Mystery: Big Alarm Clock Ghroth Path

Chapter 174: Meet Amon Again (5456, thanks to Wutian for the reward)
"He will be responsible for collecting some clues."

Seeing Stark asking about Roger's plans, Klein spoke up in time to help Roger.

Although he didn't know Roger's purpose for coming to the editorial office of Tussock Humorous Stories, Klein knew that his roommate must have his own reasons.

After Klein, Sam, and Stark entered the reception room, Roger walked to the front desk and started chatting with a young man wearing glasses who was obviously overweight due to overwork.

Unlike high-brow art venues like the Royal Ensemble, Dwork Music, and Dwork Art Marketing, Tussock Humorous Stories was clearly a mass entertainment magazine.

Therefore, those who can come here are basically ordinary workers, and their daily budgets are not as abundant as those of large art organizations. Even the guy at the front desk seems to be a part-time worker who came here temporarily from the editorial department.

At this time, the guy at the front desk seemed to have just finished proofreading an issue of a magazine and was sitting there drinking tea bored.

Roger was flipping through the magazine samples on the display rack while getting close to the young man.

"Seeing is believing. This is Backlund's most famous comic magazine.

"How is it working here? Honestly, if I hadn't been in the detective industry, I'd really like to try my hand at becoming a cartoonist or editor."

Upon hearing this, the receptionist immediately extended his hands with his fingers pointing upwards in an exaggerated manner:
"Believe me, it was definitely a life of hard work."

As he spoke, he laughed out loud, as if he was mocking his status as a beast of burden.

I'm a bit of a tech geek, but I have a sense of humor and I'm not averse to talking to outsiders...

Roger quickly made a judgment about the other party in his mind, and then laughed:

"Really? I really like reading your comics, especially "Wind Spirit"... I read almost every issue.

"But recently, I've seen a lot of people around me following trends. They're saying things without knowing the story behind it. It's really scary."

Roger showed a helpless expression and acted like a real fan.

"Who says it isn't?"

The guy at the front desk grinned:

"Yesterday alone, I received over a dozen letters asking about the relationship between the Wind Elves and the Storm Lord... God, do they even understand what a fictional world is?"

Seeing his teasing look, Roger immediately wanted to draw a storm holy emblem to scare him, but he was kind enough to hold back.

"Meet Jones, Detective Moriarty's assistant."

"Jevier, as you can see, a little editor."

The two shook hands, and Roger asked something else:

"By the way, it seems no one has ever mentioned who the author of 'Wind Spirit' is. The author column in the comics always says 'Anonymous'."

He opened a copy of Tussock Humorous Stories, showed the inside pages to Jewell, and pointed his index finger at the author column.

Anonymous means anonymous. Many authors who do not want to disclose their names or do not have a pen name like to use this pseudonym to publish their works.

But such cases are relatively common in newspapers and journalism, and cartoonists generally do not do this.

Most of them are thinking about trying to draw a popular serial work, then make their names known, and thus create better sales for future works.

For example, the author of "Wind Elf" uses "Anonymous" as his pen name. It is very likely that he is a trial work published anonymously by other well-known authors, and plans to announce his identity after the work becomes famous, so as to reduce the cost of trial and error.

But what is strange is that although "The Wind Elf" has already been a great success, its author has not yet revealed his true identity, which is extremely strange.

It looked like he only intended to paint this one piece and had no intention of expanding his influence.

"To be honest, I don't know either."

Jewel shook his head:
“To be honest, no one in our entire editorial department probably knew about this… We only had the author’s mailing address and the account where he received his royalties every month, but we had never met him in person.

"So, Mr. Stark even suspected that the author of 'The Wind Spirit' was a young master or young lady from a noble family. He did this because he didn't want to reveal his true identity and attract criticism."

Roger nodded slightly. Although this conjecture was a bit ridiculous, it was indeed possible in a place like Backlund.

"Could you please provide me with the author's mailing address? I'd like to visit him sometime. It should help us clarify a lot of things."

Seeing that Jevil seemed a little conflicted, he began to persuade him:

"Before, those gangs were trying to trouble you because they wanted to stop the serialization of the 'Wind Spirit' comic and prevent others from imitating the superhero's behavior and hindering their actions... Another possible main reason was that they suspected you were using the topic of 'Wind Spirit' for marketing hype.

“But they don’t know which situation it is, so they just harass and intimidate you first.

"In this regard, quieting the situation is of no use and may even provide further evidence to those unhinged gang members that the editorial department of Tussock Humorous Tales is engaged in hype marketing.

"Therefore, only by restoring the truth of the matter can we truly ensure your safety. Otherwise, I can hardly guarantee what will happen next."

Hearing Roger say this, Jevil's expression changed again and again, and then he sighed helplessly:
"Well, Mr. Stark has instructed us to cooperate with Detective Moriarty's investigation."

Then he flipped through the files, found an address, wrote it down on a piece of paper, and handed it to Roger.

It was an address in St. George's. Roger took a quick look at it and put the note away.

He then continued chatting with Jevil for a while, and only ended the conversation after Klein, Sam, and Stark came out of the reception room and walked quickly forward.

"Thank you so much, Detective Moriarty."

Stark's condition was obviously much better than before, apparently because Klein helped him sort out a lot of things.

"do not mind."

Klein replied, "Please wait for us to confirm the remaining details. We expect results within a week at the earliest.

"Until then, you can make a statement based on what we just discussed and then observe the reaction of those who threaten you."

"Ok."

Stark nodded gratefully again, shook hands with Klein and the other three, and watched them leave the Tussock Humorous Stories editorial office.

"Jones, will you return to Minsk Street with us?"

