Ch.250Chapter 250 – Reunion in an Empty House (3)

“…You guys, take it easy.”

The intense interrogation that had been going on for a while began to show signs of ending when Sharlotte, who had been sticking close to Adler’s side, opened her mouth with a terrifying expression.

“But…”

“This level of verification is necessary…”

“I said take it easy!!!!”

Watson and the inspector, who had been muttering while watching Sharlotte’s reaction, quietly closed their mouths when she screamed.

“Last time… last time we lost him because of this!!! While we were fighting amongst ourselves!!”

“”……..””

“We just found him, and we can’t lose him again!!! Absolutely not!!!!!”

The two women couldn’t refute her words and hung their heads low.

“…I’m not an object.”

Only Adler was muttering with a sullen expression.

“Ah, I’m… sorry… really sorry.”

“……?”

“Ah, I’ll think before I speak from now on.”

But Sharlotte, who would normally have easily ignored his muttering, flinched and hurriedly hugged Adler’s arm while apologizing.

“Haah…”

“I-if you’re still upset… you can hit me once…”

“…It’s fine.”

Adler sighs with a pitying look and rejects Sharlotte’s proposal, which she had made while nervously watching his reaction.

– *Swoosh*…

“Ah.”

Suddenly, Watson and the inspector thrust their faces close to his.

“It doesn’t seem like a disguise…”

“If it were, Holmes would have noticed already.”

“…Then, could he be the real one?”

“That remains to be seen. He couldn’t answer our questions…”

The two women scrutinize his face intently.

“…He looks exactly the same.”

“Hmm… it’s ambiguous.”

“C-could I ask a different question?”

They begin to consider Adler’s desperate expression.

“W-well… how about this?”

Suddenly, Inspector Lestrade speaks up with a reddening face.

“So, um, that is… uh…”

“……?”

“You and I, fi-fi-fi… first…”

Adler, who had been looking puzzled at the suddenly shy and stammering inspector, is left speechless by her next words.

“…Where did we have our first time.”

And then came the silence.

“So……….”

Adler freezes as a chilling murderous intent begins to spread from the front, side, and back where his loyal followers stood.

“London… near London…..”

After trailing off for a while, he finally squeezes his eyes shut and whispers into the inspector’s ear in the smallest voice possible.

“….in an alley.”

However, in the room filled with frigid silence, his voice resonated clearly despite his attempt to lower it.

“…..What about me?”

Thanks to this, Adler, who had been sweating profusely, makes a stunned expression when Watson throws a question at him in a chilling voice.

“Uh, well… Miss Watson… huh?”

This time he had genuinely forgotten.

“In a… bag?”

“………”

“Ah, no. The professor’s house? Or was it an opium den…?”

And so, the atmosphere of their reunion after two years began to sink even deeper into the abyss.

“…Don’t tell me it was before I enrolled?”

“The fact that I want to kill him proves he’s the real Adler.”

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About 30 minutes later. On a street in Rhode Island under the morning sun.

“What’s that?”

“…What’s going on?”

The attention of passersby on the early morning street is drawn to one side.

“Hey, everyone…..”

“””…………”””

“I was wrong… can’t we just walk normally?”

It was because a blonde pretty boy, tied up with ropes all over his body in broad daylight, was being dragged along like a criminal, surrounded by women.

“My blood circulation is starting to get cut off…”

“…What should we do now? Should we return to London after all?”

“No, that’s dangerous… we don’t know when the professor might notice…”

“But we can’t run away forever, I say.”

“I’m fine anywhere as long as I’m with Master.”

“…M-me too.”

In this ridiculous but unfunny situation, Adler looked around nervously and asked a question, but the women surrounding him from all sides were already paying him no mind.

“I-I’ll loosen the ropes for you.”

“…Can’t you just untie me completely?”

“Aaaah, alright. I’ll untie you! I’ll untie you, so…!”

Only Sharlotte, who had been tightly holding onto Adler’s arm until then, granted his request.

“…You won’t run away, right? Hmm?”

“I absolutely won’t run away.”

“If you run away, I’ll go somewhere quiet and kill myself.”

“…I said I won’t run away ever, okay?”

After unilaterally untying the ropes, she whispers with dark eyes, causing Adler to respond in alarm.

“Really?”

“I swear to heaven.”

“Hehe… Adler…”

With that, Sharlotte begins to rub her cheek against his shoulder, wearing a haggard smile.

“I love you…!”

“………”

“I like you. Like like like like…”

As she kisses his neck and whispers with sincerity, Adler quietly strokes her head with a pitying expression.

‘To think that cynical girl would end up like this…’

What would Sharlotte from three years ago, before she met him, think if she saw this scene?

While entertaining such idle thoughts and continuing to stroke the head of Sharlotte, who had transformed from a cold cat into a retriever wagging its tail at the sight of its owner, Adler suddenly stops.

“……?”

