Father Booker's confession allowed Hitzfeld's intelligence gathering work to progress rapidly.
She felt that she had already cleared up most of the mystery surrounding Green Town. At least she knew the background of the town's owner and what magical powers he possessed.
“But this should not be taken lightly.”
Leaving the monastery and standing at the junction of the lawn and the street, Hitzfeld turned back and stared at the spire of the cross that emerged from the roof.
When she first met the priest, the question she asked him was, "I want to understand why neither the church nor the royal family could truly control this town."
The priest refused to answer.
He was sure that there was a secret hidden here, and this secret was of great importance, and Hitzfeld was not qualified to know it with his current identity.
But - the strange thing is that he then revealed to Hitzfeld the secret of the power of the Gralant family, pointing out that Bar-Gralant might have the power of the Hutenmu tree demon, and used this power to derive the two guardian families of Noan and Gran, using this as a fulcrum to control the entire town for a long time.
In Hitzfeld's opinion, this intelligence and information alone was enough to explain the first question she raised.
Why were neither the Order nor the royal family able to truly control this town?
Because this town is locked in a family blood curse, violence alone cannot break them apart, so the only options are appeasement and a gentler method of infiltration.
This explanation is sufficient.
But Hitzfeld didn't think that was the whole explanation. Since Father Booker had made it clear that he refused to answer this question, then in his eyes, all the information he subsequently revealed to her must have nothing to do with this question.
In Father Booker's eyes, the reason why the church and the royal family failed to control the town was not the family blood curse. The family blood curse was not the secret he wanted to protect.
This made Hitzfeld even more curious about the secret.
She had a feeling that the secret was why Sarah wanted to stay with people like Father Chabuk in Greentown.
After all, this priest is not an ordinary person.
He is not as weak as he appears.
"At least I know the background of Hu Tengmu's fairy tale." Hitzfeld looked at the sky and shook his head slightly, "I have to start collecting various short stories again..."
Father Booker confirmed that the story about Hu Tengmu was true, but he did not say that other stories were false.
If you want to learn more about the background of this town, it is definitely a good choice to use those fairy tales and folk songs as a basis. It is not too late to fill this information gap now.
Hitzfeld took a step forward and began to walk back the way he came.
She had a good memory and didn't get lost, so she returned to Tonks Lake in no time. As soon as she reached the fourth floor, she saw Jelly coming out of the room yawning, looking exhausted.
“Ms. Hitzfeld…” Seeing Hitzfeld, she called out weakly, “I feel like I’m about to die.”
"You just slept too much." Hitzfeld pushed her into the bathroom and got her a basin of cold water to wash.
This water was drawn from a well. It was underground spring water, clear and cold. As soon as the wet towel touched her skin, Jelly shivered.
But the effect is really good. After getting used to the tingling feeling, the dizziness and confusion quickly subsided. Although I haven't completely returned to normal, I can move independently.
"Is Miss Hitzfeld going to investigate a case this afternoon?" She became lively again. "Why didn't you take me with you?"
"Because you were sleeping."
"You can force me to take you with you."
"Mr. Lukes won't let us do that."
"Oh... I forgot about Old Tang." Soon after being lively, he became depressed again: "I really don't understand why he controls me like this... It's like he has trapped me in another maze. It's so suffocating!"
"The reason your relationship with your family fell out is because you can't stand their excessive control over you." Hitzfeld glanced at her.
"Yes... didn't I tell you that they were going to arrange for me to marry someone I didn't even know before?" Jie Li nodded, then shook her fist fiercely, "I don't want to listen to them! I want to decide my own happiness!"
Hitzfeld wanted to say that in today's world it was a wise move to follow the arrangements made by their parents, because at least the person they chose had no problems with his family background.
But she knew that Jie Li would not listen to these words, so she held it back.
Jerry soon became lively again and began to pester Hitzfeld to ask her about the progress of her afternoon investigation.
Her ability to accept things is still very outstanding. She was scared to tears by the corpse in the morning, but she was not so scared anymore as dusk approached.
With such a big heart, he is worthy of being someone who dares to run away from home.
It was obviously impossible for Hitzfeld to tell her those secrets. He just picked out some things he had heard and said, which were mostly things that Jelly already knew.
While Jerry was still trying to find a way to continue asking questions, Ethan and Darent came back one after another.
"We checked." Ethan said the result first, "The good news is that we found three large furnaces, the kind that can fit a person inside."
"What's the bad news?" Hitzfeld demanded.
"Lister brought out three dogs and sniffed for a long time, confirming that there were no remains of corpses near the three households."
Hitzfeld frowned.
This greatly increased the suspicion of the locomotive's boiler.
She looked back at Darent.
"Don't look at me." Darent spread his hands. "I asked those people... After the old guy went back, he locked himself in the room and slept. He didn't come out until I went there."
"Are you sure he didn't come out?"
"A lot of people were watching him, and someone brought him food during the trip. I asked about the specific time, and one of the meals was delivered early in the morning, so he can basically be ruled out as a suspect."
"Who is the suspect?" Jerry was stunned.
"It has nothing to do with Miss Norm." Darent smiled at her, "It's okay, just leave it to us."
"Liszt didn't come back with me. After he heard what I said about the possibility, he immediately took his men to the station." Ethan said to Hitzfeld, "We'll probably get the result in an hour or two."
Hitzfeld nodded, knowing what he meant - Lister was going to take the dog to sniff the boiler room.
Then Darent and Ethan both stared at her.
Hitzfeld took advantage of the fact that Jerry had not eaten properly for lunch and needed to replenish her energy just after getting up to lure her downstairs to eat. He pulled the two of them to sit down at the round table and briefly described the process of his communication with Father Booker.
"Family blood curse!" Darent exclaimed.
