The driver's instructions came from outside.
The carriage gradually slowed down, and Hitzfeld jumped off the carriage a little nimbly. Following the fragrance in the air, he turned around and found a roadside shop making meat patties.
I looked at the sign and saw that there were two flavors, one with fish filling and one with jam filling.
Hitzfeld really wanted to buy one with fish filling, but she was worried that the store wouldn't handle it properly and that there would be bones in the filling.
She couldn't spit out the thorns and was afraid of getting stuck, so she finally decided to buy the ones with jam filling.
“The fish pies here are the best in town, and you don’t need to worry about fish bones.”
Just when she decided to explain to the stall owner, a childish voice came from the side.
I turned around and saw no one.
A little lower... I saw a little girl wearing a black dress, with long black hair, about meters tall, standing next to me and staring at me.
"How do you know what I'm thinking?"
Hitzfeld asked her.
"Who doesn't know the arrogance of you outsiders?"
The little girl snorted.
"Suspecting that there are bones in the fish, suspecting that the water is unclean, suspecting that there are lice on the bed... these are all your specialties!"
Hitzfeld raised his eyebrows.
She looked carefully and found that although the girl's dress was simple, the fabric was clearly different from that of the townspeople.
It is too delicate, like silk, and not something that ordinary people can afford.
"May I have your name."
she asked suddenly.
"Mei'er." The girl responded with her chin raised.
"Mer-Gran."
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Thanks to readers vigiler and silver·l for their tips and support~!
Thank you very much~!
Chapter 23: Strange Man
As the night fog fell, the bright moonlight shone through the clouds, dimly illuminating a country dirt road.
This is still in the town, but it is at the westernmost part of the town. You can reach the Gralant Manor by crossing this independent country dirt road. In fact, its outline can be vaguely seen from this distance.
It was not a very magnificent building. It consisted of a main building and two auxiliary buildings. The auxiliary buildings were about three stories high and the main building was about six stories high. The overall architectural style was consistent with that of the town, with red tiles and white walls, but it could not be seen clearly under the cover of night.
The carriage was rumbling along the road, but there was one more passenger on board compared to when it first entered the town.
"Why is your hair color different from others?"
"You're wearing an eyepatch. Is that eye blind?"
"I heard from them that you are a great detective? What cases have you solved?"
"Why don't you like to talk?"
"Because I think there are some things that are inappropriate to tell a strange girl who I have just met for less than 20 minutes." Hitzfeld opened his eyes reluctantly and answered the other party, "Just like you don't like people asking you when you wet the bed, Miss Gran."
"Is that so?" The little girl with long straight black hair frowned slightly, and after a few seconds she screamed fiercely: "I have never wet the bed!"
"Really? Actually, this is just a metaphor." Hitzfeld's lips curled up slightly, "It can probably be classified as a kind of etiquette."
The little girl was none other than Rose Gran, whom she had met at the meat pie shop. This surname meant that she came from one of the two guardian families in Green Town, and she usually lived in the Granant Manor, so Hitzfeld decided to take her along without much thought.
With her, they will greatly reduce the possibility of conflict with the hosts at the entrance stage.
"It's etiquette again." Mei'er raised her little boot and knocked it hard, making the wooden boards creak. "They keep talking about etiquette all day long. Even a lousy detective is talking about etiquette... It's so annoying!"
From her clothes, personality and this speech, it can be seen that she has a high status even in the Gran family.
But in the final analysis, Green Town is not a prosperous place - there are many tourists here, and they are willing to spend money, but Green Town has not been able to keep up with the development speed of surrounding towns - it is not surprising that the local nobles in such a place would raise a child like Mei'er.
If it were in Wayne, or even in Blackwood, a minor noble of a higher status, or even the daughters of merchant families, would not be allowed to wander alone in the evening.
"Don't your family members worry about you?" Ethan stared at the girl opposite him. He felt that this family should at least give Mei'er a few servants.
"I grew up here, what do I have to worry about!" Mei'er pouted and crossed her arms, "Don't expect to see any theft or bullying in Green Town... Even if there is, it's all done by outsiders! We have been living in harmony for hundreds of years. I can call out the names of the owners of every shop on that street! Why should I be afraid!?"
