"Welcome!" In the lobby of the main building, a thin man in a black suit opened his arms to express his enthusiasm.
"Agent Ethan from the Security Bureau, and the famous detective, Miss Hitzfeld... Green Town is really honored to have you help deal with those troubles."
"Not to mention that you brought back Mei'er..." His eyes fell on the girl, and his originally enthusiastic face quickly turned gloomy.
"Still hiding!"
"Come here!"
When he looked over, Mei'er grabbed Hitzfeld's skirt and hid behind him consciously. When she heard this scolding, her whole body trembled violently, and she walked to the man with her head lowered and her eyes lowered.
This must be Rose's father, Duke Glenn.
Hitzfeld and Ethan both thought so.
"You may have learned something about me from Mei'er..." The man rubbed the girl's head hard, and smiled again when he looked up, "But I still have to introduce myself - Duke Gran, belonging to the Granate family, the head of the Gran lineage."
"Take her back." Just at this moment, the servant came over. He pushed Mei'er over and said sternly, "Lock her up for three hours and see if she dares to run around again next time!"
"Dad!" Mei'er raised her head in panic, "I came here with a guest!"
"So what?" Duke waved his hand impatiently. "You violated the rules that all guardians should abide by. You are a traitor... You just mess around... I locked you up for three hours because you are my daughter. Otherwise..."
"What else?" The girl was very excited. "You dare to kill me?"
"I haven't even come to an end for you guys for arranging a marriage for me without telling me! If you keep bullying me like this, I...I'm going to tell Grandpa Baal!"
"You dare?" Duke's face changed and he ordered the servant: "Take her away quickly! What a disgrace!"
Hitzfeld and Ethan pretended not to see it.
This is a family matter and they can't interfere no matter what.
"I'm telling you a joke."
After a lot of crying and struggling, Mei'er was finally taken away by the servant. Duke arranged for the two to sit in a corner of the hall and ordered someone to serve tea and cakes.
"Can I know in detail what you are here to investigate?"
"It's like this..." Ethan spoke first, "Mr. Gran should have known about the murder this morning."
"Yes... I heard that the body was burned beyond recognition. What a cruel fellow!"
"At this point, we have roughly determined the scope of the population."
Ethan stared into Duke's eyes.
"Is that so?" The man was stunned, then smiled with relief and joy, "That's great! ... Does it mean that we can catch the murderer soon?"
"If everything goes well, it should be within a few days." Ethan narrowed his eyes. "We can't guarantee that they will be caught, because there may be more than one murderer, but at least we can determine who they are and where they may be hiding now."
"But this doesn't seem to have anything to do with the manor, does it?"
Duke raised an eyebrow.
"I don't know if you guys..."
"The house where the body was found is the property of the mayor."
Hitzfeld said.
"We suspect that the murderer is using this method to remind or warn you, so we came here to find out what strange things happened in that house back then."
"I don't know about that..." Duke groaned, "This is something only the mayor knows... If it was that house, I might not even remember it at the time."
Just then, the sound of Mei'er crying was heard again in the corridor.
"May I take the liberty of asking what is the matter with Miss Mei'er's engagement?"
Hitzfeld's heart moved.
She thought of a possibility.
"Of course, this is nothing shameful."
Duke was a little surprised, but nodded.
"We found her a distant relative who used to live in the town. She is a child of that family."
"May I know his name?"
"can."
"His name is Eugenie."
"Eugenie Kopperfield."
Chapter 25: The Battle of Ideas
Eugenie Kopperfield?
Because of his experience, Ethan's expression did not change, but Hitzfeld couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, showing an obvious reaction to the name.
"Hmm?" Duke noticed this immediately. He leaned over and stared at the girl. "Could it be that... Miss Hitzfeld knows Eugenie?"
"You may not know, Mr. Glenn." Ethan took the initiative to explain, "The reason we came to Green Town is not because we can predict the future and know in advance that something will happen here, but because someone reported that Mr. Copperfield was missing in the town."
"What did you say?" Duke's face suddenly turned pale. "He has been here before?"
Already been here?
Hitzfeld noticed his choice of words sharply and felt very strange. Didn't Duke know about this?
Mei'er's fiancé is Eugenie... The reason why Eugenie came to Green Town was to observe his fiancée. This news was already shocking.
But she felt that what was more worthy of further investigation was that the person who arranged the marriage, Rose's father Duke Gran, actually knew nothing about Eugenie's whereabouts.
This was really strange, especially since Eugenie himself had not informed Duke of his upcoming visit, which made Hitzfeld wonder if there was a lack of trust between the two men.
Duke's expression didn't seem fake, so did he really not know that Eugenie had been to town and disappeared?
"I thought you should know about this." She expressed her doubts directly, her eyes piercing into the man's mind like a knife. "Could it be that Mr. Copperfield has some kind of prejudice against you? He doesn't dare to let you know that you have been here?"
First, let’s rule out the question of whether No. 14 Red Maple Street described by Eugenie in the letter actually exists, and whether this ghost place actually refers to Granat Manor.
He simply lied when he told Jerry that he had settled down at his fiancé's house and that "everything was fine."
He had never been to Gralant Manor, and judging from the townspeople's description that they had never seen him, he might not even have actually entered the town.
His so-called getting off the bus and staying there was probably just hiding in the woods near the town from a small road. In other words, if he was still alive, he was probably still watching the town from the dark.
The only explanation Hitzfeld could come up with was that he was afraid he would get hurt.
