West Tivian, Coal Ash District.
In the afternoon, the Coal Ash District, which had been hit by a sandstorm, had not yet returned to peace. The noise on the streets continued. In the tea house outside the Coal Ash District Police Station, Miss Adele and Ed were still sitting face to face, gazing at the Police Station building in the distance outside the window.
They used the small Corpse Puppets placed inside the Police Station to continuously monitor the actual situation and desire activities within the Police Station, attempting to find any useful information. However, the informant they discovered, after being provoked by Miss Adele's desire and then contacting the mastermind named Alex and being reprimanded, had not made any further moves. To avoid suspicion, Miss Adele did not provoke the informant's desire again.
Then, Miss Adele and Ed decided to continue observing for a while to see if any new strange desires would emerge from anywhere in the Police Station. However, Miss Adele seemed a bit uncomfortable with the feeling of observing multiple perspectives simultaneously using her ability. She had a slightly furrowed brow and a serious expression on her face. After Dorothy saw Miss Adele's reaction, she had Ed directly remind her.
"If you feel uncomfortable, you can pray to that existence again and ask to disconnect. It's not a good idea to keep monitoring like this. We should adopt some other plans."
Ed said this to Miss Adele. Listening to Ed's words, Miss Adele paused, then closed her eyes and prayed again. As expected, the simultaneous images in her mind immediately disappeared. After returning to normal, she couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief, then rubbed her temples and said.
"Whew... What a rare experience... Looking in so many directions at once, hearing so many sounds at once. Although I've used Corpse Puppets before, this is the first time I've accessed so many senses at once, hehe... Detective, you really can come up with surprising things every time."
Miss Adele said this. Dorothy had arranged six or seven small Corpse Puppets inside the Police Station, which was equivalent to providing Miss Adele with six or seven sets of sensory information from different locations at once, making her feel a bit uncomfortable for a while.
'An Extraordinary who can precisely control so many Corpse Puppets simultaneously, who can share senses with those who pray. A divine existence never heard of before. Although I don't know the origin of this Rose Cross, it seems that this organization has a profound relationship with 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment)...'
Rubbing her temples, Miss Adele thought to herself. However, after slightly relaxing her mind, she immediately got back to the main topic and said.
"That informant who is the director has become much more cautious after being reprimanded. It feels like long-term monitoring won't yield any progress for a while..."
"Yes, so now we should change our methods to find people."
Ed responded to Miss Adele's words lightly. Hearing Ed's words, Miss Adele raised her eyebrows and then asked curiously.
"Listening to your tone, Detective, you already have some ideas now, right?"
"Of course... but we need to try it to see if it works." Ed said this, and then took out a folded piece of paper from his clothes. After clearing the table slightly, he unfolded the paper and placed it on the table. Miss Adele recognized the paper at a glance; it was a map of the Coal Ash District. They had used this map before to locate the crime scene, thus locking onto the Carbonwood Crossroads as the trap point. There were still many black dots marked on the map from when they had marked it before.
"This map again... Are you still planning to use a map to find people? We lost out once last time." Looking at the map in front of her, Miss Adele said with a hint of confusion, while Ed answered directly.
"No, no, no... Miss Adele, although the Carbonwood Crossroads incident was dangerous, in my opinion, it was definitely not a loss. Although we faced a crisis, we also obtained a key piece of information."
Ed said, then continued to take out more tools from his clothes, including a compass. Hearing Ed's words, Miss Adele asked doubtfully.
"Key information?"
"That is, at the Carbonwood Crossroads, that mastermind had Corpse Puppets arranged there." Ed said, then opened the compass he had taken out and adjusted it according to the scale on the map. Hearing his words, Miss Adele's confusion deepened.
"He had Corpse Puppets monitoring there, which is obvious... Can this be considered key information?"
"Of course it can, Miss Adele, you don't know much about Corpse Puppets, do you? Generally, the range of Extraordinary items that control Corpse Puppets cannot exceed a radius of three kilometers. So, that guy's location is within a range of three kilometers with the Carbonwood Crossroads as the origin."
Ed said, then picked up the compass adjusted according to the scale and drew a large circle with a diameter of three kilometers on the map centered on the Carbonwood Crossroads. The large area enclosed by this circle contained the mastermind's hiding place.
In this world, except for Dorothy, the simulated Puppeteer, whose control distance for Corpse Puppets can reach a radius of ten kilometers, the control distance of all other Corpse Puppet items is the same three kilometers. Dorothy's Corpse Puppet Ring is like this, and Byron's Corpse Puppet Button is also like this.
"The maximum control distance of Corpse Puppet items is three kilometers? This is the first time I've known this in such detail..." Miss Adele nodded thoughtfully, then looked at the map in front of her again.
