Learned the information about three mysterious people from the priest's mouth.
To be on the safe side, Ronald went to the herbalist and carpenter first.
According to the priest, these two people have records of living in Celephes for multiple generations, and their backgrounds are also relatively clean, so they are more suitable to understand the situation first.
——This is also true.
After running back and forth in the village, within an hour, Ronald completed negotiations with the herbalist and carpenter respectively.
At the time of the incident this morning, there were other witnesses corroborating their location, which could completely prove that they were not present. This alone could eliminate them from suspicion.
Then, there is the remaining blacksmith.
Because he came from another country, this person was actually the most suspicious person. However, considering that Willard and the others had already conducted investigations before, Ronald did not pay too much attention to it.
The main purpose of asking about the understanding of these three mysterious sides is to understand the information.
Even though Father Conney had no intention of hiding any information from him, he still knew too little.
However, when Ronald came to the blacksmith shop.
The expression on his face became serious.
It's almost noon now, but the door of the blacksmith shop is closed. Judging from the deserted look of the foyer, it doesn't look like it's going to open today.
"..."
After staring at the blacksmith shop in silence for a few seconds, Ronald casually called out to a passing villager.
"Little brother, isn't the blacksmith shop open today?"
The young man who was stopped was stunned for a moment, and then he answered in confusion:
"How do I know this?"
"But as for the blacksmith shop...it seems that it has been closed since yesterday afternoon."
"Thank you."
After simply thanking him, Ronald's eyes darkened.
Without saying another word, he turned and walked towards the blacksmith's house.
At the priest's side, he had already asked clearly for the addresses of the three of them, and it took him a long time to find the place.
This is an almost featureless house not far from the blacksmith shop.
Ronald walked up directly and knocked on the door.
Bang bang bang——
Three knocks on the door sounded, but no one in the room responded to him.
Is it true that no one is home?
Or is the blacksmith living here really the mastermind behind it?
Or maybe a new Grimoire victim?
Faced with various possibilities, Ronald did not dare to be careless.
He took out the pistol from his arms and hid it in his sleeve, and then he said loudly again:
"Is anyone home?"
"This is the last inquiry! If no one answers, I will open the door violently!"
Dong dong dong——
Three knocks sounded louder than before.
However, what stood in front of Ronald was still the house in silence.
After silently counting five seconds in his mind, Ronald no longer hesitated, stepped forward and kicked the door.
Click!
There was a very obvious sound of wood breaking, and then the door slid inwards.
Because he used such force with his kick, the bolt that locked the door even broke in the middle.
However, with the harsh sound of the wooden door being pulled on the ground, there was still no one inside the opened door.
There are no enemy ambushes, and there are no shocking things.
"..."
Ronald looked around.
Because of his actions, several passing villagers were looking over here.
For myself, this is obviously not a good thing.
Shaking his head silently, Ronald walked into the room and easily pulled the closed door back to the door.
boom!
He pushed the door back into the frame very forcefully, and then stuck it in place.
After completing this step, Ronald had time to carefully examine the situation in the room.
Compared with the previous fisherman's house, the blacksmith's house is really very good, and definitely belongs to the better type among ordinary people.
There are corridors, partitions, and floors.
In the living room, which has adequate lighting and ventilation, there are traces of people living there for a long time everywhere.
There was finished water in the water glass on the table, there was dust in the cooling fireplace that had not been cleaned, the walls of the room were not locked, and the windows were slightly open. All these circumstances indicated that someone had been living here recently.
"uh-huh......?"
Just as Ronald was looking around, his keen hearing vaguely heard a voice.
——That’s the heavy breathing sound of ‘huhuhu’.
If I want to make an analogy.
This is like the feeling when a patient with a severe cold and fever lies in bed due to fatigue and can only breathe heavily.
Click——
Ronald closed the open window with his left hand and pulled the curtain to cover it.
At the same time, in the wide cuff of his right hand, a black original book appeared in his hand.
"Its name is Styx,
The black water flows down to the foot of the dark and steep cliff.
..."
Reciting the poem softly, the black mist that came immediately spread and rolled around the room.
In the blink of an eye, the entire floor of the room was covered with a thin layer of black mist.
Immediately, the ability of emotional perception allowed Ronald to understand the situation.
At this moment, there was only one person left in the blacksmith's house except himself, and he was in a room on the side.
The black mist opens a path in front of you.
Ronald was about to go over, but he was suddenly stunned.
——He suddenly had a new idea.
Immediately, the black fog in front of him spread into several layers on the ground.
Ronald then stepped over.
The footsteps fell on the layers of black mist, and almost no sound was made after buffering.
Quietly arriving at the room where the man was, Ronald looked sideways.
This glance gave him some answers to his doubts.
In the room, Ronald saw a man lying on the bed. This guy was pale and weak. What was even more exaggerated was that the skin on this guy's body was stretched loosely.
The state displayed by the whole person is that of being exhausted by flesh and blood.
Turning to stare at the man head-on, Ronald could not help but feel a little suspicious of this guy's current state.
At that moment, Ronald waved his hand.
The black mist spread and rushed onto the bed, then surrounded the man lying on the bed.
After completing such preparations, Ronald called out the other party's name:
"Hey, Edmund, can you hear me?"
"Are you still conscious?"
"..."
The continuous calling seemed to wake up the man on the bed.
Hearing Ronald's voice, the blacksmith's weak eyelids moved slightly.
After a few breaths, he finally managed to open his eyes.
When I saw the person coming, he was wearing the standard investigator attire of this kind of coat and hat.
The look in his cloudy pupils was extremely complicated.
"Uh...ah uh..."
An unidentifiable sound came from his mouth, and the man struggled and pointed to the side of the room.
After completing this action.
The arms that the blacksmith tried to hold up immediately fell weakly on the bed.
Then the person closed his eyes and continued his heavy and rapid breathing from the beginning.