Pastor's Tantra

"...Senior Haina?"

Aiwass was a little surprised: "Is it such a coincidence?"

He did know that Haina came from a small place, and it should be a town with not very developed business.

The best evidence is that she doesn't know how to put on makeup and doesn't know much about skin care and dressing.

Haina was pursued by so many classmates solely because she had a good foundation. Her usual clothes are just a light brown shirt and a brown leather vest. The only thing that can be called jewelry is a leather wristband embroidered with prismatic patterns.

——Not to mention girls, even boys wouldn’t dress like this when going out these days. It's more like the mercenaries or explorers who explored remote areas hundreds of years ago.

But unexpectedly, his biological father Julio also came from that place.

"It's not a coincidence..."

Sherlock's pupils were dull, and his face even looked a little pale. He staggered to the table and rummaged through the honey jar: "Where is the honey...?"

"Are you hypoglycemic, Sherlock?"

Mrs. Mina was the first to react, pouring Sherlock a cup of slightly lukewarm black tea, and then added several spoonfuls of honey.

Sherlock drank it down, took a deep breath, and flopped down in his chair. The others didn't speak, they just raised their heads and looked at him quietly and motionless.

After a while, he finally recovered.

Sherlock leaned his upper body back and subconsciously reached for his breast pocket - there should have been a pocket there containing his cigars or cigarettes. But now he just got nothing.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

As if to ease the embarrassment, he said coldly.

Seeing this familiar attitude, Aiwass was sure that he was really well.

"I suppose you'd like some hot brandy, Mr. Sherlock?"

Bishop Mathers asked.

"Thank you very much." Sherlock, who usually doesn't drink, unexpectedly didn't refuse at this moment. "If you can, please give me some more biscuits."

Just a cup of honey black tea can only wake him up. But it wasn't enough to get him into his usual high-intensity thinking state.

Mrs. Mina nodded: "I'll get it right away."

"Bishop," the man with messy black hair asked in his sleepy and light voice, "do you smoke?"

"Thank you, I won't smoke."

Bishop Mathers replied calmly: "And you shouldn't smoke. The treatment of illumination is not completely without side effects. It burns the pain in your body and fills it with only false light. Your The body needs to function on its own to replenish and restore its deficits.”

"I know, damn it. I mean... never mind..."

Sherlock was a little annoyed, and his language was still a bit confusing: "I can drink, but I can't smoke. This doesn't make sense..."

"Of course," Bishop Mathers's rhythmic voice sounded like a scripture, "Actually, the main reason is that I don't like people smoking. Especially in my home - I am very sensitive to the smell of smoke. Will sneeze."

"Okay, I respect your habits, Lord Bishop...Thank you, Mrs. Mina."

Sherlock took the cookie from Mrs. Mina.

Mina explained softly, with a gentle voice: "The wine is heating up, please eat some biscuits first to cushion your stomach."

"Thank you," Sherlock thanked softly, "That's all. It's easy to get dizzy if you consume too much sugar in a short period of time."

While chewing the biscuit, he slowly explained to Aiwass: "I have investigated you and Haina before, and she came to attend classes at Wangli Law University because she knew your grandfather before.

"Your grandfather is called Jacob. He is a not-so-famous poet who is also a fairy tale writer and novelist. A long time ago, he was a local reporter responsible for "Cows and Harbors" - that was a pastoralist. A newspaper published in Bay County. When he was still a reporter, Jacob came into contact with many extraordinary people, and he even experienced the establishment of the predecessor of 'Noble Red'."

"Noble red?"

Hearing the familiar term, Aiwass frowned slightly and repeated in a low voice.

Sherlock subconsciously sneered: "You may not believe it... the original Noble Red Society was just a folk organization where some illegal extraordinary people who had transcended the path gathered to warm each other. At that time, they were not called this name. And it's called 'Hands Without Scales', which means 'one who doesn't wear armor'.

"At that time, Her Majesty Sophia had not yet ascended the throne, and the king was still Tudor III."

As he spoke, his tone gradually became sharper and clearer: "He was known as the 'Hanging King'. During the Tudor III period, the most famous product was the 'Hanging Square'. The entire square was covered with hanging people. of people, and the number of gallows was much greater than it is now.

