Shinji Matou at Your Service

A few minutes later, in an unused and vacant storage room, Waver tossed a cigarette to Shinji. After lighting it for him, Waver spoke in a somewhat heavy tone.

"This morning, Lord Valualeta called me, saying that Maio Brishisan Clynelles's magic circuits have necrotized and deteriorated. Although it won't affect his daily life, he will never be able to be a magus again. Because of this, Valualeta is facing questioning from the Department of Lore."

"Oh, I see," Shinji replied casually, taking a deep drag of his cigarette.

Waver suddenly looked up, staring intently into Shinji's eyes, and asked, "Was it your doing?"

"What do you mean, my doing?"

"Is there any point in playing dumb? Don't forget, you were the one who personally told me about the symptoms ten years ago. Although Maio's symptoms are less severe, you also mentioned that the more talented the magus, the worse the outcome when facing such issues. If I remember correctly, the magus killer who injured the professor has always been on good terms with you—do I need to explain further?"

Waver's gaze was sharp, penetrating, and impossible to deflect.

"Haha, as expected of you, Waver. It seems Flat and Svin weren't wrong when they compared you to Sherlock Holmes."

Realizing there was no point in hiding it, Shinji decided to come clean.

Waver snorted, "That's an overblown comparison. I know my abilities well enough."

"Tsk, tsk, why do I feel like you're being overly modest?"

"Your attempt to change the subject is clumsy."

Waver bluntly exposed Shinji's real intention, leaving the latter with no choice but to concede.

"You've seen through it all. Alright, what do you want to know?"

"Was it on the Lord Barthomeloi's orders?"

Shinji countered, "In what capacity are you asking? If it's on behalf of Lord Valualeta or the Department of Lore, then all I can say is don't make baseless accusations without evidence."

"No."

Waver shook his head, his tone softening slightly.

"If that were the case, I wouldn't have brought you here. I'm asking as a friend, on a personal level."

"Phew, you should have said that from the start. You made it so serious that it got me all tense."

Shinji let out a sigh of relief.

"No, aside from the incident at the banquet, the rest has nothing to do with Lorelei."

"So, you decided to do this on your own? Why? Because what he did crossed your line?"

Hearing this guess, Shinji looked at Waver as if he had seen a ghost.

"You—are you a mind reader or something? How did you guess that?"

Waver returned a similar look, "I recall you had no previous dealings with Iselma, right?"

"None. This was my first visit."

"Then why—could it be that you fell in love with the Silver Princess at first sight? Yes, that's very possible. First, you ignored the battle to go capture someone, then you came to ask me and Lord Valualeta, and finally, you persuaded me to have them join the classroom—"

"Hold on, hold on a minute, my friend."

Seeing Waver's wild speculations, Shinji quickly interrupted, "It's not what you think."

Waver was referring to an incident during the Iselma affair, where Shinji had seemingly abandoned the battlefield to seek out the Silver Princess for reasons that were initially unclear.

In truth, Shinji wasn't trying to disrupt the girls' escape plan.

He felt that Byron had gone too far, both from the perspective of a magus and as an ordinary person. The girls' attempt to escape was self-defense, and their actions were understandable. Although they had used the El-Melloi classroom and Touko Aozaki as shields, no real harm had been done. Given how meticulously they had planned everything, letting them go wasn't unreasonable.

As the saying goes, "Beautiful girls often have privileges"—though this was just an excuse. Allowing them to escape was a way to drive them into a corner.

By leaving, they were essentially cutting themselves off from the world. With Waver seeing through the truth behind the Golden Princess's death, Iselma's downfall was inevitable. Even if they wanted to return, it would be impossible.

Moreover, with the Silver Princess's stunning appearance, many would surely be after them. It was easy to imagine how frightened and desperate the girls would be, with no escape route and no one to rely on.

At that point, by having Reines and Waver play the role of the good guys, it would be effortless to bring them into the fold. After all, the girls had already considered using the El-Melloi classroom as a refuge but had hesitated due to a lack of knowledge. Now that they had nothing left, their choice was obvious.

But don't misunderstand—Shinji had no ulterior motives towards them, nor was he trying to present Waver with a harem—although even if he did, Waver would likely still be a virgin. His intentions were purely professional, recognizing the Silver Princess's talents.

Her talents included both her cunning and her beauty.

Cunning—although her plan had ultimately failed, that was because she was up against the exceptional detective Waver, a rare breed among magi. If it had been any other magus without a specialty in forensics, they would have fallen into her trap, as had happened in the original timeline.

Without Shinji's influence, Waver would have stayed at home as usual, leaving Reines to attend the banquet with Gray, nearly getting trapped in the process, forcing Waver to intervene to save them.

Given her strategic mind, along with being around Shinji's age, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call her a Zhuge Liang female form. What Waver currently lacked most were people like her. Most of his subordinates were either down-and-out lecturers who had failed in political struggles or troublesome students, capable enough in teaching and administrative tasks but utterly unreliable in other areas. Waver and Reines were carrying the burden themselves. If they could recruit the Silver Princess, their workload would lighten considerably.

As for beauty, it speaks for itself. The Silver Princess's beauty was so overwhelming that it could charm anyone, regardless of age or gender, causing people to lose their composure and reveal their weaknesses. This is what is known as the privilege of beauty. Imagine someone like her as a diplomat in negotiations—how many people could say no?

Of course, this was all Shinji's wishful thinking. The girls' escape had just begun and had already failed, thanks to Maio Brishisan Clynelles.

Maio Brishisan Clynelles had been tracking the traces left by the Golden Princess before her death. As a collaborator of Iselma, he had grown up with the Golden Princess and knew her well. This allowed him to find Carina faster than Waver did, just as Carina was making final preparations for the escape.

When Maio arrived, Carina didn't hide anything, revealing both the escape plan and her true identity as the Golden Princess. After all, Maio had been a childhood friend of both Diadra and Estella, as well as of her and her sister, Regina, who had grown up serving as maids in Iselma.

Maio and the tailor Islo were the people the girls trusted the most. Carina fully expected him to support her and help with their escape, but to her shock, not only did Maio refuse to help, he even attempted to kill her.

This all took place in a forest near the Moon Tower, by a spring that bore an uncanny resemblance to the place where the great hero Siegfried had met his end.

He had used the hero's relic and been tainted by the hero's fate—sometimes, destiny can be truly ironic.