Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 292 - 5 The Stolen Heart of Years_1

Chapter 292: Chapter 5 The Stolen Heart of Years_1

"This issue is becoming more and more of a headache." As Pannis watched the two church officials leave, he stretched languidly: "It seems we don’t have time for breakfast. I’ll grab a few biscuits for breakfast. What would you like to drink, milk? Or perhaps white wine?"

"A little white wine will do," Catherine thought seriously. "That goes best with cherry biscuits."

"As you wish, my knight." Pannis jumped up and headed for the kitchen. "It won’t be long."

When Pannis came back to the living room with a tray, he saw Catherine sitting in the soft and comfortable chair, looking out at the morning sun in a daze. Her slightly furrowed brows indicated her unease.

"What are you thinking about?" Pannis placed the tray on the coffee table. It had a plate filled with a dozen cherry biscuits, two empty glasses, a recently opened bottle of white wine and a cup of warm milk, which was Lina’s, the magic caster’s, snack drink. Intense focus is crucial for casters, and alcohol often interferes with it, along with the stability and accuracy of magic, and the ability to assess the situation. Hence most casters avoid alcohol, at least during work hours.

Catherine was brought back by Pannis’ voice, she gratefully smiled, poured herself a glass of chilly white wine, picked up a biscuit and while idly swishing her glass so the overly chilled wine would warm up she said: "I was thinking about what happened in Dersala, guessing what the killer wanted and what his motives were."

"Any ideas?" Pannis seated himself back in his original position, pouring himself a glass as well and asked casually: "Or perhaps you have any suggestions?"

"We really should have taken Vivian with us." Catherine said: "The killer is a mage, who also used the Magic Array, and having Vivian around would have been really helpful. Although Lina is also a caster, the differences between the priest-type and mage-type casters are just too vast, with very little in common."

"There’s no need." Pannis shook his head: "I don’t think that any substantive progress can be made this time. The killer was interrupted, and it has already attracted official attention, the chances of him staying there, continuing to commit crimes are very slim."

"That’s precisely the point." Catherine said, "I was just thinking, what does the killer want? What is his criteria for choosing a crime scene? If it’s to damage the local authorities’ reputation, then he might really stay and continue committing crimes there. Remember, all the incidents discovered so far have occurred within the Neville Federation."

"Those are just the ones we’ve discovered. I suspect there must have been more occurrences. Perhaps there’s even more all around the world." Pannis said: "Of course, we lack evidence right now, and we can only judge after the Guild’s investigation results from all around the world come in."

"Let’s drop it. It’s meaningless to speculate about these things, it’s just wild guessing. Besides, let’s discuss this again after your investigation." Catherine smiled and shook her head, "Let’s talk about something happy. I’m about to make a breakthrough, Upper Gold Rank, and it should happen after this fragile period."

"Congratulations!" Pannis was startled, then he praised, "I never thought you’d been building up for so long, you got your breakthrough from being hit by a cow, haha."

"Hey!" Catherine glared at Pannis, "Even though I’m still weak, but I can still wield a sword to chop people."

"I was wrong, please forgive me." Pannis immediately apologized without hesitation.

"Cba to scold you." Catherine rolled her eyes at Pannis then said hesitantly: "After the breakthrough, I’ll have to face the most difficult challenge: the Legendary Rank. Only after breaking through to Legendary rank can one be considered a true world-class powerhouse. I don’t know if I have any hope of advancing to the Legendary rank, after all, I only have sixteen years left till the forty-year age limit for promotion. By the way, no one has ever explained to me why it’s hopeless to advance to Legendary rank after forty? I’ve asked many people, but they cannot provide any reason."

"Actually, this rule only applies to humans, or rather, this rule was summarized by humans themselves." Pannis explained: "It’s related to the human body’s condition. Advancing to the Legendary rank often represents surpassing the physical limits on something, and to exceed the limit, you must first reach it. However, this limit, representing the epitome of a normal human body, is extremely difficult to reach, and even more difficult to surpass. The forty-year checkpoint represents the best state of the human body. People reach their physical peak at twenty, then after maintaining that peak for a decade, the body begins to decline around forty. So if you want to surpass the physical limits, you must be at your peak. If you can’t break through at your peak, you stand no chance once the decline begins."

"Uhh, I didn’t really get it." Catherine stuck out her tongue like a little girl, "What limit? What peak?"

