Ch.272Side Story – The Adventures of Isaac Adler (8)

Around the time when the group securing Adler had set up camp at the Swiss border, at a familiar boarding house located at 221B Baker Street in London.

“…Haah.”

A girl. No, a woman who had now grown too mature to be called a girl anymore, was sighing and crumpling the telegram before her.

“Stupid Lestrade.”

Her name was Sharlotte Holmes. She had become so famous in London that there was hardly anyone who didn’t know her—a self-proclaimed investigative consultant and what others called a great detective.

“They just let him go? They should have at least broken his legs to subdue him.”

“……”

“Ah, damn it. I feel like taking drugs for once in a long time.”

With that, she began rummaging through drawers, looking for a syringe she had sealed away quite some time ago.

“……”

But Sharlotte, who had opened the drawer halfway, suddenly flinched, stopped her hand, and slowly turned around.

“…?”

It had been quite a long time since she and Rachel Watson first moved into the boarding house, but thanks to Watson’s tidiness, not much had changed.

However, thanks to Sharlotte, who was catastrophically distant from the concept of organization, there were several changes in the scenery, the most dramatic of which was the presence of a young child now in Sharlotte’s line of sight.

“…No, I’d better not after all.”

Sharlotte glanced at the boy who was sitting in what had always been her armchair, looking at her with a somewhat blank expression and tilting his head. She weakly closed the drawer with a sigh.

“Wow, truly a sight to behold.”

“…?”

“Who would have thought that Sharlotte Holmes, the embodiment of impulse and self-destructive desires, would actually succeed in controlling her dopamine intake.”

And at that very moment, a cold voice with a hint of laughter came from the doorway of the boarding house.

“…It’s been a while, Watson.”

“Indeed, it’s been quite some time since you moved out of the boarding house. Right?”

Sharlotte gave a brief nod to her old friend Watson and asked while taking out a pipe from her pocket.

“Would you like an Arcadia cigarette?”

“What are you saying? You don’t smoke in the boarding house anymore.”

“……”

“You also stopped occasionally shooting male genitalia shapes into the wall, right? Even someone like you has finally grown up after having a child?”

Hearing those words, Sharlotte frowned slightly, then asked with a cold smile.

“Then I guess our Watson is less mature since she doesn’t have a child.”

“Shut up, you bi—”

“That’s enough. Swearing is also forbidden in the boarding house.”

Watson, who was about to unleash a vicious curse with a fierce expression she rarely showed to patients, noticed the boy and promptly closed her mouth.

“…Ha, you’ve become a complete son-idiot.”

“That’s ridiculous. That kid somehow doesn’t seem to take after me. Always wearing that blank expression. I should have named him Sherrinford… Because of that bastard Adler…”

Muttering somewhat glumly, Sharlotte soon turned her gaze to Watson and asked a question.

“Anyway, why are you here today?”

“Would you believe me if I said I just came to visit after finishing my medical practice?”

“Not likely. Even excluding various circumstantial evidence, there’s no smell of disinfectant and no stethoscope marks.”

“That’s just because I had no patients today…”

“True, London has become a bit more peaceful than before. I can state with certainty that it’s not dangerous enough to warrant carrying an Afghanistan-style battlefield musket like the one that almost killed you back then.”

As Sharlotte pointed to a slightly protruding part at the edge of Watson’s doctor’s coat, Watson sighed and slumped down on the sofa.

“But, isn’t it about time to go look for… no, to take back?”

“…What?”

“The great male organ that unites all London women.”

“I said no swearing.”

In response to Watson’s complaint, Sharlotte frowned sharply and issued another warning.

“Besides, aren’t you being too calm compared to before?”

“…What do you mean?”

“With your usual temperament, shouldn’t you be glaring and searching all over Europe by now?”

“Don’t worry too much, Watson. That fellow’s movements are already crystal clear to me even from this worn-out boarding house.”

“What? So you know where he is now?”

Watson, who had been staring at Sharlotte with wide eyes, urgently demanded an answer with burning eyes.

“He hasn’t left Europe at least. If he had intended to leave Europe, he would have taken a direct flight the day he fled.”

“But what if he was trying to confuse his escape route?”

