"Used books? Yes... we mainly buy books here, but we also rent and sell them."
Standing behind the counter, the alert-looking clerk answered Dorothy's question, and Dorothy continued after hearing him.
"Then, do you have these books here?" Saying this, Dorothy took out a slip of paper from her pocket and handed it to the clerk behind the counter. The clerk's brows furrowed slightly after looking at it.
"'The Light Gospel', Volume 4... 'Rhetoric and Speech', Volume 3... 'Adolf's Logic', Volume 3... 'Basic Etiquette'... 'Geometric Arithmetic'... Hiss, customer, you're asking for quite a few books. I'm not sure if the store has all of them. How about this, you wait here, and I'll go get the boss."
The counter clerk replied to Dorothy, and Dorothy immediately agreed.
"Alright, then I'll trouble you."
After that, Dorothy watched the clerk walk up the stairs behind the counter to the second floor.
...
On the second floor of the bookstore at this time, a bald old man was standing in a dim secret room. In front of him was an altar made of fresh red bones. On the wriggling flesh of the altar grew an ear and a mouth.
Facing the bloody altar, Clifford spoke solemnly, and the mouth on the altar began to speak, transmitting Buck's voice.
"So, you still didn't see the Mentor in the end?"
"No, I visited the Mentor's dream cocoon from the Dream World, but the dream cocoon refused to open to me. I couldn't enter the Mentor's dream and couldn't see him in person."
"Alas... the Mentor's preparation for advancement is perhaps too cautious. It seems impossible to rely on the Mentor for now." Clifford said with a sigh, and Buck responded through the altar.
"Mm... so we need to be more careful now. Since that mysterious society can counter divination and various pieces of information are still unclear, let's not directly search for them in the city for now."
"Then we're not going to deal with them?"
"It's not that we're not dealing with them... perhaps we can use other channels to find them, for example, the An Yin Bureau..." Buck continued, and hearing Buck's words, Clifford couldn't help but look puzzled.
"An Yin Bureau?"
"Yes, that society has twice actively revealed our information to the An Yin Bureau. I suspect there might be some connection between them and the An Yin Bureau that even our informants don't know about."
"Or, to be bolder, James has already detected the presence of an mole but cannot confirm who it is. That society is actually an additional force secretly requested and allocated by James from his superiors. They are hidden as other societies in Igwinte, bypassing the Igwinte branch and independently carrying out search operations against us, thus bypassing our informants."
Buck continued to speak solemnly, stating his conjecture. After hearing his conjecture, Clifford was slightly taken aback and then spoke.
"You mean that mysterious society is actually a branch of the An Yin Bureau?"
"Exactly... otherwise, why would a society from outside Igwinte always target us without question as soon as they arrive? If they were originally a smokescreen for the An Yin Bureau, it makes sense!" Buck said in a tone of course, and Clifford also nodded thoughtfully.
"It seems what you said makes some sense. A place like Igwinte doesn't have any scarce mysterious resources that would attract other societies to come here. If they are also the An Yin Bureau, it makes sense. But... since James has the ability to apply for more personnel from his superiors, why doesn't he apply for one or two divination opportunities?"
"Hmph... divination isn't that easy to apply for. There are over eighty cities in all of Prit, and eighty-odd An Yin Bureau branches. Each has its own difficult problems that need to be solved by divination. There are only so many divination resources in total. I suspect their headquarters doesn't even have enough for themselves, let alone what they can allocate to the lower levels? James has to compete with over eighty colleagues, so applying for personnel is definitely much more convenient in comparison..." Buck said with a cold snort, seemingly quite knowledgeable about the An Yin Bureau.
"Indeed... that makes sense too... So, if that mysterious society is really a branch of the An Yin Bureau, how should we deal with it?" Clifford said solemnly, and Buck replied.
"Let's not make any big moves for now, especially stopping the search targeting that mysterious society. On the other hand, we can look for opportunities to deepen our infiltration of the Igwinte branch. If we can get more informants within the An Yin Bureau and eventually make contact with James himself, then I believe we can also obtain a lot of intelligence about that mysterious society."
"Mm... we can only do this for now, but where can we find such an opportunity..."
Clifford said contemplatively, and at this moment, a voice sounded from outside the secret room.
"Mr. Clifford, are you there?"
Hearing the voice outside, Clifford was startled, and then spoke to the altar.
"Alright, let's stop here for today..."
"Mm."
Saying this, Clifford tapped the fresh red altar, causing the mouth and ear on it to return to wriggling flesh. Then he opened the mechanism, walked out of the secret room, and after closing the secret room, spoke to the clerk in front of him.
"What is it?"
"It's like this, Mr. Clifford, a customer downstairs wants quite a few used books, and I can't find all of them. Could you please come and look for them yourself?" The clerk immediately responded, while Clifford spoke with a cold snort.
"Hmph... searching for books again, what a hassle. I might as well close this shop in the future anyway, since I haven't received anything good for a long time."
Saying this, Clifford walked downstairs. When he reached the counter on the first floor and wanted to see who was looking for books, he suddenly paused slightly.
Appearing before Clifford at this moment were a young man and a young woman. The appearance of that young woman immediately reminded him of certain important information.
'White hair, red eyes... could this be...'
"Excuse me, are you the owner of this shop?" Looking at the somewhat stunned Clifford, Dorothy asked, and Clifford immediately reacted and replied.
"Ah, yes, yes, yes, haha, I am the owner of this shop. Excuse me, Mr., Miss, which one of you is looking for books?" With a smile, Clifford said directly, and Dorothy immediately raised her hand to respond.
"It is I, Mr., do you have these books here?"
Saying this, Dorothy handed the slip of paper in her hand to Clifford. After receiving it, Clifford immediately unfolded it to check.
"'The Light Gospel', Volume 4... 'Adolf's Logic', Volume 3... 'Rhetoric and Speech'... Ah... these are all books related to middle school courses. This Miss is truly diligent in studying, worthy of praise. Coincidentally, I have all the books you want here. Please wait a moment, I'll go find them for you. This might take some time, please make yourselves comfortable."
Saying this, Clifford looked towards the clerk beside him and then spoke.
"Danny, serve the two guests black tea..."
"Black tea... Understood, Mr."
Saying this, Clifford walked towards the old bookshelves, beginning to look for books on the shelves, while the clerk beside him ran upstairs and started pouring tea at a tea table.
After filling the two tea cups with black tea, the clerk thought of the secret code he had received earlier, then went to a cabinet, pulled open a drawer, and took out a glass bottle filled with fresh red viscous liquid from it.
Next, the clerk returned to the tea table, poured a drop of the liquid into each cup on the table, then carried them on a tray and carefully walked down the stairs.
Walking to the counter, the clerk placed the tray holding the two cups of black tea on the counter and then spoke.
"It will take a little time for the boss to find the books. Please have some tea and wait here, customers."
While the clerk was speaking, among the bookshelves not far away, Clifford, who was looking for books, was also observing the siblings with their backs to him at the counter out of the corner of his eye.
'I didn't expect this opportunity to come so quickly...'