old dream

Chapter 97 Disagreement
Heinrich's mouth and nose were covered with a blanket, and Colin quietly placed his palm on it. The veteran didn't make any struggles, only the burn scars seemed to show a trace of blood again.Then the heaving of his chest subsided forever, and he finally entered a peaceful death.

Colin was silent for a long time.No one will come to help him with the corpse.Afterwards, Heinrich would slowly corrupt in this room, but unknown.It wasn't until pus began to seep from the pores of his skin that the neighbors could not bear the growing stench that he had been dead for so long.

Colin picked up the mask in his hand and stared at the bright red paint in a trance.People who have lost their original face are like living with it as a new identity.The masks are too similar, and people can't have the same face. Maybe that's why Heinrich painted it blood red.

Like a ghost, Colin lowered his head and put it on his face.The eyes of the mask are just two small round holes, but the obstruction to the vision is not serious.After putting on the mask, there was a sound of airflow in the ear, because the breath exhaled from the nose could not find an exit, so it would always echo inside the mask.

After a while, Colin remembered that the purpose of his search for this residence was to obtain the legacy of the wizard "Horst".

Now that the room was safe, he turned his head to look for it.

The environment here is extremely dirty, and the washbasin in the bathroom seems to be used as a sink, stacking dishes that have accumulated for several days.The old toilet has a thick layer of dirt on it.

But Colin still patiently spared no corners, including the inside of the sink's plinth, and removing the ceiling inspection divider.

Finally, he made a discovery in the toilet tank.It was a small packet of redstone, and a bundle of cash stuffed in a small bottle.A full count might be worth around four hundred oligos.But these things alone are obviously not enough for him to take a huge risk to come here.

Then came "Horst"'s own room.Soon in his drawer, Colin found another address book with a torn cover, on which were written a row of names and their addresses and zip codes.In front of some people's names, his military rank, sergeant, corporal, etc. are also marked.

This is an address book among veterans.So the identity of the wizard "Horst" seems to be coming out.He should have also been a member of the battlefield of Senna, but what made him find the door to the transcendent?

There is also a page number after each person's name in the address book.Colin tried to flip back and found that it was the page number of the address book.Each page after the list seems to be more like a bill, recording some fragmentary amounts and remittance records.

Colin opened another drawer, which was filled with unpacked letters in a mess.Open one at random and see that the paper is filled with words of gratitude for the remittance in jerky handwriting.

"...Immigrants took all the jobs. I heard that it will be sunny next week. When the bone pain is no longer so painful, I plan to go to the pier to try my luck... If there is good news, please let me know. Other brothers. Without your timely help, the children may not be able to survive these two days..."

And they unanimously called the wizard "Horst": Lieutenant Heinrich.

Heinrich should have been the name of the burn patient, that is to say, "Horst" has been impersonating him, sending money to the veterans for him.

There may not be any conspiracy in this, it may simply be that "Horst" does not want to use his own name.

These soldiers who used to be stationed in Sennare are indeed in a very embarrassing situation in Stade.After all, to a certain extent, they were equivalent to fleeing back to Stade from their own station in embarrassment.Even if this is not the case, the public will think so.The defeated army has always been easily looked down upon, not to mention the rare defeat of the alliance for hundreds of years.No one cares about frequent victories, but defeats will still be held accountable.In the eyes of ordinary people, as if everything was their responsibility, the reason why the Kingdom of Senna was separated from the colonial territory of the Alliance was entirely because of their incompetence.

Below the address book, there is another notebook with the lieutenant's injury record on the title page.Dates were written on each line, followed by brief sentences describing the changes in Lieutenant Heinrich's physical condition.Sometimes only one sentence a month, sometimes three consecutive sentences a day.The time span before and after the recording is a full eight years, which also coincides with these peaceful years after the war was completely over.

The cold description of hurt is unadorned, and there is not much emotion to be seen, but from the handwriting, you can see the ups and downs of the writer's mood.In the first few months, he was still rejoicing that the lieutenant's health had improved.Later, he was worried about the deteriorating condition of the lieutenant.Until the last two years, the gap between records has been getting longer and longer, and he has obviously become increasingly depressed and unable to recover.

It can be seen from these records that Heinrich's body deteriorated to the point of being bedridden, and it has been at least three years now.

But "Horst" claimed to others in the letter that the sequelae on himself (Heinrich) had basically disappeared, and he even found a stable job in a logging farm in the suburbs.This lie may be to explain the source of his remittance to others, or it may be to let other comrades who have been overwhelmed by life, see some hope.

On the last few pages of the address book, there is still an increasing number recorded over the years, which is the total amount of remittances sent to more than 4000 people in eight years.Up to the latest line, there are already more than [-] Ori.

Seeing this, Colin also understood why "Horst", as a wizard, lived in such a dilapidated and crowded apartment building, why he usually had to rely on discount coupons for meals, and why, at the beginning of the Prohibition Order , he plunged into the bootleg war so desperately that he ended up losing his life for it.

Colin thought for a while, and went out to find Benedict first.He was still waiting at the entrance of the stairs, and now he was so bored that he squatted beside the handrail and used his fingers to tease the little insects on the ground in twos and threes.

Colin took out his purse and counted two Ori as a reward, and he was about to send him back to his room.

"The result?" Before leaving, Benedict asked relentlessly, as if to express his dissatisfaction with Colin's previous suspicions:
"Am I guessing right? Is this room on the fourth floor Mr. Horst's room?"

