༺ The Shadow of Britain ༻
“… Hmm.”
“……….”
In the secret lair, drenched in a heavy aura, the royal emissary held the teacup Adler had prepared for her and took a sip.
“The tea is delicious.”
“… Is that so?”
“It doesn’t seem to be your first time brewing tea. That’s quite unexpected, I must say.”
“You flatter me too much.”
Then, as she delivered a compliment with a soft smile, Adler, wearing a stiff laugh on his face, responded.
“Why do you seem to be so nervous?”
“Me?”
“For some reason, I get the feeling that you’ve been fidgeting since I arrived.”
The emissary, gazing intently at Adler while taking another sip of tea, began to whisper in a subdued voice.
“The Isaac Adler I know doesn’t show such a timid reaction in front of women.”
“That’s…”
“Did you put something in the tea?”
Filled with curiosity, she posed the question.
“I’ve heard quite a bit about it. Some kind of enchantment that quickly turns women into captives. I’ve also heard rumors of such sophisticated concoctions being circulated in the back alleys, products that can’t easily be remedied using ordinary magic…”
“Those are just tall tales. I certainly don’t have anything like that. And even if I did, I’m well aware that using it on you would be a grave mistake.”
“Hmm, why would you think that?”
“Are you truly asking because you don’t know?”
Adler threw out his question, filled with double meaning, prompting the emissary to narrow her eyes behind the veil as she smiled.
“Even the reckless Isaac Adler wouldn’t dare to meddle with royalty. Is that it?”
“… That might be the reason I can preserve my life in London, unlike Caroline. Besides, you’re not even trying to hide it now, are you?”
“Between the two of us, what is there that can’t be said?”
Confronted with her straightforwardness, Adler couldn’t help but scratch his head, confusion evident in his eyes.
“Are you really of royal blood?”
“Such a sudden question. Didn’t you already finish deducing everything about me?”
“It’s just strange, no matter how I think about it, for someone of your stature to come to such a dangerous place alone.”
Just as he was tilting his head, pondering the hidden face behind the veil of the emissary,
– Swish…
“… Oh.”
Quietly, the emissary raised her hand and began removing her veil on her own.
“”……..””
And before Adler had a chance to turn away, her face was revealed in an instant, and silence thus settled in the hideout.
“Are you certain now?”
“………”
“I was going to reveal my face to you today anyway, so relax. Don’t act so agitated.”
As the emissary quietly stood and walked toward him, Adler found himself unknowingly beginning to swallow dryly.
“… So you truly were a princess, at the very top of the succession to the throne even.”
“It can’t be helped, considering my grandmother was Queen Victoria herself.”
Her aura was one of antiquity yet containing a free-spirited and unfettered nature, but somewhere within, there was also a hint of unconcealable darkness.
The slight dark circles under her eyes stood in stark contrast with her well-maintained royal beauty, highlighting a pronounced difference.
“What are you staring at so intently?”
“… My apologies.”
Adler, staring blankly at her, averted his gaze from the princess who had posed the question with a dark smile and bowed his head.
“You’re just so beautiful.”
“Pfft.”
She then tilted her head, quietly chuckling at his remark.
“I’ve heard that countless times amid my rather indulgent lifestyle, but it sounds particularly different today.”
“……..”
“Look at me, Isaac Adler.”
Before he knew it, she had already reached his side and gently lifted his chin with her hand.
“Do you know?”
“……..”
“I took a liking to you.”
And then, with a decadent smile, she softly whispered to him.
“What about you, Isaac Adler?”
“I don’t quite understand what you’re saying…”
“Don’t you think it’s a waste for you to be caught up between a detective and a professor, gasping for breath?”
The princess’s delicate hand caressed Adler’s cheek.
“It sounds as if you’re asking to be yours.”
“Correct. Please become my consort.”
“… Are you serious right now?”
But in the midst of it all, Adler had quietly taken her hand and lowered it.
“Why do you ask?”
“Even putting everything else aside, isn’t there a considerable difference in our social status?”
“Social status?”
“I’m not a marquis or a duke. I’m just a commoner. I don’t meet the minimum requirements to be an unofficial consort of a royal heir, that too someone so high up in the line of succession.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
As he protested, the princess’s dull eyes began to shine in an ominous hue.
“You are one of the very few mages in the entirety of the British Empire.”
“… Ah.”
“By ceremonial rank alone, you’re as good as any marquis.”
“That’s merely a formal…”
“If necessary, I can simply bestow a noble title upon you.”
