༺ Trophy ༻
“Is it true?”
“Is it really true, Master?”
Moran and Silver Blaze, attached to the collapsed Adler, opened their eyes wide and spoke simultaneously.
“Is it really true that your life isn’t in danger?”
“… Yes.”
“I don’t understand.”
Adler, having given up on pretending to be mortally wounded, tilted his head to the side in response to Moran’s baffled reaction.
“People die when they are shot, right?”
“… Usually, yes.”
“Children, the elderly, it’s always been that way. Everyone I’ve shot has died one way or the other.”
Adler’s eyes flickered surreptitiously at her slightly chilling statement.
“But why isn’t Mr. Adler dying then?”
“… Miss Moran.”
Adler gazed deeply at Moran – her eyes filled with the innocence of the little girl she was, a stark contrast to the brutality of her previous statement – for a moment before extending his hand to the front.
“Look at that person over there.”
“Uh, uhhh…”
“She was shot by Miss Moran’s gunfire, did she not? But, as you can see, she didn’t die.”
And then, Adler, still speaking in a gentle tone, pointed his outstretched hand to the groaning Caroline who remained sprawled on the ground even now.
“I was told not to kill that person, so I deliberately avoided vital points when shooting her. But Mr. Adler, you were shot through the heart. There’s a distinct difference here.”
“Do you think I’m dying because of that?”
“Yes, I believe the essence of a person is the heart. Mana accumulates in that organ, and it’s the heart that moves a person, so…”
“Are you certain about that?”
“… Gasp.”
Moran, muttering uncertainly, soon gasped in fear.
“Could it be wrong?”
Then, she asked in a crawling voice, filled to the brim with apprehension.
“The essence of a person is actually the brain. Of course, the heart is also a critical spot, but in this strange era where all sorts of laws are twisted due to the influence of mana, targeting the heart is not as definite a weakness as attacking the head.”
“Then, could all the people I’ve shot come back to life and come after me?”
“That’s not the case. The people Miss Moran has sniped until now are certainly dead.”
“… Phew.”
She, who had been trembling quietly with those thoughts that paralleled that of a naive child, let out a sigh of relief at Adler’s firm answer.
“But I am different. I will not die unless my head is blown off. And as a bonus, I don’t feel pain either.”
“Why?”
“Because I am a terrifying vampire.”
“Eek.”
As Adler made a hissing sound and showed his fangs, Moran, once again frightened, clung to Silver Blaze seated beside her.
“… And, I’ve already died once at the hands of my dearest professor.”
“”………..?””
“Anyway, except for my head, physical attacks don’t harm me, so please don’t worry.”
Upon hearing Adler’s explanation, tears welled up in her eyes.
“I, I’m so relieved…”
“Haha.”
“… But Master.”
Adler then reached out a little further to gently stroke Moran’s head.
“Why did you even do that in the first place?”
“… Ha.”
However, as Silver Blaze asked the question – head tilted to the side, eyes flickering with confusion – Adler’s expression couldn’t help but stiffen.
“No matter how I think about this, it really seemed like you were trying to leave a last will, kind of like a testament, before your inevitable death to someone other than us…”
“… That can’t be.”
“By the way, Master, there’s something strange.”
Silver Blaze, pressing her head against Adler’s neck, ears perked up, began to sniff him heavily.
“Your physical condition seems to be several times worse than before.”
“… On what principle are you even saying that, really?”
“Master.”
Though Adler tried to laugh off her words, Silver Blaze, her buried head in his neck, asked in a whisper; her eyes narrowed into thin slits.
“Is it really true that nothing affects your body, even if you’re injured?”
“………..”
“Could it be that you are overexerting your body because you resigned yourself to a predetermined fate?”
Silently, a cold sweat began trickling down Adler’s forehead at the continuous questioning.
“… Not a chance.”
“That’s a relief then.”
