"If it was a prison guard, there would be many ways to contact Colin... There's no need to do this, so it must not be a prison guard."
"In a prison, there are only prisoners besides the guards. I naturally suspect that there is something hidden in the bodies of these prisoners, or that they are faking their deaths."
"After all, you will all go to the playground for activities. This is the only place where the prisoners from both sides have a chance to cross paths."
"But your activities are at different times, and you can't meet Colin in person, so you can only ask him to burn the information and use this method to monitor the movements above."
"Am I right?"
"You are more difficult than the rumors say."
Josiah said noncommittally.
"But your luck ends here."
"You've ruined so many things for us so far. It's time for your story to end."
"Then you are the Eclipse man."
Hitzfeld narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Tell me your name?"
"Marlon Exxon." The other party laughed.
"Broken his spine... You were very prescient, Detective."
"You're lucky this time."
"See you next time."
"Who let you go?"
Belmalen shouted angrily and rushed over, smashing his upper body in half with another blow.
"Stop it! Belmaren!"
Hitzfeld quickly called out to him.
"He's not Josiah!"
"That body is dead!"
Belmaren stopped immediately. He and the others watched the tragic pieces of flesh and blood sliding down the wall bit by bit. He turned around and asked, "So the situation is more serious?"
"Yes."
The girl sighed.
"I'm afraid we'll have to call for reinforcements."
Chapter 28: Unrest and Reinforcements (Two in One)
After a rigorous screening and interrogation of all the prison guards, prison guards and prison guard captains, it was almost dark.
The scene was cordoned off and a temporary gag order was issued to everyone. A comprehensive disinfection process was carried out under the confused gaze of the crowd. Hitzfeld wrote two letters and asked people to take them to Lieutenant Colonel Cab and Mayor Hayden. He then met up with Frick who had rushed over after hearing the news. The group bought some bread nearby for dinner.
"I'm surprised you were able to tame Belmaren."
Holding the bread, Frick took the initiative to find Hitzfeld, and this was the first sentence he said.
He was indeed surprised that Belmaren could be tamed. The shock this incident brought to him was actually much more exaggerated than the series of strange events that happened around Manion.
After all, he had been traveling around for a long time, and he had encountered no less than twenty evil tragedies himself, and had cooperated with Shadow Lion to deal with countless more. The death of a few people could not cause him any waves in his heart.
But Belmalen was different, he was their old classmate… Although this so-called classmate was just a casual address and they had never actually had any interactions, it was precisely because of this that Frick felt that he knew Belmalen very well and understood the pride in this man’s heart.
"Not worthy of being tamed." Hitzfeld was not satisfied with this statement. She looked downstairs through the prison window, where a bloated shadow stood. It was the white-bearded knight in full armor.
"At best, it's just mutual recognition."
There are some issues with Belmaren, but after meeting him, Hitzfeld believes that the man himself is not a problem.
This can be deduced from the fact that Red still trusts him. The commander-in-chief of the Flint Knights will not easily trust a guy who has the potential to betray him. Here, "it is better to kill the wrong person than to let him go", so there is no need to worry that he will become the second Daelin.
"How should I put it?" Frick thought for a moment, "I've heard that he only recognizes those who are strong enough and not completely normal in their heads."
What does it mean?
Hitzfeld narrowed his eyes slightly.
"It's not derogatory." Frick said this meaningfully. "To judge whether a sentence is right or wrong, you can't just look at the sentence itself, but also look at who said it."
"Then the person who said that must be unpopular." Hitzfeld immediately concluded, "It must be those 'Jazz', right? They are a group of people who are used to comfort and enjoyment. Of course, they will think that the other group of people are abnormal."
By now she understood why Belmaren was so easy to accept and acknowledge her - the Whitebeard Knight probably thought that there was "something wrong" with her brain.
Of course, as Frick said, this is not a derogatory term. Let's take Belmaren himself as an example: he obviously has the most advanced military force among all the golds, but he does not fight or compete, but just quietly practices and honestly completes various tasks.
During this process he did not eat gluttonously, make friends, indulge in lust, or flatter. According to the theory of those words, his brain was not normal.
I suppressed him in a head-on confrontation. On the one hand, he acknowledged my strength, but on the other hand, he might have thought, "A person with such ability was willing to suffer grievances and run around on missions in the past. Isn't this the same as me?"
…So that’s why he accepted me.
After figuring it out, Hitzfeld was a little amused.
She now had a good impression of Belmaren, but he was by no means a smart character. It was hard for her to be compared with him in terms of reason, but the reason was so noble that it was really a compliment to her from another perspective.
Praising her for her self-respect, for not being depraved, and for having lofty ideals made her feel a little embarrassed and she didn't want to continue the topic.
"I hope you or Carlo can find a way to contact Wayne." She said, "I feel that the series of events in Xixinna... Manion are different from previous cases. That person has already admitted his identity as a cultist. The Eclipse Church has been planning here for many years. Their plan is definitely not as simple as overthrowing a diocese. Whether we need support or not, the White Shadow Palace must be prepared for this matter."
"I thought so too, so I asked Carlo to do it," said Flick.
"He left already?"
"left already."
"Do you have a plan?"
"We learned about it while you were asleep. It's difficult to send telegrams from either Sicinna or Manion. He plans to cross the rift to the city on the other side of the east. It will be easier once he gets there."
"Sorry... this should have been something I asked."
"It's impossible for you to do everything." Frick shook his head. "On the contrary, that person... Can you tell me the situation in more detail?"
He was asking about "Josiah," the corpse that had risen from the dead.
