《Contractbound》Chapter 93: A Lazy Day
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On Tuesday morning, Graham woke up at ten. He had been very tired the night before from using the copied ability twice and coupled with the injuries from both the mafia members and the Pale Society member. Even now, he still felt kind of tired, and although his injuries had all completely healed, his shoulder was still somewhat in pain.
Graham got up from his bed lazily after stretching his body and went to the bathroom to wash his face. After that, he went to his office and sat in his chair.
Ding... dong...
Just as his body touched the soft surface of the chair, the doorbell was rung. He grunted quietly and got up to get the door. He put on his coat quickly to cover his bare chest and reached the door handle before twisting it.
As he opened the door, he could see the person who had rung the bell. It was a middle-aged woman that looked like she came from a rich family. She was wearing an expensive-looking necklace and both of her wrists were donned with gold bracelets. However, her eyes didn't show peace despite her wealth, but rather, restlessness.
"Good morning," greeted the woman with a lovely voice, but it was wavering a little.
"Good morning. Please, come in," replied Graham politely.
The two of them entered the tidy detective office and took the spot opposite each other. The woman quickly sat down without fixing her dress first. Her hands were holding each other.
"Mr. Detective, I need your help," said the woman anxiously.
Graham looked at the panicking woman in the eyes and spoke gently, "I suggest that you calm down. Everything will be alright. Now, may I know who I'm speaking to?"
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Where are my manners? My name is Cornelia van Orden. My husband is Mr. Arnaud's colleague," she replied. She seemed to have calmed down a little.
"Ruben again. He seems to be a good promoter for us. We should pay him a visit one of these days, Val," muttered Graham quietly, end then turned to the woman in front of him, "What can I help you with, Mrs. van Orden?"
"I lost my wedding ring, and tomorrow is the anniversary of my wedding. I need your help to find it," she explained.
It was an easy job for Graham, and he was still feeling slightly tired from yesterday, so he wanted to finish the case quickly.
"Sure. Wait here," he said and then got up.
Graham opened the door to his bedroom and closed it behind him. He reached into the pocket of his coat and took out the lighter that was still kept there. He lit it and concentrated on the flame.
"Where is Cornelia van Orden's wedding ring?"
An image appeared from the flame and showed a spacious living room. Under the cabinet near a huge shelf, something glowed red. It was most likely the right which he couldn't see from that angle, but he knew where it was. After that, the image gradually disappeared.
Graham put the lighter back inside his pocket and returned to his office. He sat in his chair and looked at the client in front of him seriously.
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"Your ring is under the cabinet in the living room, next to the shelf," he said with a very convincing tone.
Mrs. van Orden looked confused. She didn't know how the man could know the interior of her living room without having visited her house, but his reputation was good, so she could probably trust him.
"How did you find out so fast?" she asked.
"That's a trade secret. If you don't believe me, you can go home first and check. You can pay me later if you find your ring there. If it's not there, then it's free," explained Graham without breaking eye contact with her, and then added, "Oh, the amount is up to your discretion,"
"I understand," she nodded, "In that case, I'll take my leave now. Thank you, Detective Hymes."
Mrs. van Orden seemed to be very eager to retrieve her wedding ring. She got up and Graham quickly got in front of her to open the door for his guest. She left quickly and once she was out of his sight, he closed the door and got back to his seat.
"Now we can resume..." he said.
He opened the safe where he kept his valuables and took out the battle loots from the previous night, and the contract scroll that had been lying around there. He laid everything on the table and reached the contract scrolls that he had got from Gloom.
Graham opened one of the scrolls and once he saw the sigil, knowledge transferred to his brain. It was the scroll for the Deity of War. He rolled it back and put it down. He then opened another scroll, but although he was looking at the sigil that looked like mirrored crosses on a sideways shield. There was an illusory line under the sigil that said, 'You must have pleased two Deities.'
Graham knew right away that it was the Ignoramus contract scroll. He then looked at the scroll that he had found in Mevrouw Cornelia's room and compared them. The scroll he got from the Romancer required him to have pleased three Deities instead of only two, so it could be for a more powerful Deity. He put down the higher rank scrolls and picked up the last one.
"This one is for the Deity of Reconciliation," he said as he saw the sigil on the scroll.
He now had two contract scrolls that he didn't need, so he could sell them or use them as rewards for his organization's associates. He would need to be stronger first, however, so he wouldn't be outranked by them in the future.
He put the scrolls aside and picked up the thick leather wallet that looked expensive. He opened it and was surprised by the content. There was a lot of money inside! He carefully took out the money bills and counted them. There was a total of twenty-six guilders inside, which made him extremely happy.
