novelhk Chapter 107 Stealing Books
Chapter 107 Stealing Books
Seeing that Charles had misjudged her as a capable detective, Suren went along with it, saying, "I can help you find that book, but if there are no clues, I can't do anything about it."
"You don't need to worry about that," Charles smiled confidently. "Actually, I've already had people investigate, and we've identified three suspicious underground groups. However, they're quite powerful, so my people are hesitant to investigate further."
He waved to Loft, who then handed him a thick document.
After taking it, Suren glanced at it and found that it contained an overview of the three gangs and relevant information about the books.
These organizations are not large in scale, about the same size as the "Classical Wisdom Society," with only about ten members in each organization, most of whom are ordinary people.
"Hmm, if it's only this bad, my [Revelation] should be enough to solve the problem fairly easily..."
Suren looked up, somewhat puzzled, and asked, "But the Howard family must have taken some action as well, right?"
"That's why I contacted you. If nothing unexpected happens, the Howard family will take action tomorrow, so we need to find the books before they do."
Charles, now somewhat serious, looked earnestly at Suren and said, "Your powerful tracking abilities and strength have left a deep impression on me, so I believe you are fully capable of doing it!"
"You really think highly of me."
Suren was not blinded by the other party's flattery, but carefully weighed the pros and cons in her mind.
"These three organizations are indeed not very strong, but even a novice can defeat a master with a flurry of punches. When there are many superhumans, the combined effect of their bizarre abilities is quite exaggerated. At least for now, I am still relatively vulnerable."
"However, the enemy is in the open while we are in the shadows. If all else fails, we can use the Mirror Demon, and with Ellie's Tears' exaggerated abilities, there shouldn't be any major problems."
Suren thought about it and felt that completing the mission with his own strength shouldn't be a big problem, and if all else failed, his "Mirror World" was also a great escape technique.
After some thought, Suren decided to accept the task, but the reward still needed to be negotiated. He immediately asked, "So, if we find that book, what kind of reward would Mr. Charles be willing to offer?"
"5000 pounds!" Charles said without hesitation.
"Not enough."
Suren shook her head and quietly looked into Charles's eyes: "If I can retrieve the books, I need to be given a spot to participate in the exploration of the Land of Lamentation, as a collaborator."
Charles frowned slightly. He knew that Suren's request was not as simple as exploring the Land of Lamentation together; she wanted a share of the spoils.
However, he didn't have any good solutions. After all, Henry's abilities were mostly for protection, and he wasn't good at things like infiltration and finding items. He also couldn't find any other awakened beings with stronger abilities for the time being.
After a moment's thought, Charles nodded helplessly, then agreed to come back to the store the next day to complete the transaction, before leaving with Loft.
After the two boarded the carriage, Loft asked curiously, "Sir, those bandits aren't bad either. Can Karen Dantès really handle them?"
"There's not much I can do now. If I weren't worried about alarming the church, I wouldn't be so cautious."
Charles sighed, then chuckled softly, "But Henry thinks highly of this Karen Dantès. According to Henry, there's a dangerous aura about him..."
"Danger..." Loft hesitated for a moment, then said with some worry, "Sir, if he finds the books and then joins the exploration, will there be any unexpected changes? After all, that place..."
Charles waved his hand and said helplessly, "Actually, even if he hadn't brought it up, I would have found a way to hire him for the exploration. After all, in such a dangerous place, without a powerful superhuman, how could we possibly get what we want with peace of mind?"
I originally planned to work under the guise of an employment arrangement, which would only require me to pay him. Unfortunately, he was much more cautious than I expected and directly proposed a collaborative relationship…
Regardless, we can't disregard our safety for a little gain. We can always negotiate later; after all, staying alive is the most important thing.
At this point, Charles extended his index finger and gently rubbed the ring on his left hand: "Besides, I'm not entirely without options..."
……
After seeing Charles and his companion off, Suren began to peruse the intelligence Charles had provided in the shop.
