Ch.249Chapter 249 – Reunion in an Empty House (2)

“…Adler.”

After kissing Adler’s lips for a long time, Sharlotte pulls her head back slightly and speaks with a trembling voice.

“Is it… is it really you?”

Her slender, white hand caresses Adler’s face.

As if trying to confirm that the person before her is real, not an illusion.

“…Who else would I be if not Adler?”

“An ill-illusion… maybe? Some-sometimes when I was alone in my room, I would see you…”

“Could you touch those illusions like this?”

“N-no, but…”

Adler firmly grasps her hand and whispers against Sharlotte’s cheek.

“You have no idea how much I wanted to come back during these past two years.”

Eventually, while murmuring this, Adler reaches out to touch Sharlotte’s face.

“…But why do you look so pale?”

He looks at Sharlotte with concern, noticing how much she has weakened during his absence.

“You haven’t been using drugs or magic stones while I was gone, have you?”

“…I’m sorry.”

When he sighs at her timid response, Sharlotte’s face suddenly turns deathly pale.

“I-I won’t do it anymore!!”

“…You startled me.”

“From now on, I won’t touch drugs or magic stones, and I’ll never smoke again! I’ll throw away all the pipes and syringes in the house…!”

With trembling hands, she desperately clutches Adler’s hands and cries out.

“Please… don’t leave me… again.”

“……..”

“I-I’ll do anything. Anything you ask without complaint. So please…”

“I wasn’t planning to leave anyway, so don’t worry… ugh.”

As Adler responds with a sympathetic expression, he suddenly winces.

*drip…*

“Ah.”

Blood was still flowing from the wound on his hand that he got while preventing Sharlotte’s suicide.

“Ah, oh no… ah…”

Finally noticing this, Sharlotte panics and lets go of his hand, not knowing what to do.

“W-wait wait wait. F-first we need to stop the bleeding…”

“No, this much is fine…”

*rip…!*

“…Miss Holmes?”

Before Adler can stop her, she tears her shirt to make an improvised bandage.

“A-at least this…”

“…Don’t do anything rash.”

“Ah!”

As she hurriedly tries to wrap it around Adler’s hand, Moran, who has somehow appeared beside them, knocks Sharlotte’s hand away with a cold voice.

“That’s unsanitary.”

After glaring coldly at her, Moran takes out a prepared bandage from inside her coat and wraps it around Adler’s hand.

“Right now, the master is completely ordinary.”

“……..”

“After causing the injury, you’re trying to infect him too?”

At those words, Sharlotte, who had been staring blankly, speaks in a small voice.

“I’m… sorry.”

“…Thank you, Moran.”

“Ah…”

But when Adler smiles at Moran and thanks her, Sharlotte’s eyes begin to die again.

“And thank you too, Miss Holmes.”

“…?”

But soon after, Adler’s warm voice is heard.

“…Thank you for your concern.”

Picking up the piece of Sharlotte’s shirt from the floor, Adler ties it over the bandage to secure it, whispering with gentle eyes.

“……”

“Ah? Um…”

Seeing this, Sharlotte, who had been silently watching him, begins to tear up again.

“C-can I… approach you again?”

“…Of course you can.”

When she asks timidly, Adler readily smiles and answers.

*pitter-patter…*

As soon as he finishes speaking, Sharlotte gets up and hurries back to Adler’s side with small steps.

“C-can I touch you?”

“Yes.”

“Can I rest my head on you?”

“Of course.”

After asking questions with anxious eyes, Sharlotte carefully hugs Adler’s arm and rests her head on it.

“…Can I stay like this forever?”

“…Of course.”

Adler’s eyes darken slightly as he looks at Sharlotte, who has become timid and submissive, so different from before.

“If only you would return to your old self…”

“N-no, I can’t.”

When Adler makes this considerate request, Sharlotte answers with a trembling voice.

“I-I lost you because I did whatever I wanted…”

“……..”

“…Now I want to be yours completely.”

At these words, Adler’s expression darkens further, and a look of realization crosses Sharlotte’s face.

“N-no! I’m sorry! I was out of line!”

“Listen…”

“I’ll try to go back to how I was before!! Please don’t abandon me!!!”

She tightly hugs Adler’s arm and raises her voice again intensely.

“I-I’ll smoke and do drugs again… N-no, you told me not to do that. Anyway, I’ll be perfect, a woman only for you…!”

