Mystery: Mr. Witch and Ms. Hunter

Chapter 26 Commission
At eight o'clock the next morning, Altaïr was walking on the streets of the East End.

Vinata's spiritual state is much better than yesterday. At least she doesn't frequently trigger "provocation" during the chat. However, she is still not polite when her emotions fluctuate. In addition, the weather is getting colder, and it is inevitable to get grouchy when leaving the bed. Today's breakfast is not very pleasant.

Living with a Beyonder of Sequence 8 or above, a Hunter Path, is not a good thing, Altaïr thought gloomily. He seemed to understand one thing vaguely, that is, with Venata's figure and appearance, there was a reason why no one in the East District tried to please her before, even those who lived near her home did not.

I'd better stay outside for a while before she recovers, so I can collect some information about the craftsman.

Altaïr thought so. Although it was a bit embarrassing to say that he couldn't stay in his own home, considering that Venata had been promoted to Sequence 7, Altaïr decided to follow his heart's will.

Although we met several times at the parties organized by Geglan and reached several deals, I don’t know this guy in real life. I don’t even know where he lives or what his name is...

Altair scratched his hair in annoyance. To find an ordinary person who looked ordinary and was hiding deliberately in the East District was as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack. To find a mid-sequence Beyonder who had a magical item of the corresponding sequence and had made countermeasures against various occult positioning methods was even more difficult.

The night before yesterday, when Susie came over, she conjured up a portrait for me. It was the appearance of the craftsman that Miss Audrey had memorized after the battle. However, Susie also warned me that the other party might change his appearance, so the portrait would not be very useful...

Miss Audrey gave me this mission, and it was probably a test. Regardless of whether asking her for help would lower my evaluation, it was still unknown whether she could use her extraordinary ability of large-scale search in such a dangerous place. Backlund has at least ten demigods!

Altaïr sat down on a bench and began to frown in thought.

The known condition at present is that he is short and may be carrying a lot of magical items... The magical items contain extraordinary properties, so you have to be extraordinarily careful when storing them. You can't put magical items from certain channels together, otherwise it will affect the service life of the items. So this means that this guy is carrying a lot of luggage.

Secondly, this guy is a follower of the Mother Tree, and has received many revelations from the evil god, so his behavior must be strange... I remember that the side effect of Vinata's "Indulgent Rose Heart" is that long-term use will turn him into a monster that can only mate. So, with so many magical items, he must find a way to solve the negative characteristics. And what the followers of the Mother Tree often do... Altaïr remembered the orgy party in the East District two days ago.

In other words, my next main investigation direction should be to start with the other party's sexual gratification object. Using my previous network of connections as a bodyguard and private detective, I can ask someone to help investigate the recent rape cases or vicious murders in the East District...

Altaïr's hands were unconsciously writing and drawing on his trousers.

At the same time, he also had to pay attention to the low-end hotels in the East District. Since he was escaping, he would not look for a large hotel with complete formalities, but would choose to book a room in a small hotel and continue to prepare for the next target. Then, based on the East District map, with these small hotels as the center and the estimated activity radius, he circled the possible range of the opponent and then conducted a focused investigation.

Altaïr's mind was working very fast, and within a few minutes he had a mature plan. He decided to start by tracking down the clues left by the other party, and gradually narrow down the possible scope of the other party's existence, solving the problem like a real ordinary private detective, instead of relying on magic mirror divination and other extraordinary methods he was good at. Because he knew that the other party was also good at 80% of his extraordinary abilities, and there was a high probability that he could use them better than himself.

If even Miss Audrey couldn't find him, there's no way I could find him using extraordinary means... Altaïr thought to himself with great self-awareness.

However, the ability to collect intelligence that an "assassin" must have, as well as the intelligence network accumulated from previous missions, cannot be replicated by a few magical items!

With a goal in mind, Altaïr acted quickly. He quickly turned into the place where his informants usually stayed: the "Brave Bar" in the East District!

The structure of this bar had not changed much compared to before the war. It seemed that there was an invisible force protecting it from being destroyed by the Feysac airship. Since the normal business hours were at night, there were few people in the bar. There was only a young man wearing an old coat and carrying a worn-out satchel who was dozing on the counter.

"Good morning, Ian. I have told you more than once that with your current status and ability, you can wear better clothes, or in other words, you should wear more decent clothes."

