Ch.94Chapter 94 – The Adventure of the Three Garydebs

When his subordinates didn’t respond to any of his calls, Professor Moriarty, looking slightly anxious, stood up and was about to head to the pub when—

“Am I a bit late?”

“”……….””

With that nonchalant voice, someone entered the hideout.

“I see you were talking with my assistant.”

“…Assistant?”

The client tilted his head in confusion at the statement from the boy who had just brought him to the pub, and whose disguise was quite obvious.

“Weren’t you the assistant and that person over there the criminal consultant?”

“Ah, my mischievous assistant likes to play pranks,” Adler replied with a faint smile.

“He often pulls such jokes when I’m not around.”

“…Adler?”

“Shh, stay quiet before you get scolded.”

He sat down right next to Professor Moriarty, who was tilting her head in confusion, and whispered while stroking her hair.

“We must treat clients with seriousness.”

“……..”

“You still lack experience, so watch and learn from me.”

The professor stared blankly at Adler, at a loss for words due to this sudden treatment.

“So, what kind of request does our client wish to entrust to us?”

“…Is this really okay?”

“If you’re that uncomfortable, you can just leave.”

But ignoring her, the conversation between Adler and the client began.

“But honestly, I wouldn’t do something so foolish if I were you.”

“Why not?”

“Because if you leave now, only we would benefit from obtaining the identity of someone who will commit a crime in the near future. Isn’t that right?”

“…Hah.”

As Adler said this, his eyes gleaming through the fog, the client sighed and muttered with a tired expression.

“So we’re already in the same boat…?”

“We haven’t set sail yet, so whether you disembark midway is up to you, but you should be prepared to accept a certain level of risk.”

“…Well, I have no choice. I was planning to hire you anyway.”

“Then, would you please tell us about your desires now?”

Finally, the client stared at the silhouettes of Adler, who was sitting upright with gleaming eyes, and Professor Moriarty, who was sitting quietly.

“It’s simple.”

The woman, who had been looking slightly tense, pulled out a photograph from her bosom and whispered in a dark voice.

“Kill this person for me.”

And for a very brief moment, silence began to flow through the hideout.

“…Who is this person?”

“Who knows? To kill someone, all you need is a face and address. Is an explanation really necessary?”

When Adler quietly asked the question in that silence, the client responded with a slightly excited voice.

“Not necessarily. We usually hear the details quite thoroughly to prevent any mistakes during the operation, if the client is comfortable with it. But if you don’t want to, there’s nothing we can do.”

“…Then, please proceed with the job as is.”

After calming her breathing at Adler’s composed voice, she continued.

“The address is written on the back of the photo, so there shouldn’t be a problem. Now, let’s move on to discussing the payment…”

“But I’m a bit curious now.”

“…About what?”

Suddenly interrupting the client, Adler whispered softly with a cold smile.

“I’m curious why Nathan Garydeb, a famous lawyer whose stock has been rising recently in London, would go so far as to dress as a woman to visit us and request the murder of his own younger sister.”

“……..!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the client’s face filled with shock.

“W-what are you talking about…”

“For a lawyer, you seem to have a rather unusual style of personally searching for evidence? You have quite good disguise skills, making full use of your delicate face.”

“H-hey!”

“Well, in an era where stupid detectives are indiscriminately cultivated due to bizarre cases, I suppose that’s what it takes to become London’s most popular lawyer.”

As the client’s face began to turn pale, Adler quietly added.

“But you’re still far from deceiving the eyes of professionals like us. It was a good decision to wear loose men’s clothes instead of women’s clothes to hide your physique, but it’s still too obvious to our eyes.”

“………”

“Even my assistant who received the letter already knew your identity and name.”

After saying this, Adler stroked Professor Moriarty’s head once more.

“That’s why I told you earlier. You’d regret it if you just left.”

“Ugh, ugh…”

“Now, would you please explain why you want to kill your own sister, since you’ve been exposed anyway?”

While the professor, who had been about to say something to him, closed her mouth again and quietly accepted his stroking, the client, who had been sweating profusely, finally sighed as if resigned.

“…She must die.”

The man, who had changed from “she” to “he,” began to speak with an exhausted expression, returning his voice to its original tone after having disguised it as a woman’s.

“She’s a Demon, that one.”

“Why do you think so?”

“My sister transforms into a monster periodically. And quite a horrific one at that.”

“Hmm…”

The client’s already tired face became even more haggard.

“She’s usually docile, but once she changes, she loses her mind and rampages uncontrollably. No doctor or expert has been able to cure her madness.”

“Does she not recognize her family?”

“My father died from an infection caused by wounds he received while trying to restrain her. My mother, who was a medical doctor, developed paranoia and alcohol dependency afterward.”

“That’s serious.”

“All I had left was that damn sister and my half-crazed mother. Oh, come to think of it, I also had the meager inheritance my father left behind and a crumbling house.”

The client smiled coolly in that state.

“Fortunately, after working myself to death, I managed to escape from extreme poverty, but my sister’s seizures only got worse as time went on.”

“That wound…”

“It happened just yesterday. When my sister suddenly started having a severe seizure, even all the servants couldn’t subdue her. The moment I approached to help, I was attacked.”

The deep wound on the arm he extended was reflected in the eyes of Adler and Professor Moriarty.

“At that moment, I saw her image overlapping with when she attacked my father.”

“Hmm…”

“That’s when I realized. If things continue like this, I’ll either die by her hands or waste away, one of the two.”

The client’s eyes darkened as he muttered this.

“…I don’t want that. I’ve devoted half my life to my sister. I want to be free now.”

As his voice intensified, Issac Adler quietly nodded.

“Please kill the monster living in my house.”

