A Tormented Soul Behind the Mask

At nine o'clock, Elin entered the white house under Glocara's guidance. After passing through the corridor, they came to the door of Glocara's room.

"Wait a minute." Glocara pushed Elin's chest slightly and asked him to stop. Then she poked half of her body into the room and said, "Sorry, I have a guest...Yes, a man. You're really nosy. Go to Tusaha first and let him treat your injuries."

"Sorry," she said to Elin, "it's one of my patients."

"Oh." Elin replied absentmindedly. But when the man in the room came out, he widened his eyes.

"Jorgen? How...you are here too?"

When he found that Jorgen was bare-chested and barefoot, holding all his clothes in his hands, his expression became even more awkward.

"Ah, Elin. I'm not surprised to see you here." Jorgen's eyes moved back and forth between Elin and Glocara. "It seems I disturbed you...But didn't I tell you to investigate the casino? Just hand in the report to me, and you can do whatever you planned next."

"Do you know each other?" Glocara asked.

"Glocara, how did this guy introduce himself to you? Tourist, poet, or horseman?"

Glocara turned to Elin and stared at him. "A little bit of each."

"Elin, this trick you've been using for so many years hasn't improved at all." Jorgen said.

"Jorgen, don't say anything. Glocara, I can explain...Well, if you take my words as pure lies, that would be irresponsible..."

"Oh, not pure lies? Then how do you want me to see it?"

Glocara slapped Elin and then immediately turned around and rushed back into her room.

"She's angry, really angry, Elin. This slap even used the waist strength." Jorgen secretly thought that this was several times more powerful than the slap he had received.

"Damn it, Jorgen, what did you say? I seem to temporarily not hear." Elin's left hand was pressed under his earlobe.

"What exactly are you doing? What about the casino investigation?"

"Oh, I did go to the casino...By the way, who exactly is she?"

"Idoli's sister."

"You didn't tell me."

"Elin, even if I told you, you would still do this today, except that you would consider in advance how to prevent me from finding out. Didn't you notice that I'm bandaged here and here?" Jorgen pointed to his waist and right leg. "When two gnomes were about to smash my brain and dig out my heart, you didn't take the investigation seriously and just played your own tricks. What have you been doing for the past three years?"

"Jorgen, don't get angry with me. Yes, this is my fault, but it's also an accident..."

"Elin, that's enough. You have to face this fact: I am your superior. The tasks I assign you, you cannot take lightly. Throwing away a hundred gold coins in gambling is a big joke. In principle, I shouldn't cooperate with anyone who does such stupid things. Now you're giving me this set again. Three years ago, you seduced women and hindered investigations, which could be tolerated. But now you are twenty-eight years old. To be honest, the situation in Stormwind and the Seventh has changed a lot recently. If you don't wake up to reality, you will suffer. I'm going to the opposite room to apply medicine. Watch over Glocara for me. She is our most important witness now, so don't let her emotions get too agitated. Understand?"

"...Understand."

Jorgen ignored him and went straight to Tusa's room. Tusa, who always seemed to be holding tweezers in his hands, pointed to the bed in the middle of the room: "Sit here, Brother Jorgen."

After Jorgen sat down, Tusa brought a piece of gauze soaked in medicinal liquid close to him with tweezers, sniffed hard, and made a loud hissing sound.

"Ah, this smell..."

"What?"

"I smell 'dinner'...very strong, very pure, Brother Jorgen. They are entangled around your body, just unable to penetrate the soul for the time being. Where did you get this from?"

"I've had half a pack in my pocket these days, but I didn't use it."

Jorgen still kept the amount to pay Banjay for the next job.

"No, no. I knew you had twelve and a half grams of 'dinner', but that was a very low quality product. Impurities were not adequately filtered out and the baking heat was not enough. This unpleasant smell made my nose itch terribly. But today...you were stained with a very high quality 'dinner', as pure as plasma and as thick as fish oil. Look, the hair on the back of my hand has stood up because of this other smell."

Jorgen tried to smell it. Apart from the disinfectant smell that always surrounded this room, he couldn't smell anything else.

"What you said is interesting. I was in a room where 'dinner' was incinerated today."

"Oh, that's no wonder. Whoever uses this quality 'dinner' must be a fortunate rich man."

"Why are you so familiar with these things?"

"First of all, I suppose, because I have to treat five or six overdose addicts every week," Tusa said as he applied medicine to Jorgen. "More importantly...don't you know that 'dinner' was invented by a branch of our ogre clan?"

"I've never heard of it." Jorgen was somewhat surprised, although he knew that this dangerous powder had existed long before he joined the Seventh.

"It was originally a drug used by our clan's priests to facilitate communion with the spirits during soul ceremonies. The smoke it produced could also accelerate wound healing. Of course, it had a sacred name at that time...Ah, it's all in the past. To be honest, seeing it now become something for people to escape from their minds, I am very sad...Okay, Brother Jorgen, now let's pull out all the stone fragments in your waist. Please relax."

