The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 1020

Chapter 1019
Heavenly Envoy: Full marks!
Arsen sighed, “Mainly, I don’t have much emotion left…”
He originally wanted to say “It’s all Heavenly Envoy’s fault.”
But he wasn’t Eivass, and didn’t have the nerve to badmouth Heavenly Envoy to his face.
Eivass, however, was fearless and directly explained, “Because we encountered a fake Heavenly Envoy impersonating you earlier…”
Eivass explained everything that had happened to Sherlock.
Arsen pointed to the Heavenly Envoy beside him, “He’s right here… Huh? Where did he go?”
At this time, they realized the Heavenly Envoy beside them had disappeared at some point.
He had been standing quietly beside them from the very beginning—
Sherlock, after hearing this, glanced at the empty space, lost in thought.
He sized up Eivass and Arsen, falling into deep contemplation.
Seeing this, Eivass narrowed his eyes slightly.
“…I say.”
Suddenly, Sherlock spoke slowly, “You guys weren’t transformed by Heavenly Envoy, were you?”
“Huh?”
Arsen was somewhat displeased, “How is that possible!”
“…No, it’s not entirely impossible.”
Eivass suddenly said, “I actually thought of that possibility just now…”
“You weren’t… also transformed by Heavenly Envoy, were you?”
“How is that possible!”
Arsen repeated his own words, saying with certainty, “This is definitely Sherlock! Heavenly Envoy couldn’t possibly know those secrets… His domain is directing and acting, not secrets and the mind!”
But Eivass merely exchanged glances with Sherlock.
Sherlock said, “Let’s check.”
Eivass asked, “Who spoke first?”
“It was me—what about your side?” Sherlock asked back.
“…It was Heavenly Envoy,” Arsen said.
Eivass pressed, “Then, before I mentioned ‘we encountered Heavenly Envoy,’ did you hear us mention Heavenly Envoy?”
“—No.”
Sherlock said with utmost certainty, “Trust my observation and memory.”
At this point, Eivass and Sherlock exchanged a look and laughed simultaneously.
Arsen was still a bit lost, “What? You… what exactly are you talking about?”
“Our Phantom Thief is best at running away, after all,” Sherlock quipped. “Can’t even solve such a simple puzzle? No wonder the Duke asked me to handle this matter, instead of his beloved—or perhaps not-so-beloved son-in-law.”
“It’s very simple,” Eivass replied. “If I’m not mistaken… this ‘Sherlock’ is still being impersonated by Heavenly Envoy.
“—And in another place not far away, the real Sherlock must also be simultaneously seeing a Heavenly Envoy impersonating you and me.”
It was like opening a chess software with a Grandmaster AI, then imitating every move of the old man playing chess across the table, and then synchronizing every response given by the AI onto the chessboard. Even the most skilled old man playing chess on the street could be stunned.
It seemed like playing chess with someone, but in reality, the opponent was a divine vessel that had used a “High-Tier Divine Art – Grandmaster AI.”
Heavenly Envoy’s strategy was the same.
He perfectly and almost synchronously replicated all the words, expressions, and glances of both parties… and fed them back synchronously to the other side. Therefore, even Eivass and Sherlock, who understood each other very well, didn’t realize the problem at first.
“It seems I’m still lacking,” “Sherlock” said, laughing heartily. The entire person changed back again.
Clad in red, wearing a Mask of Secrets, a god whose gender was indistinguishable!
The dream flickered for a moment—
—The next second, the worlds on both sides completely merged.
Eivass’s side gained a Sherlock, while Sherlock’s side gained Eivass and Arsen.
“This time it’s real,” the Heavenly Envoy wearing the Smiling Face Mask bowed to the three of them, “My apologies, everyone. I just have one question… How did you discover me?”
Because apart from a barely perceptible delay, both sides were essentially indistinguishable from the real person. Theoretically, the Heavenly Envoy, who was merely conveying messages, couldn’t be discovered as fake by both sides simultaneously. Even if one side discovered it, he could use the real reaction from the other side as a cover.
“Actually, it was very difficult to tell,” Eivass explained.
He only realized something was wrong after he mentioned Heavenly Envoy… and saw Sherlock’s reaction.
—Because the first words they exchanged upon meeting were actually spoken by Heavenly Envoy.
And then, the first thing Eivass said to Sherlock was, “Thanks to Heavenly Envoy’s guidance.” But Sherlock responded to all of Eivass’s words except for this half-sentence, as if he hadn’t heard it at all.
Only when Eivass directly said, “We encountered a fake Heavenly Envoy impersonating you earlier,” did Sherlock seem to finally hear of Heavenly Envoy’s existence.
—Clearly, Heavenly Envoy had deliberately omitted this sentence when conveying the message.
“Well, you don’t need to apologize. This riddle was quite interesting,” Sherlock also spoke, chuckling and nodding. “I actually felt something was off. I am very familiar with Arsen. His reaction was clearly abnormal… so I kept observing him.
“And Arsen’s position, his gaze, and the direction he pointed without hesitation all proved that—there was a fourth person present. Eivass also nodded towards the air earlier, further supporting my view. But I was certain that I couldn’t have missed even a tiny detail… There were only two possibilities: either Heavenly Envoy didn’t want me to see him, but then there would be no need for him to appear on Arsen’s side; or, there was something wrong with what I was seeing. Eivass’s reaction confirmed my suspicion that what he was seeing might also be problematic.”
“So you immediately discovered the truth—Admirable,” the Heavenly Envoy applauded. “I’ve been too bored lately, so I came up with this game. There was no malice, please forgive me… But you have passed my test. According to my rules, I should give you some rare rewards…”
“Give it to Sherlock, or Arsen is fine. I don’t need it,” Eivass refused without hesitation. “I’m just a bit curious, Lord Heavenly Envoy…
“If you had come directly for the second time without the first, neither Sherlock nor I would have been able to recognize you. It was because of the loophole in the first instance that we grasped the clue in the second.”
“—If I don’t tell you my existence, then this game is unfair from the very beginning. That would be more like malicious fraud!” The Heavenly Envoy laughed freely and said without hesitation, “I just wanted to show you all a trick—to see if you could discover the problem and how long it would take to realize that it was always me accompanying you. I never expected that the performance had just begun, not even the first act had changed, and you simultaneously revealed the truth…”
“Because I heard a sentence from Isabel,” Eivass said softly. “It was her summary of the Mask of Secrets Grimoire—’The face of the riddle that initially formed the riddle is precisely the answer to the riddle.’ When I met you just now and learned you were Heavenly Envoy… I immediately thought of this sentence.”
“Hahaha, so that’s it!” The Heavenly Envoy laughed heartily, like an audience convulsed with laughter at a comedy.
He said loudly, “But you missed one layer—I didn’t just meet you!”
…What? Eivass was stunned.
Arsen blurted out, “It was that Moon Deer! You’ve been following us since Shadow Heavenly Envoy!”
“That’s right!! Now it’s full marks!!!” The Heavenly Envoy snapped his fingers and finally disappeared with a hearty laugh.
Where he disappeared, a crimson Mask of Secrets fell.
Eivass glanced at it and realized—that was the reward he left for them.