Chapter 7 Identity Obtained

When the clock struck midnight at St. Selina's Church, Hagrid reappeared in "Wild Heart" with a thin piece of paper in his hand, which he handed to Angel, who had lost a full 2 pounds in the "Dog and Mouse" game.

"This ID will be enough to deal with the Tingen police for now, but Backlund's Central Documents Bureau doesn't have your file yet, so it won't withstand a correspondence check. If you commit a crime in Tingen, the police will send a telegram to Backlund to inquire about your identity, and you'll be exposed immediately. I suggest you wait about a week. Once your forged identity is filed, you can go out with a swagger."

Angel nodded to show that he understood.

She lowered her head and carefully examined the ID in her hand in the dim light of the bar.

Name: Angel Granger; Gender: Female; Date of Birth: June 28, 1331...

That’s right, the last name was also Granger. In the false information she submitted, she was a distant cousin of Cole Granger and Lily Granger, from the remote Sivelas County, and her parents died in the border conflict between the Kingdom of Loen and Intis.

She had also thought of a reason for coming to Tingen City from Sivelas County. Angel Granger, who had lost both parents, decided to take all her savings to live with her distant relatives living in Tingen City, and Cole Granger received her and let her stay on Daffodil Street.

Angel's decision to link his new identity with the Granger family was also carefully considered.

First of all, she can live legally in Cole Granger's house. The properties on Daffodil Street are not cheap. It costs nearly a thousand pounds to buy one. Even if you just rent it, it will cost dozens of pounds a year. If you don't live in the existing one and find another one to live in, whether you rent or buy, the living costs alone are a huge expense.

Secondly, her connection with the locals also makes her identity more credible. Compared to a stranger with a blank resume, a "distant relative" of a local resident is more likely to be accepted by others.

Finally, as a relative who had been in contact with Cole Granger for some time, Angel also had the opportunity to expose his previous crimes and seek justice for the deceased.

This was the last thing she could do for Cole Granger as his "successor" - atonement.

…

After carefully putting away the identity document he had bought for forty pounds, Angel Granger left the still bustling Wild Heart bar.

The street outside the door is no longer as crowded as before. Although there is no curfew in Tingen City, most of the residents of Iron Cross Lower Street are lower-class people who work every day to eat one day. For them, staying up late is a bad habit.

Especially in an era when nighttime lighting is quite expensive.

Looking around, the gatekeeper had already dozed off on an empty wine barrel, seemingly not noticing Angel's departure at all. The sentry on the second floor opposite was doing his duty diligently, still keeping watch with the window open.

Angel tightened his hood and started back along the same route.

The gas lamps on the street had been turned off long ago, and the residents on both sides had also turned off their lights and gone to rest. The quiet street was illuminated only by the red moon above, and it seemed extremely dim under the obscuration of the passing clouds.

Even though there was no one around, Angel, who had dark vision, honestly played the role of an ordinary person without extraordinary abilities. He walked slowly on the street in the moonlight, carefully avoiding puddles of sewage and littered garbage.

Not long after she walked, her keen hearing detected someone following her not far behind.

This didn't surprise her.

When paying Hagrid's "certificate fee" in the bar, Angel noticed that many greedy eyes were focused on her in the dark. This was the reason why she avoided using large banknotes when she went shopping before. Unfortunately, the reward of forty gold pounds would attract attention anyway.

Besides, even if he was not targeted by others, an intelligence dealer like Hagrid would not necessarily let go of the prey at hand. Mr. "The Hanged Man" saved Hagrid's life, but his friends did not.

The person behind her had unsteady steps and made no attempt to conceal their presence; they were most likely ordinary people, and had been drinking quite a bit. But even if they weren't Beyonders, ordinary criminals armed with firearms could still pose a threat to her. Angel wasn't about to take that risk.

She used her dark vision to circumvent obstacles on the road and quickened her pace. As long as she left Lower Street and reached the intersection of Iron Cross Street, she could easily shake off her pursuer by using the well-connected roads. There was no point in risking her life with such a greedy drunkard.

The tracker paused, then quickened his pace, but the dim environment caused him a lot of trouble. Behind Angel, he could hear the messy sounds of garbage being kicked away and puddles being stepped on.

At this moment, the sound of "clack-clack" of horse hooves was heard. Angel looked back and saw a four-wheeled carriage approaching. Under the light of the hanging oil lamp, the "crossed swords and a crown" logo painted on the side of the black car body shone brightly. This was the common police system logo of the entire Kingdom of Loen. The coachman wore a tall hat and a suit, and calmly drove the carriage through the dirty streets.

The stalker had been left quite a distance behind. When the carriage passed by, he shuddered at the sight of the police sign and went straight into the gap between two apartments on the street.

Angel, the "illegal" person, subconsciously wanted to lower his head and avoid them, but then he remembered that in this era there was no high-tech like facial recognition. Even if he walked face to face with the police, as long as he did not commit any crime on the spot, there was no need to worry.

On the contrary, pretending to hide will make them more suspicious.

Thinking of this, she raised her head again, turned sideways and took small steps to the side of the street to make way for the carriage in the middle of the street. At the same time, she used her agile body as an "assassin" to avoid the dirty water splashed by the wheels.

