Ch.96Chapter 96 – The Adventure of the Three Garydebs (3)

– Knock, knock, knock…

A few days after Sharlotte Holmes received Adler’s message.

“Who is it?”

“Excuse me.”

“Oh…”

Nathan Garydeb, who opened the door of the mansion at the sound of knocking, looks at the girl pushing her way inside without a word and speaks with a bewildered expression.

“Excuse me, but who are you…?”

“A colleague.”

“What?”

Then, stopping in place, she speaks with a confident expression.

“I guess you didn’t receive the message in advance?”

“Ah…”

“Let’s not waste any more time. Guide me to where he is.”

“…Then, please follow me.”

With a dubious expression, he eventually nods and begins to lead the girl.

“By the way, we requested that this case be handled as discreetly as possible…”

“Two people is still discreet.”

“But given the nature of our work, if the police or detectives were to catch wind of this…”

“You talk too much, don’t you?”

Amidst this, the girl stops walking and raises her eyes at the continuing complaints.

“Would you prefer to handle it alone?”

“N-no, that’s not…”

“I don’t want to fight unnecessarily. Just finish guiding me.”

Nathan Garydeb closes his mouth quietly at her ice-cold attitude and continues walking with a frown.

“This way.”

After some time had passed.

When he stops at a room still covered in fingernail marks, the girl quietly brightens her eyes.

“…Your colleague hasn’t arrived yet, so you can go in first.”

“You can leave now.”

As she speaks without even looking at him and begins to unlock the chains with the key she was given, Garydeb looks at the girl with a distrustful expression before shaking his head and turning to leave.

“Be careful. Although she’s become a bit more docile recently, a monster is still a monster.”

Just before he disappears, his warning echoes through the corridor, but the girl enters the room without so much as blinking.

“Y-you’re early, Mr. Adler…”

“Hey.”

And then, she begins to walk forward, looking at Neria Garydeb, who is mumbling in a low voice with her head bowed and eyes downcast, with an expression that suggests she expected this.

“W-who are you? Who are you?”

“Never mind that, answer my questions.”

Only now realizing that the person before her is not Isaac Adler, who had persistently visited her room for the past few days, but an unidentified girl, Neria Garydeb nods with a confused expression.

“What is your relationship with Isaac Adler?”

“Pardon?”

“Did you promise him your love? Did you promise to date or secretly marry him?”

The girl leans in with dark eyes and begins firing questions.

“If not that, did you share physical intimacy? How far did you go? I hope you can tell me you didn’t have a sexual relationship.”

“Um…”

“Do you even love Isaac Adler in the first place? That’s the most important thing. Maybe you’re just being used…”

Just as sweat began to run down Neria Garydeb’s haggard face at these clingy, obsessive questions, at that very moment.

“…Miss Holmes, you shouldn’t torment the patient like that.”

From behind them came a familiar voice mixed with playful laughter.

“Adler.”

“To begin with, unlike previous associates, she and I are not in that kind of relationship.”

“…’Unlike previous’ associates, you say.”

“I’m not shameless enough to deny what has happened.”

“Seeing that shameless expression, I still can’t trust you.”

“…U-um. What he says is true.”

As the girl, Sharlotte Holmes, turns her head and exchanges words with Adler, who meets her sharp gaze with a relaxed expression, Neria Garydeb, who had been watching nervously from behind, begins to speak in a timid voice.

“Are you perhaps his lover? I don’t know what misunderstanding you have, but Mr. Adler and I don’t have the kind of relationship you’re thinking of.”

“Is that so…”

Sharlotte, who didn’t deny being his lover when asked, looks her over with a slightly suspicious gaze before turning her attention back to Adler.

“Everything will come to light when I investigate anyway, so if you’d be honest now…”

“I-it’s just… I’ve eaten Mr. Adler a few times. That’s all.”

At the timid voice from behind, she stops speaking and looks blank.

“It’s a misunderstanding.”

“I-I didn’t particularly want to eat him. But I had no choice if I wanted to get paid…”

“…Really.”

A heavy silence began to fill the room.

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“…So when you say you ate him, you literally mean you cut off and ate his flesh?”

“What did you think it meant?”

“That would be the worst in a different way.”

A few minutes later. In the mansion’s guest reception room.

“I had no choice to achieve my goal, Miss Holmes.”

“What goal?”

Adler and Sharlotte, having temporarily left Neria Garydeb who was showing signs of another seizure, begin to converse while looking at each other intently.

