Whispering Verse

"The sage-level relic [Jack the Thief] will only appear in human settlements with a population of more than 30,000. It will often appear at night to steal randomly. Even if you bump into it, it will only speed up its escape. Under normal circumstances, it will It will not hurt anyone. The items it steals must have special value, and this is a thief who becomes stronger when faced with the strong. Even if it is a ring warlock, if there is no special anti-theft method at home, it will only use ordinary people's methods to steal. . But if you use an angel-level (level 1) relic anti-theft device in an exaggerated manner because you want to hide the secret, then the thief Jack, who is rated [sage level (level 2)], can exert a weird power beyond the angel level."

Iluna introduced:

"'Jack' is not its name. It is only called Jack because it is a common male name. It means that this relic is hidden among countless ordinary people."

"I understand, it's like 'Mary' is one of the most common female names. It sounds interesting. Are there other characteristics that make you stronger when you are strong?"

Shade asked with great interest.

"Of course there is. The real negative characteristic is that the character of the object stolen by [Jack Thief] may change slightly. The early manifestation is that he is annoyed that he did not take good care of his property, and then this annoyed emotion fermented into regret. Lost property, until it turned into trying to make up for the loss by stealing from others.”

"Assimilated by [Jack Thief]?"

Shade asked, and Iluna nodded cautiously:

"Not only is it just the bad habit of kleptomania, but the internal structure of their bodies will also change, and their entire souls will gradually be infiltrated by the whispering elements. Thief Jack himself is just a thief, but the relic derivatives infected with kleptomania by him are all A mysterious madman."

Seeing that Shade was listening attentively, Iluna smiled sheepishly and said:

"The explanations in the information are actually very clear, but I couldn't memorize them all, so I can only explain these clearly."

"This is already very detailed. I heard Miss Carina mention this matter at the Lakeview Manor banquet on Tuesday. So, Professor Manning lost something?"

He asked again, and the fictitious police officer nodded immediately:

"Three days ago, on Monday of this week, someone broke into this place at night and stole an antique vase collected by Professor Tiris Manning. Our team received the task of visiting the victim of the theft and used the church to prepare of magical items to determine whether the person who was stolen was under the influence and infected with kleptomania.”

Iluna showed Shade the iron ring on her finger. Shade's eyes could see the sun pattern on the surface of the ring.

"Look, this is it. The first step is to use this ring to contact the professor, and the second step is to judge the professor's mental state through some simple questions. There have been frequent thefts in the city recently, and the captain asked me to be responsible for visiting the victims in the university district. .”

This kind of task is just right for Iluna to do, and it can also train such an immature girl. She took off the ring and handed it to Shade. While Shade put it on his finger, he was still lamenting Professor Manning's bad luck.

The carriage passed through the heavy fog behind Iluna, and the thick fog made the two of them only see the black shadow of the carriage. They stopped talking temporarily and were silent under the low sky. Shade tilted his head and looked at the street scene of Mao Tail Alley behind Iluna, while Iluna pretended to look at Shade casually.

"I already talked to Luvia on Wednesday night about Lakeview Manor, Vinals' trial, is there any progress at the church?"

When the carriage passed by, Shade mentioned this matter again, and Iluna nodded:

"'The Invisible Man' may refer to many things, and it may even be [Jack the Thief]. The church is still investigating. The three major thaumaturgy academies have already intervened in this matter, and the first trial will probably be held soon. It will end. Even if you can't see it, the church, the academy, and even the Truth Society will find a way to find it."

"Luvia is still checking the identity of the fourth chosen one. But what I'm more concerned about is that the Apna Library and the Society of Truth exchange information with each other. Didn't the Orthodox Church punish them?"

When Shade asked this question, Iluna showed a dissatisfied look on her face:

"The Church of the Righteous God only cooperates with the ring magician groups including the Prophet Association, and there is no superior-subordinate relationship. Generally speaking, as long as they do not go too far and can compensate for their mistakes, the church will not impose punishment or other measures. .”

"Did they go too far this time?"

"Yes, I have the fragments of the psalm in my hand, but I didn't share it with the church immediately. Oh, Shade, I'm not saying that the church is the most reliable, but sharing this kind of thing with the [Truth Society] obviously has its own selfish motives. . The Apna Library immediately admitted its mistake to the church after Tuesday night and handed over all the information it had about the psalm fragments, but we are still not satisfied, and there will be warning measures in the future."

"I don't understand, why is the Apna Library doing this? Do they also want to invest in the Chosen?"

Shade found this inconceivable. With the size and organizational nature of the Apna Library, they did not have this ability.