He knew that there was something hidden in Green Town that could easily take his life, so he did not hesitate to weave lies and use Jerry, whom he just met on the train, to find a detective, hoping to use external forces to achieve his goal.
As for why it was him... maybe it was because he had only heard of the name of the recently famous detective from Wayne.
What he wanted was not 'Aisun Hitzfeld', but 'a detective from Wayne with the appropriate connections'.
This purpose, and what he feared, was most likely the Gralant Manor. It was probably hidden inside the manor.
"Oh... If I were to explain this in detail, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to describe it clearly in a short while."
Duke narrowed his deep brown eyes and looked at the girl, his entire mental outlook undergoing a strange change.
Not only Hitzfeld, but even Ethan could clearly feel that there seemed to be a faint, cool feeling in the air, which was constantly penetrating into their bodies through the pores of their skin.
Is this the terrible feeling that Liszt talked about?
The first thing Hitzfeld thought of was Sheriff Lister’s horrified expression.
The next moment she thought of Father Booker's comparison of 'Gran' and 'Noan' to the two fruits of the hutong tree.
Each fruit has a unique effect. If she remembered correctly, the priest said that there was a fruit that acted as a guardian and could release poisonous mist...
"I want to know." She looked straight into the man's eyes despite the feeling. "Can you explain it if it's convenient, Mr. Gran?"
"...if you insist." Duke looked at her deeply and stood up from the sofa.
"But this place is not suitable. Please follow me. I prefer to talk about private matters in the study."
As he stood up, the cold feeling immediately dissipated.
This made Hitzfeld more certain of the priest's information - the 'Gran', as a guardian family, had indeed inherited extraordinary magic from 'Granlan'.
Led by Duke, they left the hall, went up to the third floor, and after several turns, followed him into the study.
After entering the door, Hitzfeld naturally took a look around the environment first, and then she felt that this place should not be called a study, as it was too modest. It would be fine to call it a library.
There are twelve bookshelves in sight, three in a group, divided into four groups on both sides, and each bookshelf is filled with books. Four meters straight from the entrance is a desk and a chair, and behind the chair are closed curtains. Everything is decorated with great care.
"Please sit down, both of you." Duke sat down in the main seat behind the desk. At the same time, several servants followed in and brought two wooden chairs with thick cushions and a baking pan.
After taking his seat, Hitzfeld once again stared at his expression.
Duke waited until all the servants had left before he spoke: "I know... you must be suspecting me, suspecting that I have something to do with Eugenie's disappearance."
"Let me first state that I am very shocked by his disappearance... If you understood what happened, you would definitely not doubt me, because if he really didn't trust me and thought I would do something bad to him, he would not respond to the letter and would not come back to town at all."
"Did you send him a letter first?"
"No... I sent it to his father, whose name is Cockburn-Copperfield. He is a businessman, and his business... is quite big, as far as I know. Then it may be that his father conveyed this matter to him, and he came here."
"Did you make this choice because you knew this family?"
"Of course, they were wealthy merchants in the town a long time ago. At that time, all the output of the town was sold and traded by Copperfield. I have a very good personal relationship with Copperfield and often correspond with him."
"He's doing business somewhere."
"In the far west, his caravans often cross the desert to the Fire Dragon Alliance."
"I'm curious, Mr. Glenn," Ethan interrupted, "Did the Copperfields leave town?"
“…There is no doubt about that.”
"Then to some extent, you all have similar blood."
"Of course, I said we were 'distant relatives'."
"That's very strange." Ethan pressed on. "Based on what we know, Green Town doesn't like its residents to go out and develop."
Duke's expression froze for a moment.
At the same time, that gloomy feeling came up again.
"There must be a reason for this, right?"
Hitzfeld asked quietly.
"Regarding why the Kopperfield family left the town, and why there was no second Kopperfield family in the town after the Kopperfield family left... I hope you can tell us the reasons and process in detail."
"You should have some guesses about this."
After a pause of several seconds, Duke spoke again.
"A battle of ideas?" the girl probed.
She thought of Mei'er.
"Yes, it's a battle of ideas." Duke nodded, and the expression on his face fell.
"Greentown...has always upheld the belief that it is conservative."
"Don't think that Gran and Nuoan are in charge now, Miss Hitzfeld... I admit that all the military forces for the town's defense are in Nuoan's hands, and the power to coordinate all of this is in my hands, but in fact we are still firmly loyal to the Granant family, and this will not change even after another five hundred or a thousand years."
"But not everyone thinks this way." He shook his head slightly. "Copperfield's ancestors always wanted to get out... This caused a big stir back then, and it could even be said to have reached the level of 'division'."
"Copperfield, to some extent, rejected the conservative strategy of the Granat family and believed that they should actively go out and integrate with the outside world."
"The Gralant family considered them traitors and claimed that this was a shameful betrayal. They even expelled them from the town. The two sides almost never had any further contact with each other."
"In the end, it was my father who turned the situation around. He first found the heir of the Copperfield lineage and eased the relationship with him through personal relationships. Then he tried to persuade him to marry Nuoan's daughter. Only then did the relationship between the two sides improve."
"And then - as you can see, I naturally wanted to find a way to continue this tradition. So I wrote that letter, wanting to marry Rose and Eugenie."
"As for why he didn't dare to come see me and caused a disappearance case..."
He paused.
"I really don't know anything."
Chapter 26 Restrictions
After discussing the secrets of the Culberfield family with Duke Glenn, the clock struck 10 o'clock in the evening.
