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

"You seem to be very interested in my gloves?"

The Duke, who obviously had a special interest in Matthew, looked arrogantly at Matthew who kept his head down.

Matthew replied: "In front of His Royal Highness, I am humble and dare not raise my head. I can only look at His Highness's gloves and feel His Royal Highness's nobility."

"Not bad, very good at talking."

The Duke raised his hand, squeezed Matthew's chin, and forced him to look up.

In an instant, a powerful force rushed into Matthew's body through the white silk gloves, from which he was convinced that His Royal Highness was connected with some kind of power from hell.

That is……

He can never refuse...

The one named Lucifer...

Matthew raised his eyes and looked directly into the pupils of the Duke.

He saw Lucifer's flames in the dark pupils that were almost lightless.

"Your Highness..."

"You really have..."

The fingers hooked his chin and slid gracefully, the Duke turned his head and said to Strange, who called himself Baron Ford: "Lend him to me for a night."

"But--"

Strange tried to refuse.

After all, the duke's intentions were as obvious as black letters on white paper.

The Duke smiled slightly, and the corners of his elegant and noble lips formed a cold arc, with a coldness that hit the soul directly.

He said: "You may refuse, Steven Strange, if you don't mind being rejected by all London society."

Strange shuddered.

He used Aldo Ford's name to attend Earl Charles' birthday concert, why would the Duke know he was Steven Strange?

"You...you are..."

"Lend him to me, this is an order."

After speaking, the Duke withdrew his hand on Matthew's chin and returned to his own first row.

Strange watched him leave, breaking out in a cold sweat.

Who is he?

How do you know I am...

The more he thought about it, the more flustered Strange pretended to be unwell, and motioned for Matthew to take him to the lounge.

……

After entering the lounge and making sure there was no one else in the room, Strange asked Matthew in a low voice: "What should I do now? Am I really going to lend you to the Duke? He looks unfathomable, and he might be a pervert. "

"Thank you for finding out so quickly that he is a pervert..." Matthew said, "although pervert may be a compliment to him."

"you--"

Strange took a breath: "Do you know who he is?"

"I know his soul is not of this world," Matthew said.

Strange: "The soul... the Duke is possessed by the devil?!"

"Theoretically, it is possible to think so..." Matthew hesitated, "but it is not a devil, but a great existence beyond time and space that is stronger and older than the devil."

King of Angels and Demons.

"All right……"

Strange was inexplicably relieved after confirming that it was a great and hidden being who gave him the order.

He asked Matthew again: "What are your plans now? Interrupt the investigation mission? Or follow that person's request and go to the Duke's room at night?"

"Do you think I have the right to refuse?" Matthew said briskly, "He can kill us with just one thought."

"so……"

"Yes, he is that powerful."

"In that case..."

Strange suddenly had an opportunistic idea: "Can you ask him to grant me the right to continue using magic in this damn parallel world? For the sake of our companionship."

"I will tell him your request, but whether it can be satisfied depends on his mood."

Afterwards, Matthew reminded Strange: "Earl Charlie may really have a problem. I found that his servant is actually wearing an inverted cross around his neck."

The inverted cross is a symbol of the devil.

"I understand. I will strike up a conversation with him in the name of asking him to take a stake in Baron Ford, which is my business in North America, and see if I can find out something."

……

In the [-]th century, Britain and the world were on the eve of great changes. The emerging bourgeoisie rose rapidly due to the Industrial Revolution, impacting the status of the traditional feudal aristocracy.

Ordinary minor nobles gradually went bankrupt because they couldn't keep up with the times, and had to sell their proud titles of nobility to upstarts eager to join the upper class.

This sort of thing is commonplace all over Europe.

Therefore, although most people at the scene saw that Strange, who called himself Baron Ford, was a North American nouveau riche who bought a title, but when he offered to express his hope that Earl Charlie would join his fur and timber business in North America, Earl Charlie was still very happy. Smile, and said that he would go to the study with him to discuss in detail.

After all, it takes a lot of pounds to keep the nobility decent.

Strange then took Matthew into the earl's study, sat in front of the marble fireplace, and after talking about it—

"Mr. Earl, have you heard of the Dark Faith?"

Strange took the initiative to throw the bait.

"Dark Faith?"

Earl Charles remained calm.

Strange nodded and said, "My subordinates in North America deal with the local savages who believe in evil gods every day. These savages master special abilities through communicating with evil gods, have the eyes of eagles, or are as strong as brown bears." Infinity, some people can even fly in the sky."

