Ch.106Chapter 106 – Dad

– Creeeeak…

As the hospital room door opens and a delicate girl peeks her head in, Adler’s eyes begin to waver slightly.

“……..”

It was because Celestia Moran was coldly glaring at him while holding a cat doll that clearly had a ghost residing in it.

“Come in.”

“…Master.”

As Adler carefully watches her reaction and forces a smile while gesturing to her, a cold voice flows from Moran’s lips.

“Did you just call me ‘Master’…?”

“You said you wouldn’t abandon me.”

While Watson gives Adler a stern look at Moran’s use of the term “Master,” Moran stares directly at Adler and demands an answer.

“Then why are you abandoning me?”

“Miss Moran, I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

“You said you were dying. But last time you told me you wouldn’t die.”

To this contextless accusation, Adler asks with a slightly bewildered expression.

“Who’s dying? I think you’re misunderstanding something…”

“…I heard everything you were discussing inside.”

But before he could deploy his eloquent speech, Celestia Moran quietly drives in the nail.

“I have sharp ears, Mr. Adler. For a sniper, hearing is just as important as eyesight.”

“That’s a bit scary…”

“Doesn’t ‘life support is no longer possible’ mean you’re terminally ill?”

As she stands right next to Adler and tilts her head, both Adler and Watson’s expressions darken.

“Why are you breaking your promise, Master?”

“…You should call me Dad, not Master, Miss Moran.”

But when Moran’s expression also darkens, Adler quickly brightens his face and begins to whisper quietly in her ear.

“What…?”

“I’ve always told you to call me that.”

As Adler gives her a meaningful look while checking Watson’s reaction, Moran tilts her head for a moment before lowering her gaze and answering in a quiet voice.

“…Oh, Dad.”

“That’s right.”

Adler gently strokes her head as she blushes shyly and begins to fidget.

“As you can see, this is our relationship. I’m simply raising her like a daughter out of pure goodwill, not the suspicious relationship you might be thinking of, Miss Watson.”

“…This seems more suspicious than before.”

“Miss Moran, by the way, you’re completely misunderstanding the situation.”

But as Watson continues to give him a cold stare, Adler finally gives up on making a good impression on her and starts focusing his attention on Moran.

“Misunderstanding…?”

“It’s true that I can no longer continue life support treatment.”

“…Uuu.”

As Moran begins to quietly sob upon hearing this, Adler hastily continues.

“B-but that doesn’t matter anymore. Because I’ve found a definite cure.”

“Really…?”

“Yes, it’s true~”

As he caresses both her cheeks and smiles brightly, her eyes looking up at Adler begin to waver quietly.

“W-what is it? The cure…?”

“You heard it yourself, back then.”

To her question, Adler answers with a smile.

“Dr. Frankenstein’s elixir. If we recreate it, I can be completely revived.”

“Ah…”

“Right, doctor?”

When he turns his head to seek Watson’s agreement, she contemplates for a moment before finally sighing and nodding.

“See? Even the doctor agrees.”

“…Thank goodness.”

At that, Moran wipes away the tears that had gathered in her eyes with both hands and quietly buries her head in Adler’s embrace.

“But how do you make it?”

“Pardon?”

“To create the essence of life, don’t you need ‘Dragon’s Tears’?”

She suddenly raises her head and asks with a serious expression.

“I looked it up in the library. Dragons have been extinct for a long time. Now they’re just fossils displayed in museums.”

“……..Hmm.”

“So how will you collect tears?”

At this pointed question, Adler looks blank for a moment.

“Dragons aren’t actually extinct.”

“Then where are they?”

“They’re swarming in the eastern lands of the rising sun.”

As he says this while sweating nervously, Watson beside him makes an expression of disbelief.

“…Frankenstein also had a large quantity of tears, right? Dragon’s Tears are easier to obtain than you might think.”

“Ah…”

“I should be able to get them in about a year. Of course, the key is staying alive until then…”

“Don’t worry about that.”

But as Adler continues speaking, Moran’s eyes light up and she speaks in a cheerful voice.

“Vampires get healthier when they drink human blood, right?”

“Generally, yes…?”

“So Silver Blaze and I captured a lot of people and kept them in the underground hideout.”

“…What?”

Her innocent smile suddenly starts to feel eerie.

