dmims Chapter 200: The Five Orange Pips (6)
Chapter 200: The Five Orange Pips (6)
Charlotte, having stared at Adler in surprise for a while as he appeared before her, finally asked in a low voice,
“... Mr Adler, what brings you here?”
“What brings me here indeed.”
A cheeky smile played on Adler’s lips as he muttered softly,
“Because I love you.”
“.......”
“I just wanted to see you.”
Charlotte’s eyes slightly narrowed at his rather audacious response.
“How did you manage to find me when I was disguised and had erased all traces of my presence?”
“... Miss Holmes, surely you aren’t asking me that?”
Ignoring her, Adler clung to her side before suddenly donning a serious expression as he answered her question,
“Those who track others are always at the risk of being tracked themselves. It’s essentially the blind spot in surveillance.”
“........”
“As long as Miss Holmes and I maintain our contract, I can always find your location, even with my eyes closed.”1
Holmes’ eyes narrowed even further at his boastful reply.
“So, you’re saying you came to see me in the middle of the night just because you love me?”
“Yes.”
“Uh-huh...”
Despite his persistence, a doubtful look glinted in her eyes.
“... Really?”
But her expression softened eventually and she quietly avoided his gaze and asked,
“You know, there’s something romantic about a date at dawn.”
“... I’d agree, but I doubt we can feel any of the romance around here.”
Following Adler’s response, Charlotte sighed quietly,
“Actually, this is where Silver Blaze was attacked.”
“... What?”
As soon as he heard that, Adler’s expression began to turn cold.
“You knew that and still came here in the middle of the night?”
“But that’s my job, isn’t it?”
“........”
“Why are you being so sensitive all of a sudden?”
Charlotte quietly looked at him and then slowly reached out her hand,
“... Come to think of it, now is not the time for you to be worried about me.”
- Swoosh...
“Are you even fully healed from that terrible explosion that was featured prominently in most newspapers and magazines of Britain? How can you be walking around so freely?”
Charlotte naturally slipped her hand inside Adler’s clothes, feeling around, and her expression soon darkened.
“... You still have bandages on your body.”
“.......”
“You haven’t fully recovered, have you? That’s it, isn’t it?”
“Ah, ouch. Ow ow owww.”
“Shouldn’t you be the one lying in bed? Or did Watson just let you out, telling you to go die or something?”
As Charlotte Holmes tightly grasped the area covered by bandages, Isaac Adler, with a faint groan and a slightly troubled expression, found himself cornered by her sharp probing.
“Can’t do. I need to call Watson right now and have her take you back...”
- Peck...
“... Ah?”
As he quietly sighed and kissed Charlotte’s cheek, she, who had been muttering in a stern voice, was left dazed.
“Omph.”
“... Mmm.”
Seizing the moment, Adler then quietly bit her lips and slipped his tongue in.
“.........”
Time drifted away as they shared a passionate kiss.
After they stopped kissing, Charlotte, whose words had noticeably decreased, found Adler naturally linking arms with her.
“Why so talkative? Let’s just take a night walk together.”
“........”
“... Can’t you understand what I’m saying?”
Adler then whispered into her ear, his voice slightly lower than usual.
“Um-uh... yes.”
Quietly rubbing her lips with her hand, Charlotte, her face blushing, nodded and started to match his pace.
“... If you can do this kind of thing, why didn’t you try it at the hotel that day?”
“You still have much to learn, Charlotte. The exact probability of you dying just now was 37.75%.”
When he called her by her first name instead of her surname, Charlotte, who had been about to say something, silently closed her mouth and bit her lip.
“Are you telling me to give up on my work now?”
“... I’m asking you to stop gambling with your life.”
Then, as she asked him in a low voice, Adler, looking directly into her eyes, whispered,
“Step away from this case. If not, I will kill you myself.”
“........”
“... It’s not just you who can threaten. Remember that.”
After saying this, Adler finally eased the pressure, and Charlotte, who had been pinned against the wall, spoke in a tiny voice,
“Even you can be serious, huh.”
Turning away, Adler sighed and began,
“... There’s just something off about this case.”
He started muttering in a low voice,
“Professor and I should be behind every case... Who is behind this one then? It’s the first time we’ve been completely left out of a case’s unfolding...”
“.......”
“Even the entity that was in the darkness until just now felt ominously abnormal. To say it was bizarre is an understatement... It doesn’t make sense for the KKK to be moving such a being...”
Then, turning back to look at her, Adler said,
“Just remember what I said, Charlotte.”
Quietly flickering in the darkness, he then began to disappear.
“... I, I can’t live without you, please.”
With those words, Adler completely vanished from in front of her.
“Lies.”
In the ensuing silence, Charlotte stood still for a long time before she began murmuring in a low voice,
“The right eye is still distinctly grey, yet being so shameless...”
Despite her prickly tone, her cheeks were redder than ever before.
.
.
.
.
.
An unknown amount of time after their confrontation,
“... Still, today you were somewhat impressive....”
“Miss Holmes~!”
“Ahem-hem...”
Charlotte, who had been murmuring to herself in a whispery shy voice, spotted Lestrade running towards her from afar and quietly started to manage her expression with a cough.
“Hahhh, hahh...”
“You did well, following my orders, Inspector.”
Then, she quickly returned to her usual demeanour, starting to praise the officer in front of her who, for some reason, was grasping for each breath.
“Thanks to you following me for a few days, we were able to completely narrow down the target. It seems Professor and Adler were not involved with the KKK after all.”
“... Pardon?”
“Then there’s nothing to hesitate about. I may not know who’s behind it all, but I have a very good method to eradicate the KKK in Britain...”
“Miss H-Holmes. Wait.”
However, as she was engrossed in discussing her next plan, Lestrade interjected with a puzzled look.
“... Are you not upset?”
“Everything has gone well, why would I be upset?”
“But... I just completely messed up the operation, didn’t I?”
“.......?”
Charlotte quietly tilted her head at the officer’s nonsensical remark,
“While I was following you as planned, I somehow got lost. I thought I had a perfect grasp on the geography of the back alleys, it’s really strange...”
“What did you say?”
“I just barely found my way back and ran straight to where you were, but I guess it’s too late?”
Her complexion began to turn pale.
“I’m sorry...”
“You mean to tell me you weren’t the one following me all this time?”
Charlotte, now unusually breaking out in cold sweat, turned her gaze towards the entrance of the back alley behind her.
“Then, what the bloody hell... has been following me all this time?”
By then, nothing remained but the thick fog that had settled into the night.
1. I believe this is referring to the contract they made during the Reigate chapters.