Red Currant Sparkling Wine

Chapter 124 Red Currant Sparkling Wine

East Port is a big city, at least much bigger than Cabbage Town.

So there are quite a few unfinished commissions. Roughly counting, there are more than a dozen. This is only a part of the commissions that the investigator specially helped to move from the sentry post in the West District yesterday. They were originally registered in the East District, and some have even been stuck for several weeks without being processed.

It is said that the sentry there also took on a lot of commissions because of his "side job". Although he has now resigned from his duties related to abnormal events, in order to facilitate the handover and subsequent accountability, all the commissions that the sentry took on are also handled by that sentry.

So in a sense, this can be considered as a portion of the entrusted amount being shared.

And these alone are almost equivalent to all the commissions received by Cabbage Town in a week!

However, after reviewing the files, Zag discovered that these dozen or so unfinished commissions had been delayed until now because they were quite time-consuming to resolve, and he easily found the commission concerning the Redcurrant Winery among them.

"Redcurrant Winery Lost Goods Requested for Third Investigation—" Wait, shouldn't this be handled by a detective agency? Why are we at the sentry post?

Zag muttered something under his breath and then examined the commission file more carefully.

He quickly figured out what was going on.

Redcurrant Brewery has always sourced its redcurrants from Redcurrant Mill. The brewery's former signature product was redcurrant-flavored beer, which was inexpensive and sold in various pubs and on the street, usually for 1 penny a glass, and was plentiful and filling.

After the Earl of the Golden Helmet issued the Prohibition decree, beer could no longer be produced or sold. So, the brewery sought to survive and developed a new beverage—red currant sparkling wine.

As we all know, sparkling wine and bubbly wine are two completely different things.

The latter is made by mixing sparkling water with various alcoholic beverages and is usually inexpensive. The former, however, has strict regulations:

It must be made from grapes and then undergo a secondary fermentation to produce natural bubbles; otherwise, it can only be called sparkling wine, not bubbly wine.

This unusual regulation was clearly designed to protect the interests of certain capital groups, such as the Hayward winery, which owns its own vineyards, and the Holland winery, which owns several so-called "royal" vineyards. Fortunately, the Redcurrant winery invented a sparkling wine made from grapes, with redcurrant syrup added during the secondary fermentation. This resulted in a wine that, while producing natural bubbles, also boasts a rich, complex fruit aroma and a layered sweetness. It gained considerable popularity as soon as it was introduced to the market—albeit largely due to controversy.

Those who love it believe it will usher in a new era of blended fruit wines, a brilliant idea and a way to make acidic wines more palatable. Those who hate it, however, see it as a desecration of wine and an insult to sparkling wine: "It might as well be called syrup-dipped wine!"

Many people say this.

But regardless, the consistently high sales volume didn't lie. So, the Redcurrant Winery immediately ordered a large quantity of redcurrant syrup from the Redcurrant Mill, preparing to make a big splash, and then—

That batch of goods was lost.

All the people transporting the goods mysteriously disappeared, and only tattered clothing and the remains of a wagon scratched by claws were found at the scene. The initial investigation record shows that the investigators involved believed that the Black Border Hounds were responsible.

"The claw marks are consistent with the habits of the Black Hollow Hound. There was slight contamination at the scene, and um—there are also some hairs that appear to be from the Black Hollow Hound."

Snowball, hovering beside Zag, watched with great interest and immediately raised a question: "Unless it was a pack of more than five Blackfang Hounds, it's impossible for so many people to be killed so horribly, and there wasn't even anyone who managed to escape and report back. This is too strange!"

"Yes, so look here. The second investigation was conducted by investigators from the association. They believe it is very likely related to the werewolf case of the Life Transformation Association. The black hair is also very likely werewolf hair, and the claw marks are likely caused by the fact that inferior werewolves who have taken drugs are smaller than normal first-generation and second-generation werewolves, so it is very likely that they have claw marks similar to those of the Black Hound."

The more Zag looked, the more he frowned.

If he was quite skeptical of the association investigators' speculations when reviewing the records of the second investigation, then the records of the third investigation research program left him completely baffled.

"But after examining the black fur, it was confirmed that it really did come from the Black Territory Hounds! And the biggest contradiction is that if the victim was turned into a werewolf using alchemical potions, it would be impossible to avoid the eyes and ears of all the passing caravans in such a short time and allow them to leave so many claw marks—"

"More importantly, Snowball, look here. The latest records say that after interrogating all the captured members of the Life Transformation Association, we learned that there is no alchemical potion that can immediately turn people into werewolves. The fastest-acting one takes two days to take effect, and this shipment went missing for less than half a day before being discovered!"

Snowball flicked its tail and said nonchalantly, "That means this case has nothing to do with the Life Transformation Association!"

"That's all we can guess for now. The main thing is that the third commission fee for this case is 600 shillings!" Zag's mouth watered. "And 2% has already been deducted, which is 12 shillings as a loss and service fee for the sentry post to cover its own profits and losses! That's equivalent to half a month's salary for me before!"

The first commission was only 200 shillings, the second was 400 shillings, and when the first two commissions were issued, the 2% service fee withholding rule applied for by Leila had not yet been issued or taken effect. So only the third time, which is this time, was the commission for investigation issued for a total of 600 shillings, and Zag was able to legally withhold 12 shillings!

If you can legally withhold around 12 shillings in commission every working day to fatten yourself up, that's 60 shillings a week, and 240 shillings a month, a full 12 pounds!

That's 144 gold pounds a year!

A considerable amount of extra income!

Upon hearing this, Snowball became excited and eagerly approached Zag, asking, "Really?! Then I'll go ask the tree spirits if they have any clues. I remember the place where the incident happened isn't far from the Redcurrant Forest, right?"

Zag's eyes lit up immediately: "How come I didn't think of that!"

At this time, Snowball becomes exceptionally reliable!

So he carefully searched through the details recorded in the file and said, "It says it's about two hours from the Redcurrant Mill, so it shouldn't be too far!"

[Redcurrant Sparkling Wine]: A blended sparkling wine researched and produced by a redcurrant winery. The base is fermented grapes, and then redcurrant syrup and other ingredients are added during the secondary fermentation. The result is a rose-red redcurrant sparkling wine that has been well received since its launch due to its pleasant taste and reasonable price.