However, as Adler denied her words with an astonishingly brazen expression, Silver Blaze finally smiled with relief and whispered.
“Had it been the case, I might have lost all hope in life and died.”
“If the leader of the Demi-Humans and the icon of London dies with her eyes dyed golden, then I’ll be cursed for centuries.”
“… Hehe, that’s right.”
Upon Adler’s calm response, her eyes narrowed with delight, showing her unique and characteristic charm.
“If you die, then I’ll just die alongside you.”
At that bold threat, Adler nodded with an enlightened expression.
“Then it’s my turn.”
As Silver Blaze looked completely reassured and Celestia Moran cocked her head, a chilling voice began to emanate from Adler.
“I never gave you such an order.”
Faced with his stern look for the first time, cold sweat began trickling down the girls’ foreheads.
“Then whose orders were you following?”
Adler began to press them down with a voice mirroring frigid ice.
“I have no need for hounds that wag their tails for others.”
At that moment, as Adler slowly rose from his position…
– Meow.
“……..?”
The sounds of a small cat could be heard from their side.
“What…”
“Oh, no!”
When Adler, surveying his surroundings, saw a familiar cat in front of him holding something in its mouth, immediately, a piercing scream leaked out from behind them.
“That letter…!”
Caroline, who had been dazed and unable to grasp the situation until then, began rising up from the ground, her face pale as a sheet.
– Click…
“Stay still.”
However, as Moran, who had been sobbing sorrowfully just moments before, pointed her gun at Caroline while whispering in a cold voice, she had no choice but to stop her advance.
– Rustle…
“Ah…”
The next moment, as the cat placed the letter on Adler’s lap, Caroline’s gaze was filled with true despair.
“Hmph.”
“……..?”
“I never wagged my tail for anyone, you buffoon.”
Looking at her with clear disdain in its feline red eyes, the cat, to her surprise, began speaking in a human voice.
“… Princess?”
“I’m quite clever too, you know?”
The fourth smartest cat in London turned its head away from Adler and muttered in a low voice.
“So, from now on, don’t pretend like I don’t exist after getting your hands on me, is that clear..?.”
Quietly, Adler, his gaze still locked onto her feline form, reached his hand forward.
.
.
.
.
.
“… Eek!”
“Thank you for your hard work, Princess.”
“Ugh eek… let go…”
A few minutes later…
“I’m so impressed, I’ll pet you a little longer.”
“… Stop.”
Princess Clay struggled and squirmed in his hands in vain, while Adler held the sealed letter with a luxurious stamp with an expression of unbridled contentment.
– Chomp…
“Mm.”
When the enraged cat bit Adler’s finger with all her might, her patience running thin, Adler stopped petting her soft belly and inquired, a smirk on his face.
“Does it taste that good?”
“Mmm… Shut up.”
Princess Clay, savoring the taste of Adler’s blood on her feline lips, muttered to him in a voice laced with frigid ice.
“So, what exactly happened?”
“It’s quite simple.”
As Adler asked her with a face full of curiosity, Lady Clay, wiping her mouth with her paw, began the explanation, an uncanny sly expression on her feline face.
“That mysterious professor tried to manipulate us, but I turned that to our advantage.”
“You exploited the professor?”
“I pretended to follow her orders, but I’ve been making my own moves on the side.”
Adler, looking at her with newfound amazement and appreciation, couldn’t help but ask.
“… When you appeared in Lestrade’s garden, were those also one of those voluntary actions of yours?”
“Yes. Thanks to that, I was able to eavesdrop on what the three of you were betting on.”
The princess nodded quietly and looked past him. At the end of her sight was Caroline, bound and trembling as she lay behind Adler. Glancing at the bound lady, Princess Clay whispered in a subdued voice.
“I even found out that Charlotte Holmes was planning to break into the new safe bought by the house owner.”
“… What?”
“I secretly tipped off the professor about it, and she was ecstatic to learn about Charlotte’s ploys.”
