Chapter 82: Trophy
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 82: Trophy
“Is it true?”
“Is it really true, Master?”
Moran and Silver Blaze clung to the collapsed Adler, their eyes wide with shock as they spoke in unison.
“Is it really true that your life isn’t in danger?”
“…Yes.”
“I don’t understand.”
Adler gave up on pretending to be mortally wounded. He tilted his head, meeting Moran’s baffled gaze.
“People die when they are shot, right?”
“…Usually, yes.”
“Children, the elderly—it’s always been that way. Everyone I’ve ever shot has died, one way or another.”
Adler’s eyes flickered at her chillingly casual statement.
“Then why isn’t Mr. Adler dying?”
“…Miss Moran.”
Adler gazed deeply into Moran’s eyes. They were filled with the innocence of a young girl, a stark contrast to the brutality of her words. After a moment, he reached out and pointed toward the distance.
“Look at that person over there.”
“Uh, uhhh…”
“She was hit by your gunfire, wasn't she? But as you can see, she didn’t die.”
Adler spoke in a gentle tone, gesturing toward Caroline, who remained sprawled on the ground, groaning in pain.
“I was told not to kill her, so I deliberately avoided her vital points. But Mr. Adler, you were shot through the heart. There’s a distinct difference.”
“And you think I should be dying because of that?”
“Yes. I believe the heart is the essence of a person. Mana accumulates there; it’s the organ that moves a person, so…”
“Are you certain about that?”
“…Gasp.”
Moran, muttering uncertainly, suddenly gasped in fear.
“Could I be wrong?” she asked in a tiny voice, her tone thick with apprehension.
“The true essence of a person is actually the brain. Of course, the heart is a critical spot, but in this strange era where the laws of nature are twisted by mana, the heart isn't as definitive a weakness as the head.”
“Then… could all the people I’ve shot come back to life and come after me?”
“That’s not the case. The people Miss Moran has sniped until now are most certainly dead.”
“…Phew.”
Moran, who had been trembling at the thought like a frightened child, let out a long sigh of relief at Adler’s firm answer.
“But I am different. I won’t die unless my head is blown off. And as a bonus, I don’t feel pain either.”
“Why?”
“Because I am a terrifying vampire.”
“Eek!”
Adler hissed and bared his fangs. Moran shrieked and scrambled to hide behind Silver Blaze.
“…Besides, I’ve already died once at the hands of my dearest Professor.”
“”………..?””
“Anyway, except for my head, physical attacks don’t really harm me. So please, stop worrying.”
Upon hearing Adler’s explanation, tears welled up in Moran's eyes.
“I—I’m so relieved…”
“Haha.”
Adler reached out to gently stroke Moran’s head.
“…But Master.”
Silver Blaze asked the question while tilting her head, her eyes flickering with confusion. Adler’s expression stiffened.
“No matter how I look at it, it really seemed like you were leaving a final testament. You acted like you were facing inevitable death at someone else's hands…”
“…That can’t be.”
“By the way, Master, there’s something strange.”
Silver Blaze pressed her head against Adler’s neck, her ears perking up as she began to sniff him intently.
“Your physical condition seems several times worse than before.”
“…On what scientific principle are you even basing that?”
“Master.”
Adler tried to laugh it off, but Silver Blaze kept her head buried in the crook of his neck. She whispered, her eyes narrowing into thin slits.
“Is it really true that injuries don't affect your body?”
“………..”
“Could it be that you are overexerting yourself because you’ve resigned yourself to some predetermined fate?”
A cold sweat began trickling down Adler’s forehead under the weight of her questioning.
“…Not a chance.”
“That’s a relief, then.”
When Adler denied it with an astonishingly brazen face, Silver Blaze finally smiled with relief. She whispered, “Had that been the case, I might have lost all hope in life and died.”
“If the leader of the Demi-Humans and the icon of London dies with her eyes dyed golden, I’ll be cursed for centuries.”
“…Hehe, that’s right.”
At Adler’s calm response, her eyes narrowed with delight, radiating her unique charm.
“If you die, I’ll just die right alongside you.”
At that bold threat, Adler nodded with a look of sudden enlightenment.
“Then it’s my turn.”
As Silver Blaze relaxed and Moran tilted her head in confusion, a chilling aura began to emanate from Adler.
“I never gave you two such an order.”
Faced with his stern gaze for the first time, cold sweat began to prickle the girls' foreheads.
“Whose orders were you following, then?”
Adler began to press them, his voice as cold as ice.
“I have no need for hounds that wag their tails for others.”
As Adler slowly rose to his feet…
- Meow.
“……..?”
The sound of a small cat drifted from the side.
“What…”
“Oh, no!”
Adler surveyed his surroundings and saw a familiar cat standing before him, holding something in its mouth. Immediately, a piercing scream erupted from behind them.
“That letter…!”
Caroline, who had been too dazed to grasp the situation until then, scrambled to her feet, her face as pale as a sheet.
- Click…
“Stay still.”
Moran, who had been sobbing only moments ago, pointed her gun at Caroline and whispered in a frigid voice. Caroline had no choice but to freeze.
- Rustle…
“Ah…”
The cat placed the letter on Adler’s lap. Caroline’s gaze filled with pure despair.
“Hmph.”
“……..?”
“I never wagged my tail for anyone, you buffoon.”
The cat looked at her with clear disdain in its red feline eyes. To her shock, it spoke with a human voice.
“…Princess?”
“I’m quite clever too, you know.”
