When the plot-skips players into the game world

Chapter 578: Chapter 5 Are You Really Back This Time?

Chapter 578: Chapter 5 Are You Really Back This Time?

February 13th, Sunday, clear weather.

Young Sherlock dressed neatly, carrying a small satchel, and headed to the Hall of Silver and Tin early in the morning.

It was completely different from what Sherlock had initially expected.

His parents didn’t just avoid showing aversion to the younger Sherlock—they showed unusual affection towards him, treating him completely differently than they did the adult him—even though they both knew it was the same person, the influence of his external appearance was still significant.

He had been living at home this entire time.

After all, Sherlock’s soul might be that of a mature and reliable adult, but his appearance and body were ultimately just that of a child.

His parents certainly couldn’t let the current young Sherlock live alone anymore—if adult Sherlock neglected his body, he might just suffer from malnutrition, but a child’s eating and sleeping were undoubtedly much more important.

Therefore, after Sherlock’s protests proved ineffective, he was settled at Hermes Manor.

In this state, he obviously couldn’t take on many big cases and could only do some research and write papers at home, so he rarely went out.

Today was his first visit to the Hall of Silver and Tin…

Of course, a part of the reason was his reluctance to see Isabel.

When he had failed to recognize that Lulu was Isabel, his sharp tongue had put quite a bit of pressure on Lulu for a while.

Now that Isabel had become the queen of Avalon, Sherlock felt somewhat guilty.

Although he knew Isabel definitely wouldn’t care about such things, Sherlock himself was sensitive to these matters.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have moved out of his home back then.

But today, he had to come—

To settle accounts with Aiwass!

Though it was rare for children to come here and even rarer for a child to easily enter Avalon’s royal palace, Sherlock was undoubtedly an exception.

He was after all a Third Power Level Mage and Legal Mage, a considerable threat.

It would be bad if there were any misunderstandings.

Therefore, although young Sherlock had never come to the Hall of Silver and Tin, Aiwass had already informed those Queen’s Guards transferred from the Holy Nation of Sherlock’s true identity to prevent accidental harm.

Those Queen’s Guards from the Holy Nation had long since known this child was actually Sherlock Hermes who had gone missing for two months.

Sherlock had no objections to this—his previous desire to keep his identity secret was because he had a quarrel with his family.

Now that the misunderstandings were cleared and forgiveness was exchanged…

Sherlock simply resumed using his real name.

After young Sherlock said he wanted to see Aiwass, he was whisked away by the approaching Queen’s Guards.

The Elf girl with light golden hair who seemed only eighteen or nineteen years old caressed Sherlock’s head affectionately and then took his small hand to lead him inside.

Aiwass wasn’t in his bedroom, nor was he in his study.

He was in the park behind the Hall of Silver and Tin.

After being led there, Sherlock first politely greeted the Gryphon minister lying at the back yard’s entrance.

It stood three meters tall even while lying down, with a wingspan of over ten meters.

This old Gryphon, whose lifespan was practically equivalent to Avalon’s history, would be saluted by even Ligeia when she arrived.

Now, it was lying on the squarely cut Pure White jade stone, with eyes half-closed, paws tucked in, and peacefully basking in today’s exceptionally warm sun.

Upon hearing Sherlock’s respectful greeting, the old Gryphon opened its eyes to see young Sherlock, the bird-face showing a human-like affectionate smile.

“Long time no see, young Sherlock.

You seem…

even younger than last time.”

The Gryphon minister replied gently, “Are you here to play with Aiwass?

Go on in then.”

In the Gryphon’s understanding, humans were like cats, adorable to a Gryphon.

No matter if they were old, ugly, or fat, they all looked cute.

But no matter the appearance, kittens are undoubtedly the cutest.

That’s why Gryphons are more affectionate towards children.

However, they are also somewhat face-blind, not quite able to distinguish human ages and features specifically.

Even though Sherlock had transformed from a twenty-something to a teenager, in the eyes of the Gryphon minister, the difference wasn’t too great.

After paying respects again to the Gryphon minister, Sherlock quickly walked inside.

In the early spring garden, Isabel was sitting on top of a pavilion with a drawing board in front of her.

Aiwass was on a Pure White horse, riding slowly on the open ground.

From a distance, upon seeing young Sherlock, Aiwass showed a mischievously smiling face.

He spurred the horse, charging towards young Sherlock with a great momentum!

Sherlock didn’t dodge or flinch, just staring at Aiwass with dead fish eyes.

As expected, Aiwass stopped the horse very close to Sherlock.

“Quite brave,” Aiwass said with a smile.

“You trust me that much?”

“Hah,” Sherlock snorted coldly.

“Go ahead and hit me.

After all, it’d be you who has to heal me up.”

He glanced at the white horse Aiwass was on and guessed what he was up to.

“Practicing equestrian skills?”

Aiwass was training in equestrian early in preparation for travel abroad.

Obviously, once Aiwass travels abroad, he won’t have the convenience of a sentient Gryphon to transport him.

A Gryphon would proactively take care of humans, much like people carrying cats and dogs across the street.

