Chapter 38: Testing
Over the next few days, Angel's daily routine settled into a regular routine.
Every morning, he reported to the Blackthorn Security Company as usual, and went to the "Zotland Shooting Club" at 3 Zotland Street with Klein for shooting practice. After using up the daily practice bullets, he went to Old Neil to learn about divination and ritual magic.
He had lunch at the security company at noon, then returned to his home on Daffodil Street and spent the entire afternoon making "Storm Gathering" and "Phantom Phosphorus Eruption" bullets.
For dinner, Angel would choose a restaurant she had never been to before and enjoy new food. This was one of the few pleasures she had due to the lack of social and entertainment activities. After nightfall, she would try to use the scraps left over from making bullets to make the spells she learned from Old Neil. The success rate was very low, so she just regarded it as practicing her craft.
On Saturday, two days after finding the lost ring in the dock area, Mrs. Green came to Blackthorn Security Company again, happily paid the balance and got the ring back.
Angel and Klein successfully completed their first commission, but the investigation into the mysterious assassin and the organization behind him made no progress.
On the day she sketched the assassin's portrait, Dunn Smith posted wanted posters all over the city through the Tingen police. If anyone provided key clues or helped the police catch the target, she would receive a reward of 100 pounds.
Unfortunately, this huge sum of money has never been claimed by anyone.
Angel even suspected that the assassin had already fled Tingen City. After all, he was shot in the battle and there was no way he could recover in the short term, and his face was seen again.
"If it were me, I would do this." Angel put himself in the assassin's shoes and made a judgment.
Divination on his lost dagger also yielded no results.
Old Neil tried dream divination and spiritual rituals. The former can use a short period of sleep to see the content that needs to be divined as if seeing it with one's own eyes, while the latter uses ritual magic to achieve a similar effect.
Both approaches failed.
Old Neil believed that the divination results were artificially interfered with and that the other party had used some kind of "anti-divination" technique to make the divination and spiritual communication against him ineffective.
Several people discussed and believed that this was definitely not an ability that the "Assassin" could master. There must be more extraordinary people behind the other party, and they might even be strong mid-sequence people.
Dunn Smith also doubted Mrs. Green's identity. He retrieved relevant information from the police, trying to confirm whether she was related to the mysterious "assassin" and the wild extraordinary person behind him.
"Mrs. Green's full name is Elna Green. Her husband is Vincent Green, the founder and largest shareholder of the Green Printing House in Tingen. A month ago, Vincent Green's carriage plunged into the river. Mr. Green and his personal attendant drowned instantly. Only the coachman narrowly escaped."
Dunn held the file with the seal of the Ahowa County Police Department, pressed his temples with his other hand, and spoke with a tired look on his face.
Not only did he have to write documents and submit them to the church these days, he also had to contact the police in Tingen City and several other church forces. Even though "Nightmare" hardly required sleep, the long hours of hard work made him feel a little overwhelmed.
It was already Monday morning of the new week, and it was also the day when Angel delivered the special bullets she made.
When she came to Dunn Smith's office carrying the small wooden box that had contained the materials, she saw the captain leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, which was a rare sight.
"Was it really an accident?" Angel expressed disbelief after hearing Dunn introduce Mrs. Green's identity and the process of her husband's death.
"The driver's confession revealed that visibility was poor at night, and when meeting another carriage, the horses in Mr. Green's carriage became startled and accelerated forward, dashing directly into the river at the corner of the street. The driver, only concerned about his own safety, swam to shore, and the carriage had sunk completely. When the police arrived, they only recovered two bodies."
"We've also investigated the other carriage. It was a hired carriage. There were two students from Tingen University on board. There was no motive for the crime. It was just a coincidence."
Dunn pulled out a file and handed it to Angel. "The deceased was a believer in the God of Steam and Machinery, so the 'Mechanical Heart' participated in the investigation and issued a brief report, concluding that there was no involvement of extraordinary powers in this matter."
"I mean, it might not necessarily be a Beyonder, but could someone... for example, hire a killer?"
Angel felt that Dunn, or rather, the thinking of these official extraordinary people was somewhat limited. Without extraordinary abilities, would there be no murders in the world?
"The case has been closed. The Tingen police believe it was an accidental death." Dunn shrugged. "I looked through the files. There are no loopholes."
"The interesting part is what happens next. The Greens have no children or other immediate family members. According to Kingdom law, upon Mr. Vincent Green's death, his printing company shares and other assets exceeding £15,000 will be inherited by Elna Green."
"But she needs Mr. Green's ring?" Angel suddenly realized when he heard this.
Dunn smiled and nodded. "That's right. Although according to inheritance law, Mrs. Green can unconditionally inherit all the property, she has a number of conflicts with the other shareholders of the printing factory over its operation. Mrs. Green wants to sell her shares and take the money away, so she needs the ring."