Back on the street, Klein looked at Roger and asked.

"No, you guys go back first, I'm going to visit a friend."

Roger shook his head, hailed a cab, and left Hillston alone.

He followed the address Jewell gave him and went straight to St. Lawrence Street in St. George's District. Somehow, Roger had a familiar and strange feeling as soon as he got off the bus.

It was clearly noon, and St. George's was not a sparsely populated area, but the entire St. Lawrence Street was eerily quiet.

The address Jevil gave was a second-hand shop called "A Good Thing".

This familiar naming method made Roger's mouth twitch, and he pushed open the door with the "Open" sign hanging on it.

With the ring of a bell, Roger stepped into the store.

The lighting in this second-hand shop is not very good, so the gas lamps are still on even in broad daylight.

Behind the counter, a man was covering his face with a newspaper and seemed to be oblivious to the customers who came.

Roger looked around at the dazzling array of shelves filled with all kinds of second-hand goods, and spoke to the man behind the newspaper:

"Hello, sir, what interesting old artifacts are there?"

With a "rustle", the newspaper was put down, and a crystal monocle immediately reflected the gaslight and looked at Roger.

Looking at the young man in front of him who was wearing a black windbreaker, had black hair and eyes, a broad forehead, and a thin face, Roger immediately realized that he had guessed right.

In fact, when Roger first learned about the Wind Elf incident, he realized something extremely unusual and suspicious.

That is, many people are discussing a series of cases related to the Wind Elves, some are discussing crimes and various gangs, some are criticizing the incompetence of the Sivelas Field, and some even associate the Wind Elves with the Lord of Storms.

Not only the two detectives, Klein and Sam, the investigating police and official Beyonders, but even the gangsters sent blades and threats only to the Tussock Humor Story Editorial Department, but no one seemed to have ever asked or paid attention to who the author of this comic was.

After all, he is the creator of "The Wind Elf". Even if such a magical elf really exists, it must be related to this author.

But the fact is that it seems that in this world, no one except Roger cares about the true identity of "Anonymous".

Not to mention the legend of the so-called wind elf.

Although many people claim to have it so, no one has ever actually seen the so-called wind spirit except the deceased Tom Clyde.

But if we consider that the person whose house was invaded by the wind elf was unconsciously or even sleepwalking, and arranged the items in the room in a specific combination according to the comics he had read, and that Tom Clyde was also extremely uneasy about his brother's arrest, and had a specific hallucination at a specific time and place, the whole thing is not difficult to understand.

Roger couldn't think of anyone else who could do this except Adam, the "Angel of Imagination" who holds the power of the mind and unconsciousness, and Amon who holds the Pen of 0-08 Alesuhod.

At the same time, considering his relationship with Adam and the subtle evil in the whole thing, Roger tends to think that it was Amon who did it, and the current situation just proves this.

Amon chuckled:
"The last row of shelves has quite a few Quaternary artifacts...those are genuine antiques, not the imitations made by those shoddy craftsmen of the last few decades.

“Relatively speaking, they are not cheap.”

As he spoke, Roger came to the place Amon mentioned and picked up a teapot that was beautifully shaped but had faded quite badly.

He glanced at the price tags on the shelf and found that this teapot alone was priced at 9800 gold pounds, and almost everything else around it was priced below 5000 gold pounds.

Oh my god...is this a junk shop or an antique auction house?

Roger sighed in his heart.

To be honest, Roger even doubted that those large antique auction houses did not have the things that Amon had.

But this is not surprising. After all, the Amon family is one of the five angel families that support the "Blood Emperor" Alistair Tudor in the Fourth Epoch. Whether in collecting or identifying ancient items, they have unique advantages.

No, it should be said that Amon himself is history...

"Go two rows ahead, there are some cheaper ones."

At this time, Amon's voice came, and his attitude was like a real antique shop owner.

Roger followed His instructions and walked forward two rows. Sure enough, he saw some coins and military medals from the Quaternary Period on the shelves.

"Klein might like this..."

Roger thought to himself.

I have to say that although Amon’s second-hand shop is a bit nonsensical, the things sold there are quite interesting.

Especially history fans and antique collectors, they will probably go crazy when they come here.

Of course, whether they can get here safely is a big question.

He selected two inexpensive but unique Quaternary products and returned to the counter to pay.

"Boss, can you please not be so secretive every time?
"If you want to see me, why not just arrange a chance meeting or send a letter? Why go through all this trouble?"

At this moment, Roger said helplessly.

Creating a series of chaos and panic in society, and even taking advantage of coincidence to have the "Tussock Humorous Stories" magazine handed to him, just to test whether he could identify the mastermind behind the scenes, this is indeed something that only Amon, a naughty boy who likes to play pranks, can do.

“This is not just my business.”

Amon's mouth corners curled up:

"By the way, a certain paranoid guy also wants to test whether you still possess basic humanity, in order to assess your dangerousness."

These two brothers, oh no, both father and son are crazy...

Roger rubbed his forehead and suddenly realized something.

He asked nervously:
“So did I pass the assessment?”

Being judged as dangerous and being on Adam's mind is no laughing matter.

“He thinks you’re a little stronger than me, but I think you’re a lot stronger than Him.”

Amon's mouth curled up as he answered.

Hearing Amon say this, Roger felt relieved.

"So why are you in Backlund? I thought you had left Loen."

In fact, Roger originally wanted to ask whether Amon in front of him was a clone or the real person, but he immediately realized that this question would definitely get him into trouble, so he changed the way he asked.

At the same time, he quickly glanced at the unpublished draft of "The Wind Spirit" on Amon's desk, but did not see 0-08 Ale Suhod's Pen.

(End of this chapter)