Whispering Poems

Chapter 2609 Missing
Miss Bell wrote down the last letter as she finished speaking. The three people on the sofa looked over. The straight line represented the normal timeline, and the curved dotted line represented the abnormal time travel.

From 1803 to 1854, there are only two "time travel" phenomena surrounding the Cumming family. James Cumming spanned 51 years, a full half century, while his father spanned less than years.

They were all silent for a moment.

"Fortunately, Shade discovered that there were only two members of the Cumming family cursed by time. If there was one more, I can't imagine how we would analyze this matter."

Miss Winslet sighed softly, and the red-haired girl nodded:
"And fortunately, there is only one time tree hole discovered around the Cumming family, otherwise there would be more variables. Anyway, at least we have sorted out our thoughts now. Xia De, what do you think? Where should we start?"

"From Baron Cumming."

Xia De stared at the whiteboard, his thoughts were very clear:

"It seems that Baron Cumming's role in the entire timeline has ended. He has completed his time travel, and other major time nodes have nothing to do with him. But it is still unknown whether Little Cumming made Erica pregnant. So although we can easily capture Little Cumming directly, it is better to start the investigation from Baron Cumming first."

The two ladies also agreed with Shad's idea, and the task of chatting with Baron Cumming naturally could not be left to the witch followers, so Shad planned to do it himself.

As for whether to sit down and talk to the Baron face to face, or to force the Baron to tell the secret, it depends on the Baron's degree of cooperation. You can even use magic potions such as "Veritaserum" as a last resort.

To deal with an ordinary person, the ring wizards have many methods.

However, things did not go as smoothly as Shad had imagined. Excluding Miss Charlotte Bell, Miss Winslet currently had only nine followers in Vista City.

The nine girls were to be divided into four groups to carry out the tasks of monitoring Baron Cumming's mansion, monitoring Bennet's old house, gathering intelligence in the black market, and being on standby at the Accordion Hotel, so no one followed Baron Cumming.

This led to the situation that when the witch sent the girl on standby at the inn to the city to inquire about the Baron's itinerary for the day, she found that Baron Cumming seemed to be missing.

It was just before lunch when the news came. Shad was talking to Miss Winslet about Transfiguration. She seemed to want to teach Shad a few tricks, while Miss Danister was listening while looking through some documents.

Miss Bell, who was out on a mission, knocked on the door and came in hurriedly:

"Miss, the Baron is missing."

The witch who had just given Shade an example of how animal hair can be used in transfiguration frowned:

"What do you mean missing?"

"The Baron met with a local business partner at the club in the morning. They left at around ten o'clock. We learned from the doorman of the club that the Baron got on a rented carriage at the entrance of the club.

We later tracked down the hired carriage, and learned that it dropped the Baron off in the northeast of the city, and never found him again."

Miss Bell glanced at her pocket watch:
"It has been almost two hours since Baron Cumming got off the carriage in the morning."

"Where exactly did he get off the bus?"

Miss Danister asked, and Shad swept the documents and materials on the coffee table onto the carpet, then spread the map of the city on the coffee table.

The young black-haired girl stepped forward to check and pointed her finger at the northeastern old town:

"There are three of us investigating the area at the eastern exit of Lovegood Lane. I am very sure that the Baron has not left the area. The entrance of the lane is in the old city area, and there are not many pedestrians on the road. No one has seen Baron Cumming, a man dressed in a special way, pass by today, which means he has not gone far."

“How did you conduct your investigation?”

The witch continued to question her apprentice, and Miss Bell stood at attention to answer the questions, while Danister asked her apprentice:
"Do you have any idea?"

"Since it's the old town, it means it was part of Riverwood Town in the past. We just talked about the past and the present, so what was Lovegood Lane in the past era of Riverwood Town?"

The red-haired girl bent down and picked up the old map of Ximu Town from the carpet. She compared it with the map on the coffee table:
"It was called Lovegood Lane in the old days. You have a good idea, Shad, but there is nothing particularly noteworthy about that area on this map published in 1810."

"Then come and see for yourself. I don't believe it's such a coincidence that he's missing now."

Xia De stood up, and the witch and the red-haired girl exchanged glances before the former said:
"Dannister, stay here to guard the cupboard and the door. I'll go with you. Charlotte, you don't have to follow us. You take people to Morris House where the Cummings live and make sure James Cumming doesn't go missing."

