Our Family Has Fallen

"Squatted for half a day, almost let her get away."

"This guy has quite a few tricks up her sleeve."

The other few also came over, just that they were a bit miffed from being played earlier.

As they said, starting the investigation in the morning, they had already narrowed it down to Audrey by noon.

That’s when they discovered she was intentionally or unintentionally approaching a few places not open to the public, further confirming her recon activities.

It was broad daylight, with so many people around, and under the principle of secret investigation, they couldn’t act, so they had to wait until nightfall.

But she stayed in that tavern, making everyone momentarily think she discovered something, until they finally got a chance just now.

However, the inn is also a public place making it hard to act, so Laura deliberately gave a scare to see the reaction.

As expected, she avoided the crowd herself, leading to the earlier encirclement.

There was just a small mistake, almost letting her escape, luckily William and Fergus waited long enough.

Of course, the three of them couldn’t catch her because they wanted to capture her alive; otherwise, Laura could have taken her out with one arrow right at the start, not to mention Dismas’ marksmanship and Amanda’s tools.

Does anyone believe that arrow hitting the hat before was Laura’s mistake?

Raise a hand to pull out the arrow nailed to the hat, the arrowhead’s severe damage upon hitting the wall had lost its repair value and could only be recast, but Laura still habitually retrieved it.

Walked up, casually tossed the hat beside Audrey, Laura began to search her body without words, finding a heap of jumbled things.

But the most important item, the lost Blood Garment of the Lord, wasn’t there, raising some doubts.

"The thing isn’t on her, are we sure it’s her?"

"Woof! Woof woof woof." Fergus, at this moment, somehow seemed to understand and barked a few times.

"Fergus says this person reeks of the Blood Garment’s scent, and it’s very fresh, he had already sniffed the armor’s scent back at the museum."

"That’s right, the footprints match." On the other side, Amanda nudged Audrey’s foot to indicate.

Her intuition was also high, and with this small gesture, she seemed to see something, immediately reaching into Audrey’s chest.

"This kind of candle is the same as the residues left on-site, not the usual kind, seems to have something special added with magical effects."

Dismas opened his pouch, took out a half-burned candle, not an ordinary white wax, but gray with a murky greasy feel.

Took a curious glance, found that this woman was quite good-looking.

But before he could understand this, Amanda, ’opening the treasure chest’, uttered a surprised cry.

"Damn it! This woman is a tomb robber." Amanda pulled a pendant from her chest, displaying an expression of disgust right away.

Everyone’s attention involuntarily shifted over, noticing that what Amanda held was a three-finger-wide golden pendant, shaped like an exquisite beast head with clear whiskers, those eye sockets embedded with two green gemstones emitting an eerie sheen.

The beast’s mouth revealed sculpted fangs, biting a strange gray iron triangle resembling a shovel.

"This is the Touching Gold Talisman, a specialized gear, only those tomb robbers know how to use it." Knowing that those around might not understand, Amanda explained further.

Saying this, she seemed to recall something, casting her gaze on the candle in Dismas’ hand, adding:

"This candle is made using some ashes and corpse oil, through an evil ritual, able to desecrate spiritual bodies, generally used to ward off potential ghosts in tombs.

Because these guys like to light one of these candles in the corner when tomb robbing, they must finish before the candle goes out, otherwise, there would be no Sanctuary."

Amanda hadn’t recognized it earlier, as there were only two or three wax drops left, but now with the confirmation of the Touching Gold Talisman, she understood.

But this instead was good news for her, they didn’t have a Romani lineage, at least not Romani people, although Romani also had people doing this trade...

To this news, even Dismas, who had killed numerous people and was accustomed to bloodshed, found handling the item a bit unsettling, silently setting it down.

Only now was not the time to talk about this, their primary mission was to recover the Blood Garment.

"Why would a tomb robber steal that artifact?"

"That means someone hired her, now it’s in the employer’s hands."

"What now? Wait till she wakes?"

"Hmph! I’ll pry her mouth open."

"The Lord doesn’t allow torture for confessions."

While they discussed, Amanda held the Touching Gold Talisman, stayed silent for a moment, and finally spoke.

"This matter involves a Transcendent, we should notify the Lord."

This decision was unanimously accepted, William also pulled out handcuffs from his waist, cuffing her hands behind, fully controlling her.

These handcuffs were also developed by the Lord with the research institute, like many items greatly enhancing duty efficiency, otherwise, those chain-style shackles would be heavy, inconvenient, and unable to adjust size.

Of course, the handcuffs pieced together from metal plates and tiny links could only detain ordinary people, if it were a strong person who could easily break free, handling that kind of guy needed thick shackles.

But once William had her bound, he made no move, seemingly sensing others’ gaze, he explained righteously.