"You mean to say—" Charles narrowed his eyes slightly while looking at the report in front of him.
"That Detective Isengard Stanton expressed high praise for your abilities." He raised his head and fixed his gaze on Klein's face.
"However, he has a certain resistance towards you personally—"
"Have you ever had any contact with him?"
"No." Klein shook his head and answered very crisply.
"I haven't had any private contact with him. Although he is a very famous private Detective, my social interactions are mostly limited to within the guild."
"Could it be because of the Rastig matter—" Charles speculated.
"Probably not—"
"I have done some probing—the other party didn't have any special reaction to the name Rastig—"
In fact, I was also terrified at the beginning, thinking I was going to be dragged straight to prison; after all, my bounty is worth tens of thousands of pounds.
For most Detectives, this is money they wouldn't earn in a lifetime—Klein silently complained in his heart.
Later, he specifically found an opportunity to ascend above the Grey Mist to perform divination, only to discover with a wry smile that this Detective Isengard Stanton was actually the Detective Lorne Disenk had hired to counter-investigate him back then.
No wonder I felt the other party looked familiar back then—so that's how it was!
"Then it's probably just that he doesn't like the personnel of our guild." Charles did not delve deeper into this issue.
"However, you provided quite a few useful leads in this joint investigation, which accelerated the capture process significantly—"
"That Devil ended up revealing quite a few flaws because of it."
"Not bad."
Charles nodded in satisfaction, took a thick envelope out of the drawer, and handed it to Klein.
"Keep up the good work."
Klein took the envelope. He habitually squeezed it and immediately broke into a smile.
He was quite satisfied with the thickness of the envelope.
27 Alka Street.
This was the office location provided by the official for the "Backlund Women and Children Relief Fund," a small three-story building that did not require the foundation to pay rent separately.
In fact, the Evernight Goddess Church also has similar charitable funds internally. Lorne had considered whether to expand the scope of his own fund's relief efforts or simply change the name to better distinguish it from the church's fund.
However, considering that the fund itself had the strong support of the Night Church and was just starting out, having too much fame would easily invite unnecessary trouble, so he temporarily shelved this idea.
He had received an invitation from the official to come to the foundation's office location to briefly understand the preliminary preparations.
At this moment, Lorne was sitting in a café across the street, leisurely reading a newspaper and drinking coffee. From time to time, he would glance at the wall clock to estimate the agreed-upon time.
"The Serial Killer is still on the run, and the police are calling on citizens to provide clues—tsk, why does this Backlund feel… even more dangerous than Bayam—"
Just as he was lamenting, the café door was pushed open from the outside, and the wind chime on the door gave a crisp "ding."
A young girl wearing an exquisite small round hat and sporting long, dark green hair walked in. She looked around and quickly spotted Lorne sitting in the very corner.
She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but eventually took steps to come over and sit in the seat opposite Lorne.
"You're late." Lorne took a sip of coffee and said without raising his head.
"I—"
Hazel, who had dressed up carefully, immediately felt unhappy upon seeing Lorne's indifferent attitude.
"Waiting for a lady is the duty of every Gentleman."
"I'm not a Gentleman." Lorne smiled and retorted, putting down the newspaper.
"Did Councilor Macht not come?"
Seeing that it was only Hazel, Lorne raised an eyebrow slightly. He had originally thought that Councilor Macht would at least accompany his daughter.
"No. Dad said that with you here, he is very reassured, so—" Hazel lowered her head, her fair fingers unconsciously rubbing the corner of her clothes.
"Hmm—" Lorne nodded without asking further.
When he had previously gone to Councilor Macht's house to discuss Hazel coming to work at the foundation, although the Councilor still carried a bit of an elder's airs, his attitude was indeed much more polite compared to before.
Regarding his arrival, not only was there no previous resistance, but he even seemed to be enjoying the result.
"It seems you are ready to come to work."
"I—" Hazel was silent at first, then nodded.
Although she was still young, her father was very supportive of her accepting this job. Moreover, she herself held quite a lot of interest in this work that could help others.
After all, she didn't want to be the useless "vase" in Scott's words.
"Very good."
"Today is the day the foundation officially launches, so you can just come over and see the situation."
"Do you have anything you want to ask?" Lorne noticed Hazel's unease.
"I—what exactly should I do?" Hazel asked.
Although her father had briefly introduced the general process of working at the foundation to her, it was only a rough idea; as for more specific things, Councilor Macht didn't really understand them either.
"Good question." Lorne shrugged.
"I don't know either."
"What?!"
Ignoring the surprised expression on Hazel's face, Lorne said matter-of-factly, "I'm also managing a foundation for the first time; I don't understand these kinds of things either."
"Hey, hey, what's that expression?" Looking at Hazel's "Are you messing with me?" look, he waved his hand.
"Both the church and the official will send professional personnel to help handle the specific affairs of the foundation. You just follow them and learn slowly."
"On the Night Church's side, the main person in charge is Bishop Electra; he is very familiar with Councilor Macht, so if you have any questions, you can ask him more." He added.
"Got it—" Hazel nodded as if she understood, then asked curiously, "Then what about you? What are you going to do later?"
"Me?" Lorne pointed at himself, "Of course I'm not going to do anything."
"I'm a busy man; there are still a pile of things at the factory that I haven't had time to deal with, so how could I have the energy to manage the fund personally?"
Hazel had a face full of question marks.
"Aren't you the Director of the fund?"
"Yes, that's right. the official did hand the management rights over to me, and combined with the money I invested earlier, to a certain extent, I am the Director with the highest say in the fund."
"But—this doesn't mean I have to do everything myself. Have you ever seen a company boss who needs to do the work personally?"
He smiled and looked at Hazel, revealing his true intention: "The basic operation of the fund is handled by professional staff, as for daily supervision, coordination, and communication with the church and the official—isn't that perfect for you to handle?"
"You want to be a hands-off manager, so you dragged me over to work for you?" Hazel finally realized, her tone somewhat dissatisfied.
So this is treating me as a tool!
"Hmm—you can understand it more or less like that." Lorne nodded and admitted it frankly.
"You—"
"Don't get excited." Seeing Hazel about to flare up, Lorne unhurriedly picked up his coffee cup and blew on the steam.
"I came to find you specifically because I trust you."
"Trust me?" Hazel's anger stalled.
"Yes." Lorne nodded, "The administrative management of the foundation determines the normal operation of the entire foundation and decides whether it can truly help those in need. For such an important job, of course, I can only hand it over to someone I trust."
"Otherwise, take a guess, why wouldn't I go find Xio and the others for such a good job that can both accumulate fame and train abilities, and instead come specifically to find you?"
"Trust—"
Hazel's pupils shrank slightly, repeating this word in her mind.
Is that so? She was a bit doubtful, but looking at Lorne's serious expression—
That must be it, it definitely is.
So in his heart, am I worth his trust this much—Hazel clenched her palms, the corners of her mouth curling up unconsciously.
So easy to fool—
Watching Hazel's appearance, Lorne picked up his coffee cup and took a sip to prevent the curling of his mouth from being seen by the other party.
However, his words weren't entirely false; putting aside other things, Hazel had leverage in his hands, so wasn't she worth his trust—
The two talked briefly for a while longer about the relevant processes.
"The foundation's official launch ceremony is in an hour. Before that, there are some other things I want to talk to you about privately." Lorne estimated the time and changed the subject.
He took out that slightly damaged monocle from his pocket.
"Do you still remember this?"