While Duncan and Alice were on their way to the cemetery, Morris and Vanna were not idle, and they arrived at the Citizen Help Center in the southern part of Uptown early in the morning to accomplish one of Duncan's confessions—to find a stable and legal place to stay in the Frost City-State, preferably one or two more publicly available identities if they could.

After all, they may be active in this city-state for a long time, and they will not be able to live in hiding like those cultists.

Considering that the informants that Tirian had left in the city were no longer reliable, Morris decided to find a way to do it himself.

The Frosty Citizen Help Center is a large domed building, with two long wings extending around the main body, called the Citizen Help Center, but in fact this building is also used to receive visitors to the city-state and to undertake a large number of third-party intermediary work, from the registration of houses for rent and sale, to the issuance of temporary passes, to the employment of short-term maids, gardeners, and laundry workers, almost all of which can be done here - its long wing is crammed with all kinds of registration windows and offices, The huge domed building is a hall that is always noisy and bustling, which is very different from Prand.

As soon as you enter the huge dome, the heat rushes in, the frost-specific high-pressure heating system dispels the winter chill, and bright electric lights hang high on the dome, brightening the whole building.

It had only been open for a short time, but there had already been a large influx of people looking for short-term jobs or registering for rent and sale of houses, and citizens looking for short-term jobs or registering for rent and sale walked through countless windows and counters, mixed with the "click" and "hiss" of the continuous activation of the air flow pipes, and Vana was obviously a little uncomfortable with the environment, and she carefully avoided the crowds around her, while muttering to Morris: "In Plain, the human resources and housing rental and sales counters are not placed in a building. ”

"You have to consider the cost of heating a large building, and the time it takes to renovate a heat pump exchange station," Morris shook his head, "Most of the city's municipal infrastructure is a legacy of the Frost Queen's time, but that glorious era is over, and the Frost City-State after the Great Rebellion has barely recovered seventy or eighty percent of its vitality thanks to the boiling gold industry, but it is not easy to renovate the underground plumbing system and steam power network left by the Queen from scratch." ”

"So it's always going to work?" Vanna's eyes widened, "This is an antique from half a century ago!" ”

"Or else?" Morris sighed, "On the one hand, there is the decline of the city, on the other hand, the pressure of population, and the reduction of habitable area caused by the collapse of the sea cliffs...... The facilities of half a century ago may indeed be cramped now, but they are barely enough, and since they are enough, they will continue to be used...... In fact, this is not only a problem of frost, but also a problem of many old industrial city-states, and cities as vibrant as Plande are only a few. ”

Vanna stopped talking.

It's not an area of her expertise.

As he spoke, Morris had found the location of the migrant registration counter on the dazzling route map above the hall, and he and the tall Vanna weaved through the crowd until they finally came to a quieter counter.

The long wooden counter rested against the wall, divided into several lattices by an iron fence, and behind each lattice sat a clerk in a gray-blue uniform—the expression on their faces was as rigid as the iron fence beside them, and it was evident that they intended to maintain it until the end of the day.

"We need a residence permit and a short-term rental house," Morris said to the sallow middle-aged man in front of one of the cubicles, sitting down on a creaky iron chair, "and we just went ashore today." ”

"Which dock?" The sallow middle-aged clerk raised his eyelids and glanced at the old man opposite, when he noticed that there was a one-meter-nine lady standing behind the old man, he was obviously stunned, but the next second he resumed his official tone, "Show the dock certificate and the boat ticket." ”

Vanna frowned and looked down at Morris.

Morris's face was as usual, and he calmly spread his hands: "It's lost, maybe it was lost when I left the dock, and the ship has already left." ”

The clerk in the lattice immediately stopped what he was doing, raised his head, and his poker face was a little unhappy: "That's not good, you have to prove the documents, go back to the dock to make up for it." ”

"But I have something else," said Morris, figgling in his bosom and figuring out a folded document and a small book with a dark red cover, "which should serve as proof of legal identity." ”

The clerk subconsciously waved his hand: "You can't do it without dock certification documents, and nothing else ......"

