On the Road

After casually packing a few things, Angel followed the three Nighthawks out of the house.

Before that, she had asked to bring her weapons: the dagger and revolver she had inherited from Cole Granger, as well as the ladies' pocket pistol she had recovered from Iron Cross Street last night, which had belonged to her stalker.

Dunn Smith did not object, but he required that during the period Angel was "under protection," these weapons would be kept by another accompanying Nighthawk, Leonard Mitchell.

Isn't that basically the same as not bringing them at all... Angel pursed her lips, but still agreed.

When she went to retrieve the guns from the study, she secretly glanced at the hidden compartment beneath the desk. Inside lay a Beyonder Characteristic of unknown use. It did not seem to have been touched by the visitors, but she did not dare inspect it closely with Leonard following beside her.

After taking the weapons from the drawer and handing them over to Leonard, she brought several pounds in cash with her before finally leaving the house under the "escort" of the Nighthawks.

It was already the morning of the next day. Daffodil Street was bustling with pedestrians, while carriages passed through the crowd toward all directions. Parked outside was the police carriage Angel had seen in the middle of the night a few days ago. Two crossed swords surrounded a crown representing the royal family, displaying the class nature of the police system as servants of the Crown's will.

The street was not particularly wide, and a carriage parked like this had already affected traffic considerably. Yet the detouring pedestrians voiced no complaints. Instead, they stared in surprise at Angel as several police officers escorted her toward the carriage.

Now I'm famous throughout the neighborhood... Angel wanted to find a hole and crawl into it. She regretted not putting on a hood before leaving. Seeing the crowd beginning to gather even closer, she hurriedly stepped onto the carriage's footboard and climbed inside.

The interior was fairly spacious, with thick carpets and curtains covering the windows. A faint scent of incense hung in the air.

Daly Simone, dressed in a somewhat Gypsy-like style, entered right behind her. She also seemed unused to everyone's stares, having put on her hood before leaving the house. Only after entering the carriage did she reveal her face again, adorned with eyeshadow and blush. She sat across from Angel, and the tension in her body gradually eased.

The door remained open, but the other two Nighthawks did not get in.

Could this carriage need two drivers?

Thinking curiously, Angel pulled aside the curtain and looked outside.

The Granger residence was located at 6 Daffodil Street, near the Iron Cross Street end. The area consisted entirely of rows of low residential buildings, their front doors opening directly onto the street, unlike the wealthy homes in the North Borough, which had their own gardens and lawns.

At the entrance of another two-story residence beside Number 6, three men and one woman were conversing quietly. One middle-aged man held a ring of keys as he introduced the place to the other three, who clearly knew one another and stood closer together.

"Daffodil Street is right next to Iron Cross Street, so transportation is convenient and the surrounding facilities are complete. The nearby residents are all respectable people, such as teachers and government employees. Number 4 next door is occupied by a Lawyer, and then Number 6..."

He pointed toward Angel's front door, only to see several people emerge from it. Two men in the distinctive black-and-white checkered uniforms of the Tingen City Police escorted two ladies into a four-wheeled police carriage. The sight made him swallow the rest of his words.

I'd just bragged that everyone nearby was a respectable person with a proper occupation, and now the police were making such a spectacle of arresting someone here...

Scart from the Tingen City Housing Improvement Company began sweating as he racked his brains for a way to smooth things over. Then he saw that among the three clients before him, the young man greeted one of the officers beside the carriage with delighted surprise.

"Captain, why are you here too?"

They know each other? Scart stared at the two officers, especially the stars on their uniform epaulets, and fell into deep thought.

Beside the carriage, Dunn Smith and Leonard Mitchell were exchanging pleasantries with a young man in formal attire. Listening from beside the window, Angel learned that he was a newcomer who had just joined the Tingen City Nighthawks, named Klein Moretti. He had come to Daffodil Street today with his brother and sister to inspect houses available for rent or sale.

