Although Shade succeeded in making "Miss Witt" no longer keen on talking to him, the lady had no intention of leaving. She talked to Shade about the Rhodes card. Now the rumor that Shade was about to get the founding knowledge had spread throughout the city. In this era, he was a true "legendary player".
When it comes to the topic of Rhodes cards, Shade is not boring. Not only Genesis Knowledge, but also the new card he got from the Prophet Association, Old World Minerals Kavir Gem Mine, which can be adjusted between 12 and 13, is equally interesting.
They were not the only ones who liked playing cards. Most of those who fell behind the crowd were bored with the visit. Unconsciously, more people joined in the conversation, including Sir Richard Prisher.
He was a poet, and although he was knowledgeable, he was not very interested in mechanics and physical chemistry. A middle-aged nobleman of his age could not have never come into contact with Rhodes cards, so he also joined the conversation.
This gentleman might have been busy with the Apna Library recently, and he didn't even know about the rumor in the city that Shade was about to get the fifth founding series Rhodes card. Hearing that people were talking about it, he was quite interested in asking Shade what he had paid for the card, but Shade just pointed his finger at his mouth, indicating that he wanted to keep it secret.
Then everyone around understood.
Anyway, before he knew it, Miss Pav had left. Shad noticed that she stood behind Princess Margaret for a while, then left the team and ended his trip to the academy. The seven or eight middle-aged gentlemen who had talked to Shad at the end of the team even agreed to go to the pub outside to play Rhodes at lunch.
Seeing that Sir Prissy was also going, Shad agreed. The poet from the south was very interested in this kind of elegant activity, and Shad was also creating opportunities to have a deep conversation with him.
Therefore, the atmosphere at the end of the visiting group was even more lively than that of Princess Margaret and her group at the front. If the princess was not still visiting, these gentlemen might have found a place on the spot to start playing cards.
At 11 o'clock in the morning, Princess Margaret's morning itinerary came to the last stop, which was to listen to a half-hour academic report on the "Research Progress of the New Steam Engine of Delarion". This was of course not the latest steam engine developed by the kingdom, but a new model that would soon be commercialized. However, it was still very valuable to Carsenrick, so the princess and the accompanying envoys attached great importance to it.
The report was held in the auditorium of the Third National School of Mechanics of Delarion. The main auditorium was too large, so Lecture Hall No. 3 was used this time. Lecture halls are the last thing that a college with hundreds of years of history lacks.
Princess Margaret sat in the second row, and the guards who had investigated the place earlier arranged the seats for the others. The gentlemen who were walking at the end and chatting about Rhodes cards naturally sat at the back.
It was a pity that they could not chat or play cards while listening to the report, so the gentlemen were much quieter. Sir Prisha, who was sitting two rows in front of Shade, took out a collection of poems to read. It was confirmed that he was the fourth chosen one. Shade felt that through the daily actions of this lord, he could roughly judge what kind of person he was. Of course, a more in-depth investigation was still necessary.
Xia De sat in the lecture hall for ten minutes before he heard a whisper in his ear:
Perhaps I should remind you that a man appeared three times in a row within five minutes in the second window on the left, closest to the podium.
Xia De looked at the middle-aged mechanic on the podium explaining the data on the blackboard without changing his expression. He was talking about fuel savings and the difference between solid fuel and liquid fuel.
"Passing by with his face fully exposed? Or appearing very discreetly?"
Outside the window is a small path in the college, so it is normal to see people walking by.
He was in the building opposite, looking in that direction from the opposite window.
"Who could it be? It can't be the Royal Guards. Royal Guards won't act like this. Could it be a colleague from MI6? Or a colleague from Gray Gloves?"
Xia De thought silently, then bent down, stood up, and left the lecture hall through the back door. No one noticed him because he was at the back, and it was normal to leave temporarily to solve physiological problems.
Instead of going through the main entrance, Shade climbed out of the corridor window. Pulling his hat down to cover his face, he walked along the path to the side of the auditorium and looked at the window of the building opposite.
Blinking his eyes, the echo of blood clearly showed the blood halo inside the window. The blood was very clear, extending from the far end of the corridor to the position below the window blocked by the wall. Because it was only a part of the foot, Xia De judged that the other party had stepped on blood.
“No matter which side they are from, they stepped on blood here and ambushed us. They are obviously not good people.”
