Whispering Verse

If this trip goes well and there are no follow-up matters, Shade plans to spend the rest of the day wandering around the local area, and then temporarily abandon the exploration of Coldwater Port City, focusing on returning to Tobesk to find a way to increase his strength in a short period of time.

Although Miss Danister's divination believed that Shade needed to travel far away, the divination was indeed not necessarily correct. There was no need for him to waste too much time in a strange city.

As for being able to handle the trust in a distant seaport city, that is because the friend who entrusted the will to Mr. Le Maire, a distant relative of Mrs. Le Maire who passed away, lives locally.

This is of course no coincidence. The dead Mr. Flamel was a sailor traveling between the New World and the Old World, and Cold Water Port must be the place where he stayed most often. His friend should have a close connection with the identity of the crew, and the relationship is good enough to help save the will, so it is actually normal for the other party to be in Coldwater Port.

When he went out, Shade didn't forget to put on a hat to prevent anyone from recognizing him. Of course, no one in this city would have seen Shad himself, and even if someone recognized him from the newspaper photo, it would not cause any trouble as long as they did not admit that they had been to Coldwater Port.

As for the destination of this trip, although Shade does not have the ability to remember photographs, he has the habit of carrying a notebook with him, and the notebook contains the information that the client said when he came to the door that day.

Mr. Le Maire's friend also lives in the Docklands and appears to be a minor civil servant in the local government. When I left the hotel, I asked for the address and learned that it was only half an hour away on foot.

Shade did not know the gentleman's name, but Mrs. Flamel knew that he lived at No. 5 Mermaid Lane, Docklands, Coldwaterport. Judging from the naming method, it should be a better alley nearby.

Even in the same country, different cities have different architectural styles. There is a big difference in architectural styles between the foggy cities in the interior and the seaports on the west coast. Holding an umbrella and walking into an unfamiliar city, it was originally half an hour's journey, but Xia De stopped and walked, and it took him nearly an hour to complete it.

He saw children laughing and running in the rain, workers still carrying things at the docks in heavy rain, old nobles riding horse-drawn carriages on the road, and beggars huddled under the eaves of shops to take shelter from the rain.

This city is prosperous, this city is rotten and dirty. This place is thousands of miles away from Tobesk, but Shade's evaluation is surprisingly consistent:

“Cities playing two roles in the era of change will eventually prosper or decline in a greater transformation.”

In order to facilitate the transportation of goods in the dock area, the drainage on the main road was pretty good, but once they got into the alley, the mud and things that Shade didn't want to guess almost covered the uppers of the boots.

Mermaid Alley is on one side of the main road, and the fifth door into the alley is your destination. This is a two-story building with peeling walls and moss growing on the edges of the wall facing the street. The window next to the door has no curtains, and you can see a pot of withered flowers sitting on the windowsill. It looks like it has been dead for a long time.

Out of politeness, Shade did not peek into other people's homes from the window. Instead, he walked up the steps under the eaves with an umbrella, knocked on the door gently, and waited patiently:

"I don't know how Mia is doing at Miss Louisa's place."

It is raining in both Tobesk and Coldwater Port today, but relatively speaking, the rain in this seaport city is heavier. The wind blows through the city, bringing the unique smell of the ocean into the nose. People who live here all year round are probably very accustomed to this smell.

After all, there is no year-round fog here like Tobesk.

Soon someone came to open the door. When the door was opened, he saw a tall, thin middle-aged man with a beard:

"Excuse me, is Mr. Jonathan Flamel here?"

Shade made good use of his surprise to express his emotions. He thought that Mr. Flamel's friend was also a rude sailor.

"Le Maire?"

The person who opened the door frowned, looked up and down at the young man holding the umbrella, and replied in a somewhat accented voice:

"That's my friend, sir. What do you want to see him for?"

"We had some financial disputes, and I came to him to settle the bill."

"He owes you money?"

The middle-aged man suddenly became alert and looked up and down at the strange young man.

"No, I owe him money."

Shade said, taking out the Rhodes card from his pocket with the hand that was not holding an umbrella and shaking it:

"We met on the ship. I took their ship from Cold Water Port to the New World. There was nothing on the ship and everyone got together to play cards. I lost a sum of money to Jonathan Le Maire, but I couldn't get it out at the time, so he gave it to me. This address said just send the money here... That was two months ago, and I had just returned to Coldwater Port from the New World."

Shade didn't know if the crew member liked playing cards, but since he was a crew member who went to sea all year round, he definitely couldn't escape smoking, drinking and playing Rhodes cards. There aren't many interesting things in this era. If you want to have some fun at sea, that's all.

"I'm an honest person, and I don't owe much."

Shade also didn't forget to explain why he was so "honest".

"How much do you owe him?"

But the middle-aged man who opened the door was still wary.

"Twelve shillings and sevenpence."

The money should be neither too much nor too little. If it is too little, there is no point in spending time repaying it. If it is too much, it will arouse suspicion.

The middle-aged man relaxed a little. Seeing that it was still raining outside, he asked Sha De to come in and talk:

"Thank you for coming to pay me back, but... come in first."

The middle-aged man's name is Jason Dral, a dispatcher in charge of warehouse dispatching in the local dock area. Although it sounds like a very inconspicuous position, it is still part of the civil service establishment of Coldwater Port City. Even Xia De, who has not been exposed to similar professions, can understand that this is a fat job.

M. de Lal received Shade in the drawing room and informed him of the sad news of M. Flamel's death.

Shade, who was well prepared, showed a "surprised" attitude with great acting skills. First, he lamented the impermanence of the world. When we met a few months ago, the crew member was still in good health. After hearing that he died in a shipwreck, he promptly pretended to pray for the souls of the innocent people who died - praying to [Mr. Dawn].

In order to make the conversation seem more natural, Schade also inquired about Mr. Dellal's relationship with the dead Mr. Flamel.

His client, Mrs. Le Maire, did not know much information from the lawyer. She only knew that the gentleman who kept the will in Coldwater Port was a good friend of the sailor who unfortunately died in the shipwreck. When Mr. Delal introduced himself, he just said that he and Mr. Le Maire were friends who met while playing Rhodes in a tavern. They gradually became familiar with each other and had a friendship for decades.

This kind of rhetoric is very similar to Shade's rhetoric, and it seems a bit strange. But in any case, now, Shade is basically sure that Mrs. Flamel's acceptance of the inheritance is indeed true and is not a scam.

After all, even if this was a scam, the scammer would not be so bored as to prepare such a realistic trap in a distant city.