What kind of nonsense is this, that you'd be chosen by the gods and favored by all the gods?

"How is it?"

Adele looked at Lyle as he approached, a hint of expectation in her heart.

"Don't worry, I'm willing to help you."

Of course, he had said all the nice things, and Lyle himself knew that the necessary preparations were absolutely essential.

He didn't want to be a mediocre person who only knew how to talk politely, so he made all the necessary preparations to avoid being helpless when encountering unnecessary danger.

Intangible virtues cannot overcome tangible weapons; he dislikes empty words and prefers practical actions.

"Alright... let's go take a look at the kitchen first."

The celebratory banquet was held in the kitchen of the city lord's castle, but after Adley learned that there was something wrong with the drinks, she immediately sent people to take control of the place.

"It's basically just these people."

"We've checked everything, there shouldn't be any problems. No one was around before the celebration."

If there were any real problems, they would have run away long ago.

Lyle wasn't going to waste his time on these people. He went into the kitchen, looked around, and at first glance, there seemed to be no problem.

However, for a qualified person favored by the goddess of fate and a diviner, there is no need to check each one individually.

He took a knife of uniform texture, placed it on the table, and casually twirled it.

This is an extended application of the divination stick method, and it is equally applicable here.

Finally, it pointed to the back of the stairs.

"cellar?"

Adeline noticed Lyle's methods and looked towards the cellar.

"Have you conducted a thorough investigation?"

"I've checked the entry and exit records, and so far there seem to be no problems; they're all trustworthy people."

That's what she said, but Adele still had her doubts, so she followed Lyle downstairs.

"Helena, keep an eye on the door for me."

Although he trusted Adeline, Lyle didn't trust anyone else, so he had Helena stand guard at the door.

The cellar is spacious, with the main area for storing wine barrels separated from other storage items, and the barrels are arranged in an orderly manner according to their vintage and type.

"These are the barrels of wine that were opened for this celebration."

Lyle went to one side of the warehouse, took out his silver knife, and prepared to perform divination with his staff again.

The silver knife fell to the ground, signifying a failed divination.

It seems that because the requirements were too detailed, Lyle's sensory abilities (15) were not able to support such detailed divination.

But it doesn't matter, the key information is already right in front of us.

Lyle patted the wooden barrels in front of him.

"Bang bang..."

They're all full.

"It's full, but the contents might not necessarily be wine..." Adrie scoffed and picked up a wine glass.

"Give it a try."

Since most of the demonized dragon blood had become ineffective due to time, Lyle and Adley could only try it one drop at a time.

Of course, you can also exchange gold coins for a simple binary divination, but this requires a lot of concentration. Lyle had used the Spirit Spear twice, so he decided to skip the divination for now.

"Ptooey!!! Cough cough!!"

"This is awful! This isn't alcohol at all, it's just dishwater!"

Just then, Adele suddenly vomited all over the floor and coughed incessantly.

Without a doubt, she drank the most problematic barrel of wine.

"Found it? Let me see."

Lyle approached the barrel, and at first glance, it didn't look any different from the other barrels.

However, the liquid poured out was fishy and smelly.

"This is very likely diluted dragon blood." Lyle looked around but found no other significant features on the barrel. "Let me take a look."

The barrel had no distinguishing features, but Lyle noticed a layer of moisture that had seeped into the slabs.

This shouldn't happen in a dry cellar.

"They probably moved in within the last couple of days." Adrie glanced at the wine barrel. "Hmm, this way we can confirm the timing..."

"No... these past two days, due to the celebration, all the work of handling external transactions has fallen on... Doug Monroe of the Monroe Clan."

......

"You mean we fucking did all of this?"

"Go to hell! Watch your mouth! And you! Outsider, this is none of your business!"

When Adri told everyone about it, the Monroe family members were furious and almost came to blows.

Fortunately, Doug Monroe himself was still around and managed to keep things under control.

"Calm down, everyone!"

He dragged his shield and gun to the three men, remaining calm despite being suspected.

"Perhaps you've discovered something."

Lyle recounted the whole story, which made Doug fall into deep thought.

"I must say, your evidence does have some merit... but I don't recall buying any alcohol during this period..."

"I need to ask my warehouse manager about this."

So Doug led Adeline, Helena, and Lyle toward their warehouse in the east of the city. It was near the river and had a dock, making it a key passage for the city's external trade.

"Thomps! Damn it, where did that guy go?"

"Could he have gotten completely drunk at the celebration? I specifically told him to guard the ship properly!"

Doug called out several times, but no one responded.

"I told you, you're never a good judge of character," Adele glared at Doug. "You actually let a drunkard keep watch?"

"But that guy is my friend, we've known each other since we were kids..." Doug muttered, refusing to admit his mistake.

"It's a bit too quiet."

Lyle's words interrupted their argument, and at this point, everyone felt that something was amiss.

"Go check the warehouse!"

The group quickly moved toward the warehouse near the city. At first glance, there seemed to be nothing wrong, but Lyle keenly noticed that there was blood on the ground.

"There's an assassin!"

The four men present were no ordinary people; they all drew their weapons and rushed into the warehouse.

Driven by a burning desire to avenge his humiliation, Doug kicked open the front door, only to be met with a barrage of arrows flying towards him!

Someone has set a trap behind the door!

"Watch out!"

Lyle had anticipated this and immediately grabbed Doug by the collar and pulled him back.

"Damn it! These guys are determined to stop us!"

"Fuck him!"

Even the usually composed Doug got angry, pulled out his shield, and charged forward.

"I'll do it."

Lyle quickly eliminated the potential traps with his strong intuition and simple divination. Fortunately, these traps were all temporary and not too complicated.

"The traps are all new...which means that guy only arrived a few minutes before us. Be careful! He might still be here."

After entering the warehouse, the group lit oil lamps but found nothing.

But just then, Helena's ears twitched as if she had heard something, and she turned to look at a haystack.

She couldn't speak, but she acted faster than she thought, kicking up a wooden stool and smashing it towards a haystack.

"Ouch!"

Lyle was struck by a flash of golden light, and he was ready to take his basic stance!

"go!"

He threw the longsword in his hand, and it stuck directly into the haystack.

Is it done?

"Watch out! He's escaped!"

A dark figure crawled out of the haystack, Lyle's longsword leaving a sizable wound on his hind leg, from which blood was gushing.

In an attempt to escape, the man knocked the oil lamp off the wall, and it landed on a haystack and inside the warehouse, where it instantly burst into flames.

"Put out the fire first!"

Doug paid no attention to the thief, but when he saw the flames on the ground, he felt a chill run down his spine and quickly found a bucket.

While that was happening, the person had already climbed out of the warehouse window and disappeared.

"He can't escape."

Lyle was quite certain that his attack had caused considerable damage to his opponent, so he turned around to put out the fire first to avoid causing greater losses.