New Gods of North America

"According to the preliminary plan, our trip will mainly involve taking steam trains."

"After arriving in Richmond, we'll first head north along the steam train line, and after reaching the junction, we'll start heading south. We'll pass through North Carolina and South Carolina, and finally enter Georgia, arriving in Atlanta."

"Our detective agency has a permit from the church in Virginia. After arriving in Georgia, if we encounter any problems, we can try to seek help from the Fisk family through Miss Ovelia's connections. But in principle, we should avoid trouble and not conflict with local churches or law enforcement."

After seeing off the client, Linna pulled everyone together in the conference room to start the meeting, looking quite professional.

However, this seriousness didn't last long:

"According to the feedback Wayne got from the cathedral, outside of Virginia, we're considered an illegal organization... Okay, let me be precise, our identity might be questioned by the local church."

"So we have to learn to be discreet and try not to use weapons in public. When it's time to run, react quickly. When retaliating, remember to wear a mask or attack from behind—oh? Can't do that?—then learn to protect yourselves and don't get caught.

"To avoid accidents, we'll try to choose daytime trains when traveling and spend the night in towns whenever possible. Because the client has arranged for two people to accompany us, we still have to put on a show to make the detective agency look professional, as agreed. So people don't badmouth us in the circles."

Actually, if the client hadn't arranged for people to travel with us, it might have been safest and easiest to just have Linna put the necklace in her pocket and take it on a trip.

But since there are escorts and the commission is $2,000 USD for transporting goods worth at least several thousand pounds, the detective agency must put on a "show."

Otherwise, if word gets to some wealthy people, it will seem like the detective agency is being opportunistic, making a quick $2,000 USD for a simple errand.

The wealthy might not care about this little commission, but they certainly care about whether they're being taken for a ride, especially in the Southern upper class circles, where "face" and "reputation" are said to be universally valued.

If they wanted to, they could bid an astronomical price for a blatantly worthless piece of paper at an auction, just to show off their wealth and extravagance in front of everyone.

But if someone claims to have precious treasure and then throws a piece of trash like garbage in front of the buyer, that's deliberately shaming the other person and making a mortal enemy of themselves.

Applying this to this commission,

the detective agency can escort a piece of trash as seriously as if they were transporting precious treasure.

If the wealthy find out, they might even think the detective agency is "professional," and their reputation might soar.

But the detective agency must not treat valuable items like transporting waste paper, casually sending someone to carry them in their pocket.

This would make the client look like a fool and probably cause the detective agency to be abandoned by the "market."

—In reality, being professional is certainly important, but "appearing" professional is actually more important.

So the next day,

Wayne had Seth help him turn in his written homework and the leave of absence he got from David Mills, skipping Monday's classes again.

He himself, along with the detective agency's main force, escorted the client's escorts and valuables onto the steam train.

The escorts arranged by the client were a master and servant. The master called himself Duncan Ross—the name is not important, he's just a minor character, but he's said to be a distant relative of the client and looks like he's at least middle class.

His role is actually as a "supervisor" for the detective agency, but he's not entirely a burden. At least he'll have his servant buy tickets for everyone, like today, when he booked an entire train car of seats.

Fortunately, the detective agency had also prepared in advance. The agents who were leaving wore matching uniforms, stood up straight, and formed a small square formation in the crowd.

Willie, on the other hand, held a black box that looked like it had been reinforced, containing the client's original jewelry box, which was guarded in the very center of the square formation.

They put on a show that "even a fool could tell that these people are transporting valuable items."

As for the ruby necklace, it was actually still in Linna's personal bag.

After entering the car, Willie sat down near the middle with the box in his hands, with several agents sitting near him and several agents guarding the doors on both sides of the car.

The escorts seemed quite satisfied with this formation, praising it to Wayne and getting to know the strong man Sanders under Wayne's introduction.

On the surface, Sanders is the leader of the detective agency's escort mission this time, and his temperament and image are more in line with people's image of a "professional bodyguard."

As for Linna, she wore a low-key, plain dress and blended into the team, with her external identity being a medical staff member.

After the steam train started chugging away,

Wayne and the others drove a team of carriages back to the detective agency.

Currently, besides the extra chef, prisoners, and little loli, the detective agency only has Wayne, Inesha, Doug, Conner, Seth, and another trainee agent.

This guy also came from the Hunter Association in Can克斯 City, like Conner, and hadn't participated in the detective agency's interview before.

In terms of combat power, except for Doug, who is a bit weak, the average level of the remaining agents is actually higher—well, Seth doesn't count as "combat power."

This is mainly because the focus of the outbound team is to show off for the wealthy, and quantity is more important than quality, so even Willie was selected.

And the guy from the Hunter Association is more willing to learn from Inesha, doesn't seem to care much about salary, and is quite happy to stay in the "base camp."

Wayne pondered for a while and even considered giving them a pay cut.

That night, just as he got back to the dorm,

"Landlord" Micken Reef brought Wayne two pieces of news.

To be honest, Wayne found this current "Micken Reef" easier to communicate with than the original one.

The codename for this personality among them is "York," both the York in "Yorkshire" and the York in "New York City":

"The first is bad news. Your prefect came to check the dorm again last night. Although I made excuses to get you off the hook, he will obviously pay more attention to your situation in the future."

Yesterday was a day off!

Although it wasn't the Saturday in the unwritten rules, does he not have his own life to come and check the dorm on this day?

Wayne was a little speechless and then asked, "What's the good news then?"

Micken Reef shook his head:

"There's no good news. The other news might be even worse.

"Professor Eber Me瑟尔, who is in charge of the mathematics class, said today that after learning that you had asked for leave again, he said that he could not let a talented student like you waste his studies and plans to visit your home in the near future.

"Seth originally wanted to tell you in person, but you came back too late, so he could only let me tell you first."