Witch, Fireball and Steam Evil God

Chapter 480 Chicken Soup for the Soul
This place is not peaceful.

After settling in at a hotel in the downtown area, Ethan went out carrying a bag of fruit.

These days, no cigarettes hindered his performance. Although he didn't smoke, in the past, he would seize the opportunity to find a few security guards resting by the streetlights, offer them a few cigarettes, and strike up a conversation to get a lot of information about Oasis City.

However, all Ethan could do now was stuff a few apples into these people's hands.

The security team took the bright red apple, stared at Ethan who had suddenly approached them for a long time, and then reflexively took a bite.

Quite sweet.

Logically, in such a harsh environment, they shouldn't have accepted food from a strange young man, and they should have been extremely wary of this person who suddenly approached them. However, Ethan looked kind and had come from a hotel, so he seemed like an honest and law-abiding tourist from out of town who probably hadn't done anything wrong.

"Brother, the hotel owner just said the road to the upper district is blocked. Could you tell me why?"

This "brother" touched the hearts of the security team members and made them even more certain of their judgment of Ethan.

This must be an honest and upright young man; he probably wouldn't even lie.

However, there were some things they still needed to clarify openly. This was the duty of the security team, and it was also a task that those who paid them had recently emphasized repeatedly. "Why are you asking about things in the upper district?"

"Here's the thing, my wife is a theater enthusiast, and her lifelong dream is to see a performance at the Eternal Theater. I saved up for three years to finally afford the trip to Oasis City, but then I heard that the Upper City was locked down."

The security team member, who was munching on an apple, sighed and shook his head regretfully. "You came at the wrong time. If it had been three or five days earlier, you might have been able to catch a show."

The ban was issued three days ago.

A single order from the nobles of the upper districts is enough to keep these people busy in the lower city for weeks.

Although it was no secret in the past that nobles looked down on the commoners in the lower city, it was far from being an open secret. In fact, in many official speeches, they had to stand on a high platform facing the lower city and say nice things like "we care about everyone".

"However, this may not be a bad thing for you."

Another member of the security team said, "Oasis City has been quite unsettled lately, with a lot of strange things happening. Take my advice, brother, stay at the hotel tonight and then go back."

I've been waiting for you to say this!
Ethan handed over another pear. "Is something wrong?"

"Herriott, ever heard of him?"

Logically, they shouldn't have revealed these internal details of the security team to Ethan. After all, neither the nobles nor the Vatican had issued any official announcements yet. If anyone else had asked them these questions, they would have been scolded and subjected to a rigorous interrogation.

But Ethan is different.

The young man was very considerate and brought them a fruit basket; he had no ill intentions.

Ethan shook his head cooperatively, his eyes revealing intense curiosity, which brought a strong emotional response to the security guard who had spoken.

"You don't know, do you?" The security guard's voice became a bit more enthusiastic. "It's normal that you don't know since you're from out of town. Heriot is the treasurer of Oasis City, but his other identity is the major financier of the Eternal Theater. He's in charge of all the theater's repairs, maintenance, and renovations. I've heard that if nobles who are on good terms with Heriot take a fancy to any actor at the theater, they have to dress up nicely and report to the nobleman's manor that very night."

"Tsk, sometimes I really envy those bastards."

The others chimed in, their gleaming boots rubbing against the ground as if they were scrubbing off something unclean.

"Heriot died in the theater, nailed to a stake. I heard the scene was horrific, with blood everywhere. Our chief and the most famous detective in Oasis City rushed there."

The security team members were relieved that their positions were not high enough to handle cases of this caliber.

Heriot is well-connected with both the nobility and the Papacy, and those in real power will certainly investigate this matter thoroughly. On the other hand, even the people of Oasis City can see that Heriot has been bribing and accepting bribes and embezzling public funds. The money for renovating the Eternal Theater was their tax money, yet it was squandered by this despicable parasite.

In the years that followed, Heriot spent a fortune renovating the grand theater several times, but he didn’t even glance at the people in the lower town who were struggling to make ends meet.

