Chapter 134: Monster Showdown (8)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 134: Monster Showdown (8)
“Ah, you…”
“……..”
A familiar silhouette pierced through the dense fog clinging to the walkway. As the figure drew closer, Princess Clay and Celestia Moran’s blank stares slowly morphed into expressions of utter bewilderment.
“…Why is she here already?”
“T-this makes no sense.”
The two girls began whispering frantically to one another, their faces pale with confusion.
“You little brat, didn’t you say you snuck into the hospital and gave her several times the usual dose of sleeping pills?”
“…I’m not a brat, and I didn’t mess up. Just to be safe, I administered a near-lethal dose into her system.”
Their troubled glances shifted back toward the grey-haired professor standing before them.
“Well, isn’t that a problem in itself?”
“Last time I visited Dad in the hospital, I secretly experimented with ten times the normal dosage, and he woke up feeling incredibly refreshed.”
“…Even my body isn’t that resilient.”
Watching the professor quietly tilt her head from side to side—a characteristic habit of hers—the two girls broke out into a cold sweat.
“What are you two whispering about so quietly?”
“………..”
They clamped their mouths shut instantly at the sound of the professor’s voice, which carried a hint of dry amusement.
“Professor…?”
Meanwhile, Isaac Adler, who had been standing beside them, wore a look of profound doubt before slowly stepping forward.
“Is it really you, Professor?”
“…Isaac.”
Gazing at him intently, the professor whispered softly.
“Are you suggesting there is a fake version of me running about?”
“Uh, well…”
At those words, Adler’s gaze shifted toward Silver Blaze… who was still lying on the ground with her eyes swirling in dizzying spirals.
“I thought it might be a similar case…”
“What are you talking about?”
“…Nothing.”
After a moment of silent contemplation, he stepped forward until he was standing directly in front of the professor.
“Nothing at all…”
“…….?”
Suddenly, with his hands clasped behind his back, Adler began circling the professor with narrowed eyes.
“Hmm…”
“What are you doing now?”
Curiosity flickered in Professor Moriarty’s eyes as she watched Adler’s odd behavior. He ran his fingers through her soft hair, sniffed the air around her, and even went so far as to poke her sides and abdomen.
“…This is definitely the professor.”
“Isaac?”
“The scent of her hair, the perfume… even the texture of her skin and her body shape…”
Adler ignored her, muttering to himself in a low, focused whisper.
“…And finally, the height difference that even magic can’t disguise.”
As he spoke, a sense of absolute conviction crept into his voice.
“Professor~”
In the next heartbeat, a bright smile stretched across Adler’s lips as he nestled himself into the professor’s soft embrace.
“I missed you…”
“While I was away, it seems you’ve stirred up quite a few interesting events.”
“…..Ah.”
Adler’s eyes blinked rapidly at the professor’s calm, steady voice. She stared down into his blank eyes and continued.
“What will you do now?”
“Uh, well…”
“…Th-there is a way!”
Just as the professor interrogated him in a frigid tone, a voice filled with desperate urgency rang out from the side.
“I-I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but… I could just kidnap Adler!”
“………”
“I’ll even give you special permission to write to him. How about that?”
Professor Moriarty didn’t even deign to respond to Moran’s outburst.
“…I-I think it might be easier to deceive the others if I were the one to kidnap him.”
“……..”
“I’ll keep you updated on the situation at all times! I’ll even use ropes made of straw instead of iron chains, and I won’t cause him any physical harm. I can’t promise anything about the psychological damage, though…”
Grasping at straws, Moran tried to intervene, but she was met with the same icy silence.
“As I said earlier, neither of those solutions is particularly good,” the professor finally spoke after a long pause.
“Then…”
“But I have one very plausible and safe solution.”
The professor looked at the two girls.
“I will take Isaac with me.”
“”……….””
The two girls clenched their teeth, their silence heavy with resentment.
“But…”
“Do you think you can protect him better than I can?”
“………”
“If you have complaints, prove your qualifications here and now.”
Moriarty’s gaze darkened into an ominous, predatory hue.
“But be warned: it will require you to put your lives on the line.”
“Now is not the time for us to fight among ourselves…”
“You seem to be under a grave misapprehension.”
With a slight shift in her expression, she began to exude a bone-chilling aura that froze the surrounding air. She murmured in a low, terrifying voice.
“I could single-handedly eliminate every group and individual here and escape with ease.”
“”……..””
“I refrain from doing so only because I know Isaac dislikes such violence.”
Moran and Princess Clay trembled as they felt the weight of her words.
“So let me say this one last time.”
