Ch.24Chapter 24 – I’ll Only Use a Little

“I’ll take care of Issac Adler.”

Sharlotte breaks the silence flowing through the room, speaking with a murderous voice.

“To be precise, so you don’t misunderstand, I’ll be the one to take him down completely.”

“Sure, so I’ll just borrow him occasionally.”

“I didn’t realize you were too stupid to understand what ‘taking complete charge’ means.”

“I’m rather curious, Sharlotte. What exactly is the problem here?”

At that, Microny tilts her head, withdrawing her smile from her lovely sister for the first time.

“You know very well that I dislike getting involved in things, that I prefer to observe and watch from the sidelines?”

“Yes, I know that well.”

“It won’t interfere with your detective work. Unless you want me to, I still won’t intervene or advise on whatever happens in the future, nor will I influence the outside world.”

Seeing Sharlotte’s eyebrows gradually furrowing, a quiet smile appears on her lips.

“I just want to get bitten by a mosquito once a week.”

“…Sister.”

“You don’t love him, you just see him as a rival that needs to be defeated, right?”

When Sharlotte couldn’t answer, Microny quietly tilted her head to the side.

“Then shouldn’t you be grateful to me?”

“What?”

“At this point, I’m the only one who can provide him blood without any burden, aren’t I?”

“…I could do it just fine.”

“Sharlotte, if he regularly drinks blood from someone with lingering mana addiction symptoms, it would actually shorten his lifespan.”

Microny shakes her head and adds:

“And he can’t just attack random people at night like in the old days. Since the founding of the Auguste Detective Academy, the quality of investigations has only improved.”

“………..”

“Therefore, I am your rival’s most stable blood bag. Sharlotte.”

“But…”

“I’m actually making it easier for him to face you as an opponent, yet our lovely sister seems so displeased by that.”

When Sharlotte, at a loss for words, glares at her, Microny closes her eyes intently and twitches her body.

“…What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to recall the sensation from earlier.”

She says this while a small blush appears on her face.

“…It’s not quite working just like that.”

But Microny, who had been wearing a slightly unsatisfied expression, soon staggers to her feet.

“I’ll just borrow him a bit more now.”

“Wait.”

At that, Sharlotte blocks her path.

“Let me be clear here.”

Though Microny’s voluptuous chest was pressing against her, Sharlotte didn’t yield and intensified her presence.

“Don’t interfere in the narrative between him and me.”

“………”

“He is a rival prepared for me. He’s the destiny that will resolve my Curse, and an evil that must be resolved by me.”

Her eyes, which she had carefully disguised as gray, were turning golden again.

“I cannot tolerate anyone else intervening between us in any way.”

“Oh my.”

“If he needs blood, I’ll purify mine and give it to him, so stay out of this, sister.”

Noticing the black smoke seeping from Sharlotte’s body, Microny covers her mouth and smiles with her eyes.

“I suspected it, but you’ve really fallen in love.”

“Think whatever you want. But I can’t let your hidden unusual desires ruin everything.”

“Hmm…”

“The conversation is over. Adler and I will find another hideout, so…”

“Well, if my sister insists, I have no choice.”

As Sharlotte was about to leave with a serious expression, she flinched at her sister’s words.

“What did you just say?”

“If my lovely sister dislikes it, what can I do?”

Microny suddenly changed her attitude and put on a sullen expression.

“I’ll be mature and give up.”

“………?”

“Keep using the club as your hideout. There’s nowhere safer in England.”

Confused by her sudden change in stance, Sharlotte frowns and asks:

“…What are you plotting?”

“Plotting? That’s too harsh for a sister who has lived her whole life only looking after her sibling.”

Microny pretends to cry and puts on a hurt expression.

“…It’s because your attitude changed so suddenly.”

“Seeing that you can’t even tell when your sister is just teasing because she finds her long-lost sister cute, I’m really hurt.”

“Fine, whatever.”

Still looking at Microny with suspicion, Sharlotte sighs at her sister’s glib voice and turns around.

“You should have acted like this from the start.”

“Why don’t you call Adler in from outside?”

But at her sister’s words, Sharlotte turns her head again.

“We should finish our conversation.”

“…I’ll stay too.”

