Chapter 4

I led Zelenya and quietly trailed them.

That man and his retinue slipped into a pawnbrokerage that had the sign "Hardcastle Pawnbroker'" outside.

A plan started to take shape in my mind. I told Zelenya to wait for me at the public tea room across the street while I entered the pawnbrokerage alone.

An hour later, I walked out of the same place with a copy of the pawn ticket and a sworn statement from the pawnbroker.

It turned out that the Zellmer family was in cahoots with the Marquis's son to pawn my mother's belongings to scrape together the…