Chapter 452

"I'm sorry, but according to my principles, if you see my true face, it will be more difficult, right?"

"Oh, forget it, it's my bad luck to be discovered by you. Just tell me what you want."

"I don't need anything. I will help you keep this secret, but you have to go somewhere..."

The two people reached a secret deal in the alley, and then one party returned to the Orchid Tavern, while the other party disappeared.

…

The day after Odysseus met Alsace, the royal family began to seal the Orchid Tavern. The seals were posted all over Oak Street, which also shifted the focus of everyone's investigation here.

Almost at the same time, the emperor announced a compromise with the dukes and opened a joint investigation. Of course, only relevant personnel from the Duchy of Orleans were allowed to participate.

However, being able to force the royal family to make such concessions has met the psychological expectations of the dukes.

Of course, Duke Henry of Orleans himself would not come to Saint Laurent again, but asked Sean, the ostensible regent, to rush to Saint Laurent to show the importance of this matter.

If a result that satisfies everyone is not achieved, although a war will not break out, the prestige of the royal family will definitely drop a lot.

But no matter what, during the investigation process, the situation will be relatively calm for a period of time and will not be as tense as before.

…

The base camp of the main force in Antica.

"Sir, is it really okay to hand over the affairs of Saint Laurent City to Master Orson?" Next to Lucius, Albert, the butler who also served as the adjutant of the army, asked.

"In the previous battle with the orcs, I also gave full control of the war to Orson. As you can see, he is a child who understands justice. I can rest assured that he will do things."

"Master, that's not what I meant..." Albert said, frowning. "I grew up watching Master Orson. Of course I also know that Master Orson is very smart. However, you have just given the inheritance rights of the duchy to Master Li Te. Master Orson will inevitably feel a little unbalanced..."

"Are you afraid that Orson will betray Antica's interests?"

"That's right. After all, if he can't inherit the title, it means that his future has nothing to do with Antica. Since he is so capable, he will definitely be very popular..."

"You don't have to worry about this, Albert." Lucius shook his head. "I'm not that stupid yet. The reason why Orson didn't choose to be the Duke of Antica is because I promised him greater benefits."

"Greater benefits?" Albert frowned.

"Is it possible..."

"Well, he's getting older, and it's time for him to go out and start a family on his own." Lucius said this and smiled.

"But will His Majesty the Emperor agree?"

"Eighteen years ago, I quelled the orc crisis for the empire, and the emperor split the earth and granted me a title. Why don't I agree now?"

"He who completely eliminated the orcs' disaster is already one of the most dazzling generals in history just for his military exploits, right? Plus, he is not my biological child. After he becomes independent, he can establish his own family, right? "

"So, before he separates, whether it is to repay the kindness and affection of nurturing, or for his own benefit, he will do it wholeheartedly."

"I know." Albert nodded. "If that's the case, then I'm relieved."

Chapter 87: How do you know?

City of Saint Laurent, Imperial Court.

"Is this the suspect you are talking about?" Seeing the nominal owner of Youlan Tavern being pulled into the interrogation room, Sean, who was sitting on the sidelines of the jury, looked at the interrogator next to him with a puzzled look on his face.

"Yes." The interrogator nodded, "They are one of those who can mobilize the power of eight levels and above in Saint Laurent City. Of course they are suspects."

When the interrogator said this, Sean curled his lips in disdain.

There are many forces in Saint Laurent City that can mobilize powerful people above the eighth level. The other party singled out this family. It was obviously a temporary backstop with the least impact in order to calm down the incident.

Otherwise, the Imperial Academy, the army, and even the security forces controlled by the royal family would be highly suspicious.

But it is impossible for these three parties to be brought out to make excuses.

"Okay, let's see what you can find out from the interrogation." Sean said this, sitting silently and watching the interrogation process.

…

On the other side, Oak Street.

Oak Street, which has been sealed at this moment, has always been guarded by a large number of guards, keeping a close eye on people who come here without permission.

"Who is it? Who is there!" At this moment, a sharp-eyed guard suddenly noticed a black shadow passing in front of him. He quickly shouted out alertly, and even the soldiers around him also looked at the figure. place.

Then, seeing that there was no response from the distance, a guard walked carefully to the intersection and came to the place where the black shadow just disappeared, which led to a dark and bottomless alley. At this moment, the guard felt a little scared.

"Rutte, did you see it wrong?" At this moment, a teammate behind him said.

"Impossible, I absolutely cannot be wrong. Someone definitely passed by here just now!" Rutte said decisively, and there was no room for doubt in his tone.

"In that case, why don't you take a few people to take a look? I'll go back and report to the commander first, and ask him to send more people here."

"Okay." Lute nodded, and then pulled several guards guarding the intersection into the alley.

At this time, the guards replaced the spears used to block the road with short swords that are more suitable for narrow terrain.

If there were really people in the alley, a fierce battle would be inevitable.

At this time, on the other side of Oak Street, Orson came here with the royal franchise.

"Okay, the document is not forged, so please pay attention to safety inside and don't destroy the evidence at the scene." After the guard looked at the certificate, he returned the certificate to Orson, and then signaled the soldiers behind him to let him go.

"Well, thank you for your hard work. After these days, take a good leave to relax." Orson smiled and nodded, and then walked into Oak Street.

Arriving in front of the Orchid Tavern, the main location of this blockade, Orson stopped at the door and repeated the previous process before being allowed to enter the tavern.

He came here this time in the name of assisting the investigation.

As the only representative of the Duke of Antica who stayed in Saint Laurent City, Odysseus did not refuse Orson's request.

After all, from the current point of view, Orson can also be regarded as a member of his faction, and he is deeply trusted by Elsa. It must be right to let Orson participate in this investigation.

As expected, when Orson walked into the Orchid Tavern, there were already many private detectives investigating inside.

These detectives have their own special skills to a certain extent. Some rely on magic to detect magic fluctuations to collect evidence, while others use more "ordinary" means to sort out the logic from some details and traces, and analyze and review the criminal's action trajectory.

What is being investigated in the Orchid Tavern at this moment is of course the criminal evidence of the contact between the Orchid Tavern and the assassin.

Everyone is busy with their own work at this moment, so no one cares about Orson anymore.

And Orson glanced at the people in the hall, and then went straight to the third floor.

As expected, the office that originally belonged to the real owner of this tavern was now empty, and a female detective was collecting information at the desk.

The detective wore a brown hat, had short grey hair and a pair of glasses on her nose. She was concentrating on her own business.

"Have you found anything?" Orson walked up and asked politely.

The other party was startled by Orson's sudden intrusion, and then shook his head.

"Sorry, not yet. The other party seems to be very sharp and has transferred a lot of information, but from the placement of items and decorations here, it can be seen that this should be a place for business."

"If the assassin negotiated the business with the owner of the Orchid Tavern here, there should be a strong magical fluctuation here. Even if a long time has passed, it shouldn't be so ordinary..."

"So, it's not here, right?"

"Well, based on the evidence collected so far, it's unreasonable to convict this tavern, but it doesn't rule out that the other party has negotiated a deal somewhere else. After all, this incident is the assassination of the Duke. If the other party is really a criminal, if it were me, I would never negotiate business in such a conspicuous place where it is so easy to be caught by others."

"Very sharp." Orson praised the other party and then closed his eyes, which puzzled the other party.

"Um... what are you doing?"

"Shh." As soon as the other party opened his mouth, Orson made a shushing gesture.

Half a minute later, he opened his eyes again and went directly to the bookshelf behind the desk. The other party was startled by Orson and leaned against the bookshelf.

"Your strength should not be strong, right?" Orson said casually. "By the way, I haven't asked your name yet. I'm Orson."

"Well... I'm only level five... but it's enough for investigating cases... and my name is Sherlock, you can call me Charlotte."

"If it's most of the cases, you are definitely a detective, Miss Charlotte." Orson said so. "You have the strength of level five at a young age. Even if you don't become a detective, you can live well."

Hearing Orson talking about things other than investigating cases, Sherlock frowned.

"Sorry, I've said a lot, but I just felt it and found something unusual."

As he said this, he took out a book from behind Sherlock's head and put it on the desk.

