Commission

The woman who entered the Isengard Detective Agency was around twenty-five or twenty-six years old. She wore a red dress, had smooth, fair skin and a voluptuous figure, and her black hair fell like a waterfall. Her blue eyes were filled with seductive charm, utterly captivating.

Since Detective Isengard happened to be away, the household servant somewhat dazedly led the woman to Abner's office.

Even Abner was slightly stunned when he first saw the woman's face. However, he had seen plenty of the world in the Information Age, and quickly recovered. He greeted her politely, "Good day, Miss. I'm Abner, Detective Stanton's apprentice and assistant. Detective Stanton hasn't returned yet. If you have something to commission, you can come back at eleven."

The woman narrowed her eyes and smiled. Though it was only a simple gesture, it was exceptionally eye-catching. She leisurely sized Abner up and said in a very pleasant voice, "I actually came to find you, Mr. Braine. You're already quite a famous detective in this area. I have a small matter I'd like to commission you to handle."

Abner was somewhat surprised. Although he had gained a little fame, the people who actually came to him for help were usually short on money and looking for a bargain. The clothes and jewelry worn by the woman before him were all quite expensive. She certainly didn't look like someone who couldn't afford his teacher.

Still, since someone had come to give him money, Abner naturally wouldn't refuse. He first led the woman to a seat in the reception area, then asked, "Miss, I'm honored by your recognition. May I ask what I can help you with?"

"Detective Braine, just call me Rei." After giving her name, the woman continued, "I want to commission you to investigate the interests, hobbies, and daily travel habits of these gentlemen. The more detailed, the better."

As she spoke, she took a folded sheet of letter paper from her handbag and placed it on the coffee table in front of the sofa.

Abner bent down, unfolded the letter, and began carefully reading the names written on it.

"Lord Natos, Viscount Consleck, Baron Gramir, Baron Newglass..."

"There are twelve in all, all unmarried noblemen... Good grief, is this woman building a harem?" Abner's eye twitched as he subconsciously grumbled inwardly. Next, he recalled the information about these nobles in his teacher's files, and gradually gained an idea of the situation. Nevertheless, he pretended to be troubled and said with a slight frown, "This commission isn't complicated, but it's very tedious. It will require a long time and plenty of assistants to complete."

"I understand. I'll pay you a satisfactory price." Miss Rei nodded lightly, then casually gave Abner a flirtatious look, offering him plenty of Suggestion.

Abner ignored it completely. After pondering for a moment, he said:

"Twenty pounds. Since this involves nobles, I'll have to bear a certain amount of risk, so the price of this commission is twenty pounds! In addition, you'll have to give me at least a week."

In fact, most of what this woman wanted could be found in his teacher's database. At most, some of it was outdated and needed to be reconfirmed.

"That's a very reasonable price. I accept! Hmm, I can pay you five pounds in advance. I'll come again on Friday. If there's progress, I'll pay you another five pounds. I'll give you the rest after everything is complete!" Miss Rei seemed quite wealthy and didn't bargain in the slightest.

"Then let's sign the contract!" Abner took out a standard contract, signed it first, and then handed it to Miss Rei.

The other party signed her name without even seeming to read it.

After seeing Miss Rei out and rousing the male servant, who was still dazed, Abner returned to his office and reconsidered the commission. This was his habit, as well as a requirement of Acting as a Detective.

"On the surface, Miss Rei seems to be nothing more than a socialite who selects high-quality men. That matches both her clothing and bearing and the content of the commission fairly well. But she always gives me a sense of danger and incongruity! In addition, there's something wrong with the list of noblemen she provided... Although they're all unmarried, their situations don't seem very good. According to my teacher's information, these people have either fallen into decline and are in poor financial circumstances, or offended powerful figures and temporarily lost their influence... In short, they're all people who possess a certain status but lack the substance of nobility!"

"As for Miss Rei choosing these targets, one possibility is that they dressed themselves up attractively and deceived her. But that possibility is very low. That woman obviously isn't easy to fool. And even if one or two of them had superb acting skills and managed to deceive her, it wouldn't be the case for all of them! Hmm, the second possibility is that these people were carefully selected by Miss Rei herself. Their poverty and loss of influence were precisely what she was looking for!"

