13 Secret Investigation

The next morning in McArthur Pavilion lobby area.

"Where is your young master?" Charles asked Jerry, who had come to the area.

"Well..." Jerry didn't know what he should say. Since last night, Trevon had been half-crying. All his money and treasures were gone in a night. Even the best monk would find it was difficult to accept.

"Tell Him! If he didn't come, he would get family punishment." Charles ordered. Even that he loved his youngest Nephew, Trevon really needed some strict education. [It was our family fault in the beginning.] He had to admit.

Some cultivation families allowed their young masters to bully common people. It was to increase their deterrence in front of the common people. This would ensure that those common people knew who the boss was. The boss was the cultivators.

This was the duty of the spoiled young masters. It was a common sense that one couldn't send their chosens and famous elders to bully people. Right? Because of this, the families even encouraged competition between their spoiled young masters. This was to show who had the best spoiled young master. If their spoiled ones were already great, one could imagine their chosen young masters.

If Trevon bullied the other families' young masters, McArthur family wouldn't even care about this. They would even add some allowances from his contribution as a reward. Unless if Trevon got bullied instead. In this case, Trevon would be 'educated'. Luckily Trevon got his Number 1 Young Master title not just for a show. He rarely lost. If he did, he would make a quick revenge.

However, being late during a job was one of the biggest problems he could do. What would happen if other employees saw that? If he didn't get the punishment, what could the family do in case of other employees were late?

"Jack, hurry, bring our young master here." Jerry quickly acted.

2 people, one thin and the other bulky quickly ran inside the pavilion. 5 minutes later, they brought their young master. Jack even carried Trevon on his back.

"My Moneyyyy..." Trevon talked with a very hoarse voice.

"Stinky!!!" Raina complained.

"What happened to your young master?" Charles was surprised. Trevon was in a good condition yesterday. However, he looked very haggard at this time. He didn't even change his clothes. Perhaps he hadn't even taken a bath. The last part was very unlikely of Trevon. The sun would shine from the west before Trevon dared to go out without having a bath.

"This was what happened yesterday." Jerry started to talk.

He only said about visiting an herb shop and returning home before they found that all their young master assets were gone. It didn't include the crazy purchase of an entire store or the crazy expensive herb picking game.

"So, you said the entire valuable things in your young master's storage ring were gone?" Charles asked.

"Yes." Jerry answered.

"..." Charles started to ponder. [This is the first time I heard about this. In the entire land, there had never been a case of item disappearing from a storage ring. It was even rarer that valuable artifacts turned into bags of dust in an instant. Even the most powerful blacksmith flame could only melt the artifacts.]

"Hmph..." Charles used his spiritual energy to wake up Trevon.

"Eh..." Trevon surprised. "Where am I?"

"In the family lobby area." Charles said. A lot of people were watching the haggard Trevon. No one would believe the person they were looking at was the self-proclaimed number 1 most handsome young master in Bluestar.

[F*CK!] Trevon was surprised. He was very embarrassed.

"Quickly go and change your clothes! Wear a servant robe!" Charles ordered Trevon. "With your face, you couldn't act as a merchant's son. Pretend to be a servant instead!"

Trevon quickly ran into his room and took a super quick bath. Luckily, being a cultivator, he could use water elemental energy and fire elemental energy to quicken his bath. The problem was this process was too tiresome for a Rank 1 warrior. 4 minutes later Trevon came into the lobby area. Charles and Raina were talking and drinking the tea.

"Now, at least you are no longer the stinky Trevon." Raina commented.

"What's with your appearance Trevon?" Charles complained. Trevon was wearing a servant robe, but his beautiful long hair was totally clean and neat. It was rare for a servant to have a long hair since they didn't have the time to care for their hair. "Knot it!" He ordered.

[Sh*t! I was very unlucky since yesterday.] Trevon complained. He was actually still half-conscious about what he did. Taking a bath, cleaning his hair, using his perfume were automatic habits for him.

"Also, Jerry!" Charles ordered. "Spray your perfume to Trevon!"

It was normal for a cultivator to use perfume. Yet the material used was different based on their position. Trevon used the newest fragrance from the capital. While Jerry only used a special fragrance to remove his own smell. It was a common fragrance dissolving perfume for a cultivator. What if they were pursued by their enemy, warriors need this special perfume to hide their smells. One spray and all smells disappear.

