Chapter 291 – Visitors in the Cemetery
Chapter 291 – Visitors in the Cemetery
The place where one is now, should be a public facility used to temporarily park corpses, the voice outside the coffin should come from the caretaker of this facility.
The caretaker seemed to be very experienced, he called the strange movements coming from the coffin as the “agitator” phenomenon, and talked to himself clearly and rationally, and did not show any panic in the process.
The body he was currently possessing appeared to be that of a worker in a mine, whose death was caused by a fall from a height, with severe organic defects.
Duncan silently summarized this useful information while talking to the voice outside the coffin, at the same time further confirming the idea that this body he was currently in was not useful.
After all, even if he didn’t take into account the fact that this body was unusually weak, it would be difficult for him to run around with a deflated brain – of course, there was such a phenomenon as the “living dead” in this world, and it seemed that the sailors on the Tirian ship had no shortage of sailors with a piece of their heart missing from their head. Of course, there is such a thing as the “living dead” in this world, and there seems to be no shortage of sailors on Tirion’s ships with a piece of their head missing and a piece of their heart missing, but even if they are the living dead, that’s not the kind of status that allows them to move about the city-state with a straight face.
While Duncan was silently calculating in his mind, the old caretaker outside the coffin never relaxed his taut nerves.
The double-barreled shotgun in the old man’s hand was still pointing at the coffin, while the powdered herbs sprinkled on the ground in advance were now emitting a pale shimmering light, his voice was always calm, but his fingers holding the shotgun had turned slightly white.
He was waiting for the restless man in the coffin to exhaust the last vestiges of his soul, waiting for the chattering dead man to tire and accept the fact of his own death – in his experience, it usually didn’t take long, and with the powerful calming effects of the lamp and the powder, it often only took half an hour for a restless soul to calm down .
Normally, the dead would slowly become confused during conversation, and soon they would no longer remember their words, and normally, the voices in the coffin would turn into mumbled grunts, and then into hoarse mutterings, and normally ……
But why does this one in the coffin seem to be chatting more and more spirit?
“Do you know where I am now? Ah, of course I know that this is the place where the body is mortuary, I mean the location of this place …… You know, I couldn’t see the surroundings on the way I was sent.
“How’s the weather today? It should be pretty cold, right? I think I can still hear the wind outside, it’s not a good night for frost ……
“What time is it now? Have you eaten? Do you have other colleagues around you?
“Is there any news in town lately? I don’t remember much from before …… By the way, do you recognize a man named Brown Scott? He seems to be a folklorist or historian, lives on Fireplace Street, and a friend of mine knows him well ……”
The old watchman felt a fine bead of sweat emerge from his forehead, he swore to Bartok that he had never seen such an evil situation in most of his professional life, a restless corpse, under the premise of the “gatekeeper” of the Church of the Dead himself performing the requiem ceremony, and under the powerful soothing effect of the lamp and herbs, it did not sleep at all. Under the strong soothing effect of the lamp and herbs, there was not the slightest sign of restful sleep, but more and more like a living person awake!
This made him think of the recent disturbing rumors in the city-state and the stories related to the “return of the dead”.
Was there really a loophole in the boundary that Bartok, the god of death, had set for life and death?
“Sir,” the old watchman tightened the shotgun in his hand, his voice slightly serious, “you have already said enough, if I were you, now as soon as possible to be quiet, honestly back to sleep – or wait until the sun rises, you should not be good! up, you’re in for a rough ride.”
Duncan in the coffin thought about it, and said somewhat helplessly, “Actually, I quite want to cooperate with you, but I really can’t sleep a bit at this time ah …… Why don’t you help me open this lid, and then give me a dose of good medicine to calm the spirit and help me sleep?”
“That’s something you’re overthinking ……”
The old caretaker spoke in a deep voice, however, just at this moment, a sudden and piercing sound of tapping on the fence gate suddenly came from the entrance of the cemetery, interrupting what he wanted to say next.
In the middle of the night, why would there be a visitor?
The old guard looked in shock at the direction from which the tapping sound came, only to see a few figures in black coats standing under the streetlight outside the towering carved fence gate, the light from the gas lamps spilling over those people, stretching their shadows to a long length, and flooding them with a glow in their wake.
One of the figures raised his hand and displayed something by the light of the street lamp.
It was a triangular metal emblem, symbolizing a messenger of Bartok, the god of death.
The old guard’s heart stirred, and he subconsciously glanced back at the brand new coffin.
