Chapter 172
Please, Don’t Send Them So Quickly
Although Eivass had other places to hide temporarily, they were ultimately not as good as Bishop Mathers’ home. The place was sufficiently safe, and no one would come to investigate. Furthermore, the living environment was clean and comfortable, and Madam Mina would provide meals—even by Eivass’s picky standards, her cooking was quite good. Madam Mina was from Iris Flower, after all. It was perfectly reasonable for her to be a better cook than most Avalonians.
The most crucial thing was that a large number of newspapers could be easily obtained here. At Sherlock’s request, Madam Mina now bought a large number of newspapers daily, including many tabloids in addition to the Glass Steps Herald. According to Sherlock, although those tabloids contained a lot of exaggeration and lies, they still had reference value. They often reported things that the Glass Steps Herald would not, and important information could be hidden in an inconspicuous sentence.
Therefore, at Madam Mina’s earnest plea, Eivass and Lily ended up staying here. The only problem was the lack of guest rooms. Eivass and Lily had to share a room. However, Lily was Eivass’s personal maid, and their relationship was close enough. It was not a problem for them to sleep in the same room, let alone the same bed.
Haina, after confirming Eivass’s safety, returned to her dormitory with relief. She couldn’t help but be fortunate that she hadn’t hastily sought out Head部長 Meg to save Eivass but had first asked Sherlock for his opinion. Otherwise, if she had just begged for help and then discovered Eivass was calmly playing chess with Sherlock, she felt she might have been beaten.
After seeing Haina off, Eivass and Sherlock played chess for a while longer before Sherlock went back to work. He was currently conducting experiments and also engrossed in writing a book—taking advantage of this rare leisure time, Sherlock planned to photograph the ashes of over 140 types of cigars, cigarettes, and pipe tobacco from Avalon and its surrounding countries using a color camera, recording them in a notebook and summarizing and distinguishing the details of the ashes.
“Don’t underestimate ashes. Sometimes, these inconspicuous things can even be the most important, or even the only, clue in an entire case,” Sherlock explained. “Sometimes criminals are experienced and take special care to destroy evidence after killing someone. But they often overlook some details, such as ashes carelessly dropped on the floor. If you can confirm that someone who smokes ‘Jasmine’ brand cigarettes flavored with Iris Flower was present at the scene not long ago, even if they left no other evidence, you already have a line of investigation. And if you’ve already locked onto a few suspects, this might even be the only piece of evidence.
“The Inspection Bureau is mostly responsible for criminal cases between Ordinary Persons—the frequency of malicious incidents among Ordinary Persons is far greater than cases involving Extraordinary Power. I believe this book can effectively assist them in investigating cases, thereby indirectly shortening their work cycles and improving their work efficiency.”
“Although you are not in the Inspection Bureau, I think Director Kent cares no more about the Inspection Bureau than you do,” Eivass commented sharply. Sherlock was truly just bored. However, coincidentally, Eivass was also idle—he was waiting for things to develop further. So, he decided to help Sherlock write his paper. Sherlock was delighted and offered to include Eivass’s name on it. Eivass, without hesitation, refused: “I’m just helping you for now; I might get busy again in a few days.”
“But you helped me for at least one day,” Sherlock chuckled. But neither of them expected that Eivass would indeed only help for one day. Because by the next day, Thursday morning, Eivass saw unexpected news in the newspaper.
“Judge Bran Boka surrenders himself?” Eivass blinked upon seeing the headline in the Glass Steps Herald. He then glanced further. “—Tommy Lloyd, the current President of Lloyd Society, has been arrested on twenty-one felony charges including violent murder, assassination, coercion into crime, smuggling dangerous goods, and desecration of corpses.”
“…Huh?” Eivass blinked again. What was going on? He then read the main text meticulously. Although the news was vague, Eivass could basically deduce from fragmented sentences that Vice President Boka had surrendered himself first and then set a trap—and Tommy had taken the bait. He came to assassinate Boka but was caught by those lying in wait.
As a high-ranking Extraordinary, Tommy personally brought a Demon to attack someone—the ones who could stop him were likely those with “Grand” in their titles. After all, Boka’s surrender was highly tempting—as Vice President of Lloyd Society and a member of the Noble Red Society, he could report a large number of people. Based on Eivass’s understanding of them, the ones in charge of this matter would be either Grand Guardian Saint George or Grand Arbitrator Meg. They were undoubtedly the highest-ranking ministers with real power in Avalon, and both were loyal to the Royal Family.
Now, Tommy Lloyd was caught red-handed… no matter how his people outside operated, it would be very difficult for him to get out. After all, the person in charge of the Glass Steps Herald was Master Janis, and her opinion could basically represent the Queen’s opinion. Since the newspaper could directly list Tommy’s twenty-one felony charges without any concealment, there would be no possibility of overturning the case. This newspaper was meant to put pressure on Lloyd Society—telling them that they were determined to convict Tommy and to stop any meaningless operations.
“Good heavens, my fake death was this effective?” Sherlock, look quickly! Although Eivass’s plan was for things to develop in this direction, he had fled in the early morning of Wednesday, and by Thursday morning, both of them were already arrested. This still made Eivass somewhat lose his composure.
Could you guys not be so fast? Eivass wanted them to struggle a bit longer. Only when the situation was completely chaotic would it be convenient for him to assassinate Minister Dross. As a result, the two of them were taken down like lightning—mid-level leaders of Lloyd Society might not even realize that their top two leaders were gone. Avalon suddenly became peaceful again.
“…Wait?” Eivass suddenly realized the problem. This time, the two of them didn’t even fight each other; they were directly imprisoned… could there be a possibility that they would reveal Eivass? Perhaps Boka wouldn’t do so, as he had placed his bet on Eivass. But Tommy most likely would. This would be revenge against Boka and also a way to prove his own innocence—to prove that Alistair was not their person. Even if Tommy didn’t do it intentionally, his memory would likely be extracted later. By then, Eivass would still be exposed.
Eivass frowned instantly. The main problem was that the name “Demon Scholar” had a terrible reputation these days. It was because of these people from the Noble Red Society—their initiation rituals were already evil enough—not only for mystical significance but also to make new members bear human lives, leaving them no turning back. As long as they were Demon Scholars of the Noble Red, killing all of them would mean no one was innocent. This also led to a problem… Eivass found it difficult to prove his innocence. As a Demon Scholar, wouldn’t he have his contracted Demon? If he were to reveal his Shadow Demon… it would be equivalent to exposing his entire plan.
…What should I do? Should I go ask Isabel for a pardon? “…No.” Eivass quickly made up his mind. “There’s still a way.” He couldn’t help but feel fortunate—he had a backup plan. He got up, changed his clothes, and called Lily, “Get ready to go, Lily.”
“Where are we going?” Lily obediently followed, asking with some surprise, “We’re going out in the morning?” After all, both Lily and Eivass were far more effective at fighting at night than during the day. “Because our time is running out, we need to hurry,” Eivass narrowed his eyes, put on the ring symbolizing the Noble Red Society, and said calmly, “We’re going to silence someone.”
Chapter Two will probably still be released after 2 a.m.—fixing my sleep schedule,嗚嗚…