"I am sorry young master. I am only following the order." Jerry said his sorry before spraying Trevon. He knew how much Trevon cared about his appearance. However, Trevon couldn't act as a young master in that kind face. If he had that kind face in Bluestar, he wouldn't dare to go out.

[This is totally another bad day for me. What karma had I done? Sh*t, I had done too many bad things.] Trevon thought in his heart. After the strangest thing that happened to him, he could only blame it to his karma. He had done too many 'good' deeds in Bluestar.

[Perhaps the God angry to me and took all my treasures.] He really couldn't think any other reason. How could his treasures disappear from his storage ring? Even his powerful grandfather or grandmother could not take items from other people storage rings.

"We will continue our recruitment process. This is a secret investigation of the candidates' background." Charles said. "Let's us get into the carriage. You will follow us, Trevon."

This time, they used a carriage rather than a wagon. Using a wagon pulled by a Flame Alogo was something too eye-catching. Only cultivator families could easily use the expensive Flame Alogo on daily usage. The carriage was carried by 8 bulky men. It was a common thing in Heavenly Phoenix. Raina and Charles entered the carriage, but Trevon who acted as a servant couldn't.

[Another misfortune, today] Trevon could only sigh to himself.

30 minutes later, they entered a house.

"This is the home of this area neighborhood leader." Charles explained.

A city as big as Redwood had several subdivisions inside it. If a city lord needed to govern over 1.000 square km of land and over 50 million people alone, he wouldn't be able to cultivate. Remember the basic rule of the world! Whose fist was bigger was the correct one. Your own strength was always the key to power, richness, and beauty. Because of this, A city lord would hire lots of cultivators, scholars, and common people to control a city. This neighborhood was the lowest subdivisions of Redwood.

"Good morning, Sir Loren!" Charles greeted a middle-aged man. He was the lord of this neighborhood. Based on the aura of his body, Trevon knew that this person wasn't a cultivator.

Normally, Charles, being an elder of a great cultivation family, wouldn't need to greet such low-rank officials. Perhaps a better term, this neighborhood head wouldn't have the chance to meet people at Charles's level during his lifetime. There would be numerous Charles's subordinate who would meet this man instead.

"Morning, Sir?" The middle-aged man wondered why this person was looking for him.

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Orbon. I am a merchant from Bluestar." Charles started to introduce his fake persona.

"I am looking for a guard for one of my stores. My friend told about Mr. Roger." Charles continued his explanation. "My friend only told me that he should live around this Neighborhood." Charles took a bag of copper coin and put it in the middle-aged man's hand. "I really hope, your noble head could help me." A bag usually consisted of more than 100 coins, a big number for a low neighborhood leader.

"Of course, It won't be hard. Follow me to my office!" The middle-aged man took Charles and his group to a building nearby. It was common for the house of important people located near their workplace.

"This is my secretary Rina." The middle-aged man introduced the group to a woman. "She will help to gather the data you need." Loren, the neighborhood head, was usually in his house. There were very few things that he needed to do daily. He was actually a former servant in Redwood family, who because of his loyalty was promoted to govern a very small section of the city.

"Rina, you should help this gentleman." He ordered his secretary.

The woman was smiling and helped the group to a room.

"You guys are waiting outside." Charles told his bodyguard. "You! Jones." Charles pointed to Trevon. "Follow me and write the information!"

[Jones? Don't you make some random name for me, Uncle?] Trevon complained in his heart. "Yes, Boss." Trevon could only act as the scenario. He really needed next month allowance since he lost all his saving.

"What should I call you, Mister?" She asked. She invited Charles and Raina to the seat.

"Just call me Orbon." Charles sat on the seat with Raina.

"What information is Mr. Orbon looking for?" The secretary continued her question.

"I need some information about Mr. Roger. He was a cultivator who lived in this neighborhood."

"Please wait a minute! I will gather all the information about Roger in our office." The woman left the room soon.

It was normal that some citizen's data were saved at each neighborhood office. The less detailed information would be sent to the higher office for general information. This is because of the huge number of population. If all over 50 million citizens' detailed information were gathered in the city lord office, its size would require a space larger than the city lord pavilion. Therefore, only important information was documented on the city lord office.

A servant came and served some tea for Charles and Raina. She quickly left the office afterward. Since he was a servant, Trevon didn't get a cup.

