Lord Hunter needs a commission

"...We think we're in trouble." Charlotte bluntly put the cover back on the wooden box, and then picked up the whole box.

"Sorry, Charlotte, I don't know..." Edmund whispered a little lonely, "You still, no, I will finish all the formalities when I go back later, and you will return to Livia tonight."

"Things are not that bad. Besides, even if there is, what charges are you going to use to convict me?" Holding the box, Charlotte and Edmond left the warehouse together, and looked outside the factory under Fernan's stern gaze. go. "Let the federal government arrest me? Just kidding, if this kind of thing really happens, I can guarantee that there will be big troubles."

The world is not as peaceful as imagined, and a semi-official hunter like Charlotte is the product of a compromise between the federal government and some other forces.

After all, as an official, the military power of the Federation has not reached the level of controlling everything and controlling everything.

Although strictly speaking, there is not much difference between hunters and mercenaries, but they can be regarded as half of the federal government's official default government agency personnel, but they are relatively independent.

"Besides, I'm still from 'outside'." Charlotte said, "it's equivalent to going out on business... No matter how bad my 'colleagues' here are, it has nothing to do with me. Think about it, if I What would happen if something happened here?"

"...It's true of what you say." After thinking for a while, Edmund nodded in agreement, his expression calmed down a little.

While talking, the two of them had already walked out of the factory, and saw the returning carriage just stopped at a fork in the road not far away.

Chapter 26 Cannibalism

After Charlotte and Edmond boarded the returning carriage together, and then returned all the way to the Manor of the Earl of Monte Cristo in the upper part of the city, the time had come to 01:30 in the afternoon.

It can be said that from going out of the city to the abandoned factory last night to solving the problem and returning, it took more than ten hours of hard work.

For more than ten hours, not only did Charlotte and Edmund not have any rest time, they even missed today's breakfast and lunch.Although this has nothing to do with Charlotte, who has an inhuman physique, even if he does not eat, drink, or sleep for three days and three nights, he will be fine, but for Edmund, who is already middle-aged, this period of time is very serious. It was too much for him.

Stubborn, he could have returned to the city last night, but an inexplicable outburst of responsibility made him blow a cold wind in the wild suburbs all night.After dawn, he insisted on staying, followed Charlotte to see the accumulation behind the warehouse, and vomited for a while, which made things worse.

It's hard to imagine a middle-aged man relying on willpower to survive the above experience. Even Edmond himself has not received any training, nor does he have any special blood, let alone an awakened warlock.

But he persisted, and only after getting into the carriage, he inevitably fell into a deep sleep during the bumpy return journey, and he finally woke up after arriving at the manor, with obvious fatigue still on his face.

"I'm fine." Stepping out of the carriage, Edmund angrily pushed away Miss Heidi who wanted to help him. "Heidi, I'm not old yet. I was a man who fought hard at sea more than ten years ago, from a sailor to a captain." Under Edmond's eyes with dark circles, he looked worried. Heidi was extremely embarrassed.

It seemed that she really wanted to help Edmund go back to the room to rest, but it seemed that because of Edmund's face as the owner of the manor, especially because Charlotte was here as a guest, the assistant lady didn't know what was going on. First of all, we should worry about Edmond's physical condition as the master, or take care of Edmond's face.

Fortunately, Charlotte helped her make a choice the next moment.

Charlotte has also figured out Edmund's own personality. He has a very strong sense of responsibility in certain things, but this sense of responsibility will bring about stubbornness regardless of himself, which makes people headache.

If he opened his mouth to persuade him, then he, who had not rested for the same long time, would definitely make Edmond's sense of responsibility explode and insist on not resting, and continue to follow him to pay attention to the problem of the test tube medicine in the box he brought back.

So Charlotte stretched out her hand and knocked directly on Edmund's stamina. The slight force sank into his body, knocking him unconscious all of a sudden.

"If I don't do this, I guess he will continue to be stubborn." Looking at the astonished eyes of Heidi and the coachman, Charlotte shrugged, supported Edmund who had fallen asleep and said, "It's not me. It won’t be long before you go down and get sick, and the air quality in this city is not good.”

