Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 270 The Unlucky Beginning

After that, Levi and Katie packed their things and followed the strange man toward the inner city. It should be said that this guy was indeed very familiar with the place; Levi and Katie kept encountering lunatics here, but this tall, strange man was able to lead them to every deserted alleyway. Then, he led the two to a small church not far away.

This was, of course, the church of the Holy Lord Church. From the outside, it seemed no different from any other building. The strange man then took out a key and opened the door.

"Please come in, the young lady is inside."

Levi nodded to the strange man, then led Katie into the church.

The interior of the church here didn't look much different from other bishops' churches, except that it appeared somewhat dilapidated because it hadn't been cleaned in a long time. Levi entered the church and saw a woman sit up from a chair in the front row—it seemed she had been lying there the whole time.

"Seriously, Harold, where have you been? I was so worried..."

As she spoke, the woman turned to look at the door, and when she saw Li Wei, her eyes widened in surprise.

"Hey? Hey?"

The woman who made the strange noise reached out and rubbed her eyes hard, then stared at Li Wei with wide eyes again.

"Lord Li Wei...? Wait, am I dreaming? Lord Li Wei! I'm really not dreaming! Oh my god, I've always dreamed of this day...!"

Shouting, the woman clenched her fists excitedly. Then, as if she realized something, she screamed and rushed into the confessional next door.

"...What is she doing?"

Katie looked puzzled, while Levi's lips twitched slightly. When he interviewed Adele, Levi had heard that he had become an idol for many young people. However, both the people from the Golden Mead Club and Adele were quite polite, so Levi thought that there might not be any crazy fans in this era.

But now, he saw something very familiar in this young lady…

After a while, the woman came out of the confessional. She walked quickly to Li Wei, lifted her skirt with both hands, and bowed to him.

"Greetings, Sir Levy, I am Sophia Crant. It is a great honor to meet you... Did you come after reading my letter?"

It was all normal at first, but in the end, it just couldn't keep up the act anymore.

"Yes, I saw the letter you wrote..."

"great!"

However, before Li Wei could finish speaking, Sophia excitedly raised her hands and cheered.

"Everyone else says the editorial department never shows readers' letters to the authors, but that's clearly not the case! Fantastic! Fantastic!"

While cheering, Sophia jumped and danced excitedly until she saw the speechless looks on Levi and Katie's faces, at which point she blushed and came back to her senses.

"I'm so sorry, this is the first time I've ever met someone of such high status in real life... Uh, have I been rude?"

"Now is not the time to investigate this issue."

Li Wei immediately changed the subject. He finally realized that this person was a die-hard fan. If he didn't get straight to the point, he didn't know where she would go.

“I have read your letter, and I have witnessed everything that is happening here. Now my question is, how do we resolve this?”

"this……………"

Sophia chuckled dryly when she heard the question, then turned her gaze to the strange man beside her. The man walked over, stared at Li Wei, and spoke.

"Let me answer this question."

"If possible, I would like you to start from the beginning."

Li Wei clearly has no intention of relinquishing control.

"First, please explain your identity, your relationship with the owner of this place, and why this city has become like this."

Li Wei stared at the strange man and asked, word by word. Although the man's face was wrapped in bandages, Li Wei could see that his eyes were clearly dangerous. It was obvious that he was unwilling to answer Li Wei's question.

What if I refuse to answer?

“Then I can look it up myself.”

Li Wei smiled slightly.

"I'm a detective, investigation is my profession, but if I actually find out something... then don't blame me for being impolite."

“……………………………”

This time, the strange man remained silent for a long time before finally speaking again.

“Alright, I can answer your question. My name is Harold Brown, and I am a historian. I was classmates with the owner of this place, Deans Krant. We studied together, but I went to study elsewhere, and Deans inherited this land.”

At this point, the strange man paused, while Li Wei plopped down in a chair.

"It's alright, we have plenty of time. Katie, make some tea."

"okay!"

Hearing that she could once again showcase her skills, Katie excitedly went back to fiddling with her precious suitcase. The strange man, however, gritted his teeth and continued speaking.

"Actually, at the beginning, I wasn't very familiar with Deans. He was the typical playboy who loved to have fun and would often throw parties at his own castle, where I heard many women frequented. But none of that mattered to me, and I had no interest in people like him at the time."

After graduation, I didn't plan to come back. After all, this place was desolate and remote, and I longed for the work and life in a big city. However, my uncle, who raised me, passed away due to illness, so I had to return for the funeral. At the funeral, I met Deans again. He had changed so much that I was quite surprised. "I remember back in school, Deans was the typical rich kid—arrogant and short-tempered. But when I met him, he was gentle and polite, and his temper had softened considerably. He first expressed his condolences for my uncle's passing, then asked about my plans. When he learned that I intended to go to the city to find work, he persuaded me to stay."

“Harold, what kind of job can you find in the city? I heard you majored in history. Do you want to go to the city to be a typist, endure unreasonable orders from employers, and waste your youth prematurely? I have a job that is perfect for you, or rather, I need you.”

"At first, I was quite surprised when I heard him say that, and then Deans told me that he was now undertaking a great undertaking. He was tired of the glitz and glamour of life and was searching for the meaning and value of his existence, and then he finally found it. He discovered the secret of his family and learned that the source of the Crant family's wealth lay beneath the castle."

He said to me, "I'm not content to live off the meager taxes like my ancestors. I want to revive the glory of the Krant family. But the problem is, I can't understand those hundreds-of-years-old records. I've heard you studied history, language, and writing. Perhaps you could help me unravel this mystery and restore the Krant family's former glory?"

