Ch.31Chapter 31 – London’s Hope

“It’s you.”

After a long silence in the basement, Sharlotte Holmes’ murderous voice quietly echoes.

“You planned everything.”

The black mana surrounding Sharlotte was fluctuating anxiously.

“Putting Adler in danger, manipulating Lady Roylott and Helen Stoner from behind the scenes, preparing the trick for this case.”

“………”

“You orchestrated it all, Jane Moriarty.”

Hearing those words, Moriarty gives a faint smile.

It was the same empty smile she always wore, devoid of any emotion.

But now in Sharlotte’s eyes, that silent smile looked like mockery directed at her.

“I’m going to turn you over to the police.”

With that, Sharlotte, trembling with clenched fists, begins to approach Moriarty.

“On what charges?”

“Solicitation of murder for Issac Adler. Solicitation of brainwashing for Lady Roylott. Attempted murder of Helen Stoner.”

At this, Moriarty’s gaze grows even colder.

“Miss Holmes, honestly, I don’t understand how you got a perfect score on the Auguste Detective Academy entrance exam.”

Now with a genuine sneer on her lips, she looks down at Lady Roylott and Helen Stoner sprawled on the floor.

“Did you cheat on your grades?”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

“It seems to me that you’re the one talking nonsense.”

Sharlotte stops in her tracks as she reaches Professor Moriarty.

“I simply came to this mansion to retrieve my assistant who was absent without leave. And I happened to witness Helen Stoner’s crime and subdued her.”

“………”

“A crime of passion between Lady Roylott and Helen Stoner, mother and daughter. Issac Adler and I were merely caught up in their drama. That’s the whole story of this case.”

“Bullshit.”

After listening quietly to Moriarty, Sharlotte spits out the curse.

“What exactly is the problem?”

“The trick in this case is too elaborate and meticulous to be a simple crime of passion. Just like someone standing right in front of me.”

“If you analyze Helen Stoner’s diary and psychiatric evaluation, you’ll find it’s entirely possible as a premeditated crime.”

“There are clear signs of someone’s intervention. And it was deliberate.”

Momentary irritation flashes across Moriarty’s face as she listens to Sharlotte with a smile.

“It’s obvious that someone intervened from behind to completely revise an ingenious but impossible criminal plan. As if consulting on the crime…”

“…Your paranoia has gone too far, little girl.”

She whispers with another sneer forming at the corner of her mouth.

“Paranoia? Don’t make me laugh. Does hearing the truth make you nervous?”

“Then you must have evidence to prove this truth?”

Hearing Moriarty’s amused question, Sharlotte falls silent, unable to answer.

“What’s wrong, Sharlotte Holmes? Surely you weren’t just talking without any evidence?”

“……..”

“If not, present it now. Evidence that I was involved in this case even slightly.”

Of course, there was no evidence.

Or rather, it had disappeared.

“…………”

Helen Stoner lay unconscious, clearly strangled with the collar Lady Roylott had been holding, her eyes glazed over.

Even if she regained consciousness, her brain, deprived of oxygen for so long, would likely never recover normal awareness.

“…ugh.”

Lady Roylott, who was beginning to regain consciousness, was clearly under Helen Stoner’s brainwashing.

Even if she fully recovered, she wouldn’t remember what had just happened, and there would obviously be no connection to Professor Moriarty, whom she had barely been involved with.

“…Let Adler go.”

Knowing this better than anyone, Sharlotte, who had been keeping her mouth shut, finally speaks with her eyes closed.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ll get his testimony. That you orchestrated all of this…”

“Ha, haha.”

At this, Professor Moriarty finally bursts into laughter.

“Ahahahaha….”

Her laughter echoes around the basement for a while.

“You seem to be mistaken.”

Suddenly cutting off her laughter, Professor Moriarty strokes Adler, who had been silently nestled in her arms, and says:

“I’m the one who saved Issac Adler from danger.”

She glances at Sharlotte as she says this.

“Is that simple fact so hard to understand?”

“Get your filthy hands off him.”

Sharlotte, her eyes once again filled with murderous intent, glares at Moriarty as she strokes Adler.

“Being touched by someone who doesn’t even love you—I’d find it creepy.”

“…Hmm.”

After staring at this interesting reaction for a moment, the professor raises the corner of her mouth.

“Fine. While I’m still being nice, hand him over…”

– Rustle…

She quietly brushes her long hair back and leans in, looking into Adler’s eyes.