"Um... I'm sorry, Mr. Charlotte." Heidi's expression eased, and she bowed gratefully to Charlotte. "Then, please take Mr. Edmund back to his room."

"fine."

……

Edmund didn't weigh much. The weight of a normal middle-aged human seemed quite light to Charlotte. To a non-human like him who could overturn a steam car with his outstretched hands, dozens of kilograms didn't matter at all.After putting the sleeping Edmund back to his room on the second floor of the manor, Charlotte returned to the temporary room alone.

Of course, now that he has returned to the city, there is no need to wrong himself.

After asking Miss Heidi to prepare a late lunch for herself, Charlotte put the box brought back from the factory on the coffee table in the room and lifted the lid.

A little more work to do before enjoying a late lunch.

Charlotte has always failed in the branch of alchemy and potion, so with his pitiful knowledge reserve, he can't recognize the function of the bright red liquid in these test tubes.

In fact, he was unqualified in all branches of alchemy, and Vesemir, who taught him, had to admit that he was simply an ideal cat pie.

So, you need to take a little risk.

And the risk was very simple, Charlotte reached in directly, picked up a test tube at will, put it in front of her eyes, looked at it, and then pulled out the cork with her hands.

"...This is, resentment?" After the cork was pulled away, the bright red liquid exposed to the air reflected some strange things in the pale golden pupils shining with a little bit of light.

In the bottle, or in the liquid, there is a vaguely visible face, which seems to be wailing and complaining silently, as if a ghost is contained in it.

But this human face reflected in the real field of vision is not a ghost, but just resentment, the dregs formed by the gathering of negative emotions such as unwillingness, fear, despair, and hatred before human death.

These grievances can't even directly affect the reality, not to mention the little bit in this test tube, even the grievances of tens of thousands of people can't directly affect the reality, on the contrary, they will only give birth to a batch of troublesome undead.

"However, why is there resentment?" The liquid in this test tube contains substances that are beneficial to life, like pure life force gathered together, I am afraid that most healing potions cannot compare with it, more like the legendary The water of life in the sunwell created by the golden elves.

With the life force contained in the liquid in this test tube, even a dying person can be hanged for an hour if he drinks it in one gulp, and it is not a bad idea to drink more and even bring the dead back to life.

However, according to the knowledge I have learned, the mystical thing like vitality is more inclined to positive energy and natural energy, and mutually exclusive with negative energy. Not great.

Negative energy erodes vitality, and a large amount of vitality can dispel negative energy.

But I have never heard of a situation where negative energy can coexist with vitality.

Recalling what she found in the warehouse of the factory, Charlotte frowned. "That magic circle, and a pile of dry corpses... Is this the use of living people to extract the condensed product of life force?" After muttering, Charlotte found that the liquid exposed to the air had obvious volatilization. "For some sort of material? No, no—"

The pale golden pupils suddenly constricted, as if thinking of something bad, the palm holding the test tube squeezed hard.

Kacha~

The entire test tube is crushed directly by pinching.

The broken glass, the splashing bright red liquid, and the resentment dissipated in the air all made Charlotte's face extremely gloomy.

"—Not to use it, but to take it directly as a potion!?"

"Even if there is resentment, but taking a large amount, the vitality is enough to dispel and suppress the residue of these negative emotions, and even have the effect of delaying aging... Is this murder? No, this is simply massacre."

"This is, cannibalism!"

Chapter 27 The People Behind the Scenes

What happened in the abandoned factory on the outskirts of Novigrad did not cause any ripples in the city, and the newspapers in the city did not report related matters at all.After all, dead people are nothing more than dead people. On a certain day, no one dies in this city. Can it even be said that people die every moment due to various reasons?

Either died of illness, or murdered, or starved to death, or died of cold, drowned, etc., so death is not surprising at all in this city where bones are piled up.Not to mention, after the incident in the abandoned factory in the suburbs, some people immediately learned the general situation from the police station.

Indifference, hostility, sarcasm, disdain, anger... These high-ranking people who must have power in their hands and are rich and wealthy have learned one thing through their subordinates-their supply of goods is gone.

Time can erase everything, and time can bury all things. When a strong country also declines, when a wonderful life also ends.

Everyone has come from the time of youth, all the way ups and downs for decades, have worked hard, struggled, struggled, enjoyed... But no matter what, everything they own cannot be brought to the world after death.

