Ch.28Chapter 28 – The Speckled Band (3)

– Creeeeak…

As the closed waiting room door opens and Professor Moriarty emerges, Charlotte’s blank gaze shifts toward her from where she’s leaning against the corridor wall.

“You.”

Charlotte’s ice-cold voice echoes through the corridor.

“What trick did you use?”

The professor glances at her briefly.

“Hallucinations using a viper. If you’re not the one who instructed murder using that, then what trick did you…”

“…….”

But that moment passes quickly as she soon averts her gaze and continues walking, ignoring Charlotte’s words.

“I’m not finished!”

“…A detective begging for answers.”

Moriarty responds to Charlotte’s shout with a frigid voice.

“How pathetic.”

Charlotte is momentarily speechless at those cutting words, her hands trembling.

“…I’m the same, though.”

The professor, walking away from her, mutters in a barely audible voice.

‘How could I have overlooked such an obvious fact.’

After Issac’s shocking declaration, Professor Moriarty, left alone and pushing her brain to its limits, finally found it.

The basic and stupid mistake she had made—the same mistake that foolish detective behind her had made.

“……..”

And now she’s on her way to correct that mistake.

With a serious expression unlike her usual smile-tinged face.

While simultaneously feeling something she had never experienced in her life before—a mixture of anxiety and impatience.

“”…………””

As Moriarty quietly disappears down the corridor, Charlotte glares at her retreating figure, gritting her teeth.

“…What am I missing?”

But since that wouldn’t improve the situation, she soon closed her eyes tightly and began to concentrate.

“Surely… something is wrong…”

And so began her trance-like state once again.

In the past, this was a state difficult to reach without magistone experiments or cigarettes, but now she could easily reach it when it concerned ‘that man.’

“…Hmm.”

However, despite this, the situation showed no signs of improvement.

No matter how she tried to find holes in her deduction, nothing definitive emerged.

It felt like an engine overheating while idling, not moving forward.

“……….”

This stalemate continued for quite some time.

“Um, Holmes. I just realized something strange…”

The unexpected person who broke this frustrating state was:

“…Do snakes drink milk?”

None other than Rachel Watson, who had been diligently thinking alongside Holmes.

“………Ah.”

Sharlotte Holmes opened her mouth slightly, staring at Rachel Watson with a blank expression.

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A few minutes later.

“You’re right.”

“Huh?”

“You’re right, Watson.”

Sharlotte, who had broken into Lady Roylott’s study and was rummaging through documents, begins speaking in an excited voice, abandoning her usual tone with Watson.

“No snake in the world drinks milk. They eat mice or insects. Therefore, the milk bowl in the safe wasn’t for feeding a snake.”

“…I thought so.”

“Moreover, snakes can’t even hear whistling. They can feel vibrations, but their hearing is atrophied.”

Sharlotte looks up at Watson.

“And snakes can’t move backward. That contradicts Miss Stoner’s testimony.”

Then, her eyes gleaming, Sharlotte asks:

“Watson. Do you have the examination records for Miss Stoner who collapsed with Adler?”

“Yes… here.”

As Watson hands over the examination records from her pocket, Sharlotte reads through them intently before squeezing her eyes shut.

“No signs of external injuries except for marks suspected to be from abuse. Yes, I shouldn’t have overlooked this.”

“…Didn’t you say earlier that the fang marks weren’t visible because the fangs were too small?”

“That’s what I thought. I was too fixated on my deduction.”

Then, she crouches down on the floor weakly.

“No wonder Issac was so disappointed.”

Watson’s eyes widen at this self-reproaching side of Sharlotte she’s never seen before.

“Watson, I might actually be stupid.”

Sharlotte mutters in a dejected voice, looking at Watson intently.

“That’s absolutely not true, Holmes.”

Almost breaking into a smile at the sight, Watson gently strokes her head and says:

“You just lack common sense.”

“………”

Sharlotte silently furrows her brow at these harsh words despite the seemingly comforting atmosphere.

“But it’s true, isn’t it? When we first met, you didn’t even know the Earth rotates…”

“W-why are you bringing up that old story?”

As Sharlotte hastily cuts off Watson’s attempt to bring up her embarrassing past, Watson smiles briefly before continuing:

“Our little detective is a once-in-a-millennium genius, but still inexperienced.”

“……….”

“But that’s okay even if you’re inexperienced.”

Then, Watson extends her hand to her.

“I can always supplement your common sense knowledge.”

“…Watson.”

As Sharlotte takes her hand and stands up, Watson whispers with a slightly mischievous expression:

“Though, I’m still a bit troubled with romantic knowledge myself.”

“…What?”

“I mean that guy you’re struggling with. He seemed a bit disappointed, so you need to win back his heart…”

But suddenly, Watson stops speaking.

“……….”

The mixture of Issac Adler’s malicious behavior from a few days ago and his sacrificial actions toward Sharlotte was creating a complex tangle in Watson’s mind.

“That’s right.”

While she was deeply contemplating what to say, Sharlotte’s quiet voice reached her ears.

“…The puzzle that man prepared for me isn’t over yet.”

Sharlotte, suddenly energetic again as if nothing had happened, begins pacing with her hands behind her back.

“Sigh.”

