At 10 p. m., a light drizzle began to fall again in Backlund, and the thin mist gave the gas streetlights a hazy, beautiful glow.
Isengard Stanton's assistant, Bowen, surveyed the ground floor, walked to the bay window, and prepared to close the last window.
Just then, a dark figure darted in and landed steadily on the protruding wall.
It turned out to be a blue shorthaired stray cat!
Bowen saw the other person's large, round, yellow eyes looking at him and couldn't help but chuckle softly.
There is no food here.
Because Detective work can easily attract retaliation, and there are many secrets to hide, the cooks and servants in Isengard Stanton's household are all part-time workers, only coming for a fixed number of hours each day, and they don't prepare too much food at once, which makes it difficult for any food to be left over after dinner.
The blue shorthair cat opened its mouth, but instead of meowing, it spoke like a human:
"I am Sherlock Moriarty, and I wish to see Mr. Isengard Stanton."
"..." Although Bowen was Beyonder being cultivated by the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, his own Sequence was not very high and his knowledge was not extensive. This was the first time he had encountered a talking cat, and he was inevitably shocked and stunned for a moment.
Several seconds passed before he regained his senses and recalled the blue shorthair cat's words:
It said... it said it was Sherlock Moriarty?
This Detective is truly remarkable!
He can actually turn into a cat—no, control a cat!
This ability is both bizarre and terrifying!
Bowen quickly calmed down, didn't directly answer the blue shorthair cat, and reached out to close the glass window.
After doing all this, he lowered his voice and said:
"Come with me."
The blue shorthair cat immediately leaped off the platform behind the bay window, its tail held high, and nimbly walked behind Bowen, following him all the way to the second floor, watching him knock on the door of Isengard Stanton's bedroom.
"Is there something you need?" Isengard asked Door Opening, wearing light striped pajamas.
He was enjoying a cigarette before bed.
Bowen cautiously pointed to the blue shorthair cat crouching beside him and said:
"Mr. Sherlock Moriarty is looking for you."
With graying temples and a thin face, Isengard raised his eyebrows slightly, glanced down, took two steps back, and let the blue shorthair cat swagger into his bedroom.
"Go back to your room and get some sleep. Get up on time tomorrow. We still have a case to investigate," Isengard instructed Bowen as if nothing had happened.
After his assistant left, he closed the door, turned to look at the blue shorthair cat crouching beside the armchair, and chuckled softly.
"I didn't expect you to have such extraordinary abilities; I was worried you would come directly here."
"I noticed that exclamation mark," the blue shorthair cat said with a smile.
It has to be said that such an expression on a cat's face is quite incongruous and would give onlookers a chill down their spine and make their hair stand on end.
Isengard showed no unusual reaction to this. He took a puff of his pipe, sat down in his armchair, slowly exhaled with pleasure, and said with a smile:
I believe in your Wisdom.
"Thank you for the compliment." The blue shorthair cat politely extended its paw in a gesture of respect.
Isengard gazed at it, stroking his pipe as he smiled and said:
You should already understand what happened.
"Although those people dare not monitor us very strictly, for fear of being discovered and telling the Church of Evernight and the Church of Steam, haha, they would also be in considerable trouble if they were exposed, I believe that there must be Demigod among them. This is both a deduction and a conclusion that some feedback has given me, after all, I have lived on this street for many years."
"So, you've already thought of the fact that humans and animals won't be stopped from entering my house, but when they leave, they'll inevitably be followed. How do you get rid of them? Hmm... that's a considerable amount of money, and taking it out will be very conspicuous."
"Let me think. Are you planning to communicate with me so that I will deposit the money into a designated bank account, and then you will find many people to withdraw the money in batches and simultaneously in different places outside Backlund?"
At this point, Isengard chuckled self-deprecatingly:
"This is the best solution I can think of, but it will be very complicated to implement."
The blue shorthair cat didn't give a direct answer, but chuckled in a low voice:
All I need is an empty room and three candles.
"No problem." Isengard Stanton didn't press further, instead saying, "The price for this share transfer was twelve thousand gold pounds. The buyer is Earl Hall's daughter, Audrey. Well, hiring Lawyer and accounting team and placing advertisements cost a total of six hundred pounds. In addition, after paying 0.5% stamp duty and 20% D-class income tax, there's eight,940 pounds left."
Category D taxes refer to income taxes on business, finance, and specialized industries.
There's tax to pay... Over two thousand pounds gone in an instant... The blue shorthair cat's expression instantly went blank.
