Avalon Kingdom, Glass Island, White Queen District Surveillance Bureau.
This morning, the Surveillance Bureau was still exceptionally busy.
Men and women, dressed in light or leather armor, strode briskly, radiating heroic spirit. On Director Kent's office wall still hung the majestic silver dragon head, the Silver Crown Dragon, watching them at all times.
Director Kent, now over forty but still robust, sat in his leather chair.
His back was straight, his rounded shoulders and upper arms filling out his loose clothing. His bronze skin and the hard lines on his face gave him the appearance of a fierce tough guy. A deep scar ran from above his left eye all the way to his lip, and he wore a black eye patch, looking like a one-eyed pirate.
As a matter of ritual and etiquette, even though Director Kent had not participated in frontline combat for over ten years, he still had to work in armor, maintain a standard sitting posture, and show no wavering in his demeanor. His upper arms, abdomen, and calves, areas of less burden, were adorned with metallic silver-white armor. Other parts were covered with gleaming plates.
If he weren't also an Otherworlder of no low level, he would probably be exhausted just sitting there all day.
As early as four hundred and twenty years ago, Lancelot I, the founding monarch of the Avalon Kingdom, established three major legal institutions.
The Surveillance Bureau, responsible for 'monitoring and protecting the populace'; the Inspectorate, responsible for 'inspecting knights and officials'; and the Arbitration Hall, responsible for 'adjudicating right and wrong.' At their inception, these three legal institutions were of equal standing. Important responsibilities were held by Round Table Knights who could enter the Senate.
The national emblem of the Avalon Kingdom is a green eye, nested within a silver-white triangle symbolizing Authority.
The eye represents the Royal Family, symbolizing their current Old Queen, Sophia I, who is nearly eighty yet still healthy.
And the silver triangle protecting the Royal Family refers to the Surveillance Bureau, the Inspectorate, and the Arbitration Hall.
However, with the development of the times, the Surveillance Bureau became responsible for more and more matters. Taxation, security, sanitation, fire protection, public order, censorship, incarceration... Consequently, numerous sub-departments gradually emerged within the Surveillance Bureau, requiring the establishment of branch offices everywhere and the recruitment of a large number of probationary Inspectors, Inspectors, and Chief Inspectors to handle local affairs, thus decentralizing power.
The Inspectorate and the Arbitration Hall, on the other hand, did not expand in scale because they dealt with more difficult, specific matters. The former became an organization somewhat akin to a secret service agency responsible for scrutinizing whether officials, great and small, were loyal, whether hereditary knight families lacked morals, whether grassroots Inspectors committed disciplinary or procedural violations, as well as monitoring foreign spies or independently gathering intelligence abroad; while the latter became the current courts.
The commonality is that they are now both a level higher than the Surveillance Bureau.
So much so that any talent within the Surveillance Bureau who can reach the Fourth Level must be transferred to the Inspectorate and the Arbitration Hall. This is euphemistically called, 'You wouldn't need such talent anyway.' Even Director Kent of the White Queen District, a core area adjacent to the Glass Staircase, is only of the Third Level.
The young girl named Haina, recently transferred here, is only in her early twenties, yet her strength is already comparable to Director Kent, who is rapidly approaching fifty.
Kent didn't even need to think to know that the Inspectorate would definitely come to request her.
This is an era that produces geniuses. Whether it's Haina or Sherlock... these new generation geniuses are far stronger than older individuals like them who grew up in peacetime.
This is not a good omen, Kent thought.
This might be a premonition of impending chaos…
He picked up the phone on his desk and dialed the rotary. 0 1 2, the call connected.
"Tell Haina to come to my office."
Director Kent instructed, "Also, find someone to call our Consultant as well."
Hanging up the phone, he tossed the Glass Staircase News onto the desk. He stood up and walked to the bookshelf.
The front-page headline of the newspaper featured a photo of Haina and the young master of the Moriarty Family.
The handsome young man with a gentle smile sat calmly in an elven-art-style wheelchair, a blanket covering his knees, his hands clasped in front of his abdomen, speaking with a gentle and natural demeanor. Haina, standing behind him, stood ramrod straight, her hand on the hilt of her sword at her waist, her muscles taut.
It was as if he noticed the photographer, or perhaps was greeting someone familiar near the photographer.
Mid-sentence, the young man's gaze suddenly shifted from the reporter to the direction of the camera lens.
He revealed a bright, sun-like gentle smile, slightly raising his hand to wave in this direction. Yet, it gave the impression that he was smiling and waving at the reader looking at the newspaper.
The next moment, the scene jumped back to the beginning. Aiwass continued to sit in his wheelchair, earnestly speaking to the reporter.
This was the 'Magic Painting' ability from the Way of Beauty.
Logically speaking, the Way of Beauty is a Path legislated as forbidden in Avalon, but Master Agnes is an exception. The 'Glass Daily Newspaper,' founded by this world-renowned elven painter, is the largest and only truly official newspaper in Avalon.