"This kind of thing is simply too evil! It must be burned!"

Earl Charlie roared angrily, but the slightly raised corners of his mouth betrayed his inner excitement.

Strange then echoed and continued: "Mr. Earl, I think the same as you. I also think that all the evil magic weapons of the barbarians in North America must be confiscated and handed over to the Holy See for purification!"

"exactly!"

Earl Charlie took a sip of his tea and looked at Strange greedily: "When you return to London this time, do you have any items that can be used as proof of the barbarian's evil beliefs?"

"This one……"

Strange thought for a moment and said, "I keep evil things in the most sacred and safest places I think, lest their evilness spread."

"Where are you hiding?"

"Whitechapel."

"Whitechapel?"

Earl Charles was obviously not ignorant of the secrets of the Whitechapel, and his face immediately changed when he heard the word "Whitechapel".

"Yes, Whitechapel, I think the most sacred and safest place..." Strange emphasized according to the original plan, "Put things in Whitechapel, even if evil spreads unfortunately, it will only spread among the rats in the sewer , isn't it?"

"You are quite right. There are a little too many rats living near Whitechapel."

Earl Charles murmured coldly, knowing that "rat" refers to the poor people in the slums of London's East End.

……

After talking with Earl Charlie's study, Strange took the carriage back to the Ancient Divination House, while Matthew boarded the carriage sent by the Duke to pick him up in a quiet alley.

Tick!Tick!

After a quarter of an hour, the carriage stopped, and Matthew went upstairs, walked into the warm room, and stood in front of the Duke who was tasting the wine.

"Your Highness, you—"

Snapped!

The Duke snapped his fingers.

The valet's attire instantly became the standard attire for a stripper in the 21st century, with a white false collar and black tie, white gloves, and meticulous trousers——

Because of the bad taste of a certain king of angels, he grew a big fluffy tail, protruding from the hole in his trousers, and would swing back and forth with his mood swings.

"really not bad……"

The Duke raised his glass and admired the masterpiece with great interest.

The ruby-like transparent and bright liquid is especially radiant under the refraction of the crystal cup.

Matthew's attention was always on the back of the Duke's hand.

The duke's silk gloves, to be exact.

Even in this environment where intimate things could happen at any time, the Duke still did not take off his silk gloves.

The slender fingers caressed the crystal wine glass through the gloves, the unique refraction of silk and the gem-like texture of red wine complemented each other, with a rotten taste in the gorgeousness.

Matthew got it.

He knelt before the Duke without hesitation, kissed the Duke's gloves devoutly, and tasted the sacred and dark breath from the distant parallel time and space.

"You like my gloves?"

The Duke enjoyed Matthew's attentive service with great interest, stroking his forehead.

however--

"With such a lowly status, how can I touch His Highness's noble body? Lucifer? Morningstar..."

"Lucifer..."

The Duke smiled with satisfaction, and slowly took off his silk gloves.

In an instant, the gas-illuminated room was filled with divine light from heaven.

Matthew lowered his eyes involuntarily, and replied humbly: "It really is you..."

"Woke up to find your lovely creation gone, thinking you'd been snatched by my annoying brothers."

"Duke" raised his hand and nodded between Matthew's eyebrows: "I have carved a mark in your body, even if you are separated by a different world, I can still find you at any time."

"Can you get me out of here?"

"You want to leave? Now?"

"I……"

Matthew hesitated.

He thought of the bottomless darkness entrenched over the Whitechapel, the serial killers who searched for prey in the slums every night, and those people who struggled to survive at the bottom of chaos and crime...

"You have nostalgia for this place?"

"me……"

Matthew sighed and said, "I want to get rid of the troubles in the Whitechapel area before leaving. The people here remind me of myself..."

"Well, I respect your choice."

"Duke" said casually, and the finger pointing at the center of Matthew's eyebrows slowly moved down, crossed the bridge of the nose, and landed on the lips.

Matthew understood, opened his mouth, and bit his finger.

"Such a clever boy."

"Duke" squinted his eyes, enjoying the service that Matthew was kneeling in front of, and occasionally reached out to play with the big tail that was shaking excitedly.

The shadow on the wall also slowly spread its huge wings, and the feathers of the shadow turned into a fence, interlocking and locking Matthew.

……

The darkness over Whitechapel continued.

Two more women fell victim to the boundless darkness.

