A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 269 Shadow City

The two sat down in front of the fireplace. Rorschach organized the information about his arrival in Storm City. He refused to drink at this critical moment, but simply held the wine glass, the warmth of his palm gradually warming the cold wine.

"It's difficult to find someone in this city." Rorschach thought of other possibilities: "And it doesn't necessarily have to be in Storm City; it's just that the last trace I could find is here."

After listening, Benedict crossed his legs and relaxed on the armrest of the single sofa: "It sounds like we need to do something impossible, and we can't just plaster missing person posters all over the streets for the target woman."

The missing person notice gave Rorschach an idea: "There isn't a missing person notice, but since the Iron Crown Knights are looking for her, there's probably an arrest warrant." Rorschach couldn't imagine what taboo Caroline might have broken in Istani to be being investigated.

"Good idea. Especially since you don't know what kind of trouble that lady has gotten into." The elf stood up and pulled out a scrapbook from the bookshelf. It was full of collected crime information, along with a wanted poster and stacks of files.

Rorschach was somewhat confused: "At first I thought your main profession was acting, but now it seems that you are a detective." The other party's first identity was a curator, and then he introduced himself as a moderately famous actor, at which point he showed that he had been paying close attention to various cases in Storm City for a long time.

Could he also be a host, writer, folk singer, oil painter, leather craftsman, silversmith, and the man with the golden left cheek?

Benedict's eyes never left the document: "Perhaps in your eyes actors and detectives are unrelated, but both professions have a foundation: you need to be observant, especially observant of people. Whether you play a role or uncover the truth within them depends on whether I'm on stage or in the firm."

Seeing that Rorschach was free, Benedict handed him a stack of files to help search: "We haven't found your teacher yet. Are you sure her name is 'Caroline'?"

"Yes, yes, do you need me to tell you the spelling?" This was the second time Rorschach had heard a similar question, and he emphasized it.

He kept looking at the cases the detectives had collected and found that many of them were missing persons cases, followed by murder cases.

The capital of the mighty Istani seems to have a rather poor security situation.

"No need for that. I have received a grammatical education and am fluent in Common, Archaic, and Elvish."

However, neither of the two well-educated men succeeded.

"Are there many disappearances in Storm City?"

"Most of them are unsolved cases." Benedict put away the files. "Many people claim that their family members or friends have gone missing, but no trace of the missing persons can be found on the surface, including identification. Ah, unlike your situation, at least you still have letters to the missing persons."

"These people who reported the disappearances were diagnosed by Strand Field as having schizophrenia or some other abnormality—what a fashionable term. In short, everyone thinks the missing persons are all figments of their imagination. Like, they suffered psychological trauma, developed a split personality, or created a character to accompany them."

Stirling Field, originally a settlement for nobles from the Stirling region in Storm City, has now become the office of detectives appointed by the royal family to investigate criminal cases.

"No!" Rorschach stood up. "Information about Ms. Caroline will indeed be erased! My letter is an exception."

How to prove it? Rorschach came up with a solution.

"Could you please use the restroom?"

Benedict pointed in a direction: "Go ahead."

Rorschach entered the small space where he had locked himself in. He took out the reply from the Imperial Royal Magic Academy and tried to cast the [Reverse Ray] on it.

With a twist, the words "No such person found" turned into a distorted mess, making the original information unrecognizable.

But this proves one thing: magic has distorted the information about Caroline, and it can be stopped by the [Reverse Ray]!

Rorschach waited a while, but the marks did not change again. He took out the reply from the Tower of Stars and cast the same spell. Rorschach had seen the original form before, so when the ray acted on the letter, Cano's original words appeared word for word.

The boy waited in the washroom for a while, and the letter was not altered.

He took the two letters out, intending to show them to Benedict.

"Is your stomach a little upset?" The detective poured himself some more wine during the break, frowning as he stared at what Rorschach was showing him. "So, are these two pieces of paper related to our commission? Sorry, I can't tell."

When Rorschach retrieved it, he found it had been altered again!

Damn it, he told Benedict that the information would be erased.

After listening, the elf stood up from the sofa, drew the curtains, made sure no one else in the corridor had heard their conversation, and then closed the door: "Since you've encountered the same situation as those 'mentally ill people,' we can talk about those missing persons cases."

"Based on my guess, most of them have fallen into the shadow of this city. The Knights must know this, but usually there's nothing they can do, leaving the unfortunate souls to get lost in this land."

"Those who fall into this curse are burdened with it and become nameless. Do you know what nameless means? Their name can no longer appear here. In other people's memories, they will be replaced or blurred. Only a few are gifted enough to be immune to the curse and notice the sudden disappearance of their loved ones. But others will just think they are crazy."

"Many of the people who reported the crime couldn't accept it, and some of them actually went insane."

"But my letter was not erased from my name."

"So you stand out even among those with extraordinary talent. What should we call you? 'King of Madmen'?"

Rorschach felt like Benedict was earnestly telling him a clichéd urban legend: "I can't believe it."

The elf put down his wine glass, revealing an annoying smile that gradually turned sinister: "So, if I said that I am also one of the 'Mad Kings' and can invite people into the 'Shadow City,' would you dare to try?"

"The Shadow City's territory overlaps with our Storm City, and it has even larger underground spaces where you can even see amazing biomes! If it weren't cursed to prevent people from ever returning and being forgotten by the world, it would be excellent to develop it into a tourist destination."

"Since you are not affected by the 'expulsion curse,' you may not only be able to return to Earth yourself, but also bring your teacher Caroline back."

Rorschach and the elf locked eyes, staring at each other's brown irises. Rorschach couldn't glean anything from the eyes or the expression, perhaps because Benedict was an actor playing a role.

"If I agree, will you come with me?"

The elf quickly shook his head: "Not now, I have an important performance coming up soon. Don't worry that I'll forget you, my client, after you enter the Shadow City. The Shadow City is being lenient with me. Isn't it better to have someone who remembers you in the surface world? Maybe I'll still remember you when you disappear too, and I'll try to get you out."

Luo Xia found it amusing, stood up, and this time he was preparing to leave: "Do I need to pay a consultation fee?"

"It seems you don't want to continue with this commission." Benedict gave a regretful shrug, a blatant performance, though he didn't care at all. "Master Rorschach, you'll come looking for me again, just like I said this morning, we'll meet again. We'll settle the fees then."

"Then you're going to lose me as a client." Rorschach placed the business card the elf had given him on the coffee table in the living room and quickly left.

(End of this chapter)