Passing through the moss-covered bluestone pavement, the layers of rainproof eaves in the alley drip water dripping downward.In the crevices of the many bluestone slabs grew some blue-purple moss, which were covered with small yellowish flowers smaller than the match heads, and a dirt dog ran out of the yard with its tail between its legs, and from the courtyard came the angry scolding of a woman.There were hardly any pedestrians on the street, and a few children were squatting at the corner of the street playing with marbles, and when they saw us coming out of the alley, they ran away in a swarm.Capa took me and Catalina through a few alleys and alleys, and it felt like we had traveled through half the city before we came to this slum, where there were no cheap rental houses in the slums of Strange Rock, and the houses here were built very compactly, and the houses were crammed together like pigeon cages.A clever boy in shorts, shirtless, barefoot ran back, pulled out a marble with three-color petals from the mossy stone crack, he squatted on the bluestone slab at the mouth of the alley, horrified to see a few pairs of feet stopped in front of him, he subconsciously wanted to run away, but found the cold stone wall behind him, and if he wanted to leave, he could only pass through the three people.He was like a little poor worm, standing nervously against the stone wall, hanging his head deeply, like a child who has been punished for doing something wrong.Capa took a step forward, then crouched down in front of the child and asked him, "Do you know Nathaniel?"
”The child nodded subconsciously, and then realized that he should not admit it, so he quickly shook his head in horror, and his hair was like a pile of withered grass like a bird's nest."
You know where his house is, right?
Tell me!
”Capa stared at the boy, his face blistering and looking a little underwhelmed.The child hesitated, but finally gave in to Capa's fierce gaze and pointed to the courtyard at the end of the alley.Capa pulled a piece of hard beef jerky from his bosom and shoved it into the child's hand.The child curiously put the jerky under his nose and sniffed it, with a hint of joy in his eyes.Taking advantage of the moment when Capa turned his head, he slipped away from Katerina like a loach.The child ran away as fast as we could, and we walked in the direction the child had pointed to the courtyard, and after only a few steps, the child came back with a snort, and shouted to Caterina, "Nathaniel is not here, he is out." ”Capa waved at him and motioned for him to leave.In fact, it was the third child he asked about in this alley.The three of us walked down the alley to Nathaniel's door, and Caterina went up and tried to knock on the door, but for a long time there was no answer.Caterina deftly climbed into the courtyard and opened the door from the inside, and we entered the courtyard of Nathaniel's house.The small courtyard looked a little dilapidated, the corners were full of miscellaneous items, the door inside was unlocked, I pushed open the door and walked in, the living room and kitchen of this house were connected together, the furniture in the room was very old, there was a lizard skull hanging on the wall, and a blanket full of strange patterns, and there were some simple wooden graces on the dining table.There were two bedrooms in the room, one of which had a few worn leather armor on the shelves, a rusty alloy bow and seven pairs of worn-out leather boots, and on the humble bedroom wall, I found a simple homemade map, but the messy lines and graffiti no one could read the meaning of it except the painter.This was Nathaniel's home, and on the other wall hung a broken net, perhaps a hammock, but it was too tattered to look good.I reached out and touched the table in my bedroom, picking up some dust on my fingertips.Finding nothing useful in the house, we searched around Nathaniel's house before leaving the house with Capa, and we even re-locked the door to the courtyard.Coming out of that narrow alley, there was an ice drink shop a little down the street, so we found a shady spot and sat down to order three ice drinks.Capa stared at the huge goblet filled with finely chopped flesh and crushed ice, and couldn't wait to take a big sip.The weather in Qiyan City is hot, and after running in the city under the scorching sun for a long time, it is inevitable that your mouth will be dry, and you can drink a sweet cold drink at this time.Most of the cold drink shops on this street are located in the aristocratic living quarters, although this cold drink shop is located in the slums, but a few dozen meters outside is a relatively prosperous main street, Kappa enjoyed the refreshing coolness brought by this cold drink, and swore to me: "I have said it all, I am as familiar with Strange Rock City as my own body, no matter how remote the place, I can find it." ”I sat across from him and pulled out a gold coin and threw it to him.He reached out and caught the gold coin steadily, and did not forget to put it in his mouth and bit it hard with his teeth.When he had confirmed that the coin was genuine, he said to me with a smile, "Your Excellency, you are such a generous man. ”The reward for one gold coin was a bit too high for Kappa who only took us around Strange Rock City for half a day."
