The Shepherds Are Dense

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> The Secret Chronicles of the Shepherd > Chapter 25: “The Final Problem” The Secret Chronicles of the Shepherd by MegalomaniacTL

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Aiwass and Oswald returned very late.

Bishop Matthews's instruction on Divine Techniques hadn't taken particularly long.

After covering everything that needed to be said, what remained was persistent practice.

This sort of thing couldn't be rushed to begin with. When it came down to it, these mystical powers ultimately stemmed from Extraordinaries walking their respective Paths—it was because they conformed to the philosophical essence of their Paths that they achieved resonance.

The reason learning, practicing, and using mystical techniques could raise one's Extraordinary profession level was because Extraordinaries were essentially performing their Path's cultivation while practicing these techniques.

Since it was cultivation, it couldn't possibly be achieved overnight.

Unless you were like Aiwass and had cheats.

Apart from "Prayer," Aiwass had already quietly mastered the remaining three types of Divine Techniques. As for Prayer itself, there was no need for special instruction because theological seminary's curriculum covered exactly that.

Aiwass's original "Basic Prayer" was simply because he hadn't yet learned the correct liturgical words and prayer rituals. Teaching that would take too long and be too troublesome... Moreover, whether or not he mastered the proper prayer method wouldn't affect his profession advancement at all.

The correct liturgical words merely allowed one to channel the power of the Candleholder to restore the soul. Bishop Matthews had also demonstrated this once for Aiwass.

He saw countless motes of light, like larvae, flying toward Matthews from light sources all around. As he prayed, his body gradually became covered in a thin shell of luminescence that grew increasingly bright over time.

During this process, Bishop Matthews's light-attribute mana was visibly recovering at a slow pace.

Generally speaking, a depleted mana pool could only be refilled after sufficient sleep.

However, spellcasters of each Path typically had emergency replenishment methods besides that.

The method belonging to the Path of Devotion was "Prayer."

Aside from the universal method of sleep, the Path of Devotion had two prayer opportunities each day during daylight hours. During sustained prayer channeling, the light-attribute mana pool would slowly replenish, recovering up to half of its maximum value. Illumination consumed so much mana that without using Prayer to regenerate mana in out-of-combat situations, mana would simply never be enough.

The greatest advantage of the Prayer mystical technique was that it required no materials, no preparation, and would absolutely never fail.

As long as one prayed twice daily for a minimum of three minutes each time, one could steadily gain technique experience.

Technique levels could grow steadily over time.

Even the prayer timing was flexible. If one was busy, the two sessions could be combined before evening; if truly busy, it was even fine not to pray at all—that just meant missing out on that free, steady experience.

Afterward, Bishop Matthews specifically explained the most important knowledge to Aiwass: "The Nine Pillar Gods actually don't require faith.

"From a certain perspective, we're actually using faith and prayer to constrain the Nine Pillar Gods' behavior. Or rather, we're like stakes driven into the land, with faith as the rope..."

But he didn't elaborate on the specifics.

Those were things Aiwass shouldn't know yet.

In any case, even if Aiwass hadn't mastered the correct prayer method, it merely meant he couldn't use this technique to regenerate mana. Once he obtained more divine knowledge and prayer protocols, [Basic Prayer] would naturally transform into [Prayer] of equivalent level.

After that, Aiwass stayed at the chapel and had a simple lunch. What he ate was the holy communion that had been sanctified by ritual when Bishop Matthews demonstrated the [Blessing] technique. After consuming it, one received a temporary buff that could stabilize the mind and continuously restore stamina.

In a sense, Aiwass's lunch was his study material for the day. Guaranteed not a bit of waste.

Aiwass also noticed that Bishop Matthews had completely avoided mentioning the matter of Aiwass sitting in a wheelchair.

He hadn't even specifically offered to heal Aiwass's body or help him "stand again."

A healer of this caliber could tell with just a touch that Aiwass was brimming with life force inside, neither sick nor disabled.

So why was Aiwass sitting in a wheelchair?

Bishop Matthews must have had such questions in his mind. Either Aiwass's adoptive father James had specifically mentioned this matter to him, or his emotional intelligence was maxed out—though he didn't know why, if you don't bring it up, I won't ask either.

Better not to meddle. Just pretend not to see, not to know.

