Chapter 1896 Detective (I Found No Baking Powder when Making Buns Today)

"You look very ill, Mr Francis."

Looking at Francis in front of him, Fangzheng sighed with emotion, then he made a gesture, and soon Asakura Ryoko came over and brought him a cup of coffee. In fact, as Fang Zheng said, Francis looks very embarrassed right now. His face is pale, he is sweating profusely, and he is even a little disheveled. He looks like a lover who was discovered by his master during an affair and jumped out of the window to escape. .

"Drink some coffee first, maybe it will make you feel better."

"Thank you, thank you..."

Francis took a deep breath, took a few sips of coffee, and finally relaxed. Then he looked at Nimfu and Ryoko Asakura beside Fangzheng with some anxiety.

"Well, I have some personal matters..."

"It's all right, Mr. Francis, they are my assistants, and they know all about this."

"Yes, that's right..."

Hearing Fang Zheng's answer, Francis nodded, then he put down the box in his hand, took out a document from his pocket, and handed it to Fang Zheng. At the same time, Francis told Fang Zheng about his experiences these days.

After the nightmare in Innsmouth, Francis was also greatly stimulated. In order to divert his attention, he gave up the next trip and immediately started his journey of finding his roots. He found his family in Arkham, and began to trace his ancestry, and then Francis discovered a piece of information that horrified him.

His mother's family -- the ancestors had married a woman named Marsh in Arkham. And the surname of Marsh is exactly the surname of the family that actually dominates Innsmouth that Francis heard from the drunk old man in Innsmouth. Not only that, but the old man also told Francis before that the head of the Marsh family once married one of those terrible monsters that climbed up from the bottom of the sea, and then gave birth to three children, two of them were born because they kept the shape of monsters. stay here. And the last daughter was sent to Europe to study because she was still in human form, and then the patriarch played some tricks and got a man living in Arkham to marry her.

Hearing this, Francis felt horrified, which reminded him of some unbearable past events. Although they were only vague memories, for some reason, Francis was very scared at the moment.

One of those monsters was a humanoid woman who married a man who lived in Arkham. But in my own family, my mother's ancestors -- that is, the generation of my great-grandmother, did marry a woman named Marsh.

But at that time, Francis just thought that he was too nervous, and that the memory he left for himself in Innsmouth was too deep, so he thought about it.

But after that, when he saw his uncle showing him the jewelry that belonged to his great-grandmother, Francis almost collapsed.

That kind of weird style, the horror and distortion that people can hardly look at directly, although it is extremely exquisite, it is also extremely frightening... It is the same as the jewelry he saw in the previous town and in Innsmouth. s things! It is rumored that these exquisite creations come from the depths of the sea and are the gifts of the great gods, but at this moment, in Francis' view, they are simply envoys of demons.

"I, I don't even know what to do... I passed out at the time, and then I woke up, and I, I don't know who to call, so... Mr. Van Helsing, please help me, there should be Some way, I, am I going to be like those people in Innsmouth... no, I don't know, but I won't..."

"Okay, just calm down, Mr. Francis."

Fangzheng reached out and patted his hand lightly.

"You are worried about whether you will become a deep diver... Well, I can't give you an accurate answer, but if you think about it carefully, from your great-grandmother to now, there is actually no one in your family Be like that, do you know that great-grandmother?"

"No, I don't know... I heard that she died very early."

"Then let's not talk about her. So, where is your mother? Where are your grandparents?"

"my mother………"

Having said this, Francis gradually calmed down.

"My mother is also normal, ah, by the way, my mother never takes us back to my grandparents' house, but when my grandfather comes, she always entertains him warmly, and my grandfather is also very kind to me... Grandmother... I have never seen..."

"So you don't have to worry so much, do you still have the brooch I gave you?"

"Of course, sir."

As he spoke, Francis took out the brooch.

"This seems to be a very expensive thing..."

"That's right, I gave it to you."

"Hey?"

"It has the power to expel evil. If you keep it by your side, you can rest assured."

"This, this is really embarrassing..."

Although he was embarrassed, Francis put the brooch back into his pocket, and his expression seemed to relax a lot.

"However, sir, I still want to continue the investigation. What... are those monsters? I am very scared. I always feel that if I let it go like this, something more terrible will happen..."

"It's okay, leave it to me, I will find someone to investigate."

"Eh? Mr. Van Helsing, don't you intend to investigate yourself?"

"I'm not very good at investigating this mess."

Fangzheng spread his hands and shrugged his shoulders. He has never been interested in being Conan.

"I will entrust professionals to take charge, don't worry, if there is any result, I will notify you."

"That's good... Well, this is my phone number, please, if you find anything, please contact me."

"no problem."

"As for the cost..."

"Let's talk about it at that time, we are also acquaintances, and we won't cheat you."

You don't have much money, so you might as well cheat the Fed.

After entrusting the matter to Fangzheng, Francis seemed to relax a lot, and quickly left. As for the box he brought, it was his great-grandmother's jewelry, because he felt so disgusting that They didn't even want to stay by my side, so they simply handed it over to Fangzheng for safekeeping, and then left like that.

"This is really interesting."

After Francis left, Fangzheng opened the box, took out the things inside and looked at it carefully. There were four pieces of jewelry in this small box, namely bracelets, earrings, brooches and rings. As Francis said, each piece is unique. It is a beautifully carved work of art, and as Francis said, each piece is full of some kind of twisted malice.

Twisted rings that look like octopus tentacles tangled together, gemstones that look like living eyes... well, this thing does give people nightmares.

"How do you feel?"

