Chapter 22 Things are getting complicated at the same time
"Then uncle, who are you looking for? It's been a long time since the bearded aunt came."
"...I told you it was a joke, little Edith~~ I just happened to pass by and came in to take a look. I didn't come here specifically to find anyone."
"Are you here to see your sister?"
...It is said that children can often see the truth easily, and now I have seen it.
They are always good at ignoring adults' well-thought-out excuses... Unfortunately, this ability does not last long.
"Haha, who knows..."
I laughed my way through it.
Xue's indifferent voice came over:
"In other words, is there something you don't want Edith to hear?"
"Ah..."
I looked at little Edith's young face and tried to smile, but it was easy to tell from her frown that I failed.
"Little Edith~~My sister and I are going to talk about some adult topics next. Can you give me some time?"
"It's related to adults again...Uncle, you are really troublesome!"
Hmm...if Edith wasn't pretty cute, I would probably be impatient.
"Please, little Edith~~ If you lend me your adult time, you can become an adult soon~~"
"Really, really?"
"Adults don't lie."
"Then... don't take up sister for too long."
I always feel that there is something wrong with the word "occupy"...but after all, the other party is an innocent child.
So Edith went up to the second floor to find her mother.
Snow quickly returned to her cold demeanor after Edith left... and even looked at me with a little disgust.
"What, what's wrong?"
"Being called 'sister' by you makes me a little sick."
"That's so sorry..."
"You came to me specially, what's the matter?"
"Of course, and it's a big deal - you must have heard about the murder in Earl's Mansion, right?"
"I saw it."
"Huh?"
"I'm on the scene."
"Ah...it turns out you also received an invitation."
I pretended not to know, but in fact I had already seen Xue’s name in the guest list given to me by the police officers.
"The murderer in this case seems to be the one who caused the attic murder."
"In other words, are you here to handle a case?"
"How is it possible...Didn't I say I believe you?"
"...So, why are you here?"
Xue asked the original question again.
"Didn't I also say this? It was by accident."
"..."
Xue kept a certain distance from me and sat down, apparently not planning to chase me away immediately.
"In other words, you have nothing to do?"
"Well...that's pretty much what it means."
"Why don't you go find the trainee police officer?"
"That guy is not as free as me...at least her sense of responsibility won't allow it."
"You really understand her."
"Oh oh oh~~ Do you care about this aspect?"
"..."
I felt the indifference in Xue's eyes instantly rise to several levels, which made me shudder.
“You’re just kidding, you’re kidding~~”
"..."
Let’s change the topic quickly...
I slowly rubbed my hands back and forth.
"The assassination of the murderer in the Earl's Mansion made the lord pay a lot of attention to the case. There were so many police officers sent to investigate, and there was almost nothing I needed to do...I felt a little uncomfortable when I was free all of a sudden.
How are you getting used to it~~"
"But aren't you the one who finally decides who the murderer is?"
"Well... that's true, but there's no need for me to look for it myself."
"What a big heart."
"Just follow the Lord's orders."
"..."
"By the way, do you know the nobleman who was killed?"
"I don't know."
"That's right..."
The murderer's next target is actually the lord's friend... It's unbelievable.
Previous protection plans for Bradley, Hammons and Stanke were all in vain.
I finally found the right direction, but fell short because of an oversight...
"The noble Lord was murdered in his room, and the wound on his heart was the same as Miss Schimmel."
"...Why do you tell me?"
"Because I can't figure out how to cause such a wound...Whether it's looking for the murder weapon or checking the people present based on their ability to find a spouse, it's too much trouble."
"...I don't think it's caused by the ability to fix a mate."
"The reason is?"
"Common sense."
Xue explained calmly:
"Did you listen to the Lord's speech?"
"I listened to part of it."
"...Do you remember the sentence 'The sharp blades in the city of sharp blades can only be directed towards the demons'?"
"Yes."
I also had a dispute with the lord because of this sentence...
"The ability to mate is one of the sharpest blades. In other words, using the threatening mate ability on innocent people is a violation of honor."
"Indeed..."
Honor is very important to everyone.
What's more, the mate-matching ability of everyone in Fulvos has been recorded. It would be too stupid to assassinate through mate-matching.
"That's it..."
"...Moreover, no matter what your mate-making ability is, it is very rude to use it casually in life."
"Oh, then——"
"As for Simur, I turned into her cousin at her request."
...can this guy read minds?
"Speaking of which...your ability to fix a mate is only to change your appearance. Why can you become a wanderer?"
"Becoming a no-walker depends not only on the strength of my mate-making ability. In other words, my overall combat strength has reached the standard of a no-walker."
"Oh?"
"For example, my basic magic attributes are very high, so I can release multiple magics at once."
"Eh..."
"...If you don't believe it, do you want to try it?"
"No, no, no, I didn't say I didn't believe it."
"Let's give it a try."
"...You just want to vent on me, right?"
"Oh, have you been discovered? I have been tricked into so many words by you inadvertently, which makes it difficult for me to let go."
You have bad intentions...
But I delayed her for such a long time, and there was nothing she could do if she felt dissatisfied.
What's more, I have to continue to delay.
"In other words, you are actually a character similar to a magician?"
"No, what I'm best at is melee magic."
"Okay..."
Then, Xue added nonchalantly:
"In other words, not a magician, but an assassin."
"...Oh oh oh~~ I also like assassins."
Indeed, in most games in the technological world, assassins are my first choice.
So I gave such a nonchalant answer.
"How much is the reward for cleaning the Pingding District?"
"One spirit version and three thousand seven hundred dimension version."
"Wow!"
I have never worshiped snow as much as I do now.
To be able to talk about such a huge amount of money without emotion...is this the Wanderer of the City of Blades?
