Chapter 175: True Lies
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 175: True Lies
“Adler, it’s time to wake up.”
Adler squeezed his eyes shut, desperately feigning unconsciousness. But Professor Moriarty’s emotionless voice echoed in his ears, calling him out.
“I just saw your eyes open, Adler.”
“………”
“Get up.”
Even though beads of sweat were forming on his forehead, Adler did his absolute best to ignore her.
“Hmm…”
Observing him, the Professor narrowed her eyes and leaned closer to whisper in his ear.
“If you aren’t up within five seconds, every woman in this room might just pounce on you at once.”
“…Eek!”
That did the trick. Adler bolted upright the next moment, his eyes snapping open in fright.
“”………””
A heavy silence descended upon the room.
“Um, hello…?”
After a moment, Adler spoke in a small, trembling voice, noticing the women staring at him from all sides.
“Where am I?”
“”……?””
“Is this… a hospital room?”
As he asked the question with a look of feigned innocence, puzzled expressions washed over the faces of the women gathered there.
“If you don’t mind me asking, who are you all?” Adler muttered, scratching his head as he took in their confused gazes. “Why am I lying in a hospital bed?”
“”………””
“Ugh, suddenly my head…”
As he clutched his head in feigned agony, the women in the room exchanged subtle, silent glances.
“Where does he even come up with this bullshit…”
“Just wait a moment.”
Unable to contain her rising anger, Watson reached into her pocket for her service pistol. However, Gia Lestrade quickly stepped forward to stop her before she did something dangerous.
“Hey, do you really not recognize me?”
“…Huh? Who are you?”
As Adler stared blankly at her, Lestrade hesitated for a moment, her cheeks flushing a deep red.
“I-I am… your w-w-wife.”
The moment those words left her lips, the temperature in the room plummeted to sub-zero levels.
“Uh…”
In that suffocating atmosphere, Adler spoke up with a bewildered expression.
“You mean someone as beautiful as you is my wife?”
In the next instant—
“Master, that’s a lie. I’m actually your—”
“…I am your daughter.”
“I-I was your lover…”
Adler’s confidants lost their composure and began interjecting one after another.
“I’m sorry, I don’t remember anything at all. W-Was I complete trash?”
“…Yes, that’s right. And you lot, if any of you lays a finger on Adler, I’ll shoot immediately…!”
“Did I lose my memory…?”
While the others panicked, Gia Lestrade tried to intervene, her face a mask of horror. Meanwhile, Rachel Watson watched the bickering crowd with a blank stare for a long time before her eyes narrowed in thought.
“…Could it be that Adler and Neville are essentially the same now that they've lost their memories?”
As she reached that conclusion—
“Why don’t you and this big sis go somewhere nice and quiet together, hm?”
Taking advantage of the chaos, Jill the Ripper approached Adler with silent steps. She whispered in a chilling voice, a knife hidden behind her back.
“Are you… are you really my big sister?”
“It will only take a moment…”
“Hmm.”
Behind them, Lupin silently plotted an escape route while keeping a sharp eye on Adler.
“…Grrr.”
“Who brought a dog into the hospital…?”
“……?”
“Huh? Was that a girl…? She looked like a dog just a second ago…?”
A nurse’s flustered voice drifted in from the hallway; she had apparently witnessed a girl with eerie, glowing blue eyes standing guard outside.
Swoosh—
Amidst the total chaos, only Adler maintained a bright, clueless expression. However, for a fleeting second, he sent a desperate distress signal to the two most reliable women in the room with his eyes.
“”………””
Charlotte Holmes and Professor Moriarty had been watching Adler’s antics with cold, emotionless gazes. They knew exactly what he was doing.
“…Sigh.”
A long moment passed.
“Everyone, listen to me…”
While Moriarty was grinning from ear to ear, Charlotte shot her a murderous look before speaking, her own lethal aura radiating through the room.
“How about we call a truce for now?”
“”………””
“Going berserk here won’t do any of us any good.”
Every eye in the room converged on her.
“…At least until Isaac Adler’s memory returns, let’s not fight among ourselves.”
“Is that something a detective should be saying?”
“As I’ve said before… I’m not a detective. I’m a consulting investigator, Inspector Lestrade.”
As Lestrade raised her voice, unable to contain herself, Charlotte fired back with a playful yet sharp tone.
“A consultant whose life priorities have shifted away from investigative work, clearly…”
“Calm down, please.”