Despite the cute appearance of her feline form, a faint sinister smirk surfaced on the princess’ lips.
“She even made a plan to ambush Holmes by hiding inside first and knocking her out the moment she entered.”
“Wait, then the vault I had been trying to crack…”
“There must have been a fierce fight between the two lunatics going on inside.”
Adler’s eyes glazed over in utter confusion and bewilderment.
“Anyway, from that moment on, everything was essentially over. My only task was to infiltrate the mansion as a cat and lace the dinner of the servants with sleeping drugs.”
“…………”
“Then, by the time night fell, I re-entered the mansion with those guys and fully sealed the safe delivered this morning with multiple layers of locking spells. That locked up those two mad women inside.”
The princess, continuing her smug explanation, narrowed her eyes and began scolding Adler.
“You almost managed to break the seal I so painstakingly enacted, you buffoon.”
“Ah, that was…”
“What on earth are you, to so easily breach the security system I spent weeks devising? It’s good that the gunshot rang out timely, or you might have completely ruined the plan altogether by now.”
Adler scratched his head with a lost expression.
“… Anyway, after sealing those two monstrous women inside, we split up and moved.”
“………”
“They tortured and threatened the mansion’s owner in case of any unforeseen circumstances, and I searched for the letter hidden in the mansion.”
The princess sprang onto Adler’s knee, still looking as prim and proper as ever, and continued.
“And in the end, I found it. This letter.”
“Aaah…”
“There was a secret door in the middle of the library that looked like a bookshelf. When I touched it, a room that was not present on the mansion’s blueprints appeared in place, and there, on the desk, lay this very letter.”
A triumphant smile played on her feline face.
“Well, how is it? The fruits of the operation I devised.”
“………”
“Will you still call me the fourth in London?”
As the princess unconsciously began flicking her tail in excitement and asked the question, Adler directed a blank gaze toward her.
– Swish…
“Stop it. I did this to avoid being treated like a pet, how could you…”
“You’re the best, my little princess.”
The princess, growling fiercely as Adler began gently stroking her head again, fell silent and murmured while turning her gaze away from him.
“… You’re only realizing that now?”
Simultaneously, her tail quietly touched Adler’s arm, winding around it in a tight grip.
“Alright, shall we get up now?”
“Eek.”
But as Adler grinned and promptly stood up, the princess who had been sitting on his knee lost her balance and fell to the floor with a thud.
“Let’s wrap this up and get out of here.”
Leaving her behind, Adler, with a dark smile, started approaching the seated Caroline, who was tied to a chair.
“Even the notorious Miss Caroline would be nothing without this letter as evidence…”
But as he was checking the contents of the letter he held in his hand, his words suddenly trailed off and his expression turned rigid.
“…………..”
“Master?”
“What’s wrong?”
His subordinates began showing puzzled expressions at his unusual demeanor.
“… Shit.”
But before he could even reply to them, Adler, staring blankly at the letter, soon let out an all too familiar curse.
Instead of the letter, there was a note inside the envelope with a doodle of a woman wearing a silk hat and a monocle on her right eye, sticking out her tongue.
“Fucking self-insert characters.”
.
.
.
.
.
Meanwhile, at that moment…
“Looks like Adler is definitively out of the race.”
“So far, everything is going according to plan.”
Charlotte Holmes and Professor Moriarty – with Watson, who had the appearance of a person whose soul had left their body – walked down the darkened hallway of the mansion, conversing with composed expressions.
“I’m not so sure about that.”
“What?”
“You know why, right?”
Suddenly, the two women stopped walking and began eyeing each other.
“A thieving cat has entered the wager.”
“Do you find that to be a threatening variable, Professor?”
Chilling smiles began emerging on their faces.
“You’re becoming just as entertaining as Adler, little girl.”
“I feel the same, Professor…”
It was the beginning of a real fight for the greatest trophy in all of Britain.
