Charlotte, having stared at Adler in surprise for a while as he appeared before her, finally asked in a low voice,
“… Mr Adler, what brings you here?”
“What brings here indeed.”
A cheeky smile played on Adler’s lips as he muttered softly,
“Because I love you.”
“…….”
“I just wanted to see you.”
Charlotte’s eyes slightly narrowed at his rather audacious response.
“How did you manage to find when I was disguised and had erased all traces of my presence?”
“… Miss Hols, surely you aren’t asking that?”
Ignoring her, Adler clung to her side before suddenly donning a serious expression as he answered her question,
“Those who track others are always at the risk of being tracked themselves. It’s essentially the blind spot in surveillance.”
“……..”
“As long as Miss Hols and I maintain our contract, I can always find your location, even with my eyes closed.”1
Hols’ eyes narrowed even further at his boastful reply.
“So, you’re saying you ca to see in the middle of the night just because you love ?”
“Yes.”
“Uh-huh…”
Despite his persistence, a doubtful look glinted in her eyes.
“… Really?”
But her expression softened eventually and she quietly avoided his gaze and asked,
“You know, there’s sothing romantic about a date at dawn.”
“… I’d agree, but I doubt we can feel any of the romance around here.”
Following Adler’s response, Charlotte sighed quietly,
“Actually, this is where Silver Blaze was attacked.”
“… What?”
As soon as he heard that, Adler’s expression began to turn cold.
“You knew that and still ca here in the middle of the night?”
“But that’s my job, isn’t it?”
“……..”
“Why are you being so sensitive all of a sudden?”
Charlotte quietly looked at him and then slowly reached out her hand,
“… Co to think of it, now is not the ti for you to be worried about .”
- Swoosh…
“Are you even fully healed from that terrible explosion that was featured prominently in most newspapers and magazines of Britain? How can you be walking around so freely?”
Charlotte naturally slipped her hand inside Adler’s clothes, feeling around, and her expression soon darkened.
“… You still have bandages on your body.”
“…….”
“You haven’t fully recovered, have you? That’s it, isn’t it?”
“Ah, ouch. Ow ow o”
“Shouldn’t you be the one lying in bed? Or did Watson just let you out, telling you to go die or sothing?”
As Charlotte Hols tightly grasped the area covered by bandages, Isaac Adler, with a faint groan and a slightly troubled expression, found himself cornered by her sharp probing.
“Can’t do. I need to call Watson right now and have her take you back…”
- Peck…
“… Ah?”
As he quietly sighed and kissed Charlotte’s cheek, she, who had been muttering in a stern voice, was left dazed.
“Omph.”
“… Mmm.”
Seizing the mont, Adler then quietly bit her lips and slipped his tongue in.
“………”
Ti drifted away as they shared a passionate kiss.
After they stopped kissing, Charlotte, whose words had noticeably decreased, found Adler naturally linking arms with her.
“Why so talkative? Let’s just take a night walk together.”
“……..”
“… Can’t you understand what I’m saying?”
Adler then whispered into her ear, his voice slightly lower than usual.
“Um-uh… yes.”
Quietly rubbing her lips with her hand, Charlotte, her face blushing, nodded and started to match his pace.
“… If you can do this kind of thing, why didn’t you try it at the hotel that day?”
“I would, but a certain soone drugged before I could make up my mind.”
“… Actually, I didn’t drug the bath. It was a lie, and you were just overly lustful because you got excited.”
“Don’t lie to .”
“… Well, think of it however you want, it’s a thing of the past anyway.”
Thus, Charlotte and Adler, sticking close together, began to leave the back alley.
- Sshh…
As they left the black alley, a shadowy substance that had been following them quietly soon disappeared into the darkness.
“Haaa…”
Charlotte then let out a sigh.
“Thanks to you, finding the culprit is now impossible.”
“… You knew sothing was following us, didn’t you?”
Adler, walking alongside her, threw a question at her in a chilly voice.
“Culprits tend to return to the scene of the cri.”
“…….”
“In fact, it’s more accurate to say it has been tailing for several days already.”
Unlike Adler, Charlotte only replied with a calm expression.
“Of course, it doesn’t seem like an ordinary person. They figured out my hiding and disguises, and I couldn’t even properly detect it.”
“And yet you were walking unprotected on the streets?”
“No. On the contrary, I was waiting for it to attack .”
She started muttering with a slightly annoyed look as she glanced at Adler by her side.
“It’s a presence that I can’t grasp physically by usual ans… but I could still feel its overwhelming malice towards . That’s why I tried to make myself seem defenceless so that it would attack .”
“…….”
“I was planning to take advantage of its ambush and capture the being. Even if it was incorporeal, the mont it attacked , it would have to reveal a physical form.”
As she spoke, Adler’s expression crumpled even more.
“However, thanks to soone’s devilish interference, the operation turned out to be a complete waste.”
Nevertheless, Charlotte continued speaking without a care.
