[Comprehensive British and American] The vest system of the son of hell

"Hey! Did you hear that! Mary was taken over by two rich men!"

"really?"

"Of course it's true, I saw they gave her a whole £[-] deposit!"

"My God!"

……

In the laundry workshop, the laundresses, whose hands were already white and wrinkled from the starch water, exclaimed gossip.

But no one envies Mary's "good luck."

They know that a pound of income is not so easy to get.

"You can find beautiful young women out there for a pound. They are so generous and they must have horrible quirks."

"No, if it wasn't for the sake of living, who would be willing to risk their lives to take over the job."

"The next time you see Mary, you must comfort her well, and hope she can persevere."

"I also hope that Satan in the dark can be caught as soon as possible."

Speaking of this, the women all drew the sign of the cross on their chests.

——Life is too difficult, they can only pin their hopes on religion.

Afterwards, they began to exchange various information about Satan in the night.

In the imagination of the laundresses, Satan is a terrible monster whose skin is as hot as a red coal fire, with goat horns on its head and donkey hooves hidden in its shoes. It is so tall and rude. Ugly and savage, but exuding an irresistible charm for human women...

"To be honest, it's better to be killed by Satan than to continue living like this. At least you can enjoy a happy life before you die." A woman suddenly shouted.

Her name is Annie, and she was a well-known beauty when she was young, and she even had suitors from the upper class.

It's a pity that the girls in the slums only belong to the slums after all, and now she is just a poor female worker who is worried that she will never wake up after falling asleep.

"Annie, why are you talking nonsense again?"

The companions advised mockingly.

"Killed by Satan, your soul will go to hell and be tortured for life after life, and you will never be able to enter heaven."

However, Annie was already desperate.

Rather than going to hell to suffer life after life after death, she wants to end the suffering in this world as soon as possible.

……

After being paid a few pennies, the laundresses went home.

Unnoticed, Anne staggered into a dark alley.

Having completely lost the desire to live, she lay wearily on the stinking sludge and garbage, staring at the gray sky with empty eyes.

The skies of hell are probably no darker than those of London.

Annie thought to herself, closing her eyes.

She heard donkey-like footsteps approaching step by step, accompanied by scorching heat.

satan...

coming……

In the evening, Matthew and Doctor Strange return to Mary's room.

The hardworking woman turned one shilling into a table full of delicacies, and added several simple but practical gadgets to the humble room, and even put a bouquet of flowers in the vase on the table.

"Barbara said her daughter's employer's table was always decorated with flowers."

Afraid of being blamed, Mary explained to Matthew and Strange before they could speak.

Matthew: "You're doing great."

Strange also said: "This bouquet of flowers looks beautiful, didn't it cost a lot of money?"

"No, it didn't cost much..."

Mary took out the flowers and showed them the splicing marks hidden behind the flowers, leaves and bows: "It's the overnight flowers thrown away by the flower shop. I picked them up and put them together with bamboo sticks and wire. How is it? It looks pretty good, doesn't it?" "

"Mary..."

Matthew interrupted Mary.

Mary thought he was going to blame herself, and was so frightened: "Mr. Matthew, I... Am I..."

"No, you're doing very well..." Matthew said softly, "I just... just didn't expect...you can do so well..."

"me……"

Mary, who was praised, showed a shy expression.

She lowered her head and whispered: "My father was a gardener when he was alive, and the flowers he planted always bloomed very well..."

"I believe……"

Matthew looked at Mary tenderly.

Warmth flowed through Mary's heart, and she even had unrealistic expectations: If Mr. Matthew needs me... I... I...

"Mr. Matthew—"

"what?"

"God and Queen forbid man and man love."

Mary looked at Matthew sincerely, with moved enthusiasm in her eyes: "But please believe that I will keep a secret for you and not tell anyone about this!"

——In Britain in the [-]th century, homosexual behavior was still considered a very bad criminal offense. Even Wilde, who was highly respected and sought after by the upper class, was interrogated by the authorities and sentenced to two years in prison. His works were banned from sale and his plays were stopped .

only--

After listening to Mary's generous speech, Matthew was speechless for a while.

He looked at Strange angrily: do we look like a gay couple?

Strange had the same headache.

He never thought he would be interested in men.

Although Ms. Mary's commitment is touching.

"Mary!"

After some deliberation, Strange decided to tell Mary the "truth": "We are not homosexuals, and I don't like men either. We are staying with you because we are... are... from Scotland Yard." Plainclothes detective... yes! The plainclothes detective of Scotland Yard was ordered to investigate the bizarre serial murders that happened in the Whitechapel area recently, and they rented here to hide from you..."

