Although Xia De successfully made Miss Vitter no longer keen on talking to him, the lady had no intention of leaving. She talked to Xia De about rhode cards. Now, the rumor that Xia De was about to obtain 【Founding Knowledge】 had spread throughout the city. In this era, he was truly a "legendary player."
When it came to rhode cards, Xia De was no longer bored. Not only 【Founding Knowledge】, but also the new card he obtained from the Prophet Association, the 【Old Continent Mineral · Caville Gem Mine】, which could be adjusted between 12 and 13, was equally interesting.
They were not the only two who liked playing cards. Most of those lagging behind the crowd were also bored with the tour. Thus, unknowingly, more people joined the conversation, including even Sir Prisia.
He was a Poet, and although knowledgeable, he wasn't particularly interested in mechanics, physics, or chemistry. A middle-aged noble of his age couldn't have avoided contact with rhode cards, so he joined the conversation as well.
This gentleman might have been busy with the Apner Library recently, as he didn't even know the city's rumor that Xia De was about to obtain the fifth Founding series rhode card. Hearing that people were discussing this matter, he asked Xia De with great interest what he had paid for that card, but Xia De only pointed to his mouth with his finger, indicating that he had to keep it a secret.
So, everyone around understood.
In short, without realizing it, Miss Pa Wo had already left. Xia De noticed her standing behind Princess Margaret for a while, then she left the team, ending her visit to the college. And the seven or eight middle-aged gentlemen who were talking with Xia De at the end of the line even agreed to go to a pub outside to play rhode cards together during lunch.
Seeing that Sir Prisia also wanted to go, Xia De agreed. The Poet from the Southern Kingdom was very interested in such elegant activities, and Xia De was also creating an opportunity to have a deeper conversation with him.
Thus, the atmosphere at the end of the tour group was even livelier than that of Princess Margaret's group at the very front. If the Princess weren't still touring, these gentlemen might have found a spot on the ground and started playing cards.
At eleven in the morning, Princess Margaret's morning itinerary came to its last stop, which was a half-hour academic report. The topic of the report was "Research Progress of Delarion's New Steam Engine." Of course, this couldn't be the latest model of steam engine developed by the Kingdom; it was just a new model about to be commercialized. But even so, it was quite valuable to Carson Rick, so the Princess and the accompanying envoys took it very seriously.
The report was held in the auditorium of Delarion's Third National Mechanical College. The main auditorium was too large, so Report Hall No. 3 was used this time. A college with hundreds of years of history like this one had no shortage of report halls.
Princess Margaret sat in the second row, while the guards who had investigated the place earlier arranged the seats for the others. The gentlemen who were chatting about rhode cards and walking at the back naturally sat in the very last row.
It was a pity that they couldn't chat or play cards during the report, so the gentlemen quieted down a lot. Sir Prisia, who was sitting two rows in front of Xia De, even took out a poetry collection to read. It had been confirmed that he was the fourth Chosen One, and Xia De felt that by observing this Sir's daily actions, he could roughly judge what kind of person he was. Of course, a more in-depth investigation was still very necessary.
Xia De sat in the report hall for ten minutes when he heard a whisper in his ear:
"Perhaps I should remind you, a man appeared three times in five minutes at the second window on the left side closest to the podium."
Xia De watched the middle-aged mechanic on the podium explain data on the blackboard with an unchanging expression. He was talking about fuel saving and the difference between solid and liquid fuels.
"Walking past with his face fully exposed? Or appearing very covertly?"
Outside the window was a small path in the college, and it was normal for people to walk by.
"He's in the building opposite, peeking out from the window there to look in this direction."
"Who could it be? It won't be a Royal Guard; Royal Guards don't act like that. Could it be a colleague from MI6 on a mission? Or a colleague from Gray Gloves on a mission?"
Xia De thought silently, then bent down and stood up, temporarily leaving through the back door of the report hall. No one noticed him because he was at the very back, and it was normal to temporarily leave to relieve himself.
Instead of taking the main entrance, Xia De directly climbed out of the corridor window. He pulled down his hat to cover his face, walked along the small path to the side of the auditorium, and then looked at the window of the building opposite.
He blinked, and Blood Echo clearly showed the bloody halo inside the window. The blood color was very clear, extending from far down the corridor to the position below the window obscured by the wall. Because it was only a part of the ground, Xia De judged that the other party had stepped in blood.
"No matter whose side he's on, stepping in blood here and ambushing is clearly not a good person."
