Chapter 4: The Detective's Commission

"Since I have short-term goals, the current plan is: examine the room in more detail, search for currency, find a city map, and search the books. Understand the world through text, investigate the historical background and religious customs, and carefully adapt to this place. As for whether to stay for three months to help the detective finish that matter, I will wait until I understand everything before making plans."

Sade summarized the current situation and accepted the fact that the detective was dead. The worst part of the current situation was not that this world possessed mysteries, but that he lacked any of the original owner's memories, leaving him completely ignorant of this world. Other than that, the current state of affairs was not too bad.

Standing up, Sade walked toward the washroom.

The gas lamp in the washroom had some issues; even when adjusted to maximum power, it only emitted a faint light.

Looking at the person in the mirror within this light, he saw dull golden hair, brownish-black eyes, the face of a man with distinct Western features, an age of about 20, an expression that seemed somewhat nervous, and a height of around 1.8 meters.

Having been a vagrant before, his appearance wasn't particularly outstanding, but by Sade's own aesthetic standards, it could be considered quite decent.

"This is me. Don't be startled by the stranger in the mirror from now on."

He carefully warned himself in his heart, but he didn't leave the mirror immediately. Instead, after cautiously checking his surroundings, he whispered

"Hey, hello, are you still there?"

He tried to communicate with the whispering woman's voice again to determine what exactly she was. But after a long time with no result, he had to accept reality and give up for the time being.

Next was searching for currency. He hadn't found any food while searching the kitchen earlier, and this body was clearly hungry, so he needed to temporarily forget other worries and get money to eat.

But an accident occurred again. About half an hour later, Sade sat back down on the sofa in the warm yellow light, his expression filled with indescribable panic.

In his hand, he held a banknote with the number 10 written on it. The banknote had many creases and stains and was even smaller than the cards inside the diary. The front side featured a portrait, while the back bore the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Delarion, where he currently resided.

After searching the entire house, rummaging through every book and document, and emptying every pocket in the wardrobe, Sade had only found this single banknote, which seemed to have accidentally slipped into a gap behind the bookshelf.

"Could it be that the prices in this world are unique, and this one banknote is enough for me to survive for three months?"

Even though he comforted himself with such a joking thought, he knew it was impossible no matter how he looked at it.

"This is bad."

He leaned back slightly, resting against the sofa back, closed his eyes, and looked up at the white ceiling.

"Mr. Hamilton, where exactly did you hide the money? I agreed to stay; you didn't have to leave me without a single cent, did you?"

Even though he felt terrified, he truly wanted to catch up to that carriage pulling the coffin and shake the corpse inside awake to question him.

If he didn't know the language, he could still survive by being clever; if he were physically disabled, survival wouldn't be an issue as long as he lived bravely. But having no money was absolutely impossible.

Mr. Spike Hamilton clearly didn't cook at home; there wasn't even a single leaf of vegetable in the kitchen, so there wouldn't be any dead mice either. Sade didn't know when this body had last eaten, but he clearly needed to consume food now.

Considering the limits of human existence, Sade had to immediately find a way to get money or find a way to earn it, otherwise, he might be forced to look for restaurants on a map after sunset and try his luck with trash cans in the alleys outside.

"No, that won't happen."

He looked at the only banknote in his hand with a terrible expression, his gloomy face matching the sky outside.

"Although I don't know the denomination, it's at least money. There's also the [Sun 3] card in the diary; these can help me survive. However, since I can't find money for now, I must consider long-term ways to earn it."

The knowledge of a transmigrator might be valuable, but turning knowledge into profit in a strange place was not only troublesome but dangerous, not to mention that this world itself possessed mysterious powers.

He thought about how this was a detective agency, and Mr. Hamilton seemed to have said before he died that he had left behind some relatively safe tasks so that the "not-so-bright" Sade could maintain his identity as a detective and keep the agency running.

Since he hadn't found the dead detective's money for the time being, he had to prepare for the worst and consider his future livelihood.

"Come to think of it, Mr. Hamilton knew that Sade—the original Sade—wasn't very smart, so the tasks he left behind must be simple ones to maintain the agency's operations. So, perhaps he has already solved those cases, and I just need to go collect the money! Although this world has mysteries, at least the lives of ordinary people are the mainstream."

Sade suddenly had an inspiration. He got up, retrieved the diary from the shadows on the bedside table in the master bedroom, and found the ledgers, memos, and work logs that served as the detective's legacy from the study. Although he hadn't found money earlier, he had found these items.

Detective Spillow Hamilton was a very organized and rigorous person. Even though Sade hadn't studied accounting or business management, he found the records of the agency's operations touchingly detailed. Of course, it was mainly Sade who was touched, because the cases currently unsolved by the agency were truly very simple, and most had already been completed.

"Find Miss White's runaway sister, tail Mr. Lawrence's mistress, find the lost orange cat Mia, inquire about a doctor who can treat eye diseases... They all look simple and not very dangerous. Oh, Mr. Hamilton has already handled most of them. If I want to stay and run this place, solving one case every two or three weeks is enough to keep it operating."