"I understand! I understand! Mr. Detective!"

Mary, who deeply believed that Matthew and Strange were gay men in love, nodded perfunctorily: "Don't worry, even if the closest people ask, I will only say that you are plainclothes sent by Scotland Yard to protect us." Detective."

Matthew: "..."

Strange: "..."

It seems that there is no way to answer the misunderstanding for a while.

Matthew wants to...

He said to Mary: "The vicious serial killers are wandering in this area. If there is anything unusual, you must tell us in time."

"Understood! I will fully cooperate with the work of the detectives!"

Mary sincerely promised.

She now believed that Matthew and Strange were gay plainclothes detectives sent by Scotland Yard to investigate the serial killings in Whitechapel.

……

Mary's room is very cramped.

Both Strange and Matthew are adult males over 1.8 meters tall.

On the bed that seemed extremely narrow and cramped no matter how they were adjusted, the two of them just made do with it all night, staring wide-eyed.

When the industrious Mary opened the wooden window to let the morning sunlight into the room, both of them, who had been frozen all night, felt that they were saved.

Only Mary's face was full of tears.

"Anne is dead..." she choked up, "They found her body in the alley. She died horribly. Her stomach was cut open, and one leg and half of her head were eaten by wild dogs nearby."

"Uh..." Matthew and Strange glanced at each other and said in unison, "Which alley? Show us!"

……

Matthew stood at the alley where the patrol team in charge of local security in the Whitechapel area had cordoned off the entry and exit of irrelevant people, looking at the dilapidated and incomplete corpses that were almost completely buried by the shadow of the wall, the sour smell of dirt and the smell of corpses. The rancid stench was kneaded together and hit the face, so spicy that people couldn't open their eyes.

"This taste..."

"It smells bad, doesn't it?"

Matthew nodded in agreement, took out a handkerchief, and handed it to Strange who was about to vomit.

Strange took the handkerchief, covered his mouth and nose, and finally breathed temporarily.

Then, he found Matthew upright exposed to the foul-smelling air: "Don't you feel sick?"

"It's really disgusting, but if you want to find the murderer, you have to learn to analyze clues from nausea."

Matthew said indifferently.

As a result of the hybrid of humans and demons, he uses the temporary body provided by the Kespler system in this world. He can easily obtain immunity to the coming stench by modifying the smell data.

Strange didn't know Matthew's secret. When he saw Matthew facing the stench, he immediately felt that his performance just now was too hip, so he put away his handkerchief, resisted the urge to vomit, and walked to Matthew: "What did you find? ?”

"The murderer is a guy with a different sense of smell."

Matthew pointed to the broken corpse in the shadow, and explained: "In such a smelly and dirty environment, people with a normal sense of smell would feel disgusted for a moment, not to mention the difficult cutting, and at the same time, be careful around to prevent being discovered."

"really……"

Strange agrees with Matthew's analysis results, and plans to build a relationship with the patrol team in charge of local security, and let them enter the cordon to carefully examine the corpse——

Ding Dong!Ding Dong!

The black carriage stopped at the entrance of the murder alley.

The driver was a muscular man with a shorter stature than ordinary people, and his huge chocolate-colored head was even a little funny.

But when the carriage stopped, the carriage door opened, and a tall lady in a dark long skirt with a black veil on her head and her pretty maid walked out, the leader of the inspection team suddenly had only humility left on his face.

"The ancient lady—"

The leader walked towards the lady in the dark long dress, saluted her respectfully and said, "You are here."

"Madame heard that there was another murder in the Whitechapel area. The deceased was a poor lady. She came here specially, hoping that her soul has not been completely taken away by the devil."

Jenny lied primly to the head of the patrol.

The pious and religious inspectors naturally believed in this, and while expressing their gratitude to the ancient lady for the deceased Annie, they asked the ancient lady to be careful of the dirt under their feet.

"The sanitation situation in the Whitechapel area has always been very poor," said the leader.

The ancient lady, or the lizard lady Vastra, glanced at Strange and Matthew in the crowd through the thick black veil, and after a short pause in her eyes, she slowly walked into the dirty area that was still ruled by black shadows even at noon. Dirty alleys.

Glancing at the dilapidated corpse on the ground, she took out the crystal ball, circled the corpse, and muttered words—in fact, she used her tongue to read the remaining taste elements and traces of heat in the air.