The voices in the coffin were temporarily silenced.
After a slight hesitation, the old man turned around and walked quickly towards the entrance of the cemetery.
Accompanied by the sound of a clicking chain coming loose and the creaking sound of a door shaft turning, the towering cemetery gate opened.
The old caretaker raised his head and watched the figures standing under the streetlight with cautious eyes. Three men and a woman, all wearing thick, pitch-black coats and equally thick, wide-brimmed hats on their heads, stood silent in the night air, the clothes and this silent gesture reminiscent of the crows that stood beside the tombstones at midnight.
As the old man looked up and surveyed these uninvited guests, the uninvited guests also surveyed the old gravekeeper with his somber temperament, and soon one of the shorter men took a half-step forward, raised the triangular emblem in his hand, and spoke with a solemn expression:
“The peace of death will shelter you and me in the end – by order of the Church of the City State, we have come to take away a dead man who should have just been brought to this cemetery.”
“A cleric of death?” The old guards subconsciously somewhat suspicious, frowning slightly at the triangular emblem in the other’s hand, “Agatha, the gatekeeper, just left a few hours ago, she did not mention that there would be another cleric to come here to take the dead, and …… it is now midnight, it is not a good time to take the dead. ”
“Special circumstances, that dead man needs to be transported to a safer place,” another of the uninvited guests spoke up, it was the woman, she was medium sized, the lines of her face appeared cold and raw, her lips thin, “Please cooperate, it is a matter of life and death, there is no delay. ”
The old guard’s heart stirred when he heard the other party mention the word “special circumstances”, and then associated with the coffin’s chattering voice, he immediately dispelled the doubts in his heart.
It seemed that the restless person in the coffin was indeed something special, and the church had already reacted to it, although he didn’t know how the church’s clergymen had made their judgment, anyway, the professionals were here now.
The old man didn’t like outsiders disturbing his graveyard, but since the other party was a full-fledged cleric holding the Death Emblem, there was no need for him to stop anything else.
He preferred that this trouble tonight would end as soon as possible.
“Come with me,” the old man grunted, turning to make way for the path leading inside the cemetery, “You’ve come just in time.”
“Just in time?” One of the taller, black-clad men was striding to follow him when he sniffed, slightly startled, “Why do you say that?”
“That corpse has begun to stir, ha, rambling, talking on and on, the more he talks the more energized he gets, I even suspect he’ll cross the first line and become undead – that’s going to be a big problem, and the neighborhood won’t like the news,” the old caretaker Shaking his head, “People don’t like undead, Frostbite people especially, it would remind people of that cursed battleship that was full of undead ……”
Listening to the old man’s muttered complaints along the way, the four black-clad men subconsciously exchanged glances as if they were somewhat surprised.
But soon, the woman with thin lips shook her head, signaling for the matter to be put at ease.
The other three then nodded slightly and continued to follow the old guard’s footsteps in silence, while the short man who had displayed the church’s emblem earlier casually threw the emblem in his hand onto the ground.
The emblem fell to the ground silently, and the moment it touched the ground, it turned into billowing black soot that dispersed with the wind.
The group quickly made their way through the paths of the cemetery to the mortuary where the dead were temporarily parked.
On the neatly arranged platforms, rows of plain coffins stood silent in the night breeze, the lamps that the old caretaker had hung on the stakes earlier still burned calmly, and the powdered herbs on the ground still emitted a faint pale glow.
Seeing that these sealing measures were still functioning properly, the old guard was obviously slightly relieved, and then he took two steps forward and pointed at the coffin that had been put up most recently, “This one, the one you’re looking for, was just delivered this evening.”
The four men in black exchanged glances, and the woman with the thin lips came to the platform, frowning slightly as she surveyed the coffin in front of her, “Is …… this it ……”
“Could be,” Duncan said casually from inside the coffin, “What do you guys do?”
The woman’s eyes widened slightly in an instant, seemingly startled by the voice from the coffin, and the other three men were visibly taken aback as well, they looked at each other nervously, the taller of them couldn’t help but whisper, “It’s not quite right ……”
“What’s not quite right?” The old guard’s hearing seemed to be very good, and he sniffed with some curiosity, “You guys can’t handle it?”
“No, we are here to solve this matter,” the woman in black said immediately, then she looked at her three companions and seemed to quickly deliberate before nodding to the old guard, “Next …… you need to temporarily recuse yourself for a moment.”
(End of chapter)