Prit, East Tivian.
Before the Boyle mansion, two guards at the gate looked at their Captain, whose attitude had suddenly changed 180 degrees, with stunned expressions, not knowing what to say for a moment.
What's going on? Captain Mays House? This person looks so young, and he's already a Captain? Could there be a mistake!
Listening to Captain Homan's words, the two gate guards were extremely confused. When they looked again at the young man in front of them who looked to be in his twenties, they saw him putting away his identification book, and then walking through the gate with the Captain named Homan, entering the courtyard. Not long after walking in, Captain Homan turned his head and spoke sternly to the two at the entrance.
"You two, continue to keep a close watch here for me. Don't allow any unauthorized people to enter, got it?"
"Yes, yes sir!"
Responding to Captain Homan's words, the two guards continued to watch the gate. After scolding the two guards, Captain Homan looked at Grego with a smiling face again, made a gesture of invitation towards the distant mansion gate, and then said.
"Then let's go in now, Mr. Mays House. My people haven't been here long, and the scene is well preserved."
"Okay, thanks for your trouble."
Saying this, Grego and Captain Homan walked towards the mansion gate together. During this process, Captain Homan glanced around again, then lowered his voice and spoke to Grego.
"Uh... Mr. Mays House, this case this time, it won't be related to... well, the area you are responsible for, right?" Captain Homan said to Grego with a mysterious look, and Grego, after hearing his words, did not immediately give an affirmative or negative answer, but said noncommittally.
"It's not certain yet, but I saw a suspicious sign. Whether this can be confirmed as something from our side still requires investigation."
"Sign? The sign you mentioned is..."
"Don't worry too much about this. Sometimes knowing too much isn't good for you." Facing Captain Homan's secrecy, Grego responded directly in a sternly admonishing tone. Hearing Grego's response, Captain Homan also showed a worried expression and then stopped asking too many questions.
Just like that, Grego followed Captain Homan across the courtyard and officially entered the Boyle mansion. As soon as he entered the door, a scene of complete chaos met Grego's eyes.
Broken vases, overturned tables and chairs, open cabinets, torn sofas, carpets rolled into a ball... The originally well-decorated luxurious room was at this moment a scene of extreme disarray, with not a single pleasant sight to be seen.
Vase water flowed on the floor, the coal ash in the fireplace was dug out, and the floor was covered with wet coal ash mixed with glass shards and sofa stuffing, making it hard to find a place to step.
"It's truly horrific..."
After seeing the scene in the hall before him, Grego exclaimed like this, and Captain Homan beside him also spoke up.
"This family's surname is Boyle. Early this morning, we received a report from this family's servant saying that the house had been robbed. When we arrived here, the situation was already like this. According to the reporting servant, besides the entire house being turned upside down, the family's butler is also missing."
"Only the butler and servants... Where are the owners of this family?" Listening to Captain Homan's words, Grego continued to ask, and Captain Homan then replied.
"According to the servants here, the owners of this family fell ill last year and went to the countryside for recuperation. The only Miss of the family living here also went abroad for study and travel at the beginning of this year and has not yet returned. So, this house has been managed by the butler and servants. Last night was the Coronation Day, so the butler gave the servants a day off. When the servants returned this morning, this was the scene they saw, and the butler was also missing."
"Have you asked the neighbors nearby?"
"Yes, we have. Many of them heard quite a bit of noise coming from this mansion last night, and almost all the Lights were on. Some people thought they were moving."
Captain Homan said this to Grego. Listening to the other party's words, Grego couldn't help but nod slightly, and then began to carefully proceed further inside, examining the situation more closely.
Entering the chaotic interior, he then examined the scene more carefully. In Grego's observation, he found messy footprints of various sizes and styles on the ground. These footprints overlapped and were scattered throughout the house.
"These footprints aren't from your people, are they..." Grego turned his head and asked Captain Homan, who was not far away, and Captain Homan shook his head repeatedly in reply.
"No, no, no, these aren't ours. They should be from the thieves who broke in. We definitely kept important clues like footprints intact."
After hearing Captain Homan's response, Grego continued his inspection. He left the hall and went to more rooms, and the situation in these rooms was also a mess, similar to the hall.
Overturned cabinets, shattered decorations, broken glass, fallen bookshelves... Even the floors in many places were pried up, revealing the Stone ground beneath the wooden floor. Many walls were damaged with cracked plaster, covered in large and small pits everywhere, and there were also small Stone pit marks under the pried-up floorboards.
Accompanied by Captain Homan, Grego carefully observed room after room. He would sometimes examine the pit marks on the walls and the pried-up floorboards, and sometimes carefully observe every footprint on the ground.
