Chapter 157: The Audience’s Applause

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Seven
The Audience’s Applause

Bounty, carriage fare, potions with Beyonder effects…

For a moment, Emlyn White failed to react.

This was not the answer he had expected.

Where is the gentlemanly bearing?

The vampire thought blankly.

As a detective, keeping accounts clearly is a necessary quality. Besides, you delayed my trip to the Cragg Club. I still do not know what the limited supply has been these past two days…

Looking at Emlyn White, Klein made that half-joking remark inwardly.

Several seconds later, Emlyn forced out a smile.

“I must see the patient before I can compound a suitable medicine.”

He sounds very confident…

Klein nodded thoughtfully.

Immediately, he thought of a problem.

The White family seems to be made up of outstanding Apothecaries. If I am ever truly injured or poisoned, I can come find them for treatment… Then the Apothecary formula I went to so much trouble to obtain from Father Utravsky would no longer be useful, would it? I would not need to cultivate an assistant skilled at healing anymore… Plans really cannot keep up with changes…

Then again, it does not count as wasted. I have already recovered the cost from Miss Magician. So long as a formula exists, it always has value…

Besides, the White family will definitely move far away from Riverbay Avenue afterward and hide under new identities. I may not necessarily be able to find them. It will not be that convenient…

No. Before the Nightmare Candle’s suggestion is resolved, if I wait at Harvest Church, I should be able to run into Emlyn White…

Thinking this, Klein removed his hat and bowed.

“No problem. When the time comes, I will bring you there.

“I will not take more of your time.”

Emlyn White’s expression shifted slightly. After hesitating, he said, “If you can remove the influence of the Nightmare Candle, you can obtain even greater payment, and…”

He paused, lifted his chin, and said, “And the friendship of the Sanguine.”

I am a Magician. What I possess is the Sun Brooch and the Biological Toxin Bottle. My use of the Mind Body is limited to spirit channeling. What method could I possibly have? Among the people I know, only Miss Justice is somewhat close to that field, but she is only Sequence 8, merely a Telepathist… Unless, unless you convert to The Fool that does not belong to this era, then we can study how to use the knowledge recorded in the Book of Secrets through a corresponding ritual to resolve this problem for you… Come to think of it, vampires also seem to be worshipers of the Primordial Moon, very similar to the Witch King and the others… Could that ancient god recorded by the City of Silver—the Vampire Ancestor Lilith—be the Primordial Moon?

As Klein’s thoughts wandered, he smiled.

“I will help keep an eye out for the relevant method.”

Emlyn White nodded and said nothing more. Unable to wait any longer, he turned and rushed toward the front door.

If not for the coachman still nearby, he would certainly have spread his black bat wings and flown straight to the second floor.

Klein laughed softly and shook his head with some emotion.

He rode the same rental carriage from earlier to a steam subway station not far away, then made several transfers and returned to 15 Minsk Street in Cherwood Borough.

Before entering, Klein, who had already developed the habit, opened his letter box to check whether there was any mail.

To his surprise, there truly was a letter.

The letter had no stamp. On it were written the words “For Detective Sherlock Moriarty,” and the sender was Jurgen Cooper.

Solicitor Jurgen?

Klein picked up the envelope with some puzzlement and casually tore it open.

In the light of the streetlamp, he saw one sheet of paper and two banknotes inside.

The two notes were worth one soli and five soli respectively.

Six soli in total… During this period, I fed the cat three times… The agreement was two soli each time…

Klein understood. He opened the front door, entered the house, and lit the gas lamp.

Unfolding the letter paper, he discovered that there was not much written on it. Jurgen’s handwriting, like the man himself, was meticulous, serious, and restrained.

“Dear Detective Moriarty:

“Thank you for taking care of Brody during this period. This is the payment you deserve.

“I came and rang the doorbell twice, but found you were not at home. Thus, I had no choice but to place the payment in an envelope and put it in your letter box.

“If I did not do so, I might not have time to come again until tomorrow evening, which would miss the verbally agreed time. My grandmother promised it would be tonight.

“As a solicitor, I attach great importance to the validity of oral contracts, and I hope to fulfill them strictly.

“Finally, thank you again.

“Jurgen Cooper.”

Mr. Solicitor, your thanks are dry and dull. They are not even as interesting as Brody. As for the explanation of your behavior, it is extremely detailed. This really is standard Jurgen style… Also, why put it in the letter box? If this were Earth, back before I transmigrated, I might not have checked the mailbox downstairs for months…

Smiling, Klein folded the banknotes properly and put them in his pocket. Then he drew out stationery and began writing a letter to Detective Stuart.

After the opening pleasantries, he considered his words and wrote:

“…I found Emlyn White at Harvest Church near Tutwa Street. It is a very small church belonging to the Church of the Earth Mother, which is not common in Loen… Emlyn White claimed that he chose to leave home because of certain matters, after which he was taken in by the bishop of Harvest Church, lived there, and became a…”

Klein thought briefly, then wrote the word “volunteer.”

Then, concisely, he added:

“After my persuasion, he has already returned to 48 Riverbay Avenue. However, he may often go to Harvest Church as a volunteer.”

