Ch.6Chapter 6 – A Scandal in Bohemia (3)

The day after Issac Adler’s house burned to ashes from an unknown cause.

“Haa, haa…”

The Queen, who had rushed out of her hotel immediately after receiving Holmes’ telegram asking her to come to Watson’s hospital, was catching her breath in the hospital lobby.

“I came right away as soon as I received your telegram, as you asked.”

“Yes, well done.”

“What is this urgent matter that we need to discuss immediately?”

Holmes, who had been waiting for the Queen on the lobby sofa, answers her question.

“Naturally, it’s about the photograph.”

“…Could it be that you’ve already obtained it?”

“Not exactly, but it’s as good as in our hands.”

“Oh, ooh! Is that true?”

The Queen brightens up and takes Holmes’ hands.

“I was right to entrust this case to you. How can I ever repay this kindness…”

“The case isn’t over yet. Please calm down and listen to what I have to say.”

But Holmes spoke in a cold voice and gestured for the Queen to take a seat.

“…Holmes.”

“What is it, Watson?”

Watson, who had been quietly observing from beside Holmes, begins to whisper cautiously to her.

“Are you really okay?”

Holmes usually maintained a serene expression and indulged in her hobbies whenever a case showed signs of being solved.

But for some reason, she was now irritable, like a girl going through puberty.

“I’m fine, Watson.”

“Really?”

“…I said I’m fine.”

The situation felt quite disconnected from her usual mature and all-knowing demeanor.

“Please explain what’s going on.”

“………..”

“I’m so nervous I could go mad. There’s not much time left before Adler’s deadline.”

But the Queen, unable to sense this discrepancy, began urging Holmes with an anxious expression.

“First of all, yesterday we failed to find the photograph.”

Holmes began explaining with the same irritable voice while looking at the Queen.

“…What?”

“But now I know where the photograph is.”

“Is, is that true?”

The Queen’s eyes widened at hearing they had failed to find the photograph, but then brightened again upon hearing they knew its location.

“Where on earth is that damned photograph?”

“It’s in room 102 on the third floor of this hospital.”

“What?”

“Because that’s where Issac Adler is hospitalized with full-body burns.”

The Queen’s expression turned to one of confusion upon hearing this.

“Why is he…?”

“It’s a long story.”

Holmes closed her eyes tightly, tapping her fingers on the desk and sighing.

“…A very long one.”

And then Holmes began explaining what had happened the day before.

“Adler did that?”

“That notorious scoundrel?”

When Holmes’ explanation reached the part where Adler had jumped into the flames to save her and the servants, not only the Queen but also Watson asked with disbelieving expressions.

“You lost consciousness yesterday, so you didn’t see it with your own eyes. That’s understandable.”

“But still…”

“But Watson. Judging a matter based on preconceptions is the shortest path to distorting the truth.”

Holmes raised her voice, somehow scolding Watson.

“But even I find it strange. How could Adler, who treats women as nothing more than toys to play with and discard…”

“Your Majesty. I’m sorry, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make.”

Holmes interrupted the Queen, who was still muttering with an expression of disbelief.

“I had assumed the photograph would be in his mansion. However, Adler went in and out of the mansion several times without retrieving the photograph.”

“That, that’s…”

“Since he planned to release the photograph within 36 hours, he wouldn’t have used a bank or private vault where retrieval procedures are complicated. And naturally, he wouldn’t hide it somewhere insecure with no protection.”

As Holmes continued her fluid explanation, the Queen listened with a blank expression.

“Considering all this, the location of the photograph becomes clear. Adler had been carrying the photograph on his person from the beginning.”

“On his… own body?”

“He already had the most valuable thing with him, which is why he had the luxury to save other things even in the midst of the fire.”

But Holmes, who usually enjoyed lecturing with an arrogant smile when explaining deductions to clients, somehow seemed less confident than usual.

“Though that still doesn’t explain why he saved me…”

Holmes added, frowning like a girl stuck on a difficult math problem.

“So if we go to Adler now, we can recover the photograph?”

“…Well, I suppose so.”

Ignoring her words, the Queen urgently asked, and Holmes answered in a low voice.

“Dr. Watson and I will retrieve it for you.”

“That, that’s not necessary…”

“Adler is a mana user. What if you go and he counterattacks?”