Those who deserve to die must die. No one in this world lives forever.

It's a pity that among those in power, there will always be one or two people who are full of fear and anger about the imminent death.

In their eyes, what kind of opponent has they never faced?What kind of setbacks have you not experienced?What kind of difficulties have not been overcome?But I never thought that in the end, I would fall in front of death.

No one would be willing to die, nor would they be willing to give up everything they have, and then lie alone under a piece of soil, rotting away with time.

So, after the news that the factory in the suburbs had been cleared out by young hunters from outside came back, not long after, in a hidden room of a guild hall in the city, several dark shadows gathered together.

They are like calendar ghosts who are looking for their lives, gathered around a wooden table, and the shadows behind them are drawn by the light of the candles on the table.

Even they themselves were covered in black woolen robes, and it was impossible to tell whether they were men or women.

Although in fact, everyone is familiar with each other and is clear about their identities on the surface, but here, they tacitly do not expose each other.

"People are dead, and our supply is cut off." At this time, one of them broke the silence first with a hoarse voice. "Single-handedly killed by a foreign hunter..."

"Hmph, a piece of trash, he still doesn't want to let our troops in, as if we are afraid we will snatch it from him." Another man in black responded with a sneer, but his tone was full of undisguised anger. "It's all right now, everything is over, and it's okay to die, but what should we do next?"

"That's right, if the supply of goods is cut off, you and I who are supposed to be in the coffin, one by one, will go to the place where they should go. I don't know if you have made a will or not."

"Hey hey, will? It's ridiculous, I don't want to end up like this." With a bang, the person who spoke stretched out a skinny palm full of age spots and slapped it heavily on the wooden table. "I can't enjoy things that I can't enjoy. No one can take away everything that I have worked hard for, even my children and grandchildren."

"..."

……

"Okay, everyone, be quiet." The man in black who spoke first clapped his hands, suppressing the constant noise of the dispute. "It's not a life-and-death situation yet. In fact, although our supplier has been careless and stupidly went to hell, he still has a batch of existing goods that he hasn't had time to sell." He paused for a while, He glanced at the few people present, and finally settled on a man in black who had not spoken. "Is that so, Mr. Thomson?"

"...Yes, honorable adults." The person whose name was mentioned here stood up calmly. "As far as I know, that stupid and useless Police Chief Fernan once tried to take a certain wooden box away from the scene of the crime, but was stopped by the young hunter from Livia, Even this idiot police chief took the initiative to expose something and almost sparked a conflict."

"Hmph, damn idiot."

"Yes, that's right, Fernand, an idiot, needs to pay for this."

"And that foreign hunter, and that shameless fellow of Dantès."

"..."

In an instant, the people in black cursed angrily.

"Quiet, quiet." A hoarse voice sounded, and the first man in black to speak used his ugly voice to suppress the anger of the people around him again. "Listen to what Mr. Thomson said first..."

"Everyone." The person named Thomson continued to say in a calm manner, "Although I don't know how much goods are in that wooden box, according to the past, it should be enough for everyone present. Two or three times . . . if we can get it from the Count of Monte Cristo."

"It's not difficult." The hoarse voice said, "I can get people to put pressure on Dantès... Although this guy claims a position that has nothing to do with him, I think that under the hands of the amateur interest and chamber of commerce He will make the right choice in front of hundreds or thousands of people."

"After all, in this city, a good person like him..." Another person added, "It's a miracle that he can still make a career alive."

"In other words, compared to unscrupulous competitors." Thomson said, "A good person who has a bottom line and will not kill, stab in the back, or take advantage of others' dangers is actually more acceptable, isn't it?"

"Hmph, it's just a tacit understanding to leave a way."

"That's right, but now, that good old man dares to get involved in this trip, so we don't need to show him mercy... Let him understand who is the master in this city!"

"As for the trash like Fernan, and that ignorant outsider... he did something wrong, but he will be punished."

"..."

……

After discussing and making a decision together, everyone chose to leave the table and quietly left here through different passages. Only Mr. Thomson remained, who hadn't moved.

After a long time, a sarcastic laugh came from Thomson's mouth.

