"En?" Mike put down his [Juicy Burger] and went over to open the door. At the entrance stood a tall thin man wearing a black traditional Chinese chang pao. On his head, he wore a black head that nearly covered his eyes. At the sound of the door opening, he glanced nervously at Mike and said in a low voice, "May I speak inside?"
Mike looked at the familiar face, and nodded, moving aside to let the man in. He quickly closed the door behind the man. It was the owner of the private detective agency he had gone to the day before yesterday in order to dig out information on Klaus and Julian. Part of the reason why he had chosen this particular agency was the man's name. Who would have thought that the detective would have news in just two days' time.
"Boss Mike, these are the information you wanted. I have no idea what you want them for, but I would caution against provoking either of them." Sherlock took out a packet that had been tucked against his chest and handed it over to Mike. His sharp eyes glanced round the dining room once, catching sight of Abbé Mia and Amy, his voice lowered even further, "Information on Klaus is not difficult to obtain, and the price you paid certainly covers the work. However, the second wizard was unexpectedly more difficult to deal with. Information on him was rather limited, when I tried to break into the potions shop last night, a fire trap was triggered and burnt off half the hair off my head. A very powerful wizard indeed."
Mike eyed Sherlock's hat, catching sight of some very short, and very burnt hair. When he saw the man two days ago, this Sherlock had long wavy hair, a handlebar moustache, with a rather bohemian smile on his face. A complete opposite of the him now, pale, anxious and jittery. Who knew what happened to him last night,
"Thank you for your work," Mike nodded, he discreetly pinched the package and found that the content was quite considerable. It should be enough for him to judge the danger levels of these two wizards. Sherlock, who had literally sacrificed his hair for his business, also seemed to have done his best in his information gathering job.
"Very well, I shall now take my leave." Sherlock also did not wish to stay too long. With a curt nod, he turned and caught sight of Amy who was biting into a [Juicy Burger], and stopped.
He had seen the little girl two days ago and thought she was really cute and adorable. The same little girl was now biting into some strange looking bread thing, and scooping spoonfuls of something that looked like soft white crystals into her mouth. Whatever she was eating smelled incredible, the fragrance of braised meat and soybeans permeated the air, making him swallow hard. He had intended to send over the information to Mike before the potions shop actually open, and hadn't had his breakfast yet. At the intoxicating smell, his stomach immediately started to grumble.
"Boss Mike, has the restaurant started serving breakfast yet?" Sherlock asked Mike.
"Our working hours will begin in another half an hour, so we're currently not serving food yet." Mike shook his head, an odd smiled played about his lips. He had paid 10 gold coins to Sherlock for his investigative work. If the man were to use the money to eat in this restaurant, that amount won't even buy him 2 portions of [Yang Zhou Fried Rice]. Wonder what he'd think about the sacrifice of his wavy hair then.
"Very well, looks like I will have to come on another day, adieu friend." Sherlock gave him a grave nod, gave the [Juicy Burger] in Amy's hand another glance, and went out the door.
Mike locked the door, sat down at a nearby table and shook out the documents from the packet. He skimmed through the papers, a frown wrinkling his forehead, after a while, it eased a bit. Finally, he just sat there in a daze.
The information on Klaus was indeed very detailed, from the time of his youth all the way to the time he left the Magic Tower on his journey. It even detailed the first part of his journey from Lot City with notes on where he stopped off on his way towards Chaos City.
The target was, after all a Consecrated Wizard of the Royal Family, that Sherlock could obtain all these information showed that he was no ordinary person, he did credit to his name and his professionalism was to be admired.
At least, with this information in hand, he could eliminate Klaus from the list of suspects involved in the Incident. Mike sighed, he had been wary against Klaus for so long, but at least he could now lower his guard a bit.
In contrast, information on Julian was vastly incomplete. It only said that he was a mysterious wizard who had been operating that potions shop in Aden Square for close to 10 years. His business was considered not bad, but neither was it especially good. The potions sold were the low-level magic kind, but since it could be bought in large batches, quite a few adventuring parties would buy from him. It was all very low-key.
However, one note of interest from Sherlock caught his eye, it looked like there were some grievances between Julian and Klaus, but there was no elaboration. He was unsure if this showed the limits of Sherlock's knowledge or fear of the wizard had stayed his hand.
"That is to say, the possibility of danger is lower for Klaus compared to Julian. Mike frowned. The information packet also said that Klaus was looking for a last disciple in order to pass down his current knowledge. The old man was already 120 years old, and probably had one foot in the grave already, which explained why he was so desperate in his search for a suitable disciple.
Moreover, though he knew Amy's a half elf, he still wished to take her in as a disciple, which showed that talent was something he valued beyond appearance and racial prejudices. It also showed a great disregard towards the tradition and practices of the Magic Tower which tended to be vary bias against none humans and mixed bloods in particular.
"If he really truly value Amy for her talent as a disciple, and not insist of taking her to the Magic Tower…" Mike had to admit at being a little swayed in favour of the old wizard.
"Daddy dearest, the [Savoury Beancurd] is really, really yummy!" Amy's happy voice broke into Mike's contemplation. He smiled as he tucked the papers back into the packet. When he came to Amy's table, he saw that both [Juicy Burger] and [Savoury Beancurd] had been eaten up. Amy's little head tipped upwards as she beamed at him, her eyes in little crescents.
"So, the one Amy likes is [Savoury Beancurd]?" Mike smiled as he reached out to rubbed the corner of her mouth where a little of the sauce was left.
"But, I still want to try the [Sweet Beancurd], I think it will be really super delicious too." Amy shook her head, her eyes zoomed in on the white [Beancurd] covered in its sparkling red gold syrup. "I'm just almost full, so I think having something sweet, like this [Sweet Beancurd] would feel really, really great."
"Very well, go ahead and try it." Mike nodded a little helplessly, his family's little foodie definitely would not miss out on delicious food just because there was a silent faction war going on. Furthermore, Amy's little yearning face was just too cute, he carefully placed the bowl of [Sweet Beancurd] in front of her.
Abbé Mia also had an expectant look on her face. She had thought that Amy would not try the [Sweet Beancurd] if she found the [Savoury Beancurd] delicious, but it looked like she was wrong. Who know, maybe Amy will fall in love with the [Sweet Beancurd] the way she did.
Amy scooped up a spoonful of the [Sweet Beancurd] into her mouth, her large blue eyes closed as the sensation of the [Beancurd] and crystal like syrup melted in her mouth.
Mike and Abbé Mia both stared at Amy with some anticipation. Currently the factions were split at one vote each, Amy's decision will break this draw.
[Translator: Personally, I've never heard of this faction war in my life, lol. But, I think I might leaned into the Savoury side, or perhaps even the Spicy side. Mabo tofu and spicy kimchi tofu soup is so yum!!]This site now runs on ads, do click on a few whenever you encounter any ^_^
Translated and edited by Gumihou from kitchennovel dot com.
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