༺ Do or Die ༻
“… Huh.”
When I opened my eyes, the familiar ceiling of the hospital room entered my view.
“Ugh…”
Blinking in a daze, I tried to recall my last memory— the sensation of being soaked in blood and the warmth of Lestrade’s soft body.
‘Did I lose consciousness in Lestrade’s arms due to anemia…?’
Having a rough idea of why I was brought to the hospital, I tried to sit up silently, but for some reason, my body wouldn’t budge.
“Heh, all your efforts are in vain.”
“…….?”
“You’ll need at least two more days of rest before that battered body of yours can move again.”
While I wore a puzzled look on my face, a familiar voice suddenly spoke from beside me.
“Princess Clay?”
“Don’t look so surprised. It’s unsettling.”
Princess Joan Clay, taking on her human form, was sitting right next to me.
“What are you doing, not being in your cat doll form and everything?”
“Ungrateful brat. I have been the one nursing you since you collapsed. You’re such a nuisance…”
As I cocked my head and asked her a question, Princess Clay frowned and began to mutter irritably.
“… Ah, um.”
Seeing the wet towel in her hand and her swollen fingers, surprisingly, her words seemed to be true.
“Don’t look at me with those eyes.”
“………”
“If you were to die, it would complicate my position as I am bound to serve you, so I had no choice but to take care of you. So, stop smiling or I’ll gouge those eyes out before you can even blink.”
As I looked at her with renewed curiosity and flashed a broad smile at her, she immediately reacted with a fierce reaction.
“Yes, yes.”
“Annoying brat.”
“Ooof.”
Muttering so, Princess Clay threw the towel she was holding onto my face and added in a low voice.
“… Try not to get beaten up so much from now on.”
I wanted to remove the towel covering my face immediately to see her expression, but I refrained, fearing she might actually gouge out my eyes.
“If you have a subordinate like me, you should keep me by your side, instead of sending me on reconnaissance abruptly…”
She really was the perfect definition of a tsundere vampire princess.
“That annoying smile of yours, you should have shown it to that Moran brat instead of me.”
“Huh?”
“When we came back from scouting, you were on the brink of death, struggling for life, and that kid was so upset, that she cried all night; didn’t even sleep a wink that girl.”
Silently, I smiled at Princess Clay and her cute mannerisms, however, I had no choice but to ask a question, cold sweat pouring down my forehead, upon hearing her words.
“Where is she now?”
“She is probably with that talking animal maid you have, their minds already lost in madness, scouring through the back alleys by mobilizing all the demi-humans she has under her command while swearing to avenge her master— you, and screaming that she would join you in death if anything were to happen to you. Or something along those lines, I guess.”
“Ah…”
Somehow, I felt a shiver run through my body, feeling as though my karma was accumulating in real-time.
If even those two, who are especially loyal to me, were to go crazy, then truly, there would be no more path left for me.
“I’ll make sure to talk to them later.”
“… Thank you.”
“Hmph.”
As my complexion darkened without me realizing it, the princess glanced at me, then muttered quietly and turned her head away with a flick.
“… By the way, you guys were the only ones who came looking for me, right?”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
As I raised her favorability a few notches in my mind, I asked out of curiosity, and she answered with an incredulous look on her face.
“There have been over a dozen people visiting you during the last few days.”
“… What?”
“That’s excluding the ones I know the identity of, the ones I have witnessed while watching over you in my cat form.”
She paused for a moment and then started with a deep breath.
“That annoying detective spent the whole of yesterday nursing you with Lestrade before leaving with her head hung low due to a case. Then her assistant snuck into the room like a thieving cat, hit a typewriter for a few times, then left while shaking her head.”
“Ah…”
“Besides them, there was a mysterious woman who was definitely from Bohemia, Romanian renegades who, for some reason, are still at large in London, the hounds of Mycrony Holmes, Lestrade’s younger sister, and even Colonel Rose from the back alleys, to whom I once owed a favor…”
“………”
As she started listing the visitors, some of whom I could guess, the cold sweat dripping down my forehead became a torrent.
“By the way, I didn’t count the silhouette with the silk hat and monocle who appeared briefly at the window late at night and then disappeared, the noblewomen of London’s upper class who once trembled before my authority, and your ex-girlfriends who came with dead eyes and knives hidden in their bosoms, only to be chased away.”
“I’m scared, my lady.”
“The truly frightening one is none other than you who drove all those people mad.”
As I murmured with a slightly trembling smile, the noble princess looked at me with cold eyes and responded.
“Why do you even do that? Now that I think about it, don’t you believe that it’s a bit too much for you to handle?”
“… It’s still within acceptable limits.”
“… Madman.”
She shook her head in disapproval at my candid response and muttered in a low voice.
“… You should’ve just served me and we could’ve conquered the world together. It would’ve been far easier.”
“……..”
“If you wish to change your mind now, you’re more than welcome. I always have a place prepared for an escape in America…”
Then the noble princess, feigning a frosty smile, leaned closer to me.
“How about it? Just run away and conquer the world with me…”
“… You’ve worked hard, so I’ll give you a reward.”
“Tch.”
Honestly, it was probably the most my heart had wavered since coming to this world. However, I hid my feelings and replied, and disappointment clouded the noble princess’s eyes in response.
“Come, feed.”
Quietly, I loosened my top garment to bare my neck, and the noble princess, her eyes unconsciously glowing red, inched closer to my neck.
“… Never mind.”
“Huh?”
“I have no interest in the nutrient-poor blood of someone who collapsed from anemia.”
But just before her fangs could sink into my neck, the noble princess suddenly stood up and began trotting towards a corner of the room, muttering in a low voice.
