Chapter 49: “Conjoined Person”

Chapter 49: “Conjoined Person”

Emlyn glanced at Ian, raised a hand, pinched the tip of his nose, and laughed softly.

“Looks like you don’t understand. Fine. To describe it more simply, help me gather intelligence on foreigners from the Southern Continent—especially those from the Star Plateau and the Pas River Valley.”

“What specific kind of intelligence? There are quite a few pure-blooded Southern Continent people in Backlund, and those with corresponding bloodlines can be seen even more often.” Ian did not grow angry from being looked down on. Instead, he calmly raised his own question.

Emlyn laughed once and said,

“The comparatively abnormal sort. Those who act furtively, mysteriously, secretively. You should understand what I’m talking about.”

“There are definitely many plateau people and valley people who fit your description. In Backlund, they either work as servants and laborers, or become thieves and join gangs. Those in the latter category all satisfy the conditions of abnormal behavior, furtiveness, and mystery,” Ian sincerely pointed out the impracticality of Emlyn’s request.

Emlyn, however, had been prepared for this long ago. With an inconspicuous smile, he nodded very slightly.

“In that case, give me all information that fits the conditions, and I will do the filtering myself. Mm, for this commission, I will first pay you fifty pounds as the basic fee for the preliminary investigation. After that, payment will be calculated according to how many pieces of intelligence you collect that have concrete value. I will pay twenty pounds extra for each valuable item.”

“Who decides whether it has value?” Ian thought for several seconds before asking.

For him, with fifty pounds in preliminary income, this commission was already worth accepting. That amount was enough to hire more than a dozen people to investigate from the East Borough to Cherwood Borough from morning until night for half a month.

He did not care too much about how much he himself would earn from those fifty pounds, because quite a few people depended on him for survival. He had to arrange paid work for them from time to time. Otherwise, he would never be so well informed.

Emlyn studied Ian for a couple of seconds, then gave a “heh.”

“Me, of course. You should know my reputation very well.”

“Great Detective Moriarty never told me that…” Ian muttered. Then he sighed. “Fine. Our last cooperation was fairly pleasant, so I choose to trust you.”

Emlyn nodded in satisfaction, took out his wallet, and counted out banknotes totaling fifty pounds.

During this process, when he remembered that his savings had dwindled to only 407 pounds, Emlyn suddenly felt a little reluctant.

Now it’s 357 pounds… He withdrew his gaze from the banknotes one by one and handed the cash in his hand to Ian.

He did not linger. Putting on his top hat, he walked out of the billiards room and left the Bravehearts Bar.

Once on the street, Emlyn released the fingers pinching his nose, raised his head, and looked at the clouds that blazed like fire. His expression gradually turned grave as he silently muttered to himself:

“That Wraith wasn’t there this time… Where did he go?

“Hmph. Ian acted as if he had never heard of the Rose School of Thought, but his accelerated heartbeat betrayed him…

“And this time, he actually didn’t ask whether Sherlock Moriarty had returned to Backlund. He didn’t seem worried at all… Could Sherlock have already returned to Backlund and met with him?”

…

The Rorsted Archipelago, Bayam, the City of Generosity.

Outside a house near the harbor, where gas wall lamps were lit, Star Admiral Cattleya brought Frank Lee, whose shirt sleeves were rolled up to reveal the brown hair on his forearms, to an empty corner. Together, they watched as a figure grew out from the darkness.

This was the Bloodless Heath Doyle, the one responsible for monitoring Craftsman Sharf. He was tall and thin, his skin pale to the point of being nearly transparent. He had the frail appearance of someone who might collapse if the wind blew against him.

“Has there been anything abnormal during this period?” Cattleya pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose.

Heath Doyle gave an “mm.”

“On the third day after you left, a stranger came to visit Sharf and stayed for about fifteen minutes. I did not approach, because I feared being discovered.

“As you instructed, Captain, I had my subordinates follow that stranger, but they were shaken off.”

“What did that stranger look like?” Cattleya nodded faintly.

Heath Doyle took a piece of raw beef from the leather pouch at his waist. The blood on it was still fresh, yet it did not contaminate anything it touched, as if it had already become a pure solid.

Immediately afterward, the piece of beef melted in Heath Doyle’s hand, dripping down to the ground like flowing water. It wriggled as though alive, sketching out a portrait.

“This is the effect I want!” Frank Lee’s eyes shone as he watched this scene, expressing his thoughts with great excitement.

Under his stare, Heath Doyle rather obviously wanted to shrink away. While his body tilted slightly, he pointed at the ground and said,

“He looked roughly like this.”

At that moment, a blood-colored image had already taken shape. Its main subject was a man with two small mustaches, whose facial features were close to those of the Pas River Valley people. His greatest distinguishing trait was that each of his ears was inlaid with three earrings.

“Gold earrings. Lean build, not much fat, but very healthy,” Heath Doyle added.

Cattleya withdrew her gaze from the ground and asked,

“And then?”

