Whispering Verse

"You look at me strangely now."

The girl with beautiful long brown hair said, then stood up:

"It's already very late, so I'll leave first. Detective, our cooperation continues. If anything happens, I will write to you directly."

"Miss Bayas, where do you live? The Church of the Sun?"

"Of course not, otherwise why not just tell others that Blackstone Security Company is a stronghold of the church?"

She gave her address. Of course, it was an apartment she rented similar to Miss Louisa:

"I will continue to track down the whereabouts of the Silver Eyed One. Goodbye, Detective Hamilton."

Shade sent Miss Bayas downstairs, and when he watched her leave St. Teresa Square, he suddenly realized that his current relationship with Miss Bayas was very similar to the "friend" relationship Miss Anat pursued.

"If the progress on Miss Anat's side does not go well, perhaps we can rely on the progress on my side to let Miss Bayas know about the chosen one and be willing to cooperate with us."

He closed the door, picked up Mia and wanted to walk upstairs. I knew in my heart that it was now eleven o'clock on Sunday night. Although I was invited to play cards again on Sunday this week, there was no accident this time.

A woman's chuckle rang in her ears.

"Okay, no big accidents happened. Last week I met the evil god. This week it was just a ring warlock and a [Keeper-level] relic. Relatively speaking, can this be considered an accident?"

He asked the woman in his heart, but she didn't answer.

Shade, who was in a happy mood, walked up the stairs with the cat in his arms. It was time to rest.

In this way, Xia De came to the Thunder Moon without incident, which was the second week of July in the year 1853 of the Sixth Epoch Universal Calendar. When I woke up on Monday morning, I was still summarizing the gains and losses of the previous week. But it seems that since the accident at Lakeview Manor on the last day of June, life has really gradually calmed down, and the things encountered have not been too dangerous.

After breakfast, we took a taxi to the psychological clinic on Röntgen Avenue in the East District of Tobesk. It's not yet nine o'clock, but the clinic is already open.

When Dr. Schneider heard about Shade's visit, he ran downstairs from the second-floor consultation room in a panic:

"What happened? Shade, are you okay?"

He looked horrified, probably thinking that Shade had encountered something dangerous and needed his help.

"I'm fine."

The two then moved to the reception room on the second floor to talk.

"I have recently made some good friends... whose identities cannot be disclosed. I have received information from Mr. Ponton of the Chengdong Steam Engine Screw Factory and Mr. Roosevelt, the accountant of the Star Grass Public Tobesk Nursing Home. [Mercury Blood] has a close relationship and helps those hiding guys to keep some [relics].”

"Huh? Is the news accurate?"

The doctor cheered up immediately.

"I guarantee there is absolutely no problem. Both of them are probably ordinary people. Of course, it is only a high probability. But this news will be revealed to the Zhengshen Church on Tuesday, that is, tomorrow, so..."

"clear!"

The middle-aged doctor made a fist with his left hand and punched it in the palm of his hand, with a smile on his face:

"As long as there are clues, it will be easy to handle. Even if the things these two gentlemen are keeping are not [fake Philosopher's Stones], they must know more people who keep things for Mercury Blood."

The doctor looked confident, but he was also cautious:

"Shadow, I need to make some preparations and reject the bulimia of the Earl's wife who is going to be treated tonight, and then tonight I... no, call Louisa to work together. Although we are just ordinary people. , but don’t be careless. Do you want to go together? Just treat it as a long-term experience. "

"certainly."

Shade is actually very interested in these relics kept by ordinary people:

"I will go with you. The friend who gave me the clue said that if the [relic] is not what we are looking for, don't take it, so as not to disrupt the church's investigation."

"no problem."

The doctor waved his hand indifferently. He was not a greedy person:

"I just want the [Fake Philosopher's Stone] and nothing else."

The two made an appointment to meet at Shade's house at seven o'clock in the evening, because his house was closer to both targets. As for this information, the doctor believed that it was of great value, and he could not let Shade suffer:

"Don't you still owe 20 pounds this month? If you find the [fake Philosopher's Stone] later, you don't have to pay it back, I will pay it for you. If you don't find it, then you can just pay back 10 pounds."

Although the current economic situation is much better than two weeks ago, Xia De is still happy that the debt can be reduced.

He didn't spend too long at the doctor's place, so Shade then took a carriage to Old John's pawn shop.

Because the journey is quite far, it was quite heartbreaking to pay when I got off the bus. But now that he has a legitimate weekly income, Shade is also persuading himself that he must not save the gold pounds that should be spent.

He doesn't think he is stingy, but he was afraid of poverty some time ago.

There were no customers in the pawn shop. Before Shade entered, the elderly shop owner was reading a letter. When he looked up and saw that it was a regular customer, he put the letter away calmly:

"Detective, I haven't looked good for half a week..."