“I’ll eat you when you’re a bit tastier, you buffoon.”
“Still, you must be low on energy due to taking on your human form for so many days.”
“… It’s none of your business anyway.”
Then, she quietly picked up a cat doll that was lying on the floor.
“I suppose I’ll have to endure with this detestable body for a while…”
“Surely, you didn’t unnecessarily share the blood you were digesting with me, right?”
“Quiet.”
I watched her, puzzled as to why she avoided facing me. Scratching my head, I suddenly remembered something and asked her a question.
“By the way, the visitors you mentioned, were they the only ones among the people you knew?”
“… Why do you ask?”
“That… Did the professor… not come?”
She then turned her head with a snicker, giving me a sidelong glance.
“Are you talking about your advisor, whom I suspect might be going senile?”
“That’s a bit harsh.”
When I retorted with some irritation in my voice, she looked at me with a curious expression and asked.
“… Aren’t you afraid of her?”
“Why would I be afraid of the cute Miss Moriarty?”
“It’s understandable for you to say that, since you haven’t heard what she’s been asking around to girls my age recently.”
“You don’t mince your words in the absence of the professor now, do you? As a woman, you should respect her privacy.”
“What are you talking about? She hasn’t left your side for a moment since she entered this room.”
“Huh?”
As she silently pointed to my side, I lifted my head with effort to check the spot and then finally realized why my body had been feeling so heavy.
“Ah…”
“She has been sitting by your side without sleep for days, and finally fell asleep a few moments ago.”
Turning my head, I saw the image of Professor Moriarty hunched over on the bed, her hand on my stomach, activating a restraining spell.
“……….”
“Yeah.”
Contrary to what Princess Clay said, she was now staring at me intently with her grey eyes opened wide.
“… She really is a strange woman.”
As Princess Clay, preparing to possess the cat, muttered those words, the atmosphere in the room seemed to turn slightly colder— or was it perhaps my imagination? I didn’t know for sure.
“See, recently she’s been trying makeup techniques that make her look younger…”
“I don’t know what you’re about to say, but it might be best to stop.”
“Huh?”
“I’d hate to lose a reliable subordinate just like that.”
“Hmph, what nonsense are you spouting all of a sudden…”
Professor Moriarty’s chilly gaze remained as Princess Clay, turning into red smoke and possessing the cat, closed her eyes and fell asleep.
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“Mr. Adler.”
“… Professor.”
An unspecified time passed in between.
“I have two concerns at the moment.”
“… Is that so?”
After staring into Adler’s eyes for seemingly an excruciating eternity, Professor Moriarty silently opened her mouth, and Adler, barely managing to keep his head up, replied with cold sweat seeping out of his forehead.
“That sounds quite interesting. But right now, I’m a bit sleepy…”
“The first concern is that people around me have been increasingly mocking my age.”
Ignoring his attempt to divert the conversation, Professor Moriarty continued with her concerns.
“It’s quite strange. I’m in my twenties. Not even late twenties, but at the perfect age for marriage according to the average for British women.”
“……….”
“There’s absolutely no reason for me to be ridiculed for my age. It’s the ignorant young ones who…”
“… Have you been wearing makeup?”
Gazing at her blankly, Adler tilted his head and asked in a soft voice.
“So that’s why you’ve been looking more youthful lately.”
“………”
“Truth be told, you’re cute even without putting anything on, Professor.”
Then the professor paused and silently stared at him for a brief moment.
“… Let’s move on to my second concern.”
As she easily skipped over her first concern, Adler secretly breathed a sigh of relief and nodded.
“Listen to this.”
“Yes?”
With a sly smile, the professor then took out a miniature phonograph out of her pocket.
“It seems about time that I take London into my hands.”
“Do you realize what you’re saying?”
As she caressed the magic stone embedded in the center, the phonograph began to softly play out the conversation he had with Lestrade in the secret hideout a few days ago.
“Step by step, I’ll expand my influence, and eventually, even the cute Professor will be in the palm of my hand. After that, I’ll mobilize various criminal organizations simultaneously…”
“… That should be good enough.”
At the moment the problematic statement played, the magic stone along with the phonograph shattered to pieces due to the overwhelming mana that suddenly flooded out of the professor.
“Uh, Professor. That…”
“During this vacation, I’ve endured a great deal, Mr. Adler.”
“……..”
“You’ll have to acknowledge it yourself. Haven’t you seen with your own eyes how far I’ve lowered my pride for the sake of my cute little assistant?”
The professor, flicking away the smoke rising from her hand, tilted her head from side to side in her characteristic manner, and leaned toward Adler.
The system, which had been silent for a long while despite being summoned multiple times by him to clarify the current circumstances, once again appeared in front of Adler.
“… I’ll give you five minutes, Mr. Adler.”
“Explain within five minutes why you should not become the victim of my perfect crime curse today.”
Beyond the message, Adler gazed at the professor, wearing a frigid smile, and tried to hide the creepiness he felt by forcing a smile of his own.
“… By the way, the perfect crimes that my curse allows me to commit involve a variety of types, not just murder, Mr. Adler.”
Then the system message, which had lowered its transparency to naturally obscure the Professor’s face, sent him one last message before slowly beginning to fade away.
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“Ah, and there’s something I’ve been curious about for a long time.”
“Yes?”
Thanks to the consideration of the system, Adler soon managed to regain some composure.
“The messages that you’ve always been checking, the ones floating in mid-air…”
Professor Moriarty’s voice, filled with pure curiosity, burrowed into Adler’s ears.
“… Are those, by any chance, sent by a woman?”
Adler’s mind, which had been racing, suddenly went blank.
“… May I have a drink before we talk?”
“No.”
