"But you are like this. After you came in and faced such a weak us... your left hand never moved away from the hilt of the sword - it was not a habitual rubbing of the hilt, but the most convenient posture for holding the sword and exerting force, as if you were always imagining a scene that would require you to do this... and this scene must have troubled you for many days."
"I think it's obviously not our fault, and as the leader of such a fleet, you won't be short of money. I guess you must have offended someone, perhaps your colleague... a mortal enemy. You want to fight him in other ways, but you have no channels. You can't even bribe the people who can control you..."
This is certainly not an answer that can be arrived at purely by reasoning.
After all, Hitzfeld had been with Xia Yibing for so long, and through learning, she had systematically supplemented a lot of knowledge about criminal investigation, especially interrogation.
This included observing facial expressions. She had been observing the other person's expression since she started talking. There were pauses in her tone, which was a deliberate analysis to see if she had guessed wrong...and when she saw that Captain Shude's pupils contracted, his muscles twitched, and his eyelids twitched despite his best efforts to restrain himself, she knew that her guess was probably right.
"We don't expect you to give us back our freedom unconditionally."
Seeing that Captain Xiude had fallen silent, Hitzfeld struck while the iron was hot, "Actually... I know a little bit about making incense..."
Before she finished her words, even Madeline noticed that the bearded man's eyes lit up.
There is really drama...
Hitzfeld suppressed his inner surprise and continued, "Of course, this is also my guess... You are civilized... You are not primitive, you can distinguish between beauty and ugliness, and know the difference between fragrance and stench, so I think this ability should be somewhat useful..."
"If you think it's okay, I hope to accept employment in exchange for the freedom of the three of us. At the same time, we will do our best to help you solve those problems."
"…What do you think?"
Her tone and attitude were very sincere. She didn't want to show off too much and make the other person feel offended.
Because she has grown up a long time ago... Over the years, she has handled more than just those big and strange cases. When she sits on Iris Street, there are always customers coming to her from time to time. Thanks to that period of time, she has basically seen all kinds of strange things. She knows very well that not everyone will buy into her tricks.
First, expose their thoughts and create an unfathomable image, then make them tell the truth... Some people are just crazy. They don't think that strong detective skills are a good thing. Instead, they are suspicious of her. On the one hand, they think she has offended them, and on the other hand, they are afraid that she has some evil power.
So she tried to be humble and low-key, for fear of arousing Captain Xiu De's rebellious psychology.
But she didn't change the personal pronouns.
There is a big difference between you and yours... When you become a prisoner, it is no longer a question of etiquette. If you don't fight for some things at the beginning, it will be more and more difficult to get them later.
"As you can imagine, Port Inian collects incense taxes every year at this time."
Captain Xiu De finally spoke.
In fact, even he himself thought he was crazy for telling three slaves about what had been bothering him.
But what if it was true?
This girl obviously has some skills. She would not joke with her life and property... What if she really knows how to make incense?
Is there hope for the fleet?
"The trouble comes from another thing. It's the corpse-retrievers' union in Port Inian... You can understand, right? The union has to dispatch ships to carry out special missions every once in a while. These missions are very dangerous and almost no one can come back alive."
“They picked me this time.”
He pursed his lips, trying his best not to show his bitterness. "If Billie was older, I would have agreed, but she is like this now... I am worried, so I plan to circumvent the call-up through... um, some means."
"But you were discovered." Xia Yibing narrowed her eyes and easily guessed what was going to happen: "Did you offend the person in charge of this matter?"
"Mr. Lianqi publicly stated that he wanted to put an end to all desertion." The man admitted his guess indirectly, "Now he has set his sights on me. The only way I can think of to resolve this matter is to seek help from the Governor of Inian Port, but they are keeping a close eye on me... I have no chance to meet the Governor at all."
"So if you really know how to make incense..."
He narrowed his eyes as well.
"It's not impossible to give you freedom."
Chapter 5 Blood Origin k
After a brief inspection, Captain Xiu De and the three reached a consensus - he would hire the three as temporary perfume makers, and he would find a way to find enough materials for them, and they needed to provide him with a few bottles of perfume as quickly as possible, preferably within one day.
And it couldn't be an ordinary perfume. You have to know that his purpose in making perfume was to bribe the governor of Inian Port. Perfume was very rare for those at the bottom of society, but it was different for a governor. The other party must have seen a lot of perfumes, so they had to provide goods that were novel enough so that his crime of "recklessly intruding into the governor's life" could be pardoned to the greatest extent, and he would have a chance to discuss subsequent matters.
In the subsequent chat, Hitzfeld learned another good news, that is, the news about these three "foreigners" was not widely spread in the fleet.
Basically, only the 'Demon Thorn', commanded by Captain Xiu De, knew their identities, and those who could work on the 'Demon Thorn' were all brothers he had trusted for many years. As long as he opened his mouth, they would definitely not reveal the secret.
