Part 1 The Joker Chapter 135 – The Baron’s Portrait
”There’s something wrong there.” Klein pointed to the section of steps separating the living room from the dining room and said with seriousness and prudence.
He had read in the Night Watchman’s internal information that if something like that appeared in the inspiration, it often meant that the target location hid something evil and filthy, and if one was not sure of oneself, it was best not to try to touch it, or else one could easily lose one’s life – there were times when one could suffer irreversible damage from even just looking at it.
Dunn followed and looked over, and with the same high level of inspiration he immediately realized something was wrong, and with a sideways glance at Klein, he calmly commanded, “You divine whether exploring there will go well or not.”
Before entering the old castle, the captain didn’t even let me divine, quite confident …… This shows that he thinks the hidden things may be more dangerous than the grudges …… Klein nodded his head wordlessly, put away his revolver, and handed the cane to Fry next to him.
He then unclasped the citrine pendant within his cuff, held the silver chain in his left hand, and weighed the appropriate divination statement.
In an instant, his eyes turned a deep color, and an invisible breeze swirled around them.
”Exploring the hidden places of the old castle will go well.”
”Exploring the hidden locations of the ancient fortress will go well.”
……
After chanting silently seven times, Klein’s eyes returned to normal and saw that the citrine pendant was doing a clockwise rotation.
Although the amplitude was not great, it was indeed doing a clockwise rotation!
This meant that the quest would go well.
Crane, who had become a true diviner, immediately nodded to Dunn and Frye:
”The danger is within solvable limits, or not.”
Dunn slipped the Mutated Sun Emblem onto his left breast, reached up and pressed his silk bowler hat, and walked quickly toward the section of steps, searching familiarly for the mechanism.
Fry, who had already picked up the gauntlet, handed the cane back to Klein and, with his revolver in hand, guarded his surroundings vigilantly, as if he was afraid that an enemy would suddenly appear.
I am still not professional enough ah …… in the field of the night watchman …… Klein beat the spirit, re drew his own revolver, and followed to do vigilance.
After a few minutes, Dunn Smith, who had half crouched down, did not know what he had pressed on, and a heavy sound of zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zapped out from the step location.
The floor there cracked open, revealing the steps downward, and a cold and dirty feeling filled and filled the room, almost on the verge of congealing into solidity.
Dunn looked at it, removed the chest seal “3-0782”, and threw it directly into the dark door.
After a few jumps, the “Mutated Sun Emblem” stopped at an unknown location.
If there is a necromantic creature inside, it will surely pick up “3-0782” and throw it back …… Then it will be interesting …… Klein stared at the downward staircase and waited patiently.
The coldness and filth that did not go away soon melted away like snow and ice meeting the sun, and warmth and purity enveloped the entrance to the dark door.
”Crane, the two of us will go down, and Frye will stay in place to prevent any other enemies from destroying the mechanism.” Dunn made an experienced decision.
”Okay.” Without any more stage fright, Klein took two steps forward and walked beside Dunn, while Frye nodded gently, not letting his guard down.
Snap, snap, snap, Dunn led the way down the steps, his footsteps echoing in silence.
He had no lamps or torches, for for the Sleepless Ones, darkness was not a hindrance, but a blessing.
In such an environment, their vision is not affected.
A few steps down, Dunn suddenly turned back and looked at Klein, “I forgot that you don’t have darkvision, I’m used to not preparing those illuminating items ……”
”…… Captain, you don’t have to care, I have psychic vision.” Klein found himself surprisingly not surprised at all.
A handsome captain like that just now really wasn’t the norm!
In his psychic vision, the darkness ahead of him was filled with a grayish haze, and although this was very blurry, it had allowed him to barely see the steps.
Well, the captain is in good health, and in good spirits …… Klein carefully stretched his feet and slowly descended the stairs.
This staircase is not long, diagonally down fourteen or fifteen steps before touching the ground.
The seal “3-0782” is lying here, radiating warmth, spreading purity, and shining a faint light.
With this light, Klein could see more clearly, he looked around and realized that it was not a big basement, the original coolness was gone, but the humidity was still there.
In the center of the basement was a black coffin, the iron nails on it were a dark red color.
The lid of the coffin had been pushed out a crack, and it was possible to see a white bone lying inside, a headless white bone.
Dunn first looked around before stooping down to pick up the “Mutated Sun Emblem”.
”Captain, this coffin, well, its purpose is to prevent the dead inside from turning into zombies or disgruntled souls …….”
Klein examined the dark red iron nails on the black coffin, scrutinized their arrangement and relied on his decent knowledge of the occult to recognize that it was an ancient ritual to prevent necrophilia.
At the same time, he muttered in his mind: but who in their right mind would have nothing to do with preventing their loved ones from turning into corpses? Uh, the people who help with the burial are not necessarily relatives either …… Well, putting the coffin in the basement instead of the grave is just to be afraid of being found out ah ……
At this time, wearing the seal “3-0782” Dunn leaned close to the coffin, looked carefully for a while and said:
”The deceased should have died of poisoning.”