Out of curiosity, Fangzheng asked Nimfu and Ryoko Asakura, but...

"Very strange jewelry."

"It looks very nice."

The two stared carefully at the gesture in front of them, but did not give a particularly low evaluation.

"Don't you think something is wrong or disgusting?"

"........."

The two looked at each other, then shook their heads.

"I'm sorry, but it's just ordinary jewelry in my opinion, master."

"The information entanglement is very stable, and I don't feel anything abnormal, Master."

The two responded in different ways.

Hmm... Could it have something to do with their race?

After all, whether it is a universal angel or a human-shaped interface, it is a kind of machine in the final analysis... For them, this may be the same as the image information obtained by a computer through a camera, and it will not produce any special feeling.

"Then master, how shall we investigate next?"

"I don't intend for you to investigate."

However, Fang Zheng waved his hand.

"Hey?"

"There is no internet in this world, Nymph, it will be difficult for you to play the role of collecting information."

"I, I can go through the phone line..."

Speaking of this, Nimf also lowered her head helplessly. Indeed, in this relatively backward world, satellites have not even appeared yet... She used her head to collect information!

"Then leave it to me."

"No, I have a professional candidate, you'd better stay and take care of Nimfu."

Fangzheng rejected Asakura Ryoko's request, who knows what her so-called "search" would turn out to be.

"I'm going out now, please prepare dinner."

"No problem, master, what would you like to eat?"

"Whatever, you can figure it out."

Ryoko Asakura's culinary skills are still very good. There are not many people around Fangzheng who can cook well, and even including Ryoko Asakura, there are not even five of them. And among them, except for Xia Shi, it is impossible for anyone else to cook three meals a day for themselves for three hundred and sixty-five days.

In fact, Saten Ruiko's craftsmanship is not bad, but... well, it's just not bad.

"Understood, then let's eat hot pot, I will prepare fresh ingredients."

Facing Asakura Ryoko's report, Fangzheng waved his hand, then picked up the jewelry box and walked out of the room.

Arkham City is neither too big nor too small, but Fangzheng has nothing to do these days and wanders around, so he knows the situation of this city. And right now, the reason why he went out was, as he said before, that Fang was going to hand over this matter to professionals.

What is a professional?

Of course it's the detective!

Different from Kogoro Mori's knock-off office, the detective office in front of him looks like the one often seen in old-fashioned movies. The old-fashioned folding curtains cover the glass, and you can see the brilliance in the room. At the table, a man in Western-style clothes was sitting and dozing.

Hmm... It's not quite the same feeling as Sherlock Holmes, but forget it.

Thinking of this, Fangzheng stretched out his hand and knocked on the door, and then saw the detective who was dozing inside was startled, then woke up hastily, patted his face hard, and then looked at the door.

"Please come in."

"Excuse me."

Fangzheng pushed open the door and walked into the room.

"Excuse me, this is the Valentine Detective Agency, right?"

"Yes, I am Nick Valentine."

The man in front of him chuckled, stood up, and the other party was making a gesture.

"Sit down, would you like a whiskey?"

"No, I don't drink."

"Oh, you're a Puritan?"

"No, I'm not religious, I just think drinking is bad for your health."

"That's a pity, drinking is one of life's great pleasures."

Detective Valentine picked up the bottle, poured a glass into his glass, and drank it down.

"So, sir, what can you do?"

"Well, I have a commission."

Fang Zheng stretched out his hand, took out a piece of jewelry from his arms and placed it in front of Valentine. Seeing the jewelry, Valentine narrowed his eyes.

"This is……………?"

"Interesting stuff, right?"

"It's really interesting, and...sorry, I think this thing is a bit too interesting."

Valentine narrowed his eyes and stared at the brooch—unlike the ring, the brooch was engraved with a strange, octopus-headed monster that seemed to be sitting on a toilet with its knees bent, The eye sockets are also carved with exquisite patterns. But for some reason, Detective Valentine felt sick when he saw this thing, even a little nauseous.

"Well, I thought so too."

Fangzheng picked up a handkerchief and put it on the brooch. Detective Valentine breathed a sigh of relief after he didn't need to see the brooch. The restlessness dissipated.

"So, sir? You want me to..."

"In fact, these jewelry were given to me by my client, asking me to help him with some things."

"Your client? Are you a detective too?"

"No, I'm a mercenary."

"Mercenary..."

Faced with this unexpected answer, Valentine seemed a little surprised.

"To put it simply, combat is my job, but investigation is not, so I came to you, Mr. Nick Valentine."

"So, what do you want me to investigate?"

"About the pattern on that brooch, I can tell you that the pattern on this brooch comes from an evil sect, and my client and I are tracking down this sect, but as I said before, I am a mercenary, but Not a detective. Frontal combat is my job, but in contrast, it is a bit troublesome for me to investigate."

Fangzheng spread his hands helplessly, the information deviation in this world gave Fangzheng a headache, and the results given by the text were all garbled codes, which were useless at all. And there is no way to use the spells of the prophecy system, so in desperation, Fangzheng had no choice but to use this method.

"So, I hope you can find clues about this cult and their location, etc., but I want to warn in advance that this is a very dangerous job."

While talking, Fangzheng reached into his arms, and took out a stack of Franklin.

"I can pay you enough money, but you don't need to take risks. You just need to have enough information and give it to me."

"It sounds easy."

"It's really easy, if you're not afraid of death."

"..."

Hearing Fang Zheng's answer, Valentine was silent for a moment, then he stood up and stretched out his hand to Fang Zheng.

"Then, I accept this commission."