Whispering Verse

When I woke up, it was already half past six on Tuesday morning.

After preparing breakfast for himself and Mia, Shade glanced at the advertising section while reading the newspaper. Only then did Shade realize that he had not given Mia a bath for the cat for more than half a month.

But before Shade could make any move, the orange cat, who seemed to be aware of the situation, ran to the first floor of the house after eating its cat food soaked in goat's milk. No matter how much Shade shouted, it refused to go upstairs.

After Shade took the initiative to go downstairs, the small cat avoided his hand again. Even when Shade forced it into a corner, the cat stared at Shade for the first time and let out a "meow" that was similar to a roar at Shade. ~" voice.

Light pours in from the windows on the first floor into this home that doesn’t even have decorative walls. Shade, who was squatting in front of Mia, had a look of astonishment on his face, and then a frustrated expression, looking at the cat he had raised for half a month with some shock.

"You actually treated me..."

He opened his mouth to say something, but in the end he just stood up slowly and took back his hand that wanted to pick up the cat.

He stood there looking down at Mia, his lips trembled, but he still said nothing. First he turned his head, then turned around, and walked towards the stairs with a slightly heavy step.

Mia the cat stood in the corner and looked at Shade's back. The cat's big eyes blinked twice and then immediately followed him. The cat walked with Shade at his feet, looking up with its big eyes, trying to observe Shade's expression.

"Meow~"

It barked softly.

Shade stopped and looked at his feet, bent down and picked up the orange cat, and then his expression changed:

"Ha~ let me catch you!"

He showed a happy smile, held the orange cat's waist with both hands, and raised it high. A man who is good at acting, even if he is acting to cats, he still displays excellent acting skills. This is the basic ability for foreigners to survive in a different world.

"Meow~"

The small orange cat struggled twice but failed to get out of Shade's hands, so it stopped unhappy. But fortunately, Shade didn't bathe the domestic pet cat today.

Because he doesn't know how to wash a cat.

People in this world believe that animals like "cats" have the ability to bring good luck. This is a cultural and customary view. Therefore, many thaumaturgy related to "luck" can be related to cats.

Shade's behavior of catching the "cat" this morning seemed to have brought him good luck. This morning, he did not wait at home for the maid Tifa Servit to come to his door. Instead, he waited for a brand new client.

The ads placed in the newspapers last week had worked after all.

The client who came to the door was a thin, middle-aged woman. Judging from her clothes, she seemed to be in poor economic condition. When she followed Xia De upstairs nervously, Xia De also guessed that this client was also here to entrust matters such as "husband cheating".

But the situation was stranger than he thought.

"Detective Hamilton, here's the thing. My distant relative, Mr. Ferras Flamel...I don't know exactly how far away, I only met him a few decades ago. Flamel Mr. Er passed away and left me a large inheritance..."

The middle-aged woman sat uneasily on the sofa, her butt just rubbing against the side of the sofa, as if she was afraid of damaging the sofa. She did not take the tea prepared by Shade. After sitting down, she nervously pulled on the hem of her skirt and told her about her commission.

The middle-aged woman's surname is also Flamel, but her relationship with the deceased Mr. Firas Flamel can be traced back to her great-grandfather's generation.

"A few days ago, his lawyer...is that the word? I remember it was. His lawyer came to me and asked me to sign and take away Mr. Le Maire's estate, but I'm afraid that this is What a trap. You know, sir, the kind that tricks people into signing documents and then taking everything away."

This is a relatively common trap in this era, but for outsiders, in this slightly ignorant era, traps such as "Ponzi schemes" are actually the most cost-effective scams.

Of course, Shade wouldn't do that. Even if he wants to make money, he must rely on the knowledge in his head to make money openly. He always thought that he was probably a "positive person"...

"To put it this way, I haven't done anything illegal so far, and I didn't throw the steam bomb."

He thought in his mind, and then comforted the somewhat nervous woman softly. He saw that the woman had never been to such a place:

"So, what do you want to entrust me to do?"

