Chapter 192: Contest
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 192: Contest
“What’s wrong? Are you so shocked that you can’t even speak?”
“……”
“Or perhaps you’re busy chanting thousands of spells in your head to kill me right now?”
After a night locked in a hotel room sharing a night of intense passion with Adler, Charlotte Holmes found herself staring at Professor Moriarty, who had intruded without warning. A smirk crossed Charlotte’s face as she taunted the professor.
“…What have you done?”
Professor Moriarty finally spoke, her face pale as she directed a heated, murderous glare toward Charlotte.
“Can’t you see?” Charlotte replied.
“Holmes… Holmes…”
“I’m in the middle of embracing Adler.”
Only then did Moriarty fully grasp the reality of the situation unfolding before her. Anger bubbled deep within her, washing over her features in an instant.
“I love you…” Adler muttered in his stupor.
—Gooooo…
“…Ugh.”
As the Professor’s grey mana enveloped Adler’s head, he gave one last convulsion before losing consciousness and collapsing limply.
“Oh my.”
As he fell, Charlotte pulled Adler close, a triumphant gleam in her eyes.
“……”
“……”
Silence hung heavy in the room for a long moment.
“…Did you assault him?” Moriarty whispered.
“You’re the rapist here, not me,” Charlotte shot back with a scoff.
The Professor’s expression was more terrifying than anything she had ever shown before.
“What I have for him is pure love,” Charlotte continued. “It’s nothing like yours—devoid of affection, filled only with possession and obsession.”
“From my assistant… I can smell a horrible stench.”
“…Are you talking about the aphrodisiac I used as a bath additive? That was simply to spice things up. It didn’t even affect me…”
“I’m talking about your filthy body odor… you thieving cat.”
Normally, the Professor’s face was either an expressionless mask or wore a subtle, amused smile. But now, her poker face—which usually remained unshakable regardless of the circumstance—began to crumble like sand.
“A criminal talking big? How much must Adler have trembled from your horrific sexual offenses that he looked so happy with me?”
“……”
“What was it Adler said again as he pressed his body against mine? Hmm… ‘It’s the first time I’ve done it with someone I love,’ or something along those lines?”
Watching with clear delight, Charlotte continued to fuel the Professor's rage.
“My assistant would never say such a thing… How strong were the drugs you used for him to spout such nonsense?”
“You talk about love after forcefully violating him? That doesn’t seem like something a rapist should say.”
“How dare you… do such things to my assistant and think you can leave this place unscathed?”
Professor Moriarty’s eyes were filled with venom as she began to murmur.
“He is my property. Moreover, you did this on my territory. No one touches my treasure without my permission…”
“Ha! You sound ridiculous, don’t you think?”
“I’ve tolerated your antics all this time… I even considered befriending you… all because he took a liking to you…”
“I can’t even listen to this anymore,” Charlotte sneered.
Professor Moriarty advanced with silent, predatory steps.
“How did you manage to take control of my assistant? My assistant would not betray our agreement so frivolously…”
“……?”
“I even made a pact, just in case… How did you break my pact?”
“Ha, so you’re not even going to try to hide it anymore?” Charlotte replied with a smirk, intrigued by the shift in tone. “Well, the method was simple. I found out Adler’s real name.”
“…What?”
In truth, she had only discovered Adler’s surname, but it was enough to bluff the emotionally compromised Professor.
“What do you mean, ‘what’? It means he’s no longer your treasure.”
Charlotte, sensing her advantage, let the venom in her voice reach its peak. She wasn't about to miss this opportunity.
“Isaac Adler is my man now. Mine alone.”
“Bloody nonsense…”
“He follows my commands now, not yours. He smiles at my face, not yours. He finds happiness holding my hand, not yours.”
“Bullshit…”
“Still can’t accept it?” Charlotte asked sharply, before leaning in to whisper, “Stop being so pathetic and get out, you bitch.”
—Crack!
Professor Moriarty ground her teeth, glaring at Charlotte.
—Sizzle…
Grey mana, darker and more volatile than ever before, flowed from the Professor’s hands. Pure murderous intent took over her eyes as she lost all semblance of control.
—Gooooooooo!
“That’s right. The reason you’ve always been so composed, no matter what I did, was because you were confident you could kill me if things went south,” Charlotte muttered coldly, summoning black mana from deep within her own body without backing down. “But now you know, don’t you? That it’s impossible.”
“……”
“My power is growing stronger. I’ve finally discovered the source of the strength within me.” She looked at the transcendental being standing before her and curled her lips into a disdainful smirk. “The firm intention to kill you—to erase you from this world. That was the key to increasing my power.”
“……”
“Remember? You showed me Adler being raped on purpose last time, didn’t you? You wanted me to realize this, right?”
Professor Moriarty remained silent, staring at her.
“Why that face? That was your plan, wasn’t it? You thought I might become corrupted by power just like you if I started growing stronger. Or perhaps you thought I’d be consumed by the darkness in my heart? Is that why you deliberately gave me the chance to grow?”
