Ch.86Chapter 86 – The Shadow of England (2)

“Hey, you know.”

“……….”

“You’re pretty awesome.”

A few minutes after Issac Adler spat out curses at Gil the Reaper with a fierce expression.

“…Cough.”

“This is the first time I’ve ever felt this kind of pain.”

Gil the Reaper, with his cheek swollen red, was staring at Issac Adler, who had barely managed to restrain himself to the chair, with a blank expression.

“Honestly, it was even a bit scary? Being grabbed by the collar, slapped multiple times, kicked in the stomach, and then having my neck strangled by you on top of me…”

“……….”

“It was a rare experience that doesn’t happen often. Like feeling like a victim? It gave me chills.”

A sweet murderous intent began to slowly color her gaze.

“Ah… I really like you, Adler.”

– Stab…

“Keep looking at me with those contemptuous eyes, okay?”

Gil the Reaper, pushing a medical knife into Adler’s heart more carefully than a few minutes ago, whispered in a low voice as he pressed his swollen cheek against Adler’s.

“And keep fighting back when I try to kill you in the future. Struggle wildly like a beast and strangle my neck like you just did.”

“……….”

“I’ll do my best to butcher you too, promise?”

At that, Issac Adler began to glare at Gil the Reaper with eyes like he was looking at an insect.

“Hehe… I love you.”

– Crunch…

Unable to contain the excitement in her heart from that gaze, Gil the Reaper hugged Adler tightly, and his sharp teeth dug into her chest.

“…How insolent, Adler.”

– Crunch crunch crunch…

“Hey, if you leave a scar on my chest, that’s blasphemy, you know? So I think it would be better if you hit me in less visible places like my stomach or strangle my neck like before…”

After staring at him for a moment, she muttered with a concerned look.

“…You speak as if you’re really royalty?”

“Huh?”

“Despite stealing that body.”

At those words, Gil the Reaper, who had been blinking, quietly began to scratch his head.

“It hurts my feelings when you say that.”

“What’s there to feel hurt about…”

“I do have multiple bodies, but this one is closest to the original.”

Then, with a decadent smile, she sat demurely next to Adler.

“Of course, my identity is a bit diverse. I can become anyone I’ve killed with my own hands.”

She suddenly put on a modest expression and began to explain carefully.

“A Jewish barber working in a moderately busy barbershop, a kind lawyer who has medicine as a hobby, an artist who mainly draws creepy pictures, even a nurse who usually dresses as a man…”

“……….”

“The feeling of transforming into a being whose life ended by my hands is truly the best. That feeling of stealing someone else’s life and being reborn, it’s not as good as murder, but it’s totally awesome.”

As Adler continued to look at Gil the Reaper like she was an insect, she blushed and rested her head on his shoulder.

“But, this body is what I was born with. It’s a bit awkward to say it myself, but I have quite a noble body.”

“………..”

“So my offer to become your mistress wasn’t a trap, it was sincere. I wasn’t making a judgment as the worst serial killer in the newspapers, but as a princess…”

Her eyes grew slightly colder.

“…Why are you showing it so obviously.”

– Crack…

“Then I have no choice but to treat you as a murderer.”

Simultaneously, Gil the Reaper pulled out the knife she had stabbed into Adler’s heart and thrust it back in forcefully.

“I love you, I love you, I love you, I like you…..”

“…I have a question.”

As she began to slash with the knife with each word she uttered, Adler, watching her with pale eyes, reached out to grab the knife and asked her a question.

“You say you love me, so why are you trying to kill me?”

“…You did this last time too.”

At that, she slightly relaxed her grip and began to mutter.

“Even when you were being brutally slashed by me in that place full of Werebeasts, you asked me questions without even blinking…”

“Answer my question.”

“…That’s exactly what I mean.”

Her eyes darkened.

“Think about it. What if a serial killer who can only feel love and happiness from killing people one day meets a victim who doesn’t die no matter how many times they’re killed? How do you think you’d feel?”

“So… is it a Curse…?”

“Curse? I’ve never thought of it as a curse…”

Tilting her head in that state, she gently caressed Adler’s ice-cold cheek and continued her story.

“Calling it a curse feels like justifying it somehow? I don’t like that. Killing people is the most enjoyable thing in the world for me. Rather, I’m a chosen person, that’s what it is.”

“……….”

“Actually, it is a bit strange. All the people I’ve killed because I liked them turned out to be criminals? I used to think it was just a coincidence. But it’s becoming too much to dismiss as coincidence…”

Her expression suddenly became gloomy.

“Yes, come to think of it, that’s why I had a slump.”

“Even criminals get slumps?”

“But right at that moment, you appeared with a ‘ta-da!'”

But within just a few seconds, her face brightened again.

“When I first saw you, I felt the strongest murderous impulse I’ve ever felt in my life.”

“……….”

“It was love at first sight. Since that day, my heart has always been captivated by you, Issac Adler.”

“…Ugh?”

As she whispered with a voice full of passion, she suddenly reached out with both hands and grabbed Adler’s neck.

– Crack…

“I loooove you…..”

Eventually, even drooling without realizing it, Gil the Reaper mounted him and began to strangle him.

“…Heck?”

Adler, who had been staring at her, reached out with all his might and grabbed her neck, causing an awkward smile to appear on Gil the Reaper’s face.

– Squeeze…

Thus began the sincere neck-strangling between her and Adler.

As their eyes slowly became hazy and then completely unfocused, the strength began to leave their hands.