Accelerate wound healing? "I heard that Vossuva once used smoke to fumigate Brego's wounds... Was it 'dinner' he used?"

The ogre suddenly stopped moving the tweezers and laughed.

"Sorry, Brother Jorgen, I really didn't expect you to ask this question. Yes, Vossuva didn't use 'dinner', who else would use it?"

"What do you mean by that?" Jorgen became alert.

"This shouldn't have been said, but you are so friendly with Miss Glocara, so I'll tell you. In our clan, the formula for 'dinner' was a secret passed down from generation to generation by a priest and his descendants. Why do you think Vossuva wandered everywhere? He was the direct descendant of the priest, the one who should have kept the formula, but instead he transformed it from an important material for communion into a poison and sold it to you humans. What evil spirit possessed his mind to make such a mistake? To escape responsibility, he could only leave the clan. Brother Jorgen, why did your muscles suddenly tense up? I'm dealing with the most troublesome wound."

"You are of the same clan as him," Jorgen said, "so you must hate him for doing this."

"My answer may disappoint you, Brother Jorgen."

"I have no particular expectations, so I won't be disappointed. And after hearing what you just said, I already think it's worth it."

"The fallen Vossuva had the same smell as you now. The place you went to today was Vossuva's dressing room, right?"

"To be honest, I really admire your nose now."

"What may disappoint you is that Vossuva died ordinarily. Before the game, he overdosed on 'dinner'. Although Brego's blow was not fatal, it accelerated the spread of high-purity 'dinner' in his blood, causing a toxic death. As you know, after using it, everyone sits or lies quietly, waiting for blindness to come...But Vossuva had to face that terrible tauren. Oh, even I myself am disappointed to hear this. He should have had a more befitting death for a sinner. Of course, this is just my speculation. - Okay, Brother Jorgen, all bandaged up. By the way, I have one more thing to add."

"Go ahead."

"His broken tooth. As an ogre, allowing one's teeth to be broken is obviously foolish behavior because it affects the functioning of our entire brain and body." Tusa tapped his own teeth. "Look at mine, how sturdy. If he had gone mad and committed so many sins just because his tooth was broken, I could understand."

Tusa laughed loudly a few times. Jorgen didn't speak again. Even if Vossuva really died so miserably, there was still one doubt: did he voluntarily inhale "dinner" in the dressing room? It was a complete secret room. At this time, Tusa patted his shoulder with a smile and said, "In any case, I wish your work will bear fruit, Brother Jorgen." Although this was a considerable result, Jorgen did not intend to share this information with Elin for the time being. After today's dereliction of duty, he suspected that Elin would go to Brego with this information, claim that the case was closed, and immediately ask for a reward of seven hundred gold coins.

He put on his clothes and shoes and returned to the corridor, where he found Elin still standing in front of Glocara's room. The door was closed tight.

"She's not answering at all." Elin said.

Jorgen walked up and knocked on the door. "Glocara, it's me. Are you okay?"

It was still very quiet in the room.

"No matter what my colleague said, I apologize to you on his behalf."

"Apologize? What's there to apologize for?" She spoke in the room.

"Because he..." Jorgen was somewhat at a loss for words. "Deceived you."

"Just because he deceived me? How lightly put!" Glocara suddenly opened the door. Her makeup had been washed off, and she glared straight at Elin. Elin couldn't help leaning back slightly. "I make a living dealing with corpses. They all call me 'the Lady of Death'. That's my other name. Doesn't sound very charming, does it? I'm tired of being buried in corpses every day. Occasionally, I also want to live like an ordinary woman and find some fun. Now this, I changed my face and went to the casino, imitating the gestures of those middle and upper class women, hoping to wait for a man who would not look at me with prejudice, but I met you. You not only took my money but also continued to deceive me. And you," she turned to Jorgen, "suddenly appeared and told me Idoli was dead, and now you are complacently coming here to treat your injuries. You must have offended someone and didn't dare go to a regular hospital, right? Get out of here, you two bastards. Stay away from me!"

She slammed the door again. Tusa poked half of his body out of the room, looked around, and shrank back in.

"She blamed you too." Elin said.

"Who started this?"

"What could I do, Jorgen, I haven't had a date in two months."

"Elin, listen carefully," Jorgen stared at Elin, completely angered by his still unrepentant joking attitude. "You'd better learn to change your attitude, starting now. Otherwise, you will pay the price soon."

Elin frowned. "I can't believe you're threatening me. You said I haven't changed in three years...In my view, you may have changed too much, Jorgen."

"Yes, I have changed a lot, because I have experienced a lot in the past three years. Do you mind? No one cares, at least I don't."

Jorgen turned and walked away with big strides. After leaving the house, he felt the pain in his wounds again. On the distant sea surface, some black dorsal fins churned out layers of waves. At this moment, in Jorgen's heart, in addition to anger and disappointment at Elin's dereliction of duty, there was also guilt for causing Glocara's emotional collapse. Completely lonely for two years, he felt a little bewildered to return to people's hearts.