Chapter 4: The Gaze of the Silver Crown Dragon
Hayna had just left not long ago when James Moriarty returned home with a heavy briefcase.
“Has the Surveillance Bureau just left?”
Old James asked as soon as he entered the door.
He apparently met Hayna at the manor’s gate and had a brief warm interaction.
James was an old gentleman who appeared polite, with noticeable wrinkles on his face. His gray pupils were somewhat cloudy, his eye sockets deep, his hair white and sparse, yet his skin was quite well-maintained. His cheeks were thin, with high cheekbones. Despite looking thin in a coat, one could immediately feel that he was not frail when the coat was removed.
He always spoke in a gentle tone, with a lingering, soft, and slightly lisping elf accent. It was clear he had excellent upbringing, and his temper was definitely not bad.
He placed the briefcase down by the door, while taking off his double-breasted long coat and hat to hand over to his personal manservant standing by the door: “They didn’t interrogate Aivars for several hours, did they… Hmm, thanks, Wade. Remember to take this suitcase to Aivars’ room later.”
“Yes, sir. I’ve noted that,” his personal manservant quietly responded, taking the items away.
“Miss Hayna was late.”
The old elf didn’t choose to cover for her but expressed his dissatisfaction directly: “She’s always like this, thinking of her hat and forgetting her tie, clumsy. If she keeps this up, she’ll inevitably miss something big and get a stern lecture from her superior.”
“That’s a matter for the future; we’ll talk about it when it happens. If her bad habits lead her to make a mistake, let her mistakes teach her.”
The old man simply smiled, narrowing his eyes gently, “Don’t scold the her of now for the mistakes she may make in the future, Oswald. You’re just her instructor, not her boss.”
He was notably kind and close to his elf butler named Oswald.
That was quite normal since, over sixty years ago when he was about the same age as Aivars now, he was also raised under the watchful eye of Oswald.
Besides the old butler, the mansion also employed sixteen other household servants—including a housekeeper, two personal maids, two personal manservants, two maids, five manservants, a cook, two assistant cooks, and a carriage driver. Aivars’ older brother, Edward Moriarty, seldom came home; besides him and Yulia, the only masters of the house were him and the old gentleman.
James was usually low-key and stable in his actions, polite even to the servants. Although he rarely smiled, he never lost his temper or got angry at the servants.
Or more accurately, no one had seen him lose his temper or get angry in decades. Even when faced with the rudest guests, the old man always maintained his dignity without belittling himself.
Yes, the old man.
Although, in name, James was Aivars’ adoptive father, he was old enough to be Aivars’ grandfather.
That made sense, as he had adopted Aivars when the boy was just six years old. Aivars was now eighteen.
Aivars and Yulia’s older brother, Edward Moriarty, was adopted by James at the age of eight. He was now thirty-five.
“…Dad.”
Yulia, standing beside Aivars, came over and greeted him in a low voice.
She was like a docile cat, nuzzling her head forward to be affectionately stroked by the old man.
“How are you feeling today, Yulia?”
He asked earnestly, “Did you take your medicine?”
“I’ve taken it already.”
Yulia softly said, her voice carrying a dreamlike clarity.
“Go to bed early, don’t stay up too late reading. Knowledge is something you can never finish learning.”
The old man lovingly admonished, “You shouldn’t stay up later than nine o’clock, your health is poor—did you hear me, Yulia?”
Seeing her gaze drifting away as he spoke, he raised his voice slightly, emphasizing, “Yulia?”
“Mm-hmm, I know.”
Yulia replied vaguely.
The old man sighed helplessly and stressed again, “Don’t stay up late, you silly girl.
“You don’t go out, so daytime and nighttime are no different for you. Might as well sleep early, and read whatever books you want during the day. It’s also better for your eyes.”
As he continued, Yulia fell silent again.
