Edrick crouched in the shadows of the boiler room. His fingernails scraped across the brick joints as he pried out a half-broken gear tooth. It fit perfectly into the gap in the skinny man's necklace.
He couldn't help but feel proud of his observational skills at that moment. This was the result of a scholar's mind combined with the memory of a butcher.
People often think scholars are stubborn and extreme, but, in fact, as long as sufficient evidence exists, they are the easiest to understand and accept.
This is also why Edrick was able to quickly adapt to this unfamiliar world. Of course, the six months he spent locked in the idol also played a role. If an ordinary person had been thrown into this world, they probably wouldn't have survived a week.
"Charlotte Holmes... This is just a coincidence, right?" Edrick couldn't help but think back to the elf girl he met in the restaurant. He was puzzled but couldn't think of an answer, so he continued observing.
The tattooed anchor pointed inward. It was a fake tattoo worn by the Soot Street Scamps, but in the wrong direction. The broken glass shards he was hiding were still sticky with the sour smell of sewer water. Clearly, they were a weapon used by the Scamps after being soaked in a cesspool.
The purple stain on the short man's hidden pocket became more noticeable in the firelight. It was the alkaline in urine reacting with water. The crystallized alkaline water on the sole of his shoe was slowly grinding into the brick surface as if spelling out the location of Warehouse 3.
Thanks to the elf girl who called herself Holmes, three clues formed a triangle in Edrick's mind: the skinny guy scouted, the strong guy did the killing, and the short guy delivered the message.
Their work pants were washed white but couldn't hide the layers of coal dust on their cuffs. Usually, the Blackbeard Gang's uniforms were soaked in fish oil to prevent staining, but these three's fabric still carried the bitter taste of chimney soot.
The heat from the boiler made the back of his neck tighten, and he suddenly remembered that, last week, when the foreman was counting the rum in Warehouse No. 3, Iron Hook Hack had sent four of his trusted men to keep watch.
The Scamps were going to burn that batch of rum!
Using lye-soaked letters as a map, they would cut open the rum barrels with broken glass, mix the rum with coal dust, and drain it into the sewers. This would frame Blackbeard's own men and spark an internal conflict.
But what was the undercover agent doing with drugs? Edrick quickly figured out what the Scamps were up to. They planned to burn the rum, then plant drugs in the ruins and frame the Blackbeard gang.
Such a frame-up didn't require much sophistication. After all, the conflict between the two gangs was ultimately a struggle among the upper echelons of power. No concrete evidence was needed. As long as there was a pretext to involve the police, politicians could exert their influence to ensure Blackbeard's downfall.
Moreover, the cargo they had chosen was easy to handle. Rum is highly flammable, and carrying out the plan wouldn't require many people. Dockworkers were highly mobile, and three strangers wouldn't normally arouse suspicion.
"Not bad. For a bunch of thugs, this plan is quite diabolical," Edrick said, crumpling the alkaline paper fragment in his palm and staining his fingertips purple. "If I hadn't discovered it."
Edrick had no fond memories of Blackbeard's gang. He and his father worked at Blackbeard's wharf, where the work was hard and exhausting. They were often beaten and verbally abused. Furthermore, Blackbeard's gang would deduct a large portion of the money Edrick and his father earned.
The best outcome for Edrick would be for the two gangs to destroy each other.
There were two hours left before the ebb tide bell rang. When it rang, the ships remaining at the wharf would be stranded and the dockworkers would not be able to continue working. Therefore, the ebb tide bell was also the signal for the dockworkers to finish working.
Edrick had to let the Blackbeard gang find the soles of the three men's shoes before the tide rose.
The gears creaked in the distance, urging him to start crushing the first brick of this conspiracy. Edrick didn't want either the Blackbeard Gang or the Soot Street Scamps to win too easily.
The ebb tide bell suddenly tore through the morning mist in the distance. He counted the rhythm of the bell striking the brick surface. In one hour, the Blackbeard Gang's wine ship would leave the shore.
Usually, Edrick would be exhausted from moving so much coal by himself, but he could now feel that his physique was different from that of ordinary people. He had been doing heavy work all day and still had energy to spare.
The skinny man suddenly stood up straight, his rusty gear necklace scraping against the boiler's rivets and making an almost inaudible sound. This was the "code" of the Cinder Street Scamps, meaning the operation had begun.
Edrick watched the short man slip along the wall toward Warehouse 3. The crystallized lye on the soles of his shoes left faint traces on the brick surface, like a trail of symbols guiding the reaper.
