At the intersection of Saint Delan Square, the night was quiet, and two gunshots did not break the heavy silence of the night.
Through the thin mist of the night, Xia De saw his opponent fall to the ground. He blew on the barrel of the Luger revolver in his hand, and just as he was about to fire another shot, he suddenly felt an extremely faint force trying to snatch the right to use the gun in his hand.
Of course, he would not let go, and his opponent obviously did not have the ability to forcibly take the gun from his hand.
“Do you want to engage in a strength contest?”
“Of course not, I’m just an ordinary person.”
Thinking this, Xia De lifted a corner of his coat, revealing another gun holster at his waist.
The power of the Miracle “Moving Objects” immediately transferred, and so the gun holster containing the gun of kindness flew into the hand of the man opposite, who was dazed from severe injuries.
If it were according to his own will and thoughts, he should have tried to acquire the other gun in Xia De’s hand again, or to shift the direction of Xia De’s gun barrel.
But due to his blurred consciousness, he could only act according to the received command, so he unhesitatingly drew Xia De’s second revolver, which was the gun of kindness, and pulled the trigger at Xia De, who was smiling in the bright light of the gas lamp.
The silent spell reduced the sound of the gun, and the bullet flew past Xia De’s side, hitting the lamppost next to him.
After leaving a mark on the black lamppost’s surface, the bullet reflected back at a miraculous angle, directly hitting Jiaogeli Dius’s head.
“Oh, oh,”
He made a strange sound in his throat, and then finally collapsed completely.
A cat’s meow came from behind, and Dorothy walked out from behind, holding Mia.
But that wasn’t the Writer, they had actually swapped again without Xia De knowing.
Leia, her face pale, said,
“He used your gun, and after three major luck failures, he was killed by a ricocheting bullet from the pistol.”
The gun of kindness makes the killer hurt himself and prevents the suicide from hurting himself, and it has the characteristic of “being unperceivable.”
Therefore, Captain Lades fired eight shots without dying, and neither he nor others noticed anything unusual.
The characteristic of this gun is not that accidents happen stiffly, but that they happen very naturally.
Therefore, when the characteristic of the gun of kindness was triggered, Xia De did not stop it, and the people playing the game did not hear “because of the relic’s characteristic,” but rather accidents happened naturally according to the rules.
No one would suspect the reason Xia De won this close-quarters battle; at most, they would praise Iluna’s excellent luck.
“The story continues. Jack the Thief has found what he wants to steal. Xia De, you must go home as soon as possible.”
Leia informed Xia De of this, hugging Mia tightly, trying to get more warmth from the cat.
Frequent swaps had left them in a bad state, but holding Mia seemed to make their spiritual power recover quickly.
Now the Golden-haired girl only felt a splitting headache; they had never swapped souls so frequently outside of the Red Butterfly Day.
“How did you two… well, I also received instructions to go home as soon as possible and escape the killer.”
Xia De looked at her with some heartache, pointed to his forehead, then rummaged in his pocket, pulled out a small bottle, and threw it over:
“No. 4 holy water. Although it doesn’t do much for your situation, it might be effective.
Don’t save it for me; it’s very cheap.
Next, you shouldn’t swap with Dorothy again.
When both people who can detect Jack the Thief’s location die, Jack the Thief will disappear from the story map Miss Bei Ya Si is looking at.
She can’t let me investigate; that would expose many things, so I have to solve the rest myself.”
With only one story character left, Iluna could surrender to end the dice story collection.
Iluna not surrendering now also aligned with Xia De’s thoughts; after all, without the power of this angel-level relic affecting reality, Xia De was not sure if he could really catch that thief.
Leia took a small sip of the holy water, and the cat looked up at her throat.
Xia De bent down to pick up his pistol, ignoring the corpse, and they finally stepped into the Saint Delan Square area.
Her Royal Highness had originally worried about seeing more terrifying things, but the night in Saint Delan Square remained calm, and the gas lamps on one side of the square emitted a strange glow in the darkness.
As soon as the two looked up, they saw Doctor Schneider and Priest Augustus standing at the entrance of Xia De’s house.
Leia looked around the square with some concern, but saw no abnormalities, not even the corpse of the Charming Lady had disappeared.
“Look, that was someone else’s misfortune, and now the misfortune has left.
Dorothy, you go tell the Doctor and the Priest what happened here.
Don’t get close to me, but please follow me into the house.”
Xia De spoke quickly, and because Doctor Schneider and the Priest were nearby, he referred to Leia as Dorothy.