For the lizardfolk with their keen infrared vision, it's as simple as breathing.

With the talent of the lizardman, Mrs. Lizard Vastra quickly judged the approximate time of death of the deceased through the residual heat traces in the air, but because the scene had been destroyed by passing residents and stupid patrol team members, it was full of various smells. Not even the Lizardmen could locate the murderer by analyzing the taste elements in the air.

"The deceased was in a coma when the murderer cut his body with the murder weapon. I can't judge whether the murderer is tall or not based on the location of the wound..."

Vastra said, "But from the degree of dissection of the wound, it can be determined that the murderer was of extraordinary physical fitness."

"There are slums around Whitechapel, and in the slums there are a lot of men working hard to support their families," said Jenny. "This finding does not narrow the scope of our investigation."

"But we could just investigate strong males with black hair."

Lady Lizard stretched out her black gauze gloved hand, and removed a black strand of hair that was so small that it was almost undetectable from the flesh and blood that had been turned out of the wound.

"As expected of the ancient lady!"

The leader of the inspection team let out a compliment, and then ordered the team members to call all the black-haired men who lived in the surrounding area and were suspected of committing crimes for questioning.

Then, he asked suspiciously: "Madam, I heard that you are very good at communicating with dead spirits, can you..."

"Do you know why this series of cases is considered to be murder by demons?"

"why?"

"Because the soul of the deceased cannot be found at the scene of the murder, even if it is only a trace."

Matthew stood up and answered the patrol leader's question for Mrs. Lizard.

The leader of the inspection team: "Who are you?"

"I am a psychic, a student of the ancient lady."

Matthew was sure that the ancient lady would not expose him, so he casually assigned himself the status of an apprentice fortune teller.

Strange also stepped forward and said, "Madam had a premonition that there would be another homicide in the Whitechapel district, so let us temporarily stay in the Whitechapel district and conduct a secret investigation, hoping to prevent Satan from killing innocent lambs, but unexpectedly— —”

"Mrs. Ancient, you are really..."

The leader of the inspection team who worshiped the ancient lady did not hesitate to believe what Matthew and Strange said.

Jenny was displeased with this, and was about to expose the liar—

"It's not your fault."

Mrs. Lizard Vastra took a step forward, patted the shoulders of Matthew and Strange who were lying face to face, seemingly softly but with great weight, and "accepted" their impostors: "I underestimated the power of demons."

"lady……"

The leader of the inspection team quickly comforted Madam Lizard: "The demon is too powerful, Madam has tried her best."

"No, I didn't do my best. I can do better."

Vastra spoke half-truth, and signaled Starks, a Santa star who looked like a potato, to take Matthew and Strange "back" to the ancient divination hall, and she and Jenny stayed at the scene for further detailed investigation.

……

"You guys are really daring to lie in front of Madam that you are her subordinates."

On the way back to the Ancient Divination House, the Santa people meanly mocked Matthew and Strange.

"If you didn't show me face, you would have been torn to pieces by her on the spot. Don't believe me, although you are male and tall, if you really want to fight, you will be easily brought down by Jenny, and I will Straight to your life! Every Santar is a mobile arsenal."

"We have never doubted your strength..." Matthew said, "But Madam Ancient once sent you to send us money, and we have already established a definite employment relationship with her, haven't we?"

"Your words make sense."

The Santa people accepted Matthew's explanation and asked, "Are you really a psychic?"

"Yes."

"Can you see the souls of the dead?"

"I was born to communicate hell."

"Then will I go to hell or go to heaven after I die? To be precise, does hell exist on Santa Star?"

Starks asked Matthew enthusiastically.

There is no heaven and hell in the culture of Santa Star, but Starks was exiled by the Time Lord for many years in the Victorian era.

"Hell is not a religious setting that belongs exclusively to the earth..." Matthew said, "Hell is a huge and boundless field that can accommodate all souls from countless parallel universes who must go to hell, even if they rule hell for 100 billion years. Even the demon king doesn't know how big his territory is."

"Lucifer doesn't know how big hell is?"

"No, he doesn't know."

Matthew blurted out, and Lucifer's charming voice rang in his ears, and the skin on his body also felt soft and comfortable, which could only be aroused by being brushed by Lucifer's feathers.

Just like what he said to Metz before, his feelings for Lucifer are an intense emotion that is more terrifying than a curse. He knows it is not love, but it is always engraved in his bones and cannot be forgotten.

This feeling is really bad.

Matthew wants to...

