It may sound mysterious, but it is actually not that rare.
After all, the purpose of its creation is for human use.
Aiwass took Lulu and Sherlock and entered an abandoned warehouse not far from the Pelican Bar, which was used to store stones and was now full of dust and rubble.
Coming out of the back door of the warehouse, there is a slightly desolate and dilapidated wasteland.
There was no one here. A stream formed by sewage and stagnant water blocked their way. The other side of the stream was filled with various household garbage and bushes, which had faded and rotted after repeated wind and rain.
But when Aiwas saw it, he breathed a sigh of relief, as if he had found his goal. He crossed the stream without hesitation and walked towards the garbage beach on the opposite side.
"Keep going from here and go over this big dirt slope and you'll be there."
"… I see."
Sherlock, who had barely jumped over without getting his shoes dirty, followed behind Aiwass and murmured in a low voice: "Using sewage and garbage, which will make people feel 'abandoned' and 'at the end', to make people subconsciously think that there is no way out here. It's not a very clever hiding method, but it's enough for ordinary people."
"Because this is definitely not some high-level secret passage, and it is not man-made."
Aiwass walked in front and led the way, while looking back slightly and explaining: “It leads to a chemical plant that was abandoned twenty years ago.
"About seven or eight years ago, this secret passage was discovered and occupied by a group of young men from Lloyd's Quarter. They are today's 'Sweater Brotherhood' and a group of stranglers."
“… The Stranglers, isn’t that the name of a gang?”
Lulu, who was holding up her skirt and barely able to follow Aiwass, asked in confusion, "I thought that was the biggest gang in Lloyd's."
"That's not true. The Stranglers are all gang members, but it doesn't mean they have a common gang called 'The Stranglers'."
It was Sherlock, the newsboy, who answered her question: "Any gang member who uses 'strangulation' to kill or rob is called the Strangler Gang. It is precisely those small gangs that use this method to make money."
"What about the biggest gang?"
"That must be Lloyd's. There is only one Lloyd's in Lloyd's."
Aiwass replied, "The 'Lloyd's' founded by Prince Lloyd more than 200 years ago when he was still a businessman still exists today. It is a large association that sells insurance, usury, ocean intelligence, and business insider information. In a sense, they are the only legal gang in Avalon."
“…Isn’t usury illegal? Why is there legal usury?”
"Because they don't charge excessive interest openly. Instead, they charge interest by selling Lloyd's Weekly at super-high prices that are far beyond what normal people can afford."
At this point, Aiwas looked at Lulu helplessly: "My dear. You don't think that five red candles are a normal price for a weekly newspaper, do you
"It's a weekly newspaper. That means most of the news is old news that has been reported by other newspapers. There's a saying in the news industry that 'the morning newspaper is waste paper by the evening'. Although it's a bit extreme... But in any case, weekly newspapers should be cheaper than daily newspapers."
The newsboy that Aiwas met at the door of the Pelican Bar before was the "newsboy" employed by Lloyd's.
At that time, Haena felt that the price of Lloyd's Weekly was not right. But she did not understand who Lloyd's Weekly was sold to. Aiwass did not want to explain to her.
With her straightforward nature, she still didn't know if this would be a better thing.
Haina thought that the people who bought the newspapers would be sailors, fishermen and laborers... they couldn't afford such money.
Even if they did, they would only buy meat and beer.
The tired and poor lower class people are unable to buy newspapers, so they can only get free news from bars.
Little Sherlock sighed and patiently explained the intricacies of this matter to the naive princess in a low voice: "Anyone who borrows money from Lloyd's in the Lloyd's district must regularly purchase a designated share of Lloyd's Weekly as additional interest. When the loan collector comes to check, he will check the number of copies of the newspaper held by the borrower and cut off a corner of the newspaper as acceptance.
"It was the same with the inside information they sold. The factory owners or company directors would order a large number of Lloyd's Weekly newspapers directly from Lloyd's. The person who delivered the newspapers would bring the message along with it.
"They also have a business of investigating designated targets, and they have invited me before. As far as I know, some private detectives will accept their employment. When Lloyd's delivers the personal intelligence they have investigated, they also pay with a designated share of Lloyd's Weekly."
“… Is it because newspapers pay taxes?”
Hearing this, Lulu immediately reacted: "So the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Taxation will protect them?"
Although it was the first time she heard of this gray business method through newspapers, she immediately realized the cleverness of this practice.
This meant that Lloyd's Society disclosed all of its income and financial statements to the kingdom and actively paid a large amount of protection fees.
Since they took their money but did not arrest them, it means that this behavior is allowed.
It is indeed an organization fostered by Prince Lloyd.
Despite her lack of experience, Princess Isabel has a very good brain.
Moreover, she was exposed to a high level of intellectuals, so she also developed a good political sense:
"The reason why Lloyd's uses 'newspapers' to collect money is to show its respect for 'authoritarianism', right? Even though they are the power left by Prince Lloyd, they will get into trouble if they really anger the Round Table.
"But if they are doing loan transactions in the form of newspaper sales, it means that they will pay taxes on the 'interest' as a net income... Because they don't want to offend the Inspectorate, their tax behavior will be more active and stable than those businessmen who are almost certain to evade taxes."
