"—But there's one thing I don't quite understand... Why rebel now? Shouldn't the Hawkeye Organization be considered your ally?"
At that moment, Iver spoke softly, breaking the silence that had once again settled over the room. "And now, Iris's prime minister..."
"...isn't he the leader of the Hawkeye Organization?"
"What?!"
"Huh?"
Arsene and Annie were dumbfounded.
As Iris People, they themselves had no idea this was the case.
Or rather, precisely because they were Iris People, they were too close to the situation to see it clearly—the Hawkeye Organization's assassins had killed quite a few parliamentarians from the current ruling party, the Giant Tree Party! "As expected..."
Sherlock sighed and set down the teacup in his hand. "What Edward was unwilling to tell me before was probably this."
"But you already guessed it." Iver smiled.
"That wasn't a guess."
Sherlock asked Iver in return, "Do you remember when you were assassinated by the 'Bone Carver'?"
"At the time, Iris's prime minister could have completely pinned the incident on the Hawkeye Organization, thereby suppressing its influence among the people. The Hawkeye Organization often assassinated famous artists, wealthy merchants, speakers, and officials. In Iris's social environment, this naturally earned them considerable popular support.
"And to someone in power, an organization like that meant 'instability.' Now, he finally had a chance to suppress it, and even a way to use the opportunity to crack down on it... If so, this incident should not have been a political crisis for him at all. It should have been an opportunity. Yet he was willing to drastically shorten his own political career to gloss over the matter.
"If this incident was possibly the result of a deal between him and the Hawkeye Organization, then the assassination at the Papal Election was news he absolutely couldn't suppress.