Ch.150Chapter 150 – The Crawling Man

“Huh…”

Around the time Issac Adler was sweating at the system warning that appeared before him while making future plans at Lestrade’s house.

– Creeeeak…

“…You’re here?”

Sharlotte Holmes, who had been absentmindedly staring at the dark clouds in the sky caused by someone’s anger while smoking an Arcadia cigarette by the window, turned her gaze to the visitor who opened the door and entered the boarding house.

“You don’t look too happy, Watson.”

“……..”

“Want to smoke an Arcadia cigarette?”

Sharlotte quietly offers a cigarette to Watson, who silently approached her.

– Swish…

“Oh.”

She stares blankly at Watson, who for the first time accepts her offer and snatches the entire pack of cigarettes.

– Hiss…

But Watson pays no mind, leans in close to Sharlotte’s face, and lights her own cigarette using the one Sharlotte had in her mouth.

“Huh…”

“…I didn’t know you could smoke so skillfully.”

“Did you think a soldier deployed in combat wouldn’t know how to smoke?”

“…….”

“Why are you looking at me like that? I may have been a military doctor, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t seen combat. And actually, many doctors smoke.”

As Watson exhales cigarette smoke while looking at London’s gloomy streets with utterly weary eyes, Sharlotte, who had been watching her carefully, quietly speaks.

“It’s just that seeing you smoke is quite fascinating. You’ve never shown me before.”

“…Hmm.”

At that, Watson shifts her gaze to look at her intently.

“So, why did you hide the truth from me when you knew everything?”

“…I figured you’d ask that.”

Sharlotte, with a dark smile, looks at Watson and begins her explanation.

“There were restrictions on revealing the truth because of the magic Adler cast with all his might. Though it became useless when he lifted the spell himself.”

“Lifted it himself, you say.”

Watson falls into thought upon hearing this.

“…Why do you think Issac Adler revealed the truth now?”

“…….”

“As I thought, he was just playing with me, wasn’t he?”

After briefly checking Watson’s dark expression, Sharlotte sighs and shakes her head.

“…I don’t think that’s it.”

“You’re still defending Issac Adler even in this situation?”

With an even darker expression, she picks up a half-crumpled newspaper from the desk beside her and shows it.

“You seem to know quite well what London is in an uproar about right now?”

“…While Issac Adler is worse than a beast and certainly human garbage, he’s not the type to seduce women without reason.”

Sharlotte quietly glares at the newspaper’s front page featuring a large photo of Zia Lestrade standing next to Issac Adler with a blushing face and lowered head, then snatches it from Watson’s hand and says:

“That’s the least credible thing I’ve heard so far.”

– Riiip…

“Why are you tearing up the newspaper?”

After ripping the newspaper to shreds and throwing it into the fireplace, Sharlotte ignores Watson’s question and continues.

“If you think about the series of actions Issac Adler has taken recently, something seems off.”

“Off? Adler has always been strange, hasn’t he?”

“The incidents over the past few months reached their conclusions very quickly and radically. And each conclusion led to another incident, becoming increasingly interconnected as they progressed…”

“Excuse me, but could you speak in plain English?”

“…The point is, Issac Adler now has a single goal that he must reach at any cost, no matter what sacrifices must be made.”

Hearing this, Watson lets out a cold chuckle and mutters:

“So I was just sacrificed as a means to achieve that goal.”

“I don’t think that’s the case.”

But Sharlotte firmly denies this.

“According to my deduction, there’s someone forcing Issac Adler’s actions right now.”

“…What?”

“I’m not sure exactly how or what orders are being given, but Issac Adler must be in a position where he has to follow those orders.”

She looks directly at Watson, whose expression has momentarily gone blank, and adds in a low voice:

“And this entity appeared no earlier than after enrollment at Auguste Academy.”

“T-Then…”

“Yes, when exactly did Issac Adler first start dating you and Neville?”

To that question, Rachel Watson answers with a stammering, trembling voice:

“…A-About a year and a little more?”

“So before enrollment at Auguste Academy.”

As Sharlotte calmly draws this conclusion, Watson’s eyes begin to waver.

“Of course, the fact that he disguised his identity and deceived you remains unchanged, but at least not everything was a prank to make fun of you…”

“T-This changes everything…?”

“Huh?”

After comforting her in an uncharacteristically gentle voice, Sharlotte quietly begins to listen to Watson’s statement with wide eyes.

“If that speculation is true, no… since it’s your speculation and not someone else’s, it must be certain.”