The short man reached into his pocket, where he kept the meager, unrefined results of his "hard work" over the past two days at the saltpeter field.
When the short man hooked his little finger toward the hidden pocket at his waist for the third time, Edrick stood up suddenly and deliberately kicked over the coal basket at his feet. As the coal dust exploded, it raised a cloud of smoke. Edrick took advantage of the commotion to shout to the nearby Black Beard Gang guards, "There's a rat chewing on a wine barrel in Warehouse 3!"
His hoarse, coughing voice sounded just like an old dockworker soaked in coal dust.
As the burly guard turned around, Edrick bumped into him deliberately. Shards of broken glass slid off the oilcloth, glinting coldly in the steam lamp's light.
One of Blackbeard's henchmen saw the broken glass and immediately tensed up. This glass mixed with excrement was the special weapon of those damn scamps!
Those filthy bastards! How dare they come to the wharf and cause trouble! The henchman shouted to catch the "rats" and lunged at the bald strongman.
Outside, chaos erupted. Edrick took advantage of the commotion to slip into the warehouse and pull out a small bag of black powder that he had prepared.
He had rushed to make it in the past two days. The formula for black powder is quite simple: charcoal, sulfur, and potassium nitrate in the right proportions yield black powder. Charcoal and sulfur were common items that even the poorest could obtain.
The main ingredient he couldn't find was saltpeter. However, he could scrape it off the walls of public toilets, soak it, filter it, evaporate it, and crystallize it to obtain pure saltpeter.
Feces were an important source of saltpeter, which was why Edrick had been collecting them for the past two days. He planned to create a saltpeter field to ensure a steady supply.
In Stellaxis, where gunpowder and firearms had not been developed for some unknown reason, this would be his trump card.
Currently, he didn't have enough saltpeter to cause a big explosion, but he had enough to start a fierce fire.
Twenty barrels of rum were piled in the corner of the warehouse. The bottoms of the barrels had been cut with broken glass, and the dark brown liquid was seeping into the coal ash like a poisonous snake about to suffocate it.
Just as Edrick was about to set the fire, he furrowed his brow. If not for his heightened sense of smell, he wouldn't have noticed the anomaly. Amidst the strong scent of alcohol, he caught a faint whiff of blood.
Edrick's first thought was that there were bodies in the barrels. However, when he opened one of the barrels, which were about the size of gasoline drums, he discovered that they had two layers. The outer layer contained the usual strong rum, but the inner layer contained blood.
The dark brown, gelatinous substance was unmistakably blood.
Seeing this, Edrick couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine. The barrel had a capacity of about 70 gallons. After removing the rum from the outer layer, there was still enough space in the inner layer for 50 gallons of blood. So much blood!
Edrick wasn't sure what kind of blood it was, but it was most likely not animal blood. The Stellaxis did not have the custom of consuming animal blood because it went against the teachings of the Luminous Church.
Animal blood from slaughterhouses is typically used for organic fertilizer or tanning leather at a price of only fifteen shillings per ton.
This double-layered barrel alone was worth more than 15 shillings.
Moreover, those transporting the blood had gone to great lengths to conceal it with expensive rum. If it weren't for Edrick's exceptional sense of smell, he wouldn't have noticed anything amiss.
Regardless of whether the blood is human, it certainly isn't being used properly.
His intuition told him that the blood was undoubtedly connected to a mysterious event he didn't understand. Based on his limited knowledge of the occult from his previous life, he knew that anything involving blood couldn't possibly be good.
"Do you know what this thing is used for?" Edrick's attention returned to the TV. He wanted to ask the Flower Maiden and the Wealth-Scattering Lad for their opinions. After all, in Edrick's mind, these two creatures clearly belonged to the mystical realm.
"I don't know," the Flower Maiden replied bluntly.
Edrick was a little disappointed. Seeing his expression, the Flower Maiden suddenly lost her temper. "You sucker! Are you stupid?
They're not even from the same system! I'm from the Celestial Theodome faction of theology, and the beings you've encountered are from the realm of magic. How would I know what faction they're from?"
Edrick was taken aback by her words. As a scholar, he was sensitive to academic disciplines and seemed to understand what Flower Maiden meant. For example, he had a master's degree in chemistry but was helpless when faced with a simple question about aerodynamics.
