Ch.196Chapter 196 – Five Orange Pips (2)

-WHOOSH…

“Ugh…”

A pillar of flame shot up high into the sky, illuminating London’s evening.

From within that terrifying blaze, intense enough to fatally wound any living creature, a low groan suddenly echoed.

“Ugh, ugh…”

Remarkably, a human silhouette began to flicker within the flames.

– Thud…

The owner of that silhouette, carefully cradling someone in their arms, staggered out from the fire before losing balance and collapsing forward.

“A-Adler…”

Then, a small voice came from his arms.

“W-why….”

“…cough, cough.”

“Why did you shield me?”

The officer, Lestrade, trembled in the arms of the blonde boy who had thrown himself to save her.

“You… lost your memories…”

Though caught in an explosion with his human body, her injuries were limited to shallow burns on her face, neck, and parts of her body.

“…I wonder.”

This was because Issac Adler had taken all the flames meant for Lestrade, even unfurling his demon wings that he had kept hidden until now.

“When you were in danger… did your memories suddenly return?”

“Ah, aah…”

But because of this, Adler’s condition was more serious than ever before.

“No…!”

Various parts of his body were twisted with broken bones and damaged organs from the explosion’s impact, and where they weren’t, holes had been punctured by fragments. It was faster to find areas that weren’t severely burned than those that were.

Moreover, the wings he had finally revealed were completely broken with smoke rising from them, and his usually bright eyes were unfocused and trembling.

Literally, he had become like a rag doll, beyond what could be called a fatal injury.

“Why… why did you go this far to save me?”

“….?”

“Y-you should have followed the contract! You should have abandoned me! We don’t even really love each other!”

Trembling all over at the fact that she had been protected rather than being the protector, and that the one who had saved her was dying before her eyes, Lestrade began to shout with tears in her eyes.

“I thought… we were a cozy married couple…”

“T-that’s…!”

“By the way… this is terrible…”

Looking at her with a smile while muttering, Adler suddenly reached out his hand to Lestrade’s face with a worried expression.

“Your pretty face is going to be scarred.”

“……!”

“If that happens… the men of London will try to kill me…”

Gently caressing the burn mark on her cheek, Adler gave a quiet eye-smile to the officer who was staring at him blankly.

“Uuu, uu…”

At that, tears began to well up in her eyes.

“Uuuuu…”

From the eyes of this strong girl who had never cried once in her life no matter what hardships came her way, tears began to flow for the first time.

“…Oh?”

But what surprised Adler, whose eyes were gradually losing their light, wasn’t just that.

“This is troublesome…”

– Tsuuuuuuuu…

Zia Lestrade’s trademark eyes, as white and clean as a snow field.

Those eyes were slowly being dyed the color of his hair.

– Slowly…

But before he could fully see this transformation, Adler’s eyes began to close.

“Officer… you shouldn’t like me…”

“…Are you an idiot?”

Lestrade, looking straight at those eyes with tearful ones, spoke with a breaking voice.

“I actually hate you… Issac Adler.”

“…Haha.”

“I hate you more than anyone in the world…”

While this might have been quite reasonable just a few months ago, it lacked credibility at the present moment as she buried her face in Adler’s chest and sobbed with a sorrowful voice.

– Whoosh…

How much time had passed like that?

“……..”

Lestrade, holding Adler who had lost consciousness unable to endure the terrible pain inflicted on his entire body, slowly raised her head.

“Who… are you?”

And then, as shadowy figures slowly began to appear before her, she began to growl lowly while taking them in one by one with her eyes.

“Who… did this?”

“”……..””

“Before I tear you all to pieces… you’d better tell the truth.”

Everyone flinched at the chilling aura that she, who normally tried not to emit killing intent, began to release, but there was no answer.

“Is it you?”

She then glared at the smallest figure among the smoke-covered silhouettes, the easiest to distinguish.

“After failing to kill me with sniping for days, did you resort to this?”

“Master master master master…..”

But all that came back was the voice of Moran, who had lost her mind after confirming Adler’s condition.

“Then, is it you?”

Lestrade, who had been coldly glaring at her, turned her gaze to point at the figure emanating the darkest energy.

