The maids behind the sofa were dressed the same as the maids who followed Mr. Stan to find Shad, which meant that these three maids were brought out by the princess from Yodel Palace.
Mr. Stan motioned to Shad to straighten his clothes, and when Shad touched his collar, he actually touched a furry paw. He was startled, and then he realized that Mia was still standing on his shoulder.
The cat was so well-behaved just now that Shade completely forgot it was there.
"Is it impolite to bring a cat to a commission?"
Thinking in his heart, Xia De turned his head and looked at his shoulder. Mia's amber eyes were really beautiful.
"You must be good."
After whispering instructions and straightening his collar, President Stan introduced Xia De to these "distinguished guests".
Looking at Ajelina Cavendish from the front, one can easily see traces of Resia and Miss Carina on the face of the sixteen-year-old girl. However, the charm of the witch is really beyond that of a normal person, while Resia is more resolute and decisive, and the temperament of the princess in front of them is really too different from theirs.
Ajelina Cavendish was the girl who was unfortunately injured during divination. The back of her right hand was being bandaged. However, the blood seeping out from the carpet or gauze could not be seen with the naked eye, which meant that it was only a minor wound and not serious.
Princess Ajelina wore a blue dress, her hair was simply tied up and hung down behind her. She had light makeup on her face, but she didn't have many jewelry on her body. Only the waist of her dress was decorated with some broken gems, but compared to her status, these decorations were really nothing.
She was relatively cold to Shade, only nodding as a greeting. On the contrary, her friends were more enthusiastic about the detective with a cat on his shoulder, and someone even mentioned Miss Carina in a joking manner, apparently recognizing Shade's identity.
Mr. Stan signaled to Shad to investigate at will, so Shad first asked the maid and the noble girls about what had just happened.
This was not complicated. The girls gathered together to play the divination game at the obviously old stone table. However, they did not use the standard tools provided by the Prophet Association, but brought their own divination tools.
Today they chose fire divination, which is to burn tortoise shells in a brazier. After the tortoise shells crack due to the heat, they try to get the so-called "indications of fate" by interpreting the cracks on the tortoise shells.
This was not the first time they had done this, but this time the tortoise shell had just been heated when it "exploded". It was not an accident as severe as a steam bomb explosion, but rather a fragment of bone from the edge of the tortoise shell flew after the explosion, and then unfortunately scratched the back of Princess Ajelina Cavendish's hand.
"It sounds like an accident caused by uneven heating of the bone fragments..."
Xia De thought about it, and then asked:
"Ladies, who proposed to do the fire divination this time? Which lady brought the tortoise shell and charcoal?"
The giggling girls gave Shade the answer. The one who proposed the idea and brought the things was the princess herself.
"In addition to fire divination, we had originally planned to play a small ritual on a Ouija board that was said to be dug out from a cemetery and on an ancient book purchased from a used book stall."
The enthusiastic black-haired lady introduced Shade to her, saying that she was the second daughter of Count Solar, and looked at Shade with a very charming look. If Shade wanted to have something happen with her, it would probably be easy.
It’s not that Shade’s appearance is so good that he can easily win the favor of girls. This should be related to the rumors between him and Miss Carina.
"Although it has nothing to do with this accident, it's best not to try such an exciting game."
Xia De tried to advise, but seeing that no one paid attention to him, he went to the stone table to check the brazier that had not been taken away.
The brazier was also made of stone, with a hexagonal mouth and obvious signs of collision. There were some symbols on the outer surface that looked like ancient characters, but Xia De couldn't decipher them. This was probably also an old thing. After Xia De touched them one by one, he determined that all the items here were ordinary goods.
He put on the gloves he carried with him, made sure the cat on his shoulder was squatting there obediently and looking around, calculated that it was still a long time before Mia's meal, and then he took the burnt bone pieces out of the stone basin with his hands without worry.
The bone fragment was still warm. Xia De wiped off the black ash and looked at it, then put it in front of his nose and sniffed it gently, but found nothing unusual.
"Is it really an accident? President Stan predicted that it was an accident, but he was worried that no one would believe what he said, so he asked me to investigate?"
Xia De thought suspiciously and turned to look at President Stan, but saw that he had his back to him and was talking to two middle-aged men who were suspected to be the princess' guards outside the door.
"Not paying attention to me for now, okay... Echoes of the past!"
The magic was activated, and the voices of the girls came into his ears. Just as Shade thought, this room was not easily opened, so the only voices within 48 hours were the noble girls who came to have fun today.
However, those sounds did not provide Shade with further clues. He listened to the girls' laughter as the tortoise shell burned, then heard a clear explosion, followed by a scream.
"The course of the accident is exactly as they said. If this is not an accident, it could only be that someone tampered with the tortoise shell during the divination."
