The Forgotten Bar was much more lively at night than during the day. The dim candlelight swayed, coating the copper wine glass in the magician's hand with a bright luster. Magicians wearing magician robes of different colors sat together in groups. They are used to whispering, while many half-demon with horns or elves from malt gather together and shout and drink together.
The owner of the Forgotten Bar, Dark Night Master Jim, was sitting behind the counter cleaning wine glasses. A female half-demon with horns on her head and goat's hooves walked to the bar and sat down. She flicked her long whip-like tail and knocked on the table of the counter. Speak in a tactful tone.
"Master Dark Night, is there any new news recently? As you know, the demon general I served was recently killed by his son. I have to find some fun to coax the young man who just took over."
Jim concentrated on admiring the clean wine glass in his hand, and without raising his eyes, he said to the half-demon woman: "I didn't expect you actually encouraged that quail-like major general to attack his father, Sarah. Leah, do you really think he can support the entire Shadow Scorpion Army?"
"He is much better than his father." The half-demon known as Saria put her face on her hands and said: "The times in hell have changed. That old scorpion can only throw his fists and is not as smart as his son. , I just want to follow a wise master."
"There's been some new news recently, but don't think of leaving me empty-handed." "Oh? What's it about?"
Seeing Jim's calm expression, Salia smiled and said as if she was helpless: "Bring me a glass of soul wine, add a little more blood of sinners, and I'll pay the highest price."
Only then did Jim nodded with satisfaction, turned around and took out the ingredients from the cabinet behind him to start mixing the wine. While adding the ingredients into the mixing glass, he said: "Some time ago, Dr. Schiller's apprentice summoned Beelzebub. Recently, Beelzebub's power has not responded to anyone's call, perhaps they have signed an exclusive agent contract."
"This is not really news." Salia shook her tail dissatisfiedly and said, "It happened more than half a month ago."
"Okay, have you heard about All Souls Cemetery in London?"
"What happened at All Souls Cemetery?" Salia leaned forward, making a curious gesture, staring closely at Master Dark Night's face with her red vertical pupils.
"Many graves in All Souls Cemetery have been dug up. The gravekeeper, Master Kaz, has not found the murderer yet. It is estimated that he will come here in a few days to issue a reward order."
Salia raised her eyebrows and said with some disdain: "It is probably done by those necromancers playing with skeletons again. There is nothing strange about this. You only need to see if the prices of undead materials on the black market have been reduced." ?”
But Dark Night Master Jim shook his head and said: "The strange thing is that the gravedigger only dug up each grave one by one, but did not take away a single body."
Salia frowned. She thought for a moment and said, "Could it be that the people buried in All Souls Cemetery have a grudge against him? But aren't most of them ordinary people there? There's no need for a magician to go there if he wants revenge. Dig ordinary people’s graves?”
"Who says not?" Jim handed the mixed wine to Salia and said: "We are more inclined to think that he wants to cause trouble for the tombkeeper Kaz, this eccentric necromancer who has occupied all souls.
Having been in the cemetery for so long, some people have long been unhappy with him."
Salia sighed softly while holding the wine glass and said: "I don't think it's that simple. If he really wants to cause trouble for Kaz, he should take away the body so that Kaz has no casting materials and dig up the graves one by one. In addition to angering Kaz, he should
Not much use outside of Kaz."
Just as he was talking about this, the door of the Forgotten Bar opened with a bang, and a gust of cold wind rushed in. The customer at the door cursed dissatisfiedly: "Which bastard is so rude?"
Gravekeeper Kaz? Why are you reluctant to leave All Souls Cemetery?"
"Because a damn bastard came to my place to cause trouble, and I came here to issue a reward!"
The necromancer named Kaz is a skinny little old man, wearing a tattered black robe, with a bunch of keys on his waist. Human bones can be vaguely seen in the rag bag full of traces of dirty mud and water.
"Long time no see, Master Kaz. We haven't seen each other since you became the Archmage, right?" Jim greeted him.
"Stop talking nonsense, Jim! Don't think I've forgotten that you were on Poppon's side. Get the reward order quickly. When I catch that damn bastard, I'll make him look good!"
Kaz knocked on the bar table very irritably. Jim didn't mind his rude attitude, but turned around to get the reward order from the cabinet and explained: "I just don't want two archmages in my bar.
If we fight, it will turn this place into ruins."
"That coward Popon didn't dare to fight with me. Everyone knows that he owes a debt to the Lava Lord. Now he doesn't even dare to leave the Mage Tower. I told you before that he will not end well!"
Kaz snorted coldly, but did not continue to curse. He lowered his head and picked up a pen and started filling out the reward order. Saria, who was sitting on the other side of the bar, put down her glass, walked to Kaz's side quietly, and said to him:
"Master Kaz, I have been honored for a long time. My name is Shalia. I heard that a bastard dug up the grave in All Souls Cemetery and angered you. Maybe I can be of some help."
Kaz raised his head and looked at Salia from head to toe with cold eyes. It wasn't until he saw the fur on her back that Kaz said: "Descendant of succubi? Get out of here, I don't have time to talk to her.
What kind of carnal games are you playing?"
