Ch.145Chapter 145 – The Groom’s Identity (8)

“Hey, you know… Neville.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t you think that looks a bit strange no matter how you look at it?”

“What does?”

In the middle of the quiet cathedral, Rachel Watson, who had been excitedly starting the wedding ceremony, opens her mouth while looking down at Adler with a slightly dazed expression.

“…Why don’t you check for yourself.”

When she points to her hip area, Adler lowers his gaze with a puzzled expression.

“What’s wrong with your lower body…?”

“No, not mine. Yours.”

“……?”

She quietly corrected her fiancé’s gaze, but he still had only a question mark on his face.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“…Really?”

But Watson could still see the black tail extending from his pelvis and swaying gently.

“Even now?”

“………!?”

However, when her fiancé continued to act as if he couldn’t see the tail that was clearly visible to her, Watson suddenly reached out and grabbed it.

“…Aueugh?”

Immediately, Adler’s body hair stood on end, and he began to look at Watson while trembling.

“Wh-what are you doing to me?”

“…….”

“R-Rachel. I don’t know what you’re doing, but please stop…”

Then, lowering his eyebrows, her fiancé begins to plead in a rather pitiful voice.

“…Adler.”

“Y-yes?”

“That just now… that’s something Adler often says…”

When such a murmur escaped from Watson’s lips as she looked down at him, Adler, who was disguised as her fiancé Neville, stopped breathing for a moment.

“That way of pleading with that subtly irritating look… both the expression and tone are similar.”

“Th-that’s right? I’ve been friends with Adler for a long time… P-people who are close become similar, you know?”

“…Is that so?”

But when Watson soon showed an expression of acceptance, Adler quietly sighed inwardly.

– Chomp…

“Eeeek!?”

But the next moment, when Watson pulled on his tail and bit the end with her teeth, Adler screamed and began to stagger.

“…Is this also similar?”

“W-wait a minute…”

Only then realizing that his tail had been exposed to Watson, Adler turns pale.

– Munch munch…

“W-wait… Racheeeel…”

As Watson began to bite the end of his tail with her teeth while looking at him with a cold gaze, Adler grabbed her arm, letting out a heated moan.

“…What’s going on?”

Meanwhile, Sharlotte, who had been staring blankly at the scene, frowns and urgently asks a question.

“Is the groom not feeling well? Then we might have to postpone the wedding…”

“No, it’s nothing.”

“But he looks quite pale…”

“…Holmes.”

As she continued to try to intervene in the situation, Watson turned her gaze toward her and suddenly opened her mouth with a slight smile.

“You’re really worried about my husband.”

“……..”

“Adler would be extremely jealous if he knew.”

From that moment on, the already quiet interior of the cathedral began to be enveloped in silence.

“Watson, I was just…”

“No matter how great a detective you are, I know my husband better than you do.”

“……..”

“Understand?”

After finishing her words, Watson once again applied pressure with her raised teeth, and Adler, who had been looking down with a sullen expression, trembled slightly and muttered inwardly.

‘That’s my weakness…’

“…Honey.”

The next moment, Watson’s chilling voice reaches Adler’s ear.

“I have a lot of questions I want to ask honestly.”

“…….”

“So when you said you had a senior-junior relationship with Adler, this is what you meant?”

As he cautiously turned his gaze at her voice, Watson began to mutter in an exasperated tone.

“This is a complete marriage fraud.”

Adler flinches slightly at those words.

“It would have been written in the marriage registration form too. That married couples should share every moment together without hiding anything from each other…”

“Ah.”

“Did you just sign it thinking about having me? Honey?”

Only then vaguely guessing why Watson could see his tail, Adler blinks with a stunned expression for a moment.

“A marriage registration form is… a contract after all.”

“Somehow I noticed your body gives off a scent that makes me want to pounce on you.”

“…..Huh?”

“Could you please stop making that blank expression? It’s so like Adler.”

Hearing those words, Adler hurriedly changes his expression to be unlike himself.

“…Rachel.”

“It’s fine, don’t say anything right now.”

As he tried to say something while watching Watson’s reaction, Watson sighs and places her hand over Adler’s mouth.

“Whether you were born that way or became that way later, let’s talk about it after we finish the wedding ceremony first.”

“……..”

“Just knowing that I love you is enough for now.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the nun grabbed their hands with a bright smile.

