As Dunn led Esther to the house, Frye suddenly waved at Leonard and asked him to pass.

"What's wrong?" Leonard walked over blankly and took the familiar small square pot from Frye's hand.

"For Esther."

Leonard uncorked the bottle and sniffed it, and quickly plugged it again, which emitted a pungent and choking smell, which lifted Leonard's spirits, this is the "Holy Night Powder" that Frye carries with him, if Esther has a vomiting reaction, this smell can be suppressed.

Leonard gave Frye a thumbs up: "You're still thoughtful." I'll have to hurry along. ”

Esther followed Dunn into the house, the smell of blood in the door almost condensed into substance, clinging to every tiny particle in the air, making her stomach twist together uncomfortably.

But Esther didn't feel like vomiting, only nauseous, and as she walked through the living room, she could smell something stronger in the dining room, not only the ubiquitous smell of blood, but also the aroma of baked potatoes and tomato soup, and the smell of toast that Esther was particularly familiar with.

Esther looked at the wall, where there was a family portrait of a family of four - father, mother, brother, sister, four similar looking faces with a very warm smile, the photo was still very new, and the date was written in the lower right corner, last July.

Ah, yes, it's dinner time, and they should happily gather around the table and enjoy dinner with their families after a day of work and study.

"They" do sit at the table, too.

The hostess's incomplete legs hung down from the front of the dining chair, and only blackened bones were left down her calves, and a cut in her throat made her face with horror that would not soften any longer. The man had only half of his head attached to his neck, and the other half was on the table in front of him, covered in half a bowl of tomato soup. The other one was the elder brother, whose face was planted in a large plate of buns, and only a trace of flesh was left around his neck.

Each victim was tied to the back of a chair with a rope and continued to pretend to be peaceful, enjoying the scene of dinner.

Opposite the dining room is the wall that has been chiseled by the inmates, revealing a hole.

A large expanse of red stained the restaurant, which was originally full of warm wood tones, and the gas lamps above still faithfully illuminated the place, and the cloths prepared next to the five seats below were all blinding blood.

Five people.

Esther's spiritual instincts were touched again, and she turned to leave the dining room and ran up the stairs she had just seen, almost hitting Leonard, who had just walked by.

There was no light on upstairs, it was dim, and Esther fumbled and pushed open the second door on the right. Her vision quickly adjusted to the level of darkness, and she found the switch on the wall and turned on the light.

There was a double bed in the room, presumably the master bedroom where the couple lived, and Esther walked over to the wardrobe and slowly opened the door.

Dunn walked over to her and sighed softly at the sight of the sleeping girl in the closet.

Esther's numbness finally dissipated, and her tears washed the blood on her face: "Is it always like this? ”

"Yes. Ordinary people are very vulnerable in front of the extraordinary, and the defenseless ordinary people are completely powerless to fight back. That's why there are night watchmen, that's why we're going to fight. ”

"Nightwatcher ......"

Dunn stretched out his arm and picked the little girl up from the closet: "We are facing madness, and behind this madness, there is the backing of more ordinary citizens who can live well. Even if their lives are not satisfactory, it is not a reason to be wantonly mutilated. ”

Esther's tears grew more and more, and the overly intense sadness only brought her to her senses: "What about her? What will happen to her? ”

"The police will be responsible for contacting relatives who are willing to adopt her, and if she has no relatives to rely on, the church's orphanage will adopt her."

Leonard, who had been standing by the door and observing Esther's condition, heard this and said, "I grew up in an orphanage in the church, and there is nothing wrong with that. It's much more comfortable than those children who are abused by their relatives. ”

Esther didn't expect Leonard to have such a background, and she didn't know what to say for a while, just looked at him stunned. The somewhat ruffian smile on Leonard's face looked particularly chic at this time.

Dunn nodded: "She won't remember all this, only a vague impression." This is not the first time the church has dealt with this situation. ”

Esther gave one last look at the little girl in Dunn's arms: "Good luck to her, then." ”

A throbbing pain crossed Esther's head, and she wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, rubbing her right brow wearily, hoping only to get back to Chanis Gate as soon as possible and sleep without any dreams.

Leonard stayed by Esther's side, and as soon as he left the house to get some fresh air, he shoved the contents of his pocket into her, which were two hard fruit candies. This is a relief for Esther, whose stomach has started to cramp again due to overconsumption, she gave Leonard a grateful look, did not be polite to him, and directly opened the candy wrapper and threw both pieces into her mouth.

Cizer planned to send Siga, Leonard, and Esther back to Blackbrath first, otherwise there would not be enough people in one carriage. The elder Neil who arrived at the scene sighed, and followed Dunn to the scene to collect clues, Frye was collecting the suspect's body, and his body would be brought back to the basement of the Black Thorn Security Company later.

After Esther finished eating the candy, she whispered to Leonard, "Thank you for the sugar, it saved my life." ”

Leonard crossed his legs and leaned lazily against the carriage window: "No, you don't know how scary your eyes are when you're hungry, and you look like you're going to grab people and eat them." ”

Perhaps it was the experience of fighting together that made it easier to bring people closer together, and Siga patted Esther on the head, because of her height, everyone could easily do so.

"I really didn't expect Esther to be so brave and so powerful."

Esther's ears immediately turned red, and she lowered her head to stare at the dagger in her hand, hiding the embarrassment of being praised so bluntly.

Leonard couldn't hold back and laughed, glared at by Siga.