Altaïr greeted the boy, who was awakened by the doorbell.

The boy raised his head slightly, and his red pupils were faintly visible in his eyes, which were narrowed into slits by the sunlight shining directly in from the door.

"Mr. Brewster, it's been a long time."

Ian Wright rubbed his eyes and answered in surprise.

"It's been a while since we last met, hasn't it? I haven't seen you since you asked me to investigate the recruitment of employees for the Servant Association three months ago."

"It's only three months. We often go through separations longer than that."

Altaïr smiled and said, "Let us sit down and talk."

"Indeed, but that is why every encounter is even more precious."

Ian Wright reached out to get some wine from the wine cabinet, then remembered that the person in front of him didn't like alcohol, so he could only smile apologetically.

"Sorry, I can only offer you plain water."

"It's okay. I won't stay long this time. In fact, I have other places to go after I ask you to investigate a few things."

Altaïr waved his hand and stopped Ian who was about to get some water.

"I want you to count all the hotels in the East District that do not require identification, and confirm whether any suspicious people have stayed there in the past few days."

"That's hard to do, Mr. Brewster." Ian was a little embarrassed. "The definition of a hotel in the East District is very vague... Sometimes, a bed and breakfast can be considered a hotel. As long as the owner is willing, it has all the functions of a hotel. If you want to count the hotels that strictly require proof of identity, it's easy."

"Do as much as possible, pay attention to those hotels where tenants like to go out in the middle of the night, and give priority to investigating those hotels in remote locations where murders have occurred in the past two days."

Altaïr commanded.

"Then you have to pay at least 20 pounds. After all, I need to mobilize a large number of people to investigate separately." Ian thought for a while and quoted a price. Seeing that Altaïr agreed, Ian asked curiously, "Why are you looking for these hotels? Of course, I don't mean to offend you. If you feel that you need to keep it secret, don't tell me anything. If not, I am very interested in understanding the relevant intelligence... You know, this is a common problem in our industry."

"Is this your opinion or MI9's?" Altaïr asked with a half-smile.

"...Okay, I won't ask anymore." Ian tactfully didn't continue the topic.

"Please help me spread the news to the bounty hunters in other bars." Altaïr took out a ten-pound note from his wallet and placed it on the table. "This is a down payment."

"By the way, sir, I have a party like that soon. Would you like to come?"

Ian put away the banknotes and asked Altaïr as if he remembered something.

"No, I'm short of money lately." Altaïr declined. "In addition, I need you to investigate the recent rape or murder cases in the East District. The more serious the better, and it would be best if you have relevant files. Of course, I know those bounty hunters can't get these, so I want to ask those guys in MI9."

"Those big shots don't often respond to our requests..." Ian shook his head. "Even if you do, and I report your request, they will most likely reject it because of your identity. They have lost a lot of manpower now, and in order to maintain stability, they hope that there are as few Beyonders as possible. It will be difficult to get relevant help... and it may even cause trouble for you."

"Well, I will use other means to confirm this information. You can continue to sleep. I hope your business will be prosperous today."

Altair agreed with Ian's point of view. Compared with the church, the members of the Kingdom's military were generally hawks. Although they were not as radical as the people of Feysac, they were equally strong in their attitudes towards war and unofficial Beyonders. He asked Ian not to get him to accept the commission, but to determine the attitude of the official Beyonders on the matter through his reaction.

"It seems that if I want to obtain those files, I can only go to that old friend."

Altaïr sighed.

"I'm afraid that only he, an official Beyonder, can have such a connection."

(I have revised Chapter 27 many times before but it has not been corrected, so I will make up for it here now)
After leaving the Brave Bar, Altaïr glanced at his silver pocket watch and found that it was still early.

"Let's go to St. Samuel's Church now... and say a prayer. I hope that what happened that day won't affect me in any way."

Altaïr snapped the lid of his pocket watch shut and walked away from the street where the bar was located. Because no one cleaned it up, the streets were littered with vomit from drunkards, but fortunately the weather was cool, so the smell didn't spread far. Even so, Altaïr definitely didn't want to step on it, so he used his extraordinary abilities as an Assassin to swiftly cross the street.

As the headquarters of the Backlund Diocese of the Church of the Evernight Goddess, the St. Samuel Cathedral, located in the center of Backlund City, has a magnificent appearance and stands in a three-legged tripod with the Holy Wind Cathedral and the St. Hillran Cathedral.

