As night fell, the night gradually drew its curtain.

  A dim yellow light shone through the windows of every household. The sounds of children playing and adults scolding them lovingly intertwined in the alleys of Fudo, making Forlan feel a bit sentimental and confused.

  The charcoal fire in the fireplace was burning brightly.

  A family sat around the table, chatting happily. The aroma of buttered potatoes and fish soup in the kitchen made the little dog that was scurrying around at their feet eager to get a taste. How long had it been since he had enjoyed such a warm and cozy atmosphere?

  Five years?

  Or maybe ten years?

  The death of his parents made his childhood end earlier than that of anyone else.

  Suddenly, Forlan longed for Anwen's body warmth.

  He took out his pocket watch. It was a quarter past six, and there was still a long time before Anwen got off work.

  If it weren't for Anwen's seriously ill grandmother who constantly needed expensive medicine, Forlan really wouldn't want that little wildcat to continue working in the tavern.

  Although since she met Forlan, Anwen had never gone to the small room on the second floor with anyone else, drunkards always liked to pinch the plump parts of the barmaids hard when they passed by.

  "Just wait a little longer. The salary of a full-fledged prosecutor is four times that of a probationary one. Then I can rent a bigger apartment and bring her and her grandmother here," Forlan thought as he reached out and touched the sheepskin bag around his waist, which was filled with various herbs from the East.

  This was also one of the hobbies left to him by his father.

  At that time, his father was almost crazy about studying herbal medicine. He tried to combine it with alchemy to create a potion that could bring the dead back to life, so that his wife in the grave could have body warmth again.

  Resurrection and the soul ultimately belong to the realm of the gods. Until his father passed away, this research had made no progress at all.

  However, in his father's experimental notes, there were indeed several interesting discoveries.

  The anesthesia soup was one of them.

  Boiling strange plants from the East like mandrake and henbane in well water in a certain proportion to make a thick soup could make people fall into a deep sleep after drinking it.

  For a sick and painful patient, being able to have a good sleep and a nice dream was better than anything else.

  This anesthesia soup was the only savior for Anwen's grandmother when she was in unbearable pain. But because the herbs were expensive, Forlan couldn't make a large amount of it.

  Since there was still a long time before the appointed time, Forlan decided to go back and deal with the herbs first.

  According to his father's research notes, the mandrake still needed to be processed more carefully. Otherwise, it would be a poison that could make people suffer excruciating pain.

  Forlan's apartment was located on Third Street in the old city area. These old houses that had existed since Fudo first began to prosper were already in a dilapidated state.

  The families that had made a fortune had long since moved away. The residents living in the old city area were mostly laborers and poor clerks.

  However, compared to the vagrants in the slums, they at least had their own houses and the happiness of having a place to shelter from the wind and rain and not being frozen to death during the cold snap.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  He walked through the apartment hallway and carefully stepped up the creaking, shabby stairs. The thirty-square-meter room on the second floor was Forlan's home.

  The furniture in the room was very old. The decorative clover patterns carved on the Baroque-style sideboard in the corner of the wall had been so worn that their original shapes could no longer be distinguished.

  The second-tier shelf indicated that this was still an antique passed down from his grandfather, a sideboard that only a viscount was worthy of using.

  The oak dining table on the other side had also long passed its service life. The table frame was already loose and would start to shake with a little force.

  Only the bed was a bit newer. However, the canopy was empty, and there was no bed curtain installed. Such an expensive fabric was still a luxury for Forlan.

  The most valuable things were Forlan's research instruments, including a delicate small scale, an alcohol stove, various test tubes made of glass, a filter, and a clay pot for boiling herbs. These things had cost him most of his savings.

  ........

  When Forlan stretched and let out a big yawn, he realized that it was already too late.

  Thinking that Anwen, that little wildcat, was still waiting for him, Forlan couldn't help feeling a little flustered.

