Hitzfeld doesn't think so.
Perhaps that misjudgment was just an accident. After all, Li Ang's "rise" cannot be attributed to him strictly speaking. If there had not been a series of adventures, he would have retired at most after becoming the captain.
It was even possible that he would die in Bartlett, or in the woods that winter.
Hitzfeld knew that accepting this gift had many benefits. On the one hand, it would make travel more convenient and save money; on the other hand, it would help him build a good relationship with the Cornerell family.
Although they no longer need to look at anyone's face given their current high status, there is no need to push back the kindness that comes to their door, as it would make them appear too arrogant.
But she was not sure whether Xia Yibing thought so too, so she did not express her opinion and planned to see what the woman next to her would say.
"This is a nice gift."
Xia Yibing glanced at her, the corners of her lips slightly raised.
"We love it, thank you, Leon."
"...It's none of my business." Li Ang also smiled, spread his hands and leaned back in his chair, as if he was ready to watch other people's performances.
How come it feels like attending court?
Darent frowned as he watched, but Ethan had already spoken first, so he could only follow Leon's example and sit down, waiting for Ethan to finish his words.
The old man mainly looks for Xia Yibing.
His current position is not small... If it weren't for the fact that his actual last name is "Heidegger" and this last name has a stain, with the resume he has accumulated over the years, he would have been promoted above Leon long ago.
At the very least, he is the director of the Internal Affairs Department, and it is possible that he may even be promoted to the position of deputy director who is in charge of the overall situation.
But the Dead Woods case involved so much involvement and impact that even with so many people endorsing him, opposition was still extremely strong.
You really can't do anything to them. After all, those people are not unwilling to cooperate with the investigation. For example, if the bureau sends people to investigate a certain case, they will refuse to cooperate if Ethan is the leader. But as long as Ethan leaves or someone else handles it, they will immediately obey.
Ethan had the authority to enforce the order, but he gave up on his own initiative. He thought that the relationship between the parties had become strained over the past two years, and it was not worth it to make things worse for himself.
So he accepted the status quo and didn't argue. But Xia Yibing couldn't stand it. Ethan was brought up by her from Team 17. Although she couldn't give him a high position due to restrictions, she still gave Ethan high authority. He could handle a lot of things.
Although they are all internal affairs.
He is now making a detailed internal affairs report.
“…I’m done.”
Having said that, Ethan took a big sip of the milk and grinned at Hitzfeld who was looking at him.
"Happy birthday again, Hitzfeld."
"It's my turn! It's my turn!"
Darent interrupted him rudely.
"I've let her be with you guys for a long time! Really... Do you understand who her partner is?"
"So who is it?" Xia Yibing narrowed her eyes.
Darent swallowed and said, "...It's you, Director Imaar."
"Stop talking nonsense, just tell me what you want to say!"
"It's like this." Mu Ren coughed and took out a small notebook from his arms.
"Your Majesty gave me a case before he left last night. He said it involved the Eclipse Church..."
case?
Hitzfeld snatched the notebook away and complained as he read it, "Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?"
I'm about to be killed by your eyes now. If I had said it earlier, my body would have been buried.
Darent knew that this behavior was unpopular in someone's eyes, so he wisely kept his mouth shut and waited for the girl to finish reading the case.
The case is short and doesn't take much effort to read. To sum it up, "someone disappeared in the northern part of Xixinna without any reason, and a large number of human skeletons with a strong smell of blood and stench were found in the area."
The first case of disappearance started a month ago and has not been solved until now. The local police simply reported it to Wayne and asked them to send someone for support.
"The first group has arrived," said Darent. "I am in the second group. The Wheel of Fortune has this obligation."
"Then why don't you just go?" Xia Yibing asked.
"Oh, you have to know that we usually work in pairs..."
"You want to borrow someone?"
“…I’m just asking.”
Xia Yibing thought about it and stopped being angry.
After all, Hitzfeld's pregnancy was a secret, and Darent was not aware of it.
And…the North District of Xixinna.
Isn’t the city of Manion further north of Sicinna?
Thinking of this, and looking at the two tickets on the table, Xia Yibing suddenly asked Li Ang: "Does Cornerair have a special line to Manion?"
"Ah? I don't know about that... I'm afraid I have to go back and ask."
"Then please hurry up." The woman raised her eyebrows.
“This is very important to us.”
Chapter 6: Mountain Natives (Two in One)
The three of them stood up and left after talking, and each of them said some congratulations before leaving. Hitzfeld smiled and agreed, telling them that they could come to the manor to rest and visit at any time in the future.
This is more than just a simple invitation. Even if she doesn't live in the manor, Walnut is in charge of this place. With her message, Pinocchio knows who can be released and to what extent. Those places she lists as "forbidden rooms" are naturally not open to others, but if you just want to live, rest, or even use them as a temporary escape point or safe haven, it is difficult to list a better place than this.
