“Yes, there are many Carson Rick people doing business here, and they brought the traditional beliefs from the south of the Rommel Mountains. It’s very complicated, and I can’t explain it clearly. If you need to, you can go to the Carson Rick merchants’ guild to understand the situation.”
“Go ask the Sicar Inn owner, Tales, about fire worship, and ask the guild about southern beliefs.”
Xia De noted these things down, and the Poet was not surprised when he took out his notebook to record them:
“Also, although the cult of the great one from the old days, the twin gods, no longer exists in legend, there should be some experts in this area locally. You can go ask professional folklore professors; Middlesburg also has a university.”
Xia De nodded:
“Is there anything else? For example, worship of death?”
The Poet seemed to be reminded of something, clenching his left fist and hitting it against his right palm:
“Yes, yes, but it’s not accurate to call it worship; it should be reverence for death. Our City is particularly concerned with death. I’ve always believed that death is the beginning of another great adventure, and perhaps the world after death will be very exciting.”
Unfortunately, the world after death is just a body of water, and souls can only continue to move forward.
“So, there are no groups that worship death locally?”
“If there were, they would have been banned by the Orthodox Church long ago. Isn’t the Natural Church always promoting it? The great Natural Lord controls the power of death.”
The Poet drew a holy emblem on his chest, and Xia De understood that he was a follower of the God of Nature. The holy emblem of the God of Nature is two intertwined leaves. The undertaker who transported Mr. Sparrow’s body was also a follower.
Xia De nodded and continued to record. He had originally thought that in a City situated above the largest Between Life and death in the material world, at least similar groups would emerge.
“Wait, the groups that worship death, could they be the Spiritual Cultivation Order?”
The two waiters who had been called upstairs for questioning earlier returned, and the people who had remained downstairs immediately gathered around them, wanting to know what had happened. Xia De saw that the Poet was also very interested, so he let him go inquire about the situation.
After a short while, the Poet returned, looking disheartened:
“Someone really died, a Southerner was beaten to death.”
The “Southerner” referred to by Middlesburg people generally refers to Carson Rick people, which is a slightly discriminatory term.
“Was he killed by the first gunshot just now?”
Xia De asked curiously.
“Yes, they say the upstairs has already been covered with a white sheet.”
“Who fired the shot? We heard two gunshots just now.”
“The first shot was fired by the murderer, and the second one was also fired by him. When the two officers went upstairs, he fired a shot at the stairwell and then hid on the fourth floor. The police believe that the person couldn't escape, so they are now trying to find the shooter among the tenants and servants on the fourth floor.”
The Poet recounted the news he had heard, but Xia De clearly heard that the second gunshot was a bit different from the first:
“Does that murderer have two guns? Who would carry two guns when going out?”
【You.】
Xia De really couldn't refute this sentence.
The Bard sitting across the table took another sip of ale, then continued the previous topic under the gas lamp:
“Finally, the local belief worth mentioning should also include the tradition of moon worship.”
Xia De smiled, which piqued his greater interest. Not long ago, Grandma Cassandra said that there were Vampire groups locally, but they were all hidden as ordinary citizens. Perhaps moon worship referred to those creatures:
“That sounds interesting. The emergence of localized worship should be related to the local history and natural environment. But as far as I know, neither Middlesburg nor Sicar Mountain has very good moon-gazing spots, and there aren’t many legends related to the moon here, so why would there be a moon worship tradition?”
“No, no, this is just something outsiders don’t understand. In fact, there is a moon-gazing spot on Sicar Mountain, but even some locals don’t know about it.”
“Where?”
“By the lake on the mountain top.”
“Sicar Mountain has a mountain-top lake?”
Xia De was slightly surprised, but considering it was a dormant volcano, it seemed quite normal.
“The ancient moon worship tradition has long been lost; it can only be glimpsed from those poems and stories.”
As he spoke, the Poet even hummed a short tune, then patted his head:
“However, there were rumors a few years ago that some people saw a group of women, dressed in gauze skirts like female ghosts, with silver eye masks and veils on their faces, walking towards the mountain top on the night of the full moon in march.”
This sounds like the Spiritual Cultivation Order, but they might not be going to worship the moon; instead, they might be holding some ritual in the mountains during the special time of the full moon in march.
However, after the Poet’s reminder, Xia De thought of another thing. Priest Augustus had mentioned that there are actually three direct passages to true death in the Between Life and death, located at the mountain top, halfway up the mountain, and in Middlesburg at the foot of the mountain.
The one at the mountain top, Priest Augustus said, was sealed by an ancient existence. Combining the Prophet Association’s belief that the “volcanic eruption” might not spew lava, Xia De speculated that the location of the passage at the mountain top was around the mountain-top lake in the Between Life and death.
“In other words, the only remaining localized beliefs in Middlesburg in contemporary times are twin gods worship, the beliefs brought by Southerners, and the fire worship tradition.”
Xia De summarized, and the Poet nodded:
“At least that’s how it seems to me. Oh, can I have another glass of ale? This batch of ale is much better than the one from summer.”
Xia De beckoned a waiter to get another glass of ale for the Bard who had provided so much information. He downed the glass of cider, or rather apple juice, in front of him, then stood up and bid farewell to the Poet.
He was interested in understanding the local traditional beliefs, and the Southern beliefs were formed too late to be considered for now. It was two in the afternoon, leaving only two hours until his meeting with Priest Augustus, so going to the university to inquire about twin gods worship was definitely out of the question.
Therefore, he wanted to talk to the Sicar Inn owner.
But now the Sicar Inn owner was involved in the murder case on the fourth floor, so Xia De had to find a way to speed up the investigation of this murder case.
For example, by helping the police find the gunman hiding on the fourth floor.
Dorothy had once given Xia De a pendant with a royal crest, which could help Xia De at the Middlesburg Police Department. However, the person to seek help from was the local deputy director; ordinary police officers, sergeants, and even inspectors would not recognize the pendant, so this time he still had to use his MI6 identity.
After bidding farewell to the Poet, Xia De straightened his clothes and walked towards the police officers guarding the Sicar Inn entrance, flashing his identification:
“I have something to discuss with the police chief.”
The identification had the surname “Hamilton,” but fortunately, Hamilton was not an uncommon surname.
And in Delarion, only a madman would dare to impersonate someone from MI6. The police officer recognized it as an MI6 identification, stood at attention and saluted, then immediately led Xia De upstairs to find the police chief on the fourth floor.
The Bard, holding his ale, watched curiously as Xia De disappeared into the stairwell:
“Could I have met one of those extremely powerful people from stories and legends?”
He rested one arm on the table, took a sip of his drink, and continued to idly survey the people on the first floor of the Sicar Inn:
“How could that be...”
