The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 450

Chapter 449
Are you serious this time?
February 13th, Sunday, clear.
Little Sherlock, fully dressed and with a small satchel, headed to the Silver and Tin Hall early in the morning.
The situation was completely different from what Sherlock had initially expected.
His parents did not reject the miniaturized Sherlock; instead, they doted on him excessively. Their attitude was entirely different from how they treated him in his adult form—even though they knew it was the same person, the influence of his physical appearance was still significant.
He had been living at home during this period. After all, while Sherlock’s soul was that of a mature and reliable adult, his external appearance and body were still those of a child.
His parents would never allow the current Little Sherlock to live alone outside. While the adult version of Sherlock might only suffer from malnutrition by mistreating his own body, a child’s need for food and sleep was undoubtedly far more important.
Therefore, after his protests were ineffective, Sherlock was settled at Hermes Manor. In this state, he obviously couldn’t take on many major cases and could only conduct research and write papers at home. As a result, he rarely went out.
This was the first time he had visited the Silver and Tin Hall… Of course, a significant part of the reason was that he was somewhat afraid to see Isabel.
When he hadn’t recognized Lulu as Isabel, his foul mouth had put a lot of pressure on Lulu. Now that Isabel was the Queen of Avalon, Sherlock felt a bit guilty.
Although he knew Isabel definitely wouldn’t care about such things, Sherlock, with his sensitive personality, would care about them. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have moved out of his home back then.
But today, he had to come no matter what—
To settle the score with Eivass!
Although few children came here, and even fewer could easily enter the Avalon Royal Palace, Sherlock was an exception.
After all, he was a Third Tier Mage and Law Master, posing quite a threat. It wouldn’t be good to have any misunderstandings.
Thus, even though Little Sherlock had never been to the Silver and Tin Hall, Eivass had already informed the Queen’s Guards, who were transferred from the Church, of Sherlock’s true identity to prevent accidental harm.
Those Queen’s Guards transferred from the Church now also knew that this child was, in fact, the Sherlock Hermes who had been missing for two months.
Sherlock had no opinion on this—he had wanted to keep his identity secret before because he had a falling out with his family.
Now that the misunderstanding had been resolved and they had reached an understanding… Sherlock had directly reverted to his true name.
After Little Sherlock announced that he wanted to see Eivass, he was received by the approaching Queen’s Guards. The elf maiden with light blonde long hair, who looked no older than eighteen or nineteen, affectionately patted Sherlock’s head and then led him in by the hand.
Eivass was not in his bedroom or study. He was in the park behind the Silver and Tin Hall.
Upon being led there, Sherlock first politely greeted the Gryphon Minister, who was lying by the entrance to the backyard.
It was three meters tall when lying down, with a wingspan of over ten meters.
This old gryphon, whose lifespan was practically equivalent to the history of Avalon, would have to pay his respects even to Lixia. Currently, it was lying on a square, pure white jade slab, with its paws tucked in, squinting its eyes, and basking comfortably in the unusually warm sun.
Hearing Sherlock’s respectful greeting, the old gryphon opened its eyes, saw Little Sherlock, and a human-like smile of affection appeared on its bird-like face.
“Long time no see, Little Sherlock. You seem… a bit younger than last time.”
The Gryphon Minister replied gently, “Are you here to see Eivass? Go on in.”
In the gryphon’s perception, humans were as endearing as cats. Regardless of whether they were old, ugly, or fat, they all looked cute.
But no matter their appearance, newborn kittens were undoubtedly the cutest. Because of this, gryphons were more drawn to children. However, gryphons also had a somewhat limited ability to recognize faces and could not distinguish the specific age and appearance of humans.
Although Sherlock had changed from his late twenties to a teenage appearance, it didn’t feel that different to the Gryphon Minister.
After Sherlock respectfully bowed to the Gryphon Minister again, he quickly walked inside.
In the early spring garden, Isabel was sitting in a pavilion with a drawing board in front of her. Eivass was riding a pure white steed, slowly trotting around an open space.
Seeing Little Sherlock from a distance, Eivass’s face broke into a mischievous smile.
He spurred his horse and charged fiercely towards Little Sherlock!
Sherlock neither dodged nor evaded, merely stared at Eivass with dead fish eyes. And just as expected, Eivass reined in his horse when he was very close to Sherlock.
“You’re quite brave.”
Eivass said with a smile, “You trust me that much?”
“Hmph.”
Sherlock sneered, “Go ahead and hit me. You’ll have to be the one to heal me if you do.”
He glanced at the white horse under Eivass and guessed what he was doing, “Practicing your horsemanship?”
Eivass was training his horsemanship in advance, preparing for his upcoming overseas trip.
After all, when Eivass traveled abroad, he wouldn’t have the convenience and spirit of a gryphon to ride.
