Chapter 1010

Although Xia De succeeded in making "Miss Wei Te" no longer keen on chatting with him, this lady had no intention of leaving either. She talked to Xia De about the matter of Luo De cards. Now the rumor that Xia De is about to get the 【Founder · Knowledge】 has spread throughout the city. In this era, he is the true "legendary player."

Speaking of the topic of Luo De cards, Xia De is not bored. Not only 【Founder · Knowledge】, the new card he got from the Seer Society, which is 【Old Continent Mineral · Cavill Gem Mine】 that can be adjusted between 12 and 13, is also equally interesting.

It is not just the two of them who like to play cards, and most of those who fell behind the crowd are those who feel bored with the visit. So unconsciously, more people joined the conversation, including Viscount Leigins Puli Xia.

He is a poet. Although he is knowledgeable, he is actually not very interested in machinery and physical chemistry. A middle-aged noble of his age cannot have never come into contact with Luo De cards, so he also joined the conversation.

This gentleman might have been busy with the 【Apuna Library】 recently, and he didn't even know about the rumor in the city that Xia De was about to get the fifth Founder series Luo De card. Hearing that people were talking about this, he asked Xia De with great interest what he had paid to exchange for that card, but Xia De just pointed at his mouth with his finger, indicating that he wanted to keep it secret.

So everyone around understood.

In short, unconsciously, Miss Pawo had left. Xia De noticed that she stood behind Princess Margaret for a while, then left the team and ended the college visit. And the seven or eight middle-aged gentlemen who were chatting with Xia De at the back of the team even made an appointment to go to a tavern outside to play Luo De cards together at noon.

Seeing that Viscount Puli Xia was also going, Xia De agreed. The poet from the South was very interested in this elegant activity, and Xia De was also creating an opportunity to talk to him in depth.

So the atmosphere at the end of the visiting team was even livelier than that of Princess Margaret's group at the front. If it weren't for the fact that the Princess was still visiting, these gentlemen might have found a place on the spot to start playing cards.

By 11:00 in the morning, Princess Margaret's morning itinerary reached the last stop, which was to listen to a half-hour academic report. The theme of the report was "Research Progress on Delarion's New Steam Engine." Of course, this could not be the latest steam engine developed by the kingdom, just a new model about to be commercialized, but even so, it was quite valuable to Karsenrik, so the Princess and the accompanying envoys attached great importance to it.

The report was held in the auditorium of Delarion's Third National Mechanical College. The main auditorium was too large, so this time they used the No. 3 lecture hall. The thing that colleges with hundreds of years of history lack the least is lecture halls.

Princess Margaret sat in the second row, and the guards who had investigated here earlier arranged the seating for others. The gentlemen walking at the back chatting about Luo De cards naturally sat at the very back.

It's just a pity that they couldn't chat or play cards while listening to the report, so the gentlemen were much quieter. Viscount Puli Xia, who was sitting two rows in front of Xia De, even took out a poetry collection to read. Currently, it is confirmed that he is the fourth Chosen One. Xia De felt that through the daily actions of this Viscount, he could also roughly judge what kind of person he is. Of course, a more in-depth investigation is still very necessary.

Xia De had been sitting in the lecture hall for ten minutes when he heard a whisper in his ear:

【Perhaps I should remind you, at the second window on the left closest to the podium, a man has appeared three times within five minutes.】

Xia De looked at the middle-aged mechanic on the podium explaining data on the blackboard with an unchanging expression. He was talking about fuel saving and the difference between solid fuel and liquid fuel.

"Passing by with his face fully exposed? Or appearing very hidden?"

Outside the window is a path in the college, and it is normal for people to walk by.

【He is in the building opposite, peeking at this direction from the window opposite.】

"Who could it be? It wouldn't be the Royal Guards; the Royal Guards wouldn't act like this. Could it be colleagues from Military Intelligence Section 6 performing a mission? Or colleagues from the Gray Gloves performing a mission?"

Xia De thought silently, then bent down and got up, leaving the lecture hall temporarily through the back door. No one noticed him because he was at the very back, and it was normal to leave temporarily to solve physiological problems.

Without taking the main entrance, Xia De climbed out directly from the corridor window. He lowered his hat to cover his face, circled around the side of the auditorium along the path, and then looked at the window of the building opposite.

Blinking his eyes, 【Blood Echo】 clearly revealed the blood-colored halo inside the window. The blood color was very clear, extending from the distance of the corridor to the position blocked by the wall under the window. Because it was only a part of the feet, Xia De judged that the other party had stepped on blood.

"Regardless of which side they are from, stepping on blood here and setting an ambush, they are obviously not good people."

