Sherlock Holmes

Moran was still wearing a simple maid outfit at this time, which attracted the side glances of the passengers waiting for the bus from time to time, but it was not because of her outfit, as maid outfits were quite common in this era, but because of her too tall figure and that hand.

The metal texture exposed outside the cuffs, the sunlight shining on it, reflects the diffuse halo, which is really difficult not to notice.

After seeing Moran, Sherlock and Watson began to look around.

Because since Moran is here, then Moriarty's little myopia must also be here. Anyway, I don't know why. In the minds of these two people, this pair of men and women with very different figures are bound together. .

"Master is not here." Moran said lightly.

"Oh~"

"He's on an airship"

"ah??"

"The Holy See's special airship is currently parked in an open space three kilometers away. The inheritance ceremony of the empire will begin in two months. It is too dangerous to take the steam train at this time."

"Forehead"

The two of them didn't speak a word, but they had a tacit understanding and uttered a somewhat annoying syllable at the end of each sentence of Moran's.

Moran still maintained the docile expression of a maid, but her hands were already clenched, with veins popping out on one hand, and the other hand seemed to be making the sound of a turbine turning.

"Oh, then I wonder why His Royal Highness the Son came here specifically?" Sherlock quickly put on a serious expression and asked.

"Of course I have something important to do with you two. Come with me quickly!"

"But we both bought tickets."

As if he saw two people with questionable IQs, Moran was stunned for a few seconds, and then drank with some anger: "The Holy See's financial department will compensate you two for your tickets! "

"Oh, that's fine, just lead the way." Sherlock nodded reassuringly to Watson, and then got on the steam locomotive parked next to the platform.

In the middle of a forest farm on the edge of the Academy of Life Sciences, there was a relatively hidden and huge open space. At this time, a not too big airship was parked in it. The steam locomotive drove slowly along the forest path and finally stopped at the airship. On the side, a flight attendant wearing a nun's costume had been waiting for a long time. When he saw Sherlock and Watson getting out of the car, he immediately greeted them and then invited them into the airship.

The imperial airship is not a common means of transportation, because in terms of speed, it is far slower than the steam train. However, because there is no need to consider factors such as mountains or rivers, the route is straight, so on certain journeys, it is not faster than the train. few.

Sherlock walked into the airship and saw the spacious seats inside, the comfortable sofas, the wine racks with ice cubes around them, and the gorgeous carpets with sunflower prints under their feet. He couldn't help but sigh, the people in the Holy See really know how to enjoy it.

Then, when he saw Moriarty and Irene Adler sitting face to face at the table not far away, they felt slightly confused, but they still walked over with Watson.

"You guys came a little slow." Moriarty's tone was so light and cold, as unattainable as the snow at the top of a mountain.

At this time, he was wearing a set of black and white robes, with thin golden threads inlaid at the junction of the colors. The whole person looked particularly clean and holy. On the finger holding the wine glass, he wore a ring with the emblem of the Holy See. , representing the terrifying power and status this person possesses.

If an ordinary person saw Moriarty like this, he would definitely not be able to help but tremble in his heart, kneel down in front of him, and lower his head piously, not daring to raise it again.

However, on this airship, he did not seem to receive such treatment. Only Watson responded with a smile and said, "There was a traffic jam on the road for a while, based on the basic principle of politeness."

After saying that, he sat next to him.

Sherlock didn't know whether this guy did it intentionally or not. Anyway, the only seat next to Eileen was left, so he had no choice but to sit next to Eileen. What she wore today seemed to be not much different from usual. , when I thought that Irene should not have a noble status or any official position, so she could sit in front of the Holy Son as a commoner, and she didn't dress up specially. This woman's posture was really very high.

"Actually, when I came today, I didn't know that His Highness the Holy Son also invited you. Otherwise, I would have put on the dress we wore when we first met. It matches my necklace today better." Irene looked at Xia Locke, even a little apologetic in his smile.

Moriarty took a sip of the wine in his glass and remained silent.

"You two know each other?" Sherlock asked straightforwardly, not bothering to care about their conversation between the lines.

"Of course, Miss Irene Adler is Franklin's first investor. Speaking of which, we should be considered partners." Moriarty said lightly.

"Okay, then if I'm not wrong, you calling us here must be related to that candidate?"

Moriarty nodded, then handed the two newspapers to Sherlock and Watson respectively.

"This morning's special issue, what you did yesterday has been compiled into more than 30 versions. It is expected that the entire empire will explode at noon today, and in the next three days, the number of versions will double again. Holy The newspaper will definitely not be able to withstand the pressure when the time comes, and will choose to report this incident in at least three major sections." Moriarty said, his tone was calm, but his eyes were full of anger and majesty:

“You went a little too harsh this time, trying the vice president of the School of Life Sciences in front of reporters from 11 newspapers?

