The Villain's Survival Instruction Manual-Chapter 21: Detective Crowe’s Findings
Silence followed as the group sitting in front of Alister looked slightly confused, mainly the new recruits.
"Ah! It seems the new ones are not familiar with this tournament. Well I apologize for the confusion then." He said and smiled.
"No need for that Sir, I will brief them about it after this." Lune replied politely,
"Don’t worry about it Luna. So, the Viremont Duel Tournament is a tournament hosted by the Duke of Viremont every year as a means to find knights capable of serving his house. He lets academies participate so that he can connect with other nobles to strengthen his relations with various groups."
He stopped in between to study the expressions of the trio. The earlier confusion was gone and was now replaced by understanding.
"The six of you will represent The Aurelian Imperial Academy, Lune will be your captain. The tournament is structured to be like group stage, quarter finals, semi finals and lastly final."
The group talked a bit more with the Vice-Headmaster and then left his office. The seniors went their way while the other three split up as they had different clubs to go to.
Cassian quickly finished what he needed to do, changed into more formal attire and walked out of the academy.
He wore a simple white shirt, a black jacket and a trench coat on top. A fedora was on his head, and he also wore black leather gloves which held a golden black cane.
He was going to a famous place, he didn’t want people to get the wrong idea. On his way outside the academy gate he stumbled into Professor Hawthorne.
"Good Evening Professor." Cassian said and forced himself to smile.
Professor Hawthorne nodded and then stopped walking. He looked Cassian from top to bottom as if he was trying to figure out something.
"Where are you going in such a hurry?" He asked.
"To a friend’s place, he invited me for dinner."
"That’s good, make sure you visit The Imperial Historical Audit Office. I have some work for you." Professor Hawthorne said and went inside while Cassian got on the carriage Sir Oliver had prepared for him.
Inside Martha sat there waiting for him, she wore a black dress instead of her usual maid clothes.
They were off to a gambling house, Detective Crowe had a lead on a person involved in an incident related to Cassian.
But first he needed to pick up several other pieces of information Detective Crowe had hid around the city.
It was a peculiar way of doing things, Cassian always felt he was the only one the Detective pulled this kind of thing on.
Was it because of the nature of his requests? Maybe. After all the requests were dangerous, enough for the investigation into things to not go unnoticed.
The carriage came to a stop near an abandoned church building, Cassian and Martha got out of it and walked inside. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂
The building was withering, holes were present on the roof while dust was on everything inside.
"Why an abandoned church building?" Martha asked as she kept looking for something out of the ordinary.
"Because the person probably has connections to a church and seeing as to how this was a church of the night building, I can guess which cult is involved in this all." Cassian replied as he found an envelope hidden on a shelf.
"Found it, Martha." He said as she walked towards him to see what it contained.
"Dear Contractor,
You might be wondering why I need to be this discrete? It’s because I don’t want my employees to get harmed in the crossfire that may or may not emerge due to these investigations.
The man who had past ties with the Church of the Night is called, "Little Joe" because he is a literally dwarf human.
You can find him at the local casino as he is a huge gambler. Provoke him only if you bring backup with you to the gambling house. Otherwise do not engage.
He may be small but he is a six star knight who was once a Holy Knight for the church. Soon I will be going on an expedition to the Gorge of Death to investigate what you asked me to.
This all just might be interconnected, that’s my hunch as a detective.
This is all for this part. Meet me at our usual meeting place after you’re done with the initial provocation or observation of Little Joe.
Extra piece of information, his real name is Julius. Till next time, my contractor."
Cassian read through the letter and smiled slightly, he never knew Detective Crowe would be this efficient as to investigate stuff about someone like Julius.
He then burned the letter in his hand so as to not leave any traces which could lead back to him. He had already had a weird start at the academy, he couldn’t mess up things again.
They left the building and got on the carriage again, after a boring few minutes it stopped in front of the gambling house.
Cassian and Martha exited the carriage and walked towards the entrance where a guard blocked their way.
"Entry pass?" The guard asked.
Cassian pulls out a silver coin different from the one used as currency. The silver coin with a shield, scythe and lion sigil was proof of him being a part of the Morrigan Family.
"Welcome Sir to our establishment." The guard made way and they both entered.
It wasn’t that fancy, the interior was a bit lacking. Several tables were in the room where people of all kinds of backgrounds gambled their money, some had a vicious grin on their face while others grabbed onto their heads.
Since Cassian had shown the silver coin earlier, he was taken to the upper floor. There he saw his target in a corner of the room, sitting on a sofa sipping on some wine while surrounded by a bunch of women.
What a damn gigolo!
***
[Chapter 21 - Detective Crowe’s Findings]
