"Haa, haaaa..."
- Gooooooo...
The fight between Charlotte and Professor Moriarty, which had been going on for dozens of minutes already, had begun reaching an impasse.
"You're quite good at this, aren't you?"
Normally, with a higher concentration of mana and far superior skills and experience, Professor Moriarty should have landed an overwhelming victory in the duel.
"Has so sort of trigger led to an increase in your abilities?"
"... Quiet."
However, for so unknown reason, Charlotte's dark-black mana, which seed several tis darker and more ominous than usual, was barely able to successfully defend against Professor Moriarty's all-devouring deathly grey mana.
"Just, just a little more strength!"
"... Charlotte! Hang in there!"
Of course, this miracle wasn't solely due to her absurd growth.
"Tch..."
"While she’s not the easiest opponent, given her high proficiency in hand-to-hand combat, I will take them down soon and join you as fast as I can. So just hold on a little longer!"
Inspector Gia Lestrade, who had stepped in to block the werewolf that was on her way to eagerly target Charlotte Hols under the command of the devil that had enabled and empowered her existence, didn’t forget to split so of her attention to reducing the concentration of the all-engulfing grey mana in real-ti.
"Grrgrrgrrrrrr..."
"He-Here, you see this, right? This is loaded with… sil-silver bullets, yeah… It will hurt really, really bad, like really bad if you get hit with it, right? So don’t co close!”1
anwhile, Dr Rachel Watson had sohow overco the crippling fear that was immobilizing her to so extent, all for her partner’s sake. Thus, she was now busy aiming the pistol in her hand at the demonic hound who was circling the room, keeping it at bay.
"Wow."
anwhile, at a distance from all the chaos, Isaac Adler was watching the whole chaotic fiasco with sparkling eyes; his hands were still hovering over the return ticket icon though, just in case.
"Magic is truly amazing..."
"Mr. Adler."
Inadvertently, he closed his mouth shut upon hearing Professor Moriarty's voice, which hadn't lost its leisurely, bemused tone from the very start.
"Six won are fighting over you, and you're watching it as if it’s a play. Quite intrigued, are we?"
"Uh... technically, isn't it five?"
"........"
"... Hehe."
At the prolonged silence, Adler couldn’t help but scratch his head with an awkward smile.
"In that case, it makes the effort of coming here to save you pointless, doesn’t it?”
Unlike before, Professor Moriarty was now gazing at him with her head tilted to the side. Puzzled by the unusually cheery deanour he was showing as they fought over him with full force, the professor unexpectedly relaxed her grip at the next mont.
- Tssssss...
At that mont, Charlotte Hols' ominous black mana surged in, swiftly engulfing Professor Moriarty's grey mana.
"Professor...?"
"... Hmph."
The bewildered Adler couldn’t help but wear a slightly dazed look as he heard the sulky voice flowing out of the professor’s lips while she gazed at him with a slightly sullen gaze.
"You still seem to be quite at ease, huh...?"
Just then, a chilling voice echoed from the front.
"Of course, I do appreciate your arrogance."
"........"
"You must have realized by now, that you can no longer suppress as overwhelmingly as you used to."
"That doesn't an you can win, though."
Briefly, Charlotte’s mana seed to have dominated over Professor Moriarty’s overwhelming and all-encompassing presence. And the professor, undeterred, began increasing her mana output once again as their gazes intersected.
"Your eyes are still grey, Professor. It seems your love for yourself is greater than your love for Adler."
"My heart is several tis wider than the narrow and prejudiced thing beating on your chest. However, no matter how big the heart, so constitutions are too hard to dye. There’s nothing one can do about it."
"Don't try to pass it off as a joke."
Charlotte, having said that, lowered her voice and whispered out a question to the professor.
"... Do you even understand the emotion called love?"
And then silence ensued between the two.
"See…"
Charlotte quietly looked at the silent professor with a gaze far colder than anything she ever projected, and soon began to speak with a sneer stretching her lips.
"You're just playing at love. Because it seems… fun. Isn't that right, Professor?"
"Your words are a bit too extre, don’t you think?"
Jane Moriarty glared at her in the silence, the voice leaking out of her lips colder than glacial ice.
"Apologies, but I'm not in the mood to indulge a child's tantrums."
"I never thought I'd say this to you but..."
However, Charlotte didn’t back down a single bit, facing her head-on without a shred of fear, and whispered with a sneer in her voice.
"You, who can’t even begin understanding this emotion called love, are so pitiful.”
".........."
"The sight of you unable to do anything but imitate it is so tragic. I feel sorry for you, truly."
The professor's eyes grew slightly colder upon hearing the whisper, but her expression and breathing remained the sa as before.
- Goooooooo...
"Oh, struck a nerve there, did I?”
However, the balance of the clashing mana she had been managing quite leisurely until now had begun to waver— sothing the professor couldn't completely conceal from Charlotte.
- Creack, creaaaak...
"If you’re guilty, at least have the decency to back off."
Charlotte did not miss that brief mont of vulnerability and began to relentlessly press her advantage.
"You seem to lack a conscience. For an old maid to act so..."
- Crrrreeeeeeaaaaaaack...
"A proposal? Don't even make laugh."