“Half right and half wrong. It’s true he aimed to make his escape route difficult to trace, but Adler disappeared during a European cruise.”

As always, the explanation sounded annoyingly smug, but Watson no longer cared about that fact.

“And coincidentally, from that day, intelligence came in that the former Queen of Bohemia began secluding herself in her castle for several weeks.”

“…Ah. I understand.”

“Yes, even you should understand that much, right?”

Sharlotte, who had been watching Watson caressing the gun in her pocket with a cold smile, slowly rose from her seat with an equally chilling smile.

“I was also thinking about going to retrieve my runaway dog soon.”

“Oh, really? Then for the first time in a while, the two of us as a combo…”

“But this time, I think we should move separately.”

Watson, who had been burning with a combative spirit for the first time in a long while, asked with slight confusion at Sharlotte’s statement.

“…Huh? Why?”

“There are many watching eyes in London. If we move simultaneously, the Professor’s side might notice first and try to check us, so the possibility is high.”

“I-Is that so?”

But soon, she scratched her head with an expression of understanding.

“I’ll leave first. You follow after a bit of a gap.”

“Ah, okay.”

“Of course, you know the destination, right?”

Sharlotte, who gave Watson a slight eye-smile, soon whispered in a low voice as she put on her coat.

“Indeed, we are long-time partners.”

“Yes, partners. That’s right.”

“Then I’ll go ahead. Let’s meet at that country’s port in about a day…”

After saying goodbye, Sharlotte left the boarding house, and silence began to flow in the room.

“……”

In that silence, Watson, who was sneaking glances at the boy again, soon adjusted her posture and began to stare at him intently.

“Hey, Sherlock.”

“……”

“What do you think about what she just said?”

And before long, when Watson asked with a full smile (though her eyes weren’t smiling at all), the expression of the boy who had been wearing a blank face quickly hardened.

“…Haah.”

“That cynical expression you never show your mother won’t help. I’ll keep bothering you until you tell me…”

However, realizing that it would be more beneficial to quickly deal with Watson with his extraordinary intelligence—whoever he took after—than to ignore her, he handed her the newspaper on the table with a bored expression.

“Another Death Scandal in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. How many fiancés have failed to win her hand and departed…”

“Huh? What’s this?”

However, when Watson tilted her head with a somewhat puzzled expression, the boy, who was holding his forehead and frowning even more, pointed to a part of the newspaper article.

“Meanwhile, the Queen, who broke her seclusion and appeared in public for the first time in a long while, mourned the death of her fiancé while revealing that she is pregnant with a child from their secret relationship, raising new suspicions…”

“Ah……”

Watson, finally smiling slyly, patted the head of the boy who was showing strong resistance.

“So, Sherlock. Where is your father now?”

“……”

“Stop making that annoying expression that resembles your mother. I’ll keep asking until you get tired anyway…”

By then, the boy, who had completely given up, finally opened his mouth in a cold voice exactly like Sharlotte’s.

“…France, Romania, Germany excluded. The safest neutral country among the remaining cities.”

“Yes, thank you. I like that you don’t give annoyingly lengthy explanations like Sharlotte and just get to the point.”

“…Would you like me to explain?”

“No, that’s fine. I have somewhere I need to go urgently.”

Leaving those words, Watson quickly rose from her seat and swiftly moved toward the door.

“Well, see you again soon. You’re such a cute kid, taking after one parent but not the other.”

Watson, who waved goodbye, left the boy in the room—who, contrary to her words, had inherited exactly half of his father’s and mother’s appearances, resulting in a look well-known to people in some world.

“…Haah.”

Although he was still too young to enter elementary school, he seemed like the type who would learn to smoke a bit earlier and soon be puffing away in the armchair.

*****

Meanwhile, at that time. Switzerland.

“W-What is this?”

Above Adler, who was tied to a bed in an empty house and sweating coldly, a vampire girl and a werebeast were whispering while breathing heavily.

“It’s a potion that enlarges your lower body several times.”

“…I-I developed it. This is the first time using it.”

After those words, the liquid contained in the medicine bottle forcibly stuffed into Adler’s mouth began to slowly flow down his throat.

“Mmph, mmph. Hack. P-Please spare me.”

“”No way.””