"Because in addition to being careful of these threats, we also have to consider the possibility of evil spirits and wild beasts attacking." Ethan sneered and shook his head, "Especially since a murder just happened. You must have escaped secretly."
"So what? You stupid policemen... Luke has been missing for so long and nothing has been found! Problems that cannot be solved should be taken care of by us!"
Oh, so you were dreaming of becoming a crime-solving hero.
After exchanging a glance with Ethan from a distance, Hitzfeld roughly understood Rose's situation.
This girl is very smart. She might have deliberately waited in that street to meet me and others.
Moreover, she did not refuse when I invited her to get in the car and go to the manor together. It is not ruled out that she wanted to use this ride-sharing to avoid the cost of running away secretly.
However, this also indirectly reflects the general attitude of the Granate Manor towards these things: they do not seem to be keen on getting involved, otherwise they would not have forced the little girl to sneak out privately to investigate on her own.
"You should know the purpose of our visit to the manor." Hitzfeld looked at Mei'er, "Can you tell us roughly how to recognize people when we arrive there?"
"There's no need to recognize them, because you actually only have to face three people." Mei'er snorted.
"They are Grace Gran and Duke Gran. Unfortunately, they are my parents, and Chikalia Nuoan. He is the leader of the Nuoan lineage, and even more unfortunately, he is my uncle."
"Only these three?" Hitzfeld raised his voice, "So you really are the daughter of the Gran family... But isn't this statement a bit too arrogant..."
"You are so suspicious because you don't understand their control over the manor." Mei'er said, "There are about 200 people in the manor. Excluding servants and guards, there are less than ten people who can be called my blood relatives. Some of them have retired due to old age, and some are still minors like me. The only ones who hold power in the middle are the three people I mentioned. There is no possibility for others to take power away from them."
"What about Bar-Gallant?" Ethan asked, feeling a little ridiculous.
The mayor of Green Town is Bal-Gallant, right?
What he knew, combined with what Hitzfeld had discovered, proved that Bar-Glarant had an extraordinary control over the town.
How come Mei'er said that the entire Gralant Manor was occupied by the two guardian families? When she mentioned power, she even ignored the real owner?
"Bar-Gallant?" The girl repeated the name, and both Hitzfeld and Ethan heard contempt in her tone.
"Yes... He is very powerful and has the power to change everything. But if he continues to be indifferent to everything for many years and locks himself in the watchtower all day, who will care about this?"
So you are a reformist.
Hitzfeld defined Rose in his mind.
Neither Bar-Glarant nor Rose's parents and uncle wanted to change the status quo of the town. This must have caused Rose's dissatisfaction, causing her to confide in herself and Ethan, two outsiders.
This is a very strange thing.
She originally thought that the Lord of Green Town should be a person with a strong character. Otherwise, he would not be able to maintain his power under Sarah's infiltration offensive.
After all, Father Booker and Darent had said that the family blood curse was not omnipotent and its control over the townspeople was extremely limited. Without such means and sufficient courage, it would be difficult to resist Sarah's recruitment.
However, whether it was her recent conversation with the deputy captain of the transport team, Makan, or her current conversation with Mei'er, the results completely overturned her previous impression of the town lord.
Bar-Glarant.
He is not a man of strong character.
Not an autocratic dictator.
He's just a weirdo.
A lonely weirdo.
Not only did he not care about the development of the town, nor did he care about the reselling of materials in the town and the restrictions on townspeople leaving, but he was actually happy to see it happen and had no intention of intervening at all.
He didn't even care about the rare murders that occurred in Green Town, and allowed the guards to continue his conservative policies.
Yes... Of course, the reason why the two major guardian families responded in this way was because they had tacit approval.
With the blood curse in place, they cannot possibly resist Baal, and all this can be considered his will.
It is important to discover this.
Because from the moment he arrived in this town and took in its customs and culture from various channels, Hitzfeld had always had a very awkward feeling.
I always felt like something was wrong, but I couldn't figure out what it was.
Now she understood...it was the town's ruler, and his behavior was illogical.
A lord, a lord with real power.
After his territory was nominally incorporated into a new and powerful country, he may have taken some measures to resist some tough measures.
