203 Hoogland, the Rich's Playground

A black metal vehicle approached rapidly and then pulled over on the left side of the street. A man wearing a leather jacket and a pair of denim pants got out after paying the driver. Once the man with the amber hair and light blue eyes had completely exited the motor carriage, the driver drove away at once.

Valentine Hymes was standing on the sidewalk of a relatively quiet street that merged into one and went uphill. There was a traffic circle near where he was standing and tall trees on the roadside. On the traffic circle, there was a giant rock that was carved into the sign 'Hoogland' while behind the wall of trees, canyons and gorges were visible, creating a natural separation between the high elevated land and the common area below.

Approaching the cliff, Valentine could see down below in the canyons that narrowed down into gorges a stream of a river that was still flowing. If there was a way to get down, it could be an amazing experience just to do some canyoneering in the area. However, his goal today wasn't to explore but to visit a certain abandoned mansion.

Valentine walked to a spot under a big tree and cast Concealment on himself, hiding his presence. Now, the sounds he was making would be muffled as long as they were not too loud. However, to be even safer, he also cast the second layer of Concealment that would block off his voice and other sounds, so the level of noise tolerance would be higher. After that, he also made the thin yellowish mist descend and cover his face, completely masking his identity.

Once his own body was covered in the mysterious yellowish mist, Valentine cast more Concealment on Dr. Obtuse's Cane and his revolver. The limit of objects he could put Concealment at once was six, so he saved one more for an emergency. Purloin and Gloom's Redress didn't need any since they didn't look conspicuous, and the former only needed anti-divination now to stop it from sending a 'distress signal'.

Hidden behind a shroud of yellowish that eluded the senses, Valentine started walking up the slope towards the area where the richest of Hoorn lived, staying on the sidewalk to avoid being hit by a motor carriage. The road had guard rails on each side, on the outer ends of the sidewalks, that looked very thick and well-maintained. Those were necessary as behind the thin walls of trees, it was a cliff leading straight to a deep gorge.

Orange and brown leaves were crushed beneath his feet, creating a noise that was muffled by the mist right away. As he was walking, a trail of thin mist was left behind to cover up the sounds Valentine was creating before quickly evaporating.

The metallic brown gate itself looked mesmerizing. There was a complicated pattern that resembled a giant queen bee with her drones hovering around her. The queen bee had tentacles instead of legs and on its head, there was something that looked like the cap of a mushroom. The drones were similar to the queen but much smaller.

"G, what do you think that design means?" he tapped his chin as he walked.

Upon arriving at the grand arch, Valentine quickly scanned the area to find an opening. The gate was closed and would only open when a permitted vehicle would drive past. There seemed to be a smaller gate just next to the security post for pedestrians. However, one would still need to prove that they indeed lived there, or they were invited by someone who did. Since Valentine wasn't either, he had to sneak inside using his own method.

"Climbing around doesn't seem possible. It's a straight-up cliff and I don't see any grip around the stone arch columns. We should go inside the security post and enter through their door, G. The problem is, we don't know if they have a security measure against Contractbounds like us. They are rich people here, after all,"

From outside, the security posts built into the grand arch looked spacious and comfortable enough. The one on the left side of the road was facing him since people drove on the left in the Republic, so Valentine could see inside. There looked to be a sofa and even a bed for the man on the shift. There was also a giant mirror, which alerted Valentine-- an Unseen Astrologer had the ability to see through mirrors!

Although he was concealed, he wasn't invisible, and if the mirror was indeed not a normal one, but a Contractbound medium, he would be noticed right away once his reflection was captured by it.

With his discovery of the giant mirror, Valentine became more cautious. He began scanning the area for more mirrors, and his suspicion was proved correct. There were several smaller, barely noticeable mirrors placed around the arch. If one didn't pay attention, they would only look like parts of the stone blocks that were shiny because of the sunlight.

"Those mirrors. The one inside the security post is only one giant mirror, so if we take the guy out of the picture in a non-suspicious way somehow, we should be able to crawl underneath,"

Valentine carefully approached the security post with a man probably in his late thirties looking out through the clear glass window that was almost half the size of the total post. The man hadn't seemed to notice the shrouded person who was inching silently closer and closer.

Once he was in range, Valentine sent his energy to the cane and pointed its end towards the man. He felt that something shot at him while at the same time, the handle sucked something out of Valentine.

'That man is now highly obsessed with cleaning!'

'You are now completely uninterested in your own safety!'

"Shit! I lost interest in my safety!" he exclaimed, letting his other half know.

Valentine suddenly had the urge to charge right in. He had completely lost interest in being stealthy and careful.

The security guard in the post was now busy cleaning the place like someone possessed. He had taken a piece of cloth and was vigorously rubbing every nook and cranny to rid of any speck of dust, although there wasn't really any, to begin with. He had completely forgotten his job to watch over the post as he was busy wiping everything in the room.