Sade summarized as he flipped through the handwritten reports by Mr. Hamilton. But what he needed now wasn't to run the detective agency for a long time, but just to get some money to maintain his short-term livelihood.

Comparing the remaining difficulty, payment methods, and the amount of compensation for the four cases, Sade decided to first solve the commission of "tailing Mr. Lawrence's mistress."

Judging from the case reports, Detective Hamilton had been tailing her for months, only stopping recently due to poor health. In fact, the current report could be handed over to the employer to settle the remaining balance. But Mr. Hamilton had left a note in the report, specifically catering to Sade's poor literacy, using only simple words.

The note said that if one intended to complete this commission, it was best to have recent records before submitting it, so the reward might be higher and it would prevent the employer from being suspicious.

In other words, Sade only needed to tail her one more time to complete the commission. Although this wouldn't be a perfect completion, it at least met the requirements of the employer, Mr. Lawrence's wife, and was enough to get the remaining balance of the commission, which was marked as "1 pound 7 shillings"—or rather, 1 pound 4 shillings.

Judging by the tone of the detective's notes, this was a quite considerable reward.

He chose this commission not only for the reward but also because Detective Hamilton had handled many such commissions involving helping wives catch mistresses; it was the simplest type of commission and wouldn't cause any trouble during the final handover. Spillow Hamilton wasn't a famous great detective, but he was very adept at handling extramarital affair investigations.

Sade didn't want to stay in this terrifying house where someone had just died, drinking cold water and eating paper to stave off hunger, so he prepared to set out for the investigation, aiming to submit the report to the employer before dusk.

"No problem. First, get the first sum of money through this commission, then slowly explore the secrets of the dead detective and figure out the source of the voice in my head. Everything will get better!"

He encouraged himself in his heart. First, he found the city map and, based on Detective Hamilton's legacy reports and the calendar on the wall, inferred the possible locations where the mistress named "Mrs. Lassoya" might appear. These were simple tasks, and the most difficult step was finding his current location on that "Tobesk City Map."

The Tobesk City map in the agency had many annotations left by the previous detective, even marking the taverns he often used to gather information and the locations of black markets for trading "sensitive items."

But the original detective didn't have the habit of marking his own home on the map. Fortunately, while rummaging through the materials, Sade found a past tracking record that contained the route of that operation, which confirmed that this apartment was located at No. 6 St. Deran Square in the center of Tobesk City.

"Thanks to Detective Spillow Hamilton's meticulous records... This is... a house right next to the square in the city center. Hmm? How much would the rent for this kind of house be?"

Sade was surprised. At the same time, he discovered a palace complex known as "Yodel Palace" just two streets away from St. Deran Square.

According to the crumpled newspaper, the second page—between the front-page news of "The City's Third Round of Steam Pipe Renovations" and the third-page "Investigation Report on the Collapse of the Ancient Tower on Karas Mountain"—mentioned that "Yodel Palace" was the residence of the Delarion royal family.

Sade, who hadn't owned a house in his original world, felt his heart rate accelerate suddenly. The panic and nervousness were even washed away by a momentary surprise.

He looked at the document in his hand and muttered to himself

"In other words, my current location is in the capital city of one of the two major kingdoms of this suspected world, the Kingdom of Delarion, and it's an apartment next to the city center square... I actually have a house like this, and I'm worried about starving to death?"

The oppressive mood from earlier suddenly eased, but the house couldn't be turned into cash immediately, and Sade didn't intend to give up on Mr. Hamilton's three-month commission. At least he had to establish a foothold before considering anything else.

But at least a very sincere smile appeared on his face, replacing his nervous expression. With a house in this location, he wouldn't have to worry about the smile on his face gradually disappearing in the future. Sade realized that he had even flipped through the will, but he hadn't found any property deeds or similar documents.

"This apartment wouldn't be rented, would it?"

The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. If one could afford a house in this location, there would be no need to open a detective agency; collecting rent would be enough to support oneself. Even if the detective's original operation wasn't just for money, judging from the interior decoration, this didn't look like a house that belonged to Detective Hamilton himself.

"In other words, it's very likely that I still have to pay an unknown amount of rent every month?"

Sade reached this conclusion with disbelief, while looking again at the calendar hanging on the living room wall.

It was now the third week of the Month of Sun, 1853—Saturday. If he really had to pay rent, it was highly likely to be due at the beginning of each month.

"This world also uses a twelve-month system, and the dates of each month are very similar to before... Otherwise, I should just run. Pack my clothes, pull my suitcase, carry a bucket, and run away, starting this journey through the mysterious world as a vagrant. Staying here not only yields no income, but Mr. Hamilton might have even left me with debts I don't know about."

PS: The contract has been sent, so starting today, there will be two updates daily. 6:50 AM, 3K; 5:50 PM, 2K. I will add more updates when appropriate. New author, new book, support and constructive criticism are welcome.

(End of chapter)