Witch, Fireball and the Evil God of Steam-Chapter 672 - 65: The Truth Hidden Within the Books

This night, Dark Furnace City was in a state of panic. The news of Sheriff Shujia's murder at the manor spread quickly throughout the city. By midnight, the streets were nearly deserted, with patrol officers moving in groups of five, but their actual patrol range was confined to the main roads of Dark Furnace City; they dared not venture into the deserted alleys.

"Controlling ghouls..."

Ethan sat in the Dark Furnace City Library, carefully flipping through "Understand 100 Dark Creatures" and other occult books related to ghouls. The library's collection was far richer than that of Ximu Town. Besides popular works by legendary Demon Hunter August, many other related series were also available.

Perhaps due to frequent famines in the early years, the culture surrounding ghouls was prevalent in Dark Furnace City. In addition to research series, there were also many literary works.

The ethical issues triggered by family members transforming into ghouls led to the emergence of a novel about a noble who, after witnessing his child transform into a ghoul, refused to kill them and instead kept them in the basement, feeding them corpses, animals, and even live people.

Ethan read with great interest, as the theme of ghoul metamorphosis indeed lends itself to artistic creation in ethics.

The author was the renowned Mr. Anonymous.

This was understandable, as the novel's portrayal of secretly nurturing ghouls pointed to certain nobles, and revealing their names might lead to persecution—especially a few years ago, when being labeled as "engaging in Evil God research" would have resulted in being tied to the Church's stake for execution.

"Dark Furnace City Anecdotes"; even the title was relatively obscure, and the beginning of the book spent a large amount of space describing the customs and culture of Dark Furnace City. Without reading the entire book, it would be difficult to associate this novel with ghouls. Ethan noticed this book only because someone had placed it in the ghoul section of the occult bookshelf in advance.

In terms of book categorization details, Dark Furnace City Library was even ahead of the Imperial Capital. It was detailed enough to classify occult books into "Vampires," "Werewolves," "Shapeshifters," which greatly reduced the time visitors spent searching for books.

A very good library.

The only thing Ethan found slightly lacking was that, in the process of reading the novel, he could occasionally feel a strong gaze. This gaze came from the librarian, an elderly man who seemed in his fifties, which was already considered advanced age in Dark Furnace City.

The librarian always watched him with a profound gaze. Even worse, his appearance was reminiscent of the head librarian from the Conansville Library murder case, plus the gas lamp on the counter, giving a sudden horror movie vibe when looked up at unexpectedly.

Tonight, Ethan deeply understood the meaning of the phrase "fear comes from the unknown."

If the old man suddenly drew a knife and rushed at him with a bloodthirsty smile, or convulsed all over, exposing sharp teeth that were not human, it would be less frightening.

But the old man was just standing behind the counter, silently watching him.

"Sir, you can really go home. I'm not a thief; the Security Office officers can vouch for me."

Startled for the third time after looking up, Ethan had to brace himself and speak up.

The old man's deep gaze severely distracted him from reading, making him suspect he might have caused the old man to be called in late at night after his shift was already over, thus facing Ethan without a friendly face from the start. But this was only human nature. Putting oneself in another's shoes, Ethan thought that if he were called back to work after going home post-shift, having to stay an entire night, his expression wouldn't be any better.

The old man said nothing, merely shook his head silently.

This was his third time refusing Ethan.

"Do you have certain quotas? Don't worry, if someone asks tomorrow, I'll just say you stayed in the library all night."

Again, a silent shake of the head.

The silence made the atmosphere in the library seem a bit bizarre to Ethan; the librarian's expressionless face, under the gas lamp's reflection, seemed somewhat inhuman.

"If I were you, I wouldn't continue the investigation."

A deep and hoarse voice, this was the first thing the old man had said to Ethan since they'd met.

"Why?"

Ethan put the book down on the table, intrigued, and asked.

"I warned her."

The old man's murky eyes turned a few times, he lowered his head and muttered to himself. His body trembled slightly, as if experiencing great fear, "But you're all the same, all the same, you can't take advice."

"...Are you referring to Mr. Fisher?"

The old man suddenly froze, staring at him with eyes that had turned somewhat fierce; it seemed to be his only way to dispel fear.

Through information provided by Ave, Ethan had learned about the connection between Fisher and this library. After failing in his political career and returning to his hometown from the Truth Society, the first thing he did was to renovate the Dark Furnace City Library. He valued literature and education highly, and through connections with his colleagues from the society, added many collections to the library. Ethan guessed that the library's detailed categorization was likely also Fisher's doing.