  Fudo at night couldn't be considered a safe place, especially with the rumors of the Midnight Butcher. Although the news was tightly blocked, as a public official, he had still heard something about it.

  That was a madman who specifically attacked and killed wantonly in the late night. It was said that many patrol team members had changed their preference for meat because they had seen the corpses devastated by the Midnight Butcher.

  For a moment, Forlan was scared by one of his own imaginations.

  He quickly put on his coat and ran towards the Green Agate Square. Every time Anwen came to the apartment to spend the night, she would wait for him there.

  Even though he had given her the key to the apartment, this habit had always continued.

  "Waiting for the embrace of a lover and looking forward to being welcomed back to the castle by him is every girl's natural right," Anwen always looked at Forlan with her green eyes full of smiles, and her tone was as gentle as the breeze caressing the treetops.

  The moon emitted a pale light. The cold wind shuttled through the winding alleys, making a sound like sobbing. The houses with red bricks and broken tiles looked particularly desolate in the wind.

  The accumulated water soaked the garbage scattered in the streets and alleys, causing Forlan to stumble several times. At the corner near the Green Agate Square, Forlan bumped into something soft hard, and then heard the accompanying scream.

  Anwen sat on the ground, her hair wet, her small face distorted with fear and completely bloodless. When she saw clearly that the person who had knocked her down was Forlan, she immediately threw herself into his arms desperately.

  "Someone has been following me," Anwen pointed behind her. Her body was ice-cold and she was shaking continuously.

  Forlan instinctively touched his pocket. The only thing he could use as a weapon was a bunch of keys. This unremarkable little thing, when tightly held in the palm with the tips protruding from between the fingers, was not much less powerful than a knuckleduster.

  The streets at night seemed even more silent under the moonlight. They were empty, and there was no suspicious person.

  However, Forlan noticed that the cover of the sewer in the distance had been lifted. He walked over and looked down. It was pitch black, and he couldn't see anything.

  "Maybe it was some sewer cleaner who forgot to put it back," Forlan thought.

  He kicked the manhole cover back into place and was a bit angry at the worker's irresponsible behavior.

  In the patrol team's files, the number of people who were injured due to the manhole-less sewers was much greater than the number of victims caught by the legendary Midnight Butcher.

  "I swear, there was really a figure following me just now, and my eyelid kept twitching," Anwen grabbed the corner of Forlan's clothes and peeked around secretly.

  When she was sure that there was no one, she let out a big sigh of relief and muttered to explain, "You know, this has always been very accurate. Last time, I was almost hit by a flower pot that was blown off by the wind on the third floor, and it was the twitching of my eyelid that reminded me to be careful."

  "Don't worry. Maybe it was just a hungry stray dog," Forlan put the keys back in his pocket and wrapped Anwen in his coat.

  Seeing that the little wildcat was unharmed, his heart, which had been pounding violently for a long time, finally calmed down.

  "My foot hurts," Anwen frowned. She had sprained her foot just now and could only stand on tiptoe and lean against Forlan. She began to complain, "Liar. You said you would come to pick me up after work, but you're only here now." As she spoke, she pinched the tender flesh around Forlan's waist hard a few times to vent her grievances.

  "Sister Marmol disappeared at night. Be careful, or I'll disappear on you one day too," Anwen's mouth didn't stop until Forlan carried her on his back. This girl was like a noisy mouse when she was angry.

  "Okay. I'll rub it for you later and soak your foot in hot water," Forlan knew that if he didn't change the topic quickly, she would keep chattering all night. "I changed the bed sheets today," Forlan hinted.

  Anwen's complaints disappeared. After a while, she leaned close to her lover's ear and said angrily, "If you're in charge of tomorrow morning's breakfast, we can do it three times. Hmm, maybe four times, if you can hold out."

  The little wildcat's hair tickled Forlan's neck. He suddenly felt that the road from the Green Agate Square to home seemed a bit too long.