“Have you arrived, my dear?”
Exiting the hospital lobby and heading to the café where Professor Moriarty was currently located, she greeted after sipping her freshly brewed coffee.
“You’ve been through a lot. How does it feel to have made the queen your slave?”
Suddenly, she paused mid-sentence, frowned, and started rummaging through her pocket.
“…The coffee is quite bitter.”
Subsequently, Professor Moriarty, having torn the portable sugar packet she took out from her pocket, unhesitatingly dissolved the sugar into her coffee.
“Do you know, Mr. Adler, what sugar and cri have in common?”
As I blankly watched her, she posed that question while opening a second sugar packet.
“I’m not quite sure.”
“Both stimulate the pleasure center of the brain, causing it to release dopamine as a reward.”
Saying so, Professor Moriarty, with a sip of her now modified coffee, expressed a joyful countenance and lightly nodded her head from side to side.
“Ahem… Would you like so of this natural drug?”
A woman in her early twenties— looking ordinary and cute as she swayed slightly after eating sothing sweet. From just that sight, she appeared no different from anyone else in the world.
“So, you’re saying when you commit a cri, you feel the way you do now?”
“In reality, it’s many tis more intense. A shiver runs through my entire body, to the point where I can’t even control myself any longer.”
However, no matter how cute she appeared, Moriarty was still Moriarty. She was the embodint of pure, undiluted evil.
“But recently, I seed to have lost that feeling. Even if I put 12 sugar cubes into my coffee, there was no joy in life.”
And then, she, placing her coffee to the side, began to stare intently at .
“You appeared before in such tis. Just by looking at you, you stimulate my pleasure center.”
Her gaze deepened. It was hard to describe, but if I had to, it was shining with a dark gleam.
“It’s an emotion I hadn’t felt in a long ti.”
I inexplicably felt a chill run down my spine, but I tried to maintain a composed expression. The professor mumbled, tapping her finger on the table.
“Actually, I wasn’t the one who directly subdued the queen or made her lie down and surrender. Yet my heart is still pounding this much.”
Her voice was as intense as when we had first t.
“Even though I didn’t commit heinous cris like murder, kidnapping, or confinent… It’s truly astonishing.”
“I turned the queen of an entire kingdom into a slave. Isn’t that a major cri in itself?”
“Is it? Regardless, this is the charm of criminal consulting. I’ve realized it clearly now.”
The feeling of tainting Moriarty, who still displayed the sowhat awkward deanor of a newbie in society, with my own hands was quite peculiar.
It wasn’t to the extent of feeling pride, but for so reason, I felt as if we were both being swept away by a powerful current… together.
“Professor.”
Unable to articulate the inexplicable emotions I was feeling, I montarily closed my eyes and soon opened my mouth to change the subject.
“You might gain weight that way.”
Upon hearing those words, she, sipping her sugary coffee, cocked her head to the size and then froze in place then and there.
“…Do I look like I’ve gained so?”
In truth, she didn’t look like she had gained any weight at all. Given her eating habits, it seed all the sugar she consud probably went straight to her breasts instead of her stomach.
“…A little?”
However, if she were to beco the final boss and collapse due to poor health, the world would be in danger. Hence, I had to relay those words to her. Professor Moriarty started to contemplate with a grave expression on her face.
“I’ll reduce it by one packet from now on.”
She then declared this with a slightly gloomy expression and rose from her seat.
“Shall we slowly withdraw from the cri scene?”
It was indeed ti to leave this place, as Hols was still on the other side of the street— inside the hospital, to be exact. If the professor and Hols were to et right now and things got tangled up, it’d be disastrous.
“So, how was my criminal consulting today?”
As I walked the streets of London with Moriarty, having both risen from our seats, she posed a question to .
“Would you like to give an assessnt?”
Upon my query, she made an intrigued expression.
“It’s the first ti soone is evaluating .”
“First, I have a question.”
With anticipatory eyes, she looked at , and I posed a single query to her.
“What exactly was in that docunt?”
Professor Moriarty finally contacted in the early hours of the morning. There were only a handful of hours left before the promised ti of deadline at that ti— I was pressed for ti.
However, just before the queen arrived, she had successfully bribed a nurse and handed over so docunts to , detailing various misdeeds of the Bohemian Queen’s prospective husband.
How exactly did the professor obtain that crucial docunt that played a decisive role in subjugating the queen?
“It’s a docunt I roughly fabricated.”
“Excuse ?”
“No matter who I am, I can’t possibly obtain legally recognized evidence docunts in just a few hours.”