In fact, he was also very puzzled. He had clearly come to a world of steam and magic, so why were the Flower Maiden, the Wealth-Scattering Lad, and even the entire Sanctum of the Village Deity all in an Eastern style? Could it be because he had studied in China?
Griff had said that the Scamps were backed by the Pureblood Order, and they seemed to be plotting to gain control of the docks by the 10^(th) of next month. Could there be a connection?
Edrick must be extremely cautious. He cannot act rashly before gaining a general understanding of the situation because he has already been drawn into the upper-level power struggle. Any mistake could lead to his downfall.
First, let's sort out the current situation. It's certain that the Blackbeard Gang is backed by Councilor Horace—a fact well known among the dockworkers. Their collaboration has lasted three years, making it long-standing and stable.
Edmund Hollis is a middle-ranking figure on the South Dock Committee in the Rust District. At the same time, one of his cousins seems to be a nobleman in the House of Lords, though the specifics are unclear.
Edrick, who is not interested in politics, knows nothing more about Hollis.
In contrast, the Soot Street Scamps are suspected of being backed by the Pureblood Order. But why is there so much blood in Blackbeard's cargo? Logically, shouldn't the Soot Street Scamps be smuggling blood for the Pureblood Order?
Perhaps there is another organization besides the Pureblood Order that knows how to use blood and is cooperating with Blackbeard. Or maybe the Soot Street Scamps aren't cooperating with the Pureblood Order at all.
Wait—Edrick realized he had fallen into a trap. It was certain that Senator Horace was behind Blackbeard's gang. They had built up their connections over many years, and their interests would not change overnight. However, the relationship between the Pureblood Order and the Scamps was only based on Griff's claim that he saw someone from the Order talking to the boss. He didn't know what they talked about, nor whether they had reached an agreement.
Edrick had initially concluded that the Scamps were backed by the Pureblood Order because, in his fragmented memories, he saw people from the church behind the Scamps.
This was also why, when they wanted to take action against the Croft family the day before yesterday, they chose to report it to the church patrol instead of the police, who were affiliated with the city government.
However, the church is not the same as the Pureblood Order. The Luminous Church is the most widespread faith on the mainland, and there are many sects under it. The Pureblood Order is just one of them. These sects have their own interests and are not united. For example, the order in the Stellaxis diocese is called the Ordo Solis Eclipse.
This is how the Church controls the various kingdoms. While Edrick's memories do not mention specific details, as a Transmigrator familiar with Earth's history, it is easy to imagine that, as a religious organization transcending the secular world, the Church would want to control vast lands and numerous affiliated kingdoms directly. Relying on just a few dioceses and churches would obviously not be enough, so the Church established orders in various places to restrain the local royal families.
Some of these orders were directly affiliated with the Church, while others were spontaneously organized by local dioceses. Conditions varied from place to place.
According to the current understanding of transmigrators, the Church is equivalent to the European Union. The highest papacy is equivalent to the European Council. The royal families of each country are equivalent to the governments of European countries. The subordinate religious orders are equivalent to the Representation of the European Commission.
Conflicts between these religious orders and congregations are likely. After all, it's impossible for any large organization to be completely unanimous. The transmigrators had already witnessed too many internal struggles in the Czech Republic.
On that note, Representative Horace was backed by a member of the Upper House who was undoubtedly part of the royalist faction. If we regard the scamps as the Church's foot soldiers and the Blackbeard Gang as the royalist faction's foot soldiers, then many things become easier to understand.
The Pureblood Order is an external order, and their demand that the scamps take the docks by the 30th of next month is just an excuse to force the scamps to take action. Could they want to join forces with the royal family to drive out the local orders?
There are still too few clues. Even Edrick, who has some theories, cannot deduce the entire truth. Though filled with doubt, he must still take action. Edric inspected the warehouse and confirmed that it only contains Blackbeard's goods. It is built on water, so the fire won't spread to other areas.
He pried open four barrels in a row and poured the rum from the outer layers onto the ground. Then, he scattered gunpowder in a straight line on the ground, extending it all the way to the rum. Finally, he lit the gunpowder from a safe distance.
Two minutes later, Edrick turned and left amid the flames and screams. His work wasn't done yet, though. He still needed to deliver a surprise to Scamps. He also couldn't forget the patrolman from Ordo Solis Eclipse who had directly caused his death.
"What a busy day. How come there are so many people to deal with?" Edrick stretched lazily and laughed like a villain. "I wonder how that kid Griff is doing. If he's doing a good job, I'll let him live a few more days."