According to Father Nobel's data, the seven-ring warlock of the Pantanal Voodoo Society who used the Arrow of Knowledge of Aikenora more than a decade ago was named Halder Ondiba. He was born in the "Lower Wood Village" in the Pantanal Swamp area. When he was about 16 years old, his awakening talent was discovered by a pharmacist of the Pantanal Voodoo Society who settled near the village, and he joined the Voodoo Society from then on.
This seven-ring warlock was eventually surrounded by the church in Rust Alley in the west of Huntington City and was killed after a fierce battle. After his death, Rust Alley and the village where he was born were searched by the church, but still could not find the Arrow of Knowledge of Aikenora.
The last time that arrow was used was three days before Ondiba was besieged by the church;
Although Shad knew very well that the church would not miss any details, but considering that the church also believed that No. 6 St. Teresa's Square was now safe, he still went to Rust Alley that afternoon to try to find clues left over many years ago.
Rust Alley is a street in the slums of western Huntington, and it tilts northwest. Both ends of the alley are inside the slums, and the surrounding alleys are connected in all directions. The old buildings of the old times look more like old people than the poor people living here under the low sky covered by thick fog. This place is like the black, barely noticeable rotten spot on the crystal clear purple grape of Huntington.
When Xia De came to Rust Alley that afternoon and stepped into the narrow and long alley, he actually felt vaguely that he could hear the city groaning. This was of course his psychological effect, but it also meant that it was much more difficult than imagined to find clues from more than a decade ago in such a place.
On both sides of Rust Alley are old-time houses that are undulating and staggered in height. Xia De called it "undulating" because most of the houses have been built one or two stories higher on the original basis using a seemingly magical construction method.
These illegal buildings, which are not uniform in style but are all very dangerous, are nestled together to provide a resting place for the city's large number of poor people at night. It is Monday afternoon, but there are still many people in the alley.
Winter is coming, but the residents of Rust Alley are still dressed like it's autumn. Women take advantage of the clear weather to roll up their sleeves and hang clothes in the alley, carefully looking at their neighbors, worried that their clothes will be stolen if they turn around. Barefoot children gather in groups of three or four, either playing with each other or chasing wild cats and dogs running around.
Relatively speaking, Xia De's appearance in this alley was very abrupt, but fortunately, the life wisdom of these people living in the slums told them that it is best not to provoke strangers.
Of course, this is also related to the gun bag that Shad accidentally exposed.
The church's action more than a decade ago caused extensive damage to the houses, including the collapse of two or three houses in the middle section of Rust Alley, but now there is no trace of the battle at all.
The collapsed No. 13, No. 14 and No. 15 Rust Alley have long been renovated, and now the three houses are crowded old rental apartments and slum shops selling low-quality tobacco, spices and daily necessities.
Number 13 and 14 are rental apartments facing each other, each with four floors. The walls of the houses are yellow and dirty, and sewage flows down the drainage pipes to the walls and then falls into the ditch in the alley. There are some uncivilized patterns drawn on the walls with chalk. These rental apartments are tall and narrow, less than half the area of No. 6 Saint Teresa Square, but they are home to three-digit residents.
The landlords separated the interior space with thin wooden boards and rented out small compartments to the poor who had no place to live. Hundreds of people shared one bathroom and kitchen, making the sanitary conditions extremely poor. This situation can be seen in every city in the material world, but people who are busy earning money for tomorrow's meals have no time to care whether the epidemic will spread.
Chaotic apartments like No. 13 and No. 14 have had countless changes of tenants over the past decade, so Xia De gave up looking for clues there and went straight to the "Pig Shop" at No. 15 Rust Alley.
"Pig" is a rather vulgar word in Huntington dialect, and using this name as the name of a store also shows the informality and casualness of the store.
The first floor of No. 15 is a store, which is even dirtier and more crowded than Old John's pawn shop. The owner's counter is right at the door, so that he can monitor whether the customers steal the goods. Although it is called a store, in fact, everything is collected and sold here.
The middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties or fifties, with his left ear looking like it had been bitten off, met Xia De who pushed the door open and walked in at Mimi Lake that afternoon.
Hearing the sound of the door being pushed open, he took out his glasses with broken lenses glued together from the counter in a daze and put them on. He casually swept the illegally printed colored books and magazines on the table under the table, then yawned and asked:
"New? No, you definitely didn't move in here. Are you... a cop? A detective? Or the new gangster in town? Oh, I paid protection money to old Midilack."
"I'm not here to cause trouble."
Shade looked around the shop. In the southeast corner, there was a pile of yellowed sheets and cotton. There were bottles and cans in the baskets hanging from the ceiling. On the counter, besides the owner's arms, there were piles of matchboxes, metal thimbles and rings for sewing, and low-quality straw paper for hand-rolled cigarettes. On the straw paper was an iron cage, and the white mouse in the cage was looking at Shade with red eyes.
