At the sofa table on the second floor of the Traveler's Bar, Joyce scrutinized the work contract and finally picked up a pen and signed his name.

At Angela's prompting, Joyce glued her thumb from the stamp pad and pressed her own handprint.

"Is it destined to be in an unequal position?" Joyce sighed secretly, feeling like he had signed a deed of sale.

Following Angela, a burgundy girl with long hair, to Bodan Arthur's office, Joyce said goodbye to the slightly chubby middle-aged man: "Mr. Arthur, I'm sorry, there are still some things to arrange at home before work, and I will come back the day after tomorrow." ”

"Come in during the day and learn from Briley Burton until you're pretty good at the appraisal work, and then switch to working at night. Bodean Arthur agreed to give Joyce a day to adjust his time.

"Do you still have to work at night after all?"

Joyce was reluctant, but he could only accept it reluctantly.

"Director. ”

Before Joyce could leave, a lean man in a gray jacket was already outside the office door to signal to Bodan Arthur.

"What's the matter?"

Bodan didn't let Joyce out, and when he saw the lean man, he motioned for him to come in.

I saw a lean man enter the office and speak a few words in Bodrian Arthur's ear.

Joyce noticed that both Bodean and the lean man seemed to have inadvertently looked at him, but they didn't linger on him.

Joyce was eager to hear the lean man whisper something to Bodrian, but he couldn't hear what was going on until the lean man stepped away.

Joyce didn't know if it was because he was behind his back, or because he was being whispered to his face, and he was a little nervous.

"Joyce, have you met Baird Rupert today? After a brief thought, Arthur looked solemn and asked, staring at Joyce.

Looking at Bodean's expression, Joyce's bad premonition seemed to be ignited.

"Rupert Sr. came home for dinner in the afternoon. ”

Joyce wanted to immediately ask if something was wrong, but on the surface she was puzzled.

"Has Baird Rupert ever mentioned anything unusual to you?" said Bodean, pondering his words, staring at Joyce.

"Should I say anything?"

Joyce didn't know why, and didn't seem to have reacted to what was going on.

"Rupert Sr. died outside the cemetery. ”

Seeing that Joyce didn't know anything, Bodan threw out another sentence that made his mind buzz like a lightning strike.

"You're not telling the truth, it's impossible, old Rupert was fine when he came out of the house, how could he die outside the cemetery, you're lying......" Joyce was stunned for a moment, and then shouted at Bodrian Arthur, showing signs of losing control of his emotions.

At this time, Joyce's face was contorted, close to the wide desk, and he had the urge to beat up Bodean Arthur, and the lean man hurriedly pulled and hugged him.

The lean man didn't look burly, but his strength was surprisingly great, and his arms were stuck in the waist and abdomen of the owner Joyce, which not only made it difficult for him to step forward, but also strangled him with pain in the ribs.

"Joyce, you'd better calm down, what I'm saying is the truth, you may not know it yet, the Traveler's Bar in Rensu City, under the Imperial Military Intelligence Department, I don't need to lie to you about old Rupert. Bodean's expression became serious, revealing a clear sense of oppression.

"I don't believe it. ”

Joyce's struggling behavior has clearly betrayed the fact that he took Bodan's claims seriously.

"Carl, take Joyce home and have a look. ”

Bodean, who was slightly fat, had no intention of continuing to inquire about Joyce.

Joyce's excitement was not completely faked, when he heard the news of Rupert Sr.'s death, his heart was extremely sour, and his emotions were uncontrollable.

Joyce, who had a nightmare last night, once suspected that the tragic situation of old Rupert in his dream was a bad omen.

But after seeing that old Rupert had nothing to do this afternoon, Joyce no longer took the nightmare seriously, thinking that he had experienced strange things that had caused him to be in a bad mood, and he scared himself.

Joyce noticed the anomaly of old Rupert at dinner in the afternoon, and thought that he might say goodbye when he mentioned that he was going to enter the Gate of Radiance, but he didn't expect that something would happen to him.

Leaving the Traveler's Bar and getting into the carriage, Joyce was so confused that he even forgot how he was brought out by the lean man.

Unable to accept the news of Rupert Sr.'s death, the inexplicable fear of the unknown, and the lack of optimism about his own situation, Joyce didn't know how to deal with what happened next.

Golden Rose Street and Miner's Street are in the same district as Sauk, and the streets are not congested at night, and within ten minutes Joyce and the lean man got out of the carriage and turned into the alley where he lived.

In the dark and silent alley, near the door of Joyce's house, there were four or five shadows, and the doors of the other cabins were closed, and there was no movement inside.

When he arrived at his door, Joyce saw clearly that there were two people in the five shadows who knew him, that is, Frank Lampard, a middle-aged man he had seen at Toton Manor, and Meghan, the woman in the cape.