Charlotte raised her voice, her tone becoming increasingly provocative.
“Or did you actually think, as you said, that I’d understand you and we could become friends? If that’s the case, I almost feel sorry for you.”
“You intend to deny that we are fundamentally the same until the very end, don’t you?” Moriarty responded in a low, hollow voice.
“Haaa, I knew you would say that.” Charlotte sighed. “Yes, as you’ve said before, we are indeed similar. To live, we must pursue the truth. That much is undeniable.”
“Are you finally admitting it?”
“But I assure you, we can never be exactly the same.”
The Professor fell silent again.
“We both chase the truth, but I am in the position of uncovering truths that are hidden or buried, while you are in the position of hiding or hunting them down.”
“……”
“Moreover, I find pleasure in bringing hidden truths to light, while you find pleasure in burying the truth in the deepest darkness where no one can ever find it.”
Charlotte unveiled the irrefutable truth of their existences.
“Shall we talk about my curse for a moment? My curse is that I cannot love anything but mysteries.”
“……”
“What about your curse, Professor Moriarty?”
When her question was met with silence, a sneer appeared on Charlotte’s lips.
“Shall I guess? Your curse is related to perfect crimes, isn’t it?”
“……”
“Your recent interest in consulting must be because everything has become boring due to that curse of yours. You wanted to start a new game where failure was actually a possibility. Isn’t that so?”
The Professor remained still, offering no response.
“Your silence only confirms it. See? Even our curses are complete opposites. That’s why you can never corrupt me, and conversely, I can’t make you repent.”
“……”
“We can never even understand each other.”
Charlotte’s voice, filled with absolute certainty, echoed through the room.
“Therefore, I’ve reached a single conclusion.”
“…And what might that be?”
“One of us has to disappear from London.”
A momentary, heavy silence enveloped the room.
“What a coincidence,” the Professor whispered, her face now completely expressionless. “I was just thinking the same thing.”
“Look, we’ve come this far. We’re not going to settle this with a boring show of brute force, are we?”
“……”
“An investigative consultant should act like one, and a criminal advisor should do the same. Either I uncover your truth, or you bury the truth forever with your criminal advice. It will be your way or mine. Don’t you agree?”
Jane Moriarty responded as if she had been expecting exactly that. “That sounds fun.”
“Right? It will be the most thrilling nightmare of your life.”
“Keeping you alive just to witness your complete despair would be quite enjoyable indeed.”
With a cold smile, Professor Moriarty gazed at her for a few seconds before turning toward the exit.
“From tomorrow, London will become hell for you.”
“……”
“I hope you won’t regret it.”
As the Professor reached for the door, Charlotte’s voice, tinged with laughter, halted her in her tracks.
“Ah, by the way… did I mention that our wager has a time limit?”
“……?”
“The control I’ve gained has caused an unexpected consequence for Adler. So, our bet has a deadline.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, it’s nothing big… I was just making passionate love with Adler earlier, and I commanded him in the heat of the moment.”
“What did you do…?”
“To get me pregnant.”
The Professor’s mind went completely blank.
“I saw the cute little contraception spell he had cast on his lower abdomen break with my own eyes.”
“……”
“So, here’s the thing…” Charlotte tapped her own hip with a sneering expression. “Do you think you can finish me off before I give birth to Adler’s child?”
—Creak…
Moriarty gripped the doorknob so hard her knuckles turned white, glaring at Charlotte with a chilling, murderous gaze.
“Let’s see you try.”
Charlotte simply waved her hand, delivering one final, powerful provocation.
“Although, I think you’ve already lost, considering you’ve tried so many times and still aren’t pregnant.”
—BZZZZZZ!
The confrontation of their mana flared up instantly, the pressure persisting for several agonizing minutes.
—Shhh…
The atmosphere was so thick with murderous intent that when Adler finally woke up, he simply glanced around with a dazed look, grabbed his clothes, and slipped out of the room unnoticed by the two women.
.
.
.
.
.
“What a strange… truly strange dream…”
A few minutes later.
“Charlotte Holmes was speaking Korean and discovered my surname… then I was dragged to a hotel and ravaged by that beast… all while a naked Holmes and Professor Moriarty glared at each other in a standoff…”
—Thud!
“Yes… this is definitely a dream… it has to be a dream…”
Isaac Adler, having escaped the hotel, staggered down the dimly lit streets of London just before dawn. Finally, his strength gave out, and he collapsed.
“The signal was definitely nearby…”
“……”
“…Oh?”
Someone spotted him from a distance.
“Adler…! What was that message about…”
“Oh, Inspector…”
Adler, his head bowed in exhaustion, saw Gia Lestrade standing before him with a pale face. He looked up at her with the expression of a wet, abandoned puppy.
“Are you going to rape me too, Inspector?”
“……”
“I just want to stop being raped now…”
After blurting out the nonsense, the combination of the night’s exhaustion and the lingering effects of the drugs finally claimed him, and he lost consciousness.
“……”
Gia Lestrade looked down at him, her face turning even paler than before.
“…Did you just say ‘rape’?”