135

Taking his family's carriage all the way to the outskirts of Queens, Edward arrived at his destination on time just five minutes after eight o'clock.

This is the mansion purchased by Mr. Miller Carter, a new businessman in Backlund, but it is not the place where he lives. Although he has settled in Backlund, his new house is being repaired and is now in order to stay in Backlund.

A dinner party held in front of the middle and upper class. I invited my familiar friends and asked my friends to introduce new people to expand my network. When the new home is renovated, there will be an even grander banquet.

After confirming His invitation, the manservant in the red vest took the gift from the coachman's hand and led Him through the front courtyard with a garden and pool to the main entrance of the house.

The coachman, who kept his head down, drove the carriage to a hidden part of the street. The smoke filled the air, and he and the carriage disappeared together.

Edward Vaughn put the small glass bottle that appeared in his hand into his sleeve. He rubbed the head of his gold-encrusted cane while admiring the garden of the mansion while walking slowly beside the valet. He had just walked in

When he entered the door, he saw a gentleman wearing a formal dress, with slightly white temples, deep nasolabial folds but a pair of sharp blue eyes, taking the initiative to greet him.

This must be the initiator of tonight's banquet, Mr. Miller Carter. Edward took the East Chester County specialty wine he brought from the valet, handed it to this gentleman, smiled and saluted with a chest press:

"Sorry, I'm a little late."

The serious old gentleman Mr. Carter took the red wine and replied with a smile: "It doesn't matter, the party hasn't started yet."

"Your operas are all excellent. I have admired them for a long time. I never expected that I would invite you to the banquet."

"You're very flattering." Edward responded skillfully. In Loen, implicit compliments to the master are important social etiquette, and they are slightly different from Intis's relatively straightforward praise. "I am very happy to be able to communicate with someone from the east coast of the Sea.

You became my friend, and I yearn for the scenery there."

Hearing this, Mr. Miller Carter was obviously very happy. The two chatted about the customs and customs of Jianhai County. It seemed that both the host and the guest were enjoying themselves. Walking about ten meters along the corridor was the hall, where the banquet was about to begin. Mr. Carter and others

Someone wanted to greet someone, so he sent it to the place to say goodbye and leave. Edward glanced around the ballroom, took a glass of light brown pre-dinner champagne from the passing waiter's tray, and slowly drank it while leaning against the wall.

Soon, Mr. Carter returned to the hall and the banquet began, with the band playing the first dance. He was not in a hurry to find a dance partner, but slowly looked at the long dining table, trying to find a few foods on it that interested him.

At this moment, he felt some subtle breath coming from behind.

"Good evening, Mr. Vaughn, when did you come?"

The energetic young man who often talked to him at the Cragg Club—Edward's mind quickly ran through this string of adjectives and pointed to a specific noun—Talim.

Edward slowly turned around and felt the cold breath coming towards his face. He saw Talim with a smile on his face, and also saw the ferocious black cobra that wrapped Talim tightly around him and hissed and spit out the letter. The snake's tail penetrated

It took off his clothes and was embedded in his left chest, as if it came out of Talim's heart.

The demon and the giant snake looked at each other for half a second.

"I just came here not long ago." He replied, and asked a question very abruptly, "You seem to be having a lot of luck lately?"

Have you provoked the witch? He stopped looking at the cobra with its teeth and claws, and speculated with interest in his heart: This curse is not difficult to remove, but it is very interesting to delve into it. Talim is a young man with a good style.

As a descendant of a nobleman, he is quite popular among the middle and upper class. He has been working normally in the club recently, and there are no rumors that he is in love with a certain woman. But this curse has definitely appeared on him, and it can still take his life at any time.

, and the curse will not cause any damage to the body. He will suddenly collapse according to the intention of the caster, such as sudden death from a heart attack.

Why would a perfectly normal aristocratic young man be targeted like this by a witch? Edward glanced at the cobra again.

"Peach Blossom Luck? It seems to be a word invented by Emperor Russell?"

"Yes, it means good compatibility with the opposite sex." Edward took a sip of champagne slowly, looked at the black snake for another second, and then looked away, "How is your life lately, Mr. Talim?

?”

Talim was stunned for a moment, then became a little wary, as if he had thought of something and thought about when he had leaked the news. But he didn't see any clues from Edward's face, so he felt relieved slightly and laughed at himself.

: "I don't have romantic luck. I don't know how you figured it out. If it's like what you said, it would be nothing more than being accompanied by a few beautiful and considerate ladies... Alas, when it comes to beautiful ladies, I have really

I often meet this one, but I get a lot of headaches because of her."

"It seems that you have not enjoyed the beauty of love."

"Love? Stop talking nonsense!" Talim spoke hurriedly. The cobra wrapped around him lowered its head slightly, showing its fangs, as if it was looking for a place to bite. As long as its mouth opens, it can bite

Talim, who was not considered short, swallowed it whole, "That girl has nothing to do with me. She is in love with a friend of mine. On the contrary, I sincerely wish her a smooth relationship and that the two of them can live in harmony."

Edward shook the goblet in his hand very slightly, and the meaningful expression on his face made Talim feel guilty.

"Hey, I get it -" He figured out the connection and teased in a low voice, "It's the one you mentioned before. My suggestion is still to elope."

Talim's eyes suddenly widened.

"No, don't mention it!" He hurriedly leaned forward and lowered his voice, "I, I heard that you have been busy with the opera commission at the end of the year. Can you tell me about the current work progress? Yes, yes, I have

I want to talk to you about some interesting rumors. Yes, I talked to you about Mr. Miller Carter's mansion last time. At that time, I also wanted to introduce you to Sherlock Murray, the outstanding detective who helped him solve the housing incident.

