Time passed by ticking, and the guests in the Ice Flame Bar gradually returned to their respective residences after eating and drinking their fill, patting their stomachs.
Bertha had worked hard all day, but looking at the Icelandic krona piled up in the cash register made her day's work seem worthwhile.
She has been saving money, not just for living, but also to hire an expedition team to find her missing husband and son. However, Iceland is so big that it is not easy to hire such a willing expedition team.
There was once a geological and archaeological team willing to take the risk, but their asking price was almost equal to the total revenue of the Ice Flame Bar in ten years.
Such a life is lonely and painful for her, and she has to put on a hypocritical smile every day to face the customers who come to consume.
In Bertha's heart, she never gave up the possibility that the two were still alive. Maybe they just couldn't find their way home, or maybe they were washed away by the flood and went to a completely unfamiliar place.
For Bertha, she is still young, beautiful and has a well-proportioned figure. She has no shortage of suitors. The income from the Ice Flame Bar is actually enough for her to remarry several times, but she is unwilling to do so.
Bertha was a strong woman with firm beliefs.
After completing the basic cleaning and tidying up, Bertha slowly walked up the stairs with her tired body.
Jobtran heard Bertha's footsteps coming up the wooden steps, and he stopped thinking.
He understood that the female bartender would definitely come knocking on his door tonight. Although it was not the affair that the drinkers talked about, Joe Butran knew that this unwilling woman would definitely come with her own demands.
Bertha's actions were just as Jobtran had guessed. After going upstairs, she stopped in front of Jobtran's door. She extended her hand but did not knock.
"Go take a shower. You need to wash off the alcohol and fatigue from your body first."
Joe Butran's voice came from inside the door, but he blushed after he finished speaking.
There seemed to be a hint of ambiguity in this sentence. Bertha, who was already a mother, naturally understood the hint. She blushed and spat, but still felt that what Jobtran said made sense, so she took her clothes and went to wash up.
Since the bar is made of wood, the sound of dripping water can't help but make people imagine.
After the sound of water stopped, Jobtran sat up from the bed.
He couldn't help but have some guesses about what Bertha was about to tell him.
"Bang it up."
"The door is not locked, come in."
Bertha changed into a white short-sleeved top, knee-length pants, and a pair of cute rabbit slippers.
"I think we can continue the topic we left unfinished now?"
Jobtran asked with a smile on his face.
"Um, you mean the missing children case?"
Bertha nodded and wiped her still wet hair with the pink towel hanging around her neck.
"Yes, but before that, I would like to give you a chair, but there is none in the room."
Joe Butran spread his hands mischievously.
"It's okay, I can just sit on the ground."
After saying this, Bertha crossed her legs and sat on the wooden floor.
She rocked the wooden horse and said softly,
“It first started twenty-nine years ago.
At that time, I was just a naive little girl and didn’t have a deep impression of this incident.
I vaguely remember how it all started.
One of the neighbors' children, a boy about four years old, was suddenly awakened on a rainy night.
He shouted, "Katra is coming, Katra is coming."
At first his parents thought that the child was just having a nightmare, so they ignored it and no one thought of the horrifying legend.
"Wait a minute, does Katla mean the Katla volcano, the Katla of Hell's Eye?"
Jobtran noticed the similarity between the two names and immediately interrupted Bertha's story.
"Well, you're right. It seems that you have begun to understand the various legends of our island."
Bertha appreciated Jobtran's question and continued slowly,
"The legend of Katla comes from seven hundred years ago, during the age of medieval magic.
At that time, Katla volcano did not have its own name. It all came from a witch named Katla.
In 1169 she was employed as a housekeeper at the Kirchubaia-Laisti Monastery in the Feather River Canyon.
At first people just thought she was a weirdo who could do magic and had a weird, cold and bad temper.
Even her employers didn’t dare to mess with her, and the locals all avoided her.”
"Monastery? I remember you said before that most people in Iceland should believe in nature elves and Northern Ou mythology, right?"
Joe Butran raised the question.
"It was a Celtic Christian group, now almost extinct, called the Papal Cult.
Although it sounds strange and sounds a lot like the Latin word for father, it actually means God the Father or the Pope.”
Bertha asked carefully.
"I have heard of the Papa sect, a sect that advocates saints walking in the world. The famous geologist Dikuri in the 9th century was a monk of the Papa sect.
The Mensura geological files he recorded are still kept in the Vatican library.
It’s just that the doctrines they believed in conflicted with the mainstream doctrines, and they later declined.”
Jobtran added to what Bertha had said.
"Wait, I remembered something!"
After Jobtran finished speaking, he suddenly took out some papers filled with his own analysis from his bag and found one of them.
It contains matters and speculations related to the Benedictine Monastery, one of which is that the sect believed by the monks of the Benedictine Monastery at that time was the Papal Sect!
"A saint walks among men, Nyarlathotep, you really know how to have fun."
Jobtran murmured to himself.
This explains the origin of the Devil's Bible. As long as it is Nyarlathotep, he will definitely not miss such an interesting thing.
Being able to leave behind a mystery that would be difficult to solve for a thousand years, Jobtran could already imagine the smug smile on Nyarlathotep's face at that time.
From Bertha's words, Jobtran had already guessed the sequel to the Katla legend. Since he was dealing with that guy with a bad taste, he had to be very careful.
Despite this, Jobtran let Bertha continue talking; he needed to hear all the details.
"Sorry to interrupt you, please continue."
Jobtran put the document away, keeping this in mind for the Papa sect.
“Okay, legend has it that Catra had a pair of magical riding boots.