After touring the second and third floors and examining the equally terrible situation there, Grego focused his inspection on the first floor and stopped in a collection room on the first floor.
Grego could see that this had once been a collection room housing a large number of exquisite items and exquisitely decorated. However, now this collection room was in the same state as the rest of the mansion. Many glass display cases were broken, and shattered glass shards were scattered on the ground. Various paintings on the walls were also taken down and thrown on the ground. Some of the items in the glass display cases were overturned everywhere, while others had disappeared without a trace. The floor was also pried open, and there were various marks on the walls. In one corner of the wall, Grego also found a small pile of ash.
After inspecting the collection room for a while, Grego squatted down in the corner, took a tiny bit of the ash, and sniffed it at his nose. After nodding slightly, he stood up, then turned around to look at Captain Homan, who had been following him, and then spoke.
"Captain Homan, what do you think of this group of thieves?"
Grego asked Captain Homan this way. After hearing Grego's words, Captain Homan's brows furrowed slightly, and then after some thought, he spoke normally.
"This group of thieves... In my opinion, they are incredibly audacious, yet also very strange and unusual."
"Oh, how so?" Grego continued to ask, while Captain Homan responded while thinking.
"Firstly, directly breaking into someone's home, turning the house into this state, and openly kidnapping someone is enough to show how rampant and daring these guys are. But what's confusing is that these guys searched the house a bit too thoroughly. Ordinary burglars breaking in to steal would at most rummage through cabinets or something, but these guys didn't just rummage through cabinets, it wasn't just as simple as rummaging through cabinets. They also directly pried up floors, smashed bottles, knocked walls, and even dug out the ash from the fireplace, knocking over such a large bookshelf..."
"To be honest, Mr. Mays House, I've been a police officer for so many years and seen many burglary and robbery cases, but this is the first time I've seen a victim's house messed up this badly. If someone didn't know, they'd think they weren't here to steal things, but to demolish the house and do renovations."
Facing Grego's question, Captain Homan stated his opinion directly, and Grego also nodded after hearing Captain Homan's explanation, and then continued.
"Yes, these are not ordinary robbers. They are from North Africa, a group of robbers who specifically target ancient artifacts."
"North Wu's... robbers? What, foreign?!"
Listening to Grego's words, Captain Homan's expression became very confused. He couldn't understand how this case was suddenly linked to robbers from North Africa thousands of miles away.
Grego did not directly respond to Homan's words. Instead, after scanning the surrounding room again, he paused slightly before speaking.
"There were likely around five people in this group. Three of them were around 65 inches tall, one around 68 inches, and one possibly 69 inches. They are all from North Africa, with darker skin than ours. The men have a tradition of growing beards, and their beards are quite substantial. Most of them probably do not speak the prite language, and even if they do, their accent should be quite heavy, immediately identifying them as foreigners."
"These people might not have very good tempers. If they interact with others, disputes might occur. They carry a pile of tools with them; these tools are often oddly shaped, including strange shovels, hammers, and some bone instruments whose purpose is unclear. It gives the impression that they are going to some kind of construction site."
"These people shouldn't have been in Tivian for long and probably haven't fully adapted here yet. Relevant clues might be found near the port area. Also, they might be buying clothes soon. Perhaps you can ask in some clothing stores in the port area or nearby if similar people have visited..."
Casually, Grego described the specific appearance of a group of people Homan had never met. Homan, standing beside him, was stunned into silence after hearing Grego's words, remaining motionless until Grego turned back to look at him and spoke directly.
"Did you hear everything I said clearly? Do you need me to repeat it?"
"Ah... yes, I heard it clearly, Mr. Mays House. I didn't expect Captain to get such detailed results so quickly. How did Captain know the characteristics of that group of criminals in such detail?"
Homan looked at Grego with a strange gaze and said, while Grego smiled slightly and spoke slowly with a hint of mystery in his tone.
"Some normal deduction, plus some methods from within my domain... In short, I won't go into the specific process with you in detail for now. The immediate priority is to find clues about those bandits and locate the poor kidnapped hostage."
"Chief Homan, just follow my information to search. Have your people focus on searching the port area and this vicinity, checking hotels, clothing stores, restaurants, and other shops. Notify me immediately if you find any clues."
"Oh, right, if you directly discover the whereabouts of that group's hiding place, absolutely do not act rashly. You must not make a move directly. Come back and tell me the information, and I will make arrangements."
With a stern tone, Grego spoke directly to the chief in front of him. The chief, who had been full of curiosity, couldn't help but nod solemnly after hearing Grego mention methods from his own domain, and stopped asking further questions.
"I understand. Thank you, Mr. Mays House, for assisting with the investigation. I will immediately arrange for people to do it. However, before that, would you mind if I first return to the police station to send a telegram to that place to further confirm your identity?"
