The Journey of the Demon Hunter

"Don't force yourself too much." Zelin said: "If you have trouble or problems, just tell me, I'll help you."

"Don't worry, I can handle it." Amelia grinned, showing her white canine teeth: "It's a piece of cake."

The Vevadi Bank is unremarkable in Novigrad. It is located at the corner of the main square and the street, with only a narrow storefront. .

But anyone with common sense knows how much coveted wealth is hidden in this humble storefront. It's just that there are many wealthy northern humans who don't trust the bank. They only deposit part of the money in the bank and enjoy the interest and return promised by the dwarves, and the rest is placed in the family vault just in case.

"Oh, isn't this our most potential customer?"

The dwarf with a big white beard opened his arms: "Welcome. Welcome. Would you like to come here to save money? Or do you want to come here for business on behalf of someone?"

"Do you know me?" Zelin didn't know the dwarves in front of him. The Vivaldi family was the largest family of dwarves in Mahakam, and there might be hundreds of dwarves surnamed Vivaldi.

"Of course, those of us who open banks are best at finding potential customers and persuading them to hand over the money to us." The dwarf crossed his arms across his chest: "Actually, this is just the simplest trust. The problem, no one is better at managing money than we are. Before humans came ashore, we dwarves were mining gold, minting gold coins and conducting commercial activities in Mahakam. Unfortunately, you humans will not record it, otherwise you should have the opportunity. Take a look, in the past, the most famous business locations were all run by dwarves."

"You seem to be very responsible, Mr. Dwarf, but if you persuade me to avoid it." Zelin said, "I want to ask about something."

"What's the matter?"

"I want to investigate a person's account." As he said, Zelin took out the note Tishaya handed him when he was in Lomugne: "The account owner's name is this."

"Oh, please forgive me, sir." Vivaldi took the note and looked at the personal information on it: "If you want to do this, you have to go through a long process. Recently we have had some trouble, from Ruida The emissary of the King of Nia asked all our banks in Redania to come up with money. As a proof of loyalty to the north, he would take a large sum of money and give him all the deposits of the people. "

"I guess you didn't agree?"

"Of course, sir, we are credible." Vivaldi looked back, handed the note to Zelin, and patted his chest: "We are neutral, so people are willing to give us money. If it's because of the king. Order and hand in the money. What is the difference between us and the tax collector? Please go here, sir, we need to register. If the owner of this account asks who checked his information, then we can give him one. Explain. But I want to explain first that I can only inquire about account fund information."

"Don't worry, I won't ask about extra things."

Amelia went to withdraw the money first. A large bag of heavy gold coins.

"This is your income?"

"Of course." Amelia pinned the bag to her waist, and then blocked it with the hem of the clerk uniform's loose robe: "This is the holy city of eternal fire, and many devout believers are happy to donate a sum of money to show My generosity and kindness. In fact, all the priest's expenses in the temple and the remuneration of the temple guards, as well as the salary of the witch hunters, all come from people's donations."

At the beginning, Amelia did not expect that there would be so many kind people willing to donate their property to show piety. When in Yanan, people believed that the church was just because blood therapy really came in handy. Here, no one can eliminate the disease by standing in front of the flame.

"Being a missionary is much easier to make money than a demon hunter." Zelin said emotionally: "It is more convenient than any profession, well-dressed and a good life, there will be many people willing to give you money. I tried my best. To complete a commission, you may not make as much money as there is in a small bag in your hand."

"That's actually because after the donation, when the king's tax collector arrives, they can prove that they don't have much property in the family, so they can save a lot of taxes to the king." The dwarf who went to get the information walked with the notebook in hand. Come back: "Every time the church organizes an event, the rich will lead the donation, and then the poor will follow. When the donation is over, the rich will return all their money, and the poor will stay and become the little one. The crown in the girl’s pocket. This is the news I heard from a church friend. I must say, this is really a very clever idea. The rich have a good reputation and can avoid taxes. The church has got gold and faith. Who came up with a good way? I really want to ask that missionary to transfer to my bank."

Zelin looked at Amelia, who looked innocent.

"Oh, wait until I go back to help you inquire about it." She said blankly: "Your church friend must be amazing. He can hear such news. I don't know. I'm just here to take the money."

"She's just an ordinary nun, she's just doing things by her side. I thought everyone in the church knew about this." Vivaldi handed the note to Zelin: "I found it for you. If If you are right, the person you are looking for passed away half a month ago. What you want to inquire about is his last estate delivery."

Chapter 2565: Liar

"He died? Not long ago?"

"Ah, yes, I remember this." The white-bearded dwarf nodded: "Because that was a transfer of a large sum of money. To be honest, I was surprised at that time because a human being could have so much money. So the impression It must be checked to find out if he really has so much money. If he forged a token and then was able to withdraw a certain amount of money from the bank, then we would have been bankrupt. When we got there, we found the money. It is real, but it has been several times in the past, probably in half a year, and it was transferred in by other people. We verified what was going on, and it turned out that the people in this family are very unlucky. They have a lot of family members. People went to join the army and they all died on the battlefield, so the legacy was transferred here."

"This is too coincidental?" Zelin asked: "It sounds like a windfall."

"We didn't believe it at first." The white-bearded dwarf sighed, "But what kind of things can't happen in this era? Osenfurt's students have all caught up to the battlefield, not to mention the farmers. This is indeed a lot of money, but we have investigated those people and they all have normal tax payment records. The local city hall also has records about them, which is the military file. But unfortunately, those people died last time. In winter, in a great battle in Willen."

