Wizard Earl

Chapter 23 Blackmail

As the fluctuations occurred, Connor slowly opened his eyes, his gaze filled with boundless joy.

"Is this what it's like to be a junior apprentice? This is a wonderful feeling!"

"It took me seven days to go from an ordinary person to a beginner apprentice. I don't know if my talent is good or bad. It's a pity that my current chip hasn't absorbed enough knowledge to help me optimize my basic meditation techniques. What a shame!"

"Chip, I'm now a junior apprentice. Can you try to get rid of the green spots in my body?" Connor asked the chip hopefully.

"Beep! Detection complete. I'm sorry, host, even after becoming a junior apprentice, you still cannot remove the green light spots in your body!" The chip's cool female voice quickly provided the answer in Connor's mind.

Upon receiving this answer, Connor's face instantly darkened, and the joy of becoming a junior apprentice was completely shattered.

"Do we really have to ask Reyes for help?"

This question arose in Connor's mind. He remembered that when the Sun Badge he wore blocked Vidal's deadly corrosive acid spell, Vidal had cried out, "Enchanted item!" This name might be the correct term for magical item in the wizarding world. As for the greedy look in Vidal's eyes when he saw the Sun Badge that day, Connor still remembered it vividly.

Judging from that greedy look in his eyes and the fact that Vidal didn't have a single enchanted item on him, Connor figured that enchanted items must be considered quite precious in the entire wizarding world.

The fact that he could so casually give away such a precious enchanted item to me suggests that my mentor, Reyes, is no ordinary person!

"Ding! Ding!..."

Just as Connor was pondering his mentor Reyes, his doorbell rang without warning.

Hearing his doorbell ring, Connor was slightly surprised. Apart from the delivery person, no one else had rung his doorbell in the past few days. And today, because he was preparing to advance to the level of a junior apprentice and didn't want to be disturbed, he hadn't ordered takeout. So who could be ringing his doorbell now?

Instead of opening the door directly, Connor opened the peephole and observed his "guest"!

The "guest" was a little old man, wearing a gray trench coat, a baseball cap, and a smoking pipe in his mouth.

Seemingly noticing that Connor had gone behind the door, the little old man took off his baseball cap and looked at the peephole with a half-smile!

"Click!"

Connor opened the door expressionlessly, then turned around and went back into the room to sit on the sofa.

Seeing Connor's "cold" attitude, the little old man with a pipe in his mouth didn't mind. He smiled, closed the door, and went into the room. Without being polite to Connor, he sat down on the sofa opposite Connor.

"Young Master Ferguson, as expected of an aristocrat, even your apartment is so luxurious. This Percis carpet, the crystal chandelier... they must have cost a fortune!" The old man praised with a smile on his wrinkled face.

"Valverde, what are you doing here?" Connor took a deep breath and said in a low voice:

That's right, the little old man with a pipe sitting on the sofa opposite Connor was none other than Valverde, the famous detective Connor had hired to investigate Rebecca. When Connor saw Valverde through the peephole, he knew he was in trouble!

When Valverde addressed him as "Master Ferguson," Connor knew it wasn't a casual address. Valverde was telling him that he had already investigated Connor's background! Since Valverde had already investigated him, pretending not to know Valverde would be an insult to his intelligence.

"Hehe, Master Ferguson, I, Valverde, am fifty-nine years old this year. At this age, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with the detective job, but I have no choice. If I don't work, I won't eat. In my younger days, I was afraid of implicating my family by becoming a detective, so I never even got married, let alone had children. Now I don't even have anyone to support me. My life has been a complete failure!" Valverde took the pipe out of his mouth and put on a pitiful look.

"Hahahaha..."

Seeing Valverde's pitiful state, Connor burst into laughter. However, just as his laughter reached its peak, it abruptly stopped. Connor suddenly pounced on Valverde, staring at him coldly and saying, "Don't give me that nonsense. Name your price! How much do you want?"

Although Connor acted swiftly, Valverde showed no sign of panic. "Young Master Ferguson, the way you're talking makes it sound like I, Valverde, am extorting you! I simply discovered that a few days after I gave you the information on Rebecca and Vidal, they both disappeared and I can't find them anymore!"

"I, Valverde, have always been devoted to my employers. After discovering their disappearance, I was afraid something might have happened to you, Master Ferguson, so I rushed here to find you. Master Ferguson, your current state has truly frightened me. Please return to your seat, okay? I'm getting old, and shocks can cloud my judgment. If I lose something to the police or the church, that wouldn't be good..."

Sensing the blackmail in Valverde's words, Connor sighed inwardly. His worst fears had come true! Despite this, Connor knew he had to appear very assertive and not give Valverde the impression that he was someone he could easily manipulate.

"Snapped!"

Instead of returning to his position as Valverde had requested, Connor slapped Valverde's aged face hard with his right hand, right in front of him.

"I told you not to give me this nonsense. How much money do you want?"

Even with Valverde's cunning and shrewdness, he hadn't expected Connor to be so ruthless, daring to humiliate him like this when Connor held leverage over him! The slap left Valverde completely stunned!

Suppressing the hatred in his eyes, Valverde wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. No longer bothering to play along with Connor, he said directly, "Ten thousand gold pounds, and besides that, I want a manor!"

"Ten thousand gold pounds? A manor?" Connor asked incredulously, looking at Valverde as if he were a fool. Leaving aside the enormous sum of ten thousand gold pounds, the price of a manor alone was outrageous. In the Kaman Empire, a manor was worth at least fifteen thousand gold pounds!

(End of this chapter)