༺ Caroline Augustus Milverton (2) ༻
“It’s been a while, Holmes?”
“Watson.”
A few days after Adler informed Charlotte and Jane about the bet…
“What brings you here?”
Finished with her duties at the hospital, thus returning to the boarding house to relieve some of her exhaustion, Watson immediately discovered Charlotte sitting in her armchair, smoking from her favorite pipe. Her eyes opened wide in surprise, she couldn’t help but ask the question to her partner.
“I’ve been out and about recently, but this is still my home, isn’t it?”
“Is that so? I thought you had already set up a new household with Adler.”
“………”
“I was slightly jealous, thinking you were getting married before me.”
As Watson, saying so with clear mirth in her voice, chuckled and hung her coat on the coat rack, Charlotte’s eyes were now glued to her, her expression blank.
“… How are things going on with Neville?”
“Not good.”
Hearing her question, Watson couldn’t help but grimace.
“We are already engaged, but he is too reserved, conservative even, so I tried to seduce him a few days ago. But something urgent came up and our plans got cancelled.”
“I see…”
“It’s a pity but what can I do? I can only look forward to our next date.”
Watching her, Charlotte subtly smiled.
“So, what brings you home, Holmes?”
“I have a visitor to meet.”
“… Could it be… a new case?”
At her words, Watson, gloomy as she thought about her relationship with her fiance, brightened visibly.
“Along those lines, yes. It’s more or less the same as receiving a case request.”
“That’s good news. I’ve been living quite the dull life these days.”
“To be precise, I am currently in an uncompromising bet surrounding the ownership of Isaac Adler.”
“… What?”
She couldn’t help but wear a dumbfounded expression on her face as she heard her words.
“Among the three of us, the one who incapacitates the person who will knock on the door in a few minutes will be the winner.”
“Among the three? Incapacitate? Winner?”
“If I win, Adler becomes my assistant and if the Professor wins, he becomes her assistant.”
Ignoring Watson’s expression, Charlotte rested her hands on her chin and wore a serious expression.
“And if Isaac Adler wins…”
At that very instant, just as she was about to reveal Adler’s part of the bet, her eyes shining darkly…
– Knock, knock, knock…
Knocks began to resonate from the door of the boarding house.
“… Let’s talk about it later.”
“Hey, by the way…”
Watson narrowed her eyes and asked Holmes who immediately stood up and started heading towards the door after hearing the knock.
“I would like to know the identity of the person who is coming right now.”
Hearing her words, Charlotte, who was about to grab the doorknob, turned her head slightly and whispered.
“… The female Adler.”
“I understand.”
At her simple response, Watson merely dipped her head, indicating that she understood immediately. Charlotte, nodding as well, turned the doorknob.
“Come in…..”
However, as soon as she opened the door, she was met with a foul smell leaking in from the outside. She stopped mid-sentence, covering her nose and stepping back with a stagger, her eyes opened wide in astonishment.
“… Yes?”
For some reason, a woman with a dark expression stood before her, drenched and dripping with muddy water like a drowned rat. Yet, despite her current pitiful state, she retained her natural elegance and beauty.
“Are… are you okay… Miss…”
And then came a maid, who looked like her servant, holding a crumpled note in her hand, her face tinged with a slight blush.
“………..”
The two visitors stood in front of Charlotte, who now donned a dazed look.
“… Please come in.”
“… Yes.”
“No, wash up first, please.”
Charlotte, who had been quietly staring at the two, as if in a trance, for a while, frowned slightly and began to step back from the drenched woman. Hearing her words, the woman with the dark expression started to tremble.
‘… Even though he’s just a little boy.’
At the same time, she began to recall the event that made her don such an undignified and humiliating look.
‘How dare he inflict such humiliation on me…!’
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A few dozen minutes before the drenched visitor entered the boarding house on Baker Street…
“I always had this thought, aren’t little boys just adorable?”
“… Yes?”
A woman, accompanied by a rather stern-looking maid, was walking through the streets of London.
“Just give them a slight smile at parties, occasionally stroke their heads while praising them, and they’ll fawn all over you.”
“Hmm…”
“If you leave them alone for a while, they’ll fantasize and offer things to you on a silver platter, and if you leave them alone for a bit more, they’ll offer up their everything to you, just to get a chance to meet you again.”
The woman who spoke of such words with a clear arrogance in her tone was none other than Caroline Augustus Milverton.