During this period, many people reported the situation to the city hall and the Vatican, but Heriot's connections in Oasis City were so deep that he was not punished. On the contrary, those who reported Heriot were taken away by the sheriff and never returned.

This is where the problem lies.

As for motives, if you knock on any door in the lower city, everyone inside would hope that Heriot was nailed to a stake, making it like searching for a needle in a haystack to narrow down the possibilities of the murderer.

"Thanks, you guys are really kind."

Ethan once again offered emotional support to these security team members who were willing to share information, saying, "May the goddess protect you, and may you solve the case soon."

"correct."

As the conversation came to an end, the security guard suddenly called out to Ethan, "There have been quite a few missing persons cases in the lower city recently, and it's not safe here. I advise you not to wander around the lower city after nightfall, and it's best to stay in the hotel and not go out."

"clear."

A moment later, on the second floor of the hotel.

"Have you heard about it?"

Ethan was treated like a hero as soon as he entered. While he was talking to the security team, Mary and the others watched from the second-floor window, trying to learn how he managed to win over the security team with just a fruit basket.

The scene was completely unexpected, because it really looked like an ordinary conversation. Ethan and the security guards were chatting and laughing, just like old friends.

This greatly impacted the worldviews of the three.

Even Mary thought the basket of fruit was just a ruse, and that Moriko was planning to strike suddenly when the group was off guard while eating the fruit, using spells like Holy Word to control their minds and force them to reveal the truth. But Bazatos and Xiao An had a wilder idea: they thought Ethan would conjure a chainsaw sword out of thin air and threaten them in a bloodthirsty tone, "If you don't tell the truth, I'll saw you all into pieces."

Only the seasoned winter, accustomed to storms, took it all in stride and even hummed a little tune with amusement.

Yes, she is a stage play enthusiast.

"You guys..."

The three men's shocked expressions made Ethan's vision go black. "Have you never had a proper interaction with anyone before?"

Is it really necessary to pull out a chainsaw sword just to find out about city developments?

If someone who didn't know better saw this, they might think they were about to launch a major expedition.

The three of them looked at each other.

"You mean delivering fruit? I've never done that before..."

Ethan really hit the nail on the head.

Of the three, Mary is the closest to a "human way of getting along." However, as a former saint of the Church, she would never go downstairs late at night with a fruit basket to chat with a few security guards. If she wanted to know any inside information, it should be their chief who came to her in person and reported his work to her with trepidation.

As for Xiao An's "swallowing people into a black hole, merging with the darkness, and then directly extracting information" or Bazartos's transformation of the human body into a "meat pot that can only speak the truth," these are restricted-level interactions that absolutely cannot be broadcast.

“Alright.” Ethan decided to stop discussing the topic of “how to deal with ordinary humans” with his three otherworldly friends and instead said, “So many security teams and Vatican law enforcement teams have come to the lower city because of the frequent disappearances. At first, it was tourists from out of town, but after most of them disappeared, or after they hid in hotels at night and didn’t go out, even the locals started to disappear.”

About 30 people have gone missing in three days. This is only the number that has been reported. Those from other places who have disappeared and whose whereabouts are unknown are not included in this count.

It's no wonder that the officials in the Upper Town blocked the passage to the Lower Town and ordered that no one from the Lower Town should cross the blockade line until the missing persons case was solved.

"Oh, and there's Heriot, the treasurer of Oasis City. I heard he's a notorious corrupt official that everyone wants to get rid of."

"Heriot? What happened to him?"

"It is said that he was nailed to a stake in the Eternal Theater, a death method with a very religious style of execution."

"Did Bazalian make this too?"

Mary was increasingly confused. She knew that Bazarian might have already collected all the remains of the Goddess of Life through Carlo, and her power level might have surpassed that of the Goddess of Life in the past. If she showed any malice to this world, it would be a natural disaster that would sweep across the entire country and even human civilization. But... there were several missing persons cases, and a corrupt official was nailed to the ground in the Eternal Theater.

At least in Heriot's case, Bazalian appears to have done a good thing. Even without Bazalian, once they arrived in the city and learned of Heriot's actions, Mary would have tried him according to the law.

