When Emma suddenly heard someone call out her full name, she was alarmed. She quickly turned back to look at the source of the voice and realized that it was Viscount Leerhsen's youngest son, Kance.
They were both children of noble families, and they were about the same age. She had interacted with them at various balls and banquets, so she naturally knew them.
However, according to what Emma knew, Kance had entered MI9 after graduating from Tingen University. He had become more mysterious ever since…
Wait? MI9? Since Kance is here, the abnormal atmosphere in the town is because of the military's intelligence organization?
As she thought this, she turned her gaze and smiled. She said with some annoyance, "Kance, you gave me a fright."
"I'm very sorry, Miss Emma." The thin and tall young gentleman, Kance, first apologized politely before repeating his previous question. "How did you come to this remote town?"
Such an attitude makes it seem like he's interrogating me… Although his choice of words is very polite…
Could it be that the military has also discovered the matter regarding Baron Conva… Or could it be that 1-025 has caused some trouble in Backlund after possessing the baron?
Tsk, it's a good thing that I secretly went to search for Baron Kanga's information at night and didn't leave any records on the surface… Besides, the entrance was very hidden. After that, Ibna buried it and cleaned up the traces.
Without knowing its exact location, even MI9 would find it difficult to find it within a short period of time…
As her thoughts raced, she deliberately revealed a dissatisfied expression. Her long, straight eyebrows furrowed together as she harrumphed. "Hmph, I was invited by Detective Bryan to attend a public school camping trip… Why? Does MI9 even need to bother with such matters?"
She didn't say that it was Adol who had invited her. After all, he was only the son of a jewelry businessman. Even though she had the label of having a strange personality plastered over her head, to suddenly agree to an ordinary person's invitation was too strange.
But Detective Bryan was different. He had been very famous recently, and his experiences were legendary enough. He was the topic of conversation for many young noble ladies.
When he heard that Detective Bryan would be participating in the camping trip, he accepted the invitation out of curiosity and longing.
Even if MI9 found out that it was actually Adol who had invited him, he wouldn't suspect anything. He would only think that he had been used.
"Detective Bryan? Ebner Bryan? Hero Detective?" Kance was taken aback when he heard that. Then, he cast his gaze at the few gentlemen present and quickly locked onto Ebner.
Seeing that the person had mentioned him, Ebner took off his cap and bowed slightly as a form of a bow. He smiled and said, "I'm Ebner Bryan… Nice to meet you. How may I address you?"
"Kance Leerhsen… Hello, Detective Bryan." Kance nodded and returned the greeting.
After figuring out the purpose of the group of people who came to the town of Conva, Kance didn't pester them further. He let them return to the inn and secretly lowered his voice to warn Emma,
"you have to be careful of this Hero Detective. His reputation doesn't seem too good… Besides, there are rumors that he's close to a famous bounty hunter in East Borough."
Upon hearing that, Ema secretly chuckled. Then, she pretended to not believe him and said half-truthfully, "That's just gossip. Ebner isn't such a person."
The reason he said "true" was because, after more than a day of contact, Emma had long noticed that he wasn't a playboy. Instead, he was an unexpected gentleman. Furthermore, he was very respectful towards women. This respect wasn't superficial but came from the bottom of his heart. He truly treated them as equals.
She said, "fake," because she felt that perhaps the "tabloids" weren't completely nonsense. From the attitude of his two female classmates, she knew that he was actually very likable… And he didn't seem to be able to keep a distance from the ladies, which resulted in some misunderstandings…
Yes, perhaps it was because he placed women on equal footing that he missed out on the details of etiquette.
Just as Emma's thoughts were wandering, Kance sighed and stopped persuading her. He didn't have a deep relationship with her. Since she didn't believe him, he could forget it.
However, I still have to investigate the cause of this camping trip…
Seeing Kance turn to leave, the group didn't delay any further. After a simple dinner, they returned to their rooms.
…
At night, in a relatively exquisite villa outside the town.
Kance handed the tidied documents to a man wearing a golden mask and reported,
"Your Excellency, I've already checked the people who visited Kance Town recently, but I didn't find anyone suspicious."
The masked man nodded noncommittally, then he picked up a page of information and seriously read it. After a long while, he pointed at the content on one of the pages and asked, "What's going on with this public school camping trip?"
Kance had long guessed that his superior would ask this, so he explained, having prepared for it,
"Detective Bryan was a student who had just graduated from this public school, and Miss Emma and Miss Fani had joined the camp out of curiosity about the Hero Detective.
Besides, their camping trip wasn't a last-minute decision. It was already prepared a week or two ago. It was only delayed because of last weekend's heavy rain… And by then, 1-025 likely hadn't been possessed.
"So, I think there's nothing wrong with their camping trip."
The masked man lowered his head in thought for a moment before nodding slightly. "Indeed… We can remove the surveillance on them. Our manpower is limited, and we can't waste it on unrelated people. Our top priority now is to find the castle ruins of Baron Kangwa."
"Yes, Your Excellency." Kance first responded before saying hesitantly, "But, we only have a few pictures of the interior of the ruins… We can't determine its exact location…"
"Heh heh, I know what you're thinking, but these 'internal scenes' were obtained by a deacon of the Church of Storms who sacrificed himself… Therefore, it's temporarily impossible for us to have any more information." The masked man recalled the 'tragic' scene that had happened in the factory's workshops. Even someone as determined as him couldn't help but feel a lingering fear.
However, Kance felt a deep sense of respect when he heard that. He sighed and said, "Sacrificing myself to obtain important information… What a respectable Guardian… If I were to be in dire straits in the future, I hope that my sacrifice will be worth it."
The masked man looked up at him and asked, "Are you sure?"
"I can swear on it!" Kance replied without hesitation.
…
On Sunday morning, the group of people who had ended their camping trip due to the weather returned to Backlund via carriage.
Both of them were a little upset because they had never had the chance to speak to Ebner alone.
This was especially so for susan. After hearing about Beyonders from the Romans, she had wanted to ask about Ebner, but she had failed to do so.
At noon, Ebner returned to his gardened villa on Gunsted Street in Cherwood Borough. Before he could catch up on his sleep, Mr. Skade, who was acting as a butler, knocked on the door and reported that Xio and Fors had come to visit. They were already waiting in the living room.
Xio actually used the front door this time? Oh right, she still has Fors with her. There's no way she can go straight up to the third floor…
Ebner lampooned inwardly before calmly changing his clothes and heading downstairs to the living room.
"Ebner, we need your help with something." Xio didn't stand on ceremony with Ebner as she directly mentioned her request.
"What is it?" Although Ebner had some guesses, he pretended to ask curiously.
At this moment, Fors deliberately took out a page of information from the dossier in her hand and handed the rest to Ebner. She said with a crafty smile,
"We hope that you can find the patterns of the target's actions in Backlund from the information."
Ebner gave her a deep look, took the envelope, and pulled out the documents inside.
After a few glances, Ebner chuckled and pretended to be surprised.
"Qilangos is in Backlund?"
"How did you know?" This time, it was Fors's turn to be surprised, because the page she pulled out was filled with Qilangos's actual introduction and portrait.
How would I know? I was there when The Hanged Man entrusted Miss Justice with this mission!