“To deceive that innocent girl with the unusual surname into believing she has inherited a fortune, give her the courage to go outside, and then quietly dispose of her outside as requested by my client, her brother. That is my current goal.”

“…I know you won’t do that.”

“No, I will definitely succeed.”

Sharlotte, who had chuckled while muttering, frowns as she looks at Adler, whose expression remains unchanged.

“If that were your real goal, you wouldn’t have called me here and revealed your entire plan.”

“Miss Holmes. This is just the bet we’ve always had. Whether the case is solved or remains forever unsolved. That kind of mystery.”

“…But now, you’ve wagered the life of a living person.”

“Did you think I only ever staged love dramas?”

Saying this, Adler takes out a small bottle from his pocket and takes a sip.

“That’s alcohol…”

“We’re not playing house, Miss Holmes.”

“………”

“Whether I win or you win. It’s a death match that only ends when one of us disappears from London.”

After staring at him for a while, Sharlotte speaks with a slightly dark look in her eyes.

“…What if there’s a way to end this without either of us disappearing?”

“Miss Holmes, I assure you there is no such way.”

With a relaxed expression, Adler finishes the alcohol in the bottle and pulls out a strand of his hair to hand to her.

“Unfortunately, no matter how much of my DNA you extort, what you want won’t happen.”

“………..”

“It’s useless even if you sneak into my hideout and rummage through my trash like last time. Your method is fundamentally wrong, and even if you found out, someone like you would instinctively reject it.”

A smile briefly appeared on Sharlotte’s lips, but Adler, whose head was swaying as the alcohol began to take effect again, failed to notice.

[That child just smiled.]

“…Mr. Adler.”

As he looked at the message that suddenly appeared before his eyes with a puzzled expression.

“Did you forget that I like you?”

Suddenly sighing, Sharlotte whispers while staring into Adler’s eyes.

“…I like you, Mr. Adler.”

As Sharlotte whispered this with her chin resting on her hand, staring at him, Adler’s confident eyes wavered slightly.

“And the same goes for you.”

“………”

“Our eyes being tinted with each other’s colors, I hear that’s rare even in married couples.”

Sharlotte’s whisper, having caught that small change, became more emotional.

“We like each other more than anyone else in London, yet we must fight in the end?”

“…That’s.”

“Isn’t that too tragic?”

As Adler quietly bowed his head, Sharlotte carefully stroked the back of his hand and spoke.

“Why don’t we just give all this up and move to a quiet countryside to live together?”

She said this in a casual tone, but with eyes full of sincerity, glancing at Adler.

“…We could keep bees as a hobby and live happily. What do you think?”

“………”

“We could have a son and a daughter. How about it?”

A considerably long silence flows between them.

“…Let’s focus on the case, Miss Holmes.”

“Is that your answer?”

“The reason I called you here is because there are secrets hidden in this case that are difficult to investigate as a criminal consultant’s assistant.”

Eventually, Adler, having exhausted all the alcohol that had spread through his body, spoke in a slightly sorrowful voice.

“So, temporarily as your assistant…”

“…Don’t regret it.”

After looking coldly at Adler, Sharlotte stands up and, as usual, connects Adler’s arm to hers with black handcuffs while whispering coldly.

“Because this was your last chance.”

“…What?”

At those words, Adler quietly tilts his head.

“The chance to make agreed-upon parenting plans.”

Turning her head, Sharlotte quietly moves toward the exit and mutters.

“Do you think I still don’t know?”

“Know what…”

“…How to make babies.”

That brief statement was enough to fill Isaac Adler’s alcohol-soaked mind with terror.

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[Hey.]

“………?”

But that wasn’t the end.

[You’re facing a game over crisis right now.]

“…What?”

As Adler was being dragged out by Sharlotte with a stiff expression, an even more terrifying sentence appeared before his eyes.

[Probability of the protagonist retiring from this case instead of Isaac Adler: ]

“…Eek?”

Adler’s face instantly turned pale as he grabbed Sharlotte’s arm and pulled her toward himself.

“…What are you doing?”

“Stay still.”

“W-what is it? Suddenly…”

A devastating number had appeared before his eyes.

[95 percent.]

“Did you think I’d get excited if you suddenly got aggressive?”

[Make sure to protect what you want to protect.]

As Adler looked down at Sharlotte, who was muttering in a shrinking voice with her eyes downcast, cold sweat began to pour down his entire body.

“…Shall we go to the countryside now?”

“What?”