Sherlock's words fell, and in that instant, his narrow room plunged into complete silence. Only the rhythmic, slow chewing of Edward's sandwich remained.
After a few seconds, Sherlock said with a smile, "Of course, that would be impossible."
"Because if the professor were the mastermind behind the scenes, he would not resort to such a simple method, full of flaws. He's already well-acquainted with Minister Drost and has various connections within the kingdom. He could have achieved his goals without showing himself at all."
While Edward watched him in silence, Sherlock took out a box of matches and a cigar, beginning to rotate the cigar to heat it evenly.
As he leaned down to tend to his cigar, he said nonchalantly, "And the person who is doing this now, her motivation is incomplete."
"The plan itself is also quite ingenious. First to assassinate Secretary Raff, then to attack Her Highness the Princess, and by doing so, it naturally exposed the possibility that Minister Drost might be closely involved in the alchemy product smuggling case. And it amplified the social impact to the maximum, making it so that even old Drost couldn't suppress it with his connections."
"But on the other hand, if she could devise such a plan, why not use a more direct means? It's as if her goal was never to bring down Drost, nor to cause trouble for the Drost Family; she wasn't aiming to steal information, nor to stop the smuggling; she wasn't looking to plunge Avalon into chaos, nor to uphold Justice or the truth."
"It's as if her intention itself was 'to expose Minister Drost's actions,' and that was as far as she intended to go. To devise such a plan, to have such capability to take action, yet to have such a conservative goal. Therefore, I deduce that the person carrying out this plan must be acting on someone's orders—someone whose influence in Avalon's upper echelons is lacking, hence the need to use public opinion to achieve their purpose."
"—Like, for instance, a spy from another country. Considering the hostile relations between Iris Flower and Star Antimony, I would presume that it could be a spy sent by Iris Flower."
Sherlock said these words with the smoking cigar in his mouth, exhaling deeply.
He looked up, his gaze clear as he looked at Edward, "Since you haven't made a move on me just now... I presume I'm correct, am I not?"
Edward remained silent, still slowly chewing his food, maintaining his silence.
"You've been chewing that bite of sandwich for nearly a minute now, my friend."
Sherlock said lazily, crossing his legs.
He blew a cloud of smoke triumphantly towards Edward's face, fearless in his eyes: "It seems my earlier speculation was correct. The business of the Moriarty Family... doesn't seem all that legitimate, does it?"
"—You'd better stop your investigation, Sherlock."
The food in his mouth was silently swallowed after a lengthy silence, and Edward's expression became grim: "Consider this a request from me."
"...I'm delighted, Edward. You see me as a true friend."
Sherlock's lips curled into a smile, the smoke slowly enveloping him: "Based on my trust in you, I will temporarily cease my investigation into 'Moriarty'. All my findings up to now are in the folder labeled with an M on the shelf to your left. There's a blue envelope on top, marked 'Moriarty'."
Hearing Sherlock's words, Edward stood without hesitation and walked toward the bookshelf, reaching into the folder to find the envelope.
"Is there a copy, Sherlock?" Edward asked.
"You know I never keep such things, my friend. But I would advise against destroying it outright; it would be best if you opened it right now."
Sherlock said casually: "Aren't you curious about when I started to suspect the professor and why I dare to disclose all this to you here?"
Edward was not a fool.
His angular face, normally tough, now showed a steel-like silent hue.
"...Is it because the father suddenly left Glass Island?"
"Partially. But mainly because of the warehouse explosion case."
Sherlock replied: "You were too concerned about that case that day. Yet afterward, you didn't continue to investigate it. You didn't report to the media, nor mention it to me ever again. I suppose you were afraid I would pay too much attention to it. But because you didn't say anything, I noticed the anomaly."
"It was easy for me to find out that the next day, under the pretense of taking Aiwass to school, you visited Dr. William Wayne Wesker at the university. He just happened to be the analyst of the 'Fire Essence' component in that case..."
"What does that prove?"
Edward retorted: "Or did Dr. Wesker tell you something?"
He didn't sit down but remained standing by the bookshelf, slowly opening the blue envelope.
To Edward's astonishment, he found that the blue envelope contained only a blank piece of paper.
"Yes, I have no evidence. But your reaction tells me… I am right."
Sherlock stood up from the rocking chair and poured himself a glass of cold water.
With a cigar in his left hand and the glass in his right, he drank down the cold water with a 'gulping' sound. Evidently, Sherlock was somewhat nervous as well.
"Actually, it's because I found myself unable to find any evidence proving Professor Moriarty's involvement in crime... that I vaguely sensed something was amiss."
"How can a family from the Founding Families, truly have no slip or hint of wrongdoing after so many years? I find that hard to believe. Whether it's you, Aiwass, or Yulia... Your adoption records are all too clean."