"If the news is true -" A middle-aged nobleman with gray hair shook his right hand slightly. He pressed his left chest and bowed deeply.
"——Please allow me to go in person and complete this matter for you."
"It hasn't been confirmed yet, but the lamp in the Sunset Temple is indeed lit. It looks like it's very close."
Beside the blazing fire, a strong figure lowered his right hand on his chin and said solemnly.
"I have sent Yodel, he is more suitable for covert operations than Ada."
"You know how important this news is. Li Xiya even blocked the inner altar immediately in the name of the oracle, so we can't take the risk of unnecessary exposure. Only when it is finally confirmed, will I secretly send you
go."
"Of course, of course," the gray-haired middle-aged nobleman couldn't hide his excitement, "If the time comes, I will serve you wholeheartedly."
"Alas," the strong figure sighed, "I don't know why, I should have been more excited than you when I heard the news."
"But now, I am so calm."
——————————————————
Rick didn't know how he walked back to the Brotherhood headquarters.
That cold feeling on the back of my neck is always there.
When he saw the Brotherhood's underworld headquarters, the two elites playing finger-pricking games at the door, and the shadowy outposts outside the house, he walked into the big room, saw behind the iron table, and carefully checked the accounts.
Boss Maurice, when he saw the disdainful look of Belicia who was leaning against the pillars (Tonight Belicia's proposal to increase the brothel's funding was rejected), he felt really relieved. Even the man who had always been at odds with him
The killer Leyock also looked affable under the candlelight of the dinner table.
Unconsciously, the coolness on the back of his neck disappeared without a trace, as if it had never been there before.
Even Rick himself wondered if he was too nervous.
When he told Boss Morris, who was in charge of the population business, that he suspected that someone was following him, Leyock laughed and spit out a mouthful of ale, directly blowing out the candlestick on the table. Belicia yawned and blew out her huge penis.
Her chest tightened and she looked at him with even more contempt.
Boss Morris also looked strange when he saw him sweating all over his head. He patted Rick on the shoulder and told him not to be too tired in the near future and to watch less dramas in the Temple of Night. He would wait for the strange doctor Ramon to come back from his business trip.
Ask him to prescribe a tranquilizer.
Damn it!
Rick knew that it would be difficult for others to even believe in the existence of his superpower, let alone an assassin who followed him from an abandoned house to a dark street for a whole kilometer, invisible, with an unknown purpose but no movement -
But Rick subconsciously believed that the existence of that guy was real!
But when he returned to his room, lay down, and carefully recalled all the details of the stalking tonight, even he, who had always been suspicious, couldn't help but wonder, was he really too nervous?
Rick calmed down again and tried his powers again. Everything was normal, and his neck felt very comfortable on the velvet pillow.
Okay, maybe I'm overthinking it.
But the next moment, that thrilling coolness hit again!
Damn!
I can't sleep now!
Rick jumped out of bed.
He pulled out a box under the bed and dug out a Siegel-6 magic gun that was so heavy that it took two hands to drag it. He was so nervous that he pressed it against the solid wall, taking slow steps.
Step out into the hallway and listen carefully.
The corridor was filled with eternal lamps burning eternal oil, which illuminated the room extremely brightly, but there was still no one there. In the distance, a sentry brother on duty came back from using the toilet. He seemed to be scratching his crotch in black and red colors.
wearing leather armor and walking past Rick.
In the room at the end of the corridor, Leyock and Belicia's wanton and crazy roars were heard as usual.
"Damn it, these shameless couple, they'd better break it by using too much force." Rick cursed loudly.
The brother who had just passed the checkpoint turned around with sympathy and nodded to Rick. Their eyes met and they felt like they were close friends.
Then, Rick saw the other party scratching the leather armor on his crotch in pain, while the other party looked at him struggling to hold the magic gun against the wall.
Both of them turned their heads in embarrassment, the one going back to his post and the other going back to his room.
Rick touched the back of his neck.
Damn it, this damn power must be malfunctioning.
Besides, if the other party touches the Brotherhood headquarters where there are many experts, and no one discovers it, then holding the magic gun will definitely be useless, even the superpower of Boss Morris will be useless.
sleep.
