Chapter 275: Side Story: The Adventures of Isaac Adler (9)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 275: Side Story: The Adventures of Isaac Adler (9)
Morning dawns in a quiet Swiss village, accompanied by the chirping of birds.
"Hah..."
Lying in bed, drenched in sweat with a satisfied expression, Moran glanced to her side, the corners of her lips curling into a smirk.
"Sleeping?"
"..."
"I know you're awake."
She poked Adler's side as she spoke, then tilted her head and muttered, "I guess he's really asleep..."
When Adler still didn't respond, she finally let her guard down slightly, sighing as she got out of bed.
"..."
Soon, she stood naked before a full-length mirror, her eyes suddenly gleaming.
-Crackle...
At the same time, a light blue spark seemed to flicker across Moran's body, followed by an astonishing sight.
"...Whoa."
But before Moran could fully take in the scene, a familiar voice from behind pierced her ears.
"My, Moran. You've certainly grown."
"Wh-what?"
"I never imagined you were hiding your power, though."
Adler, who should have been unconscious from the continuous draining, was sitting up perfectly fine, a smile on his face.
"...!?"
To her shock, he was looking at Moran, who no longer appeared as the young girl she had pretended to be, but as a mature adult.
"Did you really think I wouldn't notice?"
"Wh-what are you..."
"You used magic to make your developed body look younger, hiding your true strength, didn't you? All while waiting for the perfect chance to snatch me away from Charlotte and the Professor."
As Adler continued, a cold sweat trickled down Moran's forehead.
For some reason, his tone was that of the Adler from years ago, the one who still possessed his sharp intellect.
And that shouldn't have been possible. The Breeding Coalition, including her, had spent years painstakingly turning him into a living, breathing dildo, precisely because they never knew what schemes he might cook up.
In fact, before they resorted to such measures, Adler had come close to escaping the secret mansion on numerous occasions, so it was a decision they had all made tearfully, left with no other choice.
In other words, this situation was clearly not right.
"Why are you sweating so much, Moran?"
"..."
"Anyway, you must be cold. Why don't you put some clothes on?"
The ideal Adler created by the Breeding Coalition was not supposed to hold a normal conversation with such an unsettling smile.
But the man sitting on the bed, his eyes crinkling into a smile, looked exactly like the devil who had once turned London upside down.
"Have you been drinking?"
"Haha."
"No, that can't be right. I got rid of all the alcohol... The only thing left was the aphrodisiac..."
And then, Moran realized the reason for the change.
"Wait, the aphrodisiac?"
"Haha."
"Don't tell me, it's because of...?"
Before Moran had pounced on him, the drug Princess Clay had given her contained more than just a sensitivity enhancer.
It had a hallucinogenic component extracted from Mana Stones, the aphrodisiac's main ingredient. It was the same substance Charlotte often inhaled instead of drugs, claiming no harmful effects had been discovered yet. Adler must have regained his senses because of it.
"Everyone, be warned. Isaac Adler is a pure-blooded devil. This means that if he drinks alcohol, he can wield the intellect and power of his prime. After all, alcohol is a drink created by devils."
Professor Moriarty's warning from around the time they first sealed Adler in the secret mansion flashed through Moran's mind.
"That said, I wouldn't recommend using hallucinogens or stimulants to enhance the pleasure of the act. There's a chance they could produce an effect similar to alcohol."
Of course, everyone had followed that warning at first, but it had eventually been forgotten.
While sealed in the secret mansion, Professor Moriarty had regularly managed Adler in various ways to keep him in a dull-witted state.
But the Adler of today had long since escaped the mansion. If he had been injected with an aphrodisiac with hallucinogenic effects in this situation...
'...No, something about that feels off.'
But just as Moran was piecing her thoughts together, she sensed something was wrong and shook her head.
'This is different from the intimidating presence he has when he's drunk... This is just the old Isaac Adler.'
There was a distinct difference between the 'Supreme King' Adler who appeared when he drank and the Adler before her now.