In your improvised court?

And killed him? ? ? "

Moriarty glared at Sherlock, as if he still hadn't figured it out yet, how did this guy get things to be like this?

Erin looked at the angry look on Moriarty's face. Not only was she not afraid, but she picked up the wine, poured a glass for Sherlock, and said with a smile: "Your Highness, the Holy Son, please don't care about the memory of the people. It is limited, think about the London airship crash more than a month ago, almost 20,000 people died, and now no one talks about it."

"." Moriarty exhaled deeply: "In short, the contents of the newspaper are still focusing on describing the frontline officer who killed Vice President Holker. I will try my best to put your name in the newspaper. Erase it and replace it with a title like "a private detective" or "case handler". You don't have to worry about being looked at like a monkey on the road.

But this method is only applicable to the general public. Not all people in the Empire are fools. Your reputation will soon spread in certain circles, and it may even spread more viciously than that of the commander named Baskerville. "

Sherlock picked up the wine glass and made a toasting gesture: "It does sound difficult to suppress, but thank you anyway, so why did you come to me?"

As soon as he said this, Moriarty's expression gradually became serious:

"You should read the report at the end of page three of the newspaper for yourself."

Sherlock seemed to sense something was wrong from the other person's expression, and frowned slightly, then opened the newspaper in his hand and started reading.

And just looking at it, his eyebrows frowned deeper and deeper, and finally he even laughed helplessly: "Oh, the methods of that old guy Augustine are really beyond my expectation."

The content of the article on the third page is very simple and does not take up much space. The author is an editor-in-chief of this newspaper. The content is: He once interviewed an expert on demonology. According to the expert, Professor Darwin’s [Wild Demon Control Theory] is impossible to succeed.

For the specific reasons, this expert gave a lot of arguments, but the academic flavor was too strong for ordinary readers of the Empire to understand. Fortunately, the conclusion was very clear, that is, Professor Darwin's experiment was a scam, and it was caused by high-level government officials. A shameful way to increase taxes on the people.

This report seems ordinary, but the details are very subtle. First of all, it does not represent the author's own views, because this is what he heard from an old expert.

But he did not point out who this ‘old expert’ was. Because this touched on the interests of high-level society, the other party did not dare to reveal his real name.

So to put it bluntly, this report means that no one will be responsible for the words above. Even if they are responsible, the editor-in-chief will at most be scolded and have his bonus deducted for a month.

Moreover, the location of this report is very particular. Although it is on the third page, it is at the end of the report on the murder incident at the Academy of Life Sciences. Everyone who has read the previous report can see it immediately and cannot finish reading it. , readers who want to see the ending of the murder incident can also see it. Anyway, its reading probability is not much different from the front page.

Finally, it cleverly attributed this so-called conspiracy to [increasing taxes]

As we all know, the common people do not care about everything the empire's top officials do. Even if it is the mayor of a certain city, the people will just smile knowingly, because it has nothing to do with them whether he is happy or not.

But once taxation is mentioned, it is a completely different concept. In fact, the word itself will arouse 90% of the people's disgust.

"If I'm not wrong, this is just a warm-up. In the next half month, the forces under Emperor Augustine will confirm this unfounded statement, and countless people will jump out. , correcting Professor Darwin’s experiment is a scam." Moriarty said calmly.

"And if Professor Darwin's experiment is really a scam, then the production of the [Soul Visibility Device] will also become a joke, and the application scope of new electric energy will be greatly reduced. Then, the success rate of Mr. Franklin's inheritance ceremony will be greatly reduced. It will also plummet." Erin added:

"The final result of all this is that Emperor Augustine will be re-elected as emperor of the empire. At that time, the life extension experiment will not have any investment competitors. If I were Emperor Augustine, during this period, I would be strong in life. The Academy of Sciences promotes a rising star in the scientific community, and then integrates all available forces to explosively invest in the experiments he wants within five or even three years.

In short, he will have power, status, money, and control over the Academy of Life Sciences. As long as he persists for a few more years, he is likely to monopolize all the results of life extension experiments in one fell swoop.

You would never imagine what a huge price some nobles or politicians in this world are willing to pay in order to live a few more years.

By then, Emperor Augustine will have become an unshakable presence.

Even as long as the time is long enough, he may surpass the Holy Light. After all, the Holy Light only acts according to its own logic. It does not care about people's thoughts. In the final analysis, the people who can really control human society are still people. "