"It’s hard to explain, you’ll naturally understand once you reach the Upper Gold Rank, or you can ask Vivian, she must have already touched that line." Pannis said: "To put it simply, once you reach the Upper Gold Rank, you’ll find that there’s no road ahead, just a wall. If you break that wall you can go further, if you can’t you’ll stay in the same place forever. To break it, you need to be in your best state, but after forty, you’ll gradually decline and you’ll never be at your peak again. This should be easier to understand."

"I kinda get it." Catherine suddenly smiled, staring at Pannis and said: "But, you really...."

"Hey." Pannis glared.

"Alright, I’m saying nothing, I know noth~ing~ at~ all~." Catherine curled up in her chair, smiling mischievously like a little fox.

"Lina is back." Pannis suddenly put down her wine glass and adjusted her posture: "She has brought a guest with her, it really has been inexplicably busy today."

"Please come in." With the living room door pushed open, Lina spoke in her typically indifferent tone: "Catherine is inside."

The man who entered was someone who looked quite prominent. He was slightly overweight but still well-proportional. His brown hair was combed towards the back, his thick sideburns neatly trimmed. He wore a well-tailored black suit and an obligatory black top hat, with steady gazes emanating from his blue pupils. Pannis felt like she had seen this man before, and after some recollection, she remembered where she had met him.

"Mr. Merle." Catherine seemed to be quite familiar with this man and recognized him immediately. "Why have you come here today? You are not going to ask us to join your auction house and be in charge of security again, are you?"

Pannis finally remembered. A few months ago when Marquis Snape, a relative of Catherine, was visiting her in the City of Knowledge, she had seen this John Merle at a dinner party hosted by the Marquis. He was one of the operators of Merle and Jones Auction House, one of the three major auction houses in the Holy City, the contemporary head of the Merle family, and a standing member of the Business Federation of the City of Knowledge, wielding considerable power within the Holy City’s business circle.

"Of course not." John managed a slight laugh: "I have a task I would like to entrust to you. It involves confidential details."

"Huh? Let me guess!" Catherine’s eyes twinkled: "I understand now. The Heart of Years is a item auctioned through your house, and there has been some new development, right?"

"Why does everyone immediately understand what’s going on as soon as they see me?" John sighed with a bitter smile: "It is indeed about the Heart of Years."

"You guys chat, I’ll go wake up Vivian." Lina obviously had no interest in the matter, and turned her head to walk upstairs.

"Pop down to the basement and let Annie know while you’re at it." Catherine instructed: "Tell her to play downstairs for a bit and not to come up."

"Alright, go on." Seeing Lina wave to indicate she had heard, Catherine focused her attention on John Merle: "What do you want to entrust us with? To steal back the Heart of Years?"

"I suppose I should explain in detail." John contemplated for a moment: "At the beginning of last year, a long-time client of ours came to me, hoping to auction off the Heart of Years. He had his eye on several mines belonging to the Neville Federation and the Falar Empire and wanted to purchase them over the next few years, but lacked sufficient capital and hoped to cash in by auctioning off the legendary gem. After several discussions, we decided to do so at the Beliefs Auction at the end of the year, when the price could reach its peak. The client was also very pleased with this suggestion."

"Everything was going smoothly, but problems arose on the day of the auction." John subconsciously loosened his tie and Pannis quickly offered him a new glass filled with white wine. Only after he drained the glass did John wipe the sweat from his forehead and continue: "On the evening before the auction, at about eleven o’clock, I inspected all the precious auction items one last time, especially the gem. After confirming there were no problems, I put it in the safe, which was guarded by three Legendary Masters hired from the Adventurers Guild for the night. Normally, only one Legendary Master would be necessary, but because of the gem, we hired two additional Masters."

"Two hours before the auction, I opened the safe as usual. The seal on the safe was intact, the box was still there, and the magic seal on the box bore no sign of damage." John said in a somewhat perplexed tone: "But when I opened the box, the gem was gone."

"Oh?" Catherine exclaimed in surprise: "Everything was undamaged? That’s amazing, how did they manage that? Could the gem have been moved through magic?"

"Impossible." Vivian, leaning on her magic staff soon descended the staircase: "Unless there was a teleportation array engraved in the box, it couldn’t be done. Besides, the auction house’s safe should come with a spatial disruption feature, which would hinder accurate operation of teleportation magic."

"Right, we also considered this." John agreed: "It’s unlikely that it was the effect of magic. But with three Legendary Masters guarding the safe, I don’t think anyone could steal the gem through the safe. So we replaced the gem in the auction list and started secretly searching all over the city." (To be continued. If you like this novel, please consider voting for it and leave a suggestion on qidian.com. Your support is our greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)