“It might have been an excellent opportunity to solve the case…”
“Look at for a mont.”
“…… Huh?”
Suddenly, Adler roughly grabbed Charlotte’s wrist as she murmured.
“What are you doing…”
- Squeeze…
“… Ah!?”
He pushed her against the nearby wall with force, causing her to let out an uncharacteristic, girlish scream in confusion.
“… Hic.”
“……”
“A-Adler?”
Eventually, leaning against the wall and gasping for breath, Charlotte looked at Adler, who had cornered her, with a dazed expression.
“What the hell do you think you are doing?”
“… Shut up for a second.”
“Uh?”
She frowned slightly and murmured, but Adler, wedging his knee between her legs, pressed her even more and soon began to whisper in a cold voice.
“Do you think you’re the only one who loves ? Just as you love , I love you too, dammit.”
“… Is this a sudden confession or sothing?”
“It’s not a joke, so listen carefully.”
Surprised by his words, she murmured, but upon hearing Adler’s growl, Charlotte shut her mouth.
“The reason I’m enduring all this, planning all this, burning my remaining life… it’s all because of you.”
“…….”
“If things continue this way, you will definitely die. I can do anything to change that nonsensical ending.”
Her eyes began to waver slightly as she listened to his words.
“I am going to die?”
“Like I just said, I’ll do whatever it takes to prevent that ending. But, but you know…”
Adler, placing his face close to hers with a chilling expression, confronted Charlotte in the silence.
“What are you trying to do by getting yourself into danger?”
“… Are you underestimating ? Despite how I appear, I am now on par with that professor…”
“I don’t believe you’re foolish enough to call surviving rely a minute as being on par with her.”
“…….”
“You still have much to learn, Charlotte. The exact probability of you dying just now was 37.75%.”
When he called her by her first na instead of her surna, Charlotte, who had been about to say sothing, silently closed her mouth and bit her lip.
“Are you telling to give up on my work now?”
“… I’m asking you to stop gambling with your life.”
Then, as she asked him in a low voice, Adler, looking directly into her eyes, whispered,
“Step away from this case. If not, I will kill you myself.”
“……..”
“… It’s not just you who can threaten. Rember that.”
After saying this, Adler finally eased the pressure, and Charlotte, who had been pinned against the wall, spoke in a tiny voice,
“Even you can be serious, huh.”
Turning away, Adler sighed and began,
“… There’s just sothing off about this case.”
He started muttering in a low voice,
“Professor and I should be behind every case… Who is behind this one then? It’s the first ti we’ve been completely left out of a case’s unfolding…”
“…….”
“Even the entity that was in the darkness until just now felt ominously abnormal. To say it was bizarre is an understatent… It doesn’t make sense for the KKK to be moving such a being…”
Then, turning back to look at her, Adler said,
“Just rember what I said, Charlotte.”
Quietly flickering in the darkness, he then began to disappear.
“… I, I can’t live without you, please.”
With those words, Adler completely vanished from in front of her.
“Lies.”
In the ensuing silence, Charlotte stood still for a long ti before she began murmuring in a low voice,
“The right eye is still distinctly grey, yet being so shaless…”
Despite her prickly tone, her cheeks were redder than ever before.
.
.
.
.
.
An unknown amount of ti after their confrontation,
“… Still, today you were sowhat impressive….”
“Miss Hols~!”
“Ahem-hem…”
Charlotte, who had been murmuring to herself in a whispery shy voice, spotted Lestrade running towards her from afar and quietly started to manage her expression with a cough.
“Hahhh, hahh…”
“You did well, following my orders, Inspector.”
Then, she quickly returned to her usual deanour, starting to praise the officer in front of her who, for so reason, was grasping for each breath.
“Thanks to you following for a few days, we were able to completely narrow down the target. It seems Professor and Adler were not involved with the KKK after all.”
“… Pardon?”
“Then there’s nothing to hesitate about. I may not know who’s behind it all, but I have a very good thod to eradicate the KKK in Britain…”
“Miss H-Hols. Wait.”
However, as she was engrossed in discussing her next plan, Lestrade interjected with a puzzled look.
“… Are you not upset?”
“Everything has gone well, why would I be upset?”
“But… I just completely ssed up the operation, didn’t I?”
“…….?”
Charlotte quietly tilted her head at the officer’s nonsensical remark,
“While I was following you as planned, I sohow got lost. I thought I had a perfect grasp on the geography of the back alleys, it’s really strange…”
“What did you say?”
“I just barely found my way back and ran straight to where you were, but I guess it’s too late?”
Her complexion began to turn pale.
“I’m sorry…”
“You an to tell you weren’t the one following all this ti?”
Charlotte, now unusually breaking out in cold sweat, turned her gaze towards the entrance of the back alley behind her.
“Then, what the bloody hell… has been following all this ti?”
By then, nothing remained but the thick fog that had settled into the night.
1. I believe this is referring to the contract they made during the Reigate chapters.
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