Becoming Professor Moriarty’s Probability
Chapter 249: The Reunion at the Empty House (2)

“… Adler.”

After what felt like an eternity of pressing her lips to Adler’s, Charlotte finally pulled back slightly, her voice trembling as she spoke.

“It’s really… really you, isn’t it?”

Her thin, pale hand reached out to caress Adler’s face.

She moved as though she needed to confirm, to truly feel that the man before her wasn’t just another illusion.

“… If I’m not Adler, then who else could I be?”

“A, A hallucination… Maybe? I-I’d sometimes see you when I was alone in my room…”

“Could you touch me like this back then?”

“N-No, but…”

Adler gently clasped her hand, holding it firmly. Pressing his cheek to hers, he whispered gently.

“You don’t know how much I wanted to come back to you over these past two years.”

Murmuring those words, Adler reached out, his hand brushing against Charlotte’s face.

“… But why do you look so pale?”

His voice grew laced with concern as he examined her fragile, worn-down appearance, so much more frail than when he had last seen her.

“You haven’t been taking drugs or inhaling powdered man stones because I wasn’t around, have you?”

“… I’m sorry.”

“Haaaah…”

Hearing her faint, apologetic voice, Adler let out a deep sigh. At that, Charlotte’s face turned abruptly pale.

“I-I promise I won’t do it again!!”

“… That’s surprising.”

“I swear, I’ll never touch drugs or mana stones ever again! Not even cigarettes! I’ll throw away every pipe and syringe I’ve hidden in the house…!”

Her hands trembling, Charlotte clutched Adler’s hand tightly, her voice rising in desperation.

“Just please… don’t… leave me again…”

“……..”

“I’ll do anything, anything you ask of me. Please, just don’t abandon me, please…”

“I wasn’t planning on leaving to begin with, so calm dow— nmgh.”

Adler, responding with a gentle yet pitying voice, suddenly winced in pain.

- Drip…

“Ah.”

The wound in his hand – caused by stopping Charlotte’s attempt to harm herself – was still bleeding profusely.

“A-Ah… Aaah…”

Realising this far too late, Charlotte’s face twisted in panic, her hands releasing his as she floundered.

“W-W-W-W-Wait, wait! I need to, to stop the bleeding first…”

“It’s really not that bad—“

- Rip…!

“… Miss Holmes?”

Before Adler could stop her, Charlotte had already torn her shirt, creating an improvised bandage.

“H-Here, use this at least…”

“… Don’t do anything foolish.”

“Ah!”

As Charlotte frantically reached out to wrap the makeshift bandage around Adler’s hand, Moran suddenly appeared at her side. With a chilling voice, she smacked Charlotte’s hand aside.

“Unhygienic.”

Moran shot Charlotte a cold glare before pulling out a pre-prepared bandage from her coat and carefully wrapping it around Adler’s wounded hand.

“Master is now an ordinary human.”

“……..”

“And after injuring him, were you planning to give him an infection too?”

Charlotte, who had been staring blankly, let out a tiny, timid voice.

“I… I’m sorry.”

“… Thank you, Moran.”

“Ah…”

However, just as Adler flashed a warm smile and thanked Moran, Charlotte’s eyes began to darken again, the light in her eyes fading into nothingness.

“Oh, and you too, Miss Holmes.”

“…….?”

Then came Adler’s gentle voice again, breaking through her spiralling thoughts that were drenching in familiar darkness.

“… Thank you for your concern.”

Adler picked up the torn piece of Charlotte’s shirt from the floor and used it to secure the bandage on his hand. His gaze, soft and warm, lingered on her as he spoke.

“……”

“Ah? Um…”

Charlotte, who had been silently watching him, suddenly started to tear up again.

“C-Can I… come closer again?”

“… Why wouldn’t you be able to?”

When she hesitatedly asked, Adler answered with an easy smile.

- Pitter-patter…

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Charlotte leapt to her feet and hurriedly shuffled back to Adler’s side.

“C-Can I touch you?”

“Yes.”

“C-can I lean my head on you?”

“Of course.”

Tentatively, Charlotte reached out, wrapping her arms around Adler’s arm and resting her head gently against him, her eyes still filled with uncertainty.

“… Can I stay like this forever?”

“… Of course you can.”

Adler’s gaze darkened slightly as he took in the sight of Charlotte, now a shadow of her former self— hesitant, submissive, and broken.

“If only you could return to the way you were before…”

“N-No, I can’t.”

Adler’s well-meaning plea was met with a trembling voice as Charlotte shook her head.

“I-I lost you because I did things my way…”

“……..”

“… From now on, I want to be yours, and only yours.”

Adler’s expression grew even darker at that, and Charlotte’s face quickly flashed with a look of regret.

“A-Ah, no! I’m sorry! I overstepped!”

“Charlotte…”

“I’ll try to go back to how I was before, I promise!! Just please, please don’t abandon me!!!”

She clung tightly to Adler’s arm, her voice rising in desperate panic.

“I-I’ll even start smoking again, and— no, wait, you said not to do that. Anyway, I’ll become the perfect woman, just for you, only for you…!”

“… Do as you wish.”

Adler, seeing her pale, pitiful face twisted with fear, reached out and gently stroked her head, his voice tender as he whispered once more.

“Because now, no matter what I do, I won’t be able to escape from you.”

.

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.

.

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An unknown time after Adler and Charlotte’s reunion.

“Ugh…”

“… Huh?”

