novelhk Chapter 94 Verdu
Chapter 94 Verdu
"863, right?"
Suren's voice echoed in the carriage, though not loudly.
"863?" Kayla asked in confusion.
Etherine didn't speak, but just looked at Suren quietly, though a hint of curiosity could be seen in her eyes.
Bald Toby stared blankly at Suren for a moment, then slapped his forehead and said, "Mr. Karen knows quite a lot, doesn't he?"
"Unfortunately, all I know is that an incident happened in Verdot, but I don't know the specific details."
Suren responded with a smile, without saying anything more.
Bald Toby glanced at the people in the carriage, knowing he couldn't get away with it any longer. He sighed and said, "Actually, I don't know much. I only know that in March of 863, overnight, everyone in the city disappeared."
He turned to look out the window and murmured, "Some say they were killed by demons from hell, others say the people of this town offended the church and were wiped out. In short, the whole incident is shrouded in mystery, and no one knows the truth."
"What happened after that? Is anyone still living in this town?" Kayla asked bald Toby curiously.
Bald Toby turned his gaze away from the car window, touched his bald head, and seemed to be organizing his thoughts.
"After that incident, the church also gave up its management of Vildu, which became a refuge for many exiles. I heard there are also some indigenous people here. In short, it's a mixed bag and not a good place."
After saying that, bald Toby shrugged and said nothing more.
Suren stroked his chin, staring at bald Toby, and muttered to himself, "This guy seems to have revealed a lot, but actually not much of it is useful. He's definitely hiding a lot of information."
Even so, Suren couldn't do much about Bald Toby; he couldn't exactly point a gun at him.
Seeing that everyone remained silent, Bald Toby, having nothing better to do, took out the map and gestured with it for a moment before sighing and saying, "At this rate, we'll probably have to spend the night in Verdu."
Suren took out his pocket watch and checked the time; it was indeed getting late.
"In that peculiar book about the Philosopher's Stone that the professor wrote back then, it was mentioned that the Philosopher's Stone incident also occurred in 863. Perhaps Verdot has some connection to the Philosopher's Stone."
With that in mind, Suren made up her mind that if it was convenient tonight, she should investigate Wildu, and perhaps she could get some unexpected clues.
……
The sun gradually set, and the sky gradually darkened.
At this moment, Suren also noticed that the carriage had slowed down.
A thought struck him, and he reached out to lift the curtain of the carriage, discovering that ahead lay a somewhat dilapidated town, which must be Verdu.
Verd looks only slightly larger than Loren Town, and there are still scattered lights in the town, indicating that people still live there.
"Is he the exiled convict Toby mentioned? Or just an ordinary, impoverished resident?"
Just as Suren was muttering to himself, the carriage stopped. Suren looked closely and saw that the carriage had stopped at the entrance to Weldu. Unexpectedly, there were two men on duty in front of the town gate.
Mr. Loft had already stepped down from the carriage, clearly preparing to negotiate with the two men at the entrance.
Suren stepped down from the carriage, and Etherine followed suit.
The two of them took two steps at a time and quickly arrived at Loft's side.
At this moment, the man opposite him said with a troubled expression, "I'm so sorry, sir, that's really the rule here..."
Loft frowned, about to say something, when he happened to see Suren. Noticing Suren's questioning gaze, Loft explained, "Mr. Karen, these two said that the current mayor of Wildau has issued a rule that outsiders are prohibited from entering the town after six o'clock in the evening."
"A mayor? There's a mayor in this place?" Suren looked at the two men at the door with some doubt. They were dressed in ordinary cloth clothes, not church uniforms, which meant that this mayor was probably not a person appointed by the church.
Upon hearing Suren's words, the two men opposite him proudly stated, "Our mayor is named Victor Hamilton, and it was he who saved this town."
"Does your mayor have permission from the church?"
Loft questioned the mayor's legitimacy, and continued threateningly, "You should know that the church's army is currently on a mission not far away."
The two men looked at each other, and one of them swallowed hard before saying with some difficulty, "Sir, please wait here for a moment while I go and inform the mayor."