“No, as your sister, I have something important I want to ask your rival.”

Microny gestures to her as if to say not to worry.

“It won’t take long, so wait a moment.”

The corners of her mouth were quietly turning upward.

.

.

.

.

.

“Do I need to do what I did earlier again?”

“Sit down.”

Adler, who had entered the room, sits down with a slightly tense expression due to Microny’s changed atmosphere.

“Is Miss Holmes not coming in?”

“There’s something I want to ask when my sister isn’t around.”

Microny asks him in a low voice:

“What is your purpose?”

At those words, Adler quietly scratches his head, and Microny begins to press him.

“I understand that you want to create a small kingdom in London.”

“……….”

“Along with that professor, whom even I find slightly difficult to handle.”

Her narrowed eyes become even narrower.

“But what comes after that?”

“After that… you say.”

“Will you expand your kingdom to England, to the world? Or will you make all Londoners your slaves?”

As Microny leans forward saying this, Adler looks slightly uncomfortable due to her chest approaching simultaneously.

“I’m not threatening you. It’s just pure curiosity.”

“……..”

“While I can see everything in the world just by sitting here and thinking for a moment, I simply cannot understand why you’re going to such lengths.”

“I see.”

“What is the destination of your unusual path?”

He closes his eyes for a moment, lost in thought.

“I…..”

After a moment, a quiet voice begins to flow from Adler’s lips.

“I want to be defeated by Sharlotte Holmes.”

Hearing this, Microny’s gray eyes quietly begin to shine.

“I want to see that vast kingdom built by the professor being toppled by a single girl.”

“Hmm…”

“I want to see her stand tall as London’s hope through that.”

It would have sent chills down the spine of anyone who knew her true nature, but undeterred, Adler continued his story.

“I want to witness the birth of an irreplaceable hero who will be talked about endlessly even after centuries.”

“………”

“That’s all I want.”

After finishing his story, Adler quietly clears his throat.

“Please keep this a secret from Sharlotte Holmes.”

Hearing his additional words, Microny smirks and mutters:

“You’re a more interesting variable than I thought.”

“…Is that so.”

“Usually you seem anxious and fearful, but at crucial moments, you become a different person.”

“I’m quite good at improvising. By the way, when did you see my usual self…”

“I thought your soul might have changed, but the soul inside looks the same except for the black hair.”

Adler, who had been calmly responding to her words, frowns upon hearing this.

“…The crazy design department plagiarized me without permission.”

“What?”

“Anyway, how do you know such things?”

After muttering that, Adler smiles and asks her a question.

“Being able to see through everything, but unable to feel interest or stimulation in anything. That’s my Curse.”

“…Another Curse, is it.”

“What have you been muttering to yourself?”

“It’s nothing.”

After answering and tilting his head by himself, Adler straightens his posture.

“So, has your curiosity about my purpose been satisfied?”

“For an improvised answer mixed with lies, it’s somewhat satisfactory.”

“My words were sincere.”

“People tend to mix truth when they lie.”

Microny’s eye corners were forming an arc.

“…No matter how I look at it, you seem to have some affection for the professor.”

“That’s impossible.”

“If that reaction isn’t acting, it seems you’re not the only one lacking self-awareness.”

“……..”

“Hehe… What an interesting love triangle.”

Suddenly dropping her smile and muttering in a chilling voice:

“…If my physical condition had been a little better, I would have made it a quadrangle.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s nothing.”

But as if nothing had happened, she returns to her usual kind smile and shakes a decorative item embedded with mana stone that was attached under the table.

“I’m just curious what expression my sister would make if she heard what you said when everything is over.”

“…It seems recording without consent is trendy these days.”

“Hehe.”

Looking at her with a resigned expression, Adler tries to get up from his seat.

“I’ll be going now, Miss Microny. That is, if you’ll let me leave.”

“Wait a moment.”

He stops at Microny’s changed voice.

“…Give it to me before you go.”

“Pardon?”

Microny, who had withdrawn her overwhelming atmosphere, whispers with a slightly excited expression.

“Bite me before you go.”

At those words, Adler looks dumbfounded, and she points at the clock while avoiding his gaze.

“It’s not even 1:05 yet.”

