"You're looking at me weirdly right now."
The girl with beautiful brown hair said, then stood up:
"It's getting late, so I'll leave now. Detective, our cooperation continues. If there's anything, I'll write to you directly."
"Miss Beas, where do you live then? The Church of the Sun?"
"Of course not, otherwise wouldn't they just tell everyone that Blackstone Security Company is the church's base?"
She gave her address, which was, of course, an apartment similar to the one Miss Louisa rented:
"I will continue to track down the whereabouts of the Silver Eyed One. Goodbye, Detective Hamilton."
After sending Miss Beatrice downstairs, and watching her leave St. Teresa's Square, Shad suddenly realized that his current relationship with Miss Beatrice was extremely similar to the "friend" relationship that Miss Annat pursued.
"If Miss Anat's progress is not smooth, perhaps we can rely on my progress to let Miss Bei Yasi know the chosen one and be willing to cooperate with us."
He closed the door, picked up Mia and wanted to go upstairs. He knew the time in his heart. It was eleven o'clock late on Sunday night. Although he was invited to play cards again on Sunday this week, nothing unexpected happened this time.
A woman's laughter sounded in my ears.
"Well, nothing too unexpected happened. Last week I encountered the evil god, and this week it was just a ring warlock and a keeper-level relic. Relatively speaking, can this be considered an accident?"
He asked the woman in his mind, but she did not answer.
In a good mood, Xia De walked up the stairs holding the cat. It was time to rest.
In this way, Shade arrived safely in the Thunder Month, which was the second week of July in the sixth era of the Universal Calendar in 1853. When he woke up on Monday morning, he was still summarizing the gains and losses of the previous week. But it seemed that after the incident at Lake View Manor on the last day of June, life had really become calmer, and the things he encountered were not too dangerous.
After breakfast, I took a horse-drawn carriage to the psychological clinic on Roentgen Avenue in the eastern part of Tobysk. It was not yet nine o'clock, but the clinic was already open.
When Dr. Schneider heard that Xia De was coming to visit, he hurried downstairs from the second-floor clinic:
"What happened? Shade, are you okay?"
He looked terrified, probably thinking that Xia De had encountered something dangerous and needed his help to deal with it.
"I'm fine."
The two then moved to the reception room on the second floor to talk.
"I recently met a good friend... I can't reveal his identity. Anyway, I got the information that Mr. Ponton from the East City Steam Engine Special Screw Factory and Mr. Roosevelt, the accountant of the Star Grass Public Tobesk Nursing Home, have close ties with Mercury Blood and help those guys in hiding keep some relics."
"Hmm? Is the news accurate?"
The doctor perked up.
"I guarantee that there will be absolutely no problem. They are both probably ordinary people. Of course, it's just a high probability. But this news will be revealed to the Orthodox Church on Tuesday, which is tomorrow, so..."
"clear!"
The middle-aged doctor clenched his left fist and hit his palm, a smile appeared on his face:
"As long as we have clues, it will be easy. Even if the things kept by these two gentlemen are not the forged Philosopher's Stone, they must know more people who keep things for Mercury Blood."
The doctor looked confident, but he was also cautious:
"Shad, I need to prepare a little. I'll turn down the bulimia treatment for the Earl's wife and daughter that I was supposed to go tonight. Then tonight I'll... no, ask Louisa to go with us. Although they're just ordinary people, we can't be careless. Do you want to come with us? Just consider it a chance to broaden your horizons."
"certainly."
Xia De is actually very interested in the relics kept by these ordinary people:
"I'm going with you. The friend who gave me the clue said that if the relic is not what we are looking for, we should not take it to avoid disrupting the church's investigation."
"no problem."
The doctor waved his hand indifferently. He was not a greedy person:
"I only want the forged Philosopher's Stone, nothing else."
The two agreed to meet at Xia De's house at 7 pm, because his house was closer to both targets. The doctor thought the intelligence was very valuable and he couldn't let Xia De suffer any loss:
"Don't you still owe 20 pounds this month? If you find a fake Philosopher's Stone later, you don't have to pay it back. I'll pay it for you. If you don't find it, then you only have to pay 10 pounds."
Although his current financial situation is much better than it was two weeks ago, Xia De is still very happy that the debt can be reduced.
They didn't spend too much time at the doctor's, so Shad took a carriage to Old John's pawn shop.
Because the journey was quite far, he felt very sad when he paid the fare when he got off the bus. But now that he had a legitimate income every week, Xia De was also persuading himself that he must not save the pounds that should be spent.
He doesn't think he is stingy, he just got scared of being poor some time ago.
There were no customers in the pawnshop. Before Xia De entered, the elderly shop owner was reading a letter. He looked up and saw that it was a familiar customer, so he calmly put the letter away:
"Detective, you look good after not seeing you for half a week..."