"Investigating that lawyer is the person who wants me to sign. I don't understand this, I don't understand it at all, so I need to find a reliable person to investigate the whole thing. I don't know much about literacy, but I know that in St. Teresa Square, The detectives in the agency are definitely not liars.”

This is the innocent thought of the lower class citizens, but they never imagined that the guy working as a detective in Saint Teresa Square might not be a liar, but might be a foreign spy or a visitor from another world.

"Does the investigating lawyer... have any information on him?"

Shade thought for a moment and asked.

"Yes, I have his address, sir. I just need you to confirm whether he is a so-called lawyer. Oh, God, this word is such a twist."

The middle-aged woman with a low level of education said sheepishly. Shade shook his head and said it was nothing.

If you're just checking to see if the other party is a lawyer, it's fairly simple. The rough way is to go directly to the door to confirm whether it is a ring warlock. If yes, immediately tell the client to ignore the matter. If not, take out a pistol and threaten the client to tell the truth.

He can also use non-rude methods, such as coming to the person's door to talk to them, or following them for a day.

"Let me ask a little bit, what is the amount of the inheritance you are talking about?"

Shade asked again, but Mrs. Flamel was not wary:

"About 50 pounds or so."

"It's quite a lot."

This is not an exaggerated metaphor. For the people at the bottom, 50 pounds is a big number enough to change the fate of a family.

"So what did Mr. Firas Flamel do, and do you know how he died?"

Shade asked again, although this information seems to have nothing to do with investigating the identity of the lawyer, but it is relevant to determine whether this is a scam.

"I know, the lawyer told me."

Mrs. Le Maire recalled, but she did not know some details:

"When I was in my twenties, I heard that he went to sea with a fleet to explore a new northern route to the New World. Later, we gradually lost contact. I only heard by chance that he had joined a great fleet... ...The lawyer said that he died in a shipwreck, and people later discovered the suicide note he left with a friend in the harbor. He seemed to have expected that people who went to sea would have problems sooner or later. In his inheritance, the cash was 5 Thirteen pounds, plus a few personal effects, a diary, a collection of books, and some odd little souvenirs... Oh, that's probably the poor man's life savings."

Although she was not familiar with her distant relative Firas Flamel, Mrs. Flamel wiped her reddish eyes with a handkerchief.

Let Mrs. Flamel calm down first, Shade thought about the details of the commission, and finally decided to proceed with the commission.

After all, no matter what, investigating whether a stranger is a lawyer is only a day's work.

As for the entrustment fee, because Mrs. Le Maire herself is a middle-aged woman whose husband ran away and raised the children by herself, Shade did not charge too high a price.

When the two finally signed the entrustment agreement, they agreed that if the lawyer was not a lawyer, Mrs. Le Maire, who could not receive the inheritance, would have to pay Shade 5 shillings for the investigation fee.

If the other party is a lawyer, then Shade will follow Mrs. Flamel to sign and collect the inheritance of a suitcase. After Mrs. Flamel received the inheritance, Shade received a huge reward of up to 5 pounds.

This pricing method satisfied both parties, and when the client was about to leave, Shade specifically asked the other party which newspaper he knew the address from. The advertisement had been placed last week, and Mrs. Flamel must have been attracted by a commission from some newspaper.

"Steam Bird Daily, I was worried that I would be deceived and did not dare to go to the detectives in the advertisements in the small newspapers to commission... My neighbor, a kind-hearted young man studying art at Tobesk University, read the advertisement for me , I don’t know much about literacy..."

Mrs. Flamel said embarrassedly, and Shade sent the client downstairs, feeling that he owed more to Miss Louisa.

"At worst, I can cooperate with her in researching [The Little Match Girl]. Now I have no other ability to repay her."

He thought as he watched his client merge into the lively crowd of people in Saint Teresa Square.

