Ch.81Chapter 80 – Enforcing Discipline (2)

A few minutes before the gunshot rang out in Caroline’s mansion.

“”…………””

Two shadowy figures wearing masks were lurking in front of the mansion window.

– Thump, thump…

“Are you alright?”

They were none other than Issac Adler and Rachel Watson.

“…Just get on with it.”

Biting her lip while trying to ignore her pounding heartbeat, she whispers in a deliberately calm voice to Adler standing in front of the window.

– Swish…

He gives her a slight eye-smile, then extends his finger and places it against the glass.

– Sizzle…

As smoke rises and the glass is cut in a circle, Adler skillfully reaches his hand inside and opens the window.

“What about the alarm… magic?”

“Sister Elise disabled the security just for this spot.”

“That easily?”

When Watson asks in a small voice, impressed by his skillfulness, his nonchalant reply comes:

“Anything is extremely difficult to breach from the outside, but breaches from the inside are remarkably easy.”

After finishing his words, Adler steps through the open window and gestures to her, causing Watson’s breathing to become rough.

“Miss Watson?”

“………”

“Are you alright?”

Then comes Adler’s soft, concerned voice.

“If you’re too nervous, you can come a bit later…”

“…No.”

However, the reason for Watson’s rough breathing wasn’t fear, as Adler thought.

– Thump, thump, thump…

Standing before the window that gaped like a tiger’s maw, the fear that had initially settled in Watson’s heart had completely disappeared.

Rather, she was feeling a slight thrill and excitement at the fact that she, who had been a guardian of the law alongside Sharlotte, had now become a violator of the law.

“Haah…”

“…Um?”

A serious level of thrill addiction.

That symptom, acquired during her participation in the war, eliminated what little guilt remained in her and added a gambling-like interest to the adventure.

The only flaw of London’s top elite lady had become an advantage, beginning to excite her.

“…I’m coming now.”

“Why are you so drenched in sweat?”

However, it was inevitable that her appearance, soaked in excessively secreted adrenaline, looked quite perverse.

“…It’s rude to say such things to a lady.”

And so, Watson, whose body was already slightly damp, pressed herself close to Adler and entered the mansion.

“Congratulations.”

“…Huh?”

Playfully tapping her lower abdomen, Adler whispers in a low voice near Watson’s ear.

“You’ve officially become a criminal now.”

Then, holding her hand, Adler begins to navigate through the darkness.

– Shudder…

As her lower abdomen physically vibrates from the impact while Adler’s whisper evokes a sense of transgression, Watson, overcome with a strange feeling, lowers her head deeply and follows along with a shudder.

‘…How is he so skilled at this.’

Meanwhile, Adler was navigating through the thick darkness as if it were his own bedroom.

Thanks to this, Rachel Watson found herself being completely led along.

By the time they passed through a corridor faintly smelling of cigars and entered a space filled with furniture, her hand was completely soaked with sweat.

“………”

Perhaps due to her extreme tension as she relied solely on Adler’s hand in the darkness?

The sensation of Adler’s delicate hand being enveloped in her long hand and soaked in sweat was transmitted so vividly.

“…Hmm.”

As her mind became several times more active, by the time they reached the end of the corridor, she could even feel the slightest movement of his hand.

“Excuse me.”

“………?”

As Watson unconsciously flinched, Adler stopped walking and gently turned to look at her.

“Please stop fondling my hand.”

As he spoke with half-lidded eyes, Watson quietly released the hand she had been holding.

“Do you like my hand that much?”

“…Something like that.”

Then, staring down at Adler, she began to mutter.

“It’s similar to a hand I used to fondle for hours.”

“…You’re just too nervous.”

After briefly wearing a blank expression, Adler smoothly made an excuse and continued walking forward.

“Well then, shall we begin?”

“………”

“Keep watch here.”

Before them appeared a secret vault clearly covered in layers of security.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to crack this. According to Elise’s testimony, there’s a high possibility that the letter is inside.”

“…That’s reckless.”

After briefly staring at the massive vault with dark eyes, Watson muttered, and Adler responded with a slight smile.