“Among the many things they send you, there would always be countless meticulously written letters for you.”
“….…”
“They send such scandalous letters without any thought. Makes you wonder what they will do when it’s time for them to get married, doesn’t it?”
She was a woman with a tall stature, mature appearance and figure, and a beautiful smile that anyone would fall for— the perfect woman with all the qualities of an exceptional beauty. The maid walking beside her couldn’t help but tilt her head in confusion after hearing her mistress’ soft and pleased murmurs.
“I thought you hated men, my lady.”
“It’s not just mere dislike… it’s disgust. If we were to name the person who hates men the most in London, it would be either me or the self-proclaimed genius girl we’re about to meet.”
“But why little boys…?”
“Oh, you don’t have much knowledge about this, do you?”
When the maid tilted her head and asked, Caroline, covering her mouth with her hand and chuckling, replied,
“Men and little boys are completely different creatures.”
“Really?”
“Little boys are still cute and innocent. When you hold them in your arms, they laugh bashfully. Do you know how just how angelic that is?”
“………..”
The maid looked at her mistress with a look that clearly spoke of her incomprehension of this matter.
“Is that your taste, my lady?”
“It’s not exactly a taste. Just a personal preference, if you will.”
“So, that’s why you’re targeting Isaac Adler this time, I presume.”
At those words, Caroline gingerly took a picture out of her bosom.
“Isaac Adler. He’s pretty much the king of all the boys in London.”
“That’s true. There’s also that saying, isn’t there? If half the men in London are your property, then half the women are…”
“I’ve heard that joke so many times, it’s getting quite old already.”
Her dignified voice interrupted the maid’s words, and in her eyes, the picture of Isaac Adler reflected with a gleam.
“His age is a bit off, I admit, but he looks much younger because of his youthful appearance. And since he had been a child actor for a long time, that image ingrained itself in him already.”
“He’s shorter than you, my lady.”
“Yes, he’s just the perfect little boy…”
Caroline’s eyes shone like stars.
“Should I meet an old man like Count Winston, leaving such a wonderful little boy like this?”
“But I’m worried, my lady.”
“Why?”
“He’s a person who could potentially harm you. He’s not someone to be underestimated.”
Looking at her mistress, the maid started talking with a cold expression.
“It’s dangerous if you keep behaving like that. I’ve felt that the surveillance on you has doubled recently.”
“That’s why I have you with me, isn’t it?”
To her advice, Caroline merely responded with a relaxed expression.
“Who in the world would guess that the strongest assassin, recognized even in the back alleys of London as the fiercest predator, would be disguising herself as a maid while wearing a maid uniform?”
“………”
“If only she were capable of fixing her cold and blunt expression and personality, there would be nothing left to criticize.”
“To be honest, I am already at my limit from just wearing the maid uniform.”
“Hehehe…”
At the maid’s complaints, reeking with her tiredness, Caroline couldn’t help but chuckle softly and then began walking once more.
“Anyway, I’m starting to see…”
Just as her gaze began to reach far off, towards the most famous boarding house of Baker Street…
– Screeeech…!!!
“… Eh?”
Abruptly, a carriage drawn by an agitated horse turned up from an alleyway, heading straight towards Caroline as she walked down the street.
“It’s dangerous, my lady!”
The maid, who had, for reasons that alluded her, unable to notice the sudden emergence of the large carriage even though she had been on high alert, couldn’t help but shout with a panicked expression on her face.
“………”
But Caroline, whose body had already frozen from the abruptness of the situation, just stood there dumbly, watching the carriage boring down on her.
“….. Ah.”
Then, in the corner of her eyes, a boy could be seen rushing urgently towards her from across the street.
“… Hehe.”
Was it coincidence or fate?
‘This is… a bit surprising.’
Caroline began to smile faintly, realizing that the boy looked exactly like the person she had just seen in the photograph tucked away in her hands.
‘…This obvious play might be a little fun. I’ll play along.’
Muttering so to herself, she reached out her hand towards Isaac Adler, who had already reached her side and was stretching out his hand.
– Clap…!
“…….?”
But when Isaac Adler knocked away the hand she had stretched out with a brisk slap instead of grabbing it, her eyes blinked in clear surprise.
– Bang!!!
The next moment, she was hit squarely by the carriage that came rushing at her with a terrifying speed, her waist bending as she was thrown into the air.
“Cough… Ack… Ugh…”
Caroline’s body hit the ground and bounced roughly three times, each time a different scream leaking out of her mouth.