As the gap that had slightly opened grew wider, Charlotte's ominous dark-black mana reached right in front of Professor Moriarty.
"... He has already turned down our proposals.”
In that mont of utter crisis, Charlotte, with a bitter smile, drove the point ho.
"There's no way Adler would accept a proposal from soone like you."
- Tap, tap...
It was precisely at that mont, as the professor listened to her words with an expressionless face, that her eyes suddenly flashed with an ominous light when…
"Professor."
".......?"
Adler, who had surreptitiously approached right beside them who knows when, tapped the professor on the shoulder with a cheerful smile.
"Adler, this place is dangerous."
"Look at this."
"So, step back for n..."
Jane Moriarty, glaring at Charlotte with a frosty expression and murmuring in a flat voice, couldn’t help but start trailing off…
"Hehe."
Adler was presenting a single sheet of paper to her right now.
"........."
It didn't take long for everyone to realize that it was a marriage registration form signed in Adler's own handwriting along with the signature of Professor Moriarty that was already present beforehand.
.
.
.
.
.
- Gooooooooooooo…
Charlotte Hols's mana, which had been on the verge of seizing the upper hand in the clash, began shaking violently.
"Ugh…"
She hurriedly tried to regain balance, but it was already too late. The black-coloured mana that had been burrowing towards Professor Moriarty just re monts ago was now struggling to even block the montum of her grey mana.
"... Why on earth."
Realizing she could no longer turn the tide of this clash, Charlotte hung her head low and spoke in a voice filled with disbelief and despair.
"Why did you make such a choice?"
Tears started forming in the corner of her eyes.
"Are you bloody serious?"
A cold voice ca from behind Charlotte.
"Is it just , or are people doing fake marriages now? Was I the only one unaware?"
"Since… why else would you do this? Why, out of all people, did you choose the professor over the only one who can nullify your curse… and the person you love?"
"… Hmm."
Adler, who had been looking dazedly at the unusually outspoken Watson, scratched his head and began to answer in a low voice.
"It's because of the reason I ntioned earlier."
""..........""
"Marrying soone I should bring down doesn't make sense now, does it?"
Hearing his reply, their faces paled so much that it would be impossible for them to pale any further.
"My dearest ladies, please do your very best to bring us down."
"Stop…"
"At this point, it can’t be any clearer regarding what you need to do from henceforth.”
"Stop it!!!"
Charlotte exploded just as she heard Adler's last few words.
"I don't want to bring you down!!"
"........"
"I like you! I love you, Adler!!"
More and more tears started streaming down her face, more than she had ever shed in all her life.
"Ah, yes, yes. I was a bit too harsh with you earlier, wasn’t I? Sorry for that. Since I was a bit too excessive, let's find another way, okay? Let’s start over… yeah, yea…."
"Miss Hols…"
"Marrying soone else for my sake, I won't accept such a doggone ending!!!"
And then Charlotte, shouting those words at the top of her lungs, tried to step forward.
"... This doesn’t seem to be a very fitting way to conclude this case.”
Adler – witnessing the scene of Gia Lestrade exerting her superhuman strength to bring down the main culprit, Mortir, behind him – squinted and muttered to herself.
"The only problem is Miss Baskerville, who witnessed everything..."
"... That won’t be a problem.”
Amidst the rapidly deteriorating situation, a shy, whispery voice was heard.
"I've already made arrangents to cover up this case..."
"Is that so?"
The professor, who had once proposed confidently but was now avoiding Adler's gaze with flushed cheeks, muttered those words. And, hearing her, Adler rely nodded in silence.
"Then, let's get out of here."
- Swish...
Suddenly, Adler wrapped his arm around her waist.
".........?"
As he scooped her up in a princess carry – Professor Moriarty, who had been flicking her head side to side like a lizard, unable to grasp what was happening to her for a mont – froze on the spot.
"... It seems you still haven't accepted it, so I should give you ti."
"A, Adler."
"But if you still can't accept it in the end..."
Gently stroking her hair, Isaac Adler quietly raised his hand.
"The next mystery you face won't be so kind."
"Stop it. Stop already!!!"
"Prepare yourself well, Miss Hols."
"... Ugh."
Charlotte, staggering from the oppressive atmosphere filling the cavern, eventually lost her balance and fell to the ground.
"... Don't waste your energy trying to catch ."
Looking at her with a hint of pity in his eyes, Adler then snapped his fingers and concluded.
"Unless you discover the true na, binding a devil is impossible."
"Wait!!!"
"... Goodbye."
In the next mont, the professor and Adler had disappeared from the cavern in an instant.
.
.
.
.
.
After their disappearance, a heavier silence than ever before began to flow inside the cavern.
"Strange."
In the midst of that silence, Charlotte, who had fallen to her knees on the cave's sharp rocky floor, her knees scrapped and bleeding, began to mutter quietly with lifeless eyes.
"He promised to be with , to be by my side, forever… back then."
As if it were a lie all along, the storm ceased the mont Adler had stepped out of the wilderness. However, at that very instant, a terrifying ssage appeared before Adler’s eyes, making him puzzled.
"... Did I forget sothing for a mont?"
– Probability of being Shared — 10% → 69%
/genesisforsaken
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