Ch.30Chapter 30 – A Foregone Conclusion

– Tzzzzz…

“…Um, Professor.”

After watching Moriarty’s gray mana spreading throughout his body for a while with cold sweat, Adler cautiously opens his mouth.

“Isn’t this enough now…?”

The bronze-colored mana of Lady Roylott that had spread through his body had already been completely destroyed after being covered by Professor Moriarty’s gray light.

“Professor?”

Therefore, if it was just to release the restraints embedded in his body, she had already operated enough mana.

But Professor Moriarty continued to push her mana into Issac Adler nonetheless.

“I-it’s starting to feel strange…”

As a result, when the mana circuits inside his body began to be dyed with her mana not long after, Adler urgently speaks up, feeling a chill running through his entire body.

“I’m feeling weird.”

“Adler.”

But Professor Moriarty, who was sitting on his lap, leans in and stares directly into his eyes, whispering in a low voice.

“Didn’t I tell you to stay still.”

“………..”

Hearing those words, Adler looks blank for a moment before relaxing his body.

“Well done.”

She smiles and gently strokes Adler’s head.

“…But what exactly are you doing right now?”

Then, receiving Adler’s slightly frightened question, Moriarty tilts her head.

“Well. What am I doing right now?”

“Pardon?”

“Try to guess.”

She embraces Adler and whispers in a low voice.

“You like riddles, don’t you.”

While it was true that he liked riddles, at that moment Adler couldn’t think at all.

After all, Jane Moriarty’s skin, body heat, and soft hair were enveloping him.

Her figure was quite violent for a poor soul who had no experience with women to handle.

“…Are you trying to poison me to death?”

But even in that situation, desperately holding onto his rationality, Adler manages to ask with a forced smile while his ears turn bright red.

“You’re good at making riddles, but terrible at solving them.”

“Then…?”

To Adler, who looks slightly dazed, Jane Moriarty whispers in a low voice.

“I’m not killing you, I’m protecting you.”

“…So you are poisoning me.”

Hearing that, Adler chuckles.

“Are you planning to dye my entire body with yourself?”

Looking at his skin turning pale, Adler asks with a resigned smile.

“Am I some kind of human mana stone?”

“……….”

“But if you do this… Sharlotte……”

Then, his voice trails off as he lowers his head.

“………”

Professor Moriarty gazes down at him cradled in her arms.

– Tzzzzz…

Eventually, Jane Moriarty carefully withdraws the mana she was operating.

Adler’s mana circuits had been completely dyed with hers.

Not only that. The boy named Issac Adler himself was overlaid with her mana.

Moreover, due to the aftermath, he was showing signs of mana addiction, which normally takes years of exposure to mana stones to develop.

For a human to be pickled in human mana and show addiction symptoms was unprecedented throughout history.

“…Adler.”

After finishing such a historic feat so simply, she begins to mutter in a low voice.

“Have you become mine now?”

However, there was still doubt in her voice.

‘If so, what is this uneasy feeling?’

Magically establishing Adler as her possession while simultaneously placing such powerful protection on him that no one would dare harm him.

But looking at Adler in her arms, for some reason, anxiety was creeping up on her.

Why? For what reason?

“………?”

Lost in thought with such questions for a while, Professor Moriarty suddenly shifts her gaze to the basement door that had been strangely quiet for some time.

– Rustle…

Then, a gaze between the door crack disappears in the blink of an eye.

“……Ha.”

But a moment later, when a faint gaze begins to be felt from between the cracked gap again, Professor Moriarty finally realizes.

‘So that’s it.’

The cause of the anxiety that had begun to be felt after realizing that Adler might leave her.

‘Even if I don’t get tired of you.’

The image of Adler licking milk pooled in Lady Roylott’s hand while leashed by her flashes through Professor Moriarty’s mind.

‘You might get tired of me first.’

The image of Adler leaving with cold eyes, whispering that he was disappointed in her, comes to mind.

‘Moreover, regardless of our will, you could be taken away arbitrarily.’

So, what was the solution?

After thinking for a moment, Professor Moriarty quickly draws a conclusion.

‘…That would be good.’

Muttering that to herself, she quietly begins to curl up the corners of her mouth as she looks at the eyes that reappeared in the cracked gap of the door.

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How much time had passed since I fell asleep while being pickled in the professor’s mana?

