"Why is everyone looking so grim?"
Isaac Adler's voice, which had suddenly become relaxed, began to echo in the cavern which had remained silent for a long while.
"Did you really think you would just propose and I would accept it in a heartbeat?”
"......"
"Heh. Dream on."
As he sauntered past them with his hands behind his back, a mischievous smile tugging his lips, the glares that Charlotte and Lestrade were giving him became chillier than arctic snow.
"Uh, why are there three... marriage registration forms?"
"Are you sure you can handle the consequences of what you're doing?"
Behind the two women, Watson, perplexed by the incongruent sight, muttered to herself. While Lestrade, standing next to Charlotte, opened her mouth with a fierce intensity to her voice.
"You will surely regret this, Isaac Adler.""... Why is that?"
"If what you're saying is true, soon every monster in the world will be upon you."
"Hmm, I suppose so."
Adler nodded quietly in agreement to her words.
"The only person who can negate that curse is me, who carries the antithesis to your curse. You need me by your side.”
"Ah..."
"So unless you don't care about your life, you should be begging me to..."
However, Lestrade, who was confidently continuing her speech, suddenly trailed off mid-sentence.
".........."
How could she not as Charlotte Holmes, standing right next to her, was glaring at her fiercely with eyes opened wide.
"Ahem."
Lestrade averted her gaze, trying to avoid the maddened eyes, albeit slight, dyed in the colour of Adler’s hair.
"... Instead, you should be begging me to marry you, yes."
"Inspector."
"Miss Holmes. Sometimes, people need to bend their opinions."
The hesitant woman then looked at Charlotte with a resolute gaze and began speaking freely.
"At this moment, I am the only one who can handle Isaac Adler."
"Don't talk nonsense."
"It's not nonsense, Miss Holmes. It's the undeniable truth— the thing you are so fond of.”
"No, it's not."
However, Charlotte still vehemently denied it in a fierce tone.
"... The bizarre anomalies and phenomena can be resolved. It's what modern detectives specialize in, so it's more suitable for me to be by his side."
"Preventing the dangers that could arise at the source is better than taking the risk of it occurring in the first place.”
"Then, I'll hire you as a security guard for our newlywed home. We'll have the wedding within a week, so quit your job as a police officer and..."
"Why is this conversation taking this route?"
Charlotte Holmes then quietly bowed her head in response to the inspector's question.
"... Because."
"Yes?"
"Because I love him!!!"
Suddenly, she raised her voice and shouted out loud.
"And isn't it the same for you, Isaac Adler!?"
"......."
"Do you really think I wouldn't recognize the mana I feel from your eyes, the mana belonging to me, just because you're wearing coloured lenses right now?"
She paused for a moment to catch her breath and then began speaking in a trembling tone.
"Mr. Adler, let's get married..."
"......."
"I can do everything the inspector can do for you."
Hearing those words, Adler silently suppressed the smile he had donned.
"I'll take care of all the bizarre oddities that will occur in the future. After all, I too am cursed to never be satisfied with anything other than a mystery, so let's consider it cancelling out each other's curses."
"........."
"I'll handle the household chores, earning money, and raising the children all alone. Don't you want to see what kind of child the union of London's most superior genes would produce?"
Lowering her pride, she even murmured those absurd words as though it were nothing. However, when she saw Adler looking down at her while keeping his silence, she began biting her lips in nervousness.
"Don't look at me with that expression..."
"........."
"You like me, don't you? Much more than the officer you're reluctantly dating."
"Miss Holmes."
Hearing her words, Lestrade glared at Charlotte and was about to speak her piece. However, Adler spoke up before she could open her mouth to interject.
"That's exactly why I've chosen this ending."
At his words, Charlotte stopped talking altogether.
"If I marry you or the inspector, I'm sure I'd be happy for about a year."
"... Keep the inspector out of it.”
"Yes, let's assume as you say."
Adler, once again wearing a smile on his face, slowly began to walk toward Charlotte.
"... In any case, if I were to accept the marriage proposal, it would certainly bring me immense joy.”
"Then let's get married…"
"But then, the world would come to an end."
Upon hearing his reply, Charlotte's face began turning paler than a sheet of paper.