Both Xia Yibing and Madeline felt that this matter was not very reliable.
They discussed that due to their professional disease - the inherent suspicion of the police, they felt that Captain Shude's brothers might not be completely trustworthy. They could not expect these people to keep the secret that they were outsiders, and it would be best to confirm their identity as perfume makers as soon as possible.
"I have a question."
After taking in water again, Xia Yibing leaned against the wall and said casually, "Their extraordinary system seems to be different from what we thought before."
Because of the mess Hitzfeld had caused before, she later gave all the information about the mysterious lord to Sarah in order to atone for her sins. So Xia Yibing also knew that the evil followers had another set of extraordinary system, which gradually upgraded from 1 to 10, and the higher the level, the less human they were.
It sounds like the blood-slaughterer that Captain Xiude mentioned who eats human flesh fits this image better. She guessed that it must be a ghoul that follows the "human desire" route, but is just called by a different name.
But this damn place actually has a profession called Blood Mage? ... She immediately thought of the Blood and Bone Mage Association that she had discussed with Hitzfeld before, and guessed that the internal environment of the Corrupted Blood Kingdom might be more complicated than they imagined.
At this time, Hitzfeld and Madeline had already heard Xia Yibing describe what she saw in her nightmare. They knew that she had a deeper understanding of the Corrupted Blood Kingdom because of this experience, so they all attached great importance to her ideas and listened carefully when she spoke.
"After all... they are the bones of a hero." Xia Yibing said, "This hero may have died for many years. What I experienced in my dream happened many years ago. At that time, I only saw the Church of the Mother of Savior. But it does not mean that the Corrupted Blood Kingdom still has only this one church."
"You mean, the guys who first struggled to survive on the Elsa continent that was swallowed by the gray fog and built the Kingdom of Corrupted Blood might not actually be evil followers?" Madeline asked. She heard the underlying meaning in the director's words.
"I think the Eclipse Church should have come later." Xia Yibing nodded. "In the Gray Fog Era, the Aisha Continent was the first place to be swallowed by the gray fog. The history of the birth of the Corrupted Blood Kingdom may be earlier than the origin of the Eclipse. If this speculation is true, then they may not be completely controlled by the evil followers. There must be many forces fighting against each other."
"But they are our enemies," Hitzfeld said. "Except for the Blood and Bone Mage Society, which we don't know if it's still around... Erwin reminded this organization that there's a chance of winning over. The others, especially the rulers of the Corrupted Blood Kingdom, are most likely our enemies."
Madeline frowned at her, wondering why she spoke so firmly.
Only Xia Yibing knew what was going on... They had all seen the mechanical fortress in the sky. Its shape easily reminded people of the "Mechanical Kingdom" on the rails, and then linked the Mechanical Kingdom itself with the Mechanical Doctor Coldis.
After all, wasn't Li Ang standing there at the time? He should have been captured, but he didn't die, nor did he seem to have been tortured. When he appeared, he even had the leisure to wave over here.
If he can pull in the Mechanical Kingdom as external aid, then the Corrupted Blood Kingdom, which is hostile to the Mechanical Kingdom... is there any need to say who the enemy is.
But this matter is related to Hitzfeld's life secret after all, which is not something convenient to discuss with outsiders, so Xia Yibing quickly changed the subject to divert Madeline's attention away from here.
Then as the discussion went on, the topic finally came to the woman herself.
"I can't figure it out, Chief." Madeline sat in a chair, holding a bone pendant in her hand.
The pendant also hung on her chest. It was an irregular piece, but the edges were polished smoothly, at least to ensure that it would not be a bone fragment that would pierce people. The three of them wore this thing on their chests.
"We all have this 'hero bone', and we all have nightmares, but why, why is it that only you see those things?"
They had discussed this matter at the beginning and felt it was vaguely strange at the time, but because there were a lot of more important things to discuss first, this small problem was quickly forgotten.
Now that she thought about it again, she felt that there was something strange and mysterious about it.
"I also want to know why..." Xia Yibing grinned and tilted her head to look at Hitzfeld.
The girl understood what she meant, her silver-gray eyelashes trembled, and she said, "What I saw was clearer than Madeleine, similar to the nightmare you had, but no one was there to explain the local customs to me."
If we really want to talk about nightmares, she had more of them when she was unconscious. This might be because her spirit was blessed by the divine eye, and she actively devoured the spirit attached to the bones, so the life of the "hero" was reborn as a nightmare in various forms by her, disrupting the timeline and being experienced one by one by her.
However, this was just a large number. She did gain some local knowledge because of it, but it was all very blunt - she saw and realized it by herself, unlike Xia Yibing who knew it inexplicably, and knew so much more.
From this perspective, Xia Yibing's nightmare was obviously of higher quality, as if the dream was specially prepared for her. She could even describe herself as feeling like a fish in water in the dream... This was very strange.
