The herb shop in the alley diagonally opposite the "Red Theater" was still open. The plump apothecary, Darkwill, sat behind the counter, outwardly calm but inwardly anxious.
Ever since receiving Ebner's advice, he had frequently used opportunities to prepare potions for others to discreetly commission adventurers or pirates to inquire about his teacher's whereabouts.
Just yesterday, he finally received news from a guard at the Governor's Mansion: his teacher, Roy King, had been secretly arrested by the military and was currently imprisoned within the Governor's Mansion.
If this guard hadn't joined the "Celestial Sect" and severely depleted his body from excessive indulgence with a certain noble lady, and also lacked money for medicine, he wouldn't have risked telling the plump apothecary this information.
Of course, a more significant reason was that the Governor of Bayam was about to leave office, and the guard had lost his former deference towards him.
Darkwill had spent the entire day trying to contact known "School of Life" members through various means, seeking necessary help. However, he couldn't know who would come or when, so he could only suppress his fear and anxiety, continue to keep the shop open, pretending that nothing had happened.
"Darkwill, you're very restless," the owl perched on Boody's shoulder spoke.
"I don't need you to remind me, I'm well aware of my state," Darkwill waved his hand impatiently.
He still remembered when he was studying with his teacher, he was always warned to be wary of official organizations and true vampires. For this, Roy King gave many examples: being permanently imprisoned underground, seeing neither sunlight nor women; becoming a researcher, using one's body to test the dangers of certain Sealed Artifacts; enduring various experiments, mutating into monsters with only instinct left; or being drained by vampires and turned into puppets.
So, while he might have a foul mouth, he rarely truly caused trouble and never stayed in a city for more than three months.
Fortunately, seeing Boody's worried gaze, Darkwill, for the sake of his pride, somewhat reined in his fear and shifted his attention to what to do.
If only Ebner were still in Bayam, I could ask him for advice... Darkwill annoyedly scratched his hair, then a flash of inspiration struck him. He suddenly remembered his last communication with his teacher, Roy King.
"He seemed to tell me to go to Mapple's Grocery Store on Enmat Street and buy a dice... I've overlooked this before, but now that I think about it, this request was a bit abrupt... Maybe there's a secret there?"
Thinking this, Darkwill mustered his courage, took the owl with him, left Boody to watch the shop temporarily, and walked out of the alley.
Next, he spent a high price of 1 gold pound at that grocery store to buy a very small ring box.
Inside the ring box was an off-white six-sided dice, with a red "4" facing up.
Afterward, he accidentally dropped the dice and encountered various misfortunes, yet fortunately rolled a "6" when interrogated by the police, safely passing through and returning to the shop.
By this time, night had fallen, and the light from the gas streetlights on either side was too far apart, illuminating only a small portion of the road.
Darkwill nervously entered the herb shop using this faint light. After briefly comforting Boody, who looked worried, he took the owl upstairs to his living quarters and repeatedly examined the ring box and the off-white dice.
Finally, he pulled out a piece of paper, folded to half the size of a finger joint, from a hidden compartment at the bottom of the ring box.
Darkwill silently took a breath and quickly read it.
It was a message written by his teacher. Besides explaining that he might have been betrayed by an insider, it also described in detail the function of the dice, stating that it had a certain living characteristic: the more it was used, the easier it would awaken, and it would even roll itself unnoticed, even without space.
When it fixed on '1', it would make people suffer more than direct death, because almost everything they did would fail!
Finally, he issued a task... telling Darkwill to take the dice to Kano the bell-ringer on Olavi Island, or to Detective Ebner Braun.
Sure enough, this dice is very dangerous... Darkwill subconsciously sighed, then realized he had done something foolish out of good intentions.
To rescue his teacher, Roy King, he had overcome his cowardice and stayed in Bayam, sending out requests for help to the members of the School of Life he knew.
And according to the letter's content, this meant he was very likely targeted by the person who betrayed Roy King!
"Why didn't I think of buying this dice sooner! If I had bought it earlier, I wouldn't have sent messages to the traitor... And if it were even earlier, maybe Ebner wouldn't have left Bayam..." Darkwill raised his hands, pulling at the hair on the sides of his head.
However, a flicker of doubt immediately crossed his mind: Why give the dice to Ebner? Although that detective is strong, he's only a Mid-Sequence Beyonder. Does he really have the ability to handle such a terrifying Sealed Artifact?
And this Sealed Artifact belongs to our own school; why give it to an outsider?
After thinking for a long time without success, Darkwill decided to give up. After all, his teacher was always acting mysterious; he was used to it. Besides, he had no idea where Ebner was, so his only option now was to find the bell-ringer.
He dared not linger here, deciding to move his residence tonight and take a boat to Olavi Island tomorrow morning—an island located on the "Rorsted Archipelago—Toscato" shipping route.
"My talismans, my pistol, my whip..." Darkwill busily counted items that provided a sense of security, worried about his lack of sufficient combat power.
Suddenly, he thought of Boody again, unsure how to arrange for her. Although the little girl had made significant progress recently and could fend for herself... his enemies were not ordinary people. If they couldn't find him, would they make trouble for her?
But taking her with me might be even more dangerous!
Darkwill's expression twisted, then quickly settled, twisted again, then settled again... After repeating this several times, he decided it was best to ask Boody herself, as this was a matter of life and death, and he had no right to decide for her.
She wasn't that silly bird bound to him.
Just as Darkwill, having cleared his mind, let out a sigh of relief, a knock suddenly sounded at the door.
"They're coming for me! Someone's coming for me!"
Darkwill's first reaction was that he had been exposed. Outside were either official personnel or a traitor from the "School of Life"...
The uncontrollable fear that had just subsided in his heart surged again, and he instinctively wanted to hide the dice.
But only then did he realize that the off-white dice had somehow flipped itself.
This time, a red "6" was facing up.
Is this a good omen? Darkwill clutched his chest, asking with a trembling voice:
"Who is it?"
"Boss, it's me... Boody." Boody's clear voice rang out from outside the door.
Darkwill then slumped onto a chair, feeling as if he had come back to life.
"Your friend, Mr. Ebner Bryan, has arrived with a patient," Boody's voice came again from outside the door.
"What?!"
Darkwill looked at the "6" facing up on the dice and thought: Looks like my luck isn't so bad after all?
.....
In the courtyard, Ebner waited for Darkwill, holding Tracy, who was clad in a hooded robe.
He hadn't returned directly to Toscato or Trier because Tracy's body truly couldn't wait any longer. Darkwill's apothecary shop had a relatively complete stock of herbs, allowing him to concoct some potions to alleviate the toxins.
As for the robe on Tracy, Ebner had simply picked out a random one from the "Fragrant Manor" for her to wear.
He didn't feel there was anything to be discreet about; setting aside that "Vice Admiral of Ailment" was originally a man, he had seen Tracy stark naked when she was controlled by the "Rose School" deep in the Daniel Maze, so he had long lost any "exploratory" thoughts.
However, Boody's expression just now seemed off... Did something happen here with Darkwill?
But even with my "Butterfly effect," shouldn't there still be some time before the "Dice of Probability" storyline?
Just as he thought this, he saw a pale-faced Darkwill walk out of the house, holding an off-white dice in his palm.
Seeing this, Ebner's hand trembled, and he nearly threw Tracy out like a dice.