Chapter 67: Crib (Seeking monthly votes)

Looking at the man in the photo, Lyra said as if thinking:

"We set off two days later than receiving the help letter just to gather relevant intelligence."

"Madame Pualis's full name is Pualis de Rochefort, right?"

She paused before saying:

"We investigated the Rochefort family in the Daliege region and found no one named Pualis."

In Intis, women can choose not to change their husband's surname after marriage, especially those whose names have a "de," representing that they were nobles before.

—The Intis meaning of "de" is "from," and the surname behind it is the original fief.

"None?" Lu Mian was quite surprised.

He knew Madame Pualis had problems, and big problems, but he didn't expect that even her identity might be forged!

Ryan nodded:

"In Daliege, Rochefort is a big family with many people. We even found a provincial assemblyman. Our time was tight, and we couldn't do a more detailed investigation, only preliminarily confirming there was no one named Pualis. However, there was a male named Plet who had been missing for over a year."

"Plet?" Lu Mian asked if he had questions. "What is his relationship with Madame Pualis? I think they look quite alike."

Ryan shook his head:

"Lack of sufficient intelligence, unable to make speculations."

"What we know is that Plet de Rochefort believed in 'Dandyism,' which is most popular in Trier, and produced many illegitimate children, being hated and disgusted by many people. This might be the reason he had to leave or was forced to leave Daliege."

"'Dandyism'?" Lu Mian was somewhat unfamiliar with this term.

The magazines and newspapers Aurora subscribed to were either female-oriented, story-oriented, or mainly reported on national affairs, interspersed with a few supernatural readings, and didn't involve men's fashion trends much.

Lyra laughed and said:

"Simply put, it's being a playboy who dresses fashionably, speaks elegantly, and acts dissolutely."

"Trier people really know how to play, packaging adultery into a kind of thought, a kind of ideology, a kind of popular trend." Lu Mian sighed greatly and mocked by the way.

When it comes to the self-cultivation of adultery, one must always look at Trier people. Whatever parish priest, in front of Trier people, is just a child.

"In the past year, Trier has built many arcades." In a semi-underground two-story building, Aurora sipped Marquis black tea and talked to Madame Pualis, Naalaiza, and others about the latest fashion trends. "What is an arcade? It's sealing a street, covering the top with glass, paving the ground with marble, and arranging elegant and gorgeous shops on both sides. During the day, light is cast from above, and at night, gas lamps are used. Carriages are not allowed to enter. The most famous one is called the Opera House Arcade Street..."

Madame Pualis held the white-glazed porcelain teacup, her bright brown eyes fixed on Aurora, listening to her narration with a smile.

"It sounds very yearning..." Naalaiza sighed.

It intuitively made people feel elegance, fashion, cleanliness, and brightness.

Being able to know the most popular things in Intis from Aurora's mouth was the main reason they were willing to be invited for afternoon tea.

After chatting for a while, the topic shifted to Aurora's works, focusing on emotions.

"Love is really impossible to grasp, difficult to hold..." Madame Pualis seemed to have a feeling.

So, this is the reason why you have love with many men at the same time? Aurora couldn't help but complain in her heart.

Madame Pualis looked at her, holding a shallow smile, and said with a slight sigh:

"Sometimes, because he made a mistake, I get angry, wishing I could kill him, send him to die, but when he really faces death, I can't help but want to save him, and I won't tell him. Perhaps, this is love..."

Administrator's residence, master bedroom.

"Perhaps Madame Pualis also once fell in love with Plet, who believed in 'Dandyism,' and had a forbidden relationship, so she was no longer mentioned by the family, and could only marry someone randomly, and used the family's connections to secure the Administrator's position in Cordu Village for him." Lu Mian combined the stories and bridges his sister wrote and made a certain speculation.

This could explain why Administrator Beost had a relatively low status in the family.

"Possible." Ryan responded simply, then said, "Continue searching, but don't try to open the safe or other things, lest you trigger some kind of alarm."

Lu Mian and the others scattered immediately, searching elsewhere.

With a "Hunter's" ability to observe subtle traces, Lu Mian still had no gains.

Lyra and the others were the same.

Having no choice, they moved to the study and other places, patiently searching.

As time passed second by second, the four of them arrived at the end of the corridor, where there was a closed room, opposite an open sunroom, and beside it was the stairs leading to one of the towers.

Ryan, who had finished searching the sunroom, cast his gaze toward Lyra.

Lyra raised her hand to touch the small silver bell hanging on her veil, and walked toward the closed wooden door as if muttering to herself.

This time, those four bells didn't ring.

Lyra breathed a sigh of relief, grasped the handle, and gently pushed the wooden door open.

This was a very spacious room, with a crib that could rock placed in the center.

