The blade clattered to the ground, and Harlow looked up at Hodge, his face still scruffy, but the toughness he had shown in the battle was still fresh in his memory.

There were several cuts in his forehead from the sound blade, and blood trickled down his eyelids, causing his eyes to narrow into a slit.

"How do you know that I'm the real murderer?"

"Because the timing of your appearance is too coincidental. "As thankful as I am grateful that you saved my life, I still felt that you showed up in time, as if I had expected to be attacked by a crossbow arrow, so I asked Lord Layton to take someone down the street, and luckily, I eventually found some clues that confirmed my suspicions." ”

"That crossbow arrow, sure enough, is your handiwork. His voice turned cold, after all, the bolt had nearly killed him, and even if Harlow had saved him in his plan, it still couldn't quench his anger.

"No way. Harlow's throat twitched slightly, and the sweet smell of blood began to overflow in his throat, "I've cleaned up all the arrangements. ”

"Maybe you're not as clean as you thought you were. ”

Hodge walked around him and said, " At least the patrol team found obvious scratches in the corner of the wall, and a small piece of soft but extremely strong toughened filament, I think you arranged a fixed-angle crossbow in a hidden position, the clamp that fixed the crossbow string was removed by you, and the tenament was used as a substitute, and then the silk thread was secretly arranged along the corner of the wall, and the moment we walked by, loosen the filament, and the crossbow bolt would naturally shoot out of the shadows, although it was not the same as the ordinary aiming method, but as a high-ranking knight, you could still shoot the arrow before I was about to reach the crossbow arrow hit position。 ”

"It's just your guess. Harlow's voice became hoarse, and he spat out a mouthful of bloody spit, "At best, it just makes you suspect me, but compared to Carter, who is obviously more suspicious, it's not enough for you to guess that I'm the real murderer." ”

"Of course, you've left me with a lot of clues, all of which point to Carter more explicitly, but I'm a special person, and I like to figure it out thoroughly, even if it's the slightest suspicion, so I asked Layton why you're called a legend of the North. ”

"Twelve years ago, you were just a little knight in the Frontier Lands, just like Leiden now, serving as a patrol guard in a town called "Yasu", and in the winter of that year, thirty bandits in the snow forest plundered the town, and Yasu's patrol team was defeated by the bandits in the first encounter, and a handful of people died at the hands of the bandits, and many more people, including the captain of the guard, fled from Yasu in a hurry. ”

"It's just you, and there are very few guards left in the city, guarding the town for your oath. ”

"It was also at that time that you single-handedly overthrew a dozen bandits on horseback, protected the town, and kept your oath to make you famous in a battle, "Heroic" Harlow, the Duke of the North personally named you, what a glorious and glorious one, and you received the greatest praise that a man could achieve. ”

"Then you left Yasu, and heard that you had gone back once in two years, but soon returned on horseback, and were depressed for a long time. ”

"I said I was curious, so I spent a lot of effort to find records about Yasu, in the official record, Yasu was a ruined town ten years ago, a plague killed everyone, but I received some special sources of information that there were merchants from other places who were stopped outside the town of Yasu, and it was not long before Yasu ignited a fire. ”

"This didn't seem to be a problem, and it was normal to isolate the plague in time, but it was worth noting that it was not the guards who blocked the entry of the foot traders, but the slave owners' private army. ”

"Why would the slave owners' private forces take over the task of the city guards?"

"This source is too old to know what happened, and it seems that the thread will be interrupted here, but luckily I found the answer at my residence in Virginia. ”

Hodge pulled out a narrow piece of paper from the lining of his clothes, densely written in tiny font - what seemed to be a person's name?

Seeing this piece of paper, Harlow's pupils suddenly constricted, his breathing became rapid, and he exclaimed in disbelief: "Impossible, how can you get this list, it should be-"

"You should have got it, right?" Hodge said, taking his words, "When I found Virginia's body, I found that the killer had taken something from him, what looked like a book, I guessed it was a diary, it was a ledger, but the real answer was this thing in my hand. ”

"A list. ”

Now that he thinks about it, he should really be grateful for Virginia's quirk - symmetrical obsessive-compulsive disorder.

When he went to the Francois Chamber of Commerce, he specially questioned Arthur again and learned the information that had been left behind, and that Virginia's relics, whether they were ledgers or diaries, existed in pairs.

Then, maybe the thing that was taken by the murderer was not only one.

The news that the dice got from the luck and inspiration is that Virginia's symmetrical obsessive-compulsive disorder is "absolute", not only for things, but also for people, so the empty room covered with dust in Virginia's residence seems abnormal, since there are people living opposite, then this room should also be occupied, why is it vacant?

Unless the room was used for something that no one could know, Virginia went against her obsessive-compulsive wishes.

Since the design of the house is symmetrical, the placement of items should also be symmetrical.

Hodge first went to the room opposite the unmanned room, this room has always been used by Arthur, Virginia often likes to sleep here, Arthur is a male slave he cultivated, this poor little boy has almost been brainwashed, as long as Virginia orders, he will definitely not dare to disobey, so Hodge asked him, in this room, which places are Virginia prohibited him from using?

Following the locations he had obtained, Hodge went to the dusty room and found the list in the cracks of the bedside drawer.

"There are a lot of names on this list, and I've been wondering what the point of this list is, why did the killer deliberately take it, was it a wrong clue left on purpose, or did this list have a meaning that I don't know?"

"By chance, I opened the account of the inhabitants of Asu before the plague came, and was surprised to find that all the people on this list could be found in the records of the inhabitants of Asu, and was it a coincidence? ”

"Elenor (mine). ”

"Hey, isn't that name Eugene's slave mistress?"

"In the records of your reign of Yasu, it is mentioned that in the first year you lived in a weaving family, and the daughter of that family happened to be named Elenor. ”

"Coincidence is called coincidence because it is not repetitive, and it is clear that this is no longer explained by coincidence. ”

"Continuing the in-depth investigation, shocking facts are laid out in front of us. ”

"It was a monstrous sin that would not be forgiven anywhere. ”

At this point, Hodge unconsciously squeezed the back of his hand, relieved his breath for a while, and then told the heavy truth.

"For the sake of profit, the slave owners falsely claimed that Yasu was ravaged by the plague, and then—turned all the townspeople into their commodities. ”

"Slaves. ”