Ch.155Chapter 155 – The Crawling Man (6)

“What are you doing, Mr. Adler? Crawl all the way inside.”

“M-meow.”

“My, my. Cats cannot understand human speech and act accordingly. Besides, you’re a cat right now, not Mr. Adler.”

Jane Moriarty was playing with the golden cat she had taken from Microny Holmes while waiting for the professor’s fiancée in the waiting room to reconstruct the case.

“…Meow.”

“Are you going to ignore my words and continue to resist? You’ll surely regret it.”

As she watched the cat trapped in a dilemma inside her clothes with a smiling gaze, she quietly turned her head at the sound of a door opening behind her.

“Are you the visitors who came to see me?”

“…You’re quite lucky.”

Upon seeing the research assistant who appeared before her, Moriarty muttered while pushing the cat that had been struggling inside her clothes deeper inside.

“Are you talking to me?”

“Not exactly, but from your perspective, it’s true.”

“Because we arrived before you could mess things up. Among the failures overflowing in London, you could say you’re fortunate.”

When she and Microny Holmes simultaneously spoke in relaxed voices with cryptic words, wariness began to cloud the assistant’s eyes.

“Excuse me, but who are you?”

“I am Jane Moriarty, a professor at Auguste Academy.”

“I’ll omit my identity since knowing it might endanger your life~”

A simple introduction made in such a situation.

“…What brings you here?”

“Gregory Freud. I enjoyed the book your mother published a few days ago.”

As the assistant, now showing not just wariness but displeasure, asked again in a cold voice, Professor Moriarty began speaking in a gentle, soothing tone.

“The Interpretation of Dreams, it’s certainly a book that will cause waves in academia. Creating the concept of the ‘unconscious’ using dreams as material.”

“………”

“Perhaps the name Sigmund Freud will appear in biographies of great figures in a few decades. This isn’t mere flattery.”

The young man called Gregory Freud listened blankly to her rapid stream of praise.

“In fact, my fellow professors are also interested in the content of that book…”

“Excuse me. This is so sudden that I’m having trouble processing it.”

He barely managed to interrupt Professor Moriarty and asked while clutching his throbbing head.

“Is the reason you came here to discuss the book my mother published?”

“That’s not it.”

“Then why are you here? I don’t have time to deal with leisurely people like you. I have three papers to finish writing and a meeting in the afternoon…”

As he tried to get up with an expression drenched in fatigue, suggesting he had no time for this.

“Lilia Presbury.”

“……….”

At the cold voice that emerged from the professor who had maintained a relaxed expression until then, he froze in a half-risen posture.

“Your fiancée who is 30 years older than you. You’re planning to marry this year.”

“What are you trying to…”

“Sit down, Mr. Freud.”

Though he tried to protest with a trembling voice, it wasn’t easy to defy the professor who had begun to emit a chilling aura that could freeze one’s lungs and heart.

“Well done.”

“…….”

“Unlike your appearance, you listen well. I wonder if you accepted the professor’s proposal under similar duress?”

After shaking his legs for a while, he finally sat down quietly, and Moriarty muttered with a satisfied smile.

“W-what do you mean…”

“I simply don’t understand.”

She slowly tilted her head to the side and quietly asked with gleaming eyes.

“How can a young man like you willingly accept a woman 30 years your senior?”

And then came the silence.

“………?”

Professor Moriarty, who had been waiting for an answer with a smiling gaze, quietly displayed a question mark on her face at the stares directed at her.

“What’s wrong?”

“…Are you really asking because you don’t know?”

“Meow.”

Microny Holmes watched her with narrowed eyes from the side, along with cat Adler who had somehow climbed up and poked his head out.

“I’m in my twenties.”

Moriarty, having roughly figured out the reason, muttered in a low voice.

“I don’t have a single wrinkle, and I don’t wear heavy makeup like that professor. I don’t have children old enough to attend university yet.”

But when their gazes remained unchanged, she added in a chilly voice.

“…And I’m cute.”

Microny Holmes and Adler’s faces began to stiffen.

“Adler has said so not just once, but every time he sees me.”

Microny Holmes’s gaze, which had been staring at Professor Moriarty who was quietly beginning to blush in that situation, shifted to the cat who was poking his head out of her chest.

“What on earth did you do to turn a mythical being into that?”

“…Meow.”

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“D-don’t speak so carelessly.”