No wonder Mrs. Green didn't even blink when she heard it would cost 120 pounds. It turned out that there was a huge sum of 15,000 pounds behind it.
"So, Mrs. Green lost an important ring, then commissioned a private detective to find the target, and then commissioned us to retrieve the ring. But I just happened to discover that the Labor Mutual Aid Association was engaging in human trafficking during the process?" Angel concluded, "Just a coincidence?"
"That's right, it's just a coincidence," Dunn agreed. "Of course, the Labor Mutual Aid Union can't escape. Their current president, Zeke Horton, sailed to Enmat Harbor a week ago, and a wanted order has been issued there. To avoid alerting the suspects, the Tingen City police will not take any action against the Mutual Aid Union until they catch him."
"Once Zeke Horton is apprehended, we should be able to get a lot of information about the assassin and the organization behind him from him. For now, we can only wait."
Dunn put the file back into the file bag, sealed it with glue, and put it in the drawer of his desk. He took out a smaller file bag with the dark holy emblem printed on it, opened it in front of Angel, and pulled out a few thin sheets of paper.
Angel glanced at it casually, then immediately looked away, his heart pounding.
The top one was the ID with her name printed on it. Needless to say, it was the one she bought at Wild Hearts for 40 pounds.
Of course, the one he had was still lying in his home at No. 6 Daffodil Street. The one Dunn had taken out was probably obtained from the Backlund police.
Dunn spread the papers in the file bag out on the table one by one and looked up at Angel, who was pretending to be calm. "Since you have already made the bullets I need, I will submit these reports and the bullets this afternoon. The Sanctuary will respond within a week."
"This is your identity information. I applied to the Backlund Diocese, and they requested it from the police department."
He first pointed to the ID card on the far left and spoke slowly, then moved his finger to the second piece of letter paper filled with text.
"This is a summary of your involvement in the 'Disappearance of Cole Granger' case and the murders he committed."
Angel glanced at the letter paper. Although the words were upside down, he could still roughly make out Dunn's handwriting.
"The last part is the entire process of Sharon Hoy's invasion of the Nighthawk base and his death. This is a report written by Leonard. Please read it and point out any problems you have."
Dunn pushed the third sheet of paper toward Angel, who turned it over and quickly read through it.
As expected of Leonard Mitchell, a self-proclaimed poet, even his battle record was written with considerable artistry. Aside from some exaggerated language, this report truly documented the sneak attack and counter-sneak attack that night, allowing Angel to revisit his life-or-death battle with the mid-sequence warrior from another perspective.
"It's well written. I have nothing to add." After reading Leonard's masterpiece, Angel turned the letter 180 degrees and pushed it back to Dunn.
"Is it really gone?"
Dunn did not take the battle record, but pressed the other two pieces of paper with his hands, looking at Angel quietly with gray eyes, with a hint of meaning.
And of course, the woman before you was actually a man two weeks ago. She was Cole Granger, wanted for a £500 bounty. Over the past two years, he'd committed numerous murders and crimes of incitement in Tingen City, leaving the police in a state of panic. Unfortunately, he failed in his promotion to Sequence 7 "Witch" and died instantly. His body was possessed by a consciousness from another world, and he managed to infiltrate the Beyonder "Nightwatchers" of the Church of the Evernight Goddess, attempting to conceal his identity, gain access to the hidden knowledge of the mysterious world, and find a way back to Earth.
"there is none left."
Angel could only answer reluctantly.
"Well, that's good."
To her surprise, Dunn Smith did not ask any further questions. Instead, he swiftly put the three pieces of paper into a file bag. He then lit a candle nearby, took out a piece of sealing wax from a drawer, heated it, solemnly sealed the file bag, stamped it with his own seal, and blew on the seal as if completing a ritual.
After doing all this, he raised his head again and looked at Angel with a stern face.
"Don't be nervous. I've already sent a telegram to the Holy Church. They've already agreed in principle to your becoming a full member. These documents are just a formality."
Captain...is it really okay for you to open champagne at halftime? And when you asked me if I had anything to add, was that a test or just a casual question?
Angel couldn't figure out Dunn's intentions and could only smile back.
"By the way, although I already knew your intention, I still need to formally confirm it now."
Dunn placed the sealed, cooled document bag on a wooden box filled with special bullets. He straightened his body, his face serious, and spoke slowly:
"Miss Angel Granger, are you willing to officially join the Tingen Market Night Squad and become one of us? This means a formal official status, a more generous salary and benefits, but it also means that you will need to fight danger and madness at any time, and even sacrifice your life."
"Your salary will be doubled immediately, half will be covered by the church and the other half will be paid by the Ahowa County Police Department. You will also become a trainee inspector in Ahowa County."
"Once you join, you will be bound not only by the contract and the law, but also by the church's precepts. Quitting at will will be considered desertion."
"You are not allowed to leave Tingen City under any pretext without the approval of the team."
"You can wait until the Holy Temple approves it before making a final decision."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com