Unlike the Dawn Church in Tobesk, which occupies the entire Dawn Square, the Dawn Church in Midhill Castle is located on a street called "Saint Kara Avenue" in the southwest of the city. Although it is a street-facing building, the church still occupies a considerable area. It runs through the entire block, and in addition to the auditorium and office space, it even has a separate garden and courtyard.
The area of this church is much larger than the Dawn Square in Tobysk... ... This is also related to the expensive land prices in Tobysk.
Xia De did not dare to enter the church to prevent being discovered. And he did not need to enter, because after approaching Saint Kara Avenue, he carefully took out the blood in the alley and dripped it into his eyes. When he looked at the entrance of the Dawn Church, he could clearly see the movement trajectory of the Augustus priest formed by the blood-colored halo.
"At least at this time yesterday, nothing happened to Father Augustus!"
Shade came to this conclusion.
There was more than one figure of Priest Augustus walking out of the Dawn Church, which meant that the old priest had passed by the door many times within 24 hours. Shade chose the darkest figure, which was the one with the latest time point, to track.
Probably because of the city's original purpose, the streets in Midhill Castle are generally wide, with trees and gas lamp poles alternating on both sides of the road.
After leaving the Church of Dawn, Father Augustus paced for a while under the lamppost in front of the church, as if observing the advertisement for "Cassandra Auction House" on the lamppost, and then he walked east along the street.
The priest was probably going to do something not very formal, so he stuck to the wall and tried not to be noticed. Then, he actually got into a carriage when he walked to the intersection of Santa Carla Avenue and Oak Street.
"Um... ... "
Looking at the figure of Priest Augustus floating in the air, if the priest was not sitting in the carriage, then the priest must have learned the spell to fly in the air while sitting.
"Where is this priest going?"
The priests who had been there 24 hours or more ago could ride in a carriage, but Shad could not, because he could not always see the priest's figure and what he was doing in the carriage.
Therefore, he could only follow the priest's figure floating in the air and remaining seated on foot.
From the intersection of Oak Avenue and Santa Carla Avenue, we headed south, that is, toward the city's mountainous direction. After passing two intersections, the carriage turned into a small alley called Squirrel Lane.
This is a commercial street specializing in mountain products, pine cones and leather products. It is particularly lively today.
After passing through Squirrel Alley, the carriage continued eastward. After reaching the street where the Midhill Castle Police Department was located, it turned south and stopped.
It was already 2:40 in the afternoon, and Shad was glad that he didn't have to run around with the carriage all day.
The place where the carriage stopped was an alley called "Luffy Lane", which was similar to Quill Street where Dorothy lived. It was a narrow but clean street with rental apartments.
After getting off the carriage, Father Augustus looked around, as if to make sure he was in the wrong place. Then he started walking into the alley.
"Could the priest have disappeared here... Are there any traces of the elements?"
Not at this time.
"OK."
Shade nodded and walked forward while looking at the surrounding street scenes. The city hall of Midhill Castle seemed to like planting trees. From the time he left the old tower until now, there has never been a lack of trees in his vision.
The priest's destination was here. He stopped in front of the house with the number "15" on Luffy Lane.
Shade saw the priest reaching out to knock on the door, and then he walked in. But there was no sign of priest Augustus leaving the door, which meant that Shade could not bypass this.
The continuous figures seen by Shade's Blood Echo appeared at a frequency of about one every five seconds, but if you concentrate and spend extra energy, you can see more coherent movements of the figures you see. Therefore, Shade can be sure that Father Augustus entered the house in the fifth second after knocking on the door.
In other words, this was a scheduled visit. And along the way, Shade did not see the priest disguise himself, so Priest Augustus visited here with his true appearance.
"My magic is truly terrifying. It is worthy of being the only one that has evolved... Who does Priest Augustus want to visit secretly in Midhill Castle? As I recall, the priest did not plan to contact the local Saint Byrons correspondence ring sorcerer. So, is it someone he knew when he was young?"
But no matter what, having found this place, Xia De couldn't give up easily. He took out the wooden button that the doctor had given him, rubbed the uneven texture on the surface, injected spirit into it to activate it, then climbed the stairs and gently knocked on the door.
After waiting quietly for a few seconds, he heard footsteps from the door. He opened his eyes slightly, but the door did not open immediately, and the light footsteps stopped behind the door.
Xia De knew there was someone behind the door, and the person behind the door also knew there was someone outside. No one inside or outside the door spoke, but remained silent in tacit understanding.
