The night was extraordinarily long, but the next day's dawn was still as promised.

The warm sunlight tore through the clouds and swayed down, and some of the sunlight was held up by the eaves before it touched the ground.

The gold leaf on the outside of the palace building reflects the sunlight, and the gold shines brightly, like a palace made of gold.

The turf outside the palace is also glowing with the smell of sunshine, and the weather is very good today, and the air is exceptionally fresh.

The secret service personnel who patrolled here last night, including the special forces on standby inside, have basically all retreated.

Once again, the palace was solemn and solemn, as if what had happened last night had never happened at all.

Or rather, even these staff members who are working here at the moment don't know what happened last night.

Uniformed workers were carrying harvesters to clear lawns and flower beds, diesel engines rumbling, sharp blades harvesting turf, and countless green grass splashing everywhere.

Inside the palace, there are also a lot of cleaning staff pushing carts to clean every room in the palace.

The palace is large and has a lot of rooms, which were cleaned by professional maids in the past. But times are different now, and there are no maids anymore, so I have to ask a cleaner to come in from the outside to clean the room, almost once a week.

Normally, the cleanup should have been done on Saturday, but because of last night's incident, I asked these cleaners to come and clean up in advance.

Of course, these cleaners' cleaning trucks are all screened with the utmost professionalism.

One of the cleaners opened the room where the intruder had been killed last night, where the blood on the floor and the shards from the broken glass from the previous night remained.

However, the cleaner did not seem surprised, but silently cleaned the room, swept away the glass shards, dragged away the bloodstains, and even used some kind of fragrance to remove the smell of blood from the air.

There are already professionals outside who have come to measure the windows, and the next day the windows will be installed, and the room will be as if nothing had happened.

After cleaning, the cleaner pushed the cart and borrowed the elevator up the stairs, and he went to the third floor, pushing open the door of a sunny room at the end of the hallway.

This room is drab compared to the luxurious décor of the rest of the rooms, but it is very warm, with a short-wool carpet, and the surrounding walls are also covered in velvet, and the lack of corners makes the place very soft.

He continued to silently clean the room, carefully wiping the dust on the wardrobe and wiping every corner of the place.

He concentrates and cleans every corner of the place like a professional cleaner. But when he stood up, he found a stranger standing in the room at some point.

It was a man in a black trench coat, tall and with a long face, just right to match his tall man, black hair with some natural curls.

"Hello." Sherlock spoke slowly, "My name is Sherlock Holmes. ”

The cleaner turned around and continued to clean the room, but spoke anyway.

"My name is Hank Niah."

Sherlock looked around and said, "I've looked up a lot of information about the palace. There is generally no record of any outflow of the secret passages here, except for the secret records of the royal family.

The possibility of obtaining these secret records is excluded, as well as the members of the secret services who may have access to them.

There seems to be only one possibility for an ordinary person to know the secret passage to the palace through careful observation through the information he has access to. ”

After a pause, he seemed to be organizing the language.

He found a chair in the room and sat down, crossed Erlang's legs, and continued, "Many years ago, the last princess of Britannia disappeared in her room. The entire Imperial City shook up and down, and began to search for her presence throughout the city.

The princess had a marriage contract, and if she had not disappeared, she would have married the king of West Farland at the time.

This king was later defeated by Arthur the Great.

In some later rumors, it was believed that the princess had actually had a love for a long time, and in order not to marry the king, she chose to flee and elope with her love.

This indirectly led to the Great War of Sibu, which later turned into a war that spread to the world. ”

Sherlock turned his head to look at a painting hanging in the room, which had been painted for Alicia by a court artist. Of course, the painting is a reproduction, and the real original has been very well preserved.

But even if it's a fake, it's by a top artist, and all the details are meticulous, just like the photos.

Her long black hair was tied up in a dignified hairstyle, and she sat on a chair in a long blue dress with a large hem, her legs together and tilted to one side, and her hands on her thighs, elegant and noble, just like the princess described in many stories. Beautiful not like mortals in the world.

"It's so beautiful, it's really worthy of the disaster that caused a world war." Sherlock lamented, "To be honest, this is the first time I've seen a portrait of this princess. It's really beautiful, not like a human being. The paintings are so beautiful, it's hard to imagine what kind of person the princess of that era was. ”

After a pause, he continued, "Do you think she resembles a certain being?" ”

The cleaner slowly raised his head and stared at the painting, his eyes shining with an unknown light.

"It's almost exactly the same as the Angel of the Holy Sword in the Baal Cathedral." "So there was also a rumor that the princess was actually the reincarnation of an angel. Her disappearance is to complete her own mission and return to heaven.

This rumor and coincidence also made the princess famous, and many interested theologians began to study the princess's life.

Even, some capable people also found out which secret passage the princess escaped from the palace according to some clues that were circulated by the royal family at the beginning, and even found the entrance to this secret passage.

However, this information was eventually buried in history over time.

However, if you go to the Royal Library, you can still find this information, and based on those inferences, you can find the location of this secret passage. ”

Sherlock stood up and walked slowly to the door, which he slowly closed and then flipped the button.

"Click"

A crisp sound echoed through the quiet room, where an imperceptible secret door opened on the side of the wardrobe, and behind the secret door lay a man tied up by a wide range of flowers.

The man was still alive, in a suit and leather shoes, and his hair was delicately combed, but his mouth was stuffed with something, and he couldn't shout at all.

"You came in disguised as a cleaner to make people outside think that the movement inside was normal, right?" Sherlock said, "Otherwise, you can come in directly through this secret passage." ”

After a pause, he thought for a moment, "You can actually kill him directly in the secret passage, is it because the location of this room is special?" ”

He looked at the cleaner who was standing there, he had taken off his hat by the moment. He is very tall, more than 1.85 meters, and his figure is also very strong, and it seems that because of years of alcoholism, his skin is a little dark red.

