Chapter 272: Side Story: The Adventures of Isaac Adler (8)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 272: Side Story: The Adventures of Isaac Adler (8)
By the time Adler’s captors had pitched camp on the Swiss border, life continued at a familiar address: 221B Baker Street, London.
“…Hah.”
A girl—no, a woman now, her features far too mature to be called a girl—sighed as she crumpled the telegram that had just arrived.
“That idiot, Lestrade.”
Her name was Charlotte Holmes. A self-proclaimed consulting detective and an acclaimed master of the craft to everyone else, she was now so famous that there was hardly a soul in London who didn't know her name.
“She just let him walk away? She should have at least broken his legs to keep him in place.”
“……”
“Damn it. I haven’t felt a craving like this in a long time.”
She began to rummage through a drawer, searching for a syringe she had sealed away years ago.
“……”
But halfway through opening the drawer, Charlotte flinched, her hand freezing in place. She slowly glanced behind her.
“……?”
A long time had passed since she and Rachel Watson first moved into the boarding house. Thanks to Watson’s tidy habits, the place hadn't changed much.
However, thanks to Charlotte—a being catastrophically removed from the concept of tidiness—the scenery had altered in several distinct ways. The most dramatic of these changes was the small child currently meeting her gaze.
“…No, better not.”
The little boy had claimed her once-exclusive armchair. He tilted his head, staring at her with a somewhat dazed, vacant expression. Charlotte glanced away, closing the drawer with a resigned sigh.
“Wow, I’ve really lived to see everything now.”
“……?”
“To think the great Miss Charlotte Holmes, the very incarnation of impulse and self-destructive desire, would actually succeed in controlling her own dopamine.”
A voice tinged with a cold laugh drifted in from the doorway.
“…It’s been a while, Watson.”
“It has. It’s been quite a while since I moved out of this place, hasn't it?”
Charlotte gave a short nod to her old friend and produced her pipe.
“Care for some Arcadia tobacco?”
“What are you talking about? You don’t smoke in the boarding house anymore.”
“……”
“You’ve also stopped shooting the shape of a man’s genitals into the wall with your pistol, haven’t you? Did having a child finally make you grow up?”
Charlotte’s brow furrowed slightly, but she quickly forced a cold smile.
“Then I suppose you’re the less mature one, Watson, since you don’t have a child of your own.”
“Shut up, you bi—”
“That’s enough. Swearing is also forbidden in the boarding house.”
Watson, who had been about to unleash a string of colorful curses with a venomous expression she rarely showed her patients, obediently shut her mouth. She, too, glanced at the boy.
“…Hah. Look at you, doting on your son.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. For some reason, he doesn’t seem to resemble me at all. He always has that dazed look on his face. I knew I should have named him Sherinford… It’s all that bastard Adler’s fault…”
Charlotte muttered, looking dejected, before turning her focus back to Watson.
“Anyway, what brings you here today?”
“Would you believe me if I said I just dropped by after my clinic hours?”
“Not a chance. Setting aside all my other suspicions, you don’t smell of disinfectant, and there are no stethoscope marks on your neck.”
“That’s just because I had no patients today…”
“True, London has become a little more peaceful than it used to be. But I can assure you, it’s not so peaceful that you need to walk around armed with the same type of Afghan-made musket that nearly killed you back in the day.”
Charlotte pointed to a slight bulge at the edge of Watson’s medical coat. Watson sighed and slumped onto the sofa.
“Still, isn’t it about time we went to find him… no, to take him back?”
“…Take what back?”
“The great man-whore who unites the women of London.”
“I told you, no swearing.”
Charlotte’s face hardened as she warned Watson again.
“Besides, aren’t you being a little too calm? It’s unlike you.”
“…What do you mean?”
“The old you would be scouring all of Europe by now with your eyes bulging out of your head.”
“Don’t you worry, Watson. I can see his every move clearly, even from this shabby old boarding house.”
“What? Does that mean you know where he is right now?”
Watson’s eyes widened, burning with urgency as she demanded an answer.
“He hasn’t left Europe, at least. If he intended to, he would have taken a direct flight the day he escaped.”
“But what if he’s trying to throw us off his trail?”