“The hallucinogenic viper wasn’t the trick. Then, what caused Miss Stoner’s hallucinations?”

While Watson watches her with a resigned look, shaking her head, Holmes begins muttering with gleaming eyes.

“…A leash?”

Images now clearly begin to form in her mind, once again in a trance-like state.

“No. That only has the effect of restraining someone. It doesn’t have mind control effects.”

“……….”

“Then, milk? No. Such important evidence wouldn’t be placed somewhere so visible. And it wouldn’t be used for provocation either.”

Thus, Sharlotte narrowed down the possibilities at a frightening speed.

“Mind control magic? No, Lady Roylott is a combat specialist with terrible magic skills. A curse? But such a convenient curse couldn’t exist…”

Suddenly, her pupils begin to dilate.

“…Holmes?”

As Watson places a hand on her shoulder with a slightly worried expression:

“Ha.”

Sharlotte suddenly bursts into laughter.

“Haha, hahaha……”

“…Did you finally figure it out?”

Hearing that refreshing yet incredulous laugh, Watson tilts her head and asks.

“Yes, thanks to you.”

Sharlotte looks at the main contributor to this case with an arrogant smile she hasn’t shown in a long time.

“So what happened?”

“…The truth is, Miss Stoner was never hallucinating.”

“What?”

“Watson, you’re certainly intelligent… but your ability to synthesize fragmented information to reach conclusions is significantly lacking.”

When Watson looks puzzled at those words, Sharlotte makes a slightly exasperated expression.

“Look, Watson. Of all the many people passing by on the street, Miss Stoner happened to stab ‘Issac Adler.’ Right?”

“That… could be a coincidence.”

“It might have seemed like a fatal wound because she stabbed near the heart, but according to the autopsy record you just gave me, all major nerves were missed.”

“Yes, that was incredibly fortunate for Adler.”

“But what if it was neither luck nor coincidence?”

Saying this, Sharlotte smiles at Watson.

“Think about it, Watson.”

And then, she begins firing questions without hesitation:

“Who was the first person to mention the ‘speckled band’ while stabbing Issac Adler?”

“That was…”

“And who testified to me that the last thing she remembered before losing consciousness was a ‘low whistle’ and a ‘speckled band’?”

“………”

“Who even claimed to have clearly seen something like a string moving backward through the ventilator?”

Watson, who had been trying to answer seriously, finally gapes in realization.

“That’s not all. If Lady Roylott wasn’t the one who designed the ventilator that way, who else in the mansion would have the authority to do so?”

“No way…..”

“Unlike her stepmother with terrible magical abilities, who is talented enough in magic to be admitted to Auguste Academy?”

“…My goodness.”

“Decisively, who in this mansion is a student at the detective academy, making it easy to approach Professor Moriarty?”

After pausing briefly to catch her breath, Sharlotte instructs Watson in a sharp voice:

“Watson, contact your hospital right now.”

“O-okay.”

“We need to check if Miss Stoner is quietly lying in her hospital bed.”

And a moment later:

“…Holmes.”

Watson, who had contacted an employee via portable magistone telegraph, answers with a trembling voice.

“Helen Stoner… disappeared from the hospital this morning.”

“…I thought so.”

Hearing this, Sharlotte smiles triumphantly and begins to draw her conclusion.

“The person who cleverly created the illusion of a speckled viper through testimony and evidence manipulation, diverting her attempted murder charges to her stepmother.”

“Perhaps she had already brainwashed her stepmother long ago.”

“And if that’s true, the person manipulating her stepmother from behind to get Issac Adler into her hands.”

Sharlotte’s pupils were once again turning golden.

“The hidden mastermind behind this case was Helen Stoner all along.”

“…But why?”

Watson, looking at her with a slightly strange expression, tilts her head and asks.

“That’s not important, Watson.”

But Sharlotte brushes past Watson, beginning to move her steps urgently.

“What’s important is that I’ve discovered the truth now.”

“W-where are you going?”

“And according to my prediction…”

Sharlotte’s face was rapidly turning pale as she realized the gravity of the situation.

“…’That man’ is in danger.”

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“…Hmm?”

In a pitch-black basement, I opened my eyes while tied to a chair.

“You’re awake, Mr. Adler.”

“She was undressing. I put your clothes back on.”

The first thought that crossed my mind upon seeing the scene before me was that I was completely screwed.

“This is your home now, Mr. Adler.”

“By the way, I realized the mistake I made.”

Lady Roylott, unconscious and naked, collapsed in front of me.

“What you were going to do with stepmother, finish it with me.”

Miss Stoner, sitting on my lap and pointing a knife at me.

“…So, would you mind whispering my mistake to me.”

Professor Moriarty, leaning against me and whispering in my ear with a gentle voice, then tilting her head with dark eyes.

– Bang! Bang bang! Bang bang bang!!

“Open the dooooooor!!!”

And to top it all off, Sharlotte Holmes’s screaming voice as she pounds with all her might on the basement door that’s tightly sealed with magical barriers.

“Mr. Adler.”

“Adler, my boy.”

“Adler!!!!!”

All these elements were proving that I was completely screwed.

‘…Maybe I should bite my tongue.’

I was starting to crave an escape from reality, even if I couldn’t die.