177 An Investigation Effor

"By the way, Val, now that I'm completely calm, I can see how strange my reaction was to the 'nothingness' image in my divination..." he paused, and then rested his chin on his right hand that was supported by his left one, "It was a bit of a 'strong' reaction I must say, to cause me so much panic like that."

Graham was walking while his brain was wandering, while still paying attention to where he was going from time to time.

"Is there some kind of supernatural power in the revelation that will make anything learning about it lose control of themselves?" he muttered quietly.

There were many people around him and most of them ignored him despite his talking to himself very seriously. It was probably a normal sight on Tuinstraat since that was where the detective lived.

"People are wearing even thicker clothing now, Val. I guess it's getting colder for them. As for me, I'm still warm. It's like I'm permanently wearing the ring that caused Fabien Arnaud to be targeted," he smiled in amusement, "Speaking of which, that ring was made from a Contractbound's remains, right? So that means we can turn one of the remains we have into enhanced equipment. Maybe we should go out of town to find Cadhla... or make Luuk a Transmuter."

He rubbed his stubbled chin gently and thought about all the possible outcomes. He still had Ghastly's Contractbound remains inside his pocket, along with the scrolls that she had left behind. He hadn't gone home; that was why he was carrying all of his battle loots in his person.

"That woman had abilities related to being outnumbered? and cheating? I wonder what effect the equipment will have if we turn her remains into one. It would be useful to have the strength while outnumbered one," he wondered.

Graham turned right at the intersection. If he went straight, he would arrive at the entrance to Erbarmelijk Bazaar, but it wasn't his destination today. He kept going south until he saw the wide bridge with the slum area underneath.

In the slum, there was a mysterious old woman called Old Benthe who seemed to have extensive knowledge about a lot of things. She was also suspected to be a strong Contractbound since Valentine's Reveal couldn't give him any information about her besides her real name. If he couldn't find any clue, he would come and visit her, although she always charged money for the information she gave.

"Maybe we should also ask the mafia if we can't find anything. We should be on good terms with them, right, Val?" he muttered guardedly as he walked past the Favaran restaurant called 'La Padella'.

Although Mastro Gianni, the mafia boss, had been friendly towards him earlier, he still couldn't let his guard down since he knew the mafia never worked for free.

After passing several shady restaurants and karaoke bars that only had a handful of customers, Graham arrived at the entrance of the small alley where Paim's antique store used to be. He walked into the narrow alley between two buildings and finally reached his destination.

The empty plot of land.

"Val, this is where Paim's antique store should have been. It's strange that it's just an empty plot now. There isn't even any 'for sale' sign, which means it's owned by someone. Maybe if we can find out who the owner is, we can get a clue," he pondered.

In front of him, surrounded by the walls of the buildings around it, the flat empty plot of land looked out of place. Besides the soil covering it, there was nothing out of the ordinary except for the fact that it was the only buildingless space around the area.

"If we were a normal person, we would have to ask around to find out the owner of this place. But I'm a Fire Divinator, Val. Convenient, isn't it?" he said proudly. There was a smug smile on his face.

Graham took out his lighter and since there was nobody around him, he didn't need to cover up. He lit a fire and then manipulated it.

"I ask that you float!"

The tiny flame rose in the air, leaving the lighter behind. It now consumed Graham's stamina to burn instead of the lighter fluid.

Concentrating on the tiny floating flame, Graham asked his first question.

'Who is the owner of this plot of land?'

The flame burned brighter as an image began to gradually form. It showed an image of an official-looking document that appeared to be the land certificate for the place. It was registered under the name that he was already familiar with! The shock broke his concentration and the image disappeared abruptly.

"Val, did you see that? This plot of land belongs to Ruben Arnaud!" he exclaimed, "This is going a full circle..."

Graham took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

"So this land belongs to Ruben, and then Paim 'set up' her antique store here. That cannot be a mere coincidence, since it was because of his commission that we met her..."

"Let's get over the case one more time, Val. Ruben came to see us because his son was in trouble. We then found the Fire Divinator ring inside Fabien's room that led us to Emiel the Jeweler, who then pointed us towards the 'antique store' on Oosteindestraat. That's how we met Paim and she told us about the fire scrying ritual, using the ring, to find Fabien," he paused and then rested his chin on his hand.

"We found Fabien but were attacked by two mysterious men, one of whom was a Contractbound-- a Slumberer, to be precise. We've never seen those two men since, by the way, Val. Now, by sheer luck, we managed to survive their attack. Or was it Luck, Val? Paim seemed to know about you. Do you think it's related?" he began rubbing his chin gently while his eyes were scanning the empty plot of land carefully.

"Anyway, after we finished the commission, I became a Contractbound with her help, and right after that, she disappeared. Now, do you think everything was set up by her to turn us into one, Val? The fact that we saw her in our dreamworld about our past makes me consider that possibility even more,"

"But what is her goal? Does she just want to create a lot of Contractbounds? But I don't think it's that simple,"

"We'll just visit Ruben for now. Maybe he can tell us something new," he decided, finally, "But before that, while we're still in the area, let's visit Old Benthe again. She might also know something about this antique store."