"Could it be because of my race?" Xia Yibing hesitated for a moment, and felt that things had developed to this stage, and there were some things that could be told to Madeline.
"Race?" Madeline was stunned.
What do you mean…isn’t the director actually a native Sarayan?
"She's a Latadian," Hitzfeld explained to her. "She might even be the last Latadian alive."
There is no need to explain too much about the following things. As for the young director, her miserable childhood experiences were widely circulated in some upper circles in Port Wayne. Madeline herself had heard about it, so she knew how this "last one" came about.
Then, contrary to their expectations, Madeline was very excited about it.
When asked the reason, she said that she was actually a little uneasy after learning the truth that she was a Neang, but now that she found out that the people she admired and loved were also from an alien race...she felt that she could stop worrying about it.
"You're using me as a cushion, right?" Xia Yibing picked up a piece of cloth and threw it at Madeline, but Madeline dodged it with a smile.
Hitzfeld's heart moved.
It’s not impossible…
Captain Shude and Billie both have black hair like Xia, so... the others won't have the same hair, right?
She suspected that the native inhabitants of Aisha were all Latadians.
Similar to Xia’s parents…it is speculated that they were originally the indigenous people of Aisha Continent, and then because the evil followers discovered this place, they wanted to occupy it and develop, and by the way, for some reason they joined Eclipse.
This logic makes sense and can be connected with the previous speculation.
Even if not, the secret may involve the so-called blood of salvation.
Just then, they all heard a movement in the drawer.
Madeline came closer, she pulled the drawer open, and immediately Alesia's scream was heard from inside.
"Latadians? Who are Latadians? How can there still be Latadians now? This is impossible! You are crazy!"
"Take it out." Xia Yibing ordered, and Madeline quickly obeyed, and considerately held it in the air, facing her immediate superior.
"Alessia." Xia Yibing stared at the little face in the test tube, "You... know the Latadians?"
"Of course!" Alessia snorted, "This itself is a legend of the Kingdom of God!"
Is it also a legend in the Corrupted Blood Divine Kingdom?
Hitzfeld was slightly startled.
This speculation has to be overturned... It's not possible that all the people here are Latadians but are unaware of their identity.
"Alessia." Thinking of this, she interrupted politely, "Can you please describe what you know about Latadia?"
"No way—unless you let me out!"
Xia Yibing winked at Madeline, whose eyes flashed with excitement. She immediately imagined herself as the legendary ancient alchemist and began to shake the test tube in her hand desperately.
Alessia was soon dizzy and her eyes turned into a funny shape of "xpx".
But it just didn't say anything. At first it even screamed to try to gain sympathy. After finding out that the three women were all cold-hearted, it stopped pretending and closed its mouth and stopped screaming.
Xia Yibing raised her hand, and Madeline stopped shaking consciously.
"Alessia." The woman glanced at Hitzfeld, and the two exchanged glances. "Well, Alessia... We will decide whether to release you based on the information you can provide us."
"You're lying." Alessia turned her head away. "I don't believe you."
"? ...Why don't you believe me?"
"Because you are beautiful. I was more beautiful than you when I was still a human. I know that beautiful people like to lie."
Xia Yibing was so angry that she laughed... Is this bastard really narcissistic?
He wanted Madeline to continue on the spot, but was stopped by Hitzfeld, and the girl continued to negotiate with the thing instead.
"Alessia, you know me, right?" Hitzfeld crawled to the edge of the bed so that Alessia could see more clearly.
"Your eyes are very strange..." The little water man stared at her face, "They give me a very dangerous feeling... Are you the God Devourer? Did you really inherit the eyes of God?"
"If I tell you, do you think you still have a chance to survive?"
"Then I know nothing!" The little water man shuddered, "I didn't see anything! I don't know what eyes are!"
"..." Hitzfeld took a breath, "So Alessia, I can swear on this eye that when we said we would let you go, that agreement would not be a lie."
Alessia fell silent. It had obviously heard that the Devourers swore on the organs of God - this was basically the most vicious oath, once violated even the undead could not escape...but it still didn't dare to believe them.
It had finally gotten hold of something they wanted, and this was the only bargaining chip it could use to exchange for freedom, and it was unwilling to say this out loud.
"Ten." Hitzfeld stretched out his two hands, one hand counting as five, "If you provide ten pieces of intelligence of this level, we promise to release you."
"What?" Alessia was shocked, almost unable to believe what she heard.
She thought the secret was potatoes? They were everywhere? How could there be ten of them!
"You're crazy!" It thumped in the test tube. "Ten... you might as well just say you don't want to let me go!"
"Yeah, we don't want to let you go, so it can't be a lie, right?"
"Ten is too many... add one more at most... two!"
"Two is too few, at least eight."
"Then add one more! Three! Three secrets in exchange for my freedom!"
"Three is not enough, at least seven."
"Four!"
"Six and a half."