That crib was made of brown wood, installed in a wooden frame, and covered with very clean but somewhat old white cotton swaddling clothes, empty inside.

To say this was a baby room used by Madame Pualis's two children, there were no toys in the room, only scattered seeds like wheat, barley, rice, rye, oats, etc., on the ground, looking quite weird.

Moreover, these seeds were preserved relatively well, seeming to have been brought in only a few days ago.

A layer of faint light appeared on Valentine's body, and he walked into the room and circled around.

Soon, he returned to the doorway and shook his head at Ryan and Lyra:

"No evil aura."

"Okay." Lyra looked at Lu Mian. "Next, go to the tower?"

Lu Mian had always been very curious about the two towers of the castle, never expecting to have the opportunity to "visit" today.

Valentine left that strange baby room, and Ryan grasped the handle, intending to close the wooden door and restore it to its original state.

Just at this moment, Lu Mian subconsciously looked inside again.

That crib made of brown wood began to rock gently!

But the windows of this room and the floor-to-ceiling windows of the sunroom opposite were all tightly closed, and there was no wind blowing in the corridor!

"This..." Lu Mian's pupils dilated.

Noticing his anomaly, Lyra also turned her body and cast her gaze inside.

That crib was still rocking gently, as if an invisible, formless baby was lying on the white cotton swaddling clothes.

Subconsciously, Lyra raised her right hand and pinched her brow, as if wanting to relieve the fatigue of her eyes.

She was preparing to open her spirit vision to see what exactly was there.

Just at this moment, the four small silver bells on her veil and boots began to *ding-ding-dang-dang*, intensely and urgently as if they were about to explode!

Ryan's expression condensed, and he immediately shouted in a low voice:

"Leave here!"

While speaking, he ran into the sunroom in two steps and turned his body, crashing into the floor-to-ceiling window there.

He was trying to open a passage to directly escape the castle!

*Bang! *

Ryan crashed into the floor-to-ceiling window, but there was no sound of glass shattering.

Transparent faces of young children emerged on that row of windows, some seeming to be babies.

Their faces were blue and pale, inexplicably terrifying.

After being "crashed" by Ryan, they opened their mouths at the same time and cried "Waa-waa."

Accompanied by this crying, the entire third floor of the castle became extremely dim, and transparent faces of young children emerged on different walls and glass.

Some were crying loudly, some were turning their eyes, looking woodenly at Lu Mian, Lyra, Valentine, and Ryan and the others.

Just by being stared at like this, Lu Mian felt his body turn cold, and he couldn't help but start trembling, his heart filled with an emotion called fear.

The next second, dark golden light lit up on Valentine's body.

This light was like water, spreading outward in the form of a ring, quickly encompassing Lu Mian, Lyra, and Valentine.

A warm feeling rose, and the coldness in Lu Mian's body dissipated instantly.

He stopped trembling, his heart filled with courage, and he pulled out the iron-black axe from his back.

At the same time, Ryan seemed to have grown much larger, his clothes stretched tight.

Points of light like dawn emerged around him, quickly condensing into silver-white full-body armor on his body, and forming a wide and thick giant sword of light in his hands.

Ryan raised this sword high and slashed toward the floor-to-ceiling window in front of him like a giant.

Those blue-white faces belonging to children let out screams and quickly turned into blue smoke under the giant sword of light.

But the glass window didn't shatter because of this, and more transparent faces emerged, torturing the ears and hearts of Lu Mian and the others with sharp crying.

"Who broke into the castle?"

A female voice rose high, echoing layer by layer.

Almost at the same time, Lu Mian saw a figure appear on the other side of the corridor, from where they came up from the second floor.

She was in her forties, with brown hair and brown eyes, her appearance was quite good, with no wrinkles, and she was exactly the woman who had "delivered the baby" for Louis Louis Longde before.

At this moment, she was wearing a gray-white long dress, holding a pair of giant scissors that seemed capable of cutting off a human head, as if she had just returned from pruning branches in the garden.

She looked at Lu Mian and the others and said in a low voice:

"You deserve to die!"

Inside the semi-underground two-story building.

Madame Pualis suddenly froze for a moment, her expression changing slightly.

She then put away the white-glazed porcelain teacup in her hand and said to Aurora with a smile:

"I'm so sorry, I suddenly thought of something at home and must rush back immediately."

"Ah?" Aurora was shocked in her heart.

Pualis stood up with regret:

"I originally planned to stay after afternoon tea and continue to communicate with you about your works and the beautiful and brilliant love in them."

"I welcome it very much." Aurora responded immediately.

"No." Madame Pualis shook her head. "That matter is related to my children."

PS: Seeking monthly votes~

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 68 =====