Looking at Klein, Leonard nodded with a smile in his green eyes.
"Then what do you need them to provide?"
He had worked with Old Neil and the others many times, so he naturally understood that divination required a medium, especially when the "main character" was absent.
Klein thought for a moment, then looked at the butler, Cully.
"I need clothes Elliott has worn recently that haven't been laundered yet. It would be even better if you had an accessory he used to wear."
He tried to choose ordinary mediums rather than things that would set ordinary people's imaginations running wild.
Even so, the old butler Cully looked puzzled.
"Why?"
After asking, he added:
"I have a photograph of Little Eliot with me."
Why? Because we're going to use divination to find him... For a moment, Klein actually had no idea how to answer.
If he told the truth, setting aside whether it would violate the confidentiality rules, the old butler Cully would most likely turn around and leave, tearing up the contract on the spot and cursing inwardly, "These swindlers! If that could work, I might as well go to the most famous Spirit Medium in Awwa County!"
Beside him, Leonard Mitchell chuckled.
"Mr. Cully, my companion—well, colleague—keeps an unusual pet. Its sense of smell is even keener than a hound's, so we need clothes Little Eliot has worn and things he has carried to help find him. As you know, clues often only narrow things down to a general area."
"As for the photograph, we need that too. He and I must know what Little Eliot looks like."
The old butler Cully accepted this explanation and slowly nodded.
"Will you wait here, or come with me to Mr. Vickroy's residence in the city?"
"We'll come along to save time," Klein answered succinctly.
He wanted both to try out his Beyonder abilities and to fulfill his simple desire to save others.
"Very well. The carriage is downstairs." As he spoke, the old butler Cully took a black-and-white photograph from his pocket and handed it to Leonard.
It was a photograph of Elliott Vickroy alone. He was about ten years old, with rather long hair that nearly covered his eyes. There were obvious freckles on his face, and his appearance was not particularly distinctive.
Leonard glanced at it and casually passed it to Klein.
Klein studied it carefully and tucked it into his pocket. Then he picked up his cane, put on his hat, and followed the two men out of the Blackthorn Security Company and into the carriage waiting downstairs.
The carriage's interior was quite spacious, with thick carpeting and a small table for placing things on.
With the old butler Cully present, neither Klein nor Leonard spoke. They quietly felt the carriage travel steadily through the dwindling rain and along the waterlogged road.
"A fine coachman." After an unknown stretch of time, Leonard broke the silence with a smiling compliment.
"Mm," Klein replied perfunctorily.
The old butler Cully forced a smile.
"He would be honored by your praise. We're nearly there..."
For fear of alerting the kidnappers, the carriage did not approach the tobacco merchant Vickroy's residence, stopping instead beside a nearby street.
The old butler Cully opened his umbrella and returned alone. As they waited, Leonard once again spoke to Klein of his own accord.
"I had no other purpose when I speculated about the reason last time. I only wanted to tell you that the notebook will definitely appear again, perhaps very soon."
"That really isn't a pleasant deduction." Klein gestured with his chin toward the coachman's position outside, signaling that they should not discuss sensitive subjects with someone else present.
Leonard whistled and turned to look out the window. Raindrops slid down the glass, leaving hazy trails that blurred the world outside completely.
After a while, Cully returned carrying a bag of things. Having walked too quickly, his trouser cuffs were covered in muddy water, and the front of his clothes bore many wet patches.
"These are the clothes Little Eliot wore yesterday, and this is the storm amulet he used to wear."
Klein took them and glanced over them, finding a miniature gentleman's formal outfit: a little shirt, a little waistcoat, a little bow tie, and so on.
The storm amulet had a bronze base engraved with symbols representing gales and waves, but it did not stir Klein's Spirit Intuition.
"I'll now describe Little Eliot's kidnapping in detail to help you narrow down your targets..." The old butler Cully sat down and recounted the morning's nightmarish experience, hoping the help he had finally found would prove useful.
Klein and Leonard had no interest in the exact course of events. They only cared how many kidnappers there were, whether they had displayed anything unusual, and whether they carried weapons.
"Three," "normal," "armed"... After getting the information they wanted, they said goodbye to the old butler Cully and hired a light, two-wheeled carriage nearby.
Unlike public carriages, these hired carriages came in both four-wheeled and two-wheeled varieties and could charge either by distance or by time. The former cost four pence per kilometer within the city and eight pence per kilometer outside it. The latter cost two soli an hour, with anything under an hour charged as a full hour. Beyond the first hour, each additional fifteen minutes cost six pence, and anything under fifteen minutes was charged as a full fifteen minutes. In bad weather or emergencies requiring greater speed, the price would rise further.
Klein had heard from his instructor Azik that hired coachmen in the capital, Backlund, were notorious for demanding arbitrary fares.