After that, Bishop Matthews dragged Oswald to watch what appeared to be a very large-scale football match.

The two sides were the "Unicorn Club" and the "Lake Sword Club."

The former was the Theocracy's team, while the latter was Avalon's.

Although Aiwass didn't understand what two high-level Extraordinaries found interesting about watching a bunch of ordinary people play football... this seemed to be a very important match. That's why Oswald hadn't sent Aiwass back home, but had somewhat reluctantly agreed, taking him along to the stadium.

With those two protecting him, nothing could possibly go wrong anyway.

Though Aiwass wasn't interested in this, both men were elders worthy of respect. He just treated it like accompanying an old gentleman on an outing.

So Aiwass performed as though he was happy and cheerful. From the results, he'd clearly done well at keeping them company.

The former beat the latter four to zero, a crushing victory obvious even to complete outsiders who didn't understand the sport. Oswald looked very pleased, while Bishop Matthews had no particular reaction, merely complaining that "I knew the Lake Sword's club manager was problematic all along." Overall, everyone was happy.

However, Aiwass did pick up a very strange piece of intelligence from their conversation—

Namely that the Moriarty family's old butler Oswald, though he had been serving the Moriarty family since the founding of the Kingdom of Avalon, had very deep feelings and identification with the Eternal Theocracy.

Yet even so, when Aiwass tentatively asked him "don't you want to go back and see?", Oswald only shook his head.

Can't go back anymore. The old butler sighed and said casually.

"The Theocracy is good in every way, except there's no home left. Better not to return."

This was also the first time the shadow-like, silent Oswald had mentioned even a bit about his past in front of these "young masters" like Aiwass.

After that, Aiwass also fell somewhat silent.

When Oswald pushed Aiwass slowly back home, it was already evening.

The sunset hung at the horizon, and the lake in the Moriarty estate glittered with light like shattered gold. At the iron gate of the estate entrance, a lean young man with black hair and brown eyes was quietly leaning.

He was unhurriedly leafing through a dark gold book in his hands, oblivious to his surroundings.

The pages in his hands were emitting a mysterious blue-green glow. That light was like clear, limpid lake water.

He was openly reading a forbidden book in front of the Moriarty estate without the slightest fear. Clearly he was very familiar with this place and felt at ease.

Because Aiwass sat in a wheelchair with a relatively low line of sight, he immediately spotted the name of the book in the young man's hands.

—*The Ethereal Secret Continuation*.

Aiwass knew this book.

This was a mystical technique from ancient times—in that era, the boundaries between Paths weren't as clear as they were now. Therefore, many ancient techniques could potentially belong to multiple Paths simultaneously. But this book was an exception.

Its Path of Wisdom attributes were very strong. The "Ethereal Technique" it described was the origin of the later Path of Wisdom's mystical technique "Meditation."

In the game, the owner of this book should be Sherlock Hermes. It was a recent acquisition in his collection when the main storyline began.

Sherlock was a powerful Extraordinary with adaptability to both the Paths of Wisdom and Authority, possessing the dual professions of "Law Mage" and "Mage" already in version 1.0.

He was essentially a powerful helper who existed outside the protagonist's main party.

Though he never became the player's companion, he would occasionally help solve several difficult problems. After the Kingdom of Avalon's destruction, he didn't follow the player to the Theocracy, nor did he go to the Star Antimony Kingdom. Instead, he accepted employment from the Iris Kingdom and served in a government position for a period of time.

As could be seen from the name, this character's prototype was none other than Holmes.

But somewhat different from the stereotypical impression of Holmes with "pipe and walking stick"—as a semi-insider at the Glass Island Inspector Bureau and simultaneously a high-level Extraordinary, Sherlock was far wealthier than the original Holmes, became famous much earlier, and didn't have his own Watson.

When the main storyline began, Sherlock had just turned 26. Yet at this time, he was already a "Chief Consultant" whom even the White Queen District's Inspector Bureau Director had to treat with courtesy.

As a Law Mage who originated from the Path of Authority, he was also much more extravagant when it came to spending on enjoyment.

He would buy the most expensive cigars he could afford, not cheap pipe tobacco. He didn't economize on food either, always treating the player to restaurants whenever they met. He would even specifically travel abroad to attend the finest concerts. The gifts he gave friends were all quite valuable—for example, the gifts the developers gave players in his name were basically all precious cash-shop materials.

