Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 456 Mysterious sealing
Soon, the Eye of the Sky returned and landed somewhere. Then, Li Wei saw the soldiers carrying two more gems out of the warehouse. They looked exactly the same as the previous one, and Li Wei also saw that these two gems also had the same golden soul radiance inside.

Moreover, as the three gems approached, they seemed to sense something from each other and began to flicker.

Li Wei first looked at the three gems and, finding no other problems with them, put them aside for the time being. Then he looked at the disheveled B team.

"what's the situation?"

Team A consisted of the little boy, Mrs. Castin, and the seemingly kind old man, and things went very smoothly.

On the contrary, Team B, a trio consisting of Polk and Carly, and Foster—a man who looked like a reliable lawyer—was covered in dirt and looked utterly disheveled.

Faced with Levi's question, Polk gave a helpless wry smile, while Foster reached out, adjusted his glasses, and said sternly.

"That crazy woman charged straight at the enemy as soon as she saw them! We didn't have time to stop her!"

"…………………"

Polk helplessly spread his hands at Levi without saying a word, but he clearly did not object to Foster's tattling.

"Is the damage serious?"

"Fortunately."

Polk then answered, reaching out his hand. As he did so, the little fairy Pixie popped out of Polk's hair and landed in his palm.

"With Pixie around, at least no one died."

"What a crazy woman! She doesn't listen to a single word of the plan we made beforehand..."

Foster was also grumbling incessantly, while the "pair" of sisters, still wrapped in robes, glared coldly at Foster when they heard her.

"Stop talking nonsense. Anyway, all those monsters are dead, isn't that enough?"

"Miss Carly."

Li Wei interrupted their argument.

"You are now an agent of MI7. Agents must follow discipline. I will not ask what happened when the three of you formed the team, but I hope you can understand that you must be responsible not only for yourself but also for others for the decisions you make."

"Responsible?"

Upon hearing Li Wei's words, Ruth's voice suddenly turned into a scream.

"So what if I take responsibility? It's not like I'm the one leading them! If it weren't for me, they would be dead by now! These idiots, they just don't understand..."

However, before she could finish speaking, Ruth's sharp voice suddenly turned low and uneasy.

“Oh… I’m sorry, Sir Levi, my sister didn’t mean it, she was just a little nervous…”

“I understand, Miss Carly.”

Li Wei nodded. Although the sisters before him seemed to have schizophrenia, he knew they weren't—in fact, the sisters had been stitched together. The older sister was on the left, and the younger sister on the right. They had been killed, cut in half, and then sewn back together.

Then, when the investigation team took over the case and planned to perform autopsies on the two women, they suddenly woke up, and then... well, you can imagine, it terrified the forensic doctor.

Incidentally, the sisters themselves don't know why they became like this, nor do they know what happened to them before. In fact, part of their reason for coming to the Fog City was to hope that Li Wei could help them unravel this mystery.

"I will give you more details after I see the site."

Li Wei quickly calmed the two sisters down with a few words, then turned to the others.

"Did you find anything?"

Mrs. Castine stepped forward and handed Levi a letter.

“Niffle found this. It’s clear that this group of people takes this letter very seriously.”

Li Wei opened the letter and looked at the words on it.

“Ancient golden language, alright, I’ll find someone who can understand it to decipher it.”

Li Wei sighed, then put the letter in his pocket. He then looked with interest at the Sniffler, who was being held in Mrs. Castin's arms. The Sniffler was also staring at him with wide, round eyes.

"It can find what others consider most important?"

"Yes, Sir."

Mrs. Castin smiled slightly.

"Actually, I don't know how it does it. This cute little guy seems to have some kind of magical power, able to see into the depths of other people's hearts, secrets that even they themselves don't know. I mean, maybe they don't even think something is important..."

"Understandable."

Li Wei nodded. If you were to ask someone what is most important to them, most people would probably find it difficult to answer immediately.

Normally, it could be parents, children, husband or wife, or even one's own pet.

But if you ask them to definitively confirm that it's truly what's most important to them, most people would probably find it difficult to give a definite answer.

Of course, most people don't need to distinguish between importance so clearly.

Upon hearing this, Li Wei had a sudden inspiration.

“Well then, Mrs. Castin, I would like to borrow your sniff.”

"Ok?"

"I'm wondering... could this little fellow figure out what's most important to this monastery?"

Looking at the Treasure-Sniffing Monster in Mrs. Castin's arms, Li Wei asked curiously. He felt that this Treasure-Sniffing Monster was likely some kind of mechanical monster, rather than being able to see through the most important things in people's hearts as Mrs. Castin said.

Of course, you'll find out if you try it and see.