“………”

“I accepted the professor’s proposal because I truly love her.”

“…Hmm hmm.”

In the slightly awkward atmosphere, Freud, who had been reading the room, bravely spoke up.

“I see. It seems there’s no falsehood mixed in.”

“O-of course! A-actually… I was the one who confessed first!”

“Yes, I completely understand that you love the professor.”

Looking at him, Jane Moriarty began to smile meaningfully.

“…Now I think I understand the outline of the case.”

“What?”

“Now I’ll tell you why I came here.”

Freud, who had been looking at her smile with an anxious expression, quietly began to listen.

“Recently, I obtained some very interesting information about your fiancée.”

“In-information?”

“…I heard she turns into a dog at night and crawls around the mansion.”

As soon as he heard those words, his face stiffened.

“H-how did you…”

“I have secured evidence. With just one word from me, you might see some interesting news in tomorrow’s paper.”

Hearing Moriarty’s confident voice, he squeezed his eyes shut.

“I knew the professor’s situation had worsened recently, but I didn’t know it was this bad.”

“………”

“…What do I need to do to protect the professor’s honor?”

“You seem to be misunderstanding something.”

Jane Moriarty quietly leaned her head toward him.

“The ‘interesting news’ I mentioned isn’t just the trivial matter of Professor Presbury crawling around the mansion.”

“Then…”

“Why do you keep pretending not to know?”

The next moment, the air in the room suddenly began to grow cold.

“Tomorrow’s newspaper will report the arrest of Gregory Freud, son of Sigmund Freud, author of The Interpretation of Dreams.”

“…What did you just say?”

Freud, who had been appearing somewhat naive until now, suddenly changed his expression and gaze to become as chilling as Professor Moriarty’s.

“Have you heard of Sharlotte Holmes?”

“…The detective who frequently appears in the newspapers recently?”

“She’s taken on this case. She’s already closing in on the core.”

At that, Professor Moriarty began to speak faster, completely excited.

“She and her colleagues will probably burst in here shortly after we leave. Then the game is over.”

“………”

“Your crime was very delightful and genius even to my eyes, but unfortunately, it’s on the verge of being exposed.”

“…Are you threatening me?”

“Does this look like a threat to you, Mr. Freud?”

Having sharply asked the question, he quietly furrowed his brow at Professor Moriarty’s confident demeanor and listened to her words.

“As I said earlier, you are very lucky.”

“……..”

“Thanks to my position and connections as a university professor, I was able to determine your location slightly faster than Sharlotte Holmes, and consequently arrive here a step ahead—all of this is your good fortune.”

Professor Moriarty whispered to him in a sweet voice.

“…Because I can now consult on your crime before it’s too late.”

“Oh my, how frightening.”

Microny, who had been listening from the side, muttered with a smirk, while Freud, who had been quietly tilting his head, asked in a low voice.

“Why would an ordinary university professor like you do such a thing?”

“Well, it can’t be helped. I’m currently being threatened to provide consultation to an ‘unidentified entity’ while having a precious being held hostage.”

“……..”

“Thanks to the messy and exploitable clauses in the British Empire’s laws, there are abundant possibilities for the illegality to be negated. So you needn’t worry about me.”

After finishing her words, Moriarty quietly rested her chin on her hand and began to look at Freud.

“…Mr. Freud, do you know what day it is today?”

Meanwhile, the voice of a fellow researcher began to be heard from beyond.

“A few more visitors have arrived.”

“…Names?”

“Well, let’s see… Holmes, I believe.”

Upon hearing those words, cold sweat began to trickle down Freud’s forehead, and Moriarty asked in a low voice with a bright smile.

“Now, it’s time to choose, Gregory Freud.”

“………”

“Will you accept my consultation? Or will you fall into the abyss as you are?”

And a moment later, his lips slowly began to move.

“…What do I need to do?”

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Several dozen minutes later.

“”……..””

After waiting for quite some time in the waiting room due to a prior appointment, Sharlotte and Lestrade, who had entered the room a step late, found their faces stiffening.

“For a renowned detective, aren’t you too late?”

“Our Sharlotte seems to be getting cuter by the day~”

The professor’s fiancée who should have been there had vanished without a trace, and Professor Moriarty and Microny Holmes were welcoming them.

“…Meow?”

To top it off, Adler poked his head out of Professor Moriarty’s clothes and made a cheerful cat sound.