Shepherd’s Secret Continuation

Chapter 6: Dungeon Pelican Bar in Sin Nexus

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Early the next morning, Inspector Haina went to Moriarty Manor with the authorization order from the Inspectorate.

This time she obviously learned her lesson from yesterday.

After a quick breakfast, Haina rushed over immediately. It was not even seven o'clock when she arrived.

At this time, Aiwass had not yet gotten up, so the butler Oswald could only put her in the reception room and ask the maids to bring some tea and snacks to serve her.

It was not until Aiwas got up, washed and had breakfast that Oswald told him that Supervisor Haena was waiting in the reception room.

"… You came so early this time, Senior. Wasn't the appointment time half past nine?"

Aiwass was sitting in a wheelchair and was slowly pushed into the reception room by Oswald.

As soon as he entered the door, he saw Haina dressed in "formal clothes".

Completely different from what she wore yesterday, Haina was now wearing a two-piece set of leather armor.

However, this leather armor is closer to a uniform than a protective gear. It does not completely cover all the skin, although even so it can still play a certain protective role, but I am afraid that its greater significance lies in its ritual nature.

"Armor" is sacred in the Kingdom of Avalon.

In the Kingdom of Avalon, the main power class is divided into "knights" and "civil servants" of the civil service system. In addition to the hereditary knight families who can enter the Senate, the former also includes supervisors, arbitrators, and the entire cavalry system. Only "knights" can wear armor, and senators must also wear full armor when entering the Senate. Wearing casual clothes to enter the Senate is considered a provocation to the authority of the Round Table.

Anyone other than a knight who wears or even possesses armor can be sentenced to a harsh punishment up to the death penalty. Even children of a knight family cannot wear their parents' armor without the queen's authorization.

Because of this, as long as you see someone wearing armor on the street, you can immediately recognize their identity. You can even recognize the other person's level from the specifications of the armor - the more inconvenient it is to move, the stronger the material, the more majestic the appearance, and the closer the color is to silver, the higher their status.

This was not from experience in the game... After all, the Kingdom of Avalon was destroyed too early. The knowledge in this area came entirely from Little Aiwass's memory and common sense.

Aiwass could see that Haina's leather armor was brand new, and he could even smell a little bit of oil.

Because of this, Haina didn't dare to sit on the sofa in Moriarty's house. She sat carefully on the corner of the sofa, sitting upright, fearing that she would accidentally dirty it and cause dislike.

“It’s better to be early than late.”

When Haina saw Aiwas coming, she heaved a sigh of relief and stood up from the soft sofa in a hurry: "It's okay, Mr. Aiwas. I can act at a time that's convenient for you - this is the requirement of the institute."

Aiwass raised his eyebrows.

Last time I was two and a half hours late, this time I was three hours early...

"I think you're a little too extreme."

"What?" Haina was a little confused.

"Nothing," Aiwass smiled slightly, "The leather armor looks nice."

"This was specially approved for me by the institute!"

Hearing this, Haina immediately perked up: "Although my equipment and griffins have been approved, they are still on the way to be deployed. The director said that it may take another two months to get them.

"But, because I reported your case, the director felt that if something happened to you, the Supervisory Bureau would be in trouble, but if they disagreed, they would also be in trouble. And you might not be happy if they sent a lot of people to follow you; but if I caused you to get into trouble, the problem would be even bigger. So the director made an exception and approved the armor and sword to me first!"

As she spoke, Haena patted the sword she had placed on the table with great joy.

Aiwass followed her gaze.

It was a leaf-shaped short sword with a silver sheath. It was about 24 inches long, or 60 centimeters. There was a beautiful thorn pattern etched on the sheath, and red, green, and blue sand-sized broken glass inlaid in the thorns, which looked dazzling under the sunlight outside the window. It was obvious at first glance that it was a typical elf style - whether it was useful or not was another matter, but at least it looked good.

Because the sword's appearance was too beautiful, it was really different from the simple leather armor on Haina. Instead, it blended in naturally with the elf-style ornaments in Aiwas's home.

At first, Aiwas thought it was his own art piece.

So you brought it here. That's all right.

"I will definitely protect you well!"

Haina said with great determination.

Her calloused fingers carefully brushed the thorn pattern on the scabbard. After taking the sword in her hand, the confident aura in her body suddenly emerged.

Unlike last night's timid, clumsy, and cautious demeanor, his entire demeanor had changed. Even his eyes had become brighter.

