Whispering Verse

The maids behind the sofa are dressed the same as the maids who followed Mr. Stan to find Shade. This shows that these three maids were brought by the princess from Yodel Palace.

Mr. Stan motioned to Shade to tidy up his clothes. When Shade went to touch the collar, he actually touched a furry paw. He was startled, and then he realized that little Mia was still standing on his shoulder.

The cat was so well-behaved just now that Shade completely forgot that it was even there.

"Isn't it a little rude to bring a cat to make a commission?"

Thinking in his mind, Shade turned his head and looked over his shoulder. Mia's amber eyes were really beautiful.

"You must be good."

After whispering instructions and straightening his collar, President Stan introduced Shade to these "distinguished guests".

Looking at Agelina Cavendish from the front, one can easily catch traces of Lesia and Miss Carina on the sixteen-year-old girl's face. It's just that the charm of the witch is really more than that of normal people, Lesia is more determined and decisive, and the temperament of the princess in front of her is really different from theirs.

Agelina Cavendish was the girl who was unfortunately injured during the divination, and the back of her right hand is now being bandaged. It's just that the naked eye cannot detect the blood leaching out from under the carpet or gauze, which means that it is actually just a small wound and not serious.

Princess Agelina wore a blue dress and her hair was simply tied up and hanging behind her. She wore light makeup on her face and didn't have much jewelry on her body. Only the waistband of the skirt was dotted with some broken gems. Compared to her identity, these decorations were nothing.

She was relatively indifferent to Shade and just nodded as a greeting. On the contrary, her friends were more enthusiastic about the detective with the cat on his shoulders, and some people even jokingly mentioned Miss Carina, seemingly recognizing Shade's identity.

Mr. Stan signaled Shade to investigate as he pleased, so Shade asked the maid and these noble girls about what had just happened.

It's not complicated. The girls gathered together to play a divination game around the obviously old stone table. However, they did not use the standard tools provided by the Prophet Association, but brought their own divination supplies.

Today they chose fire divination, which is to use a brazier to burn the tortoise shell. After the tortoise shell cracked due to heat, they tried to obtain the so-called "instructions of fate" by interpreting the cracks on the tortoise shell.

This was not the first time they had performed this kind of activity, but this time the tortoise shell "exploded" just after it was heated. It was not an accident like a steam bomb explosion, but the bone fragments on the edge of the tortoise shell exploded and splashed, and then unfortunately scratched the back of Princess Agelina Cavendish's hand.

"It sounds like an accident caused by uneven heating of bone fragments."

Shade thought about it and then asked:

"Ladies, may I ask who suggested this 'fire divination'? Which lady brought the tortoise shell and charcoal?"

The girls who were laughing and laughing gave Shade the answer. The proposer and the person who came with the things were the princess herself.

"In addition to fire divination, we originally planned to play small rituals written on Ouija boards dug out from graveyards and ancient books acquired from secondhand bookstalls."

The enthusiastic black-haired lady introduced to Shade that she was the second daughter of Earl Solar, and looked at Shade with a very charming look. If Shade wanted to have something happen with the other party, it would probably be easy.

It's not that Shade's appearance is so good that he can easily capture the favor of girls. This should be related to the rumors about him and Miss Carina.

"Although it has nothing to do with this accident, it is best not to try such an exciting game."

Shade tried to persuade him, but when no one paid attention to him, he went to the stone table to check the brazier that had not been taken away.

The brazier was also made of stone, with a hexagonal mouth and obvious collision marks. There were some symbols on the outer surface that looked like ancient writing, but even Shade couldn't decipher it. This is most likely an old thing. After touching it with his hands, Shade judged that all the items here were ordinary goods.

He put on the gloves he carried with him and made sure that the cat on his shoulder was squatting there obediently looking around. He calculated that the time was still far away from Mia's eating time, and then he took out the blackened bone fragments from the stone basin with his hands. .

The bone fragment was still warm. Shade wiped off the black dust and looked through it, then put it in front of his nose and sniffed it gently, but found nothing strange.

"Is it really an accident? President Stan divined that it was just an accident, and he was worried that no one would believe what he said, so he asked me to investigate?"

Shade thought suspiciously, then turned to look at President Stan, only to see him with his back turned to him, talking to two middle-aged men who were suspected to be the princess's guards outside the door.

"I haven't been paying attention to observing me for the moment, good echoes from the past!"

The thaumaturgy was activated, and the girls' voices reached his ears. Just as Shade thought, this room was not open to the public, so within 48 hours the only human sounds were the noble girls who came to have fun today.

But those sounds did not provide Shade with any further clues. He heard the laughter of the girls as the tortoise shells burned, and then heard a clear explosion, followed by exclamations.