“Even if we crack it, there’s no guarantee the letter is inside, right?”

“Then we’ll have no choice but to break into Miss Caroline’s bedroom.”

“…Phew.”

Placing her hand, half-mixed with Adler’s bodily fluids, inside her coat, Watson begins to take deep breaths while caressing the hard gun.

“You’re the worst friend.”

– Sizzle…

“I’d rather not share a cell with you, though Holmes might be different.”

As Adler’s hand touches the vault, Watson mutters while quietly sweating.

“…….?”

But what she expected didn’t happen.

“What…”

– Sizzle… sizzzzle…

The high-performance magical stone vault, worth at least a thousand pounds, instead of sounding an alarm, was being caressed by Adler’s hand with small sparks flying.

“What did you do…?”

“Nothing special.”

When Watson, who knew all too well how amazing this situation was thanks to Holmes’ hobby of cracking vaults, asked with wide eyes, Adler answered cheerfully.

“I seduced the vault.”

“…..That’s impossible.”

Watson’s momentarily hazy gaze quickly sharpened again.

“I think hacking and flirting are no different.”

“…What?”

Adler continued saying incomprehensible things to her.

“Bypassing security of this level is something I’ve done so many times it’s boring.”

“…When I was talking about my past earlier, I explained it, didn’t I?”

“……..”

His logic seemed understandable, but her mind couldn’t quite grasp it.

“Just what are you…”

Humans had fully mastered the concept of ‘mana’ less than a century ago, and the world’s scholars had collectively created the concept of ‘magic’ just 20 years ago.

Yet here was an individual interfering with the system of magic, even modifying it at will or creating something entirely new.

It wasn’t an empty statement when Holmes, who had just been introduced to mana, said that it would be difficult to catch up to Adler in terms of magic usage.

“I should be able to disable it in about 10 minutes. Such a complex security structure in this era. Geniuses truly exist in any time.”

“…Hmm.”

If that’s the case, how extraordinary must Holmes or Professor Moriarty be, who constantly outplay Adler intellectually?

“Well, you’re quite good.”

Feeling as if smoke was rising from her head despite only thinking briefly, Watson vaguely muttered and quietly averted her gaze to look at the end of the corridor, and it was at that very moment.

“……..!”

Red eyes glowing in the darkness directly met Watson’s gaze.

“Wh-what…”

– Meow.

As she felt the hair on her body stand on end and pointed the gun she was holding forward, Watson squinted her eyes at the sound coming from far away.

– Meooow.

“…What is it.”

Finally realizing it was a red cat, she let out a sigh of relief.

– BANG!!!

“…Hic.”

It was at that very moment that a gunshot rang out in Caroline’s mansion.

“Hmm.”

“I-I didn’t shoot!”

After briefly sweating with fear that she might have accidentally fired her gun, Watson realized her gun was still loaded and hurriedly explained to Adler, who had quietly turned his head.

“…I know.”

After briefly frowning, Adler removed his hand from the vault and began to walk away with a dark smile.

“It seems it’s time to discipline those two as planned.”

“…What?”

“Miss Watson, please guard the vault.”

After saying that, he instantly disappeared into the darkness, leaving deep silence around Watson.

“……Ugh.”

Thus, Watson, suddenly left alone in the dark corridor, began to feel cold sweat forming on her forehead.

– Click…

It was at that moment.

“Huh?”

The vault behind her began to open with a suspicious sound.

“………Huh?”

Watson turned her head in surprise, and her eyes immediately became blank.

“”…………””

Sharlotte and Professor Moriarty, who were grabbing each other’s hair with cold expressions inside the vault, slightly turned their heads and stared at her blankly.

.

.

.

.

.

Meanwhile, at the same time.

“Wh-who are you… you people…”

“”……….””

“Why are you doing this…”

Caroline, who had been shot silently in the leg, was sitting on the floor of her bedroom.

“I-I’ve never killed even a fly. Although I did play with some foolish men a bit… that’s all.”

She was pleading with a pale face to the two masked assailants who had just failed to shoot her with her own self-defense gun.

