Looking at Klein, Leonard's green eyes crinkled with a smile as he nodded.
"Then what do you need them to provide?"
Having worked with Old Neil and the others many times, he naturally understood that divination required a medium, especially when the "protagonist" wasn't present.
Klein thought for a moment, then looked at Butler Kearley.
"I need an article of clothing that Eliot recently wore and hasn't been washed yet. It would be even better if you have some accessory he often wore."
He made sure to keep his chosen medium normal, nothing that would give normal people strange ideas.
Even so, the old butler Kearley looked perplexed.
"Why?"
After asking, he added, "I have a photograph of Young Master Eliot with me."
Why? Because we're going to use divination to find him... Klein was momentarily at a loss for words.
If he were to tell the truth, leaving aside whether it violated the confidentiality clause, the old butler Kearley would most likely turn around and leave, tear up the contract, and curse under his breath, "A bunch of swindlers! If this actually works, I might as well go find the most famous medium in Aho County!"
Leonard Mitchell, standing beside him, chuckled softly.
"Mr. Kearley, my companion, uh, colleague, keeps a peculiar pet. Its sense of smell is sharper than a bloodhound's. That's why we need the clothes the young master Eliot wore and the items he had on him to help with the search. You know how it is, clues often only narrow it down to a general area."
"As for the photograph, we need that too. He and I need to know what Young Master Eliot looks like."
Old Butler Kearley accepted this explanation and nodded slowly.
"Will you wait here, or come with me to Mr. Vickroy's residence in the city?"
"We'll go with you to save time," Klein replied succinctly.
He wanted to test his own Beyonder abilities, and he also harbored a simple human desire to save someone.
"Alright, the carriage is downstairs," Old Butler Kearley said as he took a black-and-white photograph from his pocket and handed it to Leonard.
It was a solo portrait of Eliot Vickroy. He looked around ten years old, with slightly long hair that almost covered his eyes. He had noticeable freckles on his face. He wasn't particularly distinctive-looking.
Leonard glanced at it and casually handed it to Klein.
Klein looked at it carefully, put the photograph into his pocket, then picked up his cane, put on his hat, and followed the two men out of the Blackthorn Security Company and into the carriage waiting downstairs.
The interior of the carriage was quite spacious, carpeted with a thick rug and had a small table for placing items.
Because of Old Butler Kearley's presence, Klein and Leonard remained silent, quietly feeling the carriage smoothly navigate the wet streets as the rain began to let up.
"Good coachman," Leonard broke the silence after a while, praising with a smile.
"Mm," Klein replied noncommittally.
Old Butler Kearley forced a smile.
"Your praise is his honor. We're almost there..."
Worried that the kidnappers might notice something amiss, the carriage did not approach the tobacco merchant Vickroy's residence but stopped on a nearby street.
Old Butler Kearley opened his umbrella and returned alone. While they waited, Leonard spoke to Klein again.
"When I speculated about the reasons last time, I had no other motives. I just wanted to tell you that that notebook will definitely appear again, perhaps very soon."
"That's really not a pleasant speculation." Klein gestured with his chin toward the coachman outside, indicating they shouldn't discuss sensitive topics while someone else was present.
Leonard whistled, then turned to look out the window. Drops of rain slid across the glass, leaving blurry trails that completely obscured the outside world.
After a while, Kearley returned carrying a bag. He had walked so quickly that the bottoms of his trousers were splattered with mud and the front of him was wet.
"These are the clothes Young Master Eliot wore yesterday, and this is the Storm Charm he used to wear."
Klein took it and looked. It was a miniature set of gentleman's formalwear: a little shirt, a little vest, a little bowtie, and so on and so forth.
As for the Storm Charm, its base was bronze, engraved with symbols representing wind and waves, but it didn't trigger Klein's spiritual senses.
"Let me now give you a detailed account of how Young Master Eliot was kidnapped, so you can narrow down the search..." Old Butler Kearley sat down and repeated the nightmare experience from that morning, hoping the help he had finally found would be of some use.
Klein and Leonard had no interest in the specific details. They only cared about how many kidnappers there were, if they behaved unusually, and if they were armed.
"Three," "Normal," "Armed"... After getting the information they wanted, they said goodbye to Old Butler Kearley and hired a light two-wheeled carriage nearby.
Unlike the omnibuses, these hired carriages came in both four-wheeled and two-wheeled versions. They could be charged by distance or by time. For the former, it was 4 pence per kilometer in the city and 8 pence per kilometer in the suburbs. For the latter, it was 2 Soles per hour, with less than an hour counting as a full hour. For more than an hour, it was 6 pence for every 15 minutes, with less than 15 minutes counting as a full 15 minutes. The price would also increase in bad weather or emergency situations that required a faster pace.
Klein had heard from Lecturer Azik that in the capital, Backlund, carriage drivers were notorious for overcharging.
To him, this was a rather extravagant luxury, but he didn't have to worry about it now because Leonard simply tossed the driver two 1-Sole notes.
"By the hour," Leonard instructed before closing the carriage door.
"Where do you need to go?" the coachman asked, both delighted and bewildered, holding the two notes.
"Wait a moment." Leonard turned his gaze to Klein.
Klein nodded slightly, took out Eliot's clothes, and spread them on the floor of the carriage. He then wrapped the Storm Charm around the head of his cane.
He gripped the black cane inlaid with silver and drove it straight down, standing upright on top of Eliot's clothes.