“”………”

“I don’t want to be associated with her anymore. So preferably, don’t handle it in the house, but lure her outside and deal with her in a quiet place. Of course, it will be quite difficult since she’s pathologically obsessed with staying locked in her room…”

“You want it to be treated as a disappearance?”

“However you do it, the cleaner the better. Just make sure I’m not implicated.”

“…Very well.”

He quietly nodded and replied.

“I accept your request.”

“Aah…”

Simultaneously, a sigh mixed with various emotions escaped from the client’s mouth.

“Before that, let me ask a few questions.”

“…Do as you please.”

When Adler leaned in and asked questions, the man nodded with a tired face.

“When do the seizures usually occur?”

“…It’s unclear. They usually happen at night, but sometimes she has seizures early in the morning as well.”

“The wound on your arm that you showed earlier, could you show it to me in more detail?”

“I’ll show you as much as you want.”

Adler and Professor Moriarty carefully observed the arm that the man extended through the fog.

“…Last question. How are the servants in your mansion organized?”

“Almost all of them are strong men to subdue my sister. Besides them, there are a few maids, a secretary who helps with my lawyer work, and a dedicated doctor.”

“I see.”

“Um, by the way…”

The man, having finished speaking, asked them with a slightly anxious expression.

“Regarding the payment… how should I…”

“…Well, it won’t be too burdensome for you.”

Adler replied in a relaxed voice.

“From your house, I’ll take just one thing as payment for the request. How does that sound?”

“…What?”

“If you have no objections, I’ll be departing now.”

As he stood up, the client’s eyes filled with anxiety and impatience.

“Are you starting already?”

“Why? Did you want to say a final goodbye to your sister?”

But the client quietly shook his head at those words.

“…Then, is it guilt?”

When Garydeb couldn’t say anything to that, Adler chuckled and muttered as he left the smoke-filled room.

“Isn’t that emotion like poison for a lawyer?”

“………”

The client quietly bowed his head after hearing those words and followed him out of the hideout shortly after, leaving silence to flow through the room.

“…Huh.”

Only the small moan released by Professor Moriarty, whose body had been tickled by Adler who had kept his hand inside her clothes throughout the conversation with the client, echoed softly in that silence.

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– Adler.

“Ah, is that you, Professor?”

A few hours later. At the antique mansion located at the address Garydeb had written down.

“When did you implant the telepathic magic circuit in my head? It’s starting to scare me.”

– What was that behavior you just showed?

Adler, who had arrived at the location, unpacked his luggage and was walking down the corridor, responded with a cheerful voice without batting an eye to Professor Moriarty’s voice that suddenly echoed in his head.

“Professor, you’re the King in chess terms. I’m the Queen.”

– What are you talking about?

“If I pretend to be the real consultant and move actively like this, I can protect and hide the King, which is you, Professor, to the maximum extent. Isn’t that right?”

After a moment of silence, the professor’s voice echoed in his head again.

– Not that, I mean when you put your hand inside my clothes.

“Oh, that…?”

Adler narrowed his eyes and responded with a hint of alcohol on his breath.

“Am I not allowed to touch you, Professor?”

– That’s…

“I really like you too, Professor. Why do you freely touch me but don’t let me touch you?”

At that, the professor’s voice went quiet.

– I never said you couldn’t touch me…

“Then there’s no problem, right?”

– However, I read in a book. The place you touched…

“Ah, by the way.”

He ignored the professor’s uncertain voice and changed the subject.

“What do you think about this case?”

– It’s quite interesting yet familiar.

The professor’s sharp reply came back instantly.

– It’s very similar to our very first client, the ‘Red Mana League’ case.

“In what way exactly?”

– The fact that to solve the case, we need to get a sickly girl who’s locked up in a room to come outside.

“I see. Is that the only similarity?”

In response to Adler’s interested voice, the professor continued her explanation.

– Diana Wilson was a Vampire. And not just any vampire, but the last remaining pureblood vampire in the world.

“…And?”

– Think about it. Sudden madness and superhuman strength that even all the servants together can’t handle. And symptoms that mainly appear at night.

As she spoke, a smile appeared on Adler’s face.

– Although it’s too early to jump to conclusions due to lack of evidence and data, one likely condition keeps coming to my mind.

“What is it?”

– Lycanthropy syndrome. In other words, a werewolf.

The moment the professor finished her explanation, Adler quickened his pace with a smile in his eyes.

“…An interesting hypothesis.”

– So what will you do now? Even for someone like you, dealing with a wolf without reason would be difficult.

Suddenly, Adler began scratching his arm with his fingernails.

“To befriend a wolf, you need to let it taste some blood.”

After confirming that red blood was beginning to form there, he stopped in front of a door covered in nail marks and bound with chains.

[Probability of death: 52%]

[Do not go beyond this point. It’s dangerous.]

At the same time, a bright red warning message appeared before his eyes.

“…If I get eaten slowly, I won’t die.”

But he muttered calmly and began to slowly unlock the chains with the key he had been given in advance.

[Are you out of your mind?]

“As long as I don’t cause indigestion, it’s fine.”

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Just a few dozen minutes later.

“…Grr?”

The girl who had been sitting down, hunched over and making low animal sounds, wiped her somehow wet mouth with her sleeve and came to her senses.

“……..”

And then came the silence.

“Are you finally coming to your senses?”

Adler, who had collapsed right in front of her covered in blood, greeted the girl who had been heavily bound in chains with a welcoming smile.

“Then, could you please stop chewing on my finger?”

“…Mmph.”

“I’d like to reattach it before it gets digested.”

The girl, who had pounced on him when he entered her room defenseless and had been enjoying the taste of blood after a long time, began to turn pale rapidly.