༺ Shattered Mask ༻
– Creak…
“Where are you off to, Mr. Adler?”
As Adler staggered out of the bed after staring blankly at the mirror hanging on the wall for a while, Professor Moriarty, back to her usual composed self, tilted her head with a puzzled expression and queried.
“You shouldn’t be wandering around in your current condition.”
“… Ha.”
But ignoring her advice, Adler still approached the mirror and finally… exhaled a rough breath.
“… Professor.”
After closing his eyes tightly and taking a deep breath, silently, he turned his head and addressed Professor Moriarty.
“I must confess.”
“……….”
“I have never seen you as a member of the opposite sex.”
A smirk played on her lips as she silently observed his eyes, which had already turned back to their previous black hue.
“That’s sophistry.”
“………”
“Even if we set aside all your actions until now, you just revealed your ultimate goal— becoming my husband.”
A frigid wave seemed to have spread along with Professor Moriarty’s smile.
“And you’re still saying that you have never liked me?”
“That’s…”
“Isn’t that a bit too unscrupulous?”
Adler, about to speak, couldn’t help pausing at the words leaking out of her mouth. They had a slightly different tone from usual, compelling him to keep his silence.
“… My feelings for you were admiration and awe.”
“Trying to wriggle out of it, I see.”
“That’s exactly why my eyes took on Charlotte’s colors, instead of yours.”
Her gaze narrowed at his muttering, which seemed to lack spirit.
“Unlike love, admiration and awe are often one-sided emotions that don’t resonate well, even if they’re of the same magnitude.”
“Mr. Adler. Normally, a person who admires or reveres someone strongly doesn’t wish to dye them in their own colors.”
“Is that so?”
“Overwhelmed just by watching, they dare not entertain such blasphemous thoughts.”
Confusion slowly encroached on Adler’s face as he heard her words.
“Then, why do I…?”
“The change in your eyes for a moment has already answered that question of yours, hasn’t it?”
Professor Moriarty, who found Adler more intriguing than ever, stepped toward him as he stood dangerously close to the mirror.
“You have been in love with me all along.”
“……….”
“You just didn’t realize it. Or perhaps, you knew but have been deceiving yourself.”
Murmuring those words, Professor Moriarty leaned in close to Adler’s face.
“If you still don’t understand, let’s experiment, shall we?”
“Um…”
“Teaching is a teacher’s duty, so I’ll take special care to show you myself.”
In the next moment, the warmth that lingered on her lips touched and seeped into the cold lips of Adler.
“How about that?”
Holding Adler’s tongue lightly in her mouth for a brief instant, the professor then pulled her head back and posed the question.
“How does the kiss we just shared taste?”
“… It tastes like coffee.”
“Perhaps, we need a bit more practice.”
As Adler averted his gaze to the side, evading her words, the professor’s face morphed into a sardonic smile and she lowered her head ever so slightly.
“… Eh.”
Then, Moriarty started nibbling right above Adler’s Adam’s apple.
“Pro… fessor.”
As her tongue softly licked his neck, confusion clouded Adler’s eyes.
“How about it, Adler?”
After that rather unusual kiss, the professor, hands clasped behind her back, started bobbing her head side to side in her usual cute manner.
“Did your heart flutter a bit?”
“……..”
The change in her tone, her habits that Adler liked, and her characteristic elusive smile all combined to stir Adler’s heart.
“It seems it did flutter after all.”
And when a blush rose to his cheeks, Jane Moriarty, amused by his appearance, reached out her hand.
“The experiment is over.”
“……..”
“An undeniable conclusion has already been drawn…”
At that instant, as Moriarty was about to touch Adler’s cheek…
“Stop it.”
– Slap…
All of a sudden, the air between them turned frigid as Adler swatted away the professor’s hand.
“……?”
“The change in my eye is merely a coincidence.”
Silently, she looked down at the red handprint staining the back of her small hand and then turned her gaze towards Adler. Seeing her gaze settling on him, he began to mutter in a whispering note.
“It just happened to look that way by chance. Or maybe it was just your imagination, Professor.”
“Where did the brilliant and keen man I once knew go? Who is this dim-witted fellow that came in his place, I wonder?”
Hearing his nonsensical remarks, she looked into Adler’s eyes and whispered, not budging at his futile effort to offer a retort.
“To see you not as someone to serve but as a person of the opposite sex. Just the mere thought of that…”
“Well, that is indeed plausible.”
His right eye, which had been flickering between black and grey, was caught in her gaze.
“Love sometimes does cloud one’s mind.”
She observed that curious spectacle for a long while before gently lifting Adler’s chin.
“The perfect performance I thought you were dishing out just turned out to hold the sincerity hidden deep within your heart. And you’re really adorable for being so flustered and at a loss. Mr. Adler.”
As she delivered those words with a bright smile stretching her lips, Adler’s flickering eye remained grey for far longer than he was willing to admit.
.
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.
.
“So, what are you trying to say in the end?”
As the color returned to black once more, Adler muttered, his voice taking on a frigid tone once more, and turned his head.
“From today, return as my assistant.”
The professor, initially looking at him with a dark gleam in her eyes, soon began whispering with her eyes lit up, as though nothing had changed all along.
“I’ve been asked to consult on a crime.”
“Is that so?”
“It’s not someone you brought in, but, for the very first time, a client who came to me willingly after having heard of my reputation.”
At her words laced with pride, Adler quietly shifted his gaze back to the professor.
“… But I was reluctant to take on such a monumental request without my beloved assistant at my side, so I’ve been holding off.”
“That’s cringe.”
“Why have you suddenly become so cold?”
Moriarty, with a puzzled smile and a tilted head, continued speaking while gazing at him.
