Ch.74Chapter 74 – On the Brink

“…Huh.”

After taking a vacation from the hospital for quite some time, Rachel Watson visited Lestrade’s house where her partner was staying.

“What are you two doing?”

“”…………””

She asks with a hollow laugh after witnessing the scene that unfolded as soon as she opened the front door.

“It’s nothing.”

“Help me.”

Her partner, who had been interrogating her and the Baines candidate at the hospital before suddenly rushing out of the room with wild eyes after seeing a message on her palm, had tied Adler to a chair and was sniffing him—that was why.

“It really doesn’t look like nothing, Holmes.”

“…I smell another female on him.”

“What?”

As Watson, who had been watching the scene with a frown, moved forward while muttering, Sharlotte—who had now completely abandoned the formal speech she used to use when talking to her partner—answered in a sharp voice.

“There’s a strange scent on Adler’s body, like someone poorly imitating me, Watson.”

“…This is a misunderstanding, Miss Holmes.”

“Mr. Adler. I agreed to the plan of giving the jewels to the phantom thief and sending him away from London, but I never agreed to you engaging in intimate acts with that thief.”

As Sharlotte whispered with darkly gleaming eyes while leaning in closer, the black restraints binding Adler tightened around him even more.

“My patience was completely exhausted last night when you secretly visited Countess Morcar’s hospital room and only slipped out the next morning.”

“How did you even…”

Adler looked at Sharlotte with cold sweat on his forehead, intimidated by her threatening aura.

“Shall I turn you into someone who can never wag his tail again?”

“…Miss Holmes.”

As Sharlotte gently sat on his knees and stared down at Adler while whispering, he trembled and looked up at her.

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding…”

He showed the most pitiful expression he could manage and quietly lifted his upper clothing, causing Sharlotte’s narrowed eyes to suddenly widen.

“That’s…”

“…I was just overpowered and pounced on by the phantom thief.”

On Adler’s stomach was a clear handprint.

“…But your vampire powers…”

“It was early morning, and I took a direct hit from garlic spray.”

As Sharlotte’s voice became frighteningly calm, Adler quietly turned his gaze to the side and continued.

“Didn’t you say you have the personality to return what’s done to you? I think that’s probably why.”

“………”

“But it’s fine now. It wasn’t that long, and ultimately, we successfully got rid of an unwelcome visitor in an already complicated situation…”

As his half-truth, half-false testimony—spontaneously blurted out to escape the situation—began to take concrete form, Adler’s voice started to tremble more and more.

“…That French country bumpkin is crossing the line because I’ve been too busy to deal with him.”

“Pardon?”

However, Sharlotte Holmes misinterpreted the trembling in his voice and began to mutter with a serious expression.

“I think we’ll have to go to France for our honeymoon.”

“That’s not necessary… wait, what did you just say?”

Adler, who had been sweating profusely while wondering how to take back his words that had unnecessarily provoked Sharlotte, now stared at her with a blank expression.

“”………..””

And then came the silence.

“So, you weren’t planning to?”

“……..”

“Don’t look at me with those awkward eyes. Marriage is just a contractual relationship based on mutual agreement between a man and a woman, nothing more, nothing less. Nothing will change from how things are now.”

Sharlotte, speaking in a deliberately calm voice, avoided Adler’s gaze with an unusually cute expression.

“…It’s just that my surname will change to yours.”

“……….”

Both Sharlotte and Adler, their faces bright red, fell silent with their heads bowed.

“Well, you two seem to be getting along.”

Watson, who had been watching the scene with a grimace, began to walk away while shaking her head.

“…So much so that you haven’t even noticed Lestrade glaring at you coldly from the back window.”

“……..!”

As she whispered with a slightly amused voice, Adler’s pupils began to tremble as he gently took hold of Sharlotte’s hand on his knee.

“…Hiccup.”

When Lestrade’s white eyes reflected in the front glass finally appeared in his pupils, Adler quietly began to hiccup.

“I wanted you to see.”

“You really…”

Meanwhile, as Sharlotte brazenly whispered that, Watson let out a hollow laugh and quietly moved toward the entrance.

“…I’ll be going then. I have a date with Neville tonight.”

“Hey, Watson.”

Sharlotte suddenly asked her a question.

“I understand that to make a baby, you need to receive the other person’s genes.”

“Huh?”

“So, how do you put the genes inside?”

At those words, Watson turned her head with a dumbfounded expression, only to see Adler desperately shaking his head behind Sharlotte with all his might.

“Why don’t you ask your boyfriend?”

“Watson, this isn’t my personal issue, but a critical matter that will determine the future fate of London…”

“Actually, I’ve never done it either.”

After giving them a slightly contemptuous look with cold eyes, she turned to leave.

“…I’ll let you know after I try it with my boyfriend.”

“………”

“That is, if a certain despicable man doesn’t interfere.”

As she muttered this while giving Adler a cold glance, she grabbed and turned the doorknob of the front door.

“”…………””

The faces of Sharlotte and Adler, who had been slightly frowning at Watson’s words, froze simultaneously.

“Y-You…”

“Impossible. How could someone approach so close without being detected…”

Not only Watson who opened the door, but even Lestrade, who had been watching them from the back window with a shopping basket on her arm, began to wear the same frozen expression.