A moment of silence fills the room.

“This time, tear into the front of my neck.”

“……….”

“With all your might, as if you’re ready to kill.”

After glancing at the agents outside, Adler slowly approaches her, and Microny demands in a voice tinged with heat:

“That area is dangerous because of the concentration of blood vessels. Rather…”

Adler makes a troubled expression.

“The lower part lacks stimulation because of the fat.”

Momentarily speechless at her words, he avoids Microny’s dark gaze and says:

“…Then, how about even lower?”

“Lower, you mean my lower abdomen?”

“No. On second thought, that was quite a foolish suggestion…”

He corrects himself, realizing it was a slip of the tongue.

– Rustle…

But before his eyes, Microny slightly lifts her top, revealing new soft, white flesh.

“Bite it.”

“………”

Cold sweat begins to flow from Adler’s forehead.

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A few minutes later.

“Sister, are you done yet?”

“Hmm?”

When Sharlotte, who had been pacing outside the reception room, suddenly opens the door and enters, Microny’s narrowed eyes, sitting at the desk with a dreamy expression, tremble.

“…What’s wrong?”

“This sister has had a weak heart since birth. When you come in without notice like that, I can’t help but be startled.”

Hearing this, Sharlotte tilts her head and looks around the room.

“Where’s Adler?”

“He went to the bathroom for a moment.”

“I didn’t see him come out.”

“He went out through the back door, so you wouldn’t have seen him.”

Frowning at the somehow suspicious atmosphere, Sharlotte was about to enter the room but turns around after hearing this.

“Well, I’ll find out if I check directly.”

Saying that, she heads toward the bathroom.

“……Phew.”

As Sharlotte’s footsteps fade away, a sound of exhaling held breath comes from under Microny’s desk.

“Are you satisfied now?”

Adler, kneeling inside the desk and wiping away the saliva trailing from the flesh he had been biting, looks up at Microny and asks.

– Rustle…

After staring down at him for a moment, she takes something out from her bosom and hands it to him.

“What is this?”

“My home address.”

“What?”

Adler, who had accepted it without much thought, asks with a surprised expression:

“Isn’t this a state secret?”

“………”

“What if I lead my subordinates to attack you?”

Microny answers with a smile in her eyes:

“I’d die with my neck firmly bitten by a cute vampire.”

“……..”

“Come to think of it, that wouldn’t be so bad either.”

At those words, Adler makes a puzzled expression, and Microny whispers in a low voice:

“Come to that address at one-week intervals from now on.”

“What?”

“You need a blood bag, don’t you?”

Her fully opened eyes were gleaming more brilliantly than ever.

“I need a personal Adler too.”

Unconsciously gulping and forcing a smile at her appearance, Adler asks:

“…What if I refuse?”

“I have over a hundred ways to destroy you, Mr. Adler.”

Microny immediately answers his playfully posed question.

“It’s something you can do entirely by your own choice, without having to forfeit your bodily ownership and self-determination.”

At this simple yet terrifying threat that was easy enough to understand without deep thought, Adler’s smile becomes slightly pale.

“Since you’ve opened the eyes of a poor anhedonia patient who has been searching for ‘stimulation’ all her life, you should take responsibility.”

Looking at him with narrowed eyes that had somehow returned, Microny tilts her head to the side and asks:

“Wasn’t that what you were prepared for when you did it?”

Of course, there was only one answer Adler could give.

“…I’ll see you in a week.”

“Farewell.”

And so ended the breathtaking conversation between London’s white curtain and black curtain.

– Why are you coming out from there?

– Pardon?

– Mr. Adler, it seems you think that’s the bathroom.

As Sharlotte grabs Adler’s sleeve, snapping at him through the open door crack, Microny’s lips begin to tremble.

– Forget it, let’s go.

“…How should I apologize, Sharlotte.”

Microny begins to gently stroke the distinct bite mark on her lower abdomen, which was radiating red and golden mana around it.

“Sister has realized it.”

Her expression was now tinged with a sense of transgression.

“That a secret relationship is more stimulating than an open one.”

It was the moment when an irresistible stimulation was engraved into her boring life, which had only consisted of England and her sister.

“…I’ll just use him a little bit in secret.”