Upon seeing the MI6 identification, the old man inside the door immediately showed a terrified expression. Xia De pushed him hard, causing the old man to stumble back a step, and he took the opportunity to step inside the door.
He closed the door behind him with a bang, raised his right hand to adjust his hat, and stood in the shadows of the hallway. Xia De was much taller than the old man, and at this moment, he exuded an oppressive aura:
"If there are no problems, don't disturb me in the attic. I will leave once I have what I need."
"You, you..."
The old man leaned crookedly against the wall, supporting himself with his cane, not expecting the young man to just barge in like that.
"Any more questions?"
"No, no, none, but you can take his things. I won't refund the rent!"
He shouted, his voice a mix of fear and stubbornness.
"Rent? Do you think I care about that?"
Xia De deliberately chuckled, then ignored the old man behind him and walked up the creaking stairs.
He was quite pleased with his acting.
Lemeir had complained in his diary about the landlord of this house, who was a typical bully. When Lemeir first came to rent the house, the old man tried to fleece him, but after the sailor revealed his even worse and more unpleasant personality, the landlord immediately offered a relatively fair price.
To be a landlord in such a relatively chaotic dockside district, the old man leaning against the wall and panting was no good person. According to Lemeir's guess, the other party seemed to be using the workshop in the basement to smuggle contraband from the New World and produce some illicit drugs.
It was truly puzzling that someone of such an old age was still doing such things, but Xia De had no immediate plans to investigate further.
From the diary, Lemeir, who had successfully advanced two years ago, had only just entered the second Ring in the spring of this year. He did not record the security measures he set up for the attic in his diary, but since he was not a Church Ring術士, nor could he be an Academy Ring術士, the methods he could use should not be many.
The attic door was locked, with three large locks sealing the door.
Coincidentally, last night, he had obtained a new spell, the 【Key of the Door】, from a past adventure. This spell could open anything with the concept of a “lock,” and its actual effect depended on the strength of the lock itself and Xia De's own power.
After a moment of hesitation, he reached out and tapped the uppermost black iron lock. With the power of the spell, the lock clicked open directly.
"Oh? That effective?"
Xia De looked at his fingers, then, with great anticipation, struck the brass-colored lock in the middle, and it also opened automatically.
"With this ability, if I were someone who didn't follow the right path, Tobesk would probably have one more skilled thief."
Xia De sighed inwardly, chatted with the smiling woman for a few moments, and finally tapped the lock on the bolt inserted into the floor at the very bottom. But this time, he encountered some resistance. He clearly felt some force obstructing the use of the spell, but fortunately, this obstruction was not strong. After a brief touch, the last lock also opened.
He picked up the rusty iron lock and examined it, finding faint, almost imperceptible etchings on the inside of the lock. Strictly speaking, this lock was not an alchemical item; it had merely been treated with Ling Rune, so that if someone tried to violently pick it, the lock would explode, potentially severing their hand.
It might work on ordinary people, but for a Ring術士, as long as they paid a little attention, they wouldn't fall for it.
He opened the door, waited a moment, and hearing no unusual sounds from inside, Xia De entered the attic.
The entire attic was open and airy, like one large room, about the size of Sparrow Detective's master bedroom. The interior was dim, furnished with common items like a wardrobe, bookshelf, table, and bed. On the table were some black and white printed magazines, and on the coffee table was a pile of tax documents. It looked like a dull bachelor's room, with no suspicious items visible on the surface.
First, he used 【Echoes of the Past】 to listen to sounds from the past 48 hours. After confirming that no one had been there recently, he looked around:
"Can you sense traces of the relic?"
Twisting open the gas lamp, Xia De stood by the window, carefully peeking outside through a slight gap in the curtains, and asked.
【There are strong whisper elements. Look to the left.】
To the left was a wardrobe, and on top of the wardrobe were some cardboard boxes. The elements were mainly inside the wardrobe, so Xia De put on his gloves before reaching out to open the wardrobe door.
Just as his hand grasped the wardrobe handle, a bone-chilling gust of wind immediately swept through the closed room. Then, footsteps sounded behind him. Xia De turned around and saw a completely rotten corpse lunging at him. Its terrifying appearance, even with mental preparation, still startled Xia De.
"Thief!"
In the corpse's decaying, open mouth, bright red gums were clearly visible.
【Illusion.】
"I know."
He released the doorknob, and both the chilling wind and the lunging corpse disappeared. When he grasped the doorknob again, the corpse and the chilling wind reappeared.
So Xia De bent down to examine it and, as expected, saw carefully carved Ling Rune on the doorknob:
"This person is really skilled with Ling Rune, but he just advanced to the second Ring, and his foundation isn't solid."
Thinking this, a ray of Moonlight flew from his hand, splitting the wardrobe doorknob in two, and only then did he pull open the cabinet door.
A musty smell emanated from inside. In the small wardrobe, on the left, hung a few men's clothes, two very revealing women's clothes, and a white garter. It was unclear whether these were left by a technical worker or if Lemeir had some special fetish, but they were all just ordinary attire.
On the right was something covered with a red cloth. Xia De reached out to lift the red cloth, but his hand had barely extended when he frowned and immediately took a step back.
From its shape, this object was very similar to the cloth-covered Mermaid statue he had seen before.
"I knew I'd run into trouble."
Xia De currently didn't know the exact transmission method of this peculiar fatal curse, but not touching the source of the curse was certainly the best way to resist it.
So, he didn't care if there were other valuable items in the wardrobe. He found a poker nearby and very carefully closed the wardrobe door. He watched the cabinet door, waited for half a minute, and when no anomaly occurred, he felt a little relieved. Even if there were tens of thousands of pounds in cash in the wardrobe, Xia De would absolutely not open the door again.
He then continued his search, but unfortunately, the attic indeed only contained this one relic in the wardrobe. Besides the relic, after a careful search of the room, Xia De also found 23 pounds and 7 crowns in cash. crowns are Carson Rick currency, and sailors who spend years at sea and in the New World indeed need to carry foreign money.
The money was only a small gain. The most important gains were an old book related to the Wind Ling Rune, titled 【Abyss Where the Wind Rises】, as well as Lemeir's Ring術士 notes and letters.
Any Ring術士 must be associated with an organization. The demanding advancement conditions and complex power system dictate that there are no lone Ring術士. From the letters, it seemed Lemeir's opportunity to become a Ring術士 was two years ago when his talent awakened, and he met a traveler sailing to the New World, thus embarking on the path of a Ring術士.
The name of their organization was "Seabreeze Club." Xia De had never heard this name, and judging from the Knowledge Lemeir recorded in his notebook and his interactions with friends, this should be a small club formed by a few Ring術士, possibly slightly stronger than Doctor Schneider's five-person team.
Aside from his own experiences, the materials Lemeir left behind also described what happened after he realized he was cursed.
He realized the curse three months after getting the statue from the warehouse dispatcher. A strange dream made him think of the Mermaid statue, and only after realizing it was the source of the curse did the slow-witted Lemeir finally understand that it was a relic.
He wrote to the club for help, but after describing his ordeal, the club immediately severed all ties with him. Subsequently, like the dispatcher whom Xia De had already shot, Lemeir also knew that given his past actions, seeking help from the Church would surely mean death. Therefore, he hoped to discover a way to lift the curse through his own research.
Although he ultimately died due to the curse, strictly speaking, this low Ring術士, abandoned by his organization, did indeed discover some things.