༺ The Red Mana League (5) ༻
Entering August Academy was easier than expected.
Of course, there were many complications for Adler, who was skipping school without permission and Holmes who was an outsider, to enter the academy through the regular route.
“Still, how about we change our clothes separately?”
“……..”
“Miss Holmes?”
However, Adler was a genius of disguise magic and a great actor while Holmes was London’s top detective with equally impressive disguise skills.
“Is it alright for a detective to behave like this?”
“…A detective is someone who teeters on the edge between legality and illegality.”
In just a few minutes, having transformed themselves into quite ordinary-looking new students in a bathroom near the academy, they managed to divert the security guard’s attention and smoothly infiltrated inside the Academy.
“Miss Holmes.”
In order to prevent the idle curiosity of aspiring detectives, the two of them were holding each other’s hands to hide the handcuffs binding them while heading toward the underground.
“You’ve been looking a bit off since earlier.”
“…Have I?”
In the midst of their infiltration, Adler quietly posed a question to Holmes, walking beside him.
“Did I do something wrong?”
“I’m not sure.”
However, her response was noticeably colder than before.
“Was the comment about watching over the detective as an assistant that upsetting to you?”
“Of course not, Mr. Adler.”
Holmes then quickened her pace with a cold smile on her face.
“I’m quite happy right now.”
“Um…”
Adler, scratching his head while feeling that something was truly off about Holmes, soon smiled quietly.
“Well, I don’t know why you’re acting like this, but we’ve finally arrived at our destination.”
Then, Adler extended his hand, pointing forward.
“It’s the basement where Miss Wilson has worked for over a week.”
A dark basement where no one treaded for a long, long time.
Unlike the past, when it was only covered in dust, now the floor was filled with complex formulas, giving off a rather occult atmosphere.
“As you can see, there’s quite a bit here.”
“……..”
“This place will likely be our last chance to find a clue. So…”
Adler, taking this scene in cautiously, stepped further inside.
“Huh.”
However, he couldn’t move forward any further.
That was because Holmes, who had been standing beside him with the other part of the handcuffs, had stopped moving and was now completely immobile.
“………”
Her eyes were quietly shining in the dark.
“Miss Holmes?”
When Charlotte Holmes encountered any crucial evidence, she would unconsciously fall into a kind of trance.
Once in this state, the passage of time and the sensations around her would significantly slow down, and her already extraordinary cognitive abilities would amplify to their very limits.
Usually, she could only enter this world by sitting in a comfortable chair for an extended period of time, focusing all of her senses, or utilizing the effects of hallucinations that certain stones would provide her with.
However, for some reason, the current Holmes was able to deeply engross herself in that world, standing rigidly in place.
“Miss Holmes. Miss Holmes…”
– Snore, snore…
Despite Adler poking her cheek with a curious expression, she showed no response.
“Come on, snap out of it…”
However, the moment he was playfully stretching Charlotte Holmes’ soft cheek…
“…Ugh.”
Suddenly, she jabbed his side with a curved smoking pipe she took out from her pocket and then brought it to her mouth.
“…These aren’t good for you. Especially not when your body is in a state of Mana Poisoning.”
Adler, who was rubbing his side and getting up from the ground, snatched the smoking pipe from Holmes’ hand.
“That’s not tobacco; it’s a remedy for Mana Poisoning.”
“You don’t call masking the symptoms of Mana Poisoning with nicotine a remedy, Miss Holmes.”
“Are you worried about me now?”
At her question, Adler smiled brightly in response.
“You’ve seemed quite fatigued for some reason since earlier.”
Into Adler’s line of sight came the weary look in Charlotte’s eyes, perhaps from walking around all day.
“Given your usual health condition, you get tired easily. You should take some time off for recovery.”
“…Ha.”
Adler genuinely voiced his concern, but upon hearing his words, Charlotte once again offered him a cold smile.
“Even for an actor, is this really the time for pretense?”
“Pardon?”
“…Never mind.”
With those words, Holmes started moving forward while leaning back slightly.