"Of course it's not about investing in the chosen ones, it's about keeping secrets."

"Keeper of Secrets?"

Shade still didn’t understand, so Iluna reminded:

"With the appearance of the chosen one, the Keeper of Secrets will frequently appear next to him or her to give him or her tests and trials. Don't forget, you must not make any wishes to get the [Wise Man's Pyroxene]; but if you don't want the Pyroxene , those 'secret keepers' who are either relics or other existences can realize a certain degree of 'wishing' function. Especially wishes that are biased toward wisdom and knowledge, these are what the Apuna Library wants. "

"So that's it."

Shade nodded clearly, but then thought of the three "wishes" he met in Huntington City. Professor Drake had to pursue past memories because of his wish. The poet was lucky but suffered a heavy burden. Only the old fisherman who loved fishing could accept his wish openly and did not regret it even if the fishing rod broke later:

"This time the chosen one wants to get five pieces of wise man's pyroxene, which is a trial in itself. But if you want to rely on this opportunity to get unlimited opportunities to make wishes, you have to pay a price. I hope everyone can understand at this point."

Although Iluna likes to stand on the street like this, chatting quietly with Shade alone, and hopes that Professor Manning will be late for a while, even the chosen one cannot let Professor Manning be late.

The old professor who was in good spirits returned to Mao Tail Alley on time. Although the seventeen-year-old girl was a little disappointed, she also knew that the work was important, so she and Shade went up to meet him.

"We haven't seen each other in weeks, Professor."

Shade greeted him enthusiastically and stretched out his ringed hand. Professor Manning was also surprised by Shade's appearance, and he took it naturally.

There was no reaction on the ring, which meant that Professor Manning was most likely not affected by the relic. Even the [Happy Dream Pen], a relic that directly manipulates deep dreams, failed to leave permanent sequelae for Professor Manning. Shade Actually, I don’t think [Jack Thief] can do it. This weathered archaeologist and history professor has a very strong spirit.

The professor and Shade were very close friends, so there was no need to exchange too many pleasantries. As for Iluna, since there was an appointment letter sent by Ridwich Field in advance, there was no need to waste time explaining the reason for coming to visit at the door.

Shade calmly returned the ring to Iluna, and Professor Manning invited the two of them to come in together. After learning that Shade had known the temporary police officer because of the detective commission, the professor was obviously relieved.

Obviously, having the police at your door in this era is not a good thing for anyone. Even though Professor Manning was the victim and the policeman who came to the door was a woman, the professor was still a little uneasy.

Iluna was doing "business", so Shade asked Iluna to deal with the theft case first.

Although she was only a police officer in name, she had actually received police training, so when she entered the door, she professionally asked about the details of Monday's investigation, inserting psychological questions into the inquiry. After confirming that no details were missed when reporting the crime, Iluna also invited Shade to investigate the scene with her.

The antique vase lost by Professor Manning is not of high value, but it was a retirement gift given to him by his students. It is an antique that Professor Manning cherishes very much. The vase was originally placed in the corner of the living room on the first floor. Shade had seen it many times when he visited the professor. After careful inspection, he found residual traces of extremely low whispering elements.

Shade couldn't even rely on those traces of elements to trace it.

According to Iluna's professional judgment on the traces, the thief opened the locked window late at night, broke into the room directly, and took away the vase after finding it. The whole process did not take more than five minutes, and it seemed very professional.

"Look at this."

Iluna wore white gloves and pointed to the window facing the street. The living room window of Professor Manning's house had a groove on the window sill, and the latch could be pressed tightly to lock the window. There were obvious traces of metal friction on the edge of the window frame that Iluna pointed out. Shade thought about it carefully:

"A piece of wire stuck out from the gap in the window, and the wire caught the latch and pulled it up?"

"Yes, detective, it seems you are very professional too."

Iluna nodded and recorded this detail. Shade once again realized the meaning of "common theft methods".

After confirming the intrusion method, Iluna used a knife to collect some rust stains from the windows and put them into a small paper bag. Professor Manning may not understand this behavior and thought it was an advanced detective technique, but Shade understood that it was to allow the church to have materials for accurate divination.

After surveying the scene, Iluna and Shade cooperated to search the living room. Of course, the result was nothing. Although well-known thieves known to outsiders like to leave letters or their own emblems at crime scenes, [Jack Thief] does not have such ridiculous bad habits.

－－－－－－Digression－－－－－

ps: Someone answered yesterday’s question correctly. I have been quite busy at the end of the semester recently, so I found time to update more.