༺ The Mystery of the Reigate Squire (3) ༻
“I can hear the sound of your eyes rolling all the way from here.”
Charlotte, looking down at Adler who had a dazed expression on his face, stood up from her seat with a satisfied look and opened her mouth to utter some more words.
“Did you foresee something that would happen in a few days?”
“……..”
“Or, is it a new command?”
Upon hearing those words, Adler’s face, which had been smiling stiffly, paled a bit subconsciously. Charlotte gave him a quiet, mischievous smile when she saw his reaction.
“If it’s a new command, don’t overdo it. Just follow along.”
“Look here…”
“I’ll tolerate most things for you.”
In that state, her soft lips leaned down and overlapped with Adler’s. Soon, their tongues timidly entwined with each other and exchanged bodily fluids.
“… Uh.”
Adler, surprised by the unexpected turn of events, tried to pull his head back, but Charlotte grabbed his hand and proceeded to pull him toward her.
“”……..””
Then, she tilted her head to the side with her eyes closed for a long while.
The kiss was gentle and tender as if they were lovers, different from the rough and clumsy ones they had shared in the past. Adler’s cheeks started to redden with embarrassment as the act prolonged.
– Drip…
After what felt like an eternity, they both simultaneously pulled away from each other.
“… Huh.”
Charlotte, who had been watching the sticky saliva connecting from Adler’s extended tongue to her own with blank eyes, slowly started to collect it with her hands.
“… Miss Holmes.”
Reaching Adler’s tongue, Charlotte toyed with it momentarily before letting it go. Only then did Adler speak in a soft voice.
“What exactly are you doing?”
“Collecting DNA.”
“You know very well that doesn’t make much sense, Miss Holmes.”
In a split second, her gaze moved away from Adler to the side.
“… Do you like me?”
“……….”
Then she, who would have instantly refuted Adler’s question in the past, rose from her seat while maintaining a deep silence.
“My logical and rational conclusion seems to be a bit misleading to you.”
“……….”
“Well, think whatever you want of it.”
“Ouch…”
Charlotte, with a resigned expression on her face, as if she was begrudgingly responding to his question, reached out and plucked a few more strands of hair from Adler’s head.
– Swirl, swirl…
Then, she put those strands into her mouth and started heading toward the mansion’s front door, all the while chewing on the strands.
“… Aren’t you going to investigate?”
Adler, trying hard to ignore Charlotte’s strong will to combine his DNA with hers, threw out a question. She quietly turned around with a smile on her face after hearing his question.
“The investigation for this case is almost complete.”
“… Already?”
“What do you take me for?”
Saying those words, she confidently shrugged her shoulders.
“I just need to verify a few things. Like information on the nearby real estate, that suspicious note from earlier, and the wounds on the butler who should be undergoing autopsy by now.”
“………”
“If my assumptions are right, combining all those will give me the answer I desire.”
Her tone, now back to her professional demeanor, was unyielding as always.
“As expected, it’s Miss Holmes after all.”
“No need to mention it.”
Adler now used to seeing her in this mode, threw out a compliment with a faint smile on his lips.
“… You should be mentally prepared.”
However, as Charlotte swallowed the hair she had been chewing and pointed to her lower belly, his smile couldn’t help but waver.
“Mr. Adler.”
As she was about to leave the mansion, she suddenly stopped for a moment and spoke his name.
“Although I might have acted a bit to turn the situation in my favor…”
Her voice trembled slightly as she continued her speech.
“You know, Mr. Adler…”
“……….”
“In the end, without a mix of sincerity, one is unable to pull off such an act.”
And then, a brief silence hung between the two.
“… Take care of yourself.”
With her face slightly flushed, Charlotte was about to say something when, after some contemplation, she changed her words and began to walk away.
“If you die, I’ll follow you to hell and curse you till you can’t take it anymore.”
Her last statement, as she stepped outside the mansion, quietly echoed in Adler’s ears for a while.
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.
.
How much time had passed since Charlotte Holmes had left the mansion?
For some time, I had been left alone, sitting slumped in my seat. All the while, I had been absentmindedly staring at the handcuffs wrapped around my wrist and I even found myself muttering to myself without realizing.
“… I’m going mad, seriously…”
My head was in a mess. I couldn’t quite figure out how things had come to this point.
When did Charlotte notice the karma system that I had?
Could the professor have noticed something too?
‘That’s not really the main problem right now.’
The point of the matter was that… Charlotte had noticed my system.
She was on the verge of figuring everything out about me and the truth of this world.
And the professor was probably going to naturally follow suit and find everything out too…
Even a simple listing of the problems made it clear that there were way too many issues at hand. However, there was something else I had to focus on right now.
‘Solving the case comes first.’
I had to address the immediate problem first.
‘It’s the only way for me to survive in this situation.’
According to my deduction, this case wasn’t as ordinary as it seemed.
Perhaps, although it was a remote possibility…
At the end of this case, I just might meet the entity I had been desperately searching for.
And if I somehow managed to capture that entity?
‘… I’ll need to create my own organization.’
My mind began to race a mile a minute.
Building the professor’s kingdom at a slow and steady pace was good and all, but if I continued this way, I wouldn’t survive in this world for long.
