blogombal Chapter 82: Shadow Agent Chloe
Chapter 82: Shadow Agent Chloe
From Aiwas’s current-world memories, Minister Droste was an old friend of James Moriarty, with a decent personal relationship.A loyal royalist minister with real power, he was closely tied to the Moriarty family.
Highly competent, incorruptible, and without ambition for greater power—a pillar of the kingdom.
Without solid evidence, toppling such a figure was nearly impossible, and even with evidence, it might not suffice.
“Highly competent, incorruptible, no ambition…”
Aiwas mulled over Droste’s key traits silently.
Something felt off earlier, but Lily’s living scandal distracted him.
Now, it clicked: Droste was perfect outside his personal life.
A competent, incorruptible official usually craves advancement.
A competent official who doesn’t climb often isn’t clean.
An incorruptible, unambitious official typically lacks ability.
This impossible triangle—Droste fulfilled all three.
[No wonder. He’s a traitor. That explains it.]
[Could Droste be one of Moriarty’s pawns?]
In his wheelchair, Aiwas tapped the armrest rhythmically, lost in thought.
Meanwhile, Chief Gordon and his inspectors scoured the White Slipper Club’s second floor, meticulously checking each person.
He took Aiwas’s suggestion seriously, personally inspecting bags and personal items for hidden documents with two veteran inspectors.
Chloe, standing quietly in a corner, adjusted her glasses.
No one noticed her.
Her striking beauty and caramel-colored, short, curly hair radiated warmth.
Instead of a school uniform, she wore a backless white dress, suitable for summer or banquets, with a Crystal Slipper badge pinned to her chest.
In early November’s chill, her outfit was memorable.
Yet, everyone seemed blind to her.
Her glasses dulled her appearance and attire, making her blend in.
Once eyes left her, she vanished from perception, like a fleeting dream.
Clutching a stack of books, Chloe observed silently.
[The Inspectorate has talent.]
[No, that young Aiwas Moriarty is remarkable.]
Until moments ago, she controlled the situation.
Had she used poison instead of the “Eagle Feather,” Avalonians might not have pegged Ralph’s death as a professional hit.
Poisoning him at home would’ve likely been covered up by the Trade Minister.
Her mission as an assassin was to make Ralph’s death conspicuous, suspicious, and public.
His unique cause of death and scattered documents would make Avalon suspect an intelligence deal gone wrong, with Ralph silenced after delivering key information.
This would spark an investigation into the documents.
Though mostly coded, Chloe trusted Sherlock Holmes’s analytical and decoding skills.
Having uncovered the “Sweater Brotherhood” and their alchemical bombs, he’d soon link the documents to the port smuggling case.
The Trade Minister would be implicated, his ties to Star Antimony exposed, possibly dragging other complicit ministers down.
That was her mission as an agent.
For Iris Kingdom, neither Avalon nor Star Antimony were allies.
At this critical juncture for Iris, Avalon couldn’t afford instability.
They needed Avalon and Star Antimony to remain hostile yet balanced, avoiding war while draining both nations’ strength.
Avalon hosted many Iris agents like her, tasked with reducing animosity toward Iris and stoking hatred for Star Antimony.
At key moments, they’d help knights, bound by their armor’s oaths, break free from constraints.
Avalon’s knights were bound by path oaths to obey orders and loyalty vows not to harm royals.
But as long as they didn’t seek to usurp the throne, they wouldn’t stray from their path.
In other words, they could avoid treason.
If the royal family lost its Authority path power, knights could shed their armor and form a cabinet like Iris’s.
Authority’s power was top-down, oppressive—its arts were “leadership” and “speech,” not loyalty.
Even knights genuinely loyal to the crown wouldn’t mourn freedom from those bonds.
Like the Beauty path leaning toward Balance or Twilight, Authority could align with Transcendence or Love.
Power fuels ambition, amplifies desire.
Chloe knew how to handle those inclined toward Love.
Her primary task in Avalon was spreading fear about the Moon Children, preparing for their potential influx after Iris’s expulsion.
Days ago, she received orders: disrupt Star Antimony’s plot and expose the Trade Minister, or at least force him into dormancy.
Her lead was “Ralph” and his contact details.
She stole a Red Nobility ring from the Inspectorate, swapping it with a fake, using it to forge her identity.
She sent the ring and an urgent meeting request to Ralph, luring him here.
The Sweater Brotherhood’s exposure by Sherlock made it easier.
She’d barely managed to draw Ralph out with the documents.
[If only Aiwas hadn’t shown up today.]
Chloe frowned.
She’d spotted Princess Isabel earlier.
For safety, she shouldn’t have acted.
But as she wasn’t truly Red Nobility, if Ralph reported back to the Trade Minister, her fake identity could be exposed, making future public meetings harder.
She weighed the risks and acted—a rare opportunity, given the princess’s presence ensured a thorough investigation.
But Aiwas’s immediate suspicion that she took documents caught her off guard.
Her Adaptation path power hid her presence and let her hear distant conversations.
[How did he deduce that?]
Taking some documents was a spur-of-the-moment decision.
With Isabel here, Chloe feared the Trade Minister would swiftly recover all documents, so she left some as evidence.
Papers scattering during Ralph’s fall made missing pages plausible—someone could’ve stolen them.
If the Minister cleaned up, she could anonymously leak her hidden documents to keep pressure on him.
Her mind churned with doubt.
She’d reviewed her actions with a detective’s logic.
Killing to steal intelligence would mean taking documents.
Taking only some made it conspicuous, illogical for a killer’s primary gain.
Taking everything would delay the Inspectorate’s realization of missing documents.
A competent detective like Aiwas should’ve dismissed the “killed after a deal” theory and considered more complex motives.
Yet, he fixated on checking for documents, even suggesting they were hidden in books—[as if he saw me do it.]
She hidden the coded pages in her books, where a folded sheet or two wouldn’t stand out.
No thief takes just one or two pages from a stack.
Gordon’s experience would’ve deemed it impossible without Aiwas’s prompting.
Yet Aiwas convinced him to search personally.
This was bad.
Gordon’s strength was formidable.
Her glasses, enchanted with a constant [Unseen] Authority spell, made her invisible to low-level inspectors and members who missed the assassination.
Gordon might not defeat her, but as a true Authority path superhuman, he could pierce her psychological invisibility.
As an elite agent, Chloe was confident she could kill him in a one-on-one quickly.
But a full Air Cavalry unit waited outside—she didn’t want to face them.
Aiwas’s tip sent Gordon straight to her.
She couldn’t move—any action would expose her.
If Gordon reached her, he’d notice her unless he turned away beforehand.
Still, Chloe wasn’t panicked.
She had a trump card.
Though surrounded by the Air Cavalry, as an Adaptation path superhuman and elite assassin, she had ways to escape a failed infiltration.
Glancing at Aiwas, she adjusted her glasses again.
Holding her books, her body melted silently into a dense shadow.
This was her path trait, triple-reinforced “Shadow Affinity”—her confidence in escaping.
(Chapter End)