Meanwhile, completely disregarding whether he would be discovered or not, Valentine walked leisurely towards the front door. He started picking the lock without caring about the man inside, who, luckily, wasn't paying attention to the door; he was rubbing clean the bottom of the bed.

Once inside, Valentine nonchalantly opened the back door and successfully got into Hoogland. He closed the door behind him out of politeness, leaving the cleanliness obsessed man behind. The effect would last another six hours for both of them.

The area behind the arch was still the same as before; a wide road with sideways and guard rails on the sides. Behind the guard rails, there were walls of trees and cliffs behind. Ahead of him, however, Valentine could start to see majestic buildings that looked like houses-- if giants lived among men.

He kept on walking quickly without worrying about anything until the houses were right in front of him. Those buildings were humongous and really didn't look like the residents of humans. If he hadn't seen people in front of their houses, he wouldn't believe that those were built for them.

Most of the houses were at least four-story-high and the walls were all painted dark color with pipes going through them. Steams came out of the pipes and rose up high in the air. The area felt more like a factory for giants rather than a rich neighborhood. On top of that, there were entertainment places as well, so calling it just an area was an understatement; it was more like a small city within a city!

From up there, if he looked back towards the east, he could see the rest of Hoorn, which was on a lower elevation than Hoogland. He could see tiny roads with tiny motor carriages going up and downhill. In the south, clouds of smoke rose up high from the ever working factories while up north and the west, he was surrounded by even taller mountains with cloudy peaks. Autumn orange and brown painted the scenery of the background mountains.

"At least I didn't lose interest in the beauty of this place. I wonder if the negative effect only affected me or you as well, G,"

Valentine was still interested in knowing the answer, luckily, so he hid under a tall tree and lied down on the ground. After closing his eyes, he began falling asleep and Graham woke up not long after.

The detective with green eyes got up and examined himself. He felt that he hadn't lost anything, and certainly not his cautiousness and his desire to keep himself safe.

"I seem to be normal, Val. So that means as long as you stay there for six hours, we should be safe. I shouldn't use this cane again in the next six hours in case I get a very bad negative effect, like losing my will to live," he jested.

Staying hidden behind the tree, Graham began recalling the way to the abandoned mansion based on the memory that he got from both the mayor and the secretary.

From the main entrance where a small park with a lot of trees was, he should head left and kept going for three kilometers. Since it meant getting out of Valentine's Concealment radius, he had to transform into someone else before continuing, and in that area, the mayor and the secretary were out of the question.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Cunningness and Transformation, hereby change my whole being to that of Cornelis Haring!"

Graham rapidly transformed into the Police Sergeant from Sloten and once it was done, he began grabbing leaves and other stuff he could find on the ground to disguise the mayor's cane. Using the power of Order, he made sure the bits and pieces would stick to the cane and look natural like they were part of the cane itself. After he finished, the cane looked completely different.

Now he had to continue walking onwards. He had a lot of distance to cover, so he had to travel quickly, otherwise, it would take him half a day to reach his destination.

In the rich neighborhood, everyone had their own motor carriages, so the public ones were not available. It wouldn't even surprise him if the children also owned ones.

After walking three kilometers away from the park, Graham headed west, deeper into Hoogland. Even though it was already on the highest elevation of the city, there were even some areas located on an even higher elevation, so Graham had to walk uphill, which was more tiring than normal roads.

As it was still early in the morning, the air was still very cold and fresh with a lot of moisture. A lot of the residents were outside their house doing their hobbies, like playing golf in their large front yard or just playing with their children. Most of the houses were gated, but through the gaps, the inside was still visible. The people looked at Graham with a strange look whenever he passed them, probably because he was walking instead of driving. He had noticed that he was the only one walking in the street.

Another possibility was because Rood had such a large scar on his face that was sure to attract attention.

After walking for more than an hour past all the giant houses with otherworldly architectures, he finally arrived at a large field behind a tall iron gate. In the middle of the field, there was a medium-sized mansion that didn't look inhabited but was still well-maintained nonetheless.

Graham couldn't switch with Valentine for fear than the man would do something reckless because of the cane's negative effect, so he had to make sure no one was around before climbing over the gate. Once inside, he walked confidently as to not look suspicious.

The field was large with grass that appeared to have been recently mowed. There were also flowers that weren't blooming since it was autumn currently. It looked like the mansion used to be very beautiful, but for some reason it was abandoned, which raised Graham's suspicion.

"No one would abandon this kind of place without a reason, Val," he rubbed his chin as he walked.

Graham arrived at the mansion itself not long after, and suddenly, his sense of danger was triggered.

Someone or something was approaching him with the intention to attack!