Chapter 81: Order (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 81: Order (2)
Moments before the gunshot rang out from Caroline’s mansion…
“…………”
Two silhouettes, their faces concealed by masks, loitered outside the mansion’s window.
Thump, step…
“Are you alright?”
These masked individuals were none other than Isaac Adler and Doctor Rachel Watson.
“…Just hurry up.”
Trying to ignore her racing heart as she bit her lip, Watson whispered to Adler. She stood before the window, maintaining a facade of calmness despite the tremor in her voice.
Swoosh…
With a slight twinkle in his eyes, Adler extended a finger toward the windowpane.
Creak...
Smoke rose from the quartz as the glass was neatly sliced in a circular pattern. With practiced ease, Adler slipped his hand inside and unlatched the window.
“Isn’t there an alarm…? Did you use magic?”
“No. Alice disabled the security for this specific sector before we arrived. That’s all.”
“Pardon? It was that easy?”
Watson’s voice crawled with incredulity. She questioned his suspiciously proficient actions, to which he responded in a calm, almost nonchalant tone.
“Everything is difficult to penetrate from the outside, but once you’re in, breaking things becomes far too easy.”
Finished with his confident explanation, Adler stepped through the open window and beckoned for Watson to follow. However, her breathing only grew more ragged and heavy at his gesture.
“Miss Watson?”
“………”
“Are you alright?”
Adler’s voice softened, tinged with concern. “If you’re too nervous, you can always come in later…”
“…No.”
The reason for Watson’s quickened breath wasn't exactly the fear Adler suspected.
Badump, badump, badump…
Standing before the window, which gaped like the maw of a frenzied beast, the initial fear in Watson’s heart had vanished without a trace.
What she felt instead was a sharp note of thrill. It was the electrifying realization that she—a woman who had stood as a guardian of the law alongside Charlotte—had now become a blatant violator. A criminal, so to speak.
“Haah…”
“…Pardon?”
It was a severe case of adrenaline addiction.
The "disease" she had acquired during her time at war had mostly faded, but faint traces remained. This addiction erased any lingering guilt, replacing it with the high-stakes excitement of a gambler.
The only flaw of London’s number one elite lady had now become an advantage, heightening her senses and flooding her veins with excitement.
“…Let’s go in. Together.”
“Why are you sweating so much, though?”
To an observer, her appearance—drenched in an excessive secretion of adrenaline—looked somewhat perverse.
“It’s rude to speak to a lady that way, mind you.”
Retorting sharply, Watson stepped into the mansion. Her body, damp with sweat, pressed against Adler’s as she moved past him.
“Congratulations.”
“…Huh?”
Playfully, Adler tapped her lower abdomen and leaned in, whispering into Watson’s ear in a mischievous tone.
“You’re officially a criminal now.”
Then, taking her hand, Adler began to navigate the darkness of Caroline’s mansion.
Shiver…
Her lower abdomen trembled from the vibration of the sigil and his physical touch. Coupled with Adler’s provocative whisper, a sense of depravity and guilt washed over her. Engulfed in this strange amalgam of feelings, Watson could only bow her head, trembling as a wave of thrilling corruption coursed through her while she walked alongside him.
‘…Why is he so skilled at this?’
Meanwhile, Adler moved through the thick darkness as if it were his own home.
Doctor Rachel Watson found herself utterly dragged along by the man. By the time they reached a room filled with furniture, passing through a corridor that smelled faintly of cigar smoke, her hand was soaked with sweat.
“………”
Was it the extreme tension of relying solely on Adler’s hand in the dark? The sensation of his slender hand being coated and mixed with her own sweat felt strangely familiar.
“…Hmm.”
The more she focused on it, the more active her mind became. By the time they reached the end of the corridor, she could sense the slightest movements of his hand with vivid clarity.
“Excuse me.”
“………?”
Due to her intense concentration, Watson had involuntarily begun to flinch. Adler stopped walking and gazed at her.
“Please stop fiddling with my hand,” he murmured with half-closed eyes.
Only then did Watson quietly release her grip.
“Do you like my hand that much?”
“…It’s familiar.” Staring back at Adler, she began to mumble in a low voice. “Like a hand I used to fiddle with for hours, a long time ago.”
“You must be nervous, that’s all.”
Adler wore a momentary blank expression before offering a fluid excuse and moving forward. “Now, shall we get started?”
“………”
“Keep watch here.”
As they moved forward, a secret vault protected by heavy security came into view.
“What are you planning to do?”
