Ch.116Chapter 116 – The Hound of the Baskervilles (4)

“What’s going on!”

“Ugh, uwaaa… ah…”

Led by Lestrade who had just woken up, the people who came down to the first floor of the mansion were greeted by a maid who had been working there for barely a few weeks.

“First, please calm down and tell me what happened. What’s this about the Baskerville baroness?”

“N-no, that’s not it…”

“Pardon?”

As Lestrade, who was quite accustomed to handling such confusion, draped a coat over the trembling maid and asked, she frantically shook her head.

“It’s not about Miss Helen…”

“…Ah.”

“It’s… the master of the mansion…”

Only then did Lestrade notice Helen Baskerville, the young girl coming down the stairs with a pale face, and asked again with half-opened eyes.

“Has something happened to the current master of the mansion, Sir Charles Baskerville?”

“…Ugh.”

At that, the maid shuddered as if she didn’t want to recall it, falling into panic.

“Madam, it’s alright. As long as I’m here, this place is safe.”

“……..”

“So could you please tell me where the incident occurred? You can stay here. We’ll go check it out.”

When Lestrade asked in a gentle voice, the trembling maid pointed toward the moor in the distance and began to mutter.

“The master hadn’t returned even though it was late at night… so I went out with a lamp to look for him…”

“…Yes.”

“But… when I followed the master’s footprints on the path…”

Her voice was trembling considerably as she was terrified, but Lestrade waited persistently for her to finish.

“…at the end of the path… the master’s body.”

The moment those words ended, Lestrade’s eyes began to shine more sharply than ever as she sprang to her feet and headed outside the mansion.

“O-Officer! Wait!!”

“…What are you doing, Watson.”

“H-Holmes?”

Meanwhile, Sharlotte quietly passed by Watson, who was sweating nervously and fidgeting at that bold action, and followed the inspector.

“Hurry up and follow.”

Her eyes were filled with interest, just as they always were when facing a case.

“……..”

But after reading the anxious look hidden in her partner’s eyes, Watson lowered her head for a moment.

“…Oh, whatever.”

She pulled a pistol from her pocket, squeezed her eyes shut, and began to follow Sharlotte.

“”………””

The servants who had come out due to the commotion stared blankly at their retreating figures.

“Yaaawn…..”

Behind them, Issac Adler, who had just woken up, opened his mouth with a yawn.

“…Why is it so noisy?”

When the soulless gazes of all the servants except the maid focused on him at once, silence began to fall over the mansion.

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.

.

Thanks to the drizzle that had been falling at dawn, it wasn’t difficult to follow Sir Charles Baskerville’s footprints on the path.

“This way.”

“Be careful not to erase the footprints, Watson.”

Of course, with two specialists in tracking and investigation present, it hardly mattered.

“Hmm?”

As the three women continued to follow the footprints up the path.

“Something’s strange.”

“…Pardon?”

When they reached the point where the wasteland was becoming visible, Lestrade frowned and began to mutter.

“The footprints have changed a bit.”

“The footprints?”

“It’s as if… he started walking on his tiptoes.”

When Watson heard this and looked at the path with wide eyes, indeed, as Inspector Lestrade had said, the shape of the footprints had changed.

“…It’s true.”

“I don’t understand. Suddenly on tiptoes…”

“Are you both serious?”

Just as Watson and Zia Lestrade’s expressions were filled with questions, Sharlotte’s exasperated voice came from beside them.

“What fool would suddenly start walking on tiptoes while walking on a path? No one would do such a thing unless they were Adler about to be caught in an affair.”

“I suppose…”

“Then what on earth are these footprints?”

When Inspector Lestrade asked with a blank expression, Sharlotte answered in a lowered voice.

“…He was running.”

“What?”

“I said he was running at full speed.”

Her expression had darkened considerably.

“What he was running away from in the middle of the night, I have no idea.”

And then came silence.

“”………..””

In the increasingly heavy atmosphere, the three women began to hurry their steps with lowered voices.

“…Oh.”

Eventually, when they reached the end of the path where the moor spread out.

“This is…”

A strange sight unfolded before them.

“………”

At the end of the trail of footprints on the moor, a man presumed to be Charles Baskerville lay collapsed.

“…This gives me the chills.”

“Ugh…”

What was notable was that his face was distorted so grotesquely that it was difficult to recognize.

As if he had witnessed something that should not exist in this world.

“Indeed, he was running away from something.”

