Who? As a " Sheriff," Hugh had a keen intuition about surveillance and being monitored. He immediately felt a tightness in his chest and his mind raced as he considered what had happened.
In the past two or three weeks, she hadn't encountered anything particularly noteworthy. The few criminals she had captured weren't Beyonder; at most, they had some connection to a certain gang. No one would offend a bounty Hunter with a small reputation in the East Borough for their sake. Therefore, she quickly narrowed down her targets and vaguely guessed which faction was watching her.
A member of the Aurora Order? I didn't go to Mr. X's party last time, and something unexpected happened there. The scene was supposedly quite shocking... Someone from Military Intelligence Section 9 told me that Mr. X was killed on the spot, and his body was taken away. The Assassin used Demigod- level power... Aurora Order investigating who did this? Is everyone who receives a party invitation their target? Although Hugh can be impulsive and careless at times, and his way of thinking is rather direct, he has a strong intuition in similar areas and can always immediately grasp the key points.
Regarding Mr. X's murder, she was both relieved that Fors had pulled her away and prevented her from attending the party, thus avoiding an accident, and convinced that she was innocent and could withstand any investigation. Therefore, when she met with the masked man from Military Intelligence Section 9 last week, she was confident and readily accepted the task of investigating the truth of the case. Unfortunately, she didn't know which other Beyonder had attended the party, leaving her with no way to begin.
Well, that guy from Military Intelligence Section 9 told me that the people in the Aurora Order are either already Lunatic or in a state of Lunatic. You can't use normal logic to predict their behavior. Even if they confirm that I'm not a problem, they might still kill me to vent their anger and warn the real killer... Hugh walked forward with a high level of tension, replanning his route in the East Borough.
Along this route, she can get help from her friends at any time, and if she is attacked, she has a good chance of escaping or fighting back.
As he walked, Hugh suddenly felt disoriented and realized that he had unknowingly returned to his residence in the Cherwood Borough.
Hugh entered blankly, drank a glass of water, and was patted on the shoulder by Fors said:
"Come with me to the East Borough."
After pausing for two seconds, Xiu uttered words that sounded very familiar:
"You're going out to gather materials?"
Fors immediately denied this claim, stating that he had previously accepted a task to help people find the dust left behind after ghosts disappeared, and that the spirits of the dead in the cemetery had long been Purification and sent to the realms of their respective gods, so they could only search in the East Borough.
Xiu hesitated and said:
"I'm getting ready to attend the party Mr. X is hosting. Can't you postpone your plans for a day?"
Fors immediately wore a bitter expression, saying that he had been too slow and the mission was almost over.
Xiu sighed and agreed to accompany his friend to the East Borough to search for those who had just died or had been dead for some time but had not yet been discovered.
Just as the two were about to go out, Xiu was hit in the face by the wind and shivered. He suddenly came to his senses and saw a bard sitting on a street corner, playing a seven-stringed lyre and singing folk songs popular in the southern countryside.
Xiu frowned slightly, raised his hand to rub his temples, feeling that he had been a little absent-minded just now, but he couldn't remember what he was thinking about.
She remained on high alert and followed her planned route into a bar that sold lunch, where she encountered a resident from the East Borough who occasionally provided her with information.
This was a young man in his mid-twenties, with thinly trimmed eyebrows, brown hair that reached his shoulders, and features that weren't particularly rugged. He wore cheap cosmetics, which gave him a rather incongruous appearance.
" Shermane, has anything happened these past few days?" Hugh greeted him.
As far as she knew, this young man named Shermane always believed he should be a woman, but Fate had played a cruel joke on him, making him a man, which caused him to suffer severe discrimination over the years.
Shermane smiled, revealing his teeth:
"It was very calm; no men offered me drinks."
"Drinking is bad," Hugh said earnestly, walking past the other person towards the bar.
Shermane spat, swayed as he walked out the door, and made his way to the apartment he rented.
He paused at the door for several seconds, took two steps to the side, and knocked on the door of the room next door.
The wooden door creaked open, and a deep yet undeniably sweet female voice rang out:
Have you made a decision yet?
Shermane stepped inside, closed the door behind him, and looked at the girl in a black dress sitting on the edge of the bed, saying:
"I still don't quite believe it; I don't believe such a miraculous thing could happen."
In his eyes, the girl had a slightly round face, a gentle temperament, and a sweet appearance with a unique charm that made her very attractive and captivating.
Of course, for Shermane, it was more of an admiration than an infatuation.
The girl in the black dress responded expressionlessly:
"Haven't you already seen my old photos?"
Her gaze would always unconsciously carry a hint of melancholy as she moved.
"But maybe that's your twin brother or sister. I find it hard to believe there's really a way to turn me back into a woman..." Shermane said hesitantly.
The girl in the black dress smiled without any real smile and said:
"Then you can pretend this is fake and go back now."
Shermane clenched his fists tightly, remained silent for a long time, and then said:
"I... I'm willing to try, even though I know you're probably lying to me, I still want to give it a shot."
