With that final, all-out roar, flames literally burst out of his hair and his eyes.
The exploding sparks suddenly shot up more than one meter high, and an astonishing and wild momentum quickly burst out from his body, and the floor he was standing on was crushed by him in an instant.
"Do not impulse--"
"You know the consequences of doing this—"
"Stop—"
"Bar-Gallant——"
At this point, almost everyone in the room pointed their guns at him.
"You think these things can hurt me...?"
Old Bal's face became more and more ferocious.
"I'll show you..."
"No—don't do this to Grandpa Baal!"
Just when the situation was about to become completely irreversible, a clear, childish voice came from behind.
With a bang, the door was pushed open. Under the horrified gaze of the crowd, a petite figure trotted in, rushed directly to Old Bal, and hugged his thighs with open arms.
"Rose!"
"Come back quickly!"
"It's a monster!"
Duke and Chikalia were so horrified that they wanted to rush over and pull her off.
"He is not!"
The girl had tears in her eyes and shook her head firmly.
"I don't care who he is!"
"I do not care!"
"In my heart he is Grandpa Barr!"
"Always will be!"
Then she raised her head and stared at the white-haired old man who was looking at her in the same dull manner.
"You won't abandon Mei'er, right? Grandpa...?"
"I……"
Old Bal opened his mouth and finally shrugged dejectedly.
"Yes, that's right."
The fire in him was fading fast.
Then he squatted down, hugged the girl tightly in his arms, and whispered in a trembling voice that could almost be called crying:
"I will always be..."
"They are all Mei'er's Grandpa Bal..."
Chapter 14: No. Red Maple Street
The news spread through the town extremely quickly, like sparks falling on dry grass.
The true identity of Bal-Glarant was omitted, the person who had been in charge of the town was omitted, the specific process of catching the murderer was omitted... and a lot of information that any professional might think might cover up the truth was omitted.
But that's enough.
For the residents living in Green Town and for the travelers who happened to have experienced a terrifying incident, all they wanted was a notice that "the criminal has been caught" to give them the courage to continue living.
The next day, at dawn, Hitzfeld followed a group of people and rode into the red maple forest again, arriving at the pool where Luke was caught yesterday.
Going forward along the edge of the pond, there is a downhill path hidden in the bushes, with weeds and dead branches deliberately placed on the road.
They found enough manpower to clear away all the troublesome things, and finally found a strange-looking tall machine behind the cliff.
It is about meters tall, more than meters wide in the front, and more than 3 meters long in the side. The intertwined mechanical parts are wrapped in a pale metal shell. It is also equipped with a long neck and tail similar to a dinosaur.
Hitzfeld came closer to examine the object, his eyes fixed on its support points.
They are four wide metal brackets with the base deliberately cast in the shape of hoof prints. They look like real four hoof claws.
"Is this the thing you use to create monster legends?" Darent pointed at the thing and patted Duke Gran's shoulder hard, laughing so hard that he fell backwards.
"What's the problem?" Duke Gran's face was livid. "This is all to divert his attention and do my best to prevent him from doubting himself... I don't understand why there is anything happy about this."
"Oh, if I'm not mistaken, this thing is modified from a car?"
"Yes." The man walked to the front of the machine and explained to them, "Its initial version was much simpler than what you see now. It was basically a car with special tracks. After my father left, I made some modifications to it, modified its bearing system and power system, and installed this soil plow at the rear to cover and fill in the subsequent footprints..."
Darent laughed even louder, and his laughter infected everyone at the scene, including Lister, Ethan, and even Hitzfeld, who wanted to laugh.
The reason is that the whole thing looks so ridiculous.
It looked like a low-quality, enlarged version of a children's toy, especially the long neck standing upright with two large bulb eyes on it, which looked really stupid.
How should I put it... If it was limited to the function of creating footprints, there would be no need to equip it with a brain.
Hitzfeld glanced at Duke who was trying hard to demonstrate to Darent, and thought that one cannot judge a person by his appearance. No one would have thought that Duke Gran, who was always serious in front of outsiders, could have such a childlike heart.
"Listen to me carefully... I didn't mean to do this, but... I thought that maybe one day all this would be over, and I could bring this thing out openly and use it to entertain Mei'er."
"Oh, you don't have to explain so much to me, Mr. Gran...Pfft - I understand, I can understand -"
"You don't understand at all!" Duke Gran was furious in front of everyone, "Damn it! I should have let you guys come here and look for it slowly!"
"The mystery about the evil monster has been solved here." Ethan walked across the crowd and came to the girl. They watched Lister direct the police officers to move the "monster" with her.
"So what are you going to do?" He turned his head and glanced at her. "After all, it involves the Eclipse Church. What if they send more people along the way..."
"I heard that Shadow Lion has its own way and channels to deliver messages." Hitzfeld just smiled, "Although you are asking me now, if I am correct, you have already sent the message back."
