CH 98

Chapter 98: Castle Cry (XXV)

The rooftop garden was filled with ruins, and the traces of the explosion and fire were everywhere. Qi Leren took a deep breath of the smokey and damp air, then walked to the treasure chest left by the crazy lady’s death, hesitated, and called Dr. Lu back: “Come and open the box!”

Dr. Lu came running, panting. He tripped and almost fell on the bumpy ground along the way. Fortunately, Su He gave him a hand.

“Do you really want me to open it for you?” Dr. Lu asked earnestly, his eyes shining and his face irrepressible.

“I’m sure,” Qi Leren also said seriously. This was the time to trust the European emperor, not to be cheap.

“Er… Su He, is there any law or metaphysics in opening the box?” Dr. Lu asked.

“Generally speaking, most treasure chests contain strange disposable goods, a few have skill cards, and there are also pure card slots or attributes. Some people even encounter random tasks. There’s almost no rules they follow. In fact, skill cards may not be good, but some props will have magical effects at critical moments. If you’re lucky enough, you may open them and find legendary resurrection items,” Su He smiled and said.

Qi Leren’s heart hitched. He forced himself not to look at Su He. He didn’t know whether Su He suddenly mentioned the resurrection items intentionally or unintentionally. He could only pretend to be natural enough…

It should be a coincidence… Su He mentioned a similar resurrection skill card a long time ago. Now, it was just to explain the relationship between the box and luck. He was just feeling guilty!

“Then I’ll open it. If I open a binding skill card, you won’t get your share,” Dr. Lu reminded Qi Leren.

Qi Leren tried to calm down: “Open it.”

Dr. Lu put his finger on the lock, and the golden box opened.

Dr. Lu glanced at the skill card and said, “This should be good, here.”

[Demon Etiquette (Unbound Skill Card): For each use, one demon crystal must be used. If the demon crystals in your inventory are insufficient, the skill cannot be used. During the equipment of this skill, the player will gain the appearance of a demon, in accordance with the type of consumed demon crystal, but no demon talents will be obtained. The skill lasts for 3 hours and the cooling time is 24 hours.]

This is…

Qi Leren looked at the skill card in his hand. His intuition told him that this skill card was unusual, but he couldn’t tell what was unusual. He looked at Su He for help: “This card… should be useful?”

Su He took a look at the skill card and said a little unexpectedly: “A very good skill. If there are tasks involving demons in the future, maybe you can pretend to be one of them, but you need demon crystals to do it…”

Su He didn’t continue, but gave Qi Leren a meaningful look, and the latter immediately understood what he wanted to say: Right now he should stay away from the demon crystals, otherwise the seed of slaughter in him would soon get out of control.

“It seems I’m lucky, hey,” Dr. Lu said triumphantly.

Su He looked at him with a smile and nodded appreciatively.

“Let’s go back and get dinner.” Qi Leren reached out and tried to clap Dr. Lu’s shoulder. When he lifted his arm, however, this arm that he had rolled on to avoid the crazy lady was in terrible pain, having been severely bruised.

When Dr. Lu saw it, he quickly sought to treat him: “Don’t worry about the skill cooling time now. I’ll treat you first. Although it’s not perfect, it’s better than nothing.”

The “Doctor’s Orders” skill was quite reliable. Qi Leren’s bruises on his forehead, the cuts on his arms, and bruises all over his body quickly faded and scabbed over, but it could only reach this level. If he was now suffering from fatal injuries, this skill would be powerless, and would only serve to make him die more slowly at most.

The wounds healed and the pain eased. Qi Leren waved his arm happily and thanked him. Seeing that Su He was still studying the ashes left by the crazy lady after her death, he asked curiously, “Is there anything wrong?”

“There’s nothing wrong, just a little strange. After Dr. Lu burned the Devil’s sacrifice before, the crazy lady didn’t weaken, but became stronger…” After thinking, Su He said, “It probably caused her madness. At first, her body was hard and it was difficult to hurt her. After burning the sacrifice, her defense and speed dropped sharply. Reusing the ashes left by Luo Xueyi should further stimulate her strength. The attack power and attack means were stronger. This state couldn’t last long.”

