"The Grand Duke's lover... oh, I'm not talking about you."
Seeing Shard suddenly looking at him, Director Anlos quickly explained.
"I didn't say you were talking about , did I?"
Shard responded, both feeling a bit embarrassed, so they consciously skirted around the topic:
"Here's the thing, Vigil Caron also went to Tobesk to participate in Big City Player. However, we suspect that his real purpose in coming to Tobesk was to et with people from Carsonrick."
Director Anlos continued.
"Sorry, please wait a mont."
Shard raised his hand, hesitatingly asked:
"Are you saying he went all the way to Tobesk to et with them? Isn't it more dangerous here than in the Little Duchy to the south? Even if the Duchy is already under suspicion by the Royal Family, wouldn't a small town in the Kingdom be safer than Tobesk?"
"The specific reasons are still under investigation, but it's probably because both sides don't trust each other and don't want to set the eting place in a remote countryside. Also, this eting is highly confidential; our people only know about it by pure coincidence. In any case—"
Mr. Anlos placed a hand on Shard's shoulder, gazing intently at him:
"Vigil Caron will be under close surveillance in Tobesk, but the final three rounds of the Big City Player competition are off-limits to unauthorized entries. Although we have planted so operatives, it is not foolproof. Therefore, if you and Mr. Caron, against the odds, both make it to the finals, I would like you to do your best to monitor whether he has t with any suspicious individuals."
The Big City Player Roder Card tournant lasts two weeks, with preliminaries starting on Friday, the next week is the semifinals, and the weekend after selects 8 players for the finals. The final consists of three matches, only accessible to guests holding special invitations, which were distributed half a year in advance, and the guest list was even published beforehand. It would indeed be difficult for MI6 to place reliable operatives at the last minute if they only just received the news.
"If it's just this kind of mission, I think I can handle it."
Shard nodded in acceptance of the task, and Mr. Anlos was pleased with his attitude:
"The chances of their eting taking place at the venue of the Big City Player finals are very slim, after all, whether Vigil Caron can make it to the final round is sothing no one can predict in advance. So, don't feel pressured."
He smiled, released his hand, but as they both walked back to the front door of the equipnt managent office, he turned to Shard and said;
"Look at my mory, I forgot to say, Shard, good luck in the competition."
He patted Shard's shoulder again:
"No agent of ours has ever made it to the final of Big City Player. If you can win the 1853 championship, I think I can imdiately upgrade your salary level. After all, we always welco skilled individuals to join our team."
As he left the City Waste Managent Center, accepting the task from MI6, Shard couldn't help but think of the letter that was about to arrive.
Detective Sparrow had said that on the fifth day of September, which is this Thursday, a letter would be delivered to No. 6, Saint Delan Square, and the only price for inheriting all of his assets was to keep the detective agency running until that day and to burn that letter.
"Ti really flies; today is Monday, then Thursday..."
He wasn't entirely sure if he would open and have a look at the letter when he received it. After all, he was extrely curious about Detective Sparrow.
Having received an unexpected salary, Shard took Mia out for a lavish al at noon as promised. The cat fell sleepy after eating, so in the afternoon, Liumia rested alone at ho, while he headed into the town to take care of his monthly gas, steam fees, and his advertisents in the newspaper.
Quite coincidentally, at the Steam Bird Daily Office, Shard happened to bump into Dorothy who was there for so errands.
The editors at the office were carrying a sack, which appeared very heavy, trying to load it onto a four-wheeled carriage outside the office. Shard inquired and found out that it was filled with reader's letters.
"Do you read each and every letter?"
Shard asked curiously to Dorothy, then got an affirmative answer from the blonde girl.
But when the two left the office, Dorothy whispered to Shard that she actually only read a small part of the letters, piling the rest in a corner, thinking of storing them in the attic when she had enough money to buy her own house. After all, these were letters from readers, and even if she didn't have ti to read them all, she wouldn't throw them away or burn them.
"Actually, you could store them at my place for now, since my house is quite spacious."
Shard suggested, and thus his attic ended up with five whole sacks of letters. In return, Dorothy spent an afternoon in Shard's study perusing detective records and invited him out to a high-end restaurant on Silver Cross Avenue for dinner that evening.
When paying the bill, Shard noticed Dorothy had left the na of Lecia, her personal maid.
"She won't mind."
Dorothy said with a smile, which made Shard think of the image of Lecia kissing him using Dorothy's body on Sunday night.
When Shard woke up early on Tuesday, he mistook the ti, thinking the letter that needed to be burned would arrive today. But when he stepped outside to get the milk, the morning breeze reminded him that the letter wouldn't co until Thursday.
However, there was indeed a letter from afar today, it was from Miss Mia Gold. Mia's previous owner asked about Mia Cat's well-being at a frequency of one letter per month and tily mailed Shard the cat's ??10 maintenance fee.
Besides the salary from MI6, this money was actually Shard's steady inco.
In the letter, Miss Gawder still expressed concern for Mia's recent condition, and ntioned that she had received the photos of Mia that Shard had sent last month.
She reiterated her gratitude to the detective, but also ntioned that her illness hadn't improved and that troubles in her small hotown were increasing. Not only were there strange rumors, but also news about her family's old affairs, which was once wealthy but now in decline.
Within this year, she definitely couldn't travel to Tobesk to take Mia away, thus she hoped the detective could continue to look after the cat for a while longer.
"Last month, didn't you say it was just the flu? How can it take a month to recover? Are family affairs really that burdenso?"
Shard was perplexed by this, concerned about his client's health, and grateful she hadn't entrusted soone else to co to Tobesk to take Mia away.
"But it seems, Miss Gawder is quite wealthy, or rather, her 'declining' family is quite wealthy."
Shard flipped the two pages of the letter to check if there was any content on the back.
"If I want to buy Mia, it probably won't be cheap..."
Thanks to his recent sale of the rman's Elixir of Immortality to Miss Galina, Shard still had over ??2,000 in savings. He couldn't tell what breed Mia was, but she didn't seem to be expensive. However, if Miss Mia Gold's affection for the cat was taken into account, Shard wasn't sure if ??2,000 would be enough to buy her from the lady.
"It seems I need to continue probing her stance."
He fetched so paper to write a reply:
"There are still four months in this year, apart from this month, I have three more opportunities to write to Miss Gawder in October, November, and December. I must determine her willingness to sell the cat before January of next year. Actually, dragging this out might be good; perhaps gradually, Miss Gawder's affection for Mia might fade... well, I still need to be prepared to save up money."
[Have you ever thought about what would happen if that lady died from her illness?]
Her voice suddenly appeared by his ear, Shard thought for a while and then vigorously shook his head:
"I can't curse my client, and even if Miss Gawder really did die, I would personally go to her small town and inform her grave about my plan to adopt Mia. However, I hope such an event doesn't occur."
[Why? Don't want to make a long journey?]
"No, I wish everyone could live well."
He pulled the cap off his fountain pen and shooed away the cat that was circling around the ink bottle, then the cat jumped back onto Shard's lap:
"Everyone will die eventually, but I hope the people I know don't leave due to accidents."
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