Xia De came to a conclusion and glanced at the building. He circled around again, and in an unnoticed location, he directly used Raglai's Leap to enter through the window.
The interior of the building was heated, much warmer than outside. Xia De, wrapped in his overcoat, passed by the portraits hanging on both sides of the corridor, searching for the source of the bloodstains. He finally found a corpse hidden in a corner of the east-facing room, with its throat slit. It wasn't a student, but rather looked like a doorman.
Xia De frowned, returned the way he came, and stopped at the corner of the corridor, pressing his body against the wall.
He carefully extended a fingernail's length of his finger outwards, then quickly pulled it back:
"Did you see him?"
"It's the man from just now, crouching under the window. An ordinary person."
"That makes it easy. Red Butterfly Illusion."
The corner of the corridor twisted for a moment, then returned to normal. Xia De walked out from the corner and headed towards the end of the corridor. The crouching man seemed not to see him, nervously peeking out from time to time.
Red Butterfly Illusion focuses differently from Xia De's sealed Moon Shadow's Illusion. The former is more about creating illusions, so Xia De created an illusion of an empty corridor. This method of concealment is easily discovered by Ring術士, especially as Xia De gets closer, but ordinary people need extremely strong inspiration to see through it. Unfortunately, Xia De's opponent this time did not have that.
He walked up to the crouching man like this, taking out the "Mind Crystal Ring" from his pocket and putting it on his finger as he walked. He stopped ten meters away from him, gripping a silent charm in his left hand, and pointing his right index finger at the man's forehead:
"Mind Blast!"
With a muffled thud, red and white substances simultaneously flowed from the man's mouth, nose, ears, and eyes. He stared with wide eyes at the void in front of him, then slumped to the ground.
Xia De shook his head, approached the corpse, and sprinkled bone meal as a casting material:
"Soul Echo."
A cold wind swept through the corridor, and the communed soul appeared above the corpse. Xia De gently sighed, standing in a position invisible from the outside, and asked:
"Who are you?"
"I am Neil Hawkman of the Lamia Principality."
The soul answered unconsciously. Although facing the murderer who killed it, due to the blessings from countless souls on Xia De, it did not attempt to become an evil spirit and attack Xia De.
"What are you doing here?"
"Confirming the bomb explosion."
Xia De was startled:
"What bomb?"
"A steam bomb, installed under the fifth seat in the seventh row of the auditorium opposite, using a leaking steam valve as a delay device, set to explode in about five to seven minutes."
"Huh?"
Hearing this, Xia De had no time to ask more questions. He reached out and touched the soul, and the Miracle Directing Death allowed him to directly "see" the soul's deepest memories.
Although Xia De's ability to obtain soul memories through touch with Directing Death was far inferior to Sister Devlin's ability to know all of a soul's emotions with just a glance, he at least confirmed that the bomb truly existed, and this organized murder was indeed for Princess Margaret.
They were an independent organization from the Lamia Principality. This small principality was subordinate to Delarion, and the organization wanted to stir up trouble between Delarion and Carson Rick to seek independent status in the war that would ensue.
This Monday, Chief Anlos, who came to Saint Delan Square, had clearly mentioned this, but Xia De didn't expect to encounter it himself.
The doorman who died earlier was killed by Neil Hawkman because he accidentally saw him. But besides that bomb, they hadn't been able to find any other way to harm the Princess.
Even being able to place the bomb was only possible by bribing the auditorium's custodian after the police inspection, which allowed them to barely access the seats in the back rows, rather than placing it directly behind the front rows.
"This is really bad."
He casually opened Death Door and pushed the soul inside. Frowning, he thought for a moment, then took a deep breath to restore the surrounding environment to its original state. After that, he completely melted the corpse with The Witch's Light, eliminating any possible remaining traces, and only then did he put his hands in his pockets and turn to leave the building.
There wasn't much time left until the bomb exploded. Although he couldn't explain the source of the intelligence, directly informing MI6 wouldn't be a problem, but Xia De couldn't find anyone from MI6 right now.
As for rushing into the auditorium and shouting about a bomb, that was certainly an option, but it would draw more attention to him, which Xia De had been trying to avoid.
Fortunately, he still had his identity as "Agent Gray Headed Eagle" to use. After the Princess arrived in Tobesk, he received an order and learned how to contact the Princess in an emergency. At this moment, appearing to protect the Princess was, in Xia De's view, a way to repay Sparrow Hamilton Detective, who rested in the cemetery. Compared to using the Gray Headed Eagle identity for personal gain, protecting others was a good way to maintain the honor of this identity.
