Somewhere near the Flying Theatre in Tivian's East District.
At noon, inside a high-end bar along the street, Adele, wearing sunglasses and a stylish wide-brimmed hat, simply disguised, and in a fitted dress, was sitting in a private booth by the street. On the table was an open magazine and a small plate of exquisitely arranged dessert cake. In Adele's hand, a small glass of red wine was swirling.
"Oh dear... it seems there's something else you need me for..." Gazing at the words appearing on the pages of the magazine in front of her, and taking a small sip of the red wine in her glass, Adele murmured softly.
'The last time she came to me for help wasn't that long ago, and now there's something else. The probability of this Detective Miss running into trouble is really quite high...'
Adele thought this to herself. After pondering for a while, she took out a small pen from her small satchel beside her and wrote on the pages of the magazine.
"Helping is certainly possible, but seeing as I seem to have helped you quite a bit lately, from smuggling goods to giving your teacher's memories... haven't you considered giving something back, Detective Miss?"
After Adele finished writing on the magazine, she smiled and waited for the other party's reply. After a while, clear and neat handwriting appeared before Adele's eyes again.
"Of course, there can be rewards. I have a lot of information about the faith of the Fertility Goddess here, which is somewhat related to your teacher and your Extraordinary path. It might be helpful to you in exploring advancement. If you need it, I can give you all this information.
"Of course, this information is all Spirit Sight, but our society has a secret transmission that can effectively resist Spirit Sight. I can apply to the higher-ups to teach you this secret transmission. With this secret transmission, you can easily read various secret transmissions with Spirit Sight and quickly understand all kinds of Extraordinary knowledge."
Such text appeared on the document in front of Adele. After seeing it, Adele pondered for a moment with interest. After eating a bite of the cake on the plate, she picked up her pen and wrote again.
"Information on the faith of the Fertility Goddess and a secret transmission to resist Spirit Sight... that is indeed a very attractive reward for me. However, such a secret transmission must be very valuable to your society, right? You just promised to give it to me directly. Are you so sure you can convince the higher-ups of your society to give this secret transmission to an outsider?" Adele wrote this. Her meaning was simple: could a Rose Cross cadre like Dorothy 100% convince the Rose Cross higher-ups? If she couldn't convince them 100%, these secret transmissions couldn't be promised to others as a reward.
"Don't worry, since I've made this promise, I'm naturally confident I can convince the higher-ups. There's no need to worry about this at all." In the hotel far away, Dorothy quickly wrote this to Adele with her pen, thinking that essentially the Rose Cross divine higher-ups and middle cadres were herself, so whatever she said would definitely be what happened.
In the bar, Adele looked at the new sentences Dorothy had written on the magazine, a thoughtful look flashing in her eyes, and then continued to write.
"Is that so... Since Detective Miss you have guaranteed me so, then it would be a bit unreasonable for me to still have questions. Okay, I promise I can help you with this. Alas... it's a pity, if you can't come up with any rewards for a while, I had specially prepared some other special repayment methods for you..."
Adele wrote this on the page in front of her. A moment after she wrote this text, Dorothy's confused words appeared on the paper.
"Special repayment method? What is that?"
"It's nothing~ Regarding this question, if you don't have any rewards in the future, we can discuss it then. The focus now is the things you need my help with. You want me to help you find a few foreigners in the East District, right?"
Brushing aside Dorothy's question, Adele continued to write on the magazine, and after a while, Dorothy also responded by writing.
"Yes, they are a few North Africa people. They should have just arrived in Tivian not long ago, and then last night they broke into a wealthy family's house in the Silver Orchid District and kidnapped someone. They could only come to Tivian from North Wu by sea, so they must have been active in the East District's port. The Silver Orchid District is also in the East District, and you have considerable influence in the East District, so I thought of asking you to help out a bit."
Dorothy wrote this, and then she wrote down the clues inferred from the Boyle mansion one by one on the text. After reading the series of characteristics that Dorothy had summarized, Adele nodded slightly and wrote.
"A few North Wu fools... Although there are quite a few foreigners in the East District, those from North Wu are relatively rare. The clues you've given are quite sufficient. If they are all accurate, then with my influence, finding clues about these people should not be a problem."
"In that case, I'll trouble you. I've also used some police forces to help you find them. If they have any clues, I will notify you immediately. Please be as fast as possible, our goal is to save people."
Dorothy wrote this solemnly on the magazine, and soon she received Adele's reply.
"Of course, I will be as fast as possible. After getting the news, I will notify you immediately. Remember to keep the communication open, Detective Miss." In the bar, after finishing writing this paragraph, Adele put away her pen, then closed the magazine. After drinking the red wine in the glass in one gulp, she put the magazine and pen into her satchel, and then got up and left the private room.
...
Iweig, Adria.
On the sofa in a hotel suite next to the Church square, Dorothy couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief after seeing Adele's final reply on the "book-sea navigation record". With Adele's help, she felt much more at ease.
