It was already ten o'clock at night when Xia De returned to Saint Delan Square No. 6 with Mia.
He changed his shoes in the ground floor hall, and as he walked up the stairs, it felt as if a century had passed since he last walked down them.
Priest Augustus had placed all of Xia De's items in his study; the 【Orb of Silver Moon】 was damaged by yesterday's dream, and the Document-level relic 【vampire ring】 had turned to dust from foolishly absorbing the power of a god.
The only relics Xia De now possessed were the pages of the poetry manuscript, the 【gun of kindness】, and the 【dice of destiny】.
Even the 【Puppeteer Happy's Script】 had completely lost its extraordinary properties because all its pages had been used up.
Looking at the calendar on the wall, June, known as the “Sunlight Moon,” had passed.
It was now July, a month people called the “thunder moon.”
He sat in the chair behind the desk, looking at the items on the grand desk, summarizing his gains and losses from the Lakeview Manor incident.
He had gone to the open-air banquet at Lakeview Manor at the invitation of Baron Lavende, obtaining the special rhode cards 【Ancient Fairy Tale - Match Girl】, that gun, and divinity...
Hot steam surged from behind him; turning around, he saw the rotating brass wheel, with the silver blasphemy Ling Rune 【gluttony】 flowing around its body—this was Xia De's first Ling Rune.
“I gained the Divine Radiance state and obtained 【gluttony】.
A Ring術士 needs one of each of the four runes to upgrade, and now one-fourth is easily satisfied; thinking this way, last night's gains far outweigh the cost.”
He murmured to himself.
Not only that, but *crazy light chaser* would likely provide him with an Enlightenment Element Ling Rune related to the concept of “light” within three months; and the task from the ancient god 【Father of Infinite Trees】 still had a Miracle 【Echo】 waiting to be harvested.
It seemed that, without considering the combination of Sublimation Words, he was not far from the Second Ring, and might even be promoted within a few months.
It was a pity that although the Divine Radiance had appeared on Xia De, the key unlocking time was one week, and it was only Monday now; he had to wait until early Thursday morning.
However, no matter how much he gained at Lakeview Manor, it was the result of extremely special luck, and he did not believe that such good fortune would visit him again.
Aside from the silver blasphemy rune 【gluttony】, the greatest gain last night should have been his understanding of the Silver Moon.
Although he could no longer reproduce that kick inverted before the Silver Moon, Xia De had not forgotten the image of standing on the field ridge in his dream, looking up at the colossal Silver Moon above his head.
“From this perspective, the 【Orb of Silver Moon】 was also worth its price.”
He thought about the 【relic】 he had destroyed, lightly tracing his finger in the air, wanting to try 【Silver Moon Slash】 again, but then suddenly stopped; he was in the study now, and Xia De would be very sad if anything here was destroyed.
He rose from the chair in the study, walked into the living room, opened the door to the hallway, and followed the stairs down to the ground floor hall.
Standing in the hall, facing the layers of wooden boards that sealed off the ground floor.
As the sound of bells and whistles rang out, a huge brass Destiny Ring appeared in the steam behind him.
He chanted an ancient incantation, and lightly drew a line in the air with his finger.
As dazzling silver light bloomed, an arc of light appeared in the air.
Then came the sound of wooden boards being shattered, startling Mia, who was peeking around the corner of the ground floor stairs, wanting to see what Xia De was doing.
But this time, the orange cat was not scared away; instead, it tucked its tail, unsure whether it should go “rescue” Xia De.
The hall itself was not very large, and Xia De was also hit by the splashing wood fragments.
Fortunately, the injury was not very serious, just a cut on the back of his hand.
“Hmm?”
As the wooden board shattered, a brown object dropped out of the gap behind the board with a plop.
Xia De looked at the thick wallet in surprise under the gaslight in the hall.
“This...”
This was indeed a wallet, and it was bulging, clearly containing a lot of banknotes.
Xia De tightened his face, pondering his initial “great search”:
“Speaking of which, I only thought that Room No. 1 on the second floor was the Detective's legacy, and I didn't check the ground floor at all... Hmm...”
In fact, even if he had searched the ground floor back then, he probably wouldn't have found it; this wallet was hidden too well.
He looked up at the solid brick wall behind the three layers of wooden boards, and picked up the wallet with his bleeding hand:
“That wooden board should be removable, so hiding the wallet here, no one would indeed think of it, and it would be very convenient to get money every time one went out.
Sparrow Detective and the original owner should both have known this location, but I didn't inherit the memory.”
Xia De didn't know what his feelings should be at the moment; he was both happy to finally find the wallet and surprised that the answer was so simple.
So he opened the wallet to check, and indeed it was full of banknotes.
After counting, there were a total of 28 pounds and 12 shillings, enough to maintain the agency's operation for three months and allow a single man with low expenses to live comfortably.
“But the value of that cane must exceed 15 pounds, and the price of high-grade black tea won't be low either.
Is this all the legacy Sparrow Detective left behind? Could it be that he deliberately calculated it?
Calculated that this amount of money was just enough for three months of normal expenses.”
He walked up the stairs with the wallet, wanting to clean up the hall, while summarizing his impression of Sparrow Detective in his mind:
“Extremely meticulous in his work, wrote a diary every day, and kept clear financial records.
His Detective abilities were strong, but some of his Detective records were not truthful, and some clients had a poor impression of him.
He had a high taste in black tea, an expensive cane, and enjoyed reading novels about knights, war, and court life...
Although this image became much more three-dimensional, it still didn't reveal his secrets.”
His footsteps suddenly stopped, making the cat, who was climbing the stairs ahead of him, look back curiously.
Xia De narrowed his eyes slightly, but actually saw nothing:
“Wait, if everything I experienced that night at Lakeview Manor was the result of luck, then do the things I didn't understand correspond to those things I don't know?”
Among the many matters at Lakeview Manor, the most incomprehensible were the intelligence about the “Witch Council” heard by the stables, and the intelligence about the Carson Rick United Kingdom spy heard after breaking into the garden maze.
The “Witch Council” certainly had nothing to do with Sparrow Detective, as the Detective was clearly a man, and it was confirmed by multiple sources that he was indeed an ordinary person.
On the contrary, Xia De suspected that the intelligence about the “Witch Council” pointed to “The Lady” who was also present at the time.
As for the spy—
“If I think along this line, the identity of a foreign spy indeed fits the setting of 'someone with a huge secret but just an ordinary person.'”
He continued climbing the stairs while thinking, the cat was already impatiently scratching at the door on the second floor:
“Extremely meticulous in his work, is the caution of a spy;
Wrote a diary every day, is to disguise his ordinary citizen identity and whereabouts;
Clear financial records, so as not to leave clues for others, making it easy to falsify sources of funds;
Strong Detective abilities, consistent with the characteristics of a spy;
Detective records are not truthful, clearly covering up information while enhancing the persona of an ordinary Detective;
Some clients had a poor impression, he must have done something extra beyond the 委托, or used a gun;
High taste in black tea, is his own true hobby;
Expensive cane, possibly the only personal item he brought from his homeland, with sentimental value;
Likes novels, perhaps those novels are codebooks, but I can't understand them...”
Xia De opened the door for Mia, and the nocturnal cat immediately darted into the living room.
He stood at the doorway, looking at the place where Mr. Sparrow had lived.
Moonlight passed through Saint Delan Square, shining into the living room from the window, but the light stopped at his feet, leaving half of Xia De's face in shadow at the doorway:
“So, Sparrow Hamilton, isn't he really a Carson Rick spy?”