"Here." He pointed to the empty space on the bookshelf after he pulled out the book.

"Miss Charlotte, what you are looking for should be here, right?"

"..." Hearing Orson say this, Sherlock looked at him in surprise.

Sherlock was more curious about how Orson knew her idea than the button that looked like a secret room switch.

Chapter 88: It should be okay, right?

"How...how did you know?" Sherlock said this, looking at Orson with surprise in his eyes.

"It's very simple logic. Detectives are used to searching for evidence from bottom to top, layer by layer, for fear of missing something. When I first came in, you should still be in the initial stage of the search, and you haven't found anything yet, right?" Orson said.

"And you are the only one searching on the third floor. It's hard not to suspect whether you have found something unusual."

"When I came up to ask, you said you didn't find anything abnormal. The detectives here are not all in the same camp. The reason you said that to me means that you want to investigate the results alone and then keep the results for yourself. Am I right, Miss Charlotte?"

Orson said this, walked a few steps away, sat on the sofa, and looked like he saw through everything.

"..." After hearing this, Sherlock was silent for a while, and then tried to quibble: "What if I am different from others and like to investigate like this?"

Orson smiled and looked at Charlotte, but didn't say anything.

After a while, Charlotte, who was looking at Orson, finally couldn't stand the pressure and said, "Okay, I admit that I do have this idea, so how did you know?"

"It's very simple, space." Orson said this, pointing downstairs.

Looking up from downstairs, the space on the third floor is obviously very large, but now there is only one office. Miss Charlotte, you must have looked around the structure of the entire building first, and then chose to investigate the third floor, right?

After easily explaining Sherlock's movements, Orson stood up again and came to the bookshelf.

"Well, let's go in and see what's inside."

As he said this, Orson touched the button on the bookshelf, and the floor tiles under the bookshelf moved immediately. The bookshelf immediately moved away, revealing a door that opened inwards. Orson stretched out his hand and gently pushed the door open.

"This is..."

Sherlock looked at the open entrance and saw the scene inside, and couldn't help but widen his eyes.

As soon as Orson pushed open the door, the whole room was shining with golden light, which made Sherlock dumbfounded.

This is not a secret room, this is a big vault, full of gold coins, and even a lot of gold coins were melted and cast into gold bars on the shelf.

She had never seen so much money in her life.

"It seems that this place is really profitable. It's not easy to save so much money just by selling wine."

Orson said this and sighed.

"Miss Charlotte, don't blame me for pouring cold water on you. Although there is a lot of money here, as detectives, we cannot touch anything here. The value of this place must be evaluated by the authorities."

"Ahem, of course I know this. Don't look down on me. I am a very good detective!"

"I hope so." Orson nodded and turned around.

"I'm going to report down, what about you, Miss Charlotte?"

"Ahem... I... Can I go down with you?" Charlotte certainly knew what Orson meant by this.

In such a place, if you find clues, you can get rewards and credit. Orson's words are obviously asking her if she wants to share this credit with him.

"Well, it's better to say that I don't really care about the so-called credit, and if two people go to report the news, they can take care of each other, which is more convincing, isn't it?"

"In that case, then... Then I'd rather obey your orders." Sherlock heard the words, nodded, and then followed Orson down.

As for the fact that Orson deliberately teased her just now, Sherlock no longer cared about it.

After all, this secret room was discovered by Orson, and Sherlock didn't help at all in the process.

But after all, Sherlock was the first to reach the third floor. Seeing that the credit was taken away by Orson, he would inevitably feel a little unbalanced, but if he forced to share the credit with Orson, it would be a bit too shameless.

Fortunately, Orson gave Sherlock a way out, which made Sherlock feel a little calmer.

After arriving on the first floor, Orson first found the official person in charge of this time. After briefly explaining the abnormality of the third floor to him, the official person in charge immediately led a team of guards to the third floor.

When the other detectives present saw this scene, they immediately knew that someone had obtained the investigation results before them, which made them both annoyed and helpless, and they only hated their own incompetence.

At this time, there was a sound of fighting suddenly coming from upstairs. After hearing the sound, Orson hurried up.

"Hey, where are you going?!" Sherlock saw Orson running up, and he followed him.