– Probability of being Tamed — 99.99%
– Probability of ??? — 70%
“… It’s a bloody disaster.”
To break free from these ominous probabilities, I desperately needed a close personal guard that operated solely for me.
I had already planned my roster.
The Princess Clay and Silver Blaze who were dependent on me. The Queen of Bohemia and Colonel Rosel, the women responsible for my rear support and finances. And most recently, Gia Lestrade, with whom I had become involved by a twist of fate.
If I were to use these people properly, I might just be able to lower those frightening probabilities even by a little.
However, it was still not enough.
To even put up a fight against Professor Moriarty, the deranged serial killer, and Charlotte Holmes, who had come to a form of realization about me, I was still missing a key piece of the puzzle.
I hoped that this puzzle piece would be found at the end of this case.
‘… No, it had to be there.’
Knowing that there was a 99.99% chance I would be confined once this case ended, a cold chill started to grip my entire being.
“Excuse me…”
“……..?”
While I was shivering by myself in silence, I heard a murmuring voice coming from the side.
“… Your identity has been verified.”
The inspector, who had rashly arrested me while I was investigating around the mansion, bowed her head with an almost apologetic expression.
“I’ll release the handcuffs right away. This is truly embarrassing, I don’t know what to say…”
“No, it’s alright, inspector.”
Knowing that the mistake was actually mine for snooping around like that, I just extended both arms forward without a second thought. The inspector started unlocking the handcuffs while continuously nodding in apology.
“But are you not feeling well?”
“Pardon?”
While doing so, she suddenly started examining me from top to bottom and posed a question.
“Your face looks as pale as a corpse.”
“Ah…”
If anyone else saw the probabilities floating in front of me, wouldn’t their complexion be similar to mine?
“It’s just… cough!”
As I tried to make up a plausible excuse, a sudden cough burst forth from my throat.
“… Cough, cough.”
“Tsk tsk, such a young man.”
I continued to cough for a while, covering my mouth, and the inspector gently patted my back, muttering sympathetically.
“… Why is this happening?”
“Drink this.”
Just when I felt inexplicably dizzy, as if I was on borrowed time, the inspector took something out of her possession and handed it to me.
“Thank… you?”
Absentmindedly, I took it in my hands and took a sip. Warmth spread throughout my body, and the tingling pain I felt began to subside.
What was this? Some sort of elixir or something?
“I should be on my way. I have to assist the young detective with the autopsy.”
“Is that… so?”
“… Yes, I guess this apology will suffice?”
For some reason, feeling overwhelmed by the heat, when I nodded my head, the inspector handed me a bottle and patted my back, heading toward the entrance.
“Take care of yourself, young man.”
“……..”
“… Young people shouldn’t be coughing up blood already.”
I couldn’t clearly hear the last comment she added.
“What’s even in this…?”
Feeling the surprisingly potent effects, I took another sip of the potion and my body began to sway in the next moment…
– Screech…
“What on earth…”
Just as I was about to check the label of the bottle, suspecting something was off…
“… Huh?”
Someone covered my mouth from behind with a handkerchief.
“Mmph…”
Caught off guard, I tried to resist, but my strength was rapidly draining, making it impossible to put up a fight.
“………”
Consequently, my arms were seized, and I was dragged into a remote room inside the mansion.
– Click…!
“Haah, haah…”
“Si, sister…”
As the door locked, two sisters came into my line of sight.
“Eek…!”
“Do… Do we really have to do this…?”
Before I could say anything, the elder of the two sisters climbed onto me and began to strangle me.
“Chk… gurg…”
“You said to trust only you. That you’d cover up our crimes…”
Her rebellious eyes were filled with anxiety and fear.
“Why did that professor know everything…?”
“Ugh…”
“Why are the police leaving the mansion one by one…?”
The younger sister, clinging to my body, looked on tremblingly at her older sister.
“And what about that note?”
“………”
“Why didn’t you handle that!!”
The situation was quickly spiraling into a catastrophic scenario.
“You betrayed us?”
‘Come to think of it, there was a scene like this in the original work…’
“You’ve been deceiving us from the start!!”
As my consciousness continued to fade, I dazedly stared at the girl strangling me, and then quietly diverted my gaze.
‘… Ah.’
I finally noticed the label on the bottle that had slipped from my hand and cursed silently to myself.
‘… It’s brandy.’
That was my last memory of that day.
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Only a few minutes later…
“………”
Professor Jane Moriarty, with a frantic expression, stormed into the room where the Cunningham sisters were located. Soon after, she began to wear a dazed look, a look that was totally uncharacteristic of her.
“Fuck… you bastard..”
“Hehehe…”
It was because the Cunningham sisters, one with a humiliated face and the other with an ecstatic one, were lying close to Adler’s feet as he sat on a chair, holding his chin.
“… Hiccup.”
“My beloved professor.”
With an unyielding gaze, Adler, who made the older sister bow her head by stepping on top of it, gently stroked the younger sister’s hair and spoke.
“This is a gift for you.”
“You enjoy playing games, don’t you, Mr. Adler?”
A chilling smile full of wickedness began to form on the lips of both Adler and Professor Moriarty.
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