The stranger's voice was not loud, but it was clear, and clearly not a local accent:
"Madam, does this person stay at your inn?"
He first took out a banknote, then a photo, and showed it to Mrs. Sangmei. Due to the angle, Xia De could not see the photo.
Xia De rested his arm on the counter, sitting on a round stool in front of it, and looked at Luvia. As she raised an eyebrow, he motioned for her not to speak, then continued their previous conversation, complaining to Luvia that the technical worker Miss Mary had not told the truth.
"Where did this High-Ring Sorcerer come from? Has the Church already traced me here? Should I leave then?"
This was a thought in his mind.
The opponent was at least a Twelve Ring, most likely a Thirteen Ring Sorcerer.
"Thirteenth Ring?"
Xia De was even more surprised, but his expression remained unchanged:
"The Orthodox Church's current Thirteen Ring Sorcerers in Tobesk are the Sun Church's 'Sunlight Greatsword' and the Creation Church's 'Steel Right Hand', but this person is clearly not one of them. The Church does not casually transfer Thirteen Ring Sorcerers across dioceses, and even if there were clues about Darkness, according to the Church Ring術士's code of conduct that I learned from Iluna, a Thirteen Ring Sorcerer would not be directly dispatched. Therefore, this stranger is not a Thirteenth Ring from the Orthodox Church."
As he pondered, the female innkeeper frowned at the photo, then decisively shook her head:
"I know all our guests here very well. At least within the past three months, no one looking like that has stayed at my inn."
Xia De continued conversing with Luvia. Luvia probably also realized that the man talking to the innkeeper was somewhat unusual, so she responded to Xia De's words very enthusiastically.
"Then, may I ask who the guests who have stayed in the past three days are?"
The man in the dark red coat asked politely. Xia De noticed his accent, which sounded somewhat like the accent from the southern mountainous region of Delarion. He had heard a similar accent when he and Captain Lades visited the veteran's club.
"Guest, I can't just tell you that."
Mrs. Sangmei shook her head:
"Not for any amount of money. If I told such things, no one would dare stay at my inn again."
"Yes, that makes a lot of sense."
The man nodded, then suddenly began to cough.
He hastily took out a white handkerchief from his outer coat pocket and held it to his mouth, coughed a few times, and then put the handkerchief away. Xia De's peripheral vision seemed to catch a glimpse of blood on the white handkerchief:
"A Thirteen Ring Sorcerer can still get sick? I remember Middle-Ring Arcanists are immune to most common diseases, and High-Ring Sorcerers absolutely do not get sick."
"Then how about this, take a look at this."
The stranger in the dark red coat took out a document from his pocket. After Mrs. Sangmei glanced at it, her eyes widened suddenly:
"Okay, I understand."
She bent down, took out the ledger from under the counter, flipped a few pages, and pushed it to the person outside the counter:
"Everyone who has stayed in the past three days is listed here."
"Okay, thank you for your help."
The man said with a smile. Because he seemed to have coughed up blood just now, he looked even weaker.
He lowered his head and carefully examined the ledger. The Three Cats Inn's business was quite good, so it took him a while to finish reading:
"Okay, thank you again for your help."
He closed the ledger, pushed it back to Mrs. Sangmei, picked up his hat and put it on his head, then politely nodded to Xia De on the side. Only then did the man turn and walk towards the staircase leading from the first floor to the second.
After the other party disappeared around the staircase corner, Xia De stopped his conversation with Luvia about the commission and moved his seat, sitting back in front of Mrs. Sangmei:
"Who was that just now? You actually handed him the ledger?"
He asked in a frivolous tone, wanting to appear merely curious.
"I can't say that."
The female innkeeper shook her head, but her expression was a bit confused.
"Wait, Xia De, her state isn't right."
Seeing this, Luvia suddenly reached out and touched her forehead. Mrs. Sangmei's movements slowly stopped, then she slowly lay down on the counter, as if she had fallen asleep.
"She was influenced by someone's consciousness just now. The document she thought she saw might not be a genuinely existing document."
Luvia said with a serious expression:
"We were right next to her, but we didn't feel any elemental traces. The man just now was definitely very strong."
"Thirteenth Ring."
Xia De said, pulling the ledger that Mrs. Sangmei was holding. He quickly flipped to the last page and then looked forward to check the contents.
"What? Ten—"
"Lower your voice."
Xia De immediately reminded her, taking out his portable notebook and copying the contents of the ledger:
"Did you see the man just now coughing up blood? This is truly strange. Could he be severely injured? To be working while so injured, it seems even Thirteen Ring Sorcerers don't have it easy."
"Thirteenth Ring, Weepers?"