"The accident happened exactly as they said. If this is not an accident, it could only be that someone tampered with the tortoise shell during the divination."

But Shade was not a very professional detective after all, and he had no further way to deal with the blackened tortoise shell in his hand.

I sniffed the turtle's nose again, but there was still no smell. Just when I was thinking about trying my luck with "Echo of Blood", I didn't expect that the cute cat squatting on my shoulder suddenly followed Shade's example and stretched out his head and sniffed with his pink little nose.

It was probably imitating Shade's movements, and because of its keen sense of smell, it was choked by the choking burning smell on the tortoise shell.

"Meow~"

Although Shade didn't understand cat language, he could still hear this dissatisfied cry.

Shade couldn't help but smile on his face, and raised his hand to touch the cat to comfort it, but Mia actually used her paws to push Shade's hand away. Shade's gloved hands were now covered in black dust. Touching the orange cat's head directly would stain its beautiful hair.

"It's really getting smarter."

Praising Mia in a low voice, Shade put the tortoise shell back into the stone basin.

He turned around and wanted to go to Mr. Stein to announce his investigation results, but then turned to look at the orange cat on his shoulder who was licking his paws. Shade returned to the stone table again and picked up the tortoise shell:

"Does it have any special taste?"

He wanted to bring the tortoise shell to Mia's nose again, but the cat's little paws directly pushed Shade's hand away.

"Is there any special taste? Is there anything besides the paste smell?"

Even though the cat was smart, Shade realized mid-sentence that it would still be difficult to understand human language. After all, when Shade was talking, the cat was still licking its paws, not caring about what Shade meant.

Cats and dogs both have a very sensitive sense of smell and can detect odors that humans cannot. A qualified detective should raise an obedient dog as a detective partner, and Shade believes that Mia is qualified enough for such a task.

Although he failed to let Mia know what he meant, Shade had a new inspiration.

He walked back to the sofa, stood to one side and coughed:

"Ladies, I think I can give you the answer after conducting a small test."

"Detective Hamilton, what do you want to do?"

The girl with shawl long hair asked with a smile. They did not think that detective activities were serious matters.

"It's like this. Since the tortoise shell and charcoal were brought by His Highness himself, then even if someone can do something, they must have done it here. And things like black powder that cause deflagration will leave a smell on your hands. That’s nice, I noticed none of you were wearing gloves, which is nice.”

"Detective, do you want to smell our hands one by one?"

The bold girl asked, and then really stretched out her white hand to Shade, which caused a burst of laughter:

"Mr. Knight, this is really ungentlemanly."

Shade coughed and expressed that he was serious:

"No, my nose isn't sensitive enough. I want my cat to do the sniffing."

He pointed his finger to his shoulder, and Mia immediately stretched out her paw to touch Shade's finger, but because the paw was too short, she couldn't touch it, so she could only be sulking at herself.

"Both cats and dogs have a very sensitive sense of smell, and my cat has gone through standardized and rigorous training to be able to perform tasks that its kin cannot complete."

As he spoke, Shade took off the cat from his shoulder. He pinched the back of the cat's neck with his right hand and held it up with his left hand to prevent Mia from falling due to dishonest movements.

Mia stared at her amber eyes and called out to the human women on the sofa. After struggling, she found that Shade wouldn't let go, so she tried to turn her head and meow at Shade to express her dissatisfaction.

This look made the noble girls laugh happily again.

"Ladies, please come in front of me one by one, and then put your hands under my cat's nose. If someone's hand smells wrong, a professionally trained cat will definitely notice it."

The "professionally trained" cat curled its tail and swayed its body, seeming to find pleasure in it.

"Detective Hamilton, I have only heard that dogs have a developed sense of smell, but I have never heard of cats having a developed sense of smell."

On the single sofa on the left, the blonde girl wearing gold glasses said. This is the eldest daughter of Sir Lewis Ludwig, the current finance minister of the kingdom, and she is the quietest-looking of these noble girls.

Shade explained without any panic, that is, he said nonsense:

"One theory is that cats' sense of smell is also sensitive enough. However, because these cute little creatures are not very obedient, people don't like to train them. But I have professional cat training skills to make this domestic orange cat It has undergone professional training. Ladies, please extend your hands. As long as there is an abnormal smell that matches the tortoise shell, little Mia will definitely be able to smell it."

These noble girls actually laughed again and commented noisily on Shade's words.

Shade was originally worried that no one would respond to his call. Unexpectedly, Princess Agelina Cavendish, who had been silent all this time, actually took the initiative and said:

"Then let me go first."

She held out her hand to Shade, and the laughter immediately ceased. Shade also understood that Agelina Cavendish was the absolute leader of this small group. After all, she is Lesia's younger sister. Princess Agelina does not seem to know everything as Shade imagined.