CH 13

Chapter 13 Interrogation

”He was backlashed by the sealed item, and his ability to move was limited. It took less than a day, and he was unlikely to have traveled very far. Based on the backtracking of the scene I just did, he did not take the subway, but left the station directly!”

”When a person is backlashed by the sealed items of the ‘demon’ sequence, they will often desire strong human souls and sacrifice them to the devil in order to calm the backlash against themselves.”

”So, Abner, my question for you is, where do you think people around here have the strongest desires and are the easiest to kill?”

Detective Isengard led the way ahead and asked his analysis questions to the Abners beside him with great interest.

”The strongest desire… Could it be that he is in a nearby brothel or the mansion of a wealthy noble?” Abner thought for a moment and said.

Isengard was speechless for a moment. Did his student put prostitutes and nobles on the same level? He had no choice but to remind: “There are more than one human desire… and this is the Jowood District, there are no brothels… and there may be bodyguards in the mansions of nobles and wealthy merchants, making rash killings without investigation is likely to fail.”

Abner was thoughtful when he heard the words. As a traveler, his knowledge of this world and this city is still very superficial, and it is normal to make mistakes when he lacks experience.

At this time, Hugh interjected directly: “It’s a bar! Although there are no brothels in the Jorwood area, many women who are hungry for money will go to high-end bars to find targets! Naturally, men who are looking for trouble will also go there… In addition, in the bar there must be underground casinos and all kinds of eating, drinking, and entertainment projects, where the most lustful people are!”

”That’s right, the little girl is right! And there are four bars in the entire Jorwood area, one of which is far away from here. Excluded, the other two particularly high-end rooms not only need an introducer to enter, but are also not too far from the Holy Wind Cathedral, and it is very likely to meet members of the Punisher team who are relaxing and looking for fun. This can also be ruled out. The last room is the Blue Spirit Bar three blocks away, and the traces I found point there!” Isengard nodded approvingly.

…

In a corner of the Blue Spirit Bar, two groups of five or six drunks were confronting each other with bottles of wine. They first cursed and then became more and more ugly, and then pushed and shoved. It seemed that they were about to fight. And in a shadow next to them that no one noticed, a figure quietly emerged. With a cruel smile on his face, the figure raised the three-edged thorn in his hand, intending to take advantage of the chaos to create a bloody crime and make the situation completely out of control.

He succeeded, and the sudden bloodshed made the two sides who were already at war completely red-eyed. They each grabbed the weapons at hand and struck each other, causing the scene to become even more chaotic!

A figure appeared on the edge of the crowd occasionally, taking a life each time it appeared.

After all these people had fallen in a pool of blood, the assassin carefully emerged from the shadows outside the bar. As he wiped the blood off the triangular thorn, he suddenly realized something was wrong – the altercation had not attracted the attention of the bar’s security, and he had not noticed this flaw until now.

Upon realizing this, he made a quick decision to slip back into the shadows and escape as far from there as possible.

Unfortunately, his stealthy action failed. At the same time, a command in ancient Hermetic language seemed to be whispered in his ear: Shadow stealth is forbidden here.

”Judge”! “Nightmare”! These two words entered his mind, and he couldn’t help but feel terror. How could he face a Sequence 6 and a Sequence 7 together?

Before he could finish his thoughts, he smelled a pleasant floral fragrance and felt uneasy, but before he had a chance to react, he fell unconscious.

It was then that an illusory curtain seemed to shatter, and the people who had died in the fight raised their glasses and fought again, and the fiery atmosphere returned, as if the fire from earlier was just a dream.

”It was indeed a dream! The combination of the abilities nightmare + judge + pharmacist were able to quietly take down a Transcendent with at least Sequence 8, even though these abilities are weaker than their original versions. And this is just the beginning…”

Abner and Hugh secretly moved the prisoner to a nearby, secluded alley, and at the same time, they were shocked by the methods of the great detective Isengard.

At this point, Isengard took off the ring on his hand and introduced it to the two with a smile: “This is a supernatural item of mine. It used to be code-named ‘2-081’, which originated from an out-of-control sequence 6 of the ‘reader’ path. It allows me to identify, see clearly, remember, and simulate all the extraordinary abilities I have seen. The stronger the extraordinary ability I face, the higher the probability of failure. Of course, even if I succeed, there will be a significant difference compared to the original version.”

Abner was already aware of this item, so he didn’t pay much attention to it. However, he secretly thought that since this ring is made of the extraordinary characteristics of an extraordinary person, it might be possible to analyze potion formulas with a pure white ring. He made a mental note to observe more when he goes to study with his teacher.

