Lucia lowered her head in thought and quickly figured out what to do next. She looked up at Wendy beside her.
“Wait for me…”
With that, Lucia left the room.
After a while, she quickly returned, holding a bag in her hand. She didn’t tell Wendy what it was for. Pushing open the door, she walked straight into the small room.
The door closed, and then a rustling sound came from inside. Just as Wendy was wondering, the door was pushed open.
The one who went in was a black-haired maid, but the one who came out was a brown-haired girl. Lucia’s makeup skills were quite good; she had applied a very plain and ordinary look to her face, standing there like a village girl entering the city.
Wendy looked her up and down, but instead of asking what Lucia was doing, she asked a strange question.
“Where did you get those clothes?”
“…”
Lucia was stunned. She had thought Wendy would ask why she was disguising herself. She had already thought of how to answer, but then realized Wendy hadn’t asked that. The words she had prepared could only be swallowed back.
The two were silent for a moment. Lucia was the first to break the quiet atmosphere in the room. She cleared her throat and said, “Ahem, I’m going out. But Wendy, don’t follow me. You’re too conspicuous—you’ll get in the way of my business.”
“But…”
“Enough, I’m in charge!”
“…”
Wendy thought of what Enya had said to her when they left—that she was to ensure Lucia’s safety. If she didn’t follow, accidents could easily happen.
However, Lucia had her own ideas and considerations. Before Wendy could argue, she cut off her subsequent retort.
“Wendy, I’m leaving now. I should be back soon. Wait for me here. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”
Lucia smiled at Wendy, then walked toward the door.
Wendy silently watched her back. As the room door closed once more, Wendy couldn’t help but let out a long sigh.
‘I shouldn’t slack off now, should I? If something really happens to Lucia, Mistress will definitely get serious. So I’d better secretly follow Lucia.’
Wendy muttered to herself.
After figuring it out, she pushed open the window and climbed out, jumping onto the rooftop.
After applying various buffs to herself, she began leaping across the rooftops.
Lucia took some time to arrive at a civilian settlement, a place usually given to factory workers to live.
Compared to the bustling commercial street scenes, this place looked depressed and dreary.
A stifling atmosphere permeated the air.
Lucia covered her nose, enduring the strange smell, and walked to the house she was looking for.
It was a small apartment, five stories tall. She didn’t know how many people lived there, but at the moment it was very quiet.
She stood at the apartment entrance, looking up at the small windows for a while, but was startled by a sudden voice.
“Little girl, where are you from? Are you looking to rent a room? Coincidentally, I have a room that just became vacant.”
Lucia’s heart gave a violent jump.
She barely suppressed the urge to leap away, and stiffly turned her head to look at the speaker beside her. It was a fierce-looking old granny.
“Hello…”
“Heh, hello? What a polite girl. Are you from out of town?”
The old granny looked Lucia up and down, then grinned, continuing with the previous question.
“Little girl, are you married?”
“Married.”
Lucia answered promptly.
Upon hearing Lucia say she was married, the old granny immediately lost interest, and her previously raised eyebrows drooped.
“Here to rent a place? Why are you alone, a woman? Where’s your man?”
“I’m actually looking for someone…”
Lucia was a bit embarrassed.
Although she could lie about being married without changing her expression, she couldn’t handle the old granny seeming to take it seriously.
She had to shift to another topic.
“Looking for someone?!”
Upon hearing these words, the old granny immediately took a step or two back.
“Who are you looking for?”
“Do you know Beck?”
Lucia noticed a hint of abnormality in the old woman’s expression.
The old granny looked Lucia up and down again and asked curiously, “What is your relationship with Beck?”
“He’s my father’s brother. I came here to find a job, and by chance my uncle is here. Father told me to find him first. If the address is correct, Beck lives in this apartment. Old granny, do you know him?”
“Uncle…”
The old woman had a strange expression, staring at Lucia’s face again and again.
Although Lucia had disguised herself and deliberately dressed plainly, her full features clearly showed she wasn’t a girl raised in a poor family.
The way she spoke also gave her away.
“Not alike. Not alike at all.”
Lucia’s eyes darkened slightly.
“What do you know?”
“Your uncle? He’s dead. I heard he accidentally fell to his death in the factory. They even carried his body over to make a scene.”
The old woman clicked her tongue as she turned and walked into the apartment. Lucia hurried to follow.
The old woman turned around and looked at Lucia who had followed her in.
She frowned.
If Lucia weren’t a young girl and polite, she would have already chased her away with an angry face.
“You’re not renting?”
Lucia lowered her head and reached into her skirt pocket. She took out a small pouch and from it produced a golden coin. As soon as this item appeared, the old woman’s murky eyes widened, her gaze locked onto it.
The coin flew up as the fair little hand tossed it lightly.
The old woman hurriedly reached out to catch it, but she was old after all, and the coin hit her nose bridge and fell to the ground.
