Soul echo

Chapter 308 The Poor Barneys Family

Zhong Ye was not very clear why the God of Nature would suddenly give him a blessing.

Just based on his talk last night?
That was just sophistry at best, taking advantage of Druid's weakness of not being good at refuting, and venting his own dissatisfaction with this group.

Besides, what else did he do?

After thinking for a while, Zhong Ye put these doubts behind him, and looked up at the gate of the mansion ahead.

Viscount Barnes is not the lord of Valensais, he is a fallen nobleman living in this city.

It was only after Zhong Ye came to Valensais that he learned that the grandfather of Viscount Barnes was once the lord of Varensais, but because of a conflict with the family of the current lord of Varensais, he applied to the king for a duel, and was awarded by the time. After the permission of the king, the two families fought a war.

And the result was just like what they saw now, Viscount Barnes' grandfather lost, not only losing his territory to the family of the current Lord of Valensais, but also losing a lot of the family's property.

This war directly led to the decline of the Barnes family. By this generation of Viscount Barnes, the Barnes family was almost so poor that there was only one mansion left.

Baron Dupoix mentioned to him, 'Viscount Barnes is a poor man, but for some reason he bought that painting from me'.

He is a fallen nobleman with no property in his family, and he took over the painting from Baron Dipois after Nemo was identified as a 'cultist'. No matter how you look at it, it is very suspicious.

Zhong Ye and the others waited outside the gate of the mansion for a while, and the gate opened again.

A little boy poked his head out from behind the door, "Three, three, please come in."

Zhong Ye and the others walked in, Lily stood on tiptoe, and whispered in Zhong Ye's ear: "The clothes on him don't look like clothes that a servant can wear..."

After struggling to close the door, the boy ran silently in front of the three of them. Without saying anything, he went straight through the empty living room and corridor to the door of a room.

Gently knocking on the door, the boy yelled crisply: "Father, they are here."

Father?This boy is the son of Viscount Barnes?

Lily Lieber stared round her eyes, looking at the boy's back in disbelief.

Is Viscount Barnes so poor that he can't even afford servants?That being the case, why did he take over the painting of Baron Dupois?

According to Baron Dupois, although his price is not high, it is not affordable by ordinary people.

There were two coughs in the room: "Ahem! Come in!"

The boy pushed open the door, then looked back at Zhong Ye and the others, and let them enter the room.

After all three of them walked in, the boy closed the door and did not enter the room.

The first thing that caught the eye was a wooden bed, but there were no mattresses and pillows on the bed, only a cold wooden bed board and the quilt covered by the man lying on the bed.

The light in the room is good. There are two glass windows in this slightly wide room. Judging from the traces left around the window frames, there should be curtains to cover it.

Reminiscent of the empty living room and corridors I saw before, I can imagine how the Barnes family has declined today.

"Viscount Barnes?"

Zhong Ye looked at the thin man lying on the bed, and asked.

The man hesitated for a moment, then nodded, "Yes... It feels like no one has called me that for a long time."

"Viscount Barnes, you should have read that letter, right?" Zhong Ye went straight to the topic, "If possible, can you give us the painting left by Nemo? Of course, we will spend money to buy it, and will not let it You lose money."

"Cough cough!"

Just as the thin man was about to answer, he suddenly coughed twice, and his face became even paler.

He raised his empty eyes and looked at Zhong Ye, "Sorry, I can't give it to you... because I don't have Nemo's painting in my hand."

"No?" Zhong Ye frowned.

"My family has no money. Not long ago, my debts came due, and my moneylenders took away all my things, including furniture, shares, books, and artwork..." The skinny man took a deep breath, There was sadness in his eyes, "The Barnes family has nothing left."

Frowning, Zhong Ye continued to ask: "Can you tell me who lent you money?"

"If you want to trace those paintings, I can tell you that those paintings should be in the hands of the Raymond family now." The skinny man Mu Mu said, "I never thought that the Raymond family was behind my creditors. It's not enough to defeat the Barnes family, they also want to kill us..."

The Raymond family...Viscount Raymond?

The family that now rules Valencia is the Raymond family, and the current lord of Valencia is the Viscount Raymond!

Decades ago, the Raymond family defeated the Barnes family and became the lords of Valence, but now, the Barnes family lost everything under the Raymond family's scheme.

"...I have one more thing I want to ask."

Zhong Ye looked at Viscount Barnes lying on the bed, and asked in a deep voice, "I don't know Viscount Barnes, why did you buy Nemo's paintings from Baron Dupois?"

"At that time, my debt was about to come due, and I wanted to sell those paintings to the cultists..." The skinny man lowered his head, "But, I couldn't sell them..."

An angry expression appeared on Lily's face, but Zhong Ye raised his hand to hold her down.

"It's a good thing you didn't make a big mistake"

Zhong Ye nodded to Viscount Barnes, "We still have something to do, so let's leave now, thank you for your truthful answer."

After finishing speaking, he turned around and pushed Lilian and the others out of the room. Before leaving, he walked back, took out five gold coins from the purse, and put them at the end of the bed.

"I wish you a speedy recovery."

boom!
The door was closed, and the thin man stared blankly at the pile of gold coins at the end of the bed, and remained silent.

…………

After leaving Viscount Barnes' mansion, Lily also calmed down.

"Should I tell the local church?"

Viscount Barnes wants to sell Nemo's paintings to cultists to earn the difference, which means that he should know the whereabouts of some cultists, otherwise, how could he be so poor, and spend a lot of money from Dipois? The Baron bought that painting?
"Yes." Zhong Ye nodded.

"Let the church track down the cultists, and we deal with the Raymond family?" Lilian followed, asking, "Shouldn't it be the other way around?"

The influence of the church in the local area must be greater than the three of them. If the church is allowed to deal with the Raymond family, it will definitely get twice the result with half the effort.

And not all churches have the ability to track. In comparison, their tracking technology may be better.

Logically speaking, it should be the church to deal with the Raymond family, and they should go after the cultists.

"It should be so, but, have you forgotten Earl Marta?" Zhong Ye shook his head and said, "The whereabouts of the cultists are not so easy to track, let the church take action first, to track down the clues, and we will solve it After what happened to the Raymond family, it is the safest arrangement to go back and cooperate with the church and deal with those cultists together with them."

The strength of the local church is unknown, but it should not be as strong as him.

The strength of the cultists hidden in the dark is unknown, and it is not known whether the Raymond family has been transformed into cultists after getting those paintings. In this case, it is not a good choice for the church to deal with either side alone.

Right now, the incident of the Raymond family can be resolved in a short period of time, but it may take a while to track down the cultists.

After solving the incident of the Raymond family, they can cooperate with the church and track the cultists together. In this way, with him on both sides, the casualties can be greatly reduced.

Now, he is not far from being a 'legendary' - although we don't know how long it will take, but it is better to have him present than not to have him.

"Let's go, go to the church. When I first entered the city, I inquired about the location of the local church."

(End of this chapter)