The rental carriage slowly stopped outside the rather eye-catching Harvest Church. Ebner, who was carrying a huge sum of money, surveyed the area before entering the hall.
Viscount Cullen was currently sitting in the first row on the right. He was playing with the undead bird named "Silika" while talking to Judy.
The first thing that attracted Ebner's attention was a black suitcase beside Cullen's feet. Its surface seemed to be covered with a wall of spirituality.
Sensing that Ebner had walked in, Cullen casually greeted him, while Judy welcomed him with a smile. "Your classmate, Roman, has already thought things through and doesn't intend to continue entangling with Alex… Although I see that she still has some insincere words in her subconscious, at least she won't take things too hard."
Ebner was stunned for a moment before he remembered who Alex was. "How did you persuade Roman?"
"I only used a Beyonder item to strengthen her subconscious that Alex doesn't have any true feelings for her… Yes, I also added some memories to her. Now, she doesn't remember that she actually spent a week at the Harvest Church…" She only remembers attending a beautiful ball with you…
After hiding her last words, Judy glanced guiltily at Ebner, then changed the subject.
"By the way, that Alex became Prince Edessak's advisor through the recommendation of 'Witch' Lena… His family also feels that his social status is extraordinary because of this. They are already considering breaking off the engagement with Roman."
Become Prince Edessak's advisor? That might not be a good thing. After all, His Highness was a tragedy of a "main account". Not many people around him would have a good ending in the future.
Ebner grumbled under his breath for a while before turning his attention away from these trivial matters. Right now, what he was most concerned about was the matter of trading materials. As a result, he did not notice Judy's wandering gaze. All his attention was focused on Cullen, who was using "Amantha extract" to tease the little bird.
Sensing that Ebner was looking at him, Viscount Cullen stopped what he was doing. Amidst the discontented chirping of "Silika", he turned around and asked with a smile, "I've already brought the items. Have you gathered all your money?"
Ebner nodded and smiled. "Can you let me verify if it's the material I need?"
Cullen casually sprinkled some powder ground from spirituality materials. After the satisfied "Silika" returned to the spirit world, he said apologetically, "Sorry to keep you waiting." As he spoke, he lifted the suitcase to his chest and undid the hidden button with a snap.
The wall of spirituality on it shattered, turning into a breeze that passed through the prayer hall.
Ebner, who had long activated his Spirit Vision, immediately saw bursts of strange and resplendent light. It was a spiritual luster that could only be emitted by an extraordinary main material.
There was a 20-centimeter square box inside the suitcase. It was made of tin and had many patterns. It was simple and heavy.
Cullen held the black leather case in one hand and opened the silver but slightly dull tin box. The item inside looked like a heart carved from wood. It was dark green in color and had veins like branches coiled around it, crisscrossing it like a chain mail.
As the candlelight in the cathedral flickered, it constantly shrank and expanded like a real heart. There were invisible auras being sucked in from below and expelled from above.
Upon seeing it, Ebner felt that the potion's power that he had digested was somewhat agitated, like a magnet encountering an anomaly.
Ebner was no stranger to this feeling. Every night, when he used the Eye of Pure White to analyze 2-081, he would occasionally sense something similar.
It stemmed from the convergence effect of a Beyonder characteristic, which was that High-Sequence items of the same pathway would intermittently attract Low- and Mid-Sequence Beyonders to its vicinity, and they had the tendency to gather together…
So the experienced Ebner easily suppressed the feeling of attraction between them.
However, even without analyzing it, he already knew that the strange heart in front of him was the real Tree of Elders' heart. Otherwise, there would not be a convergence effect.
Cullen displayed it for a moment. Seeing the detective in front of him nod in satisfaction, he smiled and asked, "Any other questions?"
Ebner shook his head gently, but he still secretly activated the Eye of Pure White to analyze the heart of the tree. Then, he took out a stack of notes from his closest pocket. They were all 10 pounds, a total of 60 notes. Following that, he took out a Backlund Bank receipt.
"A total of 2,100 pounds." Ebner placed the deposit slip on the stack of cash and pushed it in front of Cullen.
Cullen first closed the box containing the heart of the tree and placed it into the suitcase. Then, he picked up the receipt and took a closer look. As a vampire who had lived for hundreds of years, he had sufficient means to determine the authenticity of a receipt.
Then, he put down the receipt in satisfaction and picked up the stack of bills to check.
After confirming that there were no fake coins, he only made a few points before handing the suitcase to Ebner. He smiled and said, "I'll give you the suitcase and box."
Ebner took the suitcase, opened it, and confirmed it with the analysis of the Eye of Pure White. Only then did he put it away in satisfaction.
"You should go to the room at the back to trade materials in the future… If a believer happened to come in just now, wouldn't they immediately call the police?" Judy, who had witnessed the entire transaction process, could not help but complain.
"I don't really care, but if we're not in a public place like this, I'm afraid Detective Bryan has some concerns." Viscount Cullen glanced at Judy and shook his head.
Ebner ignored the daily bickering between the two Forsaken Ones and only sighed on the side. "You guys are really free. Is this attitude really for a mission?"
"Heh heh, because this is Loen, most of our actions can only be carried out after someone else sleeps at night. That's why we seem to be idling around… After you leave, Judy and I will be going to the related personnel's dreams to investigate the case." Viscount Cullen tucked the bills into his pocket and explained slightly.
At this point, Ebner remembered that his teacher had found out that he had not yet spoken to the Forsaken Ones about Earl Lorena, so he organized his words and recounted his experiences at Inspector Wayne's funeral, as well as his subsequent speculations to Cullen and Judy.
"Earl Lorena… Court aristocrat… Unfortunately, we can't touch this clue. Otherwise, we might be immediately expelled…" Cullen sighed after hearing that. In the Loen Kingdom, handling cases was always difficult. This made their team very uncomfortable.
"What about informing the Church of Storms?" Ebner asked.
"We don't have any concrete evidence, and our identities are special. I'm afraid it will be very difficult for the Mandated Punishers to fully trust us. At most, we will be on guard and secretly investigate…" Cullen had seen many similar matters in his long life, so he knew very well how the officials would react and handle them.
"Evidence…" Ebner muttered before looking in the direction of Empress Borough. He thought to himself, I can only believe Miss Justice's abilities.
…
Empress Borough, in Earl Hall's mansion.
Audrey stood on the stairs and looked at her father, who was about to walk out of the mansion to welcome the guests. She whispered to the golden retriever beside her,
"Susie, slip into the living room and hide. Remember what Dad and the others said. Tell me when you get back."
Susie quickly wagged her tail as though she was confused by Audrey's choice of words. All she could do was open her mouth to reply with one word:
"Woof!"