When the plot-skips players into the game world

——Drost.

This surname belonged to Lily's biological father, the vigorous and robust Minister of Commerce.

Old Knight Gordon initially let out a subconscious sigh of relief, then immediately his brow furrowed again.

Given that it involved an influential minister… it was highly unlikely that the royal family was involved, which was the best news so far and avoided the worst possibility.

But conversely, the chief private secretary to the Minister of Commerce was also a bigwig in his own right.

Secretary Raff was considered a civil servant in the administrative system, directly responsible only to the Permanent Undersecretary, aside from Minister Drost. Although he appeared to be almost fifty years old, there was still some possibility of further promotion for him.

Moreover, this only served to broaden the range of potential suspects.

The members of the Knight Family pledged their knightly oaths at their investiture, swearing not to harm the royal family.

If Princess Isabel had been the original target of the killer, then all the members of the Knight Family present in the club could have been ruled out immediately.

But now…

"Has the cause of death been determined?"

Director Gordon interrupted his thoughts to ask this question.

He had glanced over briefly earlier and knew that the victim had likely fallen from the second floor next to the banister down to the first floor.

This was a fall from a height of about five or six meters. Such a height could indeed be fatal. But right next to him were high-ranking priests capable of using the Illumination Art.

For a fall from such a height, unless he landed exactly on the back of his head, it should certainly have been possible to revive him.

The young Inspector shook his head: "It's uncertain if he died from poison or a curse, but definitely not from the fall. It probably had to do with the small knife found in his back, which may need to be sent for analysis. One thing is sure, though: his death was extremely rapid; from the time he was injured to his death was no more than ten seconds—instantaneous. The priests who first tended to him can also corroborate this."

"Does that mean," Director Gordon asked with furrowed brows, "the victim fell after being attacked by the murderer and died very shortly after hitting the ground?"

Director Gordon's brow was locked tight as he felt the case becoming increasingly troublesome.

After a moment of contemplation, he issued an order: "Immediately search everyone on the second floor of the club!

"Dangerous items like this must have a container or a tool specifically made for its use. Find it!

"Before his death, Secretary Raff might have been talking to someone. Find everyone who was near the banister on the second floor at the time of the incident, those who were not in conversation with others, those lurking in corners acting furtively, and those seen moving quickly away after the incident. Bring them down!"

"Also," Mr. Aiwass, who had been watching quietly, suddenly interjected, "on top of this, please also check if any second-floor patrons are carrying documents or document cases."

Hearing Aiwass's voice, both the young Inspector and Director Gordon turned their heads.

Looking at Aiwass, who was seated in his wheelchair, Director Gordon easily recognized his identity.

"...Mr. Aiwass, right. I've heard about the case you handled in Lohar District," said the old Knight in a heavy tone.

He didn't dismiss Aiwass because of his young age but instead asked earnestly, "Do you think this has something to do with the documents Secretary Raff was carrying?"

"Just an intuition. No evidence."

Aiwass didn't smile but said seriously, "But generally speaking, do people who come to listen to music at the White Ballet Shoes Club carry so many documents? Even if they carried documents, wouldn't they put them in a bag? Reviewing so many documents by the second-floor banister, it would be easy for some to fall down.

"So, I think he might have just opened his document case, or received the documents from someone else. Hence, it is especially necessary to check if someone tried to steal something—or perhaps, the assassination was committed because someone was discovered trying to filch a document."

In reality, this was a bluff by Aiwass. He only proposed this possibility because it seemed less professional and therefore more plausible.

Anyway, both he and Isabel were there to keep watch, and Edward would also come later. In the end, they would definitely conduct such a search... and if Aiwass had sounded too expert, he might have drawn unwanted attention.

The real reason was that Aiwass recognized the victim, the more he looked.

And upon hearing his name, he finally remembered his identity, recalling that portion of the plot from the cutscene he had skipped over in the game!

This middle-aged secretary with gold-rimmed glasses and a thinning hairline was the "someone" mentioned in the letter sent to the Noble Red Society!

In the game, players first learned that this "someone" was likely a close confidant trusted by some high-ranking individual. Then, from a mainline subsidiary quest related to the "Sweater Brothers Association" that appeared several months after the "Execution Square corpse disappearance case," players obtained a document written in code.

By solving the puzzle of this document with Sherlock, players discovered that it was actually a series of locations and numbers. In short, it detailed the transportation of various quantities of explosives stored in an abandoned chemical plant to designated locations at scheduled times.

Somehow, the player and Aiwass had been discovered sealed in a crate and, following the discovery, had leaped out to engage in battle with the finders.