The Glass Daily Newspaper is responsible for compiling the most important intelligence of the Avalon Kingdom daily, summarized for the Royal Family and the ministers of the Round Table Hall. The three major legal institutions also provide free copies of the Glass Staircase News for their employees.
Perhaps following a trend, or to keep up with upper-level policies, or perhaps merely to express their concern for the kingdom's political situation, some wealthy individuals who neither participate in politics nor perform duties also join the craze to buy the Glass Staircase News. Subsequently, some university students also purchase it as a topic of conversation among young students.
Although each issue features a 'Magic Painting' with a cumulative duration of fifteen seconds, and the material cost alone for each newspaper is as high as one red coin, its price is surprisingly not high. This is because Master Agnes does not need to profit from it. The retail price of the Glass Staircase News is only two red coins and five copper coins per issue these five copper coins are left as profit for distributors, and sometimes there are even discounts. Anyone of moderate means can afford it.
This kind of newspaper that can show animations is a very novel experience. Although it has no sound and is in black and white, at least the pictures can move this is basically the cheapest way for ordinary people to truly feel the power of the Otherworlders.
And in this issue of the Glass Staircase News, Aiwass Moriarty alone took up a full twelve seconds of the headline, leaving only three seconds for a bicycle advertisement.
Director Kent highly suspected that it was because Aiwass was too handsome and his smile was so charming that Master Agnes dedicated a full twelve seconds to him.
"Smiling so beautifully... you can tell he's no good."
Director Kent, with his beast-like intuition, pursed his lips and muttered, "I wonder whose daughter he plans to ruin..."
...However, he saw it clearly.
To be able to solve such a major case independently at this age, he will surely become a far greater figure than himself in the future.
This time, they gained a great merit out of nowhere, and they must be given sufficient rewards originally, such a big task should have gone to the Inspectorate; it would never have been their turn.
Moreover, this was also an opportunity to connect with Professor Moriarty.
Therefore, the chosen reward must be good enough, otherwise, for the Moriarty Family, it would be equivalent to trash. Giving them something they look down on would instead be a disgrace to the Surveillance Bureau.
...What a hassle.
"A priest of the Dedication Path... a student of the Seminary...?"
Director Kent muttered softly, rummaging through the bookshelf.
Suddenly, his movements stopped. He looked at a corner.
There was a black-covered book, with no name on its spine.
The Director picked it up with one hand, and with the other, lightly flicked the cover. Sparks burst from the pages, like a hammer striking an anvil.
"This one might work."
He murmured softly, reading the title, "'shepherd's apocryphon'... Judging by the name, it should be related to 'priests,' right?"
This entire bookshelf was filled with good items confiscated by his subordinates when seizing forbidden books.
The Avalon Kingdom strictly prohibits accepting bribes in any form, as that is an act capable of shaking 'Authority.' But conversely, appropriate profiteering within the scope of one's duties is tacitly allowed. This is also to prevent officials and ministers from being bribed by foreign spies especially those from the Stibium Kingdom when short of money, or from selling important intelligence and internal resources to the public. This would also shake 'Authority.'
One of the tacitly allowed methods of profiteering includes selling confiscated forbidden books to knight families from this perspective, this bookshelf can also be considered Director Kent's personal property.
Kent was not a pioneer of the Dedication Path, so he definitely couldn't open this book.
But from the name, and the sparks it emitted, it looked in every way like a mysterious classic belonging to the Dedication Path.
After Otherworlders die, their souls fall into the 'Nine-Forked River' of the Dream Realm, flowing into the Path they traveled furthest. The power within them becomes the 'Path Characteristics' gained by later travelers during advancement rituals, while their memories and knowledge scatter everywhere, haphazardly falling into the flowers, fruits, sea of clouds, and waves of the Dream Realm, becoming part of the materials that construct the Dream Realm.
Those Dream Wanderers of the Path of Wisdom can capture and collect these headless, tailless, scattered esoteric knowledge from the Dream Realm.
They would collect them and compile them into books. Such mysterious classics containing demonic knowledge are called 'Original Texts.'
'Original Texts' are written in Gupta script. This is a script that has long been extinct, and ordinary people cannot understand it. This often requires local translators of the Path of Wisdom to use mysterious techniques to forcibly translate it before it can be understood.
According to the convention in the translation world, these Original Texts recording Dream Realm knowledge in Gupta script are uniformly translated as 'X Apocryphon.' The prefix depends mainly on the translator's understanding of the Original Text's content.
In an Apocryphon, one can usually obtain a complete mysterious technique although it might have been reproduced by people in later generations, there is also a significant probability that it is a lost technique.
Although not necessarily useful, it is lost after all.
In other words, it cannot be obtained through normal means...
"Then as a prize and 'gift,' it's prestigious enough."
Director Kent muttered to himself.