After dodging a drunkard who was charging around, Emlyn frowned, dusted off his clothes, and continued to squeeze towards the bar.
During this process, he seemed to do nothing, yet he always managed to avoid being touched by the surrounding patrons. His speed, agility, and balance and coordination were all at a terrifying level.
Finally, Emlyn reached the bar and tapped the wooden board with his finger:
Where is Ian?
The bartender glanced at him, said nothing, and continued wiping the glasses.
Emlyn stood there, stunned. He felt he must have done something wrong to not get the answer he expected, which made him a little angry and embarrassed. He wanted to reach forward and pull the bartender out.
However, he felt this was ungentlemanly, so he forced himself to suppress his emotions, glanced around, and found that everyone was drinking.
After thinking for a moment, Emlyn tentatively began to speak:
"A glass of Ormir red wine."
The bartender stopped wiping the glasses, raised his head, and looked at the handsome man with black hair and red eyes in front of him with a strange expression.
"No."
This is one of the world's finest red wines, and the price is astonishing!
Emlyn wasn't stupid; he realized from the other person's eyes that he had ordered the wrong drink, and after thinking carefully, he said:
"A glass of Southville beer."
"Five pence." The bartender finally put down the glass and the rag.
Emlyn pulled out a 1- Soli banknote and said:
No change needed.
"Thank you." The bartender pointed to the left and said, " Ian is in room number one, the card room."
Emlyn immediately smiled, pleased and proud that he had solved a real problem. He didn't reach for the Southville beer, but turned and headed straight for Card Room 1.
Knock, knock, knock! He knocked on the door very politely.
"Please come in." A slightly immature voice came from inside.
Emlyn straightened his collar, pushed open the door, and entered, only to find that the scene inside was not quite what he had expected.
He imagined that since it was a card room, there would be a bunch of people gathered around a long table playing Texas Hold'em or other games. But there were seven or eight people, yet no playing cards were on the table. Each participant had a blank sheet of paper in front of them, with something Record on it in a mess. Besides these, the only things on the table were a pen and a multi-sided die.
Emlyn instinctively turned his gaze to the youngest among them, a handsome young boy with equally bright red eyes, who looked only fifteen or sixteen years old.
" Ian?" Emlyn asked, as if confirming.
Ian nodded and smiled:
"Yes, sir, what can I do for you? Or would you like to join our game?"
"A game?" Emlyn asked instinctively.
Ian chuckled:
"Yes, games. I don't like playing cards or billiards, but I have to find something to do every day I'm here. I got Spirit Intuition from the biography of Emperor Roselle, which is to organize a group of people, sit together, and try out a paper adventure."
"In this game, as long as you follow the rules, you can be anyone: a Doctor, an adventurer who loves vegetables, a private Detective who always carries a wrench and a pipe, or an Archaeologist who loves to have sudden inspirations. Then, together you can go to an ancient castle, find the stories hidden in history, and fight against all sorts of Monster."
"Sounds interesting." Emlyn inexplicably felt that this kind of game was perfect for him.
"Haha, wanna join? We've gotten ourselves involved in a conspiracy and will be facing a powerful ancient Vampire. He may have a handsome face, but beneath his skin are pustules from burning blood," Ian invited enthusiastically.
"Sanguine, thank you!" Emlyn's face twitched almost imperceptibly as he said directly.
I have something I'd like to ask you to do.
"Alright... let's go to the next room." Ian stood up, holding his Round Tower hat and old satchel.
Next door was a billiards room, but no one was inside. The skilled and experienced young man closed the door, looked around, and then looked at Emlyn, saying:
"Sir, I don't know you. Who introduced you here?"
Emlyn slightly raised his chin, a smile playing on his lips, and said:
" Sherlock Moriarty."
He had barely finished speaking when he suddenly glanced around and pinched his nose.
"So it was Detective Moriarty." Ian said with no attempt to hide his relief. "That puts my mind at ease. By the way, wasn't he on vacation at Desi Bay? When did he get back?"
Emlyn lowered his right hand and said without changing his expression:
He didn't come back. I went to his rented place to look for him.
"Frankly speaking, a normal vacation should have ended in mid-to-late January, and it's already April."
"Could something have happened to him?" Ian asked with some concern.
Emlyn considered the abilities and mystique displayed by Sherlock Moriarty, then shook his head and said:
"Perhaps they've just gotten involved in a complicated case."
Ian didn't say anything more, but instead asked:
"How should I address you? What is your request?"
"Just call me Mr. White," Emlyn said, pulling out a piece of paper that looked like a wanted poster. "Find these five people for me."
Ian took it, examined it carefully for a while, and said:
"£20 for a valid lead, £150 for pinpointing a location. Is that acceptable?"
