"Woohoo!"

"Woohoo!"

The barking of dogs echoed in the darkness, the cold wind blew through the leaves, rattling, and the dark clouds drifted, revealing the bright moonlight. Valery stood at the edge of the mine, looking at the dark bushes ahead, his body stiff, his back tingling, he didn't dare to move, his heart pounding as if he wanted to jump out of his throat.

He didn't know what was in the forest, but the presence that was able to cause two hounds to bark wildly .... It's definitely not easy!

It could be a black bear out foraging.... It could also be a poisonous snake .... Could it be a wild boar?

All kinds of speculations flashed in Valery's heart, and cold sweat gradually flowed, and in the moonlit creeping forest, except for the sound of dogs barking and leaves whisking, there was a dead silence, but it was precisely this dead silence atmosphere, which was creepy and chilling.

Crash!

"Woohoo!"

The leaves suddenly rattled, and the leading hound, Vka, as if he had discovered his prey, suddenly climbed over the fence and rushed into the bushes, and then Kraft, who was holding a kerosene lamp, let go of the iron ring in his mouth, bit Valery's trouser leg and began to drag, as if trying to drag him away from the bushes.

"Fka! Fka!"

Valery didn't want to go, he was worried about his hound, holding a shotgun in one hand, and shouting loudly to recall Vka, who rushed into the bushes, but suddenly there was a hound's dying whimper in the woods, Valery's body shook, and his head "buzzed" blank all of a sudden.

The tugging sensation from his feet was gone, and the last hound, Kraft, hearing the whimper of his companion before he died, raised his head high, stared at the dark and gloomy bushes, and sprang out like a sharp arrow.

"Kraft! Come back!"

Valery screamed, and his stiff legs tried to catch up, but this time....

The dying whimper came faster and closer!

Kraft, who had just rushed into the bushes, fell, and the other party was already close in front of him, Valery was holding a shotgun, his arms were trembling, his stomach was tumbling, and there was a burst of bitterness in his throat, as if he was about to vomit, and his whole body was occupied by fear.

Crash!

The bushes parted, and in the bright moonlight, a huge figure emerged from the darkness, Valery's eyes widened violently, his heart contracted, and he subconsciously held his breath, even forgetting to pull the trigger.

Or maybe....

It was he who thought that a shotgun would not be able to kill the other at all.

Valery stepped back, he couldn't even make a sound, his mind went blank, he couldn't think of anything, and suddenly, the soles of his feet stepped into the air.

The body fell backwards, and the sound of the wind sounded in his ears, instead of being afraid, Valery had a sense of happiness to quickly escape from the other party, and the next second....

Poof!

"What's the sound?"

The workers who had gathered to play cards and drink in the workshop heard a muffled noise coming from behind the house, looked at each other, and hurriedly rushed out of the house to see the corpse lying in the open space behind the house.

"It's old Valery!"

"He accidentally fell!"

The workers threw away the pokers in their hands and rushed forward, and poor old Valery had already fallen into a bloody blur, except for a pair of eyes as big as brass bells, as if they had seen something terrible.

No one noticed that on the edge of the cliff, a long sword with a flickering cold light provoked the kerosene lamp on the ground, and a huge figure stood on the edge of the cliff, looking at the bright moonlight overhead, and it didn't take long....

The figure returned to the forest with a kerosene lamp.

Following.

Early in the morning, a carriage with the flag of the Church of Truth came and stopped outside the mine, the door opened, and a figure jumped down first, it was the worker that Valery Sr. stopped after work yesterday.

The workers were accompanied by a priest holding the Book of Truth, and behind him stood two young men in suits and leather shoes with somewhat pale faces.

"Old Valery! Old Valery! See who's coming?"

The worker rushed to the wooden house and knocked on the door, "Open the door! God Father has come to see you!

」

The worker thought it was a little incredible, and when he had entered the city last night, when he passed by the church, he remembered the instructions of old Valery, and told the priest about the recent anomalies in the forest.

The priest, who was talking to the two young men, heard of the unusual situation in the forest, immediately asked for the names of the workers and the address where he worked, and said that he would return to the mine with him the next day.

The workers did not dare to slack off, and set out early in the morning with the priest.

Knock knock!

Knock knock!

After knocking on the door for a few minutes and finding that no one in the house responded, the worker leaned on the window, spat in his palm, vigorously wiped the thick layer of soot from the window, looked around for a long time, and then turned around and said, "Father Broca, old Valery is not there."

"Hmm."

The priest holding the Book of Truth nodded, his eyes swept over the surrounding forest, and said in a deep voice, "Let's take a look at the mine area first."

Led by the workers, Father Broca and his men entered the mine and found the workers gathered together, talking and sighing.

"What? Old Valery is dead?!"

After questioning, the workers learned of the death of old Valery, and they were speechless in shock.

Yesterday.... Obviously he was fine yesterday, why did he die all of a sudden?

"I accidentally fell off the mountain during the night patrol.... Alas." Several of the workers said with complicated expressions, "Old Valery must have drunk before the night patrol, he should not have made such a mistake..."

Father Broca asked, "Where is the body?"

"At the back of the workshop, Ratkin's guy is organizing someone to bury it..."

"Ratkin" is the nickname of the mine owner, Darigav, which means the round fat pig, and the workers call him in private, only calling out "boss" when they are face-to-face.