“Crack this safe. According to Alice’s testimony, it’s highly likely the letter is inside.”
“That’s reckless.”
“If we’re talking about recklessness, breaking into this mansion was already the point of no return.”
Watson gazed at the massive vault with dark eyes and muttered, “Even if we crack it, there’s no guarantee the letter is inside, right?”
“Then we’ll have no choice but to break into Miss Caroline’s bedroom.”
“…Sigh.”
Watson, her hand still damp with Adler’s sweat, slipped it into her coat and began to caress her holstered gun, taking deep breaths to steady her nerves.
“The worst friend to ever exist…”
Crack…
“I’d probably be willing to share a cell if it were Holmes, but with you? That’s the last thing I’d want to do with my life.”
Adler’s hand touched the vault. Watson muttered quietly, sweating as she watched the scene.
“…….?”
However, no matter how much time passed… the expected alarm did not sound.
“What the…”
Click… Click-click…
The high-performance vault, which weighed at least a thousand pounds and was fitted with high-powered magic stones, was being stroked by Adler’s hand. Instead of setting off alarms, it only emitted small, distinct sparks.
“What did you do…?”
“It’s nothing much.”
Watson knew exactly how impossible this was; Holmes had a hobby of cracking vaults, and even she struggled. She asked with eyes wide in astonishment, only to be met with Adler’s cheerful, nonchalant reply.
“I merely charmed the safe.”
“…..That’s impossible.”
Watson’s eyes, momentarily clouded by shock, sharpened as she heard his nonsensical answer.
“I believe hacking and flirting are virtually the same thing.”
“…Pardon?”
“Bypassing this level of security? I’ve done it so many times it’s become tiresome.”
Adler continued to spout nonsense. “…Didn’t I explain my past earlier?”
“……..”
His logic was sound, but her brain couldn't keep up. It was as if her mind refused to accept the reality of the situation.
“What on earth are you, really…?”
It had not even been a century since humanity became capable of embracing the concept of mana. It had only been twenty years since scholars worldwide collaborated to create the formal concept of magic.
Yet, here was an individual who was not only interfering with the system of magic but daring to modify it on a whim, creating something entirely new that deviated from every existing notion.
It was no exaggeration when Holmes—who had only just begun grasping the basic concepts of mana—said it would be extremely difficult even for a genius like her to catch up to Adler’s proficiency.
“I should be able to disarm it in about ten minutes. Such an intricate and complex security system for this day and age… there’s always a genius, no matter the era.”
“…Hmm.”
If Adler was this capable, then how remarkable must Holmes and Professor Moriarty be to constantly outwit him with their mental gymnastics?
“Well, your capabilities are remarkable indeed.”
Still bewildered, Watson felt as if smoke were rising from her head from the sheer effort of thinking. She decided to avert her gaze from Adler and look toward the end of the dark corridor.
“……..!”
Immediately, her gaze met a pair of glowing red orbs shining ominously in the darkness.
“What… what is that…?”
Meow.
Feeling the hairs on her neck stand on end, Watson drew her gun, eyes wide at the sound.
Meow.
“…What?”
She soon realized it was merely a red cat. She sighed in relief.
Bang!!!
“…Gasp.”
At that very instant, the distinct crack of a gunshot echoed through Caroline’s mansion.
“Hmm.”
“I—I didn’t shoot!”
Watson, sweating at the thought that she might have accidentally pulled the trigger, realized her gun was still fully loaded. She hurriedly tried to explain herself to Adler, who had already turned toward her.
“I know.”
A frown crossed Adler's face, followed by a dark smile. He removed his hand from the safe and stepped away.
“It seems the time has come to discipline them, as planned.”
“…Eh?”
“Miss Watson, keep watch over the safe.”
With those words, Adler disappeared into the darkness. A heavy silence settled around Watson.
“……Ugh.”
Suddenly left alone in the pitch-black hallway, cold sweat began trickling down her forehead.
Creak…
At that moment…
“Huh?”
With a suspicious click, the safe behind her began to open on its own.
“………Huh?”
Startled, Watson’s head jerked around. Her gaze immediately went vacant.
“”…………””
Inside the safe, Charlotte and Professor Moriarty—both wearing frigid expressions—were locked in a silent struggle, clutching handfuls of each other’s hair. They turned their heads to look back at Watson, their gazes just as vacant as her own.
.
.
.
.
.
Meanwhile…
“Who… who are you people…?”
“”……….””
“Why are you doing this…?”
