Mystery: Mr. Witch and Ms. Hunter

Chapter 355 Shura Field

"who are you?"

Elaine asked cautiously, and instead of sitting in front of Venata, she took a step back, ready to take out the short knife in her boot at any time.

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Vinata..." Vinata paused halfway through her words and said, "Sersi, Vinata Sersi, and I am the actual manager of Indo Port."

"'The actual manager'?"

Elaine chewed on the weight of the word, "Are you referring to the initiator of the Extraordinary Gathering?"

"No, literally."

Vinata replied, "You can think of this position as a combination of the archbishop and mayor of the original Indoport War God Church."

"I didn't realize you were such a big shot."

Elaine smiled softly. "It's hard for me to imagine a mayor or archbishop following me personally. I really saw something rare today."

"Yes, you are lucky. If you were unluckier, you might even see the mayor laying flowers on your grave."

Venata was not angry at Elaine's words and replied with the same smile.

"Is this a threat, Lady Sersi?" Elaine asked cautiously.

"No, it's just a reminder. I stayed at the dock for half an hour, and during that time I did a lot of things besides walking around with you."

Vinata's expression turned cold, and she took out a bloody ring from her pocket. It seemed that someone had cut it off along with the finger, and threw it in front of Elaine.

"Cut it off from another wave of people following you."

Elaine hesitated for a moment, bent down, picked up the ring, and looked at it carefully.

The pattern on the ring was a pair of black and red swords that Elaine had never seen before. The base color was dull gray, made of cast iron, and covered with a layer of rough sealing wax.

"What is this ring..." Elaine asked carefully.

"Iron Cross." Venata stared at Elaine's face, as if trying to judge whether she was lying from the changes in her expression. "This is an organization from Intis. The recent large-scale hunting of Hunter Path Beyonders was initiated by them."

At this point, Venata signaled to Elaine again, "Come in and talk. Close the door. What happens next should not be known to irrelevant people."

Elaine hesitated for a moment, but finally believed Venata, closed the door gently, and sat down in the chair in front of Venata.

"Speaking of which, you haven't told me your name yet."

Vinata looked at Elaine with a half-smile, "What should I call you?"

"...Claire, this is my last name." Elaine hesitated for a moment, but still gave the pseudonym she had been using before. After all, she couldn't be sure that the other party would not target her.

"Yes, Miss Elaine."

Venata smiled as if to say so. "Actually, I just wanted to see if you would tell me your real name."

"…Have you seen me?"

Elaine was embarrassed when her fake name was exposed. She asked with a slightly blushing face.

"No, it's not. I just guessed it." Vinata smiled with a triumphant smile, "But now I can be sure of it. I don't have to ask someone else to confirm it."

It’s not that Elaine was careless. Even if she did react, the slight change in her expression when her real name was suddenly mentioned would not be hidden from Vinata, who has been promoted to Sequence Six. Conspirators have unique bonuses in cheating and seeing through other people’s cheating, and this kind of micro-expression cannot be hidden from their eyes.

"Where did you hear my name?"

Realizing that her disguise had been exposed, Elaine simply gave up and asked Vinata directly.

"Although I haven't been at sea for a long time, rumors involving pirate generals, especially female pirate generals, often spread much faster than you think."

Vinata shrugged, picked up the printed teapot on the table, and poured Elaine a cup of hot tea. The amount of tea leaves was not enough and the color was pale.

"We may have to talk for a long time, so let's drink something to warm ourselves up first."

Vinata pushed the white porcelain teacup toward Elaine, and the tea in the cup swayed dangerously, almost spilling out.

"Before we get down to business, do you have anything else you want to ask?"

Seeing Elaine taking the teacup and blowing on it, Vinata suddenly asked, "For example... Tracy's matter."

Elaine's hand holding the teacup trembled slightly, and the cup collided with the saucer underneath, making a clicking sound.

"…She is dead."

Elaine took a deep breath, as if that would make her speak with more confidence and prevent her voice from trembling.