Thus, even if Aiwass was not skilled in riding, the Gryphon wouldn’t let him accidentally fall off—unless the human moved too wildly.

Although the Holy Nation had Transcendent creatures like Pegasus and Unicorn, a Pegasus was a mount of the Papal Guard, and the rarer Unicorn could only be ridden by a Cardinal Archbishop who also had to be a pure maiden.

Undoubtedly, Aiwass had nothing in common with Cardinals, purity, or maidens.

Even in Star Antimony, where alchemy was highly advanced, horses were far from being obsolete.

On the contrary, in the Knight Nation of Avalon, most knights haven’t even dealt with horses; Aiwass included.

Aiwass didn’t deny it; he just smiled, casually scooped up Sherlock, and placed him behind himself.

He then slowly made his way toward Queen Isabel.

Based on what Sherlock knew about Aiwass, he was riding so slowly probably because he noticed Sherlock hadn’t hugged his waist.

So he was likely planning to suddenly speed up to give Sherlock a fright.

Sherlock, however, couldn’t be bothered to hug Aiwass.

Instead, he casually swung his bag to the front and grabbed Aiwass’s white-gold ponytail with both hands.

This was an attitude of mutual hostage-taking.

——If you don’t mind your scalp hurting, then you’re welcome to speed up.

“Tsk.”

Aiwass smacked his lips: “Little thing, you’re not very friendly.”

“Heh.”

Sherlock let out another cold laugh: “Call me whatever you want, I’ll be changing back in two days anyway.”

“That’s a pity, indeed.”

Aiwass said from the heart: “But it’s okay, you will eventually become an old thing anyway.”

“…You have that much confidence in me?”

Sherlock was taken aback for a moment.

After embarking on the path of a “Worshipper of Mithra,” his appearance stopped being affected by his true age.

Even if he advanced to the “Father of Mithra” at the Sixth Power Level, he would only have the appearance of a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties.

To be categorized as an “old thing,” one would at least have to reach this level to be barely eligible.@@novelbin@@

Aiwass’s comment implied that he believed Sherlock would eventually reach the Sixth Power Level.

He could tell there was no falsehood in Aiwass’s words.

But precisely because of this, he started feeling a bit embarrassed about his own sullen attitude.

While Sherlock was pondering this, Aiwass had already brought him in front of Queen Isabel, hanging onto him with one hand, then dropped him down before nimbly jumping off the horse himself.

“Not angry anymore?”

Aiwass asked with a smile.

“You still have the nerve to ask!”

Sherlock glared at him: “Didn’t you say you’d come to see me yesterday?

I waited at home for you all day, and you only called me in the evening to say you couldn’t make it!”

That Thursday, Sherlock had gone to the school to look for Aiwass.

At that time, Aiwass was supposed to be resting at 14 Roning Street at noon.

Since Lily was very familiar with Aiwass, she didn’t wake him up, letting Sherlock directly enter the bedroom to wake Aiwass himself.

Seeing Aiwass seemed to be lacking sleep and was still napping, Sherlock didn’t directly chat with him.

Instead, he told Aiwass to drop by his house on Saturday to discuss the itinerary for going to the Holy Nation and other matters.

——After all, Sherlock was now acting as Aiwass’s deputy and secretary; it was his job to arrange Aiwass’s schedule.

Generally, it would definitely be the secretary seeking out Aiwass, but since their relationship was quite good, Sherlock wanted to take the opportunity to entertain Aiwass; another reason was his reluctance to interact with Queen Isabel.

Aiwass responded languidly and continued to sleep.

Sherlock took this as confirmation that he had heard, said goodbye to Lily, and left.

“Did you completely forget what I said that day?”

Sherlock was somewhat displeased as he tried to reason with Aiwass: “Were you so groggy with sleep that you thought seeing me was just a dream?”

“…Ah!”

At these words, Queen Isabel let out a surprised sound: “So you had made plans yesterday?”

She put her hands together, showing an apologetic smile: “Sorry, Sherlock.

I didn’t know you had an agreement…

I selfishly kept Aiwass by my side.”

“Of course, Queen Isabel takes precedence,” replied Sherlock, immediately going soft, somewhat helplessly returning her gesture: “It’s really nothing on my side…”

Then he turned to Aiwass, his spirit rising again: “I was right all along; you’re a bewitching fox spirit!

Once you ensnare the queen, you never let go!”

“Hmm…”

This time, however, Aiwass fell silent for a while, then nodded: “Indeed, you’re right.”

He really did ensnare without letting go.

After all, Queen Isabel had been holding onto Aiwass all that time, and Aiwass really wasn’t too keen on pushing her away to call Sherlock.

Later, the sun made him so comfortably warm that he fell asleep…

Because the Bear Celestial Marshal had been disturbing Aiwass every night, it had been a long, long time since he had a good sleep.

When Aiwass awoke for a bit, he found that Queen Isabel had also fallen asleep holding him, so he closed his eyes again.

By the time both were fully awake, it was already time for afternoon tea.

Sherlock suddenly panicked—what are you implying?

Why aren’t you objecting this time?

Object, will you?

Don’t tell me you’re really planning to bewitch the queen?

Are you actually going through with this?!