But Xia De was not a very professional detective after all, and he had no idea how to deal with the burnt tortoise shell in his hand.
I sniffed the tortoise shell again, but there was still no smell. I was thinking of trying my luck with "Blood Echo", but I didn't expect that the well-behaved cat squatting on my shoulder suddenly stretched its head out and sniffed it with its pink little nose.
It was probably imitating Xia De's actions, and because of its sensitive sense of smell, it was choked by the pungent burnt smell on the tortoise shell.
"Meow~"
Although Xia De didn't understand cat language, he could still recognize the dissatisfied cry.
Shade couldn't help but smile, and raised his hand to touch the cat to comfort it, but Mia actually used her claws to push Shade's hand away. Shade's gloved hands were now covered in black and gray, and touching the orange cat's head directly would dirty its beautiful fur.
“You’re getting smarter.”
Whispering praises to Mia, Shad placed the tortoise shell back into the stone basin.
He turned around and wanted to find Mr. Stan to announce his findings, but turned his head to look at the orange cat licking its paw on his shoulder. Shade returned to the stone table and picked up the tortoise shell.
“Any special flavor?”
He tried to bring the tortoiseshell to Mia's nose again, but the cat's little paw simply pushed Shad's hand away.
"Is there any special smell? Besides the smell of paste, is there anything else..."
Even though the cat was very smart, Shad realized halfway through that it was still difficult to make it understand human language. After all, when Shad was talking, the cat was still licking its paws and didn't pay any attention to what Shad meant.
Cats and dogs have very sensitive senses of smell and can detect odors that humans cannot detect. A qualified detective should keep an obedient dog as a detective partner, and Shad believes that Mia is also qualified for the task of a detective partner.
Although he failed to make Mia understand what he meant, Shad had a new inspiration.
He walked back to the sofa, stood to one side and coughed:
"Ladies, I think I can give you the answer after running a little test."
"Detective Hamilton, what do you want?"
The girl with shoulder-length hair asked with a smile. They didn't think detective work was a serious matter.
"Well, since the tortoise shell and charcoal were brought by Your Highness himself, even if someone could have tampered with them, they must have done it here. And things like black powder that caused the explosion would leave a smell on the hands. Very good, I noticed that none of you were wearing gloves, which is very good."
"Detective, are you going to sniff our hands?"
The bold girl asked, and then she actually stretched out her white hand to Shade, which caused a lot of laughter:
"Mr. Knight, this is very ungentlemanly."
Xia De coughed to show that he was serious:
"No, my nose isn't good enough. I want my cat to do the smelling."
He pointed his finger at his shoulder, and Mia immediately stretched out her claws to touch Shad's fingers, but because her claws were too short, she could only sulk there.
"Both cats and dogs have a keen sense of smell, and my cat has undergone standardized and rigorous training, making it capable of performing tasks that its fellows cannot accomplish."
As he spoke, Shade took the cat off his shoulder, pinched the back of the cat's neck with his right hand, and held it with his left hand to prevent Mia from falling off due to her restless movements.
Mia stared with her amber eyes and called out to the human women on the sofa. She struggled and found that Shade would not let her go, so she tried to turn her head and meow at Shade to express her dissatisfaction.
This look made the noble girls laugh happily again.
"Ladies, please come in front of me one by one and put your hands under the nose of my cat. If there is a wrong smell on someone's hand, the professionally trained cat will definitely find it."
The "professionally trained" cat has its tail curled up and its body swaying, as if it is finding pleasure in it.
"Detective Hamilton, I've only heard of dogs having a well-developed sense of smell, but I've never heard of cats having a well-developed sense of smell as well."
On the single sofa on the left, a blonde girl wearing gold-rimmed glasses said. She is the eldest daughter of the kingdom's current finance minister, Sir Lewis Ludwig, and the most quiet-looking of these noble girls.
Xia De explained without panic, which was nonsense:
"One theory is that cats have a very sensitive sense of smell. However, since these cute little creatures are not very obedient, people don't like to train them. But I have professional cat training skills, and I have given this domestic orange cat professional training. Ladies, please stretch out your hands. As long as there is an unusual smell that matches the one on the tortoise shell, Mia will be able to smell it out."
These noble girls actually laughed again and commented noisily on what Shade said.
Xia De was originally worried that no one would respond to his call, but unexpectedly, Princess Ajelina Cavendish, who had been silent the whole time, took the initiative to speak:
"Then I'll go first."
She held out her hand to Shad, and the laughter stopped immediately. Shad also understood that Ajelina Cavendish was the absolute leader of this small group. After all, she was Leisia's sister, and Princess Ajelina did not seem to be as ignorant as Shad imagined.