"But what purpose would that serve? She's very wealthy, so does she want to find a man with status but financial difficulties to raise her own social standing? That's possible, but women like her are already pursued by many nobles. She wouldn't need to hire a detective to gather information. She'd only need to attend a ball, and the other party would take the bait... Unless her money came from an improper source!"

"Another possibility is that she wants to use this type of man to accomplish something. For example, use him as a stepping stone to climb higher. Or... Huh? Has Baron Gramir appeared in the novel?"

Halfway through his deduction, Abner suddenly narrowed his eyes. He silently activated the Pure White Eye and recalled the contents of Lord of Mysteries. He immediately gained a new line of thought:

"So Baron Gramir was the unlucky man who would later be replaced by Vice Admiral Hurricane Qilingos... Looking at it this way, the nobles on the list share another trait: none of them has hired a Beyonder bodyguard!"

"So Miss Rei is selecting suitable targets for Qilingos to impersonate in advance? That's right. After replacing that unfortunate man, Qilingos quickly grasped his habits, interests, tone, and personality. Clearly, someone had provided him with the corresponding information beforehand. Such private information would be much easier to obtain from a beautiful woman close to Baron Gramir..."

By this point, Abner had more or less figured out the sequence of events. With another piece or two of evidence, he would be able to confirm it completely. Deducing the process backward from the result really was the simplest form of reasoning.

"Heh, now that I think about it, Miss Rei might not even be a real beauty! Qilingos's actions were backed by an organization whose name cannot be spoken, and that organization was effectively an ally of the Demoness Sect during this series of events in Loen. Moreover, after Qilingos died, his pirate fleet was taken over by people sent by the Demoness Sect... In that case, it would make sense for them to send a Demoness to gather information in advance!"

At this thought, Abner felt a headache coming on and sympathized with the male servant in the sitting room, who still looked as if he had lost his soul.

"I'd better pretend not to know about this. Since it involves the Ancient Sun God, as long as she doesn't provoke me, there's no need for me to deliberately ruin things. Under the Author's interference, this matter might not even be ruined... Besides, the nobles on that list aren't good people. Aside from one or two exceptions, they were all the sort whose deaths wouldn't be a great loss."

After reaching a decision, Abner didn't immediately organize the information. Instead, he prepared to slightly alter his reasoning and discuss it with his teacher. One must always guard against others. Toward a suspected Demoness, Abner had not the slightest trust. He had to prepare for unexpected developments.

After leaving the detective agency, Rei wore a smile full of interest and muttered, "What an interesting little detective. He can actually ignore my charm! Hmph, sooner or later I'll make you sink into Pleasure and be unable to escape!" Next, she boarded a carriage that had been waiting by the roadside.

Someone was already waiting inside the carriage. She was a young girl with an innocent face and a strong literary air.

When she saw Rei return to the carriage, the young girl bowed slightly and asked curiously, "Lady Rei, we could easily gather such superficial information ourselves. Why spend money commissioning a detective?"

"Because it's more natural and better fits the identity we're presenting. Even if official Beyonders investigate, it won't arouse much suspicion. They'll only think I'm a mistress who is good at finding opportunities. Without this step, there would be no way to explain why we're so familiar with a nobleman's habits and can easily arrange an encounter with him. If we're investigated, that would easily become a point of suspicion." Miss Rei smiled as she explained.

"But weren't those nobles so impoverished that they didn't even have Beyonder bodyguards? How would they attract an official investigation?" The young girl remained puzzled.

"It was only a precaution. Besides, their apparent poverty may not be genuine. We need to leave ourselves the means to deal with unexpected developments." Rei shook her head and tapped the young girl with a finger. "Lina, you're just too careless. You didn't take any precautions against the person you recruited, and now that person has fallen into official hands and exposed you. If I hadn't been with you earlier, you would've fallen into an ambush by the official team at that loan shark gang!"

"I never expected Turner to be such a useless fool. He actually managed to botch even a business selling people," Lina said dejectedly.

"Have you investigated how the person you recruited was exposed? I'm not asking you to avenge him, but you should at least learn from it," Rei asked.

"I haven't found out exactly what happened... But before Turner got into trouble, a bounty hunter investigated the loan shark business. Perhaps she had something to do with Turner's capture. I was planning to start by investigating her. Oh, that bounty hunter seems to be somewhat famous in the East Borough. She's called the Arbiter."

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(End of chapter)