Gryphons would proactively take care of humans, much like humans carrying cats or dogs across the road. Therefore, even if Eivass was not skilled at riding, the gryphon would not let him fall off—unless the human was excessively restless.
Although the Church also had extraordinary creatures like pegasi and unicorns, pegasi were mounts for the Pope’s Guard, and the rarer unicorns were only qualified to be ridden by Cardinals, with the additional requirement of being pure maidens.
Undoubtedly, Eivass was not associated with Cardinals, purity, or maidenhood in any way.
Even in Star Antinomy, where alchemy was very advanced, horses had not been eliminated. Rather, in the knightly kingdom of Avalon, most knights had never even encountered a horse. This included Eivass, of course.
Eivass did not deny it, merely chuckled. He casually scooped Sherlock up and placed him behind him. Then, he slowly rode towards Isabel.
Based on Sherlock’s understanding of Eivass, his slow pace likely meant he saw Sherlock wasn’t holding onto his waist and wanted to suddenly speed up to startle him.
Sherlock, however, was too lazy to hold onto Eivass. He simply moved the satchel at his waist to the front and grabbed Eivass’s tied-back, white-blonde long hair with both hands.
This was a form of mutual hostage-taking.
—If you don’t mind the pain in your scalp, you can speed up suddenly.
“Tch.”
Eivass clicked his tongue, “You’re not very friendly, little one.”
“Heh.”
Sherlock sneered again, “You can yell all you want, I’ll turn back in two days anyway.”
“That’s a pity.”
Eivass said sincerely, “But it’s fine, you’ll become an old man sooner or later.”
“…You have so much confidence in me?”
Sherlock was taken aback.
After embarking on the path of a “Mitra Worshipper,” his appearance was no longer affected by his true age.
Even if he ascended to the Sixth Tier “Father of Mitra,” he would only appear as a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties. To be considered an “old man,” he would at least have to reach that level to be vaguely close.
Eivass’s words implied that he believed Sherlock would eventually reach the Sixth Tier.
He could tell that Eivass’s words were not insincere. But for precisely this reason, he felt a bit embarrassed about his own sulky attitude.
While Sherlock was contemplating, Eivass had already brought him to Isabel. He held him with one hand, dropped him down, and then nimbly dismounted.
“Not angry anymore?”
Eivass asked with a smiling face.
“You still have the nerve to ask!”
Sherlock glared at him, “Didn’t you say you’d come see me yesterday? I waited for you at home all day, and you only called late at night to say you weren’t coming!”
On Thursday, Sherlock had gone to the school to see Eivass once. Eivass usually napped at No. 14 Ronin Street around noon.
Since Sherlock was already very familiar with Eivass, Lily did not wake Eivass up. Instead, she let Sherlock directly enter the bedroom and wake Eivass.
Seeing that Eivass seemed sleep-deprived and was still napping, Sherlock didn’t talk to him directly. He simply told Eivass to come to his house on Saturday to discuss matters related to their trip to the Church.
—After all, Sherlock was now Eivass’s adjutant and secretary, and Eivass’s itinerary was his responsibility to arrange. Of course, normally, the secretary would seek out Eivass, but given their current good relationship, Sherlock wanted to take the opportunity to host Eivass. Another part of the reason was that he was somewhat hesitant to interact with Isabel.
Eivass lazily acknowledged the request and then went back to sleep. Sherlock assumed he had heard him and left after bidding farewell to Lily.
“Did you not remember anything I said that day?”
Sherlock, slightly annoyed, tried to find an excuse for Eivass, “You were groggy from sleep, thought you saw me in a dream?”
“…Ah!”
Upon hearing this, Isabel let out a surprised exclamation, “So you had plans for yesterday?”
She clasped her hands together, a apologetic smile on her face, “I’m sorry, Sherlock. I didn’t know you had an appointment… I selfishly kept Eivass with me.”
“Of course, you come first, Your Majesty Isabel.”
Sherlock immediately softened, replying somewhat helplessly to Isabel, “It’s nothing major on my end…”
Then he turned his gaze to Eivass, his imposing manner returning, “I was right back then, you vixen seducing the ruler! You cling to Her Majesty and won’t let go!”
“Hmm…”
This time, however, Eivass was silent for a moment before nodding, “Indeed, you’re right.”
He had indeed clung on and hadn’t let go.
At the time, Isabel had been holding onto Eivass, and Eivass really didn’t want to push her away to call Sherlock. Later, the sun became so warm that he simply fell asleep… Since Heavenly Envoy Bear had been harassing Eivass every midnight, he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a very, very long time.
Eivass woke up briefly in the middle and found that Isabel was also asleep holding him, so he simply closed his eyes again. By the time they both fully woke up, it was already time for afternoon tea.
Sherlock’s heart suddenly sank—What did this mean? Why wasn’t he refuting this time?
Why don’t you refute it?
Are you really going to be a vixen seducing the ruler?
Are you serious this time?!