"Now that we have a short-term goal, the plan now is to check the room in more detail, search for currency, find city maps, and search books. Learn about the world through texts, investigate the background of the times and religious customs, and carefully adapt to this place. Should we stay for three months to help the detective complete that task? We can make plans after we understand everything."
Xia De summed up the current situation and accepted the fact that the detective was dead. The worst situation at the moment was not that there were mysteries in this world, but that there was no memory of the original owner, so he had no understanding of this world at all. Other than that, the current situation was pretty good.
Standing up, Shade walked towards the bathroom.
There was something wrong with the gas lamp in the bathroom. Even when adjusted to full power, it only gave out a dim light.
Looking at the person in the mirror in this light, he has dull blond hair, dark brown eyes, and a face that is obviously of Western male descent. He is about 20 years old, his expression seems a little nervous, and he is about 1.8 meters tall.
After all, he was a homeless man before, so his appearance was not particularly outstanding, but in Xia De's own aesthetic taste, it could be considered pretty good.
"This is me. Don't be scared by strangers in the mirror next time."
He warned himself carefully in his heart, but did not leave the mirror immediately. Instead, he looked around carefully before calling out softly:
"Hello, hello, are you still there?"
He tried to communicate with the whispering woman's voice again to determine who she was. But after a long time, there was no result, so he could only accept the reality and give up temporarily.
The next step is to find currency. No food was found when searching the kitchen just now, and this body is obviously hungry, so it is necessary to temporarily forget other worries and get money to eat.
But the accident happened again. About half an hour later, Xia De sat back on the sofa in the warm yellow light, with an expression of indescribable panic on his face.
In his hand, he held a paper note with the number 10 written on it. The note had many folds and stains, and was smaller than the card in the diary. There was a portrait of a person on the number side, and the coat of arms of the royal family of the Kingdom of Draerion, where he was currently located, on the reverse side.
After searching the entire house, looking through all the books and documents, and emptying all the pockets in the closet, Xia De actually only found this one banknote in the gap behind the bookshelf, which seemed to have slipped in accidentally.
"Could it be that the prices in this world are special, and this piece of paper money can keep me alive for three months?"
Even though I tried to comfort myself by joking like this, I knew it was impossible.
"This is bad."
He leaned back slightly, letting himself lean against the back of the sofa, closed his eyes and looked up at the white ceiling:
"Mr. Hamilton, where did you hide the money? I promised to stay, you won't leave me a penny..."
Even though he felt terrified, he really wanted to catch up with the carriage carrying the coffin, wake up the corpse in the coffin and question him.
If you don't speak the language, you can still survive if you are smart; if you are physically disabled, as long as you live bravely, survival is not a problem. But without money, you can't survive at all.
Mr. Spike Hamilton obviously didn't cook at home, and there wasn't even a leaf of vegetable in the kitchen, so there wouldn't be any dead rats. When was the last time this body of Shad had eaten? He didn't know, but he obviously needed to eat now.
Considering the limits of human existence, Shad must immediately find a way to find money, or find a way to make money, otherwise he will most likely be forced to look for a restaurant on the map after the sun sets, and then try his luck in a trash can in the alley outside the restaurant.
"No, it won't."
He looked at the only banknote in his hand with a terrifying expression, his face as gloomy as the sky outside:
"Although I don't know the face value, it's at least money. And the card of Sun 3 in the diary, these can keep me alive. However, since I can't find money for the time being, I have to think about long-term ways to make money."
The knowledge of a time traveler may be valuable, but cashing in on that knowledge in an unfamiliar place is not only troublesome but also dangerous, not to mention that this world itself has mysterious powers.
He thought of this as a detective agency, and Mr. Hamilton seemed to have said before his death that he left behind some safer tasks so that the "stupid" Shad could maintain his identity as a detective and keep the detective agency going.
Since the dead detective's coins have not been found yet, we must prepare for the worst and consider how to make a living in the future.
"So, Mr. Hamilton knew that Shade - the original Shade, was not very smart, so he must have left simple tasks to keep the detective agency running. So, maybe he has already solved those cases, and he just needs me to come and collect the money! Although there are mysteries in this world, at least the lives of ordinary people are the mainstream."
Xia De suddenly had an idea. He stood up and took the diary from the bedside table in the master bedroom. He also found the account book, memo and work log as the detective's relics from the study. Although he didn't find the money just now, he found all these things.
Detective Sparrow Hamilton is a very organized and rigorous person. Even though Shade has not studied accounting or business administration, he thinks that his detailed records of the firm's operations are touching. Of course, Shade is mainly touched because the cases that have not been solved by the firm are really very simple and have been mostly completed.