“I don’t know what you were whispering about, but it seems the minor issue has been resolved.”

“…I suppose you could say that.”

“It seems you’re already engaged… Then we’ll skip the complicated procedures and start the ceremony right away!”

From that point on, the mana Adler possessed began to resonate and slowly mix into Watson’s body.

“…Holmes, could you please stop sneakily interfering with the mana during this sacred ceremony.”

“Tch…”

“You too, Professor.”

“Adler…”

Eventually, cutting off all the interference coming from all directions, she prepared to receive her fiancé’s mana into her body with the help of the nun.

“If you complete this ceremony and accept your husband’s mana, you will become completely his property, both physically and legally.”

“……..”

“Do you agree?”

Hearing those words, Watson quietly sighs.

“…This is why I hate British marriage laws.”

“They are certainly outdated. Actually, I would recommend getting married in America, but seeing that you’ve come all this way, it seems you don’t have much time…”

“It’s fine.”

And then, Watson speaks with shining eyes.

“Please begin.”

Sharlotte, who had been quietly biting her nails beside them, bit her finger so hard that it made a cracking sound, and the light completely disappeared from Professor Moriarty’s eyes, who was still tied to the pillar.

– Tzzzzzzz…

This was because Adler’s mana had begun to slowly mix into Watson’s bloodstream.

“……..Huh?”

It was at that exact moment that Rachel Watson’s face began to freeze.

.

.

.

.

.

Something had gone wrong.

“Why are you making that expression? Rachel?”

‘…This is.’

This was the thought that crossed Rachel Watson’s mind as soon as the mana began to mix into her body while holding her fiancé’s hands during the wedding ceremony.

‘This is Adler’s energy.’

Having performed surgeries on Adler at Holmes’ request whenever he was butchered by someone, Watson had seen more of Issac Adler’s bare skin than either Sharlotte or the Professor.

And as she always prided herself on, Rachel Watson was a doctor with considerable skill, enough to be called an elite.

Therefore, it was only natural that she would vaguely remember the feeling and wavelength of his unconsciously emitted mana in her mind.

‘And it feels like it’s been cleverly disguised to seem like it’s not…’

Moreover, her sharp and keen senses as a former decorated soldier were also alerting her in real-time that the mana flowing into her body was suspicious.

“A-are you feeling unwell? Would you like to receive it in smaller portions?”

Could it be that Issac Adler had somehow disguised himself as her fiancé again and was trying to commit marriage fraud?

“Miss Watson?”

But Watson knew better than anyone that this was impossible.

If the person before her was truly Adler and not Neville, the marriage registration signature and the wedding ceremony itself would not have been valid.

‘…He couldn’t have interfered with the magic either.’

The magic of ‘marriage’ is an ancient magic more powerful than any other magic that has survived from the time of King Arthur and Merlin to the present day.

Even Sharlotte and the Professor, who could twist most magic, had their interference attempts easily detected and blocked by Watson, who was a layperson in magic.

It’s not for nothing that fairy tales tell stories of fairies and demons playing tricks with marriage contracts only to end up bound to humans.

“…….”

The important point anyway is that the boy looking at her with concerned eyes is definitely the ‘Neville St. Claire’ she knows.

But if that’s the case, what is this ‘Adler-like’ energy she feels from him?

‘…No way.’

After staring blankly at her lovely fiancé for a long time, a rather unbelievable but most rational conjecture comes to Watson’s mind.

– Swish…

“…Hmm?”

And the next moment, Rachel Watson carefully brings one of his hands that she was holding to her cheek.

“I’m nervous.”

“………”

“Caress me a little, honey.”

The cold sweat that had started flowing from her forehead just moments ago and the excessive makeup she had applied to look pretty for her fiancé began to create a strange synergy from that point on.

.

.

.

.

.

“A little harder, everywhere…”

“…….???”

Thanks to that, Adler’s hands, covered in thick makeup, left his fingerprints all over her body.

[London’s Casanova: Being Caught in Marriage Fraud by Rachel Watson]

[20% -> 50%]

[Probability of Being Shot: 50% -> 75%]

The messages that appeared collectively a moment later informed Adler of this fact belatedly.

‘…There’s no strange trap in the return ticket, right?’

[Why don’t you try using it and find out?]

‘What?’