The Mindset of a Political Spoiler

"The murder that occurred last night on Baker Street in the White Queen District has been solved."

Iver sat in the Queen's study in the Silver and Tin Palace, looking at the newspaper that had been delivered that morning, and casually read aloud the headline, "The dangerous werewolf who assassinated the new Minister of Trade, Mr. Griffiths, is actually a wanted criminal from the Iris Flower Kingdom."

"Iris Flower Kingdom Prime Minister made an urgent phone call to the Silver and Tin Palace last night to express her deepest condolences. The Arbitration Hall has increased patrols and is working to bring the murderer to justice as soon as possible."

He chuckled softly, "You're pretty fast. But you haven't said anything."

"Really."

Lily, who was the wolf involved, nodded in agreement.

She managed to shake off the griffins after a whole night by switching between human, wolf, and werewolf forms, along with her ability to Shadow Stealth. She has only just returned.

After the incident last night, Iver took reporter Dimit to the next room.

At that time, the area around Minister Griffiths's residence was already covered by griffins—more than twenty White Feather Griffin were flying in the air, and as they flew, dark clouds were gathering in the night sky, with thunder rolling in the clouds, emitting angry roars like lions.

The minister's murder was no small matter, and the entire White Queen District was placed under martial law. The Arbitrators, who were rarely seen and whose members were all at the Fourth Level, arrived at the scene immediately.

Iver revealed his identity and, accompanied by members of the Arbitration Hall, easily took photos of Dimit and his assistant.

Of course, this kind of accompaniment is essentially a form of surveillance.

To prevent Iver from eliminating certain evidence—but Iver didn't actually need to eliminate evidence.

Therefore, he even invited several arbitrators to accompany him and even took the initiative to help them find clues.

This was precisely Iver's objective.

To Iver's surprise, Lily did not leave any trace of the Shadow Fiend in the villa as they had previously agreed upon.

Iver immediately realized that something special must have happened that prevented Lily from leaving any traces as originally planned.

The fact that Shadow Fiend didn't immediately return to him for help indicates that Lily wasn't in danger. However, Lily transformed into a werewolf...this strongly suggests that the change wasn't driven by security concerns, but rather by intelligence gathering.

Without communicating with Lily, Iver knew what information Lily wanted to convey to him.

So he led the arbitrators of the Arbitration Hall to search the entire site according to the most stringent procedures and preserve the evidence.

They naturally found the Eagle Feather dagger.

This is why Hawkeye Organization leaves evidence at the scene after an assassination as proof that they are responsible. After all, Hawkeye Organization Hawkeye Organization, not simply a mercenary group that carries out assassinations for profit.

After testing, they also found traces of the Curse Poison in the mangled and tattered corpse.

Clearly, this matter has nothing to do with Iver anymore.

After the Arbitration Hall reported the clues, the Privy Council held an emergency meeting that evening to discuss the matter.

The "werewolf assassin" who appeared last night is undoubtedly a very dangerous criminal. He even assassinated a minister in the White Queen District, and this must be explained immediately. Therefore, the newspapers the following morning must also address this matter.

So in the morning, Iver received both the newspaper and a report from the Silver and Tin Palace.

Iver flicked the report from the Privy Council Minister and praised, "This is written very clearly."

According to custom, the Privy Council Minister must submit the minutes of the meetings to the Queen's study.

Therefore, the only one who can see this report is Iver, who is able to move freely in the Silver and Tin Palace.

This wasn't exactly overstepping her bounds. Isabel had already left Glass Island this morning for the traditional Avalon cruise. Before leaving, she wrote a document authorizing Iver to handle the matter. She also filled out several blank forms, signed her name at the bottom, and left the specific "authorized tasks" blank.

Iver can fill in the blanks himself at any time as needed.

What kind of trust is this?... It's almost as if Iver has completely usurped this trust.

It is an obvious fact that werewolves appeared on the street and were discovered by the villagers.

Ordinary people might not know the political details surrounding the Iris, but knights certainly do.

The "Hawk Eye" organization, an assassin group that hates the Child of the Moon, takes a clear stance against Child of the Moon and against the "Health Party," also known as the Stability Faction, a faction within the Iris led by the Path of Love. Their party symbol is a red heart, representing their desire to maintain the status quo.

Many people yearn for immortality. As a second choice, witches' versatile potions and the fact that their appearance is greatly enhanced as their energy level increases are also valuable and rare resources.

In Iris, where witches are largely controlled by the Child of the Moon, potions are essentially rationed. Because of this, the "Health Party," controlled by the Child of the Moon, is in fact a faction dominated by old nobles and wealthy merchants.

In contrast, another political party, the "Giant Tree Party," which advocates the Path of Beauty, uses a green tree as its symbol.

The "giant tree" refers to the giant tree inhabited by the elves of the Theocracy. Due to constant pressure from Star Antimony, the Iris Kingdom is constantly on the verge of war, with high military expenditures and consequently, annual tax increases. Moreover, both men and women are forcibly conscripted upon reaching adulthood unless they pay a hefty "Conscription Tax." Consequently, anti-war sentiment is very high among the Iris Kingdom's populace.

The Great Tree Faction refers to those who aspire to become a permanently neutral nation like the elves, opening their ports and trade to all races and nations, focusing on economic development, and remaining independent of wars between countries. They are primarily composed of urban petty bourgeoisie, intellectuals, and a large number of artists.