One more thing, I hope we can continue to work together."
I paused and said to him.His eyes lit up, and he quickly asked, "Where are you going?"
”"No, I'll stay in Strange Rock City for a while."
I say.Sitting under the pergola outside the cold drink shop, watching the passers-by come and go, I took out two more gold coins and said to Capa, "This is an advance payment for you, I hope you will help me to inquire about any news about Nathaniel, I want to know where he is, and if the information is confirmed, I will be paid." ”"News from Nathaniel?"
Capa frowned, hesitated, but couldn't help but say: "With all due respect, Saniel's reputation has always been good in the wizard circle, he is the kind of rotten good person who can be paid for his friends, and he is born with an adventurous heart, he likes to explore dangerous places, if there is any misunderstanding, everyone should sit down and talk" "You mean that we are Nathaniel's enemies, and we are looking for revenge?"
”I glanced at him.Capa didn't speak."
I just wanted to find out something about him."
I said to Capa, "If you can get any news about Nathaniel, feel free to come to me at the Hollien Hotel, I want to know where he has gone." ”Caterina sat on the sidelines, her legs crossed, sipping a cold drink leisurely, her ruby eyes dazzling in the sun.As I watched Kappa disappear briskly around the bend in the street, I withdrew my gaze."
Where are we going next?"
Katerina asked me.I squinted, "Go meet Jonah.
The guides that Adams recommended for us, I always felt that something was wrong with this strange rock city."
Adams is the slave owner of the Lizard Slave Trader in Haiyin Silk City, although his business is mainly focused on Haiyin Silk City, but if he wants to obtain high-quality Lizard Slaves, he naturally has to have a connection with the slave catchers in Strange Rock City.The lizard slave hunters in Strange Rock City are the group of people who are most familiar with the wild swamp, and only by being familiar with that swamp can they hunt those lizardmen who are called jungle people.In my opinion, this group of slave hunters in Strange Rock City is the best guide to enter the wild swamp.That's why I didn't hesitate to take a detour to the city of Haiyin, and even used some of Prince James's connections and connections to let the steward of the prince's palace take us to the slave market to visit Jonah.
Adams, in order to obtain a list of guides he had drawn up by himself, were not so much guides in Strange Rock as a group of slave traders.According to the accurate information obtained from the Magic Guild, seven magicians have disappeared in the past two months.The law enforcement team of the Magic Guild is also trying to track down this matter, in my opinion, these seven magicians are certainly not bold enough to walk into the wild swamp alone, they are likely to follow the adventure group into the swamp jungle, and now these magicians and adventure groups are missing one after another Although the Lizard tribe on the other side of the Wild Swamp has recently broken out in the civil war, any adventure group that breaks into the Wild Swamp will be attacked by all the lizard tribes, but it will not be wiped out by all the adventure groups.A standard adventurous group is composed of four professions: knight, swordsman, archer, and ranger, and many adventure groups can also invite magicians to accompany them, and before the temple was not closed, there were even priests or battle priests to join, and now the latter two professions are difficult to see in the Grimm Empire except for the temple.Follow Jonah.
