Even in the midst of a snowstorm, the security officer could be on the scene within five minutes - of course, after receiving a report that he had managed to run to the straight sentry post. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

After confirming the deplorable situation inside the bookstore, Frick had two of the trainee scribes waiting outside the door rush to a nearby sentry post to report what had happened, while he stayed with the rest of the group. Since the murder occurred at the site of the scheduled investigation, their work can only be stopped for the time being, and regardless of the obligation to protect the scene, there is a possibility that he, as the first discoverer, can be regarded as a suspect.

However, this suspicion was immediately cleared up after the police officer who arrived saw the scene of the murder, after all, if you want to destroy the human body into this appearance, you must at least have a mage who can unleash powerful damage spells. Although the scribes also possessed some special abilities for combat, destroying the people in the store to such an extent was clearly out of the ordinary and did not look like a simple murder.

A security officer who looked like the person in charge of the scene, after cleaning the dirt from his mouth, honestly admitted to Frick that they had initially thought that there had been a robbery and murder in the bookstore, and that they had not expected to see such a tragic scene when they entered the office.

"We've had similar reports a few times in the past, and as you know, second-hand bookstores tend to have more cash on hand than regular bookstores because they sometimes have some rare books on the market. ”

He let out a sigh of relief, and said in a tone that did not want to recall the tragic situation in the office, "But the prisoner's goal is obviously not for some strange book that may exist, but for something else...... After all, human beings are fragile after all, and they will die if they are pierced. Although I was startled by the horror at first, looking back on it feels a little unusual—whatever their goal, destroying the corpses to pieces was still too exaggerated. In other words, there is a reason why they do not hesitate to destroy the victim's body to such an extent...... And I don't know if it's intentional, we didn't find any fragments belonging to the 'head'. ”

The security officers who were investigating at the scene endured their nausea and collected the flesh and debris scattered in the office, and the preliminary assessment was indeed about the same as two people.

But at best, it was only collected, after all, the guard officer was not a madman with a habit of playing with corpses, and naturally he would not assemble the scattered fragments like a puzzle. However, with their knowledge and years of experience, they were able to discern which parts of the fragment were there.

Thus, as the security officer said, they do not appear to have belonged to the fragments of the "heads" of the two victims. While it is possible that most of the bones were blown away like the pieces of flesh, it was more like someone had taken them away by someone when they disappeared so completely.

After investigating the blood-stained office, the officers also searched the second-hand bookstore thoroughly to find clues related to the case. It was not in vain, for they found a roll of brown kraft paper on the counter, and a haphazard mass of rubber bands, apparently not long after someone had opened them, and the kraft paper packet still bearing the mark of this morning's delivery.

Just as one of the guards was about to withdraw from the haphazard stack of books, he seemed to stumble upon something lying horizontally on the ground, and the pile fell off balance and fell to the ground. He was standing in the doorway of his office when he bumped into another pile of books in order to avoid falling objects.

He had avoided as much damage as possible, but one of the cufflinks on his shirt had accidentally hung on a sealed cardboard box. A dull dull sound was heard, and the contents of the box were scattered on the floor, including several packets of the same type of kraft paper.

"To tell you the truth, we opened the package on the spot. ”

The security officer handed the half-torn package to Frick: "I don't know if it's taken for granted, it's all hardcover books that are old." These bookstores sell strange books - at least from the titles of these books, we don't have much access to them. I know you're experts in this area, and maybe you can see any 'special' value in them. ”

It was a heavy book entitled "The Secret Medicine Cauldron of Lastou Quest", published in 1853 by the 'Sandalwood Bookcase' at the Gate of the North. In fact, Frick had not heard of the book and could not recognize the author...... This is a typical private book.

With the permission of the guard, he opened the book and browsed through its contents—which, as the title suggests, was a record of how alchemical potions were blended...... Or maybe some alchemist's private records. His content is full of many unfounded opinions, theories that completely contradict modern alchemical theory, and what is even more surprising is that the most space in this book is actually the formula of potions such as kitsch.

