Chapter 1983: The Summer of the Great Detective Hamilton

Of course, in his spare time, Xia De did not forget to visit the friend who helped him in Green Lake, referring to Captain Lades.

On the day Miss Miss Jia Lin Na and Margaret were assassinated, Captain Lades led his squad to create friction and conflict at the border, firing the second shot that marked the end of the Green Lake negotiations... The first shot was fired by Xia De. After that, Captain Lades was relieved of his military duties and temporarily transferred back to Tobesk.

On the third day of the Month of Sunshine, when Xia De took a bottle of wine to visit him in the apartment he rented, he found him packing his luggage.

"Good morning, detective. Don't be surprised, the new arrangement has already come down. I am leaving Tobesk soon, I'm not in the Army anymore."

"What? So urgent, but..."

"Rest assured, detective, I am now a member of the Navy."

He turned around, shook his newly received uniform at Xia De with a smile, and then let Xia De look at the medal box on the pile of debris on the table:

"In the future, please call me Major Lades."

The middle-aged man's eyes were shining, and Xia De was also happy for him:

"From Captain to Major? Congratulations, Ca... The title in the future is—Major Lades. This is really not easy."

"Yes, it's really not easy."

Recalling his ups and downs in the past two years, the former "Eight-Gun Captain" couldn't help but sigh:

"My promotion and award are not ordinary situations, so the military department let me go to the Navy for a period of time first, and then let me return to the Royal Army next year or the year after. At that time, no one will care where I, this major, came from."

"But the Navy's work should be different from the Army, right?"

Xia De asked, and the Major nodded:

"Yes, I still have a lot to learn, but this is already very good. This time, I was arranged to go to the West Coast to join the Coast Patrol Force. This is a very good idle job. It is said that I spend more time at the dock than on the ship."

He turned to Xia De and reached out his hand, saying very seriously:

"Anyway, detective, thank you very much this time. Otherwise, I can't imagine how an officer like me who has been captured and has no background could get the rank of Major before officially retiring."

Xia De shook hands with him. The sunlight fell on the hands of the two men held tightly together. Xia De shook his head:

"I still hold that view, you chose the future for yourself, I just gave you a chance. See you in the future, Major Lades, I hope next time, we can still meet in a strange city while looking up."

"Goodbye, Detective Hamilton, I also look forward to our next meeting, you are my friend forever."

He gave Xia De a hug.

Major Lades left the city by train that evening. He returned in a hurry and left in a hurry. What he took away seemed to be just his appointment and dismissal order and new medals.

Xia De saw off this friend at the train station, watching the train heading to the West Coast leave, his heart still sighing at the impact his arrival had on everyone he met.

And after seeing off Captain Lades on Tuesday, early Wednesday morning, Xia De indeed received a letter from Miss Mia Gao De from the remote town on the East Coast.

He had actually packed his luggage and cat, ready to set off at any time. After receiving the letter this morning, he even planned to instruct Luweiya not to forget to come and water the flowers she raised on the windowsill while he was away.

But opening the letter at the breakfast table, Xia De saw news that was like a bolt from the blue:

"What, plague?"

"Plague?"

At 10:00 AM, Xia De, holding the letter, appeared in the office belonging to Miss Miss Jia Lin Na in the Yodel Palace. He sat on the sofa, Tifa was pouring tea for him, and Miss Miss Jia Lin Na was talking to him while looking at documents behind the desk:

"Which plague are you referring to?"

"Are there many plagues recently?"

Xia De was confused by her:

"I read the newspaper before I came, and only saw news related to spring flu. Miss Gao De said in the letter that when she was organizing the excavation of the courtyard used by her family for pleasure in the past, she found many corpses with terrible faces that didn't look like humans, and then a plague spread in the town. This is different from the plague in that ancient town last winter; this time it is more terrible. Now all roads in the entire town and the surrounding area are blocked, and no one can enter or leave."

He was quite worried about this:

"That plague that broke out has already spread to Yastra. Although the train ticket I bought can still be used, even if I reach Yastra, I won't be able to continue. I worry that she found something strange in that courtyard, which caused the plague."

"Don't worry, it's not such a terrible thing. Tifa~"

The maid lady took a document from the table and handed it to Xia De, and the Duchess continued:

"Since the beginning of this year, inexplicable plagues have been breaking out in various parts of the Old Continent and the New Continent, but the situation has suddenly become more serious recently. The Tobesk region is fine for now because it can still be controlled, so in order to prevent panic, the newspapers have not reported such things in large sections."

What Xia De held was the report from the Delarion health department on this plague of strange origin:

"The main characteristics are low fever, plaques, blisters, ulcers on the skin, photophobia, physical deformity, nighttime mania, hydrophobia, weakened ability to be immune to other diseases, mental mania, and a small number of cases will show a thirst for blood."

Xia De quickly flipped through those documents, saw some black and white photos, and couldn't help but frown:

"Is this a variant of leprosy? Or are the vampires declaring war on the Church?"

"Oh, Xia De, don't think so complicatedly. The Church's investigation shows that at least for now, this is really just an ordinary plague, but the characteristics shown are a bit special."

The Duchess behind the desk put down the documents in her hand and looked at Xia De on the sofa not far away:

"Your travel plan probably won't work. These areas where the plague broke out are strictly controlled by the Church, for fear of other problems.

Since this trip is to be postponed again, then stay in Tobesk. Didn't you plan to rest well? Don't worry about these things. Perhaps the plague in the town will subside next month. I haven't received reports of the plague getting out of control in Yastra, so the matter is still within a controllable range."