This was just a usual greeting, but then he looked at Shade's face suspiciously:

"Why do I feel like your appearance has changed a little... I'm too worried. What do you want? There was no clue about the [relic] you were looking for last time."

"Do you have a time key?"

Shade stood in front of the counter and knocked on the table with his fingers.

"have."

"Um?"

He was just asking casually, but he didn't expect it to happen, so he became excited:

"How many are there?"

"A handful. Although this is a [relic] that exists in plural, do you think that the [Time Key] can be easily picked up?"

He left the counter and went out through the back door of the pawn shop, but came back within two minutes holding a slender box.

Pushing the wooden box to Shade, after opening it, lying inside the red lining was a wooden time key.

“Is it packaged so well to raise the price?”

After getting permission, Shade picked up the key and looked at it.

"This is a business strategy, young man, you don't understand."

Old John waved his hand. Seeing that Shade was very interested in the key, he began to bid:

"I won't guess what you are looking for [Time Key] for, although you can guess it. Because [Time Key] exists in plural, the price is relatively transparent. I bid based on the average market price. At the time point corresponding to this key, I It has been checked and it was probably around 3002 of the Fifth Era, which was in the middle of the Fifth Era. There were no major events in that year, so this key should be a very ordinary [Poet Level]... 25 pound."

High-level time keys are generally more expensive than other relics of the same level, while low-risk time keys are generally cheaper than other relics of the same level. Shade has investigated this, so he knows that the price is relatively reasonable.

"Twenty pounds. For the sake of the cane."

But when facing Old John, he still kept lowering the price habitually.

"How long are you going to bring this up? I didn't raise the price this time. The price is just right."

“If it goes any lower, my financial situation is not very good.”

Shade put the key back into the box. The old man looked at him, as if thinking about the thickness of his wallet:

"Thirteen pounds and fifteen shillings, no more reduction."

"make a deal."

Shade nodded, and the old man let out a sigh of relief. He pressed the box with one hand and twirled his fingers with the other:

"Pay first and deliver later."

"No problem, but I also want to sell a [relic]."

"Relics? Why didn't you sell it first? Take it out and let me see it."

Seeing Shade take out a long and slender thing wrapped in newspaper from his pocket, Old John suddenly became interested. Maybe he is more interested in seeing new things than making money.

"Let's talk about shopping first. Now that I have money, won't it be difficult to lower the price?"

Shade said with a smile, unfolding the newspaper to expose his finger bones. This time, Old John did not complain about Shade's price reduction strategy. Instead, he looked at the finger with a serious expression. He just looked at it for a moment and sighed:

"Oh? It's actually this?"

"You know him?"

"Of course I do. The Keeper-level relics [Infernal Bones] are relics that can give people immortality. If I can't even recognize these special relics, why should I open a pawn shop?"

After receiving Xia De's permission, the old man solemnly put on gloves to inspect the relics, and then put on a special geared metal device like a monocular telescope to carefully observe the scratches on the surface of the finger bones:

"No problem, it is indeed a Keeper-level relic [Infernal Bones]. Look at the words above. These are genuine words written by the undead of the Fourth Age. They have been completely lost. If it weren't for the huge side effects, this thing could be called the most A valuable Keeper-level relic.”

He leaned close to his finger bones and sniffed:

"The smell of corpses and the smell of graveyards, oh, yes, that's it."

He put the phalanges back into Shade's newspaper, then took off his gloves:

"Good stuff, let me know the price."

Shade had learned about the general pricing of [Relics] in advance, and had discussed this issue with Miss Bayas last night. But just as he was about to open his mouth to tell the price, Old John raised his hand to stop him:

"Speaking of which, are you interested in bartering? I don't have four or five figures in cash at the moment."

Working with Miss Bayas is dangerous, but the rewards are huge. The total money that Shade earned when he came to this world was not that much.

Shade looked at the old man in front of him, wondering what kind of bargaining strategy this was. But bartering is not impossible. After all, he makes money just to spend it on relics or knowledge:

"Let's first talk about what it is."

Old John walked out of the counter first, but looked at the door, then locked the door from the inside, and then returned to the counter and whispered to Shade:

"This is a really good thing. It was just collected not long ago. It is also a secret keeper, but it is quite special. The academy and the church named it [Witch's Carbon Paper]. This is a relic used by the Witch Emperor of the Fifth Age. It is the first time There were a total of 108 sheets in a stack when they were discovered, and were later scattered into the hands of different people. Each sheet has the same effect. Pointing the carbon paper at a certain thaumaturgy, spell, or ritual that is being released can imprint it on the paper. Ring The warlock burns the carbon paper, soaks the ashes in water and drinks it, and there is a high probability that he can obtain thaumaturgy, incantation, divine magic and even spiritual runes similar to the brand's extraordinary abilities..."