Ch.227Chapter 227 – The Final Case (2)

“Haa…”

A few days after Watson and Adler left America.

“Ahem.”

Watson emerges from the ship’s bathroom pulling a trunk, her face flushed red as she clears her throat and walks away.

“I heard some strange noises coming from the bathroom, what was that…?”

“Could there be a rat?”

“Would a rat make creaking sounds?”

Eventually, she passes by passengers whispering nearby and steps onto the deck where the rising sun is clearly visible in the sky.

“…That’s why I told you not to try escaping.”

“…….”

“It’s called stowaway if you get caught, Mr. Adler.”

She bends down and whispers in a low voice to the sporadically trembling trunk.

“If you do this one more time, I’ll drop you straight into the ocean, okay?”

“That’s… a real crime…”

“Oh? The luggage is talking?”

A heated voice comes from inside the trunk but is immediately cut off by Watson’s chilling mutter.

“Good job.”

“Excuse me…”

“……!”

Just as Watson straightens up with a satisfied expression at this admirable behavior, a hesitant voice comes from behind her.

“…What is it.”

“Oh, it’s nothing really…”

Watson’s hand instinctively twitches toward her gun handle as she turns around to find a nobly dressed lady blushing.

“That thing… was sticking out…”

“…Ah.”

After eyeing her with a suspicious gaze, Watson turns her attention back to the trunk with a look of realization at the lady’s words.

– *Slide*

With her ears turning red, she pushes the cause of the sounds that had been echoing in the bathroom back into the trunk.

“Ahem. Um…”

Meanwhile, the lady peeks at her while hiding her face behind a fan, then leans in to whisper to Watson.

“…W-where do you get something that big?”

“Pardon?”

“The dil… I mean, the neurosis treatment device that was sticking out until just now.”

At her shy question, Watson’s eyes twitch.

“Did you purchase it in America? Or England? I’ve never seen one that size…”

“…It’s custom-made.”

“Ah, I-I see…”

As Watson quietly averts her gaze while answering, the lady responds with a flushed face.

“Th-thank you for answering…”

After leaving her thanks in an almost inaudible voice, the lady bows her head deeply and dashes away to the cabin.

“………”

And then comes silence.

“Now you’re seducing women with just your lower half…”

Watson, who has collapsed against the trunk as the tension dissipates, mutters in a cold voice.

“…That’s not my fault…”

Immediately comes Adler’s timid rebuttal, but Watson was no longer someone whose conscience could be recovered by such things.

“You only need me anyway, right?”

“I trusted you…”

“But the luggage is talking again?”

Watson mutters this while slightly opening the trunk again, having long since been stripped of the title of lady.

“Please stop now…”

“Put it down before I cut it off.”

Of course, this was the karma of a Vampire trembling in the trunk, so there was nothing much to say.

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That afternoon. In a suburban area slightly removed from London.

– *Looking around nervously*

There I was, standing in front of my mansion with a tense expression, looking around.

– *Creeeeak*

Finally, I step into the mansion, trying to minimize any noise.

‘…There’s really no one here, right?’

The first thing I did upon entering was to lower all the window curtains.

Fortunately, I hadn’t faced any direct life-threatening situations on my way here, but there had been several suspicious incidents.

For instance, I almost got caught in a drunken brawl in broad daylight, or when a recklessly driven carriage barely missed me as it rushed by.

And then there was the time when beggars from a back alley tried to steal the trunk Adler was carrying while I was briefly distracted.

All of these were ambiguous enough that I couldn’t be certain, but my instincts as a former soldier were screaming that this series of events was no coincidence.

“Haa…”

That’s why blocking visibility was essential, even if it seemed excessive.

Of course, in late-Victorian London where both criminals and detectives were constantly eavesdropping, this might not be very effective.

But at least I could avoid that youngster’s air gun that Adler had been carrying around.

“…….”

After sealing off all the windows with such thoughts, I felt somewhat relieved.

‘…Am I doing the right thing?’

But at the same time, worries began to flood in.

Could I really escape London while avoiding the eyes of Professor Moriarty’s gang and Holmes?

It was already a miracle that I had escaped Lupin’s gaze in America, and I had no idea how many more times I would need to pull off such feats.

“…Fuck, I don’t know.”

As my mind kept wavering, I reluctantly headed to the trunk in search of the world’s most effective anxiety medication.

“I must have put the whiskey somewhere around here…”

As I muttered this while looking for the alcohol I had prepared in advance.

“…Huh?”

I suddenly realized one critical fact.

