Percy walked silently behind Charles as they walked through the streets.
Well silence for them at least.
The streets around them remained lively as people moved back and forth and right across the road, public carriages rolled past noisily.
Neither of them spoke until they arrived at a fountain.
The first one to speak was Charles,"Mister Percy Valemont, what do you think about the current world we live in?"
Percy looked slightly upward toward the older man due to their height difference, confusion visible in his eyes.
Charles noticed it and gave a faint smile.
"Ah, right. I never introduced myself properly."
He slightly adjusted the gloves in his hands before continuing,
"My name is Charles Kaerleston."
Then his eyes shifted back toward Percy.
"And my earlier question still remains."
Oh!! Right!!
I really was just calling him 'older investigator' in my head this whole time.
After several seconds, he finally replied,
"…I think the world is like an iceberg."
Charles reacted immediately as his footsteps stopped briefly as he turned toward Percy.
"An iceberg?"
Percy nodded lightly.
"What ordinary civilians are made known is only the visible part above the surface."
He paused briefly before continuing,
"But underneath all that, there is corruption, unexplained incidents, truths that never saw the light just like an iceberg."
Charles remained silent for a few seconds before finally giving a response,"That's an amusing analogy."
He resumed walking afterward.
"I might use that myself someday."
His gaze drifted ahead calmly.
"That is quite an interesting thought for an ordinary tailor."
Then Charles looked toward Percy once more.
"And what made you arrive at such a conclusion?"
Is he seriously asking me that?
Ronan inwardly felt speechless, though his expression remained mostly calm.
"Well," he answered carefully, "because of the things that have happened lately."
His gaze shifted slightly toward Charles.
"Things I'm sure you know far more about than I do."
Charles adjusted his hat slightly.
"Would you like to know more about it?"
Percy's brows twitched faintly.
"Would knowing more drag me deeper into whatever this is?"
He paused briefly before continuing,
"Or would it simply remain… extra knowledge?"
Charles' faint smile dimmed slightly.
"With knowledge comes a price."
His tone remained calm.
"So yes. You would inevitably be dragged deeper into it."
Percy fell silent, honestly speaking, that answer alone already told him enough.
After several moments, Charles simply patted Percy lightly on the shoulder.
"Don't think too deeply about it."
Then he added casually,
"And thank you for the coat. It was very well mended."
Ronan instinctively raised a brow.
How would he know that already?
He barely even checked it.
Charles then walked past him calmly.
As he did, he spoke once more with a quieter voice.
Not quite a whisper but close enough that only Percy could hear it.
"You should keep it in a holster. Shoving it inside your pants and shirt isn't ideal."
Charles continued walking away at the same steady and confident pace as before.
Meanwhile, Percy remained standing there completely frozen.
Well. Fuck.
Percy stood there for a while before finally returning toward the tailor shop.
His palms were sweating slightly.
How the hell does he know? Am I going to get arrested or what? And why did he just leave like that?
Shouldn't he have questioned me more?
Percy frowned inwardly.
The more he thought about Charles, the worse his headache became.
At the very least, the investigator did not seem hostile toward him for now.
That alone was already fortunate enough.
Not wanting to dwell on it further, Percy returned to his own aisle and sat down before his workstation.
However, he had barely settled down when Miss Gracy approached him.
"What happened?"
Though she tried sounding casual, Percy could tell the entire shop was quietly paying attention.
Even several workers pretending to work had clearly slowed their hands.
Percy forced out a polite smile.
"He just wanted to check how I was doing since he was the one involved with helping me after that accident earlier."
But Percy had no intention of spinning an even larger web of explanations right now.
As for future problems, he had decided to leave those for his future self.
Miss Gracy reluctantly accepted the explanation, though her expression still showed clear dissatisfaction.
The other female workers also looked similarly unconvinced.
Although, on the other hand, the men's appeared satisfied with the answer already.
Percy could not help but sighed inwardly.
Women really had terrifying intuition sometimes.
.....
After a few hours later:
Percy was currently inside a cluttered shop filled with all kinds of miscellaneous items.
Old ornaments, secondhand tools, cracked pottery, decorative lamps, strange trinkets, old books, children's toys, medicines, the place practically sold everything.
It was one of the more famous "everything shops" within the district, where people often brought old belongings to sell cheaply.
Percy had come here after work for one specific reason.
A holster.
Before this, he briefly considered making one himself using cloth, but quickly gave up on the idea.
A proper holster needed leather if he wanted the revolver secured properly, and Percy neither knew how to process leather nor wanted to ask too many questions about it.
That would only invite suspicion.
Why would an ordinary tailor suddenly need a holster? Currently, Percy had disguised himself slightly before entering.
Well, not exactly disguised as his hat was only lowered enough to somehow shadow his face while a scarf borrowed from the shop concealed the lower half.
It was crude, but enough to make him feel less exposed.
Percy slowly traced the shelves while searching through the countless objects scattered around the store.
Surprisingly enough, he actually found several holsters.
Though most looked more decorative than practical, one of them immediately caught his eye.
It looked sturdy.
Using Percy's tailoring knowledge, which apparently applied decently enough to leatherwork as well, he inspected it carefully.
Most goods here were secondhand or came from questionable sources, so checking the quality beforehand was important.
The leather was dark brown with even stitching throughout.
As for the design, it lacked an attached belt but could instead be strapped onto one separately.
That alone made Percy rather satisfied.
A leather belt would cost too much for him currently, but a simple cloth or woven belt could easily be made by himself.
After confirming it was the one he wanted, Percy instinctively checked the small handmade pouch serving as his wallet.
Inside remained around twenty-six copper crowns.
Avoiding the Shrewsbury Drunkard lately had genuinely helped him save money.
As Percy made his way toward the counter to ask about the price, something suddenly caught his attention from the corner of his eye.
It was a wooden box resting quietly upon a nearby shelf, half hidden behind a cat-shaped toy.
Percy unconsciously slowed his steps and his eyes fixated on the box.