Chapter 58: Moriarty

Aiwass and Lily arrived at the Temple of Silver and Tin at 5:30 in the afternoon, when it was still light outside.

As a result, they had not finished eating until 8:45 in the evening.

There was no ball, and no one else was around. It was just Aiwass, Princess Isabel, and Master Janice chatting away.

The first round of food had gone cold before we finished it, so we had to order a second round.

Including baked apples, sponge cake, fried scallops with foie gras...

On the way, Isabel realized that Lily, the maid who had been standing behind Aiwass, was a little hungry, so she warmly invited her to sit down and eat with her. She had already drunk three glasses of wine, her cheeks were slightly red, but her eyes were getting brighter.

Although it was against etiquette for a maid to eat at the same table with the Princess, Lily was indeed hungry. Although she had eaten something before leaving, as a mortal, standing upright behind Aiwass was very tiring.

But according to the rules, whether she can sit down to eat depends on the attitude of her owner, Aiwass.

Aiwass not only agreed, but even asked Isabel if she could let Lily sit here and rest after eating instead of standing behind him. Isabel agreed without hesitation.

All three of them didn't care much for "rules"—Isabel was essentially raised by her grandmother, Queen Sofia, and Janice had even completed a solo circumnavigation of the world on foot. Not to mention Aiwass, who possessed an adaptability beyond the road.

So the party of three happily became a party of four and continued.

As Aiwass's personal maid, Lily had to maintain her dignity - she didn't have to wear the same uniform as other maids, but could wear nice private clothes when going out with Aiwass.

Lily, also from a knight family, resembled the young ladies of Glass Island in both appearance and temperament. Furthermore, compared to the young ladies of the capital, who were more obsessed with maintaining their beauty and figure, Lily, due to her background, was more eager for knowledge and therefore read more books. Her quiet and intellectual demeanor made her even more like a young lady.

Not only did she not feel out of place after she sat down, she even calmly responded to questions from Master Yannis on certain literary topics.

Taking the opportunity, Aiwass also made his request.

"...Indeed, Mr. Aiwass does need someone to take care of him."

Isabel nodded slightly in agreement and said, "Do you want Miss Lily to accompany you to school..."

She turned to Janice and whispered, "Teacher, do I really count on my words in this matter?"

After a few drinks—even though they were only low-alcohol sweet wines—Isabel became noticeably more talkative, and her timid demeanor also lessened considerably.

If we regard this current state as her true intention, then it can actually reflect Isabel's true character.

"Of course, my sweetheart."

Janice, who had drunk twice as much as Isabel but showed no reaction, simply smiled and said, "This is the Royal Law University. Naturally, you have the final say."

"Then, rather than a maid who can attend classes, I would like to arrange for Miss Lily to be a student directly. Because I think she is more worthy of attending university than many students at the Royal Law University... Is this okay?"

After Isabel finished speaking in one breath, she became a little unsure about her words: "Isn't it a bit too willful?"

Because she didn't know if this would cause trouble for other people's work.

The princess, who had never been willful and therefore didn't even know how many privileges she had, was a little hesitant for a moment.

"Of course," Janice couldn't help but laugh. "You're so cute... you're such a good girl. Just give me the order for this little thing, and all the paperwork and procedures will be taken care of."

"Even though the opinions of the Round Table are more important than those of the Silver and Tin Hall on many thorny political issues, don't forget that the ministers' decrees must always be signed by Her Majesty the Queen before they can take effect. Don't underestimate your own importance either—if you despise yourself, others will despise you even more. Scum are always accustomed to bullying the weak and fearing the strong.

"Believe me, Sofia won't think this is a big deal. She'll just be happy for you because you've finally realized your identity and learned how to use your power."

"That's settled then, Miss Lily!"

Isabel looked at Lily expectantly.

——From now on you will be my junior!

Great, I have another friend!

"...Thank you, Princess, thank you, Master Aiwass, and thank you, Master Yanis!"

