Chapter 619: Midhillburg Folklore Investigation

The gunshot came from directly above the hotel, and judging from the clarity of the sound, its source was not the second floor, which was closest, but rather more like it came from the fourth floor, which was the furthest.

"Oh, damn it!"

The captain cursed in a low voice, packed up his cards, apologized to Xia De, and walked to the front desk on the first floor with Lieutenant Hoyle, obviously wanting to go upstairs with the hotel manager to check the situation. Before the local police arrived, they, wearing Delarion officer uniforms, needed to maintain the scene and be responsible for checking if there were any wounded who could be rescued.

The guests on the first floor checked out silently and left the door, fearing being involved in troublesome matters. Xia De neither followed the two officers upstairs nor left with most of the people.

He stood up, asked for two glasses of low-alcohol apple wine from the waiter who had replaced the bearded manager, and then carried the glasses, sat opposite the bard in the corner of the wall, and pushed one of the glasses to the other party.

Although the kingdom prohibits the brewing of moonshine, small-scale brewing of fruit wine like this in large hotels is allowed. These two glasses of apple wine were brewed from the first season of apples harvested from Sikar Mountain this summer; although they couldn't compare to the fruit wine of large wineries, at least the price was cheap.

A shooting occurred upstairs, and the bard couldn't continue his performance. But leaving now meant he couldn't earn any more income today, so the poet huddled in the corner waiting. Seeing Xia De sit opposite him and even give him a glass of wine, the poet also recognized that Xia De was the one who threw the two one-shilling silver coins just now:

"Thank you."

He said cautiously, not knowing what the young man in front of him wanted to do.

"You know many ancient legends of Midhillburg and the Sikar Mountain area?"

Xia De asked.

"Yes."

The poet nodded cautiously.

"Since you can't perform now, why don't you tell me these stories. I can pay for your drinks this afternoon."

Although Xia De didn't say he would thank the other party with cash, on this afternoon when it was clear he couldn't make any money, it was not bad to have someone treat him to a drink for free.

"No problem, what would you like to know..."

Bang!

A gunshot suddenly rang out upstairs again. Although it was separated by two floors, Xia De could tell it was different from the previous gunshot.

The poet was startled, while Xia De didn't care much. Even if a Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi wanted to kill someone with a gun, they would use a silent spell or something to eliminate the sound of the gunshot, so the matter upstairs definitely had nothing to do with a Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi.

"I want to know how many local faiths there are, meaning secret sects that only circulate locally in Midhillburg."

Xia De had learned similar intelligence from the materials given by the Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi Order, but he still wanted to ask from the perspective of an ordinary person.

"Local secret sects... I certainly don't know as many as the Orthodox Churches, but there are really quite a few that circulate privately."

Seeing that Xia De was not afraid of the gunshot, the poet became bolder:

"There are no legends about evil gods here."

Mentioning "evil gods," he subconsciously shrank, his eyes looking at the stairs leading to the second floor. A small number of guests who hadn't left sat in their original positions, and the rest gathered at the stairs to watch the excitement.

"But there are some special faiths. The legendary Old God 【Twin Gods】 is said to have stayed here, so local residents generally believe that twins have special spirituality."

"There is also this saying in other places."

Xia De nodded, but the sect of the 【Twin Gods】 had long since perished, and the 【Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi Order】 was rooted here, clearly recording the disappearance of that Old God sect, so there was no need to worry.

He and the poet talked about the special nature of "twins," which led to some local customs. During this period, two police officers patrolling nearby hurried over, one ran up the stairs under the guidance of a busybody, and the other blew a police whistle to find help.

Two streets away was the railway station of Midhillburg, and there were not only many police officers nearby, but even an organized infantry company. Of course, the current situation did not need the help of the garrison.

"Besides Old Gods, there are some special faiths here."

The poet took a sip of apple wine and then pointed in the direction of Sikar Mountain:

"In addition, there is a very traditional worship of the mountain here."

"Understandable, relying on the mountain to eat from the mountain, and then generating worship for Sikar Mountain, which nurtures this city, is also a very natural thing."

Xia De nodded, and the poet understood after thinking for a while about the "relying on the mountain to eat from the mountain" that Xia De had translated stiffly:

"Yes, before Midhillburg became the front line of the two countries, it was a very small town. At that time, there was no steam industry like today, and people lived by hunting and tending orchards for the local lord, thus forming this localized faith. But with the arrival of the steam age, this primitive faith itself gradually died out, and now it can only be seen in the books of some folklorists."