However, Hugh asked in confusion: “‘2-081’?” As she was not an official Extraordinary, she naturally did not know the meaning of the code name.

“Many mystical items have obvious hidden dangers and will cause certain harm. Therefore, the churches of the seven orthodox gods are collecting and sealing them, calling them ‘sealed items’, and distinguishing them with numerical codes.”

“After long disputes and exchanges, the Church of the Seven Gods formed a unified nomenclature, using ‘0’, ‘1’, ‘2’, and ‘3’ to identify different danger levels. Among them, the ‘0’ level is the most dangerous, and it is said that some terrible items that can destroy the country or even the world.”

“The churches of the seven orthodox gods will inform each other on the ‘0’ and ‘1’ sealed items, telling each other what they have, so the code names of the ‘0’ and ‘1’ levels will not be repeated. The ‘2’ and ‘3’ levels are sorted separately, and different churches may have the same code.”

Isengard simply explained a few words.

During this process, the three dragged the attacker to the corner of a deep alley. The big detective squatted down and lifted a manhole cover on the ground, revealing a dark pothole inside.

“This is one of the safe houses I dug, don’t worry, there is no danger.”

Hugh and Abner looked at each other, took a deep breath, and jumped down.

Isengard, on the other hand, supported the ladder on the side of the pothole and climbed down the steps, pulling the manhole cover back to its original position.

After lighting the candle, Abner discovered that this was not a real well, but a cave about 20 square meters in size and four meters deep. There is another door to the east of the cave, which I don’t know where it leads.

“That leads to the real sewer nearby! If it is blocked by someone, there is an emergency exit.”

Isengard noticed Abner’s gaze and explained something before clapping his hands and saying: “Okay, while the effect of the psychedelic potion has not disappeared, let’s interrogate the attacker. I learned the ability of a ‘mind reader’ before, and it should be able to make him spit out the truth,” both Abner and Hugh said with no objection.

They also want to know if there is a mastermind behind this person.

“My name is Turner, and I’m the ‘instigator’ of Sequence 8. I belong to an organization called ‘Society Society'[1], and my online connection is a ‘witch’ named Lina. I’ve been in one-line contact with her, and I haven’t seen any other organization members.”

“More than half a year ago, the organization gave me the task of trafficking human beings to several human traffickers through Lina without alerting the church… So I used a false identity named Xi Ke and joined a usury gangster, intending to complete the task while digesting the potion. So I instigated the gang leader Rosen to create a loan contract with traps, and used my extraordinary ability to persuade those lenders to accept the contract blindly, causing many people to die, and then abducted their family to complete the mission.”

“A month ago, because of my good performance, Lina suddenly appeared and rewarded me with a triangular thorn, a supernatural weapon. I asked her when she would give me the magic medicine formula of Sequence 7, but she said meaningfully that my awareness is not enough.”

“As for the badge, I found it when I stole the debtor’s compensation. It is a powerful item that can curse extraordinary people through emotions! Unfortunately, it was a bit damaged when the curse came back, and I’m not sure if it can be repaired.”

“In addition, I also came across another strange badge. It looks very ordinary and doesn’t seem to have any function, but the text on it leads me to believe that it could be a token of some kind of organization.”

Hearing this, Isengard frowned and searched his pockets, eventually pulling out another badge.

“Is this it?”

“Yes!”

All three pairs of eyes focused on the small badge, about the size of an eyeball. The front was engraved with symbols of fate and concealment, and the back had a circle of small, compact ancient Hermetic inscriptions:

“If you want to join us, have this.”

Abner didn’t recognize the ancient Hermes language, but Hugh was able to read it and translate the meaning.

“Maybe this is a clue to some kind of treasure!” Isengard said, his interest piqued. As a detective, he enjoyed solving puzzles.

Abner shook his head. He hadn’t recognized the badge at first, but once he heard the inscription, he remembered it from the original novel. He told Hugh and Isengard:

“This is the proof of membership for the hermit of fate, a secret organization made up of several thief families from the middle to late Fourth Epoch. Most of its members are related to the thief sequence.”

“Abner, you know a lot about the secrets of the Fourth Epoch,” Isengard commented, sighing slightly, but not asking for more information.

“I’m actually also quite knowledgeable about the Third Epoch, but if I were to share that information, I might be in trouble,” Abner thought to himself, then continued questioning Turner:

“How often do you contact Lina[2]? Does she know that you’ve cursed Hugh?”

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Tlor

[1]:- I am not sure which org is this. maybe Theosophy Order…

[2]:- properly Demoness Sect members who said the famous line to Tris on Lord of Mysteries, Chapter 66