Shade came to a conclusion and took a look at the building. He circled again and jumped into the window of a place where no one was paying attention.
The building was heated and much warmer than outside. Wrapped in a coat, Shade walked past the portraits hanging on both sides of the corridor, looking for the source of the bloodstains. Finally, he found a body with a cut neck hidden in a corner of a room on the east side. It was not a student, but a janitor.
Xia De frowned, returned the way he came, came to the corner of the corridor, and pressed his body against the wall.
The finger was carefully extended outward by the distance of a fingernail, and then quickly retracted:
"Did you see that?"
It was the man from before, hiding under the window. An ordinary man.
"That's easy—Red Butterfly Illusion."
The corner of the corridor was distorted for a moment, and then returned to normal. Xia De walked out of the corner and went to the end of the corridor. The shrinking man seemed not to see him, and looked out from time to time with a nervous expression.
The Red Butterfly Illusion and the Moon Shadow Illusion that Shade was sealed in have different focuses. The former tends to create illusions, so Shade created the illusion of an empty corridor. This hiding method is easy to be discovered by a ring magician, especially when Shade is getting closer and closer, but ordinary people need strong inspiration to see through it, but Shade's opponent this time does not have it.
He walked to the side of the huddled man, took out the "Mind Crystal Ring" from his pocket and put it on his finger. He stopped ten meters away from him, holding the Silent Note Spell in his left hand, and pointed his right index finger at the man's forehead:
"Mind Explosion!"
With a dull bang, red and white substances flowed out of the man's mouth, nose, ears and eyes at the same time. He stared at the void in front of him with wide eyes, then slid limply to the ground.
Shade shook his head, approached the corpse, and sprinkled bone powder as a spell material:
"Soul echoes."
A chilly wind swept through the corridor, and the spirit that was channeled floated above the corpse. Xia De sighed softly, and asked from a position that could not be seen from the outside:
"Who are you?"
"I am Neil Hawkman from the Principality of Lamia."
The soul answered unconsciously. Although it was facing the murderer who killed it, it did not try to transform into an evil spirit and attack Shad because of the blessings from thousands of souls on Shad.
"what are you doing here?"
"Bomb explosion confirmed."
Xia De was stunned:
"What bomb?"
"The steam bomb was installed under the fifth seat in the seventh row of the auditorium opposite. It used a leaky steam valve as a delay device. It will explode in about five to seven minutes."
"ha?"
Hearing this, Shade had no time to ask more questions. He reached out and touched the soul, and the magic guided Death to allow him to "see" the soul's deepest memories directly.
Although Shad's ability to guide Death to obtain the soul's memories through touch was far inferior to Sister Defulin's ability to know all the emotions of the soul with just one "look", he at least confirmed that the bomb really existed and this organized murder was for Princess Margaret.
They are the independence organization of the Principality of Lamia, a small principality that belongs to Draerion. The organization wants to sow discord between Draerion and Carsenrick in order to seek independence in the war that has begun.
This Monday, Director Anros, who came to St. Teresa's Square, clearly mentioned this incident, but Xia De did not expect to encounter it himself.
The janitor who died just now was killed by Neil Hawkman because he accidentally saw him. But apart from the bomb, they have not found any other way to murder the princess.
Even if they were able to place a bomb, they had to bribe the auditorium guards after a police inspection to barely reach the seats in the back row, and they could not place it directly behind the front seats.
“This is really bad.”
He casually opened the door of death and pushed the soul in. He frowned and thought for a moment, took a deep breath to restore the surrounding environment to its original state, and then used the witch's light to completely melt the corpse, eliminating any possible remaining traces, and then put his hands in his pockets and turned to leave the building.
There was not much time left before the bomb exploded. Although he could not explain the source of the intelligence, it would be fine to tell MI6 directly. However, Shad could not find anyone from MI6 now.
As for barging into the auditorium and shouting that there was a bomb, that was certainly possible, but it would attract more attention, which was something Shade had been trying to avoid.
Fortunately, he still had the identity of "Ace Agent Grey Eagle" to use. After the princess arrived in Tobesk, he received an order and learned how to contact the princess urgently. Showing up at this time to protect the princess, in Shad's view, is also a way to repay Detective Sparrow Hamilton who is buried in the cemetery. Rather than using the identity of Grey Eagle to profit for himself, protecting others is a good way to keep this identity glorious.