“The question is, what is James Crowley's identity?”
The carriage gave a violent jolt.
Elias crossed his hands, propping his elbows on his knees, his mind racing.
After a moment of contemplation, he asked:
“Edward's son?”
Old Ed’s gossip-hungry soul immediately flared up, and he asked tentatively through their mental link.
“No.”
John shook his head, which radiated a cold, ghostly light.
“His nephew.”
“Why would his nephew want those top-secret documents and containment objects inside a confidential carriage?”
Elias raised an eyebrow, sizing John up with a strange look in his eyes.
“Furthermore, it’s a lethal containment object with such ridiculously massive side effects.”
This wasn't just a blind guess on Elias’s part.
After all, according to John’s own boasting just now, the only reason he was able to sit here peacefully in this form was thanks to that containment object.
Elias recalled the murder scene at the Golden Rose Hotel.
Combined with the police autopsy results Brian had disclosed...
The final cause of death for the body on the floor—the one using the alias ‘Martin Miller’—was brain death.
In other words.
After John was forcibly immobilized in the hotel by the murderer using some supernatural means, he had fallen into a truly desperate situation.
To prevent the secrets in his gut from falling into enemy hands...
He used some method to activate that containment object!
It severed the connection between his flesh and soul, allowing him to shed his mortal coil in the form of a spiritual body and escape.
The price, however, was his immediate death.
“Is that the fundamental reason you were so surprised when you heard me say I knew Edward Crowley?”
Elias tapped his knee with his finger, asking with certainty.
“Exactly,” John sighed.
“Because the ultimate goal for which James spent twenty thousand gold crowns to hire me...”
“...was to investigate the ‘Night of the Dead Tide’ that occurred in Hastings Port twenty-five years ago.”
“According to him, his biological uncle, Edward Crowley, completely vanished during that Night of the Dead Tide twenty-five years ago.”
“What?!”
Both Elias and Old Ed in his head let out a burst of unconcealable astonishment.
Holy crap.
Missing?!
That disrespectful, incredibly stingy old sea dog...
Was actually a legendary figure who had been on the missing persons list for twenty-five years?!
“So after all that, you and Old Crowley don't even know each other?”
Old Ed double-checked in Elias's mind, his tone full of disbelief.
So all those possibilities they had imagined before were completely off the mark?!
“I don't know him at all.”
John spread his translucent hands, looking like he’d been wrongly accused.
Elias leaned back against the jolting seat, falling silent.
【Spirit Sensing】 told him clearly that every word John said was the truth.
There wasn't a trace of lying or emotional concealment.
But that was just damn bizarre!
Before he left Moon Bay to return to Hope County...
Old Crowley had personally instructed him.
He told Elias that once he reached Hope County, he should go directly to the Golden Rose Hotel on Knight Lane and find a man named ‘Martin Miller’!
What did that prove?
It proved that Captain Crowley knew John—at least one-sidedly!
In other words.
He knew of the person Martin Miller.
He even knew the man had that containment object from the Fortville family in his possession!
He even had the man's specific location pinned down perfectly!
This information gap was simply absurd!
“I need to confirm one thing with you.”
Elias suddenly looked up, his gaze piercing as he stared at John.
“That Martin Miller who died in the room on the fifth floor of the Golden Rose Hotel—that was you, wasn't it?”
John’s translucent face instantly stiffened.
A look of embarrassment spread wildly across his features.
It was like a martial arts master who had just finished boasting about being a peerless swordsman, only to have a passerby ruthlessly point out that he had died by slipping on a banana peel.
What kind of legendary thief dies such an ignominious death?
It was a total embarrassment.
“You...”
John’s voice dropped an octave, and he spoke with a bit of a guilty conscience.
“You know about that?”
“Obviously.”
Elias showed no mercy in tearing away his last shred of dignity.
“That’s right. Before I came back, it was Edward Crowley who personally told me to find a man named Martin Miller.”
“He sent me to take delivery of the item in that person’s possession.”
“Looking at it now, it's the thing inside your stomach.”
“What the hell?!”
This time, it was John’s turn to lose his composure.
Elias could clearly feel it.
John’s emotions began to fluctuate violently at this moment!
However.
As an old fox who had spent years navigating the Society of Freemen and the edge of life and death, John’s psychological resilience was quite strong.
He forced himself to calm down.
“This is indeed a bit...”
John rubbed his ethereal brow, his expression extremely complicated.
“...far beyond my imagination.”
“Actually, the core purpose for which that sucker James spent a fortune to hire me was to find clues and confirm whether his uncle was still alive.”
John sighed and began to spill the internal secrets of the Crowley family.
“According to James, their family receives a large sum of money from an unknown source on time every year.”
“Everyone in the Crowley family is convinced that the money is sent back by the missing Edward.”
“They all speculate in private that perhaps something terrifying happened in Hastings Port twenty-five years ago.”
“Something that forced Edward into a desperate situation where he couldn't, or didn't dare, maintain any contact with the family for fear of implicating them.”
At this point.
John’s expression became very strange.
“But looking at it now...”
“This isn't a case of being unable to contact them.”
“It's clearly a case of that old geezer just not wanting to deal with them personally, isn't it?!”
John couldn't help but complain wildly.
This was purely a rebellious old man who ran away from home and only cares about sending money back periodically while living under an alias and collecting a high salary!
And it had cost John his life for a measly twenty thousand gold crowns!
“Stop worrying about that old man’s family drama for a second.”
Old Ed was practically scratching his head in frustration within Elias’s mind.
The old man was filled with a fervor that ordinary people could hardly understand regarding major events that happened after his own death.
“So, what exactly is this ‘Night of the Dead Tide’ from twenty-five years ago?”
Old Ed urged impatiently.
“Mr. Rockland doesn't know either?”
Hearing this question, John looked at Elias.
Elias shook his head honestly.
“Fine.”
John spread his hands helplessly.
“This was a terrifying event that triggered a massive earthquake across the entire supernatural world back then!”
“But considering Mr. Rockland has only recently entered the supernatural world...”
John gave a mock bow toward the empty air.
“...and my dear senior Edmond has been dead for so long that his ashes have long since gone cold...”
“It’s only natural that you two wouldn't know.”
John floated cross-legged in mid-air.
He dropped his previous playful facade and organized his thoughts for a moment.
“You should at least know about the Fortville family, right?”
Rate on N.U.