From the other two shadows looming closer to the lean man, Joyce could realize that the two were related to the Traveler's Bar, most likely from the police or the military.

"What happened to old Rupert?"

Joyce, who recognised Frank Lampard, did not hesitate to question him.

"He died near the cemetery, it was a murder, and the body was temporarily placed in the Sok District Police Station, and further autopsies are needed. Frank Lampard, wearing a top hat, was meant to mourn Joyce, but his eyes were watching his expression change.

"Why is this so, we are not rich, has Rupert Sr. offended anyone, who is going to kill him?" Joyce was agitated, and up to this point did not seem to be able to accept Rupert Sr.'s death.

"Joyce, you'd better keep your emotions in check, whether you face it up or not, it's already happening, do you want to scare the neighbors?" said the lean man known as Carl by Bodrian, with a straight look at Joyce.

Standing in the alley for a while, Joyce took a deep breath, as if to calm his mood swings: "I want to see the corpse of old Rupert." ”

Hearing Joyce's hoarse voice, Carl, the lean man, glanced at the broken lock of the cabin.

"Old Rupert's body will take you to see it, but you can't let go of the clues to solve the case, the murderer is likely to have entered the house, and when you come back, go into the house to see if there is anything missing. 'Frank Lampard is cold about the lean man and clearly cares about his presence.

Joyce's expression gradually became calm, and he followed the two groups into the small cabin, and he naturally saw that the door lock was broken.

"Who smashed the door lock, the murderer of Rupert Sr., or the forces that are secretly monitoring the situation?" Joyce didn't believe in the Church of the Goddess of Life, nor did he trust anyone from the Imperial Ministry of Military Intelligence.

At this time, Joyce could not tell whether it was Rupert Sr. who had a problem and attracted the covert monitoring of the two forces, or whether it was because he had an accident involving the psychic ritual that attracted the attention of all parties.

In the dark cabin, candles were lit and Lampard and the lean man carried kerosene lamps, which soon brightened the room.

The furnishings and objects in the chalet were clear in the light, and in Joyce's memory, the home had never been so bright at night.

Not only the old Rupert's cot, but Joyce's cot against the wall also had traces of rummaging.

"Maybe the person who came was in a hurry, maybe they didn't care, they didn't deliberately hide the details of the intrusion, it wasn't enough to kill old Rupert, and they had to come to the house to rummage through the bed and pull the cupboard, were they looking for something important?" Joyce looked at the messy scene in the cabin, thought quickly in his heart, and deliberately showed a look of anger.

Others may not know, but Joyce knows very well that he really has nothing of value in his home, and even a silver in a drawer has been taken out by him and carried with him.

Except that old Rupert may have hidden things that no one else knows, Joyce could not have imagined that anything of value could exist in this poor home that could be watched on.

"Obviously rummaged through, Joyce, do you see if there's anything missing in the house?" Lampard reminded Joyce, briefly rummaging through the cot.

"When I was about to go out, I took a silver Ao with me. Joyce said this, but looked at the small tin box on the ground.

The iron sugar box belonged to Rupert Sr., and Joyce knew he would put some important things in the box, such as the title deed and money.

In the past, Joyce would not have secretly opened the small tin box even if he knew about it, he thought it was too cheap, and he also looked down on old Rupert.

Generally speaking, Joyce's living expenses waited for old Rupert to put in the drawer of the small wooden table.

"The deed is still there, and there should still be money in it. ”

Joyce said, picking up the black-and-white photo in the small tin box.

This black-and-white photograph is the only photo of Rupert Sr., Joyce, and Elena together, taken in the photo studio when Elena graduated from girls' school.

In the photo, the elder Rupert has a deep expression, sitting in front of Joyce and Elena, slightly unnatural.

After rummaging for a while and failing to find anything of value, Lampard gestured to Ms Meghan in a cape, who took out items such as a silver mirror and an essential oil candle from his suitcase.

"Is this going to be a ceremony?"

Joyce knew very little about the occults, but he could roughly guess what the enforcers were trying to do.

Joyce couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart about the mysterious and unknown means, thinking about what he had done at Toton Manor, whether he would be caught.

After placing the silver mirror and other ritual items, Megan, the woman in the cloak, lit the three candles of the ceremony and released the blue-veined butterfly from the glass bottle.

"O blue-veined butterfly, please feel the past, and show what happened in this room before on the silver mirror. "The woman in the cloak asks for the blue-veined butterfly, not the goddess of life.

Seeing the blue-veined butterfly flapping its wings, fluttering in the cabin and emitting a little brilliance, and finally submerging into the rippling silver mirror, Joyce couldn't help but watch with bated breath as the silver mirror changed.