Father Broka and his men walked through the mine and came to the workshop, where they happened to see a group of people carrying a corpse covered with a white cloth into the freshly dug pit, and the mine owner Darigav stood by and commanded, his cunning little eyes flashed around, and he pulled little Valery next to him, and shoved a few ruble coupons into little Valery's arms, and muttered non-stop.

"Priest!"

"Father Broca is here!"

In the crowd, someone found the arrival of Father Broca, and when he heard this name, the mine owner Darigav's body trembled, and a trace of panic flashed on his face, and he grabbed little Valery and gave him a few vicious admonitions, and hurried to meet him.

"Father.... Father Broca! Good morning! The weather is really nice today! Why are you here?" Darigav's little eyes looked at the two pale-faced young men who had arrived with Father Broca, and asked, "Who are these two friends?" New monks recruited by the Church?"

As he spoke, Darigav took out a few rouble coupons from his bosom and stuffed them into the hands of the two young men, as if he had formed a habit, "This is my donation to the church.... No one is more loyal to the goddess of truth than I am! I swear! If I lie, let me ***!"

The two young men looked at him coldly, and instead of accepting the ruble coupon, they took out a brown leather book with a classical cane badge from their arms, and spread it out: "Aurora Society, Central Operations Department, Joseph."

"Aurora Society, Central Operations Department, Roland."

The smile froze on his face suddenly, and Darigav retracted his arm with lightning speed, hid the ruble coupon behind him, and closed his mouth with a sneer.

He had heard of the Aurora Society, a special organization set up by Pope Mavi, headed by Archbishop Levin, independent of the Central Holy See, directly under the orders of the Pope and the Goddess, and not subject to the jurisdiction of the College of Cardinals.... It is said that the members of it, all with eight arms and six heads, have unique skills and can use strange magic, and if they are targeted, they can declare the end of their lives....

Now it seems that the eight arms and six heads are pure rumors, and the street gossip really can't be believed....

But how could the aurora appear here?

Darigav looked at Father Broca, who walked over to the dirt

In front of the pit, after holding down his chest and reciting a prayer, he asked the workers to carry the body out, and said in a serious tone: "Recently, there have been several cases of disappearance around the city of Pechaola, most of the missing people are hunters from nearby villages, and there are two policemen investigating the case.....

Hearing this, Darigav breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the Aurora Society was not coming at him, and with a smile on his face again, he stepped forward and said, "Father Broca, is there anything I can do to help?"

"Please call the workers at the time of the incident, and I will inquire about the situation."

Originally, the investigation should have been entrusted to the local police, but unfortunately, because the case was likely to involve supernatural powers, the Church had to intervene, and after the "change of heaven", the local police system was in a state of stagnation and had not yet been fully restored, so Father Broca had to take the lead himself.

Fortunately, he had read articles written by Dilloc Holmes in the newspaper, and he still knew a lot about the process of solving the case.

Lifting the white cloth covering the body, Father Broca began to examine the body, "There are no unnecessary external injuries.... There are no traces of a fight .... Missing a left arm .... All the entrails..."

Father Broca, who didn't notice anything unusual, picked up the shotgun on the ground, broke the chamber, and found that both bullets were there, and there was no gunpowder left in the rifling.

The gun had not been fired, and the body had no signs of a fight other than a fall, could it be an accidental fall?

"Where did old Valery fall?"

"Right here!" "Last night we were playing cards, and suddenly we heard something falling from behind the house, and when I rushed out to look, I saw that it was old Valery, who patrolled the mine every night and never had an incident!"

Father Broca looked up, looked at the cliff above the pit, thought for a moment, and said, "Go up and see."

Everyone came to the top of the cliff, this is the edge of the mine, there was no cliff originally, and the ground was hollowed out for mining, and the cliff was artificially created, with a height of about 20 meters.

Standing on the edge of the cliff, Father Broca looked down and judged the place where Valery had fallen according to the location of the crater, and while he was pondering, Roland suddenly said, "There is a smell of blood."

Dressed in crisp suits, Roland and Joseph followed the smell of blood into the forest together, and found two pools of dried blood in the open space inside the bushes.

Squatting down, Roland plucked a blood-stained leaf, put it on the tip of his nose and sniffed it, frowning and saying, "It's not human blood..."

"That's right!" Little Valery, who had followed them to the mountain, shouted, "My father has two dogs! They're gone!"

"It seems that old Mr. Valery must have encountered something, and it was not by chance that he fell off a cliff."

Father Broca gazed into the gloomy depths of the woods and asked softly, "Joseph, Roland, what do you think should be done next?"

"What else can I do..."

Roland threw away the blood-stained leaves, got up and said with a smile: "We are here to investigate the strange and strange disappearance, this is the task assigned to us by the master, no matter what happens in the depths of the forest, Joseph and I must investigate clearly, as for you, Father Broca.... My suggestion is that you stay in the city and wait for our news, and if we don't come back tomorrow, go and inform the Central See and let them send reinforcements."

Father Broca frowned: "I think we should immediately notify the Central See, let the Pope come in person, and no matter how bad it is, I should send Bishop Edward."

"If everything needs the help of the Pope and the master, what is the meaning of the existence of the Aurora?"

Roland and Joseph took out a few gold rings and slowly put them on their slender white fingers, and a pair of black wings spread out behind them:

"Remember, if we don't come back tomorrow, we'll notify the Holy See immediately!"

As the words fell, the black wings vibrated and a gust of wind set off a gust of wind, and Roland and Joseph soared high under the dull gaze of the workers, and flew straight into the depths of the forest.