It must be said that the information provided by Charles was quite detailed, not only indicating the hiding place of those people, but also roughly marking the characteristics of each person's abilities.
"The guy Charles hired is quite capable; he investigated so thoroughly. If Charles hadn't been in such a hurry to resolve this tonight, I doubt he would have needed my help. Henry and the others could have handled it themselves."
Suren couldn't help but feel a little emotional. Then she took out the photo of the stolen book from the file and examined it carefully.
The book in the photo was very familiar to Suren; it was the same one he had seen at Viscount Howard's house.
Suren couldn't help but feel a little melancholy. Just a month ago, he had been at odds with Viscount Howard, but he never expected that the viscount would die so inexplicably.
"Life is truly unpredictable..." Suren couldn't help but sigh, then without further hesitation, he closed his eyes.
After a long while, he opened his eyes and a smile appeared on his face: "The previous [Revelation] had no effect, which made me doubt myself."
But this time I got the answer very easily, and I could even see where the books were stored, which shows that my "revelation" was of high priority.
But then he stopped smiling, because it meant that there was strong interference behind the stories of "Jack the Ripper" and "Bloody Mary".
"These two incidents seem to be quite complicated. I must be careful not to rush my investigations to avoid getting myself into trouble."
Pulling herself out of her thoughts, Suren opened her pocket watch to check the time and realized it was almost lunchtime.
"There's no time to cook today. Let's find somewhere to have lunch, and then I'll go and take care of Charles's request."
……
That afternoon, in an alleyway in the Bretton Woods district.
Guided by the "Revelation" and with the information provided by Charles, Suren quickly arrived at the target location.
Suren was hiding in the shadows behind the wall, observing a small building directly in front of him.
According to the information provided by Charles, the group consists of seven people: two Awakened, two Seekers of Reason, and three ordinary people.
The leader's name is Joseph Veretti, and his ostensible identity is a lawyer...
Thinking about this, Suren had some doubts. According to the information Charles provided, these people lived decent lives and even resided in the bustling Breton district. There was absolutely no need for them to take such a risk.
Suren shook her head, deciding not to think about it anymore. The most important thing right now was how to get that book back.
The house in front of them had three floors and was exquisitely decorated. If they chose to launch a direct assault, Suren would definitely not be able to quickly resolve the battle against the possible few enemies present.
Moreover, many nobles live in the Breton district. If Suren were to act rashly, it could easily cause a disturbance, which would then attract members of the church and cause trouble.
If it weren't for the necessity of retrieving the books by tomorrow, Suren could have waited until tomorrow to replace his secret technique with the previous [Identity Web] and sneak in unnoticed with the upgraded [Identity Web].
Fortunately, Su Lun had been practicing his secret techniques frequently during this time and had developed many applications for them.
Suren took out a small, fingernail-sized piece of broken glass from his ring. Then, a flash of blue light appeared at his fingertip, and "Source Knowledge" poured out. Soon, a furry little mouse appeared in Suren's palm, with the broken glass encased in the mouse's flesh and blood, which was formed by "Source Knowledge".
Suren placed the mouse on the ground, then focused his mind and transferred his attention to the mouse.
In that instant, Suren gained the mouse's vision and could even freely manipulate its body.
This is the result of Suren's development over this period of time; he can freely manipulate these created creatures as if playing a 3D game.
This ability is not without its flaws. Such delicate operations require Suren to concentrate all his mental energy on creation, and he cannot do two things at once.
Fortunately, these creations can usually execute some relatively simple commands, and only in situations like this does Suren need to perform more refined operations.
Under Suren's control, the little mouse scurried through the gaps between the bricks and quickly entered the house.
Suren used the mouse's perspective to see the layout of the room. Through the mouse's eyes, Suren saw that the place he was in looked like a lounge, and a man was lying on the sofa taking a nap.
Under Suren's control, the little mouse carefully scurried along the wall through a crack and arrived at the first-floor corridor.
