“Princess Claire, why are you here?”
Deborah subconsciously called out and quickly walked over, but noticed something off. Other than Claire in lead, there were three other strange youths that looked anxious.
“Are you the manager here?”
“Yes, I’m Deborah… Princess Claire, we’ve met multiple times, how come you don’t recognize me?”
Because it was night and the light was dim, Deborah didn’t notice that it wasn’t Claire even though she was quite close.
“Uh… I’m not Claire, you have the wrong person.” The other party purposely lowered the voice to show their obvious male voice and took another step forward to show his face to Deborah.
“No?”
Deborah carefully inspected his appearance and realized that this person looked similar to Claire but was a man!
“T-then who are you?”
“I’m Caesar, Lombard Kingdom’s fifth prince, she’s Rosie, and these two are my companions, Yao Zi and Lin Tian…”
“Prince Caesar? Oh, so it’s you guys…”
Deborah may not have met them before, but she has heard of them, especially Caesar and Rosie who were leading.
More importantly, she already heard that Caesar and Claire looked alike, and now that she’s met him, her eyes were really opened! If he put on some women’s clothing, used some pads, and applied some makeup, then everyone would think he was Princess Claire!
Oh… no, they’ll see through it, because Claire is extremely flat, so if Caesar used pads, anyone will see through it!
“Cough… sorry, I accidentally mistook you for someone else.”
“It’s fine, you’re not the first person to do so.”
“Uh… that’s quite unfortunate.”
Deborah could even guess the awkward misunderstandings that Caesar experienced.
“So then Prince Caesar, what are you doing here so late?”
“We’re here for Lin Xiao, have you seen him?”
“Lin Xiao? Of course, I have, he was here in the morning, but he’s already left.”
“That quickly? … So did he already get the fruit and he’s heading back?”
“No, he went to the plague zone?”
“Plague zone? Why?”
“You just mentioned it earlier… for the sacred crystal fruit.” Deborah was confused by Caesar’s questions and asked back in return, “Who are you to him and what are you looking for him for?”
“We’re his friends and we’re looking for him to save him!”
“Save him? … Is he in danger?”
“Still not sure… but if something were to happen, it would be too late, so we have to find him first!”
“Uh, you guys…”
Deborah was speechless as she looked at the four of them. Today was really abnormal, first came a normal-looking boy who was actually Gotham’s dragon, then came four youths who ran their mouths about danger, saving, like the sky was going to collapse, how strange.
If it wasn’t for Caesar and Rosie’s reputation, Deborah would have never believed them. Taking a step back, even if Lin Xiao was in danger, with his strength and smarts, how many people can hurt him? It was completely groundless fear.
Though that being said, Deborah was sure he wasn’t joking based on his sincere manner, so she prudently told him the truth.
“What? The fruits vanished so Lin Xiao personally went to the plague zone to look for them?”
“Sigh… it was all because of Bacon’s carelessness that he lost the fruits.”
“Wait, are you sure they weren’t stolen?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“How could there be that much of a coincidence… Deborah, can you take me to Bacon’s room?”
Caesar didn’t feel like things were that simple, so he wanted to personally take a look.
Deborah didn’t really want to help, it was the middle of the night and they should be asleep so no one wanted to play detective with him. And this wasn’t some odd case it was just some missing fruits that were worthless, so was there a need to make such a big deal of it?
But Caesar was insistent on going and Deborah couldn’t convince him so she could only reluctantly agree seeing as he was Lin Xiao’s friend.
Caesar was doing it for Lin Xiao’s safety after all, and now that Deborah was the appointed matchmaker, she had to manage all things related to Lin Xiao. So she called Gerrard over and brought them to Bacon’s room.
“Yawn… I say, Prince, what is there to look at?” Gerrard yawned and complained.
Deborah was still up, but Gerrard was called up just after heading to sleep, so of course he was full of complaints.
At first, Rosie also thought that Caesar’s demands were a bit too much, they already said it was lost and not stolen, so he should at least wait until the morning, but Caesar didn’t care and insisted and investigated, which was different than his usual gentlemanly demeanor.
But, Rosie could understand him. Since this was related to Lin Xiao’s safety, they couldn’t delay, so they had to do something before a tragedy happens!
“Look, the door and windows had no signs of being broken into.”
“Copying a key is simple… let’s go in to take a look.”
“Sigh, okay, okay… yawn.”
Gerrard yawned while unlocking the door, then he brought them into a corner and stopped next to a large metal rectangular box.
“This is Bacon’s safe… look, it’s pure steel! It can’t even be cut open!”
While Gerrard was explaining he even kicked the safe a couple of times, all that could be heard was a couple of heavy thumps, and you could tell how hard and heavy the safe must have been.
“Prince, come, please take a close look…” Gerrard squatted next to the safe and pointed to the lock.
“The outside of the safe is undamaged and so is the lock, how could it have been theft? Also, this safe was gifted to Bacon by his father, so it uses the best double circuit lock, high-end stuff that normal people cant even use. So it can’t be opened other than with Bacon’s lock! So… do you get it?”
“Hm… was I too sensitive, was it really not theft?”
The investigation didn’t even start yet and it was about to be over as Caesar fell into self-doubt…
Gerrard predicted this and muttered, ‘How could it be theft, made a fuss out of nothing.’ while beckoning to Deborah and got ready to go back to bed.
Rosie on the other hand stared at the lock for a while and suddenly thought of something, so she smirked and dragged Gerrard back!
“High-end good? Hmphhm, is that even a thing in front of me Rosie Childe? Uncle, do you believe that I can open this box up right now?”
“Brat, don’t talk nonsense! Bacon has the key with him, how can you open it?”
“Of course I can, using the key in your hand!”
“This one? This is the room’s key, not the safe’s key, the shape might be similar, but you can’t interchangeably use them.”
“Hmph, I can!”
Rosie snatched the key from Gerrard and carefully inserted it into the keyhole.
“Watch closely, I’m going to open it for you!”
“Don’t be dumb, this is an enhanced seal, even if you make a copy of the same key, without the original magic engravings, you cant open it, you…”
Just as Gerrard was confident of it, Rosie smiled and gently twisted the key.
Click.
The safe actually opened!
