“It’s unfair.”
In the heavy silence, the gloomy Adler began to slowly speak while taking a peek at the gazes that were still directed at him.
“I didn’t intend for this to happen.”
“So you’re saying that everything up till now has happened according to your intentions?”
“No, it’s not that…”
“In that case, just how far was it according to your intentions, Mr. Adler?”
“Um, well…”
However, Adler, who was being nailed down by Holmes and Professor’s fierce gazes, began to stutter in response to their relentless questions.
“Speak honestly. Haven’t you, yet again, tried to seduce that woman to get your way with her?”
“Even if it’s you, the thief wouldn’t have attacked you so brutally. Just what in hell did you two do?”As both Professor and Holmes pressed him simultaneously, cold sweat began to run down his whole body.
“… He hit her!”
However, at that very moment, a young voice resounded from behind them.
“”………?””
“I, I told you not to leave the room…”
“Brother Adler hit the suspicious person!”
Upon the sudden arrival of the younger girl, everyone, including a startled Lestrade, turned their gazes toward her.
“… Can you explain why he did that?”
“The suspicious person was about to attack Brother Adler! So he resisted and hit her back!”
But even amid the tense atmosphere, the younger girl continued her story with a confident voice.
“Brother Adler did nothing wrong! It’s all the suspicious person’s fault!”
“… What did I say?”
Adler’s face, shedding cold sweat in torrents, brightened at her sincere testimony.
“But sis, you were sleeping until big sis arrived…”
– Stomp…!
“Ouch.”
While smiling bashfully and waving her hand at Adler, the younger girl stomped hard on the foot of the third sibling, who had been muttering by her side.
“I’m just a victim here.”
“Um…”
“And let me tell you, I hate that thief.”
However, thanks to Adler’s desperate argument, no one had heard the short groan leaking out of the small boy’s mouth.
“So, there are women you dislike too?”
“I’m human too, Professor. It’s natural for there to be people I dislike, just like how it’s natural for me to have people I like.”
“But there must be a reason that you dislike that woman, right?”
The professor, who had been staring at Adler, slowly bobbed her head from side to side and threw out that question.
“Well, Miss Holmes…..”
He was about to answer, as though it was only obvious to hate her, however, he suddenly stopped and closed his mouth shut.
“… Cough, cough.”
If he were to say something along the lines of Among Holmes’s admirers, there’s no one who likes such a blockhead character right here and now then…
“What about Miss Holmes, Adler?”
Adler could vividly envision what kind of action Professor Jane Moriarty, who had already sensed something and was inquiring with a cold expression, would take once she heard those words coming out of his mind.
“That guy tried to frighten me by impersonating Miss Holmes.”
Therefore, Adler, putting his talent for improvisation to use, tweaked the words he was about to say to Professor Moriarty.
“She was planning to knock me out and drag me to the bedroom.”
As he said this while slightly lifting his clothes, the clearly defined bruise marks caught the professor’s eye.
“However…”
“Indeed, it seems like I am about to lose it today.”
And the next moment…
– Crash!!!
The sound of shattering glass echoed throughout the living room.
– Drip…
Watson and Lestrade, who had been sitting quietly, immediately stood up with tense expressions.
“……….”
The professor, who had crushed the coffee cup in her hand with her strength alone, was emitting eerie grey mana, ignoring the blood leaking out of her hand.
“… Professor?”
“I don’t understand.”
As Adler tried to hesitantly start a conversation with Moriarty, the professor began to mutter in a low voice.
“Why should I just watch my adorable assistant get beat up?”
“………”
“He liked me first, not you. So why?”
A billowing wave of mana leaked out of her body, enough to instill a sense of horror and fright in one’s mind, and cold sweat began to drip from everyone’s forehead, except for Lestrade, in response.
“And you, why are you keeping Mr. Adler around if you can’t even protect him properly, huh?”
“………”
“I have confidence in protecting Mr. Adler. By spending every moment with him I can definitely ensure that not even a strand of his hair is touched. However, how many times have you already put him in danger, huh?”
“All of that was within my expectations…”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
The professor’s voice became even colder than before.
“Tell me, then… What is the meaning of the bruises marring his stomach?”
“That is…”
“Because of leaving him in the care of a greenhorn like you, dirty flies have started to swarm around Adler. They even had the gal to harm him.”
In the next moment, Moriarty, losing her usual elegant way of speaking due to her anger, began to raise her voice sharply.
“Adler is not someone who can be marked by such baseless, dirty lowlifes.”
“………..”
“Do you understand my words, Holmes?”
Cold sweat trickled down Charlotte’s cheeks as she listened to her, speechless.
“If you understand, then quickly, make a wager with me.”
“That is…”
“It’s fine if you decide, or if Mr. Adler decides. So hurry up already.”
The professor’s eyes, which were directed toward Charlotte and Adler, were shining darker than ever before.
“Let’s wage an all-out war over the right to take care of Isaac Adler.”
“… You think we can decide on such an important wager with such haste?”
“Don’t worry. I won’t leave this mansion until the topic is decided upon so take as much time as you need.”
“Um…”
In the midst of the atmosphere that was heading toward surefire disaster, Adler brought up a topic in a crawling voice.
“So, how about we wager on who catches the owner of this card first?”
“”………..””
“The one who catches the thief first wins. Well, something like that.”
At such a proposition, he was instantly met with frosty stares from the people around him.
“Why are you guys looking at me like that?”
“Are you crazy?”
“Are you out of your mind?”
Voices of disbelief followed one after another after his inquiry.
