Chapter 302

Chapter 274: Seeking the Breath

“I found it… I just asked Ruf, and he said Maria’s private life is a bit chaotic, probably with more than one financier. I was worried you wouldn’t be able to find the letters you wanted right away.”

“I have my ways. Now that the most crucial thing has been found, I need you to step in, Miss Adele,” Ed continued to say to Adele. Hearing Ed’s words, Adele glanced at him and responded.

“Step in? Then, Detective, what do you think I can help you with right now?”

Listening to Adele, Ed looked at her earnestly and said, “Miss Adele, you are an Extraordinary Being of the ‘Cup,’ and a high-ranking one at that.”

Dorothy prompted Adele to ask directly; the dancing performer… red… desire… and enmity with the Wolf bl**d Association… with all these key points combined, Adele’s path as an Extraordinary Being was quite clear—she was an Extraordinary Being of the ‘Cup’ path, and her high status was evident from the level of care she received from the Wolf bl**d Association.

“Yes, isn’t it obvious?” Adele replied naturally, and upon receiving confirmation from her, Ed continued, “Since Miss Adele is an Extraordinary Being of the ‘Cup,’ you must know some ways to enhance your sense of smell. After all, the sensory expression of the ‘Cup’ includes smell, so I would like to ask you to use the shared aura from these letters to help identify the culprit.”

Dorothy guided Ed in saying this; he learned this tactic from Bill. Back when Bill was at the Igewent Charity Gala, he almost identified Ed using the ‘Cup’s sense of smell. Now, Adele was clearly a higher-ranking member of the ‘Cup’ society, so she was certainly capable of the same.

Although the letters passed through multiple hands during mailing and had multiple people’s scents, the letters themselves contained multiple copies. While each letter was handled by different postal workers, the sender and the recipient were the same. Therefore, as long as they could identify the shared scent on the letters and eliminate Maria and Ruf’s scents, the remaining scent would belong to the sender.

If one wondered why the sender, being an Extraordinary Being, did not use “Stone Wisdom Powder” to eliminate their scent when sending the letter, it was because there were multiple Extraordinary Beings in the theater. If a letter treated with “Stone Wisdom Powder” ended up in the hands of an Extraordinary Being working under Adele before reaching Maria, it could easily raise suspicions.

For example, when Dorothy used Stone Wisdom Powder to remove the scent from a decorative piece with a landmark sigil before sending it to Anna for tracking, the piece itself was devoid of scent and was carried on Anna. Under the cover of Anna’s own scent, Bill wouldn’t detect any issues with the decorative piece; however, if that scentless decorative piece ended up in Bill’s hands alone, he would immediately recognize the problem because the lack of scent was the biggest anomaly.

If the sender used Stone Wisdom Powder to eliminate the scent from the letter before sending it, then when it reached Ruf, he, as an Extraordinary Being, would instantly detect the issue, halting their efforts altogether.

Therefore, Dorothy was confident that the letter carried the scent of the sender, and once that scent was identified, it would lead to clues about the culprit.

Listening to Ed, Adele smiled slightly and then said, “It seems your secret knowledge is quite extensive, Detective. Yes, as a ‘Cup,’ I indeed possess a deep ability to discern scents. The method you mentioned to identify the culprit is indeed feasible, but… if I were to search for it myself, it would be too conspicuous, so I think it’s better if you take care of this matter.”

Saying this, Adele stood up from her position and moved to a side of the dim room. From a delicate box, she took out a few items. After returning to the sofa and sitting down, she handed Ed three sigils and three small pieces of jerky.

“These scent-seeking sigils, when consumed by the ‘Cup,’ can grant you a stronger sense of smell for a short period than that of an ordinary taster, surpassing regular discerning sigils. Using them, you can identify the scent on this letter and find the source of the scent within this theater.

“This item is quite precious; I don’t have many of them, but I’ll give you all three I have. These pieces of jerky are all ‘Cup’ storage items, providing the spirituality you need to activate the sigils.”

Listening to Adele, Dorothy prompted Ed to curiously take the sigils and jerky. After examining the jerky in his hand, Ed asked, “What kind of meat is this? It wouldn’t be human flesh, would it? If it’s human flesh, then I’ll pass.”

“Wow, it turns out the Extraordinary Detective has quite a high moral standard; it’s truly rare, isn’t it? Truly befitting of a just detective!” Adele said with interest as she watched Ed’s response, feeling more intrigued by the man before her.

“Don’t worry; it’s not human flesh; it’s beef. Although human flesh is indeed the best choice for ‘Cup’ storage items and has always been favored by bl**d-eating factions, not all ‘Cup’ storage items need to be human flesh.

“Some ‘Cup’ societies, while accumulating spirituality from the flesh of living beings, mainly consume the meat of livestock. While the spirituality in animal flesh is far less than in humans and difficult to obtain, with the right methods, it can still be harvested from animal flesh. These jerky storage items are made by them; you can try it; it tastes pretty good.”

Adele explained slowly, and as Ed listened to her explanation, he examined the jerky in his hand. After looking it over, he couldn’t really determine if it was human flesh, so he decided to keep it for now.

‘Whatever, I’ll just keep it; after all, I can use my own ‘Cup’ to activate the sigils.’

Dorothy thought this and had Ed put away the sigils and storage items. She then asked Ed to inquire further with Adele.

“Thank you for your support, Miss Adele. Now I can finally track down the culprit, but to narrow down the search area, I have one more question. Miss Adele, what is the maximum range at which you can passively sense murderous intent?”

“Centered on me, within a radius of 137 meters. Within this range, I can sense any desire aimed at me,” Adele answered directly, and hearing this, Dorothy let Ed nod.

Next, Dorothy closed her eyes, delving into the vast memories in her mind, recalling the theater’s floor plan seen earlier in the management office. Then, as if using a design software, she drew in her mind, using Adele’s activity zone on stage as the baseline, drawing a large circle with a radius of 137 meters according to the scale provided on the map.

This large circle encompassed many areas of the theater, even the vast majority of the audience seats. This meant that the culprit would not be within this range; otherwise, their murderous intent would be sensed by Adele.

Adele’s sensing circle quickly helped Dorothy eliminate a large portion of the search area. Now, he only needed to look for the scent of the culprit in a small remaining fringe area.

And searching through these few fringe areas wouldn’t take long.

“Thank you for your cooperation, Miss Adele. I think… this search is nearing its end. Please await good news…”

Saying this, Ed prepared to leave, but just as he was about to exit, Adele called out to him with a serious expression and said to his back, “Detective, if you truly find the wolf cub hidden in this theater, don’t act rashly. Remember to notify me; those guys are very dangerous.”

Hearing Adele’s words, Ed paused slightly, then turned around, smiling as he said to Adele, “Can I interpret this as… you’re worried about me, Miss Adele?”

“…I just want to personally take care of the person who dared to stir trouble during my performance and k*ll Maria. Don’t misunderstand. However, if an excellent detective like you were to d*e because of rash actions, I would indeed feel unfortunate.”

Adele said to Ed quite seriously, and Ed smiled, bowed to Adele, and then turned to leave the room.

Now, it was time to root out the culprit.