You're Really Doing This for Real This Time?

February 13th, Sunday, sunny.

Dressed neatly with his small satchel slung over his shoulder, young Sherlock headed to the Silver and Tin Palace early in the morning.

The situation was completely different from what Sherlock had initially anticipated.

His parents not only did not object to the shrunken Sherlock, but instead doted on him exceptionally, their attitude completely different from that towards him in his adult form—even though they knew it was the same person, the influence of his physical appearance was still significant.

He's been staying at home all this time. After all, while Sherlock's soul is that of a mature and reliable adult, his appearance and body are ultimately just that of a child.

His parents would never allow the young Sherlock to live alone again—the adult version of Sherlock might suffer from malnutrition if he abused his body, but a child's eating and sleeping are undoubtedly much more important.

Therefore, after Sherlock's protests proved ineffective, he was placed in the Hermes Manor. In this position, he clearly couldn't take on many major cases and could only do research and write papers at home. Consequently, he rarely went out.

This is his first time visiting the Silver and Tin Palace... Of course, part of the reason is that he is too afraid to see Isabel.

When he didn't recognize Lu Lu as Isabel, his foul mouth put a lot of pressure on Lu Lu. Now that Isabel is the Queen of Avalon, Sherlock feels somewhat guilty.

Although Sherlock knew Isabel wouldn't care about such things, Sherlock himself was sensitive to them. Otherwise, he wouldn't have moved out of his house back then.

But I had to come today, no matter what.

Let's settle accounts with Iver!

Although few children come here, and even fewer can easily enter the Avalon Royal Palace, Sherlock is undoubtedly an exception.

He is, after all, Third Level mage and Law Mage, and his threat level is still quite high. It wouldn't be good if there were any misunderstandings.

Therefore, although Sherlock had never been to the Silver and Tin Palace, Iver had already informed the Queen Guard who had been transferred from the Theocracy of Sherlock's true identity to avoid accidental injury.

The Queen Guard, who had been transferred from the Theocracy, now knew that the child was actually Sherlock Holmes, who had been missing for two months.

Sherlock had no objection to this—he had wanted to keep his identity a secret because he had a conflict with his family.

Now that the misunderstanding has been cleared up and they have reached a mutual understanding, Sherlock has resumed using his real name.

After young Sherlock expressed his desire to see Iver, he was taken away by the Queen Guard who had arrived. The elven girl, who had long, light-gold hair and looked no more than eighteen or nineteen years old, affectionately patted Sherlock's head and then led him inside by his small hand.

Iver was neither in his bedroom nor his study. Instead, he was in the park behind the Silver and Tin Palace.

After being led over, Sherlock first politely greeted the Griffin Minister who was lying at the backyard gate.

It is three meters tall when it lies on the ground, and its wingspan is over ten meters.

This ancient griffin, whose lifespan is almost equal to the history of Avalon, commands respect even from Ligeia. Now, it lies atop a square, pure white Jade Stone, tucked in its claws, eyes half-closed, basking peacefully in the exceptionally warm sun.

Upon hearing Sherlock's respectful greeting, the old griffin opened its eyes and saw young Sherlock, a human-like smile spreading across its bird face.

"Long time no see, little Sherlock. You seem... even younger than last time."

The Griffin Minister replied gently, "Are you here to play with Iver? Come on in."

In the griffin's perception, humans are like cats, evoking their affection. Whether old, ugly, or obese, they all seem adorable.

But regardless of their appearance, kittens are always the cutest. This is why griffins tend to be more affectionate towards children. However, griffins are also somewhat face-blind and have difficulty distinguishing between different ages and appearances of humans.

Although Sherlock has changed from being twenty-five or twenty-six years old to looking like a teenager, in the eyes of the Griffin Minister, the difference is not that significant.

After bowing respectfully to the Griffin Minister once more, Sherlock quickly walked inside.

In the early spring garden, Isabel sat on a gazebo with an easel in front of her. Meanwhile, Iver rode a pure white steed slowly across the open space.

Upon seeing young Sherlock from afar, Iver's face broke into a mischievous grin.

He spurred his horse and charged menacingly towards young Sherlock! Sherlock neither dodged nor yielded, but simply stared at Iver with deadpan eyes. And sure enough, Iver stopped the horse just as he got very close to Sherlock.

"You're very brave."

Iver smiled and said, "You trust me that much?"

"Ha."

Sherlock just sneered, "Go ahead and crash. Anyway, you'll be the one healing me after you crash."

He glanced at the white horse beneath Iver and guessed what he was doing. "Practicing riding skills?"

Iver is now training his riding skills in advance in preparation for going abroad.

After all, once Iver goes abroad, there won't be such a convenient and intelligent griffin to take him around.

