Chapter 82
Shadow Agent Chloe
According to Eivass’s memories from this life, Minister Dross was a friend of Old Moriarty. Their personal relationship was quite good.
He was a loyal minister with real power, appointed by the Queen, and had a good relationship with the Moriarty Family. Moreover, he was a highly capable minister who was incorruptible and free from any desire for power. Without sufficient evidence, such a pillar of the kingdom could not be touched—and even with evidence, it might not be possible to directly move against him.
“Highly capable, incorruptible, and without desire for power…”
Eivass silently mulled over the keywords for Old Dross in his mind.
He had felt something was amiss before, but because of Lily, a living black history, he hadn’t realized it.
Now that he thought about it, Minister Dross seemed too perfect in areas outside of his private life:
A highly capable and incorruptible official would likely have some ambition to climb the ladder; an official who was highly capable but had no intention of further promotion would probably not be so incorruptible; and an official who was incorruptible and without desire for power usually lacked any real ability.
This was basically an impossible triangle, yet Old Dross simultaneously satisfied all three conditions.
No wonder. He was an inside mole; that made sense.
…Could Old Dross also be one of the pawns manipulated by Moriarty?
Eivass sat in his wheelchair, the fingers of his right hand rhythmically tapping on the armrest, lost in thought.
Meanwhile, Director Gordon, along with personnel from the Inspection Bureau, was meticulously questioning everyone on the second floor of the White Dance Shoe Club.
He took Eivass’s advice very seriously. Therefore, he brought along two of his most experienced inspectors to personally check all members’ personal belongings and packages for hidden documents.
Chloe, standing quietly in a corner, lightly pushed up her glasses, her presence unnoticed by anyone.
She had a beautiful and radiant face, and a head of caramel-colored short curly hair that gave a warm and sweet impression. Today, she was not wearing a school uniform, but a backless white dress suitable for summer or banquets, with a crystal dance shoe badge pinned to her chest.
In the early winter of November, such an outfit would undoubtedly be striking.
Yet, everyone around Chloe seemed as if they couldn’t see her. Her looks and clothing became ordinary under the influence of those glasses.
It was as if she were no different from anyone else. The moment one’s gaze left her, they could no longer perceive her existence, like a fleeting dream.
Chloe hugged a stack of books she was holding and watched everything quietly from the corner.
…There are indeed capable people in the Inspection Bureau.
No, to be precise, it should be that young man named Eivass Moriarty who is somewhat magical, Chloe thought.
Up until just now, the situation was entirely within Chloe’s control.
If she hadn’t used “Hawk Feather” and had simply poisoned him, the Avalon people would have had difficulty realizing that Secretary Raff was killed by a professional assassin. If she had poisoned him at his home, the outcome would likely have been the same—his cause of death would have been covered up by the Trade Minister.
And her mission as an assassin was to make Raff die conspicuously, to have him die in a suspicious manner in public view.
Because of Raff’s unusual cause of death and the documents he left behind, the Avalon people would start to suspect… that Raff was engaging in an intelligence trade with foreigners and was silenced immediately after providing crucial information.
Then they would begin to investigate those documents.
Although those documents were largely composed of ciphers, Chloe believed in the analytical and decoding abilities of the young man from House Hermes. He had already uncovered the “Sweater Brotherhood” and found those alchemical bombs. He would surely soon realize that these documents were definitely related to the port smuggling case.
After that, the Trade Minister would be naturally drawn into the investigation. His connection with the Star Antimony people might be uncovered, and even other ministers connected to Star Antimony could be implicated.
This was Chloe’s mission as an agent.
Although both Avalon and Star Antimony were not good for the Iris Kingdom, at this critical juncture for Iris, it was best for Avalon not to have problems.
They needed to keep Avalon and Star Antimony in a state of hostility as much as possible, while at the same time maintaining a balance between the two sides. To ensure they did not enter a state of war, but could continuously deplete the strength of both nations.
In Avalon, there were many infiltrated agents like herself.
Their purpose was to alleviate the hostility of the Avalon people towards the Iris people within Avalon’s borders and increase the hatred of the Avalon people towards the Star Antimony people. At the appropriate nodes, they would help the knights, bound by their armor, break free from the many constraints that entangled them—
The knights of Avalon were merely restricted by their Path to obey orders; and bound by oaths of loyalty, they could not harm the royal family.
But as long as they did not harbor the thought of “taking their place,” they would not deviate from their Path.
In other words, they simply could not usurp royal power.
So, as long as the royal family remained, but lost the power to control them.
Once the royal family no longer possessed the power of the Path of Authority, the knights could shed their armor and form a cabinet, similar to Iris.
The power belonging to the Path of Authority was, after all, a top-down, layered suppression—the mystical arts of the Path of Authority were “Leadership” and “Oratory,” completely unrelated to loyalty.
Even if a knight was willing to submit to the royal family from the bottom of his heart… if a kind soul helped them break free from their shackles, they would not feel any discomfort.
Just as the Path of Beauty could lean towards balance or the Twilight Path, the Path of Authority could also lean towards Transcendence and Love.
Power breeds ambition, amplifies desire. She knew too well how to deal with those with a tendency towards love.