“Perhaps, I enjoyed our time together too much? Or maybe every time you posed a riddle, my heart raced.”
“That’s… flattering…”
“I wanted to play with you a bit more.”
With that, Holmes made her way toward the center of the basement and soon halted her steps.
“It seems, Mr. Adler, you wish to end this game soon?”
“What do you mean?”
“I thought we could have a good relationship.”
At her remark, Adler, tilted his head while looking quite perplexed. Holmes smirked in response to that reaction of his.
“Well, saying this now seems pointless.”
“…….?”
“Let’s solve the final riddle, Mr. Adler.”
The Red Mana League case was nearing its climax.
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“At first, I deduced that Joan Clay was targeting the hidden underground vault of the bank.”
Holmes began laying out her deductions as she stood facing Adler.
“I believed that the part-time job with rather suspicious conditions at the pawnshop right next to the bank was definitely for the purpose of digging a tunnel to the vault.”
“So that’s why you went to the pawnshop as soon as you took the case, Miss Holmes…”
“Yes. However, the pawnshop owner rarely came out of her house, so a different means of entering the bank was needed. That means was using the academy basement which is the ideal location for creating a teleportation magic circle.”
“So, naturally, there would’ve been a need to either remove or capture Miss Wilson, who was living there?”
As Adler nodded in agreement with his own statement, a fleeting moment of joy appeared in Holmes’ eyes.
“I thought you were hired to capture her, Mr. Adler.”
“Hmm.”
“Without taking unnecessary risks, capturing her and having her draw the teleportation magic circle in the basement would simplify the matter.”
However, she soon continued with a colder gaze and an even colder tone.
“But my deduction was refuted by one fact.”
“Is it because there was nothing stored in the basement of the City & Suburban Bank?”
“Yes, quoting your words, Mr. Adler, the premise was turned on its head. I was quite taken aback at first…”
“But once you reversed your perspective, the answer became clear rather quickly, didn’t it?”
Interrupted by Adler’s whispered words, Holmes, who had been staring intently at him, nodded silently and began speaking again.
“Joan Clay’s objective wasn’t the basement. It was merely a diversion. Her real goal was for Diana Wilson to draw the magic circle of her own free will.”
“You mentioned that earlier. But you couldn’t explain the basis for that.”
“…Because I lacked the evidence for it.”
Then, Adler, with a voice as gentle as a teacher questioning a student, asked her,
“So, now that you’ve seen the evidence with your own eyes, can you explain the basis of your remark?”
“Of course.”
Holmes’ response was still icy, but there was an unusual fervor in her eyes.
A prodigious girl who, since her youth, grew without needing anyone’s guidance or teachings thanks to her innate talent and disposition—
For such a prodigious girl to encounter a mentor of her own caliber for the first time, it was only natural that she couldn’t easily control her emotions.
“I just found out about Miss Wilson’s true identity.”
Holmes spoke, watching Adler’s reaction as she continued her words.
“She is a vampire.”
To which, Adler merely showed a faint smile.
“A pure-blooded vampire at that, which is believed to be completely extinct.”
“And your basis for that?”
“If you think about why Princess Clay was working part-time at the pawnshop for a meager wage, you’ll understand it clearly.”
Holmes, perhaps wanting to savor the moment for as long as possible, slowed down her speech as she continued.
“If she wasn’t trying to dig a tunnel in the basement, then there must be some business with the owner of the pawnshop and her daughter, Miss Wilson, don’t you think?”
“Hmm.”
“Did you know that the pawnshop owner, Mrs. Wilson, hasn’t gone outside her shop in the last 3 years?”
“How did you come to know that?”
“Inquiry is the basis of a detective’s work. By conducting simple question and answer sessions around the crime scene, you can find out about many facts.”
Holmes, as she spoke those words, was not filled with her usual sense of superiority and omnipotence but rather a range of different emotions, emotions that she couldn’t quite comprehend.
“Unlike the hybrid vampires, including Lady Joan Clay, awakened pure-blooded vampires are fatally allergic to sunlight.”
“And?”
“Before meeting with you, Mr. Adler, I heard testimonies from vagrants in the alleys.”
Holmes mused over the man before her, who had deduced, anticipated, and even unraveled unexpected variables much faster than she could.
There was a desire in her to be recognized by him, to work alongside him and on another note, a wish to someday surpass him.
“They said they’ve seen the pawnshop owner sneaking out of the shop late at night.”
“That alone isn’t sufficient evidence.”
“There’s more evidence.”
Even though she had come to realize what he intended to do to her in the end, she couldn’t calm her emotions right at that moment.
“Miss Wilson mentioned during the interview that red mana sprang out of her hand. At first, I thought it was a trick by Joan Clay.”
“Why did you think so?”
“While talking with Miss Wilson, I could sense a faint mana stone reaction from her hand.”
Holmes, saying so started demonstrating using a ring’s mana stone, producing a faint red mana on her hands.
“Even as I am, I’m an expert in the study and usage of mana stones. Even days later, I can detect the traces of its usage easily.”
“I see.”
“Perhaps during the interview, when shaking hands with Princess Clay she must have gotten mana stone powder on her hand.”
“Hmm.”
“Using the mana stone powder as a medium, she remotely interfered with the mana to change its color to red. This serves as a plausible excuse for Miss Wilson to join the club. Quite a convincing story, isn’t it?”
As Adler nodded, Holmes wagged her finger before speaking.
“But, that wasn’t the case. Miss Wilson had mentioned that her mana was… distinctly… a blazing-like red.”
“She must have said that, then.”
“It’s challenging to create a blazing-like red mana remotely. Even for an expert like me, it’s nearly impossible to overlay it with orange mana and make it appear.”
“In that case, how was Miss Wilson able to wield the red mana?”
“That’s another proof that she’s a vampire.”
Holmes, who had intensified the red mana she had been conjuring, continued her explanation.
“The role of the mana stone powder wasn’t for mana jacking, but an amplifier.”
“You’re suggesting that the vampire mana lurking inside Miss Wilson’s body was amplified by the mana stone?”
“Exactly.”
“But the evidence is still insufficient.”
Then, upon hearing that remark, Holmes pulled something out of her coat.
“Crucially, since Miss Wilson started using the magic circle a few days ago, her health has deteriorated rapidly.”
“What’s that?”
“You can tell by looking at the spaces where the sand in the hourglass sticks.”
Holmes, intently examining the hourglass which showed the rapidly diminishing lifespan of Miss Wilson, spoke while looking at the magic circle behind Adler.
“Mr. Adler, I’m not a mana user, so I can’t decipher that magic circle.”
“Yes, it’s truly unfortunate.”
“But if you consider the purpose of the Red Mana League, where Joan Clay is the leader, one doesn’t need to be a mana user to guess the use of that magic circle.”
Her breathing began to quicken ever so slightly.
“The goal of the Red Mana League is to usher in the era of vampires in the city of London.”
“……….”
“Miss Wilson, being of pure vampire lineage and yet not fully awakened as a vampire, would have been the ultimate sacrifice for them.”
Upon hearing this, Adler began to look down at Holmes with a look of admiration on his face.
“My mana stone ring is reacting intensely to that magic circle. From what I see, it seems a given that there’s a formidable energy contained within that small circle.”
“Hmm.”
“From here on, it’s purely my conjecture but perhaps Miss Wilson, over the past week, unknowingly stored the powers of a vampire in that magic circle?”
The corners of his mouth slowly began to rise.
“Miss Clay isn’t someone who’d arrange such an event for the good of others. The reason she approached the last pure-blooded vampire in Europe, who was living quietly and in hiding, must surely be to harness that power.”
Her deductions were gradually approaching a conclusion.
“And, she’ll be coming here soon.”
Thus spoke Charlotte, looking straight into Adler’s eyes as she whispered out her last set of words,
“Because you disbanded the club today.”
“How is that relevant?”
