"Hurry up and sit down! It's not that I don't want to pay, it's that I don't have cash right now!"
Seeing the decadent man yelling, Professor Higgins hurriedly pulled his hand and wanted him to sit down, obviously worried about attracting too much attention.
"Don't even think about it!"
The vampire shook off the professor's hand and even raised his voice:
"Pay the money now. I won't believe your story. If you leave by train, where can I find you?"
"I really don't have any money at the moment, but someone will send me money tomorrow."
The professor wanted to persuade the other party, but the other party did not appreciate it at all:
"I'll come back to see you at eight tonight. If you run away..."
He leaned over and whispered something in the professor's ear, then stood up and walked out of the hotel. But after a few steps, he turned back to look at the suitcase carried by Professor Higgins, and waved to the professor, motioning him to follow.
The two walked out of the Xikar Hotel together. Xia De did not follow them immediately. Instead, he thought about drinking the apple juice in his hand before leaving. If he couldn't find anyone, he would give up interest in this matter.
But before he finished his drink, another person came down the stairs. It was Armand Bernhardt, the uncle of the vampire uncle and nephew whom Shad had saved in the narrow space between life and death.
Similarly, when Shade saw him, the blood-colored mist on Mr. Bernhard's head also condensed into a small bat. Compared with the downtrodden vampire just now, Mr. Bernhard was obviously an upper-class person.
He was probably attracted by the quarrel just now, or he had actually been paying attention to this place, so after the two people left the hotel, he came down from upstairs and followed them.
Xia De remained seated, as if all this had nothing to do with him. He waited until he finished the drink in his cup before leaving.
From a distance, Mr. Bernhardt was seen walking along the east street, but he didn't go far before turning into an alley on the side.
Xia De hesitated for a moment and did not follow in. Instead, based on the terrain he had explored nearby last time, he made a big detour from the alley on the other side, passing through the narrow alleys between the densely packed apartment buildings, intending to go around to the front and see where the professor and the vampire who had come out earlier had gone.
During this time, he saw that there were few people on the street, so he "pulled" a new coat from the inner pocket of his coat and put it on, "stuffed" the hat on his head into his pocket, and then "took" out a new hat and put it on his head. Finally, he hesitated for a moment and even put on a mask.
But the result was very unexpected. In the end, Shad met Professor Higgins and the vampire in the garbage alley behind the Sikar Hotel. He appeared from the east side of the alley, while Mr. Bernhardt, who was walking leisurely, appeared from the west side of the alley.
The two saw the scene in the alley almost at the same time. The old professor fell to the ground, and the down-and-out blond middle-aged man with blood in his mouth was holding the suitcase that originally belonged to Professor Carsonrick of Linguistics, a wallet that obviously did not belong to him, and a pistol. He was trying to escape from the crime scene.
"this... ... "
The down-and-out man noticed people appearing at both ends of the alley almost at the same time. After seeing Armand Bernhardt on the west side, he turned around without any hesitation, with a look of horror on his face, and ran towards Chad who was holding his hat on the east side.
“Get out of here!”
He ran while waving his pistol and shouting loudly. His bloody face was really scary.
Xiade raised his head, and the vampire also saw the mask on Xiade's face. But before he could think about it, he saw Xiade's two hands clapping together, and then separated in an instant.
A silver arc of brilliant light was pulled apart from between the two palms, and shot out the next second, splitting the vampire that rushed over into two neat halves. But after the body fell to the ground, it only left a pool of blood on the ground, and then it dispersed into a small group of flying bats.
The group of small bats flew to the west end of the alley, and after passing over Professor Higgins on the ground, they were forced to gather again after flying only twenty meters. In a cloud of blood mist, they turned back into the appearance of a blond, down-and-out middle-aged man.
"The racial talent of the vampires? I remember they are very good at the power of flesh and blood..."
Of course, although the opponent avoided death this time by virtue of the racial talent of the vampire, when he gathered into a human form again, he was almost unable to move due to severe injuries:
"Help me, Mr. Bernhardt!"
Lying on the ground with difficulty, the blond middle-aged man reached out his hand to Armand Bernhardt on the west side of the alley. But the latter had a gloomy face, walked over in silence, and then unexpectedly stepped on the middle-aged man's head with his boots:
"I was kind enough to help you find a job, and this is how you repay me? Do you know how much trouble you will cause me? Don't you know what mission I came to this city with?"
This was not a common language, nor was it any language that Shade had ever heard, but fortunately he understood it. Bernhardt's voice did not contain much emotion, but he was obviously angry that a well-dressed upper-class gentleman would do such a thing.
Shade also walked into the alley from the entrance, first picked up the briefcase, pistol and wallet in a pool of blood, then continued to move forward and squatted down to check the condition of the gray-gloved agent "Professor Higgins".