"Back then, I was young and ambitious, eager to make a name for myself using my professional knowledge. Deans' invitation captivated me; he not only promised me a generous reward but also showed me a whole new future. So I accepted Deans' invitation, lived in his castle, and studied the history of the Crant family with him..."

At this point, the eccentric man fell silent, as if recalling his own youthful exuberance as he recounted his story. After a long while, he sighed and continued.

"...Our research and investigation did yield some results. At the time, some fragments we found in the vast collection of documents from the Krant ancestors proved that the Krant family did indeed possess the treasures of this land. However, regarding the treasures themselves, these documents were vague, and I could only conclude that my abilities were insufficient to translate those documents. At that time, I had no idea that this would open an unimaginably terrifying Pandora's box..."

"…………………"

Hearing this, Levi raised an eyebrow, while Katie and Sophia swallowed hard, like children listening to a horror story.

"After that, Deans began excavating the castle. He hired workers to dig beneath it, searching for something. Meanwhile, I continued my own work, trying to decipher the contents of those written documents. Basically, my daily tasks involved translating and organizing the ancestral records, then handing them over to Deans. He would then conduct investigations or excavations based on the records."

It happened one day… I don’t remember the exact date, but I know I was translating documents when I heard Deans’s shrill scream coming down the hallway. I rushed out of the room and saw Deans clutching a book, crying and screaming, running down the hallway like a child. I had no idea what had happened, so I went to ask his servant.

He learned from the servant that Deans seemed to have unearthed a secret room that day, and in the middle of that room was a book. Deans, as if possessed, immediately picked up the book and began to peruse it, then ran off with it like a madman.

"What kind of book is that?"

Katie couldn't help but ask out of curiosity, but the strange man shook his head.

"I don't know what that thing was, but I'm sure it wasn't a normal book. Because after that, Deans became increasingly paranoid. He spent money recklessly, hiring workers to dig frantically, as if he wanted to hollow out the entire area beneath the castle. Not only that, he also became more and more eccentric and strange..."

"How to say?"

"He spent a fortune on the excavation. I saw the butler remind Deans more than once that the vault was empty, yet he always managed to acquire jewels and gold coins to continue his work. Not only that, I noticed that many parts of the town had become completely different from before. I was puzzled, so I continued to search through my ancestors' records, trying to figure out what the Krant family had discovered back then!"
Then, I finally understood why the Krant family had declined! Their ancestors had received some kind of 'gift from heaven,' but afterwards, the Krant family gradually discovered that it wasn't a gift at all, but more like a curse. If left unchecked, it could even destroy the entire family and the territory. So the descendants of the Krant family found a way to completely seal the place away and then bury it entirely.

Then, to avoid being discovered, they built this family castle on top of it, precisely to completely conceal this secret!

"Um……………"

So after all that, you still don't know what the Krant family is hiding.

“I found Deans, but it was too late. I remember what happened—I was walking down the corridor, wanting to talk to Deans, when suddenly everything changed. The sunlight that had enveloped the city vanished completely, replaced by utter darkness. Not only that, I saw many people begin to change. They screamed in agony as they collapsed to the ground, their skin burning and rotting as if it were being corroded. Some even turned into unimaginable monsters!”

At this point, the strange man clenched his fists tightly. Li Wei looked at his hands, which were almost twice the size of a normal person's, and his eyes twitched slightly, but he remained silent.

"I found Deans. His condition at the time... it was beyond description, but he still retained his sanity. He told me he was wrong, he shouldn't have done it, but it was too late. The seal had been broken, and the sleeping evil was about to awaken. He could no longer hold on. He asked me to help him find a descendant of the Krant family, to find a pure, untainted bloodline living outside, and bring him back. His blood can seal that evil once more..."

"I have a question."

Li Wei interrupted the strange man's story.

"So, you were the one who orchestrated all of this and then found Miss Krant. I'm curious, how did you get out? We can't all get out, how did you leave the city?"

"correct."

Hearing this, Katie also realized that they couldn't get out, but this strange man was able to leave the city to bring Sophia here. Didn't that already say a lot?
"because this!"

The strange man suddenly stood up and, in front of everyone, unbuttoned his trench coat. Seeing the strange man's body hidden beneath the coat, Katie and Sophia both screamed in fright.

Beneath the trench coat, the strange man's body was riddled with holes, his skin almost completely rotten and decayed, and one could even clearly see his twitching internal organs and a stone disc residing in his heart.

"This was given to me by Deans before he died. With this, I can move around in the Great Salt Lake region, but I can only go out once a month, and for no more than three days, or I will die. Before, I was using a fake identity to ask people in the villages outside to help me investigate. Finally, I found this descendant of the Krant family."

"So, the second question is, you've found the people, so why wasn't the ceremony completed?"

Although he didn't know whether the strange man was telling the truth or not, Li Wei decided to take it as true for the time being. He had originally thought that he could send the strange man out to contact MI7 on his behalf.

Now, we have to wait another month. By then, the daylily will be too cold. We might as well do it ourselves.

"………………………"

However, upon hearing Levi's question, the strange man remained silent, while exchanging a glance with Sophia, who also looked embarrassed.

"I heard it's because...the ritual was incomplete...?"

"Yes."

The strange man sighed deeply.

"We entered the secret chamber using Miss Sophia's blood, only to discover that the item needed to seal that terrifying being had already been moved elsewhere by our ancestors, although we know where it is..."

Wait, it can't be what I'm thinking, can it?

Upon hearing this, Li Wei's heart jumped into his throat. Wasn't this exactly the process of the RPG game that he knew and hated the most?

"Therefore, we need your help to bring back the ritual items. Only in this way can we completely seal it away."

I knew it! Aa ...
(End of this chapter)