"No problem." Emlyn thought the price was incredibly cheap.
Compared to that, his asking price at the Tarot Club seemed outrageous.
Ian folded the papers and asked one last question:
"Mr. White, if we have any leads, where should we look for you?"
" Bridge South Borough, Harvest Church." Emlyn already had the answer in mind.
Upon hearing this, Ian scrutinized him for a few moments with surprise and said:
"You're a follower of the ' Earth Mother '? That's quite rare in Backlund."
"No!" Emlyn shook his head firmly. "I was just doing volunteer work there."
Before Ian could speak, he preemptively asked:
Who did you inherit your red eyes from?
When he saw Ian earlier, he wanted to ask this question because in ancient times, red eyes were a distinctive feature of Sanguine. However, during the Fourth Age, humans and Sanguine lived together for a long time and were both residents of the Empire. As a result, they had extensive interactions and many offspring were born. The number of "hybrids" with bright red eyes gradually increased and was passed down from generation to generation, becoming one of the less common eye colors among humans.
Simply put, every red-eyed human has a Sanguine ancestor.
Ian replied, somewhat bewildered:
"My father... I don't know anything beyond that, because I was a homeless child."
It seems he doesn't belong to the type who still has connections with Sanguine... Emlyn gave 20 pounds in advance with slight disappointment and turned to leave the billiard room.
After he was gone, Ian did not immediately return to the card room. Instead, he closed the door again and spoke into the air:
" Detective Moriarty hasn't returned to Backlund yet, and I'm a little worried about him."
Suddenly, a figure appeared in the void of the billiard room. She was pale-faced, with delicate features, wearing a small black soft hat and a matching gothic-style court dress. It was none other than the " Wraith " Sharron.
"He's doing well," Sharron replied calmly, her figure instantly blurring and disappearing.
"You always say that, do you and Detective Moriarty have been corresponding all along...?" Ian muttered to himself, picking up a newspaper from a corner of the pool room.
On top was the " Tussock Times," and below it was a copy of " Sea News." The latter originally focused on reporting on the situation in different colonies of the Kingdom of Loen and events at sea, but due to current technological conditions, the Sea News transmitted to Backlund was already severely outdated and of little use to those who needed it, so sales were poor and it became worse and worse over time.
Later, at the suggestion of the new editor-in-chief, the newspaper's style changed, with more rumors about the sea and various strange stories about pirates and adventurers, making it seem more like a collection of stories than the News.
Surprisingly, this style became quite popular, especially content involving ghosts, spirits, sea monsters, and treasures. It became the go-to way for the few literate people in bars to brag to the majority of illiterate people, since it was entertaining enough, even though it seemed fake.
Ian casually flipped through the various newspapers, finding nothing of interest, except for one report in the * Sea News * that particularly struck him:
"It is said that on the night of March 25th, the fleet of the ' King of Immortality ' attacked a ship returning to Feysac from East Balam, seizing all its cargo and wealth, and ' The Slaughterer ' Gillschies, true to his title, carried out a bloody 'funeral'..."
These pirates are really arrogant... Ian shook his head, put down the newspaper, and returned to the card room to continue his game.
Outside the bar, Emlyn boarded the carriage, leaned against the side wall, and watched the streetlights slowly recede.
He pinched his nose again and muttered to himself:
A ' Wraith '?
" Ian, that arms dealer, really has connections... not bad!"
Emlyn then closed his eyes, filled with even greater anticipation for his commission.
Sunlight streamed in through the window, bathing the captain's cabin in a golden glow.
Edwina sat in a chair, holding a book, and looked across at the person opposite her, saying:
"So, you also believe that the three great empires of Solomon, Tudor, Trunsoest once coexisted?"
"This is precisely the necessary condition for the ' War of the Four Emperors '," Klein replied simply.
He was holding a copy of the " The Book of the Three Worlds," which came from a member of the School of Life and later fell into the hands of " Vice Admiral Iceberg." In addition to describing the material world, the spiritual world, and the World of Absolute Rationality, it also contained some content on spellcasting, some of which were quite profound. Klein's focus today was on studying this part, hoping to find a better way to utilize the " Sea God Scepter " and the " Worm of Time."
Klein had actually discovered that the books collected by " Vice Admiral Iceberg " were all unsystematic ancient documents, which was inconsistent with the fact that she was backed by the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom. Therefore, he guessed that within the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, orthodox and systematic occult knowledge was forbidden to be disclosed to non-members.
Just as Edwina was about to ask another question, she suddenly noticed that the Golden Dream " was gradually slowing down. She looked out the window, glanced at it a few times, and said in a cool voice:
" Bayam has arrived."
P. S.: Bonus chapter for 60,000 monthly votes!