The Golden-haired girl nodded, holding Xia De’s cat, and quickly walked past the gas lamps towards the Doctor and the Priest, who had already seen them.
By the time Xia De arrived at his doorstep at a normal walking speed, the Doctor and the Priest had already roughly understood the key information.
Because the dice story collection prohibits transmitting all game information to people outside the game, to prevent people trapped inside the relic from being noticed by outsiders as having an accident, the Doctor and the Priest only knew about the relic’s characteristics and that Xia De was involved in something related to “capturing Jack the Thief,” but they didn’t know what the storytellers had actually told.
Of course, it was even more impossible for Leia to ask the Doctor and the Priest what had just happened here.
This world itself is full of various unknown mysteries; if some things are not related to oneself, not knowing is fine, and excessive inquiry can only cause trouble.
“The Detective’s luck is indeed not very good.”
Doctor Schneider said to Priest Augustus, and the three quickly retreated to a position far from the entrance of Saint Delan Square Six, then watched Xia De walk over normally, take out his key, and open the door.
After he entered, Leia took out her key again and reopened the door.
Priest Augustus and Doctor Schneider made no comment on her having a key to Xia De’s house.
Xia De, who entered first, had already changed his shoes in the hallway, turned on the gas lamps in the hallway and on the stairs, and then walked up to the second floor, holding the stair railing.
“Are you so sure the thief is on the second floor?”
“The first floor only has furniture, no ‘items touched by the King.’ I don’t believe a Sage-level (Level 2) Jack the Thief has the ability to enter the hidden space in the basement.
The third floor only has Luvia’s items, and I’ve already had her put away sensitive items.
As for the attic, that’s where Dorothy puts reader letters.
Plus, Room No. 2 on the second floor is empty, so the thief is definitely stealing in Room No. 1.
We just opened the downstairs door directly, so it couldn’t have had time to run from the second floor to other locations.”
The sound of shoes on the wooden stairs was Xia De’s favorite sound when he came home every day.
But at this moment, the echoing sound was like a reckless noise in a horror story, disturbing an evil spirit.
He walked while looking up the stairs:
“Since the story hasn’t ended, it means the thief is most likely still at home, and the dice story collection thinks I might be able to catch it.
Can you feel the thief’s location?”
“No, it’s almost like an ordinary person now.
The whisper element, while not completely eliminated, is very difficult to detect.
You need close-range contact or to force it to use more power.”
“Stronger when met with strength, this is truly…”
When opening the door with the key just now, Xia De noticed that although the lock was intact, the keyhole had scratches.
And now, walking up the stairs to the second floor, although he couldn’t see any clear clues, his intuition told Xia De that someone had definitely broken into his house.
The lights on the second floor were off, just as they were when Dorothy last left.
Xia De first turned on the hallway light, then unscrewed the gas lamp in the living room, and immediately noticed that something was missing from the living room:
“My antique knight’s sword from my knighting ceremony is gone, so that’s what it was.”
The sword was originally hung by Xia De on the living room wall, used to fully display his identity and professionalism when clients visited.
Because he could see it every time he entered the door and looked up, it was easy to notice the sword’s absence now.
“Oh, I’ve been robbed! That damned thief stole my knight’s sword!”
Although he knew that the people enacting the story couldn’t know his every word, Xia De still exaggeratedly stood at the staircase entrance and said it.
There were no footsteps on the stairs behind him, but Xia De knew his companions were all there, their sounds and locations concealed by silent spells and their respective Miracles.
“All the windows are closed, and I didn’t see any suspicious figures in Saint Delan Square just now.
Could it be that the despicable thief is still in my house?”
He said aloud again, walking into the room and standing in the center of the living room, looking around his home.
Having lived here for half a year, Xia De regarded every inch of this place as his complete property, and being invaded by a thief now, he was honestly furious.
Furthermore, Jack the Thief had stolen from Dorothy before, so Xia De would not let him go this time, no matter what.
“Still can’t find it?”
“Yes, the other party is almost like an ordinary person now.”
Blinking, Blood Echo couldn’t find fresh bloodstains; after all, it was just a thief, not a murderer.
Then he used Echoes of the Past, but unfortunately, Jack the Thief didn’t have a habit of talking to himself when stealing, nor did he say things like “Yes, I’ll hide in the closet” when hiding.
“There aren’t many places in the house where a living person can hide.
Based on my understanding of this place, finding it won’t be difficult.”
Xia De thought to himself, then sat on the sofa at home, took out his notebook, and began to write.
This was a note to be given to Leia and the other two later; this time, he wasn’t alone.
