"I thought you wouldn't run this far."
Everything was covered by the smell of water vapor and dust, and rain fell sparsely from the eaves, hitting Ed's umbrella cover.
It was not easy to find someone on a rainy night. He almost searched the surrounding streets before finding Quinn in this dilapidated alley.
She sat on the steps of the alley like a drowned dog, her bleeding left hand resting on her knees, and her right hand holding a metal wine flask, staring at the ground without saying a word.
Ed leaned over and covered her head with an umbrella. An unusually strong and pungent smell of alcohol floated into his lungs:
"Oh my God, what kind of wine is this?"
"Industrial alcohol. Except for burning your throat, it tastes pretty good." Quinn raised her head and took a sip, "This is the only way I can get drunk."
industrial alcohol……
Ed couldn't help but shudder, that thing was not only high-purity alcohol, but also contained a small cup of methanol that could permanently blind an adult.
Only Quinn could drink such a deadly thing as a drink.
"There is a difference between drunkenness and methanol poisoning." Ed reminded, "There is no need to hurt your body - you can poke Anvil's hand and keep his mouth quiet for a few weeks, and we won't have any problems." opinion.”
"I'm not angry, I'm just..."
Quinn folded her hands in front of her knees and let the rainwater on the eaves drip into the mouth of the metal wine bottle:
"...a little scared."
"What are you afraid of?" Ed asked.
"Afraid of something." Quinn replied hesitantly, "I don't know how to put it."
"Quinn..." Ed put his hand on her shoulder, "Look, if it weren't for you, I would have been dead long ago in the Winter Bookstore."
"...You will never be a monster. You are a human being of flesh and blood. You are my friend, comrade-in-arms, and family member, but you are far more than that."
"Sounds like a lie, but thank you anyway."
Quinn smiled slightly bitterly and gently opened Ed's palm:
"My family... I have almost forgotten the smell of home."
There was light in her pine needle-colored eyes, like woods swaying in the wind. Suddenly, she said like a child:
"By the way, let's play hide and seek, Ed."
hide and seek? !
"Now?" Ed asked a little uncertainly.
Although the rain has subsided a lot, it has not stopped yet. Two adults playing hide and seek on such a rainy night might be regarded as patients who escaped from a lunatic asylum.
"Yeah, Olivia used to play hide and seek with me when I was little. I guess she knew I could smell her, but she always pretended to be surprised when I found her."
"No problem, but after we play, let's go back, bandage our wounds, and change our clothes, okay?"
"Okay." Quinn tightened the wine bottle and turned around gently as if dancing in the rain. "It would be too boring for me to be a hunter. How about you being the hunter and me hiding?"
"No problem, but the range is limited to this street and the surrounding streets. In the end, it will be difficult for me to find you. If I don't find you within an hour, I lose, and we will still meet here."
"Well, cover your eyes and count down, I'm going to start running away."
After saying that, she put her hands behind her back and slowly backed away.
Ed covered his eyes in cooperation and whispered:
"ten……"
"Nine……"
"eight……"
…
"one……"
When he opened his eyes, Quinn was gone.
It's a bit difficult to win. This street plus nearby blocks covers an area of more than one square kilometer. It would take at least half an hour to walk through the outermost circle, not to mention searching for hidden people.
Fortunately, he also has auxiliary props.
Ed took out the one-eyed spider from his pocket and planned to use the one-eyed spider to search separately with himself, thus doubling the search efficiency.
It shouldn't be considered cheating...after all, the rules don't say that the use of secret texts is not allowed.
Although she should be a gentleman at this time and let Quinn win, she might not feel that she was enjoying herself enough.
Or, he could just find a bar or hotel, have a drink and rest for a while, and then admit defeat when Quinn comes back. But the risk was too great - if Quinn caught the scent, there was no guarantee he wouldn't be beaten half to death.
Sure enough, you should take the game seriously...
…
Fifty minutes have passed.
Ed closed the cover of his pocket watch. He had searched the surrounding neighborhoods, but found no trace of Quinn.
Could it be that I missed something along the way?
This is not surprising. Although he has sent one-eyed spiders to look down on the rooftops, the terrain of the city is too complex after all. If he wants to search the entire block without blind spots, he may need 6-8 one-eyed spiders to search at the same time.
Regardless, let’s go back first.
It's obviously too late to check again at this point. Now that the rain has stopped, it's better to go back to find Quinn on time and go home early.
Although he won't get sick from simply getting wet in the rain, this doesn't mean that Ed enjoys the feeling of being wet from head to toe - if he can use the secret code of "Cremation" like Tia, maybe he can use it to dry his clothes.
The alley was deserted.
Ed opened his pocket watch again, and a full hour had passed.
Why hasn't Quinn come back yet? Could it be...
He looked up warily and saw that the rainy clouds had dispersed, and the moon showed its blue-grey reflection from the clouds.
It has only been one day since last night's full moon night. Although tonight is not a full moon, there is no guarantee that Quinn will not lose control due to this...
crackle.
While he was hesitating, there was a noise from the eaves, and a black shadow fell from the sky on the eaves. Ed immediately raised his cane to resist, while trying to switch to Katarina's character card.
In the blink of an eye, a dark shadow rushed over. Ed dodged back and retreated. The black shadow in mid-air pounced on the wall, and used his strength to adjust the angle and pounce again from above.
Ed didn't dare to hold back anymore and directly used the "Lake" secret text. A green shield-shaped barrier separated him from the black shadow.
Surprisingly, at this moment that exceeded the limit of his reaction, the shadow once again used the narrow wall of the alley to cross the barrier from the side at an almost impossible angle, and finally jumped towards Ed.
At this moment, Ed only had one last chance to fight back. If the thrust of the cane misses the vital point, the distance between the two will quickly close to a close combat, and Catalina's swordsmanship will not be able to help him much.
"Quinn?!"
At the last moment of the collision, Ed finally saw clearly the dark green eyes the color of pine needles - not in the form of a wolf, nor anyone else, but the usual Quinn.
Ed only had time to deflect the cane by half an inch before he was thrown to the ground by Quinn and fell into the moss-covered ditch beside the drainage ditch.
"Be careful, Ed, sometimes the hunter becomes the hunted."
Quinn smiled drunkenly, and the sweet aroma of hot wine blew gently on his cheeks.