“…..Ouch.”

Opening my eyes to the sharp pain beginning to be felt in my neck, I couldn’t help but freeze at the sight before me.

“……….”

“Pro-Professor?”

Professor Moriarty, who had still been on my lap until then, was for some reason biting and chewing on my neck.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

When I pushed her away slightly in confusion, Moriarty pulled her face back slightly and tilted her head as usual.

“I was establishing ownership of you.”

“What?”

“I had something I originally wanted to do, but it wouldn’t have meant anything if you weren’t awake. In the meantime, I was just claiming ownership first.”

Who exactly was she claiming ownership to?

No, why is nibbling on my neck a claim of ownership in the first place?

“But didn’t you bite the neck of the woman you wanted to have?”

“………”

“There must be some metaphorical meaning or effect. Just biting someone’s neck wouldn’t make them fall for you.”

When I looked at Professor Moriarty with such eyes, she stared back at me and whispered.

“…Wh-when did I ever do that.”

“Don’t deny it.”

After finishing those words, she burrows into my arms again.

“Ugh.”

A moment later, a tingling pain begins to be felt on the front of my neck.

“I-it hurts.”

When I twisted my body and said that urgently, she pulled back her head with round eyes.

“…Do you dislike my actions?”

“A little.”

“Then I apologize.”

Then, gently stroking my neck, she whispers.

“Adler.”

“……Yes.”

“I have a favor to ask.”

As I quietly turn my gaze to the side, feeling the distance between us somehow closer than before, her low voice penetrates my ears.

“Help me create a fait accompli.”

“…..What did you just say?”

For a moment I doubted my ears and asked again, but the answer was the same.

“I want to create a fait accompli that only you and I share.”

“Wh-why?”

“The mistake I made with you. It’s the conclusion I’ve reached to never make that mistake again.”

Now my head was really starting to turn blank.

“And it also serves to clearly show our relationship to unwelcome guests.”

“What does that…”

“Stay still.”

But regardless of my confusion, Jane Moriarty grabbed both my arms and began to lean in.

“Unfortunately, I have no knowledge in this area. I don’t understand it either.”

“Uh, uhh…”

“The only thing I know is this universal act that couples show, which is even described in academic papers.”

Finally realizing what she was trying to do, I urgently tried to stop the professor.

“But it should be enough as a ‘fait accompli.’ It will be memorable in many ways…”

“N-no, you can’t.”

At that, she, who had come right up to my face, quietly tilts her head.

“Is there a problem?”

“Th-this is something you do with someone you love.”

When I whispered that to her with a red face, Professor Moriarty stared at me.

“Don’t you love me?”

“Well… I do love you.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“It’s just my one-sided love, isn’t it?”

She frowns upon hearing those words.

“Do you love me, Professor?”

“I…..”

And then, Professor Moriarty falls into thought for a moment.

“I’m sorry.”

She answers with a slightly dejected expression.

“I still don’t understand the emotion called love.”

“See? Doing something like this in such a state…”

“But if you’re gone, I feel like I would waste away and die.”

Then suddenly smiling, she grabs my arms again.

“That’s how precious you are to me.”

“Excuse me…?”

“Is love really necessary to create a fait accompli to protect such a precious existence?”

With her face now completely pressed against mine, I tightly closed my eyes, unable to look at her.

“If you’re still uncomfortable, I’ll say it just this once.”

The moment I heard her whisper, I couldn’t help but realize.

“…I love you, Issac.”

That my first kiss would belong to Professor Jane Moriarty.

“There’s no problem now, right?”

“…This is my first kiss too.”

I tried to blurt out that fact belatedly, but it was already too late.

“…Mine too.”

The moment those words ended, her soft tongue penetrated my lips.

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Just a few minutes later.

– BOOOOOOM!!!

After being quiet for a while, a sudden roar echoes through the basement, and the door that showed no signs of breaking flies off like paper, raising a huge cloud of dust.

“”………..””

And then came the silence.

“My, my, Holmes.”

To the girl walking unsteadily through the dust cloud, wrapped in black smoke, Professor Moriarty’s cold voice flies.

“I tried, but you’re a step too late.”

Her lips were connected to Adler’s lips with a sticky line.

“Still unqualified as a detective.”

Murderous intent began to swirl in Sharlotte’s eyes.