Ch.67Chapter 67 – The Blooming Detective (5)

“Issac Adler.”

“Mr. Adler.”

The first thing that entered my vision when I opened my eyes was Professor and Sharlotte Holmes, still pointing guns at each other’s heads and glaring at one another.

“I’ve administered first aid. Fortunately, it was a weak spell that I could drive out with my mana.”

“I neutralized it with my mana. I trust you won’t believe such a transparent lie.”

As I stared blankly at them, the gentle whispers of the professor and Sharlotte overlapped.

‘…How did they do that?’

I had chewed one of the most appropriate curse capsules I had, but it was powerful enough to make me suffer for at least a week to buy time.

Yet they drove it out simply by infusing mana into my body?

Is that even possible?

“Mr. Adler. Tell me clearly even now. This girl made you open that box on purpose because of her delusions.”

“The reason you’re in this state is because of Professor Jane Moriarty, Mr. Adler. You and I both know the truth.”

As I curled up quietly, unable to pretend I was in pain due to my refreshed mind, they began to mutter again while firmly gripping their triggers.

“…Tell me you like me.”

“Please tell me you love me.”

“What on earth are you doing…?”

I asked in a shriveled voice, terrified by the sight, and the two women who were glaring at each other with deadly smiles began to answer simultaneously.

“It’s a death game. The most rational and simple solution in this situation.”

“You just need to tell us who you like, Mr. Adler. No pressure.”

“…What?”

When I quietly asked again, momentarily unable to understand their words, their eerie voices returned.

“We are both concentrating all our strength on our fingertips touching the triggers of our guns.”

“If one of us applies force first in this situation, naturally the other person will fire back.”

“But if you, Adler, choose one of us with all your heart?”

“Then even for the briefest moment, the person not chosen will inevitably have a gap.”

How should I react to this chilling conversation?

“But it’s just my personal choice.”

“…………”

“It can’t have such a big impact on you…”

I tried to speak in a slightly cheerful voice, but when the gazes of the two women who had been glaring at each other suddenly turned to me, I could only quietly close my mouth.

“…No.”

These women are serious.

“Adler, make your choice quickly.”

“My arm is starting to hurt.”

“…Do you know this is a crime?”

I tried to cling to common sense like a drowning man grasping at straws, but the response was hopeless.

“I’m just trying to save you from a mentally ill person who thinks you and I are London’s shadow figures. It’s clearly self-defense.”

“I’m just trying to defeat the monster that’s sucking the life out of Mr. Adler. And I’ve already written a duel contract. It’s completely legal.”

“That can’t be right.”

A duel contract? No matter how much magic and supernatural phenomena rule this world, such medieval customs couldn’t possibly remain in the 19th century.

“…The Queen is trying desperately to stop it, but it’s still legal for now.”

“Are you going to disregard a ladies’ sport?”

Come to think of it, even in the original world’s England, it remained customary until the mid-19th century.

If so, I’m in trouble.

This could lead to a game over right here.

‘…Obviously I shouldn’t take either side.’

If the protagonist Sharlotte Holmes dies, it’s world destruction.

But the same applies if Professor Moriarty, the final boss, dies.

[Plausibility Warning!]

[Plausibility Warning!]

[Plausibility Warning!]

My biggest mission is none other than making her the final boss.

If Professor Moriarty dies before entering the final scenario, it’s obviously an immediate game over.

“Make your choice.”

“Choose.”

But if so, what exactly should I do now?

“If you won’t choose, we’ll handle it ourselves.”

“You seem confident?”

“I don’t think I’ll die to a delusional youngster.”

“I agree.”

As I was looking at their shaking guns with cold sweat all over my body.

– Bang bang bang!!!

“……….!?”

At the sudden rough knocking sound from outside the room, the two women turned their heads.

“Hup.”

I took a deep breath and threw myself at them with all my might.

“…………”

And then came the silence.

“Hey, are Adler or Sharlotte in there…?”

“…Phew.”

Hearing Inspector Lestrade’s voice from beyond the room, I sighed in relief and began to whisper in a low voice as I took the guns from the hands of Professor Moriarty and Sharlotte Holmes, who had both been pushed to the floor by me.

“Don’t ever do this again.”

“…………”

“I’ll really get angry next time…”

But something was strange.

“…Mr. Adler?”

Professor Moriarty, who had first made eye contact with me after entering the room, was looking at me with a blank gaze without resistance.

“What’s with those eyes?”

“Huh? Ah…”

My eyes, dyed black, reflected in her gray eyes.

“That’s…”

Since it was my original eye color, I was slightly flustered, not having thought to hide it because it felt so natural.

