Father Nobel's information shows that the seven Ring術士 from the Pantanal Voodoo Society who used Aiken Ola's Arrow of Knowledge over a decade ago was named Harald Ondiba. He was a villager born in the 'Lower Wood Village' in the Pantanal Great Swamp region. Around the age of 16, he was discovered to have awakened his talent by an apothecary living near the village, and he joined the Voodoo Society.
This seven Ring術士 was eventually surrounded and killed by the Orthodox Church in Rust Alley, in the western part of Huntington City, after a fierce battle. After his death, Rust Alley and the village where he was born were thoroughly searched by the Orthodox Church, but Aiken Ola's Arrow of Knowledge was still not found.
The last time the arrow was used was three days before Ondiba was surrounded by the Orthodox Church, and in the final battle when Ondiba was apprehended by the Orthodox Church, the arrow was not taken out and used.
Although Xia De was well aware that the Orthodox Church would not miss any details, considering that the Orthodox Church also believed Saint Delan Square No. 6 was now very safe, he still went to Rust Alley that afternoon, attempting to find clues left from many years ago.
Rust Alley is a street in the western slum of Huntington, generally sloping towards the northwest. Both ends of the alley are within the slum, and the surrounding alleys are interconnected. Old-era buildings, crumbling with age under the low, fog-shrouded sky, looked more like old men than the impoverished people living there. This place was like a black, imperceptible rotten spot on Huntington, this crystal-clear purple grape.
When Xia De arrived at Rust Alley that afternoon and stepped onto the narrow and long alley, he vaguely felt as if he heard the City groaning. This was, of course, his psychological effect, but it also meant that finding clues from over a decade ago in such a place was far more difficult than imagined.
Both sides of Rust Alley were lined with old-era houses, undulating and uneven. Xia De described them as 'undulating' because most houses, on their original foundations, had been built up by one or two floors using what appeared to be very miraculous construction methods.
These illegally constructed buildings, with their inconsistent styles yet all quite dangerous, leaned against each other, providing nighttime resting places for the vast number of impoverished people in this City. It was Monday afternoon, but there were still many people in the alley.
Winter was approaching, but the residents of Rust Alley were still dressed as if it were autumn. Women, taking advantage of the clear weather, rolled up their sleeves to dry clothes in the alley, carefully eyeing their neighbors, worried that their clothes would be stolen if they turned their backs. Barefoot children gathered in twos and threes, either playing or chasing wild cats and dogs running around.
Relatively speaking, Xia De's appearance in this alley was very abrupt, but fortunately, the wisdom of life for those living in the slum told them that it was best not to provoke strangers.
Of course, this was also related to the gun holster Xia De inadvertently exposed.
The Orthodox Church's operation over a decade ago caused extensive damage to two or three houses in the middle section of Rust Alley, leading to their collapse. However, there were no traces of that battle visible today.
The collapsed Rust Alley No. 13, No. 14, and No. 15 had long since been repaired. Now, those three houses were crowded old-style rental apartments and slum shops selling low-quality tobacco, spices, and daily necessities.
No. 13 and No. 14 were rental apartments facing each other, each four stories high. The walls of the houses were yellow and stained, and sewage flowed down the drainage pipes onto the walls, then into the alley's gutter. Some uncivilized patterns were drawn on the walls with chalk. These rental apartments were tall and narrow, less than half the size of Saint Delan Square No. 6, yet they housed hundreds of residents.
The landlord divided the interior space with thin wooden boards, renting out small cubicles to the homeless poor. Hundreds of people shared one washroom and kitchen, making the sanitary conditions here extremely poor. This situation could be seen in every City in the material world, but people too busy earning money for tomorrow's meal had no mind to care whether epidemics would spread as a result.
Apartments like No. 13 and No. 14, being so chaotic, had changed countless tenants over the past decade or so. So Xia De gave up on looking for clues there and walked directly into Rust Alley No. 15, the "Pig Shop."
"Pig" is a rather derogatory word in Huntington dialect. Using such a name for a shop also showed the irregularity and casualness of this shop.
The first floor of No. 15 was the shop. The interior was almost dirtier, messier, and more crowded than Old John's pawn shop. The shop owner's counter was right by the door, making it convenient for him to monitor whether customers were stealing goods. And while it was called a shop, it actually bought and sold everything.
The middle-aged man, who looked to be in his forties or fifties and had his left ear seemingly bitten off, was in a daze that afternoon when Xia De pushed the door open and walked in.
Hearing the door open, he groggily fumbled for his glasses with broken lenses glued together from the counter, put them on, haphazardly swept the illegally printed colored books from the tabletop under the table, and then yawned as he asked:
"New face? No, you're definitely not moving here. Are you a police officer? A Detective? Or a new gangster from the City? Oh, I've paid protection money to Old Midilac."
"I'm not here to cause trouble."
Xia De surveyed the shop. In the southeast corner, there was a large pile of yellowed sheets and cotton. Bottles and jars hung from baskets suspended from the ceiling. On the counter, besides the shop owner's arm, there were piles of matchboxes, metal thimbles for needlework, and low-quality rolling paper for handmade cigarettes. A iron cage was pressed on top of the rolling paper, and a white mouse inside the iron cage was looking at Xia De with red eyes.
