Chapter 3100

With the clues from the sewer investigation, the leads provided by Mr. Fellinger, and the hints given by Miss Brown, and finally, through the joint efforts of Xia De and Ridgewich Field, relying on the "small" convenience provided by Miss Jia Lin Na, who was far away in Saladier County—that is, mobilizing the Tobeisike garrison at a critical moment—Xia De finally managed to lead people to intercept the train about to depart Tobeisike before the criminals could escape. Following the clues, they found a human trafficking organization that had been operating in the capital, Tobeisike, for decades.

According to eyewitnesses at the scene, Detective Xia De Hamilton shattered the train carriage window with a single shot, then jumped into the carriage and, relying on a cane and a pistol, defeated five armed thugs single-handedly.

This human trafficking organization had nothing to do with the woman Xia De had tried to catch in the summer of 1853 when he sprinted half a street and ended up shot in the chest. The criminals caught this time specialized in the business of trafficking people from the Old Continent to the New Continent as slave labor.

And after discovering this massive underground organization, Xia De suddenly understood why he always encountered people who would shoot at him and then be killed by him in return while investigating this matter.

The victims of such a massive human trafficking organization involved almost half of Delarion, and the fact that it could hide in Tobeisike for so long was, of course, related to certain unspeakable big shots.

It was precisely because Xia De, having nothing to do this winter, investigated this matter deeper and deeper, involving more and more past events from over a decade ago, that after the lid could finally no longer be kept on, even Miss Jia Lin Na had to rush back to Tobeisike from Saladier County ahead of schedule.

His Majesty the King, who was deeply mired in the public opinion whirlpool of the "death of the illegitimate daughter" in the Kingdom of Casenrick, specifically set aside time to listen to the report from Ridgewich Field on this matter. Subsequently, the wise and martial Larus III, who had previously only been kept in the dark, authorized the Duchess of Saladier to fully investigate this major case.

As of the end of November, the arrests and interrogations were still ongoing. By then, a duke with real power had been implicated, and a marquis with a fief had been ordered by King Larus III to take an "honorary convalescence."

To hedge against this scandal, the newspapers used page after page of reports on the merits of "Detective Hamilton" to suppress public criticism of the police and City Hall. In reality, Xia De had not continued to participate after Miss Jia Lin Na took over the case; after all, the commission he had received at the time was merely to "investigate the strange sounds under the house."

On the last Saturday of the Month of Frost, when Doctor Schneider was holding a newspaper and teasing Xia De about stirring up trouble again, the outlander suddenly looked up in realization:

"Doctor, you introduced this client to me. Can I assume that if it weren't for me, you would have actually investigated this matter yourself out of curiosity about the patient's plight, and then triggered the entire case... I helped you share the misfortune!"

Bill Schneider, who had just taken a sip of tea, coughed violently, while Priest Ao Gu Si, who was wiping his pipe, Dorothy, who was checking the report to be submitted for spelling errors, and Luweiya, who had just sat down, all laughed.

Although the limelight of this case almost overshadowed the arguments and insults in the newspapers of both countries regarding the "death of the Anjou royal illegitimate daughter," for Xia De, investigating this matter could only be considered a small thing he did before the end of the Month of Frost, and it did not take up too much time.

And in those boring days when he didn't want to read or conduct detective investigations, he didn't forget about the gifts he had to give for the Year-End Festival, as well as his dates with the young ladies.

Vanessa and Xilisi planned to return home in the first ten days of next month. This was slightly earlier than originally planned, but given the current relationship between the two countries, it was indeed not suitable for them, as southerners, to remain in Tobeisike.

Therefore, during the time before the opera troupe left, Xia De ran to meet Vanessa and Xilisi almost every two days.

Of course, he did not neglect others. After returning home, Luweiya resumed her normal work rhythm after a brief period of busyness. Although she no longer lived at St. Deran Square, Xia De, who was looking forward to the card appraisal results, often went to the society to find her for divination.

Dorothy and Lei Qianya, in their respective busyness, waited for the arrival of the next Red Butterfly Day; after all, it had been a very, very long time since their last date on Red Butterfly Day. The next one was not far off; it happened to be on the last day of the Month of Frost, and it also happened to be a Sunday. The young ladies swore that they would absolutely not let Xia De off the hook this time.

After Miss Jia Lin Na returned, she was busy dealing with the underground human trafficking network Xia De had discovered. Xia De could only see her once or twice a week. This matter was truly quite troublesome, so although the witches had already found a way to help Xia De expand the area of his home, she had not yet contacted Xia De to deal with it.

