Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 886: Section 584: Searching (2)

Chapter 886: Section 584: Searching (2)

The northern city lacked the sanitation systems of Carterburg, and its alleys were filled with all sorts of garbage. Malin had Fio lead the way, with Lorrin following and guarding Lulu, while Malin himself walked alongside, observing the humanoid form made up of alternating tangible and intangible sensing points leading the way forward.

At a back door, the humanoid form made of sensing points stopped, and so did Malin. He watched it gaze at the wall and glance at the sky where snow was falling. In that instant, Malin cast Spiritual Energy to construct a time-reversal of the area, lighting up and extinguishing tiny sensing points one after another.

In a corner, a secret door opened and a small humanoid form made of sensing points emerged.

Once again, Malin intensified the transformation rate of his Spiritual Energy, making its master seem like a deity in this small area.

And the deity said, "Let there be sound."

Thus, the next second, a voice resounded.

"Why have you come here? This city has become very dangerous, and standing here just makes you a target for those stray dogs from the south."

A voice characteristic of a Gnome rang out.

"I have disguised myself and created illusions. You ought to trust the strength of an Illusionist, a half-step Legendary."

This was a human’s hoarse voice.

"I don’t appreciate your such confident assertions. Tell me, what is it?" The Gnome leaned against the doorframe.

"The ritual is over. I need to find him a safe house, just like you said, this city has become very dangerous." The human spoke while tossing a bag of Gold Coins.

As the Gnome caught the Gold Coins, Malin could see the small figure jiggling the money pouch in his hand.

"No problem, at Clark Silva Avenue, number 939, here’s the key." The small one bowed, intending to remove a key from the keyring at his waist.

Malin watched as the human reached out, seemingly to take the key, but sensing the collapsing of the Spell Formation, Malin maintained the time-reversal — this meant one of the two men was using a Spell Formation.

Then he saw the human suddenly grab the Gnome’s neck, snatch the keys from his waist, and throw him into the secret door.

The time-reversal stopped there, no longer maintainable, and faded from Malin’s sight.

"It’s snowing heavily; the climate is not right, and the time-reversal collapsed." Lulu stepped in front of Malin: "I thought Gnomes and humans were supposed to be friends."

"Chaotic Believers and intelligence traffickers hardly count as friends," Malin said while watching Melo and Mana dismantle the secret door. The Gnome had been dead for a day or two, but the northern cold preserved the body perfectly, with a clearly visible blade wound on the neck.

Malin tried to reconstruct the process of the human grabbing the Gnome’s neck and found that only a sleeve sword could instantly inflict such a wound.

Interesting, the messenger who went to notify Sara also died by a sleeve sword, "Which organizations use this kind of weapon?"

Lulu pondered Malin’s question: "There are four organizations, Mr. Holmes’ followers count as one, recently self-proclaimed followers of the God of Vengeance count as another, and sometimes the Punishers from the Lord of Justice Church use it, as do the Punishers from the Master of Wisdom."

"That means this human must definitely be a follower of Mr. Carter," Malin said, thinking of the Master of Wisdom... the followers of the God of Vengeance. Malin had heard that typically, if you want the Punisher of this emerging Church to kill someone, you need to be a victim of injustice; only then will the God of Vengeance allow his Punisher to carry out an assassination.

The Lord of Justice Church would never kill a Proxy of a friendly Church.

Mr. Carter was not summoned by anyone back then, after all, years ago they didn’t have the means to conduct such direct transactions to summon an Evil God, and why would the Punisher of the Master of Wisdom want to kill a Proxy of the Goddess of Harvest Church?

The two sides don’t really have a conflict, right?

After much thought, Malin could only suspect the sleeve dagger used in the assassination as an intentional diversion by the murderer.

Having called the officers to handle the Gnome’s body, Malin entered the pastry shop through a secret door, the curtains that were let down blocked the light, but they couldn’t block Malin’s vision. The World Tree Sapling opened the curtains, and as light entered the room through the glass windows, Malin noticed the loaves of bread on the shelves of the shop.

Quite fresh, looking exactly as seen during the regression. This Gnome was running the shop quite well. Malin turned to the police captain who followed in: "Investigate this Gnome’s social interactions, have someone continue running this shop, and also, arrange a team to stay across and watch to see who comes over to ask questions."

"Yes, Lord Malin." The policing system revered Malin greatly, not just for his abilities, but even more for the Holmes detective collections he had written.

While saying that, Malin noticed a teenager outside the door, who was looking through the transparent display window at the situation inside, his face shifting from hesitation and confusion to vigilance and fear.

Eventually, he turned and ran.

Malin did not pursue, but Lorrin and Melo had already burst through the shop door.

It took less than five seconds for the teenagers to be dragged back into the shop.

"Kid, do you know what curfew is?" Malin sat on a nearby chair, watching as his Saplings hung the teenager upside down from the ceiling, Malin shook his head with a smile: "Tell me, why are you spying on us."

"I know Uncle Ante, the manager. You are not his friends. Where is he?" These teenagers didn’t respond to Malin’s question but instead posed their own to Malin.

Malin glanced at the police captain, who explained the situation to the boy in the local language, following which this boy proficient in the common language nodded his head and looked towards Malin, speaking in the local language.

The captain turned his head: "Lord Malin, this boy across the street, he’s from the Baiste family, I know his father."

"He’s quite bold. Captain, arrange for an officer to escort him home, and don’t forget to tell his father, kids are ignorant and need some physical hardship." Malin smiled, then watched the boy being led by the officer to the opposite side of the street, at which point the door on the other side opened, a man grabbed the teenager by the ear, then started whacking his backside with a rolling pin he held.

Watching the child scream and disappear behind the door with his father, Malin turned to the captain: "Confirm the identity of this father."

"Yes, my lord, all his information will be presented to you tomorrow."

With that, Malin smiled in satisfaction.

"Let’s go, we are going to 939, Clark Silva Avenue, you lead the way, Captain." After saying this, Malin pushed open the shop door: "Captain, you lead the way."

"Of course, my lord, I’ll show the way."