"However, even if we know that guy's hiding range through the maximum distance of the Corpse Puppet item, it's still not easy to find him. Look at the range you've drawn, it's so large, it will be very difficult to find him..."
Miss Adele continued to say. What she said was right, the area enclosed by a circle with a radius of three kilometers is not small. The difficulty of finding someone in such a large urban area has not decreased much.
"Yes, three kilometers is a bit long, and this circle is a bit large... But Miss Adele, don't forget, the circles we've found are not just one. Just now at the Police Station, that informant contacted that mastermind through a Corpse Puppet, which proves that in addition to the Carbonwood Crossroads, the Coal Ash District Police Station is also within that guy's control range. So, we can draw another circle."
Ed said this, then picked up the compass, found the Coal Ash District Police Station on the map, and drew another large circle with a radius of three kilometers centered on it. Now there were two circles on the map at once, and seeing this circle drawn, Miss Adele's eyes lit up.
"That's right... That guy also has Corpse Puppets in the Police Station, which means that the guy's location must be able to control both the puppets at the Carbonwood Crossroads and the Police Station simultaneously. And the distance between the Police Station and the Carbonwood Crossroads is not too close, so the place that can control both points simultaneously will be much fewer than the places that can only control one place."
Miss Adele said with understanding, while Ed smiled and nodded in response.
"Yes, to be precise... he is in this area." Ed pointed to the map, where it was the intersection of the circle drawn with the crossroads as the center and the circle drawn with the Police Station as the center. Only the points in the area where these two circles intersect can encompass both the crossroads and the Police Station when a three-kilometer circle is drawn. In other words, that guy's hiding place must be in this area.
Listening to Ed's words, Miss Adele's gaze also focused on the area where the two circles on the map intersected. With a sparkle in her eyes, she said.
"Indeed... This trap was designed by that guy from the beginning, so he must have already found the best hiding spot and is slowly waiting for us to take the bait. It's unlikely he's running around randomly."
"The current area is quite a bit smaller than the previous single large circle, but it's not that much smaller. Detective, if we want to find that guy in this area, I'm afraid it will still take some effort."
"Yes, it's a bit smaller, but not small enough. If that's the case, maybe we can think of a way to narrow down this range further."
Ed responded like this. Hearing his words, Miss Adele immediately responded.
"You can narrow down the range further? How do you plan to do that?"
"It's very simple, as long as we can determine the location of another one of that guy's Corpse Puppets and draw another circle on this map, then that guy's location will be the overlapping area where the three circles intersect, which can further reduce the search range."
Shrugging his shoulders, Ed continued to speak, while Miss Adele immediately asked in return.
"Oh... Then, Detective, how do you plan to find the location of another one of his Corpse Puppets?"
"It's simple, we can put ourselves in that guy's shoes. Miss Adele, if you were that guy, given the current situation, how would you use the Corpse Puppet in your hand?"
Ed asked Adele the question. Adele furrowed her brow upon hearing it, then placed her hands on the table, fingers intertwined, and began to think while attempting to answer Ed's question.
"The main purpose of the Corpse Puppet is reconnaissance. That guy must be thinking of using the Corpse Puppet to find and monitor us now. After that Black Dog stirred up the dust, he lost sight of us. The Coal Ash District is very large, and he won't be able to find us quickly using just Corpse Puppets."
"That's right... There are only two of us, a very small target. We can duck into a house or an alley while the dust is swirling, and he won't find us. So, if he can't find us, what target would he focus on instead?"
Holding a cup of tea and drinking, Ed spoke suggestively. Listening to Ed's hint, Adele immediately responded shrewdly.
"It's the Black Dogs. That group of Black Dogs is different from us; many people came, and there's even a large carriage. That carriage is a big target, and a flying Corpse Puppet should be able to find it easily."
"Exactly, it's those Hunters. If he can't find us, focusing on them is definitely the best choice, after all, he also needs to constantly confirm whether those Hunters have already arrested us and brought us to justice.
"I also have flying Corpse Puppets circling above the Coal Ash District, monitoring those Hunters. They've already driven their carriage near the storage yard to detain the 'mortals' they just caught. My flying Corpse Puppet also found a suspicious bird there. It was standing on a street light, staring at the Hunter's carriage from a distance without moving, not daring to get close but also not daring to miss anything."
Ed said so. Listening to Ed's words, Adele also asked in her heart.
"So, you and that guy both have bird-type Corpse Puppets monitoring those Black Dogs? Then why can you detect his Corpse Puppet but he can't detect yours?"
"That's simple. I controlled three bird-type Corpse Puppets to take turns flying over and monitoring that area. This looks very natural. But that guy only had one standing foolishly on the street light without moving. From above, it looked very obvious, so naturally, I noticed something was wrong with it, but it couldn't notice anything wrong with me."