To put it in an analogy, it's like the difference between a horror game player without a gun and a horror game player with a gun.

Aiwass looked deeply into Haina's eyes and fell into silence and thought.

He could notice that she had obviously not slept well the night before—she was agitated, if you will.

Of course, this was also because she had touched her sword in advance, but she was more excited because she thought she could finally show her skills.

After yesterday's test, today's contact and investigation into her background, Aiwass is now able to roughly understand and sort out Haina's thought process.

She is obviously not very smart. Once things become complicated, she will be too lazy to think logically. At the same time, she should be born in poverty, but she has extraordinary talents in her own field, such as swordsmanship, which she is proud of. Therefore, her personality will gradually tend to become stubborn. Compared with hesitation, reflection and complex analysis, she is willing to trust the results of her intuitive judgment.

Simply put, he is a kind of "martial arts fanatic".

Because her family background was indeed ordinary, as a village girl who never dressed up, her appearance was naturally not as good as those exquisite young ladies in the capital. Therefore, she had a slight inferiority complex that she was not aware of.

This inferiority complex will turn into aggression and hostility towards people who are "higher than herself". But at the same time, she is afraid of causing trouble for herself who has no background, so it will not become a real word or action. But it can still be revealed in the attitude and instinctive reaction when making choices under pressure.

Because of her straightforward personality, easy-to-reach background, excellent grades, and survival wisdom that doesn't offend people easily, she is very popular in the school environment, especially among students with relatively simple minds - but when she first came into contact with society, she ran into obstacles everywhere, and was easily confused, even manipulated by others, and even went astray in life.

Now was the moment when she felt confused.

This kind of person is totally exploitable.

The weakness and helplessness that Aiwas saw in her yesterday was exactly the posture that he had carefully selected after checking Haina's information in advance to make her most easily attracted to him at the first moment.

The act of "reading poetry" gives people a subconscious suggestion that this person is not very active. The wheelchair under him further strengthens this "still" intention, thus avoiding direct confrontation with Haina, who is confident in "sports", "physical fitness" and "swordsmanship", and preventing himself from attracting the other party's competitive spirit or attention in the first place.

Aiwass had looked in the mirror and had a normal sense of aesthetics. He certainly knew that his current body was quite good-looking.

Based on this, Aiwass asked a personal maid to put makeup on him in advance, creating a face that looked weak and pale due to blood loss. The temperature of the fireplace was adjusted to the right level, which gave people a sense of relaxation, and the firelight provided Aiwass with a warm-toned filter.

In this way, Aiwass's image will trigger Haena's desire to protect him, at least he will not provoke her hostility because of his origin. A "weak", "injured", "handsome" superior is completely under her control at this moment, which will make her "hope" that Aiwass is good. In this way, he will not become her enemy.

At this point, Haina's instinct would tell her not to continue investigating. She didn't have enough work experience, and her behavior was easily guided by emotions. She had already given herself an answer, and then she was just looking for evidence for this answer.

However, when the impression of a person is too strong, his image tends to become abstract and one-sided in memory.

If Haina likes Aiwass too much, then when Aiwass does something that does not meet her expectations, she will be "disappointed in her own way."

Because of this, Aiwass needed to do something in advance to make his first impression not so good and perfect. So he took advantage of Haina's lateness and told her some truths that she didn't want to believe, so that she felt that he was attacking her.

In fact, she was the one who made the mistake first, and she actually hoped that Aiwass would attack her. This way, she would feel more relaxed.

After she understood Aiwass's strange words as attacks, she would subconsciously rule out their possibility, and immediately cling to the past when Aiwass proposed a possibility that she could accept, so as to reduce her guilt and relieve psychological pressure.

So today and in the future, she can be her own very reliable bodyguard.

After yesterday's contact and communication, Haina would think that they had become friends. And she urgently needed to show her proud strengths - her swordsmanship - in front of this new friend who was noble and innocent, gentle and literary, weak and handsome.

If she could really demonstrate this, she would think that "she has demonstrated her strengths that she is proud of", and thus hope to get Aiwass's affirmation.

If Aiwass affirms this and shows that he really needs her help, this request will greatly meet her social needs.

In that case, Aiwass, who was clearly a suspect and whom she was wary of before the contact, could become her good friend after just one day of contact. This would naturally pull Aiwass into her social circle at school.