The answer given by Professor Moriarty was quite shocking, to say the least.
“But now, the contents of that docunt will beco a reality.”
“Why?”
“By now, the second prince of Scandinavia would have departed from this world, poisoned by an unidentified ‘mana’ ntioned in an anonymously delivered letter.”
“……….”
“His death will likely be announced as a drug overdose. The evidence submitted by the queen will be accepted as truth. After all, the dead cannot refute the claims superimposed upon them.”
In short, she ant that she had silenced him permanently.
Speaking of mana, could it be that Professor Moriarty was also a mana user?
“How about it, Mr. Adler? This perfect cri that I’ve specially crafted for my dear assistant— you.”
As I was lost in thought, Professor Moriarty, filled with a sense of anticipation, posed the question to .
“The score for this rehearsal…”
If the aim was to make her a plausible ultimate villain, I had to be firm here.
“Out of a full 100 points, I can only give you 50, Professor.”
Hearing my words, Professor Moriarty’s eyes widened in surprise as she tilted her head.
“Why?”
“What do you think the reason is?”
“…For killing a bad person?”
To her, who seed to have a different line of thought than what normalcy would dictate, I began speaking in a tone reminiscent of scolding a mischievous child.
“It’s because you, Professor, directly intervened in the case.”
“Aha…”
“Due to that curse of yours, isn’t it so that all your wrongdoings end up becoming perfect cris? If you overuse that trick, you will quickly beco bored.”
“That makes sense. You’re right.”
She nodded in agreent, a look of realization dawning on her face.
“But I couldn’t help it, Mr. Adler. It looked risky.”
“……….”
“I can’t have my little bag of sugar lting away now, can I?”
Hearing her subsequent words, I had no choice but to keep my mouth shut.
“What’s the matter, Mr. Adler? Are you feeling ill?”
“No.”
“That’s quite unexpected. I didn’t expect soone like you – who can walk through the downtown of London and bed practically any woman you fancy within a day – to have such a reaction to my words.”
“Don’t sexually harass , Professor.”
“Ha-ha, hahaha…”
Leaning back with a tilt of her head, the professor, who had previously been inquiring about my feelings, burst out into an uncontrollable fit of laughter at my last remark and took the lead in this calm walk of ours.
“Professor, I might have given you 50 points earlier, but in reality, there wasn’t much else to criticize.”
“…Is that so?”
“The lines you instructed with and the psychology of the queen that you have so masterfully captured, knowing that she still had in her heart, were precisely on point. You just shouldn’t step in directly from the next ti.”
“So, what should I do if such a situation arises again?”
Upon hearing my words, she suddenly looked back and posed the question.
“I don’t want to get any deducted evaluation points from you again.”
I pondered for a mont upon her smiling inquiry and then replied in a soft tone.
“Let’s start spinning webs in the back alleys of London.”
“Webs?”
It’s a given that a credible final boss would have charismatic subordinates.
“We are cri consultants, after all. We need underlings to get their hands dirty on our behalf.”
“………”
“Let’s create an underworld organization that will plunge London into darkness in the future, Professor.”
Upon hearing those words, the eyes of Professor Moriarty began to gleam with a renewed dark intensity.
“Indeed, you are the best assistant I could ask for.”
Was getting used to that look a good sign or a bad one? I didn’t know…
.
.
.
.
.
A few days after ‘The Scandal of the Bohemian Queen’ had concluded.
– This is the story of a scandal that shook the Bohemian kingdom and Charlotte Hols’s cunning plan that was brutally shattered by one man.
At the boarding house of 212B Baker Street, Rachel Watson was intently typing away on her typewriter.
– Hols often scoffed at n for their lack of wisdom, flashing her distinct arrogant smile. However, since this incident occurred, one hadn’t heard her utter such remarks any longer.
As she reached that passage, she licked her lips, suppressing a smile and focusing intently on her writing.
– And whenever the topic of Isaac Adler or that half-taken photograph ca up, Hols would always refer to him with the honorable title of ‘that man’…
“Look here, Watson.”
“Ah!”
Suddenly, from behind her, the neutral emotionless tone of Hols’ voice echoed.
“When did you arrive?”
“Just now. Speaking of which, didn’t you promise the queen? We agreed not to release the case as a novel.”
“I’m writing it just for fun. So that our future descendants can read it soday.”
“…Do you really have to write it?”
Hols, with a long frown on her face, asked Watson, who rely responded with a mischievous smile.
“It’s the story of our dear Hols’ first love. Of course, it should be recorded.”
