Several hours had passed after Adler had returned to the back alley hideout for the first time after a long period of absence. In the sky… the moon was just beginning to rise and show off its enchanting presence.
"Good evening, everyone..."
Perhaps he had grown fond of the hound that had followed him from Baskerville to London, that’s why he had painstakingly washed the filthy beast in the bathroom with his own hands, taking hours to get it fully clean. Done with the cleaning, Adler had now appeared in the living room with the hound on a leash.
""..........""
However, for some reason that eluded his understanding, the living room atmosphere was far quieter than usual.
"... Huh?"
Puzzled for a moment, he soon realized that the living room was empty… which furthered the confusion clouding his face.
"Where did everyone go?"
"Grrr."
Just at that moment, the hound – which had been clinging to Adler's leg with a dull expression – began letting out a low and deep growl."Wha-?"
As the hound strode forward, Adler, holding the leash, was dragged along with a bewildered expression.
"Where are you taking me...?"
Sweating, Adler couldn’t help but ask the hound as it went outside the hideout and began strolling through the dimly lit streets of London.
"........"
"... Just go wherever you want to."
"Woof."
However, when the hound turned to look back at him, its eyes gleaming ominously, Adler couldn’t help but back off in fear and eventually resigned himself to the will of the hound.
- Trudge, trudge...
Thus, Adler and the hound began roaming across the dark back alleys of London. As usual, with the inevitable beginning of night, the mysterious fog had started to settle on the streets and back alleys.
"... Hmm?"
Half-worried, half-fascinated, Adler strolled through the dreamlike atmosphere of the back alleys and then, out of the blue, tilted his head.
"The smell of blood...?"
It was because his nose, his senses already extremely enhanced with his half-devil and half-vampire bloodlines, had caught the scent of blood wafting from right ahead.
"What on earth..."
With slight tension and nerves, Adler moved forward along with the leading hound, his eyes shining with vigilance.
"... Huh?"
All of a sudden, a dazed look settled in his eyes.
"Master?"
"Dad."
"Huh? What are you guys doing here?"
Silver Blaze. Celestia Moran. And Princess Joan Clay.
The three most loyal subordinates of Isaac Adler, their whole bodies bloodied, were staring at him from the corner of the back alley.
"What's going on? What in the world..."
"We’ve been hunting!!"
"Hunting...?"
Adler questioned, looking at his subordinates with pure astonishment in his eyes, and Silver Blaze happily answered with a cheerful expression.
"Were you by chance cleaning up the back alleys?"
Upon hearing her reply, Adler opened his mouth with a look of alarm.
"I told you to leave at least a third of them behind. If you sweep everything away, even the forces we could absorb will disappear..."
"No? The merging was already finished a few weeks ago, right?"
"Huh?"
But Silver Blaze, appearing confused, scratched her head as she responded with clear doubt in his eyes.
"We had already completely absorbed 80 percent of the forces that were based in the back alleys a few weeks ago. The remaining 20 percent have either left London or are already wiped out."
"What on earth did you guys do to be able to dominate such a hellish place to that extent in just one month?"
"Did we not already submit the report to you?”
As Adler asked with an astounded expression, Silver Blaze quietly began to report on the events that had occurred without his knowledge.
"Anyways, Princess Clay's vampire legion, as well as the demi-humans who graciously accepted my invitation to join the organization, played a significant role in expanding our power. Of course, most organizations still looked down on us, considering us newbies..."
"So I just singled out the leaders of those organizations and blew their heads off. I did well, didn't I, Dad?"
Amid her report, Moran, nonchalantly wiping the blood on her face with her hand, waddled over to Adler and speak.
"Uh..."
As she looked up at him with hopeful eyes, Adler felt a chill run down his spine but somehow still managed to put a calm smile on his face as he affectionately stroked her head.
"Tsk, out of everything, why did she have to choose ..."
"Even then, the organizations that resisted were personally annihilated by Princess Clay as she led her subordinates to their bases. She drank so much blood that now it might be possible for her to return to her human form using her power alone.”
"... Hmph."
Watching this, Princess Clay muttered in annoyance and then quietly crossed her arms and turned her head away as Silver Blaze gave her a boost.
"What's the point of us working our arses off when the so-called master doesn't even care about us and just wanders around..."
"... Hmm."
As she muttered with a cold expression, Adler quietly scratched his head and took a step forward.
"What, what is it?"
- Smooch.
"... Huh?"
Adler, after staring intently at her, suddenly planted a kiss on the cheek of the princess.
"Thank you."
As he whispered languidly with a smirk under the dim moonlight, the princess, who had been staring blankly at Adler for some time, hurriedly turned her head away from him.
"... So annoying."
Her voice, still cold and annoyed but somehow different than before, seeped out of her lips.
""........""
At the scene, the eyes of Silver Blaze and Moran, who had been watching Adler all the while, suddenly flashed with a chilling light.
"But if you guys weren’t cleaning up the back alleys, then what exactly have you all been doing here?"
Oblivious to that fact, Adler asked with a bright voice.
"... We've been hunting monsters."