The fourth smartest cat in London turned its head away from Adler and muttered under its breath.
“So, from now on, don’t pretend I don’t exist just because you've got what you wanted. Is that clear?”
Adler, his gaze locked onto the feline, slowly reached his hand forward.
.
.
.
.
.
“…Eek!”
“Thank you for your hard work, Princess.”
“Ugh, eek… let go…!”
A few minutes later…
“I’m so impressed, I think I’ll pet you a little longer.”
“…Stop it.”
Princess Clay struggled and squirmed in his hands in vain. Adler held the sealed letter, marked with a luxurious stamp, with an expression of unbridled contentment.
- Chomp!
“Mm.”
When the enraged cat finally lost her patience and bit Adler’s finger with all her might, he stopped petting her soft belly. He smirked.
“Does it taste that good?”
“Mmm… Shut up.”
Princess Clay savored the taste of Adler’s blood on her lips before speaking in a voice laced with ice.
“So, what exactly happened?” Adler asked, full of curiosity.
Lady Clay wiped her mouth with a paw, a sly, uncanny expression crossing her feline face as she began her explanation.
“That mysterious Professor tried to manipulate us, but I turned that to our advantage.”
“You exploited the Professor?”
“I pretended to follow her orders, but I’ve been making my own moves on the side.”
Adler looked at her with newfound amazement. “…When you appeared in Lestrade’s garden, was that also one of your voluntary actions?”
“Yes. Thanks to that, I was able to eavesdrop on the bet the three of you made.”
The Princess nodded and looked past him. Her gaze landed on Caroline, who was bound and trembling. Princess Clay whispered in a subdued voice.
“I even found out that Charlotte Holmes was planning to break into the new safe bought by the master of this house.”
“…What?”
“I secretly tipped off the Professor about it. She was ecstatic to learn about Charlotte’s ploys.”
Despite her cute appearance, a faint, sinister smirk surfaced on the Princess’s lips.
“She even devised a plan to ambush Holmes by hiding inside the safe first and knocking her out the moment she entered.”
“Wait, then the vault I had been trying to crack…”
“There must have been a fierce fight between those two lunatics going on inside.”
Adler’s eyes glazed over in utter confusion.
“Anyway, from that moment on, everything was essentially over. My only task was to infiltrate the mansion as a cat and lace the servants' dinner with sleeping drugs.”
“…………”
“Then, by the time night fell, I re-entered the mansion with those guys and fully sealed the safe delivered this morning with multiple layers of locking spells. That locked both of those mad women inside.”
The Princess continued her smug explanation, narrowing her eyes to scold Adler.
“You almost managed to break the seal I so painstakingly enacted, you buffoon.”
“Ah, that was…”
“What on earth are you, to so easily breach a security system I spent weeks devising? It’s a good thing that gunshot rang out when it did, or you might have ruined the entire plan.”
Adler scratched his head, looking lost.
“…Anyway, after sealing those two monsters inside, we split up. They tortured and threatened the mansion’s owner in case of unforeseen circumstances, while I searched for the letter hidden in the mansion.”
The Princess sprang onto Adler’s knee, looking as prim and proper as ever.
“And in the end, I found it. This letter.”
“Aaah…”
“There was a secret door in the library disguised as a bookshelf. When I touched it, a room that wasn't on the blueprints appeared. There, on the desk, lay this very letter.”
A triumphant smile played on her feline face.
“Well? How is it? The fruits of the operation I devised.”
“………”
“Will you still call me the fourth in London?”
As the Princess’s tail began to flick in excitement, Adler stared at her blankly.
- Swish…
“Stop it. I did this to avoid being treated like a pet! How could you—”
“You’re the best, my little Princess.”
The Princess, who had been growling fiercely as Adler began stroking her head again, fell silent. She turned her gaze away and murmured.
“…You’re only realizing that now?”
Simultaneously, her tail quietly wound around Adler’s arm in a tight grip.
“Alright, shall we get up now?”
“Eek!”
But as Adler grinned and stood up, the Princess lost her balance and fell to the floor with a thud.
“Let’s wrap this up and get out of here.”
Leaving her behind, Adler approached the bound Caroline with a dark smile.
“Even the notorious Miss Caroline is nothing without this letter as evidence…”
But as he checked the contents of the envelope, his words trailed off. His expression turned rigid.
“…………..”
“Master?”
“What’s wrong?”
His subordinates looked on, puzzled by his sudden change in demeanor.
“…Shit.”
Before he could even reply, Adler stared blankly at the paper and let out an all-too-familiar curse.
Is it too late to join the bet?
Instead of the letter, there was a note inside the envelope. It featured a doodle of a woman wearing a silk hat and a monocle, sticking out her tongue.
I'll use the letter that was in this envelope as my stake.
“Fucking self-insert characters.”
.
.
.
.
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Meanwhile…
“Looks like Adler is definitively out of the race.”
“So far, everything is going according to plan.”
Charlotte Holmes and Professor Moriarty—accompanied by Watson, who looked like a man whose soul had left his body—walked down the darkened hallway of the mansion, conversing with composed expressions.
“I’m not so sure about that.”
“What?”
“You know why, don't you?”
Suddenly, the two women stopped and eyed each other.
“A thieving cat has entered the wager.”
“Do you find that to be a threatening variable, Professor?”
Chilling smiles spread across their faces.
“You’re becoming just as entertaining as Adler, little girl.”
“I feel the same, Professor…”
It was the beginning of the real fight for the greatest trophy in all of Britain.