Chapter 228: The Mermaid's Curse

Mr. Delar's story wasn't fresh; even in the eyes of the "well-informed" outlander, it could be said to be a bit cliché.

This story was related to the ocean, strange statues, greedy hearts, and curses, and it was probably very suitable for providing writing material for Miss Lu Yi Sha.

The cause of the matter could be traced back to a year ago, the spring of 1852 in the General Calendar.

As a cargo dispatcher in the pier area, Mr. Delar checked the contraband collected as usual and very responsibly brought the small items of value among them back to his home for safekeeping. This could also be considered an unspoken source of income for this position; anyway, it was fine as long as it wasn't discovered.

In a box of messy sundries, Mr. Delar discovered a batch of small stone statues. They were about the thickness of an adult man's arm and as long as a forearm. The image of the statue was a mermaid in a pose of looking up.

"Mermaid" referred to a creature with the upper body of a woman and the fish torso of the lower body, which often appeared in fairy tales of this world. This was not the same thing as the ugly "merman" with only human feet that Xia De had seen before.

"So, you took those statues away?"

Listening to the other party's account, Xia De asked hesitantly, and from this, he associated it with many horror novel plots. Horror novels had only just begun to rise in this era, and colored court novels, knight novels, and detective novels that had risen in the past few decades were the mainstream.

"Yes, I took them... I have worked here for twenty years and never thought that the stories I heard from old sailors in the past would happen to me."

Mr. Delar said dejectedly, huddled in the corner of the wall, not caring at all that the blood plasma on the ground was sticking to his body.

And as a dispatcher, although he had the right to handle those inconspicuous illegal items, it was impossible for him to sell the goods alone.

Mr. Delar had some very reliable partners who played different roles in the entire transaction process. For example, the crew member Mr. Lemeier. Xia De thought he was just an ordinary crew member, but he actually held the position of first mate. In Mr. Delar's disposal of stolen goods, Lemeier was responsible for bringing some sensitive items to the New Continent for sale.

And after discovering that batch of mermaid statues a year ago, Mr. Delar fell in love with them at first sight, so he distributed them to his companions as art pieces during a gathering.

Since then, for a year, everyone who obtained a mermaid statue would dream of ruined palaces in the deep sea, deep-sea reliefs that completely transcended human aesthetics, and giant rotting mermaid corpses floating inside the palace in their dreams.

The dream ended with "the field of vision constantly approaching the terrifying giant corpse, and then the corpse as big as a mountain opened its eyes." In the repeated dreams, quite a few people were driven directly crazy. And after noticing that something was wrong, even if they threw away those mermaid statues, they couldn't get rid of the trouble of the dreams.

It started with just dreams. From three months ago, the people troubled by the dreams began to die one after another in very strange ways.

Mr. Lemeier was one of them. Although the ship he was on said he unfortunately fell into the ocean during a storm, in fact, that was a statement given by the captain to reduce panic. Lemeier died of his own madness. In three days, he suddenly changed from a mentally normal first mate into a madman muttering crazy words, and finally chose to jump into the sea to commit suicide.

And by now, only Jason Delar was still alive.

He said his story with twitching facial features, and when he looked up at Xia De, bloodshot eyes appeared in his eyes.

"Wait, why didn't you go to the Orthodox Church?"

Xia De raised his confusion in time.

"Finding the Church will definitely involve the dirty business we did. You think we only stole goods and sold them? No, the things we did are much more than you think. I don't need to look at the Delarion Constitution to know that this is definitely a capital crime. Finding the Church means certain death, and even if I don't die, my property certainly won't be kept. Not finding the Church gives me a chance to solve it myself. Oh, isn't this a choice that's very easy to make?"

The middle-aged man who was pointed at the head by the revolver asked with widened eyes, and an abnormal flush appeared on his face.

Xia De thought for a while and actually thought that what this crazy guy said wasn't without reason. But the primitive fear of the unknown actually didn't defeat the greed for gold pounds. Xia De didn't know whether greed was really that terrible, or if those mermaids were affecting them.

In short, after the companions died one after another, the living people were trying their best to find ways, and then died strangely.

Mr. Delar, who lived to the end, obtained a book that was said to be very useful through private channels, and then held a ritual according to the content of the book to drive away the curse for himself. It was just that the ritual he arranged didn't summon the "great existence that is omniscient and omnipotent" mentioned in the book, but instead summoned the outlander living in Tobesk.

"In other words, although this matter is related to the inheritance itself, it is actually unrelated to my client, Mrs. Lemeier. She can accept the inheritance."

Xia De summarized in his heart, and then pointed to the floor:

"The next question, where did this blood come from? Don't say it's from a hospital; I don't believe such an answer."

"Sir, you say how much money it will take to help me..."

"Where did you get this blood? And what are those meat balls?"

"The homeless people in this city can..."

Bang~

The smoke from the muzzle drifted upward, and the corpse fell backward fiercely, soaking in the blood plasma on the ground.

The crazy dispatcher of Coldwater Port had nothing to do with the detective of Tobesk, especially on the premise of confirming that he wouldn't affect his client. After confirming that the other party was a bad person, he killed him directly and then left, so that he wouldn't cause extra trouble.

It was just that Xia De looked at the corpse and suddenly realized that strictly speaking, this was the second person he had killed in this world. The first, Lady Lasoya, was killed from a great distance, while this one died in front of his eyes, so he still felt a bit uncomfortable for a few seconds.

Greed and desire caused this tragedy. Xia De hoped that this matter could remind himself that excessive greed was never a good thing.

He sighed, took out a wooden tube from his pocket, sprinkled the bone powder inside toward the corpse in front of him, and used the miracle 【Soul Echo】.

The cold wind blew up in the closed room, and the flames of the six candles on the ground also dimmed a bit, and the warm yellow flames turned into ghostly blue.

Gray light emerged from the corpse, and the light lasted for a few seconds before aggregating together. The phantom of Jason Delar appeared above the corpse. His expression was numb, his eyes were godless; this was the phantom of the soul.

Although it originates from the 【Echo】 Spirit Rune, this sorcery is actually a standard necromancy-type ability.