Raina lifted the cups and smiled at Trevon. Trevon could see the schadenfreude smile even when she wore a veil. [This girl. Wait until I am stronger than you!] Of course, this was just in his mind. Trevon would never dare to do his revenge. He was very afraid of Raina. Most likely he would be bullied instead.

15 minutes later, Rina, the secretary entered the room again. She brought a thick document.

"This is all information about Mr. Roger." She said. "Sir Loren had told me to let you copy the data." She smiled full of understanding. Usually, it was not allowed for these data to be shown to people outside the office.

"Thank you for the trouble." Charles read the documents. "Jones, copy the important part." He gave the documents to Trevon.

"Yes, Boss." Trevon checked the document.

[This Roger was a Middle Rank 1 warrior 2 years ago.] Trevon started to read the documents. [He was born in this Redwood city. His parents both are non-cultivators. But in this page, his grandfather was a Primary Rank 2 cultivator when his father born] Trevon started to check. Most data in the documents were only the administration data. What his hobbies are or who his girlfriend was wouldn't be recorded. Most cities wouldn't have the manpower to spy on its citizens. Perhaps if that person was important enough or had created a huge disturbance in the past. The city would have detailed information.

"Have you copied them all?" Charles asked Trevon 15 minutes later.

"I have, Boss." Trevon had finally finished the copying.

"Good, then we will excuse ourselves, Ms. Rina."

"I hope you get the information that you need." Rina helped them to return to the front office.

"Yes, we are very thankful for your help." Charles said. "Jones sends our gift to Ms. Rina."

[What? What gift? Sh*t! Did uncle just extort me? Didn't you remember? I have just lost all my money.] Trevon complained in his heart. He took some copper coins from his own wallet and gave it to Ms. Rina. Luckily, she didn't realize the value of Trevon wallet. It was one of the top brands from the capital.

"Thank you for your gift Mr. Orbon." She said.

"It is not a big deal Ms. Rina." Charles said. "Let's go to Mr. Roger's place now."

[Yes, it is not a big deal uncle. The money is from me.] Trevon complained. Normally he wouldn't care about some copper coins. Perhaps he didn't know how many copper coins he had in his wallet. Yet at this time he only had that money in his wallet.

They continued their journey to a region near Roger's home. Charles saw a teahouse. "We will stop here." He ordered his carriers to stop the carriage.

"Why we stopped here, Uncle?" Trevon asked.

"We will do the next step of information gathering." Charles said. "Give me the information that you copy!" Charles asked.

He read the information and gave it to his subordinates.

"You guys search around this area! Find more information about this Roger!" He ordered.

"Trevon, I actually didn't plan for you to directly join this part. Since you had the correct costume, you should follow Hendrik." Charles ordered. Hendrik was one of Charles's subordinate. He looked like a happy fat uncle. He was slimmer than Uncle Bow.

"Hendrik, you should just show how to do it twice. After that, you should only observe. Let's Trevon do the rest."

[What? I have to do it myself.] Trevon shocked.

"Yes, Elder." Hendrik said.

"And you Trevon. Unless I feel satisfied with the information, you keep doing the information gathering. You can't go home until I have the information I want." Charles said to Trevon.

[Nooo...] Trevon screamed in his heart.

"Please follow me, Young Master Trevon!" Hendrik invited Trevon.

"Jack and Jerry! You guys followed them from the Shadow." Charles ordered Jerry and Jack.

It would be too much if there were too many people moved around together during an information gathering. But, as a young master, Trevon couldn't go without proper protection. In this case, protecting from the shadow was commonly used. It would give lesser protection, but allowed the freedom for the person being protected.

Hendrik and Trevon went in the direction of Roger's house. Other than them, there were 3 other groups like them.

Hendrik came to one of the nearby old women. "Aunty, what do you sell?" He asked.

"It is fresh vegetables from the village. Do you want to buy some boss? This carrot is freshly picked from the village." The old woman answered while trying to sell the carrot. Most foods in Redwood came from the huge farmland outside the city.

"I want to check first." Hendrik started to check the carrot. While doing this he continued to talk with the woman. He moved the conversation closer to Roger.

"Aunty, do you know Roger, who lived in that house?" He asked, after being certain that the woman was a local.