– Splash…!
Then she rolled for a while before crashing into a dirty puddle at the end of the street— a puddle that had formed due to the heavy snowfall that pelted the grounds not long before.
“………..”
Soon, silence ensued for a while…
“… You should be careful.”
“Huh?”
In the silence, Isaac Adler, who had picked up the maid next to Caroline in a princess carry, whispered to her in a gentle voice… much to the embarrassment of the greatly flustered maid.
“You could have been in quite a bit of trouble if you got hit there.”
“Um, well…..”
“Beautiful sister.”
Hearing him speak, the maid’s always blunt face started to melt into a crimson blush, perhaps for the very first time in her life.
“Dearest sister.”
“… Huh? No, what?”
As Adler gently held her by the waist and helped her stand, squinting his eyes as he leaned in, the maid began babbling with visible confusion and embarrassment.
“You do look quite cute now that I see you from up close.”
“… M, me?”
“What can I say? I fell for you at first sight. “
Avoiding his gaze, stroking the scar that ran along her eye, the maid lost her voice once she heard Adler’s melting voice.
“This is my contact.”
“……….”
“Would you like to have dinner with me sometime tonight?”
With a shy expression on his face, Adler gingerly handed the maid a note with his contact information written above.
“… Uh, umm.”
Just when the maid, whose face had been shaded crimson, even up to her ears, was extending her hand with a small groan…
“Thanks for giving me your contact.”
“……..!”
Caroline, dripping with muddy water, appeared beside them with a dark smile hanging on her lips.
“Oh, my lady! Are you okay…?”
“Was that protective magic you cast on me earlier?”
Caroline, who had finally come to her senses after being tossed like a ragdoll and lifted her hand to the maid, her head already turned to her mistress, spoke to Adler in front of her with a relaxed smile on her face.
“Saving both me and my servant. It’s quite remarkable.”
“……….”
“I want to repay you, although it may be insignificant. If you would just give me your contact…”
However, Adler stepped back, avoiding her outstretched hand for reasons that alluded Caroline.
“… You reek.”
“Pardon?”
When he looked at her with a slightly scornful look and spoke those words, Caroline couldn’t help but doubt her ears, craning her hand to listen once more.
“You reek, auntie.”
However, at Adler’s cold voice that followed, her mind began to blank out.
“Step aside please.”
“… Auntie?”
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“Operation failed.”
Meanwhile, at the same time…
“The plan itself was perfect, but I didn’t expect Isaac Adler to intervene so boldly.”
“……….”
“Well, Adler himself is participating in the bet you mentioned. Disrupting our operation is an obvious strategy.”
On the rooftop of a nearby building, the princess, Joanne Clay, was quietly watching the scene unfold.
“Should we just snipe them?”
“No, Adler already warned. Killing is not included in neutralization.”
“Oh!”
“So, what are we going to do now?”
Lightly ruffling Moran’s hair as she mumbled with an expressionless face, she asked the woman standing beside her with a sigh.
“As long as Adler is interfering, it won’t be easy to incapacitate the target…”
“……..”
However, for some reason, Professor Jane Moriarty ignored her words, her eyes quietly looking down at the scene.
“Do you have any knowledge regarding cosmetics?”
“Huh? Suddenly?”
“Yes or no?”
“… Look, I was a princess, okay? I’m somewhat of an expert if I say so myself.”
In response to her blunt question, Princess Clay answered with a puzzled expression.
“So, do you know about any makeup that would make you look younger?”
“… What?”
Then she heard the faint voice of Professor Moriarty in her ear.
“You know, some kind of makeup that makes you look like you’re still in your 20s, even after a few years from now.”
“Are you joking right now?”
“Do I look like I’m joking to you?”
“Excuse me?”
Even though Princess Clay strained to smile at her joke, the professor only mumbled the same words with slightly flushed cheeks.
“… Isn’t there any makeup that would permanently make you look like a teenager?”
“……….”
From the forehead of the princess, who gained an understanding of cosmic horror even before Lovecraft’s novels stirred up the world in a storm, cold sweat began pouring out incessantly.
Translator’s Note: I wonder if anyone was able to pick up on the massive foreshadowing in this chapter. I forgot to mention it at first and in the announcements, but let me know if you guys can pick it up. Of course, the ones who have already read the raws doesn’t count here, I myself was only able to get the foreshadowing in my second read so it is super discreet.
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