“Haven’t you always wanted to kill Adler?”

“…….”

“So you finally did this?”

Then, a cold voice came from within the smoke.

“I didn’t want to kill Adler in such a trivial way… A bomb? That’s not my style…”

“……..”

“At the very least, I wanted to butcher that delicate body with my own hands…”

When Britain’s worst serial killer muttered this, everyone’s murderous gazes instantly fixed on her shadow.

“…Right, come to think of it, something like this happened before.”

But ignoring them, she began to mutter to herself with rolling eyes.

“The day I snuck into his house and first saw that detective brat… Something similar happened then too…”

“…….?”

“…It was the first time someone else had beaten me to it, which was truly unpleasant.”

As she growled lowly, ignoring the suspicion and killing intent pouring at her from all directions, it happened.

“But you all… I really don’t like your attitude…”

– Rustle…

“…I’ll just butcher all of you right here.”

– Swish…!

The grass that had been slowly burning from the distant pillar of flame suddenly shook, and someone wearing something like a white hood hurriedly jumped out and hid in the opposite thicket.

“”……….””

And then came silence.

In that silence, the eyes of the women who had witnessed what had just happened began to grow cold.

– Step, step…

Eventually, except for Lestrade who was holding Adler in her arms, they all began to walk toward that thicket in unison.

Although Professor Moriarty and Sharlotte were absent, the forces that could easily overturn an entire division began to hasten their steps with eerie expressions, causing the quiet thicket to shake violently.

– Swish…

After a while, the grass hiding the person behind the thicket began to be quietly pulled back.

“”…….””

As the grass of the thicket was completely pulled back, their expressions began to darken.

“…They’re dead.”

“They bit into poison.”

The unidentified figure wearing the white hood-like covering was already cold, with foam at their mouth.

“…I don’t know who these bastards are behind this.”

After staring down at the absurd scene for a long time, the shadow of Gil the Reaper began to mutter in a cold voice.

“Let’s see if they can remain so brazen when I move the royal family.”

As that shadow quietly dispersed into the air, the women who had been looking at each other also began to scatter in all directions with a single goal.

It was the beginning of the attempted assassination of Issac Adler, which would later bring a terrible ripple effect across the country, recorded in Watson’s notes as ‘The Five Orange Pips.’

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.

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The fact that Lestrade and Adler’s newlywed home had been bombed began to spread throughout England in less than a day.

– Grind…

London’s famous detective, who had already grasped the situation through wiretapping, was grinding her teeth and searching through some documents, abandoning even her prenatal care.

“Stop everything you’re doing right now.”

– Crackle, crackle…

“…New orders.”

Professor Moriarty, who for some reason had temporarily gone down to her old hideout to study interspecies pregnancy, belatedly received the news and began to issue new orders to her minions spread throughout England with a lifeless look in her eyes.

“Well, well… these bastards have crossed the line?”

“”……..?””

Early in the morning, Microny Holmes, who had opened a newspaper at the Diogenes Club, broke the ‘silence’ rule for the first time since the club’s establishment and muttered with a voice full of killing intent.

“…Gather all non-humans operating in the back alleys by today.”

Silver Blaze, whose eyes had completely died, abandoned the principle of being the nominal representative of the Werebeasts and began to move to the front line for the first time.

“…Find them.”

“…Find them.”

The vampire leaders in London and Romania each abandoned the option of hiding and quietly building strength, and began to move all the subordinates they could mobilize.

“…Now is not the time for thievery, kids.”

“”……?””

Even a certain phantom thief in France made such a bombshell announcement to his secret organization spread throughout the world.

“…Cancel all schedules for this week.”

“What?”

“We’re going to England.”

“…..???”

To make matters worse, a certain empress somewhere decided to secretly go to England, abandoning even state affairs.

“…Oh dear.”

Thus began this worldwide heated flow.

“This is bad…?”

But the person at the very center of this flow was sweating nervously as soon as he opened his eyes in the now-familiar hospital room.

“The Five Orange Pips case…”

[Erosion rate: 70% -> 80%]

“…must remain an unsolved case…?”

Adler’s expression, who suddenly found himself having to fight against everyone who had moved to protect him, began to turn into a tearful one.