Lord of Mysteries: Return of the Stars!

According to the administrator's explanation during the day, to protect children from harm at night, all three residential areas were secured with large iron gates. Only patrol personnel possibly had keys.

And with more than two thousand residents living here, sneaking out even in the dead of night would be extremely difficult.

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How about setting a fire to attract everyone's attention, then sneaking out of the Almshouse during the chaos?

Or hide behind the door, wait for the guard to come inspect, knock him out, and use his key to escape?

Another option is to find a place to hide so the people in the Almshouse can't find you, and then wait until no one is around to slip away?

These were all suggestions from Lecturer Fron, clearly, he reads a lot of detective and adventure novels.

Professor Wayne didn't offer any suggestions; instead, he left Hastur to worry about the problem on his own.

He believed that since Hastur brought it up, he must have a solution in mind.

"If only we had makeup and wigs here… and a set of women's clothes."

Lecturer Fron thought of a seemingly viable plan, but clearly, the conditions here didn't allow for it.

"Actually, sneaking away isn't that hard." Hastur quickly shut down Fron's wild imagination.

He would never cross-dress!

"Do you have a good idea, then?" Lecturer Fron looked at Hastur with excitement.

"I don't have to leave the Almshouse in the middle of the night. Tomorrow, during the day, I can slip out when we go outside. It'll depend on how you and Professor Wayne perform then."

"Yeah! We don't have to escape tonight! Why didn't I think of that!" Lecturer Fron looked regretful.

"..."

Hastur didn't continue discussing the matter with Fron, instead turning to consult Professor Wayne about the plans for tomorrow.

Ding-ling-ling!

Ding-ling-ling!

Ding-ling-ling!

Just as the three were discussing what might happen the next day, three crisp bell sounds rang out from outside the house.

They had heard this sound at lunch earlier, at that time, the Almshouse administrator had shaken a string of bells and announced the rules for eating.

The bell sounds came quickly and disappeared just as fast, only three chimes, before everything outside fell silent again.

Inside the room, the three of them exchanged glances, all wearing startled expressions.

Why would there be bell sounds in the middle of the night? It felt inexplicably eerie!

"Could it be a kid who couldn't sleep and made this noise as a prank?"

"Maybe the bell sound is a kind of signal, they use it to coordinate actions?"

"Or perhaps we misheard it, maybe it was just the wind blowing against the bells hanging by the door?"

Lecturer Fron offered his guesses.

Professor Wayne didn't speak. He stood up, went to the door, listened closely for a moment, then paced a few steps back and forth.

Finally, he said, "Let's go outside and take a look, maybe we'll discover something unexpected."

Hastur strongly opposed Professor Wayne's suggestion.

Those bell sounds just now were definitely not simple!

They likely involved 'supernatural' elements!

This was a vague warning from within him, and in moments like this, he absolutely trusted his instincts.

"Just a quick look shouldn't hurt, right?" Lecturer Fron was also tempted. Judging from the volume, the bell sounds didn't seem too close.

"Mm, we can check on the way back to our rooms to rest," Professor Wayne also agreed.

"Wait a minute."

Hastur stopped them, his expression serious. "I think this isn't that simple, we shouldn't take unnecessary risks."

Lecturer Fron smiled and said, "It's fine, we'll just take a distant look."

"Emperor Roselle once said, 'Curiosity killed the cat.' It means being overly curious about something can easily lead one into danger."

Hastur quoted Emperor Roselle, hoping to dissuade them from their adventurous thoughts.

"A very philosophical saying, worthy of Emperor Roselle."

Lecturer Fron agreed with the quote and smilingly promised Hastur that he definitely wouldn't run off to take risks in the middle of the night.

Now that things were said, Hastur had no more reason to stop them, plus, this bed really couldn't fit three people.

The door opened.

Hastur peeked out first, scanning the surroundings. Once he confirmed there were no patrolling guards, he called out to Professor Wayne and Lecturer Fron to come out.

He then watched the two of them leave with a kerosene lamp in hand. They really didn't do anything reckless, just looked from a distance in the direction of the bell sound before returning to their respective rooms.

Only then did Hastur let out a sigh of relief. He also glanced twice in the direction the bell sound had come from. The night breeze sent a chill through him.

He withdrew his gaze, closed the door, locked it, then moved the table to block it. After thinking a bit, he also placed the kerosene lamp from the table onto the floor near the bed.

After doing all that, he looked at the time, it was already past 2 a.m.

He got into bed, lay under the covers, hugged his cane across his chest, and yawned.

He really was a little sleepy.

Half-asleep, half-awake, he dreamed he was in the Hall of Stars again and gave the Son of Chaos another lash with the whip.

...

In the early morning, Hastur was awakened by a loud banging on the door.

He opened his drowsy eyes, looked at the cane still tightly held against his chest, and let out a sigh of relief.

Good thing, nothing unexpected happened last night.

Wait, did he go to the Hall of Stars and whip the Son of Chaos after falling asleep last night?