The Queen, who initially looked somewhat disgruntled, began to reconsider after hearing this.

“Watson and I have experience dealing with strange cases and mana users. But Your Majesty doesn’t have such experience, do you?”

“Indeed… that’s true.”

Finally, she was convinced.

“Then I’ll wait for you here.”

“A wise choice.”

Holmes and Watson rose from their seats, bowed to the Queen, and headed toward the third floor where Issac Adler was located.

“Holmes, why did you insist on going?”

Watson suddenly asked Holmes.

“Adler has been prescribed morphine and sleeping pills to forget the pain. The Queen could have gone alone easily…”

“You talk too much sometimes, Watson.”

Holmes brushed off Watson’s question curtly while quickening her pace, then tilted her head and looked back.

“…Who was that nurse?”

The nurse who had just passed by them somehow looked familiar.

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“…Phew.”

I never imagined I would run into Holmes and Watson just as I was leaving the room disguised as a nurse.

‘That was a close call.’

When Holmes turned around and looked at me suspiciously, I was so startled I thought I’d been caught.

But perhaps for the same reason she failed to recognize Irene Adler who greeted her while disguised as a man in the original work.

Fortunately, Holmes didn’t seem to recognize me in my nurse disguise.

‘So that really was Holmes.’

I didn’t feel much when I saw her lying there disguised as a nun.

But seeing her walking toward me wearing her signature coat with a cape, it finally felt real.

Holmes really is a woman. And quite a young one at that—a beautiful girl with an arrogant yet somehow haggard look in her eyes.

I suppose all the characters I’ll meet from now on will have their genders swapped like this.

And somehow I’ll have to get involved with most of them.

“Sigh.”

After letting out a small sigh, I widened my eyes and steeled myself.

There are two main things I need to do now.

First, I need to settle matters with the Queen of Bohemia, Holmes’ client who is currently targeting me.

If I don’t resolve this quickly, my life will be in danger, as Professor Moriarty said.

And then, after that.

[Love-Hate Relationship: Become Holmes’ ‘That Man’.]

I need to complete this quest.

Otherwise, this world will collapse.

‘I never thought I’d see the day.’

I never dreamed I would be the one to hand Holmes her first defeat.

But I hope she understands this is all for her sake.

Though her abilities match those of the original Holmes, Sharlotte has the weakness of being mentally immature.

This necessary failure will provide the growth and plausibility she needs to become the only one capable of standing against Moriarty.

“Ah, ah. Can you hear me?”

Although we differed in age and gender, I tried to ease my guilt about using my knowledge of the original work to defeat someone I deeply respected.

“Please answer if you can hear me, Professor.”

Before leaving the academy, I had put on the tiny mana receiver that Professor Moriarty had given me and muttered in a low voice.

– I can hear you clearly, Adler.

Then, Professor Moriarty’s voice began to sound in my ear.

– So what should I do now?

Professor Moriarty, who was sitting in a café across the street, waved at me with an excited expression.

“Consider this a rehearsal before we begin our formal criminal consulting activities.”

As a plot device in this world, I have a duty to help the protagonist, Sharlotte Holmes, grow.

“From now on, I’ll act according to your orders, Professor.”

But at the same time, I also have a duty to develop Jane Moriarty, her arch-enemy and final boss, into a plausible character.

“Don’t be too nervous, just take it easy and go slowly.”

My other main quest is to transform her, who has just entered the world of criminal consulting, into an emperor ruling London’s underworld.

“If anything happens, I’ll take full responsibility.”

– That’s quite a romantic statement.

In my field of vision, I could see the Queen of Bohemia sitting anxiously in a chair in the lobby.

“As your assistant, let’s bring down the Queen of Bohemia, Professor.”

It’s time to use Moriarty as a cheat code to escape this impossible situation.

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Meanwhile, at that moment.

In the hospital room where Issac Adler was staying.

“……..”

Sharlotte Holmes, who had carefully opened the door and entered, was looking down at the bed with an expression of disbelief.

– Please open this as soon as you see it.

Instead of Issac Adler who should have been lying there, there was only an envelope.

– Miss Sharlotte Holmes.

On that envelope, her name was written in Adler’s handwriting.

“Holmes, what on earth is going on?”

“………..”

It was the moment when the first failure was etched into Sharlotte’s previously flawless detective career.