Heath Doyle gave another “mm.”

“After that, no one else visited Sharf, aside from the temporary servants and cooks he hired. I had my subordinates investigate them. None of them had any problems.

“Every day at dusk, Sharf takes a fixed walk and finds a streetwalker to bring home. He only lets her leave at daybreak… I have been following him the entire time, but I did not discover him making contact with anyone strange on the way.”

“He has behaved normally throughout this period?” Cattleya asked with a slight frown.

In her view, the lack of abnormalities was the greatest abnormality!

After all, this involved members of the Rose School of Thought who believed in the Primordial Moon.

Heath Doyle nodded firmly.

“Yes.”

Cattleya turned her head and looked toward the front door of that house. After pondering for a while, she said,

“I originally planned to use Beyonder powers to infiltrate, seize control of Sharf as quickly as possible, and take him away to avoid accidents. But from the look of things now, the best method is to knock on the door and pay him a direct visit.”

Unknown danger was the most frightening.

“Captain, I’ll go with you.” Frank Lee, thinking that he had been busy with experiments recently and had not done anything a first mate ought to do in a long time, hurriedly made his request.

As Cattleya removed the heavy glasses and hung them from the belt of her black wizard robe, she nodded.

“All right.”

After saying this, she left the dark corner and walked toward the front entrance of Craftsman Sharf’s residence.

Once near, she looked up at the red moon penetrating the clouds high above. Then she curled her finger and lightly knocked on the door three times.

Before long, footsteps approached, and the main door creaked open.

Compared with last time, Craftsman Sharf had not changed noticeably. He was still lean and somewhat dark-skinned, with slightly puffy eye bags. Inside his brown eyes was a smile that had clearly been forced out with effort.

“Admiral, what is it this time?”

He stood in the doorway, blocking the light of the gas wall lamps behind him and making the area appear dim and gloomy, as though he had immersed himself in shadow.

Cattleya stared at him for several seconds, then slowly said,

“I have a new thought. I intend to make you one of my crew.”

Her feet remained motionless. She showed no intention of entering the house.

Craftsman Sharf’s expression twisted for an instant, and his tone suddenly turned somewhat sinister.

“Why?”

Cattleya’s gaze seemed to solidify slightly. Then she slowly said,

“Because I am a pirate.”

Pirates did not need reasons. They acted as they pleased.

The muscles on Sharf’s face twitched, and traces of a smile once again emerged in his eyes.

“I can become your sailor, but as a Craftsman, I can play my role better in a big city.”

“I agree with your statement.” Cattleya dismantled his will to resist. “But before that, you need to spend some time aboard my Future and become companions with the others.”

Sharf’s expression slowly turned cold. His voice became faintly ethereal as he replied,

“I am afraid I will be unable to control myself. Every day, I feel an intense desire to reproduce…”

“An intense desire to reproduce?” Frank Lee, who was standing nearby, immediately had his eyes light up. He asked back as if to confirm it.

Sharf froze, actually unsure whether he ought to nod or shake his head.

Frank then looked toward Star Admiral Cattleya and asked with visible excitement,

“Captain, is this the experimental assistant you’re giving me?

“I like this trait of his far too much!”

Cattleya fell silent for several seconds before she slowly and gravely nodded.

“Yes.”

Frank immediately revealed a bright, hearty smile and stretched out his right hand toward Craftsman Sharf.

“Nice to meet you. Let me introduce myself. First mate of the Future, Frank Lee.”

Sharf’s expression returned to normal. He shook the other party’s hand in confusion before asking,

“I truly only need to stay on the Future for some time?”

“I guarantee it with my honor,” Cattleya replied sincerely, then silently added in her heart:

It will not take long before the Queen personally comes to handle your problem…

“All right. In any case, I cannot beat you.” Sharf shrugged. “Please allow me to pack up my personal belongings.”

He then retreated two steps, turned, and walked toward the staircase at the end of the hall.

As he walked, he suddenly stopped. With his back facing Cattleya and Frank Lee, he said in a slow, drifting voice,

“The moonlight tonight is as beautiful as ever, is it not?”

Without waiting for an answer, he continued forward and disappeared at the stairway.

Only then did the gravity on Cattleya’s face gradually become obvious.

After Sharf had opened the door, she had already used her eyes to see the abnormality in him:

If the Sharf of the past had possessed the spirit body of a normal human, then the current him was a conjoined person!

And that “conjoined person,” under the illumination of moonlight, was rapidly growing larger and stronger.

This is not a problem I can solve. I have to write to the Queen. Also, I must not forget Gehrman Sparrow’s request for a meeting… Cattleya sighed soundlessly and subconsciously lifted her face.

High in the sky, the clouds were thin, and a crimson moon hung bright and quiet.

…

Backlund, Hillston Borough, East Balam Veterans Club.

Dwayne Dantès and Member of Parliament Macht stepped down from their carriages separately and entered the entrance hall together.