“They’re all from back alleys, so there’s no worry about the police. They’re prey carefully selected by Lady Clay, so they must be good.”

“………”

“And we only captured women. Lady Clay said women’s blood is healthier than men’s…”

After silently looking down at her, Adler quietly shifts his gaze to the cat doll in Moran’s arms.

“Meow?”

“…Haah.”

As the doll, which had been proudly holding its shoulders high, tilts its head as if asking why he’s looking at it that way, Adler sighs deeply and speaks while checking Watson’s reaction beside him.

“…Release them all.”

“What?”

“I already have enough blood packs. So Miss Moran doesn’t need to go to such trouble.”

At that, Moran mutters with a dejected expression.

“I even finished their basic training…”

“It’s fine, really.”

“…Okay.”

“And from now on, ask for my permission before doing such things.”

But as Adler scolds her in a slightly stern voice, she nods silently like a frightened puppy with its tail down.

“Still, I’m quite touched.”

At the sight, he chuckles and begins patting her head.

“After all, you did it for me. Thank you, Miss Moran.”

“…Um.”

Celestia Moran, who had been quietly looking up at him as he gave her a warm smile, hesitates before asking in a small voice.

“Can I still call you D-Dad… from now on?”

At those words, Adler tilts his head, and she fidgets with her feet on the floor while muttering.

“…My father used to hit me when I called him Dad. He said he didn’t like being called that.”

“Miss Moran.”

“You won’t hit me if I call you Dad?”

Looking down at her quietly, Adler whispers in a gentle voice.

“Call me whatever you want.”

“Ah…”

At that, she averts her gaze and speaks in a trembling voice.

“Dad…”

After muttering that, she lowers her gaze and awkwardly nestles into Adler’s embrace.

“……..”

At this adorable sight, Adler gently strokes her back with a fatherly smile, and Moran slightly raises her head to look up at him.

“I’ll be going now.”

Then she carefully slips out of Adler’s embrace and, with a subtly changed look in her eyes compared to when she entered, stares at him before bowing.

– Pitter-patter…

And then she quickly moves her legs and leaves the hospital room without looking back.

“Young children are so nice because they’re pure.”

“…….”

“Don’t you think?”

Adler, who had been wearing a fatherly smile until then, speaks to Watson who had been quietly watching the scene.

“…I guess nowadays, kidnapping women from back alleys and training them as blood bags for your master is considered pure.”

“That’s because she learned wrong information from someone else…”

“By the way, can you handle this?”

At her following words, Adler’s expression, which had been making excuses with a startled look, darkens slightly.

“…I’ll have to find a way somehow.”

Eventually, Adler quietly rises from his seat and mutters.

“I don’t want to die like this either.”

As he takes in the sight of Professor Moriarty lying in deep sleep on the bed beyond Watson, he mutters in a slightly trembling voice.

“So I have to try my best. Of course, I don’t know if I can find the ‘Dragon’s Tears’ in time…”

“……..”

“Still, I can’t tell a child with nowhere to go that she might be abandoned again.”

As he finishes speaking with a faint smile, Watson quietly stares at him before sighing and opening her mouth.

“That’s part of it, but…”

Her gaze turns to the door through which Moran just left.

“…Kids these days grow up faster than you might think.”

“Is that so?”

“You should take that to heart…”

Eventually, Issac Adler moves toward the door with a relaxed smile at her words.

“Yes, I’ll take it to…”

As he mutters this while turning the doorknob, a stupid expression appears on his face.

[Probability of being eaten in reverse: 25%]

“…Huh.”

A message written in somewhat rigid font had appeared before his eyes.

[You’re really something else.]

.

.

.

.

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‘Being eaten is one thing, but what does being eaten in reverse mean…?’

Questioning the newly classified probability that differed by just one word, Issac Adler steps out of the hospital room.

“…Oh.”

A stupid expression appears on his face once again.

“Mr. Issac Adler.”

Zia Lestrade, who should be at court right now, was somehow leaning against the corridor wall of the hospital, glaring at him.

“…You’ll need to come with me.”

At her cold voice, Issac Adler quietly hides behind Celestia Moran, who was standing in front of him with a wary look.

“What brings you here, violent sister?”

“Sorry, but the kid needs to step aside.”

“…I told you not to call me a kid.”

The commotion that erupted in the corridor began just a few seconds later.