Ed said lightly. The upper limit for controlling Corpse Puppets with ordinary Corpse Puppet props is two. The number of Corpse Puppets the mastermind is currently using to monitor the Hunters is the same one he used at the Carbonwood Crossroads. The other party doesn't have such a generous Corpse Puppet limit like Dorothy to squander freely.
'There are also three bird-shaped Corpse Puppets rotating surveillance, none staying for a long time, which indeed sounds much more natural... However, he deployed at least four inside the Police Station before, so with this one, that's seven. One person can control so many Corpse Puppets simultaneously... Let's not even mention the ability itself, just the mental strength is outrageously strong.'
Listening to Ed's words, Adele sighed in her heart, feeling more and more how terrifying the intelligence capabilities of this existence code-named "Detective" within the Rose Cross were. She also secretly felt fortunate that the other party seemed to have no intentions towards her.
'Such powerful intelligence and reconnaissance ability, truly worthy of the code name 'Detective'. I wonder if the other members of the Rose Cross also possess such powerful abilities...'
Gazing at Ed, Adele thought speculatively in her heart, becoming more interested in this mysterious society at the same time.
At this moment, Ed picked up a compass and drew another large circle with a three-kilometer radius on the map, using the storage yard as the origin. By now, there were three large circles on the map of the Coal Ash District in front of them.
The area where these three large circles intersected was significantly smaller than where the previous two intersected. Here, Adele and Ed only saw one building, a mansion.
"Steck Mansion"
Only at the location of this mansion could Corpse Puppets be simultaneously controlled at three locations: the Police Station, the Carbonwood Crossroads, and the storage yard.
"Finally, we found it..." Looking at the newly marked location on the map, Adele murmured, then she turned her head to look at Ed and spoke.
"Detective, shall we leave now?"
"Not so fast, Miss Adele. It would be impolite for us to go alone to a place we finally found. Someone is also painstakingly searching for this place right now, we can give them a hint."
Facing Adele in front of him, Ed said with a smile.
...
West Tivian, Coal Ash District, near the storage yard.
Inside the storage yard, countless people were busy inside and out at this moment. Panicked merchants were checking their goods in the yard, exclaiming at their losses, cursing the blind storm for striking here so fiercely. At the edge of the yard, a huge black carriage was parked, and at the edge of the carriage, several plainclothes Hunters were standing guard around.
Inside the spacious carriage compartment, within the dim, cramped space, a young man was sitting bound hand and foot, with his eyes covered. In front of him was a serious-faced Edmund, who looked at the blindfolded man with a stern expression.
"I'll ask you one last time. Honestly confess your situation, the society you belong to, and your schemes in the Coal Ash District... If you confess honestly, you'll get a reduced sentence during the trial. If you continue to be stubborn, I'll have no choice but to hand you over to headquarters. The people there aren't as easy to talk to as I am, young man."
Sitting with his legs crossed, Edmund interrogated the young man in front of him, and the young man answered.
"I said it! I will not betray the society! No matter what you do to me, I won't say a word! Black Dogs!"
"Quite spirited, but unfortunately, misplaced. Those cult societies are not good things. Don't you realize that you've been abandoned? You'd better honestly explain everything here. At headquarters, not many people have mercy on cultists." Edmund continued to persuade him, but the young man still seemed unappreciative.
"No! The society won't abandon me! Mentor will definitely send someone to save me! The society won't betray me! I won't betray the society either! So I won't say anything... Ugh ah..."
Just as the young man was about to say something more, his words suddenly stopped, his face turned ashen, he opened his mouth wide, and his expression became extremely pained.
"Ah... ah... no... don't... Mentor... I won't betray... don't do this... don't abandon me! Don't kill me!"
The young man howled in pain. Looking at him, Edmund frowned, then immediately held him down and spoke.
"What's wrong? What happened? Is your Mentor interfering with you?"
"Ah... Officer... I... I..."
The young man continued to speak in pain, trembling and twitching as he stammered out unclear words. Faced with this scene, Edmund's first reaction was that the young man's Mentor was uneasy about the captured youth and was interfering with him using some method, attempting to silence him.
"Hang in there, I'll take you back to headquarters right away, there should be a way to save you!"
"Can't... can't... be saved... Officer... I, I'll speak..."
Opening his mouth wide, the young man, in a posture of pain, uttered his final confession to Edmund.
"Al... Alex... Steck Mansion..."
Uttering his final words, the young man relaxed his body, tilted his head, and slumped back in his seat, lifeless. Seeing this scene, Edmund was silent for a moment. After checking on the young man, he sighed, lit a cigarette, and smoked while gazing at the dead youth in front of him.
"If you had known this day would come, why did you act that way in the first place? May the Three Saints forgive your sins..."
With that said, Edmund turned and got out of the carriage. He now had a new mission.