In short, he retained his position and his control over the territory.
But after that, he did not actively develop the territory. Everything, including humanities, economy, and military, stagnated at the most primitive stage, so that this place had no special features except "beautiful scenery and suitable for vacation and play".
He even restricted the townspeople from leaving the town to develop outside.
Then why should he hold on to this power?
Chapter 24 Engagement
Hitzfeld believed that the Gralant family, a lord family that probably possessed extraordinary power, had a purpose in restricting the development of Green Town.
Or maybe there's something wrong with the residents of Green Town and the bloodlines they carry.
Or maybe this family is guarding some secret. For this secret, they are willing to stay here for generations, and they also don't allow anyone with family blood to leave the town.
Both possibilities are more likely, the latter being more likely, and this secret hypothesis coincides with Father Booker's statement.
But it can't possibly be related to some 'fire dragon', right?
After coming to this conclusion, Hitzfeld still didn't want to believe it.
If she combined all the information, including the fairy tales and her premonition, the most reasonable guess she could make at the moment was: there really was a fire dragon under Green Town, and the entire Gralant family stayed behind just to guard it.
It is completely logical: so they don't care about developing the town, nor do they care about what happens in the town. It also explains why Sara suddenly stopped annexing the town. Maybe they felt that the dragon was a greater threat and had to keep the blood of the Gralant family to guard it.
But in fact, Hitzfeld didn't believe this inference... Most of the supernatural powers in this world were related to spiritual will and physical deformation... Unless it involved evil gods, she would never believe that the fire dragons in fantasy really existed.
What made her rule out this possibility was Sarah's attitude towards her as a Devourer.
It was an obvious fact that the White Shadow Palace did not trust her.
Even though she had always abided by the law, had never shown any intention of opposing the royal family, and had repeatedly made contributions in various cases, the king had never summoned her into the palace.
In the Crystal Sea case, two Flintstone Knights were sent to monitor her.
There was also the newspaper war not long ago. During her final coma, according to Asfen, those who wanted to assassinate/kidnap her were not all from the Eclipse Church.
Her background and connections are much stronger than those of the Gralant family. She is the adopted daughter/student of the former Shadow Lion instructor, has a good relationship with the head of the Security Bureau, Villefort, and has a good personal relationship with the actual controller of Puslint, the Lord of the Dream Gallery, Pussance, not to mention that she has connections on the library floor - even such a person, the White Shadow Palace does not give any face to her. How can the royal family allow a small Gralant family to keep such a secret alone?
With the tyranny of those people, shouldn't they control all members of this family, or even hide the entire Green Town from the map, completely cutting off the flow of visitors from the outside world - using this most direct way to protect it?
These questions could not be answered for a while. When Hitzfeld regained consciousness, she found that the carriage had arrived.
After getting off the car and looking up, she first saw a tall city gate.
The gate is six meters high, about the height of a two-story building. It is built entirely of huge stones, and traces of molten iron can be seen on some parts of the surface.
The tunnel from the outermost edge to the end is about three meters long, which is actually an outrageous figure.
Just like Mei'er said, since Green Town is such a peaceful and harmonious place, without disputes and dangers, it is just a manor and not even a real castle... Why should this barrier be built according to the specifications of the inner city wall?
"You are very cautious." Ethan naturally noticed something unusual, lowered his head and teased Mei'er in a joking tone, "What are you guarding against? You are not really afraid of an army of fire dragons attacking us, are you?"
"You should ask my uncle about this question." Mei'er retorted, "Noan is responsible for guarding the bark of the Gralant tree, and Gran is responsible for guarding the core of the Gralant tree... He is responsible for all arrangements regarding city defense and garrison forces."
"This protection you mentioned... is it symbolic?"
"Of course. What else can we do? Dig out his heart and lock it up?"
The girl looked at Ethan with an unfriendly look, and she began to suspect that he had intellectual disabilities.
I won't argue with you.
Ethan's jaw muscles twitched. He looked at the nasty kid who walked straight in, then at the gray-haired girl who had a calm expression and impeccable manners. He felt that the latter was cuter.
Because Hitzfeld had notified them in advance, the manor knew they were coming tonight.