Adele can be said to be a local boss in Tivian's East District. Behind the countless mundane gangs there is the Scarlet Heart she controls. Adele's influence extends to all walks of life in the East District through the gangs. If you want to find someone in the East District, asking Adele is definitely the right choice.
On the other hand, Dorothy also used Grego to mobilize some police forces in the East District to search for that group of people together. With both the black and white forces in East Tivian working simultaneously, Dorothy didn't believe they couldn't find five foreigners with such obvious characteristics.
'In a sense, I can be considered to have a hand in both the black and white...'
Sitting on the sofa in the suite, Dorothy thought this to herself. She was not worried about not being able to find those people now, but rather more worried about what might happen to Nu Nuo Te before she found them.
The reason this group kidnapped Nu Nuo Te was for the Golden scepter, for the method to open the secret room of the Boyle family. After they captured Nu Nuo Te, they might torture him severely to extract a confession, but given Nu Nuo Te's loyalty to Davis, ordinary torture would not make him confess, so it should be able to drag on for a long time.
However, this group is not just simple robbers, they are "Silent" Extraordinary. For "Silent" Extraordinary, understanding a person's deep-hidden secrets does not require the trouble of severe torture; asking the spirits is simpler than asking the person directly.
Yes, what Dorothy is worried about now is that Nu Nuo Te will be killed directly and his soul summoned. If that group of treasure thieves chooses this efficient method, then everything might already be too late now. Nu Nuo Te might already be dead, and the bandits would have already learned the Boyle family's secret from Nu Nuo Te's soul.
For Dorothy, this is the worst possible outcome at the moment, because once Nu Nuo Te dies, Davis's remaining notes will be difficult to obtain.
'Phew... All in all, there has been some progress now, I should still inform Neff about the situation...'
Taking a long breath, Dorothy opened the contact page with Naifnis again, preparing to inform the other party of her situation. After all, she was investigating the case, and the family members had the right to know.
On the contact page with Naifnis, Dorothy wrote down the progress of the current investigation, including the identity and purpose of the bandits and the clues and progress she had obtained, and told the other party.
Since receiving the urgent telegram from home, Naifnis had been sitting restlessly in her hotel room, full of worry. After receiving Dorothy's reply, she finally breathed a slight sigh of relief. After seeing that the Rose Cross's power in Tivian had intervened in this matter, her worries were finally eased a little.
Then, Naifnis also immediately replied to Dorothy with her text, thanking her for her efforts. As for the possibility that Nu Nuo Te might have been killed and his soul summoned, Naifnis had her own opinion. In her reply to Dorothy, she directly put forward the conclusion that Nu Nuo Te's soul might not be so easy to summon.
"What? You mean Nu Nuo Te's soul is protected?" In her room, after seeing Naifnis's words on the ""wen hai hang zhi"", Dorothy couldn't help but respond with surprise, writing that this was the first time she had heard of a soul being protected.
"Yes, I saw this in my Grandpa's notes. According to Grandpa, the treasure hunters of North Wu often frequent dangerous ruins and tombs. The main dangers they encounter are various mechanisms, creatures, undead, and curses..."
"Although these four are all deadly, they are also different. While mechanisms and creatures are fatal, they often do not harm the soul. After treasure hunters die from tomb-guarding mechanisms and tomb creatures, their souls will usually sink normally into the Netherworld, heading to the end of the Nether River, which is what the New World calls returning to the great soul. However, the situation is different when encountering undead and curses. These two are not only deadly but also harm the soul..."
"The undead in ancient tombs often devour the souls of treasure hunters after killing them. And the souls of those treasure hunters who died from curses will also be enslaved by the curse itself, confined within the tomb to become tomb-guarding geoelectric undead, tormented by the curse day after day, never to be reborn. In addition, when treasure hunters fight among themselves, they also have the habit of summoning and enslaving each other's souls. Therefore, as Extraordinary of the ""Silent"", treasure hunters have developed many methods to protect their own souls through long-term accumulated experience."
"Treasure hunters hope that even if they unfortunately die one day, their souls will not be tormented or played with, but will sink to the depths of the Netherworld like ordinary people, to a place they call the end."
"My Grandpa is one of the best treasure hunters. He naturally knows these methods. He claimed in his notes that he learned to make a soul-protecting mark. When a person with this mark on their body dies, their soul will be protected and sink directly into the depths of the Netherworld, making it difficult to be summoned or enslaved."
"These marks were specifically developed for treasure hunting Extraordinary, using the power of the Extraordinary themselves. Therefore, they are not very useful for ordinary people and other Extraordinary, but they are very effective for Extraordinary of the ""Silent""."
"Grandpa Nu Nuo Te is also an Apprentice of the ""Silent"". Since my Grandpa knows how to use this mark, he must have used it not only on himself. The loyal Grandpa Nu Nuo Te definitely has it on him."
