Wizard Earl

"Among the pawnshop's second-quarter maturing loans are Mr. Assottoni's No. 11 collateral, amounting to five pounds and six shillings, and Mr. Kolov's No. 3 collateral, amounting to eight pounds, one shilling, and seven pence..."

"Among the pawned items that expired in the second quarter, there are Mr. Thiago Silva's item number thirty-seven, Mr. Bruzovich's item number twenty-four..."

As Connor carefully examined every section of the "Second Quarter Report" in Ruiz's hand, his brow furrowed. He simply couldn't find any secrets hidden in these details of Redstone Pawnshop's operations and management.

Just when Connor was having a very difficult time, something mentioned in passing in a corner of the report caught his attention.

"The goods pawned by Viscount Valdes have expired and are now pawned items. They are currently stored in the Nzonzi warehouse at the southeast train station in the city. The goods will be loaded onto a train at 3:00 AM on July 3rd and transported to Thessaloniki Castle to be sold to Baron Harry Kane. The expected profit from this transaction is fifty gold pounds!"

These two lines, though few in number and the information contained within them not particularly prominent in the entire report, took Ruiz nearly a minute to look at, if Connor was not mistaken. He had never spent so much time on any other part of the report!

Just as Connor began to ponder how Ruiz could value a mere fifty gold pounds so much—a common way for pawnshops to make a profit from selling expired collateral—and was completely baffled by it.

In the manager's office of Redstone Pawnshop, Ruiz, who was looking at the "Second Quarter Business Report," suddenly seemed to have made up his mind. He glanced southeast, sighed slightly, closed the report, and placed it on the desk. Unaware that his every move was being monitored by Connor, Ruiz sat back on his bed in the manager's office and began to meditate.

Standing on the rooftop of the Marcelo department store, Connor watched Ruiz meditate while pondering the message in his mind.

After a long while, aided by the cool night breeze, Connor, whose face was heavy, seemed to suddenly remember something, and his eyes flashed with a sharp light. If Connor remembered correctly, Margaret had told him at the Rossi Opera that this Ruiz had some connections in selling stolen goods, which was why he had joined the Secret Society and become an outer member of the society.

Ruiz is now transporting a shipment of goods from Ipurua to Thessaloniki Castle, to be delivered to Baron Harry Kane. Is it possible that this is related to the sale of stolen goods?

Realizing this, Connor couldn't help but feel very excited about his discovery. However, as if he had thought of something else, the smile on Connor's face froze. He immediately took out an exquisite pocket watch from his pocket and looked at it. Seeing that the hour hand pointed to "two" and the minute hand pointed to "six", Connor couldn't help but mutter a curse under his breath.

"FUCK!"

After finishing his rant, Connor, feeling the urgency of time, and confident in his superior strength, used his lightness technique to leap silently from the 15-meter-high Marcelo Department Store rooftop. He then dropped a one-gold pound note into an unopened newsstand at the street corner, grabbed a map of Ipurua, and quickly left.

Looking at the map of Ipurua, Connor, who hadn't understood why Ruiz had sighed after glancing southeast from the manager's office, suddenly had a vague realization: the goods mentioned in the "Redstone Pawnshop Second Quarter Business Report" as being sent to Thessaloniki Castle to Baron Harry Kane were currently stored in the Nzonchi warehouse, which was located southeast of this two-story building of the Redstone Pawnshop!

Seeing that his conjecture was confirmed on the map, Connor immediately stopped hesitating and, under the cover of night, headed towards the location of Enzonchi Fangku on the map.

According to the information, the shipment was to be loaded onto a train at 3:00 AM on July 3rd and transported to Thessaloniki. The current time is 2:30 AM on July 3rd, which means that if nothing changes, Connor has less than half an hour to find the shipment in the Nzonzi warehouse. If Connor is late, the shipment will be transported to Thessaloniki by train.

Although Connor is a certified wizard and can briefly fly using his magic, his speed and endurance are currently no match for a steam train. Therefore, if Connor doesn't act quickly, he may never find out what's inside this very strange shipment, thus losing his best chance to break the trap Christant has set for him…

With the lightness spell of the black magic robe, Connor was still very fast. With eight minutes left until 3 a.m., Connor finally crossed the city of Ipurua, from the northwest corner of the city where the Malaga community is located, to the Nzonzi Warehouse, the train station located in the southeast of the city.

Upon entering the Nzonchi warehouse, Connor didn't hesitate. He immediately and stealthily slipped inside. Although it was the dead of night, five laborers were busy working under the orange glow of coal miners' lamps. They were moving back and forth between the warehouse and the train, carrying crates of goods from the warehouse onto the train. The locomotive was also steaming and making loud noises, indicating that the train was about to depart!

Connor, who had quietly infiltrated Enzonchi, saw what this group of people were doing. Although he still had no way of knowing whether the contents of the wooden crates they were moving were what he was looking for.

But looking at the huge Enzonchi warehouse, only a few people were moving things, and the timing was so perfect, Connor immediately made a decision. He first looked around and saw that there was no ambush nearby. Then, he had an idea. The five laborers who were moving wooden boxes and the three train drivers in the cab of the train suddenly lost consciousness and fell limply to the ground.

Upon seeing this, Connor immediately stepped out from the shadows and opened one of the wooden boxes with a wave of his hand. Inside the boxes were nothing short of cotton!