And in this silence, the voice beside my ear has given a hint:
Outsider, behind the door is a ring wizard.
Although the distance was very close, because there was a door between us, we could only barely determine that it was a ring wizard.
Shad was not surprised by this result. He now suspected that the disappearance of Father Augustus was related to the person behind the door.
"Excuse me, who are you looking for?"
The middle-aged woman had an obvious local accent, and in the silence inside and outside the door, she spoke first.
Xia De frowned and canceled the effect of the doctor button. Since the opponent is a ring magician, there is no need to use this method:
"Hello, ma'am, I'm the author John Watson."
He said the same thing when he was in Coldwater, though he occasionally referred to himself as "Detective" John Watson:
"Well, you don't have to open the door. Please tell me, is my friend Father Rat Augustus here with you?"
"That old priest? He called here yesterday at three o'clock, and left by the back door."
"Where is the back door?"
"Go left, go straight into the narrow alley, and then turn right."
The voice said.
"Okay, thank you very much."
Shade thanked him softly and wanted to leave to make sure whether there was Priest Augustus at the back door of the house.
But the voice behind the door called him:
"Sir, are you one of 'us' like Father Augustus?"
Shade thought about it:
"If you mean the mechanics who operate the steam-metal wheels, I suppose so."
The reason why Shad rashly exposed his identity as a ring wizard was because he needed to be in this city, at least to know the location of the black market. When he was in Coldwater Harbor, Leicia, disguised as "Miss Princess", brought him into the ring wizard circle in the harbor city, but he really had no friends here... ... Unless Dorothy had other princesses connected to her soul.
"Something happened to Father Augustus?"
The female voice from inside the door asked.
"Yes, he is missing. May I ask how you knew that?"
"Because yesterday, I performed a divination for him."
The door was opened from the inside, and Xia De saw the woman talking to him inside.
The woman looked to be in her forties, with long, dull yellow hair. She was wearing a dark blue-black dress that looked like a nun's robe, with a shawl of the same color draped over her shoulders.
She didn't look at Shad's face because she had a dirty-looking sackcloth wrapped around her eyes.
"Yesterday's divination seemed to predict death, but the old priest didn't care at all. I was just wondering what the terrible omen meant, and now I roughly understand it."
She took a step to the side to make room for the door:
"Come in."
Although her eyes were covered with a bandage, she behaved like a person with normal vision:
"If you need help, the Blind House welcomes you."
Central.
"Sorry to bother you then."
Shad stepped over the threshold and went in.
The "House of the Blind" appears to be a small-scale organization of ring sorcerers, and it is called this name because most of the people in it are blind.
After entering the house, Shad realized that there was more than one woman in the house. With her introduction, Shad learned that this place was a caring organization that provided assistance to blind people in Midhill Castle and was financially supported by the local city hall.
The interior of the house was very tidy. To make it easier for the blind to walk, there was almost no debris in the corridors and stairs. The woman led Xia De from the first floor to the third floor, and finally stopped in a reception room.
During this time, Shade saw many blind people walking with the help of others or talking with others in the corridor. Moreover, he met at least three ring sorcerers while going upstairs, but their levels were all low, which seemed that this organization was not strong.
"It's really lively here, but is this Blind House a small city-wide ring wizard organization?"
He guessed secretly.
The blind woman who led the way called herself "Ms. Michelle." Although her eyes were wrapped in a cloth band, her walking was not affected at all.
After the two of them sat down, she asked the normal servants in the blind man's house to bring hot tea to entertain Shade. But out of caution, Shade did not drink any tea in the territory of the strange ring wizard.
"The connection between Father Rat Augustus and us dates back more than 20 years. A long time ago, when he was in his thirties, he came to this city and met one of our nuns."
Ms. Michelle introduced, sitting opposite Shade, her hands folded on the knees of her dark silk skirt. When she mentioned "nun" and thought of "blindness", Shade suddenly remembered another organization, an organization he had encountered in the dark realm.
"A thirty-something Augustus priest, and your nun... um..."
Seeing that Shade didn't know what words to use, Ms. Michelle smiled:
"Yes, the two souls were attracted to each other. I was only a teenager at the time and witnessed this love. But Father Rat Augustus had to return to Tobesk, and Sister Matilda had her own responsibilities. She was a ring wizard, while the priest was just an ordinary person, even a clergyman of the Orthodox Church..."
Shad understood what she meant. This was a relationship that was doomed to have no result. He just didn't expect that there was such a story in the young life of Father Augustus.