Adams wrote me the address, and Caterina and I rode in a magic caravan to Bell Street.In addition to a slave market in Strange Rock City on this street, the gladiatorial arena in Strange Rock City was built next to the slave market, and many slave owners would rent cages in the gladiatorial arena to hold those war slaves, and these war slaves would be auctioned in the slave market in normal times, and they would also take their war slaves to participate in gladiatorial competitions.I don't usually pay much attention to gladiatorial matches in the Grimm Empire, and I think the water polo matches between the magic academies are more interesting than the bloody ones.When the magic caravan drove into this street, I found that there were still a large number of lizards here, these lizards had copper collars symbolizing the status of slaves around their necks, and some of the strong lizards and war slaves still had heavy shackles on their hands and feet, these lizards stood in the shade by the wall, their golden pupils emitted a cold cold light, and they felt cold all over their bodies when they stared at them.Due to the influence of the plane war, even in a place like Qiyan City, which is rich in lizard slaves, it seems that it is difficult to see male lizard war slaves.Some of the lizard war slaves wearing scale armor and heavy shackles on their hands and feet are more or less the signboards and guils of those slave owners even if they stand under the pergola on the street, they themselves have strong combat power, and they are usually the face of these slave owners, and they are also some contestants in the gladiatorial arena.Compared to these lizard-man war slaves, the female lizard slaves under the pergola on the street with only sheets of linen on their bodies were the commodities that the slave owners wanted to trade.A sturdy lizard war slave costs about fifteen to twenty crystals, while the average price of those female lizard slaves ranges from three to ten crystals.The gladiatorial arena in Qiyan City looks more like two crescent moon sculptures built on a large open space, and the gladiatorial arena in the middle is still quite flat with loess tamped in the middle.Under the pergola in front of a shop next to the gladiatorial arena, there were more than a dozen lizard female slaves standing or sitting, and their eyes fell on these lizard female slaves, who gathered under the pergola with numb faces, like a shell with a lost soul, and their empty eyes were full of dead silence.Walking in along the courtyard, I saw that there were exactly six lizard war slaves in the inner courtyard who were practicing their fighting skills, they were fighting each other in the courtyard, and an instructor wearing a leather armor stood aside with a straight face, holding an oily black long whip in his hand, those black were definitely not the true color of the long whip, it should have been contaminated when beating the lizard slaves.The lizard war slaves were very hard at training, and they could be heard colliding with each other to make a shocking crashing sound.A well-dressed tight-fitting lizard-man slave girl came out of the room, with two short swords hanging from her belt, and even walked with a certain rhythm when she walked, and her slender face had a centipede-shaped scar that ruined the beauty of the whole face, and her figure was first-class."
How can I help you?
Your Excellency the Magician. ”That lizard slave girl seems to have a very high status, and she has some corresponding say in this courtyard."
I'm looking for Abraham, is he there?"
I stood in the courtyard, looked around slightly, and asked the lizard slave girl.Looking at her golden eyes, I thought of Kig's personal slave girl, Takama."
Did you make an appointment with your host?"
The lizard slave girl led me into the courtyard."
No, I'm taking the liberty of visiting today."
I spoke.The houses around the yard are very sturdy stone houses, and these stone houses have no doors and windows, only arm-thick iron fences, and there are some lizard female slaves in the house crowded in front of the fences of doors and windows, silently watching everything in the yard, these lizard female slaves are in a better state than those lizard female slaves who are sold outside, at least a little angry."
I don't know what to call it, I'll report it to the inner court for you."
The lizard slave girl looked me up and down a few times, and led me to the bottom of the grape trellis in the courtyard, where we were invited to take a short rest, and the lizard slave girl turned and walked into the inner courtyard.While waiting under the grape trellises, I couldn't help but take a closer look at the three pairs of lizard war slaves in the courtyard, they were holding heavy wooden swords and shields in their hands, and every time the wooden sword hit the shield, it would only make a thumping sound.Those lizard war slaves looked physically strong, but the martial arts they practiced were nothing new, more like the sparring lessons of those warrior apprentices in the junior war college.Caterina only glanced at it for a few moments and lost any interest.Not long after, the lizard slave girl came out of the inner courtyard and was behind her