Following the vicious voice, a crowbar came down on Shad's head. But even without the warning of the voice beside his ear, the crowbar was grabbed by Iluna who was walking behind Shad.
Xia De found the gas switch, then turned around to look, and said helplessly:
"It's you, after all. You attacked us with a crowbar. Who are you looking down on? I thought it was at least a pistol."
The person who attempted to attack them was Toby Julian, and the result was completely unexpected.
"I don't have a gun license, so I can't buy a gun. You..."
Mr. Julian looked at the two in surprise and tried to pull the crowbar out of Iluna's hand, but Iluna snatched the crowbar away instead. The 17-year-old girl raised her right leg, bent the iron crowbar violently, and threw it into the corridor behind her.
Not only Mr. Julian was frightened, but Shad was also frightened.
As the crowbar clanged to the ground, Shad looked into the room and saw the dead bride in a white wedding dress and veil, with her hands clasped together, quietly bathing in the moonlight outside in front of the window.
As if because of her presence, the flame of the gas lamp in the room kept shaking, and the flickering appearance was very consistent with Mr. Julian's mood at the moment.
But the corpse bride's clothes and body showed no signs of damage. Moreover, she just stood there and did not attack again because of the enemy's appearance.
"The damage is too severe, so it is being repaired? But why is it always under the moon?"
Xia De thought to himself.
"No, no one can disturb my wedding with her! No one can!"
Seeing Shade looking at the bride, Mr. Julian wanted to rush forward, but Shade's gun was pressed against his head:
"I'll give you three seconds. Go sit on that chair over there and let us search the room. If you don't make the right choice in three seconds, I'll shoot. Three!"
Mr. Julian stared at Shade with an angry look on his face, as if his eyeballs were about to pop out, but he didn't move at all.
"two!"
Shade also glared at him, and at the same time pressed down the hammer of the revolver with his left hand. Mr. Julian breathed heavily, and pressed his forehead against the muzzle of the revolver, but he was stubborn and did not move.
"one!"
Shad's fingers trembled violently.
"I surrender!"
Mr. Julian raised his hands, but he still retreated. With his eyes closed, this man who was less than thirty years old seemed to have aged ten years:
"I surrender."
He whispered.
Shade held a gun and forced Mr. Julian to sit on the chair in front of the desk. He controlled the man and asked Iluna to search the room. The corpse bride stood quietly in front of the window, the moonlight shining on her body, she was like a still human doll.
This time they were very lucky. Mr. Julian had the good habit of keeping a diary, and Shad really hoped that his enemies would do the same.
The diary was under the mattress at the foot of the bed. In addition to that, Iluna also found an old book introducing ancient ghost marriage and funeral customs under the raised floorboards in the corner.
This is a bizarre book published by an illegal publisher and is strictly prohibited by the Orthodox Church.
"He's marrying her sister?"
This was the first sentence Iluna said in surprise after reading the diary. Shade looked at the man who was pointed at by his gun, and the latter covered his face in pain.
Iluna continued to look through the pages, her brows furrowed even more:
"Wait, it seems that there is more to it. Toby Ullian, your sister's death is actually related to you?"
Mr. Julian, who was pointed at by Shade's gun, sat on a stool in the corner and nodded dejectedly:
"I didn't expect this to happen."
"Wait, didn't Miss Julian commit suicide because she was abandoned by her lover?"
Xia De was very puzzled.
"Yes, but why was she abandoned by her lover?"
Iluna snorted:
"Mr. Julian and Miss Julian depend on each other for survival. He has always had some unspeakable thoughts about his sister..."
"It's just a thought, I haven't done anything yet!"
Mr. Julian argued loudly, his chest rising and falling showing that he was very excited.
"Miss Julian was about to get engaged. Mr. Julian, who learned about this, got drunk half a month ago and went to Miss Julian's fiancé to cause trouble. He beat him up and broke his right hand. Miss Julian's fiancé was so angry that he refused to see Miss Julian again. So the poor lady thought she was abandoned for no reason and hanged herself at home."
Mr. Julian's expression was no longer excited. He sobbed and covered his face with his hands:
"I, I really didn't expect this. It's all the alcohol's fault. Alcohol really harms people."
The corner of Xia De's mouth twitched:
"Then what happened next? What happened?"
Xia De pointed to the dead bride standing motionless by the window. She stood there in an elegant posture, like a real doll.
Iluna flipped back a few pages:
"After Miss Julian died, Mr. Julian was unwilling to accept this result. Because he had been interested in the occult before, after burying his sister, he emptied his savings and asked his friends who were also interested in the occult about the "ghost marriage" ceremony. This guy actually succeeded and got an ancient marriage certificate from a merchant who sold contraband items. I think that marriage certificate is the cause of this incident. They call that page of parchment..."
Iluna turned to the next page:
"The Grow Winston Marriage Contract."
Although there was no evidence, Xia De was almost certain that this was the relic that caused the incident.
Iluna looked very worried, because Blackstone Security Company had something to do recently. How many people had come into contact with the marriage certificate, and where did it come from? These were all questions:
"The diary says that if you write your name and the name of your lover at the bottom of the marriage certificate on parchment, you can achieve eternal love between the two of you. And if one of you is dead and the other is alive, then after getting the corpse, you can write your name with the corpse's blood, which can restore the corpse to its original state and let the deceased return to the world, and then they can be together forever... Really, there are actually people who do this kind of thing."
"You actually believe this kind of thing?"
