Chapter 124: Escape
"Haa, haaaa..."
<i>- Gooooooo...</i>
The fight between Charlotte and Professor Moriarty, which had been going on for dozens of minutes already, had begun reaching an impasse.
"You''re quite good at this, aren''t you?"
Normally, with a higher concentration of mana and far superior skills and experience, Professor Moriarty should havended an overwhelming victory in the duel.
"Has some sort of trigger led to an increase in your abilities?"
"... Quiet."
However, for some unknown reason, Charlotte''s dark-ck mana, which seemed several times darker and more ominous than usual, was barely able to sessfully defend against Professor Moriarty''s all-devouring deathly grey mana.
"Just, just a little more strength!""... Charlotte! Hang in there!"
Of course, this miracle wasn''t solely due to her absurd growth.
"Tch..."
"While she’s not the easiest opponent, given her high proficiency in hand-to-handbat, I will take them down soon and join you as fast as I can. So just hold on a little longer!"
Inspector Gia Lestrade, who had stepped in to block the werewolf that was on her way to eagerly target Charlotte Holmes under themand of the devil that had enabled and empowered her existence, didn’t forget to split some of her attention to reducing the concentration of the all-engulfing grey mana in real-time.
"Grrgrrgrrrrrr..."
"He-Here, you see this, right? This is loaded with… sil-silver bullets, yeah… It will hurt really, really bad, like really bad if you get hit with it, right? So don’te close!”<sup>1</sup>
Meanwhile, Dr Rachel Watson had somehow ovee the crippling fear that was immobilizing her to some extent, all for her partner’s sake. Thus, she was now busy aiming the pistol in her hand at the demonic hound who was circling the room, keeping it at bay.
"Wow."
Meanwhile, at a distance from all the chaos, Isaac Adler was watching the whole chaotic fiasco with sparkling eyes; his hands were still hovering over the return ticket icon though, just in case.
"Magic is truly amazing..."
"Mr. Adler."
Inadvertently, he closed his mouth shut upon hearing Professor Moriarty''s voice, which hadn''t lost its leisurely, bemused tone from the very start.
"Six women are fighting over you, and you''re watching it as if it’s a y. Quite intrigued, are we?"
"Uh... technically, isn''t it five?"
"........"
"... Hehe."
At the prolonged silence, Adler couldn’t help but scratch his head with an awkward smile.
"In that case, it makes the effort ofing here to save you pointless, doesn’t it?”
Unlike before, Professor Moriarty was now gazing at him with her head tilted to the side. Puzzled by the unusually cheery demeanour he was showing as they fought over him with full force, the professor unexpectedly rxed her grip at the next moment.
<i>- Tssssss...</i>
At that moment, Charlotte Holmes'' ominous ck mana surged in, swiftly engulfing Professor Moriarty''s grey mana.
"Professor...?"
"... Hmph."
The bewildered Adler couldn’t help but wear a slightly dazed look as he heard the sulky voice flowing out of the professor’s lips while she gazed at him with a slightly sullen gaze.
"You still seem to be quite at ease, huh...?"
Just then, a chilling voice echoed from the front.
"Of course, I do appreciate your arrogance."
"........"
"You must have realized by now, that you can no longer suppress me as overwhelmingly as you used to."
"That doesn''t mean you can win, though."
Briefly, Charlotte’s mana seemed to have dominated over Professor Moriarty’s overwhelming and all-epassing presence. And the professor, undeterred, began increasing her mana output once again as their gazes intersected.
"Your eyes are still grey, Professor. It seems your love for yourself is greater than your love for Adler."
"My heart is several times wider than the narrow and prejudiced thing beating on your chest. However, no matter how big the heart, some constitutions are too hard to dye. There’s nothing one can do about it."
"Don''t try to pass it off as a joke."
Charlotte, having said that, lowered her voice and whispered out a question to the professor.
"... Do you even understand the emotion called love?"
And then silence ensued between the two.
"See…"
Charlotte quietly looked at the silent professor with a gaze far colder than anything she ever projected, and soon began to speak with a sneer stretching her lips.
"You''re just ying at love. Because it seems… fun. Isn''t that right, Professor?"
"Your words are a bit too extreme, don’t you think?"
Jane Moriarty red at her in the silence, the voice leaking out of her lips colder than cial ice.
"Apologies, but I''m not in the mood to indulge a child''s tantrums."
"I never thought I''d say this to you but..."
However, Charlotte didn’t back down a single bit, facing her head-on without a shred of fear, and whispered with a sneer in her voice.
"You, who can’t even begin understanding this emotion called love, are so pitiful.”
".........."
"The sight of you unable to do anything but imitate it is so tragic. I feel sorry for you, truly."
The professor''s eyes grew slightly colder upon hearing the whisper, but her expression and breathing remained the same as before.
<i>- Goooooooo...</i>
"Oh, struck a nerve there, did I?”
However, the bnce of the shing mana she had been managing quite leisurely until now had begun to waver— something the professor couldn''tpletely conceal from Charlotte.
<i>- Creack, creaaaak...</i>
"If you’re guilty, at least have the decency to back off."
Charlotte did not miss that brief moment of vulnerability and began to relentlessly press her advantage.
"You seem tock a conscience. For an old maid to act so..."
<i>- Crrrreeeeeeaaaaaaack...</i>
"A proposal? Don''t even make meugh."