“It’s not just any person, but a person who dared to intimidate you.”
“It’s not a situation where we should divide our forces just for a bet.”
“Huh?”
Adler’s gaze began to waver.
“We will not be at odds in the matter of catching the thief. It’s distasteful, but sometimes a detective must tread into the shadows.”
“We’ll throw her in the basement and treat her like livestock, just how she likes it. Doesn’t that sound fun?”
The presence of a quest that can only be cleared by being kidnapped by the thief floated into his mind as Holmes and Professor miraculously came to the first agreement between them.
“I’m not so sure… that’s a good idea…”
“Stay still.”
“I reject that proposal.”
Unable to confess his desire to experience being kidnapped at least once, Adler shut his mouth after hearing the chill in their voices.
“Suggest another wager.”
“If I choose, there will definitely be complaints, so you choose, Mr. Adler.”
Quietly sighing to himself, he stood up and opened his mouth.
“I understand, but I don’t think we can proceed with this matter…”
“What?”
“I don’t think I can suggest anything, considering the position I’m in right now.”
At that very moment, as he grumbled with a slightly shameless expression…
– Squeak…
The firmly shut front door began to slowly open.
“Mr. Adler, you’re quite quick.”
“”…………””
“Or maybe, you’ve already noticed?”
At the entrance of the person who entered through the door, everyone’s eyes widened in shock.
“I’m sorry to interrupt the start of the all-out war, but I need to borrow Adler for a moment.”
Mycrony Holmes was standing at the door with inexplicably wide eyes and a beaming smile on her face.
“Sister, how can you do this when you just declared neutrality?”
“I don’t think I can stand any more uninvited guests.”
Glaring at her sister, Charlotte voiced a question filled with weariness and unease. Meanwhile, Moriarty began to whisper in a chilly tone while wiping the blood dripping from her hand.
“I’m sorry, but I have no choice.”
However, Mycrony, with one eye slightly open, looked at them calmly and raised her hand.
“I didn’t here come to get your permission.”
Then, countless presences began to reveal themselves from practically every direction.
– Clink…
“Do you know what the most common and fatal weakness of a detective and a villain is?”
As the Royal Knights and the British Guard, who directly serve the British Royal Family, started to surround Lestrade’s house, the faces of the two women contorted slowly but surely.
“State authority.”
Mycrony Holmes whispered with clear amusement in her voice as she watched the scene unfold before her eyes.
“… I don’t understand.”
Lestrade, who had been blankly staring at her, began to mumble in a voice that suggested her incomprehension of the current events.
“Even if it’s you, you shouldn’t be capable of exercising this much power.”
“………..”
“The power that your position holds is unofficial; you can’t wield it openly like this.”
And with that, she unconsciously grabbed Adler’s arm.
“Exactly what in the world is up with Isaac Adler?”
“……….”
“Why is everyone so anxious to get this man?”
“It’s okay.”
However, Adler, who politely pulled his arm away from her, walked quietly toward Mycrony Holmes and opened his mouth.
“We don’t have a choice now, do we?”
With that, the eyes of everyone in the room narrowed all at once.
“We’ll have to postpone the bet for a while.”
“””…………””””
“I’ll be back soon, so everyone should behave themselves.”
After Adler finished his statement and moved toward a smiling Mycrony Holmes, the room began to grow eerily quiet.
.
.
.
.
.
“… Ah, Professor Moriarty.”
The moment Adler stretched his arms toward the sky, basking in the fresh air outside with a bright smile on his face…
“You should come too.”
“Hmm.”
“Charlotte, you too.”
Mycrony Holmes, who had been quietly walking alongside him, casually told the professor and Holmes to accompany them.
“… Excuse me? Miss Mycrony?”
“……….”
“What I asked for in the message was to get only me out of here, didn’t I?”
Adler, whose breath had momentarily stopped at the scene, began whispering hurriedly into Mycrony’s ear.
“Is that so?”
However, a perplexed Mycrony Holmes looked at him with widened eyes.
“I didn’t receive such a message though?”
“What?”
“How can you even send and receive signals from a mansion surrounded by such a thick mana barrier? Even if Merlin himself was resurrected, it would be impossible for him to transmit a message from this place.”
“What are you…”
At that moment, Adler, who had just noticed the grey barrier engulfing the mansion, started to break into a cold sweat.
“… Wait, then why are you here?”
To his question, Mycrony answered with a quiet smile.
“As a British citizen, I can’t refuse an order from Her Majesty herself now, can I?”
“….. What?”
Suddenly, the British Guard and the Royal Knights, who brought a tented carriage, began to slowly approach Adler.
“Step aside.”
However, they stopped in their tracks at the cold voice of a figure who had suddenly approached Adler’s side.
“We will leave of our own free will.”
The professor, fiercer than ever, was pushing back the Guards and the Knights with her intimidating presence.
“All I can do is attach the professor and my sister as protectors by your side.”
Mycrony Holmes whispered in a soft voice to Adler as he kept blankly staring ahead— at the scene unfolding before his eyes.
“Be strong.”
As she stepped back after finishing her sentence, Adler’s complexion began to slowly pale further and further.
“”…………””
He couldn’t help it as the two women, whom he had just bade farewell to mere moments ago, were now quietly watching him from either side.
“… Hehe.”
Adler, looking at their dark eyes, forced out an awkward smile.
“So it has come to this, huh…”
Then, grabbing both women’s arms at once, he continued the words he hadn’t been able to finish earlier.
“… A new mystery is upon us!”
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