Even though he felt a little bad about bullying a young girl who had just graduated, Aiwass still felt a little bad.

This is his fault.

Aiwass never liked to owe favors to others. Once he owed a favor, he would find a way to repay it immediately.

Otherwise, it is easy to get close to others. Having "friends" is a very dangerous thing. You often drag yourself into dangerous situations in order to help your friends, and you are also prone to being betrayed painfully because you let your guard down with your friends.

Aiwass has never liked to get too close to others.

—That would only make him nervous and uncomfortable.

It is better for both parties to maintain a state of mutual help and mutual benefit. Staying in a healthy, efficient, and renewable business relationship, you will not be sad because of the other party's betrayal, you will not feel resentful because the other party has abandoned you... and you will not feel hesitant and guilty when you are ready to betray others.

The present-day predecessor of Aiwass is an example.

Because I was too enthusiastic and naive, I trusted my pen pals and regarded them as my friends, and I paid a heavy price.

But it was very easy for him to repay the favor.

As far as Aiwass can remember, there is no such name as "Haina" in the game. If nothing unexpected happens, she should have died in the first version of the game when Avalon was invaded.

Aiwass didn't save Avalon for her, he saved it for his own stability. So saving her along the way couldn't be considered a favor.

But with Haina's personality, knowledge and ability, there must be many evil people in school who have the same ulterior motives as herself and try to become her fake friends. Aiwass can easily find those people and help her identify those true friends who are trustworthy and not so easy to betray.

He is very good at analyzing others.

To be honest, the HR profession is somewhat similar to the Dongchang profession.

Not only does it require a sharp eye and an objective attitude, but it also requires being cold-blooded and ruthless. Just a slight tick means someone is "eliminated", loses their job, or has their salary reduced... and this is exactly what Aiwass does.

What’s even better is that ordinary employees cannot easily offend HR.

In fact, HRs from different companies in the same industry are usually in the same group and the same circle. If someone in a company has done something stupid, offended someone, or has a dark history, everyone will know it once they ask in the group. It is not a secret at all.

As long as you are still a corporate slave and are job-hopping within the same industry, you must not offend HR.

At least you can't offend the first two companies - because the background check will only investigate the first two companies.

Aiwass had just recently experienced three years of unemployment. He had just found a job and had not yet officially started working when he came into this world where the future was in jeopardy.

Even though his attitude was calm and his expression was peaceful, he had already done a psychological analysis on himself - he now felt a strong sense of insecurity.

He is very satisfied with his current life, but he is also clearly aware of the disasters that will come in the future.

He desperately wanted to have a stable life and did not want to become a citizen of a fallen country, homeless and wandering around.

In order to fight against the fear from the future of this world, he must climb up as far as possible and as quickly as possible, so as to gain some power in the Kingdom of Avalon. At the very least, he must not let himself be dragged down by his teammates behind him when he is fighting against the world's great enemy alone.

That is definitely not a persecution delusion.

Aiwass was sure of that.

His vision is longer than most people in this world. The decisions they make based on the known information are bound to be imperfect and incomplete. And Aiwass will not easily announce the future prophecy he has obtained - he is not a saint. This prophetic information can become his precious wealth.

Because of this, Aiwass needs to be given enough influence.

It's not the "Knight" title of my adoptive father. That kind of thing is just a nominal position. Even if I enter the Senate, it's just a battle of wits and courage with a group of old and cunning old men. If I want to do anything, it will become as sticky as pulp and I can't do it.

The feeling that life is drifting and destiny is out of your control... It's very uncomfortable.

What Aiwas wanted was for those in power to ask for his opinion before making decisions. He couldn't be one of them, and it would be best if he didn't get close to any faction. He also couldn't become a victim of internal power struggles... He had to be a higher being than them.

It's not about controlling others, but about not being controlled yourself.

It is to prevent yourself from being sacrificed and from having to sacrifice others.

Aiwas vaguely remembered that this incident would eventually directly implicate a certain minister.

In the original history, it was the player who gained great reputation by resolving this incident.

Since there are no player characters in this world, he must join the investigation of this incident.

Fortunately, thanks to Yulia, although Aiwass still skipped the plot animation, he still remembered some details, such as where the most critical information was, and what enemies were in the last dungeon and how high their levels were.

Because after a messy investigation, the first copy of this game will be opened:

Level 10 copy, "Sin Hub Pelican Bar".