——————————————————
Thales' back injury looked bad, but it didn't seem serious, because it was only the third day that he could stand up and walk.
With Naruto's attributes and talents, Tails stood in line and sighed, looking at the broken houses and broken walls around him. He took the black bread and wild vegetables from the thug Pierson and bit into his mouth.
It's a pity that I was born in such a place.
"There is a sharp branch next to you. You must have secretly cut my hand!"
"It's not me! My hand was cut last night too!"
"The hands of everyone in our house were cut! It must be the people in the eighth house! They are jealous of our harvest yesterday!"
"It turns out it's them! Our people in the fourteenth house were also cut during the night! They don't want us to go out on the street to 'touch the sheep'!"
Thales yawned and listened lazily to several beggars in other rooms. The quarrel turned into a fight. The beggars next to him were even booing until the thugs came to stop him. He sighed and swallowed the last
After a bite of unpalatable breakfast, I clapped my hands and called the beggars in the sixth house.
start work.
That day was Tuesday, and the begging in House No. 6 went relatively smoothly. In order to get more business, they went directly to the west city gate near the checkpoint. The past week seemed to be the celebration of the God of the Sunset, but I heard that the oracle had descended and the Sunset Temple was closed.
The inner altar has caused many believers to enter the city from the west gate during this week, climb the city wall, and pray to the sunset to make up for the regret of not being able to pray to the spokesperson of the sunset goddess in the world.
Before the guards turned their glares into actions to stop him, Thales, with the help of Ryan and Coria, even managed to pass from a fat fruit and vegetable vendor to a statue of the bright moon carved from black wood. That vendor paid too much attention to himself
The wallet in his arms was gone, so when Ryan and Colia were bargaining with him for a piece of alfalfa, Thales reached for the package behind him.
The market value of this statue of the God of the Bright Moon should be at least fifty coppers. Of course, this kind of stolen goods cannot be seen in the light and can only be sold through the channels of the Brotherhood. The veterans of the Brotherhood know that they are just beggars and thieves, and they are even more knowledgeable.
If you try your best to lower the price (you will even rob something valuable if you encounter one), it will be good if you can exchange it for five coppers.
But no matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat.
When Thales and everyone returned to the abandoned house, they saw Rick, who came to inspect as usual, without his usual kindness and indifference. Instead, he hurriedly gave a few instructions to the thugs and disappeared from sight.
"Is Mr. Rick in trouble?" the hungry Kolya asked, biting her fingers. They walked far away and came back late. Fortunately, Thales had a good relationship with Pearson, the thug who delivered the food, and they often bribed him.
After receiving a small gift, the latter agreed to leave food for them.
"Maybe it's Quaid, that guy is the most troublesome." Kellett said, his stomach growling.
Hearing this name, Ned and Ryan both shuddered.
"Boys, there is no food tonight." The six children entered the deserted dining courtyard. When they saw them from a distance, Pearson, who was responsible for the meal, waved his hand.
"Don't look at me, there's nothing I can do." Faced with the angry but somewhat lacking confidence of the six children, Pearson just shook his head indifferently, "Rick gave an order to go to bed early tonight, and the schedule will be the same.
Earlier."
In the end, Thales negotiated hard and used the statue of the bright moon as a price to get four and a half black bread and half a bowl of black pineapple from Pearson, which he had planned to cut off and leave for his two hounds.
"Both Rick and Quaid have been a little nervous lately." When the other five children had eaten, Pearson revealed a piece of news to Thales before leaving. "Quaid's temper has been getting worse and worse recently.
He's been cursing "baldhead" all day long - but that's what he's like - but Rick has become very strange, especially in the past two days. People in the headquarters said, "
Having said this, Pearson looked around and whispered in Thales' ear: "He is haunted by a ghost."
Thales looked at Pearson walking away, took a bite of black bread that was usually unpalatable, but became especially delicious when he was hungry, and thought silently.
I don’t know what happened to Rick to make him hit a ghost.
But what made Quaid's temper worse and worse? Thales swallowed a mouthful of bread, and it seemed that he had to keep a low profile recently.