He was silent, not saying a word, just staring at Sherlock.

"To be honest, I originally thought that this companion you recruited would become a burden to you, but I didn't expect that you perfectly squeezed all the benefits he could bring.

Use his death to become a smoke bomb and confuse the people here. It was a perfect plan for them to think that the matter had been settled, and finally to enter this place as a normal person when everything was calm.

However, you are so arrogant that you don't think about the plan carefully.

For example, the five people you kill represent one of the seven deadly sins.

A prostitute, representing lust. A scruffy mecha researcher who represents laziness. And a fat person represents gluttony. A husband who often abuses his wife represents anger. A girl who often spreads rumors, representing jealousy.

Then it's greed and arrogance.

And the person who was kidnapped by that person was not any of them at all. Of course, this may be something we don't know about the rescued hostage.

Most importantly, though, the killer was too short, or rather, too short for the portrait I made for you, so that person wasn't you. It's just a smoke bomb that you throw.

Finally, let's talk about this gentleman. ”

Sherlock looked at the man at his feet.

"Mr. Budali, the owner of the largest investment bank on Niel Street in Britannia, a greedy old vampire."

He looked at Hank and teased, "I have to say, you're really a genius at choosing people. ”

"Don't many people deserve to die because he lost their houses and land?" Hank said.

"Of course." Sherlock raised his eyebrows, "But I'm not here to argue with you about this, it's just that what you're going to do next isn't as simple as punishing the wicked." ”

"This is a society that is about to decay." Hank silently said, "It needs a more powerful force to come and bring change to the world." ”

Sherlock shrugged, "I don't think a non-human outsider can bring any positive change to the world. ”

Hank didn't mean to continue the topic with him, but silently took out two medicine bottles from his body, the bottles contained the same medicine, and he slowly raised the corners of his mouth.

"How about we make a bet?"

Sherlock looked at the medicine in his hand, "That's what you killed those guys, right?" ”

He smiled, "That's what you told them to do, let them make a bet?" ”

"Of these two drugs, one is poisonous and the other is non-toxic, do you want to give it a try?" Hank said, "You choose one, and I'll eat the other." ”

Sherlock narrowed his eyes, "Why do you think I'm going to bet with you?" ”

"Because you're a genius." Hank said quietly, "The arrogance of geniuses is always common, they think they are smarter than everyone else. ”

He slowly raised the corners of his mouth, "Don't you want to give it a try?" Let's see if I can be smarter than the other five people and judge the antidote here."

Sherlock didn't speak, he just stared at the two bottles silently, as if he was really thinking about which one was correct.

But at this moment, a voice came to his ear.

"I don't think he's a genius."

Sherlock turned his head to look at the passage. Mycroft stepped out of the secret passage and nodded to Budali, who was lying on the ground.

"Hello, Mr. Budali."

Budali opened his eyes and struggled to say something, but his mouth was gagged and he could only whine, but he could faintly hear words like "help me untie the rope".

However, Mycroft raised his eyebrows and stepped over directly, followed by Watson and Locke, who also ignored him and stepped over directly.

Mycroft was still in the same well-fitting suit, his hands in his pockets, with a natural sense of relaxation, and he looked at Sherlock with a little helplessness.

"Really smart people don't gamble with you on such an unfair bet with an overwhelming advantage. Only fools do. ”

He looked at the medicine bottle in Hank's hand.

"Who knows, is the medicine really non-toxic? Otherwise, not all five of them guessed wrong. ”

Hank shrugged, "Who knows, the fifty percent probability is already high, isn't it?" ”

"What's your name?"

"Mycrof." "Mycroft Holmes is his brother. ”

After a pause, he looked at the secret passage, "This secret passage was actually found by me, and someone was ambushed in this secret passage last night, but you have to be more cautious than I thought. ”

Hank smiled, "I thought that I had only one genius to deal with, one hit two, but it wasn't fair. ”

"Fair?" A sarcastic smile tugged at the corner of McCroft's mouth, "It's been a long time since anyone has spoken this word to me. ”

Hank also smiled, he directly put away the medicine, and then silently tidied up the clothes on his body, flattened the folds on the clothes, and then straightened the collar.

He then pulled out a small knife resembling a cross from his body.

Watson scoffed on the side, "Knives? Your last friend still had a gun in his hand, are you looking down on us? ”

Mycroft and Sherlock were silent.

Hank slowly grinned a slightly hideous and crazy grin, and he roared hysterically.

"My lord, you will revolutionize the world with fire!"

Mycroft's face changed, and he pulled a gun out of his pocket and shot him.

"Peng!"

The bullet hit him in the chest, but apparently missed the heart, and he didn't kill him with a single hit.

With a sinister smile on his face, he wiped his neck with the knife of the cross, which easily cut his throat and arteries, and countless blood gushed out from his neck and mouth, quickly staining his clothes red.

His eyes widened and he fell straight to the ground.

Sherlock crouched down quickly, tested his pulse and snort, then shook his head at Mycroft.

"Converts are fanatical." Mycroft whispered, "What a crazy guy." ”

"He should be arrogant." Sherlock said, "Then there's only the seventh left."

McCroft didn't look at the body, but silently walked to the window and looked out, muttering softly.

"Perhaps, the seventh one has already been arranged."

"Boom."

There was a roar outside the window, and Sherlock walked quickly to the window to look out.

The originally clear sky suddenly became cloudy, the city was darkened again, lightning and thunder in the clouds, a huge spiral, also gradually appeared in the clouds, and the gray fog gradually spread in the city.

In the darkness, the fog covered the city with a black shroud.

(End of chapter)