novelonline Chapter 4007 The Auction and Miss Pavo
Chapter 4007 The Auction and Miss Pavo
Chapter 4007 The Auction and Miss Pavo
Although the fat woman and her lover were involved in the battle on the park's lake, it turned out that they were just used as bait. Therefore, the church pulled them out of the lake, determined that they had suffered severe memory loss and had no valuable information whatsoever, not even knowing about the subsequent battle. After a thorough examination, they were released.
The way the two spoke made those around them frown, and the viscountess's reference to the Rhodes card as a "little piece of paper" drew surprised glances from more than one person.
But they weren't embarrassed by the stares and continued talking to themselves.
"Madam, you are so kind to me. Not only did you give me the entire deck left by the Viscount, but you are also willing to continue to help me replenish my deck. I really don't know how to repay you~"
They walked away as they talked, and Xia De already understood why Wei Ge said they were a joke in the local social circle.
However, Shad did not want to say much about the fact that the deceased viscount's deck had been obtained by his wife's lover. He frowned slightly at the moment, simply because he felt a familiar power in the lady of Connaught, a power that she did not have last Friday.
"desire."
This power is extremely weak, far inferior to that of the true "Apostles of Desire." It cannot grant the target supernatural abilities; at most, it can only make them appear slightly younger.
Therefore, Mrs. Connaught likely came into contact with people or objects related to "desire" through some means, and thus became tainted by this power. Considering that the Church is unlikely to allow her to leave the area in the near future, this means that people or objects corrupted by "desire" have also appeared in Arcadia.
"There are more and more troubles. That mermaid is reaching her hand further and further away."
Shad had no intention of contacting Mrs. Connaught, who most likely didn't even know what "desire" was. In the current turbulent Arcadia City, the emergence of one or two more "Apostles of Desire" wouldn't be a big deal to Shad.
Therefore, he planned to have the girl under Viggo report Mrs. Connaught. Although the church had let them off the hook, they must still be watching them closely. Now was the perfect time to report them.
"However, does the church in Arcadia City still have enough manpower to investigate the 'Apostles of Desire'? Honestly, I was planning to go back and comfort Vigo and Miss McDonald after the auction, how come there are so many things happening here?"
Actually, relatively speaking, this is a minor matter and not very important.
"She" said gently, and Shad agreed with this view:
"Yes, thankfully it's just a minor matter. It's a good thing we didn't see Mr. Bernhardt here, otherwise things might have gotten much worse."
He sighed. There were still five minutes left before the auction officially began, and people who had been talking and looking at the items were gradually taking their seats. Shad sat down in the third row, slightly to the left, and soon a woman in a black dress sat down to his left.
Shad turned his head slightly and nodded to Miss Pavo, a greeting typical of strangers. Miss Pavo smiled back at Shad in a friendly manner. The current president of the [Truth Society] was a ninth-circle sorcerer. Although she was outstanding in other areas, her skill in illusion was clearly inferior to Shad's, and she did not recognize who was beside her.
The two did not speak. After turning his head back, Shad's expression remained unchanged, but his heart was filled with turmoil. He wanted to take back his previous thoughts. He would rather Mr. Bernhardt be sitting next to him now.
"Why is Miss Pavo in Arcadia City? Is this her personal trip, or is the [Truth Society] also here?"
Although Shad was unsure of the exact location of the [Truth Society] headquarters, he was certain it wasn't in Arcadia City, so Miss Pavo couldn't have just come out for a walk out of boredom at home.
Things are getting more interesting, aren't they?
She asked Xia De with a smile, but Xia De was unwilling to answer the question:
“I feel like I’m the one who needs to be comforted right now, not Vige.”
Regardless, the auction proceeded as scheduled. Shad only had his eye on two items, with the [Ancient Alchemy - Soul Solvent] scheduled to be the fourth item to be presented, so he remained focused from the start.
This wasn't a professional auction, so people just needed to raise their hands and state their bids. Shad was confident he had brought enough money, but he also had a price in mind; if the price exceeded his target, he would withdraw from the bidding. Even if he were rich, he wouldn't spend money recklessly.
The unexpected event occurred five minutes after the auction began, but the source of the unexpectedness was neither Miss Paavo next to Shad nor Mrs. Connaught and her young lover sitting in the last row.
