Chapter 147: Late-Night Visitor

Chapter One Hundred Forty-Seven
Late-Night Visitor

Inside the private detective agency.

“Sir, your commission is complete,” Henry, the private detective with the smoke-and-liquor voice, said to the gentleman before him, who wore a black tailcoat, half-top silk hat, and dark face-covering mask. He sounded as though he had finally breathed out in relief. “This truly was not an easy task. It was not difficult, but it consumed far too much of our energy. To be frank, I regret it deeply. I regret setting the price so low at the beginning.”

No. No matter what you say, I will not pay even one penny more!

Klein emphasized inwardly, then pointed at the thick stack of documents on the tea table.

“This is the investigation report?”

“Yes.”

Henry pressed down on the report, which was at least sixty pages thick, and sighed.

“This is the most troublesome—”

Before he could finish, he saw Klein hand over four one-pound notes. All his attention immediately shifted to verifying their authenticity.

“This is the full remaining payment.”

Klein reached out and held the thick report.

Henry coughed twice and said, “You are truly an honest gentleman who honors his word. Sigh. At the beginning, I never imagined the report would use so much paper. It went entirely beyond my budget.”

At that moment, Klein picked up the very thick investigation report and rose with a whoosh.

He gave a slight bow, then immediately lifted his cane and walked toward the door.

Detective Henry’s subsequent words were thus blocked in his throat.

Heh. How could I possibly pay for the paper costs of the investigation report? That is included in the overall commission fee!

Klein touched the remaining five pounds and eight soli of private savings and muttered inwardly as he quickly reached Bessik Street.

He first observed the surroundings, confirming that no one was paying attention to him. Only then did he leave nimbly and find an opportunity to remove his mask.

Klein did not intend to return home now. He planned to find a nearby café, quickly organize the investigation report, identify the houses where tenants had changed after he divined the “red chimney,” and then use the time before dinner to check a portion of them.

There were quite a few cafés in the surrounding blocks, but almost none met Klein’s requirements. Ever since steam and machinery had become symbols of the era, more and more cafés had lowered their tone and turned into something like cheap restaurants, providing busy laborers with tea, coffee, bread, toast, and dishes such as tender peas stewed with lamb. Thus, respectable gentlemen and ladies no longer went to cafés to discuss matters, nor treated that behavior as a symbol of status. All kinds of clubs began appearing, replacing the café’s original social function.

After walking for quite some time, Klein finally found a café whose environment was decent enough.

Sitting in a secluded booth in the corner, he took a sip of Southville coffee that cost only three and a half pence, then cautiously opened the investigation report.

“…In Tingen City’s North Borough, East Borough, West Borough, South Borough, Golden Indus Borough, docks district, and university district, a total of 1,179 houses possess dark-red chimneys… In the suburbs of Tingen City, there are 546 houses possessing the sort of red chimney described by the employer… This does not include the towns and villages that belong to Tingen but are relatively far away.”

“The following lists the address of each house and the corresponding landlord and tenant information. As requested by the employer, information from the most recent three months has been gathered in greater detail.”

…

Klein scanned page after page, constantly using his fountain pen to make notes on the paper he had brought with him.

In the end, he discovered that after he had divined the “red chimney,” a total of twenty-five houses had undergone tenant changes.

“That is not too many. I will try to finish checking them within two days. Mm. In my dream divination, I saw that red chimney and part of that house. If I encounter it again in reality, I will definitely feel spiritual familiarity and be able to confirm the target. Put simply, I am a human search tool…”

Klein nodded silently. Based on the houses’ different locations, he planned out the fifteen places he would visit today.

As for whether such an action was dangerous, he did not need divination to know the answer.

Since the tenant had changed, it meant that the mastermind who had made his fate disharmonious and caused him to constantly encounter coincidences had already left!

Hopefully, I can learn from the landlords what the previous tenant looked like… But since that fellow hiding behind the scenes could influence my fate without anyone noticing and make coincidences appear natural, he definitely has ways to erase traces of his own existence… Sigh. I can only pray to the Goddess that he made some mistake…

Klein exhaled, forcefully rallied his spirits, put on his silk hat, took his cane and report, and left the café.

Next, he spent two soli to hire a two-wheeled rental carriage. Before dinner, he hurried through the fifteen houses with red chimneys. Unfortunately, none were the one he had seen in his dream.

“If tomorrow’s search still has this result, things will become troublesome. That would mean he is still living in the red-chimney house my divination found before… This either means he has enough confidence and does not fear my investigation, nor even the Tingen Nighthawk team’s capture, or it means he does not know he was exposed, and what later resisted my divination was a power that does not entirely belong to him…”

Standing before Number 2, Daffodil Street, Klein analyzed possibility after possibility.