Hastur frowned slightly. He had been clocking in regularly with the Son of Chaos recently, if he missed a night, it would break his sign-in streak.

Bang!

Bang!

The sound of knocking grew louder and louder, accompanied by Lecturer Fron's anxious voice.

Had something really happened?

Hastur didn't delay any longer. He quickly got up, walked to the door, moved the table aside, reset it in place, and then opened the door.

"Teacher, the teacher is missing!" Lecturer Fron's face was full of urgency, his tone hurried, and his breathing erratic.

Two administrators from the Almshouse were standing beside him.

"Calm down and speak slowly. How could Professor Wayne suddenly go missing?" Hastur tried to soothe Lecturer Fron's anxious mood.

"This morning after I woke up, I wanted to check on how the teacher slept last night. When I got to his door and knocked twice, the door opened by itself. The room was already empty, no sign of the teacher."

"At first I didn't think much of it and assumed the teacher had gotten up earlier than me and gone out for a walk."

"But after asking around, I realized no one had seen him. I started to panic, and quickly asked the Almshouse staff to help me search, but after more than an hour, there was still no trace of him, and no one on the way had seen him either."

Lecturer Fron grew more agitated as he spoke, even breaking into a sweat.

Had he really gone missing? Or was it just part of an act?

After hearing Lecturer Fron's account, Hastur's heart skipped a beat. He was somewhat convinced, yet also suspicious.

Last night, the three of them had discussed faking a disappearance to give the police a reason to investigate the Almshouse.

And now, early in the morning, Professor Wayne had vanished.

Professor Wayne was a law professor at Backlund University, and also Hastur's teacher. His disappearance alone was weighty enough to draw police involvement.

Perhaps Professor Wayne didn't want to trouble him, so he chose to be the one to fake the disappearance.

But thinking back to the strange ringing sound last night made Hastur uneasy, and Fron's expression didn't look like he was pretending.

"Don't panic. Professor Wayne will be fine," Hastur reassured him, then asked, "Has anyone gone to look in the dock district?"

A Almshouse staff member replied, "We've already sent people, but there's been no word yet."

"Has every part of the Almshouse been searched?"

"We've searched more than once, but still haven't seen a trace of Professor Wayne. No one saw him this morning either."

"I want to see Dean Darn."

"Alright, I'll take you."

Led by a Almshouse staff member, Hastur and Lecturer Fron soon met with Dean Darn.

He too appeared anxious and in a poor mood.

When he saw the two of them arrive, he put away his angry expression and sighed, "Please rest assured, we will definitely find Professor Wayne. We won't let anything bad happen to him."

Hastur's expression darkened, and he said in a low voice, "By noon at the latest, if we still haven't seen my most respected teacher, we will report this to the police and let them handle the matter."

Whether or not Professor Wayne had truly disappeared, this was the best chance to bring in the police.

"Wouldn't it be better not to trouble the police?" Dean Darn's expression worsened.

"Then can you guarantee you'll find him before noon?"

Hastur's tone grew heavier, and he slammed his cane twice on the floor, clearly suppressing his anger. "My teacher is a highly respected law professor. He has trained many excellent lawyers, including students who became judges!"

"I understand. We will handle this properly!"

Dean Darn's expression shifted, clearly startled by the weight of Professor Wayne's status.

Soon after, Dean Darn ordered the Almshouse staff to split up and search for Professor Wayne's whereabouts.

Hastur and Lecturer Fron didn't sit quietly in their rooms waiting for news. Instead, they took several staff members and went to the dock district to search.

Mainly, Hastur was worried that if Professor Wayne's disappearance was truly related to the Almshouse, then staying there would be very dangerous.

Especially as noon approached, if the Almshouse still couldn't find Professor Wayne, they might make the two of them disappear as well to avoid police involvement.

It wasn't that he wanted to assume the worst in people, but in a world like this, it was always wise to be extra cautious.

Even if you did nothing wrong, you might still encounter unknown dangers, let alone if you acted foolishly.

By around eleven o'clock, the entire dock district had nearly been turned over. Even many of the residents joined the search for Professor Wayne, but no trace of him could be found.

What was even more terrifying was that, with so many eyes in the dock district, not a single one had seen Professor Wayne.

Hastur stood among the crowd, gazing solemnly in the direction of the Sunrise Almshouse.

If Professor Wayne had been forcibly disappeared, he was likely being held somewhere inside the Almshouse. But if he had vanished voluntarily, he might also be hiding in the Almshouse.

After all, the dock district had a large population. Many people started working before dawn. Trying to slip out under so many eyes would be extremely difficult.

On the other hand, hiding inside the Almshouse only required avoiding the first few searches, and it would be easy to create the illusion of being "hidden in plain sight."

Lecturer Fron stood nearby, looking at Hastur with a complicated expression, as if he wanted to say something but hesitated several times.

He really wanted to ask, was this whole thing prearranged between his teacher and Mr. Hastur?

The script they had agreed on last night wasn't supposed to play out like this!!