That mouse was probably not for sale but the shop owner's pet.
"So what do you want to buy?"
The awakened man said with interest, then added:
"By your accent, are you from Delarion? What are you northerners doing in a place like Rust Alley?"
After more than half a month of effort, Xia De's Carson Rick had made some progress. But for true Carson Rick people, it was still easy to discern Xia De's identity.
"Nothing to buy, I want to get some information from you."
Xia De said, and the man behind the counter rubbed his fingers. Xia De dropped a 1 fenny coin onto the counter, and as the coin spun with a clang, he asked:
"I heard that this place was rebuilt over a decade ago? I'm entrusted by someone to find information about the former owner here. Before the rebuilding over a decade ago, were you also the owner here?"
"Of course not, I only moved here eight years ago. This house originally belonged to a fat man who sold pork and offal at the market, but then he went bankrupt and ran away."
"Selling meat can also lead to bankruptcy?"
"He lost too much playing rhode cards."
The shop owner shrugged:
"I don't know where that guy is now, but he lived here for 20 years, so I think he's the one you're looking for."
"Did he run away? So he took all his belongings with him?"
"Yes, he only left some old furniture, which the creditors took away to pay off debts. When I moved in, there wasn't even a single intact gas lamp. If his creditors are looking for him, I'm sorry, everything here was purchased by me."
"So, have you ever met him, or heard him talk about the incident here over a decade ago?"
"I haven't met him, but I've heard the neighbors talk about that gas explosion incident."
Having inquired this far, Xia De could confirm that there were indeed no clues left for him here. Before entering, he even tried to use Blood Echo to observe the bloodstains in the alley, but those old bloodstains mixed with various traces from the past decade, making it impossible for Xia De to find clues.
Fortunately, he hadn't held out much hope to begin with. Now that he knew there was no value here, he wanted to go talk to Professor Drake about this matter again. But before he turned to leave, the shopkeeper behind the counter said:
"Speaking of which, someone also asked me about him a few days ago. What kind of trouble did he get into? Did he lose all his property playing rhode cards in another City and run away again?"
"Something like that."
Xia De vaguely replied, leaning his arm on the counter:
"You just mentioned that someone asked similar questions recently? Who was it? When did they come? What did they ask?"
Saying that, he tossed out another coin.
The man behind the counter slowly picked up the coin, his tone quite hesitant, his gray eyes looking a bit dazed:
"Probably last week, I don't remember what day of the week."
"Did the other party come alone?"
The shop owner thought for a moment, then shook his head hesitantly:
"I wasn't fully awake that afternoon, my memory is very blurry... probably two people."
"What about their appearance?"
"I really can't remember clearly, I only remember they bought a box of candle brand matches after asking their questions."
Seeing the other party's dazed look, Xia De asked again:
"You don't remember what they asked either?"
"I vaguely remember it was very similar to your question, but I can't say the specific content."
"If you want me to add more money, you can name a number."
"No, no, if I could earn your money, I'd certainly be happy to tell you what you want to know. But this time I'm not trying to ask for more; I really don't remember."
The bald man with glasses mumbled:
"How strange, only a few strangers come to Rust Alley in a week, how could I forget the appearance of a customer?"
"Is there a problem?"
Xia De asked inwardly.
【The time interval is too long; even if his memory was erased, it cannot be investigated. Perhaps you can try entering a dream; there might be remnants of deep memory.】
"I'm not Doctor Schneider, how would I enter a dream?"
Xia De thought to himself, silently reaching into his pocket and pulling out a metal charm:
"Excuse me, do you recognize this?"
The shopkeeper behind the counter subconsciously leaned forward to look, and the next moment his eyes closed due to intense drowsiness, then he slumped onto the counter and fell asleep again.
Xia De put away the charm in his hand. He had just hypnotized the shopkeeper using his own spiritual power guidance combined with the hypnotic charm in his hand. Actually, normally this charm would not take effect so quickly. Xia De learned a spellcasting trick from the pink book; the content about hypnosis in that book was listed as an entire chapter.
"Abnormal forgetting suggests a high probability of memory alteration. And altered memory suggests that the strangers who came a few days ago were also Ring術士. Orthodox Church teams only modify memories according to regulations when ordinary people witness the mysterious, so this was not done by the Orthodox Church. Although I cannot enter a dream to excavate deep memories, but..."
Xia De lowered his eyes and looked at the iron cage on the counter. He deftly opened the lock of the iron cage, then grabbed the white mouse. His hand gripped most of the mouse's body, leaving only its two pink paws and tail free to move.
Holding the mouse in his right hand, he placed the Night Watchman, wrapped in cloth, on the table with his left hand, then rummaged for the fish training ring he carried with him.
"Cats cannot use it, but fortunately, mice can."
Among the "Mia's Three Rings," Xia De did not use the metamorphosis ring so he generally did not carry it. The vampire ring certainly could not be casually taken out in a City like Huntington, where a large Vampire population resided. When Xia De sent the cat to the Witch's Manor that morning, he only took the fish training ring.
