Chapter 96

Fujimaru Ritsuka, who entered the stork area with a feed bucket, was instantly overwhelmed by the tall flock of storks. According to the little knowledge about storks in her memory, although Fujimaru Ritsuka vaguely remembered that this kind of bird should be a large waterfowl, it was obvious that the storks in the croquet court did not live by the water or in the swamp, but were strolling leisurely on the grass at the edge of the croquet court.

“I think I should throw away my common sense—help me remember which storks have been fed, Saber.” While directing Charlemagne to assist her in feeding the storks, Fujimaru Ritsuka complained to him quietly, “I think they are even as tall as Kirshtalia-senpai!”

"Excuse me, Master." Charlemagne maintained his spirit state to avoid any violation, and used his magic to separate the stork that had already eaten the feed from Fujimaru Ritsuka. "If the stork reaches a height of 190cm, no one will be able to play croquet with it."

"Even in Alice's Wonderland, where common sense is almost useless, it is impossible for someone to play croquet with a 190cm stork."

"……I see."

When the storks surrounding Fujimaru Ritsuka dispersed, the bucket of feed in Fujimaru Ritsuka's hand was also emptied - so Fujimaru Ritsuka looked in the direction of the storks, and found the long golden hair of Irene Adler sticking out from the gaps between the storks, and the lavender hair of another person with divine aura.

"It seems that the two groups of the Red Camp went to Kirshtalia-senpai's place." Fujimaru Ritsuka walked out of the stork area carrying an empty bucket and closed the door to prevent the storks from escaping. "Although I can understand that for a small doll, the danger of a hedgehog is much less than that of a stork, but I am curious about why Ms. Iwanaga chose a hedgehog."

"She's not the type to make a choice based on what one person says."

When they first returned to Chaldea from the Shibuya Anomaly, except for Lancermello who took the time out to talk to Fujimaru Ritsuka about the characteristics of the Shibuya Anomaly, everyone else was still busy dealing with their unresolved work. So Fujimaru Ritsuka went to find the world's greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes, with the unresolved problem.

Although it is said that Fujimaru Ritsuka only went to Sherlock Holmes to solve her doubts in her spare time, in fact, she visited 221B Baker Street in Valhalla - in addition to the original doctor, two crime consultants and a detective, the current 221B Baker Street also added a crime lord and a detective from the Whitechapel anomaly.

When Fujimaru Ritsuka arrived at 221B Baker Street in Heroes' Palace with the report on the anomaly in Shibuya, he happened to catch Watson making tea for the whole family there. Sherlock hooked the chair representing the client in the reception room to the table with his toes, and the others sitting at the table did not stop him.

So Fujimaru Ritsuka sat down on this chair and put the Shibuya anomaly exploration report he wrote on the table.

"Miss. Ritsuka, is there something bothering you?"

Although they did not form a bond in the Sixth Anomaly, based on the reflection of the anomaly belt on pan-human history, Fujimaru Ritsuka also met this gentleman detective in the subspecies anomaly and established a contract with him; so Dr. Watson, who later appeared from the summoning room, simply joined the spirit base atlas of Phoenix Chaldea in a natural way.

The exploration report of Shibuya's special point was circulated among detectives and criminal consultants, and finally stopped in the hands of the new blond criminal lord.

"Master." The blond criminal officer called out to Fujimaru Ritsuka, his fingertips pausing on a certain name in the report, "You want to ask a question about this person of ours, right?"

"Mr. William?"

Ritsuka Fujimaru smiled and thanked Watson who was pouring tea for everyone. When she turned her head, she saw William put his finger on Kotoko Iwanaga's name.

Iwanaga Kotoko - a person completely different from Abe Haruaki of the Heian period, but who also maintains the balance between humans and non-humans in her own way.

That’s right, even though Abe Haruaki and Iwanaga Kotoko themselves both recognized the title of “the one who maintains the balance” - even the curser who planned the Shibuya Incident acknowledged this identity... but Fujimaru Ritsuka still found some inexplicable sense of dissonance in Iwanaga Kotoko.

——The God of Wisdom, Princess, Priestess, Balance Maintainer... These are the titles given to Kotoko Iwanaga by others and acknowledged by herself. But Fujimaru Ritsuka always felt that there were more identities that could better explain Kotoko Iwanaga's true nature that she had ignored.

So Fujimaru Ritsuka chose to bring his own Shibuya Anomaly Exploration Report to seek help from the genius brains at 221B Baker Street in Heroes.

Although the anomaly exploration team successfully contacted the Chaldea control room during the last period of time, none of the members here were in the control room to watch the scene - so much so that now when Fujimaru Ritsuka came to ask for help, they could only hold Fujimaru Ritsuka to ask questions besides passing on the exploration report.

