Iver returned to the second floor with the Old Inspector and the reporter.
He still hadn't completely believed that the Old Inspector was Pure White. But whether he was being played by Pure White, or was Living Silver or someone else, it didn't really matter.
He couldn't be the detective or Lu Lu, and he couldn't be Merlin. That being the case, the other party's general stance could already be determined—the four of them were all on the same side, so Iver didn't need to distinguish between them.
He had already determined that the "reporter" was one hundred percent Merlin, and could not be Sherlock.
The real Sherlock wasn't that eager for advancement—his primary goal was to help Isabel advance, yet at the same time, he didn't have particularly high hopes for Isabel.
That was because he wasn't loyal to Isabel. He was loyal to the heir chosen by Queen Sophia.
At the root of it all, his loyalty was directed toward Queen Sophia—the queen who had broken Avalon's traditions, resolutely spared her father from punishment despite conclusive evidence that he had assassinated the Crown Prince, and placed her elder brother in an important position.
Among all of Avalon's rulers throughout history, how many had possessed such breadth of mind?
...As for Isabel, Sherlock had always felt that she wasn't someone he could count on. Before he knew that Lu Lu was Isabel, he had been viciously sharp-tongued toward her. Even now, he still needed Iver to mediate between him and Isabel, or it would be difficult for them to get along smoothly.
—The other flaw was that he had descended too quickly.
When a dead person died from poisoning, a true detective should first open the windows and air out the room, cautiously investigate what had been left behind,