Chapter 221: The Valley of Fear (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 221: The Valley of Fear (4)
“Pfft! Pwahahaha!”
“… Pfhhhh-hahahahah!”
The moment the carriage door clicked shut after the inspection, Rachel Watson and Lupin exploded into fits of roaring laughter. They had been biting their tongues to hold it back the entire time, and now all that pent-up amusement tore through them in a howling, unrestrained gale of guffaws.
“Don’t laugh…” Adler grumbled, his face flushed a deep, embarrassed crimson.
“Feeling a bit prickly, are we?” Lupin teased.
“… I’m not joking here.”
“You look so pretty even when you’re angry. You aren’t scaring anyone with a face like that.”
Lupin and Watson stared at him, unblinking and completely unbothered by his protests. Adler could only let out a long, despairing sigh. Hanging his head, he began to mutter in an annoyed tone.
“The disguise is fine, but… why on earth did I have to wear a skirt? I could have gotten away with trousers just as easily…”
“Ah, you lack professional spirit,” Watson countered. “What kind of lady would wear trousers in this weather?”
“But still…”
“Stop mumbling. I spent days naked while trapped inside your briefcase. You have no right to complain.”
Watson raised an eyebrow, her jab hitting home with surgical precision. Adler fell silent, completely drained of arguments by the doctor’s perfect retort.
“Even when you pout, you’re actually quite cute…”
“Ah, for God’s sake. I told you to stop…”
“Look at that behavior. What kind of respectable lady uses such crude language?”
Lupin suddenly slid over and hugged him from the side, peering intently at the annoyed Adler. After watching him grumble for a moment, she added, “I even developed voice-modulation magic specifically for you. It’ll all go to waste if you give yourself away with your speech and tone.”
“………”
“Come on, try it again. What if someone gropes you like this?”
Clenching his teeth and trembling, Adler eventually squeezed his eyes shut and forced his mouth open.
“Kyaa! Kyaaah…!”
“Pfft…”
“… Don’t.”
“Puahahahahahaha!”
At his shy, forced scream, Lupin laughed so hard that tears began to well in her eyes.
“Enough.”
A stern voice suddenly emerged from Lupin’s side.
“Do not mock Master.”
“Tsk…”
Threatened by the hound that had sprung from Adler’s shadow, Lupin quietly clicked her tongue and sat back down obediently.
“Wh-What in the…”
“……?”
“Yo-You…”
Just then, Watson’s voice, tinged with genuine fear, echoed from the front of the carriage.
- Shh…
But before she could finish her thought, the hound’s tail lowered. It retreated behind Adler, trembling visibly.
“”……….””
A heavy silence descended upon the carriage.
“Poppy, what’s wrong…?” Adler murmured, looking puzzled.
“… Is it not her?” Watson added, equally confused.
“You’re disgustingly strong, aren’t you?” Lupin asked the hound in a snarky voice, clearly displeased. “So why are you hiding behind Adler?”
“What nonsense are you spouting?” the hound replied naturally. “Master is strong.”
“… Adler?” Watson blinked.
“He could subdue someone like me with a mere snap of his fingers. Otherwise, I would have no reason to follow him.”
Watson frowned, her confusion deepening. “No matter how I look at it, he’s significantly weaker than you… To be honest, he’d probably lose to me in a test of sheer physical prowess.”
“Nonsense. I will show you.”
“…….?”
With a sigh, the hound suddenly pounced on Adler, who was watching the exchange with a bewildered gaze.
“Poppy, what are you doing?!”
- Squeeze…
She grabbed both of his arms and pinned him down. Adler, now completely trapped beneath the hound, looked up at her in shock.
“… Master?”
Meanwhile, the hound—exerting all her power to pin her master’s body—wore a similarly confused expression, though for a very different reason. She felt no resistance.
“Is this… a joke? Is that it?”
“This is no joke, Master,” Adler replied, his voice trembling with genuine fright.
The Hound of Baskervilles bared her teeth and whispered dangerously into his ear. “Please, I need you to swiftly subdue me. Show these unruly females what it means to cross you. This is the most effective way to discipline these bitches.”
And then, in the next breath:
“If you do not resist, I will bite you.”
“….. What?”
Opening her mouth wide, the girl—her eyes glowing an eerie, predatory blue—buried her head in the crook of Adler’s neck.
“E-Eek…!”
Terrified by the hound’s animalistic display, Adler desperately tried to push her away with all his might.
“………”
Unsurprisingly, the hound didn’t budge an inch.
…Master is weak?
As the hound dazed out for a moment, disbelief marring her face, a blasphemous thought crossed her mind. It didn’t take long for that thought to take root deep in her psyche.
“I’m actually a bit scared, Poppy… Could you please get off now…?” Adler pleaded in a pitiful voice.
“……….”
Hearing his meek words, the girl stared at him for a long, silent moment. Then, she abruptly buried her face back into his neck and tightened her hold.
“… Gah…!”
“Hi-Hiilk…!”
A moment later, razor-sharp teeth began to sink into Adler’s neck.
MasterisweakMaster’sweakMasterweak…….
“Save me…!”
