Part 1 THE JOKER Chapter 211 The Funeral
Underneath the floor of St. Selena’s Church, in the caretaker’s room outside Charnes’ door.
Leonard Mitchell leaned back against the back of his chair, his legs raised and resting on the edge of the table, his eyes empty and unfocused.
Even after being treated with ritual magic, he still looked very poorly, as if a serious illness had just been relieved but had not yet begun to improve.
At this moment, the powerful people sent by the Holy Church were rearranging the seal behind the Charnis Gate, because of the loss of Saint Selene’s ashes, their opinions were conflicting, some people wanted to make up for the lack of power with new holy relics, some people thought that there was no need to be so troublesome, after all, holy relics were very rare and very precious to the entire Church of the Goddess of the Darkness, the idea they came up with was to lower the positioning of the Tingen City’s Nightwatcher of the Nightwatch Squad , transferring the items that possessed living characteristics or had difficulties in sealing here to the headquarters Serenity Church or the parish of Beckland, leaving only the parts that were easy to look after.
They intend to shoot off a telegram requesting the Pope to convene a council to be voted on by the Archbishops and High Deacons.
Leonard had not the slightest feeling at all for these arguments; he felt as if he had become a living corpse, without pain, without sorrow, without agitation, without excitement, unusually numb, unwilling even to face the others, and wishing only to be alone in a corner.
Occasionally, he wondered why the “murderer” had taken only Crane’s extraordinary traits and left Captain Dunn-Smith’s behind.
Da, da, da, footsteps echoed in the corridor as Siga Teang, his right arm wrapped in a white bandage, appeared in the doorway of the guardroom.
While Dunn and the others were besieging Megalios in an attempt to free Tingen City, she and the inner guardians of the Channis Gate were also fighting against some of the seals, if not for the timely arrival of the members of the “Substitute Punishers” and the “Mechanical Hearts”, if not for the reinforcements sent by the Sanctuary, she would have been afraid that she would not have been able to escape. If it wasn’t for the timely arrival of the members of the “Substitute Punisher” and “Mechanical Heart”, and if it wasn’t for the reinforcements sent by the Holy Church, she would have lost her life miserably.
But even so, that old internal guardian did not last until the end, and died at her post.
”Leonard, I found the captain, there’s a telegram in the captain’s office that hasn’t been decoded yet, it should be from the Holy Church before.” Siga Teang, a part-time writer, spoke up.
Leonard’s turquoise eyes rolled for a moment, his entire being finally came to life, he vaguely remembered that he did hear the sound of a new telegram entering earlier, but at that time, the battle was on the verge of breaking out, and neither he nor Klein had the presence of mind to pay attention to it.
”What was the content?” Leonard found his voice unusually dry.
The white-haired, dark-pupiled lady, Siga Teang, answered without hesitation:
”Beware of Ince Zangwill, and beware of Seal Object ‘0-08’.”
”Ince Zangwill, the renegade archbishop, the ‘gatekeeper’ who failed to be promoted …… Seal Object ‘0-08’, an ordinary looking quill pen …… “Leonard first murmured blankly at the memories he could dig up, then swiveled his ears sideways.
He suddenly narrowed his eyes, the disheveledness and frustration in his body disappearing at the same time.
”So it’s like this ……,” Leonard retracted his legs at once and stood up, as if there were flames burning within his turquoise eyes.
He looked at Siga Teang and said:
”I’m going to apply to join the ‘Red Gloves’.”
”Red Gloves” was a pronoun for the elite teams within the Night Watchers, generally speaking, each Night Watchers squad was stationed locally, each with their own precincts, and couldn’t go outside their precincts to hunt down criminals without permission, whereas certain evil fellows were always hitting the same place with a single shot, which caused a lot of inconvenience.
For this reason, the Church of the Goddess of the Night specially set up the “Red Gloves” within the Night Watchers, who were strictly selected elites, and even possessed some of the holy relics, and their mission was to reinforce the Night Watchers who sent out signals, as well as tracking down and arresting the evil people under their attention without restriction.
In some circles, they were known as “trackers” and “hounds”.
”‘Red Gloves’? But their minimum requirement is Sequence 7 …… Moreover, the dangers faced by the ‘Red Gloves’ are exponentially greater than those faced by a normal squad of Night Watchers.” Siga Teang said with concern in his doubt.
Leonard sketched a smile that was devoid of amusement:
”I’m almost ready for promotion.”
His eyes turned cold as he gritted his teeth and muttered silently to himself:
I will take revenge!
Ince Zangwill, you must live until I am strong!
”Well ……” Siga seemed to have guessed Leonard’s thoughts and sighed, “Half or even more of our team will have new faces, even for the Night Watchman squad, such a tragedy is rare ……”
Leonard’s eyes darkened and he gritted his teeth:
”Got rid of the bodies, right?”
”Uh-huh.” Sega nodded his head imperceptibly.
Leonard took a sharp step toward the door:
”I’ll go inform their families.”
I’m going to face the scene I least want to face.
I go to ……
……
At 2 Daffodil Street, Melissa sat in the single couch seat, studying the three tickets in her hand over and over again, studying the writing on them, studying the printed dates and seat numbers.
Benson sat to her side, smiling at his focused sister, his body posture very relaxed.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of the doorbell being pulled, jingle, jingle.
Melissa glanced at Bella, the maid, who was busy in the kitchen, and, with the three tickets in her hand, got up with a slightly puzzled look and made her way to the door with small, quick steps.