He pauses his hand that was stroking Sharlotte and stops walking, feeling a chilling sensation.

“””……….”””

“Ah.”

It was because all the women surrounding him were staring at him intently.

“Adler, I like you.”

“…Me too.”

“…Me too.”

And shortly after, a barrage of confessions began to echo through the street.

“Haha… ha…..”

Thanks to this, Adler, with a slightly haggard expression, begins to stroke each of their heads with trembling hands, while passersby give him pitying looks as they walk by.

“I like you, Master. I like you. I like you.”

“…I like you too.”

“Enough… already…”

How much time had passed like this?

“Can you take it easy?”

Finally, Sharlotte steps in again with a cold expression to help Adler.

“…Can’t you see Adler is struggling? Don’t you see?”

“””……….””””

“…Hah, what are you going to do by glaring at me?”

Despite their dissatisfied expressions, the women all close their mouths at once in the face of her killing intent, which had grown several times stronger in the past two years.

“Um, Adler. Are you okay? Are you not stressed?”

“…No, I’m fine. And you can speak casually to me.”

“Ah, okay! I’ll speak casually from now on! Yeah.”

Only then does she turn her gaze toward Adler and begins to wag her tail again.

“So where should we go now?”

“…What?”

“We should go wherever you want to go. If we force you again… you, you wouldn’t like that, right? Right?”

When she asks with a timid expression, Adler’s expression momentarily goes blank.

“Come to think of it…”

Only upon hearing those words did he suddenly remember the existence of the ‘person who shouldn’t be there’ that he had seen earlier.

“Th-this isn’t the time for this.”

“Huh?”

“Q-quickly… we need to return to London as quickly as possible!”

As a result, when Adler raises his voice with a pale face, the women quietly tilt their heads.

“Why?”

“Because the professor is in danger…..!”

When Sharlotte asks the question on behalf of the women, Adler tries to answer with an urgent expression, but.

“…Ah.”

He immediately closes his mouth with a look of realization.

“””……….”””

But they had already heard the word ‘professor’ and were now looking at Adler with hardened expressions.

“…Adler.”

“Uh, um…”

“Go on.”

In this situation, only Sharlotte speaks to Adler with a calm expression.

“What about the professor?”

However, she couldn’t hide the abyss lurking in her eyes.

“The professor… the professor…”

“…Yes.”

“So… uh… is in… danger…..”

As a result, Adler begins to trail off, instinctively trembling.

“The professor is in danger. Yes, I understand clearly.”

“…….”

“So, what about it?”

He finishes his sentence, gathering a bit of courage at Sharlotte’s unnaturally calm voice.

“I-I want to… go save her…”

“Ah, I see.”

Then, Sharlotte opens her mouth with a quiet smile.

“Then we should go save her.”

“…Huh?”

“If it’s what you want, I can do anything. Don’t worry, I could even lick the professor’s feet with just one word from you.”

Adler, who was rather taken aback by her response, watches her carefully and asks a question.

“If… if you’re forcing yourself, I can go alone…”

“I’ll kill myself?”

“Ah, okay. I understand, so…”

But when Sharlotte immediately threatens him with a chilling expression, Adler tries to dissuade her while sweating profusely.

“…But you know, Adler.”

“Yes.”

“You can speak casually to me. I do it to you.”

“…Okay.”

He nods his head hastily and listens attentively to Sharlotte, who is still smiling with her eyes.

“If we meet the professor, will you abandon me?”

“No, how could you say such a thing…”

“No matter what the professor says to you, what she has, or what she asks of you… you won’t abandon me, right?”

Sharlotte asks with a slightly trembling voice.

“…Well, it’s your choice, actually. I can’t force you.”

“Hey…”

“But if that happens… I’ll just kill myself and that’s that!”

“……..”

When she tries to smile despite her face contorting with anxiety and panic symptoms, Adler closes his mouth, at a loss for words.

“You don’t need to feel pressured! Choose freely!”

“……….”

“Ahaha… haha… ha…”

Adler quietly embraces her, making a mental note to stroke Sharlotte a bit more than the others when they return to London.

“I won’t abandon you no matter what happens.”

“Ha, ha… hauu… uu…”

“I’ll swear it, okay?”

He didn’t notice the eerie smile forming on Sharlotte’s lips as she buried her face in his chest while in his embrace.

“…Hehe.”

Apparently, he didn’t quite understand how terrifying the word ‘swear’ could be in a world where magic exists.

“But Sharlotte, why are you suddenly touching my lower abdomen?”

“It’s nothing…”

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Meanwhile, at that time. Near the North Atlantic Ocean.

“…Well, this is quite moving.”

A massive gray Dragon soaring through the skies with its wings spread wide, upon seeing the distant landscape of England coming into view, muttered with a voice tinged with mockery.

“I wonder how long it’s been since I’ve seen this scenery.”

The old master of London has returned.