Foxes Were Always Good at Lying

At this very moment, history is being rewritten by itself.

Iver felt the thread of history very clearly.

The radiance called "Possibility" was clenched in his hand, pulsating powerfully.

He remembered it clearly—in the original storyline, Sherlock had never been attacked in such a violent manner.

Even after Sherlock completely disappeared several years later, the incident in which his father Arthur Holmes, was framed still remains unsolved.

Even the character "York Holmes" doesn't appear in the main storyline at all.

—Although Iver barely watched the story, he was still that confident. While he skipped all the cutscenes when playing, he would still read posts in the player community and watch videos by story-analyzing content creators to get a feel for the plot.

Given Sherlock's popularity among players, York Holmes, as Sherlock's uncle, would certainly have been a topic of discussion if he had ever made a formal appearance. Especially after Sherlock's disappearance, it's impossible that no one mentioned his name.

Needless to say, York is also the legal counsel for Lloyd's, the largest gang in Avalon, and a high-ranking member of Lloyd's's; he's also involved in the Noble Red Society and the Alchemy Bomb case, so he definitely has a lot of secrets hidden around him. In the Timeline where he didn't attempt to assassinate Sherlock, Mr. York was most likely not just an ordinary person either.

He is linked to at least three entities: Lloyd's of Lloyd's, the Noble Red Society, and the Minister of Trade. He is also highly likely to be connected to the curse on the royal family, and may even be linked to the Hawkeye Organization.

In other words, all the events in version 1.0 are closely intertwined with "Lawyer York"! Iver is more inclined to believe that he was either silenced or killed by another group before attempting to assassinate Sherlock. That's why he doesn't appear in the "player's" viewpoint at all and doesn't participate in any main storyline.

This person is undoubtedly a crucial turning point, and may even be the weakest First Ring in the entire conspiracy chain.

Now that Sherlock has made some contact with Lloyd's, he has to silence Sherlock. This means his current situation must be quite delicate.

His reason for needing to kill Sherlock immediately was simple. From Iver's perspective, things were already very clear.

The biggest change here from the original story is the phrase "Sweater Brotherhood" that Iver mentions in his dream.

"Sherlock, calm down and listen to me. We don't need to investigate your uncle York Holmes."

"Let's exchange perspectives first."

—Sherlock York Holmes, the most famous detective on Glass Island, chief advisor to the Bureau of Supervision, and nephew of Sherlock Holmes, a high -Edward ranking official at Lloyd's, raided an abandoned Glass Island plant outpost with its entrance hidden from the Lloyd District, without any evidence or report to the police.

At this point, before the Sweater Brotherhood had even begun stealing the bodies from the Gallows Square, they were no different from the various Strangulation Gang controlled by Lloyd's, and had nothing unique about them.

Just then, a large quantity of Alchemy Bomb smuggled from the Stibium Kingdom were found piled up inside the abandoned chemical plant. Furthermore, these Alchemy Bomb had been ordered by the Minister of Trade who had dealings with the Noble Red Society.

"... If I were a senior executive at Lloyd's of Lloyd's, what would I be thinking right now?"

Iver interlaced his fingers, placing the teacup in his palms, his tone calm and even. "Then I can only assume that His Excellency ' York Holmes ' inadvertently revealed the secret while trying to recruit you. And your act of directly reporting to the Inspectorate inadvertently proves another thing—that you know Lloyd's's has planted spies in the Bureau of Supervision."

"...I see."

When Iver got to this point, Sherlock immediately understood. "The reason I went to find Edward was because I wasn't sure if the information you gave me was true or false, and I was taking him along to check the situation."

"At first, we had no idea what kind of amazing results we would achieve. Because Edward and I were on good terms, even if I occasionally played a trick on him, it wouldn't matter; at most, he would just laugh at me a bit..."

As he spoke, he stood up and began to wander around the room.

As he paced back and forth, he spoke at an alarming pace, "In my eyes, Edward and I are trustworthy friends; but in the eyes of those people at Lloyd's's, the most prominent label on Edward is 'the Inspector General of Glass Island.' As an advisor to the Bureau of Supervision, I bypassed the Bureau of Supervision and went directly to the Inspector General—without even notifying the Oversight Bureau, which means I already knew that Lloyd's's had planted a large number of its own people in the upper echelons of the Kingdom."

Sherlock stopped and turned to look at Iver, who was sitting in a wheelchair. "The fact that I obtained these two pieces of information at the same time can only mean... that York Holmes leaked the information."

Iver nodded. "So, if he can't recruit you, he has to kill you himself to prove he hasn't betrayed you."

"... That's why he did it himself."

Sherlock stood there in thought for a moment, then walked over and lowered his voice. "Then I plan to make a slight adjustment to my plan, Iver."

"Why don't you tell me about your previous plans first?"

"It's simple. First, try to find out if he's the murderer... Of course, we probably won't need to do that now."

Sherlock replied, "I heard from the Bishop that your holy sword is currently unusable, which means you are actually incapable of fighting. Therefore, I do not intend to put you in charge of the most dangerous part... namely, the capture of him."