”That is, the person who poisoned him to kill him used ritual magic to prevent him from turning into a corpse to take revenge …… This should be a thousand three hundred and four hundred years ago, right? He even turned into a resentful soul in the end …… This intention is simply amazing!” Klein also walked to the coffin and said, “Where is his head? That ritual didn’t need to cut off the head ah ……”
Dunn thought for a moment and said:
”I have a theory that the grudge has not always existed, but has only recently appeared. The town is only a quarter of an hour’s walk to the old fortress, and generations of troublemakers must have come by from time to time, but there were no rumors of a grumbling spirit at the fortress before this incident.”
Klein nodded his head with a slight imperceptible nod:
”Captain, do you mean that someone recently came here, opened the coffin, and removed the head of the deceased?”
”Well, that ritual prevented the dead from turning into corpses, but it also locked its grievances in the coffin, preserving them in disguise, and by the time the coffin was opened and the ritual lifted, those grievances were quickly transformed into ghosts with the help of their own gauntlets ……”
”That person who opened the coffin didn’t leave the body behind, it’s not an ordinary person ah …… And what did he take away the dead man’s head for?”
Dunn gazed at the white bone corpse inside the coffin and said, “The resentment can survive for so long, besides the reason of the ritual, there should be the reason of the deceased himself, he might have been an extraordinary person in his life, or belonged to the descendants within two generations of an extraordinary person who was at least in the middle sequence, well, I mean the middle sequence in the previous definition, sequence 6 or sequence 5.”
”And there’s always something special about such a corpse, his head might, might come in handy for certain rituals, certain occasions.”
Here, Dunn paused and said, “What I said before is speculation, but part of it can be verified, let’s split up later and do some research in the town, see if anyone came to the old castle as a child and was injured here, well, if he’s still alive, it’ll be proof that the grudge is indeed a recent one.”
”Logical way of thinking.” Klein praised and searched the basement once more, finding no other items.
He tried to use ritual magic to depict the “guest” who had entered the basement, but due to the fact that it had been at least more than a month since then, and that the spirits had been wandering around for a long period of time, affecting the environment, he was unable to get any effective results.
Afterwards, he replaced Frye, so that the expert in the field of corpses could make a further examination.
After fifteen minutes, when the sun was about to disappear over the horizon, Dunn and Fry returned down the steps to the hall of the old castle.
The former fumbled to close the secret door, and the latter described it briefly:
”Death by poisoning indeed, and the marks on the neck are within the last three months.”
This means that there is a high probability that someone has been here …… Klein nodded thoughtfully.
Next, the three night watchmen returned to the town of Ramad before dark, and booked two rooms at the hotel – the members who had gotten the seal “3-0782” needed to take this dangerous item for a walk in a deserted place outside the town, and they rotated once every two hours, so only two rooms were needed. So only two rooms were needed.
After a brief dinner, Klein, Dunn and Frye immediately split up and went to different parts of the town to question the long-term residents.
And in a similar scenario, the police officer’s credentials worked exceptionally well.
……
”Officer, why are you inquiring about this? I remember I used to go to that old abandoned castle when I was a kid …… Injured? There must have been, how could a child not have fallen or something like that, I remember, well, I was scratched by a sharp stone on the outer wall of the old fortress …… “A man in his forties with soft yellow hair looked at Klein quizzically and answered the question honestly.
This was the fourteenth subject of Klein’s questioning, and two of them clearly remembered having been injured in the old fortress as children.
The captain s presumption was correct …… Klein made his judgment, withdrew his papers, and said with a smile:
”Thank you for your cooperation, I have no further questions.”
Without his cane he was about to leave when the man in his forties rolled his eyes and said, “Officer, you’re interested in that old castle? My family has the portrait of the first Baron of the old castle, it was my grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather …… uh, anyway, a long time ago, and he took an oil painting from the old castle with what is said to be the portrait of the first Baron Ramrod.”
”Do you want it? It’s a real antique!”
If it is a real antique, your home would have been sold …… This guy has a lot of guts, the police dare to cheat, wait, should I draw my gun to scare him? Klein slandered two sentences, holding a look and do not spend money mentality said:
”Who knows if it is a real antique, I believe in my eyes and judgment.”
”You take it out and let me take a look.”
The yellow-haired middle-aged man immediately piled up a smile and returned to the house, rummaging around for a while.
After a while, he walked out holding a pair of oil paintings.
Klein absently swept over the portrait on the oil painting, and saw that the primordial baron wearing a top white curly wig had soft features, bronzed skin, and eyes that hid an unspeakable vicissitude.
This, seems like Mr. Aztec! Klein’s eyes widened suddenly and subconsciously looked at the right earlobe of the so-called Primordial Baron.
Then, he saw an inconspicuous black mole nearby.
It was in the exact same location as Instructor Azk’s black mole!