"I know this thing! It is said that some human families use this power to transform servants."
"Is this a supernatural power that can be learned?" Hitzfeld was puzzled.
"Strictly speaking, this is a medicine." Darente nodded and shook his head again. "It is guided by blood. It can only be effective on people with blood, and the effect will be passed on through reproduction... The specific method of preparation cannot be found in the library. This thing is too sensitive. If you are not careful, it may cause disputes."
"That is to say, many nobles in Wayne use this method to gather strength."
"It's hard to say... They have many secrets~ But you don't have to worry too much about this problem, Aisuen, because judging from the endless betrayals, the power of this blood curse is very limited. It is impossible to use it to truly control people's hearts."
Hitzfeld nodded.
The origin of the Crystal Sea case can actually be understood as an act of betrayal against the family, and the control is indeed very weak.
"Even if it can only affect the subconscious mind, it's still amazing."
Ethan frowned.
"So, could it be that Eugenie Kopperfield came here for this?"
He was referring to the small town secret that was hidden by Father Booker.
This secret, which even he, the Shadow Lion agent, doesn't know, must be very important.
"It probably won't reach Nan Xinze's level."
Darent Analysis.
"Otherwise, this town won't survive."
At this point, the three of them stopped talking.
The progress is stuck. To make any progress, we must either find the missing Eugenie, catch the murderer who killed the postman, or meet the owner of the town tonight as Hitzfeld planned.
The last one is more risky.
Judging from Lister's description, those people seemed to still retain the power of the tree demon.
Hitzfeld and Ethan's gaze gradually shifted to Darent's face.
Darent's eyes widened.
"What are you looking at me for?"
"You are a wooden man." Ethan grinned, "and they are tree demons... maybe you will have something in common."
“It doesn’t exist!” Darent waved his hands quickly. “The tree demon is also a monster to us... You don’t understand! The tree demon is not a tree at all!”
Just then there was a knock on the door.
Ethan stood up and opened the door.
After a while he came back with a serious look on his face.
"The results of the investigation are out."
“The place where the bodies were burned was the front of the car.”
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Thank you very much~!
Chapter 21 Time
If you only count the straight-line distance, it's not far from the town to the platform.
But if you count the time it takes to go over the hills and through the woods, and add up the time it takes to go there and back, it might take more than an hour.
Hitzfeld had already announced that she would visit the lord in the evening, so she had to save time. She didn't even plan to have a good meal, and immediately got ready and rushed to the platform station with Ethan and Darent.
The entire platform had been blocked due to the murder that happened this morning. When they arrived, the wire mesh gate leading to the main road had been closed, and two trucks loaded with local specialties were blocked outside the gate. A group of workers gathered together to smoke, swearing from time to time.
Hitzfeld couldn't help but look at the two trucks again.
In between going up and down the stairs, she stopped at the lobby of Tonks Lakeside and heard some stories about the town's customs and practices. The most obvious of these were its specialties - fish and fruit. The red apricots not only had a rare taste but were also a rare ingredient for making perfume.
So you can imagine what these trucks are carrying. Fish and fruit are not convenient to store in such areas. If they cannot be delivered to the cold storage on the trucks as soon as possible, the workers will not only have to work in vain but also lose money.
Of course they were unhappy, and they looked at Hitzfeld and the other two with unfriendly eyes.
"Hitzfeld?" Ethan wanted to pull the girl and tell her to ignore those people, but he didn't expect Hitzfeld to walk towards them on his own initiative.
"What do you want to do?" A burly man in a ragged shirt took two steps forward to stop her. "We are just waiting for the checkpoint to open. We are not doing anything illegal!"
Hitzfeld's gray hair and one eye were rare even in big cities, let alone in Green Town. After the confrontation with Lister and his group in the morning, most of the town already knew her.
So of course these workers knew that she was a detective or a police officer. However, their poor education and knowledge were not enough to help them distinguish the difference, and they were afraid that she was coming to cause trouble for them.
"I just want to ask a few simple questions." Hitzfeld was too lazy to correct this perception. After all, it was good for her investigation. "Are you their leader?"
"You can call me Makan." The sturdy man frowned, "The captain of the transport team was originally Miss Yang Qi, but she is sick, so I am taking over the position of captain now."
"You can call me Hitzfeld." The girl nodded, then raised her eyebrows, "Makan and Yangqi... very strange names. Do you have bloodlines from other continents?"
"What continent?" The sturdy man was confused. "Our ancestors have all lived in Green Town and have never been anywhere else."
"Okay, let's skip this topic." Hitzfeld looked at each of them as they stared at him, making sure that there was nothing abnormal about them.
At the same time, she also gave up the idea of taking out the notebook to record in front of these people.
From a psychological point of view, this behavior would increase their tension, and she didn't want to be the recipient of a bunch of clumsy lies.
I have a good memory and the amount of information is not much, so it is completely feasible to write it down.
"I want to know," she looked toward the truck, "if this is how the town has always done business."
"It's been like this since I can remember." Makan said, and then added uneasily: "We really have nothing to do with that dead man..."
"I know you're not the murderer." Hitzfeld reassured him again, "I'd like to learn more about your business process."
As they talked, Makan gradually realized that she really just wanted to ask some questions. He heaved a sigh of relief and became more willing to cooperate.
"We do business with the Reising Railway Company," he said. "After all, the track is theirs, the trains are theirs, and even the cars are bought from us by them. All we have to do is to provide them with as much cargo as possible within three days every time a train comes by, and they charge us according to the quality and quantity of the cargo."
“What time do you deliver the goods every day?”
"It depends, because there are catches, the yield of this thing is uncertain, sometimes we come in the morning, sometimes we come in the evening."
"So today is evening... Is this the only shipment you made today?"
