Ch.1Chapter 1 – First Meeting

“Is this all there is to it?”

The August Detective Academy, London’s largest detective training institution, established to counter mysterious incidents occurring around the world.

“I thought this place would be different.”

Jane, a newly appointed professor conducting a class for freshmen who had just enrolled, couldn’t help but smirk at the scene unfolding before her eyes.

“The method of murder must be poisoning.”

“Right, he’s been looking unwell for a while, so it was probably a slow-acting poison.”

A male student had just collapsed, coughing up blood as he was about to stand up to answer the professor’s question.

A catastrophe had occurred at August Academy, known as the holy land of detectives—a “murder” case.

Naturally, all the aspiring detectives in the class stepped forward to address this major incident.

“The motive is… probably a love affair?”

“Well, he’s London’s biggest troublemaker and trash. There must be plenty of people who want him dead.”

The male student lay collapsed with no life signs. The aspiring detectives gathered around him wore deliberately serious expressions as they conducted their deductions.

But the professor, watching them expressionlessly, quietly turned her gaze away from them and muttered to herself.

‘I can’t believe they can’t even identify the culprit right in front of them.’

Indeed, the culprit in this case was none other than the professor herself.

‘With so many detectives here, why doesn’t anyone notice?’

London, where this academy is located—even looking at Europe as a whole, there’s probably no place with more detectives swarming about.

That’s why she firmly believed that here, someone would notice and expose her crimes.

Even if not, she thought she would at least meet a detective who showed potential.

At least one person.

But approaching her first anniversary at the academy, which she had joined with high expectations, she abandoned the last hope she had been holding onto.

Hoping that at least one person would suspect her, she had killed a freshman in the heart of this detective haven, using a bolder and cruder method than usual.

But these self-proclaimed detective aspirants, forgetting even that she was the last person to have contact with the victim, only demonstrated subpar deductions.

For someone who had already been disappointed by detectives for a year, this was the final blow.

‘I should submit my resignation today.’

Having realized that these substandard students would be the detectives responsible for the future, she had no more business here.

As she quietly turned her gaze away from her crime scene and began gathering her documents, she organized her thoughts.

It seemed the person who could quench her thirst wasn’t here.

Perhaps such a person didn’t exist anywhere in the world.

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“Mmm…”

“W-what?”

“Ah! You startled me!”

The anomaly occurred right at that moment, as the professor was about to leave.

“…My head hurts.”

For some reason, the male student the professor had targeted was now standing up perfectly fine, wiping the blood from his mouth.

“……..?”

Then, amidst the shocked students, the male student began to stare at the professor with a dazed expression.

The professor’s calm demeanor, which had been steady for a while, slowly began to waver.

The blond student had clearly died before her eyes. She had confirmed it herself, so there could be no mistake.

But somehow, he had awakened as if from sleep and was now breathing perfectly fine in front of her.

She couldn’t predict when he had noticed the danger or what trick he had used to survive.

This was a first for the professor.

From childhood until now, not once had any crime she committed, whether minor or major, ever failed.

No one had ever escaped her grasp, and no one had ever discovered her crimes.

That was the inescapable curse placed upon her.

But that curse, which she believed could never be broken, shattered into pieces today in this very place.

By the blond student before her, who had perfectly evaded her crime through some method, the first person in her life she couldn’t predict.

“You should have said something if you weren’t feeling well.”

Feeling her heart begin to beat quietly, the professor asked him in a monotone voice.

“How about visiting the infirmary?”

Her expression remained as expressionless as always, but her eyes, which had always lacked vitality, were now sharp like a snake that had spotted its prey.

“…………”

However, something seemed off about the male student’s condition.

His eyes were unfocused, and he was just staring blankly ahead.

‘…Has something happened to his brain?’

The professor frowned slightly, lost in thought.

She wanted to talk more with the first person who had ever escaped her grasp. So if he had suffered brain damage as a side effect, it would be quite troublesome.

“Student, who is the person written here?”

To check his condition, the professor tapped her name that she had written on the blackboard for her introduction and asked.

“Uh, um… Moriarty?”

The previously dazed student’s eyes suddenly began to show irritation.

“How can you not know something like that?”

And after a moment, still dazed but somehow irritated, the male student began to explain.

“…James Moriarty is the most famous arch-enemy of the great detective Sherlock Holmes.”

As his voice echoed through the classroom.

“A genius who published a paper on the binomial theorem at the age of 21, causing a sensation throughout Europe. But due to the criminal blood flowing in him, he also became the most dangerous person in London.”

The confused atmosphere in the classroom began to freeze.

“Known as the Napoleon of Crime, he’s behind half of the crimes in London and most of the attempted ones.”

Despite this, the male student continued his explanation with a bored expression.

“But even such a perfect criminal eventually meets his end at Reichenbach Falls… ah, let’s just drop this.”

Suddenly cutting off his explanation, he sighed deeply and raised his voice.

“I’ve repeatedly told you to do your own research. Is game development a joke? How can you keep asking me without doing basic character research…”

Then, as if suddenly coming to his senses, he stopped talking and slowly began to look around.

“…Huh?”

As he made a dumbfounded sound upon realizing all eyes were on him, the corners of the professor’s mouth slowly turned upward.

“What is this place?”

It seemed she could postpone submitting her resignation letter for a while.

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

Because the person who could quench her thirst, whom she had been searching for so desperately, had appeared before her as if by fate.

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As my foggy mind cleared, the person who had questioned me came into clear view.

Tall stature, thin build, well-groomed gray hair, and impeccably neat attire.

She looked quite young at first glance, but still carried a professorial air.

Her pale face bore dark circles, probably from immersing herself in research, but this didn’t hide her beautiful appearance.

“I don’t know every detective, but at the very least, there is no detective named ‘Sherlock’ Holmes in London.”

As I stared blankly at that awkwardly familiar figure with disbelief, she slowly began to speak.

“And my name is not ‘James’ Moriarty but ‘Jane’ Moriarty. Not ‘he’ but ‘she’.”

Saying this, she gently tapped her name written on the blackboard while fixing her gaze on me.

“I haven’t even published the paper on the binomial theorem that you mentioned. In fact, I was planning to publish it tomorrow. Naturally, no one but me knows about this.”

Unable to even think of avoiding her gaze, I found myself breaking into a cold sweat.

“I’ll overlook the ridiculous nickname ‘Napoleon of Crime’ and other malicious slanders.”

Looking at me with eyes full of curiosity, she tilted her head from side to side like a young lizard and asked a question.

“But what is this story about Reichenbach Falls?”

A gesture that might have seemed cute to someone who didn’t know her well. But at that very moment, I couldn’t help but realize.

“What happens to me there?”

Just as described in the original work as Professor Moriarty’s habit, the person in front of me was tilting her head and looking at me.

“Uh, well…”

The person before me was undoubtedly Jane Moriarty, the implausible final boss of our company’s game that I had been criticizing harshly in the meeting room just moments ago.

“Come to my office after class, student.”

Our first meeting took place in the worst possible way.