Qi Leren scratched his head. Although he’d tried his best to avoid it just now, a few strands of hair were burnt by the fiery rain, giving off an odd smell: "Unfortunately, I didn’t find Xiao Hong’s half-body, otherwise we could have used it… Why did you pull my arm?”

Dr. Lu turned his eyes and pulled his arm to the side: “You can’t see well, get more vitamin A to enhance your night vision.”

Looking in the direction of Dr. Lu’s finger, behind the bush illuminated by a flashlight, Xiao Hong’s half-body was impressively hanging on a big tree, which was very eye-catching.

Qi Leren was silent.

“It’s too dark, and it was extremely tense. It’s normal not to notice it,” Su He calmly comforted Qi Leren.

Qi Leren continued to remain silent.

The three people burned the remaining half of Xiao Hong’s body, and then left the rooftop garden. The time left was running out, so they had to leave the castle quickly to finish the task.

When they went downstairs, Qi Leren asked, “What’s the completion of our task now?”

“91%,” Su He said.

“Wow, we can get the lucky draw opportunity! More than 90% let’s us randomly draw once! I like it!” Dr. Lu got excited.

“There’s still 9%. Where’s the difference?” Qi Leren recalled the plot of the task and felt that they shouldn’t be missing too much.

Dr. Lu hesitated: “Well, now the story has been mostly explored. A long time ago Sarah fell in love with Johann who was not of noble birth, and Johann married Sarah for some purpose — maybe emotion or  interest. Sarah found out that her maid Adeline was having an affair with Johann. She secretly killed Adeline and pretended that she had eaten food she was deathly allergic to. No one discovered it was a murder except Mrs. Sarah’s family doctor Flajser. The time frame of the above things is unclear, but they’re generally true. After that, Mrs. Sarah and Mr. Johann came to China for business and built and lived in this castle. In order to avenge Adeline, Dr. Flajser also came to China from Germany. In order to prevent Mrs. Sarah’s genetic disease from being passed on to the next generation, Mr. Johann had been using the method provided by Dr. Flajser to prevent contraception. He instructed his maid Nina to put mercury powder in Mrs. Sarah’s diet. Later, when Nina found out about this. Nina was worried that she was poisoning Mrs. Sarah, so she reduced the dose without authorization. Later, Mrs. Sarah became pregnant. Nina heard the conversation between Dr. Flajser and Mr. Johann, and found that they were going to continue to feed her mercury powder so that Mrs. Sarah would give birth to a deformed fetus and allow it to be killed. Nina was afraid of Mrs Sarah’s genetic disease and caused an accident. Mrs. Sarah fell down the stairs and miscarried. After the miscarriage, Mrs. Sarah’s mental state deteriorated sharply - this may have been Dr Flajser’s doing - and she began to suspect that everything was caused by the dead Adeline’s demons, and the relationship between husband and wife began to break down. Then the Devil bewitched her in the mirror and taught her how to perform the sacrifice. Mrs. Sarah, who loved her husband deeply, sacrificed to the Devil to save his love. However, the sacrifice made her mental illness more and more serious. Until finally, she sacrificed Nina and went completely crazy. Mrs. Sarah, under the control of the Devil, personally killed everyone and set fire to the castle, and the story ended.”

“It sounds like we haven’t missed any important clues.” Qi Leren thought that the clues they had were very complete, yet there was still 9% missing.

Su He analyzed the two in an orderly way: “This degree of completion means that we have completed the main story, and the conclusion of the puzzle is correct, but some clues and evidence are missing. If we must study it deeply, there are three dark lines that we have not excavated. One is about Nina. Her behavior seems reasonable, but it seems strange when you look deeper into it. In order to avoid the genetic disease that would come from Mrs. Sarah giving birth, she chose to force her to miscarry. Didn’t this cause Mrs. Sarah to go crazy? Her original words are also very interesting, ‘I feel like I must have been persuaded by the Devil’, so we don’t know if she was influenced by the Devil like the crazy lady. Nina’s attitude, which was seen in the phantom when she created the last Devil sacrifice, was also very subtle. She sympathized with the crazy lady and implied guilt, but vaguely, she was also jealous, which was not the emotions that a clever maid should have. At another point, Nina said that since she confessed to Mr. Johann that she had reduced the dosage of mercury powder, this matter was handed over to other maids, and she was also locked up, but after Mrs. Sarah miscarried, went mad, and was locked up in the basement, Nina was still responsible for delivering her food… What did she do to make Johann trust her again?”

