Chapter 3304

Shiler sat in the office of the municipal building, staring at a document. Appearing on the document was precisely the logo of the Ordain medical equipment production company.

However, unlike Batman's unfamiliarity, Shiler was quite familiar with this logo, because this was the logo of the Order of St. Dumas in the original work.

Speaking of Cat Getan history again. In the original comic, the process of Edmund Wei En, the ancestor of the Wei En family, coming to the New World can be described as full of twists and turns.

Although he was a descendant of the Wei En family, because he had been away from home for too long, his original relatives had all died in the plague, and no one could prove his identity.

And in England in that era, impersonating a noble was a serious crime. Edmund Wei En was caught in prison as a liar impersonating Lord Wei En and was about to be exiled.

At this time, a priest named Bakar saved him. This priest claimed to be from the Order of St. Dumas, killed the guard watching Edmund with a wave of his sword, saved him, and suggested that they go to the New World together to rebuild his family.

Bakar didn't do this entirely to help Edmund. He wanted to spread the gospel of the Order of St. Dumas in the New World, but Cat Getan Valley at that time was full of pirates and smugglers, and a clergyman couldn't get any good here.

Bakar wanted to reorganize Cat Getan's order, but in that era, only nobles could be lords. Without bloodline and status, even if he killed General Arkham, he couldn't become a legitimate ruler. So he pulled in Edmund Wei En, who had noble status, with the purpose of using Edmund's title to become the lord of Cat Getan.

Regarding the Order of St. Dumas that Bakar came from, there is not much mention in the comics. This is a sect that worships "fire destroying the world."

Among a series of beliefs in God, there are two theories about the destruction of the world: one is the flood destroying the world, and the other is fire destroying the world.

Regarding the stories of the former, everyone is familiar with them, because this type of sect achieved final victory, making the story of God destroying the world with a flood and creating Noah's Ark widely spread.

But in the same period, sects that followed God's decree that a great fire would descend and burn everything also flourished, and the two sides fought endlessly.

And the England ruled by Puritans at that time labeled all similar sects as evil cults, including the Order of St. Dumas.

Shiler guessed that perhaps because the Order of St. Dumas was suppressed too severely in England, they had to send priests like Bakar to open up the New World and spread their faith.

However, on the surface, their pioneering behavior did not succeed. Instead, the Catholicism believed in by the Irish became the main sect of Cat Getan. In a sense, this can be considered as defeating the Puritans.

When Shiler read the original comics, he thought the Order of St. Dumas would be the biggest villain. Unfortunately, the comic editor did not portray this organization in depth; although many foreshadowings were buried in the front, it ended hastily in the back, and it was really impossible to see any clues.

Precisely because of this, Shiler became vigilant. Did the Order of St. Dumas really not win back then? Or rather, did they just change a way to rule here?

Shiler stood up from the desk and walked to another desk. A Cat Getan topographic map was placed there. Cat Getan is a peninsula surrounded by the sea on three sides, and the most eye-catching thing on the topographic map is the Cat Getan River leading to the sea.

Shiler stared at the map for a long time, and finally pinned a red thumbtack on the Cat Getan Reservoir in the upper reaches of the Cat Getan River.

Shiler's hands were braced on the table, carefully observing the direction of the water veins on the topographic map. In fact, no special professional knowledge was needed to see that the riverbed of the Cat Getan River had been artificially modified.

The upper reaches of the Cat Getan River are a valley, and the stream flows out from the mountains, gradually gathering water veins from all sides to form a river.

But the angle of the valley is somewhat different from the angle of the Cat Getan River now. If there were no human interference, the upstream river would not look like it does now.

Shiler used a pen to draw a mark where the river was modified, and the map showed that it was the old dam of Cat Getan.

In the history of Cat Getan, among the several outstanding contributions made by Cat Getan Lord Edmund Wei En to Cat Getan, the most famous is leading workers to build the Cat Getan Dam, control floods, and restore the navigation of the Cat Getan River.

But Shiler, who had read the comics, knew that the river modification project was not just to dredge the shipping lanes, but more to cover up the old site of Cat Getan Village.

Now at the bottom of the Cat Getan Reservoir, there should be the ruins of the earliest Cat Getan village. Edmund deliberately diverted the river here, just to let the reservoir submerge the ruins and cover up the truth of the early history.

This is actually the place Shiler found most puzzling when reading the comics. He couldn't see what Edmund's intention was in doing so.

When Cat Getan was still a village, it was General Arkham who ruled here. They defeated General Arkham, cleared out pirates and smugglers, and successfully built this place into a city.

If he wanted to erase the traces of General Arkham's rule, he could just flatten the village and rebuild the city buildings, which would definitely leave no traces.

But instead, Edmund preserved the ruins of the village, just covered the ruins with water, which actually had a bit of "the more you try to hide, the more you reveal" meaning.

This couldn't help but make Shiler associate it with religious factors.