"What?"
"It's something that started happening sporadically in the back alleys recently."
His expression turned serious in an instant.
"By monsters, what exactly do you mean...?"
"The most common are shadowy humanoid monsters. Sometimes, even monsters of legend appear in deteriorated and corrupted forms."
"Just before, we engaged in a fight with werewolves and the undead, Dad."
Silver Blaze and Moran continued their explanations with a nonchalant expression.
"How often do these incidents occur?"
"Almost every day, mostly at night, Master."
"The past few days have been somewhat quiet, but some of the monsters on the more powerful side appeared on the day you returned. So, you have to be careful, Dad."
Adler's face grew darker as he grasped the gravity of the situation.
"... Is it because of me?"
"What?"
Now that I've realized the true nature of this body, it seems the situation will only get worse from now on...
Adler fell into a moment of serious contemplation.
...Since the erosion has already begun and progressed quite a bit, I’m afraid it won’t simply be resolved with my return.
"Master?"
Maybe, that's the only way then...
As a puzzled look appeared on the faces of the women looking at him, Adler finished his thought process, his hand resting on his chin.
"... Master."
Silver Blaze, with a hint of unease in her gaze, began to speak in a low voice.
"What are you thinking about right now?"
"Eh?"
"Every time you make that face, Master, a significant incident occurs, without fail."
Adler couldn’t help but feel hurt by her words, however, he soon smiled and responded.
"It's nothing big, just listen. Simply put, I am going to declare war on all the supernatural entities in London at once..."
Thus, a plan, that could only be described as Adler-like, for the future began flowing out of his mouth.
"... By doing so, we will successfully conclude a self-staged kidnapping and escape from the clutches of the professor. How does that sound?"
"Ah, I see."
"That's the plan, huh?"
"Hmm."
After listening to his plan expressionlessly for some time, the three women exchanged glances and nodded to each other.
"... Shall we just tie him up right now?"
"This isn't a rebellion or insubordination, all of this is just to protect Dad from his insane plan..."
"For starters, I'll naturally approach and make him faint by sucking all the blood from his body and then…"
Whispering between themselves in creeping voices, Adler's underlings started plotting against their master in a heartbeat.
- Grrr...
"Eh?"
Just at that moment, the hound lying next to Adler with a leash around its neck began growling toward them in a low, threatening tone.
"What's wrong with you now..."
Adler, quietly tilting his head in wonder, began to stroke the hound's belly to soothe it.
"... Master."
Silver Blaze, staring down at the scene, looked at him and asked in a low voice.
"What do you see this creature as, Master?"
"This one?"
Blinking, Adler looked at the hound that was still lying on its back, exposing its belly for him to rub, and replied with a smile.
"A somewhat fierce-looking, large hound?"
"Ah..."
"It sometimes glares with its piercing blue eyes and breathes out black smoke from its mouth, which can be quite startling I admit, but it also obeys me quite well... So I've been thinking of training it to use as a guard."
Saying so, Adler stood up, clasped his hands together, and ended his statement with a smile in his eyes.
"Anyway, I'm counting on you to prepare well for this plan, okay?"
Having finished his words, Adler turned around and began heading back to the hideout.
"Poppy, aren't you coming?"
"Woof!"
He called out, puzzled as to why the hound, still glaring at the three women behind him, did not follow.
"... Hey."
Reacting to his voice, the dog was about to move when the frigid voice of Silver Blaze, who had been wearing an innocent expression until that moment, slipped out like a slab of freezing ice.
"Aren’t you going to lower your eyes?"
".........."
At Silver Blaze's territorial display, which she had never used even at the racetrack, the hound quietly tilted its head to the side.
"Huh?"
Instead of the menacing hound that Adler could see in his vision, there stood little a girl who, despite being neatly groomed by Adler’s touch, still exuded a sinister and gloomy aura.1
"... Ha."
As the little girl narrowed her eyes and stuck out her tongue towards them and then turned towards Adler, who still wore a confused smile on his face, Silver Blaze made a dumbfounded expression— it was as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
"Looks like we need to sort out the pecking order."
"... Is that really necessary?"
"Get it done. In the end, she’s merely a beast anyway. No matter how much Adler is said to be akin to a beast, he’s definitely not a furry.”
However, despite her words, the gazes of the other two women remained fixed on the little girl who stayed by Adler's side until the very end.
"... But I have fur too?"
"...... Ah." 2
.
.
.
.
.
The next morning. The air permeating London was already carrying the faint scent of autumn. On such a day…
"Eh?"
"Hmm..."
In various parts of the capital city of Britain, which appeared no different than usual on the surface, an ominous air filled with the foreboding of a great conflict had started to circulate.
"Is he asking to be killed?”
"This guy is asking me to kidnap him by any means, isn’t he?”
This was because letters with similar content had been simultaneously dispatched to all the supernatural entities, monsters in layman's terms, hidden throughout London, including the worst murderer in English history and the phantom thief from France.
Would anyone like to go on a date with me next Sunday?
And on the corner of each letter, without exception, was a doodle of a boy striking a 3pose.
***
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