Adler looked up at the princess with a considerably troubled expression at her statement.
“There’s no justification for that.”
“Do you know that the whole community of mages has been turned upside down due to the new discoveries in the magic thesis you have submitted?”
“… No.”
“I see, the professor must have hidden it. Just as I expected.”
The princess’s voice grew colder than the arctic sea.
“A professor who pushes her only protege into obscurity rather than bringing them into the light is unfit for their title. Why are you wasting your brilliant talent under such a person?”
“………..”
“With me, you can shine. Of course, you would face criticism as our relationship would become the greatest scandal of our time, no doubt, but you’re accustomed to that already, aren’t you?”
As the atmosphere around her began to change, Isaac Adler started to silently sweat.
“… You know.”
“Yes?”
“Why have you been looking at me with such eyes?”
The princess, looking at him with a dark gaze, posed the question and he had to bite his lip tightly in response.
“It’s as if you’re looking not at a princess, but a monster.”
“…………”
“Is it my misunderstanding?”
Then, at that moment, his eyes began to severely tremble.
– Click…!
“Uh.”
In but an instant, a small pistol sprang from Adler’s pocket.
“If you hadn’t been dead set on brutally murdering me, I would have seriously considered your offer, Princess.”
“… How amusing.”
The princess, quietly observing the pistol and Adler’s sweat-drenched face, cracked a sly smile and queried,
“When did you start to suspect my true identity?”
The raw, predatory expression finally revealed itself in her dark eyes.
“Since the first time we met, perhaps.”
“That’s quite romantic, but can you tell me exactly when?”
The princess, now abandoning all pretense of grace and antiquity as she spoke to him, softly wrapped her hand around Adler’s shoulder.
“Years ago? Months ago? Days ago? Or was it just now?”
“I don’t need to know.”
“Don’t be like that, tell me.”
“Why are you doing this to me?”
As the princess gently sat on Adler’s lap and leaned in closer, Adler asked with a trembling voice.
– Ssshhh…
But instead of an answer, the princess pulled out a surgical knife from her bosom, her smile soaked in so much desire and decadence that it felt like it was dripping out of her eyes.
“Sorry, but right now, it’s difficult to explain…”
– Bang!!!
At that moment, a gunshot resounded through the hideout.
– Shudder…
Adler, having hit the head of the woman sitting atop him squarely, shuddered and scowled.
– Wiggle, Shhkhh…
Her head, now engulfed in a dark shadow, writhed as it began to revert to its original form.
– Ssshhh…
“Look at this.”
In such a bizarre situation, the princess placed her hand on Adler’s pallid, cold cheek and began whispering in a loving voice.
“How can I not like you when, even like this, you don’t die?”
“… Cough.”
As the medical knife she pushed inside penetrated deep into his heart, blood the color of dark crimson started to seep from Adler’s mouth.
“Are you also cursed?”
“… I love you.”
And yet, even as he asked with a voice that seemed to crawl, the princess, feeling the beating of his heart through the knife, eventually lost her sanity.
“IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou…”
“Enough already, please stop…”
Slowly, carefully removing the knife, she began to stab it back into his heart with each word she uttered.
“I love you so very much, Isaac Adler.”
“I’m telling you to stop.”
Adler, covered in his own blood, began looking at her with a detached, blurred gaze.
“The detective, the professor, your girlfriend too…”
But the moment she, with a shy expression, licked his blood and began to whisper in a voice filled with fervor…
“… I’ll kill them all for you.”
– Slap…!!!
Adler, his eyes turning cold in an instant, slapped her cheek with all his might.
“Just stop it already.”
Jill the Ripper cocked her head in silence, however, a questioning look marked her face upon hearing his words.
“What did you just do?”
“Shut up, bitch.”
“…….?”
.
.
.
.
.
Meanwhile, at that time…
“This is…”
Gia Lestrade, who was about to leave the back alley where Adler’s hideout was located, stopped in her tracks; her face donning a dark expression.
“… They’re Adler’s men.”
It was because Adler’s men, who had been eagerly following her until she arrived here, were all lying unconscious in the corner of the alley.
“… This is troublesome.”
She took in the scene with a grave look on her face, then quietly turned back, taking back the path she had just traversed.
Translator’s Note: I apologize for not being able to upload chapters. I hope everyone can forgive me. I will be available from the 5th to the 7th but everyone can hope for 12 free and 15 premium chapters this month as I have more or less resolved most of my problems. Again, I apologize.
