After exchanging greetings with Edwina and the others and roughly explaining the situation, Violet and Xiao Guang headed straight to Eileen’s house.
Although both the Holy Knight and Mr. South Blade expressed a desire to act together, considering that the target would become larger with more people, and the situation was still unclear, Violet did not agree.
However, she didn’t let them idle either. As a precaution, Miss Priestess had Walter take a few demons to secretly lurk near Lan’s house. Once she returned or if any suspicious individuals approached, the former would continue to observe, and if it was the latter case, they would immediately take action and capture them.
As for Edwina, Leila, Rene, and including Theresa, although it was difficult for them to move around the city freely like the demons due to the warrant, it was not the time to be concerned about such minor issues now.
Miss Priestess directly gave each of them a 【Cognitive Obstruction Mask】 and instructed the girls to wear them when they went out to gather information.
After all, this thing was essentially like a disguise card. Although Violet wasn’t a hoarder, she had about a dozen spares in her backpack, and they weren’t disposable items. It wasn’t a big deal to lend them to trusted friends.
The four girls were divided into two groups. Leila and Rene went to the vicinity of the Lord’s Mansion to see if she could find any clues, while Edwina took Theresa to the Internal Security Bureau in Demon Suppression City to try to gather information. After all, Lan was a big shot in the city. As long as she was there, she would surely be able to hear some rumors easily.
After all arrangements were made, Violet and Xiao Guang quickly proceeded along the previous route and arrived at the depths of the slums, in front of the small house where Mr. Side-Swept Bangs had once taken them to find Eileen.
Standing outside the door, Violet was about to try knocking a few times when suddenly she raised her eyebrows and pushed the door directly.
“Creak~”
The somewhat old wooden door floated open lightly, revealing the interior of the room.
“Did someone get here ahead of us...”
“Master, the door latch has been cut off. It looks like someone used a sword or similar weapon to cut it off from the door crack.”
Xiao Guang calmly made a judgment, looking at the two halves of the wooden latch lying on the ground.
Sure enough, something had happened.
Pondering, Violet looked around.
There was no one in the room, and there were no signs of being ransacked or looted. The wooden bed, which had been moved during the day to access the tunnel, was still sitting in the corner. However, near the entrance to the tunnel, there were faint traces of new footprints in the dust, which had not been there when they entered.
It seemed that someone had broken in, then entered the underground passage connected to Eileen’s house.
After a moment of contemplation, Miss Priestess didn’t immediately follow the path in front of her. Instead, she turned around and began searching the simple and monotonous wooden house.
“Master? What are you doing?”
“Well... of course, I’m doing something meaningful.”
While searching through the porcelain bowls on the cupboard, Violet turned slightly and smiled at Xiao Guang, who looked puzzled.
“Xiao Guang, your hearing is more sharp than mine. When we came here during the day, didn’t you notice anything suspicious?”
“Uh, does that mean...?”
The golden-haired girl showed a glimpse of intelligence.
Well, it seems Xiao Guang’s autonomous thinking ability still needs some development...
“It’s a simple logic.”
Violet turned around and pointed to the partition leading to the underground market, which had been concealed by the wooden bed.
“Just think about it. When Mr. Side-Swept Bangs brought us here to find Eileen during the day, he stood outside and knocked on the door for several minutes before anyone inside responded. What was Eileen doing during that long time? Did you hear any sounds then?”
“The sound... Was it like lifting the partition and the sound of hurried footsteps? I did hear something. The human named Eileen must have heard the knocking at the door at that time. She ran out from the room below through the tunnel, so it took her some time to respond. Later, didn’t she bring us to meet her?”
“Wrong!”
The black-haired girl immediately interrupted Xiao Guang’s speculation, crossing her hands as if she had already anticipated what she was going to say.
“Xiao Guang, you need to understand, Eileen is just a regular person. If she was in that stone room in the black market at the time, there’s no way she could have heard Mr. Side-Swept Bangs knocking on the door from that far away, let alone come up to open it.”
Here, Violet added with a strange expression.
“And do you remember? That tunnel, even at a regular person’s walking speed, only takes half a minute to walk through. The timing just doesn’t add up.”
“Furthermore, when we entered the room during the day, the bed was pressed firmly against the entrance. Eileen alone would have had a very hard time moving that bed, and Mr. Side-Swept Bangs even helped her move it. If she had come out from below and moved the bed back into position, there’s no way we wouldn’t have heard the sound.”
“So, did you hear the sound of the bed moving at that time?”
Xiao Guang was silent, only able to shake her head honestly.
“No.”
“Right, I didn’t hear it either.”
Violet and Xiao Guang walked to the closed trapdoor. Violet crouched down, using her finger to hook the pull ring on top, speaking with her head lowered.
“And even if all of this is just speculation, there’s still a more obvious contradiction. I don’t know if you noticed it.”
“...Master, you’d better just say it directly.”
Seeing her pet’s helpless expression, Violet smiled and didn’t beat around the bush. She lightly slid her finger on the ground, leaving behind a clear trace.
“This is the biggest issue.”
“This is... Oh! You mean the dust?!”
“Yes, the dust.”
The black-haired girl, with hands untouched by dirt, stood up.
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“Remember, this morning after moving the bed board, the dust on the surface of this trapdoor was very uniform. This not only made me not notice the hidden ring at first, but also indicated a very important issue.”
“Eileen, if she had come out from below, how could the dust on the floor here be distributed so evenly?”
“So I thought at the time, there’s probably another hidden chamber underneath this room.”
“When Mr. Side-Swept Bangs knocked on the door, Eileen was probably doing something in that secret chamber. She might have heard it but didn’t have time to be distracted, which explains everything that followed.”
Violet lightly poked the face of the dragon lady, who seemed to understand but not fully, and her silver-blue eyes emitted an inexplicable light.
“And Eileen didn’t tell us about this, including Mr. Side-Swept Bangs, who seemed close to her.”
“Are you saying that woman is suspicious?”
“Suspicious for sure, but we won’t know the specifics until we see what’s hidden in that secret chamber.”
Actually, Violet had been wary of Eileen after sensing her hiding something from them. She deliberately left Mr. Side-Swept Bangs alone with her to give them enough space to see what the girl was up to.
However, since Eileen was just a regular person, Violet didn’t pay too much attention. With unexpected events happening later on, she forgot about this matter until now, prompting her to come here immediately upon remembering.
With Mr. Side-Swept Bangs and Eileen present before, and due to the rushed time, Violet couldn’t act too obviously. But this time, as soon as she arrived, she scanned the surrounding area with SP directly.
Although the investigation below the ground was relatively poor, it was enough for Violet to confirm that beneath this wooden house, apart from the tunnel leading to the black market, there was indeed another space.
The mechanism to open the secret chamber should be nearby.