“You’re half right. His goal is indeed to make his route difficult to trace, but Adler vanished in the middle of a European cruise.”
Her explanation was as infuriatingly smug as ever, but that no longer mattered to Watson.
“And as it happens, I received intelligence that on that very day, the former Queen of Bohemia began a weeks-long seclusion in her castle.”
“…Aha. I see.”
“Yes, I thought even you would get it.”
Charlotte watched Watson, who was now caressing the gun in her coat with a cold smile. Charlotte mirrored the expression with a chilly grin of her own before slowly rising from her seat.
“I was just thinking it was about time I went to retrieve my stray dog.”
“Oh, really? Then shall we team up for the first time in a while…?”
“This time, however, I think we should move separately.”
Watson, whose eyes were burning with a belligerence she hadn’t shown in years, looked taken aback.
“…Huh? Why?”
“There are too many eyes in London. If we move at the same time, the Professor’s side will likely notice and interfere.”
“I-Is that so?” Watson scratched her head, her expression showing she understood.
“I’ll leave first. You follow after a short delay.”
“Ah, okay.”
“You know the destination, of course?”
Charlotte gave Watson a slight wink, pulled on her overcoat, and whispered in a low voice.
“We really are long-time partners.”
“Yeah. Partners. That’s right.”
“Well, I’m heading out. Let’s meet at the port in that country in about a day…”
After Charlotte said her goodbyes and left the boarding house, a heavy silence filled the room.
“……”
In that silence, Watson once again glanced furtively at the boy before fixing her posture and staring at him intently.
“Hey, Sherlock.”
“……”
“What did you think of what she just said?”
Watson asked the question with a wide smile, though her eyes remained cold. The boy, who had maintained a dazed expression the entire time, saw his face instantly harden into a mask of icy intellect.
“……Hah.”
“That cynical look you never show your mother won’t work on me. I’ll just keep pestering you until you tell me…”
The boy, having inherited a terrifyingly sharp mind, quickly calculated that dealing with Watson was more efficient than ignoring her. With a look of utter annoyance, he handed her the newspaper from the table.
[The Austro-Hungarian Empire’s ‘Death Scandal’ Strikes Again. How Many Fiancés Have Left Her, Unable to Claim Her Hand…?]
“Hm? What’s this?”
When Watson tilted her head, puzzled, the boy pressed a hand to his forehead, his frown deepening. He pointed to a specific part of the article.
「Meanwhile, the queen, making her first public appearance after a long seclusion, mourned the death of her fiancé while also revealing she was pregnant with a child from their secret relationship, sparking new suspicions…」
“Aha…”
A sly smile finally spread across Watson’s face. She patted the head of the boy, who was showing clear signs of resistance.
“So, Sherlock. Where is your father right now?”
“……”
“Please stop making that smug face you get from your mother. I’ll just keep asking until you get tired of it…”
By then, the boy’s expression was one of complete resignation. He finally spoke, his voice as cold and clear as Charlotte’s.
“…Not France, Romania, or Germany. Of the remaining cities, the safest neutral country.”
“Right, thank you. I like how you get straight to the point—unlike Charlotte, who drags out her explanations just to feel superior.”
“…Should I explain the reasoning for you?”
“No, that’s alright. Something urgent has just come up.”
With those words, Watson shot up from her seat and strode quickly to the door.
“Well, see you again soon. You’re a cute one, even if you take after the wrong people.”
Waving goodbye, Watson hurried off, leaving the boy alone in the room. He was a child who, as a result of inheriting exactly half of his father’s and mother’s features, possessed an appearance well-known to people in a certain other world.
“……Hah.”
Though he wasn’t even old enough for school, it seemed he was destined to pick up smoking a little early. He sat in his armchair, puffing away at a pipe.
*
Meanwhile, in Switzerland.
“Wh-what is this?”
Adler was tied to a bed in an empty house, drenched in a cold sweat. Above him, a vampire girl and a demi-human were panting as they whispered to one another.
“It’s a potion that makes your lower half several times larger.”
“…I-I developed it myself. This is the first time I’m using it.”
The liquid from the vial was forced into Adler’s mouth, slowly trickling down his throat.
“Ugh, ughb. Haaack. H-help me!”
““No.””