"You seem to be a little out of touch with the news while at sea."

Without further explanation, Vinata reached out and grabbed the "Southern Continent News" on the shelf nearby. This was a newspaper that she had specially subscribed to after she learned that Adele had unexpectedly arrived in the Southern Continent. She grabbed the latest issue, turned to the front page, and handed it to Elaine.

Elaine took it doubtfully, and immediately saw the ironclad ship on the front page of the newspaper, as well as the three flags flying on the ironclad ship. One was the same gold-edged honeysuckle as the Queen Island Company, one was the royal "Sword of Judgment", and the third was the black skull logo that she was very familiar with. That was the former flag of the "Black Death"!

The headline on the front page read: "Exceptional promotion? Pirate General Tracy who turned from darkness to light."

Elaine looked down hastily and saw the following words:
"Not long ago, Vice Admiral Tracy, one of the Four Kings and Seven Generals, lost his fleet in a pirate infighting and eventually chose to surrender to the Kingdom. Vice Admiral Emlyn White of the Southern Theater announced that he would be promoted to the rank of Navy Captain and take charge of the Kingdom's privateering fleet in the Southern Theater."

"So, she's not dead?"

After reading the newspaper, Elaine didn't know what expression to show for a moment. She didn't know whether to be happy or scared.

"Of course, it's not that easy for a witch to die."

Vinata adjusted her posture to make herself more comfortable. "She will probably be back in a few months."

"Come back? Back to where, Indo Port?"

Elaine asked subconsciously.

"Of course. The ironclad ship she is using now is owned by the company." Venata replied as a matter of course, "Even if she doesn't want to come back, we have to send the ship back after the battle in the southern continent is over."

"What is the relationship between your company... and Tracy?"

Elaine asked hesitantly. She began to doubt the background of this company. Not only did this Vinata in front of her claim that she was the powerful figure in Indo Port, she also made no secret of her relationship with Tracy. This made Elaine feel more and more as if she was involved in something big.

"You should have some impression of Tracy's ship doctor, Annie. She is now Tracy's representative in Indo Harbor. If you must say, she is a shareholder."

Vinata did not directly answer Elaine's question. "If you get hurt accidentally while staying in Indo Port, you can see her. Of course, if you want to see her, I can take you to find her."

"No, forget it. She doesn't like me."

Elaine waved her hands quickly and smiled bitterly: “I tried to escape from Tracy several times before, and caused her a lot of trouble.”

To be honest, if you really run away at once, maybe Annie will treat you better...

Vinata curled her lips and couldn't help but feel sorry for Annie in her heart.

Put yourself in her shoes. Not only does Tracy not like you, but she also likes Elaine, who was kidnapped by her. And this Elaine always wants to escape. After each failed escape, Tracy not only does not blame her, but also asks Anne to treat her wounds... If it were the hot-tempered Vinata, she would have lost her temper long ago, but it was fortunate that Anne could hold back.

"If you don't want to meet her, I won't tell her you're here, but you can't leave here. Make sure I can find you whenever I want."

No longer thinking about Annie, Venata said directly to Elaine who was about to fall into memories: "As for the reason, I will explain it to you next."

"The Iron Cross is currently collecting a large number of extraordinary characteristics of the Hunter Path for some purpose. The Church of Knowledge is trying to stir up a riot to add fuel to the chaos here. The forces of Loen and Intis are trying to make a fortune from this, but they don't want to take responsibility. The Church of the God of War wants to let it go and get rid of this hot potato..."

Venata said in one breath, ignoring Elaine's dazed expression across from her.

"Finally, the city is now in our hands... temporarily."

Venata opened her arms and waved gently out the window.

Elaine was a little dizzy from the overwhelming amount of information and wanted to continue asking questions, but her reason stopped her in time. She realized in time that knowing too much might not be a good thing.

"So...what do you need me to do?"

Elaine took a deep breath and asked Venata.

