When the plot-skips players into the game world

Although Aiwass had other places to temporarily hide, none was as good as the home of Bishop Mathers.

It was safe enough there, with no one coming to investigate; the living environment was also clean and comfortable, and Mrs. Mina would even provide meals—a craft at which she was quite adept, even by Aiwass's selective standards.

After all, Mrs. Mina hailed from the Iris Flower family. It was only logical that she could cook better than most Avalonians.

Most crucially, the place had easy access to a wealth of newspapers. At Sherlock's request, Mrs. Mina was now buying a pile of newspapers every day, not only the Glass Staircase Daily but also a plethora of tabloids.

According to Sherlock, even though those tabloids were filled with exaggerations and lies, they still held their value as references. They often contained news that the Glass Staircase Daily wouldn't report, and even a seemingly inconsequential sentence could hide important information.

Thus, persuaded by Mrs. Mina's entreaties, Aiwass and Lily settled to stay there directly.

The only problem was the shortage of guest rooms. Aiwass and Lily had to share one room.

But after all, Lily was Aiwass's personal maid, and their relationship was close enough. Sleeping in the same room was no issue, not to mention sharing the same bed.

After confirming Aiwass was safe, Hayna also returned to her dormitory, relieved.

She couldn't help but feel grateful... thankfully she hadn't rushed off to seek Department Head Meg's help to rescue Aiwass, but had first come to ask Sherlock's opinion.

Otherwise, if she had just finished asking for help and then discovered Aiwass was safe and sound, playing chess with Sherlock... she felt she might have ended up getting a beating.

After sending Hayna off, Aiwass played chess with Sherlock for a while, after which Sherlock went back to work.

He had been conducting experiments recently, as well as burying himself in writing a book—taking advantage of a rare respite, Sherlock planned to photograph the ashes of more than 140 different types of cigars, cigarettes, and pipe tobaccos available in Avalon and the surrounding nations with a color camera, noting the details in a notebook, and summarizing and distinguishing them based on the ash details.

"Don't underestimate tobacco ash. Sometimes, these inconspicuous things could even be the most important, or the sole clue to an entire case,"

Sherlock explained, "Sometimes, the criminal has a wealth of experience and pays special attention to destroying evidence after murdering. But they often overlook some details, like the ashes scattered on the ground.

"And if you can confirm that a person who smoked 'Jasmine' cigarettes from the Iris Flower brand appeared at the scene not long before, even if there is no other evidence left behind, you already have a direction for investigation; and if you have already narrowed down a few suspects, it might even be the only evidence.

"The Supervisory Bureau is more responsible for criminal cases among ordinary people—compared to cases involving transcendent powers, violent incidents among normal people are much more frequent. I believe this book can effectively help them investigate cases, thereby indirectly shortening their work cycles and enhancing their efficiency."

"Even though you are not an inspector, I think Director Kent doesn't care as much about the Supervisory Bureau as you do,"

Aiwass remarked sharply.

One could only say that Sherlock really had nothing else to do.

But coincidentally, Aiwass was also quite idle—he was waiting for further developments. So he simply decided to help Sherlock write the paper.

Sherlock was delighted and wanted to include Aiwass's name as a co-author.

But Aiwass immediately refused, "I'm just temporarily lending a hand. It might not be long before I get busy."

"But at least you helped me for one day,"

Sherlock said, laughing.

What they did not anticipate was that Aiwass really only helped for one day.

Because by the next day, Thursday morning, Aiwass saw unexpected news in the newspaper.

"Bran Boka, the Grand Arbitrator, surrendered himself to the police?"

... Huh?

Seeing the front-page headline of the Glass Staircase Daily, Aiwass was momentarily stunned.

He glanced further down.

——Tommy Lohar, the current head of the Lohar Society, was arrested for violent murder, conspiracy to murder, coercion of others to commit crimes, smuggling dangerous materials, desecration of corpses, and twenty-one other serious crimes.

"... Huh?"

Aiwass was stunned once more.

What was going on?

Aiwass then carefully read the article in full.

Even though the news was vague, Aiwass could basically deduce from the snippets of information that Vice Chairman Boka had turned himself in first and then set a trap—subsequently Tommy took the bait.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

He came to assassinate Boka, and ended up caught red-handed by those lying in wait.

And as a high-ranking Transcendent, Tommy personally led Demons in attacking others... It was even possible that those who could stop him carried the "Grand" in their titles. After all, the temptation of Boka's surrender was significant—he, as the Vice Chairman of the Lohar Society and a member of the Noble Red Society, could denounce a whole bunch of people.

According to Aiwass's understanding, those in charge were either the Grand Guardian Saint George or the Grand Arbitrator Meg. They were undoubtedly some of the highest calibre of real-power ministers in Avalon, and both were loyal to the royal faction.

Now that Tommy Lohar was caught by them on the spot... No matter how his people on the outside maneuvered, his chances of getting out were slim.

After all, the person in charge of the Glass Staircase Daily was Master Yanis, whose opinion essentially represented the Queen's.

Since the newspaper could straightforwardly list Tommy's twenty-one serious crimes without any concealment, it meant there was no chance of overturning his verdict. Nowadays, the purpose of this newspaper was to pressure the Lohar Society—telling them that we are determined to convict Tommy, so stop any meaningless actions.

—Good lord, was my faking death so efficient?

Sherlock, look quickly!

Although, according to Aiwass's expectations, things were indeed developing in this direction... He fled early Wednesday morning, and by Thursday morning, both were already captured. This still made Aiwass somewhat unable to keep calm.

Can you not deliver them so quickly?

Aiwass had wanted them to struggle a bit.

Only when the situation was thoroughly muddled would he be convenient to assassinate Minister Drost.

But now, the two were gone as fast as a gust of wind—the mid-level leadership of the Lohar Society probably hadn't even realized that their two leaders were already gone. Thus, Avalon became stable again all of a sudden.

"... Wait a minute?"

Aiwass suddenly realized a problem.

Since the two hadn't fought at all before being thrown into jail... was there a possibility that they might give him up?

Perhaps Boka wouldn't do it, as he had placed bets on Aiwass. But Tommy most likely would.

It would be his revenge on Boka and also to prove his innocence—by showing that Aleister truly wasn't one of their people.

Even if Tommy didn't do it, his memories would probably be extracted in the end. By then, Aiwass still couldn't hide.

Aiwass furrowed his brows slightly.

The issue was the name of Demon Scholar sounded particularly unpleasant these days. It was because of the Noble Red Society, whose induction ceremony alone was evil enough... Not only did it have a significance in occult studies, but it was also to ensure new members bore the weight of human lives, making it impossible to turn back.

—There was not a single innocent Demon Scholar from the Noble Red.

And this led to a problem... Aiwass would have difficulty proving his innocence.

As a Demon Scholar, he would always have a contracted Demon, right?

If he were to reveal his Shadow Demon... then that would be tantamount to exposing all his plans.

... What to do?

Should he ask Isabel for a special pardon?

"... No."

Aiwass quickly made up his mind, "There's another way."

He was grateful—he had left a fallback plan after all.

He got up, changed into his clothes, and called Lily, "Get ready to go out, Lily."

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"Where to?"

Lily followed obediently, asking somewhat surprisingly, "We're going out this early?"

After all, both Lily and Aiwass were much stronger at night than during the day.

"Because we don't have much time left, we must act quickly."

Aiwass narrowed his eyes, put on the ring representing the Noble Red Society, and said calmly, "We are going to silence someone."