If the book is handed over to a ******** of the Great Library for publication, it will most likely be banned by the reviewers for various reasons, and at the very least, many problematic chapters will be deleted. This is the advantage of private printing agencies, they hardly care what the author writes in the book, as long as they can get the money, even if it is mixed with a lot of nonsense and prohibited content can be printed.

Looking at the other magic books found by the security officer in the cardboard box, Frick couldn't help but admire these folk books that had not been reviewed by the big library, they covered so wide of scope that he couldn't help but be stunned. From sensual novels written by unknown foreign authors to conspiracy theories that seem to be built up from the nonsense of laymen, they do appeal to a niche audience of all kinds, regardless of the content.

Almost all of these books have not been vetted by local libraries, so it's no surprise that the content is full of bizarre and bizarre theories – but if you ask if any of them are "valuable" from an academic point of view, then the answer is still there.

Many folk booksellers don't use their real names when they publish, because they also know that what they're going to print isn't a good book. Whether it's to avoid being tracked down by security officers or to avoid attracting the attention of the library, they have no choice but to use code names.

However, even if they are only circulated on the black market, some private booksellers who publish banned books or complete editions of strange books are still quite famous - such as this publishing house called "Sandalwood Bookcase".

They have been around for a long time, even being one of the top 10 on the library's blacklist, and have been subject to strict censorship and banning. But for some reason, they have never been completely defeated, and they even have a high value on the black market due to the dwindling number of surviving books.

Some people think that there are high-ranking scribes in the "sandalwood bookcase", because this publishing house can even reproduce some extremely rare and unique magic books in their entirety. Through their hands, some dangerous magic books have already entered the market, causing even worse effects.

Whatever they thought and what they did with their abilities, Flick would never forget that William Coulter had several books published in full through them. In particular, the old book with ciphertext was also published and printed by the "Sandalwood Bookcase".

If there are many books published by the "Sandalwood Bookcase" in this bookstore, then it may be assumed that the fragments of books found in the office were also distributed by them. The group that killed William Coulter is destroying the few full-length books he left behind.

"They do have some kind of 'special' value, but I can't be sure what I think right now...... Flick suppressed his thoughts, "Maybe they're the reason why the shopkeeper was killed, but it's just one or two, so it shouldn't be necessary." ”

He felt that the owner of the second-hand bookstore must have some kind of relationship with private booksellers such as "Sandalwood Bookcase", and that was their main business. If you will be killed because you own the books of this publishing house, then I am afraid that not only the owner of this bookstore will be killed by that organization.

Having said that, is it really good to reveal so much information in one breath to someone like himself who does not belong to the guard officer system? Frick couldn't help but look at the security officer who walked to him with suspicion, but the other party motioned him not to ask with his eyes, and at the same time got a little closer.

"This is not the first case. ”

"In recent months, we have found at least ten second-hand booksellers who have died in violence, and although they have left behind different bodies, all of them have had their heads removed," he said to Frick in a voice that no one could hear. This is undoubtedly a series of vicious incidents, but there are people above who want to disguise things as unrelated robbers and murderers...... In fact, I suspect they have something to do with where a batch of books went. ”

The information revealed by the security officer clearly confirmed Frick's bad premonition, and the group had begun to act in order to wipe out William Coulter's influence. They didn't care about the abridged editions that were widely distributed by libraries, but instead set their sights on the complete editions printed by private booksellers.

I don't know if it's out of a sense of justice or a sense of responsibility, maybe it's just out of pure curiosity, and the officer wants to get to the bottom of the matter. Frick was the first scribe to be involved in this incident, so he wanted his help to investigate this strange case thoroughly.

However, this was clearly not a good place to exchange information, and the security officer clearly had a lot to tell Frick. So he quietly shoved a crumpled white piece of paper into Frick's hand, and returned to the bookstore to investigate the scene.