A pair of tan riding boots that will make anyone feel as comfortable as wearing a pair of custom-made boots, and will allow anyone to run or work without feeling tired.
Katara would only wear these boots to work when necessary, and usually she would keep them under the bed in her room.
A young shepherd boy named Baron was one of the innocent people who was often affected by Katra's bad temper and was often scolded for no reason.
If one or two sheep were lost while herding, Baron would be mercilessly whipped by Catra with a powder that would make his wounds difficult to heal.
One autumn afternoon, Katara and the monks in the monastery were going to a banquet, and Baron lost two lambs while herding.
The nearby mountains and fields were so large that it was impossible to find the two poor lambs within a day, not to mention that there were hungry gray wolves hiding in the forests.
In order to avoid being beaten, Baron stole Catra's riding boots.
With the help of the riding boots, Baron successfully retrieved the two lambs, but when he returned to the monastery, the furious Catra was already sitting at the gate of the pasture waiting for him.
The vicious Catra drowned Baron in a barrel of brewing Sgerr.
After Baron's body was found, Katara was summoned to court.
She put on the pair of riding boots, ran up the frozen volcano for thousands of years, and left a cruel message: You will all die! Especially the damned shepherd boy! I am waiting for you in the flames of the Eye of Hell!
She leapt into the crater, and some time later, Katla erupted.
A large amount of glaciers melted, and a huge flood submerged the entire Kirchubaia Laisti Monastery, while thick volcanic ash covered the sky. Since then, no one has lived in the Feather River Canyon area. "
After hearing the legend about the witch of Katla, Jot Brown was silent for a while, and then asked Bertha who was sitting cross-legged on the ground,
"Do you think this is the witch's revenge?"
Bertha opened her mouth but said nothing. She just shook her head.
"Every year, the missing children would dream at night and shout that Katara was coming, and then they would mysteriously disappear during the daytime of the next day, even my lovely Neil was no exception.
My husband went on a journey to find Neil and never returned.”
As she spoke, Bertha's eyes became red.
"You need my help, don't you?"
Jobtran didn't know how to comfort Bertha who was crying in front of him, so he chose to directly point out the purpose of Bertha coming to his room.
After hearing this, Bertha stopped sobbing and raised her head.
With red eyes, he looked at Jobtran who was sitting on the bed in front of him.
"If you can help me find them, you can ask for any reward. I can give you all the profits of the Ice Flame Bar over the years. I can even give you everything..."
Bertha became more and more shy as she spoke, and was even ready to take off her clothes, but the determination in her eyes and the faith in her heart did not waver.
Joe Butran turned his head and waved his hand.
"I'm not the kind of person who takes advantage of others' misfortunes."
Bertha was stunned when she heard this, then she laughed at herself.
"Am I not beautiful enough? Or do you want more?"
Jobtran half-knelt in front of Bertha and gently held Bertha's shoulders with both hands.
“You are beautiful, but now, I want to know how long have your husband and children been missing
With all the information gathered together, I can be more confident in finding them, whether alive or dead.
I can't promise you that I will find it, but I will go to Katla, understand?"
Bertha saw Joet Brown's gentle eyes and soft tone, and her heart warmed and she was a little moved.
“Neil was missing for three years and six months, he was a three-year-old child when he disappeared.
My husband Hoover headed for Katla volcano after searching the surrounding area for a week without success and never returned.
Look, this is the amulet that all of us in the family wear, and we will never lose it no matter what happens.”
Bertha gently pulled down the collar of her shirt, and sandwiched between the two snow-white peaks was a silver amulet, like a sharp ancient iron sword.
Joe Butran took a look and turned his head away somewhat embarrassedly.
"Calm down, calm down, this is not the time to be thinking about this kind of thing."
Joe Butran muttered to himself.
Ever since he had sexual experiences with both Veronica and Sif, Jobtran felt that he seemed to be becoming more lustful.
The evil thoughts in our hearts often come out from time to time to disturb our minds.
This feeling of losing control made Jobtran feel a little resistant.
He coughed twice, then stood up and sat back down beside his bed.
"Ahem, have you filed any of these cases involving missing children with the police?"
Joe Butran turned his head and asked.
"Yeah. This kind of thing happens to the police station every year. They should have neat records."
Bertha brushed the hair beside her ear, revealing her snow-white neck.
"Huh? In that case, what is the local investigation bureau doing?"
Joet Brown frowned when he thought of this.
"The Investigation Bureau branch here shouldn't be unable to solve even the missing cases. Could it be that they lack combat power?"
"Um... Mr. Jobtran?"
Bertha spoke up when she saw that Jobtran seemed distracted.
"Hmm? What's wrong?"
Joe Butran asked, coming back to his senses.
"Do you still need a tour guide?"
Bertha remembered that Jobtran had mentioned to her that he needed a tour guide, so she asked.
“No, I’ve already got someone chosen.
A very cunning fellow."
Joe Butran replied with a smile.
"Is it reliable? Katla is not Elder Bazel's backyard."
Bertha said with some concern.
“I heard from you locals that he should be the best choice.
Mouse, the clever one."
After hearing this, Bertha slapped her head and said with a sad face,
"My God, Mr. Jobtron, why did you choose a mouse?"
"Huh? What's wrong with the mouse? Is there a problem?"
Jobtran asked doubtfully.
“Um... people say he is Loki’s son.
Cunning and has a weird temper.
Others said that he was born with bad luck and killed everyone in his family, leaving only his strong old mother.
That’s how he got the nickname of “rat”, which means “a rat crossing the street will be chased by everyone.”
"Oh? Then let's see if my life is strong enough."
Jobtran smiled confidently, actually looking forward to the mouse's performance.