After a few days.
The Ter Street Court received a report that a highly decomposed corpse soaked in a wooden barrel appeared in a hut in a remote street under their jurisdiction. The first person to find the corpse was a nearby neighbor.
In the long-lost sunny weather, the rotting stench from the corpse emanated, exposing the corpse. When the people from the trial court arrived in a hurry, they saw a horrified scene. This highly decomposed corpse was sitting upright in a wooden barrel, with his palms folded, as if praying, and two steel nails were pierced through his chest.
The people in the court recognized the corpse's clothes at a glance, it was the deacon's uniform of the court.
This is like a depth bomb, causing an uproar.
After the identity of the corpse was identified, all the court branches in the entire business district were alarmed.
As a fourth-party peak force independent of the nobles, the military, and the Holy See, this is the most serious trauma and provocation that the trial has suffered in the past five years. .
On the second day after Hollett's body was found, another highly decomposed body was found in a sewer outside the court. After identification, it was Hollett's driver.
The investigators sent by the court immediately found the owner of the hut. This is a fat middle-aged man. When he was brought into the interrogation room of the court, his whole body collapsed from fright.
"Eight o'clock in the evening on the seventeenth, where are you?"
"At home, it was raining heavily, and I was with my family."
"I heard that your house is rented out, do you still remember the appearance of the lessor?"
"I don't remember. He was wearing a hood and kept his head down. It was too dark, so I didn't pay much attention to it, but I remember that he was quite thin."
"Didn't you read his ID card when signing the lease contract?"
"I asked him for it, but he said he didn't bring it with him. Later, he said he would only rent it for a week and gave me ten silver coins. I, I will rent it to him."
"Hmph, see something with open eyes."
During the investigation of the house owner, the trial court obtained extremely limited information. The only thing that can be confirmed is that the perpetrator of the crime was a man, and that this was a planned and premeditated assassination.
However, with the death of a deacon, the trial office would naturally not let it go. The body and the scene were tightly protected. The trial office dispatched two high-level trial knights to investigate the information left by the murderer.
The first thing that attracted attention was the two steel nails, which were sent to the court for inspection. Not long after, it was found that there were two kinds of blood stains on the steel nails, one belonged to Hollett, and the other was unknown. blood.
Although it was impossible to find the murderer from the aspect of blood, the court quickly found the source of the steel nail—the Thorn Flower Prison.
In addition to the steel nails, the court also found a few rose petals at the scene, so the flower gardens and flower shops in various places on Terr Street were closely interrogated.
…
…
Another part of the business district, the small town of Yard.
A carriage drove in and stopped in front of a hotel. A pale-skinned young man got out of the car, holding a bunch of deep red roses in his hand, and entered the hotel.
Boom~!
The door opened.
"Dean?" Joseph in the room saw Du Dian at the door, and said in surprise: "Come in, you are finally back."
Du Dian entered the room, and Joseph was the only one in the spacious room. He asked, "Where are Barton and Kruen?"
"They went to collect information, and they will return soon." Joseph saw the flowers Du Dian was holding, and said in surprise: "Why did you change it?"
"The previous withered." Du Dian smiled and poured himself a cup of hot tea. After a while, he smelled Barton and Kruen appearing in the range of perception. Soon, the two returned to the hotel.
"How?" Du Dian asked the two.
When Barton and Kruen saw Du Dian, they were a little surprised, as if they had found the backbone. Hearing this, the two looked at each other, and Barton said: "We have asked everywhere these days, from the pig butcher to the owners of various shops, and what they said is that the Ryan family is a declining little nobleman. The patriarch's name is Flynn Lane. He is sixty-two years old this year. His wife died very early. He has four children. The eldest son is forty-eight years old. He has three children, all of whom are married..."
Du Dian listened to the two tell the information.
"Because it has fallen, there are only two teams of knights in the Ryan family, each with ten people, and about thirty followers, a total of fifty people, and it is said that many of these knights are not regular knights, and have not received the Medal of Honor in the Knights Hall , It’s just that the old patriarch loves face and recruited some trainee knights into the formation to expand the number and look better.”
After a while, the three of them finished talking about everything they knew.
Du Dian nodded slightly, and after thinking for a while, he got up and said, "You wait for me here, I'll go out for a while."
"Where are you going?" Barton couldn't help asking.
Du Dian smiled and said: "Visit the old patriarch."
…
…
Night is coming.
The old castle on the high slope outside the town is brightly lit.
The knights and servants are on duty everywhere in the castle. The day-to-day guard work is extremely boring. The scenery that repeats forever has long been tired of watching, and the guards all know that even the most stupid thief will not come here To hunt for treasure is tantamount to looking for water in the desert and fire in the sea.
The guards stood together, chatting about the interesting things they heard recently, passing the time, and only hoped that this dark night would pass sooner.
In the huge dining room of the old castle, the old patriarch Fulin sat at the head of the long table, and his children and grandchildren sat in two rows. One of the older granddaughters was handing his child to the nanny for her Take to breastfeed.
A huge chandelier hangs on the top of the dining table, and the oil lamp is withered and yellow, which is the lamp oil used by ordinary residents.
After dinner, the children got up and saluted the old patriarch Fulin, and went back to their respective rooms to rest or play.
"Grandpa, I mentioned to you last time about opening a store on Wall Street. How do you think about it?" After the others had almost left, one of the young people in their twenties asked the old patriarch Flynn in the chief seat. road.
The old patriarch Flynn looked up at him slowly, frowned and said: "I have investigated, although Wall Street is prosperous, but the store rent is too high, and the profit of the scrap metal you want to sell is too low, even earning back the rent It’s not enough, let alone make money to subsidize the family.”
The young man's complexion changed slightly, and he hurriedly said: "Grandpa, what I sell is not broken copper and iron, but good swords and knives that I have worked so hard to find forged by master craftsmen, and they can be sold at high prices. If you rent it out, you will definitely make a profit without losing money!"
"You are too young." The old patriarch Flynn sighed: "You should first investigate the items of other similar shops near Wall Street. If you think that the things you sell can be higher than those of other shops, come to me again. Don't take customers for fools, they are smart."
"Grandpa!" the young man said anxiously.
"Hugh Dun, don't be rude!" The middle-aged man next to him scolded.
The young man choked, lowered his head sullenly, dropped the fork in his hand, turned and left.
The middle-aged man hurriedly said to the old patriarch Fulin: "Father, don't take offense, this child is not sensible, and his temper is a bit impatient."
"He's still young, after a few more years of training, he'll understand." The old patriarch Fulin sighed, without saying anything, picked up the crutch beside the table, got up, and went back to the room with the help of the maid beside him.
Helping the stairs back to the room, the old patriarch Fulin coughed lightly while clutching his chest, and the middle-aged maid next to him quickly took out the medicine bottle from the container and handed it to him.
The old patriarch poured out two red pills and swallowed them. His cough eased a little, and he waved his hand to let the maid back down.
After the middle-aged maid left, the old patriarch Fulin walked slowly to the desk next to the bed with a cane, lit the oil lamp, took out the magnifying glass in the drawer, and flipped through the books on the desk.
"The patriarch is very interested." Suddenly, a voice suddenly sounded from a dark corner of the room.