"Since you know that there will be trouble here, you should also know that it is best to put away your curiosity." Colin said:

"No matter who asks anything after that, you haven't seen me come here, understand?"

……

After watching Benedict descend the stairs one by one, Colin went back to "Horst"'s room.

He still needs to find something more valuable here.

It doesn't matter who "Horst" is.The key lies in how he changed from a soldier to a wizard.

The pile of letters expressing gratitude may be used for other purposes in the future, but right now, I'm afraid it doesn't have much to do with Colin's main purpose.

Because you don't need to think about it, no one will write information related to Chaofan on ordinary letters that need to be sent through the post office.

What's more, "Horst" is a devil in the speakeasy. I am afraid that in the eyes of the religious groups, this is the most serious devil suspicion.

On the way, Colin even worried for a while that there would be a sect that would follow his clues to find him.

At the same time, because he, like Arecio, knows how to control the devil, is it possible that there will be another "Devil's Hierarchy" in his hands?

Colin rummaged through the remaining drawers, but found nothing more.Presumably "Horst" would not put books related to demons in such easy-to-find places.

Colin took out all the drawers in the desk and checked whether there would be hidden compartments between the boards.Then he opened all the cabinets in the room and checked them carefully.Because it was the residence of a man who lived alone, it was terribly dirty everywhere, and there were countless unsightly things.

It was not until finally Colin turned up his bed board that he found a manuscript under his quilt.

The paper of this manuscript has been seriously yellowed, and the ink has faint traces of fading. It should have a certain age and it is written in Nalevin.The binding style of the manuscript reminded Colin of the notes he used when he was a child in Cynthili's lectures.

That is, it is basically from Nare.

The soft leather cover that should have been stapled to the spine has been ripped apart, so there is no title.The content is directly copied by hand.Flipping through it quickly, it recorded various ways to deal with 32 kinds of demons and devils, and also described the divisions and lords of hell, which almost made Colin think for a moment that this was the remnant of "The Devil's Hierarchy".

But then, he found the detached cover on the rail under the bed board, and after putting it back on the tear on the spine, he found that the seam could still be roughly closed.

The title of the book on the cover reads: "The Slave King's Wedding Ring"

Colin couldn't help being startled, it turned out that this was not "The Devil's Hierarchy".

But the title of the book he just discovered made him think about it.

The slave king Gloria, even in secular pseudo-history, is a character that has been heavily inked.Her most famous deed is that as a human slave girl, she set off a great uprising that overthrew the Ulju dynasty of demons.And established the first human kingdom, the First Empire of Nare.

The academic world has long recognized that this event is the beginning of the dominance of today's human race in the Middle Continent.

Before that, the species originally called "humans" should be demons.

In the secular pseudo-history, the Demonborn Urju is roughly described as a kingdom of alien slavery, with a civilization equivalent to the Early Bronze Age, and the reason for the disappearance of the Demonborn remains a mystery to this day.

But now Colin has learned from Aresio that its successive monarchs also created the "Hell of District 36" in the imaginary world to detain and enslave demons. The origin of the "spell string" partly associated with devils and demons.

But what impressed Colin deeply was that, in addition to the widely circulated "Demon Hierarchy", Aresio also mentioned a "Sinking Ring", which can also be used to command everything in Area 36 of Hell.

So why, in this book with the title of the human monarch Gloria, will describe something similar to "Devil's Hierarchy"?

What exactly does the "wedding ring" in "The Wedding Ring of the Slave King" refer to?Is that the Ring of the Fall of Urju?And who gave the king of slaves this wedding ring?
All of this contradicts Colin's past perceptions of history.After all, in common sense, the existence of slave king Gloria and demons, demons, devils, etc., should be completely opposites.

Perhaps this manuscript is an outright fabrication, a kind of misrepresentation of the information about "Devil's Hierarchy", the fabricator vaguely and carelessly used the three elements of "queen", "book" and "ring" in the original story as plausible Mixed together.After all, the Great Lighthouse Library, where Arecio was born, has existed since the age of demons, so it is more likely that they will be able to grasp the truth, right?

Colin has long known that there are several versions of false history in this world, which is also the inevitable result of covering up the extraordinary existence.But he never thought that even the history of the extraordinary level would diverge from each other.

But if this information is circulated secretly and secretly, isn't it normal that there will be uncorrectable misinformation between several branches?

This "The Wedding Ring of the Slave King" is undoubtedly from Nare, both in terms of content and the style of the manuscript's binding.So Mr. Horst found this book in the ruins of the war in Sinal, and used it to enter the supernatural?
And judging from his effectiveness in controlling that devil, it seems to be stronger than what Arecio described.Does it mean that its content is actually closer to the era of demons than the version of "Demon Hierarchy" included in the Lighthouse Library?
Ke Lin was in a daze for a while, and then suddenly remembered that when he was flipping through the book just now, he seemed to have seen the words "No.30 Shuttle Demon in District Two" in the book.So he hurriedly turned the manuscript to the corresponding page.

After a rough look, a cold sweat broke out from behind him.Because he really found that the description of the shuttle demon on this page is quite different from the version that Arecio told him.

He couldn't help but feel a little fortunate that he didn't rashly summon the devil before.

Although the "Ixion of the Wheel of Fire" is also mentioned, but instead of using seven laurel leaves, the "Wedding Ring" requires the use of thirteen fig leaves.

Did Arecio tell him the wrong version, or was the content of "Devil's Hierarchy" and "The Wedding Ring" different?
Which side can you trust?

(End of this chapter)