Because she didn't understand the room's layout, Suren couldn't find the room indicated by the "Revelation" for the time being and could only explore one room at a time.
Fortunately, there weren't many people in the house, which allowed Suren to run around freely.
"I must say, the mouse's perspective is quite novel; it's as if it's entered the land of giants."
As Suren was lost in thought, he suddenly heard voices coming from a room directly in front of him.
Suren followed the sound and slipped under the door.
Judging from the furnishings, this room is a reception room, where two men are sitting facing each other, talking about something.
Using the furniture as cover, Suren quickly reached the cabinet next to the two of them.
Only then was Suren able to hear the content of their conversation.
"Joseph, Miss Arabella is already quite dissatisfied with you because of what you messed up last time. How dare you ask for more money now?"
Because of the angle, Suren couldn't see the speaker's face, but from the voice, the speaker should be a middle-aged man around 50 years old, with a rather heavy accent, sounding like a nobleman's butler.
The man called Joseph then spoke up, "Alright, Will, you know better than I do that the last time it failed entirely because of the interference of the 'Gate of Truth'."
"Twenty thousand pounds! I won't play this game with you for a penny less. I'm only giving you one day, or Duke Howard will find out tomorrow what his precious daughter has done."
As soon as he finished speaking, Suren heard a "smack" sound, as if someone had slammed their hand on the table.
"Alright, twenty thousand pounds it is. You'll do it tonight!" The man called Will seemed to have conceded.
After saying that, he stood up and walked towards the door. As he was leaving, he suddenly turned back and said, "You'd better know what you're doing, Joseph."
He snorted coldly, pushed open the door, and left the room without looking back.
"Just an ordinary nobleman, does he think he's the church?" Joseph scoffed.
Seeing that the two had finished their conversation, Suren quietly left the room.
"The conversation between these two is quite revealing. This Arabella is Duke Howard's daughter, that is, Albert Howard's sister. Does that mean Albert died at the hands of his own family?"
Suren couldn't help but feel that it was a bit melodramatic, probably some kind of internal power struggle within a family.
"Forget it, let's find the books first, and think about it more later after we get out. Now is not the time to think about these things."
With this thought in mind, Suren quickened his pace of exploration.
After a long period of exploration, and at the cost of being kicked by Joseph's men, Suren finally found the room mentioned in the "Revelation" on the third floor.
The room was quite spacious, with books lying quietly on the table. A young man with long blue hair sat on one side of the table, yawning listlessly.
"Joseph is making a mountain out of a molehill. He makes me read this lousy book, and now I don't even have time to go to the bar anymore." The blue-haired youth grumbled inwardly, but he dared not say these words to Joseph's face.
He was also curious about what this book contained that made Joseph take it so seriously.
But thinking of Joseph's cruel appearance, he gave up the idea of reading it, after all, his own life was more important.
Just then, he suddenly noticed a mouse that had somehow gotten into the room and was staring blankly at the books on the table.
"This house is cleaned by a maid every day, where did the rats come from?"
The blue-haired youth frowned, preparing to get up and chase the rat away, when he saw the rat suddenly stop at the edge of the table, then explode with a "pop," leaving only a piece of glass the size of a fingernail.
"What the hell?!" The blue-haired youth was startled and involuntarily took a step back.
Before he could react, the lens emitted a burst of light, and then a blond man emerged from it.
However, what horrified the blue-haired youth was that the blond man had no face!
The faceless man grabbed a book from the table. Only then did the blue-haired youth react. He was about to draw his gun when he saw that a hideous mouth had grown out of the faceless man's face, stretching from the corner of his mouth to his ears, revealing a ferocious smile to him.
Then, with a flash of light, the faceless man vanished, leaving only the blue-haired youth's panting in the room.
He plopped down in the chair, his body still trembling slightly, his mind filled with that sinister smile.
Meanwhile, outside the alley, Suren had reverted to his "Detective Brian" appearance, thinking with a touch of wicked amusement, "This will be at least a week of nightmares, right?"