The murderer quickly cut their throats open, then cut open their abdomens, and took away part of their flesh and blood.

When the bodies were found, they had already been chewed beyond recognition by stray dogs, and the wounds were torn by tooth marks, and even the traces of bayonets could not be found.

But it's not all fruitless.

So far, more than a dozen victims who died under the knife of the serial killer are all women, and all of them are part-time women who solicit customers outside late at night.

"Perhaps we should impose a curfew on the Whitechapel district, and prohibit the female branch girls from coming out to solicit guests at night." Inspector Robert said, holding his nose.

As a slum, the Whitechapel area is already stench, not to mention the corpses have decomposed, emitting a disgusting stench.

"But no matter how strict the prohibition is, there is no guarantee that no one will take risks for money..." Mrs. Lizard reminded, "This is a slum, and the laundresses often only earn a few pennies a day for their hard work."

Inspector Robert dismissed this, and said with a sneer: "Knowing that there are serial killers out there and going out late at night to solicit guests, even if you become a new victim because of this, you will do it yourself."

"Mr. Robert, you—"

Jenny couldn't take it anymore.

Mrs. Lizard Vastra held her down and said to Robert: "In my opinion, a girl who knows there are serial killers outside and ventures out late at night to solicit guests is not greedy, but is forced by life to have nowhere to go. Had to take the risk.

Maybe her child was sick and needed money urgently, or maybe it was just because the family had no money to buy tomorrow's bread.If you go out to earn money, you may be killed by a serial killer, but if you don’t go out, your children will definitely die of illness and starvation..."

"This……"

Vastra's reprimand left Inspector Robert speechless.

He lowered his head in embarrassment and hesitated: "If it is really so difficult, they should work harder, or ask friends to borrow money."

"You don't understand Whitechapel, Mr. Robert, and you don't understand the poor."

Through the black veil, Mrs. Lizard looked sadly at the low-level poor outside the cordon.

She couldn't see a trace of life in their eyes that had been drained of hope by life.

Being alive is purely a state to them.

"Jenny—"

"lady?"

"Go to the bakery with Mr. Starks and buy some brown bread for them."

"OK……"

Jenny happily agreed, and drove to the nearest bakery with the Santa people.

Mrs. Lizard stayed at the scene of the murder, looking for clues left by the murderer.

after an hour--

After a carriage full of black bread was distributed, Mrs. Lizard and her party were ready to leave.

When passing the White Church, Vastra remembered what Matthew had said, and ordered the Santas to stop, open the car door, and walk into the White Church, which had become a dark lair, with Jenny.

……

"So I still can't use magic?"

After waiting anxiously all night, Strange was greatly disappointed when he got such a result.

"I'm sorry I couldn't bring you good news."

Matthew said without guilt.

Last night, he stayed with Lucifer who traveled through time and space, and—because of time magic, they actually enjoyed the beauty and happiness for more than ten days and ten nights.

Strange knew that Matthew had the dark magic blood of the Constantine family, but he didn't know the relationship between Matthew and hell. Seeing Matthew's sincere tone, he forgave him without hesitation.

Matthew took the opportunity to invite Strange to share the French red wine brought from the Duke's room.

Strange took a sip and was elated: "As expected, it is the top wine that was purely harvested and brewed by hand in the [-]th century. It tastes great."

"Shall I bring you some back next time?"

"Of course... wait! You still plan to find the Duke?"

Strange turned pale with shock.

His intuition told him that there was a more powerful and terrifying magic existence hidden in the Duke's body than Weissandi.

"He said he likes me, and I like him too..." Matthew said, "With him, I can get the ultimate happiness."

"Uh..." Strange was silent, and various rumors related to John Constantine appeared in his mind.

Matthew: "Besides, he is the most powerful person we can cling to right now, isn't he?"

"This one……"

"There's a version of Jack the Ripper's identity that the real Jack is a member of the royal family..." Matthew added. "If that's the case, the Duke's support is vital to us."

"But what we have to deal with is obviously..."

"Its modus operandi is almost exactly the same as that of Jack the Ripper. Besides, Mrs. Lizard said that the parallel time and space is the mirror image of the main time and space, and important events in the main time and space will reappear in the parallel time and space."

"so--"

"The demon who committed the serial murders in the nineteenth-century Whitechapel district in this time and space may be the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper in our time and space..."

Matthew added, "It's literally an incarnation of the same person in a different parallel time and space."