The introduction of the first item had just finished, and the guests in the audience were still raising their hands to bid. Suddenly, the tightly closed door was pushed open, and two fierce-looking men with guns rushed in and locked the door again.
Before anyone could react, the taller man shouted:
"Don't move! We just want the stuff, we don't want to hurt anyone! Since Baron Ramsay framed us, saying we stole so many of his precious collections, then we must take them with us! Nobody move! Anyone who moves will be killed!"
Because this was a "stolen goods auction," and the invitees were all prominent local figures, and the location was in the center of the Upper East Side, the auction only had two security guards at the entrance, and there were no bodyguards inside. Obviously, the two security guards at the entrance were not present at this moment.
A helpless sigh escaped Xia De's lips, while "she" continued to smile gently. One of the two thieves then threatened the auctioneer to leave the stage so he could gather the easily portable, high-value items.
Another member of the thieves was responsible for holding a gun to intimidate everyone and loudly proclaiming Baron Ramsay's "plot".
These two men were the true protagonists of the Baron's theft case, the two notorious thieves who supposedly stole all of Baron Ramsay's collection. The Baron had offered a high reward in the newspapers for information leading to their arrest, and the local police were also investigating them. No one expected them to end up here.
The truth they revealed left the auction guests with rather interesting expressions. To avoid trouble with the insurance company, the truth of the matter was certainly known only to a select few; Shad was one of those few, while most of the attendees had no idea the truth was like this.
Shad no longer wanted to think about anything related to the baron. All the information had been revealed by the two thieves, and even if they were subdued immediately, the auction could not continue.
He sighed inwardly at the bad luck that afternoon and worried that his plan to find Mr. Copps tonight might not go smoothly either. Meanwhile, the two thieves quickly packed the small items, including the manuscript and the Rhodes card, into their satchels. They then opened the window, tied a rope to the steam pipe on the outside wall, and used the rope to descend from the second floor to the ground floor.
After the thieves left, none of the people who attended the auction spoke to each other. Instead, they all left through the door as if they had never been there that afternoon.
But Shad could already imagine that hours later, the “big news” about Baron Ramsay would spread throughout Arcadia, and perhaps someone would adapt it into a story, which would then become a popular stage play decades later.
"Dorothy would love this story; it's full of twists and turns and drama."
Having also left the club, Shad, after transforming into a silver cat in the alley, followed behind Miss Pavo as she quickly departed.
Miss Pavo has always been mysterious and quite cunning, but even so, she is only a ninth-ringed being. She had prepared in advance for their previous meetings, but this time, without preparation, she failed to realize she was being followed by a cat whose true form was a cat in the complex urban environment.
At first, Shad just wanted to know where she was going, but he soon realized that Miss Paavo was chasing the two thieves from earlier.
The fleeing thieves did not choose to leave on foot; instead, they parked a carriage belonging to an outlying city newspaper office in a nearby alley. After boarding the carriage, one of them drove it, and they sped down the main road towards the foot of the mountain.
So Miss Paavo followed the carriage, and Shadcat followed Miss Paavo; the three groups of people arrived at the outer city. The carriage was indeed the carriage of the Candleburg Daily News. After the two thieves drove the carriage into the newspaper office's backyard in the outer city, they left together, boarded a rental carriage, and sped off towards the outskirts of the city.
"Are we heading to Gray Rock Pass?"
As Xia De pondered this, the carriage stopped in the desolate area between the outer city and Grayrock Pass. The driver looked puzzled, but still let them off after collecting the fare.
The thieves then left the main road connecting the outer city to Grayrock Pass, and after walking along a side path for less than five minutes, entered an abandoned farm. The desolate area between Arcadia's outer city and Grayrock Pass has a unique geology; although there are large forests on the nearby rolling hills, for some reason, it is not suitable for growing crops.
Furthermore, this area is a low-lying area, and once the river overflows its banks, it will most likely be submerged. Therefore, apart from a few farmlands, this abandoned area is basically empty. As for the abandoned farms, they were probably left over from the flooding of the Thernnir River more than ten years ago.
Following Miss Pavo outside the city without being discovered is much more difficult than doing so in the city, which is why Shadcat followed her for a long distance.
This resulted in a fight breaking out inside the abandoned manor when he arrived at its outskirts. However, it wasn't Miss Pavo disciplining two thieves; rather, it was a battle between ring sorcerers.
P.S.: The illustration in this chapter is from "The Truth Society: Miss Paavo".