“…………”

The next moment, two tongues begin to intertwine softly.

“…..Stop it.”

Sharlotte, watching with a pale expression, mutters in a shrinking voice.

“”………..””

But despite this, the two people with their eyes closed, tongues intertwined, kept their fingers interlocked.

“I said stop.”

Staring at them in a daze, Sharlotte staggers forward, reaching out to Adler.

– Zzzzt…

“Ah.”

But the gray mana filling his body sparks, rejecting her.

– Drip…

As Sharlotte involuntarily steps back, Jane Moriarty pulls her head back, leaving another long, sticky strand between them.

“Mmm…”

Looking at her assistant with that strand still connecting them, Moriarty tilts her head to the side and slips her tongue back into his mouth.

“Stop…….

After this continued for quite some time, Sharlotte’s sobbing voice began to echo.

– Roooaar…

As Sharlotte bows her head helplessly and becomes engulfed in black flames, Professor Moriarty’s lips curl up slightly.

“…Do you understand now?”

Finally removing her tongue completely from Adler’s mouth, she wipes her lips with her sleeve and whispers in a low voice.

“This is not a relationship for a bored little girl to interfere in.”

“………”

“Our relationship.”

With those words and a victorious smile, she heads toward the exit.

“…Did that Watson woman go to call the police?”

She glances back and mutters.

“You should come out soon too. It would be troublesome if the police barge in…”

“Professor.”

Adler, who had remained behind, calls to her in a low voice.

“I’ll follow you shortly.”

“Why?”

“We should still clean up the crime scene, shouldn’t we?”

His gaze was directed at Sharlotte, who was still engulfed in black mana.

“…I understand.”

After watching him with a frown for a moment, she nods with a smile.

“Then, I’ll leave it to you.”

As long as her mana was implanted in him, there was no way that arrogant girl could touch Adler.

‘Well, she should worry about her own safety first.’

She didn’t particularly consider her a competitor. But thinking about her retirement somehow made her feel lighter.

‘By the way.’

Walking away with a pleased smile, she rolls her tongue, savoring Adler’s bodily fluid that remained in her mouth, then makes a slightly disappointed face.

‘So the saying that kisses are sweet was a lie.’

Despite such thoughts and expressions, her cheeks were slightly flushed.

‘Well, it doesn’t matter.’

.

.

.

.

.

“…..Mmm.”

How much time had passed?

“……?”

Sharlotte, lifting her heavy eyelids, looks around with a dazed expression.

“I am…”

The last thing she remembered was the black mana flames engulfing her body.

Eventually, overwhelmed by a flood of emotions she had never experienced before, she lost control and ultimately passed out, engulfed in flames.

‘What happened?’

It had been a situation that could have consumed her life, perhaps even everything around her.

Yet she was fine now.

Why?

“You’re awake, I see.”

“Ah.”

That question was immediately answered when she saw the familiar man with smiling eyes appear before her.

“You were in quite a dangerous state. You almost went berserk.”

Adler, holding her hand, says this with a quiet smile.

“When did you awaken your mana? I was quite surprised.”

His clothes were torn to shreds, and his skin was covered in black scars, clearly showing that he had saved her once again.

“…I’ve failed.”

“Pardon?”

“I’ve failed as a detective.”

Staring blankly at him, Sharlotte bows her head and mutters.

“By the time I realized everything, it was already too late.”

“………”

“Not only did I fail to help you, I even hurt you.”

Then, she quietly raises her head.

“Mr. Adler.”

A weak voice escapes her lips.

“I don’t deserve to solve your mystery.”

“…What are you saying?”

But Adler begins to encourage her instead.

“You were several times more brilliant than I expected.”

“I don’t need your pity. I…”

“Not only did you completely expose Professor Moriarty’s trick, but you even forced her to intervene directly in the case.”

“………”

“This will surely go on record.”

His hand begins to gently stroke Sharlotte’s disheveled hair.

“It might be a minor record.”

“………”

“But it’s the first record against her, who had never been implicated in any case before, who was completely untouchable.”

Sharlotte stares blankly at Adler, feeling his warm touch.

“As such records accumulate, who do you think will ultimately win?”

Looking at Sharlotte, Adler gives her a warm smile.

“In that sense, this case is your victory, Miss Holmes.”

After staring at that smile for a long time, Sharlotte slowly opens her mouth.

“What are you thinking?”

“Pardon?”

“Why are you… being so nice to me?”

Her voice was trembling slightly.