Her dark hair was much more moisturized than before, her face was no longer thin and had more of a nice blood color, and her brown eyes were even more crystal clear.
Twisting the knob and pulling open the door to the room, Melissa froze for a moment, for she did not recognize her visitor.
It was a young man with inked hair and blue pupils, a very good-looking man, but his face was unusually pale and his eyes hid a deep sadness.
”Excuse me?” Melissa asked, confused.
Leonard, who had specialized in draping a black formal dress over his white shirt, sniffed and answered in a husky voice:
”I’m a coworker of your brother Klein’s.”
Melissa’s heart suddenly stuttered and she instinctively padded to look behind Leonard, but found nothing.
With an inexplicable tremor in her voice, she asked:
”Where’s Klein?”
Leonard closed his eyes and took a breath:
”I’m sorry to say that your brother Klein died at the hands of a vicious criminal to save some people, he was a hero, a true hero.”
Melissa’s eyes widened a little, and her body shook a few times imperceptibly as the three tickets in her hand slid helplessly to the ground.
They were face up and had the title of the play The Return of the Count.
……
Inside the Moretti’s living room, Leonard hardly dared to look across the room at Melissa and Benson.
But his mind could not help flashing back to the other:
That youthful girl with her eyes open and silent, her pupils unfocused and quiet like a mannequin.
The man who bore a slight resemblance to Klein tried to maintain a normal posture, but he always froze every now and then, and his speech would be half a beat slower.
”That’s what happened, and for that I’m sorry I couldn’t stop it in time, Blackthorn Security, the police department, and those who were helped have all promised you a pension of roughly 6,000 pounds ……,” Leonard said with slightly wandering eyes.
Suddenly, Benson interrupted, his voice hoarse as he asked:
”Where’s his body? I mean where’s Klein’s body?”
He pursed his lips and said after a pause:
”When will we see him?”
”Within the company, now.” Leonard replied with barely concealed sadness.
”Good.” Benson tugged at the stiff corner of his mouth and said, “I’ll go down to the lavatory first.”
Without waiting for Leonard to respond, he quickly stepped inside the first-floor washroom and closed the wooden door with a bang.
Walking over to the sink, Benson unscrewed the faucet and let the tap water dangle with a clatter.
He bent over and buried his head, cupping his hands around the water and slapping it repeatedly onto his face.
Patting, his movements suddenly paused, and there was no change for a long time, only the sound of running water clattering echoed throughout the washroom.
After dozens of seconds, Benson raised his head and looked into the washroom mirror, only to see himself on the opposite side of his face covered in water droplets, and his eyes were so red that they could no longer be hidden.
……
A few days later, a corner of Raphael’s Cemetery.
Finishing off Dunn’s funeral, the crowd gathered in front of a new headstone with a black-and-white, bookish photo of Klein.
Melissa stood in front of the grave pit, her eyes lax and unfocused, while Elizabeth beside her was wiping away tears the entire time.
Leonard, Benson, Frye, and Brett carried the casket, walked over, and placed it in the grave pit.
After the pastor’s eulogy and their respective prayers, rustle, rustle, rustle, the dirt began to fill in, and the black coffin was covered up a little bit.
At this time, Melissa half crouched down and threw in the brass whistle that had been recovered from her brother.
Leonard looked sideways at this scene, his heart was very sour, but also admired this girl’s strength, after knowing the bad news, she has not cried or made a fuss, the silence was heartbreaking.
The grave pit was filled in and the stone slab was covered, Leonard took a last look at Klein’s tombstone, his epitaph consisted of three lines:
”Best brother;”
”Best brother;”
”Best coworker.”
In a mournful atmosphere, the people from Blackthorn Security gradually left, and Selena and Elizabeth also took their leave at the urging of their families, leaving only Benson and Melissa at the scene.
”I’m going to hire a rental carriage to come over ……,” Benson’s condition was very poor, like he hadn’t slept for a long time.
”Okay.” Melissa nodded gently.
Watching her brother’s back go away, she glanced back at the tombstone in a daze.
Suddenly, she squatted down and buried her face within her arms.
In the silence, after an unknown amount of time, Melissa suddenly muffled a curse:
”Idiot!”
She burst into tears, silent tears, constant tears, tears that were hard to stop.
……
Raphael’s Cemetery at night.
The bronze-complexioned Aztec, holding a bouquet of white flowers, stood in front of Klein’s grave pit for a long time without speaking, and finally sighed and said to himself:
”I apologize for being ten minutes late.”
”But I should know who it is …….”
He stooped and laid down the bouquet of flowers, and turned away from the cemetery, and from Tingen, but did not take the brass whistle.
The scarlet moonlight shone on the place with unspeakable quiet and coldness.
Suddenly the slabs sealing the grave-pit were turned over, and a slightly pale hand reached out of the earth.
It reached out!
Wow!
The stone slab was pushed aside, the lid of the coffin was pushed open, and Klein sat up, looking around in a slight daze.
His memory was still fixed on the shiny leather boots and the palm holding St. Selene’s urn, and after that it was like going into a dreamless slumber.
Instinctively, Klein lowered his head, unbuttoned his shirt, and looked to his left chest, only to see the hideous wound and missing piece of his heart writhing and healing, just as he had seen the gunshot hole in his temple recovering at a rapid pace when he had first seen it in the mirror, the only difference was that this time it was slower and more difficult.