Old James was at a loss but could only emphasize, “I’m old now; I can’t stay up late. I have to sleep by ten o’clock, so I can’t help you with your questions at night. But if you read during the day, you can come to me anytime if you don’t understand something. I don’t have any classes tomorrow, and I’ll be home for a few days. You can ask me anything you want, alright?”
“…Okay.”
This time Yulia didn’t pretend not to hear, she seriously looked up, her eyes as red as rubies staring at the old man, “I’ve been reading about alchemy lately… from the perspective of the ‘Equilibrium’ path. Dad, do you know about this?”
“All the books in this house, dad knows.”
The old man said calmly, “I know a bit about the nine paths.”
His tone was calm but carried an air of confidence.
“Then I’ll definitely go to bed early.”
The girl solemnly raised two fingers by her ear, “I swear, my word is my bond—”
“Don’t.”
The old man simply reached out and gently bent the girl’s fingers back into a fist.
“Don’t do that.”
James said seriously, “That’s a ‘Simple Vow,’ a gesture with spirit. If you break the vow, you’ll really be punished.”
“…I just wanted to try it.”
Yulia whispered, “I just read about it in a book today… Was my gesture correct?”
“Correct. So don’t do it again.”
The old man sighed with some exhaustion, “Go have dinner, I need to talk to Aivars.”
Yulia obeyed, going to the dining room with Oswald. Only the two of them were left in the living room.
James became silent again, sitting opposite Aivars.
The old man picked up the cup of tea Hayna’s surveillance hadn’t touched, poured it out, and refilled it with hot tea for himself.
Looking at the silent Aivars, he gently asked while holding the tea cup, “How do you feel… is it still stable? The shadow demon you contracted.”
This was something he couldn’t hide from his adoptive father.
Since Aivars woke up at home, it meant that probably the butler Oswald brought him back in a comatose state. James must have already checked his body and applied a simple seal to at least prevent the shadow demon from taking over his body while he was unconscious.
It was very considerate.
In the “future” scenarios, the mad and grim James Moriarty, hunched over, seemed like a completely different person from the caring and benevolent old man before him now!
In his memories, James was always affectionate towards him—
When Aivars was a little over ten years old, he once casually mentioned missing a special fried cod dish made by Miss Miso at the orphanage during the holidays.
The next day, Miss Miso was hired at a high salary to briefly work as an assistant cook in the house. Not only did she teach the cook her special fried cod dish but also all other “commoner dishes” she knew. When she left, she was given an additional sum of money as compensation.
This scared Aivars so much that he dared not mention what he wanted to eat or have for at least half a year, fearing it would be bought for him immediately after he mentioned it.
Even the young Aivars, before regaining his memories of a previous life, was always very aware that he was not James Moriarty’s biological son. He didn’t deserve such special treatment.
It was Aivars’ own mature nature that kept him from becoming spoiled under such indulgences.
So now, when Aivars looked at his adoptive father, he felt complicated. He also harbored a kind of wishful thinking.
…Could it be possible that at the start of the plot, the adoptive father wasn’t the mastermind? Or that he only fell into wickedness when the Avalon Kingdom fell apart?
It wasn’t impossible.
In the original story, when the Avalon Kingdom fell apart, Aivars fled to the Church with the protagonist. From that moment, he and his adoptive father were separated. When they met again, it was three years later.
Perhaps…
…something happened during those three years? But then, how to explain Aivars infiltrating the “player’s” side as a spy?
“—Aivars?”
Seeing Aivars lost in thought again, the old man called gently again, “If it’s not manageable, I’ll go find the Archbishop to help you get rid of the possessed demon.”
“…Ah, I’m fine, father. The demon knowledge I got from those people happens to include methods to seal shadow demons.”
Aivars looked up and said, smiling reassuringly, “I was thinking about something else just now.”
“Then I trust you.”
The adoptive father slowly nodded, “The materials you asked me for yesterday, I’ve brought them back for you. The hangman’s rope was easy to find… the nail from the head of someone executed by drawing and quartering was very hard to find. The queen abolished that execution method soon after her coronation. I found them in a museum.
