Because Miss Gaude's hometown was a coastal town in the east of the Old Continent, it was far too distant from the city of Tobesk. To ensure the client received the letter as quickly as possible, Shade finished writing and immediately headed to the Tobesk Post Office with Mia.
The reason he didn't simply drop it into the mailbox at the corner of St. Delan Square was that he wanted to order some magazines from the post office. Having escaped the financial straits he faced when he first arrived in this world, Shade wanted to improve his quality of life.
Since there was nothing much to do today, after mailing the letter, Shade took Mia to the Dawn Church to listen to Bishop Owen's sermon alongside Priest Augustus.
They returned home only after having lunch at the church. He had originally planned to borrow Priest Augustus's potion workshop in the afternoon to brew the hair-color-changing potion introduced in the second-year curriculum, but to his surprise, as soon as he reached St. Delan Square, he saw Iluna standing at his door.
Over her white lady's blouse with lotus-leaf sleeves, she wore a brown outer coat, paired with a simple black skirt and the black leather shoes she habitually wore.
"Has something happened?"
Shade hurried over. Iluna shook her head and waved a kraft paper document folder in her hand.
"Detective, would you mind if I took up your afternoon to help me complete a commission?" the seventeen-year-old girl asked.
"What kind of commission?"
Shade asked while pulling out his keys to open the door. As the two stepped inside, Mia cheerfully leaped from Shade's shoulder and bounded up the stairs.
"Finding a missing corpse."
The Blackstone Security Company always seemed to receive strange tasks from the Church, and aside from those, the commissions from ordinary citizens were also filled with various oddities.
On this Tuesday following the death of Darkness, Iluna—having temporarily extricated herself from the subsequent events—had finally submitted all her reports regarding the "God-Caller and Felianna" and completed the search mission for the areas where the Dark Realm had once descended.
On her first day back at her workplace, the Blackstone Security Company, her captain had handed her a case.
"I see you've been quite busy lately. Since you've just returned, handle this matter on your own first. You have a two-day deadline; once it's resolved, you can dispose of the remaining time as you wish."
In other words, this was equivalent to giving Iluna a vacation. This commission had already been proven to be unrelated to the occult; Iluna could wrap it up with a bit of investigation.
"Finding a corpse?"
Shade nodded in surprise. "I can certainly help, but are you sure this really has nothing to do with the occult?"
"Our squad investigated; it's absolutely unrelated."
"Very well, but I want to see the materials first. Come to think of it, why isn't this being handled by the police at Ridwich Field? In Delarion, stealing a corpse is a serious crime."
"It's precisely because the police can't find it that they've commissioned a private security company like ours to handle it."
In this era, it wasn't just Ring-casters who stole corpses. Mad scientists, doctors needing experimental materials, eccentrics with special hobbies, or ordinary people exploring the occult would either hire grave robbers or commit such crimes themselves.
Such occurrences were even common enough that the practice of cremating a body before burial, which wasn't previously popular, had become a trend in recent decades. For instance, Spyro Hamilton's body had been cremated, so there was absolutely no worry about someone opening the coffin for an autopsy.
The client seeking the corpse was a Mr. Hank Fennel, who lived in the west of the city. The missing body was that of his wife, Peggy Fennel. Mr. Fennel worked at the Golden Gear Steam Engine Manufacturing Factory and was a well-known mechanical engineer in the west end.
Half a month ago, his wife passed away due to illness and was buried in Sector 3 of the Tobesk Public Cemetery. A week ago—on the ninth day after the poor woman was laid to rest—Sector 3 was hit by grave robbers, and three corpses were dug up and stolen.
The police at Ridwich Field immediately launched an investigation, but there had been no news for some time. Consequently, Mr. Fennel had sought out the Blackstone Security Company through a friend's introduction, hoping to find a trace of his wife's body.
Blackstone Security Company confirmed that this had nothing to do with Ring-casters because local Ring-casters would never use locally stolen corpses as materials. As for foreign Ring-casters, they were under strict surveillance and investigation by the Church of the True God due to the Darkness incident. Currently, no one had been found purchasing those three corpses from local grave robbers, leading to the determination that this was a grave-robbing case committed by ordinary people.
"Seems like there's no problem. However, I want to make sure—are you certain that Mr. Fennel didn't commit the crime himself?"
Shade asked as he sat on the sofa flipping through the documents. In his hand was the case file Iluna had obtained directly from Ridwich Field.
Perhaps it was a cynical thought, but Shade still wanted to rule out one possibility first.