Struck by a bullet out of the blue, Caroline lay sprawled on the floor of her bedroom.
“I—I’ve never even killed a fly. I’ve dallied with a few fools, but that’s all!”
Pale and shaken, she pleaded with the two veiled assailants—assailants she had failed to stop with her own self-defense handgun.
Click…
“Do you realize the trouble you’ll be in if you kill me now?”
Seeing the gun pointed at her again, her voice grew desperate.
“The servants would have sounded the alarm by now. The London Metropolitan Police must have received the distress signal. Your only way out is to run without looking back!”
“”……….””
“And the letters aren’t here! If I don’t give the order in person, by next week, every journalist in Britain will be reading the letters I’ve collected over the—”
“Bluffing won’t work on us.”
As the assailant with a dark gleam in their eye whispered those words, Caroline’s voice trailed off.
“The servants have been deep in a drug-induced sleep since dinner. And someone like you would never entrust such vital letters to anyone else.”
“What do you want?”
“One of your legs.”
As Caroline began to sob and plead, the owner of the frigid voice continued.
“If it’s money you need, I can give you many times more than your employer! So please…”
“…Sorry.”
The assailant with their finger on the trigger murmured in a calm voice.
“What I can gain by neutralizing you far outweighs something as trivial as money.”
“Ah…..”
Caroline’s eyes filled with despair.
Clack!
Suddenly, another gun, loaded and ready, popped out from behind her.
“Because of bastards like you, I never carry just one…!”
“…….!”
“Die!!!”
In a panic, Caroline pointed her handgun forward and fired haphazardly. Simultaneously, the assailant pulled the trigger of the long gun they were holding.
Bam…!
Bang…!
Two shots were fired, fractions of a second apart.
“This is troublesome.”
“”……..!?!””
At that very instant, a blond-haired boy abruptly appeared on the scene. Calmly, almost nonchalantly, he positioned himself between the two shooters.
“Wait…”
Kwajjik…!
The dazed assailant reached out as they dashed forward, but the boy’s body was already brutally punctured. The impact of the two shots colliding against him left gaping holes in his frail frame.
“…No.”
As the boy slumped sideways, the assailant knelt and caught him mid-fall, tearing off her veil to examine him.
“Uh, ugh…”
Her companion, similarly disguised, quickly removed her veil and wrapped it around the boy’s chest, desperately trying to staunch the bleeding.
Drip…
Despite her best efforts, the boy’s blood rapidly stained the fabric a deep crimson.
“It can’t be… Master…”
“………”
Beside the sobbing companion, the small girl who had fired the shot wore a blank expression as she looked at the boy in her arms.
“…Look at this.”
A voice like cracking ice leaked from the boy’s pale, shivering lips.
“See what happens when you only fight each other.”
“…….!”
Their eyes shook at his weak but clear voice.
“If you had just gotten along, none of this would have happened…”
Adler murmured to them, his voice tinged with sorrow.
“…Huh?”
His eyes soon became dim and unfocused.
“……..!?!””
Instead of Charlotte Holmes and Jane Moriarty, as he had expected, Adler saw the petite Celestia Moran and Silver Blaze. Their ears were drooping low in sorrow as they looked down at him, tears welling in their eyes.
“I… I…”
Moran’s voice, thick with grief, reached Adler’s ears.
“I heard that Mr. Adler had been kidnapped, so…”
“………”
“I tried so hard because I wanted to get you back…”
Moran knelt there, her face twisting in overwhelming grief as tears fell incessantly.
“Uh, uh-huh.”
“…Um.”
“Uhng…”
She buried her face in Adler’s chest and burst into wailing sobs, the despair overwhelming her mind.
“Don’t die…”
‘I was sure I’d been informed they wouldn’t be here…?’
Click…
“Uh-oh.”
Adler’s eyes, filled with confusion as the situation veered off-script, started trembling violently.
“Hehe.”
Silver Blaze was holding a gun against her own temple. Her eyes were crazed, having lost all reason and desire to live.
“Have you gone insane?!”
Watching this horrific scene, Adler immediately bolted upright and snatched the gun away before she could do something irreversible.
“”…………..””
The girls stopped crying instantly. Their eyes blinked rapidly as they watched Adler—who looked remarkably intact and healthy despite the literal holes in his chest.
“Oughh, arghh.”
However, Adler’s eyes rolled back once more. His mouth leaked awkward groans and wails of misery as he flopped back onto the floor. A heavy silence settled in the room as everyone stared at Adler with unfocused, blank eyes.