Chapter 156 Kind-Hearted Locals

Another hour later, the town’s alarm bell rang again.

Sitting in the hotel, they saw the firelight moving outside the window, followed by the loud announcement of the patrol.

"Everyone, everyone! Elder Bipp and Father Lewis are calling you! All gather in the square in front of the church. Everyone must go!"

The hotel door was forced open, and three men with guns guarded the door, telling them to get out.

Pei Lun asked them to go out first, and he went upstairs to remind Chu De and Kuo Ke, the master and servant.

The lieutenant and others waited downstairs for a short time before they came down together. However, Clayton was a little surprised and dissatisfied when he saw Chude's burnt face, and he didn't understand what was happening in the town at all. misfortune.

His servant Kuo Ke was very quiet and calm, as if following Chu De would allow him to gain extraordinary wisdom and enlightenment.

This pair of master and servant almost never go out, and they are still in a daze at the moment.

They followed the patrol to the square in front of the church, where many people were already standing and waiting.

In the middle of the square stood a huge burning cross, which illuminated the entire square.

The crowd gathered together in the light of the fire and started chatting while waiting. It was lively but also noisy. On the periphery of the crowd were militiamen with weapons in full formation. They stared closely at the crowd, but their guns were still pointed straight into the sky.

The two most experienced and eldest elders in the town and the priest Louis stood on a high platform composed of multiple wooden cargo boxes, with people standing next to them holding torches to light them.

One of the elders raised his hand and shook the bell to quiet them down, and solemnly announced the current situation.

"Everyone, for the past month, a wild beast has been wreaking havoc in Gève, killing our livestock and destroying our property, and we have been unable to do anything about it. We have never even seen its tail. But this time, it exposed itself. ourselves, allowing us to find an opportunity to judge it.”

"This afternoon, our priest left the town in order to escort the wounded. The beast thought that his time had come, and actually screamed in the town like a wild dog demarcating its territory. But it didn't realize that it was just the right time to howl in excitement. The identity of the werewolf was revealed."

"If some other beast with a wolf-like cry sneaks into town, won't our guard dogs be able to detect its scent and be indifferent to it?"

"In past attacks, the victim's dogs hardly barked, or only barked once or twice, especially the Jarvis family's Peel, whose loyalty is well known and even dared to fight the flying dragon for the safety of its owner. . But before the calf at home was eaten and wiped clean, it didn't make a sound. And maybe some people still remember that in the old stories passed down from the elders, the werewolf has the ability to command wolves and dogs. The reason why they can succeed so often at night.”

The elder's inference was well-founded, and Clayton's original thoughts were somewhat convinced.

He saw a man walking to the edge of the table and handing over a shining silver candlestick, and he immediately understood what they were going to do.

The elder took the candlestick and held it up: "Werewolves usually change into human form. Maybe it is among us, so everyone needs to do a test. We know that these monsters hiding in the dark are afraid of silver, and here is a silver candlestick. As long as a slight cut is made on the arm, the difference between a human and a werewolf will be immediately apparent. It will definitely scream and the wound will have a burning quality. "

As he spoke, he touched the back of his left hand, then raised his left hand high, letting everyone see the red blood sliding down his skin.

"We won't be able to test all residents tonight, but at the very least, by tomorrow, we'll have it all figured out."

"Now, this werewolf who is still hiding can come out and explain all this by himself. Considering that you have not harmed the neighbors and villagers, we will not execute you. You can use labor to offset your sins - this is Mr. Lewis also allowed it.”

Clayton was also a little surprised by this lenient approach, but he didn't want to accept this test at all.

He is a foreign werewolf and will definitely receive more discrimination than the local werewolves. There is no need to take risks.

He grabbed a guard holding a gun: "Your werewolf seems to have been active for a month, and I just came here the day before yesterday. Obviously this has nothing to do with me, so can I skip this testing step? There is a saying, 'Don't let it slip.' Unnecessary blood', isn't it?"

The guard was so nervous that the unexpected touch almost caused him to fire his gun. But when he saw Clayton, he recognized that this was the man who helped carry the wounded back and forth in the afternoon, and his expression softened a lot.

"Of course, I think the young men must not know that you have just arrived, so I called you out. I will tell the elders later that you and other guests who have just arrived in town this month do not need to attend. test."

This commitment came at the right time.

After a while, Clayton, Julius, and Hook's four detectives immediately gained the authority to return home.

Creighton could have gone back to rest, but he didn't.

Neither does Hook's detective.

They all wanted to know the test results as soon as possible, so they stayed here.

Behind the high platform - on both sides of the church is the land where the priesthood cultivates medicinal herbs, which is the medicine garden. None of the town's defenders came close to this place. They stayed on one side and watched how the locals dealt with it.