“I didn’t go so far as to assert that…”

“Then it’s possible that the person he truly liked wasn’t me, but you…”

“What are you talking about…?”

When she asks coldly with a momentary frown, Watson, still looking dazed, begins to mutter in a shrinking voice:

“Well, you received his confession after Adler enrolled at Auguste Academy.”

“……..”

“Since he approached me before that…”

Watson’s hand holding the cigarette was trembling slightly as she paused.

“I was actually the only one he approached of his own free will, not because of the coercion from that unknown entity…”

“Look, I think you’re misunderstanding something.”

Sharlotte glares at her coldly for a moment and raises her voice.

“Adler’s eyes are stained with my color. You were the first to mention the mana erosion phenomenon.”

“……..”

“And I’m sorry, but the way you’re talking makes it sound like Adler became a playboy after enrolling in the academy?”

But Watson’s mind, having completed her own reasoning and feeling goosebumps on her skin, was already far removed from the conversation.

“Ugh, I must be crazy… Why am I defending that bastard who deserves to be shot dead…”

“Excuse me?”

“That fucking bastard… I had just sorted out my feelings… This shouldn’t be happening…”

“Watson?”

“But if what happened yesterday wasn’t of his own free will…”

“Watson!”

Looking at Watson with an ominous gaze, Sharlotte finally shouts in her ear to bring her back to her senses.

“Nothing’s certain yet, so could you please stop fantasizing about him?”

“……..”

“…I mean, about ‘that man.'”

As she hurriedly changes the term of address and quietly blushes, turning her head to the side, a momentary silence falls over the boarding house.

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“…So why did you call me? You said to come right away when I got your letter.”

“Ah, yes. About that.”

The awkward atmosphere that had been flowing for quite some time was broken by Watson’s question, her expression now quite complicated.

“There’s a new case.”

“…A case?”

“As you know, I don’t enjoy deducing without an assistant. That tendency has become several times worse recently.”

“That’s because of Adler, right?”

Hearing this, Sharlotte quietly glares at Watson.

“…For the past few months, Issac Adler has been like a habit to me.”

“A habit?”

“Playing the violin, strong cigarettes, scissors for cutting newspapers, and magic stones that emit potent smoke, and so on.”

“You mean he was a kind of stimulant?”

After pondering this question briefly, Sharlotte quietly nods.

“But Watson, I’ve decided to respect your opinion as a doctor.”

“What does that mean?”

“Any stimulant becomes problematic when it’s too strong. And Issac Adler was several times more stimulating to me than the hallucinations brought on by drugs or magic stones.”

“Should I be glad you’ve realized that only now?”

Sharlotte quietly sighs and puts down her cigarette on the windowsill, picking up her coat hanging nearby.

“Right now, I’m in a state of overdose from that man.”

“…You’re already feeling bored even though you weren’t dating?”

“No, ‘addicted’ would be the right expression.”

After putting on the coat she only wears when working as a detective, she begins walking toward the door.

“So I’m planning to take a break by solving complicated and bizarre cases for a while.”

“…Seems like you haven’t given up?”

“Watson, do you think I can quit smoking?”

When Watson immediately shakes her head, Sharlotte quietly chuckles.

“What matters is the ending. The process doesn’t matter. I just need to determine whose hands he’s in at the final moment.”

“Then was letting Adler and Lupin go deliberately part of that?”

“…If the opponent is drawing a big picture, all you need to do is draw an even bigger one.”

Finally, grabbing the doorknob, she concludes with a confident expression:

“No matter what happens from now on, Issac Adler will become my assistant within a year. I’m declaring that here and now.”

“…I see.”

Watson, who had been smiling behind her, suddenly darkens slightly.

“But then, I…”

“Hmm?”

“…It’s nothing.”

But as she quickly smiles as if it were nothing, Sharlotte glances at her and quietly tilts her head as she turns the doorknob.

‘…Something feels off.’

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.

But the next moment, Sharlotte Holmes had no choice but to completely forget the uneasiness she felt.

“Hehe.”

“…….”

The two beings she least wanted to face at this moment.

Because Issac Adler and Zia Lestrade were standing arm in arm in front of Sharlotte, who had opened the door.

“Miss Holmes, where are you going alone…”

Adler, who was cheerfully addressing Sharlotte, belatedly noticed Rachel Watson quietly watching him from behind her, and.

“”………..””

An even colder silence than before began to flow through 221B Baker Street.