These artists became academic cliques, essentially controlling the path to advancement in the Path of Beauty. And without a doubt, compared to the Path of Love, which is prone to spiraling out of control and frenzy, the Path of Beauty is more stable and more likely to gain public support. It is also one of the very few paths that allows one to acquire a certain level of Extraordinary Ability solely through diligent and systematic study.

Just as a high-ranking alchemist teaches his students, as long as the students study hard and have the brains of a college student, they can at least reach the Second Level by the age of thirty; the same is true for the "artistic styles" that great artists teach their students to create... and even those with a little talent can reach the Third Level.

As the Iris faces increasing survival pressures, it has inadvertently brought forth a large number of talented young artists.

It is precisely these overwhelmingly numerous young artists from the Bottom Layer that have enabled the seemingly passive and naive "Giant Tree Party" to become a powerful party on par with the Stability Faction. This is also the ruling party of the current prime minister.

Not many people know that the "HawkEye" organization is actually part of the "Giant Tree Party".

On the surface, the Hawkeye Organization is the successor to the exiled mercenaries of the Black Eagle Principality.

Because they don't just kill the Child of the Moon, they also kill some great artists. In other words, they kill both sides. They're just relatively more opposed to the Child of the Moon —since Black Hawk and Narcissus are enemy nations, which makes sense. Besides that, they also take on some hired killing jobs.

Many—including the Privy Council —believe that the Hawkeye Organization actually belongs to the "Empire Glory Party," the third largest party within the Iris Kingdom. They are a highly radical organization that claims the Iris Flower Kingdom is the legitimate successor to the Herasul Empire, inciting xenophobia and emphasizing extreme nationalism.

The Hawkeye Organization's violent acts are undoubtedly very close to the Imperial Party's claims.

Not long ago, the prime minister, a member of the Giant Tree Party, admitted to the assassination attempt on the Avalon royal family and promised huge compensation. Undoubtedly, this compensation will ultimately be passed on to the general public.

This has led to a great deal of discontent among the Iris community towards the Giant Tree Party.

However, the Prime Minister did not admit any involvement in the assassination of the Minister's secretary by the Hawkeye Organization. Instead, he believed it was a cover-up to silence Star Antimony spies within Avalon, a long-arm operation by the Stibium Kingdom —in other words, he claimed that the Hawkeye Organization was connected to the Stibnite Person.

From the perspective of the general public within the Iris Party, it was previously generally accepted that "Hawkeye" belonged to the Imperial Party. The Imperial Party was also happy to accept this view in order to increase public recognition of their powerful influence.

Now, they've hastily declared that the Hawkeye Organization has nothing to do with them. But the mess has already been made, and getting away with it won't be easy.

In this incident, both the werewolf and the witch behind the werewolf are most likely members of the Health Party.

Therefore, this event can be interpreted in two ways.

The Privy Council Minister wrote it very clearly.

One theory is that the werewolves of the Health Party are impersonating "Hawkeye" assassins to frame the Hawkeye Organization, which is essentially the Imperial Party. This is seen as a preemptive move to eliminate political rivals, given that the Giant Tree Party is unlikely to win the next election.

Secondly, some of the assassins in the Hawkeye Organization became "wild werewolves" who were not controlled by the Health Party.

Avalon has absolutely no need to seek the truth. They can simply go with the flow.

In the former case, Avalon needs to condemn the "Hawkeye Organization and emphasize that the incident was committed by assassins; while in the latter case, Avalon needs to emphasize that it was the work of werewolves.

According to the investigation by the Bureau of Supervision, they confirmed the Hawkeye Organization's unique "Curse Poison" in Minister Griffiths's mutilated body, the composition of which was consistent with the residue found in the body of John Laf, the former chief private secretary to Minister Drost.

The crux of both theories lies in whether the traces of the Curse Poison remaining in the body were intentionally left behind. As for the Eagle Feather dagger, that's irrelevant. Hawkeye Organization assassins would leave such items at any assassination scene; it wouldn't be surprising if someone collected them.

"The Privy Council's view is to choose the second option. The report states that 'traces of a bloody demon Demon Summoning Ritual were found in the basement where the body was located.' This is because the assassinations of the two Minister of Trade were both related to the Stibnite Person."

"If the first option is chosen, it will actually have little effect on the Imperial Party. To their supporters, both the Avalon and the Stibnite Person are enemies, but the Stibnite Person are more hateful; so killing a Star Antimony spy in Avalon is no big deal."

"But if we adopt the second option, simply adding the statement 'We have identified these two as Star Antimony spies' would be tantamount to characterizing this action as a cover-up. It would accuse the ' Iris Health Party of colluding with Stibnite Person,' implying that this assassination was actually a long-arm operation from Star Antimony's 'Secret Room' department..."

Iver's lips curled slightly as he tapped the document lightly with his fingers. "This will throw Iris into chaos and create uncertainty in what was originally a sure thing in the party election. Excellent troublemaker thinking... indeed a clever scheme."

The Iris People are probably a bit confused right now.

When the spies from the Iris receive this information, they will probably think that Miss Chloe is indeed still alive, but has just turned into a werewolf.

... I'm sorry to have troubled you, Miss Chloe.

You'll have to live another life.