Su He stroked the decoration on his walking stick, slowly dissecting the plot, and the details that were excavated by him made others feel uneasy. Qi Leren suddenly thought of a possibility. Nina had pushed the crazy lady down the stairs and caused her to miscarry. Was this really for her? Was it true that this wouldn’t kill two people? Was Nina’s original intention really to help the crazy lady? What exactly did she want to do?

“The second one is Luo Xueyi. She suddenly appeared on the stairs with the hanging portrait, and died with half of Xiao Hong’s body after setting on fire. She’s even more complicated than Nan Lu, and her behavior is full of metaphors and mysteries. During the period from her disappearance to her self-immolation, we likely missed a lot of her story, which led to a decline in the degree of completion. Finally, there is Dr. Flajser. Don’t forget, there’s no evidence about Dr. Flajser. It’s all based on subjective speculation. We must have missed some evidence that can testify against Dr. Flajser, such as the mercury powder or some hallucinogens left by him somewhere in this castle, and even more letters between him and Mr. Johann.”

Qi Leren thought deeply. The clues about the first two would be hard to find, but there should still be hope of finding Dr. Flajser’s things. Where could they find them? It should’ve been John’s study on the second floor, but he, Dr. Lu and Nan Lu searched the study before. There should be no more clues. Could they find them now? This was the outer world after the fire. Even if there were clues, they probably…

“Go away, you still want to make a 100% clearance? Don’t waste your time, just finish the task quickly.” Dr. Lu grabbed Qi Leren who was still thinking and walked him down the stairs.

“Wait a minute. The keys, give me the keys for the second floor!” Qi Leren suddenly remembered something and grabbed Dr. Lu’s shoulder. “No, I don’t need the key. Come with me!”

“Ah? What are you doing?” Dr. Lu, who was at a loss, was pulled by Qi Leren and ran to the second floor on the broken floor.

With the memory of the layout of rooms in the castle, Qi Leren quickly found the room he was looking for. At this moment, all he could think about was what Nina had said when they went to see her for the last time: She sneaked over to the Master’s study to give him a surprise… Then she saw that the Master was looking sorrowfully at Adeline’s picture. I thought she would rush in and scream bloody murder at her husband, just like before, but she didn’t.

The door opened.

In the old and dilapidated study, facing the door was the sofa where Nan Lu once sat, and a picture hanging on the wall behind the sofa. The room was not badly burned, and Johann, the handsome man in the portrait, was still faintly visible.

Qi Leren strode in. This was the only place that could have been seen by the crazy lady standing at the door.

He carefully took off the picture frame and turned it over. Sure enough, there was a photo behind the frame.

Qi Leren’s heartbeat suddenly quickened. He vaguely realized that he should have found an important clue. He took a deep breath and took this photo down, turning it over to the front.

There was only one person in the photo, who looked like a young girl dressed as a maid, smiling at the camera.

“Is that Adeline?” Dr. Lu as he looked at the photo.

Qi Leren suddenly understood.

“She has another name.” Qi Leren closed his eyes and recalled that girl who solemnly went to the altar of the Devil of Fraud in the cold underground palace.

“Her name is Isabel, an… excellent witch.”

Adeline, the smiling maid in the photo, overlapped with Isabel, the winner of the Witchcraft Sacrifice.

This was a story about love, deception, jealousy, and madness. Everyone in the story was lost in their own desires and sins. Whether it was Johann who was fascinated by her, Sarah who was jealous of her, Nina who was incited by her, or Flajser who avenged her, she played with them like marionettes.

In just the blink of an eye, Isabel, the witch who served the Devil of Fraud, had become a witch who was good at playing with people’s hearts.