Part 5 THE RED PRIEST Chapter 72 The Unexpected
Queens, the side of Viscount Stepford’s mansion.
Dressed in black, Forsyth and Hugh hid together in a shadowy corner, staring at the closed barred door, waiting patiently for their target to appear.
It had not rained tonight, so they did not have to face too difficult a situation, and the carriage parked at the edge of the glow of the streetlamps made them realize that the harvest was sure to come, and that there was only the difference between early and late.
After an indeterminate amount of time, the barred door made the sound of metal scraping against metal and slowly opened backward.
A silhouette clad in a deep black cloak flashed out from within, head bowed, and walked to the side of the rented carriage, boarding it with a light movement.
”Is that her?” Forsyth lowered his voice and inquired of Hugh, who was beside him.
She had neither the extraordinary power of restoring the features of the other’s image by description, nor had she ever seen her before, and could not rely on spiritual intuition or “astrology” to make a judgment.
Hugh nodded his head affirmatively and said:
”Yes!”
While they were conversing in whispers, the hired carriage accelerated a little and drove away from the side entrance area.
Hugh immediately left the corner where he was hiding, and prepared to rely on the extraordinary ability of “Magistrate” and the physical enhancement brought by “Inquisitor” to jog far away from the target.
”What do you want to do?” Just then, Voorhees pressed down on her shoulder, ruining her plans.
”Stalking!” Hugh glanced back at his friend in puzzlement.
Folth glanced openly at the hired carriage, which had not yet completely pulled away, and asked thoughtfully:
”What are you following for?
”Also, didn’t you say that the target would be protected by a rather powerful Extraordinary once he enters the Bakerland Bridge area?”
”Right.” Hugh answered the latter question before saying, “Your question is so strange, of course the tracking is to confirm the target’s appearance, identity and origin, and purpose.”
Forsyth retracted his left hand that was pressing on Hugh’s shoulder and said with a slight smile:
”Since the target is protected by a rather powerful extraordinary person, it would be difficult for us to complete the tracking in the Bakerland Bridge area to find her residence and figure out her realistic identity. Do you want to directly clash with that protector? Although you have my help, have you confirmed the strength of the other party? How certain is it? Will it be dangerous?
”Moreover, as soon as a fight breaks out, it will inevitably alert the target, which is the same as stopping the carriage on the way ahead of time and questioning it face-to-face, both of which will undermine your most essential intentions, and it will alert Viscount Sturford to the fact that he won’t get into trouble, giving you the opportunity to strike.”
”Do it, and there is a chance of failure; don’t do it, and you are bound to fail.” Hugh emphasized that he was aware of the predicament, and just wanted to try again, looking for opportunities along the way.
By this time, the hired carriage had turned the corner at the end of the road and driven into the street, and Forsyth shook his head and laughed as he watched its back fade away:
”No, no, no, what we need to do is to think differently!
”We should try to figure out the target’s appearance first, wait until dawn, and then use her looks to do routine investigations in the Bakerland Bridge area to gather intelligence from other sources.”
”That’s very professional wording you’re using ……,” Hugh said as he pondered.
”Of course, I’m the one who wrote the detective novel!” Forsyth responded with no modesty at all.
”But how to figure out the target’s appearance without alarming her?” Hugh raised the most crucial question.
Foerth took out “Lemanor’s Traveling Notes” as if he had prepared for it, and said with a smile:
”Very simple, use the ‘Psychological Stealth’ recorded by Ms. ‘Justice’!”
–Although “Justice” Audrey didn’t have much chance to use “Lemanor’s Traveling Notebook”, she still rented it two or three times with curiosity, studying the functions and characteristics of each of those extraordinary abilities, and recording some of her own. She studied the functions and characteristics of those extraordinary abilities, and recorded some of her own extraordinary abilities on it, including the quite practical “psychological invisibility”.
As for the question of her real identity, Hugh and Forsyth were getting more and more confirmed, but they did not ask her face to face, nor did they do further investigation, which was the most basic respect for the members of the Tarot Club.
Hearing his best friend’s answer, Hugh’s thoughts opened up and he instantly had several inspirations.
For his part, Forsyth continued to speak to himself:
”After using this page of extraordinary abilities, you will be in the blind spot of the senses of the surrounding creatures, and they will not be able to see you even if you are dangling in front of their eyes. This way, you can just board the carriage, walk up to your target, look at her face graciously and openly, and memorize all the features.
”Oh, I sometimes wonder if people who use ‘Psychological Stealth’ might get stomped to death by a large creature that happens to be passing by if they’re too unlucky.
”Uh, don’t make too much noise later, and don’t speak to the creatures around you, that way you’ll draw attention to yourself and have the ‘Psychological Stealth’ automatically lifted.”
”Uh-huh!” Hugh nodded and raised another difficult point, “How do you keep the target from realizing that the carriage door suddenly opened while traveling?”
Without waiting for Voorhees to answer, she immediately followed up:
”Do you have a record of the extraordinary ability to ‘open doors’?”
”Do you think so?” With a smile, Voorhees handed his friend the “Lemanor’s Travel Notes” in his hand, and explained on which pages the “Psychological Invisibility” and the “Open Door” were located.
Hugh memorized them, and immediately ran quickly along the shadows on both sides of the road in pursuit of the hired carriage.
