A week later, the 'Never Water' tavern.

The bright afternoon sun brought a little cozy warmth to the slightly cool weather, and a few stray dogs lay lazily outside the tavern door, patiently waiting for the leftovers to come. There are few things that interest them except food, not even the bold provocation of a broke-tailed cat not far away.

However, the stray dogs blocked the door of the tavern somewhat, and one of the guests who wanted to enter the tavern shouted at them and kicked them hard before letting them move a little farther away.

There were not many customers in the tavern, and the few guests were either leisurely smoking pipes and reading newspapers, killing boring time, or two people playing some strange cards. With the slight sound of cards falling on the table, as well as greetings such as 'sorry', 'thank you', and 'good play', it is clear that both sides are very polite.

Benjamin, the tavernkeeper, walked out of the kitchen with his plate in his hand and placed food and drinks on the table of the new guest. The food on the plate was quite ordinary, with freshly baked white bread, a few slices of ham, a handful of cheese, a large spoonful of boiled beans with tomatoes, and four fresh raw eggs.

The guest picked up a raw egg from the plate and slapped it into a beer glass, "I heard that there has been some unrest in the city recently, and there have been a lot of things." Then he picked up the second one and casually chatted with Benjamin, "It seems that this winter is another 'cold winter'." ”

"What's wrong?" Benjamin watched as the guest sucked the egg on his finger, "Is there another beggar or drunkard who died on the side of the road?"

"No, it's not us ordinary people at the bottom who have had an accident this time!" the guest paused after adding the third egg, and began to stir the beer with a spoon, "It's those nobles of high status, and there are several nobles who have had an accident. ”

"What's that? Could it be that your cousin on the patrol told you again?" Benjamin sat down curiously, "Tell me about it. ”

The guest took a sip of the cloudy beer with raw eggs and nodded in satisfaction, "If I told you, you must not spread the word!" he commanded in a low voice, "You must know that these things are only circulating in the town hall at the moment, and they are not going to make them public. "When the guest said the word 'temporary', he gestured with both hands in quotation marks, and it was clear that the time of 'temporary' would not be too short.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone anything!" Benjamin gave the other a 'I am very reliable' look, but neither side really cared about such unrealistic assurances.

Come on, this is a tavern, not too lively, but it's also a tavern! Any secret that comes out of this place is the equivalent of some beautiful woman dancing naked (harmoniously) in the city's largest laurel square—or the whole city will know about it soon. So here, 'confidentiality' is a very unrealistic promise. But then again, if you don't have the phrase "don't pass it on" as a foreshadowing before telling the "secret", you will always feel that something is missing, and it will seem that the preciousness of your "secret" is insufficient.

After beating the last raw egg on the hot tomato boiled beans and stirring it briefly, the guest said excitedly, "You may not know that a little maid in the Countess Teressa's mansion was tied to a kitchen chair one night!"

"Tied to a chair, is the maid hurt?" asked Benjamin, "who did that, thief?"

"That's what's weird about the whole thing. Nothing was lost in the Earl's Palace, and the guards found nothing. And when the maid woke up, she couldn't say why, but ......," the guest said, and paused unexpectedly.

"But what?" asked Benjamin cooperatively.

"But, hehe...... "the guest laughed lewdly before he said, "my cousin told me that the maid still had something milky white left on her mouth when she was woken up. Hey, I think you should know what I'm referring to. ”

It's not hard to guess that Benjamin is the owner of the tavern, "Could it be that the perpetrator is a daring pervert?" he frowned and asked, I don't know how many innocent girls are going to suffer now, "Did the pervert catch it?"

"Nope. The guest shook his head.

"Why did he do it to a maid? Is that maid beautiful?" asked Benjamin again.

"I don't know if it's beautiful or not, anyway, this matter is so qualitative for the time being. He said 'temporarily' again, and put a quotation mark in quotation marks, "The follow-up results will depend on whether there are any new discoveries, but I guess it is very suspenseful, you should know how the garrison of our city is, otherwise strange things will not happen often." He tore open the white bread and began to eat the boiled beans with tomatoes mixed with raw eggs.

"The Countess is fine. Benjamin threw the eggshells off the table into the trash.

"Cut, she wanted to have an accident, but who could be interested in an old woman in her seventies?" the guest took a few bites, then chopped the cheese with a knife and added it to the boiled beans.