————————————————————
Rick became nervous again.
In the past two days, he had always thought that there was something wrong with his superpower.
It wasn't until this morning, when he prepared supplies for the next batch of beggars and opened the roster, that he truly confirmed that his powers were correct.
Rick is a very ambitious person. And he believes that to realize his ambition, he must start with small things, such as some careful daily habits, such as never writing down his itinerary and plans on paper, such as in drawers and boxes.
In important documents and documents, he would put a few hairs in an inconspicuous place to prevent others from stealing and peeking. For example, he never hid money in one place, etc. He had always been proud of his caution and thought that
One day such caution will be duly rewarded.
For example now.
Rick opened the list of beggars.
On the roster, the hair on every page is in the same position.
This should be a good thing, meaning the roster is untouched.
But Rick is the son of a scribe.
His father had taught him that if he was careful, every good thief and ranger could easily avoid such "hair-pin" secrecy laws and open the desired documents without anyone noticing.
So Rick got a more cautious approach from his father.
The secret to flipping through documents unnoticed when hair is caught in the pages is to ensure that the hair is still in its original position after flipping through.
The fastest way is to hold your hair in place. When turning the page, hold the upper and lower pages between your hands and continue to hold the hair in place.
How to break this method?
Like the nobles, sealing directly with fire paint is of course the fastest and safest.
But Rick has a kind of light xerogel made by his father, which is made of bluefish oil. This is a gel specially used by poor people who live by the river. The characteristic (disadvantage?) of this xerogel is that its adhesive force is not strong.
, as long as the book is not too heavy, after the pages are coated, even if the book is closed, the glued areas will not stick. You must use external force to press the glued sides tightly for a short period of time before the pages will stick.
When Rick opened the roster, he found that all the hair was still in place, except for a little bit.
These hairs are tightly stuck to the pages of the book.
Someone looked at their list of beggars and flipped through the pages with their hair in their hands.
Rick felt a chill in his heart.
Moreover, it takes an absolute master to keep the four hairs clipped in different but inconspicuous positions on the pages of the book in place without leaving any trace.
Fortunately, I was able to discover the secrets taught by my father.
Four days ago, because I saw the begging scene performed by Tails, I looked through the roster in order to find the house where the boy Tails was. At that time, everything was normal.
But as of today, someone has come to his room in the past four days and looked through the list of beggars?
Rick's scalp went cold, and he suddenly realized that this was not the most important thing.
So he rolled around and opened the secret compartment of the drawer and pulled out the most important human transaction ledger, his secret deposit book in Wang's Bank.
The account books and deposit books are both safe, with no trace of being turned over, and the hair in the pages has fallen naturally.
Rick breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, the things in these hidden compartments haven't been - wait.
If you are a master, how can you miss the secret grid?
Rick tremblingly pulled out the entire secret compartment, opened it, and touched his hand to the place where the hair should be held on the secret compartment.
Then he collapsed in his chair.
The hair is firmly stuck to the joints of the hidden grid with Rick's unique light drying gel.
When Rick walked into the restaurant in despair, turning a blind eye to Leyock and Belicia who were flirting, on the contrary, Leyock, who had always been at odds with each other, gloated to him.
"Accountant, I heard that you encountered a ghost recently?"
Rick ignored him and just continued to sit down expressionlessly. He took a bottle of ink from the table, used it as sauce, and poured it on his steak.
"Ignore him," Belicia sat in Leyoke's arms with a smile on her face, glanced at the killer coquettishly, and fed a glass of red wine into his mouth, "Will you come to my room tonight?"
"Of course, of course," Leyock hurriedly replied without waiting for the red wine to be swallowed, "I just found out today that the boss moved all the checkpoints outside the house a week ago, so we might as well tonight -
Hey--be a little crazy."
"Oh, you are so bad——"
"Clang!" The ink bottle in Rick's hand fell to the table, and the ink spread across the table and flowed in front of the man and woman on the other side.
He raised his head with a pale face and looked at Leyock and Belicia who looked unhappy.
“A week ago, a week ago—were there no sentry guards in the headquarters’ big house?”