Initially, Dark Furnace City had no society, and Fisher wasn't from a wealthy background. He lived in a less than 100-square-meter apartment in the city's civilian area. Unable to convert his own apartment into a classroom, he brought his students to the library for classes. His actions caught the attention of Duke Bellamo, who generously sponsored a classroom for Fisher, allowing his students to finally have a decent place to study.

"Duke Bellamo's Charitable Donation"—this event even made headlines in the "Dark Furnace City Daily," the black-and-white photograph depicting Fisher with the Duke standing in front of the society, with students in the background.

"And that woman, I warned her too..."

After hearing Fisher's name, the old man became somewhat neurotic. It was not hard to see that the former's death had left an indelible psychological impact on him.

This also made matters more complicated, as Fisher was killed while investigating a certain case.

Adding the missing Lady Valerie to the count, the number of people who met with misfortune had reached three, including a fourth-tier Believer of the God of Truth! This was definitely not the kind of casualty a ghoul incident could cause. In any Adventurer's Guild, even a case involving a horde of ghouls would only be classified as an E-level commission, meaning any adventurer and Hunter could qualify to take on such a commission.

And events like ghouls infiltrating the manor of the Dark Furnace City sheriff and devouring him after a successful attack usually only happened in ghost stories people made up.

The case indeed involved ghouls, but Ethan always felt that the ghouls they were dealing with were not the same species as those low-tier dark creatures mentioned in "Know 100 Dark Creatures."

Perhaps ghouls could evolve?

Ethan had such a thought, but for now, he had more important things to confirm. "Are you talking about a woman who looks to be in her early thirties, with long brown hair, wearing a brown trench coat?"

This was Ave's description of Lady Valerie. Although she was over forty, she had mastered the art of maintaining her youthful appearance, always looking as if she were just over thirty.

"I told her to go back, I already warned her."

"Warned her about what?"

"Go back, go back, go back!"

The old man's emotions grew increasingly agitated, "You should go back too!"

"Calm down, sir."

It was apparent that the old man's current mental state was not suitable for more detailed questioning, and Ethan was no real Sherlock Holmes. He couldn't make sharp deductions about what the old man had been through based on his clothes, demeanor, or calluses on his hands, so as a novice detective, he could only resort to some more clumsy methods.

His words, accompanied by flickering electric arcs, directly touched the old man's mind, and under their influence, the old man's emotions gradually calmed down.

And Ethan got the answer he wanted.

The same time, the same scene, the same location.

A year ago, on a certain day, the old man, as the librarian, also received an unexpected guest in the dead of night. She demanded that he open the library doors—using a tone that brooked no refusal.

That was the mind control technique of the Believers of the God of Truth.

Of course, that's the term used by an amateur like Ethan. Ave didn't like this name; she saw it as stigmatizing the Believers of the God of Truth, even though it seemed very similar to the Magician's mind control technique. The Believers of the God of Truth, however, used their vast knowledge and persuasive rhetoric to achieve their desired outcomes.

Ethan slowly closed his eyes, and in the memory fragments brought by the electric arc, he became the librarian. That night, Valerie sat in the same position as he was now, with books about ghouls piled on the table. But this sight could only be described as blurry; the old man had poor eyesight yet didn't wear glasses, so he couldn't see which books Lady Valerie was flipping through at such a distance.

Or perhaps the old man didn't want to know; he just wanted Valerie to leave Dark Furnace City, just as he had advised Fisher.

But neither of them took his advice, so he could only watch as they walked step by step into the abyss.

And the starting point of all this...

Begins with a disappearance case.

A student from the Society went missing.

Leaving at the usual time after school, leaving the Society at the usual time, the last sighting was near a hotel by the post office, then disappeared without a trace.

But a year ago, this was all too normal; perhaps this student encountered robbers on the way home, or maybe they left Dark Furnace City because of some whim.

Duke Bellamo expressed deep sorrow upon learning of this, visiting the family of the missing student and providing them with a sum of compensation.

The student's family was very satisfied with the compensation and willingly gave up further pursuit.

Life had to go on; the key was what would happen tomorrow.

Duke Bellamo said this to the missing student's father, his eyes full of pity.

Everyone would soon put this behind them, except for Fisher.

He needed to know the exact time, place, and reason.

He needed to know what exactly happened on the night his student went missing.