York speculated.
"Probably not. Astrologers may be able to decipher the target's prophecies, but..."
"Great astrologers are not good at assassination." Roma added, "They don't even hold swords. Even if they assassinate, they will never do it themselves."
"Your Excellency Helen is not like this."
"Not every profession that peeps into fate belongs to an astrologer. Helen is a witch of the constellation Harp." But if there is any difference between a witch and an astrologer, the little lion can't tell the difference. "In any case, when an astrologer has reached a certain level, his mystery is enough to solve the problem. No matter how powerful the ring-level warrior is, he will not be a match for the great astrologer."
"But if they are of the same level, the results will be different." Sita warned, "The great astrologer cannot be the opponent of the envoy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there is no doubt about this."
All laymen understand this, Rama thought, how could the prophet not know this? She didn't understand why the tower sent Helen to Huoklin. At this moment, all the great astrologers, without exception, are under the protection of the Foreign Office in Brumnot. It is true that the Witch of Destiny has the ability to protect herself better than others, but as the former commander, didn't her father, the Gray Messenger, also die in Eastman?
Deep down, the little lion felt that there might be another explanation for the matter. But she didn't dare to trust her intuition anymore without evidence.
When the tower's reinforcements arrived at the Sky Island Huoklin early the next morning, the detective lady's search had already yielded results.
"The Banshees are not from Gavash," Agatha announced to everyone. "Their legend came to Hocklin from Whale Island."
"Whale Island?" York became interested.
"A desolate place." Roma commented. "The people who go there are either outlaws or unlucky people. Overall, if I have to choose between Whale Island and Gavash, I would rather go to hell. "
"But it's very old there," Agatha said. "Before the volcano destroyed the astrologer's platform, Whale Island was once a shrine dedicated to Otto. Many families were stationed on the island, and every year they sent their descendants to Bloomnot to study. "
"volcano?"
Dalton sighed. "Blue Prophecy. You are Sita, York. You should know better than us. You have the memory of your elders."
"It's not unusual for volcanoes to erupt," York muttered.
Maybe that's all in Sita's memory. Roma had never seen a volcano, let alone an eruption, nor had any of her ancestors. Although the mysterious environment of Knox is constantly changing, for a major disaster like a volcanic eruption, tower astrologers will undoubtedly prepare in advance. There are no volcanoes in Sunset Grassland, but when the volcanoes on Whale Island erupted, the Prophet drove the islands to the sea, pouring magma and smoke into the borders of Order.
But the disaster predicted by Qingzhi was unusual. The tower has extremely detailed records of this, describing various scenarios in which the order of Knox was turned upside down after the gods left, and the mysterious place caused disasters on the earth.
"The magma flows from the silver stream of the Blue Forest." "The Ballad of Red Valley" writes. "The mountains are burning, the earth is naked, drought will be followed by cold. The gods give mortals a final warning."
Roma flicked her tail. "You wouldn't say that the Bansi Banshee originated from the ancestors who died in the volcanic eruption, right?"
"It's possible. But I'm not a scholar. It's enough to find Whale Island." Agatha shrugged, "Okay, my mission is completed. The undead of Huoklin is not a nightingale pretending to be a ghost, nor is it something made out of nothing. Someone based it on Legend has it that they were found from Whale Island.”
"Where did the news come from?" Dalton wanted to know.
"The resident of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Omer Nagris. His ancestors were once nobles of Whale Island. This man is very familiar with his family history and claims to be a descendant of a certain hero."
Roma saw Dalton shuddering, and his face gradually lost expression. He was no stranger to heroes and their descendants. He thought of Ingrid. definitely is.
The detective lady also noticed it, but she didn't pay attention. "I have to say, this is not an advantage. There are many nobles in the mysterious field in the tower, and the Sainsbury family of 'Storm Songer' is much more famous than Nagris. Anyway, our Mr. Omer put his All the secrets were told to the priest."
The sky island detection station was confused by the nightingale, and all personnel stationed in the tower's subordinate countries need to be interrogated. Omir and stationmaster Slug are no exception. But the whole secret... I don't know if it's because he understands the righteousness, or because the mantra potion is very effective. Roma thinks it's the latter.
The detective spread his hands: "But no matter what, his suspicion has been cleared. The priest is focusing on Ms. Slug. The detection station collapsed, and the mysterious influence on her is undoubtedly deeper."
"What kind of magic is it?" York asked.
"It's not determined yet. The local people's skills are limited. Let's let the astrologers tell us the answer."
Fortunately, the reinforcements sent by the headquarters were acquaintances of Roma. She came to the door immediately and asked about the results. "What kind of magic is that? Does it have anything to do with Helen's disappearance?"
Sabina nervously put down her crystal ball. "Maybe I'm wrong, Roma, I can't..."
"I believe you. Just say it."
"But even I find it hard to believe it." Miss Astrologer told her, "It's the fog elf."
"Elven magic?"
Sabina nodded. "From Tanner, Fife."