"Yes, ma'am."

Then the witch turned into an owl with spread wings in the gray mist, flapping its wings and landing on Shad's shoulder.

Shade said to Miss Danister:
"Don't forget to eat lunch later. We don't know when we will be back, but don't worry even if we don't come back very late."

"You'd better not make me worry."

As she spoke, she threw the box containing the [Family Stabilizer] to Shade:
"Looks like I'll have to eat lunch by myself again today."

Since Shad and Miss Winslet were traveling together, there was no need to waste money on a carriage. Miss Owl simply grabbed the silver cat and flew into the sky, passing over the city filled with trees and the leisurely residents, all the way to the northeast of the city.

They don't have to worry about being discovered by others. As long as no one directly sees the owl flying with the cat in its grasp, ordinary reconnaissance and defense rituals are ineffective against this top-notch transformation.

There happened to be no one in Lovegood Lane, so Shad and Miss Winslet transformed back into human form right there.

“It stinks.”

She covered her nose, thought for a moment, and turned into a gray-black cat, standing on Shad's shoulder. Shad was already used to carrying a cat around, and although this cat was heavier than Mia, it did not affect his movements:

"It's normal for an alley in the downtown area like this to have a stronger smell."

Lovegood Lane is not a narrow alley connecting two different blocks. On both sides of the alley are low-rise apartments in the style of slums. These buildings built a hundred years ago can be completely classified as "dangerous buildings" at this time. With the development of the city, such places are finally forgotten by the times.

"It looks like there aren't many people living here. The real slums of Vista City are in the west of the city. Even the poor don't want to stay in the old city anymore."

The cat on his shoulder said. Shade was not used to the cat on his back speaking human language, and he had to suppress the urge to touch her:

"Since there aren't many people - echoes of the past!"

After closing his eyes and listening for a while, Xia De shook his head regretfully. Then he squinted his eyes and used "Strong Spatial Perception", but the space around him was normal.

In the morning, Miss Bell had already asked the girls about the nearby shops, so Xia De didn't need to ask again. Seeing that Xia De didn't get much, "Miss Cat" coughed:
"Then leave it to me. I thought you were really omnipotent."

The cat's golden eyes glowed slightly. She was using the witch's secret technique:
"Don't think that the Great Witch of Death is only good at sending people to death. We have also done in-depth research on 'life and death'. Let me see the traces of living people nearby. The traces on your body are too bright!"

It jumped from Shade's shoulder to the top of the wall, then found a cleaner spot and stopped there with a look of disdain:

"Leave this alley first. I'm going to cast a spell to detect any traces of living people. If Baron Cumming really entered here less than three hours ago, I should be able to find some traces. Give me twenty minutes. This is not something that can be done by just looking at it."

Xia De made a gesture to her that it was all right, and after leaving the alley with his hands in his pockets, he thought about taking a look around, maybe he would get something else.

Lovegood Lane is bordered by Banyan Street and Oak Avenue, which were also in the Riverwood era. Even the Riverwood magistrates’ court is on this block on the 1810 map.

"The old town hasn't disappeared~"

The stranger sighed in his heart, and when he arrived at Oak Avenue, he saw a man holding a newspaper across the street looking at him. Xia De also stared at him for a few seconds, then looked away. This was just a look between strangers.

The man stood beside an old red mailbox across the street, and behind him was a second-hand store that looked particularly bleak. Most of the pedestrians on the street were in a hurry, but the man holding his lyre looked very excited, probably because he had received some good news, but he disappeared at the next intersection.

There were only some ordinary scenes in the autumn noon. Standing at the alley, Xia De took out his pocket watch and took a look. Then he stopped moving and pretended to be impatient to wait for others. The "Miss Cat" behind him was not moving fast. Xia De stood there bored for five or six minutes, and couldn't help complaining in his heart:
"I thought I could still run into the ring wizards from the Tree Hole Association. Did something happen to them? Why haven't they appeared since the Bennett's old house?"

The stranger was unaware that the other party's attempt to spy on him had failed, and was now so frightened that he temporarily huddled in the woods and took almost no unnecessary actions.

He continued to daydream about the city, and was worried that if he continued investigating, he might find that all the permanent residents here were actually related by one or two generations.

Fortunately, a few gentle cat calls were heard in the alley in time. Xia De turned and entered the alley. A gray-black cat stood on the wall:

"I found it, come with me."