Realizing that the trajectory of her life might be changed as a result, Lily excitedly stood up, saluted, and hurriedly thanked the three people.

"Let's do this, Lily."

Janice took over, making arrangements with a more expert hand than Isabel. "Evans isn't very mobile right now, so I don't think it's appropriate for him to continue living at home. It takes quite a while to get from White Queens to Red Queens... If we just push the wheelchair, it'll probably take over two hours. It'll be quite troublesome for you, too."

"No, it's okay on my end..."

"I know."

Janice interrupted, "But you are students after all, and you are young people. You need more sleep and some time to socialize with your classmates. However, you are just like Isabel, and you are really not suitable for living in the student dormitory..."

"So I think there are two options. One is to buy a house near the school and move there. The advantage is that it's secluded enough, with plenty of private space, and you don't have to rely on the school for food and other expenses. But the disadvantage is that it may not be as safe.

"After all, you have the protection of your tutors at school, but both of you lack the ability to protect yourself. Living alone outside will always be inconvenient. And with only one maid, Lily will probably be very busy, taking up a lot of your study time. In that case, I'm afraid Oswald will need to move in with you, along with the servants and the cook."

Unlike the aristocratic systems of Star Antimony and Iris, the Kingdom of Avalon strictly limits the number of servants allowed to be employed by even the Knight families. This is to prevent Knight families with supernatural knowledge from secretly cultivating their own private armies of supernatural beings.

In a sense, this also limits the scope of activities of the knight family.

Because the main house and the estate were so large, they required a large number of servants to manage them. Usually, when a family member needed to move out temporarily, they would only take their personal male and female servants with them.

"That's definitely not going to work," Aiwass shook his head. "Although my father is away on business and won't be home anytime soon, Yulia needs care and protection more than I do."

Especially since he couldn't come home often, she would probably feel even more lonely.

"So another option is to have someone clear out a separate dormitory room for you both on campus, and live there. Since it's still on campus, any food, hygiene, and safety issues can be resolved on campus."

"……Why?"

Isabel, on the other hand, was a little at a loss: "Does Miss Lily need to live with Mr. Aiwass? I'm afraid that would be... inconvenient, right?"

"Isn't that what a personal maid is for?"

Yanis asked back.

She stared at Isabel, then suddenly understood something and couldn't help laughing. "Ah, I see... Are you thinking about this?"

"Teacher, what do you know?"

Isabel was a little embarrassed.

"From what I understand, to prevent these young men from falling prey to the seduction of impure women and becoming ill, or from siring bastards unacceptable to their families... before being assigned a suitable fiancée, the sexual needs of these young masters of knight families are usually met by their personal maids."

The elf lady of unknown age did not shy away from asking with interest, "What about you, Aiwass? You don't need it, do you?"

Hearing this, Lily blushed and lowered her head silently.

And Isabel opened her eyes wide, looking shocked.

Aiwass just smiled and avoided answering: "It seems that you must have heard a little bit about me."

"I can only say that seeing is believing."

Janice smiled and shook her head, saying meaningfully, "As expected, you're just sweet-talking like a fox... Or rather, you're even better than I imagined, and even more charming than the rumors say."

"...Huh? What kind of reputation?"

Isabel, who had no friends and was isolated from the gossip circle, felt a little confused for a moment.

"You don't think you're the only one who sees the charm of Aiwass, do you, little Issa?"

Janice jokingly said, "Our young Mr. Aiwass just didn't go to college. But he was already a popular figure in middle school. Descendants of knight families are considered public figures, and they're not allowed to find even a 'girlfriend' on their own—because others might interpret their choice of girlfriend unnecessarily, and it might even make the news and cause trouble for the parents. My newspaper has reported some similar news stories."

"And Aiwass, because he casually flaunts his charm towards his peers, has been repeatedly suspected of having illicit relationships. He's a notorious playboy in the capital's circles. He was already well-known before he appeared in the newspapers.

