Mystery: A Spark

Just as he was feeling apprehensive, he suddenly heard the joyful voices of servants coming from the courtyard outside:

"Miss is back!"

Hibbert felt a sense of relief and hurriedly ran to the door, opened it, and welcomed Audrey in, asking her with concern:

"How are you? Little sister, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, brother. I'm sorry to have worried you," Audrey replied with a polite smile.

Then Earl Hall and Lady Catherine arrived, and there was another round of pleasantries, which Audrey responded with a smile as always.

"Dad, Mom, brother, I've heard about this incident, but I haven't actually been affected by it."

"Because I was not far from the Harvest Church at the time, I noticed something was wrong, so I ran inside and hid immediately." Audrey gracefully turned around to show her family that she was unharmed.

“Harvest Church? I see.” Earl Hall and Lady Catherine exchanged a glance and both breathed a sigh of relief.

He smiled and said:

"In that case, I think I'll have to prepare some gifts and visit the bishop at Harvest Church another day to express my gratitude."

"Well, Dad, you can arrange this." Audrey covered her mouth with her hand and gave a small yawn.

Seeing this, Lady Catherine said:

"Audrey, you must be tired after being out all day. Go and get some rest."

"Okay, Mom and Dad, and brother, I'm going back to my room now. See you tomorrow." Audrey smiled and said goodbye to her family as she walked towards her room.

After she left, Earl Hall pondered for a moment and said:

"Just to be on the safe side, let's ask Archbishop Anthony to come to our house again tomorrow."

"Hmm, but it should be nothing serious. It must be the goddess's blessing." Lady Catherine drew a crimson moon on her chest with a pious expression.

……

Back in her room, Audrey still had a smile on her face.

She turned on the room lights as usual and then sat down in front of the vanity mirror.

Looking at herself in the mirror, the smile on her face gradually disappeared, her eyes became deep and unfathomable, and she became as quiet as a puppet.

……

Sunday, East End, the Communist Party office building on the same street as the Peace Tavern.

"Arthur, this is today's Backlund Daily News." Hugh came up to the second floor and handed the newspaper to Arthur.

Arthur took the newspaper and glanced at it, and saw clearly written on it:

"...According to preliminary statistics, more than 53,900 people died directly in that smog..."

"Haha!" Upon seeing these words, Arthur was so angry that he laughed.

He tossed the newspaper onto his desk, looked up, and asked:

"How many dead and injured figures did you report to your superiors?"

Xiu scratched his eyebrow, somewhat embarrassed, and replied:

"Actually, the number of people I reported was over 20,000, and I don't understand why the newspaper reported this number."

Arthur opened his mouth, and finally let out a sigh:

"Cow batch!"

As mentioned before, he hadn't actually expected the Backlund smog to arrive earlier than planned; he was simply being cautious and had made preparations in advance.

However, because of a piece of information, Arthur realized that the smog might be about to change.

That was his unexpected discovery: Talim was not dead.

So for a while, just in case, Arthur would often come to the East District during the day, so that he wouldn't be caught off guard if something happened.

That's why, when he received Klein's distress message, he happened to be playing chess with Goebbels in the East District, which allowed him to take action in a very short time.

While dealing with the smog incident, Arthur also did something else.

That was a traditional skill of aristocratic families in ancient China: concealing their population.

With the continued development of the Sheriff's Corps and the Workers' Mutual Aid Association, coupled with Earl Hall's recent public support for the Sheriff's Corps and Hugh's rising position in the police force, the grassroots power in the East District has gradually fallen into Arthur's hands.

He gradually gained control over grassroots forces, which enabled him to take action during the smog crisis.

For example, lying about the number of casualties.

The exact number of people in the Eastern District is completely unknown to the upper echelons of the Kingdom of Rune.

The Church of Mother Earth was the main force that provided relief to people after the smog.

This gave Arthur a lot of room to maneuver.

He said that a certain number of people died, and that's exactly how many people died.

The officials in the kingdom weren't very patient when it came to counting the number of deaths.

Because this is too tiring to do.

Now that Arthur has sent people to help them, they are naturally more than happy to accept.

