“Since I have a short-term goal, the current plan is to inspect the room more thoroughly, search for currency, find a City map, and search for books.
I need to understand the world through text, investigate the historical background and religious customs, and cautiously adapt to this place.
Should I stay for three months to help the Detective complete that matter, and then make a decision after understanding everything?”
Xia De summarized the current situation, accepting the fact that the Detective was dead.
The worst-case scenario at present wasn't that this world had mysteries, but rather that he had no memories of the original owner, and therefore understood nothing about this world.
Aside from that, the current situation was quite good.
Standing up, Xia De walked in the direction of the washroom.
The gas lamp in the washroom had some issues; even when adjusted to maximum power, it only emitted a faint light.
In this light, he looked at the person in the mirror: dull golden hair, dark brown eyes, the face of a clearly Western male, around 20 years old, with a somewhat nervous expression, and a height of about 1.8 meters.
Since he was a Time Traveler before, his appearance wasn't particularly outstanding, but in Xia De's own aesthetic, it could be considered not bad.
“This is me now; don't be startled by the stranger in the mirror again.”
He cautiously warned himself in his mind, but he didn't immediately leave the mirror.
Instead, after carefully looking around, he softly called out:
“Hey, hello, are you still there?”
He tried to communicate again with the murmuring female voice to determine what she actually was.
However, after a long time, there was no result, and he could only accept reality and temporarily give up.
Next was to find currency.
He hadn't found any food when he searched the kitchen earlier, and this body was clearly hungry, so he needed to temporarily forget other troubles, get money, and eat.
But an accident occurred again.
About half an hour later, Xia De sat back on the sofa in the warm yellow light, with an indescribably panicked expression on his face.
In his hand, he held a banknote with the number “10” written on it.
The banknote had many creases and stains and was even smaller than the card in the diary.
The numerical side had a human portrait, while the reverse side had the royal crest of the Delarion Kingdom, where he was currently located.
After searching the entire house, flipping through all the books and documents, and emptying all the pockets in the wardrobe, Xia De astonishingly only found this one banknote, which seemed to have accidentally slipped into a crevice behind the bookshelf.
“Could it be that the prices in this world are special, and this one banknote can sustain me for three months?”
Even comforting himself with such a joking method, he knew it was impossible no matter how he thought about it.
“This is bad.”
He leaned back slightly, resting against the sofa's backrest, closed his eyes, and looked up at the white ceiling:
“Mr. Hamilton, where on earth did you hide the money? I agreed to stay; you wouldn't leave me without a single penny, would you…?”
Even though he felt terrified, he truly wanted to catch up to the carriage carrying the coffin at that moment and shake the corpse inside awake to question him.
If he couldn't understand the language, he could still survive by being clever; if he was physically disabled, as long as he bravely lived on, survival wouldn't be an issue.
But no money, that was absolutely impossible.
Mr. Sparrow Hamilton clearly didn't cook at home in the past; there wasn't even a single vegetable leaf in the kitchen, so there wouldn't be any rat corpses either.
Xia De didn't know when this body had last eaten, but he clearly needed to eat now.
Considering the limits of human existence, Xia De had to immediately find money or find a way to earn money, otherwise, he might very well be forced to look for restaurants on a map after sunset, and then search for trash cans in the alleys outside the restaurants to try his luck.
“No, that won't happen.”
He looked at the only banknote in his hand with a terribly grim expression, his face as somber as the sky outside:
“Although I don't know the denomination, it's at least money.
And there's the sun 3 card in the diary.
These can all keep me alive.
However, since I can't find money temporarily, I must consider long-term earning channels.”
The Time Traveler's Knowledge might be very valuable, but monetizing Knowledge in an unfamiliar place was not only troublesome but also dangerous, not to mention that this world itself contained mysterious powers.
He thought of this being a Detective agency, and Mr. Hamilton seemed to have said before he died that he had left some relatively safe tasks for Xia De, who was “not good with his head,” so he could maintain the identity of a Detective and keep the Detective agency running.
Since he hadn't found the deceased Detective's money for now, he had to prepare for the worst and consider his future means of livelihood.
“Speaking of which, Mr. Hamilton knew that Xia De—the original Xia De—was not very intelligent, so he must have left simple tasks to maintain the Detective agency's operational status.
So, perhaps he has already solved those cases and I just need to go collect the money!
Although this world has mysteries, at least, the lives of ordinary people are the mainstream.”
Xia De suddenly had an idea.
He got up and retrieved the diary from the shadows on the nightstand in the master bedroom, and found the ledger, memo, and work log from the study as the Detective's relics.
Although he hadn't found money just now, he had found these items.
Sparrow Hamilton Detective was a very organized and meticulous person.
Even if Xia De hadn't studied accounting or business management, he still found his records of the agency's operations to be movingly detailed.
Of course, it was mainly Xia De who was moved, because the cases currently unsolved by the agency were indeed very simple, and most of them had already been completed.
