Chapter 83: The Cradle of Evil Gods
"Thank you, Sister."
Lu Ze, using his Listening ability for the first time, heard the voice of the deceased from the corpse's chest.
Sister?
Was it his sister, or a woman he had recently met?
Lu Ze wondered, tilting his ear again, trying to hear more clearly. He heard the childish voice suddenly turn terrified, "What is this, Sister!" Immediately after, there was a long, painful wail, the sound of bones breaking, and the incessant popping and bubbling of blood being forced out of the lungs.
Not long after, the childish voice became cold and resentful, "Sister, why did you harm me? It's so dark and cold here..."
The voice was cold and twisted. Lu Ze felt a dizzying pain in his head from Listening, and quickly shut it off, standing up. He felt lightheaded and nearly fell due to his unsteady footing.
"How is it? Did you find anything?"
Leonard noticed his pale face, helped him up, and asked.
"Yes, I vaguely saw a woman's face."
Lu Ze lied, not telling Leonard that he had actually heard it. "I'll try using a ritual to see if I can accurately draw her."
So Lu Ze arranged candles on the ground, used ritual magic, prayed for strength from the Goddess, and drew a portrait of the woman who had come into contact with the child before his death. After picking up the portrait and casually glancing at it, he suddenly froze.
Because he had seen the woman in the painting before.
Her distinctive round face and beautiful appearance—it was the same woman who had appeared in Viscount Dorset's bedroom!
"I've seen this woman. She also appeared at the scene of the Viscount's death. The Captain later assigned police to investigate, but they couldn't find any clues about her."
Lu Ze showed the portrait on the paper to Leonard and Frey, while sighing inwardly. When he was investigating that case, Ms. M, that crazy woman, wasn't yet in his house.
Leonard stared at the painting in a daze.
Suddenly, Lu Ze noticed him tilting his head, as if Listening to something. Afterward, a strange meaning appeared in his eyes—Leonard's head-tilting Listening motion was very subtle. If Lu Ze hadn't become sensitive to similar movements after using Listening, he might not have noticed it.
No way, is he also a Listener?
Isn't he a Midnight Poet?
Leonard noticed Lu Ze looking at him, his expression quickly returning to normal. He smiled and said, "My neck hurts a bit. I think I twisted it in the car."
What the heck, I thought you were also from the Aurora Order.
Lu Ze laughed dryly, "Whose fault is it that you insist on sitting with your legs crossed in the car? Such a lazy posture isn't good for your health."
"Thanks for the reminder."
Leonard said indifferently, pulling open the room door to call in the chief and the foreman. He showed the paper to the foreman, "Have you seen this woman?"
"Such a beautiful dame, I really want to... Uh, no, I haven't seen her."
The foreman stared at the portrait infatuatedly, only answering honestly after being nudged by the chief.
Leonard frowned in thought, then pointed at the corpse and asked, "Do they have break times?"
"Yes, they work two shifts for a week, then get one day off and their wages."
"Get me the people who were on the same shift as him."
"It will delay work."
The foreman said unwillingly, but under the chief's threat, he went outside and brought in three or five children. These shabbily dressed children stood timidly and uneasily, their eyes filled with fear as they looked at Lu Ze and the others. To them, these people in their shiny police uniforms were all terrifying.
"Have any of you seen this person?"
Leonard half-squatted, showing them the painting, and asked in a gentle tone.
His handsome face and friendly demeanor put the children at ease. After seeing the painting, many of them nodded.
As Leonard questioned further, he obtained more information. The deceased child was named Oliver, very young, and unable to adapt to the factory environment after coming in, often dozing off. He had almost gotten into trouble several times before. As for the woman in the painting, she had mysteriously appeared in the factory one night. Because she was very beautiful, the children all had a good impression of her. She played with the children for a while, seemed particularly fond of Oliver, and gave him a piece of candy.
"Candy? Is the wrapper for that candy still there?"
Leonard found a clue and asked with a hint of surprise in his voice.
So the children led him to Oliver's bed—which was actually just a dirty bedroll under the loom. Inside, there was a colorful candy wrapper, carefully hidden by him beneath the bedroll.
"There are traces of a curse."
Lu Ze took one look and drew his conclusion without hesitation.
That's right, the perpetrator of this series of deaths is this woman!
"These children really have it tough. They work for a week, rest for one day, and their pay is only half or a third of an adult's."
After leaving the cotton mill, Leonard said with emotion, clearly deeply affected by what he had seen.
"This kind of place is already considered to have pretty good conditions," Frey shook his head coldly. "In some coal mines in South Wales, because the mine shafts are too small for adults to enter, children are made to drag small carts, crawling in and out to transport coal."
Lu Ze also shook his head:
"After the repeal of the Corn Laws, a large number of farmers went bankrupt and flowed into the cities. Various factories took the opportunity to exploit them, offering lower and lower wages. They worked with all their might, but the money they earned was only enough to get by, slowly weakening as they struggled through difficult days."
He had walked around the slums of Tingen City and Enmat Harbor several times, witnessing the massive amounts of extreme emotions there. From his perspective as a Secrets Supplicant, these were excellent materials for performing evil rituals. It could be said that the land of the slums and the factory buildings of the industrial zone were excellent cradles for nourishing evil gods.
How ironic. The factory owners exploited their bodies, and evil gods devoured their souls. Both sides were well-fed, while only they disappeared silently.
"Oh, right, you said you had an idea earlier. What exactly did you mean?"
Lu Ze suddenly remembered what Leonard had said in the car.
Leonard organized his thoughts and asked:
"Do you think, even without that woman's curse, how much longer would this child, or that Viscount, have lived?"
Lu Ze thought for a moment.
The child's body couldn't withstand the intensity of the work, constantly dozing off, and Viscount Dorset, who sought thrills and enjoyed all kinds of extreme games, playing more and more dangerously, would eventually play himself to death.
"Probably not much longer."
"But the woman's appearance accelerated their deaths."
"...Are you saying she took away a part of their lives?"
Lu Ze knew many evil rituals and immediately understood what Leonard meant.
But what is she collecting so much life force for?
Stopped