Misguidance

"Not a lady..."

Hai Na said quietly, "I actually haven't graduated yet."

Besides, this was merely an interrogation...

But before she could finish, Iver gently interrupted her. "You can enter the Bureau of Supervision without having officially graduated... I see, Miss Hai Na is studying at Royal Law University?"

Iver's accent was standard and crisp, without the "Elven accent" that the people of the capital prided themselves on, the kind that symbolized nobility. But that instead made Hai Na, who had come from a small place to study abroad, feel more favorably toward him.

Thus, she nodded in response. "Ah, yes."

As she spoke, she proudly straightened her chest. "I was last year's student council president, and also the fourth-year female chief. As an outstanding graduate of Royal Law University, I obtained employment clearance from the Bureau of Supervision a year early. Although my service sword hasn't been issued yet, my name is already registered with the Bureau."

"Then, by that logic, you can also count as my senior."

Iver interlaced the fingers of both hands and rested them on his knees.

Leaning his upper body back in a relaxed manner, he said slowly, "I'm actually a student of Royal Law University too. A new student this year."

"...Really?"

Hai Na was somewhat surprised, and that shared connection made her feel more favorably toward him. "But I've never seen you..."

"Because I was in poor health. Before I could enroll, I came down with a serious illness. I was bedridden at home for three months because of it."

Iver's slightly pale complexion made his words highly convincing.

What a difficult child...

"I understand. You really are innocent... I'll report this to the director when I return."

Hai Na nodded repeatedly, feeling sympathy for him. Her faint jealousy toward Iver from earlier also vanished because of this.

She felt ashamed of herself. As an inspector of the Bureau of Supervision, she could be considered half a knight. Yet she had actually forgotten the doctrines of humility and compassion taught by her mentor... Jealousy was truly ugly.

"Then, Senior," Iver suddenly said, "did you see what was in the fireplace?"

"The burning thing..."

Hai Na turned her head and said uncertainly, "I couldn't make it out very clearly. It didn't seem to be firewood."

"That was a diary."

Iver spoke gently. "It might even have been evidence that I was colluding with a Demon Scholar.

"Just like this book in my hands."

As he spoke, he closed the book in his hands and tossed it into the fire as well.

Hai Na was suddenly startled.

She instinctively took a step forward and reached out. Completely unprepared, she somehow intercepted the book in midair before it fell.

Her brows furrowed tightly as she lowered her head to look. She found that the book was called Selected Eighty Poems of Stella.

Hai Na naturally recognized the book. It was the textbook used for the first-year Elven Language course.

She uneasily flipped through it and confirmed that it was absolutely not evidence of collusion with a Demon Scholar. In fact, many key points and difficult passages had been marked with pens of different colors.

"Just kidding."

The corners of Iver's mouth lifted slightly. "I'm a victim in this incident, Senior. Those were clearly your own words just now... Why did you become suspicious again just because I casually mentioned it? Do you have so little faith in me?"

Hai Na suddenly realized that this seemingly gentle and refined young man appeared to have some hidden mischievousness.

"This is a very serious matter. It's not something you can joke about."

She put on a stern expression and lectured him seriously, as though she were at school. "Demon Scholars often use living people as materials for sacrifices. To silence witnesses, they even kill the sacrifices after the ritual is complete. That is absolute evil. Even when they have no grudge against someone, they will still kill them and use them as material. It's utterly horrifying! How can you joke about something like that?"

At this point, she suddenly thought of something, and her gaze sharpened. "Speaking of which... if you were the sacrifice, how did you survive?"

"They used me as a sacrifice to summon a powerful demon, but they didn't expect the demon to be closer to me. So I turned around and ordered the demon to kill them all."

The young man smiled as he continued saying increasingly outrageous things. "In fact, the Moriarty Family is thoroughly evil. My father, Professor James Moriarty, is a Demon Scholar with dreams of destroying the world. And I'm not his adopted son, but a demon summoned from another world by him. I'll be able to completely destroy the Avalon Kingdom within a year."

Hai Na listened in a daze for more than half of it before realizing that Iver was simply talking nonsense.

"...What are you talking about?!"

She shouted angrily, at least half of her embarrassment coming from the fact that she had actually believed Iver's strange story for a moment.

This young man, who appeared as beautiful and gentle as a poet, was actually as sly as a fox, spouting lies that reached from the heavens to the earth!

She was furious, but she did not dare speak loudly in front of the old steward. As a result, her face flushed red. "Tell me honestly—why did you appear in a demon ritual? Someone reported anonymously that you went to Stone Arch Park on your own and had not been coerced."

"Everything I said is true. If you don't believe me, take me to the Bureau of Supervision."

Iver shrugged, as though he genuinely felt regretful.

But Hai Na knew that this was impossible. With the Bureau of Supervision clearly inclined to shield him, she could not arrest Iver without evidence. If she really took Iver, who was still confined to a wheelchair, away, she would probably be the one to suffer.

Afterward, Iver slowly put away his fox-like smile.

He wore a serious expression and said earnestly, "That's what I said. But since you, Senior, can tell that all those things I said were nonsense, why can you believe an anonymous report? What difference is there between what I said and that report?"

"...Then what is the truth?"

"I can give you another version of the story—I was attacked and taken to Stone Arch Park while I was out for a walk. When I regained consciousness, I was already in a wheelchair. I have no idea what happened in between. I don't even know that I was used as a sacrifice and offered to a demon, nor do I know how they were driven away or how I survived...

"But this version of the story is too smooth, without a single flaw. It's just like a defense presented by a Law Mage in court. If I told you that directly, you might become even more suspicious."