"So, what price will I pay?"
"Follow my orders and do some things for me. Don't worry, it's definitely something you can do," the girl in the black dress said. "To truly change your gender, you need to drink three doses of medicine and complete some ritualistic procedures. I will teach you."
At this point, she gave a self-deprecating laugh:
"You can start thinking about your own female name now."
Nighttime, in a small alley on Iron Gate Street in the Backlund Bridge Area.
Hugh stood under the broken gas streetlight, thinking about what had happened that afternoon.
After confirming she was no longer being followed, she returned to the Cherwood Borough and secretly observed Fors. She discovered that her friend hadn't left the house, staying there as usual, spending a lot of time reading novels, newspapers, and magazines. She spent nearly an hour in her room with the curtains drawn, seemingly honing her extraordinary abilities. Only when she had nothing else to do did she take out some paper, write the beginning of a new book for fifteen minutes, then tear it up, crumple it into a ball, and throw it in the trash.
She also smoked excessively... drank excessively... Xiu gritted her teeth inwardly, and saw a man in a black suit emerge from the shadows at the other end of the alley.
The man was tall and imposing, wearing a gold mask that revealed his eyes, nostrils, mouth, and cheeks. He was the Military Intelligence Section 9 agent who had been in contact with Hugh.
"What's the emergency?" he asked directly.
Despite his short stature, Hugh spoke with undiminished force:
"I was being followed in the East Borough. I suspect it's someone from the Aurora Order. They seem to be investigating the last gathering as well."
Hugh had originally planned to talk about someone the other party had asked her to find, intending to use potentially unverifiable clues to make this urgent meeting seem legitimate. But now, she had the Aurora Order a better and more suitable excuse.
"That's how the Aurora Order's Lunatic are. Even though they know we're also investigating this matter and searching for them, they won't back down. If they weren't, they wouldn't always be suffering setbacks," the man in the golden mask chuckled. "Frankly, I'm surprised they didn't just surround you and take you to a secluded place for questioning or Spirit Channeling."
Just as Hugh was about to reply that the people from the Aurora Order hadn't been following them for long, he suddenly thought of that lingering sense of unease, so he carefully considered his words and asked:
"I don't know exactly what happened to me. For such a short period of time, I seemed a bit confused and couldn't remember what I was thinking."
The man in the golden mask fell silent for a moment, then spoke after more than ten seconds:
"The investigation into you should be over... The Aurora Order this matter more seriously than I expected. I will report it to them."
"Hmm... you mentioned before that quite a few Beyonder received invitations but didn't attend the gathering?"
Hugh nodded and said:
"The number of people attending each gathering should not exceed one-third of those who received the invitation."
"This is the normal state of most gatherings, and Mr. X's will be no exception."
The man in the golden mask pondered for a moment, then asked:
Have you found any leads on the person I asked you to find last time?
"The one whose original Trissy?" Hugh shook his head after seeing the other person nod. "Not yet. She should be an experienced one."
The man in the golden mask chuckled.
"She's killed more people than you've completed bounty missions. If you have any leads, try not to get close; she's extremely dangerous."
Hugh grunted in agreement and got to the point:
"Is there a new commission this time?"
"Why the sudden change in attitude?" the man in the gold mask asked, slightly surprised.
Hugh responded calmly:
"I'm almost done accumulating enough merit points to exchange for the ' Interrogator ' Potion recipe. I hope I can get it soon."
"Actually, there's no need for that. You can just exchange for Potion, which will save you a lot of merit points," the man in the golden mask said, speaking from Hugh's perspective.
"I already possess Beyonder Characteristic!" Hugh shook his head and said.
"That will take a long time. Perhaps I can buy the materials at other gatherings of Beyonder."
The man in the golden mask didn't try to persuade him further, but said with a half-sigh and a half-smile:
"Then I wish you good luck."
"This time we have a rather complex mission. If you can complete it, you should have enough merit points."
Xiu suppressed his joy and asked:
What mission?
The man in the golden mask said in a slightly strange tone:
"Keep an eye on everyone the Viscount Stratford comes into contact with, and submit a report to me detailing each one."
"You don't need to monitor it frequently. Just keep an eye on it when you have free time or happen to be passing by. Trust me, you're not the only one doing this task. As long as you submit one valuable report per week, you'll earn merit points. There are weekly rewards."
Viscount Stratford... Hugh suddenly felt a little dazed again, and this time, she knew why.
This Viscount is the head of the palace guard, and was her father's former deputy!
P. S.: I recommend a book, *Plague Doctor *. I read it all the way to the part about sacrificing the banyan tree and thought it was pretty good. I'm thinking of letting it sit for a while and seeing how it develops before I actively recommend it. After all, it's my type of book—modern setting, lots of Lovecraftian elements, and the addition of the Doctor profession makes the details very solid and high-quality. The suspense is also great. I hope WALL-E can maintain the quality later on. Anyone who likes this genre should check it out.