“”……….””

After a few more tens of seconds, they both finally lost consciousness and collapsed onto each other.

“…Hehe.”

The first to regain consciousness was Gil the Reaper, who had buried her head in Adler’s chest.

“Phew, haah…”

As Adler, who had exhaled all at once, trembled, she erased the worried look that had slightly risen and began to whisper with the expression of a girl in love.

“As expected, no matter how many times I kill you, you never die.”

“……….”

“So, I’ll make my final offer to you.”

She grabbed Adler’s hand and said.

“Give up being a detective and a professor, and come to me.”

“……….”

“Let’s live happily ever after, killing each other.”

But when Adler didn’t respond, Gil the Reaper began to whisper with a slightly confused look.

“Hey, I’m the future queen, you know? I have the ability to make someone like you a royal consort.”

“……….”

“Of course, if you don’t like it, we can live normally too.”

She smiled shyly and watched Adler’s reaction.

“I’ll learn household chores. Cooking and knitting and such, I’m not good at them, but I’ll work hard to learn.”

“…….”

“So live with me.”

“……….”

“Killing each other until we get tired of it, okay?”

But Adler just quietly looked at her without answering until the end.

“Adler, can’t you hear me…”

“…No.”

Just as Gil the Reaper’s voice was getting slightly intense, a firm voice came out of his mouth.

“What?”

“I have no intention of being with you.”

At that, Gil the Reaper quickly distorted her expression and began to look at Adler with a serious gaze.

“Why? Whywhywhywhy?”

She gripped the knife tightly and began to brutally slash Adler’s body.

“I like you, so why don’t you like me?”

“…Ugh.”

“I love you, I’m telling you I love you, Adler?”

As it became too violent, Adler’s consciousness began to become hazy due to excessive bleeding.

“I’ll kill you? I’ll kill you? If you don’t want to die, tell me you like me too…”

“That’s wrong.”

“…Eek?”

But Adler, who was looking at Gil the Reaper with clear eyes, kicked her in the stomach with all his remaining strength.

“Ugh…”

“What you’re doing now is not love.”

Eventually, as she sat on the floor holding her stomach and sweating coldly, Adler began to whisper in a low voice.

“Then, what is it…?”

“This is just violence. It’s just your one-sided violence, not love or an expression of affection.”

“No, it’s not. It is love…”

At his whisper, Gil the Reaper muttered glumly with an expression of incomprehension.

“True love is…”

After quietly staring into her eyes for a while, Adler suddenly brought his head close to her.

“…Mmph.”

His tongue gently penetrated into the mouth of Gil the Reaper, who was looking puzzled.

“”………..””

And then came the silence.

“…? …..???”

Experiencing something for the first time in her life, Gil the Reaper froze stiffly with a question mark on her face.

“…Phew.”

After rolling his tongue inside her mouth with his eyes closed, Adler slowly pulled his head back and began to quietly gaze into her eyes.

“This is what it is.”

As the mixed bodily fluids stretched between their lips and broke, he began to whisper to her again.

“Not the violence you inflict, this is love and an expression of affection.”

“……….”

“Do you understand the difference now?”

At that, Gil the Reaper’s eyes began to quietly shake.

“It’s strange.”

“What is?”

“My tongue feels ticklish. It still feels like you’re rolling your tongue inside my mouth.”

After a moment, she muttered blankly and then began to growl, baring her teeth.

“It’s still strange. My chest is hot. I don’t like this.”

– Crack…

“The sticky feeling still remains. It’s unpleasant. I, I don’t feel good.”

As her knife dug into his neck, Adler’s eyes began to lose focus.

“What’s love? No matter how I think about it, this isn’t love.”

“Hey…..”

“I feel too strange. It’s stupid. It’s annoying. It’s weird. I really hate…”

As Gil the Reaper, who seemed somewhat confused, was about to pull her knife out of Adler’s neck while rambling.

“Next week at this time.”

“…….?”

“How about a date, just the two of us?”

Grabbing her arm with his cold hand, Adler began to whisper with a calm expression.

“I’ll show you what true love is.”

– Crack…!

“…Ugh.”

As Gil the Reaper, who was staring down at him, unconsciously broke out in a cold sweat and put pressure on the knife, at that very moment.

– Bang…!!!

A sharp gunshot was heard from behind them.

“Argh!?”

In an instant, Gil the Reaper’s eyes flashed and she twisted her body to avoid a fatal wound, but she couldn’t avoid having her shoulder torn apart.

– Hissssss…

After staggering for a moment, she began to disperse into the room as black smoke.

“…What are you doing?”

Soon reappearing as a shadow in the corner of the room, she growled fiercely while grabbing her shoulder, which unlike usual, was not healing.

“Why are you interfering?”

“……..”

The perpetrator of the shooting, holding a gun with smoke coming out of it, coldly glared at her.

“Didn’t you say you would confront me, Officer?”

Taking a deep breath and withstanding Gil the Reaper’s murderous intent, she bit her lip as she saw Adler’s pale smile, tied to a chair with his body slashed all over.

“…She’s my girlfriend now.”

Eventually, a quite appropriate answer flowed from her mouth.

“”……….””

The gazes of Britain’s strongest police officer and worst murderer, piercing each other, began to quietly intersect in the air.

“Are you prepared, Princess?”

“You’re quite annoying…”

It was only a few seconds later that Lestrade’s bullets and Gil the Reaper’s knife collided, creating a dazzling flash.