Shortly after Sir Prisher left, Miss Bella Brown, whom Shad had been waiting for, returned.
Because her appearance had changed significantly after eight years, and as an ordinary citizen, her makeup was also quite different from when she was a maid, so Shad could only say that this lady did look very much like Princess Margaret's former maid, and he could not confirm whether it was really the former MI6 agent.
After confirming that the bookstore owner, Mr. Brown, and Miss Bella Brown were just ordinary people, Shad, under the cover of illusion, went to the second floor of the bookstore where Miss Brown lived, used the door key to open the room where she lived, and briefly searched it.
The room was ordinary, with an easel and several artistic paintings in the corner. He did not touch other people's personal belongings, but he still found a pistol in the desk. Apart from the gun, there were no other noteworthy items. Considering that the bookstore itself illegally sold guns, the gun might have been given to her by Mr. Brown for self-defense.
Create a situation and test it out
she asked softly.
Xia De shook his head and looked towards the not-so-big bedroom:
"Some habits, once formed, are hard to change even if you want to. I asked Princess Margaret, and her former maid received full training as a royal maid. Sorry."
He spoke softly to the closet, then opened the closet door. He ignored the clothes hanging on the hangers and checked the clothes stacked at the bottom of the closet:
"Even if an ordinary girl is good at housework, she can never be as meticulous about the placement of clothes as a trained professional maid."
He looked at the clothes that were stacked and placed very neatly and said that the wardrobes organized by Dorothy, Lecia, and Luvia were very different from the wardrobes that Miss Carina's maids helped him organize every Saturday. The maids of the Duchess were very professional:
"Sure enough, this way of stacking clothes... maybe it's a coincidence, but you can look elsewhere."
He stood up and closed the closet, then looked at the desk again:
"In addition to being a maid, she may have experience as an agent. And as a cautious former agent..."
Xia De took out the pistol again, checked it, and confirmed that a bullet had been pressed into the chamber:
"Pressing a bullet into the chamber in advance not only makes it easier to fire at any time, but also allows the pistol to have an extra bullet. I don't think an ordinary girl would understand this."
He put the well-maintained pistol back:
"Of course, this still doesn't prove anything. Maybe Miss Brown learned it from her uncle."
Then he walked to the paintings in the corner and looked through the drawing boards:
"They are all very ordinary landscape paintings, and they don't involve specific locations or character features... There is nothing wrong with this white clock tower, but the window style of the clock tower is very typical of Carsenrick style. I have seen it in Miss Aurora's Coldwater Harbor Manor."
“That’s really interesting.”
Xia De thought silently, and then used "Echoes of the Past".
There were a lot of noises in the bedroom, and he listened to three of them.
The first section is a conversation between Miss Brown and her uncle, Mr. Brown, where the latter is asking about Miss Brown’s wedding date;
The second paragraph is a conversation between Miss Brown and a strange man. The tone of both of them is full of joy. The strange man tells Miss Brown that he has packed his luggage and will wait for the wedding after the end of the year, and then he will go with her to settle in the art capital of Artek.
The two imagined their married life, and Shad also learned that the strange man was Miss Brown's fiancé, an orphan and currently a mechanic.
The last paragraph is Miss Brown's monologue. This 30-year-old lady is probably talking to a mirror, expressing her joy, confusion and a little fear about getting married.
The key point lies in this sentence:
"Can the past really disappear completely?"
"That should be her."
Shade did not continue to pry into other people's privacy, but was still curious about why she appeared in Tobesk. It seemed that this matter had nothing to do with MI6, and it was entirely Miss Brown herself who was looking for a new life.
Should I continue investigating? Or should I report directly to the princess
she asked, continuing with a smile.
"Of course I will continue to investigate. Anyway, this matter has nothing to do with the extraordinary, and I really want to know the reason. If I can find out the whole story and inform Princess Margaret, then after this matter is over, I can completely entrust the knight to show his spiritual light through Princess Margaret instead of Mr. Alan Madison."
He returned to the bookstore downstairs. It was already noon, and Miss Brown left the first floor and went to the second floor to prepare lunch for herself and her uncle.
Xia De picked up two books in the bookstore and bought them. After leaving the bookstore, he went around to the alley behind the bookstore, then climbed over the wall and entered the small courtyard behind the bookstore which served as a warehouse.
