Lord of the Mysteries — Extra: An Ordinary Person’s Daily Life P5

An Ordinary Person’s Daily Life (5)

After reading the impressions that had appeared on the paper, Pacheco turned his head and said to Barton beside him, “What follows will be rather complicated. I will seek help from the police.

“As for you, you may return to the Foundation and wait for further questioning.”

Hearing this, Barton, who had been staring at the paper, not only did not feel disappointed, he actually felt a burst of relief. He hurriedly nodded.

“All right.”

After reading the traces of words Vernal had left behind, Barton’s intuition told him the matter would be extremely dangerous.

And as an ordinary person, avoiding danger was the instinctive choice.

Of course, this was also because Vernal could only be considered an ordinary friend. He was not worth Barton risking great danger to involve himself in this matter.

After responding, Barton immediately turned around, passed between the hotel owner and the attendant, and arrived on the street.

This time, he did not choose public transportation. He boarded a hired carriage.

Barton’s outing this time counted as a special matter, relatively urgent and with the deputy supervisor of the Compliance Department as witness, so the expense could be reimbursed.

And spending the Foundation’s money felt completely different from using his own salary.

On the way, Barton looked at the scenery outside the window and could not help thinking about Vernal’s current condition.

“Is he still alive?

“With such a strong scent of blood inside the room…

“I hope he is still alive. May the Lord bless him.

“If he is still alive, where would he be now?

“Where…

“Could it be?

“This!”

As his thoughts raced, Barton suddenly thought of a possibility. He hurriedly instructed the coachman to change course and head for the district where his home was located.

Before long, he returned home.

“Did something happen?” Barton’s wife came forward, looking astonished.

It was still a considerable while before lunch, much less the end of the workday.

Barton did not remove his hat or coat, nor did he answer the question. He asked directly, “Has Vernal come by?”

“He came to visit you a quarter of an hour ago. I had him wait in the study and sent Wills to the Foundation to find you,” Barton’s wife answered truthfully.

Wills was the family’s manservant. Clearly, a quarter of an hour was not enough for him to reach the Loen Antiquities Collection and Preservation Foundation.

This was exactly what Barton’s wife found most puzzling.

“Mm.” Barton nodded heavily. He hurried through the living room, went up to the second floor, and entered the study.

Inside the study, the window was wide open, the curtains swaying gently, and there was no one present.

“Vernal?” Barton called out, but there was no reply.

He jumped out the window and left… Barton frowned and carefully looked around. He discovered that several books placed on his shelf had been put out of order.

They were a set of history books divided into three volumes: first, middle, and last.

Barton’s habit was to arrange them from right to left, but now they had become left to right.

He silently inhaled, quickly walked over, and pulled out the three books.

After a careful examination, Barton discovered that one page in the middle volume had been folded.

He hurriedly turned to that page and unfolded the corner.

On it, a line of words had been written in messy pencil strokes:

“The survivors of the Fourth Epoch were worshiping an evil god.”

Hiss… Barton was both alarmed and frightened. He abruptly shoved the book back.

Without thinking much, he rushed out of the study and toward the stairs, preparing to find the deputy supervisor of the Compliance Department, Pacheco, tell him what he had discovered, and ask him to bring police to protect Barton’s family.

Only after leaving the house did Barton slow down and consider one very important question:

Where should he go to find Pacheco?

The Clough Hotel, Stoen Police Headquarters, or the Foundation?

After a brief moment of thought, Barton decided to return to the Foundation and find the other employees of the Compliance Department.

At that moment, a hired carriage stopped in front of his house, and Pacheco Dawn stepped down.

“We discovered that Vernal came to your house again.” The deputy supervisor of the Compliance Department explained quickly.

Barton breathed a sigh of relief and answered without hesitation, “Yes, but he has already left.

“However, he did leave some clues.”

With that, Barton led Pacheco into his home and brought him to the study, handing that volume to the other man.

Pacheco glanced at it twice and ran his finger lightly over the line of words.

Then he took out the pencil he had used earlier and wrote beside Vernal’s message:

“Call the police!”

After doing this, Pacheco returned the book to its original place.

However, he did not push it all the way in.

Because of this, a protrusion appeared along the row of books.

“All right. Return to the Foundation, have lunch, and then wait for the good news from the police.” Pacheco clapped his hands.

Barton did not quite understand why this senior solicitor had done that, but he did not ask why.

He truly did not want to become deeply involved in this matter. He felt he would be unable to withstand it.

Barton immediately wove together a few explanations for his wife, then followed Pacheco back to the Foundation and began his routine work.

At afternoon tea time, he had just finished an ancient book appraisal when he heard a knock at the door.

“There is a clue. We need to go to your home.” Pacheco stood by the door, wearing a gray scarf.

“A clue?” Barton stood in surprise.

Pacheco did not answer directly. He made an inviting gesture with an open hand.

Barton could not refuse and returned home with him.

“Vernal came again!” His wife had clearly sensed that something was wrong and came to the entrance in considerable fear.

“It’s all right. Just a small problem,” Barton maintained his masculine image and comforted his wife.

After arriving in the study, he and Pacheco discovered that Vernal had once again fled early.

“Damn it, couldn’t he have waited a moment?” Barton could not help complaining.

“It’s fine.” Pacheco walked to the bookshelf and pulled out that book.

Clearly, Vernal had already read his suggestion, because the book had been pushed fully back onto the shelf.

“I roughly know where Vernal is.” Pacheco half closed his eyes and said with a smile.

Barton was stunned.

“How do you know?”

Pacheco opened his eyes and answered with a smile, “He accepted my bribe—no, my gift. That is not right either. The most accurate description should be: my suggestion.

“Of course, he may not necessarily adopt it.”

After saying this, the deputy supervisor of the Compliance Department walked past Barton and out of the study.

Barton subconsciously followed him. They left the district where Barton’s home was located and turned into a nearby street.

At the end of that street was a house that had collapsed due to a fire.

“It actually still hasn’t been rebuilt,” Barton whispered.

Pacheco put on his white gloves again, his expression becoming a little more serious.

He passed through the relatively intact front door and entered the half-collapsed hall.

Charred beams of wood hung down to the ground, blocking the lower half of a figure.

The figure wore a brown jacket and had a red nose. He looked sturdy. It was the archaeologist Vernal.

Barton secretly exhaled and hurriedly asked, “Why didn’t you call the police?”

“They are monitoring the police station,” Vernal answered without much change in expression.

Barton blurted out another question: “Why not leave Stoen and call the police in another city?”

“They are monitoring the steam train station,” Vernal replied in the same tone.

Barton thought for a moment and frowned.

“You had many ways to leave Stoen. They couldn’t lock down an entire city.”

Hearing this question, Vernal’s expression gradually grew more animated. His tone became slightly drifting as he said, “I sensed the will of that great existence…”