༺ The Three Garridebs (2) ༻
“I’m, I’m sorry…”
“Oh no, it doesn’t even hurt that much.”
As the girl with the haggard expression bowed her head in apology, Adler responded with a kind smile.
“It seems you were famished. You ended up swallowing my fingers without even chewing them.”
“Ah…”
Her expression morphed into faint astonishment at his incredulous words.
“It’s okay, growing back a finger or two is as easy as pie for me.”
“I’m, I’m really, really sorry…”
“It’s fine; as long as you’re no longer hungry.”
However, as she saw Adler wrap his mangled hands with a bandage, the girl’s eyes darkened ever so slightly.
– Buzzzzzzzt…
“I was attacked and almost half-eaten by you as soon as I entered this room. But, as you can see clearly, I’m still quite alive, am I not?”
“Yes, yes…?”
“I have a unique constitution. As long as I’m not swallowed whole and digested till nothing of me is left, I am essentially immortal.”
“………”
Pointing to the numerous teeth marks marring his body, he assured her of his survival and started administering first aid to his severed fingers. Meanwhile, the girl merely bowed her head in silence once she heard his piece.
“Ooh, uuugh…”
Tears slowly began welling up in her eyes.
“Huu, Uggghhh…”
“… Why are you crying again?”
Adler couldn’t help but scratch his head awkwardly, frowning as he saw her crying while making odd crying noises.
“I… almost… killed someone again…”
“Hmm.”
“I… I am… a monster.”
His gaze shifted, silently taking in the layout of the desolate room, but soon turned back to her and he smiled as he spoke.
“For a monster, you’re quite beautiful.”
“Don’t say things you don’t mean.”
However, the girl, a somber expression on her face, was quick to deny Adler’s words.
“How can a terrible monster who eats people be considered beautiful?”
Wiping away the tears brimming in the corner of her eyes, she murmured with an expression drenched in endless guilt; her lips still able to taste the bitter, metallic tang of Adler’s fresh blood.
“Please reveal why you came to this place.”
“……..”
“If you don’t wish to respond, you can just leave. You wouldn’t want to go through that terrible experience again now, would you?”
Unknowingly, she bared her fangs at him and growled with a threatening voice.
“By the way, if you’re a doctor or a psychiatrist or something of the sort, I’ll just tear you to shreds. Even more so if you’re a hunter here to catch me.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Do you think I know nothing?”
Her expression grew more and more sullen as more words leaked out of her mouth.
“You’ve been sent by my brother, haven’t you?”
“………”
“I already know everything. Even though you approached me with a smile at the start, you will eventually run away without lasting even a few days. So please, don’t even bother and just leave.”
Isaac Adler gazed at the girl with a serene calmness in his eyes.
“Sorry, but I’m neither a doctor nor a psychiatrist, or even this hunter of the occult, you speak of.”
“… Then?”
“Kuhumm…”
He cleared his throat for a moment, and then, abruptly, spread his arms wide and opened his mouth with a cheerful expression.
“… Congratulations!”
Caught off guard by his sudden demeanor, the girl widened her eyes and tilted her head in utter confusion.
“What is this all of a sudden…?”
“It may be sudden, but you are the rightful heir to a fortune left by a wealthy magnate.”
“… What did you say?”
“To be precise, you have inherited a grand sum of 15 million dollars.”
At those words, momentarily, a dazed look washed over her face.
“… You’re joking right now, aren’t you?”
“No, this is not a joke, young lady. I am only informing you of the absolute truth.”
Adler, with narrowed eyes, began whispering to her in a soft tone.
“Do you know of Alicia Hamilton Garrideb, the American magnate?”
“No, I haven’t heard that name before…”
“Well, you haven’t been out of the house much, so it’s perfectly understandable.”
With a leisurely smile tugging his lips, he began the tale of the wealthy magnate.
“That eccentric lady took great pride in her unusual name. So when she passed away last year, a single woman till her last breath, she left a will to pass her fortune on to a woman with the same last name.”
“Ah…”
“After searching the American continent for over a year, I, acting as her agent, couldn’t find anyone with such a last name. But I thought maybe there were chances of finding someone in the historical depths of England. And a few months after arriving in this country, I found your family.”
After Adler finished speaking, he quietly observed the girl, whose expression had already begun trembling.
“Oh, no…”
“Yes?”
“I, I’m a monster, not a person. An inheritance? I couldn’t possibly receive such a thing.”
Hearing her words, Adler gently took hold of the girl’s trembling hands.
“You look very much like a human to me, miss.”
“Stop it, please!”
The girl, looking at Adler with frightened eyes as he approached her, began shivering violently as she pushed him away from her.
“Don’t touch my body…”
“……..”
“Do you want to lose your other fingers too?”
But Adler, nonetheless, did not back down.
“There’s still my mother, for your information. Her surname is also Garrideb, and she’s a woman. Let her receive the inheritance instead.”
“Your mother suffers from extreme paranoia and delusional disorder. She would not look favorable in the eyes of the strict inheritance managers who assess the legitimacy of the heirs in person. Even you might lose your chance at the inheritance if your mother were to be presented.”
“But still…”
“Miss Neria Garideb.”