The three of them all understood. Except for Darent who had no reaction, it was obvious that Ethan Leon kept this friendship in mind.
The mystery of Hitzfell Manor has been around for a long time. It is so special that it can be hidden in the ambient light and shadow, which even the White Shadow Palace cannot compare with.
After dealing with these, Hitzfeld returned to the room, casually hung his coat on the rack, and looked up to see Xia Yibing changing her shoes.
"Is this the housework that Ethan just mentioned?" Hitzfeld tried to recall the conversation at the dinner table.
"No." Xia Yibing shook her head. "I need to keep an eye on Li Ang secretly, and also go to Nian Lun to confirm the information of the case."
The matter of Ice Lake Town has come to an end. There were no casualties among key personnel. In addition, while solving the Ice Lake Ghost Story and a wife-murder case, it also provided two people with the opportunity to become gods. The result can be said to be very good.
But she would not ignore the calculations that Ruth-Annual Ring had used in the process. She did not want to suffer the same loss again, so after Darent said that the case was given to him by Anna Ring, she made up her mind to ask Anna Ring again.
"Leon is a good man and a good husband." Hitzfeld nodded, "But he is a bit soft, especially when it comes to his own people."
He said that he had severed ties with those people and despised them. But when his family really begged him, Li Ang still handed over the two bills.
Regardless of whether it benefits anyone or not, if there are a few smart-aleck people in the Cornerel family, Leon might be dragged into the water.
Hitzfeld felt that it was a good thing to have Xia Yibing watching from the side. There were some things that Li Ang couldn't do on his own, and he had to arrange for outsiders to do the tough things.
"But you are so interested in Manion's special line. Are you planning to go to the south with me?"
As soon as Hitzfeld asked this question, Xia Yibing knew that she wanted to go. She frowned and turned to look at her.
"Connie said I'm fine. I think if I'm careful and try not to get involved in frontline combat, I'll be fine."
She was at fault in this matter, but Hitzfeld wasn't sure if it was an illusion. After Sixus pointed out that "the cold air entered her body", she did feel that it was a bit cold around Wayne. She didn't plan to go there as suggested by the other party because she considered the conflict between traveling and taking care of the baby, but if there was an airship, it would be different.
"If you go, I will definitely go too." That was all Xia Yibing could say.
"…What else can I do? You are my wife after all."
"I..." Hitzfeld's serious expression suddenly changed, his cheeks quickly flushed, and he frowned and retorted: "Our relationship is not that superficial."
"Are you trying to say that I am the wife?" The woman raised her eyebrows. "Even if we don't define it by the role of childbearing, the definition of 'wife' seems to be linked to work."
Hitzfeld was about to clench his fist to hit her again, but she didn't argue. She just smiled and ran out of the room, went down the wooden steps and walked towards the door.
Looking from afar, at the end of the winding road, behind the sparse jungle and iron fence, a dark car could be vaguely seen. Hitzfeld leaned half of her body out and looked outside for a while. When she saw the car drove away, she closed the door and started to do her own thing.
……
Three days later, in the morning, Hitzfeld washed up, had breakfast and drank water. He went to the kitchen to get the bird food specially prepared by Walnut, and prepared to go to the attic to visit his old friend, the black owl.
The Black Owl has changed a lot. Its size has shrunk a lot compared to the past, but its weight has not decreased much. This means that it has stronger endurance and mobility. Hitzfeld sometimes speculates that it can even complete delivery missions such as crossing the Storm Strait.
Its owner is Xia Yibing, but it is also very obedient to Hitzfeld. After eating the fresh meat she delivers, it will stroke her feathers and comb her feathers, and will chirp from time to time to show that it is very satisfied.
Hitzfeld looked outside and noticed that the sun was shining brightly today, so he picked up a few cages and planned to put them outside to bask in the sun.
When I was halfway through, I heard the sound of flapping wings from the sky.
"Ga!" The black owl raised its head vigilantly, spread its wings and raised its beak, which was a sign of attempting to attack.
"One of us." Hitzfeld patted the cage to calm it down, and reached up to catch a falling spotted owl.
"Chuckles!" The owl was very happy to see her. It hooted a few times and then bent down to rub her arm. It seemed that it knew it was not easy for her to come back, and she had to hurry up to improve her favorability.
Hitzfeld ignored its green tea behavior, simply untied the paper tube from its legs, threw it away, and then pulled out a letter and unfolded it.
This letter was a reply from the City Hall in Kuroki City.
The reason for this was a telegram sent from Port Wayne yesterday morning. In addition to doing what he promised, Xia Yibing also found out that the chief executive of Blackwood City, Fu Rong, had previously worked in Manion and was the deputy to the chief executive of Manion.