As the gap that had slightly opened grew wider, Charlotte''s ominous dark-ck mana reached right in front of Professor Moriarty.
"... He has already turned down our proposals.”
In that moment of utter crisis, Charlotte, with a bitter smile, drove the point home.
"There''s no way Adler would ept a proposal from someone like you."
<i>- Tap, tap...</i>
It was precisely at that moment, as the professor listened to her words with an expressionless face, that her eyes suddenly shed with an ominous light when…
"Professor."
".......?"
Adler, who had surreptitiously approached right beside them who knows when, tapped the professor on the shoulder with a cheerful smile.
"Adler, this ce is dangerous."
"Look at this."
"So, step back for n..."
Jane Moriarty, ring at Charlotte with a frosty expression and murmuring in a t voice, couldn’t help but start trailing off…
"Hehe."
Adler was presenting a single sheet of paper to her right now.
"........."
It didn''t take long for everyone to realize that it was a marriage registration form signed in Adler''s own handwriting along with the signature of Professor Moriarty that was already present beforehand.
.
.
.
.
.
<i>- Gooooooooooooo…</i>
Charlotte Holmes''s mana, which had been on the verge of seizing the upper hand in the sh, began shaking violently.
"Ugh…"
She hurriedly tried to regain bnce, but it was already toote. The ck-coloured mana that had been burrowing towards Professor Moriarty just mere moments ago was now struggling to even block the momentum of her grey mana.
"... Why on earth."
Realizing she could no longer turn the tide of this sh, Charlotte hung her head low and spoke in a voice filled with disbelief and despair.
"Why did you make such a choice?"
Tears started forming in the corner of her eyes.
"Are you bloody serious?"
A cold voice came from behind Charlotte.
"Is it just me, or are people doing fake marriages now? Was I the only one unaware?"
"Since… why else would you do this? Why, out of all people, did you choose the professor over the only one who can nullify your curse… and the person you love?"
"… Hmm."
Adler, who had been looking dazedly at the unusually outspoken Watson, scratched his head and began to answer in a low voice.
"It''s because of the reason I mentioned earlier."
""..........""
"Marrying someone I should bring down doesn''t make sense now, does it?"
Hearing his reply, their faces paled so much that it would be impossible for them to pale any further.
"My dearestdies, please do your very best to bring us down."
"Stop…"
"At this point, it can’t be any clearer regarding what you need to do from henceforth.”
"Stop it!!!"
Charlotte exploded just as she heard Adler''sst few words.
"I don''t want to bring you down!!"
"........"
"I like you! I love you, Adler!!"
More and more tears started streaming down her face, more than she had ever shed in all her life.
"Ah, yes, yes. I was a bit too harsh with you earlier, wasn’t I? Sorry for that. Since I was a bit too excessive, let''s find another way, okay? Let’s start over… yeah, yea…."
"Miss Holmes…"
"Marrying someone else for my sake, I won''t ept such a doggone ending!!!"
And then Charlotte, shouting those words at the top of her lungs, tried to step forward.
"... This doesn’t seem to be a very fitting way to conclude this case.”
Adler – witnessing the scene of Gia Lestrade exerting her superhuman strength to bring down the main culprit, Mortimer, behind him – squinted and muttered to herself.
"The only problem is Miss Baskerville, who witnessed everything..."
"... That won’t be a problem.”
Amidst the rapidly deteriorating situation, a shy, whispery voice was heard.
"I''ve already made arrangements to cover up this case..."
"Is that so?"
The professor, who had once proposed confidently but was now avoiding Adler''s gaze with flushed cheeks, muttered those words. And, hearing her, Adler merely nodded in silence.
"Then, let''s get out of here."
<i>- Swish...</i>
Suddenly, Adler wrapped his arm around her waist.
".........?"
As he scooped her up in a princess carry – Professor Moriarty, who had been flicking her head side to side like a lizard, unable to grasp what was happening to her for a moment – froze on the spot.
"... It seems you still haven''t epted it, so I should give you time."
"A, Adler."
"But if you still can''t ept it in the end..."
Gently stroking her hair, Isaac Adler quietly raised his hand.
"The next mystery you face won''t be so kind."
"Stop it. Stop already!!!"
"Prepare yourself well, Miss Holmes."
"... Ugh."
Charlotte, staggering from the oppressive atmosphere filling the cavern, eventually lost her bnce and fell to the ground.
"... Don''t waste your energy trying to catch me."
Looking at her with a hint of pity in his eyes, Adler then snapped his fingers and concluded.
"Unless you discover the true name, binding a devil is impossible."
"Wait!!!"
"... Goodbye."
In the next moment, the professor and Adler had disappeared from the cavern in an instant.
.
.
.
.
.
After their disappearance, a heavier silence than ever before began to flow inside the cavern.
"Strange."
In the midst of that silence, Charlotte, who had fallen to her knees on the cave''s sharp rocky floor, her knees scrapped and bleeding, began to mutter quietly with lifeless eyes.
"He promised to be with me, to be by my side, forever… back then."
As if it were a lie all along, the storm ceased the moment Adler had stepped out of the wilderness. However, at that very instant, a terrifying message appeared before Adler’s eyes, making him puzzled.
"... Did I forget something for a moment?"
– <strong>Probability of being Shared —</strong> 10% → 69%
/genesisforsaken