The situation between Casenrick and Delarion had also become increasingly worse in these few short weeks. The small-scale conflicts reported in the newspapers from time to time on the border were merely the tip of the iceberg of the grand situation.

Even the idlers in the taverns believed that war was likely to break out next week. The army was stationed on the border line, and the standoff of naval ships had been a common occurrence since the summer. Now, people were just waiting for who would fire the first shot.

Casenrick had the reason of the "death of the royal princess"—Margaret had thought her sister was not recognized, but last week, the "Lion" announced the recognition of Ashley Bethany's status as a princess, and she could also be buried in the royal mausoleum.

Lei Qianya's father was hinting to his aunt that the recently uncovered major human trafficking case should be linked to the southern country. Miss Jia Lin Na had not yet expressed her stance on this, but in Xia De's view, even if such a major case with such wide implications was not led by the southern country, there must be their participation in it.

However, the war about to break out on the Old Continent had nothing to do with Xia De, who lived at St. Deran Square, for the time being—at least not yet.

On the Friday morning before the Month of Frost officially ended, which was the 28th of the month, Xia De was thinking during breakfast about how he had run to "Edge of Life and Death" yesterday with Grace and Helen to check the status of the seal, and then visited Sister Daifulin together.

Emilia came up from the basement, sniffing the aroma of breakfast, but she did not come for the breakfast cooked by the maids who had left a few minutes ago:

"Xia De, where did you put the textbook I left at your place last weekend?"

The scatterbrained little elf asked in a flurry, and Xia De pointed casually to the study:

"On the second shelf. Do you want to eat something before you go?"

"No, I'm in a hurry to get to my morning class. If I'm late and get points deducted, it will be even harder to pass this course at the end of the term. Oh, this is a letter Miss Dannister just asked me to bring you."

After taking the book, she hurriedly handed the letter to Xia De in the dining room. Although she didn't eat anything, she still picked up a slice of bread from the table and left in a hurry, biting the bread—a very girlish action.

The cat looked up at Emilia's back, then "meowed" at Xia De. Xia De interpreted this as the cat thinking it was a cowardly act for someone to take their food at will while Xia De did not stop them.

"Don't be so stingy; we can't finish all this food anyway."

Xia De said while placing the list of goods from the elves that Tifa had just sent onto the *Steam Bird Daily* newspaper to the side, covering the face of the Kingdom's Minister of War on the front page:

"What does Miss Dannister want with me? It shouldn't be anything major. Although the Bennett family's assets have almost been counted, the church shouldn't need to inform me to go collect the money through the academy."

That money would certainly have to be "laundered" through the Witch Council before Xia De could use it.

Opening the letter from the librarian, he found that on the folded letter paper, only the middle two lines had text—

【Xia De, the Month of Frost is about to pass. I think it is time to test your learning progress again. If you have time, no need to reply; see you at the library at seven tonight. If you don't have time, come see me immediately and explain the reason in person.】

Xia De realized that this duel was the so-called "monthly" duel, not an extra one. Come to think of it, during this period, because of course papers, learning the basic knowledge of high-ring sorcerers, and choosing courses for next year, he saw the red-haired sorceress every three or four days, but the two of them had a tacit understanding not to have excessive actions in the library.

Xia De had thought she was going to ignore this matter.

【Is there a possibility that she is waiting for you to take the initiative?】

"This... well, it's very possible."

So he ate dinner early that night, took a special bath after dinner, and left a note for the young ladies who might visit St. Deran Square tonight to explain the situation, before setting off from the basement to the academy.

After appearing among the bookshelves in the ground area of the library, he unexpectedly found that the library seemed a bit deserted today, and only then realized that it was Friday night. This not only meant that the vast majority of students had finished their week's courses, but also meant that students could leave the academy castle and enter the academy city for a short rest.

"Students are the same everywhere."

Passing through the bookshelves to the bottom of the orrery in the center of the library, Xia De unexpectedly found that the red-haired sorceress was not there:

"Huh? The time is correct."

Various books and documents were piled on the coffee table as usual, and Xia De did not find a message for himself among them. Just as he was thinking about waiting here for a while, a hand patted him from behind—before this, he hadn't felt anyone behind him at all.

Turning to look, a red-haired girl with long red hair tied into a large braid hanging behind her, wearing the ninth-year student uniform of the academy, stared at him suspiciously with rose-red eyes:

"Who are you? How come I haven't seen you in the academy? It's very impolite to barge into the librarian's office like this, isn't it?"