“Finding Miss White’s runaway sister, tracking Mr. Lawrence’s mistress, searching for the lost orange cat Mia, inquiring about a doctor who can treat eye diseases… They all seem very simple and not very dangerous.
Oh, Mr. Hamilton has already handled most of them.
If I am to stay and run this place, solving one case completely every two or three weeks will be enough to keep it operating.”
Xia De summarized as he flipped through Mr. Hamilton's handwritten reports.
But what he needed now was not to operate the Detective agency long-term, but just to get a sum of money to maintain his short-term livelihood first.
Comparing the remaining difficulty, payment method, and amount of reward for the four tasks, Xia De decided to first tackle the commission of “tracking Mr. Lawrence’s mistress.”
From the case report, Detective Hamilton had been tracking for several months, but had only stopped recently due to poor health.
In fact, the current report could be handed over to the client to settle the remaining payment.
However, Mr. Hamilton had left a note in the report specifically catering to Xia De's limited literacy, using only simple words.
The note said that if he intended to complete this commission, it would be best to have recent records before submitting it, so the reward might be higher, and it would also prevent the client from being suspicious.
In other words, Xia De only needed to track once more to complete the commission.
Although this wouldn't be a perfect completion, it at least met the requirements of the client, Mr. Lawrence's wife, and was enough to receive the remaining payment of the commission, which was 1 pound and 4 shillings, out of the marked “1 pound 7 shillings.”
From the tone of the Detective's notes, this was a considerable reward.
Aside from the reward, he chose this commission because Detective Hamilton had handled many such cases of helping wives catch mistresses, making it the simplest commission, and there would be no complications during the final handover.
Sparrow Hamilton was not a famous grand Detective, but he was very good at handling extramarital affair investigations.
Xia De didn't want to stay in this terrifying house where someone had just died, drinking cold water and eating paper to fill his stomach, so he prepared to set off to investigate, hoping to deliver the report to the client before dusk.
“No problem, I'll first get the first sum of money through this commission, then slowly explore the secrets of the deceased Detective, figure out the source of the voice in my head, and everything will be alright!”
He encouraged himself in his heart, first finding the City map, and then, based on Detective Hamilton's relic report and the calendar on the wall, deducing the possible location of the mistress named Mrs. Lasoya.
These were simple tasks, but the most difficult step was to find his current location on the “Tobesk City Map.”
The Detective agency's Tobesk City map had many annotations left by the previous Detective, even marking his frequently used taverns for gathering information and the locations of black markets for trading “sensitive items.”
However, the original Detective did not have the habit of marking his own home on the map.
Fortunately, while searching through the files, Xia De found a past tracking record with the route of that operation, which allowed him to confirm that this apartment was located at No. 6 Saint Delan Square in the center of Tobesk City.
“Thanks to Sparrow Hamilton Detective for his meticulous records… This is… a house right next to the City center square, huh? How much would a house like this cost?”
Xia De said in surprise, and at the same time, he discovered a complex of palace buildings called “Yodel Palace” just two streets away from Saint Delan Square.
And from the crumpled newspaper, on page two, between the front-page news of “Third Round of Steam Pipeline Renovation Across the City” and the page three “Kalas Mountain Ancient Tower Collapse Investigation Report,” it mentioned that Yodel Palace was the residence of the Delarion Kingdom royal family.
Xia De, who had no house in his original world, felt his heart rate suddenly quicken.
Panic and tension were even dispersed by a momentary surprise.
He looked at the document in his hand and murmured to himself:
“So, my current location is in the capital City of the Delarion Kingdom, one of the two major kingdoms in the world, and it's an apartment by the City center square… I actually have a house like this, and I'm still worried about starving to death?”
The oppressive mood he had felt suddenly eased, but the house couldn't be converted into cash immediately, and Xia De hadn't really given up on Mr. Hamilton's three-month commission.
At least, he would establish himself first before considering it.
But at least a very sincere smile appeared on his face, replacing his nervous expression.
With a house in such a location, he wouldn't have to worry about the future… The smile on his face gradually disappeared as Xia De realized that he had even found the will earlier, but he hadn't found any deeds or property titles.
“This apartment isn't rented, is it?”
The more he thought about it, the more likely this possibility seemed.
If he could afford a house in such a location, why would he need to open a Detective agency?
Collecting rent would be enough to support himself.
Even if the Detective's original business wasn't just for making money, from the interior decoration, this didn't look like Detective Hamilton's own house.
“So, it's very possible that I'll also have to pay an unknown amount of rent every month?”
Xia De unbelievably arrived at this conclusion, and at the same time, he looked again at the calendar hanging on the living room wall.
It was currently Saturday of the third week of Sunlight Moon, or June, 1853.
If he really had to pay rent, it was highly likely that the payment would be due at the beginning of each month.
“This world also has a twelve-month system, and the dates of each month are also very similar to before… Otherwise, I should just run away, pack my clothes, drag my suitcase, carry a bucket, and escape, starting this journey in a mysterious world as a Time Traveler… Staying here not only yields no income, but Mr. Hamilton might also have left debts I don't know about.”