“You should be my enemy, you should find me annoying like that professor. Yet you help me over and over…”

“That’s because I love you.”

“You’re lying.”

Suddenly, her voice turns cold.

“The one you love is Jane Moriarty.”

“…Miss Holmes.”

“I saw it with my own eyes. You couldn’t reject her…”

Momentarily sweating at her murderous gaze, Adler lowers his eyes and begins to speak.

“…Of course I couldn’t reject her.”

“What?”

“I cannot defy her.”

At the same time, his face becomes sorrowful.

“No, nobody in London could defy her.”

“…I know many people.”

“Even if the entire Queen’s Knights came, they would vanish at a single gesture from the professor.”

Sharlotte quietly withdraws her murderous intent at his maternal appearance, and Adler shakes his head.

“There is no being who can oppose her.”

A resolute voice echoes through the room.

“…That’s what I thought until now.”

Just as Sharlotte was about to feel intimidated again, Adler forms a gentle smile and tightens his grip on her hand.

“Just now, I changed my mind.”

Then, moving her hand to his chest, he says:

“Check the mana in my body.”

Sharlotte’s eyes widen as her hand is placed on his chest.

“This is…”

“It’s your mana.”

Until just now, his body had been filled with Professor Moriarty’s gray mana.

“As I was blocking your berserk state with my body, it mixed into me.”

But now it was different.

“Now my body has become half the professor’s, half yours.”

As he said, Professor Moriarty’s gray mana and Sharlotte’s black mana had perfectly divided and colored the inside of Adler.

“Wait, if this continues, your body won’t be able to…”

“Sharlotte Holmes.”

Looking at Adler with an increasingly pale expression as she sees the two manas fiercely fighting for dominance within him.

“It has to be you.”

But Adler interrupts her and approaches her.

“You are Professor Moriarty’s nemesis.”

“….What?”

“Only your mana can equally oppose hers.”

Soon after, Sharlotte begins to feel Adler’s warm body temperature.

“Only you can bring down Moriarty’s kingdom and pull her from her throne.”

Adler gently embraces Sharlotte and whispers in her ear with his head tilted.

“You are London’s hope.”

The moment she hears those words, her breathing stops.

“So, stay strong.”

Looking at Sharlotte, Adler smiles brightly and pats her back.

“I’ll come to you with the next mystery soon.”

“………”

“And after that, I’ll create many more wicked and terrible cases for you.”

Then, noticing her staring at him, Adler whispers softly once more.

“Please become such a being.”

His pupils were shining, dyed in an unidentifiable gray.

“I love you, Miss Holmes.”

Of course, at that point, it would have been all too clear to Sharlotte Holmes whose gray it was.

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.

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“…Well then, goodbye.”

With those words, I got up from my seat and began heading outside, quietly rubbing my bloodshot eyes from concentrating my mana.

‘The result is better than expected.’

Although the incident arose from my misunderstanding and blunders, the outcome was quite good.

Sharlotte Holmes, who would have awakened her mana only in the final stages, succeeded in awakening it at the very beginning.

If she hones her mana further, she might be able to equally match the final boss, Moriarty.

[Probability of being ??ed: 15% -> 0%]

And with Lady Roylott and Helen Stoner neutralized, this suspicious probability has disappeared as well.

It’s a bonus that the “Secret of the Speckled Band” case, which could have endangered the world due to plot inconsistencies, was somehow well resolved.

‘…Now, let’s find out why the infection rate increased.’

All that remains is to determine the cause of the increased infection rate before the police arrive.

‘Wait, but what excuse should I give to the professor…’

– Rustle…

“……?”

As I’m moving quickly toward the exit, sweating at the thought that just occurred to me, I suddenly feel a chilling presence behind me.

“Huh?”

Turning around to see what it is, the world suddenly starts spinning.

“………?”

In the blink of an eye, I find myself lying on the basement floor.

“What…?”

“Baritsu.”

As I wear a blank expression, unable to grasp the situation, a monotone voice comes from above me.

“A Japanese martial art. My specialty.”

“…Miss Holmes?”

Sharlotte Holmes was straddling me, holding down both my arms.

“What are you doing…?”

As I look up at her with a puzzled expression, a message suddenly appears before my eyes.

[Probability of being ??ed: 0%->20%]

“Try to guess.”

Behind that message, Sharlotte Holmes’ gaze was growing increasingly cloudy.

“You like puzzles, don’t you?”

Oh my?