"That's not a problem. After all, your actions under my direction constitute a transfer of command authority. I understand the need for caution. I will also explain the current situation to the bureau." Hearing Homan's words, Grego said directly, while Homan continued to speak.
"Okay, then I'll go explain things to my subordinates first."
Saying this, Homan withdrew from the collection room. After seeing Homan leave, Grego let out a long sigh, then scratched his head and muttered.
"Phew... As expected of the Detective, he can find a pile of things so quickly..."
As he spoke, a hint of envy appeared in Grego's eyes.
"If only I had his abilities..."
...
Iweig, Adria.
Next to the Adria Church Square, inside a high-end hotel, Dorothy was sitting seriously on a comfortable sofa. Just now, she had used Grego's senses to conduct an ultra-long-range reconnaissance of the Boyle mansion in Tivian and obtained preliminary results.
The Boyle was invaded by a group of treasure hunters from North Africa. Nu Nuo Te was taken by them, and their goal should be to find the Golden scepter that could protect the Boyle from curses.
While Grego was investigating the Boyle mansion, Dorothy had already had Naifnis sacrifice her detailed memories of her own home to Aka. Therefore, when Grego observed the Boyle mansion after the invasion, Dorothy also had the uninvaded Boyle mansion in her mind for comparison.
In this comparison, Dorothy discovered that many artifacts originally collected in the Boyle mansion were missing. These artifacts were almost all from North Africa culture, so it was highly likely that someone who recognized their value had taken them opportunistically. This was Dorothy's first point of judgment that the invaders were from North Wu.
The second point of judgment came from the various pitted marks on the walls and floor. Others might not see anything in these marks, but for Dorothy, who had read the great work by Blair, the master of tomb mechanisms and scholarly tomb raider, she could tell at a glance the unusual nature of these marks. These marks were left by a small hammer-shaped professional tomb-robbing tool, used to determine if there were hidden rooms or cavities behind walls or beneath the floor.
By tapping the wall surface with this special small hammer, if a peculiar sound is produced, it can determine if there is something else behind the wall. Based on the different tapping sounds, one can judge what is behind the wall. Is it a hidden compartment? Or a mechanism? Or perhaps the lair of a tomb-guarding creature? This small hammer can detect things behind very thick walls; it is a common tool in tomb raiding for identifying treasure locations and avoiding mechanisms. Additionally, Dorothy found the ashes of a talisman seal in the corner of the collection room, which might be the trace left by their use of a ground-listening talisman to search for a secret room.
The third point of judgment was footprints. Just as Homan said, footprints can provide many key clues. From the footprints throughout the building, Dorothy directly determined that these footprints belonged to a total of five people and estimated their approximate heights from the size of the footprints.
More critically, Dorothy noticed from the patterns on the soles of the footprints that the shoes leaving these prints were not the kind commonly worn by Tivian people, but rather boots more suitable for moving in sandy environments. And a desert climate is characteristic of North Wu.
These people came to Tivian without even having time to change their shoes, which proves they might have left in a hurry, or their understanding of Tivian is insufficient. This could lead to another consequence: being chilled by the climate of Tivian and having to buy clothes.
Although the climate in Tivian is not constantly very cold, it is still much colder than in North Wu. It is still March in Tivian, and the latitude is much higher than North Wu. If people from North Wu come here without preparation beforehand, they will get cold. Even with the physique of the ""Cup"", it is definitely better to be comfortable if possible. Therefore, Dorothy told Grego to have Homan and his people also keep an eye on the situation in clothing stores.
It is clear that this group of North Wu tomb raiders were not lifting floors and knocking on walls everywhere for anything else, but precisely to confirm whether there were hidden compartments or secret rooms behind them. What they wanted to find was the secret room where the Boyle kept the Golden scepter.
Fortunately, according to Naifnis's memory, the mechanism to activate the secret room was completely intact. Although those tomb raiders spent a lot of effort, they did not find the secret room. Many of Boyle's various vases were broken, some of which had no reason to be broken. The reason they were still broken might be the result of this group's venting their frustration at not achieving their goal. Therefore, Dorothy judged that their tempers might not be very good right now.
The reason they put in so much effort yet still didn't find the secret room is because this secret room was built by Davis. Davis himself is an absolutely seasoned treasure hunter, so of course he is aware of the various tricks of treasure hunters. Thus, when he built the secret room, he must have set up various countermeasures to counteract them, resulting in this group searching for a long time without finding it.
"It seems this group might be related to some prince. The specific situation still requires finding them."
"However, in Tivian, this isn't a difficult matter for me."
Dorothy muttered this, then opened Adele's contact page. In Tivian, she still had some connections and influence.