After finishing the letter, Klein read through it once. Then he set down the fountain pen and folded the paper neatly.

He found an envelope, but did not stick the corresponding stamp onto it. He planned to directly hire someone the next day to deliver it to Stuart’s home.

If he sent it through the kingdom postal system, even if he put the letter in the mailbox now, it would only be collected tomorrow. After that would come sorting, dispatch, and delivery. Therefore, although both of them were in the capital, Backlund, Stuart would have to wait until the day after tomorrow at the earliest before he could see the letter and possibly notify the Whites. Meanwhile, Emlyn White was currently someone who had no money on him and owned only dolls.

This is also for the sake of receiving payment sooner…

Klein chuckled under his breath, tidied the coffee table, then returned to the second floor to brush his teeth and bathe.

…

Wednesday morning. After spending two soli to hire a rental coachman to deliver the letter, Klein bought the main ingredients for Dixi seafood rice. He planned to make egg fried rice today.

Thinking of grains of pearly white rice, he could not help swallowing.

After spending a certain amount of time and struggling with the utensils and the kitchen, he finally produced a pot of fragrant egg fried rice. Eating it with cured meat and black tea, he almost burst into tears.

What a nostalgic and moving flavor…

Having eaten two large plates of egg fried rice, Klein slumped in his chair and stroked his belly.

Because Emlyn White had not played by the rules, Klein’s performance in that matter had ended before it had truly begun, failing to achieve its expected goal. Therefore, he could only search for another opportunity to actively perform.

Still, Klein did not come away with nothing. Failure was also experience. At the very least, it helped him understand one thing:

“Unlike an ordinary magician, my ‘performance’ includes not only assistants, but enemies and participants as well. Their reactions, their choices, can likewise influence how things develop. I must consider these factors ahead of time…

“This counts as a lesson. Better to learn a lesson in such a small matter than to be taught how the world works in something important…”

Klein looked at the empty plate before him and began thinking about what other “performance” he could actively do.

After seriously considering it for a while, he discovered there was actually nothing.

Of course, it was not that there was absolutely nothing. It was simply that none were suitable for him to do right now.

For example, Klein had long wanted to deal with that evil spirit in the Fourth Epoch Tudor Dynasty ruin. But even with Sharron, who now possessed the Crimson Moon Crown, and Maric, who had obtained the Beyonder characteristic left behind by the out-of-control Wraith, he did not believe they could fight a monster at the level of a high-Sequence Beyonder. Perhaps they would die without even knowing how they died.

Active performance does not mean actively courting death. It does not mean putting my life on stage…

Klein warned himself inwardly.

There was another matter he did quite want to do, but he did not feel there was much opportunity.

That was to search for Will Auceptin, the strange child who had brought misfortune upon the surgeon Alan Kress.

Klein had always been very interested in the tarot deck the boy possessed and wanted to confirm whether it was a mystical item.

Unfortunately, that matter had already been taken over by the Nighthawks, and Klein did not much want to get involved in his former colleagues’ operations.

When Dr. Alan is resting, I will go to the Cragg Club and inquire about the progress from the side. Then I can decide what to do…

Klein’s thoughts swiftly took shape.

As far as he knew, Dr. Alan usually had time on Friday afternoons and Sundays, when he would go to the Cragg Club to play tennis.

And just earlier, Klein had confirmed through today’s Backlund Morning Post that tomorrow evening there would be a Beyonder gathering convened by Old Mr. Eye of Wisdom.

For now, I cannot sell the Werewolf Beyonder characteristic or the Biological Toxin Bottle, and I cannot even find someone to make the former into a mystical item… The Rose School of Thought’s high-Sequence powerhouses are definitely still active nearby. They must be filled with rage and eager to find and tear apart Sharron, Maric, and their helper… I have to keep a low profile in this area for a while…

Klein picked up a napkin, wiped his mouth, and began clearing the dining table.

Originally, his plan had been to rest today if he could not find an active performance opportunity, then leisurely spend the day at the Cragg Club. But then he recalled Amon’s avatar, which had been able to discover the gray fog and had attempted to infiltrate it. He remembered the role the Book of Secrets had played in that crisis.

Thus, Klein lit the fireplace in the sitting room, brought the Book of Secrets back to the real world, and began reading intently, studying it carefully while taking notes in passing.

Of course, afterward he would bring the corresponding notes above the gray fog and burn them there.

Without noticing it, noon arrived. Suddenly, he heard the doorbell ring.

After hiding the Book of Secrets, Klein entered the sitting room and headed straight to the door.

The visitor was none other than Detective Stuart, thin-faced and bearded.

He looked at Klein with great admiration and excitement, praising him eagerly.

“As expected, you are a great detective, with abundant resources and channels. Even a missing-person case without the slightest clue was solved by you so quickly!”

…Why do I feel that my spirituality has changed slightly? It seems the potion digested a little more… In other words, from a certain perspective, my “performance” was still successful. It is just that there was only one audience, the person before me. Only he was deceived and saw only the good result… The “audience’s applause” really is useful…

Klein froze for a moment, then revealed a warm smile.