In the original work, the Order of St. Dumas believed in by Bakar worshiped fire, but it didn't mention what Edmund Wei En believed in.

He came from the Wei En family in England, and England in that era was ruled by Puritans. Is there a possibility that Edmund Wei En was actually a Puritan?

The struggle between him and Bakar was not just a disagreement between the two of them, but also possibly a religious struggle in essence.

From a religious perspective, Edmund's act of modifying the river to cover up the ruins had another explanation. He was recreating the process of God destroying the world with a flood, which was a religious declaration.

When he was down and out, he had to borrow Bakar's power to establish his own city in the New World. But when he got Cat Getan, he exposed his true colors. He didn't believe in the fire of the Order of St. Dumas, but worshiped the flood.

He didn't want the faith of the Order of St. Dumas to spread here, and couldn't wait to let the Puritans branch out here and gain a foothold in the New World, so he imitated the process of God destroying the world with a flood, diverted the river, and built the Cat Getan Reservoir.

This might be the beginning of the break between Bakar and Edmund, because at this moment, their core interests diverged.

But staring at the map for a long time, Shiler felt that this speculation, although it made sense, was slightly far-fetched.

Because building a dam is not a small project. At that time, Edmund should have just ruled Cat Getan, and his foundation wasn't stable, yet he was so eager to start such a large project, which seemed a bit too impatient.

Shiler was more inclined to believe that he didn't want to do this, but had to do it. But what was forcing him to flood Cat Getan Village?

Shiler had no time to daydream here. Since there was a problem, he had to know the answer immediately. So he soon drove to the Cat Getan Reservoir.

Very coincidentally, Batman also came.

After he carefully read the diary of his ancestor, he discovered that the village ruled by General Arkham described in Edmund's mouth was not in the same location as the city center of Cat Getan now.

In other words, New Cat Getan was not established on the basis of Cat Getan Village, but abandoned the foundation of Cat Getan Village and found another place to establish a city.

This obviously didn't quite fit logic. Batman was also wondering what made Edmund abandon Cat Getan Village and establish a new city.

According to the clues in the diary, Batman deduced the location of the original Cat Getan Village and discovered that Cat Getan Village was actually the Cat Getan Reservoir now, and he also associated it with Edmund's move to build a dam and divert the river.

He believed that there might be secrets buried in Cat Getan Village.

Shiler stood at the other end of the reservoir, watching Batman's figure walking toward the edge of the reservoir. He stood behind a tree, not letting Batman discover him. It wasn't until Batman entered the water that he slowly came to the water's edge.

Batman went into the water first, and Shiler didn't rush to follow him, but observed the terrain around the reservoir.

There was a woodland on the east side of the reservoir; it was clear that the abundant water veins here nourished the trees and formed a forest. But from here further east, it was the natural woodland that had been polluted by the Charabanc factory earlier.

Using the gray mist to check the underground water veins and plant root systems, Shiler discovered that the forest next to the reservoir and the natural woodland belonged to the same forest system, all growing on the basis of the underground water veins of the Cat Getan Reservoir.

This discovery was much more important than any ruins of Cat Getan Village in the underground reservoir. There might not be any clues in the village, but if the pollution of the Charabanc chemical factory was not an accident, but pointed directly to the Cat Getan Reservoir, it proved that the river diversion was indeed not simple.

Although there were gains, Shiler still felt that he was indeed not suitable to be a detective. He was really too lazy to investigate things from decades or even hundreds of years ago, and then combine them with these modern clues for reasoning and analysis. This was clearly work that Batman should do.

Anyway, they couldn't help with the revolution in Cat Getan City now, so let's exert some residual heat and help investigate historical events.

However, after he finished the investigation, he might not tell him if he asked directly, so he still had to make an insurance policy.

While Batman was swimming in the reservoir, Shiler came to Jason's room in Wei En Manor. Jason was still in a coma.

Shiler had two types of capsules in his hand: one was the red wine Nyarlathotep gave him, which was the reward for the running group dungeon, a mysterious red wine that could make people fall into hallucinations forever and never wake up.

Some people Shiler didn't need to wake up took this capsule, such as Miss Charabanc and the junkies on Bourbon Street. The ingredients in this capsule had been proven to be unanalyzable by any technology in this universe.

Others Shiler only hoped would be in a coma temporarily took another type of capsule, which contained a portion of gray mist. The gray mist would only temporarily make their brains sleep and would not cause any harm, and by the way, it could help them check their bodies. Jason and the White Knight both took this capsule.

Shiler came to Wei En Manor just to wake Jason up.

As soon as Jason woke up, before he could ask Shiler what was going on, he was knocked dizzy by the massive amount of clues Shiler gave him.

The Order of St. Dumas from hundreds of years ago, the great achievements of the Wei En family, the suddenly appearing Ordain company, the mysterious Cat Getan Reservoir and natural woodland...

Looking at Jason's focused expression, Shiler knew that this pair of detective father and son would be very busy next.

(End of chapter)