Her two empty hands waved about as she bent down to pick up the fallen coin.
But just as she was about to grab it, the girl’s delicate, fair little hand picked it up.
The old woman looked up—wasn’t that hand Lucia’s?
Lucia held the coin and said, “Is there something you want to tell me?”
“Hahaha, miss, please come inside. This old woman’s eyes are almost blind. Please don’t mind, miss, and consider my previous words as nothing but farts.”
The fierce face of the old woman was now covered in a fawning smile. The change was remarkably fast, even astonishing.
Lucia asked about Beck. The old woman told everything she knew in detail.
After listening, Lucia frowned deeply.
“You’re saying that yesterday, a man brought a woman and three children here, telling you they were Beck’s wife and children?”
“Yes, yes.”
The old woman nodded repeatedly.
Lucia handed over the gold coin and then turned and walked out the door.
According to the old woman, Beck was a drunkard and a gambler; no woman would be willing to marry him, let alone have three children. Even a prostitute would despise him.
The key point was that there was a man—a tall, imposing man with an extraordinary demeanor—who brought the woman here, told the old woman they were Beck’s wife and children, and gave the old woman a considerable hush money.
But they seemed to have underestimated the old woman’s appetite. Hush money could be had, but so could speaking fees—they didn’t interfere with each other.
Lucia stood on the street, looking at the empty avenue.
Occasionally some women passed by, all looking tired and weary. This made Lucia seem a bit out of place on this street.
She roughly understood what was going on…
Someone had used the mother and children, and also used Beck’s death… Perhaps his death was caused by them? Gambling, alcohol, sex… The Tea Rose Chamber?
Lucia was not surprised by this, because ever since the Tea Rose Chamber rose to power three years ago, they had been eyeing the Lily of the Valley Chamber of Commerce covetously, appearing determined to swallow it up.
They had been wrestling in secret for a long time, and all sorts of plots and schemes they employed had been resolved with no small amount of danger.
The Tea Rose Chamber’s main income came from hotels and casinos.
Many workers, addicted to gambling, lost all their money, then were caught stealing from the factory and fired.
Under their coercion, Beck ultimately chose to commit suicide in the factory. Then they arranged for people to stir up trouble, causing the factory to shut down.
Lucia started to walk, preparing to go back.
Suddenly, she noticed something off about the shadow on the ground.
Someone was standing on the rooftop.
Lucia was just about to look up, but before she knew it, that figure had already jumped down.
It was a person dressed in coarse cloth, face covered.
From the build, it was a man. He held a jet-black, sharp dagger in his hand.
Before Lucia could react, the assassin was already in front of her, thrusting the dagger at her neck.
Lucia felt a blur, and then the figure was right in front of her. A bone-chilling coldness touched her neck. Her heart suddenly contracted at that moment.
Crack!
“Huh?”
A shattering sound came. Lucia’s eyes widened as she watched the jet-black dagger be deflected by something invisible, veering away from its original path toward her neck.
However, it still cut Lucia’s left shoulder, drawing a bright red line of blood in the air.
Then, Lucia saw a figure flicker in front of her, as if dodging something.
When she got a clear look, she realized it was an emerald arrow.
The arrow pierced the brick-paved ground. From the ground, thick brown vines rapidly grew, weaving into a cage that covered Lucia.
After that, the brown vines instantly hardened and turned black, now as hard as steel!
Wendy continued to nock an arrow and shoot. One of the arrows grazed the assassin.
Just as she was about to continue pursuing, the assassin used some method and disappeared into the shadows.
After the locked-on aura disappeared, Wendy did not let down her guard but instead hid her own aura as well.
After a while, when she was sure the assassin wasn’t coming back, Wendy jumped down from the five-story rooftop and landed beside the cage that held Lucia.
As she reached out to touch the vine prison, it instantly dried up and crumbled into ashes.
Lucia, kneeling on the ground, wiped her reddened eyes with her sleeve—some ash had blown into her eyes.
Wendy walked over to her and looked at the wound that was still bleeding.
She directly pressed her hand over it, which startled Lucia. Lucia was about to struggle.
“Don’t move. I’ll heal you.”
“…Okay.”
Lucia looked at Wendy in front of her.
Wendy had always been very gentle, so much so that Lucia had forgotten that she was the maid by Enya’s side, a Forest Elf from the Northern Lands, and not as fragile as a human girl like herself.
A faint glow appeared on Wendy’s hand. Lucia felt the burning pain at the spot where Wendy’s hand was turn into an itch.
When Wendy removed her hand, besides the torn clothes, there was no longer any visible wound.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome!”
Wendy winked at Lucia. Lucia smiled.
She was about to tell what she had learned, but noticed many eyes watching from not far away.
She grabbed Wendy’s hand and quickly left the scene.
As she walked, she said, “Let’s leave here first. We’ll talk when we get back to the Chamber of Commerce building.”