This was a typical trait of the Path of Authority—only the best would do. Not for the sake of enjoyment itself, but to obtain "the best."

But after quickly spending all the money he obtained, he would calmly downgrade his consumption and live contentedly without money until the next incident made him wealthy again.

Sherlock's greatest characteristic was never saving money. He absolutely never considered "what if I have no money in the future."

Because young Sherlock was full of confidence in his own abilities. As long as he had his abilities, he could obtain money anytime—he simply didn't pursue it because he wasn't interested.

He believed that if he considered what to do in the future, that would be subconsciously suggesting his talent would eventually deteriorate. Compared to downgrading his quality of life, admitting he would one day become dull and stupid was something he absolutely couldn't accept.

This kind of talented yet extremely proud NPC who was simultaneously friendly toward players always had quite good popularity among players. There was also a large quantity of fan art, cosplay, merchandise, and fan videos.

Right up through the main storyline of version 5.0, Sherlock remained very active with many highlight moments.

In the end, he died in the main storyline of version 5.1.

The cause of death was quite bizarre—while investigating a certain case at a critical moment, he was counter-killed and silenced because he was investigating alone.

Although the plot differed from "The Final Problem," perhaps to hint at the direction of the following story, that major chapter was named "The Final Problem."

Thinking back now, the person who killed Sherlock at that time was probably Aiwass's adoptive father, James Moriarty. Because it was after Sherlock's death that Aiwass's adoptive father reappeared in the plot.

Players at the time said: "Oh no, the one who came back from 'The Empty House' became Moriarty."

Aiwass had an extremely deep impression of this event.

Because when this suggestive main storyline name was revealed, online discussion and buzz had immediately exploded. When the actual plot came out, players' reactions were ones of disbelief.

Compared to anger and grief, more comments were things like "they really dared to kill him off," "he's not really dead, right," "waiting for The Empty House return," and such evaluations.

Not believing it was real. But afraid it was real.

It had that feeling of an elementary school boy going "she's actually crying" after making a girl cry.

Even Aiwass had specifically asked his writer friend whether Sherlock was really dead.

The response he got was vague, "probably."

But right up until Aiwass transmigrated, the "Empty House" plot belonging to Sherlock still hadn't arrived. Instead, James Moriarty had jumped out and revealed his identity as the version's main storyline final boss.

As if noticing that extremely complex gaze, Sherlock suddenly looked up in Aiwass's direction.

Seeing Oswald pushing the wheelchair over, he smiled and put away the book in his hands.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Oswald."

He cheerfully greeted the old butler and nodded at Aiwass with a smile.

Oswald clearly knew Sherlock and greeted him warmly: "Mr. Sherlock, why didn't you come inside and sit? The Professor has been mentioning you frequently lately."

Aiwass knew this old butler's personality was quite proud, possessing the elven traits of stubborn temper and looking down on others.

If it weren't someone he approved of, he would absolutely never give such a pleasant expression.

"Let's not. If I go in, the Professor will start nagging at me again. I'll just drop this off and leave—I still have matters to attend to. Just give my regards to the Professor for me."

The black-haired young man politely declined.

"If you're busy today, how about coming to the family dinner tomorrow? I'll have the cook prepare some fine dishes in advance."

Oswald kindly pressed, his attitude completely different from the indifference he'd shown when meeting Hayna: "After all, the Professor really has been talking about you for quite some time—and it's been nearly a year since you last visited the Professor, Mr. Sherlock."

"It's just that I have something tomorrow evening too... You understand. Once I have time later, I'll send a formal visiting card."

Sherlock was vague.

He and the old butler exchanged a glance, and Oswald nodded in sudden understanding. He didn't continue pursuing this topic.

And Aiwass also realized what Sherlock meant.

If there was something important tomorrow evening, it was very likely an advancement.

His attitude was so ambiguous, indicating this advancement was most likely illegal—he dared openly read Path of Wisdom mystical learning books, yet was evasive about this matter.

That must mean his recently acquired secondary Path, the "Mage" profession of the Path of Wisdom, was about to advance to the Second Tier!

...Just like me.

Aiwass paused in surprise.

Well damn.

—Don't tell me we're both going to meet in the Dream Realm?

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