Back on Zotland Street, after returning the seal to the caretaker, Leonard and Siga went to the night watchman's lounge, they were sleepless and stayed up late was a daily routine. Esther stepped into Chanis Gate, and the soothing power of the darkness fell on her, calming her sad mood little by little.

She walked into her stone house, changed her clothes and slipped into the covers, finally clearing her mind as the power of appeasement gathered and allowed her eyes to fall asleep.

——

This is the life of a night watchman.

The banal shifts and standby are one side of this, where everyone fights landlords, jokes with each other, chats about trivial matters from the weather to food, shares favorite books or magazines, and bets that the captain who has a crush on each other will contact Ms. Daly several times a week.

Missions are the other side, such as the murder that Ester experienced, which is a rare case, and later she followed the night watchmen on several missions, and after Dunn used his ability to control the scene as a "nightmare", the others quickly arrested the suspect, and the process was quite easy.

However, according to Dunn, these ostensible criminals are not the most terrible, but the most harmful are those cultists or organizations who do not know where to hide, and once they make a move, it is likely to cause a huge crisis that will hurt many residents.

Old Neil, who was also present at the time, heard Dunn's admonition to Esther, and nodded in agreement: "So you must also be vigilant, and do not chant or pray indiscriminately, so as not to attract the attention of evil beings." ”

Esther's combat training continued, and Siga enthusiastically took her to shooting training, and when she returned, she praised Esther's talent with Dunn, and Siga's teasing tone was so exaggerated that Asht wanted to hide behind the office door, so embarrassed that she wanted to get under the chair.

However, Esther usually does not match guns, and she herself does not like the smell of gunpowder, and after practicing to the proficiency of ten shots to be able to hit the bull's-eye, she has completely mastered the skills of recoil and aiming, and did not practice with Siga again.

However, the occult course on Neil's side was arranged by Dunn to push it again and again. It wasn't until Esther herself asked that Dunn spoke to Old Neil, delineating the categories that could be taught to Esther, so that Old Neil would only teach language and common sense, and avoid rituals that required spirituality.

Esther didn't know about it, and as long as someone taught her, she happily learned it, and didn't care too much about what she learned. It was only after being exposed to Hermes and Ancient Hermes that she found that the language was not unfamiliar to her at all, and the process of learning it was more like reminiscing. There are also fragments of the Giant's and Dragon's in Neil's collection, and Esther quickly returned the book to Neal Sr. after discovering that she had no problem reading and writing, and could recall a lot of the content directly.

Old Neil looked at Esther with a smile: "It's difficult, isn't it?" These languages are all old because very few people speak them, and even fewer are willing to delve into them. It's not something you can learn by looking at it twice. ”

Esther laughed dryly and nodded yes, for the sake of the old man's heart, she still pretended to be trying to practice Hermes.

Until one day, Esther saw "the notes left by Russell the Great in mysterious words". Old Neil would study this in his spare time, and he excitedly told Esther that he had confirmed that part of the symbols should be numbers, which should not be notes but journals!

Esther pursed her lips and put down the paper, and after a few seconds of relief from the shock, she solemnly told old Neil, "I think so too!" ”

This is a diary written in Chinese, and Esther has long guessed that Russell the Great is a traverser, but now that this ironclad evidence is in front of her, she still feels indescribable joy. So Esther picked up the pieces of paper again and looked at them, and apart from a few romantic episodes, Esther noticed a few words: "apprentice", "soothsayer", and "thief", and Russell the Great regretted that he had not chosen these three paths.

It was as if some memories were awakening, but Esther couldn't remember them clearly, always through a layer of resilient paper.

and the "Godforsaken Land" mentioned later......

The dark sky, the thunder that cut through the shadows, the sad and twisted earth, the wandering corpses of giants, and the gray buildings and—she tried to remember, but the fragments seemed to be erased, quickly fading from her mind.

Old Neil looked at Esther curiously: "What?" Do you see what's coming? ”

Esther was agitated and put the copied diaries back on Old Neil's desk: "No, I just looked at it and got distracted...... This kind of writing is unlike anything I've ever seen. ”

Old Neil didn't pay attention to it, and sighed: "Alas, I think so, I'm really curious about what the genius Russell the Great will leave behind." ”

Esther picked up the Hermesian literature she was going to read today and left the matter behind.

Because her spiritual instincts were warning her that it was not yet time to delve into those secrets.

Esther seemed to vaguely feel the "guidance of fate" in the mouth of the goddess.

Because the Templar had never made any further arrangements for Esther, Dunn did not supervise Esther anymore, but instead saw her as a young member of his team that needed to be looked after.

After a few missions, the people of Blackthorn Security naturally accepted Esther, and she became a member of the night watchmen here. Because Dunn didn't arrange a night shift for Esther, he was disappointed that he always hoped that someone could replace Roshan, who didn't stay up late on the shift, so Esther offered to help the clerical staff take on some of the cleaning work. After all, after Viola left to seek further progress in large companies, there was one less civilian staff, and the manpower was not sufficient.

From spring to summer, Esther was accustomed to staying here as a half-night watchman, and she cherished the people here and admired their efforts to protect ordinary people.

Being able to become a member of the Tingen Nightwatch's team, getting acquainted with such a group of people, and learning about the other side of this world, made Esther extremely glad that she chose to stay and live in Chanis Gate and accept the "arrangement" of the goddess.

She didn't go back to Sling's bakery to take another look.

With a warm breeze blowing, June 1349 was coming to an end.