「Given a recent target, the plan now is to inspect the room in more detail, search for money, look for a city map, search for books. Understand the world through text, explore the background and religious customs of the Epoch carefully, and adapt cautiously. Whether to stay for three months, help the detective complete the case, and make further plans after understanding everything needs consideration.」
Shard summarized the current situation, accepting the fact that the detective is dead. The worst situation isn’t the mysterious world itself but the lack of any memories from the original owner, making him entirely unfamiliar with the world. Beyond this, the current circumstances were acceptable.
Standing up, Shard walked towards the washroom.
The gas lamp in the washroom had some issues. Even when adjusted to full power, it only emitted a faint light.
Looking at the person in the mirror under this light, one would see dull gold hair, brownish-black eyes, a clear Western male face, around the age of 20, seemingly a bit nervous, and about 1.8 meters tall.
After all, he was a former vagabond, so his appearance wasn’t particularly striking, but within Shard’s aesthetics, it was still acceptable.
“This is me now, better not get scared by the stranger in the mirror.”
He reminded himself cautiously in his heart but didn’t leave the mirror immediately. He instead prudently looked around before softly calling out:
“Hey, are you still there?”
He tried to communicate with the murmuring woman’s voice again to determine what it was. But after a long time with no results, he had to accept reality and temporarily give up.
Next was finding money. During the search of the kitchen earlier, he didn’t find any food, and his body was clearly hungry, so he needed to temporarily forget other worries and find money to eat.
But another unexpected thing happened. About half an hour later, Shard sat back on the sofa under the warm yellow light, with an indescribable panic on his face.
He held a 10-unit banknote in his hand, with many creases and stains, even smaller than the cards in the diary. The numbered side had a portrait, and the back had the royal crest of the Delarion Kingdom, where he currently resided.
Searching the entire house, flipping through all the books and documents, and digging into all the pockets in the wardrobe, Shard only found this one banknote that seemed to have accidentally slipped into the gap behind the bookshelf.
“Could it be that the prices in this world are so special that this one banknote is enough to sustain me for three months?”
Even though he comforted himself with this joke, he knew it was impossible.
“This is really bad.”
He leaned back slightly, letting himself rest against the back of the sofa, closed his eyes, and looked up at the white ceiling:
“Mr. Hamilton, where exactly did you hide your money? I promised to stay; you didn’t leave me without a single penny, did you?”
Even though he felt horrified, at this moment, he really wanted to chase that carriage carrying the coffin and wake the corpse to question him.
If he couldn’t speak the language, being clever could still help him survive; if his body was disabled, he could still survive bravely living. But being penniless was totally unacceptable.
Sparrow Hamilton clearly didn’t cook at home, as there wasn’t even a single leaf in the kitchen, so naturally, there wouldn’t be any mouse corpses. Shard didn’t know when this body last ate, but it clearly needed food now.
Considering human limits, Shard had to immediately find money or ways to earn it. Otherwise, he might be forced to hunt for restaurant leftovers in alleyways once the sun sets.
“No, it won’t be.”
He looked at the only banknote in his hand with a fearful expression, his face grim like the sky outside:
“Although I don’t know its value, it’s still money. Plus, the [Sun 3] card in the diary can help me survive. Since I can’t find money now, I must consider long-term earning channels.”
The knowledge of a time-traveling person might be valuable, but monetizing it in an unfamiliar place is not only troublesome but dangerous, especially given the mysterious powers in this world.
He thought of the detective agency here, and Mr. Hamilton seemed to have mentioned before his death that he left some relatively safe tasks for the “not so bright” Shard to maintain the agency.
Since he couldn’t find the dead detective’s money temporarily, he had to plan for the worst and consider future livelihood strategies.
“That said, Mr. Hamilton knew Shard—the original Shard—wasn’t very smart, so the tasks left must be simple tasks to maintain the detective agency. Maybe he already solved those cases, and all I need to do is collect the payment! Despite the mysterious elements in the world, ordinary people’s lives are still the mainstream.”
Shard had an inspiration. He got up to fetch the shaded diary from the bedside table in the master bedroom, found the detective’s ledger, memorandum, and work journal from the study which were the detective’s relics. Although he couldn’t find money earlier, he found these items.
Detective Sparrow Hamilton was a highly methodical and meticulous individual. Even though Shard lacked accounting or business management training, he found Hamilton’s meticulous recording of the agency’s operations touching. Of course, mainly because Shard found that the cases left unfinished by the agency were simple and mostly resolved.