It was such a horrific sight that even Lestrade, who had been through all sorts of experiences, unconsciously frowned, but Sharlotte Holmes immediately showed an interested expression upon discovering the body and began to step forward.

“Look, Watson. His fingers are clutching the ground. He must have been consumed by fear.”

“…A-aren’t you scared at all?”

“Watson, you’ve seen more corpses than I have.”

“Th-that’s not what I mean!”

When Sharlotte, who had crouched down beside the body, spoke nonchalantly, Watson trembled and shrieked.

“You’ve faced countless cases with me, and you’re still being dramatic.”

“U-until now, we weren’t in such a gloomy place, and at least the culprits were human. But Holmes, this…”

“…I’d appreciate it if you’d spare me the talk about the legendary demon dog being the culprit, Watson.”

But as Sharlotte admonished her in a rational voice while examining the body, Watson took a deep breath and slowly began to regain her composure.

“Right, even in this era… a demon that went extinct nearly a thousand years ago wouldn’t suddenly appear.”

“This is clearly a murder case.”

Sharlotte quietly drove the point home to Watson’s statement.

“B-but… the possibility of a supernatural phenomenon…?”

“…Honestly, I think so too. If this was done by a human, I don’t think his face would be so consumed by fear.”

However, Lestrade, who was also quietly observing the body, quietly offered a dissenting opinion.

“Looking at it now, there are no signs of external injuries on the body. We’ll need an autopsy to know for sure, but at least it doesn’t seem like he died from being assaulted by someone.”

“……..”

“Of course, as you well know, this is a characteristic that often appears in supernatural cases.”

After saying that, Lestrade stared at her, and Sharlotte quietly nodded and stood up.

“I can understand why you’d think that. I’m also considering the possibility that it might be a supernatural phenomenon.”

“Then…”

“However, there are too many things that bother me and too many strange points for that to be the case.”

And then, she quietly looked up at the moon shining softly in the night sky.

“…Hmm.”

When Sharlotte’s expression became blank, Watson, who noticed that she had entered her own time of deduction as always, quietly stepped aside.

“No matter how I think about it, it seems like a supernatural phenomenon…”

And then, muttering in a slightly timid voice, she looked around to see if there were any clues she might have missed.

“…Huh?”

Watson noticed something shining in the moonlight in the distance and tilted her head.

– Click…

And then, loading the gun in her hand, she quietly began to move.

“…Oh.”

When Watson reached where something had been shining, she soon opened her mouth with a dumbfounded expression.

“Th-this is…”

Despite it being the middle of the night with poor visibility, there were clear, very large dog footprints on the ground of the rainy moor.

“H-Holmes. Officer. You should come over here…”

Just as Watson, who had turned pale and was backing away, was calling Lestrade and Holmes who were still examining the body.

– Grrrr…

A low but distinct animal growl began to sound right in front of her.

“Ah, aah…”

The moment the owner of that growl revealed itself to Watson, who was frozen with cold sweat.

“Uwaaaaaaah!!!”

Watson screamed with all her might and began firing her gun at what was in front of her.

“Wh-what…!”

“Watson…?”

What entered the eyes of Lestrade and Sharlotte, who urgently turned their gaze toward her at this sudden situation, was the most terrifying sight they had ever encountered.

– Grrrrrr…

A giant monstrous creature with gleaming blue eyes, which Watson had mistaken for something shining in the moonlight, was turning its body to avoid Watson’s gunfire and disappearing into the darkness.

“””…………”””

As it completely disappeared into the darkness, a deep silence descended on the moor in the night.

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– Tssssss…

How much time had passed like that.

– Grrrr…

“…Hmm.”

Surprisingly, where the unidentified monstrous creature that had disappeared into the darkness reappeared was beside Issac Adler, who had returned to his room under the watchful eyes of the servants.

– Grrrrrr…

“………..”

It was still emanating a terrifying aura with its gleaming blue eyes and sharp fangs, but for some reason, Adler just stared blankly at the monstrous creature.

– Swoosh…

“Good job.”

A moment later, as Adler smiled and extended his hand to it, something unbelievable began to unfold.

“…But, I was wondering.”

The creature, which had been quietly receiving Adler’s gentle strokes on its head, lay down, exposed its belly, and began to wag its tail.

“Were you female?”

– Woof?

Eventually, when a blank sound that didn’t match its current appearance flowed from the mouth of the creature with gleaming blue eyes, a wry smile appeared on Adler’s lips as he asked the question with a disbelieving expression.

“…This is ridiculous.”

– Heh, heh…