The actual death toll from the smog was around eight thousand, most of whom died while Arthur was searching for the Nightingale of Despair.

Arthur didn't want to fall out with George III at this time, so he had Hugh add a little more to the number and report it, as a way of giving the king face.

Unexpectedly, King George III doubled the number again before it was finally accepted as the official figure for casualties.

Chapter 226 Soon, everything will change!

Inside Earl Hall's villa in Queens.

"Miss, here is today's newspaper." The maid, Mary, stood outside the door and handed over the newspaper.

"Thank you, Mary." Audrey accepted the newspaper with a polite smile.

At the same time, Susie, the golden retriever, slipped silently into the room from her feet.

After closing the door, Audrey sat down at the desk and placed the newspaper on it.

“Audrey, you haven’t seemed to be in a good mood these past few days,” Susie said, squatting down beside Audrey.

"Yes, because something happened," Audrey replied in a low voice.

"Then, do you need me to give you some advice? I've recently learned a lot about psychology," Susie volunteered.

“Psychology isn’t a cure-all, Susie.” Audrey shook her head. “Thank you for your kind offer, but it’s alright.”

"Oh..." Susie nodded, seemingly understanding.

Audrey shifted her gaze to the newspaper, hesitated for a moment, and finally opened it.

“More than 50,000 people have died…” Audrey stared blankly at the words on the newspaper, murmuring in disbelief.

“More than 50,000 people…” Her fingers gently brushed over the report, her eyes welling up with tears.

Audrey felt as if she had returned to that day, hearing the sorrowful groans of the people and seeing their faces contorted with pain.

Why should they suffer such misfortune?

Audrey's voice was very soft, like a dream.

"They've already had a very hard life, why won't you let them go?"

Two lines of clear tears slid down her face, dripping onto the newspaper and blurring the words on it.

In the past, she might have felt sad about this report, but she wouldn't have been so deeply moved.

Because numbers are cold and not enough to move people's hearts.

But after Audrey actually went to the East End, saw those people's lives with her own eyes, interacted with them closely, and talked and laughed with them, she could no longer see them as just simple numbers.

"This won't end here. I will get justice for you." Audrey's voice gradually became firm.

"Audrey, are you alright?" Susie rubbed her head against her owner's leg, trying to cheer her up.

"I'm fine, I just suddenly realized something," Audrey said calmly, wiping away her tears.

She carefully folded the newspaper, then solemnly placed it in a drawer of her desk and locked it.

"You, you've realized something?" Susie suddenly felt a little scared.

Audrey turned her head and looked at Susie, saying slowly:

“I realized that this country is sick, Susie.”

"It needs to be treated."

……

Inside the office.

Arthur tapped his fingers lightly on the table, a thoughtful expression on his face.

After a while, he asked:

"How many people know the specific figures for the death toll we've compiled?"

“I’m the only one who knows all the data, because I used a method of separately counting the data and then summarizing it for me to count the number of deaths,” Hugh replied, sitting down in a chair nearby.

"Hmm, well done. In that case, let's assume that more than 50,000 people died in this smog event. Let's set up a cemetery in the suburbs of the eastern district and simply build a grave for all the people whose identities we can find."

"For those whose identities cannot be verified, we put up a large stone tablet with words like 'Victims of the Great Smog of Backlund' written on it."

“By the way, we can’t pay for this ourselves; the Rune government should pay for it,” Arthur sighed, looking at the newspaper on the table.

The main reason George III, along with the Witch Cult and the Aurora Society, launched the Great Smog Incident was to cover up his arrest of people to build his mausoleum.

Arthur originally thought that George III would only need to capture 10,000 or 20,000 men in Backlund, which is why he asked Hugh to add more when reporting the data.

Since he doesn't have the ability to kill this guy outright right now, he naturally can't easily alert him.

Only when Arthur is truly certain about something will he act decisively and prevent any unforeseen events from occurring.

When striking a snake, kill it; when cutting grass, eradicate it completely. Never give the enemy any hope of escape or resurrection.

For example, Ince Zangwell is a good example.