After confirming that there was no one around, he transformed into a red butterfly and flew from the ground to the second floor. After changing back into a human body in the air, he used the "Ragray Jump" to directly enter the room behind the glass.
The kitchen was also on the second floor of the bookstore. Xia De changed her clothes, put on witch's eye shadow, and then walked towards the kitchen.
In the narrow and dark kitchen, Miss Bella Brown was stirring eggs skillfully. When she heard a cough coming from the door, her hand shook subconsciously, and then she was surprised to see the stranger standing at the door:
"Who are you? Sir, there is nothing valuable here. Oh, get out of here!"
"How dare you return directly to Tobesk?"
Shade asked directly. When Miss Brown showed a surprised expression, he raised a finger and asked:
"Guess I'm the Gray Gloves guy?"
This sentence was spoken in Carsenric, a very fluent Carsenric. Although Shad's following the princess to "learn a foreign language" was just an excuse, it was not without gain.
Then extend the second finger:
"Or maybe someone from MI6?"
The words were in Delarionese, also quite fluently, with a strong accent characteristic of the central city of Tobysk.
The lady in the kitchen subconsciously took a step back, apologized softly, and turned off the gas that was heating the pot. She put down the bowl and spoon containing the eggs, pinched the towel beside her, and showed an almost desperate expression on her face:
"I... ... "
"Don't show that expression yet. I'm not from either side."
Shade said, staring at her face and adding:
"I work for a beautiful woman. I want to hear your story before I decide what to do with you."
He walked into the kitchen and slammed the Gun of Kindness on the small table with a bowl of eggs on it:
"MI6 should have arranged for you to live in the countryside or a small city. Why did you come back?"
"I... ... "
The lady holding the towel pursed her lips, the despair in her eyes became more obvious, she stared at the gun, her tone changed from soft to firm:
"Of course they wouldn't allow it, so I faked my death again, abandoned all my previous identities, and came back here. It wasn't easy. It was even harder to make my colleagues in MI6 believe that I was really dead than when I left Willendale."
"Why did you come back?"
"For school."
"Um?"
Shad couldn't understand, and Miss Brown turned her eyes away from the gun that Shad had slapped on the table and looked at him.
The window of the narrow kitchen is still narrow. The light in the room is extremely dim. The desperate lady explains her life almost hysterically:
"Sir, do you know my past? Before I was recruited into MI6, I was just an ordinary girl. Then something happened... My life changed completely. But since I was young, I have loved art and painting. I once thought that when I left MI6, I would pursue my dream. But they deceived me. I cannot appear in public and am not allowed to enter a public art school... I understand that this is the rule of MI6, but I cannot accept it, so I choose to pursue my own life."
She just looked at Shade, her face was even paler than the skin of Mr. Bernhardt, a vampire:
"I know I did the right thing. I spent eight months in Tobysk and got my diploma from the Third Academy of Arts. I also met him. After the end of the year, we will move to Artek to settle down, and I will continue my studies there. Pursuing dreams and knowledge... For someone with my background, this sounds ridiculous, right?"
"That's not funny at all. I know an old professor who pursued knowledge so hard that he even lost his legs."
Xia De was referring to Professor Drake from Huntington. Judging from the time, the professor had probably left Huntington and moved to Willendel.
"But are you so brave? Tobesk isn't the only art academy."
“But this one is the best.”
Miss Bella Brown said decisively, staring at Shade with wide eyes:
"You may not understand this, but this is what I pursue and what I desire, and I am willing to take responsibility for it. Moreover, I have been retired for eight years, and my appearance and figure are different from before. Even Director Anlos may not be able to recognize me at first sight. So I came back to pursue a new life and a new beginning..."
"But you were indeed recognized at first sight. She had a deep memory of you and she always remembered you."
Shade said, Miss Brown closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as if she had completely accepted her fate and was ready to face the suffering:
"Sir, who sent you to find me?"
Xia De looked around the kitchen, left the gun on the table, walked into the kitchen alone, took a purple cabbage and threw it to her:
"Just scrambled eggs for lunch is a bit too boring. You can try scrambled eggs with purple cabbage."
Miss Brown did not look at the pistol within her reach, but hurriedly caught the purple cabbage. She did not expect Shade to throw it to her.
Looking at the vegetables in her hands, she suddenly widened her eyes and was lost in thought:
"yes... ... "