"Did you know that the recent surge in bizarre phenomena worldwide coincides with the time I started my external activities?"
"It's a coincidence."
"Jill the Ripper, the phantom thief from France, the mad scientist, and even the demonic hound of the Baskerville family being drawn to me… are they all just coincidences?"
"Yes. All are definitely coincidences."
Reaching out his hands, Adler began gently stroking her pale cheek.
"... Unfortunately, it's not a coincidence."
"........."
"Merely by my continued existence, this world will be eroded by things that should not exist."
"No..."
"Don't deny it. You of all people should not turn away from the truth, Charlotte Holmes."
Warm liquid began to trickle down his hand.
"You weren't someone to wear your emotions on your sleeve."
"It's all because of you."
"Haa..."
"You’re the one who made me unable to live without you, now you want me to erase you with my own hands?"
Charlotte, clutching Adler's hand, shook her head with her teeth clenched so hard they almost bled.
"I can't."
"No, that's the only way."
However, Adler whispered to her with a resolute voice.
"You've uncovered the truth of this case. That I am the cause of it all and at the same time, the that must disappear from this world."
"... You can't mean."
"So, it's your victory."
"Did you orchestrate this case just to lose from the very start?"
He murmured, slightly avoiding Charlotte's gaze.
"... Since the moment you began to suspect my true identity, to be precise."
"Then this mystery is invalid. What kind of challenge is it if the challenger assumes defeat from the beginning?"
"Oh? Surely you, a detective, aren't trying to cover up the case now, right?"
Their eyes, dyed in the colour of each other’s hair, met in silence.
"I'll charge you as an accomplice, not the main culprit. A mere 5 to 10 years, or... with a plea bargain, it could be even less."
"No, that's going to be difficult."
"What?"
"... I've already secured the testimony of the victim and the perpetrator of the case. They will provide statements that will be unfavourable for me.”
Among the pair of eyes gazing intently at each other, it was Charlotte's that faltered first.
"The ghastly legend of the Baskerville family, it doesn't end there."
"......"
"Do you know the surname of the young man, the one who died in the hands of the lady of the estate who had made a pact with the devil?"
"........!"
Though she had already surmised the hidden facts of the case quite some time ago, she did not wish to bring them up. However, it seemed that Adler was adamant in raising this uncomfortable part that she wished to ignore.
"... It was . You seem to have already figured it out, judging by your expression."
"........"
"By the way, I heard that the young man had a very cute little sister."
As Adler spoke, he quietly cast his gaze to the back. At the end of his vision lay Gloria Mortimer, who had been standing silently beside Helen Baskerville till now, and she immediately lowered her head in acknowledgement.
"A few days after the incident ended, an individual summoned the same devil with whom the lord had made a pact and willingly became a werewolf using the devil’s influence. For the next 200 years, that being hunted all the heirs of the family, becoming the curse of the Baskerville line..."
"... That individual you’re talking about, it’s the female butler, isn’t it?”
"And behind her, as you know, is none other than me."
Charlotte, who had been coldly confronting the female butler as she bared her fangs, quietly opened her mouth to speak.
"So what now?"
"What do you mean, ? Obviously, I'm going to make her confess everything."
"..........."
"Of course, she will have to make me the mastermind. She's one of the few who can prove that I'm a devil. All this was possible thanks to Miss Holmes' perfect deduction."
Adler continued talking, facing her with a calm gaze.
"As for Miss Baskerville... to say that I recruited her would be wrong per se."
"........."
"Since she detests me to the extreme, she will no doubt be eager to prove my guilt with all her might."
After hearing his words, Charlotte quietly lowered her head, and Adler, gently stroking her hair, began to whisper in a low voice.
"How about it? Isn't it amusing how our roles have reversed?"
".........."
"A criminal consultant desperate to expose their own guilt to the world, and a detective trying to cover it up... It sounds like something straight out of a novel, doesn’t it?”
And then, a long silence settled in the cavern.
.
.
.
.
.
"... Mr. Adler."
Amidst the silence, Charlotte's voice finally emerged, frigid and detached.
"So what do you propose."
"..... Pardon?"
"You've thought this through quite well, but you've overlooked a very small possibility that could foil your entire plan."