After several minutes, he patted a little dust from his black tailcoat, pressed down the half-top silk hat on his head, took out his brass key, and opened the door with a smile.

Tonight, he planned to prepare braised lamb and honey-roasted meat for Benson and Melissa.

…

At eleven o’clock at night, the three siblings bade one another good night and entered their respective bedrooms.

Klein closed his door and stood before his desk. By the light of the gas lamp, he glanced out the oriel window. At that moment, the nearby streets were dark. Only a few streetlamps guided the way. High above, stars were embedded in the black curtain, points of light that were not especially clear.

“I wonder what Backlund, called the ‘Land of Hope’ and the ‘Capital of Capitals,’ looks like…”

Klein murmured soundlessly, extending a hand to grasp the curtains, intending to draw them shut.

Whooo!

Just then, a cold wind blew past without warning, and the glow of the gas lamp suddenly turned a gloomy green.

Klein instinctively retreated several steps. With the professional reflexes he had developed, he lightly tapped the teeth on the left side of his mouth twice. At the same time, he abruptly leaned toward the bed, attempting to seize the gun pressed beneath his pillow.

In his vision, on the wall beneath the gas lamp and above the desk, a face suddenly protruded.

It was a semi-transparent face with no eyes, no nose, and only a mouth.

“Do not shoot,” the face said as its mouth opened and closed.

It can communicate?

Klein already had the gun in hand, aimed at the target.

“What do you want?” he asked in a deep voice.

The face gave a soft laugh.

“I am Daly.”

Daly? Spirit Medium Daly? The Spirit Medium Daly transferred to the Backlund diocese?

Klein frowned in confusion.

“Madam Daly?”

“I know this visit is far too abrupt. I should have informed you beforehand and allowed you to prepare yourself fully. But right now, it is not convenient for me to meet you directly, so I can only communicate with you through this little fellow.”

The semi-transparent, eyeless and noseless face laughed once.

Although the voice is wrong—hazy and grating—this really is Madam Daly’s style… A Spirit Medium’s abilities are truly cool…

Klein sighed inwardly, but did not lower the muzzle of his gun.

“Madam, what do you wish to discuss with me?”

“If I were you, I would first seal the bedroom with spirituality. Otherwise, your family may think there is something wrong with your mind,” the strange semi-transparent face teased. “Heh-heh. You do not need to be so guarded. I secretly returned to Tingen because of a letter Dunn sent me. You know, Nighthawks cannot casually leave their own jurisdictions.”

“A letter from the Captain?”

Klein did not approach the desk. Instead, he fished Holy Night Powder from the hidden pocket inside the black windbreaker on the coat rack.

“Dunn and I both became Beyonders in the Tingen Nighthawk team. We have always maintained a good relationship. Last Thursday—yes, Thursday—he sent me a letter mentioning your matter. He said you imitated the maxim of Mystery Pryers and summarized your own ‘Seer’s code’ from the act of divination, and that this effectively helped you master the potion, so that you no longer heard sounds you should not hear or saw images you should not see. Dunn said this was very similar to me.

“Heh-heh. Are you truly not going to seal the room? Personally, I would not mind being misunderstood by your elder brother and younger sister.”

The semi-transparent face explained at an unhurried pace.

So that was what happened… This really is Madam Daly…

Klein breathed out softly. He stuffed the Holy Night Powder back into the inner pocket, then walked several steps to the desk and took out a ritual silver knife from the drawer.

After swiftly constructing a wall of spirituality, he turned back toward the strange face protruding from the wall.

“Madam Daly, what else did the Captain say in his letter?”

“He merely expressed his confusion. He felt that he had grasped something, but could not clearly recognize it, and hoped to obtain my opinion.”

Through the eyeless, noseless, strange face, Daly continued, “And the moment I finished reading that letter this morning, I knew that you were definitely not as muddled as you described yourself. Heh-heh, Mr. Moretti, I believe you should already have summarized the acting method!”

“Is that why you came to find me?”

Klein neither confirmed nor denied, instead asking in return.

Daly already clearly knows about the acting method…

He calmly made that judgment in his heart.

Daly made the semi-transparent face show a slight expression of smiling.

“Yes.

“I believe we should be candid with each other regarding this matter. I know that you summarized the acting method, and you must also know that I have grasped the acting method. Sigh. What makes people unhappy is that I took nearly two years to clearly recognize it, while you have been a Beyonder for only one and a half months.”

Hearing Daly’s words, Klein considered for a moment, then frankly smiled.

“That is because I had you as my example.”

He had originally wanted to say, “I merely stood on the shoulders of giants,” but in the end, he decided not to give Emperor Roselle another chance to appear in his ears.