The Secret Code of Monsters.

Chapter 849: The Adventures of the Devout
After the sailors left, Cinder led Halida leisurely around the fountain and toward another villa that was ablaze.

Obviously.

The people who lived here had abandoned the vile smell brought by the rough sailors, and kept flies, insects, and sweat away - and naturally had no chance of escaping them during the enemy's night raids.

The door was smashed open.

The living room was littered with overturned tables, chairs, and candlesticks, and all the drawers had been pulled out and thrown on the carpet.

Because the fire started from the top floor, when they first stepped in here, Cinder and Halida only felt their faces slightly hot.

They found the ship's doctor climbing down the stairs.

His waist was broken, and an iron hook used to turn coal pierced his chin and broke his nose.

He was dragged along like this, through the wide passage on the second floor, around the corner, and up the two-fold wooden ladder.

Maybe he was bored or was in a hurry to clean up another villa, so he was left alone at the end of the stairs, cooling down along with his blood.

Shandel clasped his hands together, bowed his head and prayed for a few words.

Then, she picked up her torn skirt and walked over on tiptoe.

The same goes for the second floor.

Every door was smashed open.

Some were shot, others were hit or kicked, and there was sticky blood and an indescribable stench everywhere.

They found the bodies of several women, dishevelled and strangled with their own intestines.

There was also a man who drowned in a chamber pot.

Halida pulled him out of the shit by his ankles (because there was nowhere else to pull).

It's the captain.

Bruce Pink.

After he was fully loaded, his soul returned to the land of the dead. His face was blurred and his limbs were mutilated. He could only be identified by his hair.

Even Halida could imagine how much pain he had endured before his death: he had been severely beaten with a knife, and perhaps watched the woman he called over being strangled to death by her own intestines.

A night that should have been a night of drunken bliss.

Shandel also performed a requiem for him and for the women who died tragically.

"The Benefactor is equal. He said that if there is life, there must be death. When people in the world become greedy, they will destroy themselves."

Halida followed silently.

After a while.

Suddenly he spoke in a hoarse voice: “He said, If anyone knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

Shandel in front raised the corner of his mouth.

These are words from the Book of Eden.

"That's progress, Halida."

She led her hastily through each room, looking only for a moment at the door, and asked Halida to tap the wall or something else that could make a sound with the dagger - wait two seconds, and then go to the next one.

Regrettably.

They saw no survivors.

From the first floor to the second floor, and then to the third floor.

Just when Halida was about to muster up the courage to persuade Cinder to pay attention to the time, the action of knocking on the porcelain vase was responded to.

From overturned bookshelves.

——Behind the wall destroyed by the shell, the bookshelf fell down along with the books stacked on it. It drowned and knocked people unconscious, but it also protected him from the kiss of torture and death.

It's the first mate.

The younger man who had a brief exchange with Roland when he got off the boat.

He did not participate in the absurdity of the night, but chose to read a book in his bedroom.

Books really do save lives.

Shandel lifted up her skirt and moved between the island-like gaps between books.

then.

I squatted down with Halida.

The first mate was hit hard, face down.

Because the books at the bottom fall to the ground first, this row of bookshelves forms a sharp angle with the floor.

"…my…my legs…legs."

The first mate was panting. His leg was broken or shattered. Even though he couldn't see it, he had to guess the worst: maybe it was completely unusable.

Shandel tilted his head and peeked inside.

"One foot, sir?" she asked him.

The man under the bookshelf said 'yes' and eagerly asked them for help to go to the 'top' of the bookshelf, which was the farthest place.

Two people, four hands, plus his arms which still have some strength.

Let’s work together and move forward together.

It can temporarily create space for him to crawl.

"…Ten seconds, Miss Kratov."

The first mate's breathing became more and more rapid.

"At least I am also living on the boat..."

It wasn't that he was injured elsewhere, but the flames - both the burning flames and the billowing smoke from the flames would take his life within ten minutes.

Burn to death, or suffocate.

"They lit the fire, but were stupid, stupid, not to... not to watch it..."

The first mate spoke intermittently.

Halida knew what he was going to say: most arsonists would linger around the scene, waiting for the fire to get out of control.

Tonight was different and gave him a chance to live.

"I want to thank you too... Miss Kratov..."

He raised his head with great effort, and his scalp was squeezed so hard that it hurt.

"Without you, I would have been burned to death..."

Shandel thought this man was very interesting. He and Halida moved away the crooked chairs, broken table tops, heavy stone statues and various paintings used as decorations, and started to tease him:
"I should have listened to you, sir."

she says.

The first mate was stunned: "Miss?"

"I think we should have listened to you and let those sailors stay on board. Then they wouldn't have died tonight."

The man under the bookshelf was silent.

Before moving in, he and Roland did have a little argument that could not be called an argument - they had different opinions. The other wanted the sailors to live in the most luxurious villas and enjoy the same treatment as them; while the first mate took into account the coarseness and meanness of these people, as well as their restless personalities...

"Are they okay?"

The first mate asked dully.

"I thought you hated them and were eager to hear bad news." Shandel teased.

That's right.

The first mate really hated these people, but he didn't want them to die - what ordinary person wouldn't be like that?

"They're dead."

After Shandel finished speaking, the first mate coughed awkwardly. It was obvious that he was not good at expressing sympathy for the lowly, but he could not overcome his sympathy that was like a stray dog. He fought with his hands and pushed the tower of books in front of him away.

“…I feel sorry.”

The man said it in a muffled voice, so quietly that he didn't want Cinder to hear it.

"Don't you want to ask Mr. Pink?"

"You should ask me when I woke up from my fainting."

The first mate had evidently woken up early.

He listened to the whole process, and probably bit his sleeve and cried with fear under the bookshelf.

"…Is Mr. Collins okay?"

Shandel chuckled: "Why else would I come here?"

crunch.

At this moment, the flames spread to the upper floors, finally gaining momentum and burning through the floor. The flames wrapped in scattered wood chips fell into the corridor and instantly ignited the carpet.

Thick smoke rolled in through the cracks in the wall.

"Ahem... I... I'll have to apologize to Mr. Collins when I see him..."

He suddenly remembered that he had had an argument with Roland Collins, and that it was his companion and servant who were trying to save him now - he really shouldn't have been so reckless as to say such inappropriate words in front of a gentleman of high moral character.

If one has a narrow mind, he might do something bad behind the scenes.

(End of this chapter)