The teachings of the Goddess do not like luxury, but unlike the Church of Mother Earth, which pursues simplicity, the decoration of St. Samuel's Cathedral still has a unique sense of elegance.

The huge church is decorated with various pointed arches, ribbed vaults and flying buttresses. The design uses pointed ribbed vaults, flying buttresses and slender beams to create a light and slender sense of flying. The new frame structure increases the strength of the top support, giving the entire building straight lines, a majestic appearance and a wide space inside the church. It is often combined with long windows inlaid with stained glass, creating a strong religious atmosphere in the church.

Altaïr walked through the church's main entrance.

It was almost ten in the morning, and not many people were praying. As the god in charge of the night, the best time to pray to the goddess was after dark, between seven and nine in the evening.

Therefore, the closing time of the Night Church is the latest among all churches, and many Night believers will come here to pray after finishing their night shift.

However, this had nothing to do with Altaïr, as he came to find a Nighthawk who worked here.

Although Altaïr was secretly working as an assassin, he never took on assassin jobs with his original identity. Therefore, his resume was very clean. He was a freelancer who could move freely as long as he reported to the Church of Evernight regularly, without having to worry about being tracked down by other churches.

In addition, since his main job is a private detective and bodyguard, and he occasionally works as a bounty hunter, he also has his own intelligence network, which makes it convenient for him to do things that the official cannot do. Therefore, he also has a certain degree of cooperation with the Nighthawks. During this period, he got to know many members of the Nighthawks team, such as Ms. Lorota, who he wanted to find today.

"Hello, Sister."

Altaïr walked to a nun who was wiping candlesticks and stood about two meters behind her. He asked politely, "Excuse me, is Ms. Lorota in the church now?

"...Oh, it's you, Mr. Brewster."

The nun turned around, saw the person's face clearly, smiled, and nodded four times on her chest.

"Ms. Lolota should be in prayer room 3 now... but it's not convenient for me to go over to see her."

"Did you have any conflict... No, sorry, this is not a topic I should care about."

Altaïr asked subconsciously, but soon realized his own impoliteness and apologized quickly.

Loen's social scene advocates subtlety, which is different from Intis. Such an action of directly asking a lady what she is thinking is not appropriate even for nuns who do not pay much attention to such secular etiquette.

"No, Ms. Lorota is a very kind and considerate woman...it's just..."

At the end of her speech, the nun's face turned red and her voice became so low that it could no longer be heard.

"Please go find her inside. I still need to clean the candlesticks here..."

Sure enough, Lorota is still the same...

Altaïr looked at the nun who left in a panic and sighed helplessly.

Although I think so, it makes me feel a little uneasy that Ms. Lorota, a night watcher, also thinks so...

Altaïr stopped in front of Lolota's prayer room. The door was closed, and Lolota's prayer should not have ended yet. Altaïr decided to wait patiently, as it was very rude to interrupt someone's prayer.

"Isn't this Altaïr? Why are you here? Are you here to see me?"

As Altaïr waited, a voice with an unusually standard Backlund accent came from behind him. Although this was already behind the prayer hall and outside the area where noise was prohibited, the greeting seemed a little abrupt.

Altaïr sighed. He knew who the man was just by the sound of his voice, which sounded like talking and singing. Like Lorota, he was a friend that Altaïr had made during a previous Nighthawk operation, but some of his hobbies were more difficult for Altaïr to talk about than Lorota's.

The reason why he came to find Luo Luota even though he knew Luo Luota's quirks was because he really didn't want to meet this person - it's not that he hated her, it's just that he found it difficult to face her.

"I'm sorry, Britton. I'm here to see Lorota. I want to ask her for something."

Altair turned around and spoke to the man. The night watchman in front of him was a handsome middle-aged man with neatly combed black hair. He had a high nose bridge and distinct facial features, like a man who walked out of a classical art work.

"Actually, I'd rather you call me Peter..."

Britton said with some disappointment, "If you have anything to do with Lorota, can't you ask me? This way she will have time to find the coffee shop maid, and I will have a chance to stay with you for a while longer."

"That's a very direct statement... You know, I always feel that you are more like those bards in Intis with gorgeous feathers on their dresses than the Loen gentlemen."

(End of this chapter)