During the Third Age, she executed villains who took advantage of the plague to do whatever they wanted in many cities she passed through.

But the problem is...

"What does she want to do?"

Mary asked.

This was by no means the pure evil she understood, nor could it even be considered venting her anger. After all, a nobody like Heriot was not enough to anger Bazarian. Even if they were the true rulers of Oasis City, Bazarian could crush them as easily as crushing an ant.

For Mary, an unpredictable deity was far more difficult to deal with than a natural disaster.

“We can start with the missing persons cases in the downtown area.”

Ethan made the suggestion.

"Missing Persons Case?"

"Heriot's cause of death is relatively clear, but the same theory does not work in missing persons cases."

Ethan also fell into deep thought.

The sheriffs specifically mentioned that Heriot was notorious in Oasis City, and that the people of the Lower City had every reason to pray to the newly appointed goddess to curse this villain.

But what about those who are missing?

Many of them were outsiders who had just arrived in Oasis City and were only temporarily residing in the Lower City. According to his theory, they had no reason to be killed by Prayer.

Furthermore, their disappearances are fundamentally different from Heriot's death. When Heriot's body was discovered, it was nailed to the very center of the stage of the Eternal Theatre, a style imbued with religious execution, signifying that the supplicants wished for the discovery of his body, as if to expose Heriot's crimes to the world.

But the missing persons in the lower city were different; their bodies were never found.

If they, like Heriot, were to die because of their "wishes," it implies that the supplicants do not want them to be discovered, because even they themselves know that such actions cannot be interpreted as just. Ethan fell into deep thought until he was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Thump thump thump, thump thump thump—!"

"Please come in."

Almost the instant the door was opened, the aroma of chicken soup filled the room.

The woman who entered the room was the same kind-looking old lady with wrinkled face whom I had met in the hotel lobby. She was carrying a large pot of chicken soup and walked into the room with a big smile, placing the freshly made chicken soup on the table.

"Quick, everyone, drink it while it's hot!"

"But we didn't order chicken soup."

Mary's thoughts were interrupted by the uninvited old woman, and she asked in confusion.

"I saw that you had traveled a long and tiring journey, so I specially brewed this for you. Come on, drink it."

Despite the old woman's smiling face, she kept urging him on.

"Then thank you very much, Grandma."

Ethan gave Mary a wink, and Mary, seeing this, thanked him in return.

For travelers from afar, a warm greeting and a bowl of steaming chicken soup are enough to make them feel at home. If this scene were to happen in a hotel in the capital, Ethan would definitely think that the hotel owner is a thoughtful person.

But this is Oasis City.

Not long ago, the security team members mentioned the situation in the lower district—the common people there were so poor that they couldn't even afford to eat, so how could anyone be so generous as to cook a big pot of chicken soup for them?
The old woman showed no sign of leaving. She simply stepped back to the doorway and looked at the people inside with eager eyes. Seeing that Ethan and the others were not going to serve the chicken soup, she urged them again, "Drink it! Why aren't you drinking it? Chicken soup is best drunk while it's hot."

"Mother-in-law, we are talking about business. We'll drink after we're done."

"Let's talk while we drink. This is something I've worked hard to make."

"No rush..."

"You were just talking to the security team, weren't you? What did you say to them?"

The old woman's eyes narrowed to slits; although she was still smiling, she gave off a sinister feeling.

"It's nothing, just some small talk."

“I heard you talking about the missing persons cases in the lower city. Lying is not a good thing.”

"It was just a friendly reminder."

"You suspect I poisoned the soup."

The old woman's smile gradually faded. "Don't worry, I won't waste the ingredients. Those people are just like you. I prepared these for them before they 'left'."

As she spoke, several expressionless residents from the lower city walked behind her and blocked the doorway.

Their mouths cannot be completely closed, and through their slightly open lips, one can vaguely see rows of sharp teeth that do not resemble those of humans.

The old woman urged them on again, this time with a stronger tone.

"Drink up, so you can get on your way."

(End of this chapter)