Waiting in that bookstore was pointless for work, and at best saved the young people from having to endure the wind and snow on the streets. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

It didn't take much time to wait for the person who could submit the receipts to come back, and it turned out to be as pointless as Flick had originally anticipated. After careful comparison, it is easy to see that the books on the shelves have formal proof of loading, and the rest are also magazines that can be found everywhere.

Had it not been for the snowstorm today, they would have been able to complete the inventory checks of at least twenty bookstores, but no one seemed to want to take to the streets in such weather, even if it was just to go to the neighboring bookstore - the north wind was as sharp as a knife and could make people feel a pain in the blink of an eye.

However, the work still continues, and they have to make their way through the snow-buried streets under the leadership of Frick to their next destination. The road is completely covered by thick snow, and the occasional pedestrian may be able to leave footprints, but it won't take long to be completely covered, and walking down the street where the ups and downs are not even clear, you will accidentally step into a deep pit and get into trouble.

Some of the newcomers wrapped their heads in scarves and walked through the snowstorm-ridden streets, ankle-deep snow making it difficult for them to move. The streets were filled with snow-white ice particles, and the snowflakes almost paralyzed the streets of the North Gate.

Why do you insist on checking in such bad weather? Until then, it was the professionalism of these booksellers who had to open their shops even on a snowstorm day that Frick admired. If he had the chance, he would still like to protest to Director Black and ask for an increase in the salary for working in blizzard weather.

But today's work is almost over, and there are only two bookstores left on the task list that have not yet been visited by them. Turn the last corner and walk along the sidewalk that is not completely covered with snow for a while, and you will see two bookstores standing side by side.

Slightly different from the bookstores near the mainland, these two bookstores are small in size and have a tattered feel to them by comparison, as if the snow could have crushed it if it were any bigger. What's even more strange is that in today's cold wind, the door of the bookstore is open at random, and only a curtain sewn of thick cloth is used as a shelter from the wind, allowing snowflakes and cold wind to pour into the storefront.

Sensing that there was something strange about the atmosphere of the shop, Frick immediately ran over to it, and the flying slush stained his trouser legs in a strange black and white color. At that moment, the snow piled up on the canopy suddenly broke the weak support, and a large cloud of snow hit Frick's head.

Fortunately, his whole body was drowned in cold snow, and the cold air that penetrated his uniform made him shiver uncontrollably. But just as Suvar and the others tried to rush forward to help him clean up the slush that had accumulated on him, they were stopped by Frick.

"Don't come here. ”

Frick said to Suval, "You may not have noticed that the 'smell' of this bookstore is a little strange, and the appearance of the store is not quite right. Anyway, don't come close, let me go in and see what is going on, and you should be on guard...... If there is any abnormality, please evacuate immediately. ”

Although the road from the book market was complicated, Flick could deduce from the map in his hand that there was a large road hundreds of meters away. Even if the weather was terrible on this day, it was still a bit unusually deserted around the bookstore near the main road.

He shook off the snow that was sticking to his body and looked at the storefronts not far away, the two bookstores were unusually quiet, except for the sign that read "Buy and sell all kinds of books" and made a "quack quack" sound in the cold wind. The two bookstores were almost identical in their décor, and the windows on the street side were protected by a railing, so that Frick would have thought they were the same store if it weren't for a sign with different names placed outside the storefront.

Through the slightly darkened windows, Flick was able to see the books on display, and he quickly understood the difference between the two bookstores. On one side is Tarbris's History of Spellcasting Tools, a hardcover that is some years old, similar to the large books that contain Dr. Coulter's ciphertext, and on the other side are the recently published dictionaries and illustrated books that look very professional just by looking at them.

It seems that both of these stores sell specialized books related to the field of magic, one sells newly printed books, and the other sells old books that I don't know where to start. They were the last two bookstores on the list, but now they were all shrouded in an eerie silence.

For some reason, both stores exude an eerie atmosphere, and Flick subconsciously glances at the walls of the store between the open doors. The sturdy-looking red brick walls have been damaged in several places, but there are no signs of forced entry around the storefront.