Isabel heard the Minister of Taxation complain countless times about the problem of not being able to collect taxes.
He kept asking the Inspection Bureau to send tax inspectors to companies that might have engaged in tax evasion, and each time he would come up with a long and terrifying list—longer than Isabel's hair, and when he held it in his hand, the other end would almost fall to the ground.
-Isabel clearly realized that if Lloyd's tax payment behavior was active enough, large enough and very stable, then they would indeed be protected.
The fact that they were able to obtain the distribution rights for The Glass Steps already shows what the Round Table thinks of them.
The newsboy nodded: "Because of this, the Inspectorate will not send anyone to manage them. In addition, they spontaneously maintain the civil order in the Lloyd's District, so the Inspectorate can only turn a blind eye to them.
"After all, they are a legitimate society that follows the path of authoritarianism and respects the existence of those above it. In a sense, they are no longer a society, but a large company with dirty tricks.
"So they won't do 'strangulation' which might lead to investigation. But their squeeze on other gangs' profit margins will cause other gangs to constantly choose to send members to carry out 'strangulation', 'robbery or theft', 'kidnapping', 'assassination' and other illegal means to obtain funds.
"This will make them vulnerable to investigation and arrest by the Inspectorate, which will further squeeze the living space of other societies."
"-not only that."
Finally, Aiwas, who saw the back door of the abandoned chemical plant from afar, breathed a sigh of relief and added casually, "In fact, after the stranglers attacked and killed passers-by and robbed them of all their belongings, they still sold the stolen goods through Lloyd's. And some commissions such as assassinations or thefts were also issued by Lloyd's.
"So I just said that there is only one biggest gang in Lloyd's and that is Lloyd's."
"… There is such a thing?"
Hearing this, even Sherlock was surprised.
But when he thought about it carefully, it seemed reasonable. No matter how legal Lloyd's was, it was ultimately a dirty gang rather than a legitimate industrial company.
But Sherlock couldn't find any evidence of their crime...
Perhaps it’s not just because the evidence was destroyed by the Inspectorate.
Perhaps there was no such evidence from the beginning, because they no longer needed to do such things in person.
Sherlock looked closely at the "fox" dressed as a priest and began to doubt his true identity for the first time.
He seemed to be very familiar with Lloyd's and knew this secret passage. He even knew some of the secrets of Lloyd's...
—Could it be that the "fox" is not a student at the school, but a gang member? Or is it simply a spy from some organization who has infiltrated the church, or a rebellious pastor
Thinking of this, Sherlock asked tentatively: "Mr. Fox... If I investigate the 'Sweater Brotherhood', will it cause trouble to you
"If so, I think I'll make it easy. As a token of gratitude for your help in the ritual."
Hearing this, Aiwass paused.
He turned around and looked at the newsboy, with the corners of his mouth slightly raised.
"Since I'm telling you this, I'm not afraid of your investigation. After investigating the 'Bone Sculpture', arrest the Sweater Brotherhood... This can be considered as eliminating harm for the people. Even though the Sweater Brotherhood is a small organization, each of them has no less than five lives on their hands.
"According to my gossip... they may be connected to the group behind the Pelican Bar."
—In fact, it’s more than that.
The reason why Aiwass remembered this secret passage was because it was a main line copy.
Although he had forgotten all the previous plots, Aiwas was sure that the "Sweater Brotherhood" must be related to the Noble Red Society. Because the members of the Sweater Brotherhood that appeared in this instance not only had their bodies greatly strengthened and their minds violently raged by the rituals of the demonologists, but they also raised a large number of demon dogs made from corpses.
That copy is pretty disgusting.
Not only is it long and winding, it's easy to get lost if you don't know the way. There's also all kinds of garbage, mud, and sewage on the ground that affect movement, and there are a lot of demon dogs that will ambush at the corners, activate when the first person passes by, and then suddenly rush up and start biting the second person.
These demon dogs are not only covered in scrap metal armor with sharp edges and are very tough, but also have high damage. Their hatred is also chained - after being hit, they will start shouting "dog" frantically, and other patrolling dogs will come when they hear it.
Compared to the BOSS whose mechanism is not complicated, the monsters in this dungeon are much more annoying.
Aiwass didn't want to play this game again. Just thinking about being bitten by those iron-clad mad dogs that were fed with human flesh and were half the height of a man made his scalp tingle.
It would be better to let Sherlock take them down in advance.
Also, find something for Sherlock to do, so that he won't keep staring at the things behind the Pelican Bar. Otherwise, "that gentleman" might think that his letter fell into Sherlock's hands, and start to destroy the evidence and silence him vigilantly.
If "that adult" destroys the evidence faster than Aiwass, it will be difficult for him to investigate.
Although the identity of the "fox" remains a mystery, for the suspicious and intelligent Sherlock, the clues casually provided by the fox encountered in the dream ritual are more worthy of investigation than the clues deliberately sent by someone in reality.
Because he would doubt the latter's motives and try to reverse reasoning from a higher level - this cannot be said to be wrong. Aiwass was afraid that he would be aware of his motives, so he had to "accidentally" pass the information to him through the method of "chance encounter".
—Evans knew Sherlock, he was indeed that kind of person.