Watching them with her usual enigmatic smile, the professor concluded, “Isaac Adler is coming with me. You two should leave now.”
The tense gazes of the two girls and the professor’s calm eyes locked in a dangerous intersection, signaling an imminent collision.
“Enough. Stand back.”
Just then, Adler’s calm voice emerged from within Professor Moriarty’s protective embrace.
“I’ll be back soon.”
As he smirked at his loyal followers, the two girls lowered their heads in silence, grinding their teeth in bitter frustration.
“An excellent choice, Isaac.”
“…….”
“Let’s start by getting out of London. Where to next? America? France? Germany?”
With that, Adler and Moriarty began to walk away, distancing themselves from the girls.
—Beep, beep-beep…!
“”………?””
As the two followers watched their receding backs with crestfallen gazes, their mana communication devices suddenly lit up, signaling an urgent message.
｢Where is Adler right now?｣
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.
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—Trudge, trudge…
A few minutes later.
“Isaac, you’ve become quite bold, haven’t you?”
As they walked through the thick fog toward the park exit—navigating the paths as if by magic without encountering a single soul—Professor Moriarty spoke to Adler, who followed silently at her side.
“What do you mean?”
“Normally, you wouldn’t dare take such a massive risk. Has there been some change in your heart recently?”
Adler scratched his head with an awkward smile before responding in a faint voice.
“There has been a change, yes.”
“Is that so? I’m curious. Would you mind giving me a hint?”
Suddenly, Adler stopped walking. He turned to stare at Professor Moriarty with a fierce, piercing gaze.
“I don’t see the need to tell you.”
His voice had turned surprisingly cold and business-like.
“What did you just say?”
“Professor.”
He whispered softly, staring directly into her grey orbs.
“Please stand in front of me.”
Confused, Jane Moriarty moved to face him.
“What on earth…”
“Put your hands behind your back and take a deep breath.”
“…Huh?”
The very moment she took a deep breath with her hands behind her back, just as Adler had requested—
—Pow!!!
“…Ugh.”
Adler’s punch, delivered with the full extent of his power, landed squarely in her solar plexus.
“Uh, ack…”
“……..”
The professor’s legs gave out, and she collapsed to the ground, retching and gasping for air.
“What… what is this…?”
Tears formed in her eyes as she looked up at Adler.
—Slap!
Adler’s palm struck her face, whipping her head to the side.
“Isaac…”
The professor stroked her cheek, where a red palm print was already forming, and murmured his name in a trembling voice.
“How long do you intend to keep up this act?”
Adler looked down at her with pure disdain, his voice ice-cold.
“Firstly, my beloved Miss Moriarty would never leave London. The professor has already made this city her stronghold. Rather than fleeing, she would turn London upside down to get what she wants.”
“………”
“Secondly, Miss Moriarty does not call me Isaac. Your performance was quite impressive, but your research was lacking that final one percent.”
The woman impersonating the professor underwent a gradual change in expression as she listened to his explanation. The fear vanished, replaced by a look of smug conceit and depravity—a look very familiar to Adler.
“And lastly, if it were the real Miss Moriarty, she would have blocked my attack just now.”
“…Ha ha.”
“Because the professor is the strongest.”
The woman let out a low chuckle, her eyes gleaming with a twisted sort of pleasure.
“Isn’t that right, Miss Thief?”
“…Now that I’m caught, I’d like you to kick me in this form… Won’t you do that for me?”
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“…What, what is this?”
Some time had passed since the incident.
“What are you trying to do? What is going on?”
The coachman, who had recently transported Professor Moriarty and Adler from Baskerville to London, had parked his carriage a short distance from the park to catch his breath.
“……….”
“Should I call the police for you, miss?”
He began sweating profusely as he witnessed a truly scandalous sight: a girl with bruises and hand marks on her face, bleeding from the corner of her mouth, and a boy holding a leash around her neck as they emerged from the darkness of the park.
“Excuse me.”
“Please wait! I’ll be right back with help—”
“It seems you’re misunderstanding something…”
As the coachman tried to hastily flee the scene, the boy holding the leash spoke with an indifferent expression.
“Actually, I’m the one who has been kidnapped by this young lady here, you see?”
“What…?”
“…It would be rather awkward to walk all the way to where I’ll be imprisoned, so could you give us a ride?”
As Adler muttered this, the girl leaned weakly against his shoulder. The coachman’s mind went blank at the sheer nonsense he was hearing.
“What utter rubbish is this…”
“I’ll give you every gold coin in this pouch.”
“…Get in.”
A few minutes later, the carriage began to smoothly exit London, heading in the exact opposite direction from their last journey.