That was no problem, of course. Hitzfeld thought that he still had the blood spirit technique and could send the message himself later, so he verbally explained the situation to him again.
After they were done, the two began to discuss - how could they bring consciousness into a dead body out of thin air and manipulate it?
"Could it be the infusion of spirits?" Frick guessed, "I know there is a man-made evil spirit called a 'corpse puppet', which is made of living people. The creator can infuse spirits into it to control its activities. It can have the characteristics of both evil creatures and nightmares."
Evil creatures include animals that are alive in reality but polluted by evil spirits. Nightmares are monsters hatched from nightmares, and their most notable feature is that they can travel back and forth between the dream world and reality.
"It's not a corpse doll." Hitzfeld ruled out this option. "The appearance of a corpse doll is too recognizable. It looks like a mummy. The body of 'Josiah' is intact, and after inspection, it was confirmed that there are no signs of modification on his body."
One of the most important steps in the production process of corpse dolls is to transplant the flesh and blood of evil creatures or nightmares. At the very least, body fluids must be used, which can be easily detected.
"What else could it be?"
Frick was confused, he couldn't think of any other possibility.
"It could be... a virus."
"Virus?"
"Do you know Talion?" Hitzfeld looked up at the night sky, and his memory went back to the time when he lived with the descendants of the dragon.
"I heard that there was a coup in Talignan." Frick frowned. "Two years ago? I can't remember... Are you saying that what happened here is related to Talignan?"
"The Tarignan coup was supported by Eclipse." Hitzfeld remained in his pose. "They secretly supported an ambitious man and an organization called the Deathly Hallows. Imaar and I were involved in the entire process."
"But unfortunately, until we eliminated that guy and dispelled the shadow of the Necromancer Party from that land, we were unable to track down the Eclipse."
"What you mean is that you have no evidence, but you think a solar eclipse was involved at the time?" Frick frowned. Isn't this good?
"Do I need evidence?" Hitzfeld asked him directly.
Frick then realized that she was no longer the little detective she used to be.
As the Earl of Xieyang and an important official of the kingdom, let alone doubt, if she says there is a problem with something, then there is a problem with that thing. Her title and status are endorsed by the entire country. Does she still need to follow the rules and procedures?
That's not necessary.
"When things get critical to a certain extent, suspicion alone is enough for us to make a decision." Hitzfeld smiled at him, "And my suspicion is not groundless, right? Talignan is not a small country that changes its regime within a year. Without support behind it, I don't believe that the Mimic can appear again."
“They’re all viruses—”
Her tone became serious.
"Consciousness is attached to the virus body, replacing individual personal consciousness with overall pan-consciousness. This explains why 'Marlon Exxon' was able to do it, because he is a virus, and he just attached a part of himself to Josiah's body."
In fact, she had another guess that she hadn't mentioned, which was another case involving Manion. The core reason why she and Xia Yibing came here was Sixus's heart. This thing was also closely related to the Mimic and the alien virus.
The connection of one place can be explained by coincidence, but what if they are all connected?
She didn't think she was overthinking.
"Isn't this just speculation?" Frick asked cautiously.
To be honest, he would rather hope that this was just a guess, especially that Hitzfeld was wrong. Because if this was the case, then it would be hard to say that they, the Flint Knights, would be of any use.
You asked us to deal with physical enemies, even if it's an emperor worm, we dare to fight it.
But viruses? Bacteria?
How do you fight this thing? Power armor and crusher hammers are useless, right?
Thinking about this, Frick finally understood why she ordered the entire prison to be disinfected with alcohol.
So those two letters... should be reminding the military and administration to carry out disinfection throughout the diocese?
Frick was overwhelmed for a moment.
He knew too well the difficulty of this project... Xixinna Parish is not a prosperous place like the Central Parish or Xinze Parish. It is easier for you to carry out large-scale disinfection there, but there are so many slave laborers circulating here every day. Do you expect the slave owners to disinfect them?
Stop dreaming, okay?
Some people were too lazy to even set up dormitories separated by gender, and were reluctant to provide bath water. In their eyes, slaves were not human beings but tools of labor. He felt that Hitzfeld was really overthinking it.
"Do your best first, and then see how the situation develops further."
Hitzfeld nodded.
"And don't be too pessimistic."
"It's true that heavy armor can't fight the virus, but Kangana, is Flint's spirit passed down through armor?"
"of course not."
Frick's face turned serious.
He thought of the Golden Trial.
Yes... Armor certainly cannot protect against bacteria and viruses that can penetrate anywhere, but are there any bacteria and viruses that can contaminate a knight's body?
No!
This is not because the spiritual will has the specific power to prevent disease, but because they can endure the burning pain of flint powder and the pain of metal toxins!
Although metal toxins can also destroy the knight's body, they may accidentally have a beneficial effect, which is that they will keep other viruses that invade the body out and burn to death any that dare to come in!
Then we really have nothing to fear.
Frick perked up.
He realized that even those ordinary knights who did not pass the golden trial, even if they did not awaken that spirit and did not realize the other magical effect of metal poisons, it did not mean that those metal poisons were ineffective.
They are still working, whether it is the bad side - destroying the knight's physical skills, or the good side - protecting the knight from other diseases, they are always effective.
After realizing what was happening, Frick suddenly felt how much the girl in front of him had changed.
The weak little detective now has such courage.
She even dared to ask him back, "Do I need evidence?"
You have to know that there is never a shortage of people who can do things in this world. What is lacking is people who can do things and have the courage to make decisions.
"Then I should congratulate you in advance, Count."
Thinking of this, he changed the way he addressed the person.
There will be no suspense.