Xia De concluded and glanced at the building. He circled around again, and in a position where no one noticed, he entered the inside of the window directly using 【Lagley's Leap】.

The interior of the building had heating and was much warmer than outside. Xia De, wrapped in a coat, crossed the portraits of people hanging on both sides of the corridor to find the source of the bloodstains, and finally found a corpse hidden in the corner with its throat cut in the room on the east side. It was not a student, but rather looked like a janitor.

Xia De frowned, returned the same way, came to the corner of the corridor, and pressed his body against the wall.

He carefully extended his finger out by the distance of a fingernail, then quickly retracted it:

"Did you see it?"

【It's the man from just now, huddled under the window. An ordinary person.】

"That makes it easy to handle — Red Butterfly Illusion."

The corner of the corridor twisted for a moment, and then returned to normal. Xia De walked out from the corner and walked towards the end of the corridor. The huddled man actually acted as if he didn't see him at all, his expression nervous as he occasionally poked his head out to look.

"Red Butterfly Illusion" and Xia De's sealed "Moon Shadow Illusion" have different focuses, the former tends to create illusions, so Xia De created the illusion of an empty corridor. This way of hiding is easy to be discovered by Ringed Shushi, especially as Xia De gets closer and closer, but for ordinary people to see through it, they need extremely strong inspiration. Unfortunately, Xia De's opponent this time didn't have it.

He walked to the side of the huddled man just like that, taking out the "Mind Crystal Ring" from his pocket and putting it on his finger while walking. He stopped at a distance of ten meters from him, clutching the silence spell in his left hand, and pointing his right index finger at the man's forehead:

"Mind Blast!"

With a muffled sound of *bang~*, red and white things flowed out of the man's mouth, nose, ears, and eyes at the same time. He stared at the void in front of him with wide eyes, and then slid limply to the ground.

Xia De shook his head, approached the corpse, and sprinkled bone powder as a spellcasting material:

"Soul Echo."

A cold wind swept through the corridor, and the channeled soul floated above the corpse. Xia De sighed softly, stood in a position where he couldn't be seen from the outside, and asked:

"Who are you?"

"I am Neil Hawkman of the Lamia Principality."

The soul answered unconsciously. Although facing the murderer who killed him, due to the blessing of thousands of souls on Xia De, it did not try to attack Xia De as an evil spirit.

"What are you doing here?"

"Confirming the bomb explosion."

Xia De was stunned:

"What bomb?"

"A steam bomb, installed under the fifth seat of the seventh row in the auditorium opposite, using a leaking steam valve as a delay device, it will explode in about five to seven minutes."

"Huh?"

Hearing this, Xia De didn't have time to ask more questions. He reached out to touch the soul, and the mystical art 【Guide to Death】 allowed him to directly "see" the soul's deepest memories.

Although Xia De's 【Guide to Death】 ability to obtain soul memories through touch is far inferior to Sister Daifulin's ability to "see" all the emotions of a soul at a glance, he at least confirmed that the bomb really existed, and this organized murder was aimed at Princess Margaret.

They are an independence organization of the Lamia Principality. This small principality belongs to Delarion, and the organization wants to provoke the relationship between Delarion and Karsenrik in order to seek independence in the upcoming war.

This Monday, Director Anluosi, who came to St. Deran Square, clearly mentioned this matter, but Xia De did not expect that he would actually encounter it.

The janitor who died just now was killed by Neil Hawkman because he accidentally saw him. But besides that bomb, they hadn't found any other way to harm the Princess.

Even being able to place the bomb was by bribing the guards of the auditorium after the police inspection, so they could barely touch the back row seats, and could not place it directly behind the front row seats.

"This is really terrible."

He casually drew open the Gate of Death and pushed the soul into it. He frowned and thought for a while, took a deep breath to restore the surrounding environment to its original state, and then completely melted the corpse with the Witch's Light to eliminate any traces that might remain. Only then did he put his hands into his pockets and turn to leave the building.

There was not much time left before the bomb exploded. Although he couldn't explain the source of the information, it wouldn't be a big deal to inform Military Intelligence Section 6 directly, but Xia De couldn't find anyone from Military Intelligence Section 6 now.

As for breaking into the auditorium and shouting that there was a bomb, of course, that could also be done, but that would make him noticed by more people, which is what Xia De has been avoiding.

Fortunately, he still has the identity of "Ace Agent Gray Hawk" to use. After the Princess arrived in Tobesk, he received orders and learned how to contact the Princess in an emergency. Appearing now to protect the Princess was, in Xia De's view, a way to repay Detective Sparrow Hamilton, who was sleeping in the cemetery. Compared to using the identity of Gray Hawk for his own benefit, protecting others is a good way to keep this identity glorious.