bookbashuk Chapter 42 Cultists and Investigations
Chapter 42 Cultists and Investigations
Lorne gently pushed open the door, which creaked softly.
He slipped into the room and left the door slightly ajar to make sure it wouldn't make too much noise.
Laki was already crouching in the room, the tip of her tail swaying slightly, her eyes glowing with an eerie green light in the dim light.
Is this a piano? Lorne looked at the items in the room.
There wasn't much dust, so it seemed to be used frequently.
The room was filled with the smell of old paper and rust. The bookshelves were crammed with yellowed notebooks, some with cracked spines revealing dense handwritten text inside.
"This is Hermes script," Lorne recognized the words on the books.
"This person is definitely more than just an ordinary occult enthusiast."
Lorne continued inside and came to a desk.
Upon seeing the items on the desk, his brows immediately furrowed—the paper was covered with strange runes, and next to it were hastily written steps of some kind of ritual, the handwriting chaotic, as if the writer was in a state of extreme excitement.
"Magic..." Lorne murmured softly, the paper feeling unusually cold to the touch.
"Resurrection... Ritual..."
"That's right, this is absolutely genuine black magic." Looking at the contents of the paper, Lorne was absolutely certain.
Rachel suddenly jumped onto the desk and started scratching at a glass bottle with her paws.
Lorne approached and saw that the bottle contained a dark red liquid with an eerie glow on its surface, as if it were sealed by some kind of force.
"blood?"
By the crimson moonlight, Lorne observed through the glass that the liquid was so thick that it didn't resemble ordinary blood; instead, it seemed to be alive, wriggling slightly.
"So, they really are cultists researching black magic?"
"Did I stumble into a den of demons?"
Having already determined that there was something wrong with the house, Lorne didn't intend to linger.
He quickly and gently stepped forward, hugging Rachel, afraid she would make any marks, and then backed away step by step.
He walked very lightly, stopping after each step, afraid of accidentally touching something strange.
"Phew..." Looking at the door that was right in front of him, he suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.
Before leaving, he looked back one last time, still a little uneasy, and only after confirming there were no traces did he open the door and slowly retreat out.
Holding Rachel, Lorne ran swiftly in the crimson moonlight. Despite having just left the home of a suspicious cultist, he didn't seem to feel much fear. In fact, he felt inexplicably excited.
Tonight's events were somewhat thrilling and coincidental, but Lorne knew that the trigger he wanted for the report might already be there.
……
……
Azure Hotel
Klein looked at the sign in front of him.
He used his precious half-day off to come to this hotel.
In the past two days, he learned the man's name from his sister—Lorne Disenke.
Although his divination failed to directly determine the other person's location.
But he also gleaned clues about the hotel from some of the divination images.
There was no other way. Even if his target wasn't me, I had to find him and find out his purpose, even if it was just for my sister's sake... Klein pushed open the wooden door of the hotel, and the brass bell on the door jingled.
A young woman was sitting behind the front desk, looking down at a newspaper. She slowly looked up when she heard the sound.
"Hello sir, are you looking to check in?" The receptionist was very welcoming when she saw a guest arrive.
Klein approached the counter, rested his elbows on the wooden surface, and looked serious.
"Hello, ma'am, I'm looking for someone."
"His name is Lorne Disenke."
"Around 20 years old, brown hair, height approximately..." He gestured with his hand.
The receptionist narrowed her eyes and curled her lip: "I'm sorry, guest, we cannot disclose guest information."
Klein remained silent, slowly reaching his right hand into his inner pocket. The receptionist's eyes followed his hand until she saw him pull out a police badge, its metallic surface gleaming coldly in the dim light.
"I'm just conducting a routine investigation, and I hope you'll cooperate." Klein pressed his badge onto the table, making a soft "click" sound.
The receptionist swallowed hard, her eyes darting around, her fingers unconsciously fidgeting.
"...Alright then." After a moment, the receptionist gave in and turned to pull out a yellowed, creased register from the drawer.
After flipping through a few pages, her finger stopped on a certain line: "Second floor, the innermost room, but he hasn't come back for several days."
Klein put away his badge, casually pulled a banknote from his pocket, and placed it on the table in a very low voice.
"Thank you, this is the investigation fee."
The receptionist stared at the banknotes, hesitated for two seconds, then finally reached out and covered them with her hand, nodding.
Although the night watchmen are all police officers and theoretically have law enforcement powers, his actions today were his own private matter.
Therefore, Klein chose to bribe the front desk staff to some extent.
He turned and walked toward the stairs, his shoes making a dull thud on the old floor.
Upon reaching the door of that room, Klein hesitated, unsure whether to open it.
"Should I do another divination?" After a moment's thought, he made up his mind, inserted the key, and opened the door.
Because of the other party's special nature, he dared not perform divination directly, for fear of being discovered.
After pushing open the door, Klein pulled out his pistol and pointed it straight ahead, fearing that someone might be lying in ambush.
But just as the receptionist said, there was no sound at all in the room.
Looking at the empty room, he seemed to have a bad feeling.
……
Klein was somewhat disappointed that he hadn't found any clues at the hotel.
"Perhaps we could write to Mr. Azik and ask if he has any suggestions."
Klein remembered his experienced and secretive teacher.
As he was pondering, he glanced around and found the surroundings somewhat familiar.
"Wait, I feel like I've seen that red chimney somewhere before!" He felt that the surrounding scene resembled one he had seen when he was divining about Elliott's kidnapping.
However, at that moment...
"Help!"
A cry for help interrupted his train of thought.
Seeing the commotion in the distance, Klein instinctively rushed over.
……
circus.
"We've found out that the woman named Sharon is a witch," the magician told his subordinates, explaining his findings.
"The witch, that witch..."
"That day, I was actually... by a man..." The clown was on the verge of collapse and almost vomited.
"Physiologically speaking, she is already a woman," the magician reassured his subordinate.
But this statement seems to have the opposite effect; the Joker appears to have become even more devastated.
"Sigh!" The magician sighed as he glanced at his subordinates.
"Get ready, we're about to move out."