“Sorry, but could you move aside so I can come in?”

It was because Jane Moriarty, with her characteristically cheerful and relaxed expression, was standing quietly at the entrance.

“Fortunately, I know that method.”

The previously lighthearted atmosphere in the house began to rapidly turn cold.

.

.

.

.

.

A few minutes later.

“””…………”””

Professor Moriarty sat quietly on the sofa, receiving the gazes of Sharlotte Holmes with her cold expression, and Rachel Watson and Zia Lestrade with their extremely tense expressions on either side of her.

“Hmm.”

After taking a sip of the coffee that Lestrade’s younger sister had brought, she placed it on the table and opened her mouth.

“The coffee aroma is rather poor.”

At those words, Lestrade quietly frowned.

“…I apologize. Our house is quite poor.”

“Well, I’m not particularly the type to enjoy flavors, so it doesn’t matter.”

The professor, who responded calmly to her words, took out a packet of sugar cubes from her bosom and began to modify the coffee.

“I doubt you came here just to drink coffee.”

Sharlotte, who had been quietly glaring at her, addressed her in a cold voice.

“What brings a defeated spinster here?”

“You say strange things.”

The professor responded to her words with a dark smile.

“I am neither defeated nor a spinster.”

“The person involved often doesn’t know their own situation. Even if they do come to know it, they rarely want to acknowledge it.”

“What you achieved that day was merely a temporary victory. Rather, you were so intoxicated by that hollow victory that you simply allowed me to clean up the entire back alley.”

“I’ll let the former slide since you won’t admit it no matter what I say. But the latter is a clear fact.”

“I’m still in my twenties. That’s a clear fact.”

“But when I reach your age, how old will you be?”

The professor quietly closed her mouth at Sharlotte’s voice full of mockery.

“Let’s not get ugly over something you can’t win, shall we?”

“Just like that unsightly figure of yours that probably won’t change even if you reach my age?”

“Excess fat is simply useless for detective work.”

“I wonder if you could even breastfeed a child.”

“Was the age attack quite painful? You’re being so childish.”

As their uncompromising verbal battle continued, the already cold atmosphere sank even further.

“Enough, just state your business.”

“I was just about to do that.”

In that atmosphere, she finally began to get to the point, shaking her head from side to side.

“Hand over Issac Adler.”

“What nonsense. Just leave.”

“To be honest, I have the power to forcibly take Issac Adler from you right now.”

“Try it if you can.”

Sharlotte, who had been quietly mocking the professor, responded in an intense voice upon hearing those words.

– Grrrrrr…

Then, the professor began to emit a murderous aura with a chilling expression.

“…Indeed, you’re no ordinary person.”

“Please calm down, Professor.”

While Watson, who had been fingering the gun in her bosom, muttered with a slightly pale expression, Lestrade, who had been standing quietly beside her, began to darken her eyes.

“If you cause a disturbance, we’ll have no choice but to subdue you.”

“Your sisters are quite pretty.”

“I advise you not to cross the line.”

And so, the situation began to flow toward a critical moment.

“Of course, I won’t cross it.”

Moriarty, who had been suppressing the auras of all three with her own murderous intent while wearing a sinister expression, suddenly withdrew that energy and smiled with her eyes.

“My cute assistant wouldn’t like such a crude method, and wouldn’t accept it either.”

“…Hah.”

“………..”

Watson finally let out a deep sigh, escaping the suffocating pressure, while Sharlotte tried to hide her cold sweat as she stared directly at the professor.

“So this is the kind of being you’ve been living with.”

And Lestrade muttered in a low voice, glancing at Adler who was still tied to the chair and trembling.

“That doesn’t mean I won’t do anything. I’d like to return Adler to my office soon.”

The professor, who had been looking them over as if they were cute, leaned back on the sofa and began to tilt her head.

“So let’s make a bet.”

“And if I refuse?”

“I’ll take it as a sign that you want an all-out war.”

“…You’re being quite troublesome.”

Sharlotte muttered with a hollow laugh at the sight.

“I’m the one showing mercy here.”

“We’re the ones who have what you want.”

The cold gazes of the two women quietly crossed.

“…So, what kind of bet do you want?”

“It would be pointless for me to decide that. You, the loser, would surely find fault with it.”

“Then who decides?”

“There’s only one person, isn’t there?”

Eventually, all their heads turned to the side.

“…Hiccup.”

Adler’s hiccups, which had barely stopped under those dark gazes, started again as he quietly watched their expressions.

– Whoosh…!

Something flew in from the slightly open back window—thanks to Lestrade’s voyeurism—and instantly stuck into the table where the women were sitting.

“”………..””

The expressions of the women, who were quietly reading the message written on that something, began to darken simultaneously.

– I will take your treasures before I leave London.

Instead of the original message, a card of “The Fallen Tower” with a drawing of a girl wearing a monocle and sticking out her tongue was stuck upside down on the table, wobbling.

“Ta-da!”

“Shut up.”

“Shut up.”

As Adler, who had been smiling awkwardly with his arms spread, closed his mouth dejectedly, a heavy silence began to flow through the room.