Shade asked Mr. Julian, who sobbed and said:
"Yes, I hired a group of professional corpse snatchers to sneak into the cemetery with me and dig out the bodies. After waking up my sister, I found that she could do some things according to my ideas. So, I asked him to kill the group of tomb robbers. Tonight, I was worried that you would find out, so... I just wanted to be with her, even if she became like this... You, why do you have to investigate me?"
Mr. Julian asked while crying. Shad looked at him with a frown. The outsider could not understand this way of thinking and felt more and more that this man might really have mental problems.
"You think this is awakening? Your sister is gone, and you still want to desecrate her body? Are you sure you really like her?"
Iluna asked Mr. Julian in disbelief. Mr. Julian covered his face in pain, tears filling his eyes:
"I know that we shouldn't disturb the dead. But when she was alive, I couldn't marry her anyway, so at least after she died, I could give her a place to go. I know we are brother and sister, but I really tried to transcend blood ties and life and death... I didn't do anything wrong, it was really just because of love. I don't want to hurt anyone, I just... want to be with her, even if it's in this way."
When she heard the word "love", Iluna showed a look of disgust on her face:
"All mortals will eventually die, and you have blasphemed death. Julian, don't make it sound so nice. What love? This is clearly to satisfy your own despicable and dirty thoughts."
She was really angry now, but she still knew she had to deal with the matter first:
"Detective, I don't know what kind of relic the 'Golo Winston Marriage Contract' is, but from the characteristics I know so far, it is at least clerical level (level 4), and most likely secret-keeper level (level 3). The church needs to reclaim it."
"Yes, so, where is the marriage certificate?"
Shade moved the muzzle of the gun that was pressed against Mr. Julian's temple, and the latter sobbed and said:
"Don't kill me. The marriage certificate is in the basement, soaked in a vat of blood. The marriage certificate was originally only for the living, but now it has to be used for the departed. This is the only way to open the door between the world of the living and the world of the dead, so that she can be with me forever. Even though she doesn't seem to remember me."
Xia De regards this as a "containment condition". Once the marriage certificate exerts its characteristics and connects the living and the dead without being contained in this way, the relics will get out of control.
"A cruel ritual... Do you think the person you awakened is still alive?"
Iluna couldn't help but sneer. Even when facing Darkness, she had never shown such anger.
After thinking for a while, she said to Xia De:
"We can't kill this madman yet, really. I wanted to try what the poet just described... Ahem, detective, the church still needs him to provide information about the origin of the relics. Moreover, for his own selfish desires, he even colluded with the body snatchers to desecrate the other two corpses. Killing him directly would be too easy for him."
She meant that the two of them could not keep this relic. Xia De agreed with this approach. After all, this was not his commission:
"I think the church will make a fair judgment."
The seventeen-year-old girl smiled slightly:
"Then you stay here and watch over him. I'll go to the basement to erase the name on the marriage certificate and terminate the relic's properties. Then I'll go back to the security company and get the clerical-level relic Tamer's memory eraser stick. You've worked really hard tonight. I'll treat you to dinner next time. I'm sorry for involving you in this matter."
They couldn't let Toby Julian tell the church about Shad's intelligence.
Xia De nodded, and when he heard the word "memory erasure", Mr. Julian suddenly looked at the two of them in panic:
"You are going to erase my memory."
"Don't worry, it's just a memory of tonight."
Iluna said, but added:
"But if nothing unexpected happens, after this is over, the church will erase your memories of the past few years and find you a place to live where you don't have to worry about food and drink. Of course, if they decide to sentence you to death, it won't be that troublesome..."
"No!"
The man suddenly shouted, not frightened at all even though a revolver was pointed at his head. He looked at Iluna with wide eyes in anger:
"No one can! No one can erase the memories between her and me."
“This man is beyond help.”
Iluna said to Shade, and Shade wanted to nod, but Mr. Julian suddenly raised his head. Bloodshot spread to his eyes, and he was in a strange state:
"Kill me now!"
"That won't do. I think it's better to let the church judge you. And you signed your name on the marriage certificate. We can't guarantee what will happen if we kill you."
"Well, since you won't kill me..."
He rushed towards the dead bride in front of the window. Xia De flicked his fingers, and the silver moonlight flew out, cutting off half of his right foot. The man, who was almost thirty years old, fell to the ground in pain.
"Although I won't kill you, I can still injure you. Sir, I advise you not to move. I will treat your injuries, and the church will give you a fair judgment."
Xia De took out an empty test tube from his pocket and shook it while walking towards the other party:
“People always have to pay a price.”
The man lying prone struggled to sit up with his palms supporting himself. His face turned pale due to the severe pain, but the distortion of his face was probably not just due to the pain in his body. He was affected by the relic:
"No one can erase the memory of me and her!"
Mr. Julian pulled out a dagger from his pocket, held the handle backwards, and stabbed it into his heart.
Xia De took two quick steps and pulled out the dagger, which further aggravated the injury. Mr. Julian's clothes on his chest were almost instantly stained red:
"A little common sense, even if the heart is pierced directly, the person will not die instantly. The person who did this in the story could at least say 'the murderer is' before dying."
Xia De bent down and put his hand on the man's arm:
"False immortality."
The bleeding feet and chest stopped immediately. Although Mr. Julian was still seriously injured, his condition seemed to be fixed and did not worsen.
He looked up in fear and despair at Shade who had stood up. Because of the light from the gas lamp above his head, the shadow covered the man on the ground:
"If I don't let you die, don't even think about dying."
He said softly.