“…Do as you please.”

Seeing her pitiful, pale appearance, Adler strokes her head and whispers gently once more.

“I can’t run away from you anymore no matter what you do.”

.

.

.

.

.

How much time had passed since Adler and Sharlotte’s reunion?

“Mmm…”

“…Huh?”

Watson and Inspector Lestrade, who had escaped from the room before Sharlotte, begin to stir and groan.

“This is… the hallway…?”

“M-my head hurts…”

Slowly opening their eyes, they look around with dazed expressions.

“…Why are we here like this?”

“I don’t know. My head hurts and I can’t remember well…”

Their eyes suddenly widen as they speak with confused expressions.

“…Wait, that smoke earlier!”

“Ah…! That’s right…!”

They had belatedly remembered the mysterious gray smoke that had enveloped them.

“It was a terrifying experience. I might have gone mad if I’d stayed a bit longer.”

“Ugh… I’m not used to such experiences… I still feel the aftereffects…”

They shuddered as they recalled the horrifying experience, as if all the terrifying things in the world were invading their brains.

“…Anyway, we should retreat for now. Quite some time has passed, so ‘Lovecraft’ has probably escaped…”

“Wait a moment.”

“Yes?”

“…Where’s Holmes?”

Their faces turn pale as they belatedly realize that Sharlotte is not in the hallway.

“D-don’t tell me! She’s still in the room…?”

“No!!!”

The inspector staggers to her feet while Watson begins running toward the room that had been filled with smoke.

“W-wait! Before we go in, we should prepare…!”

“There’s no time!!!”

Despite the inspector’s protests, Watson, thinking her only precious friend was still trapped in hell, reaches for the doorknob, but.

“Holmes….. Huh?”

She stops in her tracks when she realizes the door is not closed but wide open.

“”……….””

And then, a brief silence begins.

“…What am I seeing right now.”

After staring blankly for a while in that silence, Watson mutters in a low voice.

“Have I already gone mad from that smoke?”

“W-why are you like that?”

Behind her, Zia Lestrade peeks over with a worried expression.

“What’s in there that…”

Her words are also suddenly cut off.

“”……..””

“Ah, um, well…”

It was because Issac Adler, who had definitely died two years ago, was standing at the door supporting Sharlotte, who was clinging to his arm with a tearful expression.

“The timing… isn’t very good, is it…?”

“”……….””

“Ahaha… haha…”

As Adler scratches his head with an awkward smile in this situation, the inspector and Watson turn their gaze from him to look at each other.

“Inspector, please slap my cheek.”

“…I request the same.”

“Um, everyone?”

As they raise their hands with blank expressions, Adler grabs their arms with a confused look.

“I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s really me…”

“”……..””

“So let’s put these down and talk. Okay?”

He explains while sweating profusely.

“”……..””

The two women’s eyes widen even more at the unmistakable warmth they feel from his hands.

“…Is it really Adler?”

“Y-yes.”

“Can you swear to heaven?”

“O-of course.”

As Adler answers their questions with obvious discomfort.

*click…*

*swish…*

“Uh, uhh…?”

He looks confused as he sees Watson and the inspector quietly taking out a gun and a police baton.

“Don’t lie. Adler is already dead.”

“…Who are you?”

“I-I-I’m really me!?”

Adler desperately waves his hands, trying to stop the women pointing weapons at him.

“Then answer this. Something only Adler would know.”

“Ah, sure! I’m confident about that.”

He eagerly responds to Watson’s cold challenge.

“…Who was Adler’s first marriage partner?”

“Oh, that’s easy! Of course it was…”

He was about to answer with a bright smile, but.

“”Of course it was who?””

“…Ah.”

Seeing the two women asking simultaneously with chilling expressions while tightening their grip on their weapons, he stops with a look of realization.

“Well, um… that is… you know…?”

“”…………””

“The concept of marriage… it’s… well… kind of like…? Um…”

The two widows stare at Adler, who is now more flustered than ever, with murderous intent.

“It’s such an easy question, yet your answer is slow?”

“…Indeed. The answer is so obvious and clear.”

“My, Inspector, you think so too?”

“Well, since the answer is predetermined, isn’t that natural?”

As they speak with increasingly menacing voices while putting more weight on their weapons, Adler cowers in his place with a completely tearful expression.

[This is karma.]

“…Please spare me.”