Chapter 173: Snowball Effect (2)
As Adler softly opened his mouth in the icy atmosphere, everyone's gaze zeroed in on him.
"Didn't you say you were going to take care of some personal business before returning...?"
"Adler, it’s already midday."
"Ah, yes, that's true. Time has indeed..."
Watching their reactions, Adler started backing away silently.
"I was just about to catch a carriage on the main road, as I can't stay here forever. It was then that I happened to run into you."
"... I, I see"
"Since we've met, how about we return to London together?"
Professor Moriarty was nonchalant as she casually threw out the suggestion.
"Well, that's..."- Swoosh...
At that blatantly natural reaction, Adler was unsure how to respond.
"""..........."""
"... Hmm?"
Quietly surrounding Adler, his three loyal followers glared dangerously at the professor.
"Stay by our side."
"... Grrr."
"........."
Pressed by Moran on the front, and by Princess Clay and Silver Blaze on either side, Adler observed the professor’s reaction before speaking.
"Professor, it seems there might be some misunderstanding here..."
"........"
"I think I need to clarify things..."
"Is that true?"
But cutting off his words, Celestia Moran boldly questioned Professor Moriarty.
"What are you talking about?"
"Dad... no, I got some information that my master is being sexually abused by you."
Looking down at her cold expression as if it were amusing, the professor smirked and replied.
"Even if that were true, what could you do?"
"... I could just blow your head off."
In the next moment, with surprising speed, Moran drew a pistol from her coat and aimed it straight at the professor’s head.
"Puh, heh heh heh..."
"What's so funny?"
"Ahaha... hah... Yes, sorry about that."
Despite having the best sniper in London, a markswoman with the innate talents of a war hero, aiming her gun at her head, Professor Moriarty just burst into laughter like a child seeing something amusing.
"But if you, too, were to see an ant carrying a twig and then threatening to cut your throat with it, you'd burst out laughing just like me."
"Nonsense..."
"Do you not understand what I'm saying?"
Suddenly, a cold smile stretched Jane Moriarty’s lips as she added,
"Even if you were to empty all the chambers of that gun, you couldn't inflict a single wound on me."
"... Ugh."
"And the same goes for the two who are glaring at me from behind you."
"........!!"
"With a vampire who hasn't fully recovered her strength and a demihuman who's hardly different from a human, you can't possibly stand against me."
As she emitted a murderous grey aura in her surroundings, the legs of the three resolute henchmen began trembling.
"Do you understand, you inferior species?"
"........"
"It's only natural for the strong to take from the weak."
Watching them with a smug look of superiority, Professor Moriarty silently moved forward.
"However, the courage to not run away despite being overwhelmed is indeed praiseworthy."
- Click...
"Or are you so frightened that you can't even move?"
Moran's eyebrows twitched as she rested her finger on the trigger, and at the same time, the tips of Moriarty's fingers began to turn grey.
- Goooooooo...
Out of the blue, a chilling murderous black aura began eroding the space between them.
"Get out of the way you lot."
Charlotte, who had been silently glaring at Moriarty with a deadly look in her eyes, finally intervened in the situation.
"Little miss detective... It's been a while since we've faced each other like this."
"Shut up. Just shut the fuck up..."
"I enjoy seeing your despairing face so very much, but let me make this clear."
With bloodshot golden eyes and her body trembling in rage, Charlotte glared at the professor with such intensity that made one think that she would kill her then and there. But Professor Moriarty only whispered in a low voice,
"Isaac Adler, both his body and mind are already mine."
"Shut uuuuuuuup!!!!"
"Oh, and did you know?"
As Charlotte fell for the cheap provocation, Moriarty's expression grew even more suffused with superiority and she whispered in a singsong voice.
"... I didn't use contraception today."
"........"
"Let's see, then... when's the due date..."
Having stopped screaming, Charlotte, with a dazed expression, quietly reached out her hand.
- Gooooooooooooo...!!!!
"... Hmm."
At the same time, ferocious black energy surged out in all directions.
"For a little kid, you're quite something..."
- Crrrrrack!
Surprised by her spirit, which almost matched her own, Professor Moriarty also stretched out her hand, pitting her own aura against the detective.
"I'm going to kill you. Whatever it takes..."
"Oh, is that something a detective fighting for the truth should say?"
In the midst of the violent flow of mana that twisted and collided in all directions, the two women began to converse with murderous expressions on their faces.
"Yes, it's something a detective shouldn't say..."
- Goooooooo...
"But, you know..."
Surprisingly, Charlotte began pushing back Moriarty's grey mana and she soon muttered in a voice devoid of all emotions.
"I'm not a detective, I'm a consulting detective..."