‘Where did he go…?’

Issac Adler was gone.

How? Just a moment ago, he had been obediently donating his genes from inside…

– *Rustle*

While I was standing there with a blank expression, I began to sense an unknown presence behind me.

“Who…”

As soon as I noticed it, I reached for the gun I had holstered for easy access and tried to turn my head, but.

“…I don’t know how many times I’ve said this this year, but keeping a pistol in your coat pocket is not a particularly good habit.”

“……..!”

At the chilling voice from behind me, I froze, unable to even touch the gun I had so carefully prepared.

“If there’s an accidental discharge, you might need a mastectomy. You wouldn’t want that.”

“Y-you…”

“By the way, is this the first time? That we’re talking alone?”

When I realized that the queen of the criminal underworld, Professor Moriarty, was standing behind me with a cold smile, my heart turned cold and my legs began to tremble.

“…To be honest, I admit it. I never paid any attention to you.”

“…….”

“Of course, I don’t particularly pay attention to anyone, including that young detective. But your threat level was especially low among them.”

But as I tried to maintain a composed expression, the professor’s mocking voice reached my ears.

“However… it seems I was mistaken.”

The chilling aura she emitted continued to make my mind dizzy.

“A kind and diligent lady doctor, carrying out a bizarre kidnapping drama, crossing continents with London’s greatest actor locked in a trunk.”

“…Ugh.”

“If the press found out, it would make quite the headline, wouldn’t it?”

As the professor’s threat came at me in such a situation, I felt my resolve about to break, but.

“…I don’t care.”

For some reason, even though I wasn’t drunk, I was able to say that.

“Where is Issac now?”

“That’s none of your business.”

Setting aside the fact that I also didn’t know where Adler had disappeared to, I didn’t want to back down in this situation.

“Don’t you value your life?”

“…If I were the type to waver at your threats, I wouldn’t have become Holmes’s friend in the first place.”

“No, perhaps it’s not your life you value, but your lower body?”

“……..”

Somehow I felt like she had hit the nail on the head, but nevertheless, I continued to glare at the professor with wide eyes.

“Listen, Miss Watson…”

At that, Professor Moriarty, whose patience had reached its limit, quietly raised her hand and began to draw in mana.

“I have been too patient for too long.”

Even if I drew my gun from my coat now and shot her, would I be able to even scratch her?

“And now, I will no longer be patient…”

My hand, which had been reaching for the gun, was now trembling, but my frozen body still wouldn’t move.

“So, I ask you one last time.”

In that situation, as the professor’s ultimatum came flying at me, I quietly broke out in a cold sweat.

“Where did Adler go…?”

“…I don’t know, you old lizard.”

In the end, I closed my eyes tightly and touched the dragon’s reverse scale.

– *Roooooar*

Immediately, acrid gray smoke began to envelop me, but I had no regrets.

“Haa…”

There was just one thing I found regrettable.

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‘…If I had known this would happen, I would have gone without protection.’

“Such a lowly creature, not knowing its place and trying to climb up…”

Just as Watson seemed about to become an inevitable victim of the professor’s perfect crime.

“Then, I will end youuugh.”

“…….?”

The professor’s voice, which had been whispering into her ear with a terrifying intensity, suddenly became garbled, causing a puzzled expression to appear on Watson’s face as she kept her eyes closed.

– *Thud*

“Huh?”

And the next moment, for some unknown reason, Professor Moriarty clutched her lower abdomen and collapsed in her seat, breaking out in a cold sweat.

“What…”

“Professor, you promised me.”

“……!”

From behind her, a mischievous voice that had become all too familiar rang out.

“You agreed to refrain from ‘direct murder’ without my consent.”

“……..”

“…That’s a breach of contract.”

Adler, now dressed in Watson’s clothes, was looking down at the subdued Professor Moriarty with a playful gaze, his tail wagging and a heart appearing on his lower abdomen.

“Adler… no, Issac.”

“Yes, Professor.”

“Wasn’t this plan set up for you to be bound to me anyway?”

Looking at him with incomprehension, Professor Moriarty opened her mouth with a trembling voice.

“Then why on earth…”

– *Kiss*

“…Huh?”

Her eyes widened as Adler planted a kiss on the nape of Watson’s neck, who was standing in front of him with a blank expression.

“I’m sorry, but I’ve come to like Watson more than you, Professor.”

Glancing at this scene, Adler raised the corner of his mouth and interlocked his fingers with Watson’s.

“Right, darling?”

“…But I just raped you a moment ago?”

“……..”