"At least from the case materials obtained from Ridwich Field, there is no mention of any abnormalities regarding the client. Moreover, if it really were him and the police couldn't find a clue, shouldn't he be happier? Why would he commission us?"
Iluna said, then, while holding a reluctant Mia, she asked curiously, "Whenever you receive a commission, do you always suspect your own client first? I thought detectives were supposed to investigate cases without any subjective bias."
"Where did you read that?"
"The *Hamilton Detective Story Collection* serialized in the Steam Bird Daily," Iluna said with a smile, teasing Shade further. "I heard from Luvia that the author is your friend? Oh, Detective, you'll have to show off your detective skills properly this time."
After sorting through the materials, Shade set out with Iluna. First, they headed to the public cemetery in the east of the city to conduct a field investigation and interviews.
Shade had visited Sector 3, the scene of the crime, once two months ago, where he had witnessed the resolution of a family feud from half a century ago and had even played a game of Rhode cards with a ghost. Returning here two months later, he hadn't expected it to still be related to a commission.
The arrival of autumn had brought temperatures down to the point where one needed an extra layer of clothing. The city was still shrouded in mist today, and the cemetery in the eastern suburbs was no exception.
Stepping off the carriage, the two walked along the gravel path toward the iron fence gate at the cemetery entrance. Shade held a bouquet of flowers; he intended to first visit Detective Spyro, who slept eternally here, to inform him that the fifth day of the Harvest Moon was approaching, which served as a way of giving Spyro Hamilton an account.
Looking at the approaching cemetery, the seventeen-year-old girl unconsciously drifted closer to Shade and whispered, "I'm not a coward, but I've always disliked coming to cemeteries."
"Why?"
Shade was curious. Iluna had only been assigned to this diocese after finishing her studies at the Holy See in the first half of this year; she shouldn't have any dead friends in the Tobesk Public Cemetery.
"I hate death. No, not fearing death, but hating the sadness that death brings."
She whispered to Shade. Together, they passed through the iron fence gates decorated with iron thorns on both sides and entered the cemetery. Whether it was an illusion or not, the temperature inside the cemetery felt slightly lower than outside.
"That's normal. Being affected by the sadness of strangers shows that you are someone who empathizes easily with others," Shade commented.
Hearing that Shade wanted to visit Spyro Hamilton, Iluna was happy to accompany him. Thus, chatting as they went, they entered Sector 2. After placing the bouquet of white daisies before the tombstone embedded in the ground, Shade sighed, thinking back to when he had first arrived in this world.
Passing through the fence gate between the two sectors, he looked up at the swirling mist and easily spotted the small white chapel towering in the center of the cemetery.
"Iluna, the gravedigger's cottage is right next to the chapel. If we're lucky, we might find the gravedigger chatting with the priest. However, what identity should we use to inquire about the situation?"
"Don't forget, I am Iluna Bias, a nominal policewoman of Ridwich Field," Iluna reminded him, fishing her identification out of her handbag. "See? Didn't I use this identity the first time I visited St. Delan Square?"
On Tuesday afternoon, the priest was taking a nap in the chapel, but at the chapel entrance, the two encountered the old gravedigger. He was carrying a toolbox and humming a little tune, preparing to prune the cemetery trees with his apprentice.
The old gravedigger, dressed in one-piece overalls, stopped hesitantly when he saw two people emerging from the mist. After Iluna produced her ID and explained her purpose, the old gravedigger looked skeptically at Iluna's overly young face, but still provided help in a slow manner.
"We don't have many clues here. I was the one who discovered the bodies were stolen. Since similar things have happened before, I notified the police immediately. No one heard any unusual sounds the night before, and we didn't find any carriage tracks from transporting the bodies. However, there were indeed unusual footprints, but they couldn't be tracked. If you're looking for clues, you can go take a look at the excavated graves."
"A week has already passed. Haven't the graves been refilled?" Shade asked.
The old gravedigger nodded and glanced at Shade, seemingly recognizing the detective who had visited during midsummer. "Once the bodies are found, they need to be re-interred, so they haven't been refilled. Those are recently opened graves, and there are no other burials nearby, so there's no need to worry about other people protesting."
"Alright."
Iluna noted these points in her small notebook and then asked, "Is the frequency of grave robbing high in this sector?"
"Of course not. This is the third case this year. Do you think I'm getting paid to do nothing?" the old gravedigger said with some displeasure. Iluna realized she had misspoke and smiled apologetically.