"This befits a member of an evil organization. If they were all rich like that, I wouldn't mind changing my job to a bounty hunter,"
Graham put all the money inside his own wallet and set Gloom's wallet on fire, including all of the other contents that he didn't need. The flame quickly spread around it and consumed the leather wallet, turning it into ashes. Since he was too lazy to clean it, he started chanting.
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"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order the ashes on my desk to go to the trash can!"
The ashes magically floated and quickly shot towards the trash can, entering it and ending Graham's cleaning problem.
He then set his eyes on the hunting knife that the late Pale Society member had used. It looked ordinary, and there was no embedded jewel at all. Graham put it down without much interest.
"It seems our man was only an ordinary member of the organization, Val. Besides money, he had nothing else. No enchanted equipment, no talismans, no guns. He was even only in contract with one President," complained Graham.
Once he was done inspecting the battle loots, he put them all back in the safe and securely locked it. He had had Valentine put anti-divination on the safe for extra measure, but he still wasn't sure it was completely safe from theft-specialized Contractbounds. However, there was nothing more he could do at the moment.
He sat back in his chair and remembered that Valentine had told him the way to please his Deity the night before. He couldn't hear the message given to Valentine by the messenger directly; that was why Valentine had to tell him.
Graham lit his lighter and concentrated on the flame. He then repeated a question in his mind.
'Does the death of Gloom count as a tragedy befalling someone serving a President?'
The flame in his hand created an image of a paper on a table. The paper then was lit on fire and was burned completely, indicating a positive response. It meant that the fight from last night was enough for Valentine to please his Deity.
"So that's it? Why is it so easy for you? Mine is too vague and I'm still far from completing it," he said with jealousy, and then added, "I guess it counts as a tragedy because he was confident that he would win, only to end up being the one who is dead."
Graham remembered the fight from last night. He had been able to win only by sheer luck. It was the same as when he fought with Mevrouw Cornelia. If he weren't someone who was able to switch consciousness when he was under the enemy's control, he would have been dead. It was also the reason he had won; his enemies didn't expect he was not actually under their control and were overflowed with the confidence of victory.
"I'm lucky to have you, Val," he said with genuine gratefulness, and then added, "Anyway, the way to expose his death would be by using your Reconstruction. You'll need a lot of blood for that. As for the large audience part, let's think about that more. We don't want to be exposed while we're doing it,"
Graham then stayed quiet, thinking.
"If we think about it, Val, it's not actually that simple. If we make a wrong move, our identity as his killer will be known by his organization, and we will be dead for sure. We have to somehow do it in secret, but at the same time, making sure a lot of people are watching... but how?" he mumbled.
"If things get too difficult, we can just try to hunt another target. But if they are the destructive type, not the control type, we'll definitely lose," he then said again thoughtfully.
Graham still had one more thing to divine, so he quickly relit his lighter, concentrated, and repeated a question in his mind.
'Is it dangerous to divine who Pale Lord is?'
The flame in front of him suddenly burned violently. Inside it, there was an image of himself sitting at his desk with his head blown off. His blood splattered around the room along with pieces of his head. From his neck, blood was still gushing out and quickly boiled away. Even without experiencing it, Graham could somehow feel the pain. After that, the image gradually disappeared and the flame became normal again.
"Okay, that means it's a bad idea to try to find out who Pale Lord is through divination. I guess it's not even His true name since I've been saying it and nothing happened. But why was I safe after saying the Deity of Fire Divination's true name out loud to Luuk?" he rubbed his chin in deep thought, "There are just so many things that I don't understand. The ancient book doesn't have the answer either, or I'm just still too weak to know,"
After saying all that, Graham stared at the flame in his hand again and tried to divine something else. As he had concluded, he had to be creative with divination questions if he wanted to get the most out of it.
'Where can I find more information about the Pale Lord?'
An image slowly appeared from the flame in front of him. It was too blurry, which meant something was interfering with his divination, but he could somewhat make out what it was showing. It looked like an underground temple, but the image didn't zoom out to an aerial view to show him the exact location. There wasn't anything that he could use as a guide either. After that, the image became like TV static and disappeared.
"Val, I think we might have accidentally seen the hideout of Pale Society..." he paused, "We should tip the Police."
He put down the lighter back inside his coat and went to his bedroom to get dressed. He now wanted to have breakfast first and after that make a random person tell the Police the information he had just found. He put on a sweater and striped pants, with Purloin wrapped around his waist. Valentine's Concealment was still in effect as long as he didn't go out of the area of effect or cancel it.
Once ready, he headed out right away. His destination was Don's Pancake House as usual.
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