It wasn’t long before she saw her target, and with a gentle shake of her right hand, the copper-green notes were revealed as a page of yellowish-brown parchment.
Between her fingers, Hugh seemed to see countless waves of light emerging on the surface of the deep lake, spreading out in all directions.
When her vision returned to normal, she accelerated her pace and quickly arrived beside the moving carriage.
For confirmation, Hugh didn’t make a direct move, and with a few large strides, overtook the horses.
She immediately turned her body, as if crossing the road, but the driver did not notice, neither shouted to warn, nor strangled the horses.
After confirming the effectiveness of her “psychological stealth”, Hugh accelerated, dodging the horse’s impact, and came to the side of the carriage.
After a moment’s observation, she flipped the “Lemanor’s Travel Notes” to reveal a piece of white paper covered with strange patterns and symbols, and then stretched out her right hand and pressed it against the wall of the compartment.
Her figure became transparent and appeared in the interior of the carriage.
The woman in the deep black cloak was sitting diagonally across from her, looking at the glass window on Hugh’s side as if she was thinking about something, but ignoring the bounty hunter who had suddenly intruded.
At such a close distance, even if her cloak was pulled low, Hugh was able to get a preliminary look at her face, not to mention that she wasn’t as cautious as when she was walking outside, and her every move appeared to be rather casual, so much so that her cloak shrunk down to the position of her eyes.
In an instant, her appearance was reflected in Hugh’s eyes, and overlapped with a face that retained the characteristics of a man.
This was the extraordinary power of the “magistrate”.
Hugh’s eyes widened, and he cried out with an uncontrollable voice:
”Sherman?”
She could foresee that the woman who frequented Viscount Stepford’s residence during this period of time was quite beautiful, but she could not have imagined that the other party was her friend Sherman, a young man!
A man who couldn’t even talk about his long connected sexual beauty had now become so beautiful and feminine!
At this moment, Hugh couldn’t help but look Sherman up and down a few times, completely unable to associate the other party’s figure with the young man he originally knew.
If it were not for the extraordinary ability of the “magistrate” to confirm from the nature of the five officials that the opposite party was Sherman, Hugh would have thought that he had recognized the wrong person, and even then, she now suspected that the opposite party was not Sherman, but Sherman’s sister who was born on the same day from the same father and the same mother.
It was only when she heard that surprised query that Sherman noticed that there was someone else, someone familiar, inside the carriage at some point.
Bounty hunter Hugh Dilcha!
Sherman, who had changed her name to Sherman, was first horrified, then instinctively bubbled over with some of the words Tris had often mentioned:
”You must not be touched now by your former acquaintance.
”Do you want your husband, the one you love, to know what you used to be like?
”Only by a complete break with the past can you be reborn, can you be saved!”
Similar sayings flew by within Sherman’s mind, causing a thought that she herself was afraid of to abruptly emerge from the bottom of her heart:
”Kill her!”
This thought was like a devil from the abyss, constantly whispering in Sherman’s ears and reverberating in her heart:
”Kill her!
”Kill the one who recognizes you!
”Only then can you truly be free of the past and not lose the present!
”Kill her!”
Without answering Hugh’s question, Sherman clenched his left hand a little at his side, very slowly and somewhat tremulously.
Hugh sensed a strong emotional fluctuation in the other party, confirmed that this was Sherman, and then asked in a whirlwind of concern:
”How have you become like this?
”Where have you been all this time? Did something happen to you? Were there any injuries?”
Sherman’s lips opened and closed a few times, his left fist relaxed a bit, and he spoke in a sobbing tone:
”I’ve started a new life, so don’t bother me anymore, okay?
”I, I don’t want to lose everything I have now, I don’t want to see the people I used to know!”
The more she spoke, the faster her words became, and the more obvious her pleading became.
Hugh was stunned for a few seconds, gazed at Sherman, pursed his lower lips tightly and said:
”Okay ……”
Without lingering any longer, she reached out and opened the glass window of the carriage, jumping out with a gesture of a forward lunge.
Sherman watched the whole process in silence and finally exhaled a long breath, paralyzing in her position as if she had lost all her strength.
It was with great difficulty that she managed to control that devil inside her.
It was at this time that she saw a figure quickly sketching and appearing out of thin air on the other side of the opposite side.
That figure was wearing a gloomy, deep black, antiquated long dress, but it didn’t ruin the sweet and gentle looks and temperament at all, and just sitting there without speaking, it also made people unable to move their eyes.
The witch Tris!
”Why don’t you kill her?” Tris asked with a smile that didn’t see the slightest hint of gloom, as if she were making idle conversation about what she had been drinking last night.
”She, she, is one of the few people who didn’t discriminate against me before and even helped me ……,” Sherman replied rather frightened, then frowned and asked back, “Why are you here?”
Tris laughed and said:
”I’m protecting you.”
Not waiting for Sherman to respond, she turned:
”You seemed to be in a good mood when you came out.”
Sherman recalled what happened before and showed a hint of shyness and said:
”Maybe, possibly, I have a chance to be a mom ……”
As she spoke, her right hand touched her stomach, and she couldn’t help but pull the corners of her mouth to the sides.
”I feel like he’s kicking me, kicking me ……” Sherman suddenly froze, shocked out of her mouth, “How can it be so fast?”
She wasn’t even sure if she was going to get pregnant today!
Seeing her reaction, Tris smiled even more charmingly.