Luvia lowered her voice and turned to look at the staircase with some disbelief:
"Oh? Could it be him? But how dare he return to the Old Continent, ever since thirty years ago—"
"Thirty years ago, Weepers was suspected of looking for Darkness?
Xia De stopped writing and suddenly looked up at Luvia:
"A few days ago, I heard from the Witch that the Blood Spirit School seemed to have sent a High-Ring Sorcerer from the New World to hunt down the traitor Darkness."
"Yes, I think so."
The purple-eyed Diviner's expression was solemn:
"Weeping Blood Hermons, the 78-year-old Thirteen Ring Sorcerer of the Blood Spirit School and the actual controller of the school. Thirty years ago, for his Thirteenth Ring promotion ritual, he conspired with criminals to obtain infant blood, thus committing a major crime that affected half the kingdom. However, he was ambushed by the Orthodox Church during his promotion and was severely injured, leading him to move the Blood Spirit School to the New World. For thirty years, he has never dared to set foot on the Old Continent again."
"For the second Chosen One, he actually dared to come back?"
As he spoke, Xia De resumed writing, copying down the information. After finishing, he stuffed the notebook back into his pocket and placed the ledger back in Mrs. Sangmei's hand.
He nodded to Luvia, and Luvia lightly touched Mrs. Sangmei's head again.
The latter let out a loud dream-mutter, then slowly woke up:
"How did I fall asleep? It seems I haven't rested well these past few days."
The confused female innkeeper still hadn't immediately recovered her usual shrewdness. Xia De didn't say much more to her. After ordering drinks and food again, he and Luvia returned to the table next to the female Poet playing the lute and sat down.
It was already noon, so Xia De and Luvia had lunch there. With a powerful Thirteen Ring Sorcerer appearing at the Three Cats Inn, neither of them dared to make any rash moves.
So they simply treated it as a leisurely outing, discussing interesting places in the Lower City while eating.
Luvia even knew that in a nearby alley, there was a relic trading place similar to Old John's Pawnshop, but the safety there was completely incomparable to the pawnshop.
At 11:15 AM, Xia De was sharing his experience of helping a client find a cat on Tuesday when the short, thin man in the dark red coat came down from upstairs with a tall man Xia De had never seen before.
The two first went to the counter, and judging by their action of handing over the keys, they seemed to have checked out of their room at the inn, then left the Three Cats Inn together.
Xia De did not get up immediately. He waited a full five minutes before signaling to Luvia that it was okay.
He again disturbed Mrs. Sangmei and then asked for an empty room on the fifth floor.
After climbing the stairs with Luvia and entering the room with the number 7 on the door, Xia De took out his notebook from his pocket:
"Darkness and Weepers should have left. Luvia, try to Diviner which of these rooms Darkness used to stay in."
Xia De pointed out the room numbers he had recorded; these rooms were the most likely ones. Once the Blood Echo effect ended, their search would become much more troublesome.
The female Diviner frowned and looked at them twice:
"One out of four? Because it involves a Thirteen Ring Sorcerer, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the Diviner."
"It's okay, two on the fifth floor, two on the fourth floor. Diviner as much as you can. I'll check through the door crack to see if the cleaning maid will pass by here immediately."
So Luvia borrowed the rhode cards from Xia De again. She spread the entire deck of 54 cards evenly on the bed, then tried to turn over three of them. After thinking for a while, she turned over three more cards, until all the cards were turned over.
During this time, Xia De indeed observed through the door crack that the inn's plump maid, pushing a small cart welded from discarded gas pipes, humming the tune sung by the female Poet downstairs, passed by the room door. On the cart were buckets, rags, brooms, and mops, and the metal wheels made a loud sound rolling on the wooden floor.
Ten minutes later, the plump maid passed by the door again, heading towards the broom closet by the staircase. After the broom closet door was opened and then closed, her footsteps disappeared at the staircase:
"Cleaning the rooms now, it seems it is indeed a room on the fifth floor. Now it's one out of two."
Xia De at the door made a cautious judgment. Luvia was standing by the bed, collecting the cards:
"If it is indeed on the fifth floor, then I think it's the furthest room on the 5th floor, Room 1."
"Okay, let's go to Room 1 and check the situation."
Xia De nodded, pushed the door open, looked left and right, and seeing no one in the corridor, he led Luvia out of the room. He unlocked Room 1, and the two quickly went inside, then locked the door from the inside.
"Detective, I'm glad you didn't become a professional thief, otherwise no one could stop you. The Miracle that Old God gave you is truly too useful."
While Luvia teased him, she didn't forget to throw a silencing charm near the door.
Xia De shook his head without much comment. Instead, he cautiously pulled open the curtains to look behind them, then opened the wardrobe to look inside, and finally knelt down to check under the wooden bed covered with a white sheet.