"This is a serious matter. I can only apologize here." Ethan nodded. "After all, this is a case led by you..."
“I don’t care about that,” Hitzfeld interrupted. “As long as things can be resolved, it doesn’t matter who’s in charge. I don’t even need you to mention my name in this case.”
"Hitzfeld..."
"Just give me more reward." The girl turned around and smiled. "Ashley has already hired a tutor since she started junior high school... I can't imagine how much money she will spend on me in the future. So just give me money. It's enough."
"...You're right." Ethan was stunned for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
It would be great if all the problems in this world could be solved with money.
After learning the truth about the footprints, Hitzfeld and the others didn't need to stay any longer. They returned to the town and happened to meet the invitation from the Granant Manor, who wanted to invite them to visit.
"I don't dare to go!" Darent shook his head frantically. "Although he is stable now, who knows when he will - right? You all know what I mean."
"Mr. Copperfield is there too. Since he is there, it means that old Barr is safe." Hitzfeld raised his eyebrows.
"Ah... So, it seems that he did mention before that he came back to solve this hidden danger."
Darent held his chin.
"So that old man probably won't live for many years? Is that right? Is that why they tricked him back with a marriage contract?"
"The engagement should be real." Ethan disagreed with his point of view, "The reason why the affiliated family is an affiliated family is that blood is also a major feature."
If Rose marries Eugenie, she will be separated from the Gran family in the future and will completely become Rose-Copperfield, sharing this responsibility with Eugenie.
But Ethan's expression looked a little strange when he said this.
Because the combination of these two people looks simply...
The girls' side is too small.
The next two days were smooth sailing and no more accidents occurred.
Although the case has been solved, Hitzfeld and his two companions have never left Green Town.
This was to prevent the Eclipse Church from getting any help. They planned to stay here until someone from the capital came to ensure that Old Baal's "safety" was absolutely guaranteed before returning.
On the third day, a guest came to the hotel.
"No need to prepare it for me." Eugenie stopped Tonks who was about to turn around and run to the kitchen when she saw him, with a helpless look on his face.
"I just came to talk to Miss Hitzfeld about something and to formally express my gratitude to her."
"Then you should eat something!" Tonks rushed to the kitchen without saying anything and shouted, "You poisoned my snacks before! If you don't want me to make a big deal out of this, just listen to me!"
So, ten minutes later.
This time they moved to Hitzfeld's single room. Eugenie and the three detectives sat at a round table, staring at the table full of dishes with helpless smiles.
"You look like you're not used to people being too polite to you," Hitzfeld said.
"Yes..." The young man nodded, "Because in Talignan, I can only say that the customs of the people are more fierce than here, while the customs in Green Town are too peaceful... I am a little uncomfortable with it."
"I don't think there's any need for us to be polite with each other anymore."
Hitzfeld stood up and poured everyone a glass of water.
"If you have anything to say, just tell me."
"The purpose is naturally to express gratitude."
At this point, Eugenie managed a rare smile.
"I plan to marry Jerry."
"what……"
This is Ethan.
"Oh oh oh-"
This is Darent.
"Then it's not appropriate for us to drink water..."
"I won't drink today. I have something very important to talk about."
Eugenie regained his seriousness and stared at Hitzfeld with his dark eyes.
"Although many things have been explained, there is one thing, Miss Hitzfeld, that I would like to confirm with you again."
"what is it then?"
"About how you connect all the messy clues and piece them together into what reality should be."
"I don't understand what you mean."
"I mean." The young man lowered his head, "Old newspapers... suspicions about the blood descendants... suspicions about the howling that happened to be heard... plus the hints I gave you, these combined are not enough for you to see through everything so quickly."
"So you feel that everything is going too fast and too smoothly?"
"That's it."
Faced with this questioning, Hitzfeld half-closed his eyes and remained silent for a while. Then, under the gaze of the three people, he stood up, walked to his bedside table, opened the drawer, and took out four notebooks.
"This is……"
Eugenie took the notebook in a daze.
Because there was a fold in the middle, he naturally turned directly to the marked position.
There, painted with dark grey ink, was a red apricot blossom.
He began to read the text next to it. After a while, the young man suddenly looked up and looked at Hitzfeld again with a look of surprise and astonishment.
"Can you also make incense?"
"I can't say I can, but I can see some tricks."
Hitzfeld pretended to be calm and drank a sip of water.
From this angle, only Ethan could see that the corners of her mouth were desperately trying to turn up.
"This describes all the processes of making incense using red apricot flowers as the material. Although there are no red apricot fruits, there is an additional mention at the end... that the petals of this plant and fern roots mixed with spices may cause hallucinations."
Ethan and Darent looked at each other.
They all realized that the girl was talking about what Liszt had mentioned at the beginning - that it would be uncomfortable to meet the people from the manor.
