It had been three days since the Lakeview Manor incident, and Louisa had recovered quickly. As she strolled along the tree-lined path with Xia De, there was no sign that she had been sustained by False Immortality just three days prior.
pretty girls probably liked cute cats. Louisa was very interested in Mia and even thought she was Xia De's adopted pet. But even after he explained that Mia was just being fostered at his place, the blonde girl still wanted to hug the small orange cat, but Mia refused to leave Xia De.
"Detective, you're really good at raising cats."
"Speaking of which, can I bring the cat with me? Should I send Mia back first?"
Xia De asked again. He actually enjoyed "seeing the world" with high-level Ring術士.
"No need. This trip is very safe. You can consider it a learning experience. Detective, sooner or later you will have to recover relics on your own."
Louisa said easily, then directed Xia De to turn right into Tion Academy Street at the next intersection.
Just as Xia De had guessed, Louisa's trip was to recover a relic. The incident began two months ago when an Old Writer, a solitary man known to Louisa, passed away. While people close to the Old Writer were sorting through his belongings, Louisa discovered from his diary that The Writer owned a very magical fountain pen.
"Can it automatically write papers, or automatically write reports?"
Xia De guessed, looking at how half the houses on this street were gray stone houses, remarkably similar in style, all three stories tall. Stepping in here was like suddenly returning to medieval civilization from the Steam Age. But the steam pipes clinging to the stone walls, the clothing of pedestrians strolling the streets, and the omnipresent hawkers' cries constantly reminded him that this was the Steam Age.
Tion Academy Street should have been an Old Continent district of Tobesk.
"Detective, how could there be such a good thing? Besides, relics cannot be used carelessly."
Louisa said, walking side by side with Xia De. Xia De noticed that today Louisa no longer exhibited her frequent habit of touching her earlobe.
"I secretly took the diary and discovered that if that fountain pen used The Writer's blood as ink to draw any human image with letters on paper, then the depicted image could enter The Writer's dream, and then..."
She glanced at Xia De, who blinked:
"Why did you stop?"
Hearing the woman's laughter in his head, he suddenly realized that he hadn't thought in that direction at all:
"No, no, no need to explain, I understand. But how can there still be such relics?"
After Tion Academy Street, they continued east, passing the Private Tion Mechanical College, then turned into Cat Tail Lane, their destination.
"This isn't even the strangest relic. I've seen stranger ones. But this relic is not weak. I found information about it in the Library of the academy: the dream pen of joy. According to its classification, it should be Document-level (Level 4). This pen will actively tempt its user in dreams to use it in the correct way. Ordinary people, influenced by it, will, under what they consider normal curiosity, try to write with their own blood, leading to tragedy. I suspect the death of its original owner was related to it."
Xia De nodded, pondering the possible uses of this pen for Ring術士. Then he realized that, at least, this pen was useless to him. The dream pen absorbed the user's blood, not the enemy's blood, so it could not meet the conditions for absorbing the power of deities.
Louisa continued speaking:
"After the Old Writer died, the fountain pen mysteriously disappeared. I tracked it for two months before discovering that The Writer had sold it to an Old Professor named Tirius Manning, who lived nearby, before his death. Professor Manning is considered a collector, and I intend to visit him today."
Professor Manning lived in an apartment at 17 Cat Tail Lane. As they searched along the house numbers, a little girl selling flowers came towards them.
Perhaps misunderstanding the relationship between Xia De and Louisa, the little flower girl approached to peddle her wares. After Xia De politely refused, the flowers in her basket were almost bitten by the cat Xia De was holding, who stretched its head out.
Seeing the patches on the little girl's clothes and her ill-fitting shoes, Xia De, though not buying flowers, still gave her three pence as compensation for being startled by Mia.
"I didn't expect you to have such kindness."
After the little flower girl left, Louisa teased him. She knew Xia De's financial situation was not very good either.
"They are all pitiful people. Although I can't help everyone, I am happy to help those in front of me, provided it doesn't affect me personally. Mia, three pence will be deducted from your dinner. You can't just eat anything."
Xia De said, stroking the cat's head. The orange cat wriggled discontentedly.
Louisa smiled gently:
"You really are a good person. If the pitiful girls in fairy tales could meet you, there wouldn't be so many tragedies."
Cat Tail Lane No. 17 was a three-story apartment building with an attic, featuring dark yellow exterior walls, with the base of the walls along the street covered in moss. From Louisa's preliminary investigation, the entire building belonged to Professor Manning.
Since an appointment had been made in advance, after knocking, the plump maid who opened the door confirmed the visitors' identities and invited them in. Louisa was the buyer this time, and Xia De was the attendant Louisa had hired, responsible for protecting the delicate lady who carried a large sum of cash.
Cat Tail Lane No. 17 was divided into left and right sides. One side was rented out, and Professor Manning lived in the right building. Led by the plump maid, they ascended the somewhat narrow stairs to the second floor, where the Professor received them in his cluttered study, filled with books.
The walls of the study were covered with photos of Professor Manning from various parts of the Old Continent. He seemed to be a professor of archaeology, having conducted research across the Old Continent in his youth. Even the stacked books in the study were mostly history books. Professional books of this era were still very expensive, so the Professor must have been quite wealthy.
Professor Manning was a tall, thin Old Professor with round-rimmed glasses and a receding hairline. Perhaps because he had been teaching for too long, his tone when greeting Louisa and Xia De was like lecturing. But the Old Professor was quite kind and even served them excellent red tea.
He also kept a pet cat at home, so he did not express displeasure at the Detective bringing a cat to his door. However, the completely black cat appeared to be an adult and was very interested in Mia, hiding its body behind the desk and peering out to observe the orange cat held by Xia De.
But Mia seemed not to notice it, appearing uninterested in playing with it.