Looking back now, it seems likely that the player and Aiwass had risked hiding in the crate as a means to infiltrate and search the area. They planned to have Sherlock or someone else deliver the crate to a predetermined location at the agreed-upon time, but once there, it was somehow detected as suspicious.

After defeating those people, they acquired another set of documents from them and just managed to escape under the relentless pursuit of the corrupt inspectors.

The actual content of the documents was unknown because Aiwass skipped through it, but there was a bit he remembered from the dialogue after the cutscene ended—after careful analysis by Sherlock, it was discovered that the handwriting on the three documents, seemingly different, actually belonged to the same person.

Over a week later, a government official was discovered by the Supervisory Court to have taken bribes and committed suicide by poisoning himself at home in advance.

Although this incident only appeared in a corner of the Glass Staircase Daily, Sherlock keenly sensed something was amiss. He specifically investigated the actual timing of the official's death and found out that it coincided with the period after the player and Aiwass's failed infiltration and their switch to a more ferocious stealth approach.

Upon learning this, the player sneaked into the estate and stole the documents of the late Secretary Raff. Sherlock confirmed that the "certain someone" was indeed this secretary by comparing the handwriting, thus concluding that the "big shot" collaborating with the Noble Red Society was none other than Minister Drost!

—Even though Aiwass had skipped the intermediate scenes, fortunately, he came across a newspaper clipping that mentioned "a certain official committing suicide at home due to his crimes" during a conversation with Sherlock.

Aiwass couldn't remember his name or face, but he did recall his hairstyle.

And now, upon seeing Secretary Raff's gold-rimmed glasses, he finally recalled that plot point—

Lily's biological father, Minister Drost, was the mole who had been bought by the agents of the Star Antimony Kingdom, regularly channeling top-secret intelligence to the Kingdom through the Noble Red Society in secrecy!

Identifying the mole so quickly was undoubtedly a cause for celebration.

Not to mention that Aiwass was still undercover, operating from the shadows rather than being exposed due to recklessness as had happened in the game.

But now, the problem had become even more complex.

And among all those present, including the assassin... it was possible that only Aiwass truly comprehended the complexity of the current situation.

Because Aiwass also recognized what that unsheathed poisoned blade truly was— Explore more at мѵʟ

It was the signature assassination weapon used by the "Hawkeye," an elite spy organization of the Iris Kingdom.

Its nature was entirely different from that of Avalon's Supervisory Court. While both served as intelligence agencies, the Supervisory Court's inspectors, in every sense, were part of an official organization, a power authority.

Whereas the Iris Kingdom's organization had always been a secretive group of assassins operating mainly within the country and rarely going abroad.

Since the "Hawkeye" were an assassin organization and associated with mystical skills of stealth, poison, and invisibility, all adapted for the Path of Adaptation and even included "hawk" in their name, they were widely believed to be a secret society of defectors from the nation worshiping the Lord of Scalefeather, Black Hawk.

—It wasn't until midway through version 4.0 that players first learned the secret leader of this assassin organization was actually the Prime Minister of the Iris Kingdom!

The old Prime Minister used this assassin group to target political opponents of his faction, their strong supporters, or inversely, to smear them or eliminate his own party rivals. He disguised all this as contract killings, creating an within Iris where two factions—one following the Path of Love and the other the Path of Beauty—engaged in deadly feuds.

A core demand of the old Prime Minister's radical faction was extreme racism. They advocated expelling the "Son of the Moon" from the country, emulating Avalon's purification of paths by abandoning the tradition of the Path of Love within to alleviate the increasingly intense disputes of paths within the Iris Kingdom.

Therefore, Aiwass immediately thought of the elegant and beautiful upperclassman that Aiden mentioned who had given him "Dracula" and had ultimately entwined Aiden with the affairs of the "Son of the Moon" race.

Thinking of this, Aiwass looked at Aiden with a somewhat complex expression.

Noticing Aiwass's gaze, Aiden scratched his head in confusion and looked back: "What's wrong, Aiwass?"

"Nothing," Aiwass sighed, then shook his head and spoke softly, "Of course, documents, such inconspicuous things, could also be hidden away... like sandwiched in a book that one carries around. You're experienced, so I'll need you to supervise carefully, Director Gordon."

He couldn't just point it out directly, saying "the killer is a book-loving beautiful female student." Deductive reasoning wasn't that outrageous.

After all, Aiwass himself hadn't even seen what she actually looked like.

He had to provide some precise information, one piece at a time.

"... I'll go take a look myself," said the old Knight after contemplating for a moment, seeing the sense in Aiwass's words.

Watching Director Gordon going upstairs, Aiwass let out a sigh.

—To be fair, Aiden, your bad-woman radar is really sharp.