So he was planning to rent a place next to the Grangers? Angel looked at the two men and one woman standing at the entrance of 2 Daffodil Street behind him. One middle-aged man was holding the same kind of brass front-door key as Angel, and judging from his clothes, he was probably a housing agent introducing the property.

Housing on Daffodil Street was not cheap. Buying a house cost anywhere from 600 to 1,000 pounds depending on location and size. Even renting one cost around 15 soli a week, adding up to roughly 40 pounds a year. That was already close to the annual income of an ordinary worker in Tingen City, but income could not all be spent on rent. The residents here were therefore all "high-end wage earners" making far above the average.

The Nighthawks' salary must have been far higher than average for this "newcomer," Klein Moretti, to be so eager to rent a better home and improve his living conditions the moment he got the job.

She looked at Klein Moretti, who was thanking Dunn Smith for advancing his wages, and suddenly found that young, scholarly face in her memories.

So he was the young "official's son" who had ridden in the same carriage as Dunn Smith that night. It seemed that the Nighthawks going out to conduct official business in the middle of the night was routine. Remembering Dunn Smith's Sleepless Potion and his ability to invade dreams, Angel found it unsurprising that they liked going out in the latter half of the night.

Sensing the gaze from inside the carriage, Klein Moretti looked up at Angel. The instant their eyes met, he froze, then hurriedly looked away and turned back to Dunn Smith.

"This is Angel Granger, a distant relative of Cole Granger, who lived here. We received a report that Cole has been missing for several days, so we asked this lady to assist with the investigation. She is not a suspect, merely a witness."

Dunn Smith took the initiative to introduce Angel to Klein, but his voice was clearly louder than necessary for their conversation—loud enough for the surrounding crowd to hear.

Is he worried the neighbors will misunderstand? Is he explaining things for me?

Seeing the different looks in the crowd's eyes after they heard Dunn Smith's words, Angel could not help looking at Dunn again. This unsmiling Sleepless no longer made her as nervous as he had when they first met.

Klein Moretti still seemed somewhat confused. He opened his mouth, intending to ask further questions, but suddenly stopped as though he had remembered something. Then he bid Dunn Smith and Leonard Mitchell farewell and returned to the entrance of 2 Daffodil Street.

After the remaining two exchanged a few simple words, Dunn took over the task of driving the carriage and ushered Leonard aboard. Under the watchful eyes of the Moretti Family, the other neighbors, and passersby, they departed Daffodil Street.

Leonard Mitchell, with black hair, green eyes, and a temperament more like a poet's than a police officer's, bent down and entered the carriage, closing the door behind him. Spirit Medium Daly and Angel sat on the two opposing benches. Seeing Daly sitting coldly in the middle of her bench with no intention of making room, he could only give Angel an apologetic smile. Angel raised an eyebrow and moved to the door on the other side, yielding half her seat to Leonard.

"Thank you."

Leonard breathed a sigh of relief. He thanked Angel and sat down.

The carriage once again fell into an eerie silence, broken only by the intermittent cries of street vendors outside and the rhythmic clatter of wheels rolling over paving stones.

Less than two minutes later, unable to bear the silence, Leonard Mitchell took out the box of bullets he was keeping for Angel, removed one round, and began examining it closely.

His gaze swept across the intricate engravings on the casing before finally settling on the Evernight Goddess's emblem.

"This is a Demon Hunter Bullet? Did you make it yourself?" Leonard turned to ask Angel Granger, who was seated beside him. She had been staring at him ever since he took out the bullet.

"I made it myself, but it isn't the Demon Hunter Bullet you mentioned. I've never seen one."

Angel truly did not know what a Demon Hunter Bullet was, so she answered honestly.

Leonard Mitchell took out his own revolver from the shoulder holster beneath his police uniform, swung out the cylinder, ejected a bullet from one chamber, and held it out before Angel.

"This is a Demon Hunter Bullet. The engravings and emblem on it give it additional destructive power against Beyonder creatures."

Angel accepted the bullet and examined it carefully.

It was a silver-white pistol bullet that looked expensive at a glance. It was smaller than her Storm Convergence, approximately .38 caliber. Complex patterns were engraved over both the bullet and casing, while a black-and-crimson holy emblem of the Evernight Goddess was stamped on its base.