Sadly, he is already dead; the bite marks on his neck were the cause of death.
"Sir, is this your friend?"
Stepping on the head of the poor vampire, Mr. Bernhardt asked Shade who had stood up from across half the alley.
“I guess so.”
Shade said softly. Although the two had met in the narrow space between life and death, Shade was much more powerful at that time. Now Mr. Bernhardt obviously did not recognize him.
"Can I ask him a few questions?"
Shade pointed at the blood-sucking creature that was being stepped on, and Mr. Bernhard nodded:
"sure."
"First, what did Professor Higgins commission you to do?"
"Psychic! A body in the psychic police station. We have agreed on a price of 500 pounds! He paid 300 pounds first and promised to settle the balance of 200 pounds today!"
The weak vampire barely managed to speak.
This price certainly seemed unreasonable to Xia De, but for ordinary people who had no access to mysterious powers, they had no choice but to accept it no matter how much more money it offered.
"What did he ask the spirit?"
"I don't know. I'm only responsible for channeling and sending away spirits. I wasn't there when they were talking."
"Why kill him?"
"I owe a large gambling debt to the underground Rod Casino. If he doesn't give me the cash today, I will be in big trouble. I saw that he has been holding the suitcase today, so I thought of using the things inside to exchange for some gold pounds..."
It was similar to what Shade thought. The Gray Gloves agent used the power of supernatural creatures to obtain intelligence, and ultimately died because of this.
"How did he contact you?"
“I introduced you.”
Mr. Bernhardt, who was stepping on the head, said in a deep voice:
"Your professor friend and I both live on the fourth floor of the Xikar Hotel and occasionally smoke together. The professor suddenly told me last week that his friend had passed away, but there were some secrets that he hadn't told yet. So I introduced this guy out of kindness, but I didn't expect that this would kill the professor instead."
The boots slammed harder once more, and the blood-sucking creature being stepped on barely had the strength to groan.
"Sir, if you have no objection, I can give you some compensation."
Mr. Bernhard said politely.
It wasn't that the Central Ring vampire was afraid of Shade, but vampires and other alien creatures were more dangerous than the academy's ring sorcerers in the eyes of the Orthodox Church. They definitely couldn't fight in the downtown area during the day, so it was worth using some compensation in exchange for keeping the secret.
"compensation?"
Xia De shook his head and pointed at the downtrodden middle-aged man he was stepping on:
"How's this guy's life?"
"fair enough."
The boots crushed the head heavily, and the corpse didn't even have time to leave any last words. Bernhardt shook his head, took out a small bottle from his pocket, sprinkled powder on it, and the clothes and corpse of the vampire slowly "melted" into the mud:
"I'm an outsider and don't want to attract too much attention in this city. Since Coaster broke the rules, I think it's the price of his life that he deserves."
Shade nodded and looked up at the bed sheet hanging on the clothesline above the garbage alley. He raised his hand and flicked it lightly, and the silver light cut through the clothesline, causing the bed sheet to fall down, just covering Professor Higgins' body on the ground.
He squatted down pretentiously, folded the sheet continuously, then picked it up, crumpled it into a ball, tied it up and put it behind his back.
This is to prevent the other party from seeing the details of the production of thaumaturgical toys:
"Well, Mr. Vampire, I think you can see that what Professor Higgins did is equally unclean, so this matter ends here. I have no interest in you, and you should not tell anyone about this."
“That’s fair.”
Mr. Bernhardt nodded:
"I brought my nephew to this city and have no intention of conflicting with local forces. This matter ends here."
But Shade reached into his pocket again, took out a roll of banknotes sealed with a piece of paper, and threw it far away. The rolled banknotes flew over the garbage alley and were caught steadily by Armand Bernhardt.
"I paid the remaining balance of 200 pounds for the psychic service on behalf of the professor."
Shad said.
In this way, he could feel at ease regarding the suitcase as his own since he had already paid for it.
The middle-aged gentleman wearing a black hat smiled and did not refuse the huge sum of money. Instead, he put it in his pocket. Then he took out a business card and flew it to Shade between his fingers. This was done with the help of basic spells to move objects and superb skills:
"After something like this, my nephew and I can no longer live here. We will move to live with our fellow tribesmen in this city who have forgotten what respect is. If you need me, you can find me at this address. I think no one would refuse to have another friend."
"Yes."
Xia De took a look at the business card and found that it was from the city's red winery. The business card did not belong to Mr. Bernhardt, but should be from a vampire living in the city. After putting the business card in his pocket, the two nodded to each other, and then tacitly left from both ends of the garbage alley.
Apart from the pool of blood on the ground and the sparrow standing on the clothesline, no one would know what had just happened here.