“…How can I calm down when someone who knows the significance of my relationship with Mr. Adler acts as if a single piece of paper changes everything?”
“That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?”
Lestrade, being who she was, did not back down even under Charlotte’s unnerving gaze. However, even she couldn't stop the beads of cold sweat from forming on her brow.
“If you don’t accept my proposal, I can be much worse. I don't care who it is.”
Charlotte’s power had grown enough to rival even Professor Moriarty, if only for a moment. Her shift in attitude unnerved not just the brave inspector, but everyone present.
“I agree.”
In the now-quiet room, the Professor spoke up with a chuckle.
“I feel sorry for Adler. Everyone is so eager to tear him and each other apart.”
“””………”””
“So, how about we give our dear Adler a little rest?”
Her words sounded reasonable. Had she not violated Adler so brutally just a few hours prior, some might have even nodded in agreement. Now, however, it was out of the question.
“…Hmm, this is troublesome.”
Of course, the Professor knew exactly how to assert her will over those who disagreed.
“My words don’t seem to be getting through, do they?”
Gooooooo—
As the Professor subtly dominated the room with her sheer presence, the atmosphere grew progressively heavier by the second.
“Pointing a weapon at me now is not advisable.”
“””………”””
“You should have attacked when I was injured earlier. I’ve already recovered.”
The individuals in the room were not easily subdued; they were formidable in their own right. For instance, Gia Lestrade and Celestia Moran were strong enough that, given a few more years, they might have been able to face the Professor head-on.
“Put down your weapons…”
“Has my friend not spoken? Lower your weapons…”
“Moriarty, keep your mouth shut…”
“Haha, ha…”
However, it was true that at this moment, they were inferior to Charlotte, let alone Moriarty. Charlotte had already stepped into the realm of the world's apex predators, while the Professor could effortlessly handle everyone in the room without breaking a sweat.
“Cough, hack…!”
Then, just as the room momentarily calmed—
“Ah, it hurts…”
Adler suddenly bowed his head, coughing violently as his eyes welled with tears.
“””………”””
The reason those ready for war dispersed was due to that single pained utterance rather than the threats from Moriarty or Charlotte.
“…Argh!! Let me go!! I don’t care if he lost his memory or not, I’m going to chop him into pieces and kill—”
“I’ll take her.”
Of course, not everyone was on the same page. However, the situation was defused thanks to Lupin’s quick intervention. She had already formulated a plan to kidnap Adler, and this confrontation wasn't the ideal time to execute it.
“Wait!! You lowly subject, how dare you—”
“See you next time, yeah?”
Poof!
.
.
.
.
.
Flutter, flutter…
“……..”
As Jill the Ripper—who had been desperately trying to plunge a knife into my heart—and Phantom Thief Lupin—who gave me a wink—simultaneously vanished from the room, a card fluttered onto my lap.
[If you don’t want to be caught and smothered by them for the rest of your life, how about willingly getting kidnapped when I come to the window next time?]
A sigh escaped me automatically as I read the message.
“That’s just the way it is…”
<You’re normally so dull, but you get surprisingly sharp when it comes to survival.>
I turned my head, sheepishly trying to ignore the system window that was berating me as usual. Soon, Charlotte Holmes and Professor Jane Moriarty came into view.
“Uh, hey…”
“”………””
“Thanks… for that?”
Having given up on deceiving them from the start, I cautiously offered those words. The two women, who only stared eerily at me in response, stood up simultaneously.
“…Let’s have a word.”
“I always welcome conversations with friends.”
“If you ever address me that way again, I’ll fucking tear you apart.”
Without responding to me, the two women conversed with each other and exited the hospital room.
“Excuse me, everyone…”
“Just lie there. If you disappear again, we’ll track you to the ends of the earth and pounce on you together. Just so you know.”
“…I actually agree with that.”
Feeling uneasy, I forced myself to sit up and call out to them, but I only received bone-chilling threats in response.
Click.
“Haha…”
I stared blankly at the door, which locked itself immediately after closing.
“How did I end up like this…?”
I soon stopped talking and bowed my head in resignation.
“…Cough! Hack, cough!”
The truth was, my collapse hadn't been an act this time.
“Ugh…”
That’s right. The end was drawing closer.
The blood smeared across the hand covering my mouth and the crushing heaviness of my body painfully etched that fact into my brain.
…This shouldn’t be happening.
My time in this world was running out.