Zelin knew about the war. After the Nilfgaards conquered the city of Vizima, they were going to cross the Ponta River to attack Novigrad in the winter. As a result, Ladovide took advantage of the fact that Enhill’s army had just arrived on the southern bank of the Ponta River and launched an attack. . The two sides fought by the river for a day and a night, and finally Nilfgaard's army retreated.

"Can you tell me where this person is?" Zelin took the paper that the dwarf had torn from his notebook, which recorded the person's identity, address, and date of death in detail: "I'm going to find out."

"It's not far from here." The dwarf took a deep breath: "Otherwise, in this chaotic era, we can't check it personally. We can only hire other people. To be honest, we really want to find out the money. Problem, but in fact he has no problem. There is a lot of pensions for the Redanian army. In addition, there is another person in his family who is a businessman and has no children. As a result, he encountered a storm at sea when he was transporting goods to Corville. , So I left a large amount of money. As a result, after we took out this money, the money in our vault was much less. Now we can only adjust some more gold from Mahakam to deal with citizens' withdrawals."

Zellin thought of the agreement between Francesca and Vivaldi when he was in Vizima.

"Yes, there is a turmoil, people have to put valuable things around to sleep at ease."

"Well, demon hunter, if you investigate any problems, remember to come back and tell me." The white-bearded dwarf stretched out a finger: "I will pay you in full at that time, how about?"

"No problem." Zelin doesn't mind taking the opportunity to earn an extra reward when investigating things related to him: "I will come to you with the result."

This person was named Kosenmien Randa, and he lived in Arete, which is separated from the city of Novigrad by a river. That is the westernmost village of Redania. Novigrad was established on the Ponta River Delta, and the boundary between Ridania and the Free City was demarcated by the river moat. But as the flagship of Ladovide enters Novigrad, this boundary may not be so obvious anymore.

Amelia did not go with Zelin. She said that she had some things to go back to the temple to deal with, and it was not convenient to travel with heavy gold coins on her body.

Aleite Village is very small, with only a dozen households. This village is like a settlement outside the gate of the port area. Many people want to live in Novigrad but cannot afford the cost of living, so they have to live in the city. Build thatched houses outside.

When Zelin walked to the village of Aret, the sun was covered by the clouds floating from the west sea. There are several Redanian soldiers in the village. They are holding halberds and standing on the village road, yawning listlessly.

At noon, no one was seen in the village.

"Hey, demon hunter, what are you looking at here?" A Redanian soldier walked over and looked up and down Zelin with a dissatisfied look: "Don't try to steal anything, don't even want to take anything. You are here to suffer. The legal protection of King Dovide and Redania."

"I just came here to visit an acquaintance." Zelin frowned: "Where are all the people here?"

"This is your business." The guard raised his chin slightly: "I will keep an eye on you. Recently, there are thieves and thieves wandering out of Novigrili everywhere here."

Arette looked very quiet.

Several thatched huts are scattered across a very shallow stream. There is a narrow wooden bridge over the stream, and a few wooden stakes are inserted in the shallow beach beside the wooden bridge, and fishing nets are fixed between the wooden stakes. Through the window of the thatched house, Zelin could vaguely see the candlelight inside. There was only the sound of wind all around, and a tied carp was struggling in the fishing net. The leather rack in front of the house was drying hard leather that had already dried. Five previously caught fish hung on the drying rack, and buzzing flies landed on it.

"Where are the people here?" Zelin asked the soldier beside him.

"Who knows." The soldier wiped his mouth impatiently and stared at Zelin vigilantly: "Yesterday morning, we got news that we are going to stand guard here and watch the southern gate of Novigrad. That city is unexpectedly. We welcome the people in black to enter. This is a betrayal of the entire north. We must take good care of this place to prevent the people in black from slipping to Osenforte. Our great king is in that city."

"Really?" Zelin frowned: "I thought His Majesty Ladovide was in Novigrad, and his flagship was in the port."

"Then we will prevent the man in black from slipping to Tritog." The guard waved his hand: "What are you asking so much for? Are you asking for news for the man in black?"

"Of course not." Zelin opened his hand: "Don't you know? Because of the people in black, our demon hunter's academy was forced to relocate to other places. I don't work for the people in black."

"...I have never heard of this, but I don't like people in black. If they don't come, I can still be at home now." The soldier coughed twice and cleared his throat: "I don't know where the people in this village have gone. They disappeared when I came yesterday. Maybe they were working in the city? That's about it. Everyone on the edge of the city works in Novigrad."

"Well, I understand." Zelin nodded.

Recently, the people in Novigrad are in panic, and the workers are afraid to walk alone at night. The people in this village were not at home yesterday, and certainly not working in Novigrad.

And where did they go?

But there are almost 20 residents in a village. They can't disappear out of thin air. Even wild hunting and kidnapping villagers will leave witnesses, strange phenomena, and villages shrouded in wind and snow. No one can suddenly make a group of people disappear.

Zelin looked at the nearby houses thoughtfully.

"After you came here, did you check in these people's houses?" Zelin asked.

"Of course not." The soldier shook his head: "We have stayed here, not daring to close our eyes. We have been looking at the southern gate for fear that some weird guy will slip away from here."

"Well, I see, thanks for the news."