Qiaowude District, 22 Hope Street, Hat Trick Hotel.
The receptionist was about to take a sip of water when she saw a woman walk through the door.
The woman was about 165 cm tall, wearing a light-colored dress with ruffles, her brown hair loosely curled, and a pair of tinted glasses on her nose, giving her the casual look of someone who had just returned from a vacation at Dice Bay.
She carried a dark brown leather suitcase and walked unhurriedly to the front desk.
"What a stunning woman... her outfit is so nice... I'd love to see her without those tinted glasses..." As a woman, the receptionist habitually first sized up the other's clothing and accessories.
Then she heard the woman speak in a somewhat lazy tone:
"One night, a single room."
"Two soli eight pence," the receptionist quoted the day's price, then asked, "Do you have identification?"
She wasn't keen on the registration procedure, since the hotel couldn't verify the authenticity of documents anyway.
"Yes." The woman set down the dark brown suitcase, took a stack of identification papers from her handbag, and handed them over.
"Margaret Taylor..." the receptionist murmured as she registered, then found a key and said, "Room 2012."
"Thank you." The fashionably dressed lady took the key, picked up her dark brown suitcase, and walked toward the staircase.
Just then, a waiter in a red vest approached, bowed, and asked:
"Is there anything I can help you with?"
His gaze then fell on the suitcase she was holding.
The lady's lips curled into a smile, and she shook her head:
"No, it's light."
After saying that, she didn't linger, climbing the stairs and entering Room 2012.
Once inside, she closed the door, set down the suitcase, and suddenly raised her right hand to her chest, letting out a long sigh:
"Why do I feel like a psychotic killer..."
She was Fors in disguise, and her suitcase contained nothing but a head wrapped in newspaper—Mr. X's head!
Those two staff members would never have guessed that a fashionable lady's suitcase held no clothes, no skincare, no makeup, only a blood-soaked dead man's head that was cracking into pieces... If it were discovered, the entire hotel would be terrified! This was a perfect subject for a detective novel!
Fors calmed her nerves, picked up the suitcase again, and opened the door.
She checked the corridor, saw no one, quickly stepped out, walked to Room 2016, and knocked on the wooden door.
Her teacher, Dorian Gray Abraham, was staying in the same room he had used last time.
After sensing a gaze appraising her through the cat's-eye, Fors heard the handle turn and the lock click open.
Dorian Gray, wearing a black suit and broad-shouldered, scanned left and right warily, then stepped aside to let the student in.
"No one noticed, right?" he asked cautiously as he closed the door.
Fors set down the suitcase, took off the tinted glasses that covered half her face, and said:
"No, I used a fake identity."
As a Beyonder with plenty of low-level experience living in Backlund, having several sets of fake IDs was a necessity.
Plus, she had Hugh, an expert in that area.
The only problem was that fake is always fake and cannot hold up to police verification.
However, Fors had heard that some channels could provide genuine IDs—meaning documents registered with the police, with interchangeable photos—though they would naturally cost quite a bit more.
Dorian nodded slightly, exhaled silently, and motioned for Fors to sit down as he pulled up a chair.
"In your letter you said that at a Beyonder gathering in Backlund, someone offered a reward for tracking down direct descendants of the Abraham family, aiming to obtain information on 'Mr. Door'?"
"Yes, teacher." Fors replied with absolute truth. "I don't know much about that family myself, so I thought I'd ask you, to see if you know anything."
She only concealed two things: that the gathering was called the Tarot Club, and that she already knew her teacher was a member of the Abraham family.
Dorian sat down, took a sip of tea from a white porcelain cup, and asked in a seemingly calm voice:
"And who was the one offering the reward?"
"I don't know; I only know it was a lady. She hid her appearance, uh, she seems very strong, and the force behind her is not weak either," Fors described the "Lady Hermit" as she understood.
She didn't say that this lady was closely connected to the "Mystery Queen" Bernadette.
Dorian Gray mused for a few seconds and said: