༺ The Wager’s Conclusion ༻
Morning of a certain unspecified day, several days after Caroline’s mansion was besieged by a group of uninvited guests,
In the rendezvous point near Windsor Castle, where Adler and his party had recently arrived in a secret carriage…
“…………”
There, once again gathered, were Charlotte Holmes and Professor Moriarty, maintaining silence as they glared at each other openly.
“Why such a fierce gaze, Miss Holmes?”
“Just fatigued, which has made my eyes somewhat sharp, that’s all.”
Nobody knew how much time had elapsed as their silent confrontation continued…
“Is that how I seem in the professor’s eyes?”
As Professor Moriarty, starting the conversation, reached for a cookie, prepared on the table for them, Charlotte, sitting opposite, interrupted with a sarcastic remark.
“Honestly, you just look like a puppy desperately holding back its poop.”
“Now you’ve abandoned all decorum, haven’t you?”
“Have we ever been in a situation to maintain decorum between us?”
And so, another round of their verbal sparring began anew.
“This is just how our relationship is, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know what you’re trying to say, but it gives me the creeps seeing how chummy you’re acting, so could you please stop?”
“Oh dear me, Holmes.”
The professor, having topped the cookie with a lump of sugar, popped it in her mouth and began to chew, tilting her head from side to side as she savored its taste.
“You heard what Adler said back then…”
“I’m not quite sure if I did, actually. So save the sweet act for Adler and keep your head still, please.”
Charlotte, frowning at the professor’s characteristic habit of bobbing her head, cut her off with a decisive huff.
“It’s a personal habit.”
“Do you think I care?”
“Friends overlook each other’s habits, don’t they?”
“What did you just say?”
She cocked her head with a baffled expression on her face.
“I want to be friends with you, Holmes.”
“That’s the most horrible joke I’ve heard all year.”
“It’s not a joke.”
However, seeing the professor continue her farce with her trademark smirk, Charlotte’s expression grew progressively distorted with time.
“You and I are opposites. I have no desire to mix with someone like you.”
“When extremities reach beyond their limits, they eventually converge. The heads and tails of a coin seem opposed at first glance, but in reality, they’re just parts of the same coin.”
Yet, the professor merely continued with a relaxed smile on her face in response to her vehement refusal.
“In the end, aren’t you and I doing all this to quench our unfulfilled thirst? It’s just a matter of the methods we employ, that are different.”
“Respectfully, that’s quite typical of you, don’t you think? You are just forcing it at this point. Everything in this world has similarities and differences inherent in their traits. You’re just exaggerating coincidental similarities and ignoring the differences.”
“Is that so?”
“It’s an obvious fact if you think about it logically. The back alley forces you’ve been quickly subduing over the past few weeks don’t seem to think so though.”
Charlotte, having said that, took a moment to catch her breath, her gaze mirroring frigid ice.
“But not everyone in this world is a fool who falls for a few words from you. Remember that and drop some of that arrogance of yours.”
“Despite that, some officers who sensed something off and were keeping tabs on me were quickly influenced by my words though.”
“… London’s police are a bunch of dolts, indeed.”
However, as she leaned back and muttered with clear annoyance in her eyes, Professor Moriarty’s eyes shined silently with a dangerous hue.
“Why deny the truth? It’s not only the London’s police who are dolts.”
“………”
“In a few years, London will become my playground. Do you really think you alone can stop me?”
Charlotte’s expression turned progressively more frigid as she heard her arrogant words.
“As expected, you aren’t confident in stopping me, right? Then why continue this farce? Just become friends with me and both of us will have a lot of fun together.”
“There’s nothing I’d hate more than that, no matter what.”
“You have as much potential to be a criminal as I do.”
“And you have as much potential to be a detective as I do.”
Thus, their conversation continued, running on the parallels they enacted with their lives.
“It’s a shame. I once dreamed of being a detective too.”
“Changed your strategy, have you? From excluding me to corrupting me?”
“Think what you will.”
“How lacking in confidence must you be to have changed your whole strategy! If it were me, I’d be too ashamed to even lift my head.”
Charlotte, feeling disgusted with that fact, whispered with a dark expression, while the professor looked at her with her characteristic smirk.
“I’m looking at the bigger picture, something that you clearly can’t see.”
“Ah, is that so?”
“And at the center of it is none other than Adler.”
“I’m not sure how long you plan to pretend to care for someone whose eyes haven’t even been dyed in your colors.”
Mimicking her, Charlotte wore a brazen smile and spoke with her arms crossed.
“You should win the bet before you start speaking.”
“Do you actually believe you’ve won, Holmes?”
Their gazes began to shine with frigid cold.
“I’ve definitely won this bet.”
“That’s unfortunate. I thought you were sulking because you lost the bet, but you were simply under the delusion that you have won.”
As their eyes clashed, a chill akin to the arctic frost spread throughout the room despite the recent cessation of the heavy snowfall and the subsequent return of the summer weather, as it should.
“… Excuse me.”
Just then, a familiar voice emanated from behind.
“Could you both stop fighting now?”
Isaac Adler stood behind Charlotte and Moriarty with a cheerful expression on his face.
“Shouldn’t we be deciding the outcome of the bet soon?”
As he said those words, scratching his head, the two women quietly leaned back and straightened their postures.
“So, who will make the judgment?”
“That’s a valid point. All three of us are parties participating in the bet, so a fair judgment would be impossible.”
Then the professor casually asked, and Adler responded with a smile.
“But don’t worry. We have just the right person for it.”
– Creeeak…
The moment those words were spoken, the door of the inner room began to open, ever so slowly.
“The client of this case will make the judgment personally.”
And a veiled girl walked out from within, drenching the room in a profound and deep silence.
.
.
.
.
.
“Should we address you as the royal representative, or as royalty?”
As the veiled girl sat before them, Charlotte, who had been quietly observing her, broke the silence with a bold question.
“Indeed, you all catch on quickly.”
“””………..”””
“Officially, I am merely an anonymous royal emissary.”
Then, an archaic voice began emerging from behind the veil.
“So please dispense with the formalities and honors, and report the results quickly.”
“Then, I shall go first.”
Upon hearing her demand, Charlotte Holmes took something out of her pocket and placed it before the client.
“What is this?”
“It’s a key.”
The client quietly cocked her head to the side.
“To be precise, it’s the key to a secret door disguised as a bookshelf in the library of Caroline Augustus Milverton’s mansion.”
“How did you find it? Our forces have checked several times for this item already, however, they were never able to procure it.”
“A few days ago, I coated her hands with a fine layer of powdered magic stone, and the residue was all over the bookshelf. The keyhole is only revealed when the books are inserted and removed in a specific order, so it wasn’t easy to find.”
“… And the contents of the room?”
“All the blackmail material she has collected over the years.”
Charlotte shrugged her shoulders, speaking with a triumphant expression.
“I have moved all the documents that were inside the room to a secret location under my management. I plan to burn all of them in the presence of a royal official.”
“…………”
“In other words, Caroline is finished. With all her collected blackmail materials taken, even the faintest possibility of her comeback has been completely extinguished.”
The client nodded silently upon hearing those words.
“Doesn’t this make it clear? The one to neutralize Caroline i…”
“Why did you omit the most essential part?”
At that moment, while Charlotte sported a triumphant look, Professor Moriarty, quietly observing the exchange till then, interjected.
“I was in the middle of discussing with the client…”
“You failed to secure the letter sent to Miss Caroline by the client’s sibling… no, a pitiable party who was entrapped in her allure, did you not?”
Charlotte frowned visibly at those words.
“Even if that one letter is snatched away, Caroline is not neutralized. As long as she holds assets in the form of blackmail material, she can always make a comeback. It is my victory solely because I have completely sealed off that possibility.”
“That’s for the client to judge, Holmes.”
The professor looked at her with a pitying gaze and took out a letter, handing it to the client.
“What is this…?”
The client leaned forward to check and murmured in a slightly surprised voice.
“The letter that caused you to seek the neutralization of Caroline Augustus Milverton has been secured by me. Therefore, it is clearly my victory.”
“No matter how you play it, it’s only a half-victory. With just that, you cannot claim to have neutralized her, who had a grip on London as much as Isaac Adler did…”
“How did you obtain it?”
The client interrupted Charlotte’s protest with a low voice and asked, to which the professor responded with a subtle smile.
“Is that really important?”
“Pardon?”
“What matters is that I got the letter, not the process or method of how I obtained it, don’t you think?”
The client then gazed at the professor silently, without saying a word.
“How did you get your hands on it, Professor?”
“… I blackmailed a certain thieving cat.”
In the ensuing silence, Charlotte whispered with a hint of curiosity, and the professor, with gleaming eyes, whispered back to the client in front of her.
“I attacked and confined her subordinates, who were scattered all across London, and warned that if the letter wasn’t sent to me, I would be shooting one of them every single hour that passes after the warning has been issued.”
“………..”
“By the time I was halfway through the killing, the letter arrived.”
Charlotte began to glare coldly at the professor upon hearing her explanation.
“… Of course, I haven’t killed half of them. I meant that I was halfway through killing the first one, so only one of the subordinates is dead.”
Then, patting Charlotte’s back with a firm hand, a reassuring smile on her face, the professor turned her gaze back to the client.
“… Indeed, I was the one who said not to mind the means and methods.”
“It seems that we’re on the same page.”
At the reply that returned from behind the veil, the professor began tapping on the desk with a chilly smirk on her face.
“Then, do you agree with me that there is no more definite neutralization than this?”
“But there’s something strange.”
However, the client’s voice began to grow heavier.
“Why do you not mention the possibility of the existence of a duplicate of the letter?”
“We searched Caroline Augustus Milverton’s mansion thoroughly, but no such evidence of duplication or a duplicate existed.”
“We’re sure of it, having searched everything ourselves.”
“… And what about the probability that the duplicates are stored elsewhere?”
Reading the rapidly deteriorating atmosphere, the professor and Charlotte began to explain simultaneously, but the client continued pressing them with a voice laced with the frigidness of the arctic sea.
“You know well that she trusts no one. Even the servants were unaware of the storing location of the letter. It’s unlikely she would entrust anyone else with duplicates of such extensive materials.”
“Then, why did she disappear from her mansion a few days ago?”
“That is…”
“Who knows if she, having vanished without a trace, is now hiding in a secret hideout with the duplicates, mocking us?”
Upon hearing the client’s challenging question, the eyes of Charlotte and Moriarty narrowed simultaneously.
“It doesn’t just end there. While most of the knowledge she possesses is mere blackmail material, the information leaked this time is related to national secrets.”
“I haven’t heard about such information?”
“… The matter itself is a significant secret of the royal family, which made me hesitant to discuss it at all.”
The client, looking back and forth between them, let out a sigh of disappointment.
“If she who holds the information speaks carelessly, we will still be in a sizeable dilemma.”
“Oh, that shouldn’t be a problem.”
As Moriarty was about to speak with a smile growing progressively frigid,
“Because, on that day, Caroline Augustus Milverton…”
“… is with me.”
Finally clearing his throat, having been silent until that very moment, Isaac Adler spoke up and joined the battle.
“”………””
At his words, the gazes of Charlotte and Professor Moriarty focused on him in unison.
“Tell her to come in.”
Adler, directing a bright smile to the looks of confusion directed at him, quietly clapped his hands to signal someone outside.
.
.
.
.
.
– Swish…
A moment later, the entrance door of the heavily guarded secret meeting place opened, making way for someone to enter.
“””………..”””
The people inside inadvertently turned their gazes toward the newcomer and their eyes couldn’t help but widen in shock and bewilderment.
“Come here.”
A woman fitted with dog ears and tail, her head bowed low, started to approach Adler at his call; her body twitching ever so slightly throughout her shameful march.
“… Pant, pant.”
Like a puppy, she crawled, panting as she came to Adler.
“Good.”
Reaching the feet of Adler, the woman kneeled modestly with the handle of the leash around her neck in her mouth. Seeing the submissive display, Adler smiled and stroked her head lovingly, like a satisfied pet owner.
– Swish, swish…
For a moment, the woman’s face distorted in shame, but then she closed her eyes tightly and started rubbing her cheek against his leg.
“… Woof.”
A small but distinct sound, one indistinguishable from a puppy’s, escaped her lips.
“Ta-da~!”
“”……….””
“This is the little bitch that seduced half the men of London.”
As Adler gazed down at her, leash in hand, and spread his arms with an innocent declaration, the expressions on Charlotte Holmes and the professor turned cold as the antarctic breeze.
“Just days ago, she had a name, Caroline Augustus Milverton she was called, but as a result of several days of training, she has given up on being a person from henceforth.”
“… Hooh.”
However, unlike their expressions, the client behind the veil wore an intrigued look.
– Press…
“Eek.”
Adler, who had been smiling slyly at her, pressed his foot against the woman’s belly. She, steeped in a chilling sensation, bit her teeth and groaned.
“……..”
Adler then looked down at her frigidly for a brief instant.
“… Growl.”
“Who’s the victor now?”
As the woman’s grunts and groans transitioned into a submissive growl, he smirked and posed the question to the client before him.
“It seems the decision has just been made.”
“Surely not?”
“I’d advise you to think again, as one of the potential future leaders of the British Empire.”
Charlotte and Moriarty both glared at the client with serious expressions on their faces, but the conclusion had already been reached.
“This… is a perfect neutralization.”
“You’ve crossed the line.”
“Britain is doomed, indeed.”
