Crow's Paradise

Arnold and the old vulture looked at each other unconsciously in response to Yao Yan's words, and then their eyes returned to him, as if they wanted to discern the truth of these words from him.

Naturally, Yao Yan would not expose these details. He did not have any fear or guilt about lying and spreading rumors. If he had to say he was afraid, he would only let his emotions show appropriately when he talked about encountering a rat man when he returned home. The tone just changed.

And under his performance, both of them believed his words.

Yao Yan was not sure whether Arnold, the man with the magic eye, fully believed it, but the old vulture with the white spots on his head seemed to have been deceived by his mixed true and false stories.

However, it is obvious that the magic-eyed detective Arnold, believe it or not, is ready to start an investigation after accepting his commission.

Yao Yan didn't say much, but after looking around for a few times, he spoke calmly:

"I don't ask for much. On my way home from the funeral parlor every day, just mark a route for me to walk home without encountering any danger."

Arnold didn't answer him immediately. The single eye that occupied most of his face was squinted, and he pondered for a moment before responding:

"You have to set a price first."

"The commission fee is paid in advance, right?" Yao Yan naturally understands the process of detective commissions. For smaller commissions, he pays 30% to 50% in advance, and for larger commissions, he pays 10% to 30% in advance.

"Total 3,000 gold, please pay 500 gold in advance."

Nodding, Magic Eye Man Arnold fired the price without changing his expression.

"No. It's too expensive."

And Yao Yan immediately started to counter-offer. In this situation, it is impossible for a normal person to directly accept this price:

"This price is my two months' salary."

Yao Yan could clearly understand from his memory that the work of a funeral parlor often dealt with various corpses, and the salary was still at the middle to high level in general occupations in the whole society.

3000 gold, a price Yao Yan could not agree to no matter what he wanted.

"1000!"

Yao Yan immediately lowered the price.

"impossible!"

Arnold opened his one eye and started bargaining back and forth.

Soon, however, the two men reached a compromise position on price that was acceptable to both parties.

1700.

It just exceeded the monthly income of Nord, the original owner of Yaoyan's body.

After reaching an agreement, Arnold also took out a pen and paper in a familiar manner and wrote the contents of the agreement between the two on the somewhat yellowed paper. The contract in triplicate was stamped with a notarization. Claw seal.

After Yao Yan confirmed the contents of the contract, signed his name, and stamped his paw prints, his eyes fell on the devil-eye man whose name differed from the original owner of his body by only one syllable.

And Arnold also raised his eyebrows:

"Then, Mr. Bone Scavenger, please rest assured. I have an assistant with a keen sense of smell. He is a top criminal expert and has considerable experience in how to pursue and prevent crimes."

Facing his smile, Yao Yan acted as if he was relieved, and his tone became gentler, without responding as nervously as before:

"Then I'll get rid of you, Mr. Detective."

"No problem, Mr. Bonepicker."

Because of the close pronunciation of their names, the two of them tacitly chose not to use their first names.

After getting the route and approximate return home time given by Yao Yan, the magic-eyed man gently nodded and showed a polite smile:

"Well, you two, see you next time."

After saying that, the magic eye detective immediately left the door of the forensic identification center.

And looking at the other person's leaving figure, Yao Yan, who did not forget to let his face and actions have a sense of "reassuring" relaxation, also turned his attention back to the old vulture:

"Brother, I think you'd better be careful too."

"Although I heard that there are only rat people now, if it is related to the Church of Bones, I am worried that other flying races may join."

This sentence made the old vulture, who originally thought it had little to do with him, startled. His wrist shook uncontrollably and he almost threw his hat away.

Putting the black top hat firmly on the top of his head, the old vulture asked Yao Yan with some uneasiness:

"Brother Crow, no, Brother Nord, if you have any news, remember to tell me Old Rhett."

Obviously, Yao Yan's supplementary words made this old vulture unable to relax.

As he spoke, his somewhat peeling beak opened and closed:

"How about you elaborate?"

Although I have an indifferent attitude in my heart, I still have to do enough on the surface:

"How do I know? If I knew better, would I still entrust a detective to investigate?"

"S-that's true."

While the arakkoa Nord and the vulture man Rhett were waiting for the forensic identification center to sift through detailed traces, Detective Arnold's pace back toward Three Eyes Street became faster and faster.

Hurrying slowly, he finally arrived at the edge of Central City's Second District half an hour later, using a pattern composed of abstract forms of three eyes as street signs.

Standing in front of the street, Arnold glanced at other streets.

Central City, this huge urban agglomeration, seems to have a stable division of labor and orderly order. However, it is precisely for this reason that the streets divided by different ethnic groups are clearly distinct.

He turned his head. In front of him, on Three Eyes Street, humanoid creatures similar to him, with huge one-eyed heads on their heads, were talking in Three Eyes Street.

Seeing him, a very tall magic-eyed man smiled and said hello to him:

"Hey, Arnold, you're back? You solved another case today and got a lot of bounty, right?"

However, before Arnold could answer, a female demon-eyed man next to the tall one-eyed man dragged him away.

Arnold just watched the tall magic-eyed man leave who kept shouting "gentle, gentle" in pain.

Silently, he walked back to his detective agency and his home.

When I first opened the door, it was a little dark, with only a dim yellow light source shining deep inside the door, near the end.

Where the light source was, beside a big old wooden table, a female with a similar shape to him, but with three eyes, looked at him:

"You're back? You didn't act recklessly this time, right?"

"What kind of random action?"

At this time, Arnold's face did not have the natural smile he had with the vulture man Old Rhett and the arakkoa Nord, only a calm expression that was almost indifferent.

"Of course it's about investigating the black market laboratory."

The three-eyed female demon-eyed person looked at him with a smile on her lips:

"Those of us, the Demon Eyes, who were bred from an unknown mother in a black market laboratory, are very curious about our origins."

Without answering her directly, Arnold just walked to the table where she was and put the contract in his hand on the table:

"Rather than that, help me deal with this contract first."

"How cold."

The three-eyed Magic Eye woman picked up the two contract papers as she spoke:

"Let me see. Investigate the safest route home?"

"The investigation is about the rat tribe. When would a rat who only commits crimes of theft be related to this kind of investigation? Is the client a rich man?"

However, she soon noticed the unfamiliar word and narrowed her three eyes at the same time:

"Church of Bones?"