Chapter 128: Monster Showdown (2)
"Mr. Adler."
On an evening when a boy''s n began to plunge London''s underworld into utter chaos,
"... It''s been a while since we''ve met face to face."
"Has it now?"
The person responsible for the chaos, the mastermind of it all— Isaac Adler, was visited in hisir by someone dressed neatly in a white dress shirt, paired with a necktie.
"""............"""
Realizing that the voice belonged to a woman, Silver ze, Celestia Moran, and Princess y, who was now in her cat form, trained their gazes towards the entrance of the hideout. However, they soon looked away, as though they had lost interest.
"I would like to meet with you more often..."
"I know you don''t mean that, Madam Caroline.""... Madam?"<sup>1</sup>
Their reactions were understandable since the visitor was none other than Caroline Augustus Milverton, who had recently been subdued by Adler and turned into his exclusive .
"I''m still in my twenties, Master, such a remark is discourteous..."
"Lie down."
As Adler''s henchmen silently shifted their intense gazes away from her, the tension in her body dissipated and she began to speak freely, but she was met with his coldmand in the very next moment.
"Uh."
<i>- Shiver...</i>
A rising heat immediately started permeating from her lower abdomen upon hearing themand, causing Caroline to copse and break out in a cold sweat as she looked up.
"Why would someone much older than even my seasoned and mature professor act this way?"
"But, but..."
"Being 29 means I’m still in my twenties, aren’t I?”
Looking down at her with a cold gaze, Adler muttered with a hint ofughter in his voice.
"But that''s not the issue though."
"... Then."
"Do you still think I was being to you?"
With a downcast expression, Caroline quietly nodded her head in response. Observing her reaction, Adler grasped her chin and gently stroked her along her jaw as he whispered.
"To think a mere ve dares to think that her master was being discourteous, huh…”
"........."
"And surely, you agreed to be my ideal ve that day, did you not?"
Momentarily, a look of humiliation and anger enveloped Caroline’s face and she immediately looked away, avoiding Adler’s gaze.
"... Oh. Was I perhaps mistaken about the terms of our agreement?"
"That, that''s...!"
"Or have you already forgotten that the only reason the British government and the various high-ranking individuals of the upper ss haven''t ended your life is because you are my property?"
However, as Adler, who had already pulled out a familiar-looking contract from his coat, spoke – his tone growing increasingly colder with each word – her face turned deathly pale and she lowered her head, eyes trembling in anxiety and fear.
"... Maybe I''ll just sell her to some pot-bellied nobles."
"Sorry, I was wrong."
Despite her miserable appearance, Adler continued murmuring indifferently, and Caroline started hastily rubbing her cheek against Adler''s foot to please him.
"Please, I have realized my mistake. I apologize for speaking out of turn as a mere ve, Master."
"... Well then, you’ll have to excuse me for a moment."
Staring down at the pleading woman, Adler started poking her lower abdomen with the tip of his foot.
"Hmm..."
"Ah."
Pulling out his fangs, a mischievous expression on his face, Adler began tormenting her lower abdomen with even more intensity. In response to his relentless teasing, Caroline, her body trembling from head to toe, clenched her teeth and endured the humiliation.
"Go on then, finish your report."
"Yes. A few days ago, you asked... Aaah… to inform you about the findings from the investigation of the Baskerville estate case."
She tried her best to suppress the moans escaping her lips, striving to prove her usefulness as a ve by reporting diligently.
"The suspect, Gloria Mortimer, has gone missing. Investigators believe that she died in the swamps while trying to flee from them. However, I believe that it’s highly probable for her to be alive and in hiding.”
"Hmm..."
"And the only survivor among the victims, Helen Baskerville, has apparently moved her residence to August Academy. It appears an anonymous professor wrote her a letter of rmendation to enrol in the academy."
"... You made a deal with her, huh…”
After listening to the report, Adler briefly murmured to himself with a slightly nk look. Soon, however, he shifted his gaze back to Caroline and asked in a low voice.
"Are there any signs or possibility of the investigation taking a different direction?"
"The suspect is too obvious, and there’s no other evidence to go on, so…”
"Any unusual urrences?"
"Yes, not only has a werewolf appeared for the first time in hundreds of years, but a significant number of have been spotted in the nearby regions, that’s why there’s a high probability of the Vatican dispatching their knights to investigate..."
Having finished her report, she sneakily nced up to gauge Adler''s reaction.
"Well done."
Adler looked at her with amusement shing in his eyes and quietly stroked Caroline''s hair.
<i>- Squeeze...</i>
As he pulled on Caroline''s necktie, she closed her eyes tightly, her body immediately starting to shudder.
"As long as you keep working hard like this, your life won''t be in danger."
His calm voice resonated in her ears.
"... Haaah."
With greeted teeth and a look of agitation on her face, Caroline exhaled roughly as he withdrew his foot from her lower abdomen; her tense body finally getting the chance to rx.
"Oh, and one more thing..."