Griffins will take care of humans, much like humans carry cats and dogs across the street. Therefore, even though Iver isn't good at riding, the griffin won't let him fall off accidentally—unless the human is moving around a lot.

Although the Theocracy also has extraordinary creatures like Pegasus and unicorns, Pegasus is the mount of the Pope Guard, while the even rarer unicorn is only qualified to be ridden by Cardinal Bishop, and additionally requires that the rider be a pure young girl.

Without a doubt, Iver has nothing to do with Cardinal, purity, or young girls.

Even in Star Antimony, where alchemy techniques are highly advanced, horses are far from being obsolete. On the contrary, in the Knight's Country Avalon, most knights have never even come into contact with a horse. This, of course, includes Iver.

Iver didn't deny it, just smiled, casually scooped Sherlock up and placed him behind him. Then he slowly walked towards Isabel.

Based on Sherlock's understanding of Iver, he was probably riding so slowly because he saw that Sherlock wasn't holding onto Aiwass's waist, so he wanted to suddenly speed up and scare her.

Sherlock didn't bother to hug Iver. He simply spun the satchel at his waist in front of him and grabbed Iver's long, platinum blonde hair, which was tied in a ponytail, with both hands.

This is an attitude of mutual coercion.

—If you don't mind the scalp hurting, you can suddenly speed up.

"Tsk."

Iver clicked his tongue. "The little thing isn't very friendly."

"Oh."

Sherlock sneered again, "Call me whatever you want, I'll change back in two days anyway."

"That's a real shame."

Iver said from the bottom of his heart, "But it doesn't matter, you'll become an old man sooner or later."

"... You have that much confidence in me?"

Sherlock, however, was taken aback.

After embarking on the path of the "Mitra Worshiper," his appearance was no longer affected by changes in his actual age.

Even if he were to ascend to the Sixth Level, the "Father of Mitra," he would still only be a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties. To be considered an "old man," one would at least need to reach this level to even remotely qualify.

Iver's words implied that he believed he would eventually reach the Sixth Level.

He could tell there was no falsehood in Iver's words. But precisely because of this, he felt somewhat embarrassed by his sullen attitude.

While Sherlock was pondering, Iver had already brought him to Isabel, picked him up with one hand, and put him down first, before nimbly jumping off his horse himself.

"You're not angry anymore?"

Iver asked with a smile.

How dare you say that!

Sherlock glared at him. "Didn't you say you were coming to see me yesterday? I waited for you at home all day, and you only called me at almost night to say you weren't coming!"

On Thursday, Sherlock came to the school to see Iver. Iver would be resting at 14 Ronin Street at lunchtime.

Because Lily was already quite familiar with Iver, Lily didn't wake Iver up. Instead, she had Sherlock go into the bedroom and gently pat Iver awake.

Sherlock noticed that Iver seemed a bit sleepy and was still taking a nap, so he didn't talk to Iver directly. Instead Iver Iver come to his house on Saturday to discuss the itinerary for the trip to the Theocracy.

After all, Sherlock was now Iver's adjutant and secretary, and he was responsible for arranging Iver's schedule. Of course, normally it would be the secretary who would come to Iver, but since they had a good relationship now, Sherlock wanted to take the opportunity to entertain Iver; another reason was that he was also hesitant to approach Isabel.

Iver lazily agreed and went back to sleep. Sherlock, assuming he had heard, said goodbye to Lily and left.

"Did you not remember what I said at all that day?"

Sherlock, somewhat annoyed, tried to find an excuse for Iver: "Are you still half asleep? Do you think seeing me is a dream?"

"...ah!"

Upon hearing this, Isabel exclaimed in surprise, "So you two agreed on this yesterday?"

She clasped her hands together and gave an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry, Sherlock. I didn't know you had an appointment... so I selfishly left Iver with me."

"Your Isabel, it will certainly be in your best interest."

Sherlock immediately softened, replying to Isabel with a hint of helplessness, "I'm fine here too..."

He then looked at Iver, his imposing manner returning. "I was right all along, you Fox Spirit Bewitching the Lord! You've got His Majesty hooked and won't let go!"

"Um..."

This time, however, Iver remained silent for a moment before nodding. "Indeed, you're right."

They really stuck with it and wouldn't let go.

After all, Isabel was holding Iver the whole time, Iver really didn't want to push her away to call Sherlock. Later, the sun got so warm that he just fell asleep... because Bear Angel had been bothering Iver every night, and he hadn't had a good night's sleep in a very long time.

Iver woke up briefly and found Isabel had also fallen asleep in his arms, so he simply closed his eyes again. By the time they were both fully awake, it was already afternoon tea time.

Sherlock felt a sudden pang of panic—what do you mean by this? Why aren't you refuting me this time?

Why don't you offer a rebuttal?

Are you really going to Bewitching the Lord? Are you serious this time?!