Chloe’s main mission was to publicize the dangers and horrors of the Child of the Moon in Avalon.
This was a preparatory measure to prevent the Child of the Moon from joining Avalon smoothly should they be expelled by Iris.
And a few days ago, she suddenly received a mission from her superiors—
Her superiors asked her to find a way to thwart the Star Antimony Kingdom’s conspiracy and, if possible, expose the Trade Minister, or at least force him into dormancy. As a clue, her superior provided her with the name “Raff” and his contact information.
She managed to steal the “Noble Red” ring from the Inspection Bureau and replaced it with a fake. She used it to forge her identity, sending the ring along with a letter requesting an urgent meeting to Secretary Raff, inviting him to meet here.
Fortunately, the “Sweater Brotherhood” hideout was discovered by Sherlock Hermes; otherwise, it would have been difficult for her to arrange a meeting.
She managed to lure Secretary Raff, who was carrying documents, out.
It was just a shame.
…It would have been even better if Eivass had not appeared here today.
Chloe frowned deeply.
She had actually seen Princess Isabel just now. For the sake of caution, it would have been best for her not to act.
But she was not a member of the Noble Red Society. If Secretary Raff had returned and communicated with the Trade Minister, he would easily see through her fake identity. It would be difficult to lure him into a public place again next time.
So, after some thought, she decided to take the risk.
This was a risk, but undoubtedly also a rare opportunity.
Because this matter directly involved the safety of Her Highness the Princess, with an unknown extraordinary assassin mixed into the club… Raff would undoubtedly be thoroughly investigated.
Yet, what Chloe had not anticipated was that Eivass would immediately realize that she might have taken some of the documents.
The extraordinary power from her Path Adaptation allowed her to conceal her presence and even hear the conversation below clearly from such a distance.
She was filled with doubt and surprise.
—How did Eivass deduce this?
Her taking a portion of the documents was a spur-of-the-moment decision.
Because Princess Isabel was here, Chloe feared that the Trade Minister would react too quickly and immediately confiscate all the documents. Therefore, she had deliberately left a portion behind as evidence.
The documents were scattered on the ground when Raff fell; it was normal for one or two pages to be missing. Perhaps someone present had stolen them.
If the Trade Minister had cleaned up after himself, Chloe could anonymously publish the documents she had secretly taken. This would continue to put pressure on the Trade Minister.
She was filled with confusion.
Before acting, Chloe had specifically reviewed her actions with a detective’s mindset.
Logically speaking, if someone intended to silence Raff for intelligence, they could have taken all the documents. Taking a portion while leaving more would only make them conspicuous; therefore, this action was illogical and not in line with their primary interests. If they took all the documents, then the Inspection Bureau would likely have to investigate for a while before discovering the loss of the documents…
From this perspective, if Eivass were truly a competent detective, he should have immediately ruled out the possibility of “someone silencing Raff after an intelligence trade” and considered a more complex scenario.
—In the end, Eivass really only stopped at this point, asking Director Gordon to check their personal documents.
No, do you even understand?
Raff falling with a large pile of documents—doesn’t that look unnatural? Would a real killer make such a low-level mistake?
From Chloe’s perspective, knowing everything, she realized that Eivass’s reasoning was clearly unnatural.
Could he be famous for nothing?
But if so, why did he actively intervene in Director Gordon’s investigation?
He even directly stated that the documents were hidden in a book—as if he had witnessed her actions.
Because she had indeed hidden the documents in a book.
The information was already in ciphers. A page or two, folded and placed in a book, would not be easily noticed.
No one steals intelligence by taking only one or two pages from a stack of documents. If Director Gordon investigated on his own, his experience would surely tell him this was impossible.
Yet Eivass had persuaded Director Gordon to come up and search himself.
That would be problematic.
The biggest issue here was that Gordon was very powerful.
Her glasses were enchanted with the constant [Unlookable] spell from the Path of Authority, granting her the ability to evade detection by people’s gaze. Those inspectors with low energy levels could not see her at all, just as the members had not seen who killed the secretary.
Gordon might not be able to defeat her, but his strength was comparable to hers. And he was a true extraordinary of the Path of Authority.
He might see through her psychological invisibility.
Although as an elite agent, Chloe was confident that Gordon could not kill her. In a one-on-one fight, she would most likely be able to kill him in a short time.
But she could also hear that there was a large squadron of air cavalry outside.
She did not want to encounter those military personnel.
But because of Eivass’s instructions, Gordon had personally come to find her.
Chloe was now completely unable to act. Any movement she made would be detected, and Gordon would notice her once he came next to her. Unless Gordon turned and left just before approaching her, she was effectively exposed.
However, Chloe was not overly nervous.
Because she still had a trump card!
Although the outside was completely surrounded by air cavalry, she could not break through head-on. But as an extraordinary of the Path Adaptation, an elite assassin, she had plenty of ways to survive a failed infiltration.
Thinking this, she looked at Eivass.
Before Gordon approached, Chloe pushed her glasses up again. Hugging the stack of books, her body silently melted into a heavy mass of shadow.
This was her Path Trait, “Shadow Affinity,” which she had chosen three times.
—This was also Chloe’s confidence that she could absolutely escape.
