Ch.175Chapter 175 – A Real That Seems Fake

“Adler. Get up now.”

As Adler desperately pretends to be unconscious with his eyes tightly shut, Professor Moriarty’s whisper begins to reach his ears.

“I saw you open your eyes just now.”

“……….”

“Get up from there.”

But Adler ignores her words despite breaking into a cold sweat.

“Hmm…”

The professor, looking at him with narrowed eyes, quietly leans toward Adler’s ear and begins to whisper.

“If you don’t get up within 5 seconds, I think everyone in this hospital room will pounce on you all at once.”

“…Eek!”

Only then does Adler open his eyes wide and spring up from his bed like lightning.

“”………..””

And momentary silence fills the hospital room.

“Ah, hello…?”

After some time passes, Adler cautiously speaks while observing the women who are silently staring at him.

“Where am I, by the way?”

“”……?””

“Is this a hospital room… here?”

As he tilts his head with an innocent expression, question marks appear on the faces of everyone gathered in the room.

“Excuse me, but who are all of you?”

In this situation, Adler scratches his head and begins to mutter.

“And why am I lying in a hospital bed?”

“”………””

“Ugh, suddenly my head…”

As he clutches his head with a pained expression, the women in the room quietly exchange glances.

“What kind of trick is this…”

“W-wait a moment.”

In the silence that has fallen, when Watson, unable to contain her anger, reaches for the gun in her pocket, Zia Lestrade urgently stops her and steps forward.

“Do you… not recognize me?”

“Huh? Who are you?”

When Adler stares blankly and asks the question back, she hesitates for a moment before answering with slightly flushed cheeks.

“I-I’m… your wife.”

Simultaneously, the atmosphere in the room grows cold.

“Uh…”

In that suffocating atmosphere, Adler, who had been wearing a blank expression, opens his mouth with wide eyes.

“Someone as beautiful as you is my wife?”

And the next moment.

“Master that’s a lie I’m actually your…”

“…I’m your daughter.”

“I-I was your girlfriend…”

Adler’s followers are the first to start going berserk.

“I’m sorry for not remembering, but was I a piece of trash?”

“…Yes, you were. By the way, if any of you touches Adler even with a fingertip, I’ll shoot immediately…!”

“He lost his memory…?”

While Lestrade frantically tries to stop them, Watson, who had been muttering with a blank expression, narrows her eyes and falls into thought.

“…Aren’t an amnesiac Adler and Neville ultimately the same?”

Just as that conclusion escapes her lips.

“Won’t you come to a nice place with big sis…?”

Taking advantage of the confusion, Gil the Reaper quietly approaches Adler and whispers in a chilling voice while hiding a knife behind his back.

“A-are you really my big sis?”

“It will only take a very short time……”

“Hmm.”

Behind them, Arsène Lupin quietly begins to map escape routes in his mind while staring intently at Adler.

“…Grrrr.”

“W-who brought a dog to the hospital…”

“……?”

“Huh? It’s a girl…? She looked like a dog just a moment ago…?”

And just then, from outside comes the confused voice of a nurse who had witnessed a dog with blue light flashing from its eyes for a moment.

– Swoosh…

In this total chaos, Adler, who had been maintaining a bright expression, sends a distress signal with his eyes to two women in a split second.

“”……….””

To Sharlotte Holmes and Professor Moriarty, who had been silently watching Adler with penetrating gazes.

“…Haah.”

After some time passes like this.

“Everyone, listen to me…”

After glaring daggers at Professor Moriarty, who was grinning for some reason beside her, Sharlotte finally speaks while emanating murderous intent in all directions.

“How about we call a temporary truce…?”

“”………””

“Going berserk here won’t do any of us any good…”

At those words, all eyes turn to her.

“…Let’s agree not to fight among ourselves, at least until Issac Adler’s memory returns.”

“I-is that what a detective should say?”

“As I’ve said before… I’m not a detective but a consulting investigator, Inspector Lestrade.”

When Lestrade raises her voice in irritation at her words, Sharlotte continues with a demonic expression.

“And one for whom investigation consulting is no longer life’s top priority…”

“C-calm down.”

“…Even if you know what relationship he and I have, you can’t expect me to calm down when you act like everything can be settled with a piece of paper.”

“Aren’t your words a bit harsh?”

