Standing behind the door was a bare-chested man, with a ferocious green-blue sea serpent tattooed on his arm. On both sides of his cheeks, chest, and abdomen, there were short stripes painted in red oil, in groups of three.
"Truly exotic... but aren't you afraid of being too conspicuous and getting stopped by the police when you go out? You're supposed to be a secret resistance!" Klein was about to avert his gaze but almost frowned at the man's coarse eyebrows and cold-blooded eyes.
He's killed many people... Klein made a rough judgment based on his spiritual intuition.
Frankly speaking, because of his past life's identity and cognition, Klein initially had great sympathy for the resisters of colonial rule, without any Loenese self-awareness. But after hearing that they almost overlapped with the believers of "Sea God" Kavituwa, his feelings turned more to wariness and rejection.
This wasn't discrimination against local beliefs, but as he understood, all traditional beliefs on the colonial islands remained at the stage of primitive sacrifices, revering blood sacrifices and living offerings, existing in a fairly ignorant state.
Moreover, based on the Emperor's experience and his own, the supernatural essence of this world contained elements of madness and distortion. "Deities" still in the stage of primitive sacrifices were basically unable to resist this tendency, so the style could be imagined... Klein said nothing and followed Danitz into the room, staying slightly behind.
"Edmonton, who's here?" a mellow voice came from near the window.
The tattooed man said while closing the door:
"They're in disguise."
By this time, Klein had taken in the entire situation of the room and had a preliminary grasp.
The living room here was small, becoming cramped with a cupboard, a table, and a few chairs.
On the right, there were two doors leading to what seemed like bedrooms. On the left was a "kitchen" separated by a cabinet. As for a bathroom, there was obviously none. When Klein came upstairs, he noticed a public bathroom at each stair corner on every floor, emitting a long-uncleaned smell that urged pedestrians to quickly go up and enter their rooms.
Directly ahead was a window with two bamboo poles sticking out, drying many clothes.
At the entrance of the "bedroom" and in the living room, four or five men were standing or sitting, all local people with darker skin and slightly curly black hair. They wore dark blue Talaba shirts, with varying amounts of red oil paint on their exposed skin. As for the sea serpent tattoos, Klein couldn't tell if they had them due to being covered by clothes.
Some had revolvers tucked at their waists, some held reddish-brown shotguns, and some even carried gray-white steel backpacks with long, thick high-pressure steam rifles, forming a semi-encirclement of Danitz and Klein as they entered.
The man who had just spoken was sitting in an iron wheelchair, in his forties, with a blanket on his knees and wearing a jacket.
He had a shaved head, with bluish stubble on both cheeks, and his dark brown eyes were restrained in emotion, seemingly without fluctuation.
He glanced at the visitors and slowly revealed a smile:
"Flaming."
Danitz paused, then forced a smile:
"Kalat, you really have good eyesight."
Damn! Is my disguise really that bad? He unwillingly roared in his heart.
Kalat ignored "Flaming's" insincere praise, instead chuckling:
"I heard you killed 'Steel' and 'Bloodthorn'?"
"Otherwise, why would they be dead?" Danitz retorted without hesitation.
Kalat narrowed his eyes and slowly moved his gaze to Klein, who had a completely ordinary face.
He knew very well that relying only on "Flaming" Danitz, it was difficult to kill even "Bloodthorn" Huntly, let alone "Steel" Meviti. The rumor was that he succeeded with the help of a powerful adventurer and seasoned bounty hunter.
Is it the one next to him? Kalat looked into Klein's eyes and found no tension, worry, or vigilance; those eyes were like a deep ocean.
Very likely... at least stronger than "Flaming"! He signaled to Edmonton and the others, secretly increasing his vigilance.
"What are you doing here?" Kalat didn't linger on the previous topic.
Danitz subconsciously glanced at Klein, and after seeing a firm nod, answered:
"Just looking to see if you have any good stuff."
Kalat pointed to the table:
"It's all on there."
There were many oddly shaped items placed there, including a whistle made of bone, a simple and crude bagpipe, leaves as black as iron, stones stained with blood...
Before Klein and Danitz could examine them, Kalat clapped his hands and said:
"I have a task.
"If you can complete it, you can freely choose an item from here without any payment."
He chuckled and added:
"According to the definition of you outsiders, they are not magical items, but they all have some supernatural power, just slowly, well, not that slowly, diminishing until they disappear."
"What task?" Klein asked calmly, not hiding the fact that Danitz was just a follower.
Kalat reached into the blanket on his knees and took out a stack of white papers:
"Find their whereabouts.
"If you can catch them directly, you'll get more."
He raised his arms and began to display lifelike portrait drawings, among which was a woman with gray-blue eyes, wearing a men's shirt.
Latinia Dorilla... Klein immediately recognized who the resistance was looking for.
She was the female archaeologist and adventurer he had met last night and sailed with this morning, suspected to be a member of the "Moss Ascetic Order" or "Element Dawn."
Danitz looked carefully for two seconds, vaguely feeling familiar.