"Therefore, Miss Dorothy, you don't have to worry. As long as this mark is still there, Grandpa Nu Nuo Te's soul will be protected. Even if those bandits kill him, they won't be able to summon his soul. They would have to remove the mark before killing Grandpa Nu Nuo Te and summoning his soul, but one of the reasons this mark was created was the mutual summoning and enslaving of souls after treasure hunters fought among themselves, so it won't be easily removed. Therefore, I think Grandpa Nu Nuo Te should still be alive at this time!"
"Those bandits who want to get the secret of the scepter will either torture Grandpa Nu Nuo Te or kill him and summon his soul after removing the mark on him. Both of these require a lot of time, Miss Dorothy, I think we should have enough time!"
On the ""wen hai hang zhi"", Naifnis's handwriting quickly appeared before Dorothy's eyes. Looking at these words, Dorothy nodded secretly, feeling much more at ease in her heart for a moment.
'A soul-protecting mark? That's right. How could the Extraordinary of the ""Silent"", who are good at playing with other people's souls, not know how to protect their own souls? It's not strange at all to have these methods...'
'According to Naifnis, Nu Nuo Te should not be dead yet. If that's the case, then I should hurry up and find him... I must rescue him before Nu Nuo Te's mark is removed, or before his will can no longer bear it...'
Dorothy thought to herself. Having said that, since she was not in Tivian at the moment, all she could do was wait, waiting for news from Adele and Grego.
...
Time flew by, and soon a day passed. The sun and moon alternated in the sky above Tivian, and day and night changed incessantly. A day passed in the blink of an eye.
In order to coordinate the work in Tivian, Dorothy, who had originally planned to go out and have some fun, had to stay in the hotel all day, staring at the ""wen hai hang zhi"" every moment, staring at the information sent to her by both sides. It has to be said that the efficiency of both the black and white roads working together is extraordinary. Within about a day and a half, Dorothy obtained a lot of valuable information about those bandits.
First, the police in East Tivian, following Grego's suggestion, went to the port area to check for information about five North Africa people. Finally, they found relevant clues at the dispatch point of a taxi company in the port area.
According to the response of a coachman at the dispatch point of the coach company in the port area, he saw foreigners with similar descriptions at noon five days ago. The five of them rented two carriages and went to the streets near the Silver Orchid area with a large bag of tools. The coachman couldn't understand what most of them said, and only one could speak prite language with a heavy accent. The coachman complained that one of them was irritable and made a lot of noise in the carriage, as if complaining about the air and temperature. The door of the coachman's carriage was scratched by the tools they carried, but seeing that the other party was tall, big, and had a bad temper, he didn't dare to argue with them and could only swallow the loss.
After that, based on the information provided by the coachman, the police went all the way to the street where the other party got off. After investigation there, they found that there was indeed a clothing store where similar foreigners came to buy thicker clothes. Near this clothing store, the police also found the hotel where the few people had stayed, but the hotel owner said that although those people had stayed here for a few days, they checked out and left on the evening of two days ago and have not returned since. And two days ago was the Coronation Day, and on that evening, Boyle was robbed.
Since then, the police have temporarily not found any relevant clues from the vicinity. In Dorothy's opinion, this is also certain. This group of treasure hunting bandits will never openly stay in a hotel after kidnapping someone. Whether it is to interrogate Nu Nuo Te or remove the mark, they must find a safe and secret place, and this place cannot be exposed to the public's sight.
On the other hand, since they have not yet obtained the Golden scepter, they will not leave Tivian at night, but will hide in a certain place, waiting to get the specific information of the Golden scepter from Nu Nuo Te's mouth before returning to Boyle's mansion to retrieve it.
The whereabouts of this group of people became secret, and it was difficult for the police to find clues for a while. Therefore, Dorothy passed the information obtained from the police to Adele, asking Adele to let her subordinates search in the area where the group of people disappeared.
And Adele has many more ways under the surface. Through the local gangs, Adele quickly locked onto the whereabouts of that group of people. In the area where they disappeared, there was a small gang called the Express Gang, which held some rental carriages not registered with the carriage company. They usually helped people transport some shady things, or took people to dangerous areas where ordinary coachmen did not dare to go. It was a small link in the huge smuggling chain that spread throughout the East District. There are many similar black car gangs in Tivian.
When Adele got the news from Dorothy that this group of people wanted to transport kidnapped people, she directly asked her subordinates to signal a larger gang to question the coachman gang in that area, which was the Express Gang. The members of this small gang were completely scared and answered everything in front of the boss of the larger gang, honestly confessing all the business they had done recently.
This included being hired by a group of foreigners with dark skin to pull a bag two days ago. There were struggling goods in the bag. Out of professional ethics and the heavy money in the other party's hands, they did not ask much, but directly transported this thing and the five of them together to a designated location, Blackwater Street in the South District.
That place is one of the most chaotic places in the South District, where the public security is not very good. It is a place in Tivian where fish and dragons are mixed, and the deterrence of law is the weakest. It is very suitable for hiding illegal things or doing shady things.
...