The elders' advice had no effect.

They waited for a while, but the crowd remained silent and no one came forward.

The old men on the platform whispered to each other for a few words, and then asked the people below to line up for testing.

Julius poked Clayton with his elbow: "I thought you would be caught with your luck. Look at your face now. You look like a dead person before the spell is applied. If I were him, I would catch you first."

"Shut up." Clayton replied briefly and forcefully.

The werewolf curse made his new skin appear as white as paper. The color was pure, but it looked extremely unhealthy. At the same time, the yellow iris expanded to almost two-thirds of the eye and glowed slightly.

However, these abnormalities can be covered up with "special cosmetics for city people" at the moment.

The residents of Gevo even believed what Julius said, "Axe is a trend", so there is no reason not to believe this.

"Okay, but some things can't be solved by shutting up. The spell will make your inhuman characteristics more obvious." Julius' tone suddenly became calm. He looked at the familiar faces in the crowd and got rid of the smile at the corners of his mouth.

He raised his chin and pointed at the place he was looking at: "Look there. They don't look optimistic. Maybe there are werewolves."

Just where he was looking, the jeweler's family gathered there.

Lawrence's face was very uneasy. When he saw the guards passing by, he opened his mouth slightly towards them, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't speak. As for his son Danny, he seemed to have thought of something, with a bit of sadness on his face.

As for Lawrence's wife, Danny's mother Jane-the woman seemed to know nothing about their thoughts, and was talking kindly to other old women in a low voice.

"It's indeed a bit suspicious, but I don't think it's any of them." Clayton whispered: "When I was at their house, I didn't smell much raw blood and flesh. Unless they have been hunting and eating in the wild, it's impossible to keep it so clean."

Jewelers make more money than ordinary jobs. Those business orders that provide raw materials give them a lot of opportunities for corruption. And as far as he knows, no jeweler will not do this. This is almost an unspoken rule that employers tacitly agree to.

There is an old saying that "silver is mixed in the gold crown."

Back to the point, with the income of a jeweler, he can definitely get legal meat. He only needs to raise a few more dogs to fool the people around him. No one cares how much food the dogs will waste.

Moreover, the expression on Danny's face can't be called panic.

Julius looked at them carefully again and had to admit that Clayton's conclusion might be more correct.

He immediately lost interest and retracted his gaze.

"It's too stuffy here. I'll go for a walk nearby."

The streets of the town were burning with fire and there were patrols. He was not worried about safety.

Clayton nodded silently and acquiesced to his departure, while his eyes continued to stare at the crowd.

While they were talking, four people had completed the test. They raised their hands to show their wounds to others like the elders did before, and then walked aside to be bandaged by the women.

The painters also stood in the crowd waiting to be tested.

Although they were outsiders, they had been here for a while and were naturally included in the suspect list.

The two painters who were repairing the murals in the church looked unhappy and repeatedly told the guards that they must not cause wounds on their fingers or even their entire arms, otherwise it would affect the repair work, because some toxic pigments might penetrate through the wounds and make them sick.

The lieutenant noticed that Louis also frequently turned his eyes to them. This is not a good sign.

If a clergyman can't even tell whether the outsiders who come in and out of the church he serves every day are dark descendants, then he obviously can't do any miracles.

Chude Osmar and his fat follower were also in the crowd. The former still showed his arrogant expression as always, and the latter looked confused, as if he had just been adopted from the poorhouse by Chude.

Clayton gradually lost interest in these people. He felt that he might not find out anything tonight, so he turned his attention to the detectives.

He remembered that Ian Lazarus still had something to explain.

"Did you find anything about the gun?" He walked over and asked.

Ian showed an expression as if he had just woken up from a dream, which made Clayton feel uneasy, but the other detective companions looked as if they were used to it.

The blond, blue-eyed young detective lifted his jacket, revealing a large number of knives and flintlock pistols hanging underneath. He took out a folded paper from one of his pockets and opened it to read it. Clayton saw the traces of ink penetrating the low-quality paper.

"Memorandum".

Ian carefully remembered the purpose of this note, and it did work, but its existence made the lieutenant very uneasy.

He seemed to have just given the other party this task last night.

"Ah, your request has been completed!" Ian's answer after reading the memorandum was in line with Clayton's expectations, but there was even a bit of surprise in his voice, as if he had completely forgotten the process of his pursuit and investigation, so his emotions were completely relaxed.

"I found someone who knew this gun, but before she could explain, her husband took her into the house."

Before Ian said it, Clayton already knew the result of his investigation.

This guy actually wrote down the reason for shirking his responsibilities in his memo!

"I paid a lot of deposit, your investigation should be more detailed." Clayton took his memo and reviewed it directly.

Ian was shocked: "Sorry, I recorded it as the total cost."