Just like what an ordinary passerby would do when encountering a galloping carriage.

As expected, the police carriage passed by her without stopping.

As they passed each other, she saw through the car window two people sitting opposite each other in the car. One of them was wearing black clothes and a top hat with a police star on his shoulder. He had short light brown hair and gray eyes staring straight ahead, saying something with a serious expression. The other one was obviously much younger, with black hair and brown eyes, wearing a linen shirt and had an indifferent expression.

Could this be some official's son using the bus for personal use late at night, Angel thought to himself.

Before she could think about it, the four-wheeled carriage sped away. The little light from the oil lamp hanging on the carriage disappeared, and the street was once again shrouded in dim moonlight.

The footsteps behind him sounded again. Unexpectedly, the stalker still did not give up. Taking advantage of Angel's daze, he quickened his pace and approached him again.

A strong smell of cheap alcohol wafted over, and the footsteps stopped one meter away, followed by the sound of clothes rubbing against each other.

Angel knew that conflict was inevitable, so he turned back decisively and quickly assessed the situation with the help of his dark vision.

The stalker was a middle-aged man wearing coarse trousers and a short-sleeved shirt. His unkempt beard and clinging hair indicated that he was not in good financial shape. He had probably recently lost his job and was escaping reality by drinking cheap alcohol in the bar.

Seeing that he was taking something out of his trouser pocket, Angel took a step forward, raised his right foot and kicked the opponent's left knee joint. The man, whose balance ability was reduced due to excessive alcohol consumption, felt pain in his knee and knelt on the dirty street.

He then took out a small pistol with a strange shape from his pants with his right hand. Without waiting for him to raise the gun and aim, Angel reached out and pulled the hammer, grabbed the pistol and twisted it, taking the weapon away from the man amidst his screams of pain.

"Ah...fingers, my fingers..." The man didn't care about the pistol that was taken away from him, but knelt on the ground, covering his right hand with his left hand. His index finger joint was hyperextended and obviously dislocated.

"It's just a sprain. See a doctor. You should be thankful it's only your finger that's injured." After subduing the pursuer with two moves, Angel took the captured pistol and spoke slowly. This small revolver, likely a woman's, only held four rounds and had a smaller caliber than standard pistol rounds. Lack of maintenance had caused grease to cake from the receiver, leaving the gun body mottled. Angel even suspected the primer had become damp, rendering it unfireable.

Pointing the gun at the man, Angel asked, "Now I ask you a question, where did you pick up the gun?"

"Outside the city...outside the city docks, I found it at the docks. I was helping people unload cargo there before, and someone might have left it there. There were only three bullets in it, and I didn't dare use them. I kept them hidden under my bed. Now I've lost my job and my money, so...I'm sorry, I don't dare to do it anymore. Don't kill me!"

The man was pointed at with a gun and looked terrified. He did not dare to hide anything and told Angel the origin of the gun.

"Did someone instruct you?"

"W-what? No, no! I just saw you were so generous and gave that Hagrid a lot of money, so I wanted to make a profit. It's all because of that rye beer!"

The man looked up in panic, and seeing the black muzzle of the gun still pointed at him, he quickly lowered his head and denied it repeatedly.

Seeing the stalker so panicked after his gun was taken away, Angel felt that he might indeed be tempted by money and decided to follow him temporarily under the influence of alcohol, rather than being a pawn sent by Hagrid or others to test him.

Of course, it is also possible that the other party is hiding it more deeply, and even the abandoned pawn himself does not know about it.

Angel looked in the direction of the Wild Heart bar but saw no sign of anyone else.

"Okay, you're lucky today. I don't want to kill anyone. Find something useful to do next time. I'll confiscate this gun." Ignoring the man who was kneeling and begging for mercy, Angel took a few steps back with the pistol. Seeing that the man still didn't dare to look up, he turned around and quickly left the scene.

After midnight, the streets of Tingen were deserted, as if the bustling atmosphere of the previous half-night had been an illusion. Angel wasn't idle on the way home. She disassembled her pistol, tossing the cylinder and the gun body into separate sewer drains, and discarding several rounds of ammunition into the garbage heap on the corner.

She had no intention of keeping this women's pistol for herself. Not to mention that the special small-sized bullets were difficult to buy, the poorly maintained appearance alone made her lose interest in using it.

Angel walked all the way back to Daffodil Street. This time, she entered through the main door, inserted the key and turned the lock. She caught the note that slipped from the crack of the door. She did not relax, but carefully checked the entire living room environment through her dark vision. After comparing it with her memory before going out, she entered the house.

After locking the door and taking off her cloak and hanging it aside, her tense body finally relaxed completely. From this moment on, she felt that she had truly gained a foothold in this world.

Having her own identity document was only the first step. She already had a general idea of how to use this identity to settle down in Tingen and to make up a suitable reason for herself to live in Cole's house, but there were many loopholes to fill in order to form a detailed plan.

After changing into loose and comfortable clothes, Angel walked into the study again, dipped the ink, and opened the notebook. This was going to be another sleepless night.