"According to you, if we can capture the demon in Whitechapel, we can also solve the century-old mystery of Jack the Ripper's true identity?"

"I'm just offering a possibility."

Matthew refused to give too positive an answer.

Strange didn't care about that.

Compared with the answer to the century-old mystery of who Jack the Ripper is, he wants to know how to return to his 21st century New York time and space.

……

After eating and drinking, Matthew and Strange went to Whitechapel again.

It has been reduced to a dark lair, and it is also a "safe" place where Strange, as Baron Ford, agreed with Earl Charlie to preserve the evil belief items with magical power brought from North America.

only--

"Ma'am? Why are you here?"

Walking into the church, Strange was shocked to see Mrs. Lizard and her party of three.

It is only a few thousand years since the birth of the Christian faith, but the race of Lady Lizard has lived on the earth and created a brilliant civilization as early as the Silurian period.

In Mrs. Lizard's eyes, the Christian faith is probably like——

"It's beautiful and brilliant." Mrs. Lizard praised sincerely.

Strange was surprised again: "Madam, you actually think..."

"Beautiful things are beautiful no matter when you look at them, aren't they?"

"but--"

Strange settled down, pointed to the cross on the top of the altar, and asked Mrs. Lizard in a low voice: "You can see the cross dripping blood, right?"

"What did you say?"

Before Madam Lizard could answer, Jenny had already exclaimed.

Starks, the militant race Santas, couldn't understand their conversation at all, and walked around the church with their hands behind their backs, shaking their heads from side to side, with a very disdainful attitude.

Strange: "..."

Reluctantly, he tugged on Matthew's sleeve, motioning for the latter to save him.

Matthew: Take a step forward, tap Jenny on the shoulder, and briefly share the demon vision with Jenny.

Jenny: Ah!

Overwhelmed by fright, he staggered and fell to the ground, muttering in his mouth: "Impossible...it's impossible for this to happen...God...how could God..."

"Things have happened, we can only accept the reality and find a solution." Matthew said.

Jenny: "But..."

Even though she has completely broken with her family because of her sexual orientation, she has received faith education since she was a child, but she still can't believe that the church will become a nest of darkness, and this darkness may sweep across London at any time.

"There must be something wrong!"

"It's hard, dear, but it's true what he's shown you."

Mrs. Lizard pampered her frightened lover and signaled the Santa to take Jenny away temporarily.

The Santa, who still didn't understand what happened, complied cursingly.

After they left, Lady Lizard raised her black veil and asked Matthew and Strange, "When did you find out that there is a problem with the White Church?"

"When I entered the White Church for the first time, I found that there was a problem with the church." Matthew said bluntly, "I am a hybrid of demons and humans. Every time I enter the church, I feel chest tightness, upset and uncomfortable because of the suppression of the holy power. Whitechapel, I don't feel any discomfort."

"I see."

Lady Lizard walked to the altar and looked at the bleeding cross affectionately.

"We lizard people are the source of the demon image that you humans have passed down from mouth to mouth."

"so--"

"Like Matthew, I feel uncomfortable when I walk into a human church."

Lady Lizard smiled and looked at Strange, the only purebred human in the audience.

Strange: "..."

Inexplicably, I felt like I was the only outlier in the audience.

"That... Actually, I'm not a pure human... Although I am a pure human in blood, but I... The magic I use is mainly chaos magic, but I also use black magic, and occasionally summon Dormammu Wait for the power of the devil..."

"It turns out that we are a combination of black magic."

Mrs. Lizard smiled gracefully, dispelling her speechless embarrassment.

Strange also felt much more comfortable.

He told Madam Lizard about the conversation he had with Earl Charlie last night in his study, but he skipped over the secret deal between Matthew and the "Duke".

Mrs. Lizard had long suspected that there was something wrong with Earl Charlie. When she learned that Earl Charlie’s servant was wearing an inverted cross and that the Earl himself wanted to buy a magically effective pagan artifact from North America, she couldn’t help but sneer: “It seems that he and Black Magic is deeply involved."

"Then what should we do now? You have to take out something when you trade, don't you?"

Strange looked at Lady Lizard in distress.

Lady Lizard looked at the Eye of Agamotto on Doctor Strange's neck with a smile: "Isn't this already available?"

Strange was shocked and explained: "This necklace is not an ordinary magic weapon! It's different! It can't be traded!"

"Okay, I respect your decision. But if you want to gain the trust of Earl Charlie, you must come up with a valuable bargain, don't you?"