Blood tax

Chapter 404 The Bizarre Adventure of Griffith ([-])

The curfew time at night is coming soon, and the streets are full of people hurrying.Starting tomorrow, there will be a series of important meetings in Bremi Town, and the curfew at night makes preparations even more hasty.

Griffith brought Ulan and Lavana to the restaurant downstairs, and ordered three set meals with steak, apples and bread.

"Four silver men and ten sous," the waiter in the restaurant quickly glanced at the medal on Griffith's collar, then at the two girls beside him, and lingered on Ulan for half a second, "Knight Would you like some wine, my lord? We have the best martinis and ladies' wines."

A set meal for one person costs 30 sous, so expensive!

Griffith, who has mainly eaten in the school cafeteria and Earl's Court canteen these years, was stunned when he heard the price.I think that when he returned from the front, he felt that a 20-sou lunch was unbearably expensive.

Probably the hotels in the city are like that.Griffith immediately rejected the idea of ​​some wine, just wanted to finish eating quickly and ask things clearly.

After talking with Roland, Griffith realized that something big was about to happen in Byerland.The limited social circle and near-existent intelligence network gave him a very unsteady sense of powerlessness, so he continued to grasp the situation as soon as possible.

Contacting Tina is based on this purpose.This former hostess is all-round and slick, and she is very popular in the market tavern in Byerland. Through her, Griffith can develop a group of grassroots intelligence personnel to serve him, so that he will not pay attention to the upcoming incident. A smear.

Unfortunately, Tina has other things to do, and Ulan and Lavana, who don't seem very reliable, come.Even if the two could get some clues from the low-level citizens, it was impossible for Griffith to organize and question them personally.

The friends Griffith knows are Galadia and her elves who don't touch the sun, riddlers like Roland, and Sonia and Fei who have been sold and may still help count the money seriously. A young lady like Oona who has been well protected since she was a child, or Lana and Ophelia who are out of the grassroots like herself...

It still needs someone like Tina to implement the specific tasks.

Griffith knocked on the table a little bored.He has asked people to look for Tina or Drizzt again, but there is no reply yet.

Ulan and Lavana sat across the table, not daring to take a breath.

Ulan's complexion was not very good.She has always had a bad impression of Griffith, and she was beaten again just now.However, when the aroma of barbecue wafted over, her stomach growled unsatisfactorily.

The same is true for Ravana.A lowly prostitute like her received very little money, just enough to make ends meet.

"Hurry up and eat," Griffith urged absently, "then tell me about your situation."

After the fighting in Manisa Village that night, Ulan was sent to the local Holy Grace Church for treatment and observation, and was allowed to go out for activities after half a month.By then the war was over, shipping was free, and everyone was happy at first because the food was better.Soon, the goods shipped from Bayeran gradually filled the port, and the low prices made it difficult for local workshops and weavers to survive.

"Although the farm needs manpower, the crops cannot be sold at a price, and the tax officials in the town charge real money for the land rent. When it comes to the autumn harvest, the farm will be very difficult."

Ulan talked while eating.Seeing that the knight had no obvious malice, she relaxed a little.She also knows that the family needs money, and she is one of the few sources of income.If the bad situation continues, she can only do those despicable things to make money.

Seeing the trainee knight back then, after the initial surprise and pain, she no longer even had the courage to face Griffith.The real Extraordinary is still an officer and a knight, who can crush a girl from the bottom like her to death with just one finger.If the other party made certain demands, Ulan would be unable to resist either physically or mentally.

Fortunately, he was so preoccupied that he didn't think about it at all.Moreover, he seems to just want to inquire about news, which I am good at...

The aroma of milk and barbecue tickled Ulan's taste buds, and the golden crispy bread and apple pie were so tempting.Ulan would never do it himself if he came to such an expensive place to eat.

Griffith listened to the ex-adventurer lady with food stuffed in her mouth babbling about trivial matters, and looked at Lavana, who was buried in her meal and glanced at herself and Ulan with strange eyes from time to time, and said:

"In the next period of time, you will give Tina the information you have heard about the cult members and official movements, and I will arrange for her to collect your reports. As a reward, I will give you 12 silver langs every month. After the important information is verified, I will pay extra rewards."

Both Ulan and Lavana's eyes lit up.This is a considerable amount of remuneration, and it does not take up working time, and it is an easy extra income.

Griffith took out some money and handed it to them, and then said: "Secondly, you have to choose the smartest children in the neighborhood, the street beggars, and report the information they collect to me. Choose their first One criterion is whether they can sneak into the barracks, the town hall and the Church of Grace."

The two girls nodded immediately.

At least one of these two and Tina is an eyeliner of the Bureau of Investigation, or maybe all three, it doesn't matter.Once I have initially established an intelligence network of low-level citizens, I can cross-check their intelligence and identity.

The most urgent thing right now is that someone can collect the movements of the royal family, the council, and the Holy See of the Gods for me while I am away from Bayeran. Someone must do this for me.

After Griffith gave the order, Ulan immediately went on to say: "Recently, many rich people from the local and other provinces have come here. I heard that the king and the Senate summoned them to a meeting to discuss tax increases..."

At this moment, Lavana raised her hand tentatively.

