Raphael sat down in a chair, crossed his legs, and took a metal cigarette case from his jacket pocket. He pulled out a cigarette.
His subordinate Carter took out a match and stepped forward to light it for his boss.
When they had knocked on the door here, Audrey had certainly thought the two kidnappers before her were a pair of bastards. Under their coercion, Markel, the disabled owner of the apartment, had been forced to agree to let them use his home as a hideout for their hostage.
But when the kidnappers had sent Markel out to buy food just now, Audrey had noticed no trace of unwillingness in his expression. The two kidnappers had also been perfectly comfortable letting him go shopping alone.
Audrey suspected that Markel was probably their accomplice.
Townsend Street.
Oliver, a senior deacon of the Nighthawks, was investigating the original crime scene.
The horses and the coachman had all regained consciousness by then. Having eaten quite a bit of bark, the coachman was vomiting in a corner.
But more than the pain in his stomach, the coachman worried about whether he could keep his job.
Just then, a carriage bearing the Hall Family's emblem drove up and stopped in front of the scene. Several men and women in formal attire stepped out.
Leading them was a cold-faced man who looked to be in his thirties.
He was Noel, the head of Earl Hall's Beyonder bodyguards.
Only upon seeing Senior Deacon Oliver did a faint smile appear on his face. "Any progress?"
"My colleagues have already set off in pursuit with the portraits," Oliver replied. "But they found the carriage used in the crime in an alley on Morning Street, along with their clothes, false beards, and other items. We suspect they changed their disguises and escaped."
They had also found Miss Audrey's dress inside that hired carriage.
Noel frowned. "What a pack of outlaws, daring to commit such a crime in Backlund."
Then he glanced at the other two Nighthawks nearby and said to Oliver, "May I speak with you in private?"
The two walked some distance away from the scene. Noel took an envelope containing a thin sheaf of papers from his pocket and handed it to Oliver. "The Earl hopes this matter can be kept confidential.
"He will publicly announce that Miss Audrey had an urgent matter to attend to and returned to the family's estate in East Chester County."
Oliver pushed the envelope back. "Rest assured, the Nighthawks aren't reporters. We'll keep it confidential."
Noel offered the envelope again. "Inside is a letter of recommendation from Earl Hall for Worthington Grammar School."
Oliver paused. Worthington Grammar School was a renowned aristocratic school with extremely strict admission requirements. His child had taken the entrance examination twice and failed both times.
But a recommendation from a member of the school's board allowed admission without an examination.
Earl Hall was one of those board members.
Oliver took a deep breath before accepting the envelope. "We will not breathe a single word of this to anyone!"
He had just put the envelope away when a carriage bearing the Dark Sacred Emblem came racing up. The door opened, and Eugenia, a female Nighthawk in her twenties, said, "Deacon, all my divinations have failed. I need to apply to use a Sealed Artifact for further investigation."
She was a member of the Seer pathway. She glanced at Noel beside him and did not mention the Sealed Artifact's number.
Oliver knew which Sealed Artifact she wanted to use. He tipped his hat to Noel in farewell, then left a Nighthawks captain in charge of the scene.
Oliver boarded the carriage and returned to the Nighthawks' headquarters with Eugenia. After submitting an application to His Excellency the Archbishop, they went beyond the Chanis Gate accompanied by a bishop and retrieved the Marionette Pendant, "1-46," that they needed.
This Sealed Artifact was a pendant whose appearance changed constantly. One moment it was set with a gemstone, and the next it became a gold pendant. It would shift from a Loen style to a Southern Continent style in an instant.
All divinations had to be completed within fifteen seconds, and the pendant sealed again, or the user would become the Sealed Artifact's marionette.
Eugenia took out an accessory belonging to Miss Audrey that had been found in the carriage used in the crime and divined the young noblewoman's current location. All she saw was a mass of churning gray fog.
Eugenia froze for a moment, but she wasted no time taking out the clothes the criminals had left behind and divining their location. Once again, all she saw was churning gray fog.
The Nighthawks therefore concluded that a high-sequence member of a secret organization must be involved in the case. Otherwise, even a demigod-level divination could not have failed to reveal anything at all.
Inside a shabby apartment in the Bridge District.
Raphael was cooking, while Carter washed the plates and cutlery, carefully dried them, and set them on the dining table.
Markel wanted to help, but he had no idea what to do, so he seemed to be wandering in circles around the apartment.
Sitting in her chair, Audrey found it rather strange. She could not quite understand why the leader of the kidnappers was cooking in person.
The main reason was that Raphael had certain standards when it came to food.
After transmigrating to this world, apart from the lack of the internet and electronic devices, the thing he had found hardest to adjust to was the food.
He had discovered that food in this world seemed to fall into two extremes. The nobility and the wealthy ate exquisitely prepared, delicious meals, while ordinary people's food was very crude.
The bread was nothing like the soft bread he remembered. It was hard and dry, while everyday dishes were either terribly greasy or utterly bland. There was no concept of balancing meat and vegetables.
If Raphael wanted a satisfying meal, he had to go to a hotel and order the sort of set meal that included an appetizer and a main course, but that was far from cheap.
So Raphael had started cooking for himself. Carter knew his boss's habits, so he simply helped out on the side, eagerly anticipating the food his boss would prepare.
Raphael first boiled the noodles, then poured a little oil into the pan and stir-fried some sliced garlic and cabbage.
Bean sprouts were too much to hope for. In the three months since he had transmigrated, Raphael had never managed to buy any in Backlund.
Once the cabbage had softened, he added the cooled noodles. Unfortunately, nowhere in Backlund sold fresh noodles, or the dish would have tasted even better.
Then he seasoned it with salt and soy sauce and sprinkled on a little cumin before taking it off the heat. The aroma made even Audrey, a member of the highest nobility, turn to look.
Raphael cooked enough for all four of them in two batches. Once the noodles were served, Carter and Markel immediately began wolfing them down.
Audrey had not intended to eat. To her, a dinner without even soup or an aperitif was simply too shabby.
But the noodles on her plate did smell quite good, so she twirled a few around her fork and put them in her mouth. A little of the cooking water had bound the aroma of the cumin and the other seasonings perfectly to the noodles.
With one bite of the springy noodles, a complex yet perfectly balanced flavor burst across her tongue. It was nothing like eating Feynapotter fried noodles.
Raphael, who had poured a little vinegar over his noodles, noticed Audrey's impressed expression. Noble food must be pretty ordinary too, he thought. She's already in her twenties, and she's never even had a decent plate of fried noodles.
Before you continue