“…Professor Moriarty.”

It was then that Sharlotte Holmes, who had been lying under me without resistance like the professor, began to whisper with a triumphant smile.

“I only fight battles I know I’ll win.”

“………”

“Too bad. If Mr. Adler had shown a little courage, we could have eliminated you.”

“…You’ve gone too far.”

The professor, who had been listening to that voice with a blank expression, began to mutter while urgently reaching out to me.

“To artificially color my assistant’s eyes…”

However, the professor’s hand, which was gently caressing my eyes, began to stiffen.

“You’ve seen it for yourself, haven’t you?”

“…This.”

“It’s not a trick using colored contacts or artificially injected mana.”

Professor Moriarty’s eyes began to tremble.

“Issac Adler’s eyes have been dyed as mine for a long time.”

Sharlotte Holmes whispered coldly in her ear.

“Unlike you, who had no influence on him at all.”

“………”

“So, ready to admit it?”

She, who had been looking at the stiffened Professor Moriarty with a sneer, stood up holding my hand.

“Even without Adler saying it directly, the answer is already clear, isn’t it?”

After hesitating for a moment, I had no choice but to be pulled along by her hand.

“This time, victory is mine, Jane Moriarty.”

The professor, who had been staring blankly at us, reached out to me, but Sharlotte Holmes knocked her hand away and raised the corner of her mouth.

“So for the time being, would you disappear from our relationship?”

And then came the silence.

“Wh-what’s happening?”

“Nothing important, Ms. Lestrade.”

Professor Moriarty, who had been blinking her eyes unable to accept what had happened to her, staggered to her feet as I was about to leave the boarding house with Sharlotte.

“…Issac.”

And she called my name in a blank voice.

“Professor, that’s…”

I hesitated for a moment and tried to say something while sweating coldly, but that attempt didn’t last long.

– Swish…

“Just leave her and let’s go.”

Sharlotte Holmes, who had gently caressed my eyes, wrapped her arm around my waist and hurried me along.

“…We need to make a baby.”

For a fleeting moment, she mimicked that lewd smile Moriarty had worn when she took Adler’s first kiss, glancing at the professor.

“Until the vacation… I’ll be away for a while.”

I quietly bowed my head and muttered in a low voice, then began to walk away quietly.

“…This time, the professor has indeed been defeated.”

This was the only way to prevent the imminent game over.

“……???”

“Don’t just stand there dumbfounded. I’ll need your escort for a while, Ms. Lestrade.”

“What?”

“A monster who doesn’t understand her own feelings is targeting Issac.”

And so I left the room with Sharlotte, who was hurrying her steps with a victorious smile on her face, leaving Professor Moriarty behind.

– Creak…

And then a deep silence began to flow through the boarding house.

“………”

Only the irregular sound of Professor Jane Moriarty’s rough breathing, left all alone, echoed.

.

.

.

.

.

“…..Ha.”

How much time had passed since Sharlotte and Adler left the boarding house?

“Defeat?”

Jane Moriarty, who had staggered to her feet, began to mutter in a frighteningly calm voice.

“Don’t make me laugh.”

But unlike her voice, her expression, which usually bore an overflowing smile, was quite distorted.

“There’s no way I could be defeated by a youngster like her.”

Despite muttering like that to herself, the professor herself had already somewhat accepted it.

“Isn’t that right, Mr. Adler…”

That she had, for the first time in her life, been completely defeated by someone.

– Tremble…

Blood flows from her hand, which she has clenched so tightly it’s turning pale.

A sensation she had never felt before was dominating Professor Moriarty’s entire body.

– Grind…

Until just a few months ago, she had been wandering around looking for someone who could defeat her.

Until then, if someone appeared who could defeat her, the professor was prepared to spend her life in happiness that would melt her, dedicating herself to bringing down that existence.

But now, as she was grinding her teeth so fiercely that an eerie sound echoed through the room, she felt no happiness at all.

The emotion that the professor was feeling now, facing her first defeat that she had spent her life searching for, was completely opposite to what she had longed for.

“…Issac.”

Immeasurably deep anger, bewilderment at something completely unexpected, a sense of loss for something that should have been there, and the emptiness that began to follow.

“………”

Even though just one assistant had disappeared from before her eyes, Professor Moriarty, who was trembling with such complex emotions, put her shaking hand into her pocket.

– Crunch…

And then, she quietly took out a sugar cube from a flask container and began to chew it.

“……….”

But that magical crystal that had breathed life into the professor’s existence for decades betrayed her expectations all too easily.

“…Ugh.”

Far from sweet happiness spreading throughout her body, something bitter and lukewarm circled in her mouth, reminding her of the now all too obvious fact.