Graham put out the tiny floating flame using Order and then left the narrow alley, returning back to the big street of Oosteinde. He quickly headed towards the fork and headed north until he saw the unnamed bridge again. This time, instead of crossing it, he turned right to a small path leading down to the area below the bridge.

"You little shit come back here!" shouted a woman at a boy running away mischievously from her.

Graham was greeted by the busy afternoon slum once he made his way all the way down the paved path. The sounds of the water flowing in the river and the bustling of human activities filled the air, giving off a completely different vibe from the quiet Oosteindestraat. People there couldn't afford to stay idle, especially since winter was on the horizon.

The houses in the slum were mostly made of scrap metal put together and only a portion was made of actual brick walls. When winter came, people would usually put layers of straws or other insulation materials to cover the small gaps in the wall, and right now a lot of them were busy preparing for winter. Luckily for them, winter in Sloten wasn't known to be the coldest in the Republic. The city far up north, Emden, was the one infamous for its freezing winters.

Graham walked past the people who were looking at him with curious eyes. In a community like that, it was normal for everyone to know everyone else, so a stranger like Graham would be easily noticeable. He headed straight to the house made of scrap irons put together that he recognized to be the enigmatic woman's abode. The windows that were formed by cutting a square shape in the iron, was covered only by cloths that were tied to the sides, giving a clear view of the inside of the 'house'.

Knock! Knock!

"Good afternoon!" he shouted from outside while knocking on the part that looked to be the door.

Through the 'open' windows, he could see that there was no one at home currently. However, it was the same last time; there hadn't been anyone but the woman suddenly appeared from somewhere. It made him suspect the existence of a hidden basement or the woman just had a teleportation ability.

"Hello?!" he shouted again.

People around didn't seem to mind him shouting. It was probably because people there shouted a lot, or Old Benthe's visitors always did it, so they were used to it. Graham thought it was both reasons why people just shrugged his shouting off.

"Yes?" replied a voice coming from somewhere inside.

Graham then felt a presence from behind the door and he stepped back. A woman who looked to be in her sixties was standing in the doorway wearing a thick, dirty wool dress and a red headscarf. She looked at Graham and then her expression looked as though it was saying 'oh it's you'.

"Where did you come from? I didn't see you in the house?" asked Graham curiously.

"*Chuckle* I was somewhere inside. Sometimes I'll be sitting on the chair so people can see me from outside, sometimes I'm somewhere else doing something. But I'm always at home," she explained vaguely with a peal of mild laughter, "Consider that information a treat from me for a returning customer," she added.

Graham raised his right eyebrow. He hadn't expected she would count even that kind of question. He had to ask carefully in order to save his wallet.

"Do you know anything about the antique store on Oosteindestraat? It has disappeared now," asked Graham, and then braced himself to hear the amount of money he had to pay.

"Two stuivers," replied the old woman shortly with a wide smile.

After letting out a long exhale, he reached out into his pocket to grab his wallet, from which he took out two one-stuiver bills. He then handed the money to the old woman, who received it very happily.

"To be honest, young man, I don't know, hahaha," she finally answered after putting the money somewhere under her dress. Her laughter sounded innocent although Graham could hear the mischief in it.

"..."

Graham couldn't say anything. He felt cheated.

"But for five stuivers, I'll tell you why," she added, seizing the chance before her customer decided to leave because of dejection.

"Four stuivers!" replied Graham firmly.

"No, dear. Five stuivers and that's final," replied Old Benthe, standing her ground.

Reluctantly, Graham took out some more money from his wallet and gave it to the old woman. After stuffing the money somewhere, she began speaking.

"The reason I don't know about the store is that it was protected by something. My usual method for gathering information, don't ask, wouldn't work. That's why, young man," she explained with a lovely voice that still sounded vigorous. If Graham wasn't looking at her, he would probably forget that he was talking to an old woman.

"What do you mean?" he asked curiously, and then readied his wallet.

Seeing him touch his wallet like that, she smiled in delight.

"This one is free, hehe. I mean exactly what I said, young man. Whoever was running the store was very powerful. That's also the reason why I steered clear from that area, y'know?" she explained.

"So, Val, in the end, we learned nothing new," Graham muttered heavily.

Old Benthe kept on smiling while watching her guest quietly, waiting for his next question. She could easily make a lot of money per day by giving information to people who needed it for the right price. The fact that her house looked in shambles was a whole new question entirely.

Since he couldn't get anything useful from her, he decided to stop there. After thanking the old woman, Graham left the slum area and walked back up to the street, where he waited patiently for a public motor carriage to drive by. It was in the afternoon, so it didn't take long for him to see one despite the quiet street. He waved his right arm and the driver pulled over near him.

"Next, we need to ask Ruben Arnaud. He's our only lead currently," he said.