"Hehehehahahaha, 'Who is in charge of this city!?' This is really... a funny joke!" Under the light of the candle, Thomson pulled off his black robe, revealing his golden body. Short hair, and a middle-aged face with a mustache.

"Danglars, Villefort, Caderousse, Alexandre . . . and our stupid prefect Fernand."

"Whether it's compassion or humanity, after all, human beings themselves are the real devils!"

Thomson stood up and walked towards his own coming and going passage. When he crossed the dark corridor, he stretched out his hand and yanked and pulled his face.

When the light from the exit shone on him, a wig and a fake beard were thrown away by him.It fell to the edge of the wall.

Chapter 28: Bait or Track

Things seemed to be very troublesome. Although she had been mentally prepared, Charlotte did not expect that she would stand on the opposite side of Novigrad in almost one night.

Just outside the Manor of the Count of Monte Cristo, watchers stood on the corner of the street, frequently looking in the direction of the manor. They even stood in the field of vision openly, without any intention of hiding.

But you can't say anything, since the person standing doesn't hinder you, even if you go to the police officer, it's useless. I'm afraid even the police officer is standing there.

And, it doesn't stop there.

At about three or four o'clock in the afternoon of the next day, Miss Heidi anxiously walked to Edmond who was complaining to Charlotte about why she had to knock herself unconscious to force him to sleep, and after whispering a few words in his ear, Charlotte Luo saw that Edmund's face turned livid in an instant, and hurried out of the manor without thinking about anything else, got into the carriage and rushed away.

It was not until eight or nine o'clock the next night that he returned to the manor with a gloomy face.Under Charlotte's repeated questioning, Edmund revealed what happened to him. The Chamber of Commerce under his command was maliciously suppressed. The Sanitation and Epidemic Prevention Agency and the Commercial Bureau of Novigrad City even forcibly seized the items of his Chamber of Commerce in private. , the reason is that the sanitation is not good enough and there are quality problems.

"Health and epidemic prevention agency? Except for the upper city, is there any sanitation in other places in this city?" Edmond suppressed his anger and said, "There is also the Commercial Bureau, quality problems... What a joke, the products sold by my chamber of commerce It was verified by the place of delivery, how come it was fine in the next city and was detained for quality problems just after entering the city...Damn it."

Not to mention, the employees of the Edmond Chamber of Commerce and some of the management personnel have all been intimidated by anonymous letters, and the office where the Chamber of Commerce is located has been harassed by a group of gangsters, making everything messed up .

"By the way, Charlotte." Edmund asked, "What exactly is in that box?"

After a moment of silence, Charlotte shook her head. "That's not something you should get involved in," Charlotte said. "That thing, it's not a good thing... I don't think you want to know."

"But now someone seems to be trying hard to target those ghost things." Edmond frowned. "Is there any value in the things in the box that don't hesitate to go to war?"

"...Yes, especially for some people." Charlotte Shen Ling said, "In the eyes of some people, this may be related to the extent of their wealth and life."

"This..." Edmond hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "No, if that's the case, then you must leave this city as soon as possible, you can't stay here anymore." He walked towards On the desk, he took out a document from a drawer. "Anyway, you have finished entrusting Charlotte, and I will upload it through the sender, so you can leave quickly by catching the train tomorrow morning."

"I think, I'm afraid it won't be so easy!" Charlotte sighed, but didn't refuse any more.

As expected, early the next morning, Edmund arranged to help Charlotte get a ticket to leave Novigrad, but was told by the ticket seller at the station that all the tickets had been sold out, and even the following All the tickets for the three days have been booked in advance.

That's not to mention, the carriage going out was also closed for various reasons, and police officers were stationed at every entrance and exit to closely monitor it.

All formal channels out of the city have been closed at this moment.

It can be said that apart from not officially breaking the face, someone seems to be very impatient.

Then, at noon the next day, officials from the police station visited and talked with Edmond in the living room, and Edmond angrily coaxed the police officer out.

"How dare they? Bastards, bastards, see undead miscellaneous repairs." Edmond, who was pacing in the room, glared at the police officer who left the manor through the window, with anger and loneliness on his face.

Seeing this, Charlotte took the initiative to ask Edmond, "Is anyone threatening?"