"Your penchant for playing with words is the same as ever, I see."
"And the reason I became a consulting detective was because the act itself intrigued me."
As she slightly twisted her hand, black blades began whirling from everywhere, targeting the professor.
"But now, my priorities have changed."
"Is it because of that child?"
"Why should I observe the rules of being a detective when someone is trying to take away my life's purpose?"
Professor Moriarty, swiftly swatting away the blades that spun at terrifying speeds, still sustained small cuts on the back of her hand and left cheek.
"You are greatly mistaken."
"........."
"I am not a force of absolute righteousness you think I am. I can cross any line if it's to eliminate a nauseating existence like yours."
Instantaneously, Charlotte’s body was burning with mana.
"Exactly... that's it..."
"........?"
"That's right, Miss Holmes..."
It was at that moment that Moriarty's eyes began to darken.
"Didn't I tell you before? We might make good friends..."
"Nonsense..."
"You and I are quite similar."
"Stop talking nonsense."
Despite Charlotte's firm interruption of Moriarty's mirthful voice, her stable mana waves began losing the balance between them.
"Don't be so extreme. They say opposites attract, don't they?"
"Just thinking about it is horrifying, so shut up."
"Did you ever consider joining us?"
"Shut uppppppppp..."
But the odds soon began shifting towards the professor.
- Fzzzz...
"You, just you need to disappear..."
Charlotte, vaguely realizing that she was losing, desperately gathered mana from her body.
- Drip...
"If only you weren't in this world..."
"Is this your last struggle?"
"Moriartyyyyy!!!"
Thus, Charlotte, bleeding from her eyes and nose, attempted to launch her final attack with all her might.
"Stop it!!!"
".... Ah!"
But at that moment, she noticed Adler. Pale-faced, he had placed himself right in the heart of their battle, forcing her to quickly retract her power.
"........"
And Moriarty did the same, silently retracting her mana.
"Stop it... now..."
"Uh..."
As he muttered those words in a pleading tone, Charlotte, trying hard to maintain consciousness even by biting her tongue, eventually couldn't overcome her dizziness and collapsed to the ground.
"P-Professor, I was wrong. I'll apologize on her behalf..."
"... Hmm."
"Let's go now."
Adler, looking at her with a slightly longing gaze, clutched the professor's hand with a trembling expression.
"That's right, that's my assistant..."
"Oh, no..."
Moriarty, locking hands with him, smirked mockingly at the collapsed Charlotte, who stretched out her trembling hand toward Adler.
"Adle.... r"
"... Come on, Isaac."
However, leaving her behind, Professor Moriarty began to move forward, pulling Adler with her.
"Let's finish what we started in my office."
"... Yes?"
"Don't leave me....."
Staring at their blurry figures with gritted teeth, Holmes finally lost consciousness.
"Kulluk..."
The professor, who had been suppressing a cough, stopped walking at that moment and staggered as she vomited blood.
"Indeed, you're a good actor. You..."
"P-P-Professor...?"
"By the way..."
Adler was startled by the professor's frail appearance. It was a look that he had only witnessed when he had restricted her mana.
"Indeed, your words were right; that kid is my arch-nemesis."
The professor, looking at Adler, whispered in a low voice.
"... She’s the first one to push me to this extent."
It was the first time Professor Moriarty had received a significant blow in a direct confrontation.
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Meanwhile,
"What, what are you doing? Shoot already...!"
"Now's your chance. The professor's posture has faltered...!"
From behind, Princess Clay and Silver Blaze began urgently whispering to Celestia Moran, who had somehow managed to hold onto her pistol despite the oppressive atmosphere.
"........."
However, Moran's gaze, pallid as it was, wasn't fixed on the slumping professor but was directed somewhere entirely different.
"What on earth are you looking at!?"
"... What are you doing, little lady!"
"Over there, there's someone else."
And the location was where Gia Lestrade and Rachel Watson were crouching in the bushes.
"... There are quite a few of them."
"What?"
And behind them, there was another set of figures lurking in the shadows.
.
.
.
.
.
"........."
Indeed, as Celestia Moran, keen-eyed, had noted, behind the bushes where Gia Lestrade and Rachel Watson were hiding, figures had been lurking, already staked out for hours.
"... Do you enjoy killing?"
"Sorry, but my motto is non-killing."
The atmosphere had turned rigid after they heard just moments ago about the brutal sexual assaults that Isaac Adler was experiencing.
"But then again, a lizard isn't human, is it?"
"... Oh, so you’re one of those, huh?"
Forced to stalk Adler by someone's command, it was none other than Jill the Ripper and Phantom Thief Lupin.
"Then, help me kill that grey-haired bitch."
"... Gladly."
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