Of course, Lestrade was Lestrade, so she didn’t back down even when faced with that chilling expression, but the single bead of cold sweat running down her forehead was something even she couldn’t control.

“If anyone doesn’t follow my suggestion right now, I can do much worse things to them…”

Her aura, which had grown strong enough to push back Professor Moriarty even for a moment, was fierce enough to make not only the inspector but everyone else hesitate.

“…I agree as well.”

In the now quieter atmosphere, the professor speaks with a voice tinged with amusement.

“Everyone’s trying to tear at him like a pack of wolves, isn’t it too pitiful for Adler…”

“””……….”””

“So, I think we should give our cute Adler some time to rest.”

Her statement sounded quite reasonable at first glance.

If she hadn’t raped Adler just a few hours ago, perhaps some might have nodded in agreement.

“…Hmm. This is troublesome.”

Of course, the professor knew all too well how to impose her opinions on those who disagreed with her.

“It seems my words don’t sound convincing.”

– Whoooosh…

As the professor lightly adds her own murderous intent to the one already dominating the room, the air becomes noticeably heavier.

“…Pointing weapons at me right now is not a recommended choice.”

“””……….”””

“If you wanted to attack, you should have done it earlier when I was injured. Now I’ve already recovered.”

Of course, the people in the room were also formidable fighters who wouldn’t easily submit to force.

For instance, Zia Lestrade and Celestia Moran were strong enough that with a few more years of experience, they might be able to face the professor one-on-one.

“Put down your weapons…”

“My friend is saying it… put down your weapons…”

“Moriarty, you shut your mouth…”

“Haha, ha…”

But for now, they were slightly outmatched compared to Sharlotte, who had stepped into the realm of absolute strength first, and the professor, who could easily take on everyone in this room.

“Cough, cough…”

As the room reached a temporary stalemate.

“Ah, it hurts…..”

Suddenly Adler bows his head, coughs, and then mutters with tearful eyes.

“””………..”””

The women who seemed ready to wage war a moment ago abandoned their combat stances and dispersed, influenced more by that single utterance than by Professor Moriarty and Sharlotte’s threats.

“…Kyaak!! Let go!! I don’t care if he’s lost his memory or not, I just want to chop him up and kill…”

“I’ll take this one with me~”

Of course, there were those who didn’t share that sentiment, but the situation was somehow defused by the sensible handling of Arsène Lupin, who had already formulated the basics of a rescue plan in his mind.

“Wait!! How dare a lowly thing like you…”

“See you again next time?”

– Poof…!

.

.

.

.

.

– Flutter, flutter…

“……..”

After Gil the Reaper, who had been struggling to stab a knife into my heart, and Arsène Lupin, who had winked at me, simultaneously disappeared from the hospital room, a card flutters down onto my lap.

– If you don’t want to be caught and squeezed dry by those two for the rest of your life, how about letting yourself be kidnapped willingly when I come to your window next time?

I can’t help but sigh when I see the straightforward message written on the card.

“That’s basically the same thing…”

[You’re usually slow-witted, but surprisingly perceptive when it comes to survival.]

As I push away System-yang who’s clicking her tongue as usual and turn my gaze to the side, Sharlotte Holmes and Professor Jane Moriarty enter my field of vision.

“Um, well…”

“”………””

“Thank… you?”

Since I had given up on trying to deceive them from the beginning, I cautiously express my gratitude, and the two women who had been staring at me intently simultaneously rise from their seats.

“…Let’s have a talk.”

“A conversation between friends is always welcome.”

“If you call me that one more time, I’ll tear you to pieces…”

Eventually, the two women leave the hospital room while conversing with each other, not even responding to my words.

“Excuse me, everyone…”

“Stay right there. If you disappear somewhere again, I’ll track you down to the ends of the earth and pounce on you, just so you know…”

“…I generally agree.”

I tried to call them back by forcibly getting up, feeling something wasn’t right, but all I received were chilling threats.

– Click…

“Haha…”

As I stare blankly at the door that somehow got locked from the outside as soon as it closed, as if by magic.

“How did I end up like this…..”

I eventually stop speaking and can only bow my head deeply.

“…Cough, cough!”

In truth, my collapse earlier wasn’t an act.

“Ugh…”

The blood covering my hand that’s covering my mouth and my body that has become unbearably heavy were etching that fact painfully into my mind.

‘…This isn’t good.’

It seems the time I have left to stay in this world is running out.