Watson and Inspector Lestrade, who had managed to escape the room due to Charlotte’s last-minute actions, began to stir, soft groans escaping their lips as their bodies trembled.

“This is… the hallway…?”

“M-My head hurts…”

Slowly opening their eyes, they blinked groggily, their faces blank as they took in their surroundings.

“… Why are we here like this?”

“Indeed. My head hurts so much I can barely remember…”

Their voices trailed off as they exchanged bewildered looks. But then, all at once, their eyes widened in alarm.

“… Wait, that smoke from earlier!”

“Ah…! Now that you mention it…!”

The foggy memory of the unearthly grey smoke engulfing them came rushing back, sending chills down their spines.

“That was a horrifying and dreadful experience. If we’d stayed in there even a bit longer, I’m sure we’d have lost our minds.”

“Ugh… I’ve never been through anything like that before… I still feel like I’m suffering the aftereffects…”

They shuddered, recalling the horrific sensation of their brains being invaded by all the world’s fears, as though every nightmare imaginable had clawed its way into their minds.

“… In any case, I think it’s best if we retreat for now. It’s been quite some time, and I imagine Lovecraft has already fled by now…”

“Wait a moment.”

“Yes?”

“… Where’s Holmes?”

It was only then that they realised Charlotte wasn’t with them in the hallway. Their faces paled immediately.

“S-Surely not! Is she still in the room…!?”

“No!!!”

Lestrade staggered to her feet, and Watson, already panicked, bolted towards the room they had fled from, now thick with that cursed smoke.

“W-Wait! Prepare yourself before you go in…!”

“There’s no time for that!!!”

Ignoring Lestrade’s warning, Watson’s thoughts were consumed by the terror of her only precious friend still being trapped in that hellish room. Without even thinking she reached for the doorknob of the closed room.

“Holmes… Eh?”

But then she stopped in her tracks, realising the door wasn’t closed, but wide open.

“”……….””

A short but heavy silence followed.

“… What am I even looking at right now?”

Watson, her face frozen in a dazed expression, murmured in a low, disbelieving voice.

“Have I already gone mad because of the smoke?”

“W-Why? What is it?”

Behind her, Lestrade peeked her head out, concern etched across her features as she tried to decipher what had Watson so stunned.

“What’s inside that room that…”

Her voice, too, abruptly died.

“”……..””

“A-Ah, um, th-that is to say…”

Standing at the doorway, Isaac Adler – who had unequivocally died two years prior  – was holding a teary-eyed Charlotte. She clung tightly to his arm, trembling as he supported her weight.

Neither Watson nor Lestrade could speak, their eyes fixed on the impossible sight before them.

“The timing… isn’t exactly ideal, is it…?”

“”……….””

“Ahaha… haha…”

Adler awkwardly scratched the back of his head, a sheepish grin spreading across his face. Watson and Lestrade, who had been silently staring at him, turned to look at each other instead.

“Inspector, please slap me across the face.”

“… I’d like the same, if you don’t mind.”

“Excuse me, ladies?”

As the two women raised their hands in the air with dazed expressions, Adler quickly reached out to grab their arms, clearly alarmed.

“As hard as it may be to believe, it’s really me…”

“”……..””

“So let’s all just calm down and put our hands down, shall we?”

Sweat trickled down Adler’s face as he tried to explain himself, his tone increasingly desperate.

“”……..””

Feeling the unmistakable warmth of his touch, Watson and Lestrade’s eyes widened further in disbelief.

“… You’re really Adler?”

“Y-Yes, I am.”

“Can you swear it? On the heavens above?”

“O-Of course I can.”

Adler stammered, clearly unnerved by the increasingly icy expressions on their faces.

- Click…

- Swoosh…

“Uh, W-Wait…?”

His uneasy expression turned into outright panic as Watson and Lestrade calmly but firmly drew a pistol and a baton, their gazes turning cold and lethal.

“Don’t lie. Adler is dead.”

“… Who are you, really?”

“I-It’s me! It’s really me!”

Adler frantically waved his hands in protest, trying to dissuade the two women who now had their weapons aimed squarely at him.

“Prove it, then. Tell us something only Adler would know.”

“Oh, that? Sure! I can do that!”

He hastily nodded, attempting to put on a confident front as Watson made her chilling demand.

“… Who was Adler’s first spouse?”

“Oh, that’s an easy one! Of course, it’s…”

He began to answer with a wide, relieved smile, only to falter as he registered the dark, foreboding expressions on their faces.

“”Of course, who?””

“… Ah.”

Both women tightened their grips on their weapons, their glares turning even colder as they repeated the question in an ominously synchronised voice. Adler’s face paled as he froze, realising the trap he had walked straight into.

“Well, uh, you see, um… that is to say…”

“”…………””

“The concept of marriage, you know, it’s, uh… it’s kind of… um, how should I put this…? Err…”

Adler’s words stumbled over themselves as he tried to talk his way out of the situation, his face drenched in sweat. Meanwhile, the two women glared at him with a murderous intensity, their patience wearing dangerously thin.

“That’s such a simple question, and yet you’re taking so long to answer, aren’t you?”

“… Indeed. It’s a question with a very clear and obvious answer.”

“Oh my, Inspector, you think so too?”

“Naturally. After all, there’s only one correct answer, isn’t there?”

Their voices dripped with venom as they shifted their weapons closer, the oppressive aura around them making Adler visibly cower.

That’s your karma.

“… Please spare me.”

***

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