“I don’t know if you’ll need them later, but I brought back all four that were available. The museum records have been cleaned up neatly, so there’s nothing to worry about. Let me know if you need anything else… Don’t trust strangers so easily again.”
…He found them so quickly?
Aivars could hardly believe it.
He didn’t expect that just one day later, his adoptive father would actually bring them.
Was this the power the Moriarty family could wield while the Avalon Kingdom still existed? “That’s great! With them, I can seal the shadow demon more stably.”
Aivars felt a warmth in his heart, genuinely grateful, “Thank you, dad!”
The ritual materials he requested were actually not for sealing the shadow demon. Because using the wheelchair was the simplest and most stable method of sealing, tested by the demonologists of the Antimony Kingdom four years later.
“I won’t have dinner tonight then!”
He was somewhat eager, seemingly impatient. Aivars had always been such an enthusiast for the mystical, so his actions didn’t feel out of place at all.
“Let me do it.”
Seeing Aivars attempting to push his own wheelchair away, old James quickly stepped forward, grabbed the handle of the wheelchair from behind, and pushed Aivars towards his room.
On the way, the old man said softly, “Aivars, though I’m saying this you might not be happy… but dad still has to say it.
“In the rituals, make sure not to use humans or human corpses as materials or offerings. Apart from that, whatever materials you need, dad will find a way for you… Can you promise me?”
Hearing this, Aivars, sitting in the wheelchair, widened his eyes in surprise.
Not because he was surprised that his adoptive father, supposedly the mastermind, made such a seemingly moral request…
But because he knew, the old man’s words were completely correct.
Until the “Fallen Archangel” came, raising the upper limit of demonologists, the demonologists of the old era had realized they were completely on the wrong path.
They all thought the focus of a demonologist was on “demons,” not realizing it was actually on “scholars.”
Humans couldn’t use humans as ritual materials, elves couldn’t use elves, and if one was a transformed undead, they couldn’t use any animal bones as materials. This was the taboo of “Heaven’s Scourge.”
Any demonologist who used members of their own species as offerings, breaking Heaven’s Scourge, couldn’t advance from their profession to become a “Sin Scholar.” Those level 40 demonologists could only transform themselves into various demons. That couldn’t even be considered a promotion, but rather using their professional level to swap for a stronger racial template than humans.
Undoubtedly, their upper limits and abilities were much weaker than those of “Sin Scholars,” a heroic profession.
And from the beginning, players couldn’t use members of their own species as ritual materials, so they couldn’t meet the conditions for the wrong advancement.
Now, James clearly stated this secret.
Was it a coincidence, or…
Aivars felt stirred, but he simply nodded sincerely.
He raised his right hand’s two fingers, holding them by his ear, and solemnly said, “I swear, I will not use the lives or corpses of my own kind as my ritual materials or offerings.”
As he finished speaking, he suddenly saw a vision—
On a snowy mountain during the night.
A majestic dragon, its body dazzling like crystal, diamond, or silver, wearing a silver crown, quietly observed him.
The vision lasted only a fleeting moment, less than half a second. But when Aivars woke up, he was covered in cold sweat.
【You’ve felt the ‘Authority’s’ gaze】
【You’ve gained the trait: Authority-Silver Scales】
【Authority-Silver Scales: Marked by this sign, the Silver Crown Dragon is watching you. A vow you’ve made cannot be broken. When you attack any vow breaker, gain +1 advantage (Divine)】
“…I don’t know if it’s your luck or misfortune, that just a ‘Simple Vow’ drew His attention to you. It must be a coincidence…”
Aivars heard the old man behind him, who seemed to have felt something, stop abruptly.
He was silent for a while, then continued to push the wheelchair slowly, softly saying, “No matter what, a god of authority has heard your vow, it can’t be broken.”
“Of course…”
Aivars closed his eyes tiredly, feeling his heart pounding heavily with a kind of resistance, “I will never walk down that irreversible path of corruption.”
(End of the chapter)