If this were the Supreme King Adler, whom even Professor Moriarty found difficult to handle, everyone here would probably be on their knees with their hands in the air, awaiting punishment.
But the Adler in front of her now didn't exude that level of pressure.
"I can hear the gears turning in your head from all the way over here, Moran."
"...Eek."
"So, what's your next move?"
Unable to predict the situation, Moran, after a long moment of confusion, was forced to a conclusion.
'...I'll just pounce on him again and pin him down.'
It was, of course, a conclusion befitting Moran, who was more brawn than brain.
"Hahaha..."
Which was exactly what Adler had been counting on.
*
'After all that, she's still in the mood for more?'
Judging by the look on Moran's face, she seemed incredibly curious about why my mind was clear again.
And whatever she was thinking, the reason I'd regained my senses was actually quite simple.
[If I do this, you'll talk to me again, right? You promise?]
It was because I had removed all the debuffs on my body after coming to an agreement with the system entity.
I suspect the reason Professor Moriarty and Charlotte kept me in a dazed state all this time was because they were wary of this very status window.
I don't remember it clearly, but it seems I was interrogated quite a bit after my true name was revealed.
The possibility that those two also know about the system window is extremely high.
The fortunate thing, however, is that for some reason, the system entity desperately wants me to return to the Auguste Detective Academy.
Thank goodness the negotiations worked; otherwise, I might have been dragged straight back to the secret mansion in London from here.
-Crackle, crackle...
Of course, there was still one problem I had to overcome.
"You should have just stayed a docile idiot,"
"..."
"I would have taken good care of you if you had."
And that problem was escaping from Moran, who was on the verge of achieving her grand goal of monopolizing me.
"...I don't need that."
Naturally, I had already prepared a way out since regaining my senses.
"...Huh?"
With a light snap of my fingers, Moran, who had been approaching me with a terrifying killing intent, suddenly staggered and collapsed to the floor.
"It seems you missed something while you were so... preoccupied."
"...Ah."
"Looks like you've finally noticed."
A golden seal had appeared on her lower abdomen.
"Don't you understand why Professor Moriarty left you alone all this time?"
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"You were one of the only women in London who hadn't been with me. That meant there was no chance of you being controlled by the seal."
To be honest, it wasn't long ago that I realized the seal was something akin to a slave's seal, engraved through Contract Magic.
"You didn't really think the seal that appears on the bellies of those I've been with was just a product of my bad taste, did you?"
"..."
"I couldn't use it before because I hadn't gathered enough mana, but thankfully, I've accumulated a fair amount now."
Now that I knew, the people in this mansion could no longer use their power against me.
"Ugh, ughh..."
"...I-I've been had."
One only had to look at Princess Clay and Silver Blaze in the next room, clutching their stomachs and trembling from paralysis.
"Poppy. I know you're watching, so come on out."
"...Hic."
"Just how many times are you going to betray me?"
Having easily regained control, I turned my gaze toward the presence I had been sensing in my shadow and whispered coldly.
Pant, pant...
The ungrateful Hound of the Baskervilles scrambled out and began licking my hand.
"Well then, I'll see you later."
She was infuriating, but she was also a powerful asset, so I couldn't just abandon her.
"For the record, Moran, I'm never doing it with you again."
"...Ah."
"This is your karma, so just accept it..."
After dealing with Poppy, I opened the mansion's front door, leaving Moran with a parting shot.
Seeing her jaw hang open in a daze felt like compensation for the humiliation I'd endured all day, and I was feeling quite goo—
"..."
My thoughts were cut short as I opened the door. I stared at the scene before me for a moment, then hastily slammed the door shut.
"...Moran."
Turning back to her, I began to sweat as I rushed to console the teary-eyed woman.
"You know I was lying, right? You know how much I cherish you, don't you?"
"...?"
"And you're not a little kid anymore, so how about we start planning for a baby?"
If the first thing you saw upon opening the front door was Mycrony Holmes smiling with her eyes narrowed to slits, anyone would have done the same.