“Disbanding the club implies that Miss Wilson is no longer needed. In other words, the magic circle has been completely formed, hasn’t it?”
The moment those words were concluded…
“Ah, this is truly Holmes.”
Adler began to mumble, his face betraying relief.
“The problem was with the game’s story, after all. The great Charlotte Holmes couldn’t possibly fail to solve a single case like this.”
“…Pardon?”
“Damn those story department bastards! Damn them all!”
As Holmes tilted her head in confusion at the sudden and incomprehensible muttering of the enigmatic man before her, Adler, the said man, cleared his throat and spoke again,
“Now, it’s my turn to ask questions.”
Holmes then tilted her head to the side, as she was being inquired by Adler…
“Why do you think I want to end this game?”
“……..”
“Of course, I don’t think of it as a mere game, but I’m curious why you, Miss Holmes, would.”
Once she finished speaking, Holmes replied with a sarcastic expression on her face,
“It’s a simple fact.”
“And that is…”
“From the moment you promised to protect me at all costs, you secretly started casting a sleeping spell on me, didn’t you?”
“What?”
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice because I’m not a mage?”
Adler, with widened eyes, looked utterly baffled when he heard her words.
“And at the same time, you had someone tailing us. Their blood lust was so palpable that it would have been impossible not to notice.”
“Someone tailing you?”
“Enough with the act, Mr. Adler. I already know that your follower has neutralized all the police I had prepared in advance.”
The accumulated power of the barrage of sleeping spells slowly began forcing Holmes’ eyes to close.
“I had hoped for some twist, but it seems there isn’t one in the end.”
“Wait, just a moment…”
“Turns out, you were just another ordinary criminal after all.”
Holmes, who was stumbling due to the effects of the spell, lost her balance and started to fall. In a hurry, Adler caught her in his arms.
“Even though it wouldn’t be a conventional relationship, I thought we could still have a good one.”
“Listen…”
“I even considered hiring you as an assistant.”
Holmes, gazing up at Adler with half-closed eyes, retorted bitterly,
“But to you, I was nothing more than a toy to be enjoyed and then discarded.”
As she finished those words, Holmes’ eyes fully closed.
At the last word she managed to utter before losing consciousness, Adler’s expression became vacant.
– Squeak…
The basement door opened, and someone stepped inside the room.
“Well done, Mr. Adler.”
The client of the case, Lady Joan Clay, approached them with a captivating smile on her face.
“I had to get rid of an obstacle, I hope that’s alright with you?”
Adler’s features began to subtly contort in displeasure after seeing Lady Clay.
“………”
Charlotte Holmes, limp and drained of strength, lay cradled in Adler’s embrace.
To any onlooker, she unmistakably appeared to be unconscious.
‘…Good.’
Yet, astonishing as it may be, she was murmuring internally despite her seemingly unresponsive state.
‘Everything is going as planned.’
What Charlotte had puffed from the smoking pipe she had prodded into Adler’s side a few minutes ago wasn’t actually tobacco at all.
What she had inhaled was none other than a mana gas that was able to induce a trance-like state.
Before she could fall under the sleeping spell, Charlotte had intentionally intoxicated herself with the gas, placing herself into this trance.
‘The opportunity will surely come.’
This versatile mixture she had stumbled upon during her mana research had been frequently used by her— she had even used it when she had disguised herself as a nun and feigned death during the Scandal of the Bohemian Queen case.
Of course, back then, she had consumed it in the form of a pill, which meant she couldn’t awaken her bodily senses on command.
However, after the fire incident at that time and through repeated research, she was successfully able to develop an improved version that fixed the inability to awaken her bodily senses. Now, with just a bit more time, she could awaken and move about whenever she wished.
‘I’ll have to time it right, waiting for Lady Joan Clay to absorb the mana from the magic circle.’
Even for a vampire, there’s an inherently vulnerable period they would go through when absorbing such an immense power.
If she could exploit that moment to strike, she could subdue her much more easily than anticipated.
‘Next up is Isaac Adler.’
If that comes to pass, victory would be hers.