To him, this was quite a luxurious indulgence. For now, however, he did not have to worry about it, as Leonard tossed the coachman two one-soli notes.
"Charge by time." After giving that instruction, Leonard shut the carriage door.
"Where would you gentlemen like to go?" the coachman asked, delighted yet bewildered as he held the two notes.
"One moment." Leonard turned his gaze to Klein.
Klein nodded slightly, took out Elliott's clothes, and spread them over the carriage floor. Then he wound the storm amulet around the head of his cane.
Gripping the silver-inlaid black cane, he planted it upright on Elliott's clothes.
A "sphere of light" formed in his mind. Klein swiftly grew calm, and the brown of his eyes darkened as he entered a state of half meditation.
He felt signs of the "spirit" within his body growing lighter and floating. Vaguely perceiving the omnipresent Spirit World, he began silently repeating, "Elliott's location."
After seven repetitions, he took his hand off the black cane. Yet the cane did not fall, remaining upright even as the carriage swayed slightly!
Faint, invisible movements came from all around. Klein felt as though pairs of indifferent eyes were watching him.
During this period, he occasionally experienced similar sensations while meditating or using Spirit Vision.
With a faint sense of creeping dread, he gazed at the cane with his deep black eyes and silently repeated once more:
Elliott's location.
The moment he finished, the silver-inlaid black wooden cane fell, tipping straight ahead.
"Go straight," Klein said in a low voice, catching the cane.
His voice sounded faintly ethereal, as though it could penetrate an unknown world.
This was one of the divination abilities he had mastered, called Dowsing for Objects. The implement had to be made of wood, metal, or a mixture of both.
Normally, this required two actual dowsing rods-shaped like straight pieces of wire bent at right angles, held by their shorter sides, with their rotation determining the direction. But as a Seer, Klein had discovered through practice that he could use this method of finding objects to locate people directly, and substitute a cane for the dowsing rods. The direction it fell was the direction of whatever he sought.
As for the Antigonus Family's notebook, Klein could not remember its appearance at all and had no impression of it, so he could not search for it.
"Go straight," Leonard called to the coachman. "We'll tell you when to turn."
The coachman had no idea why they were doing this, but the notes in his inner pocket and the image of the other man paying without hesitation kept him from asking. He chose to comply.
The carriage moved slowly, passing street after street.
Along the way, Klein used Dowsing for Objects several times to correct their course.
Once the carriage had circled a building, he finally confirmed that Elliott was inside. Only thirty minutes had passed since they parted with the old butler Cully.
After dismissing the coachman, Klein no longer used Elliott's clothes. He planted the cane with the storm amulet wound around it directly on the ground.
His eyes darkened once again, and the few remaining raindrops around them suddenly swirled in place.
The cane fell diagonally forward. Klein pointed at a stairwell entrance.
"There."
"Sometimes, I really envy Old Neil. Likewise, I envy you now," Leonard said with a smiling sigh as he watched.
Klein glanced at him and answered evenly:
"This isn't difficult. If you're willing, you can definitely learn it... Your Spirit Intuition should be very high, shouldn't it?"
Leonard nodded and chuckled.
"That's not a good thing."
He quickened his pace and entered the stairwell through the last of the rain.
Afraid of getting his formal clothes wet, Klein followed at almost a jog.
The building had only three stories and resembled an apartment block on Earth, with just two apartments off each floor's landing at every entrance. Klein used Dowsing for Objects once each on the first and second floors, but the cane remained firmly upright, pointing above.
The two lightened their footsteps and reached the third floor, where Klein once again gently stood the silver-inlaid black cane on the ground.
Whoo!
A breeze swept through the stairwell, and his eyes changed color, turning so deeply black that they seemed capable of drawing in souls.
Whoo, whoo, whoo!
Invisible sobbing seemed to rise around them.
Klein released his hand, and the cane with the storm amulet wound around it stood upright in a miraculous fashion.
After silently repeating "Elliott's location" once more, he watched his black cane fall, landing soundlessly and pointing toward the apartment on the right.
"He should be inside," Klein said, picking up his cane and tapping his glabella twice.
As various "colors" deepened, he looked toward the door on the right and directly saw the various "auras" inside.
"One, two, three, four... Three kidnappers and one hostage. The numbers match... One of the auras is short and small. That should be Elliott... Mr. Cully said they had two hunting rifles and a revolver..." Klein said quietly.
Leonard chuckled.
"Let me recite a poem for them."
"Why become kidnappers? Couldn't they happily be civilized people?"
He set down the bag containing Elliott's clothes and took two steps forward. His expression instantly became tranquil and sorrowful.
His low, resonant voice slowly spread:
"Ah, threats of dread, and crimson hopes!
One thing at least is true: this life flies.
One thing is true, and all the rest are lies,
The flower that once has bloomed forever dies..."