She was alone now, and the bounties for Hunter Path Extraordinaries seemed to be posted all over the continent. Even if the woman in front of her had some connection with Tracy and might allow her to return to her past life, Elaine had no better choice now.

"Someone will come to you soon and help you arrange a job." Venata stood up. "We are very short of manpower right now, and we dare not use those extraordinary people whose origins are unknown. But you are different. At least we know a little about you. There is no need for you to harm Tracy, right?"

"Are you so sure?"

Although she already had the answer in her mind, due to the unique argumentative mentality of those who reached Sequence 8 of the Hunter Path, Elaine still asked, "After all, in the legend of the sea, I am a noble girl who was kidnapped by Tracy. I must have a motive to take revenge on Tracy, right?"

"If you wanted to do that, you could have cooperated with Intis's military officer to ambush Tracy when she was looking for you all over the world, and then took her bounty with tears."

Vinata curled her lips, "Also, unnecessary provocations are often only used on people who are close to you. You and I are not familiar with each other, so this kind of temptation is meaningless."

Elaine was once again speechless after being confronted by Vinata. She could only nod awkwardly and watch Vinata slowly pack up her things and push the door to leave.

After Vinata left, Elaine gently lifted her sleeves and looked at the exquisitely crafted diamond bracelet on her wrist. She was silent for a long time until the sunset completely fell below the horizon. Only then did she withdraw her thoughts.

Vinata left the room, walked through the long corridor, and turned a corner in front of the landscape painting hanging at the end. Anne, who was wearing a black maid uniform and a white apron, was leaning against the side of the corridor. When she saw Vinata come out, she snorted as a greeting.

"If you want to know what's going on, you'd better ask. Otherwise, I don't have the heart to share information."

Seeing that Anne seemed to be hesitant to speak, Vinata said impatiently.

Although Vinata made a lot of sense when she was faking Elaine, she was actually trying to cover up the fact that it was not Elaine she found. No matter how strong the hunter's tracking ability was, it was still unrealistic to find Elaine in the crowd at the dock after only hearing a verbal description.

The only person who could do this was an old enemy like Anne who was "impressed" by Elaine.

Anne glared at Venata and said emotionlessly, "What was her reaction?"

"You probably still have feelings for your captain. The moment you lost consciousness after hearing that Tracy was not dead was real."

Venata recalled Elaine's behavior, "But she feels that she has caused you a lot of trouble, so she doesn't dare to see you."

"She still knows."

Anne said bitterly, "If I had really been cruel enough to poison her medicine, there wouldn't be all these things happening now. If it weren't for the captain, I would have gone to find her with a shotgun tonight."

Vinata curled her lips, not worrying that Annie would really do something. Or rather, it was precisely because she couldn't do anything that Vinata was worried about Annie's condition.

"Are you okay?"

Venata reached into Anne's apron pocket and pulled out the tin flagon, shaking it twice and finding that there was still some wine in it.

"What's in it?"

"It's okay." Annie's voice seemed to be blocked by something. "There's Nepos in the wine jug. Do you want some?"

“You still say it’s okay…” Vinata smiled bitterly. Not everyone in Feysac could drink Nepos, which was said to be so strong that a match could be struck on it, let alone Anne, who was originally a Feynapotter and had an average alcohol tolerance.

"Alright, alright, go back to your room."

Vinata pushed Annie and said, "Although it's a bit strange to say this, I still support you, provided you don't sink him to the bottom of the sea."

Anne looked at Vinata in surprise, and after a few seconds she nodded heavily, her lips trembling slightly, as if she was saying something. Vinata vaguely heard a "thank you".

Is this the "Ashura Field" mentioned in Emperor Roselle's novel?
Vinata sighed in her heart, hoping that Adele would come back soon so that she wouldn't have to get entangled with these people.

(Starting today, I will update twice a day, and it is expected to last for a week. The time of the first update is uncertain, and the second update will still be at 12 o'clock)
(End of this chapter)