– Click…

“I-if you kill me now, it’ll be troublesome for you!”

But as a gun was pointed at her again, she spoke with an increasingly desperate voice.

“The mansion’s servants must have sounded the alarm by now. The London Police Department must have received the distress signal. You’ll barely escape if you start running now without looking back!”

“”……….””

“A-and my letters aren’t here. To be precise, if I don’t give direct orders in person, by next week all the journalists in England will be reading the letters I’ve collected…”

“Bluffing won’t work with us.”

But as the assailant pointing the gun at her chest whispered with dark eyes, Caroline trailed off.

“The mansion’s servants are all in deep sleep due to the sleeping drug mixed in their dinner, and someone like you wouldn’t entrust your lifeline letters to others.”

“…What do you want?”

“Your other remaining leg.”

As she began to whimper, a cold voice came from in front of her.

“I-if you need money, I can give you several times more. So…”

“…Sorry.”

The assailant with a finger on the trigger whispered in a calm voice.

“What I can gain by incapacitating you isn’t something that can be valued in mere money.”

“Ah…..”

As Caroline’s eyes filled with despair at those words.

– Click!

Suddenly, another loaded gun appeared from behind her.

“Because of bastards like you, I don’t carry just one…!”

“…….!”

“Die!!!”

As Caroline, in a panic, pointed the gun forward with a do-or-die attitude, the assailant hurriedly pulled the trigger of the long gun they were holding.

– Pik…!

– Bang…!

Two gunshots fired with a slight time difference.

“This is troublesome.”

“”……..!?!?””

It was at that moment that a blond-haired boy suddenly appeared before their eyes and calmly stepped between them.

“Wait…”

– Crack…!

Although the stunned assailant desperately reached out and lunged forward, the boy’s body had already been mercilessly torn apart by the impact of the two gunshots meeting.

“…No.”

As a result, as the boy tilted sideways and collapsed, the assailant knelt down and caught him, desperately removing their veil.

“Ugh, uwaaa…”

Similarly, the assailant’s companion threw off their veil and hurriedly wrapped it around the boy’s chest, attempting to stop the bleeding.

– Drip…

But the boy’s blood began to helplessly soak through the veil.

“No… Master…”

As the companion began to whimper with a helpless expression watching the scene, the girl who had fired the gun wore a blank expression.

“…Look at this.”

A cold voice began to come from the boy’s lips.

“This is what happens when you just fight each other.”

“…….!”

At that clear voice, despite its paleness, the two girls’ eyes began to waver.

“If you two had gotten along well, this wouldn’t have happened…”

Adler muttered to them in a slightly sad voice.

“…Huh?”

His eyes soon became hazy.

“……..!?!?”

Instead of Sharlotte Holmes and Professor Moriarty as he had expected, the petite and cute Celestia Moran and Silver Blaze with her ears drooping down were looking down at him, whimpering.

“I, I was.”

Moran’s sorrowful voice began to reach Adler’s ears as he stared blankly at the scene.

“Th-they said Adler had been kidnapped…”

“………”

“I-I wanted to get you back, so I tried my best…”

Miss Moran, who was kneeling blankly in front of him, soon distorted her expression and began to shed tears.

“Ugh, uuu.”

“…Excuse me.”

“Uwaaa……”

Eventually, she buried her face in Adler’s chest and burst into sorrowful tears.

“Don’t die……..”

‘I was clearly informed they weren’t here…?’

– Click…

“…Uh oh.”

Adler’s eyes, which had been showing a very confused expression at the situation that had deviated considerably from his prediction, soon began to waver greatly.

“…Hehe.”

This was because Silver Blaze was holding a gun to his temple with slightly crazed eyes.

“Are you crazy?”

After watching the scene, Adler hurriedly got up and took the gun away from her.

“”…………..””

The two girls stopped crying and began to blink and stare at Adler, who seemed quite fine for someone with a hole in his chest.

“…Ow ow ow.”

As Adler rolled his eyes and let out an awkward groan while lying on the floor, a heavy silence began to fill the room.