The day after a horrific incident struck Baskerville Hall, sending tremors of fear across all of England.
- Shivering relentlessly...
"Miss Watson."
"...Aaaaahhh!?"
As Watson, wrapped in a blanket on the mansion's lobby sofa, shuddered, she scread and convulsed when soone tapped her shoulder.
"Why do you get so startled, making a scene...?"
"I-I was just taken aback!"
Adler, staring blankly at her response, muttered as he scratched his head, prompting Watson to sigh deeply and chide him.
"Co here and sit down."
"...Why?"
"Don't talk back, just hurry up."
As she fiercely glared at Adler, tapping the seat next to her, he tilted his head in puzzlent before quietly sitting beside her.
- Click...
At that mont, Watson's gun pointed at Adler's side.
"What are you doing now?"
"Did you orchestrate this incident?"
By now, Adler, accustod to having a gun or knife pressed against him, asked with a smile, to which Watson coldly threw her question.
"Who? ?
"Don't play dumb."
"I truly don't know. I just ca to rest here before the academy's vacation ends."
"Haa..."
However, as Adler tried to deflect her interrogation with a sly tone, Watson quietly sighed and leaned closer to him.
"The bullets in my gun are silver."
"...Eek."
"You better speak the truth before I put a hole in your side."
Her voice dropped to a whisper, and Adler began to sweat profusely, trembling.
"Please save ..."
"Speak up if you want to live, you damned vampire male..."
"...I didn't tell Miss Watson."
Yet Adler soon whispered back with a teasing stick out of his tongue.
"...Hols?"
Following his gaze, Watson turned her head and, finding her partner with a weary expression from a night of investigation, widened her eyes in surprise.
"Where have you been until now?"
"I've been searching the moors with Inspector Lestrade."
"...Both of you are out of your minds. To wander the moors fearlessly after witnessing such a dreadful scene."
With her spirited reply, Watson shook her head in disbelief and glared back at Adler.
"Listen. Hols, whom you're so fond of, is troubled by the legend of the Baskerville family."
"I've never heard of such a thing."
"And yet, instead of confessing, you're denying it?"
"Watson, it's not like that."
But Charlotte muttered irritably from behind, staggering towards the fireplace.
- Dripping audibly...
Then she picked up the kettle beside her, tilting her head back to gulp down the coffee inside.
"Hols, I told you not to do that."
"...Is she always like this?"
"Only when there's a case. She'll probably chain-smoke cigarettes after this."
Adler, watching her odd behavior, heard those words and walked toward Charlotte, who was fumbling in her pockets.
"Hey, my story isn't over yet..."
"Ms. Hols, it's ti you quit the habit of smoking when things aren't going well with a case."
Then, Adler, ignoring Watson who had risen to her feet with a pistol in hand, snatched the cigarette that Charlotte had pulled out.
"Surely you're not going to claim that it's a healthy herb this ti?"
"...I'm not in the mood for jokes."
Charlotte, with a grim look in her eyes, pressed her finger under her eyes where dark circles had ford and muttered.
"I had a rough idea of what was going to happen, and everything was falling into place until this interference, which is quite displeasing."
"Hmm, interference, you say?"
"....Surely you're not asking because you don't know, Mr. Adler?"
Then, she took a step closer to Adler, squinting her eyes quietly.
"Are you aware that a scent different from your usual sweet sll is emanating strongly from your body?"
"Could it be Ms. Hols is also in heat....."
At Charlotte's words, Adler, who was about to retort without thinking, soon realizes his slip of the tongue and quietly shuts his mouth.
"...I'll let that comnt pass. It's not entirely incorrect, after all."
"Excuse ?"
"The important thing is that your body is giving off the scent of a beast, Mr. Adler."
Charlotte then buried her head in Adler's chest, inhaling his scent and whispering.
"How do you plan to explain this?"
"...It seems you've beco so sensitive that you're mistaken."
"The closer I sll, the more certain it becos. Especially since you've tried to cover it up with perfu or sothing."
"...Could it be that Ms. Hols also believes in the existence of that demonic hound?"
Adler, with his hand on her shoulder as she continued to sniff his scent on tiptoe, whispers in a soft voice.
"If that's the case, you should see this first."
