Chapter 477: Chapter 478: Not Even Giving 2000_1
"You?" Aiden frowned slightly.
"If you’re looking for the owner of this place, shouldn’t you ring the doorbell first? You look presentable, not like a thief... I saw people in police uniforms here a few days ago," the beggar said with a laugh, "Though I don’t know where you are from, you must be here for the owner of the house, right?"
This beggar’s eyes were sharp... Aiden became alert.
By his looks, he was a Dillon, likely not someone from Kingdom’s military, nor from the Revivalists? No, that wasn’t right—if he were here to keep watch, having noticed him, his priority action would be to observe and perhaps even tail him, not to approach him for a chat so openly.
It seemed he had been watching for a bit too long, and even the beggars hanging around had sensed something was off.
Aiden didn’t deny it, but instead countered with a question, "What do you know?"
"Well, I actually came begging at the door..."
"So you’re saying you’ve seen him?" Aiden asked.
"No, that’s not it. I mean, I rang the doorbell before, but nobody came out. At that time, I was really in a tough spot, so I just..." The beggar’s voice trailed off.
"Burglary?" Aiden understood.
"It’s all for a living," the beggar said with a laugh, rubbing his hands.
"And then what did you see?" Aiden asked.
"That’s, um..." The beggar smiled vaguely, giving Aiden a meaningful look.
"How much?" Aiden asked.
"How about two thousand Gis?" The beggar quoted a price in the local currency.
Aiden did a quick mental conversion; the price was the equivalent of nearly half a month’s wages for an ordinary worker—it was quite a large amount to ask for.
"Your price is too high; I won’t pay so much for this information," Aiden replied calmly, "Besides, I’m not even sure the information you have is of any value."
"Then let me tell you, the owner of this house... is very dangerous!" the beggar said mysteriously.
"Five hundred Gis," Aiden offered a more reasonable price.
"Hmph," the beggar snorted coldly, waved his hand, and walked away, "If you don’t want to know, forget it!"
"Need my help?" the Goddess of Vengeance appeared beside Aiden.
"No need; your powers only last for a little while, not enough to extract information," Aiden replied, "Besides, there’s no need to continue asking."
"Oh?" the Goddess of Vengeance inquired.
"Knowing there’s a problem with the person in that house is enough; this was already the most suspicious place in my opinion," Aiden answered, "Maybe, just maybe, we hit the jackpot right from the start—"
"Are you sure you don’t want to know?" the abrupt voice interrupted Aiden’s and the Goddess of Vengeance’s exchange of thoughts.
Aiden looked up and saw that the beggar had come back, looking indignant, as if they owed him five million they had not paid back.
"I only offer this much," Aiden stated.
"Guess it’s my bad luck, deal then, it’s a deal," the beggar grumbled, "Tch, not even two thousand..."
Aiden pulled out his wallet from his pocket, took out the corresponding amount of money, but just held it in his hand instead of giving it right away, "Finish the story and it’s yours. If you’re worried I’ll go back on my word, you can choose not to tell."
The beggar’s face turned sour, but he still lowered his voice and began, "I’m telling you, there’s a basement in this house, and I’m afraid the owner might have killed someone in there!"
"Start from the beginning," Aiden requested.
"It was last Thursday... or was it Friday? I saw this place was all dark and empty, and there wasn’t anyone around, so I thought I’d climb in and look. I’d rung the doorbell a few times before and no one ever came to the door, so I figured there had been no one home all along. I went around to the back door and picked the lock—"
"You can pick locks?" Aiden stared into the beggar’s eyes.
It seemed this beggar had a history of petty theft, even taking the time to learn this particular "skill."
"Uh, I... I just happened to notice the back window seemed unlocked, and then..." the beggar chuckled dryly, with Aiden recognizing the lie from his facial expression.
But such details weren’t worth pursuing, Aiden gestured for him to continue, "What then?"
"Well, that back door leads to the kitchen, and I just looked around, found a bunch of canned goods in the cupboards, and there was a shelf on the table with a whole ham, and in a basket, there was white bread, so I thought when I leave, I’d just take a few cans in that basket..."
"Didn’t you notice anything unusual?" Aiden raised an eyebrow.
Canned goods and ham can be stored, but white bread will mold if left out too long. Someone who was just away for a few days wouldn’t leave such food on the table.
In other words, when the beggar broke in, there were actually people living in the house, it was just unclear if they were home at the time.
"I didn’t think much of it at the time!" the beggar frowned, "I just kept searching on the first floor, and while searching, I found a basement, right there!"
"Did you smell a corpse?" Aiden continued to inquire.
"No, that..." the beggar shook his head.
"Then how did you conclude?"
The beggar looked around and lowered his voice even further, "It’s the blood! There was blood seeping from under the door of the basement. From the outside, you could only see a little, almost invisible unless you looked closely, but inside there must have been a huge puddle, the kind that covered the floor!"
"Just based on that?" Aiden furrowed his brows slightly.
He was somewhat skeptical about the beggar’s story.
If the person who moved into this house was indeed Professor Dodge, and his son was really possessing the dog, then would Professor Dodge really need to prepare an additional human body for his son?
Of course, if he was heartbroken for his son, it was possible that he would try to arrange for his son to live in a human body, but even if he was preparing a human body, he shouldn’t damage it.
"What else could it be, then? You think someone is slaughtering pigs for fun in the basement?" the beggar shot Aiden a disdainful glance, "It’s a person! I didn’t hear anything at first, but as I got closer, I started to hear faint sounds, someone inside, breathing in there, gasping in a weak and pained manner, like they were in great pain but also very weak, it was so quiet you couldn’t hear unless you were right up against the door."
"Was the person still alive?" Aiden asked.
"Yeah, but from that sound, you could tell they weren’t going to last, it was just a little while, and then the sound stopped, and a bit later, I heard a dog barking, and after it barked it coughed, really eerie! All I could think was that there was a murder inside and they were feeding the person to the dog! I was so scared at that moment! Right away I covered my mouth and ran out without even thinking about taking anything!" the beggar’s face was written with lingering fear.
"Dog barking? You sure about that?" Aiden pressed.
"Yes, absolutely," the beggar nodded vigorously, his eyes fixated on the bills in Aiden’s hand.
Although these clues alone couldn’t completely clarify what happened in the basement, the switch between the weak and pained human voice and the barking of a dog could be explained by Aiden’s hypothesis—Professor Dodge’s son, in a weakened state after leaving his host, possessed the dog.
It looks like... He might have found the answer all at once!