Watching the man rush towards the town, Loft and Suren turned around and went to the carriage. Suren asked curiously, "Mr. Loft, how much do you know about this Wildu?"
"To my shame, I also found this town on a black market map."
Loft shook his head, also somewhat puzzled: "This town isn't even marked on the official map. Judging from its dilapidated state, it looks like one of those outlying towns abandoned by the church."
"Even the official map released by the church has erased this town. Looking at it this way, there's a high probability that Verdot is related to the Philosopher's Stone."
Suren carefully examined the entrance to the town and found that the bricks and tiles there were covered with the marks of time, and looked like they hadn't been repaired for many years.
He couldn't help but feel curious and asked, "Are there many towns like this that have been abandoned by the church?"
"There weren't many before, but in the last hundred years, monsters and underground organizations have become more and more active."
Loft sighed, a hint of regret in his expression: "This has led to the devastation of some remote towns. With such a small population, the church is unwilling to put in the effort to manage them, and the residents naturally leave, and a town simply disappears."
"Nearly a century? Around 1050? Isn't that around the beginning of the Age of Rift? It seems that from that time onwards, the Church's control began to falter."
Suren pondered to himself, and he couldn't help but glance at Etherine. She had mentioned the same topic in the carriage earlier, and seemed to know something about it.
Loft was unaware of what Suren was thinking. He glanced at Wildu and said with a hint of inquiry, "But this is truly the first time I've ever seen a town that spontaneously elects its own mayor."
"What would the church do if it found out about this?" Suren couldn't help but wonder.
At this point, Etherine, who had been silent, spoke up: "That depends on the mayor's methods, but I reckon he's already taken care of things with the church beforehand."
"Mr. Lucas seems to know a lot about this," Love said, making a pointed remark.
Etherine just snorted and ignored Loft, making the atmosphere a little awkward.
Suren shook his head helplessly. No wonder Henry had said earlier that "Arthur Lucas" was not easy to get along with.
Just then, the man who had left earlier returned with a somewhat thin middle-aged man.
This might be the "Victor Hamilton" we know.
He didn't look young; his temples were a bit gray, but his eyes were bright and piercing. He was dressed in a short suit and looked quite respectable.
Suren noticed a bulge at his waist that, judging from its shape, resembled a revolver.
Loft had already gone to greet them. After briefly explaining the situation, the mayor did not make things difficult for them. Instead, he smiled and let everyone pass, and warmly led Charles's caravan to the town's inn.
Instead of returning to the carriage, Suren decided to follow the mayor onto the town's roads.
Because there was no church support, there were no gas lamps along the roadside, and the only light source was the kerosene lamp carried by the mayor.
After a brief introduction, the group chatted as they walked.
"Speaking of which, it's been more than half a year since anyone came here. I've almost forgotten how to deal with outsiders, haha." Mayor Hamilton's voice sounded quite gentle.
After exchanging a few casual words, Suren asked, seemingly casually, "As far as I know, this town seems to have been abandoned by the church long ago. What made you choose to be the mayor here?"
"That happened a long time ago. About two hundred years ago, all the residents of the town disappeared overnight, leaving only a small group of lucky survivors." The mayor's expression didn't change much, as if he were just talking about something ordinary.
Upon hearing this, Loft asked with some curiosity, "Oh? What happened?"
"Perhaps it was a demonic invasion, or something else entirely. Who knows? After all, it happened hundreds of years ago, and I'm only in my forties."
The mayor shrugged, seemingly uninterested in the matter.
Just then, the group passed by a statue. The mayor pointed to the statue and said, "This was the mayor at the time, a priest of the Libra Church, and my ancestor."
At this point, he sighed, "After that incident, my ancestors also disappeared. Our Hamilton family declined from then on."
Suren examined the statue closely and found that the person on it did indeed bear some resemblance to Hamilton.
Suren looked around, a question lingering in his mind: 'The location of this statue is rather strange. Why is it built on the edge of the city?'