Since this is the case, this trip can only be canceled. Miss Gao De described in the letter that the town had entered a state of emergency again, and the residents of the town were all taking unified refuge under the help of her and the town's small church.

Even if Xia De really wanted to break into the blockade area, Miss Gao De probably wouldn't be able to receive him. And taking a cat to such a dangerous place was obviously not a very appropriate move.

Xia De wanted to go home to write a reply to Miss Gao De, but was kept by Miss Miss Jia Lin Na:

"Can't you write a letter here? You write it now, and I'll ask the maid to help you send it out. It's almost lunch time, accompany me to eat in a while, I'll book a place now. Tifa said you got a very beautiful pocket watch recently?"

The maid lady's face remained unchanged. Xia De first thought of Miss Adele Isabella's pocket watch, and then realized that it referred to the "Luminous Pocket Watch."

Being unable to visit Miss Gao De again made Xia De very disappointed, but no matter how disappointed he was, he could only accept this reality.

Thus, the leisurely life continued like this. Since receiving Miss Gao De's letter on the third day of the Month of Sunshine, for the next three full weeks, Xia De did not experience any more adventures.

Reading and studying, alchemy potion experiments, dating the girls at home, the racecourse, the opera house, in the mountains, and on the island, occasionally taking on commissions to find lost cats and dogs. The time of early summer seemed to have slowed down because of this, and the temperature this summer was indeed maintained at a very low level, just as the Earth Chosen said.

Xia De still remembered that on another snowy morning, he received a gentleman who had been robbed on the road not long ago. After half a week of investigation, he assisted the police of the Ridwich Field to capture a group of bold bandits who were preparing to rob the Delarion National Bank.

Xia De also remembered that one evening when he was walking the cat with Dorothy on the street along the river in the university district, he accidentally met Dorothy's fans. After chatting with the lady who lived in the north of the city, Xia De received a commission to investigate the haunted house of the lady's neighbor.

Ghosts, of course, did not exist, but cultists who were active in a sneaky way did exist. In the end, with the efforts of Xia De and the Black Stone Security Company, the cultists who tried to launch subversive activities in the slums of northern Tobesk were rounded up.

Although a priest of the 【Tyranny Club】 escaped to the Coldwater Port area before being captured, intending to hide in the New Continent, he was still shot dead in an alley in the Coldwater Port dock area by an unknown person.

At that time, this cultist case, which made a lot of noise, made the headlines of the "Tobesk Morning News," "Terraril River News," and "Kingdom Morning News" for two consecutive days. And the photo of Xia De holding the "Tobesk Model Citizen Medal" and taking a photo with the Mayor of Tobesk did not appear in the newspaper because of his own and Miss Miss Jia Lin Na's wishes.

The great detective of St. Theresa Square became famous again, and Dorothy's "Hamilton Detective Story Collection" was sold out again. Therefore, the generous Count Fafner of Tobesk invited Xia De and Dorothy to attend the reading salon he held at his country manor, and Dorothy agreed to attend after finding that many of her writer friends would be there.

So on that night when a blizzard suddenly started, the 16 people trapped in the manor and unable to return to the city experienced a thrilling disaster. An unknown gunman shot and killed a poet outside the window during dinner, and then committed crimes throughout the night.

When the police in the city rushed to the scene the next morning, there were already four corpses lying in the manor, as well as two guests who were injured after being shot.

Among the four corpses, two were murdered guests, one was a servant who was killed in the afternoon, and the last one was the murderer disguised as a servant. Xia De actually discovered the murderer after the second guest died, relying on the fast-beating heart sound heard by "Echo of the Past" and "Heart of Stone," and even found evidence relying on "Echo of Blood." But in order not to be suspected by others, he only secretly took action to save the next two guests who were shot, and then pretended to rely on meticulous reasoning to investigate the murderer's identity.

The murderer's cause of death was having his head smashed with a chair leg after being caught. Everyone present could prove that Detective Hamilton was forced to kill him while acting in self-defense and protecting his weak female companion, Miss Lu Yisha.

Later, after investigation, the reason why the murderer sneaked into the manor to kill was because he hated the owner of the manor, Count Fafner. And further investigation revealed that he was actually an illegitimate son that Count Fafner himself didn't know about, and it was because of his mother's death and his unwillingness to accept his own fate that he did such a thing.

If Xia De hadn't fought back, he would have forced the Count to commit suicide after killing everyone in the manor, and then forged a suicide note to attribute all the deaths to the Count.

This case, involving a blizzard manor, aristocratic scandals, and detective stories, spread throughout the city in the blink of an eye, providing interesting topics for people who spent the cold summer of 1854 in Tobesk. Even the editors of the "Steam Bird Daily" urged Dorothy to adapt this incident into a story as soon as possible and publish it before the heat of the case faded, but it was rejected by the writer lady in the name of "respecting the deceased."

She actually just didn't want to rush the manuscript.

Although Princess Lei Qianya later laughed and said that no one would dare to invite Xia De and Dorothy to go on vacation in a country manor together in the future, Xia De thought it was nothing:

"It's just a case of ordinary people, it's not that I will encounter relics wherever I go, this can't be considered bad luck."

"Yes, my knight, everything you say is right. However, I like that your name can often appear in the newspaper."

"Why?"

The princess's emerald eyes reflected Xia De's face:

"Every time I see your story in the newspaper, it makes me feel that you are always by my side. After all, you don't come to see me often, and I can only look at the newspaper to know what my beloved knight is doing."

Then she saw the look of guilt on Xia De's face with satisfaction and knew that she would have many sweet dates recently. ===== CHAPTER 1984 =====