Iver sighed, once again looking helpless and innocent.

He said, "So which one do you believe?"

...If she excluded her emotions and judged rationally, the latter seemed more reasonable.

I may have misunderstood Iver again. Is it because the jealousy in my heart hasn't completely faded?—Besides, he truly could not have summoned a demon of that level, because Iver was too weak. Hai Na could sense that he was probably an extraordinary one, but his reaction was extremely faint. At most, he had only lit up one layer of a Path.

The extraordinary knowledge Hai Na had learned told her that even if a preparatory extraordinary one of this level really summoned a demon, it would at most possess the strength of a familiar. It absolutely could not have caused destruction on that scale. Moreover, the confirmed dead person at the ritual site was indeed a wanted criminal who had fled to the capital.

That person had once sacrificed an entire small village. He was now a Third-Level Demon Scholar and could even summon a Greater Demon.

...Could it be that after he summoned the demon, the contract failed and he was devoured by the demon? That was not impossible.

If that were the case, the demon would be sent back when the summoner died. Iver had merely been severely drained of vitality by the ritual before being found by the old steward. Logically speaking, this possibility was much more likely.

...But why had Iver told her such an outrageous lie? Hai Na quickly realized—

She came up with a very reasonable explanation: because her attitude had changed too easily. She had not interrogated him carefully at all before declaring Iver innocent. As a truly innocent person, Iver had instead become angry at her careless attitude and deliberately said some strange things to mock her for making assumptions and trusting others too easily.

So that was it.

That was precisely why the director had not taken this matter seriously... because he knew Iver could not be the culprit and probably did not know any important information. Investigating would merely waste effort. That was why he had casually sent her over, while she had actually thought this was some important mission and insisted on finding a flaw...

She really had been too impulsive. She was too young and too eager to earn merit, and as a result, she had lost her composure.

She remembered that another case had occurred yesterday as well—for large-scale rituals such as summoning demons, Demon Scholars usually needed to work in pairs. Moreover, in most cases, paired Demon Scholars were teacher and student.

If the mentor had been devoured by the demon he summoned, then it would make sense for the apprentice to flee and act alone afterward. If Iver had been his assistant, his apprentice, then who had committed yesterday's case? If Iver had controlled the demon and killed one person, would he really have spared the other?

...Hey, what nonsense am I thinking? How could an entry-level novice control a Greater Demon? she mocked herself.

"I'm sorry. I made assumptions."

Having thought this through, Hai Na apologized decisively. "I'm also very sorry about violating our appointment earlier. If you still plan to return to school, I can ask my juniors to make things a little easier for you.

"This isn't compensation. It's merely an expression of my regret. If there's anything else you need me to do, please feel free to ask."

"Anything?" Iver actually seemed tempted.

"...I should make it clear in advance: I don't have any money."

A somewhat pained expression appeared on Hai Na's face as she helplessly added, "Anything except monetary compensation—I can do some volunteer work if necessary."

"That's all right. It's fine as long as the misunderstanding is cleared up."

Iver smiled gently. "I was also worried. After all, if someone said a thing or two to you after you returned, making you suspicious again, and you came back to investigate, it would be troublesome for both of us. Not to mention, if you were late again...

"Now, Senior, why don't you guess how I knew about the demon? Although I didn't come into contact with anything and was unconscious the entire time, why could I guess the moment we met that this matter was connected to a Demon Scholar?"

"...I think this is what they call deduction! Just like that famous Mr. Sherlock!"

Hai Na's eyes lit up. "I remember that Mr. Sherlock was also the professor's favorite student. He seemed to specialize in using this divination-like method to discern details about other people! I collected clippings of all the cases he solved—I cut out every part of those newspapers that mentioned Mr. Sherlock and pasted them separately into a book. That book is already one-third full..."

She felt as though she had met a kindred spirit, and she immediately grew excited.

Hai Na had already felt somewhat guilty, and now she was even more eager to display her friendliness, to show that she had not deliberately intended to target him. She almost forced herself to act amiably, and at last she had found a breakthrough—the two of them both liked that Mr. Sherlock! As Hai Na grew excited and talked without stopping, Iver, sitting in his wheelchair, narrowed his eyes slightly and revealed an innocent smile.

If Hai Na had not been so careless and had observed closely, she would have noticed that the old elf quietly standing guard nearby had a completely motionless shadow beneath him. However, the shadow cast by Iver's wheelchair trembled slightly, like a beast breathing steadily in its sleep.

You "deduced" all of this yourself. I hardly lied at all.

When it comes to deduction, determining the conclusion first and then searching for evidence will inevitably lead you astray. It seems you're still not qualified.

—Yes, Iver really had been the sacrifice.

But at the same time, "Iver" really had been a participant in the demon ritual.

What he had said earlier had not been a lie.

If he had not suddenly recalled the memories of his Previous Life, he might truly have been an "otherworldly demon" summoned in the ritual using Iver's soul as the sacrifice.

Because what had appeared alongside those memories of his Previous Life was the incredibly familiar light screen before his eyes:

Iver, human male, overall level 4
Basic class—

Priest LV1: Basic Prayer—Level 1 (93%)

Demon Scholar LV3: Demon Lore—Level 1 (13%), Basic Ritual—Level 1 (5%), Demon Contract—Level 1 (99%)

Activated Paths: Devotion—Layer Zero; Transcendence—First Layer

Mana Pool: 1/1 (Light), 3/3 (Dark)

Free Experience: 24

Path Traits—

Transcendence—Shadow Affinity LV1: You have formed a soul contract with a Shadow Demon and can freely use First-Level Shadow Abilities.