"Master Knight."

"You said."

"If you want to find Sister Tina, I may know her whereabouts," Lahuana was obviously smarter than Ulan, cautiously, and said in the most euphemistic way she knew, "Tonight, there are some people from other provinces. The businessman is holding a party, and he needs to find some people to help him all night, and all the people he invites are the most beautiful girls, Sister Tina, um, average, probably, that..."

"Tell me the address?" Griffith asked hastily.

He will accompany Sonia to attend the official meeting tomorrow, and he may encounter battles at any time at night. In the limited time, he must entrust the work to Tina and let her organize the personnel in the next time.

"Mr. Havel's mansion is three streets away. He is a businessman from the provinces, a wealthy gentleman," said Lavana, "but the curfew is about to come. When you get there..."

"Let me worry about these things." Griffith stood up and walked outside, "Go home early. If you are in danger, you should call the military police and the city defense army."

……

For several days, the north wind has frozen the ground hard.At dusk, piles of black clouds flew over from the north with snowflakes, and they did not stop until it was dark.

Wrapped in a cloak, Griffith made his way through the already empty streets.Occasionally, curfew gendarmes and city defense troops noticed him, but when they saw the woolen uniforms of the Guards officers, they stopped and stopped trying to move from the temporary street post to the cold street.

From time to time, in the street shrouded in cold night, two wild cats howled sadly, children cried and adults cursed, or patients coughed hurriedly.

Suddenly, the world seemed to be at peace.

Griffith noticed that nearby lights had also disappeared, leaving only a seemingly endless street under the drifting snowflakes.

"It feels really quiet, there is no one on the street, and I can't see the lights of Mr. Havel's mansion.

"I should have been there."

Griffith muttered to himself.The black snow flakes became denser all of a sudden, the light got worse, and the surrounding scenery seemed oppressive as if they had entered a dark pipe.

Finally, he came to the end of the street.There is a two-story mansion standing here. The cold gate looks like a monster's big mouth. On the left and right sides are grotesque roofs, funny sloping walls and jagged dead trees.

The sign on the door reads——

"233B Baker Street."

Maybe it's the night and the light, but Griffith finds it all weird.But, feeling no dangerous hostility, he suspected that he had lost his way and taken the wrong direction.

So, he turned around and walked back along the way he came, to see if he had strayed somewhere.

A quarter of an hour later, Griffith returned here again.The dark gate, the branches covered with icicles, and the inexplicably high fence looked down on him from all directions.

No. 233B Baker Street, a series of numbers and letters connected together, like an elongated smiling face dangling in front of him.

The continuous snow-flakes fell straight down to the ground like a curtain, and at the same time shone dimly; In the silence, one could only hear the erratic, vague and indescribable friction sound of falling snowflakes.Let's talk about sound, it's better to say it's feeling, it's better to say it's the interlacing movement of fine dust, which seems to fill the air and cover the earth.

Sweat broke out on Griffith's forehead.He was pretty sure there was no fork in the road, but he got lost.At such times, the only explanation is that he was attacked.

He reached out to touch the mithril pendant that Galadia had given him.He just told people that in case of danger, he should call the military police and the city defense army.But brave soldiers can't deal with the unspeakable weirdness, so they can only ask for help from Miss Elf, who is favored by Silver Moon and Starlight Goddess, without any hesitation.

Oddly enough, the mithril pendant, which has always been working, didn't respond at all.

This is not normal!
Griffith gritted his teeth, pressed his left hand on the hilt of Hanguang's sword, pulled out the sentence with his right hand, opened the hammer, and pushed the door in front of him once.

"Squeak-"

The door opened inward with a toothache sound as if it hadn't been opened for a century.At this moment, Griffith suddenly felt a gust of wind blowing from behind, howling and pushing him into the house.

"boom!"

The door closed behind him suddenly, and all noises stopped.Griffith jumped up and hurriedly turned around to slap and kick the door, only to find that the walls and the door were like water, causing waves of ripples, but they could not be grasped or touched.

At the same time, a flame lit up behind him, and he could vaguely hear someone whispering.Griffith took a breath, bent his elbow and held the flintlock gun, and walked towards the reception room step by step.

Beside the warm fire, there is a majestic main seat.Opposite the seat, there are three long sofas, which surround the main seat in an arc like a meeting.Several well-dressed couples sat and talked quietly, and some others walked around restlessly, looking at each other curiously.

They all looked up when they saw the cavalry officer coming down the corridor.A cloudy glimmer of light shone from the skylight on the wall, just falling on the main seat, making it even more dazzling.

"He has come at last," said a gentleman, "My lord Earl of Hill, Mr. Labienus the Wizard, Mr. Ram of the Cotton Company, and Mr. Beble, the Honorable Shareholder of the Shipping Company. Ladies and gentlemen, if My eyes are right in this dim light, and the cavalry officer we have been waiting for has arrived, and at last we can begin."

This remark caused a small commotion.Griffith noticed that everyone present seemed to have slightly relieved smiles on their faces.

They watched him from every direction.The gentleman who just spoke respectfully instructed the majestic chief seat in the middle of the reception room:
"Mr. Officer, please sit down, we have been waiting for you for a long time."

(End of this chapter)