Salia's face froze, but she still said: "If you issue a public reward order, then I can also take over the task. Why don't you explain the situation in detail so that everyone can understand."
Kaz hesitated for a moment, then tugged on his beard, and then said: "There are no details, but there is a bastard I can't catch who comes to my grave every night, and he just opens it, and he still
Taking the body out of the coffin and putting it on the ground made me have to clean it up every day during the day."
"Just a few nights later, he plowed the entire Wanling Cemetery and dug out almost all the corpses, but he didn't take away any of them. He's simply a madman!"
After a while, Kaz's reward order was finished, and Jim pinned it on the reward notice board, but almost everyone lost interest after just one glance.
Kaz is used to being stingy and offers very low prices, but what he has to deal with is a tomb robber who can hide from the eyes of the archmage. No one likes to do this kind of loss-making job, so this matter became a casual conversation among the guests in the tavern.
The conversation was laughed off.
Until about three o'clock in the morning, most of the guests dispersed, leaving only a few drunkards who were moved to the corner of the bar by the waiters. When the last waiter finished his work, the Dark Night Master felt a little sleepy.
Leaning on the bar and waiting for dawn.
But at this moment, there was a knock on the back door of the tavern. Jim was startled. He first turned on the lamp on the counter, then took out a lantern from under the cabinet and lit it. He held the lantern in one hand and pressed it on his waist with the other.
took the hilt of the sword and walked towards the back door.
With a "squeak", the door was opened, and the light of the lantern shone on a bearded face. A wave of cold air rushed in, and Jim's exclamation echoed at the door: "John Constantine?"
"It's me." Constantine looked a little tired and his voice was still hoarse. He held the door frame with one hand and held a dark object with the other. Jim's heart trembled. He took two steps back and said with a frown: "
What's wrong with you? Are you injured? Which demon is chasing you again?"
Constantine sighed, shook his head and said, "Didn't I tell you already? I have washed my hands in a golden basin. There is no magician Constantine anymore. I am just an ordinary person now."
"Ordinary people wouldn't knock on my door in the middle of the night. Come in." Jim stepped aside and illuminated the room with a lantern. He looked at Constantine's hands and feet and struggled to move the dark thing behind him.
Drag it in.
As soon as the thing appeared in the light, Jim gasped. It was a coffin, still stained with mud, and it looked like a black coffin that had just been dug out.
Constantine half-knelt on the ground, holding on to the lid of the coffin and panting for a while, before standing up and complaining: "Although I don't like to use magic to solve everything, it's really inconvenient without magic.
Do you have a toolbox here? I want to pry it open."
Jim slowly widened his eyes. In the dim room, he looked at Constantine and said, "Could you be the tomb robber that Kaz wants to put a reward on?"
"What kind of tomb robber? All Souls Cemetery was originally my territory, and the "dead man" gave it to me to take care of. That Kaz was just occupying a magpie's nest, and he thought he was the master there."
Constantine curled his lips, but Jim was still a little confused and said: "Even so, you don't need to dig a grave, right? Just drive Kaz away."
"It has nothing to do with that." Constantine shook his head and began to look for tools in the room that could pry open the coffin nails. After a while, he brought a crowbar, waved to Jim and said, "Come here.
You help me light it, I want to turn it on."
Jim stood in front of the coffin and watched Constantine insert the crowbar into the gap in the coffin. He frowned and asked, "Who is in the coffin?"
"Andrew Bennett."
Jim took a breath, a look of memory flashed across his face, and then he asked, "The vampire from the sixteenth century?"
Constantine nodded, and after fixing the crowbar, he stood up and stepped on the edge of the crowbar. An extremely harsh friction sound was heard, and a gap was opened in the coffin.
"Why did you dig him out?"
"I have something to do with him." Constantine said seriously: "Or maybe it's not that I have something to do with him... Forget it, let's wake him up first.
With a "bang" sound, the coffin lid was finally lifted by Constantine. The man lying inside had short black hair and a strand of white hair on the left side of his forehead. His face was melancholy and classically handsome, and his complexion was very pale.
There was only a trace of blood, and two fangs were faintly visible between the lips and teeth.
"Help me recite the spell to wake up the vampire." Constantine turned to look at Jim and said: "I can't use magic now. If I make a noise to wake him up, your bar may not be able to open tomorrow."
Jim sighed. Obviously, he had a close friendship with Constantine and could not refuse his proposal, so he pulled out the night blade from his waist, held the hilt of the sword with both hands, and whispered a few spells.
A ray of light opened on the forehead of the man in the coffin, and then spread all over his body, causing his entire body to emit a glistening white light.
The man's eyelids moved, and with the trembling of his eyelashes, he slowly opened his eyes. Constantine bent down and looked at him with concern.
When the vampire named Bennett saw Constantine's face, he hurriedly grabbed the cover of the coffin, and with a "bang", the coffin was closed again.
Jim suddenly turned his head and stared at Constantine. Constantine puffed up his cheeks and made a strange sound with his lips. He put one hand in his pocket and pinched two fingers of the other hand together and said.
"Back then, when we were investigating the cult together, we had a little... little accident."