Later, Suren and the others learned the whole story from the town mayor:
Following the incident in 863, the remaining members of the Hamilton family, to which the mayor belonged, joined forces with the remaining townspeople to rebuild the town, which developed relatively quickly through self-sufficiency.
"Alas, the family had already prepared to apply to the church to restore the status of the town of Vildu."
The mayor sighed deeply, a hint of fear on his face: "Unfortunately, 20 years ago, this place was suddenly struck by 'Bloody Mary,' causing many residents to leave."
"Bloody Mary?" Loft exclaimed.
The mayor snapped out of his daze and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, we haven't had any guests in a long time, so I said a lot of pointless things. Please just pretend you didn't hear me."
"It's alright, Mayor Hamilton. I happen to be someone who really enjoys listening to stories. Why don't you tell me more about 'Bloody Mary'?" Suren smiled. This was true; he was indeed very interested in the story of Wiltow.
Hearing Suren's words, Etherine couldn't help but glance at him, thinking to herself, "Why is he so concerned about Verdot?"
The mayor then shook his head, seemingly unwilling to bring up the matter again.
Loft leaned closer and whispered, "Bloody Mary is a famous horror legend. The legend says that there is a beautiful lady named Mary who only appears in the mirror at midnight. She will walk out of the mirror, and men who see her will kill each other, while women who see her will be ashamed of her beauty and destroy their faces and skin. In the end, both will turn into bones."
Loft's voice echoed through the town, and combined with the dim light of Hamilton's oil lamp, the whole scene seemed somewhat eerie.
Suren frowned and replied, "Isn't this just a bad horror story?"
"No, no, no, Mr. Cullen, you haven't been to 'Libraton,' where I witnessed the exact same event, the scene..." Loft's face still showed lingering fear.
Suren asked with some surprise, "Is it possible that this was done by a superhuman?"
"Many people thought so at first, but then a noblewoman also died from 'Bloody Mary,' which led both the Libra Church and the Judgment Church to intervene in the investigation."
Loft's fear deepened: "But what's terrifying is that even the two great figures, Bishop Anthony Fairfax of the Libra Church and Archbishop Chris Sebastian of the Judgment Church, couldn't find a single clue when they joined forces."
Upon hearing this, Suren frowned. He knew Anthony Fairfax; he had joined the ranks of "Agents" more than a decade ago.
Although he didn't know the other one, Chris, an archbishop must at least be an "actor" to serve as one, and some archbishops are even the legendary "critical ones".
"The extraordinary beings of the Church of Judgment are renowned for their tracking abilities; neither of the two agents found a single clue unless that person is a critically endangered individual skilled in concealment."
Suren pondered this in her heart, but quickly overturned her own conclusion.
Although Suren has never met a Critical One, according to limited records, the Critical One's abilities are bizarre and varied, with an extremely wide range and methods comparable to those of a god. They don't need to be so roundabout to do evil.
"It seems my thinking is still too scientific. There's no need to talk about logic in the supernatural world. Maybe it really is the work of ghosts?" Suren couldn't help but laugh at himself.
Thinking of this, Suren couldn't help but look at the mayor and ask, "Mr. Hamilton, since this place is so terrifying, why didn't you lead the townspeople away?"
"There aren't many young people left here; most of the remaining residents are older townspeople, and nobody wants to cause any trouble."
The mayor seemed to have a good temper and was not impatient. He turned around and explained, "Besides, according to the legend of 'Bloody Mary,' she is found all over the entire Sanctuary Continent. There's nothing to hide from her. In the past 20 years, nothing like this has happened in the town."
Suren then noticed that when the mayor said the last sentence, he turned his head away with a slightly evasive look in his eyes.
Suren couldn't help but sneer inwardly; this old guy was probably hiding something too.
Soon, the group arrived at a small hotel in the town. The hotel was located near the edge of the town, next to the town's wall.
The hotel is not small, with two floors, and surprisingly, it looks like it has been renovated once.
At this moment, Suren noticed something unusual: a statue stood near the wall, a statue of Hamilton's ancestor.