"The engravings are different, so their effects are different as well. My bullets mainly enhance penetration and power. They aren't specialized against any particular target." She returned the Demon Hunter Bullet to Leonard and explained.

Leonard nodded, put the silver-white Demon Hunter Bullet back into the cylinder, stowed his revolver, and picked up the crudely made yet more intimidating-looking .45-caliber Storm Convergence bullet again.

"Demon Hunter Bullets are the standard ammunition the Nighthawks use against Beyonder powers. They are manufactured and distributed by the Church. Not even the captain can make them. Where did you learn the method for making this bullet?"

He asked as though casually.

Angel was about to make up a lie to get through it, but her gaze caught Daly, the Spirit Medium sitting across from her. At some point, Daly had straightened up. In her hand was the copper goblet she had held when they first met at Cole's house.

Her heart tightened. Angel recalled her conversation with Dunn Smith in the dream, the strange gestures he occasionally made, and the way he had looked behind her. She swallowed the lie she had prepared and answered honestly.

"This is a crafting method passed down by the religion I originally belonged to. I intended to use it against Mrs. Sharon."

"Originally belonged to? Do you mean another Orthodox Church?" Leonard Mitchell first looked toward Daly. Only when he saw her give an almost imperceptible nod did he continue questioning.

"Not one of the seven Churches. It was simply a religion that no longer exists in this world."

Angel spoke with sorrow. It was not an emotion she had put on. Thinking that she might never return to her original world, her words inevitably carried some despondency and regret.

"But don't worry. It wasn't an organization that worshipped an evil god. Besides, I should count as a believer of the Evernight Goddess now. Look, She answered my prayer and bestowed power upon this bullet."

Angel pinched a Storm Convergence bullet between her fingers and released a small amount of spirituality into her fingertips. Sensing her spirituality, crimson light faintly flowed through the bullet casing's engravings, while the Evernight Goddess's holy emblem shone brilliantly within it.

Leonard Mitchell's eyes widened. As though unable to believe it, he stared closely at the bullet. Only after a while did he recover, seeming to ask someone else yet also muttering to himself, "Is this truly the Evernight Goddess's power... Mm, it seems that it is. With divine power attached, this already counts as a Beyonder Item. If I hadn't confirmed that you're an Assassin, I would almost have thought you were an Artisan from the Church of Steam."

Confirmed... So they really did have another way to verify whether I was lying in the dream. Now it seemed very likely to be the effect of the goblet Ms. Daly was holding. Good thing I didn't lie just now...

Also, what was an Artisan? He mentioned the Church of Steam. Was that the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery? Angel caught the keywords in their conversation and silently analyzed them in her mind, but her mouth did not stop.

"This truly is power bestowed by the Evernight Goddess. Last night, when I was making the bullets, I prayed to the god I had once believed in but received no response. I was nearly in despair then. I never expected the Evernight Goddess to answer my prayer at that moment, grant me her blessing, and let me complete these bullets. Praise the Goddess."

After saying that, Angel drew a Crimson Moon over her chest, thanking the Evernight Goddess for bestowing her blessing at that critical moment.

"Ah... Praise the Goddess." Leonard Mitchell hurriedly followed suit. The lingering confusion on his face remained. "Made last night? You mean you first prayed to your former god for a blessing?"

After hesitating for a moment, he still asked, "Forgive my abruptness, but how long have you believed in the Evernight Goddess?"

Angel glanced at Ms. Daly, who remained silent yet still held the copper goblet. She had no choice but to tell the truth. "I haven't believed in the Evernight Goddess for very long. It was mainly because of everything that has happened recently, especially..." She spoke vaguely for a few sentences, then decided it was not something that needed to be kept secret. "...To be precise, less than twenty-four hours."

Huh?

Leonard Mitchell turned toward Daly Simone, who held 3-0688, the Truth-Telling Goblet, only to find her looking back at him with the same puzzled expression.

The truth?