"Normally, a hanged prisoner would be hung for public viewing after death, but in Tudor times this was sometimes not enough - those who were hanged on the same day were lowered to make room for those who followed.

"At that time, other types of capital punishment had not yet been abolished, and hanging was just one of many capital punishments. According to the laws of Avalon, the death penalty required the signature of the king or queen before it could be executed. The laws enacted by Tudor III were extremely harsh. A theft of ten More than four red candles can be sentenced to death - this value is not even one white crown.

"Because this standard is too low, many judges will modify the prisoners' testimonies and change the amount of theft to 13 red candles and 9 copper hourglasses to avoid too many people being executed. Ironically, this standard for theft will only lead to ten years of imprisonment. day. After the thief’s detention ends, the judge will immediately send them to prison to make up for the missing amount of theft—that is, dividing the original stolen amount into multiple detentions.”

"Indeed it is."

Bishop Mathers nodded: "There was a popular joke when I was a child: a thief was told by the judge, 'You will be sentenced to eleven days of detention.' The thief burst into tears and expressed that he did not want to die, and asked the judge to be lenient. The judge asked doubtfully, 'It's just 11 days of detention, isn't it more like that'?"

"Then what?" Aiwass asked with interest.

By the time he was that age, he had outgrown the joke.

The bishop smiled and then said vividly: "The thief said: 'You must have just taken office not long ago. As we all know, our King can only count to ten. If he exceeds ten, he will be anxious to kill.' There is another one. A joke about the bishop and the king: The bishop advised the king that we should keep our friends and cut off our enemies. And the king nodded."

"'Thank you for your teachings. I have always insisted on doing this. Today I have no enemies," the king said piously. "I have killed all those people."

"...Sounds like a tyrant."

Aiwasrui commented.

What he said was actually not in line with Avalon's rules. But among the people present, Shylock, the only one who had walked the path of authoritarianism, did not have any official title, so no one had any objections to this.

Sherlock even nodded and agreed: "So we praise Her Majesty Sophia. The many policy improvements she made after taking the throne have greatly eased the tense atmosphere in Avalon. On the other hand, it is precisely because of the people She was disgusted with the old king, so she fanatically supported Her Majesty the Queen.

"Without such a foundation, if Her Majesty wants to carry out so many reforms in a short period of time, she will have to withstand great political resistance."

“But even so,” Bishop Mathers added, “there was a lot of resentment towards the royal family.”

"The Noble Red Society is a product of that period."

Sherlock said as he reached out and took the hot wine from Mrs. Mina.

"Didn't I remember you 'never drank', Sherlock?"

Aiwass raised his eyebrows.

Sherlock nodded: "I don't regard alcohol as a drink, it will only damage my brain. But when I feel uncomfortable, I will drink a cup of hot brandy. I regard it as a kind of medicine."

"I guess you woke up with a headache this morning, right? It should have a good therapeutic effect. I added a lot of apple juice, as well as cinnamon powder, ginger slices and lemon peel. In addition to refreshing you, it should also be able to dispel the cold. I caught a bit of a cold yesterday..."

Mrs. Mina whispered softly: "If it is simmered for a longer time, it should taste better. But it should taste good now."

"Praise to you, Mrs. Mina."

Sherlock bowed his head solemnly and thanked her, smiling and flattering her craftsmanship: "I can smell the fragrance from a long distance away. The person who can marry you must be very lucky."

"Indeed, I was lucky to pursue Mina in the first place."

Bishop Mathers smiled and said with a proud smile: "Now I am happy every day... I really hope it can continue like this."

And Aiwass asked: "What happened next, Sherlock? How did those spontaneous organizations of extraordinary folk become Noble Red?"

"It seems that you should know about the fact that 'the people behind the Noble Red Society are Star Antimony people'... and I guess Edward didn't tell you who the top people of the Noble Red Society are. Then I will tell you for him. Well, you should know this now."

Sherlock raised his eyebrows, took a sip of hot cider and said softly: "Your grandfather Jacob was a spellcaster who transcended the path. He was once a member of the 'Scaleless Hand'."

"--What?"

Hearing this, Aiwass suddenly opened his eyes.

"Is that so?"

Bishop Mathers was also very surprised: "Spellcaster... I haven't heard of this profession for a long time."