This was just a customary greeting, but then he looked at Xia De's face suspiciously:
"Why do I feel that you look a little different... I was too suspicious. What do you want? Last time, there is still no clue about the relic you were looking for."
"Do you have a time key?"
Xia De stood in front of the counter and tapped the table with his fingers.
"have."
"Um?"
He had only asked casually, but he didn't expect it to be true, so he became excited:
"How many?"
"One. Although this is a relic of multiple existences, do you think you can just pick up the Time Key?"
He left the counter and went out the back door of the pawn shop. He returned in just two minutes holding a long and thin box.
He pushed the wooden box to Xia De and opened it. Lying inside the red lining was the wooden time key.
“Is it packaged so well just to raise the price?”
After getting permission, Shad picked up the key and checked it.
"This is a business strategy, young man, you don't understand."
Old John waved his hand, and seeing that Shade liked the key very much, he began to offer:
"I won't guess what you're looking for the Time Key for, although I can guess. Because Time Keys exist in plural numbers, their prices are relatively transparent, so I'll quote the average market price. I've checked the time point corresponding to this key, and it's probably around 3002 in the Fifth Epoch, which is the middle of the Fifth Epoch. Nothing major happened that year, so this key should be a very ordinary poet-level key... 25 pounds."
High-level time keys are generally more expensive than other relics of the same level, while low-danger level time keys are generally cheaper than other relics of the same level. Xia De has investigated this and therefore knows that the price is relatively reasonable.
"Twenty pounds. For the stick's sake."
But when facing Old John, he still habitually lowered the price.
"How long are you going to keep asking for this? I didn't raise the price this time. This price is just right."
"If it drops any lower, my financial situation won't be very good."
Xia De put the key back into the box. The old man looked at him, as if thinking about the thickness of his wallet:
"13 pounds 15 shillings. It can't be reduced any lower."
"make a deal."
Xia De nodded, and the old man also let out a long sigh. He held the box with one hand and twirled his fingers with the other hand:
"Pay first, then deliver."
"No problem, but I still want to sell one more relic."
"Relics? Why don't you say you're selling them first? Take them out and let me see them."
Seeing Shade take out a long, thin thing wrapped in newspaper from his pocket, Old John became interested. Perhaps he was more interested in seeing new things than making money.
"Let's talk about buying things first. Now that I have money, it will be difficult for me to bargain for the price, right?"
Shade said with a smile, unfolding the newspaper to reveal the finger bone. This time, Old John did not complain about Shade's price reduction strategy, but looked at the finger with a serious expression, and just looked at it for a moment before sighing:
"Oh? It's this?"
"Do you know him?"
"Of course I recognize them. They are Keeper-level relics, Infernal Relics, which can grant immortality. If I can't even recognize these special relics, why would I open a pawn shop?"
After getting Xia De's permission, the old man solemnly put on gloves to examine the relic, and then put on a special gear metal device that looked like a monocular telescope to carefully observe the scratches on the surface of the finger bones:
"No problem. It is indeed a Secret Keeper-level relic, the remains of the Yin Corpse. Look at the words on it. These are the genuine words of the Fourth Epoch Undead, which have been completely lost. If it weren't for the severe side effects, this thing would be the most valuable Secret Keeper-level relic."
He leaned in close to the finger bone and sniffed it:
"The smell of corpses and cemeteries, oh, yes, that's it."
He placed the finger bone back into Shade's newspaper and took off his gloves:
"Good stuff, name your price."
Xia De had learned about the general price of relics in advance, and he had discussed this issue with Miss Bei Yasi last night. But just as he was about to say the price, he was stopped by Old John's raised hand:
"By the way, are you interested in bartering? I don't have four or five figures in cash on hand at the moment."
Although it was dangerous to work with Miss Bei Yasi, the benefits were very great. All the money Xia De had earned since coming to this world was not as much as this.
Xia De looked at the old man in front of him, wondering if this was another bargaining tactic. But bartering was not impossible, after all, he made money to spend on relics or knowledge:
"Tell me what it is first."
Old John walked out of the counter first, but looked at the door, then locked the door from the inside, and then returned to the counter and whispered to Shade:
"This is a really good thing. It was just collected not long ago. It is also at the Secret Keeper level, but it is quite special. The Academy and the Church named it the Witch's Carbon Paper. This is a relic used by the Witch Emperor of the Fifth Epoch. When it was first discovered, there were 108 sheets in a stack, and later they were scattered among different people. Each sheet has the same effect. If you point the carbon paper at a certain magic, spell, or ritual that is being released, it can be imprinted on the paper. The ring sorcerer burns the carbon paper, soaks the ashes in water and drinks it, and there is a high probability that he can obtain magic, spells, divine arts, or even spiritual runes similar to the extraordinary abilities of the imprint..."