"Oh, you mean that kid Roger. Do you know him too?" The old woman seemed happy to talk about Roger. "He is the famous warrior from here. It just seemed yesterday that he played with my son. Yet today, he was a cultivator while my son only a farmer. I remember when he asked me to make some noodles. He loves to eat my noodle." The woman started to talk. She had some proudness in the conversation.

"Yes, Roger, I know him. We met outside the town last week. Do you know that he is a good hunter?" Hendrik started his trick. The hunter information was given inside the copied documents.

"You are also a hunter? It can't be." The old woman looked into the fat belly of Hendrik.

"Of course not. I am only a small merchant. I can't be compared to him." Hendrik smiled, he almost made a mistake.

"Yes, you couldn't be like that kid Roger. He is very strong since kids. Back then..." The old woman continued the conversation. She gave lots of informal information from this conversation.

[Holy shit! Trevon was surprised. She even knows his underwear size. OMG! He once chased a girl and failed. That girl must regret it right now.] There was more and more information came from the old woman. Once in a while, Hendrik helped the conversation moving.

After they talked for some more, Hendrik purchased several vegetables. "How much are these vegetables?" He asked.

"It was 1 silver and 6 copper coins." The old woman smiled, she had big sales from Hendrik.

"Give me some discount, Aunty!" Hendrik joked with the aunty.

"Fine. Since you know Roger, I will give you 3 coppers discounts." She said.

"Thank you, Aunty." Hendrik paid 1 silver coin.

Hendrik then took Trevon walked some distance away.

"This is one of the methods to get an information." He said. "Now, follow me to the next person Young Master!"

Hendrik took a delicious cucumber. He ate it and give one to Trevon. "Try to eat and imagine that it was so refreshing!"

The sun was very hot. It was 12.00.

Trevon didn't like cucumber. Yet he was thirsty. He didn't even get to drink the tea. The cucumber tasted delicious because of that. In the past, if it wasn't a spirit cucumber, he wouldn't eat it. [Perhaps if you become a common person, your taste turns into common vegetables too.] He thought to himself.

They walked past some kids. "Uncle, share your cucumber with us." They asked Hendrik. This was common for poor kids. The day was hot and those cucumbers seemed delicious.

"Fine. Here is for you boys!" Hendrik said. "Do you guys often play around here?" He continued.

Hendrik skillfully moved the conversation. He talked a lot about the neighborhood. It seemed as he used to stay in the neighborhood.

"You should practice hard. Perhaps you guys can become like that powerful warrior. What is his name again?" Hendrik continued. He pretended to try to remember the name.

"You must mean uncle Roger." The kids answered. "We know him. We played with his son, Charlie."

"Really? What kind of kids is Charlie?" Hendrik asked.

[This fat man is a total snake. He doesn't even spare kids from the information gathering] Trevon thought.

They talked for an hour. The information from the kids was various. They didn't know a lot about Roger, but they gave more information about Charlie.

"Now it was your turn Young Master. I will follow you from behind." Hendrik had finished his examples.

[It won't be that hard.] Trevon smirked.

They went around, and Trevon found some young men who were hanging out.

"Look at this, Uncle Hendrik. I will show how to do this fast." He rolled up his robe's armhole.

"Hey, you bastard!!!" Trevon screamed.

[Agh! What will he do?] Hendrik screamed in his heart. He finally knew what the normal feeling of Jerry or Jack was.

[That is our young master.] Jack and Jerry thought from the shadow.

A short fight happened. Even without using his spiritual energy, Trevon easily finished that group of young men. He is a Middle Rank 1 warrior in the end. He had a better physical body than non-cultivators.

"Now, who is your boss?" He asked. [Hahaha. I really need some fights to overcome my stress.]

"Boss Jones." The group of men answered.

"Good. Now I want some information about Roger." Trevon directly asked. "You! What do you know?" He pointed to one of the young men.

[Young Master, this is not how you do it.] Hendrik almost cried.

All those young men, one by one told everything about Roger.

"Good you are dismissed." Trevon ordered them to go. "Scram!!!"

Those young men ran into the neighborhood.

"It is not that hard, Right?" Trevon proudly puffed his chest. "Let's report back to uncle, I have all the information that he would want. I know even his wife's underwear size."

"Uhuk... Uhuk..." Hendrik couldn't answer Trevon. [This is a secret investigation. No employee would like to hear their boss investigates them. Yet this young master does it in a very high-profile method. It would be strange if that Roger doesn't hear anything tomorrow.]

He followed Trevon back to Charles.