Chapter 90: Shattered Mask
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 90: Shattered Mask
Creak—
“Where are you off to, Mr. Adler?”
Adler staggered out of bed after staring blankly at the mirror for a long moment. Professor Moriarty, having regained her usual composed demeanor, tilted her head with a puzzled expression.
“You shouldn’t be wandering around in your current condition.”
“… Ha.”
Ignoring her advice, Adler approached the mirror and let out a heavy, ragged breath.
“… Professor.”
He closed his eyes tightly, took a deep breath, and silently turned his head to face her.
“I must confess.”
“………”
“I have never once seen you as a member of the opposite sex.”
A smirk played on her lips as she observed his eyes, which had already reverted to their original black hue.
“That is pure sophistry.”
“………”
“Even if we set aside your actions until now, you just revealed your ultimate goal—becoming my husband.”
A frigid chill seemed to spread alongside Professor Moriarty’s smile.
“And yet, you still claim you never liked me?”
“That’s…”
“Isn’t that a bit too unscrupulous?”
Adler, about to speak, found himself pausing. Her tone was different than usual, carrying a weight that compelled him to remain silent.
“… My feelings for you were admiration and awe.”
“Trying to squirm out of it, I see.”
“That is exactly why my eyes took on Charlotte’s colors instead of yours.”
Her gaze narrowed at his muttering, which seemed to lack its usual spirit.
“Unlike love, admiration and awe are often one-sided emotions. They don’t resonate, even when they are of the same magnitude.”
“Mr. Adler. Normally, a person who truly admires or reveres someone doesn’t wish to dye them in their own colors.”
“Is that so?”
“They are overwhelmed just by watching. They wouldn’t dare entertain such blasphemous thoughts.”
Confusion began to cloud Adler’s face as he listened.
“Then, why did I…?”
“The change in your eyes already answered that question, didn’t it?”
Professor Moriarty, finding Adler more intriguing than ever, stepped toward him as he stood dangerously close to the mirror.
“You have been in love with me all along.”
“………”
“You just didn’t realize it. Or perhaps, you knew but chose to deceive yourself.”
Murmuring those words, Professor Moriarty leaned in close, her face inches from his.
“If you still don’t understand, shall we conduct an experiment?”
“Um…”
“Teaching is a teacher’s duty, so I’ll take special care to show you myself.”
In the next moment, the warmth of her lips pressed against Adler’s cold ones, her heat seeping into him.
“How about that?”
She lightly caught Adler’s tongue in her mouth for a brief instant before pulling back to pose the question.
“How does the kiss we just shared taste?”
“… It tastes like coffee.”
“Perhaps we need a bit more practice.”
As Adler averted his gaze, evading her words, the professor’s face twisted into a sardonic smile. She lowered her head ever so slightly.
“… Eh.”
Then, Moriarty began to nibble on the skin right above Adler’s Adam’s apple.
“Pro… fessor.”
As her tongue softly licked his neck, confusion clouded Adler’s eyes.
“How about it, Adler?”
After that unusual kiss, the professor clasped her hands behind her back and began bobbing her head from side to side in her characteristically cute manner.
“Did your heart flutter a bit?”
“……..”
The change in her tone, the habits Adler found himself liking, and that elusive smile all combined to stir his heart.
“It seems it did flutter after all.”
When a blush rose to his cheeks, Jane Moriarty, amused by his reaction, reached out her hand.
“The experiment is over.”
“……..”
“An undeniable conclusion has already been drawn…”
At that instant, just as Moriarty was about to touch Adler’s cheek…
Slap!
The air between them turned frigid as Adler swatted her hand away.
“……?”
“The change in my eye was merely a coincidence.”
Silently, she looked down at the red handprint staining the back of her small hand before turning her gaze back to Adler. He began to mutter in a low whisper.
“It just happened to look that way by chance. Or maybe it was just your imagination, Professor.”
“Where did the brilliant, keen man I once knew go? I wonder who this dim-witted fellow is that has taken his place?”
Hearing his nonsensical remarks, she looked into Adler’s eyes and whispered, undeterred by his futile efforts to retort.
“To see you not as someone to serve, but as a woman… Just the mere thought of that…”
“Well, that is indeed plausible.”
His right eye, which had been flickering between black and grey, was caught in her gaze.
“Love sometimes clouds the mind.”
She observed the curious spectacle for a long while before gently lifting Adler’s chin.
“The perfect performance I thought you were giving turned out to be the sincerity hidden deep within your heart. You’re truly adorable when you’re this flustered and at a loss, Mr. Adler.”
As she spoke with a bright, wide smile, Adler’s flickering eye remained grey for far longer than he was willing to admit.
*
“So, what are you trying to say in the end?”
As the color returned to black once more, Adler muttered in a frigid tone and turned his head away.
“From today, you return as my assistant.”
The professor, who had been looking at him with a dark gleam in her eyes, began whispering with her eyes lit up, as though nothing had changed.
“I’ve been asked to consult on a crime.”
“Is that so?”
“It’s not someone you brought in. For the very first time, a client came to me willingly after hearing of my reputation.”
At her prideful words, Adler quietly shifted his gaze back to her.
“… But I was reluctant to take on such a monumental request without my beloved assistant at my side, so I’ve been holding off.”
“That’s cringe.”
“Why have you suddenly become so cold?”
