The time, in silence, came to dusk, and the breach in the wall of the molten iron city had been repaired all day and the fortifications had begun to take shape. The black smoke rising from the numerous blacksmith shops in the streets and alleys of the city is also a sign that the armaments consumed yesterday have been properly replenished. The inhabitants of this border city have repaired it with the enthusiasm with which they built it with their bare hands, walking on the streets of molten iron, the cool breeze blowing from the prairie does not make people feel cold at all, and the lights in the buildings make the whole city look like a huge, boiling furnace from above.

Lynn stood up after helping the two old men get water from the well and straightened the hair that fell from her sideburns. Look at the sky, it's not early, and it's time to go back and prepare dinner. With that in mind, the former maid picked up the basket at her feet and began to walk in the direction she had come. The passers-by showed a certain amount of respect when they saw this beautiful lady, and for no other reason, Lynn's dress had been stained with many stains from the day's work, and it was these stains that made the people of Molten Iron City understand that the people in front of them did not only care about their own nobles, but that she was a member of the pioneer city like them.

"I remember there was some food in the cellar, do I need to buy some more? Lynn with the basket thought. Thanks to the preparation of the Grand Duke of Hammer, the city did not suffer from a shortage of resources after the war, and although almost all the merchants from the kingdom left in normal times, the merchants who dealt in food and daily necessities were not affected in any way. On the contrary, in order to ensure that the residents have enough physical strength to survive these difficult years, many chamber owners even choose to sell food at reduced prices at this time. Such an act would undoubtedly have missed an opportunity to make a fortune, but as long as the war has passed, this good reputation will guarantee more long-term benefits.

At that moment, the banshee seemed to sense something, and the calm expression on her face changed, and she turned her head to the houses beside her. Without much hesitation, Lynn walked straight into the narrow passage in the middle of the house and disappeared into the shadows. As a child who grew up in molten iron, she was no stranger to the dark alleys between these houses, and when Lin was a child, she and her friends at the orphanage often used these spaces to play games, and the dean who was in charge of guarding them had to make up a series of stories about the terrifying monsters in the alleys to scare them and prevent the children from being in danger in the dark alleys.

So what is the truth in the alley? Is there really some monster lurking in the shadows of the building? Or is it just a white lie from adults who fear danger? Or is it just trying to hide the gloomy truth? At least to Lynn's knowledge, these alleys are indeed not dangerous, and the feeling of being surrounded by walls on both sides of the body can even give one a strange sense of reassurance.

But now is not the time for nostalgia, the former maid enters the alley with a back door with broken chains. The hinges on this wooden door were rusty and broken, apparently because the owner of the house rarely opened its ties. But I don't know if it's because of the awakening to become a banshee or a relationship with the cursed crow for a while, Lin keenly noticed when she picked up the hinge that was broken into two that the slight rust on the chain was not as serious as it seemed on the surface, at least not to the extent that it would be broken on its own. But where the chain is broken, the former maid can see very serious signs of weathering, as if different parts of the same chain have experienced different times, full of a sense of disobedience. Lin frowned slightly, she knew that the situation in front of her was definitely not due to the quality of the hinges, and there was only one explanation for this result in her opinion, magic.

Things have developed to this point, and the unnaturally broken hinge in her hand makes Lin retreat. She pondered the possibility of connecting with the Cursed Raven. But she didn't want to think about it too much, and the banshee's face turned to the other side, and she threw away the chain in her hand, the expression on her face indicating that she had made up some kind of determination. Lin pushed open the wooden door in front of her and stepped into the building. The strong musty smell made the banshee subconsciously take a few steps back, and the space behind the door was narrower than she had imagined, with only a staircase leading to the second floor, and nothing else. Lynn looked up the staircase, and she couldn't see anything on the second floor except for the unsettling cracks in the wooden staircase and the peeling patent leather.

A handkerchief was taken out of the basket and covered her mouth and nose, and the former maid cautiously stepped up the stairs. The wooden planks that crunched and groaned in pain were unsettling, making one suspect that the stairs under their feet would collapse at any moment. Lynn had to hold on to the moldy wall with one hand to make sure she didn't weigh all her weight down the stairs. The second floor of the building seemed to be unusually high, and the banshee guessed that the first floor of the building should be some kind of storefront, and only the ceiling of the tavern or grocery store was made of that height.

After a short and difficult trek, Lynn was able to complete all the stairs without any problems, and she was glad that the planks were not broken, perhaps because she was so light, and the former maid looked at the environment on the second floor with a smile. Said to be looking, in fact, there is nothing superfluous at the end of the stairs, only a wooden door is erected on the side, and a tattered wooden signboard is nailed to the door, Lin can vaguely recognize that the signboard is painted with a palm holding the scale, but unlike most patterns with the scale, the balance here is not erected upward, but is held horizontally by the palm, and the hanging baskets on both sides of the scale are tilted at will, giving people a strange feeling.

This is the mark of a debt collector. Although the molten iron belongs to the pioneers, it is undeniable that the residents here are more or less dislike the rules, credit, and fraud, which were quite serious at the beginning of the city's establishment. So in order to protect their own interests, the merchants hired some strong thugs to collect debts for themselves, and over time, debt collectors also became a special profession in the city. But this was a long time ago, as the construction of the city was on the right track, the Grand Duke of Hammer promulgated relatively lenient but highly enforceable laws, the atmosphere of molten iron gradually became clearer, and most of the debt collectors lost their business and turned to other businesses. Most of the signs that are still used today are gangsters that claim to be debt collectors.

Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Lynn opened the door to the second floor. The strong smell of blood and the shocking scene in front of her made the lady retch violently on the stairs.