Klein used to be Nighthawks, whose salary was tax-free. Later, he became a private Detective, whose income was difficult to monitor, so he never filed taxes. Then, he became an adventurer, and because bounties for pirates were tax-free, he was still unaware of the tax implications. So, even when Isengard Stanton mentioned taxes last time, he didn't take it seriously, thinking it wouldn't be much. As a result, reality gave him a harsh lesson.
The reason why no tax was paid on the last equity transaction was because the Loen government encouraged initial investment in inventions and creations, and offered corresponding tax breaks.
After a brief silence, the blue shorthair cat twitched its whiskers twice and said:
"Okay, give me the cash, and um, move it to that empty room."
"Is there a problem with that cash?"
"I've already checked; they wouldn't try anything funny like that. That would be an insult to my intelligence," Isengard said, rising to pick up his pipe. "Remember to send me a signed confirmation of the transaction later."
"It's already on its way," the blue shorthair cat replied, as if prepared.
Isengard then went to the safe in the master bedroom, opened it with the combination and key, and took out stacks of cash, stuffing them into different briefcases.
Then, he took the document bags, left the master bedroom, and went into the guest bedroom diagonally opposite.
"Count them," Isengard said to the blue shorthair cat that had followed him, as he put down the briefcases full of cash.
"I believe you," the blue shorthair cat said after glancing at it a few times.
Isengard nodded and pointed to the cabinet, saying:
There are candles inside.
After saying that, he stepped back to the door, grabbed the handle, and said with a smile:
"I'm really curious how you'll leave... I think it'll be a spectacular 'magic trick'."
With a click, Isengard Stanton closed the door, leaving the guest room quiet and deserted once more.
A figure wearing a dark red coat and an old tricorn hat quickly appeared next to the blue shorthair cat; it was Klein's Marionette, " The Wraith " Senor.
He pulled out candles and quickly set up a makeshift altar, skipping all the preliminary steps, and began chanting in a low voice in Elvish:
" The Blessed of the sea and the Spirit World, the Protector of the Rorsted Archipelago, the Ruler of Undersea Creatures, the Master of Tsunamis and Storms, the great Kavithua."
Your faithful servant begs for your attention;
"Please accept his offering;"
"We beseech you to open the gates of your kingdom."
The wind within the Wall of Spirituality suddenly intensified, Senor quickly scratched the skin on the back of his hand with his fingernail, drawing out drops of blood.
As Sequence 5 " Wraith," everything about him is like material rich in Spirituality!
The gale sucked away the blood and poured it into the candle flame that symbolized the " Sea God " Kavithua, causing it to swell and transform into a phantom door full of magical symbols and emblems.
After about ten seconds, the door creaked heavily and slowly opened little by little.
Senor then picked up the briefcases containing cash one by one and tossed them into the illusory gate.
When there were no more coins left, a gold coin contained within him flew out and landed on the altar.
The figure of the " Wraith " then disappeared, its image projected onto the smooth part of the gold coin.
The gold coins wobbled and flew up, following the document bag in front, and entered the illusory Gate of Sacrifice.
Without a sound, the mysterious door closed, and the three candle flames returned to normal.
At this moment, the blue shorthaired cat seemed to regain its senses, looking around blankly and meowing.
After a while, Isengard Door Opening and came in, only to find that the briefcase full of banknotes was gone, leaving only three candles burning quietly, and the blue shorthaired cat warily arching its back.
As he gazed intently at the scene, a horse-drawn carriage slowly drove past at the other end of the street.
On the same night, inside a building in the Cherwood Borough.
Hugh returned home in the light drizzle, drying his hair with a towel as he spoke to Fors:
Your letter has been mailed.
Fors hummed in agreement, secretly wondering when his teacher would reply.
At this moment, Hugh put down the towel and casually said:
"We've received word about Mr. X's party; it's at the same place as before, Friday night."
"Great, we can tell Mr. 'World' now! I wonder how much the payment will be... "Fors' eyes lit up.
Before she could even ask for details, Hugh had already added on his own:
" Mr. X also gave me a task that was supposedly very well paid for: to tell him about people I know who have abnormal luck."
"Someone with unusual luck?" Fors murmured doubtfully. "Is this man out of his mind? Who would reveal their surroundings at a party like this? It's easy for their true identity to be discovered."
"Who knows? Maybe he really is a Lunatic." Hugh didn't know anyone with unusual luck, so he replied indifferently.
Fors thought about it carefully for a while, but still couldn't figure out the true purpose of the task. He could only put it out of his mind and prepare to pray to Mr. The Fool when Hugh went to take a shower, so that he could pass on the relevant information to "The World" Gehrman Sparrow.