"My funeral will be held tomorrow morning, and Uncle York will definitely come to attend it."

"My Mycroft is the only one in my family who knows I'm not dead. He's also very intelligent and trustworthy. To make my parents' acting seem more natural, neither of them knew about this. I originally intended to use this atmosphere to lower his guard."

What happens after we let our guard down?

Iver asked, "Trick him out and kill him?"

"That's roughly it."

Sherlock nodded. "I have a backup intelligence storage point somewhere I frequent—I really did prepare such a Safe House, and it wasn't a temporary setup. It really does store my investigation results about Lloyd's; everything is genuine."

Iver quickly understood Sherlock's plan. "You want him to make his move again."

"Yes," Sherlock said in a deep voice, "He is too cautious. Whenever he appears in public, he is always accompanied by one or two arbitrator friends."

"My uncle's favorite pastime was hunting down talented young people. When they were of lower status and ability than him, he would sincerely befriend them. Once their talents blossomed, he would then have them turn around and protect him."

"His hunting grounds aren't just limited to 'young people,' but also include those who suddenly run into trouble... As a lawyer, he's likely to encounter such people. Like Inspector Gordon, who was in the newspaper with you the other day."

"When Gordon first retired, his family got into trouble with a lawsuit. York helped him resolve the issue and went out of his way to find him a job. He even started as the deputy director of the Bureau of Supervision... Although Gordon would probably have ended up with a decent job without him, Uncle York's actions always left a very good impression."

Oh, I see. He's an angel investor.

Iver suddenly realized.

No wonder Sherlock felt troubled at that moment, and no wonder Gordon, who looked very Old Knight -fashioned, took the initiative to shake hands with him.

This woman is a true socialite of the upper class. Like a low-budget version of Professor Moriarty.

He has no weaknesses or flaws; as long as he doesn't take the initiative, he's invincible. Even if he leaves evidence, with his connections, he might not ultimately be convicted.

Since that's the case, we can't just let him go back easily after getting the information from him... otherwise it will only cause trouble for ourselves.

Iver narrowed his eyes.

Coincidentally, he had previously obtained two excellent samples of poison from the Assassin Miss.

—One of these doses is enough to cause a natural death.

So he thought for a moment and said in a low voice, "Your plan is not good."

Sherlock didn't question him immediately, but frowned and pondered for a moment, "Are you worried that he'll send his men or friends to get it?"

"Your thinking is too conventional, Sherlock. You've been too influenced by Path of Authority to realize that mobs are unreasonable."

Iver said quietly, "If I were your uncle, what would I do? Would I risk getting evidence against myself, or give my subordinates or friends the opportunity to discover my true colors?"

"He could also silence the person who has the evidence," Sherlock added.

"That's certainly possible, but it's not safe. The other party could easily check it secretly, keep some of it, or even use it to threaten him. Their relationship seems good, but it's really just that. At most, it's just a network of connections; there's no loyalty involved."

Iver closed one eye slightly and said softly, "If I were him, I wouldn't let these people have any chance to access any deep secrets. Silencing them would at most be considered 'remedy'."

"From this perspective, the safest way is to have the Noble Red Society directly detonate your Safe House, completely destroying the evidence at the physical level."

"So your previous plan was unreliable and could have put Edward and you in danger. Let's talk about something new."

When Iver spoke, Sherlock seemed to have a hallucination—this young man who was sitting in a wheelchair, slowly sipping his milk tea and showing a gentle smile, now had an extremely dangerous feeling about him.

It was a dangerous aura completely different from the cold and silent one of his brother Edward. Even though he was smiling, polite, gentle, and mild-mannered, there was something about him that sent chills down your spine.

There's also a sense of familiarity that I can't quite put my finger on...

Suddenly, Sherlock realized what was happening.

At this moment, Iver was just like his adoptive father Professor Moriarty.

He paused for a moment before reacting and coughing lightly, clumsily concealing his surprise.

"... So my new plan is that tomorrow you use the identity of ' Sherlock's friend' to slowly befriend him... you can even pretend to Lloyd's's. Do whatever you want, the ultimate goal is to isolate him. And then notify Edward to successfully capture him. It's best to do it as soon as possible, and don't make too much of a fuss. The longer I'm 'dead,' the harder it will be for me to come back... by the time I advance next time, it will probably be impossible to hide the fact that I'm still alive."

"To be honest, I'm not very good at acting. Especially in the Dream Realm, where you're forced to bring out your instincts and habits. In other words, we have a maximum of three weeks left, and it would be best to finish within two weeks."

Sherlock patted Iver on the shoulder. "I believe you can do it. ' The Fox ' is always good at lying."

He emphasized the word "Fox" with particular force.

... Didn't you not care when you were drunk? Why are you starting to dwell on it now that you're sober?

"Iwas sitting comfortably in his wheelchair Iver thought to himself.

But this is something he's really good at—isn't it just about quickly building up the other party's trust level?

Don't worry, I know how.