Even though he'd seen it many times, Benjamin's strange way of eating was still a little puzzling. He looked away from the mushy food of the guest, "Lady Teresa is a little old, but she is very well maintained, and I heard that she is still charming and charming. ”

"It's only daytime, if it's midnight,......" the guest suddenly stopped, glanced at the tavernkeeper, and then said slowly, "In the middle of the night, write the costume, who knows what it will look like." ”

Benjamin didn't ask much reasonably, "A pervert is not a big deal, right?" ”

"There's more to it than that!" said the guest, looking excited, "you wouldn't guess that the 'quokkaby' family was also attacked in the middle of the night. ”

Baron Richard, their family's coat of arms is a quokka that gnaws like leaves, "That pervert did it?"

"Uh...... , I guess it's not the same person, after all, the nature is not the same. "The thug jumped from the tree to the top of Baron Richard's carriage, punched the baron's coachman unconscious, and kidnapped the baron with a weapon into a side alley......"

"Isn't that pervert?"

"Probably not. "Fortunately," said the guest, "the noise made by the assailant when he landed in the carriage attracted the attention of a patrol not far away, who saw the stopped carriage and the fainting servant, searched the vicinity and rescued the baron." ”

"What is the purpose of the gangsters?" asked Benjamin.

"It's a robbery, after all, the 'quokkaby' family has never had any enemies, and the people of their family are like animals on their coats of arms, which makes people feel good. "And that's what the baron himself said," said the guest, as he ate. He said that his captors had robbed him and had taken some of his belongings with him. But my cousin happened to be on patrol at the time, and when he saw the baron's face, he told me that it might not be that simple. ”

The guest took another sip of beer, "You know my cousin, his eyes are quite keen, if there is a businessman secretly evading taxes, he will definitely catch a good one! So every time the tax officer collects taxes, he will call my cousin, maybe he can become a tax collector in the future!"

Hmph, that's what you do with the sharpest, Benjamin sneered in his heart, "Is there anything else?"

"Of course, otherwise how can it be called 'cold winter'. The guest glanced up at the two men who were arguing loudly over playing cards, and then looked down at the tavern keeper and said, "Viscount Bevis has also had an accident." ”

"What's going on?" asked Benjamin in surprise, "how dare anyone do anything to him?"

Viscount Bevis, a branch of the Gustin family. The family was very influential in the Holy Araso Kingdom, and the head of the family, Duke San Gusterburg, belonged to the kind of real duke who had a large number of fiefs. Their family always claimed to have dragon blood, and even the family coat of arms was a dragon of unknown kind. And in order to ensure the purity of their own blood, their clansmen generally only intermarry within the family.

The Gustin family has an elongated tail behind their buttocks, and Viscount Bivis is no exception. They always say that the tail is a dominant proof of dragon blood, but people don't believe it, and privately prefer to call them the 'ape family'.

"When Viscount Bevis slept in the middle of the night, he felt that someone was touching his ass. The guest recounted, frowning.

"That pervert. ”

"Uh...... I don't know. "At first, the viscount thought that the man who touched him was his cousin, but then he remembered that his cousin had gone back a few days earlier......

"And then?"

"The Viscount who woke up tried to fight back, but found himself tied to the bed!" said the guest, "The Viscount's limbs were tied to the corners of the bed, and his mouth was tightened with cotton cloth......

"Wait, didn't he wake up before?" the tavernkeeper wondered, "I mean, when he was gagged and tied to the bed. ”

"Because he was actually knocked unconscious. "I mean, he was knocked unconscious, tied to the bed, and then woke up thinking he was sleeping and his cousin was touching his buttocks. ”

Benjamin suddenly said, "You go on." ”

The assailant asked the viscount a few strange questions, looked at the tail on his buttocks, and then turned away. ”

"Didn't take anything?" Benjamin was curious, everything was weird.

"Yes, I didn't take anything, isn't it strange!" said the guest, again lowering his voice, "in fact my cousin told me that he suspected that the man had been sent by the king. That's what I think myself. ”

"Why?"

"You think, such a large and fertile land in the area of St. Gusterburg belongs to the Gustin family, and their family has a lot of troops. Although this is what the great Thao I promised, the heart of our current king is very high, and he may feel a little tired of it, and want to cut these branches first, collect incriminating evidence, and then cut down a piece of land. ”

"Is it possible?" asked Benjamin, puzzled, "compared to other countries, there are already very few fiefdom nobles in our country, and wouldn't it cause dissatisfaction among the aristocratic class to do so again?"

"Who can say for sure about rights, anyway, it has nothing to do with you and me. The guest said. He then told the tavernkeeper about two other cases of the nobles being attacked, and swept away the food from his plate.

When the guest saw Benjamin himself tidying up the table, he asked, "What about the big waiter you just recruited?"

"On the second floor. It seems that a relative of him has come over and is chatting. Benjamin replied.

......