"Is this okay?"

Mrs. Castine was somewhat surprised to hear Li Wei's question, but she nodded nonetheless.

"Okay, let me see if Niffler has that ability."

As she spoke, Lady Castin whispered a few words in the Sniff's ear, and then Levi saw the adorable animal leap down from Lady Castin's arms and disappear into the ruins of the monastery, which had been almost completely leveled. "Good heavens, it actually works!"

Mrs. Castin was somewhat surprised to see the Treasure Sniffer disappear into the ruins, then she turned to look at Levi.

"Sir Levy, how did you discover that?"

"It was just a sudden thought, madam."

Li Wei smiled slightly.

“Mysterious creatures possess some very strange and unreasonable abilities. We may not know how they do it, but they can definitely do it.”

"Ah, I have indeed heard similar stories, like fairies who will help you clean your room, and the only price is a can of milk. You know, I find that somewhat unbelievable, because if that were the case, all the servants would be out of a job..."

Mrs. Castine was chatting with a smile, and Levi was chatting with her beside her. After a while, the Treasure Sniffer Monster crawled out of the ruins with a "whoosh" and had a cylindrical object in its mouth.

"Oh my, little cutie, you're really something."

As the Treasure Sniffer Monster ran over with the cylinder in its mouth, Mrs. Castin smiled again, picked up the little guy, and took the cylinder from its mouth.

"Ah, Sir Levy, look, is this what you've been looking for?"

"Actually, I don't know what I'm looking for, but I'm sure this thing should be very helpful to our operation."

Li Wei took the cylinder and looked at it. It was a very old cylinder with a wax seal on it, and there was a pattern on the wax seal.

An eagle spreading its wings.

This is the imperial seal.

Upon seeing this, Li Wei immediately frowned.

"Perhaps we should ask someone else about the situation."

After receiving the news from Li Wei, the old butler naturally rushed here by airship as quickly as possible. He took the cylinder from Li Wei's hand and carefully examined the seal.

"That's right, it's the royal seal."

The old butler nodded, then looked at Li Wei.

Where did you find it?

"Everyone has seen it in the ruins of this monastery."

When it comes to gathering evidence, Levi is always extremely cautious. He never presents evidence without the presence of a second or third party. This is why Levi often insists on having Katie with him; Katie represents the royal family, and she can verify the authenticity of the evidence Levi presents.

In reality, investigating a case isn't like being a perpetually immature elementary school student. In fact, the kind of thing that happens in anime where a criminal claims you have no evidence, and then the detective suddenly produces some unexpected evidence, may seem exciting, but in court, such evidence is invalid.

After all, evidence collection is a very serious and meticulous process, and the credibility of the evidence is even more important when conducting an investigation.

Especially in mysterious cases like these, since both the victim and the perpetrator usually die, Li Wei can only rely on evidence. If the evidence itself is flawed, then things become much more complicated.

"Do you know what this is?"

Li Wei looked at the old steward. The monastery was clearly a church building, but there were cylinders inside bearing the royal seal. These weren't for storing odds and ends; generally, they contained highly confidential documents.

But why would royal confidential documents be found inside a church building?

And that gemstone—that thing must be related to the royal palace.

“I don’t know either, Sir Levi.”

The old housekeeper shook his head.

"This is a royal decree. As for what is inside, perhaps only Her Majesty the Queen is qualified to see it."

"I suspect that what's inside might be related to these gems."

Li Wei pointed to the three gems placed not far away.

"what is that?"

"During the operation earlier..."

Levi briefly explained that during their operation, they discovered the priests circling the gem in prayer, and that the gem was likely unearthed from the monastery. As for what they intended to do with the gem, Levi said he didn't know, but it was clearly not for anything good.

"I think we should ship the gems back to Fog City. What do you think?"

"If you're not worried about it exploding in Chongqing, I have no objection."

Li Wei himself wouldn't take the blame, but if it was the old steward's order, then he would be fine.

"Will it explode?"

"I don't know, but since these shamans are causing trouble with this thing, I think it's not impossible. At the very least, it must be very important to the royal family."

"Um……………"

The old butler pondered for a moment.

"It can be temporarily stored in the royal vault on the outskirts of the city. Even if there are any problems, it shouldn't have too much of an impact on the Fog City."

"That's fine with me."

Once the scapegoat was identified, Li Wei simply washed his hands of the matter.

Upon hearing Li Wei's answer, the old butler smiled helplessly and nodded.

"Alright, I'll take these gems with me in my airship. Hopefully, they won't explode on the way."

After the handover was completed, Li Wei turned around and walked to the other teams. He looked at everyone and then spoke.

"Let's go check out another site."

(End of this chapter)