At this time, the system that has been forced to be in a state of signal delay since coming to the parallel world finally sent information about the lizard lady Vastra, her maid and part-time lover Jenny, and the Santa Starks.

While Dr. Strange was chatting with the Santa Stars, Matthew read the relevant information provided by the system, and couldn't help feeling the wonder of the Creator, and at the same time gained a deeper understanding of his own situation.

Are they reliable teammates?

Matthew asked the system.

It wasn't until the carriage drove into the backyard of the ancient divination hall that the signal delay system slowly responded——

【Respected and great master, Kespler, your eternally humble and loyal servant, reminds you that although Lady Lizard and the others are trustworthy companions, they are only limited to the present.

And, since they are friends of the oldest and most arrogant race in the universe, the Time Lords, you must never open up to them lest you invite unforeseen changes. 】

Time Lord?

Matthew said the name silently.

He remembered where he had heard the name, and experienced it with the man who bore it...

Too bad I can't remember it at all.

Matthew got off the car and walked into the ancient divination hall.

The person responsible for delivering tea to him and Strange was Alisa, the front desk staff who pretended to be a branch girl yesterday to scare Matthew.

I didn't expect to meet again in such an image, Alisa was immediately embarrassed, and said falteringly: "What happened yesterday...that..."

"Work needs, I understand."

Matthew took the black tea and took a sip: "You look much better today than yesterday."

"thanks……"

Alicia turned around, ready to leave.

Matthew stood up: "When will Madam send you to drive me away dressed as a branch girl?"

"You ask this..."

"I want to know how strong Madam's predictive ability is."

Matthew smiled slyly.

Alisa froze on the spot.

This question seems simple, but it is actually difficult to answer.

"Sorry! I can't say anything without Madam's permission!"

When you're done, turn around and leave.

Strange satirized Matthew: "Did you just try to talk to her?"

"I know I'm better looking, but I never thought I had what it takes to be a heartthrob."

I can't afford the consequences of John Constantine's lover (debt) all over the world, Matthew added in his heart.

"Then why are you—"

"The ancient lady is likely to become our partner, and it is necessary for me to express my friendliness to those around her."

"All right……"

Strange took a sip of the black tea and said with emotion: "The black tea from the East really tastes good."

"Lavender and bergamot are also added..." Matthew added, "It is a pure natural and pollution-free essential oil extracted by hand, not an industrial assembly line product in the 21st century."

"Do you like pure natural and pollution-free essential oils?"

"You don't like it?"

Matthew blurted out, and then found that the speaker turned out to be Mrs. Vastra, the lizard: "Madam, you...you are so fast..."

"You can come back after the evidence collection is over."

Vastra took off the black gauze gloves and black optical veil nonchalantly, revealing the real face of the lizardman.

Jenny took a step forward and proudly introduced: "My love, Vastra, is an intelligent long-lived species that lived on the earth and created civilization as early as the Silurian Period [-] million years ago."

Both Matthew and Strange had seen big scenes before. When they saw that Madam Vastra was a lizard, they just took a breath and immediately accepted the setting.

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Vastra, I am Stephen Strange, from the 21st century, succeeding my master as the new supreme mage of the earth. By the way, you have met my teacher in your time and space , the strongest supreme mage who protects the earth, Mage Gu Yi?"

"Ancient one?"

Mrs. Vastra smiled and looked at Matthew: "I smell a familiar smell on you."

"Madam is talking about the smell of sulfur?"

"Yes."

Mrs. Vastra looked straight at Matthew: "You have a strong sulfur smell on your body, and—"

"Will Madam think I'm talking nonsense if I say I'm from hell?"

"will not."

While chatting and laughing, Mrs. Vastra walked across from Matthew and Strange and sat down: "Tell me, why did you come from the 21st century to the [-]th century?"

"Because of a time artifact..." Strange said, "A British gentleman who claimed to be from the nineteenth century paid Matthew to bring him to the New York Sanctuary to meet me with a gold watch, but neither of us expected that the gold watch It turned out to be a time magic weapon that could be activated at any time. Without any precautions or warnings, the time magic in the gold watch was activated, sending us to this era."

"What about the English gentleman from the nineteenth century? Wasn't he sent away by time magic?"

"We haven't found him so far, and we can't be sure whether he was also sent here by time magic."

"All right……"

Mrs. Lizard Vastra looked at Matthew: "About your companion's explanation, do you have anything to add?"

"Yes..." Matthew said, "I am not his companion, I am a passerby who was involved innocently."