"Back then, before he was attacked by demonologists and confined to a wheelchair, Aiwass excelled in sports and was a master at cricket. He grew tall and handsome at an early age, was witty and humorous, and had a deep respect for women.

"Many girls were vying for his affection, and many even thought they were his girlfriends. Although this was later proven to be wishful thinking on their part, it left a mark on Aiwass's reputation."

In fact, their reputation for themselves is not wrong.

Aiwass thought.

He himself did have a bit of a bad temper in this regard. He never bothered to hide his brilliance, but instead freely exuded charm and warmth. But at the same time, he was rarely willing to respond to the love directed at him by others.

It was simply because he felt that the other person wasn't good enough to make his heart flutter. Still far from it.

Even before awakening his past life memories, Aiwass was somewhat arrogant. That arrogance had nothing to do with his understanding of the "plot," but rather lay closer to the essence of his soul.

The biggest difference in personality before and after awakening his past life memories was actually that before that, Aiwass lacked social experience and didn't have so many malicious intentions to scheme against others... He was quite simple at that time and even dared to meet his pen pal alone.

After all, this was an era without the internet. It was normal for young people to be more naive.

However, it is actually difficult to conceal the old story of Aiwass's previous reputation.

At the moment, Aiwass really doesn't have any special feelings for Isabel.

Now he is busy improving himself, changing the future and fighting against the end of the world.

All the energy devoted to Her Royal Highness the Princess is focused on helping her become stronger, increase her confidence and overcome her shortcomings, leaving no room for romantic feelings.

——But he couldn’t just say that he would never be tempted again.

After all, she is really beautiful.

To be honest, this is the main reason.

Besides that, she has a kind and determined heart and is a reliable teammate who can be trusted.

Even if you spend a long time together, you may not necessarily fall in love... There is no point in deceiving yourself.

——And if that time really comes, long-term concealment will become a malicious deception.

Therefore, Aiwass was actually quite grateful to Master Janice for breaking the window paper at this time.

It's better to talk about this kind of thing as early as possible to avoid unnecessary halo.

But what puzzled Aiwas was that Isabel didn't react much to this.

She subconsciously looked up at Lily, then at the teacher, as if she was thinking about something.

At this moment, Janice looked at Aiwass, and their eyes met. "After all, he is also a 'Moriarty.' Everyone knows that old James was notoriously picky when it came to choosing adopted children. Aiwass, like his brothers and sisters, was born to attract attention and be loved."

...Brothers and sisters?

When Aiwas heard this, he suddenly had an idea.

I have a sister? How come I didn't know?

Just when he was about to ask, the butler knocked on the door and announced that someone had come to pick up Aiwass.

The implication is that the time has come - it's time to kick people out.

We can't let Aiwass stay in the Temple of Silver and Tin overnight, right?

The three of them only then realized that it was already nine o'clock in the evening. It was time for Isabel to go to bed.

——Although it sounds outrageous, Isabel does go to bed this early.

"You haven't met Aiwas's eldest brother yet, right? It's a good opportunity for you to meet him once," Janice stood up with a smile. "He's also a very outstanding young man. He was well-known for his excellence in school..."

"...By the way, Master Yanis."

Upon hearing this, the butler quickly added: "The person who came is not Mr. Edward Moriarty.

"There was another warehouse explosion in White Queens just now, and Inspector General Edward couldn't come due to some emergency matters.

"The person who came to pick up Mr. Aiwass is Mr. Sherlock Hermes, the consultant."

After today's update is published, it will be automatically removed from the new book list as the word count reaches the requirement.

But we will go to Sanjiang tomorrow, so it will be almost seamless!

It's the last week of the new book season, so I should start preparing some of my saved manuscripts for the upcoming update...

It's 9:30 AM now, and I've just finished writing over 7,000 words for today. I can't say what time I'll wake up in the afternoon, but I'll fix the typos when I wake up (sad)

(End of this chapter)