After several genius brains understood what they wanted to know, they let Fujimaru Ritsuka go. At this time, Watson, who had sneaked into the kitchen in advance to bring biscuits to Fujimaru Ritsuka, became the life-saving straw for the confused Lord of the Rings, and the Heroic Spirit who currently enjoys the most favor from the Lord of the Rings.

"Master, you have to know that in the public's impression, detectives generally refer to private or personal detectives." The youngest criminal consultant was the first to speak, stepping on the two consultant detectives present, "They are the kind of guys who investigate extramarital affairs and catch cats and dogs."

"Molly."

"Hey! My full name is James Moriarty!! Not Molly!!!"

"There are already many James Moriarty in Chaldea's records, so you can only call her Moriarty. Let's get down to business..." Watson cleared his throat and sat down in the empty seat next to Holmes, reminding Moriarty Lily not to just focus on damaging Holmes. "Master, you are not here to listen to you damaging Sherlock. So, what do you want to say by mentioning the detective at this time?"

"In fact, Charlie and his team are the only consulting detectives in the world." William quickly took over the conversation after Moriarty Lily closed her mouth, "And there are more detectives in Chaldea than just 221B Baker Street - I think, apart from the detectives in the world that was directly overwritten in the records, the Master should be very clear about the situation of the other detective, right?"

"I thought you had always excluded Mr. El-Melloi II from the discussion." Fujimaru Ritsuka raised his eyebrows and simply summarized, "If the mainstream operating mode of detectives is the cooperation between Holmes and Watson, then Grey is Mr. El-Melloi II's Watson."

"Normally, I wouldn't include this person in the discussion." Sherlock glanced at William and replied to Fujimaru Ritsuka, "But Lian means that the person we are discussing now, Kotoko Iwanaga, is an expert in handling mysterious side events like Lord El-Melloi II. No matter how famous our detectives are, their main job is just the things in the ordinary world that Molili's family talked about."

"Although for Sherlock, he is the kind of guy who would rather not accept any commission than accept a commission that he is not interested in." Watson shrugged and glanced at Holmes who had remained silent so far, "But even if this guy sublimated his own origins into a treasure, he is a detective who has solved the problems in ordinary society, not a detective on the mysterious side."

"Although I don't really like to have Sherlock Holmes be compared with ordinary people and some guys I've never seen... For example, a certain thief." Moriarty smiled while holding the black tea in his hand, revealing a calmness that only belongs to the elderly, "But I want to remind the Master of one thing——"

"If Sherlock Holmes is a detective guided by reason..."

"Then the detective who is guided by emotion is Hercule Poirot."

"Well, although Holmes is a very human guy, the world's evaluation of him always exaggerates one side of the character." Moriarty blinked his blue eyes at Fujimaru Ritsuka, revealing some worries of an old father, "It's as if everyone will regard Moriarty as an unforgivable villain - sometimes even the characteristics of a mathematics professor will be forgotten, not to mention that I will worry about the safety of my daughter when she goes out like all old fathers!!!"

"So why did you mention Detective Poirot?" Fujimaru Ritsuka skillfully ignored Moriarty's gaze and looked at Holmes sitting in the middle, "Could it be that Iwanaga Kotoko and Detective Poirot have something in common?"

"Most detectives go out and investigate in person, even if they have assistants - but sometimes they are no better than armchair detectives who never leave their homes." Holmes finally joined their discussion. "The only thing Miss Iwanaga and Mr. Poirot have in common is probably their good relationships with the rich and powerful - ordinary people cannot know the itinerary of the strongest in the world of sorcery."

"However, when we talk about Mr. Poirot, we have to mention Miss Christie. In her works, in addition to the gentleman detective Poirot, there is also an armchair detective Miss Marple." Holmes handed the report back to Fujimaru Ritsuka. "Although the origin of the armchair detective is the old man in the corner, Miss Marple is the closest to Miss Iwanaga."

"The people who really stay at home won't rush to the most dangerous places."

"And Miss Iwanaga needs to give an explanation that is acceptable to ordinary people in order to maintain the balance between the two worlds." Holmes smiled as he watched Fujimaru Ritsuka put away the report. "So she must be an armchair detective. A consulting detective or an ordinary detective will only have two choices: to give the truth to the client or not to tell the truth."

"And the armchair detective is the one who best fits this requirement - they will present all the possibilities to people, and people just need to choose the truth they are willing to believe."

“It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not.”

"So, I will give you a small reminder, Miss Ritsuka - if you meet Miss Iwanaga again, please be careful. Although I don't want to exaggerate, maybe she is the Sherlock Holmes 'I' who walks between humans and non-humans."