“I think there’s a misunderstanding here. I am not in love with ‘that man’. He’s just an unsolved puzzle to …”
“Alright, alright, let’s call it the ‘story of your first defeat’ then.”
Hols blushed upon hearing that remark.
“Watson.”
“Yes?”
“I haven’t lost yet.”
A heavy silence thus ensued.
“I’ve just received admission docunts for the academy. I’ll probably be enrolling in a few weeks. So, if I go in there and co across him who has run away from my grasp… then…”
Hols, trailing off, subtly averted her gaze to the side. Watson, watching her closely, licked her lips again and murmured to herself.
‘So Hols has this cute side to her as well.’
The arrogant genius girl who, from their very first eting, looked down upon August Academy’s founder— Dupin, as a dim-witted woman.
And just as if to prove that her statent wasn’t false, she was a monstrous child who managed to solve a myriad of cases in just a matter of days, often returning the majority of the credit to the police as if it were a gift from her to the incompetent forces of London.
With a physique and age that didn’t match her always mature manner of speaking, and her languid, weary eyes that seed to pierce through everything, she had been an untouchable entity for Watson… up until just a few days ago, that is.
“…If I do that, it would at least be a draw. Do you understand now?”
Yet, this world-weary child was now talking passionately, almost like an adolescent girl hit by puberty.
‘I’m relieved.’
Hols, when there was no case to solve, would always be listless and lethargic. In such tis, no matter how much Watson protested, she would continue with her perilous chemical experints.
But recently, Watson couldn’t see that side of her any longer.
The current Hols was afla, thanks to Isaac Adler— the first being who had managed to deal her a defeat.
‘…But that man is dangerous.’
Yet, on the other hand, Watson was worried about this new side of Hols.
It’s true that in this recent case, she had witnessed unexpected facets of the man nad Isaac Adler, but he was still undoubtedly the biggest scoundrel and trash that road in the city of London.
“And going to the academy isn’t solely because of ‘that man’.”
“What?”
“There are rumors circulating that suspicious incidents have been happening within the academy recently. Therefore, I thought I might as well investigate while I’m there…”
“Yes, Hols. Everything you say is right.”
Thus, with a hint of worry in her gaze, Watson, observing Hols till now, soon sported a sly smile and struck an encouraging pose.
“Stay strong!”
Now was the ti to trust Hols.
Although she was still ntally immature, the fact that she was the best detective in London remained unchanged.
“Hehe.”
And then, Hols, narrowing her eyes while looking at Watson, proved that fact once again.
“This isn’t the ti to tease , Watson.”
“…Huh?”
“After all, it’s not who’s gotten a man. It’s you.”
Upon hearing those words, Watson froze, hands still poised over the typewriter.
“What, wha— what are you talking about, Charlotte?”
“If you’re eting a man secretly, my dear Watson— When you hurriedly left in the middle of the night, claiming there was an ergency patient at the hospital, you wouldn’t have been emanating the scent of perfu, would you?”
“That, that? The perfu I sprayed in the day just had a strong scent…”
“And I suppose instead of a stethoscope in your haphazardly-thrown-together dical bag, there wouldn’t have been a bouquet of flowers sticking out?”
“…………”
“If such situations continued for several weeks, even that dimwitted Inspector Lestrade would have noticed, not just .”
“What, what are you on about?”
As Hols continued, Watson’s face grew redder. Soon, she hurriedly stood up, pushing Hols from behind.
“Co on, ti to leave. Weren’t you preparing to fit into a school uniform?”
“I just did.”
“Then go have your al downstairs. Mrs. Hudson has prepared food for you.”
With that, Watson ushered Hols, who was scratching her head, out of the room.
“We’re not even dating…”
Pausing to look around, Watson, with a blush on her face, began to type again.
– It’s been a while, hasn’t it?
“Still, I can’t help but worry about Hols.”
Switching the typewriter mode from writing to receiving, she murmured as she inserted a lower-grade crystal.
“…It would have been nice if Isaac Adler was as kind and innocent as she is.”
.
.
.
.
.
“Why do you look like that?”
“……..”
As I was about to enter August Academy with Professor Moriarty, an unexpected incident occurred.
｢It’s been a while, hasn’t it?｣
Unthinkingly lifting my tingling hand, I saw the ssage that had appeared.
｢Evening of the 21st. Let’s et at the usual place at 7 pm.｣
Feeling dazed, I clenched my eyes shut.
“…Who even are you, damn it.”
I had completely forgotten the fact that the original Irene Adler had a fiancé.
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