The dresses of the maids behind the sofa are the same as those of the maids who went to find Shad behind Mr. Stan, which means that these three maids were all brought out by the princess from the Yodel Palace.
Mr. Stein motioned Shade to tidy up his clothes, but when Shade touched his collar, he bumped into a furry paw. He was taken aback, and then realized that there was still Little Mia standing on his shoulder.
The cat was so well-behaved just now that Xia De completely forgot that it was still there.
"Isn't it impolite to bring a cat for a commission?"
Thinking in his heart, Xia De turned his head to look over his shoulder, Mia's amber eyes are really beautiful.
"Be good."
Whispering instructions, President Stan introduced Xia De to these "distinguished guests" after finishing his collar.
Looking at Adelina Cavendish head-on, you can easily capture traces belonging to Rezia and Miss Galina from the face of the sixteen-year-old young girl. It's just that the witch's charm is really more than that of normal people, while Leiziya is more resolute and decisive, and the temperament of the princess in front of her is too different from theirs.
Agelina Cavendish is the girl who was unfortunately injured in divination, and the back of her right hand is currently being bandaged. It's just that the naked eye can't catch the blood soaked under the carpet or gauze, which means that it is actually a small wound and not serious.
Princess Adelina is wearing a blue dress, her hair is simply **** and hangs behind her. She has light makeup on her face and doesn't have much jewelry on her body. Only the waist of the skirt was dotted with some broken gems. Compared to her identity, this decoration was nothing.
She was relatively indifferent to Xia De, just nodding her head as a greeting. On the contrary, her friends were more enthusiastic about the detective with the cat on the shoulder, and someone even jokingly mentioned Miss Galina, which seemed to recognize Shad's identity.
Mr. Stein signaled Xia De to investigate at will, so Xia De first asked about what happened just now from the mouth of the maid and these noble girls.
It wasn't complicated, the girls gathered together were playing divination games at the obviously old stone table. However, instead of using the standard equipment provided by the Prophet Association, they brought their own divination supplies.
Today they chose fire divination, that is, to burn the tortoise shell with a brazier. After the tortoise shell cracked due to the heat, they tried to obtain the so-called "instructions of fate" by reading the cracks on the tortoise shell.
This is not the first time they have carried out this kind of activity, but this time the tortoise shell was "exploded" just after being heated. It was not an accident of the degree of a steam bomb explosion, but the bone fragments on the edge of the tortoise shell splashed after deflagration, and then unfortunately scratched the back of Princess Agelina Cavendish's hand.
"It sounds like an accident caused by uneven heating of the bones..."
Xia De thought about it, and then asked:
"Ladies, who suggested the 'fire divination' this time, which lady brought the tortoise shell and charcoal?"
The laughing girls gave Xia De the answer. The proposer and the person who brought the things were the princess herself.
"In addition to fire divination, we originally planned to play small rituals on Ouija boards that were said to be dug out from cemeteries and ancient books bought from second-hand bookstalls."
The enthusiastic black-haired lady introduced to Xia De that this is the second daughter of Earl Solar, and she looked at Xia De with very charming eyes. If Xia De intends to have something to do with the other party, it will probably be easy.
It's not that Xia De's appearance is so good that he can easily capture the favor of girls. This should be related to the rumors about him and Miss Galina.
"Although it has nothing to do with this accident, it's better not to try such...exciting games."
Xia De tried to persuade him, but seeing that no one paid any attention to him, he went to the stone table to check the brazier that had not been taken away.
The brazier was also made of stone. The mouth of the basin was hexagonal, with obvious collision marks. On the outer surface, there were some symbols that looked like ancient characters, but Xia De could not decipher them. There is a high probability that this is also an old thing. After touching it with his hands, Xia De judged that all the items here are ordinary goods.
He put on the gloves he carried with him, confirmed that the cat on his shoulder was squatting obediently and looking around, calculated that the time was still far away from Mia's eating time, and took out the blackened bone fragments from the stone basin with his hands. .
The bone fragment was still warm, Xia De wiped off the black ash and looked through it, then put it in front of his nose and sniffed it lightly, but found nothing unusual.
"Could it really be an accident? Chairman Stan found out that it was just an accident, and he was worried that no one would believe what he said, so he asked me to investigate?"
Thinking suspiciously, Xia De turned to look at Chairman Stan, but saw that the other party had his back turned to him, talking with two middle-aged men who were suspected of being guards of the princess outside the door.
"Didn't pay attention to observe me for a while, okay... an echo of the past!"
The thaumaturgy was activated, and the voices of the girls came to my ears. Just as Xia De thought, this room is easily closed, so the only human voices within 48 hours are the noble girls who came to have fun today.
It was just those voices that did not provide Shad any further clues. He heard the girls laughing while the tortoise shell was burning, and then heard a clear deflagration, followed by an exclamation.
