Ch.37Chapter 37 – Hidden Route

“Nevil, what’s wrong with you since earlier?”

“……….”

A few hours after Rachel Watson and Issac Adler’s date began.

“I knew it, you’re sick, aren’t you?”

Watson, seated in a private room at the coffee house, spoke with concerned eyes as she looked at Adler sweating nervously across from her.

“…No, I’m fine.”

“What do you mean ‘fine’?”

Adler, sitting modestly, waved his hands dismissively, but to Watson, he only looked suspicious.

“Throughout our date, your face kept turning from pale to red, and you’ve been trembling by yourself.”

“……….”

“And what’s with that anxious look in your eyes?”

Rachel Watson carefully took Issac Adler’s hand as she said this.

“Nevil.”

She felt the cold chill of his hand.

“What’s wrong?”

“…Ahem. It’s nothing.”

Adler’s body was still quietly twitching even as he answered, averting his gaze while holding her hand.

“Did something bad happen to you there?”

“Of course… not.”

“See, you’re twitching again. What on earth were you doing in that opium den to end up in this state?”

Watson, frightened by his concerning appearance, gripped Adler’s hand tighter, not knowing what to do.

“It wasn’t just a simple pickup job, was it? Were you forced to take strange drugs, or did you become a test subject for some unknown Curse?”

“Rachel, please calm down first…”

“If not that, then has some invisible evil spirit possessed you?”

“……….”

Adler, who had been trying to reassure her with a forced smile, subtly turned his gaze aside at the mention of an “invisible evil spirit.”

“…That couldn’t possibly be the case.”

Rachel Watson caught that momentary change and took it in.

“Issac Adler… you piece of trash.”

As she muttered with a cold expression, Adler’s eyes widened.

“Why do you say that?”

“Don’t worry, darling.”

Looking at him, Watson whispered with determined eyes.

“I’ll take responsibility for dealing with that piece of trash.”

“Uh…”

“And as for you, I’ll take responsibility for taking care of you.”

The precious ring on her pinky finger quietly gleamed.

“…I love you.”

After gazing affectionately at the man before her for a while, Watson eventually raised herself slightly.

“Wait, just a moment!”

“……..?”

“R-right now is a bit…”

As she leaned in to kiss him, Adler pulled back with a startled expression.

“I think I caught a cold. I don’t want to pass it to you…”

*Smooch*

“…Rachel?”

After staring at him blankly for a moment, Rachel Watson pulled his hand toward her and quietly kissed it.

“I’ll be back in a moment.”

Then, with a subtle smile, she lightly licked the back of his hand and whispered in a low voice before leaving the room.

‘…I wonder if there’s a place nearby that sells brandy.’

She was going to purchase a panacea and love potion for the night that would come in a few hours.

“”……….”

And so, a momentary silence fell upon the room.

“…Still can’t see me?”

In that silence, someone’s low voice echoed through the room.

“You seemed to feel my touch well enough.”

Sharlotte Holmes, who had been sitting invisibly on Issac Adler’s lap until then, asked with a tilted head.

*Tsuzuzu…*

Then, Sharlotte completely removed her concealment.

“…Can you see me now?”

Her empty eyes demanded an explanation from the man before her.

“…Miss Holmes.”

After staring at Sharlotte for a moment, Adler finally spoke with a troubled expression.

“Sexual harassment is wrong.”

At that moment, something snapped inside Sharlotte.

“…But you liked it first?”

A monotone voice began to flow from her lips.

“You were the one who wagged your tail at me first.”

“……….”

“And yet, you call it sexual harassment?”

“…Ugh?”

Simultaneously, her dark energy began to press down on Adler.

“Then what was that in the room with Watson?”

“Miss Holmes.”

“Contact with Sharlotte Holmes, whom you like, is sexual harassment, but being pounced on by Rachel Watson, whom you don’t even like, is romance?”

“……….”

“That doesn’t make sense. So explain it to me.”

In that state, Sharlotte began to whisper in a low voice.

“How exactly does this incident help the narrative between you and me?”

Adler’s eyes, once again overwhelmed by her, quietly reflected the room’s light.

“Tell me before my patience runs out, Mr. Adler.”

“……….”

“What kind of riddle is this?”

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“Miss Holmes.”

How much time had passed since then?

“I told you I was a villain.”

Adler, pinned against the wall with both arms held by Sharlotte, quietly began to whisper with a smile on his lips.

“Didn’t you consider that I might target those around you, my enemy?”