Simultaneously, Adler pulls sothing out from within his clothes.
"...This is."
Charlotte tilts her head quietly as she sees the red cat hanging limply in Adler's hand.
"As you know, it's my pet."
"ow, ow~"
"See?"
As Adler gently strokes the cat's belly and gives a hint, the awkward owing continues to emanate from the creature.
"I hugged this little one all day yesterday, so it's only natural that the scent of a beast would cling to my body."
"Is that how you're going to play it?"
"...Yes?"
"Never mind."
Charlotte Hols, after looking down at Adler for a mont, turns away with a cold expression.
"Not even playing around."
"........."
"I thought you might be making a proposal, so I ca, but I really don't understand what this is all about."
After muttering to herself, Charlotte leaves the mansion, and a mont of silence begins to flow.
"Tsk, tsk..."
".........?"
"Are you pretending not to know, or do you really not understand?"
Amidst the silence, Watson glances at Adler with a cold murmur.
"What is it?"
"...Can't you see that Hols is quite upset with you?"
Adler quietly smiles bitterly upon hearing that.
"I briefly saw her in the early morning, diligently planning for childcare..."
"...Oh, don't worry about that."
Then, Adler quietly begins to ascend the stairs.
"The reason I called you all here was to find the answer to that."
".....What do you an?"
"By the ti this case concludes, I should be able to provide an answer to both Ms. Hols and Ms. Lestrade."
He finishes his sentence and, as he reaches for his room's doorknob, he adds in a low voice.
"...Perhaps, to you as well."
Watson's expression fills with suspicion at his aningful statent, but Adler had already entered his room.
.
.
.
.
.
"Sigh..."
Having entered his assigned room, Adler exhales a sigh and sits down on the bed.
"...Professor."
After a mont, he quietly scratches his head and opens his mouth.
- Mr. Adler.
"What is it that you called so early in the morning for?"
Professor Moriarty, who had almost forcibly established a direct line of communication with Adler, conveyed her voice laced with laughter.
- What other reason would a criminal consultant have to contact so suddenly?
"...By any chance, have you been watching everything?"
- You've even started to charm a puppy now.
"Ha ha..."
Adler lets out an awkward smile at her matter-of-fact statent.
"...If you keep this up, I might just get offended."
- That would be troubleso.
"Please announce yourself before spying next ti."
- However, that's not what's important right now.
As he attempts to gently chide the professor with a slightly serious voice, she quickly shifts the conversation elsewhere.
- It's about the plan you're devising, there's a very important key missing.
"Yes?"
- It's your real identity.
Adler's eyes widen at her words.
- Even when you went there, I thought my assistant had finally realized his true identity.
"........"
- But seeing your actions, it seems that's not the case.
The now familiar even-toned voice of the professor reaches his ears.
- Did the new pet you've started keeping in the basent of the hideout give you any hints?
"...Ah."
- Mr. Adler, but be careful. It's necessary to firmly consider who is in the position of being kept.
Despite the distance, her statents piercing through everything, Adler nods slightly dejected.
- Rember this. As long as you don't realize your own identity, you'll never win against Charlotte Hols in that case.
"...Yes."
- The hint is surprisingly close, so do make an effort, Mr. Adler.
Professor Moriarty whispers to him in a very gentle voice.
- And try to keep those irresistible actions in check.
With that sincere piece of advice, she quietly ends the communication.
"........."
And then the silence begins to fill the room.
"My real identity..."
In that silence, pondering about the 'real identity' that both Mycrony Hols and Professor Moriarty ntioned, Adler's eyes catch sothing suspicious.
"...Hmm?"
On a small table in the corner of the room, there lies a letter that wasn't there a few hours ago.
"This is..."
Filled with curiosity, Adler picks up the letter, and his face slowly contorts.
[If you value your life and purity, leave the wilderness imdiately.]
"What the hell..."
It was a threatening letter, made of cut-out printed letters.
.
.
.
.
.
anwhile, at that very mont.
"......."
A girl with black, bushy hair was gazing intently at Isaac Adler, who was reflected in the mansion's window, from within the brush of the forest.
- Swoosh...
Then, in the blink of an eye, she, now enveloped in darkness, astonishingly transford into the shape of a black, monstrous creature and vanished towards the /genesisforsaken
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