Though Isaac Adler was a mage and his intelligence matched her own, his combat abilities were rather lackluster in comparison.
Moreover, she had simulated countless battle scenarios with Adler in her mind.
In any given situation, she believed she could win.
‘…It’s a pity.’
As Charlotte sorted through her thoughts and steadied her mind, a sudden realization dawned upon her.
‘The reason your hourglass is almost empty is because you’re destined to lose by my hands, in this very place.’
Any accomplice to a vampire, regardless of their status, faced execution. A law, though old and forgotten by many, still existed.
‘If you were going to introduce me to such excitement and then abandon me, you should have just let me die in the flames that day.’
As she thought how delightful it would have been had he considered her a source of long-term entertainment, she began to tune in to the conversation that had started to drift into her ears.
“Were you following us the entire time?”
“I gave you the task, but if you’re seen with a girl like that, I can’t help but be concerned.”
A mere few minutes later, she could hardly imagine the expression she would be making.
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“Why did you use the sleeping spell? Isn’t it just like poisoning? It’s not good for the one who is affected.”
“Hmm?”
As the question was posed with a hint of anger in my voice, Princess Clay standing in front of me, cocked her head to the side.
“I was going to kill her anyway. What does it matter?”
“…Kill her?”
“I’ve always wanted to taste blood once I became a pureblooded vampire. I may not like being deprived of mana, but I can’t harm you because of our contract, can I?”
Hearing those words, it felt like the thread of reason had snapped inside my mind.
“I’ve put the police who were waiting outside to sleep. No one will be coming here for a while.
“Anyway, I intended to explain my real plan, but it seems you have already figured it out on your own.”
Gathering my wits, I realized I was speaking to her in a cold tone,
“As soon as your purpose was revealed, you requested a decoy mission to use my talents to rob a bank. This not only diverted our attention, and that of the detectives, but also allowed you to exploit the situation to obtain Miss Wilson’s powers.”
“……?”
“You truly are deserving of the title of the fourth smartest woman in London.”
Upon hearing that, Princess Clay furrowed her brows and responded.
“Fourth…? What do you mean by…”
“But you see…”
I had no intention of letting her continue.
“You made two grave errors.”
“I might not know what you’re referring to, but it’d be wise not to step on that magic circle.”
Approaching me with those words, Princess Clay said in a soft voice.
“It’s not something a mere mortal like you can handle. If you even touch it by mistake, you’ll be on borrowed time.”
Facing her, I responded in a calm tone.
“Firstly, you didn’t trust our criminal advisory service and used it at your own discretion.”
“…Did you even listen to what I said?”
“Secondly…”
Quietly taking off my outer garment, I wrapped it around Charlotte who was nestled in my arms.
“How dare you, without understanding the gravity of your actions, lay your hands on the hope of London.”
The price for carelessly messing with my favorite character would be quite excruciating, to say the least.
“You really think Holmes is someone you can handle?”
Finishing that thought and taking a step forward, my foot which touched the magic circle, started to burn as it was engulfed in a fiery red mana.
“You fool.”
Princess Clay began to scoff after seeing my condition.
“Seems like you’ve grown attached to that little one, haven’t you?”
She said that without even considering the thought of retaliation, merely sitting on a nearby chair and crossing her legs.
“Forgetting about the contract and risking your life, it’s truly laughable.”
It was understandable why she would react that way.
Having a mana of a golden hue – a color that was the opposite of her own, the adversary who could potentially be a threat to her – and willingly jumped onto the path of my death by stepping on the magic circle— How amusing this scene must have been for her….
“I had no choice.”
However, there was one thing she didn’t know.
“In order to protect the most precious thing, sometimes one must risk their own life.”
That I was the very being who had designed the magic system of this world.
“Remember this deeply in your heart.”
It was time to show the arrogant vampire the greatness of the Creator of Magic.
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– Shiver…
“………?”
But why had Charlotte, nestled in my embrace, been shivering since a while ago?
It was becoming worrisomely concerning to see her in this state.
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