Sharlotte quietly stared at him in response.

“I’m not your good assistant. I’m even less your helper.”

“……….”

“My current role is to be the professor’s faithful hound.”

At the mention of the professor, her expression hardened.

“Of course, I want to be defeated by you. I also want to meet my end at your hands.”

“That’s…”

“But that only applies to a fully developed you.”

Looking at her, Adler quickly continued.

“Miss Holmes is still a novice.”

“……..”

“Although your awakening of mana was unexpected, if you face me and the professor head-on now, you’ll surely be defeated.”

Sharlotte’s eyes quietly trembled at those words.

“That’s why I want to help you grow. To become London’s hope, as I mentioned before.”

“…………”

“Of course, to do that, I need to give you trials, don’t I?”

Staring directly at her anxious gaze, Adler whispered in a low voice.

“Your most precious friend, Rachel Watson. I’m going to make her my ally.”

“……….”

“…But if you grow a little faster, you might be able to stop it?”

He whispered to Sharlotte, asking:

“Do you understand what I’m saying?”

But when Sharlotte didn’t answer, Adler kindly continued his explanation.

“It means that from now on, I’ll devour the people around you, one by one.”

His explanation quietly echoed in Sharlotte’s ear.

“Your assistant, your sister, the inspector… I’ll devour them all for the sake of your growth, which you desire.”

“……….”

“And if you don’t grow properly, I’ll devour you too.”

Even after hearing that declaration, Sharlotte just silently stared at Adler.

“Of course, you wouldn’t like that. A detective being devoured by a villain doesn’t sound right, does it?”

*Slide…*

“So do your best, Miss Holmes.”

After carefully placing Sharlotte in the seat beside him, Adler stroked her head and quietly added:

“…And please hate me.”

A deep silence began to linger in the room.

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“………..”

Looking at Sharlotte Holmes sitting next to me with her head down and a blank expression, my heart ached.

‘…Yes, this should do it.’

But it was unavoidable.

[Relationship of Love and Hate: Being Hated by Sharlotte Holmes]

[Progress: 0%->20%]

I had to progress the Chapter 2 quest.

I wonder if the strange relationship we’ve maintained until now will finally be resolved?

But that’s probably for the best.

No matter how I think about it, if things continue like this, my body might physically split in two.

“…What if I devour you first?”

“Pardon?”

Just as I was heading toward the door with a relieved yet regretful expression, since I didn’t have much time left for my disguise:

“Before you devour the people around me, what if I devour you first?”

“……..?”

Sharlotte’s statement, who had suddenly raised her head and was staring intently at me, began to resonate clearly in the room.

“…Or what if I clear out my surroundings completely?”

“Miss Holmes?”

“Then only I would be left for you to devour?”

As I listened blankly to her incomprehensible words, Sharlotte asked with gleaming eyes:

“Come to think of it, there’s no need for that. You could just devour me, your target, from the beginning, right?”

“……….”

“I won’t resist particularly. So try it. I’ll stay still, so try to devour me.”

Thanks to that, I was momentarily speechless and felt dizzy as I opened my mouth again.

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“I don’t know.”

Then came Sharlotte’s reply.

“I don’t know what I’m saying right now either.”

“……….”

“It’s strange, Mr. Adler.”

Her eyes were no longer empty.

“…Clearly, I should be angry that you, a villain, are targeting innocent people around me.”

“Sharlotte?”

“I should hate you for such a rational reason.”

Although they were slightly distorted.

“But for some reason, I’m unbearably angry at the fact that you’re going to mix bodies with those people.”

Her eyes, filled with a gaze that seemed to have realized something, were dyed with the color of my hair.

“Just imagining it makes my chest churn.”

As I stared blankly at her, she grabbed my hand with a confused yet somewhat impatient expression.

“In the end, I do hate you, but something feels very wrong.”

What’s suddenly gotten into her?

“…What did you do to me?”

Just as she asked me with a trembling voice, catching me completely off guard:

[Sharlotte Holmes becomes aware of her emotions for the first time.]

A notification I had never reviewed before appeared before my eyes.

[Hidden route unlocked.]

What?

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“Nevil?”

It was at that exact moment when Issac Adler froze at the message that appeared before him.

“…Why do I hear a woman’s voice inside?”

The voice of Rachel Watson, who had returned with a precious bottle of brandy for her fiancé, came from beyond the door.

*Click…*

The situation from a few hours ago was ironically being reenacted, just with different characters.