Mr. Arty."

"The editorial department did not allow me to announce the progress. However, the script adaptation has been completed and the soundtrack is progressing steadily."

He tried his best to change the topic, and after talking for a while, he finally found a suitable topic, and the content and voice became normal. Edward had no intention of dancing the first dance, but standing there in a daze was too much.

He simply followed the other person's wishes and asked calmly: "I did establish some friendship with Mr. Moriarty, but I haven't heard him talk about it yet. Do you know the details?"

136

"...Mr. Moriarty is an experienced and excellent detective. He first inspected the basement of my house and found a large number of snakes gathered together. Then he brought his trained assistants to drive away the snakes.

As a result, the basement collapsed during the process, but fortunately nothing happened to them."

Klein left an excellent impression on Mr. Carter. When he came to talk to the guests, he found Talim and Edward talking about this and immediately joined in, hoping to add some connections to this outstanding detective.

Mentioning these things, he was still a little sad and thankful: "Fortunately, I chose him, otherwise other people might have suffered mishaps."

"It's really amazing." Talim praised, "I knew he must be a very powerful person, he has great skills!"

"There is actually a large basement under your house..."

Unlike Talim, Edward whispered to himself in a puzzled tone. Mr. Carter heard it, but showed no surprise. It was a playwright's surprise at something wonderful and mysterious.

So he nodded and added: "Yes, Baron Pound didn't tell me when I bought this house. It was an unexpected surprise."

"Mr. Carter, I would like to ask a question." Edward thought for several times about why there was a basement that he had no memory of on that street, but to no avail, he asked Mr. Carter, "That is to say, in Moriarty

After the detective discovered the snake, you didn't even go in to take a look until the snake was expelled. And it collapsed at the end, right?"

He originally wanted to say, "You didn't go in to take a look until it collapsed at the end?" But after thinking about it, he chose a more tactful, gentle, and non-suggestive rhetorical question.

After all, he has a good impression of Klein, so questioning him would be counterproductive.

"Yes." Miller Carter did not doubt him, and even agreed very much. "Mr. Moriarty reminded me immediately after he found a snake down there, and I stopped sending servants to clean it up, which reduced the possibility of their casualties.

Sex. I later inspected the basement, and there was no doubt that it was in disrepair and had indeed collapsed to a terrible state. Mr. Moriarty’s appearance at that time was definitely not fake, he had truly experienced a disaster.”

"That's it." A smile appeared on Edward's lips, and he turned around and forgot about this answer that had no reference value.

Talim was still exchanging more details about Mr. Moriarty with Miller Carter enthusiastically. Edward glanced up sideways. The dark cobra was immediately irritated by the disdainful look and opened it wide enough to swallow it.

The big mouth swallowed Talim's head whole. The demon bared its teeth slightly, leaking out a half-crazy and filthy aura. The arrogant cobra was suddenly frightened and retracted into Talim's heart.

Talim's expression suddenly froze, and the champagne slipped from his hand, rolled over the corner of Edward's clothes closest to him, and fell to pieces on the ground. He clutched his heart with his hand in pain, unable to straighten up for several seconds.

The instigator stared indifferently at his back bent in pain.

The sound of shattering glass caught everyone's attention, and Mr. Carter was startled, but just five seconds later, Talim stood upright again tremblingly. His face turned slightly pale, and he managed a smile: "I'm sorry.

, Mr. Carter, I suddenly felt unwell just now, but I’m feeling better now. Haha, maybe I really should take a good rest recently.”

Seeing that he was fine, the old gentleman breathed a sigh of relief and asked his servant to clean up the broken glass on the floor.

Later, Edward made a timely request to go to the dressing room to change clothes, and Mr. Carter called a servant and asked him to take Edward to the rest area, take off the dirty coat and send it to be cleaned. Entering the single room

After the room, he picked out a bottle labeled "Secret Order - Secret Puppet Master - Entity" from his collection cabinet and threw it to the ground.

The glass bottle turned into a burst of white smoke as soon as it hit the ground, and a middle-aged man in ragged clothes who was kneeling on the ground suddenly appeared in the single room. He trembled for a moment, lowered his head and stood up, his flesh and blood squirming, and in the blink of an eye

He turned into another Edward Vaughn who was exactly the same.

"You know what to do."

"...Yes, Master."

The devil ignored him, grabbed another bottle of "Abraham-Traveler-Soul", opened a door directly, and disappeared into the room.

137

No. 8 Williams Street is the mansion Miller Carter bought.

Through the door, Edward arrived here in an instant. The owner of the house went to hold a banquet. There were only a few servants guarding the undecorated house, and the messy garden was piled with building materials. He walked into the garden as if there was no one around and pushed open the door.

He walked through the door and walked silently past the manservant who was napping on a chair. Finally, he saw a handrail that had just been put up in the corner of the first floor. The paint had not yet dried.

Edward stood at the entrance to the underground and looked down. He clearly saw a not-too-narrow area inside, but within the scope of his spiritual intuition, this underground space did not exist.

Covered?

Can the spirituality of an angel be blocked? Can it be discovered only by physical means?

The seal of the true God?

What is below? Even if it is a sealed artifact with strong side effects, the Church cannot place it where mortals are likely to encounter it.

With such questions in mind, Edward quietly walked down the stairs step by step. Without the need for lights and candles, he saw that the basement had been initially renovated, with a few gas lamps installed. The place where he stayed was considered clean, but there was still a few meters away.

There is some gravel and sand that has not been cleaned up.

He walked along the gravel. Behind the gravel was a newly built wall.
To be continued...