There is no smell of people in the store...... Not even a creature breath, Frick lifted the thick cloth that blocked the store's entrance and squeezed into the storefront filled with books. Soon, he smelled something unpleasant—a sweet smell like rust, the smell of blood.

He could feel a sinister aura, the bookstore was unusually quiet, and when he walked into the door, the bell hanging in the corner of the door did not ring. Although he could always smell fresh blood on the tip of his nose, he couldn't find the source of the smell.

Walking through the bookstore, Flick could faintly hear some kind of hoarse cries and screams, but they only flashed in his ears for a moment before disappearing. He felt as if he could always hear some strange sounds in such a place, because the remnants of thought that had accumulated in the book were too large.

I don't know if it's because the books displayed in the cabinets and the chaotic arrangement of bookshelves block out the light outside, and the inside of the bookstore looks very dim. There was a huge amount of dust floating in the air, as if the room had not been cleaned in a long time, and just moving it would stir up a large cloud of dust.

If you look at the various books lined up on the shelves, they are all old books with a history of more than ten years, and I don't know how many readers have changed hands. As Flick saw when he looked outside the store, this bookstore is the kind of second-hand bookstore that specializes in second-hand antique books.

In the eyes of those in need, the things sold in this bookstore may be of great value, because there are always rare and rare books that are hard to find in the market. For the scribes, this kind of shop selling ancient books of unknown origin is also difficult to control.

But that doesn't mean that any scholar is happy to see murders in used bookstores – rather, the killings of such periods make people think about strange places. What's more, there was also an unidentified group that tried to bury the traces left by William Kurt during this time.

He continued his way into the second-hand bookstore, and finally found a tightly closed metal door in the innermost part of the labyrinth surrounded by bookshelves, and the glass on the door was covered with hoarfrost due to the low temperature. It was probably the shopkeeper's personal office, and he realized that the smell of blood he was smelling was coming from the front.

Even if he didn't open the metal door in front of him, Frick could guess what was behind the door, but after he actually opened the door, he was still startled by the tragic situation that appeared in front of him - I am afraid that even people who have dealt with similar cases many times will not be able to suppress the churning in their stomachs when they see this scene.

There were about two corpses in the room, but they were all reduced to pieces, and the bones and flesh were mixed together, spreading a cloudy red and black color. It looked as if the bomb buried in their bodies had exploded, and not even a single piece of limb could be found.

Looking at the red-stained office in front of him, Frick barely took a deep breath to calm himself, but the strong smell of blood filled his nostrils for a moment. What kind of bad taste does it have to be to fiddle with a corpse like this? Frick doesn't want to believe who did it, but he barely manages to find something in the pool of blood that can reveal the murderer's target.

It was a handful of burnt fragments, buried beneath a mass of flesh and blood, vaguely recognizable as it had been before it was destroyed. If the person who burned them was trying to hide some important information in this way, then he was probably halfway there.

The reason why Frick thinks he's only "half" done is because the remnants of the information on the pages were picked up by a scrivener before they dissipated. Since it was left to the security officers to find out nothing, it was better to "identify" which book the fragments came from for them.

He endured the pungent smell of blood and searched around the office, finally reluctantly collecting a page of charred fragments - they had apparently been burned recently, and Frick could still feel some magic in the fragments, the book had apparently been handled in a special way.

It's hard to tell which book they once belonged to from the burned-out black ash, maybe let the magician analyze the sample, and maybe tell how many spells have been applied to it from the traces of magic. However, as a scrivener, Frick had a few ways to deal with it - such as gathering the pieces together and projecting the remaining magic onto a blank piece of paper.

"This is...... Why did William Coulter's "Soul and Spirit" be burned here?" and the answer he received made him feel a little uneasy, "and the people who have the book have also suffered accidents, and it seems that those guys have already discovered the ciphertext he left behind......"

This does not bode well, and those guys are really doing what Akuli said, and they are already in action.