At that moment, Isaac Adler felt a chill run down his spine upon realizing just how much darker her gaze had become.
"According to Article 12, Section 3 of the British Abnormal/Bizzare Lifeform Management Act— an act that provisions for the handling and management of special lifeforms…"
"........."
"... The following species are not guaranteed the status of humans and are to be eliminated upon discovery. Legal protection is granted only when they belong to the state or are the property of a licensed individual."
Charlotte's lips slowly began to curl upwards as she gazed up at him with a maddening intensity.
"Vampires, werewolves, unauthorized artificial life forms, the undead, devils, or those presumed to have originated from devils, also known as demons in some cases."
"... We've been discussing that very topic, haven't we?"
Adler tilted his head in confusion, looking at her with a perplexed expression.
"By turning myself in, our long association comes to an end. The British government will execute me, a target specified for elimination in the constitution, and you will be remembered as a hero who rid the world of a monster..."
"Not being guaranteed the status of a human means that anything I do to you is legal."
He couldn’t help but adorn a stupefied look upon hearing Charlotte's following words.
"Provided that the ownership rights are secured, of course.."
"Miss Holmes, if you do not defeat me, the world is in peril..."
"... As I've said time and again, so what?"
In the swiftly reversed atmosphere, Charlotte began to press Adler with a dark smile.
"From now on, I'm going to overpower you and confine you in the basement I have prepared in the Baker residence. Other than resisting, what else can you do?"
"Ah..."
"Don't worry, it's not a criminal act but a rescue operation, legally speaking. Even if half the women in all of Britain cry out, I won't be prosecuted."
"You plan to fight and defeat a devil? Moreover, when there’s a demonic hound and a werewolf by my side?”
"Inspector Lestrade will cooperate with the arrest. No matter how loyal you and your monsters are, without contracts and magic, you're powerless."
"........."
"Let's start by combining our genes to find a way to stop the monsters. By intertwining in various ways, we'll quickly figure something out."
"Um..."
Sweating profusely as Charlotte, who had completely gone berserk and lost control of her mental functions, began to push him against the wall, Adler quickly shifted his gaze behind him.
"........."
- Growl...
Gia Lestrade, with a look of displeasure on her face, seemed to tentatively agree with Charlotte's plan; she quietly pulled out her baton and stood before his loyal monsters, blocking their movements.
"Hmm..."
After quietly observing the scene, Isaac Adler summoned the window he had just received before his eyes.
"Isaac Adler, look into my eyes."
'... Should I use it now?'
"From now on, I'm your master."
His hand hesitantly began to move toward the small ticket-shaped icon before him.
.
.
.
.
.
"Sorry, but I can't agree to that."
At that moment a monotone voice, all too familiar to everyone present, echoed in the cavern.
- Gooooooooo.....!
"Ugh!?"
"Ah."
Within less than a second, a pressure as heavy as the very depths of the ocean began to weigh down on everyone inside the cavern.
"I had a hunch when the weather turned foul all of a sudden..."
However, Adler, the only one seemingly unaffected by the suffocating pressure, looked toward the cavern entrance with an awkward smile on his lips as the figure slowly approached him.
"... Of course, it could only be the professor."
Isaac Adler's legal master had effortlessly bypassed all rivals and now stood right before him.
"Mr. Adler."
Professor Jane Moriarty, who had been watching the entire event from behind, pulled out something with a cheery expression on her face.
"... Shall we get married?"
It was a marriage registration form, neatly signed with her name.
"... Huh?"
Isaac Adler, who was about to embrace the professor with a joyful expression, now wore a bewildered look at her sudden action.
"Cut the crap."
Astonishingly, Charlotte, who had managed to shake off the professor's mana with a berserk outburst of her own mana, suddenly rose to her feet against all odds; she started spewing out curses with a savage expression on her youthful face.
"... Hmm?"
A new system message appeared before Adler, who was watching the scene with intrigue in his eyes.
Warning!
– Probability of ??? — 200%
"... Surely, this must be a glitch."
The moment Adler muttered that with an unconcerned voice, black and grey mana began to clash with a flash of blinding light.
Correction
Warning!
– Probability of ??? by Multiple Individuals — 100%
"... Fuck."
***
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