"Nonsense," Leyock brushed off the ink on his body and threw a piece of bread in displeasure, hitting Rick in the face. "The boss said that the recent big operation against the Blood Bottle Gang should be kept secret. The fewer people there are, the better."
Okay, so the checkpoints have been moved outside the house, and you can’t even go inside to use the toilet - but you don’t have to worry, you still have an inseparable ghost protecting you."
"Then, in the corridor," Rick didn't realize that his voice was trembling at the moment, "there are no checkpoints in the corridor, right?"
Leyock and Belicia had already forgotten him and kissed each other as if no one else was around.
Rick took a deep breath.
I was followed inexplicably in the abandoned house the day before yesterday, there were sentry brothers who should not have existed in the corridor of the headquarters that night, and the list of beggars in the room was carefully read.
Great, everything is connected.
Now, Narric, he said to his trembling nervous self:
You're being targeted.
The opponent may be very powerful, so powerful that he can come and go freely in the underworld headquarters with many sentries, so powerful that even a terrible killer like Leyock is not aware of it, and an experienced supernatural warrior like Boss Morris is unaware of it.
I was the only one who was lucky enough to discover this thanks to my late father.
He might be right behind me.
I must save myself, save myself!
I want to find his purpose!
Rick's brain was working like crazy.
The other party must have turned his room upside down in the past two days, but he only read the list of beggars carefully.
The more important ledgers are abandoned like worn-out shoes.
The thing the other party was looking for was on the list of beggars! By the way, I was targeted near the abandoned house, which happened to be where the beggars lived!
What he is looking for is a certain beggar!
However, Rick thought with a headache, he had more than a hundred beggars on hand, and next month, Beth would send another batch. These are children whose origins are unknown or who have no future problems (important and valuable children,
For example, the descendants of some powerful people and the children of some wealthy businessmen have long been redeemed and killed.) Which beggar does he want?
With his superb skills and terrifying strength, why don't he make demands on the Brotherhood openly? We will just give it to you!
I would rather cooperate with him in every item, even if I pull out all the more than a hundred beggars one by one, strip and search them, or even kill them all for autopsy, it is better than being hung up from a distance by a "ghost" in fear every day.
!
Wait, I seem to have thought of the key.
Why didn't he make demands on the Brotherhood openly?
Of course, this matter cannot be known to anyone, not even the Black Street Brotherhood!
Is it a competitor of the Brotherhood? No, if the Blood Bottle Gang had such strength, the Black Street Brotherhood would have been destroyed dozens of times.
That is, he neither has formal channels nor bothers to deal with the Black Street Brotherhood in Lower City!
Of course, such a terrifying person would not be so low-level as to deal with gangsters from the slums.
Why is he interested in these orphans who have been dead for many years?
To find missing children, wouldn't it be okay to go directly to the Police Department to report the case? Moreover, for people and forces of this level, the Police Department does not dare to neglect, and even the Brotherhood can only bow its head.
Wait! A light flashed through Rick's mind, and he seemed to have grasped the key point.
He has great strength, comes and goes without a trace, acts secretly, is interested in the origin of a certain child, and has a level far higher than that of the Underworld Brotherhood.
Strength must be accumulated with money and resources. The secret is because the disclosure of this matter will be detrimental to him. The reason for not dealing with the Brotherhood is because his level is too high. He has collected information about the Brotherhood from various sources.
Are children interested...
My strength may be above the extreme level, and behind him is a high-ranking person who controls power and wealth. However, he avoids any eyes and ears from the Brotherhood to the Security Office, and secretly searches for a certain important child - a child?
Rick slapped his thigh hard, and a string in his mind seemed to click through instantly!
He is involved in the bloodline succession struggle of some big families!
Damn!
Rick stared fiercely at Layok and Belicia, who were on the opposite side and had already begun to raise and lower their hands.
It's just that his thoughts have long left the man and woman in front of him.
Maybe the fifteen million people in the entire Kingdom of Stars didn't know that one day, a secret truth that could shake up the entire kingdom and shake up the situation on the eastern and western continents was once so close to an inconspicuous little gang leader.