Moriarty, with a puzzled smile and a tilted head, continued speaking while gazing at him.
“Anyway, I’d like to work on this case with you.”
“……..”
“Will you join me?”
As Adler rolled his eyes, about to speak—
“Ah, and by the way, no need for an answer.”
Before he could respond, the professor’s voice, laced with mirth, filled the room.
“This is an order.”
“………”
“As my beloved assistant, join me in my crimes.”
A long silence stretched between them.
“… I will comply.”
Adler finally nodded.
“My loyalty to you, Professor, will always remain unchanged.”
“I’ll see how long you can hide behind such ambiguous responses.”
Taking his hand again—carefully this time—the professor muttered in a low voice as she headed toward the door.
“Soon, there will come a time when you must choose which color you want to dye your eyes in.”
“………”
“Since you won the last bet, you have gained the right to choose one of us.”
Adler hesitated for a moment before making eye contact with the professor, who was looking at him with clear intrigue.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
“……..!”
With a quiet smile, she slightly bowed her head and pressed her lips to his right eye.
“What are you doing?”
“Marking you.”
As she licked his closed eye gently with her tongue and lifted her head, Adler asked her in stunned surprise, only to receive a rather lewd response.
“My goal is to do that to every part of your body.”
“That’s sexual harassment.”
The professor wrapped her arm around Adler’s waist. He shivered involuntarily and muttered in a frigid tone.
“I’ll do it while you’re asleep, so don’t worry.”
“Professor.”
Adler’s face turned serious, his usual sly demeanor vanishing.
“Although I am currently offering you my absolute loyalty, I am, after all, a man with desires.”
“……..”
“If you keep this up, I might pounce on you.”
With a faint but dangerous look in his eyes, he shook off the professor’s arm and headed for the door. Watching his receding back, the professor lost herself in thought.
‘They say drinking seawater only increases one’s thirst.’
“So please, don’t do that.”
‘That phrase suits you perfectly.’
Now that she had finally grasped the feelings hidden deep in his heart, Adler had suddenly become several times more distant.
‘I never expected him to close off his heart so abruptly.’
Just minutes ago, he had been vying to make a good impression on her, but now she was the one desperately trying to hold onto him. It felt as if the roles of attacker and defender had switched.
‘…And that makes me want him even more.’
Just as the sea has its high and low tides, she had learned that love also had moments of push and pull. At least, that’s what the books she had secretly borrowed from the academy library during vacation had said.
‘This moment perfectly describes the destructive power of someone who has been pulling away constantly and finally decides to push back.’
She wanted to completely devour the boy walking ahead of her.
‘…Could this possibly be part of your plan as well?’
She wanted to make Isaac Adler her own, in every facet and form.
‘Well, what does it even matter.’
“…..!?”
Harboring such thoughts, she stealthily approached Adler from behind and gently brushed his nape with her lips just as he was about to open the door.
“… Professor.”
Startled, Adler shuddered and turned around with a gaze of frigid ice.
“Didn’t I warn you already?”
“… Hehe.”
It wasn’t the subdued, masked reaction he usually showed her. It was the genuine, raw response of Isaac Adler.
“Sorry~”
Knowing exactly why he had changed so much in such a short time, a pleased smile formed on Jane Moriarty’s face, her hands clasped behind her back.
“… Hmm.”
The professor turned her head toward the mirror, then looked away with a relaxed smile.
“It seems I have a rather unique constitution.”
The reflection in the mirror still showed her eyes painted in their usual grey hues, but she no longer cared.
“My beloved Adler.”
“… Yes?”
If what they were sharing now wasn’t love, then what else could love be?
“Nothing~”
Having reached that conclusion, she quietly followed behind Adler, her hands still clasped behind her back.
*
Creak—
“So, what exactly is the request?”
“I still don’t know.”
The door to the hospital room, which had seen a great deal of traffic over the past few days, opened. The professor and Adler walked out while conversing.
“All I know so far is that the client’s name is quite amusing.”
“The name is amusing?”
Adler expressed his curiosity.
“Well, how can someone’s last name be Garrideb?”
“… Ah.”
“Ahaha, hahahaha…”
As Adler seemingly caught on to the reference, the professor laughed out loud.
“… Adler?”
From down the corridor, an unexpected voice called out to him.
“Have you finally woken up?”
Gia Lestrade, dressed in plain clothes and holding a basket of apples, stood there with eyes filled with surprise and astonishment.
“This is quite a shock.”
“……..!”
“The great Lestrade herself in plain clothes? Could it be that she took a day off just to visit you?”
Lestrade, who had been walking quickly toward them, paused when she noticed Jane Moriarty standing next to Adler.
“… Huh?”
Immediately, her eyes turned frigid.
“What are those marks?”
The handprint and the teeth marks on Adler’s neck were vividly captured by Lestrade’s sharp, intuitive gaze.
“These… are merely wounds from that day…”
“Those weren’t there yesterday, were they?”
Adler stammered, trying to offer an excuse, but Lestrade’s eyes grew colder as she muttered in a chilly voice.
“… Isn’t that right, Professor?”
Her gaze challenged Professor Moriarty, who merely stood there with a relaxed expression, her arm wrapped around Adler’s waist.
“What have you done to my boyfriend?”
“You lead such a bothersome life, Lestrade.”
The hallway was soon filled with the frigid aura leaking from the two women.