“…This isn’t it.”

The simple fact that the threshold of stimulation created by the existence of Issac Adler could no longer be replaced by anything else.

– Crash!!

As the professor gritted her teeth and applied force to her hand, the flask broke and the sugar inside scattered on the boarding house floor.

“…I’ll believe this is also your test.”

She began to walk away, trampling it under her foot.

“Until the vacation ends, I just need to reclaim you from her, right?”

She quietly pulled the trigger while pointing a gun at Sharlotte Holmes’s portrait hanging on the wall beyond.

– Bang…!

“Then I’ll show you.”

And then, looking coldly at her face with a hole right in the middle of her head, she began to mutter.

“But after that.”

– Bang!!

Glancing briefly at her own gray eyes reflected in the mirror next to it, she shattered that mirror with a bullet as well and began to walk out of the boarding house.

“…You’ll have to deal with me in full.”

Muttering in her characteristically monotone voice, she spread a murderous aura in all directions.

– Rumble…!

It was from that moment that a thunderstorm began to pour down from the darkened London night sky with thunder and lightning.

“It won’t take long.”

That unidentified weather anomaly, which wasn’t in the forecast, continued for several days thereafter.

.

.

.

.

.

Meanwhile, at that time, Adler was walking quietly with his head down through the darkened night streets.

“…It’s raining.”

“Is it?”

When he muttered this while stretching his hand forward at the suddenly pouring rain, Sharlotte answered with a smile.

“Maybe a dragon is crying somewhere after having its treasure stolen.”

“…What?”

“Don’t you know? There are many such stories in fairy tales. Haven’t you seen them?”

Of course, Adler had no way of knowing English fairy tales, let alone the fairy tales of this world, so he just blinked with a blank expression.

“…We should find shelter somewhere.”

“That’s true.”

“Then back to the boarding house…”

“No.”

Sharlotte urgently cut off his words as he muttered while looking at the increasingly fierce rain.

“Let’s hide out for the rest of the vacation.”

“…Why?”

“Are you really asking?”

She clung closely to Adler and carefully looked around.

“We don’t know when the professor’s minions might barge in.”

“…Excuse me, but I am that minion.”

“The victim has a good sense of humor.”

“No, it’s true…”

Adler, who had a slightly troubled expression, carefully opened his mouth.

“Then let’s go to my hideout first.”

“…Hideout?”

“It’s nothing.”

But realizing that place was a core location of the organization that should never be revealed to Sharlotte Holmes, Adler hastily shook his head.

“…Then shall we stay at an inn?”

“An inn?”

“Since we don’t have anywhere else to go…”

Then Sharlotte, who had spoken in a slightly shy voice, quietly reached out her hand.

“I happen to know a place nearby…”

And then, carefully rubbing her fingers on the back of Adler’s hand, she whispered in a low voice.

“…But do you have money?”

“What?”

“I don’t have any money right now.”

But at Adler’s troubled voice, Sharlotte’s expression suddenly turned cold.

“A big actor like you, Mr. Adler?”

“…I’ve had to spend a lot of money recently.”

“But you must have some left?”

“I’m sorry, but I’m completely broke right now.”

At those words, she muttered with a slightly disappointed look.

“…I didn’t bring money either because I left in a hurry.”

As slightly troubled expressions appeared on the faces of Adler and Sharlotte, it was then.

“…Excuse me.”

Zia Lestrade, who had been fidgeting alone at the mention of Adler being broke, opened her mouth in a low voice.

“…How about my house?”

“What?”

“Stay over, if that’s okay…”

When Lestrade, with her head bowed, quietly fidgeted with two fingers while saying this, Sharlotte, who had been staring at her for a moment, opened her mouth.

“Would that be okay?”

“……….”

“…That Issac Adler sleeping in the same space as you?”

Then, Zia Lestrade slowly raised her head and answered while looking at Sharlotte.

“You don’t need to force yourself…”

“It’s fine.”

“Why?”

When Sharlotte tilted her head to the side and probed, she quietly averted her gaze and muttered in a cold, businesslike voice.

“…Because I like him.”

Sharlotte’s gaze, watching her, began to darken slightly.

“Well, you don’t need to force yourself.”

“I’ll say it again, I’m fine.”

“……..?”

It was at that moment that a red message, different from usual, appeared before Adler’s eyes as he was tilting his head with a bright expression beside them.

[System Error!]

[Error Code 256: Overflow]

[Starting system check…]

“…Whoa.”

A weak groan escaped from Adler’s mouth as he was caught between the two girls who were staring at each other while standing in the rain.