The detective is dead, I did it.

Chapter 36 I Don't Care

The viscount naturally knew what the gesture meant.

After all, this gesture was most famous during the Hundred Years' War between England and France. It is said that before a battle, both sides would make this highly insulting gesture at each other.

His hands clenched into fists under the table, and his face turned pale and then flushed, as if he had swallowed a live fly.

Li Ang even saw the Viscount's hand already gripping the edge of the plate in front of him, as if he was about to throw the plate at his face at any moment.

He quietly lowered his right hand to his side, his fingers slightly spread, and wisps of black smoke seeped out from between his fingers.

He only needs less than half a second to summon the black knife and cleave the plate in two the instant it flies over.

He was even considering whether to take the opportunity to cause some kind of accident, to make the viscount in front of him lose some parts or something.

But that's impossible.

He wasn't stupid; he knew the consequences of attacking a nobleman without thinking. Besides, if he were really that reckless, Charlotte might not even protect him.

"Let's go." Charlotte grabbed his clothes, clearly having noticed the aura of the black knife in Li Ang's hand. "It's time to go back."

Seeing that the detective had said so, Li Ang had no choice but to withdraw his abilities and turn around and leave the restaurant with her, leaving the Viscount alone staring at their departing figures with a murderous gaze.

"Have you already figured out the truth about the mansion?" In the corridor, Li Ang quickly caught up with Charlotte's pace.

Charlotte glanced at him, a smile playing on her lips. "No."

"real?"

Charlotte's smile seemed unchanged, but Li Ang felt that something was off.

He seemed to have seen that expression before; it was like the smile someone would wear at a card table when they were holding a hand of cards that they didn't know whether it was good or bad.

Logically speaking, she shouldn't have been able to find the truth so quickly.

Charlotte stayed in her room all morning without going out. Apart from taking a walk around the collection room, she didn't even interact with a maid. The only clues she obtained were those that she herself had told her.

Unless—she used her detective skills.

Leon tentatively activated his ability again, his gaze falling on Charlotte.

Small silver characters appeared above her body. As before, most of the content was obscured by question marks, and only a few scattered words could be seen: [Sequence 5], [Resurrection of the Dead], [???], [???], [???].

Similar to last time, apart from the known resurrection coin ability, everything else is a question mark.

However, there are some changes. In the last line of the prompt, the original "fake" has been changed to "despicable fake".

What do you mean? Does it refer to her personality? Or does it mean... she's not just an imposter, but that beneath that imposter lies something far worse?

Li Ang dared not think about it any further.

"Assistant," Charlotte's voice interrupted his thoughts, "What are you looking at?"

"It's nothing." Li Ang withdrew his gaze and casually followed her. "I was thinking about our actions tonight."

Charlotte didn't press further, assuming the other person was in a daze.

"Of course it's true," she said again, her tone light. "And as long as he believes it, isn't that enough? The important thing is the result, not the process."

She stepped onto the stairs, her skirt swaying gently at her feet.

Li Ang followed behind her, watching her straight back, and silently added another mark to his list of grudges against that woman.

I've been lying to myself since our first meeting.

He pretended to be dead to deceive himself, pointed a gun at his head to deceive himself, and said that he was "just a pitiful and weak detective" to deceive himself.

She fooled the cultists, then the Viscount, and then herself. How much of what she said was true?

But then he thought about it again, and realized that if Charlotte hadn't intervened in time, he really wouldn't know how he would have ended things.

Charlotte threatened the Viscount with the rules of the Detective Association, while she countered with the unusual behavior of the maids in his mansion. With this combination of tactics, the fat, nouveau riche didn't even have a chance to think.

This woman's mind works way too fast.

"Pochi," Charlotte's voice came from up the stairs, "you were a bit impulsive just now. You shouldn't have provoked him like that."

"There's nothing I can do." Li Ang followed him up the stairs. "I can't stand seeing anything go wrong."

Charlotte stopped at the corner of the stairs, turned around, and looked down at him. "Oh? It seems my assistant is quite the righteous person."

"Should I write you a letter of recommendation so the royal family can award you a medal for heroism or something?"

"Let's skip it." Li Ang walked up the last few steps to stand beside her. "I'm quite aware of my own limitations."

The reason he dared to speak ill of the Viscount was ultimately because he had Charlotte as his powerful backer.

A nouveau riche who had amassed wealth over two generations in the East India Company, seemingly using money to pave his way in London and accumulating a considerable network of connections, but this foundation was far from stable, and what he feared most was offending a powerful institution like the Detective Guild.

Charlotte Holmes, the prospective Special Agent, happens to be one of the people in the Detective Guild that you absolutely cannot afford to offend.

And most importantly, he was very unhappy with that guy's behavior.

They're quick to arrest people and torture them.

More than a dozen guards have already been sent inside. He suspects that some of them have been tortured into confessing, and some may even have died inside.

Even so, those scoundrels in the Public Security Department didn't lift a finger.

I wonder how much money that nouveau riche bribed or how much influence he had to make them turn a blind eye to this kind of thing.

"That's nice." Charlotte turned around and continued walking uphill, her voice drifting from ahead with an indescribable meaning, "A righteous hero or something."

Li Ang couldn't tell whether she was being sarcastic or genuinely expressing her feelings.

"Please stop making fun of me."

"I wasn't making fun of you." Charlotte stopped at the top of the stairs, waiting for Leon to come up, then held out her hand, making a very small distance between her thumb and forefinger. "You did pretty well just now. A little bit better than I expected."

The afternoon light streamed in through the window at the end of the corridor, casting a soft halo over her long white hair.

Looking at the "fingertip universe" drawn by those two fair fingers, Li Ang couldn't help but laugh and said, "I thought you would be angry. After all, I've caused you quite a bit of trouble."

"It's good that you know."

"But I don't care about the revenge of a mere viscount."

She seemed to genuinely disregard this viscount.

Although Li Ang did not know what title Charlotte held, he figured it must be higher than that of a mere viscount. In addition, Charlotte had been based in London since her grandfather's generation, making her a true member of the London Manchu nobility.

Looking at her profile, he suddenly realized that this woman wasn't always so annoying.

At least, when I'm arguing with someone, they never hold me back.