"The accident happened exactly as they said. If it wasn't an accident, it could only be that someone tampered with the tortoise shell during the divination."
But Xia De is not a highly professional detective after all, he has no way to deal with the blackened tortoise shell in his hand.
I sniffed the nose of the tortoise shell again, but there was still no smell. Just as he was thinking of trying his luck with "Echo of Blood", the well-behaved cat squatting on his shoulder suddenly followed Xia De's example and stretched out his head, sniffing with his tender little nose.
It was probably imitating Xia De's movements, and because of its keen sense of smell, it choked on the choking smell of burning on the tortoise shell.
"Meow~"
Xia De couldn't help showing a smile on his face, and raised his hand to touch the cat to comfort it, but Mia pushed Xia De's hand away with her paw. Xia De's gloved hands were now covered with black ash, touching the orange cat's head directly would stain its beautiful fur.
"It's really getting smarter."
Praising Mia in a low voice, Xia De put the tortoise shell back into the stone basin.
Turning around, he wanted to go to Mr. Stein to announce the results of his investigation, but he turned his head and looked at the orange cat on his shoulder licking its paws. Xia De went back to the stone table and picked up the tortoise shell:
"Is there any special smell?"
He wanted to put the tortoise shell in front of Mia's nose again, but the cat's little paws directly pushed Shade's hand away.
"Is there any special smell? Other than the mush smell..."
Even though the cat is very smart, Shade realizes that it is still difficult for him to understand human language in the middle of speaking. After all, when Xia De was talking, the cat was still licking its paws, and didn't care about Xia De's meaning at all.
Both cats and dogs have a very keen sense of smell and can detect odors that humans cannot. A qualified detective should raise a more obedient dog as a detective partner, and Shade thinks that Mia is also qualified enough for such a task as a detective partner.
Although he failed to let Mia know what he meant, Xia De had a new inspiration.
He walked back to the sofa, stood aside and coughed:
"Ladies, I think I can give you the answer after a little test."
"Detective Hamilton, what do you want to do?"
asked the girl with the shawl-length hair, laughing. They didn't think detective work was serious business.
"That's how it is. Since His Highness brought the tortoise shells and charcoal himself, even if someone could tamper with it, it must have been tampered with here. The black powder that caused the deflagration would leave a smell on the hands. Nice, I noticed none of you were wearing gloves, which is nice."
"Detective, do you want to sniff our hands one by one?"
asked the bold girl, and actually held out her white hand to Shad, which caused a roar of laughter:
"Mr. Knight, this is really ungentlemanly."
Xia De coughed, expressing that he was very serious:
"No, my nose is not sharp enough. I want my cat to sniff."
He pointed his finger at his shoulder, and Mia immediately stretched out her paw to touch Shad's finger, but because the paw was too short to touch, she could only sulk at herself.
"Both cats and dogs have a keen sense of smell, and my cat has undergone standardized and rigorous training to perform tasks that his brethren cannot."
While talking, Xia De took off the cat on his shoulder. The right hand pinches the back of the cat's neck, and the left hand rests underneath to prevent Mia from falling due to dishonest movements.
And Mia stared at the amber eyes, called out to the human women on the sofa, struggled to find that Xia De would not let go of it, and then tried to turn her head and meow~ to express dissatisfaction with Xia De.
This appearance made the noble girls laugh happily again.
"Ladies, please come to me one by one, and then put your hands under my cat's nose. If someone's hands smell something wrong, a professionally trained cat will definitely notice."
The "professional trained" cat curled its tail and swayed its body, seeming to find pleasure in it.
"Detective Hamilton, I've only heard that dogs have a well-developed sense of smell, but I haven't heard that cats have a well-developed sense of smell."
On the single sofa on the left, the blonde girl wearing gold-rimmed glasses said. This is the eldest daughter of Sir Lewis Ludwig, the current Chancellor of the Exchequer of the Kingdom~www.mtlnovel.com~, and she looks the quietest among these aristocratic girls.
Xia De explained without panic, that is to say nonsense:
"There is a saying that cats have a good sense of smell. It's just that people don't like to train these cute little creatures because they are not very obedient. But I have professional cat training skills and let this domestic orange cat I have received professional training. Ladies, please extend your hands, as long as there is an abnormal smell that matches the tortoise shell, Mia will definitely be able to smell it."
These noble girls actually laughed again, commenting on Xia De's words noisily.
Xia De was worried that no one would respond to his call, but Princess Agelina Cavendish, who had been silent all this time, would take the initiative to say:
"Then let me go first."
She held out her hand to Shad, and the laughter stopped immediately. Shad also understood that Adelina Cavendish was the absolute leader of this small group. After all, she is Rezia's younger sister, and Princess Adelina doesn't seem to know anything like Xia De imagined.
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