"I remember that among the homeless people with you, there was Mr. Stank, right?"
"Hmm."
"What a coincidence..."
"Well..."
I looked at Xue - she was staring expressionlessly at the birdcage not far away, looking a little tired.
Even so, you didn't take the initiative to urge me to leave...how strange.
In the past few conversations, the look she looked at me was always extremely cold, which brought me huge psychological pressure.
But at this time, her eyes were like unfathomable lake water, with no waves or emotions visible.
Thanks to this, I didn't feel any nervousness.
I looked towards the stairs and found little Edith standing there staring at me - my bad uncle has taken up too much of her good sister's time, and she must be impatient to wait.
"I'm leaving."
"Well..."
Snow closed her eyes.
......
The manpower of the police station, the increase in intelligence sources, the restoration of detection agencies...
Help from all aspects became abundant after the Earl's Mansion murder case.
Alas...
"I said, Ferrinold..."
"What are your orders, Mr. Detective?"
"It always feels...something's wrong."
"What does Mr. Detective mean?"
"Earl's Mansion, the death of the noble Lord."
"This, well..."
Ferrinold tilted his head helplessly.
"It's hard for me to have any opinions on the matters involving noble gentlemen."
"Really?"
I reached out and patted the thick piles of information on the table.
"Because it's a noble matter, we investigated it very carefully... But those police officers were just collecting information. In the end, I had to do the brainstorming."
"Doesn't this mean that the lord attaches great importance to the detective~"
"I don't need any heavy attention...How can I possibly finish reading so much information..."
"Haha, that's because the detective hasn't gotten used to normal work yet..."
Ferrinold patted me on the shoulder as if he was considerate:
"Complaining won't solve the problem anyway. Why don't we go out for a few drinks tonight?"
Do you mean to let me escape...
Then let’s do it.
"Okay, but you have to treat me."
"Wow~~ Detective, you have always known about the fact that I am a poor person, right?"
With the death of the noble Lord, the work of monitoring Bradley, Hammons and Stank lost its meaning and naturally ended.
So Ferrinold couldn't borrow money from Mr. Hammons... although how he borrowed it in the past is a mystery.
Anyway, I finally compromised.
In the evening, Ferrinold and I went to the nearest pub.
Although we all go there often, we rarely come together, so when the boss saw us, he was quite surprised.
"Oh, it's so rare."
"Detective sir, I'm treating you to a treat~~ I can't refuse."
Ferrinold and I both have a good relationship with the boss. Seeing that the boss was personally bartending tonight, we sat down close to him.
Although we both have a bad reputation, the boss never looked at us differently, which is one of the reasons why I became a regular customer of this pub.
“It’s been a long time since I spent a good night with the detective~~”
"...Please use your words more normally."
"Hahahaha! Your relationship is still as good as ever."
"No, boss, if you can give me a discount, our relationship will be several times better than that between me and him~~"
"Eh~~ Mr. Detective, it's not good to be blinded by money."
"I really hope you can say that when you pay for it yourself..."
The boss was listening to our conversation while mixing drinks. Although I couldn't tell whether his mixing skills were superb, he must be considered proficient.
By the way, this time we all chose cocktails that were much more expensive than beer.
"I heard that you were responsible for handling that case, right?"
The boss asked when he saw that we were the only customers around.
It seems that the murder case in Earl's Mansion has spread a lot.
"Yes."
"That's really hard work...I heard he's a serial killer?"
"Well, it's the same person who committed the murder in the attic a month ago."
"Alas..."
The boss sighed.
"How come there are such random people in Woolworth..."
"There are evil people everywhere, but in Woolworth, there are more good people who are like bosses~~"
Ferrinold calmly smoothed things over, suddenly making the atmosphere much more relaxed.
"By the way, detective, have you made any progress? If you have any information that is not so confidential, please tell me to satisfy my curiosity~~"
"As you can see, all the progress is just a pile of information on my desk."
"Eh~~ I'm too lazy to look at that thing."
"Me too... I don't know how long it will take to finish watching that kind of thing."
"Everything needs a process."
The boss finished mixing Ferrinold's wine and gave it to him while giving me an encouraging look.
"Yeah."
I held my chin and smiled.
The boss started to mix the wine I ordered. In order to stay awake, I asked him to mix less of the base wine used to provide alcohol.
I quietly watched the boss's smooth movements.
This should be the rare art that I can appreciate.
When I came to my senses, the bartending process had entered its final stage - the boss started making ice balls and ice leaves.
He took out a special-grade ice cube with high transparency and chipped it into a spherical shape bit by bit.
After putting the ice ball into the wine, the boss injected magic power into his right hand, cut six ice leaves as thin as cicada wings from the ice cube, and stuck them on the wall of the cup.
Only then did I remember the name of this glass of wine - "Lingzhihua".
"Oh~~ Put so much ice, it's winter now, Mr. Detective."
"Mind your own business."
"Eh~~"
The boss gently placed the wine in front of me.
"The ice leaves are very sharp, please be careful."
"Ah, okay."
I looked at those extremely thin ice leaves and secretly admired the boss’s craftsmanship.
"It would be a pity if these perfect ice leaves melted."
"After all, I deliberately burned a few more stoves. If you want to keep the ice leaves, drinking it outside is also a good choice."
"In that case, even the wine will freeze..."
"Haha, just kidding, if you need, you can use solid magic to make it last longer temporarily."
"Hey...it turns out there is such a way."
I picked up "Lingzhihua".
Really good, these ice leaves...
It's so thin that it might even be able to cut through the paper...
Cut...
I suddenly thought of something else.
Yes...it's ice!
Because I was too excited, I couldn't hold the wine glass firmly, and with a crisp sound, the wine glass broke to the ground.