The primitive nature worship that the bard mentioned had died out was not mentioned in the materials of the Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi Order; the Order probably thought this history had no meaning.

"Worshipping the mountain... that's interesting. Do you know that Sikar Mountain is an extinct volcano?"

Xia De asked suddenly, and the poet took a sip of apple wine and nodded:

"Of course, since you mention an extinct volcano, you must mention another traditional natural faith. In fact, there is a tradition of fire worship here."

"Fire worship?"

A police sergeant with stars on his shoulders, leading two senior police officers and a group of ordinary police officers, hurried in from the hotel entrance, and there were two doctors carrying medicine boxes in the middle. Leaving two police officers to guard on the first floor, the others rushed up the stairs in a swarm. But after the second gunshot, no more gunshots were heard for a long time, so it seemed the matter was over.

"Is this tradition of fire worship a natural worship, or is it because a great person with the power of fire once appeared here in legend?"

Xia De asked curiously, beckoning to the waiter to let the bard, who had finished his apple wine, order more drinks at will. Taking advantage of the poet talking to the waiter, Xia De also took a sip of the apple wine in front of him. The taste of alcohol in it was lighter than any red wine he had ever drunk, basically equivalent to fruit juice.

And seeing the fruit wine, he somehow thought of yesterday's dinner again.

"Midhillburg's fire worship tradition is also quite ancient. Although in the contemporary era dominated by the Five Gods Church, large-scale sacrificial activities can no longer be seen, it can be known from those traditional stories that Midhillburg's characteristic festival, the autumn fire worship festival, originated from this."

Xia De had also heard of the local characteristic festival, but the mainstream view in modern times is that this is to pray that the dry autumn will not ignite mountain forest fires. After all, autumn is the most important season for logging, hunting, and fruit and vegetable harvesting.

He pondered, asking the poet about these things, just to see if he could get divinity in Midhillburg like in Cold Water Port. But clearly, the faith situation in this inland city was much more complex than he thought.

"Moreover, there is a saying that this ancient natural worship of fire has been absorbed by the Nature Church."

The poet lowered his voice, also knowing that it was best not to let a third person hear such words:

"However, if you are interested in understanding these things, you can ask Mr. Tels, the owner of this hotel. Although he is a believer of the Nature God 【Lord of All Things】, he worships fire very much."

"Understood."

Xia De nodded.

At this moment, footsteps came from the stairs again, and the hotel owner, with a sad face, followed by a police officer with a gun, came to the first floor to get the account book.

"It seems someone really died."

The poet, who had known the bearded boss for many years, shook his head:

"If someone dies in the hotel, it will affect business."

The waiter brought a new drink for the poet, who probably still expected to perform normally at night, so he just asked for a low-alcohol ale.

Xia De paid for the second drink:

"Twin worship, mountain worship, fire worship, this place is really interesting, maybe it can provide more inspiration for my new book."

He said this deliberately.

"Are you a writer?"

The poet asked curiously, and Xia De nodded:

"An unknown writer, do you know the 'Hamilton Detective Story Collection' serialized in the 'Steam Bird Daily'? I want to imitate this kind of detective novel and write a new book, and I am currently collecting material."

"Of course I know, this can almost be called the most popular story in Delarion this autumn. The 'Steam Bird Daily' is only distributed around Tobesk and in the central and western parts of the kingdom, but because of this serialized story, even in the Midhillburg area, you can now find places that sell expired 'Steam Bird Daily'."

Talking about detective stories, the bard had many topics:

"I also subscribed to a 'Steam Bird Daily' at the local post office. Unfortunately, it is copyrighted, otherwise I really want to adapt the story of Detective Hamilton into a poem... speaking of which, it's a coincidence that the final winner of the Great City Player, that knight of Lei Jiede, is also surnamed Hamilton."

He failed to connect the two successfully.

Footsteps came from the stairs again, and a senior police officer walked down from upstairs, calling the names of the two male waiters on the first floor, and the latter followed the police upstairs in a panic.

"The taller one was responsible for checking the corridor windows on the fourth floor last night and complained to Tels that the windows were leaking wind. The other was responsible for helping guests on high floors move luggage."

The poet told Xia De that he was very familiar with the situation here.

"Is this the start of the interrogation session? I don't know if anyone died because of this."

Xia De said in a low voice, and then asked:

"Besides twin worship and fire worship, are there any other localized faiths?"

There didn't seem to be any evil god faith here, or the poet didn't dare to say it, so Xia De could only explore these folkloric things. ===== CHAPTER 620 =====