“Finding Miss White’s runaway sister, tracking Mr. Lawrence’s mistress, looking for the lost orange cat Mia, and inquiring about a doctor who can treat eye diseases all seem very simple and not very dangerous. Oh, Mr. Hamilton has handled most of them. If I run this agency, resolving one case every two to three weeks is enough to keep it operational.”
Shard summarized as he read through Hamilton’s handwritten reports. But now, he was not looking to operate the agency long-term; he just needed money to maintain short-term survival.
Comparing the remaining difficulty, payment methods, and rewards of the four tasks, Shard decided to address the “tracking Mr. Lawrence’s mistress” task first.
From the case report, Detective Hamilton had been tracking for several months but recently stopped due to health issues. The current report could be handed to the client to settle the remaining payment. Yet Mr. Hamilton left Shard a note, using simple words, acknowledging Shard’s limited literacy.
The note suggested providing a recent record if he intended to complete the task, ensuring the client wouldn’t suspect and possibly an increased reward.
In other words, Shard only needed to follow up once more to finish the task. While not a perfect completion, it satisfied the client’s, Mr. Lawrence’s wife’s requirements, enough to receive the remaining payment of 1 pound 4 shillings.
From the detective’s notes, this appeared to be a considerable reward.
Choosing this task wasn’t just for the reward but also because handling such infidelity cases was a simple task for Detective Hamilton, unlikely to cause mishaps during the final handover. Sparrow Hamilton wasn’t a famous detective but excelled in handling extramarital cases.
Shard didn’t want to stay in this house, which had recently experienced a death, drinking cold water and eating paper to stave off hunger, so he planned to start the investigation, aiming to submit the report to the client before dusk.
“No problem. First, I’ll finish this task, get the initial money, and then slowly explore the secrets of the deceased detective and the source of the voice in my head. Everything will be fine!”
Encouraging himself, Shard first found the city map and combined the detective Hamilton’s relic report with the calendar on the wall to infer where the mistress, Mrs. Rayleigh, might appear. These tasks were simple, with the most challenging step identifying his current location on the “Tobesk City Map.”
The detective agency’s Tobesk city map had many annotations left by the former detective, including frequently visited taverns for information-gathering and black markets for trading “sensitive items.”
However, the original detective didn’t mark his house on the map. Luckily, Shard found a past tracking record with an action route noted, confirming that this apartment is located at 6 St. Duran Plaza in the city center of Tobesk.
“Thanks to Sparrow Hamilton’s meticulous records. This is an apartment adjacent to the city center plaza. Hmm? What would the property price be?”
Shard wondered in surprise as he discovered a palace complex named “Yodel Palace” only two streets away from St. Duran Plaza.
The wrinkled newspaper mentioned between the headline news “Third-round Citywide Steam Pipeline Renovation” on the first page and “Karass Mountain Ancient Tower Collapse Investigation Report” on the third page, that “Yodel Palace” was the residence of the Royal Family of the Delarion Kingdom.
Coming from a world without owning a house, Shard’s heartbeat accelerated, and the panic and tension momentarily dispersed with sudden joy.
He murmured as he looked at the documents in his hands:
“In other words, my current location is in the capital city of one of the two major kingdoms, the Delarion Kingdom, and this is an apartment next to the city center plaza. With a house like this, do I still need to worry about starving?”
His previously suppressed mood instantly lifted, but the house couldn’t be monetized immediately, and Shard had no intention of giving up on Hamilton’s three-month commission. At least he would consider it after finding a foothold.
At least a very genuine smile replaced his nervous expression on his face. Having such a well-located house meant no worries about losing his smile over time. Shard realized, however, that although he found the will during his previous search, he didn’t come across any property deeds.
“This apartment isn’t rented, right?”
The more he thought, the more it seemed probable. If he could afford such a house, he wouldn’t need to run a detective agency; collecting rent would suffice to support himself. Even if the detective business wasn’t solely for money, the interior decoration suggested it didn’t seem to belong to Sherlock Hamilton himself.
“In that case, I most likely have to pay an unknown amount of rent each month?”
Shard incredulously reached this conclusion, then looked again at the calendar hanging on the wall in the living room.
It’s now Sunshine Month of 1853, the third week’s Saturday in June. If rent was due monthly, payment was most likely at the beginning of each month.
“This world also follows a twelve-month system, with similar monthly dates. Should I pack my clothes, grab my suitcase, take a bucket, and run away, embarking on an adventure in this mysterious world as a vagabond? Staying here without income, Hamilton might’ve even left unknown debts.”
