At 10 p.m., a light drizzle began to fall again in
Icendrhas Stanton's assistant, Bowen, finished his rounds on the ground floor and walked over to a bay window, intending to close the last window.
Just then, a black shadow darted in, landing steadily on the protruding wall. It was actually a blue shorthair stray cat!
Seeing the cat's large, round yellow eyes looking at him, Bowen couldn't help but chuckle, "There's no food here."
Because detective work easily invites reprisals, and he had many secrets to hide, Icendrhas Stanton's cooks and servants were all hourly workers. They only came for a fixed number of hours each day and didn't prepare too much food at once, so there was rarely anything left over after dinner.
The blue shorthair cat opened its mouth. Instead of a meow, it spoke like a human. "I am Sherlock Moriarty. I want to see Mr. Icendrhas Stanton."
Bowen was a Beyonder nurtured by the
After a few seconds, he regained his clarity of mind, replaying the blue shorthair cat's words. It said... it said it was Sherlock Moriarty? This great detective is really amazing! He can actually turn into a cat, no, control a cat! This ability is both uncanny and frightening!
Bowen quickly calmed down. Without directly answering the blue shorthair cat, he reached out and closed the glass window. Only after doing this did he lower his voice and say, "Follow me."
The blue shorthair cat immediately jumped down from the platform behind the bay window. With its tail held high, it walked nimbly at Bowen's side and slightly behind him, following him all the way to the second floor and watching him knock on the door of Icendrhas Stanton's bedroom.
"Is there something?" The door opened. Eisenger, wearing light-striped pajamas, asked. He was enjoying his pre-bedtime tobacco.
Bowen cautiously pointed at the blue shorthair cat crouching beside him. "Mr. Sherlock Moriarty is here to see you."
Icendrhas, with graying temples and a thin face, raised his eyebrows slightly. He looked down, took two steps back, and let the blue shorthair cat stride boldly into his bedroom.
"Go back to your room and sleep. Get up on time tomorrow. We still have a case to investigate." Eisenger instructed Bowen as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
After his assistant left, he closed the door and turned to look at the blue shorthair cat crouching by the easy chair. He chuckled lightly. "I didn't know you had this kind of Beyonder power. I was worried you might just come straight over."
"I noticed the exclamation mark," the blue shorthair cat said with a smile. It had to be said, seeing such an expression on a cat's face was very incongruous. It gave the observer a feeling of a cold shiver running down their spine and their hair standing on end.
Eisenger, however, showed no abnormal reaction. He took a puff of his pipe, sat down in the easy chair, and slowly exhaled the smoke with relish. He said with a smile, "I trust your wisdom."
"Thank you for your praise." The blue shorthair cat politely extended its paw and gave a bow.
Eisenger watched it, stroking his pipe as he smiled and said, "You should already understand what has happened."
"Although those people don't dare to monitor too strictly, afraid that I will notice and inform the
"So, humans and animals entering my house won't be stopped. You've already thought of that. But when you leave, you will inevitably be followed. Do you have a way to shake them off? Hmm... that sum of money is not small. Taking it out would be very conspicuous."
"Let me think. Are you planning to communicate with me, have me deposit the money into a designated bank account, and then you find a number of people to withdraw it in batches and simultaneously from different places outside of Backlund?" At this point, Eisenger gave a self-deprecating laugh. "That's the best plan I can think of, but it will be very troublesome to execute."
The blue shorthair cat did not answer directly. It chuckled deeply and said, "I just need you to lend me an empty room and three candles."
"No problem." Icendrhas Stanton didn't press further. Instead, he said, "The price of this share transfer is twelve thousand pounds. The buyer is Audrey, the daughter of
Class D tax refers to income tax on commercial, financial, and professional industry earnings.
"I have to pay taxes too... Just like that, over two thousand pounds are gone..." The blue shorthair cat's expression instantly became a bit dazed.
Klein used to be a Nighthawk; his salary didn't require personal income tax. Later, he became a private detective; his income was hard to monitor, so he never actively filed taxes. After that, he became an adventurer; because bounties on pirates had incentives and didn't require tax, he had no awareness of it. So, even though Eisenger Stanton had mentioned the tax issue last time, he didn't take it to heart and didn't think it would be much. In the end, reality hit him hard.
As for why the last equity transaction didn't require tax, it was because the Loen government encourages initial investment in inventions and creations and provides corresponding reductions and exemptions.