He saw the mark on the notebook, and said nothing, then he reached out and opened the folded paper, his eyes swept over it.

The card-like expression changed instantly.

"The academic passage issued by the Truth College and the Boundless Sea Navigation Council allows the holder to stay and visit all the city-states under the protection of the gods, and during the stay, the local city-state university under the Truth College automatically acts as a guarantor," Morris said, and pointed to the little red notebook, "This is my certificate, a double certificate of degree and theology from the Truth College, and the rank is professor. ”

The middle-aged clerk with a sallow face was stunned for a while, and finally slowly raised his head, looking a little at a loss: "Uh...... Good morning, Professor Morris...... It's a pleasure to meet you, of course your identity is legitimate......"

Morris had a relaxed expression on his face.

But the clerk then paused, as if he was very entangled, and still stiffened up and said, "But ...... I need to know at least which ship you're on, that's ...... Stipulate. ”

Morris's expression was a little embarrassed when he had just relaxed, and Vanna, who was on the side, touched the tip of her nose and turned her head away quietly.

Morris sighed, looking at the middle-aged clerk in front of him, who was obviously a little nervous, but still looked directly at him.

"You already know which ship I'm on," he said, sighing, his eyes twinkling, "Proof it." ”

The clerk was stunned for a moment, and then lowered his head and began to operate the rattling punch, and threw the punch card into the pressure pipe vessel next to the counter.

Moments later, with the hissing and clicking of pipes, cards returned from an approval office deep in the building were returned to the counter.

The clerk stuffed the punch card into the small machine for reading, confirmed the number of the receipt and the security code, and then began to fill in the required information for the documents, while saying without raising his head: "I can only open documents here - you should take the documents to the west wing and look for the A-12 window, where there should be a short-term rental house that meets your requirements." ”

"Thank you," Morris took the open paper, paused and muttered softly, "I'm sorry." ”

With that, he and Vanna quickly left the counter and walked towards the next window.

"This is the first time I've done anything like this," said the old gentleman in a low voice, not long after he walked away, "I was going to rely on the normal paperwork process to get this done......

"We're here on a ghost ship that doesn't allow for the world, and you know, normal processes will never solve this problem," Vanna also whispered, with a smile in her tone, "Extraordinary times, extraordinary ways." ”

“…… How likely do you think it is that Mr. Duncan will issue a legal ship registration certificate for the Lost Country? ”

"What do you think?"

“…… Well," Morris sighed, looking at the documents in his hand, "Heidi don't know about this—the next time this happens, I'd rather make a fake ticket first." ”

Vana looked at Morris who sighed with a smile, since she was a child, it was the first time she saw such a worried expression on the face of this old scholar who has always been "rigorous in his studies and abiding by the rules", it seemed that he was ...... It's kind of funny.

……

At the same time, Agatha, who had just finished the scene investigation and had not had time to return to the cathedral, received an urgent message from his subordinates from Cemetery No. 3 on the way.

Sitting in the steam car, Agatha looked at the letter that had just been delivered to her, and her eyes gradually became a little glazed.

A whistleblower letter from the unspeakable visitor.

As soon as he walked on his front foot, the letter on his back foot was sent to the cemetery.

Should we lament this erroneous miss, or should we lament the strange behavior of the "visitor"?

She put the letter away, her mind racing about it.

Uneasiness spreads in my heart, and one thing suddenly seems urgent.

"Turn around, go to Eastport."

The subordinates who were driving in front were a little surprised: "Aren't we going to the cathedral first?" ”

"Change your plans, go to Eastport first," Agatha said categorically, "I have a bad premonition...... Something might want to take advantage of the landing. ”

The subordinate who was driving the car was confused, but the instinct to obey the order made him quickly suppress the doubts in his heart.

The pitch-black steam car slowed down at the next intersection, turned, and sped toward the port area in the eastern part of the city-state.

(End of chapter).