Compared to when he first came to this world, Xia De was already above the poverty line. Continuing to accept such relatively low-paying commissions is not because he is obsessed with his identity as a detective, but because he has more ideas.

First, it was a long time coming to leave civilization for St. Byron's Comprehensive College in the far north. Before that, he needed to hang out in Delarian, so it was very important to maintain a necessary and decent identity.

Moreover, detectives can also make a lot of money, but this requires the accumulation of countless small commissions, so it is foolish to look down on low-paying commissions.

Not to mention, the learning method of ring magicians means that academic ring magicians who take correspondence courses need to have identities that can handle crises in their respective areas of operation.

Therefore, even though I am not as eager to make money as when I first came to this world, it is still necessary to accept commissions.

Not to mention, Shade is actually very interested in this type of small commission. Foreigners intend to see more of this strange world through this method.

The client arrived in the morning, and Shade planned to follow him throughout the day to confirm whether the lawyer was a fake. Tracking the lawyer would start during the day tomorrow, so he spent his somewhat peaceful Tuesday elsewhere.

At about ten o'clock in the morning, Shade took Mia out and went to "Good Peter's Pet Shop" on Purple Iris Lane. This was where Shade met Miss Bayas for the first time and took Mia away. The place.

The shop owner, who had a rosy nose, was deeply impressed by this young orange cat. Seeing Xia De coming to the door with the cat in his arms, he almost announced that he would not accept any business today.

But fortunately, Shade doesn’t want to foster Mia here again:

"I want to know how to bathe a pet."

He revealed his purpose, but the shopkeeper blocked the door and had no intention of letting the man or the cat in.

"Just wash it. What else can you do, as long as you don't use as much force as washing clothes."

In this hustle and bustle era, complex and diverse pet service projects have not yet been developed.

"Then you can give it..."

"When the cat is in the store, my wife and Miss Cindy usually bathe it."

The middle-aged shop owner said, shaking his head quickly, as if he was afraid that he would leave the cat behind.

The cat being held by Shade still remembers this place, but it doesn't seem to have a very good impression of it. Now it is curled up in Shade's arms and refuses to move.

"So are those two ladies in the store now?"

Shade asked again, and the man answered without thinking:

"Not in the last half month, no, not in the last year, they... eloped. But in fact, you don't have to bathe your pet cat so frequently. Cats are different from people. Sir, you wash the cat yourself. That’s fine, it’s very simple, it doesn’t matter if you wash it once every three months or even four months, cats are actually not delicate.”

Shade suspected that the other party just wanted him to leave quickly, but he also knew that Mia had left a "deep" impression on the middle-aged shop owner, so he left after expressing his regret that the other party's wife had eloped with the female shop assistant. here.

When he spoke, the middle-aged shop owner's expression was very exciting, and it even made Shade look forward to the scene when he next visits here.

As for washing cats, you still need to think carefully.

After leaving Purple Iris Lane, it was almost lunch time. Shade found a restaurant nearby, spent 1 shilling and 10 pence, and had a pretty good lunch with his cat.

After leaving the restaurant, I saw that it was still hazy today, and the harsh summer sun could not penetrate the fog layer, so I took Mia and walked towards the Prophet's Association.

It was a very dull afternoon. After the heavy rain last night, the water on the ground evaporated so quickly that it was impossible to tell that it had rained more than ten hours ago.

Foreigners wearing long-sleeved coats are not very adaptable to the city's climate. Fortunately, the Prophet's Association on Silver Cross Avenue is still cool.

He didn't come here for the Rhodes cards, but to find Miss Anat, and wanted to tell her about his recent contact with Miss Bayas.

According to the contact information left by the brown-haired female fortune teller last time, she first explained in the lobby on the first floor that she wanted to come for fortune telling, and then reported Miss Anat's name. But unfortunately, Miss Anat is not in the association now.

The management of the association's ring wizards is relatively relaxed, and they are not required to work every day like the church ring wizards. Although Shade knew where Miss Anat lived, it was obviously very unlikely that she would be home during the day.