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How wonderful, Aiwass sighed.

Perhaps the only miscalculation Her Majesty made was pressuring Isabel into becoming a recluse.

After all, she often snuck out to watch plays while still in her teens, disguised herself as a college girl to wander around the university while she was still in high school, and could easily socialize with a world-famous painter she met for the first time, to the point where Yanis actively offered to paint for her... It might be indeed hard to understand why Isabel became reclusive so easily.

"Perhaps from the beginning, Princess Isabel was the most suitable person to inherit Your Majesty's governing philosophy."

Sherlock answered affirmatively, "Now, Avalon urgently needs to open up and accept Transcendents from other Paths.

"Her Majesty has faced resistance to reform and has done everything she could. She is a very outstanding and exceptional monarch, but she still lacks time.

"By my calculations, it will take at least another generation to truly see the results of the reforms and for Avalon's technology to catch up to international levels. If we choose to stop or even regress at this time, we'll miss the final window of opportunity."

"Indeed."

Aiwass nodded, surprised by Sherlock's acuteness.

Once the Narcissus Duchy becomes independent... That technocratic state entirely governed by Mages, with a hundred years of technological accumulation, is about to flex its muscles. And once Star Antimony dissolves, the Demon Scholar, Alchemist, and Necromancer, these three remarkable brothers without checks on each other, will also fully come into play.

Queen Sofia did not foresee the Fallen Celestial Marshal's incident, but her political insight easily penetrated the instability of the Narcissus Duchy and the internal crisis within Star Antimony.

— In such a situation, any monarch who cannot firmly withstand political resistance from all sides to continue the reforms at the fastest speed, is actually diminishing Avalon's last hope. But Sofia could only trust Isabel.

Because any other heir could betray her, but Isabel could not. After all, Isabel herself was a holder of an illicit Path.

Controlled by the Iris Kingdom, which held most of the Transcendent knowledge and could spy covertly using "Artistic Vision" and even teleport with ease, the Path of Beauty was undoubtedly restricted in Avalon. Those old-fashioned Knights, they detest—or rather fear—such flashy abilities.

Now that other heirs have been ruled out, the curse wielder from Iris was caught in the act during the "assassination of the minister," Meg's lifespan issue was resolved, and Isabel has the competent assistants Aiwass and Sherlock by her side... After Aiwass revived the multiple stalemates stuck in Avalon, the Queen suddenly stopped acting.

She demonstrated her iron fist that had ruled Avalon for many years—

The Queen prominently showcased Ligeia, claiming she had close kinship with Meg and was blessed by the Silver-Crowned Dragon, possessing the same Dragon Blood Edict as Meg—thus, she would replace "sickly" Meg as the Grand Arbitrator.

Although Ligeia appeared very young, she was actually of age long ago. It was only because of divine power that she maintained such a youthful body.

And the Queen's words were approved by the church. Those high-level officials present could also sense that Sofia was speaking the truth.

Subsequently, Avalon began to pressure Iris.

They presented solid evidence that Dean Lars Graham, leading the Iris Flower High School, had "tortured students," "defiled corpses," and "assassinated a minister"—not a word was mentioned about the curse.

But the Queen specifically stated that he, despite the Great Guardian having ceased the attack and offered favorable terms if he would surrender, not only failed to surrender but planned to use spells to attack innocents. Had they not interrupted him on the spot, there would have been at least a thousand civilian casualties.

—Thus, what was originally Aiwass being attacked three or four times in succession, a rather embarrassing matter, ended up sounding like a significant achievement.

Following that, the assassin who attacked Aiwass was also exposed—her transfer to the Royal Law University was handled by Master Graham. They used the same techniques and were very likely to belong to the same spy organization.

Due to Avalon's sudden counterattack, coupled with the fact that these testimonies could be sworn to the Nine Pillar Gods in public to ensure their authenticity... In such a situation, Iris Kingdom suddenly found itself in an extremely awkward and difficult position.

Their negotiations on other recent affairs had repeatedly turned passive, and the newspapers of Iris Kingdom, like flies smelling blood, directly took ships to Avalon to conduct interviews in person.

By the time they returned to Iris Kingdom, the situation was likely to ferment even further.

Relying on Lars Graham to take the blame, the prior Assassination of Minister Drost in the prison cell also had an explanation: a high-ranking officer from the Supervisory Bureau, unwilling to reveal their name, presented strong evidence indicating that Minister Drost had been in contact with a Transcendent from the Path of Love before he was assassinated.
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As everyone knows, the mainstream Paths in Iris Kingdom are the Path of Love and the Path of Beauty.

Avalon, which had been under pressure, suddenly started to fight back, completely ignoring the true attackers from Star Antimony, but instead lashing out with full force at Iris Kingdom who had been surreptitiously stirring trouble—leaving both Star Antimony and Iris Kingdom at a loss.

This was the first suggestion Aiwass made to the queen after assuming the role of Minister of the Department of Care of Magical Creatures.

—It was like a one-on-one fight on the road; if your jungler comes to help, I can switch targets, so I'll first kill the one coming to assist.

Star Antimony and Iris Kingdom were also enemies. They were happy to see this situation unfold.

Star Antimony, already in chaos internally, saw Avalon suddenly fighting with Iris Kingdom... In order not to draw the fire upon themselves, they simply scaled back their operations and kept the nails within Avalon in a dormant state.

They planned to just watch Avalon and Iris Kingdom duke it out. They even planned to add some fuel to the fire, to make the fight even more intense.

Little did they know, this was all a play staged by the queen.

As a result, Avalon was given breathing space.

Because their assistance from Star Antimony was cut off, the Noble Red Society, under the scrutiny of the Eye of Avalon as well as the strikes from the regular army, directly lost the ability to disrupt Glass Island.

This operation was named "Bear Hunt." Ostensibly it was to "eradicate the illegal Transcendent organization that intended to subvert the rule of Avalon, and had launched multiple massacres against the innocent villagers", not even a single word was mentioned about the support from Star Antimony.

Since the fire had not spread to them, the people of Star Antimony also did not agree with helping Noble Red at this time.

So, just three days into the operation, thirty strongholds of Noble Red were destroyed by the thunder brought by the Gryphons.

And Queen Sofia accepted an interview with "Glass Staircase Daily."

She did not indicate that this was her long-prepared counterattack. Instead, she played dumb, claiming that these actions all came from the substantial suggestions of the new "Minister of Care of Magical Creatures," and she was "quite surprised" by it.

But as for his true identity, Her Majesty respected the personal wishes of the Minister and chose to keep it confidential.

For a time, all of Avalon was caught up in curiosity and speculation about this Minister.

"—So, Aiwass."

After praising the queen's wisdom, Sherlock pointed to the newspaper and asked: "Who do you think this Minister is?"