Thinking that Forong happened to be in Heimu and had a good relationship with them before, the woman suggested that Hitzfeld write a letter to Forong, asking for some details about Manion.
Whether it was the local customs or the evil events that had happened, they probably couldn't find anyone who could understand them better than each other. This was just the right way to formally establish a relationship with Fo Rong.
After all, isn't a relationship a give-and-take relationship?
If you put yourself in their shoes, Fu Rong might even wish they had demands.
After unfolding the reply, Hitzfeld stood outside the attic and read it carefully in the bright sunlight.
As expected, Feuillon said he was "honored to help the Count." He first expressed his surprise and admiration for the owl, and then wrote down in detail what he saw and heard during his time in Magnon.
[Manyon is a poor place.] Furong wrote very directly, [Like most remote areas without coastlines, the economy there can only be boosted by various minerals. The only difference is that Manyon is close to the Buro Mountains - the super long oblique mountain range that completely separates the northwestern countries and Sara, which allowed us to trade with the native tribes in the mountains for a time.]
Is there such a thing?
Hitzfeld raised his eyebrows. This was indeed new information that could not be found in books.
In the past, she only knew that there were sparse human populations in the Bro Canyon and Bro Mountains. She also knew that in some extremely remote corners of the valleys there lived native tribes similar to those on the deserted islands in the open sea. But she never thought that those natives would dare to come out, especially that they had developed to the point where they could trade with civilized society.
The light was blinding, and Hitzfeld put the letter aside for a moment to think.
"The Burro Canyon has been proven to be a landform created by the cataclysmic era. It was not originally that long and deep. It was the movement of the earth's crust that made it deeper and more dangerous."
Thinking about it this way, it was originally the territory of Serran. Ancient Serran had built many city-states around the Burro Canyon, but due to the disaster, many city-states fell and were destroyed, and the people who originally lived in them also fled. Maybe the natives in the mountains today are the descendants of the survivors and the old native tribes.
Then there must be traces of civilization inheritance in their tribe. Hitzfeld has read a book called "Terrace Fields", which talks about the mountain natives who know grazing and planting techniques.
"From this perspective, it's not surprising that they know how to trade."
After sorting out his thoughts, Hitzfeld felt that the light was too bright, so he went back to the inner room of the attic, put the letter on the table, and then changed the eye patch from his left eye to his right eye.
This is because she had just been bathed in a dazzling light curtain and suddenly returned to the dark room. Her eyesight was greatly reduced and she could hardly see anything clearly.
But she is "half blind" because she wears an eye patch at home out of courtesy. Her left eye, covered by the eye patch, has long been accustomed to the dark vision, and now takes over the work of the right eye, so it is effortless to read the text.
Hitzfeld only learned about this skill from watching others do experiments in his previous life. The experimenters speculated that the pirates wore eye patches so that they could quickly gain combat power in the dark room by replacing their normal eyes after entering the cabin. They were not all one-eyed, and this was actually the wisdom summarized by their predecessors.
[I have also heard about the strange events that have occurred in the two cities of Magnon and Sicin. My advice to the Count is that the local administrators can be dispatched at will, but it is best not to conflict with those local organizations.]
[I believe you all know the specific reason: the government dispatches are limited to a certain period of time. This is to prevent some collusion, so it is impossible to be assigned to one place for too long.]
[For example, I only worked there for eleven years, which is considered a medium term. It was precisely because nothing serious happened in Manion during my tenure that I had the opportunity to be transferred to a good place like Blackwood.]
Fu Rong actually thought that Blackwood was a good place...
But he was actually right.
The two evil disasters in Blackwood City were all in the past. Although there are historical problems such as the "light of salvation", it is generally mild. Because it is backed by Wayne Port and is a seaport city with obvious economic potential, it is very convenient to ask Wayne for help even if something big happens. No matter how you look at it, it has a better future than in Manion, Xixinna and other places. There is nothing wrong with what Fu Rong said.
[So the local officials will not be a hindrance to you. I guess they are very worried about this incident. As long as you are willing to go, they will definitely cooperate with you.]
[The real trouble is those local organizations... that is, those folk organizations that are not gangs, but are officially registered with the government.]
Places like tea houses, shooting clubs, kendo halls, etc.?
Hitzfeld had been to these places. Sometimes when Xia Yibing was on vacation, they would take time to go to the nearby shooting range or kendo hall to practice, which was a kind of spice in their lives.
But this can’t be called an “organization”, right?
She had also never heard of any shooting range or kendo hall daring to make a fuss about evil spirit incidents.
This carelessness may lead to treason. Even if you risk your life, don't you think more about your family?