“Anyway, I’d like to work on this case with you.”
“……..”
“Will you join me?”
As Adler, rolling his eyes, was about to speak,
“Ah, and by the way, no need for an answer.”
Before he could even respond, the professor’s voice, laced with mirth, filled the room.
“This is an order.”
“………”
“As my beloved assistant, join me in my crimes.”
An unknown time passed as the silence, that settled between them, stretched on.
“… I will comply.”
Adler silently nodded in response.
“My loyalty to you, Professor, will always remain unchanged.”
“I’ll see how long you can escape with such ambiguous responses.”
Holding his hand again, carefully this time around, the professor muttered to him in a low voice as she headed toward the door of the room.
“Soon there will come a time when you will have to choose which color you want to dye your eyes in.”
“………”
“As you have won the last bet, you have gained the right to choose one of us.”
Hearing her words, Adler hesitated for a moment before making eye contact with the professor as she looked at him with clear intrigue in her eyes.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
“……..!”
The professor, with a quiet smile, slightly bowed her head and pressed her lips to his right eye.
“What are you doing?”
“Marking you.”
As she licked his closed eye gently with her tongue and then lifted her head, Adler asked her in stunned surprise, receiving a rather lewd response in return.
“My goal is to do it to every part of your body.”
“That’s sexual harassment.”
Upon hearing his response, the professor wrapped her arm around Adler’s waist, and he, without realizing it, shivered and muttered in a frigid tone.
“I’ll do it while you’re asleep, so don’t worry.”
“Professor.”
Adler muttered, responding back, his face serious and his usual sly demeanor gone.
“Although I’m currently offering you my absolute loyalty, I am, after all, a man with sexual desires.”
“……..”
“If you keep this up, I might pounce on you.”
With a faint, yet pronounced, dangerous look in his eyes, he shook off the professor’s arm and headed for the door of the room. Quietly watching his receding back, the professor couldn’t help but get lost in her thoughts.
‘They say drinking seawater only increases one’s thirst.’
“So please don’t do that.”
‘It’s a phrase that suits you perfectly.’
When she was finally able to grasp the feelings hidden deep in his heart, Adler had suddenly become several times more distant.
‘I never expected him to close off his heart so abruptly.’
Just minutes ago, he had been vying to make a good impression on her, but now she was the one desperately trying to hold onto him.
It felt as if the roles of the attacker and defender had switched.
‘… And that makes me want him even more.’
Just as the sea has its high and low tides, she had learned that love also had similar moments of push and pull.
At least that’s what the books the professor had secretly borrowed from the academy library during the vacation had said.
‘This moment perfectly describes the destructive power of someone who has been pulling away constantly and finally decides to push back.”
She wanted to completely devour the boy walking ahead of her.
‘… Could this possibly be part of your plan as well?’
She wanted to make Isaac Adler her own, in all of his facets and forms.
‘Well, what does it even matter.’
“…..!?”
Harboring such thoughts, she stealthily approached Adler from behind and gently brushed his nape with her lips as he was about to open the door.
“… Professor.”
Startled, Adler shuddered and then turned around with a gaze of frigid ice.
“Didn’t I warn you already?”
“… Hehe.”
It wasn’t the somewhat subdued, masked reaction he usually showed her. But rather, the genuine, raw response of Isaac Adler.
“Sorry~”
Knowing all too well why he had changed so much in such a short time, a pleased smile formed on Jane Moriarty’s face, her hands clasped behind her back.
“… Hmm.”
All of a sudden, the professor turned her head towards the mirror, but soon, retracted her gaze back with a somewhat relaxed smile.
“It seems I have a rather unique constitution.”
The reflection in the mirror still showed her eyes painted in their usual grey hues, but now she didn’t care anymore about it.
“My beloved Adler.”
“… Yes?”
If what they were sharing now wasn’t love, then what else could love be?
“Nothing~”
Having come to that conclusion in her mind, she quietly followed behind Adler with her hands still clasped behind her back.
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– Creak…
“So, what exactly is the request?”
“I still don’t know.”
The door to the hospital room, which had seen a great deal of traffic over the past few days, opened, making way for the professor and Adler to walk out while conversing.
“All I know so far is that the client’s name is quite amusing.”
“The name is amusing?”
Adler expressed his curiosity at the professor’s words.
“Well, how can someone’s last name be Garrideb?”
“… Ah.”
“Ahaha, hahahaha…”
At that moment, as Adler, seemingly caught on to something in the professor’s words, heard her laugh out loud…
“… Adler?”
From down the corridor, an unexpected voice called out to him.
“Have you finally woken up?”
Gia Lestrade, dressed in plain clothes while holding a basket of apples in her hand, stood there with eyes filled with surprise and astonishment.
“This is quite astonishing.”
“……..!”
“The great Lestrade herself in plain clothes? Could it be that she took a day off to visit you?”
Lestrade, who had been quickly walking forward, paused her steps once she noticed Jane Moriarty standing next to Adler.
“… Huh?”
Immediately, her eyes turned frigid at the scene.
“What are those marks mark?”
The handprint and teeth marks on Adler’s neck were vividly captured by Lestrade’s sharp and intuitive gaze.
“These… are merely wounds from that day…”
“That wasn’t there yesterday, was it?”
Adler stammered, trying to offer an excuse, but Lestrade’s eyes grew far colder as she muttered in a chilly voice.
“… Isn’t that right, Professor?”
Her gaze challenged Professor Moriarty, who merely stood there with a relaxed expression, arm wrapped around Adler’s waist.
“What have you done to my boyfriend?”
“You lead such a bothersome life, Lestrade.”
The hallway was soon filled with the frigid aura leaking out of the two women.