"Looking for Miss White's runaway sister, tracking Mr. Lawrence's mistress, looking for the lost orange cat Mia, asking for information about a doctor who can treat eye diseases... It all seems simple and not very dangerous. Oh, Mr. Hamilton has already dealt with most of it. If I want to stay and run this place, two or three weeks to completely solve one problem is enough for the operation to continue."
While flipping through Mr. Hamilton's handwritten report, Shade concluded, "But what he needs now is not to run the detective agency for a long time, but just to get some money to maintain his livelihood in the short term."
After comparing the remaining difficulty, payment method and amount of reward of the four tasks, Shad decided to solve the commission of "tracking Mr. Lawrence's mistress" first.
According to the case report, Detective Hamilton had been following the man for several months, but he stopped following him recently due to poor health. In fact, the current report could be handed over to the employer to settle the remaining payment. However, Mr. Hamilton left a note in the report to take care of Shad's limited literacy, which only contained simple words.
The note said that if one was interested in completing this commission, it would be best to have recent records before submitting them, so that the remuneration could probably be higher and the employer would not be suspicious.
In other words, Shade only needed to follow up once more to complete the commission. Although this was not a perfect completion, it at least met the requirements of the employer, Mr. Lawrence's wife, and was enough to get the remaining amount of the commission marked as "1 pound 7 shillings", which was 1 pound 4 shillings.
Judging from the tone of the detective's notes, this was a considerable reward.
In addition to the reward, Detective Hamilton chose this commission because he had handled many commissions to help his wife catch her mistress. This was the simplest commission and nothing would go wrong at the final handover. Sparrow Hamilton was not a famous detective, but he was very good at handling extramarital affair investigations.
Xia De didn't want to stay in this scary house where someone had just died and drink cold water and eat paper to fill his stomach, so he prepared to set out to investigate and try to submit the report to his employer before dusk.
"No problem. First, complete this commission and get the first payment. Then, slowly explore the secrets of the dead detective and figure out the source of the voice in my head. Everything will be fine!"
He encouraged himself in his heart and first found the city map. Based on the report of detective Hamilton's relics and the calendar on the wall, he deduced the possible location of the mistress named "Mrs. Lazoya". These were all simple tasks, and the most difficult step was to find the current location in the "Tobesk City Map".
The map of Tobesk in the agency had many annotations left by the previous detective, even marking the location of the tavern he often used to get information and the black market where "sensitive items" were traded.
But the original detective didn't have the habit of marking his home on the map. Fortunately, when Shade was looking through the information, he found a past tracking record with the route of that operation, so he determined that the location of this apartment was No. 6, St. Teresa Square in the center of Tobesk.
"Thanks to Detective Sparrow Hamilton for his detailed record... This is a house... close to the square in the city center, huh? How much would a house like this cost?"
Xia De said in surprise. At the same time, he discovered a palace complex called "Yodele Palace" just two streets away from Saint Teresa's Square.
And from the crumpled newspaper, on the second page between the news on the front page "The city is undergoing the third round of steam pipe renovation" and the third page "Investigation Report on the Collapse of the Ancient Tower on Mount Karas", it was mentioned that "Yordel Palace" was the residence of the royal family of the Kingdom of Draerion.
Xia De, who had no house in the original world, felt his heart beat faster, and his panic and tension were even washed away by a moment of surprise.
He looked at the document in his hand and muttered to himself:
"That is to say, I am currently in the capital city of one of the two major kingdoms in the world, the Kingdom of Delarion, and it is an apartment next to the city center square... I actually have such a house, and I still have to worry about starving to death?"
The depressed mood suddenly relaxed, but the house could not be converted into cash immediately, and Shade did not intend to give up Mr. Hamilton's three-month commission. At least he had a foothold and could consider it again.
But at least a very sincere smile appeared on his face, replacing the nervous expression. With a house in this location, there is no need to worry about the future... ... The smile on his face gradually disappeared, and Xia De realized that he had found the will just now, but he didn't find anything like the title deed or the house deed.
“Isn’t this apartment rented?”
The more I think about it, the more this possibility seems to be true. If I can afford a house in this location, why would I need to open a detective agency? The rent would be enough to support myself. Even if the detective's original business was not just for making money, judging from the interior decoration, this doesn't look like a house that belongs to Detective Hamilton himself.
"That means I will most likely have to pay an unknown amount of rent every month?"
Xia De came to this conclusion incredulously, and looked again at the calendar hanging on the wall of the living room.
It is now the third Saturday of June, the month of Sunshine, 1853. If you really have to pay rent, it is very likely to be paid at the beginning of each month.
"This world also has a twelve-month system, and the dates of each month are very similar to the past... Otherwise, I'd better run away, pack my clothes, pull my suitcase, carry my bucket, and start my journey in this mysterious world as a tramp... Not only will I have no income here, but Mr. Hamilton might have left me with debts that I don't know about."