The mouse was probably not a product for sale, but the store owner's pet.
"So what are you going to buy?"
The man who had just woken up said with great interest, and then added:
"From your accent, you're from Delarion? What are you old northerners doing in a place like Rust Alley?"
After more than half a month of hard work, Shade's Kasenrick language has made some progress. But for real Kasenrick people, it is still easy to discover Shade's identity.
"I'm not buying anything. I just want to get some information from you."
Shade said, and the man behind the counter twisted his fingers. Shade threw a penny onto the counter, and as the coin jingled, he asked:
"I heard that this place was rebuilt more than a decade ago? I was commissioned to find information about the former owner of this place. Were you also the owner of this place before it was rebuilt more than a decade ago?"
"Of course not. I just moved here eight years ago. This house originally belonged to a fat man who sold pork and offal in the market. Later he went bankrupt and ran away."
“Can selling meat lead to bankruptcy?”
"I lost too much playing Rhodes."
The shop owner shrugged:
"I don't know where that guy is now, but he has lived here for 20 years. I think he is the one you are looking for."
"Has he run away? And has he taken all his belongings with him?"
"Yes, there are only some old furniture left, which has been taken away by creditors to pay off their debts. When I moved in, there was not even a complete gas lamp. If his creditors are looking for him, I'm sorry, but everything here is purchased by me."
"So have you ever seen him and heard him talk about the accident here a dozen years ago?"
"I haven't seen him, but I've heard about the gas explosion from neighbors."
After asking this question, Xia De was sure that there were indeed no clues left for him. He even tried to use Blood Echo to observe the bloodstains in the alley before entering the door, but those old bloodstains were mixed with various traces from the past ten years, which was not enough for Xia De to find clues.
Fortunately, he had no hope in the first place. Now that he knew that this place was worthless, he wanted to talk to Professor Drake about it again. But before he turned around and left, the shopkeeper behind the counter said:
"Come to think of it, someone asked me about him a few days ago. What kind of trouble did he get into? Did he run away again because he lost all his property playing Rhodes cards in another city?"
"almost."
Xia Dehanhu replied, with his arm resting on the counter:
"You mentioned earlier that someone asked a similar question some time ago? Who was it? When did they come? What did they ask?"
Then he threw out another coin.
The man behind the counter slowly put away the coins, his tone was quite hesitant, and his gray eyes seemed a little lost:
"It was probably last week, what day... I don't remember."
"Did the other party come alone?"
The shop owner recalled and shook his head hesitantly:
"I was still asleep that afternoon, so my memory is very vague... I think it was about two people."
"What does he look like?"
"I really don't remember it clearly. I just remember that after they asked questions, they bought a box of Candle brand matches."
Seeing that the other party looked confused, Xia De asked again:
"You don't remember anything after asking?"
"I vaguely remember that it was a question very similar to yours, but I can't tell you the specific content."
"If you want me to pay more, just name a number."
"No, no, if I can earn your money, I will definitely be happy to tell you what you want to know. But this time I didn't want to increase the price, I really don't remember."
The bald man with glasses said:
"It's really strange. Rust Alley doesn't have many strangers in a week. How could I forget what the guest looked like?"
"Any questions?"
Xia De asked in his heart.
The time interval is too long. Even if his memory has been erased, it is impossible to check. Maybe you can try to enter his dream. Maybe there are remnants of deep memories.
"I'm not Dr. Schneider, how can I enter a dream?"
As Xia De thought about it, he silently reached into his pocket and took out a metal talisman:
"Excuse me, do you recognize this?"
The owner behind the counter subconsciously stretched his head to look, and the next moment his eyes closed due to strong sleepiness, and then he fell asleep on the counter again.
Xia De put away the spell in his hand. He just used his mental power to guide and hypnotize the shop owner. Normally, this spell would not work so quickly. Xia De learned some tricks in casting spells in the Pink Book. There was an entire chapter about hypnosis in that book.
"Abnormal amnesia means that the memory has probably been modified. And the modified memory means that the stranger who came a few days ago is also a ring wizard. The team of the Orthodox Church will only modify the memory according to the regulations when ordinary people witness the mystery, so this is not done by the church. Although I will not enter dreams to dig out deep memories, but..."
Xia De lowered his eyes and looked at the iron cage on the counter. He opened the lock of the iron cage neatly and grabbed the white mouse. His hands grasped most of the mouse's body, leaving only the two pink claws and tail of the white mouse's lower limbs exposed and able to move freely.
Holding the mouse in his right hand, he placed the night watchman wrapped in cloth on the table with his left hand, and then dug out the fish training ring he carried with him.
"Cats can't use it, but mice can."
Among the "Mia Three Rings", Shade does not use the Transformation Ring so he usually does not carry it. The Vampire Ring cannot be taken out casually in a city like Huntington where there is a large population of vampires. When Shade sent the cat to the Witch Manor in the morning, he only took the Fish Training Ring.