Just like that, Adler’s plan backfired. He had been betrayed by the one measure he had absolute confidence in.
“Should… shouldn’t we stop this?” Watson asked, looking at him with pure pity.
“… How are we supposed to stop someone stronger than us?” Lupin replied indifferently. “Just leave them. She’s just asserting her dominance over him.”
“Hmm…”
As a result, until the carriage reached its destination, Adler’s distorted cries continued to echo within.
- Swoosh, swish…
“Haaah…”
“… No matter how I see it, that looks a bit too excessive for a display of dominance.”
*
An unknown amount of time later.
“……..”
“… I am sorry.”
After regaining his senses, Adler found himself with a deep bite mark on his neck. His hair and clothes were utterly disheveled from the tussle with the hound from hell. He staggered out of the carriage, still dizzy, while receiving a pitiful apology from the hound, who had finally returned to her senses.
“I did not expect you to humor me to such an extent.”
“… Poppy, stop growling and get back into my shadow.”
“Then… I will be on standby once more.”
As soon as she spoke, the hound melted back into Adler’s shadow. Only this time, she gazed at Adler’s back with a very different light in her eyes.
“Excuse me,” Watson cut in. “Even after all that, you still think that dreadful creature is just a puppy?”
“… Poppy might be as big as a wolf, but yes, she is still a puppy to me.”
“Sigh…”
Watson chided him for his stupidity, but she could only shake her head in resignation after hearing Adler’s disheartened response.
“So, what is the actual purpose of coming here in disguise?”
“… We need to create a rift within the group inside this hideout,” Adler whispered, massaging his sore neck.
“What kind of group is it?”
“Well… from what I’ve heard, they’re quite nasty. Extortion, threats… they commit horrific acts of terror against companies that don’t pay up…”
“That sounds like a common gang.”
“Yeah, they’re pretty much at that level.”
Watson narrowed her eyes, her voice turning grave. “Wait… are you seriously planning to use your ‘charm’ to get your way with them? You’ve truly hit rock bottom, haven’t you?”
“No, it’s not that…”
“All the members are women,” Lupin answered in his stead, cutting him off.
“So that’s why you’re disguised as a woman…?”
“… To join their gang as a spy, I need to look the part.”
“That’s true, but… how long are you planning to keep impersonating a girl? Forever?”
“Only until the case is resolved.”
Adler sighed, already tired of the act.
“Isn’t this too dangerous…?”
“I have the world’s greatest thief as my escort, and Poppy can pitch in from the shadows if needed. With them here, nothing can touch me.”
“Didn’t you just get attacked by that thing you call a dog moments ago?”
“… That was just animal instinct, a show of dominance. It’s no big deal.”
With those words, Adler stood before the entrance of the hideout. As he grasped the doorknob, a stern, no-nonsense expression took over his face.
“Anyway, please prepare yourselves. I am about to show you just how much of a delinquent I can be.”
“It’s a gang hideout, you know.”
“… According to my information, these people like it rough and nasty. So…”
Adler took a deep breath.
- Bang!
“Wait, that doesn’t mean you need to go that far—”
“Hello!!”
He kicked the door open and stormed into the bar. The eyes of every gruff gang member in the room zeroed in on him instantly, their drinks forgotten.
“I’m Irene…!”
Energetically, Adler continued his self-introduction, glaring at them with a fierce expression.
“… Kheh.”
However, before he could even finish his sentence, he slumped to the floor with a heavy thud.
“”……….””
An awkward silence followed. No one knew how to react.
“Kulluk, kullu…”
“Uh, um… So…”
In the silence, Watson noticed the blood trickling from Adler’s mouth. She began to sweat profusely and desperately scrambled for an excuse.
“She’s been frail since birth… and recently, she was diagnosed with a terminal disease!”
“Oh, that’s not it. I’m totally a rogue delinq— Ugh.”
“… She just wanted to live the last few months of her life recklessly! Like a badass bitch! That’s all!”
The gang members looked at each other, disbelief evident in their gazes. But slowly, their fierce expressions began to crack and soften.
“… Rookie, come and sit down here.”
“You’re so pretty…”
“Fancy doing some strength training with big sis, aye?”
“This… this isn’t what I meant…”
*
Several days later.
“””………..?”””
After a furious voyage across the sea to America, the expressions of Professor Moriarty and Holmes’ party stiffened simultaneously as they searched for traces of Adler.
“Mr. Adler… What on earth is the meaning of this?”
“What exactly has he been doing?”
“… He’s finally lost his damn mind.”
The reason for their shock was an article prominently featured in the American weekly newspaper they had opened, hoping for any sighting of their companion.
VICIOUS BREAK-IN AT NEWSPAPER HEADQUARTERS; EDITOR-IN-CHIEF IN CRITICAL CONDITION
- Yesterday morning, our editor, Mr. Stanger, was brutally beaten with clubs, resulting in serious injuries...
- The perpetrators stated that the editor had sullied the honor of a lady named Irene Adler by looking at her with lecherous eyes. The assailants' current whereabouts are unknown...
Accompanying the text was a photo of Adler. He looked completely resigned, surrounded by a group of women wielding clubs, looking utterly adorable in a frilly princess dress.