Chapter 174. Alastair’s True Accomplice Ch 174. Alastair’s True Accomplice |
The Moriarty Museum, less than a kilometer from the Red Queen District’s Bureau, was strategically placed for swift response to thefts or robberies. Its proximity also made it convenient for Aiwass to manage his shadow demon.
Aiwass sat calmly in his office chair, sipping tea and reading newspapers, quietly awaiting good news.
When Lily silently emerged from the shadows behind him, he asked softly, “Found him?”
“This time, yes,” Lily whispered back. “He’s there.”
She was astonished—Aiwass knew about the Bureau’s secret underground chambers!
Aiwass chuckled, understanding her surprise.
Of course he knew.
Not only did he know the exact location of the Red Queen District’s chamber, he knew all four in Avalon.
In the Shadow of Avalon game version, after skipping the early main storyline, he’d tackled its quests firsthand. Back then, Avalon’s restricted zones had become bases for secret or resistance groups, or outright dungeons. Main quests involved running messages between these forbidden areas.
Lily could become shadow, and the shadow demon could flow like liquid. Previously bound to Aiwass’s side, the demon now used Lily as a “relay,” extending its range.
Following Aiwass’s directions, they slipped through the ducts into the sealed cell.
Aiwass didn’t know exactly where Tommy or Boca were held, but logic dictated one of the four chambers. With only four options, trial and error sufficed.
Important prisoners were always held in these chambers—strict protocol minimized blame if something went wrong, attributing it to a strong enemy rather than negligence.
Glass Island, a protruding peninsula nearly surrounded by sea, had four core districts: the sprawling Metropolis District in the northwest, Red Queen and White Queen Districts, and the large Lloyd District in the southeast. Four chambers existed—two in Red Queen, one in White Queen, one in Metropolis. Lloyd District’s poor security disqualified it.
Since Bishop Mathers’s home was in Red Queen, Aiwass and Lily started there.
The first chamber was empty of Tommy or Boca, holding strangers. Lily left quietly.
Luck struck at the second chamber.
To avoid surveillance abilities, Aiwass had instructed the shadow demon to fully envelop Lily.
The demon, quick to understand, shaped itself into a distinct figure—curvier, with defined abdominal and arm muscles, mimicking an assassin’s physique.
“Did you leave the ring?” Aiwass asked, relieved.
“Yes, I dropped it,” Lily nodded.
Keeping the Noble Red ring was risky; discarding it carelessly could expose them. Now was the perfect moment to leave it behind.
Tommy, consumed by the shadow demon, left no trace. Without evidence, he might be thought to have escaped.
But the Noble Red ring, left brazenly on the bed, was a taunt, redirecting the Bureau’s focus to Noble Red.
“By the way, Young Master,” Lily said hesitantly, “he left a dying message. I had the shadow demon erase it.”
Aiwass paused. “What did it say?”
“He mistook the shadow demon’s voice for mine,” Lily explained. “I couldn’t see clearly, but the demon said he wrote ‘Alastair,’ ‘woman,’ ‘Noble Red.’
“Though it’s wrong… if Alastair were a woman from Noble Red, she’d likely panic and erase it. Did I do right, Young Master?”
Aiwass exhaled, smiling. “You did it wrong—but that makes it right.
“High-tier Authority Path Law Mages can retrace a deceased’s final actions. Though you erased the blood, they’ll recover it from his residual image.
“But Alastair wouldn’t know that. Erasing it feels natural for him.”
A fortunate mistake.
“I can prepare to return,” Aiwass praised. “Thanks to you, Lily, you’ve fully separated me from Alastair.”
This also explained his unscathed return, adding to his already legendary romantic rumors—another hit to his reputation, but hardly new.
For the public, he’d prepared a juicy story they’d eat up. For official inquiries, he had a confidential, Transcendent-related excuse they wouldn’t disclose.
Lily, still worried, asked, “With Lloyd’s death, won’t the Bureau intensify their search? Should we hide longer?”
“No,” Aiwass shook his head. “Returning now is most logical. Only now, when the shadow demon isn’t guarding me, could I escape. Waiting longer would seem unnatural.”
He thought to himself: The Bureau doesn’t care if Lloyd lives.
Tommy likely held many secrets, but they were less valuable than he thought.
If only a few knights were corrupt, his intel would matter. But with most knights tainted, his secrets were mere political leverage.
The Bureau’s Inspectorate could dig up dirt easily.
Tommy, lacking formal knight training, was clueless about Avalon’s upper echelons. Aiwass knew he was a “cheater,” usurping the Lloyd name by killing the true heir, Rowita.
Proof? Tommy lacked the talent to enter the main storyline.
His death was irrelevant, unnoticed by players. Lady Greygreen, his killer, entered the main plot instead.
As a Lloyd, he left no foster heir, distrusting humans and fearing a half-giant foster son would kill him as he’d killed his foster father. His paranoia ended the Lloyd lineage.
Rowita, killed by Tommy, returned in Shadow of Avalon as a main storyline boss. Branded by the Fallen Heaven Division, her resentful soul became a dream demon.
The holy sword, sealed by the half-dream-demon Merlin, required another dream demon to unseal—Rowita, the only one Aiwass recalled.
She’d mentioned Bishop Mathers visiting her recently.
Aiwass would eventually reforge the holy sword, housing a high-tier light phantom demon. Finding Rowita was a ritual necessity, and killing Tommy was one of her three conditions to aid the protagonists. Aiwass knew Tommy was long dead from this questline, killed by Greygreen.
The Bureau’s detention of Tommy was bait.
As Aiwass had told Sherlock, a threat was often stronger than a checkmate. Tommy’s existence pressured others as long as he was inaccessible.
His value as bait outstripped his secrets. Noble Red and restless knights wanted him silenced, so the Bureau locked him in a secure chamber.
Their miscalculation? Someone knew the chambers better than they did.
But this meant Tommy’s life or death was irrelevant. As long as his death by Alastair remained secret, he was “alive.”
The Bureau wouldn’t hunt Alastair openly. They’d suppress the news, with most agents unaware Tommy was dead—after all, he was still “producing intel.”
They’d target Noble Red, using the ring as proof of an attempted rescue, failed, leaving the ring behind.
Thus, Aiwass’s true accomplice wasn’t the shadow demon, Lily, Boca, or Noble Red.
It was the Bureau itself—or rather, Avalon’s Great Guardian.
(Chapter End)