He began whispering to the frightened girl in front of him with a firm voice.
“The sole rightful owner of the 15 million dollars is none other than you.”
“………”
“I, too, have been employed with the sole goal of making this mission a success. I cannot back down until you receive the compensation in America.”
The girl’s complexion started to turn even paler at those words.
“But, I don’t want to go outside. Not even if I die.”
“Why?”
“It’s been 10 years since I have stopped going outside. I’m scared of it now…”
“Hmm…”
“And I’m a monster. If I go out, I’ll be hunted.”
At her somber voice, Adler scratched his head, lost in thought for a moment.
“… But still.”
Watching him, the girl whispered in a hesitant voice— a voice that almost seemed to be crawling out of her throat with utmost difficulty.
“I don’t want to give up like this.”
Tears started welling up and eventually spilled out of her moist eyes.
“I can finally repay my brother for everything… I don’t want it to end in vain.”
“You must like your brother very much, I assume?”
“… He’s the one who raised me without ever abandoning me.”
At those words, Adler couldn’t help but smirk bitterly in his mind.
“If I do receive the inheritance, I’ll give all the money to my brother.”
“………”
“I desperately want to repay him for all those years he lost while accommodating me.”
The faint smile that formed on the girl’s tearful face was flawlessly reflected in his eyes.
“But, but…”
“I understand your circumstances.”
And then, in the very next moment, Isaac Adler slowly opened his mouth.
“To go outside, you need to control that frenzied state of yours, right?”
“Wait, just a moment…!”
Before the girl could stop him, Adler began to scratch his arm with his nails, drawing out blood.
“I will help you, Miss Garideb.”
“Ah, ah…”
Then the girl, drooling uncontrollably, started to tremble violently throughout her body.
“Feed on me as many times as you need, and let yourself run wild, unfettered, for once.”
The moment those words ended, the girl, having lost her reason, pounced on Adler’s body once more.
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“Ah, ah…”
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Several hours later…
“I’ll come again tomorrow, so digest what you’ve already eaten.”
“There…”
Leaving the girl, who was drenched in blood and had eyes quivering with intensity, reaching out her hand toward him, Adler staggered out of the room.
“… How do you feel, Professor?”
Exhaustion was evident on his face as he straightened his clothes and murmured under his breath in a low voice.
⦗What do you mean?⦘
“Do you think I haven’t noticed your leering eyes all this time?”
⦗Mr. Adler, that is…⦘
As soon as the question was finished, Professor Moriarty hurriedly tried to explain…
“… Pervert.”
However, as Adler condemned her with a cold smile, the voice of the professor that resonated inside his head fell into a state of silence.
“So, how did you find watching the scene of me being devoured?”
⦗A vicious and unruly wolf, I see.⦘
A slightly disappointed look took over Adler’s face once he heard the answer resonating inside his head.
⦗However, it feels a bit different from the werewolves I know.⦘
“… Hmm.”
But as the professor murmured her doubts, a smile promptly returned to his face.
⦗And the house is suspicious too. The structure of the mansion, the appearances of the servants… there seems to be something hidden there.⦘
“Indeed, you are a queen worthy of my selection.”
⦗But, Mr. Adler… Such things are not for us to uncover.⦘
A slightly shy yet disgruntled voice echoed in his head.
⦗Digging into the hidden backstories and secrets of a case is the job of a detective, not a criminal consultant. Aren’t we supposed to be concealing them?⦘
“You’re right, my adorable Miss Moriarty.”
⦗So what is your true nature? Your usual self, or when you’re drunk?⦘
“But it would be too dull to just kidnap and murder that poor girl outside, wouldn’t it?”
Ignoring the professor’s disgruntled voice, Adler’s eyes quietly shone.
“So, it’s about time for our nemesis to appear.”
⦗You don’t mean…⦘
“I’ve always preferred a stimulating love triangle over a bland and straightforward relationship, Professor.”
Along with a message that shone golden in his hand, containing words that were all too familiar to them both.
⦗When you sober up, let’s have a serious conversation.⦘
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Despite the icy coldness in the voice that came through telepathy, Adler responded with a playful tone and unilaterally cut off the communication.
“… Until then, I guess I’ll have to go on a detective date with Miss Holmes.”
“Hehe.”
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Meanwhile, at that same moment, at the lodging house at 221B Baker Street…
“Holmes, please, come to your senses.”
Charlotte Holmes’ roommate, Rachel Watson, was arguing with her, sweating profusely throughout their verbal back and forth.
“The book you’ve been reading is filled with sexual fantasies and delusions, inflated in a dangerous and provocative fashion.”
“……….”
“Real love between a man and a woman isn’t like that. It’s not about lewd, pleasure-seeking acts; it’s about sharing pure love…”
“Just get to the point, Watson.”
Charlotte, unfazed by her roommate’s earnest voice, continued to flip through the coverless book as she asked the question.
“… Anyway, according to this, such acts could result in pregnancy, right?”
“That, well, yes, but… that’s not the point, is it?”
In her hand, a message quietly glowed in golden.
｢A new mystery is upon us!｣
“That’s an erotic novel banned as obscenity, Holmes!”
Watson’s plaintive voice echoed fruitlessly within the walls of the lodging house.