However, at that moment, Adler’s sharp voice dug into the small opening she had shown in her moment of rxation.
"... Why do you keep lying about your age?"
"......!"
"The truth is, you''re not 29; you''re 30 this year, Caroline Augustus Milverton."
As Adler mentioned the fact she had desperately tried to conceal, Caroline''s body began to stiffen more than it ever had today.
"Do you even realize the age gap between you, who has been a legend in London’s noble circle for the past decade and me, who hasn''t even graduated from the academy yet?"
"Ah..."
"And yet, why do you keep inappropriately asking for private meetings or sending letters filled with thick perfume, even going as far as wanting to do menial tasks at the hideout?"
Adler, examining her subtly transparent blouse and the impable makeup that must have taken hours to put on, continued.
"Miss Caroline."
Quietly, he leaned close to her ear and whispered in a low voice.
"... It''s burdensome, so stop behaving in such a frivolous fashion."
At his words, lightning seemed to have struck Caroline''s mind.
"Look. If you''ve understood, please leave now."
"........."
"Everyone, please see Miss Caroline out. The back alleys can be quite dangerous, after all."
As a paralyzing shock coursed through her whole body, making her stagger, she caught glimpses of Adler''s loyal followers approaching quietly by her side.
""".........."""
From the youngest, Moran, to the oldest, Princess y, all of Adler''s followers were still around the school-going age. And these women, every single one of them without fail, were now looking at her disdainfully as they moved forward.
<i>- Creak...</i>
Caroline Augustus Milverton, who until a few months ago was called the undefeated queen of London’s noble circle and known for toying with numerous young men as a pastime, had now found herself in a situation that was utterly iprehensible to her.
<i>... Just you wait, Adler.</i>
Grinding her teeth in rage and humiliation, she began making her way out of the hideout while eyeing Adler with an unprecedented chill in her eyes.
<i>I''ll make you pay for treating me like this...</i>
It was this very moment, right here and now, when Caroline Augustus Milverton inadvertently got swept up in a massive storm that would soon engulf the whole of London.
"... Hmm."
Whether it was truly coincidental or a machination orchestrated by Adler, whose eyes were subtly gleaming behind her, was something no one could know.
.
.
.
.
.
"... Phew."
That night, like any other, the streets of London were shrouded in the mysterious fog.
"I never thought I would resort to something like this..."
A woman walked down the street, her body cloaked in a ck robe and her breath hushed.
"... Adler."
The cloaked woman was none other than Caroline Augustus Milverton, who had suffered the greatest insult of her life at the hands of Isaac Adler just a few hours prior.
"Just need to ambush him and destroy the contract. He took it out of his pocket earlier, so he must still have it on his body..."
Her objective in hiring mercenaries, after liquidating the slush funds intended for fleeing abroad and changing her identity for good, was to enact the kidnapping of Isaac Adler.
"Let’s see if he can still gloat with his hands and feet tied up."
It was a situation that was both simr, ironically with the roles reversed this time around, and different ifpared to the break-in that urred a few months ago in Caroline’s mansion.
".......!"
Aware of the irony of the situation yet burning with an undeniable me of vengeance, she slowly advanced with her hired mercenaries following behind.
"Haha..."
Off in the distance, she spotted Isaac Adler, casually walking into a park with an easygoing smile stretching his lips.
<i>A trap?</i>
Completely unarmed and without even a guard in tow— Adler seemed utterly vulnerable as he strolled along the park grounds.
<i>… So what.</i>
However, realizing that there were mana users hired with all her avable funds as her backing, a cold expression enveloped her face and she was about to step forward when…
<i>- Bzzzzt...!</i>
"Ah?"
""......!?""
At that very instance, a chilling sensation – so strong that it made one’s body numb – struck from all sides, enveloping her and the mercenaries.
.
.
.
.
.
"What, what is this..."
The unease and chilling sensation was too potent just to be dismissed as a mere effect of the exceedingly eerie atmosphere of the park. Caroline Augustus Milverton surveyed her surroundings, and her face immediately paled as she noticed the murderous intent – so intense that it could make one shudder from head to toe – that was brimming in the air.
"........."
Realizing the identity of the chilling gazes flying in from all directions, her expression clouded as she began to back down, terror brimming in her eyes.
"What on earth is this operation? Does this really serve the national interests of Bohemia?"<sup>2</sup>
"... It''s a royalmand."
For instance, the unidentified agents focused on her from an alley right behind her, their gazes barely concealed behind the insignia of the Bohemian royal family.
"........."
Or the vampires of the radical Red Mana League, pretending to be homeless as they observed the happenings of the park from the next block… under themand of their increasingly depressed master who was still holed up in Romania.
"The monsters are gathering fast. We must put all of London on high alert n..."
<b>- Leave it be.</b>
"... Miss Mycrony?"
On top of a building, the private guards employed by a behind-the-scenes influential figure of the British government were gathered,municating somewhere.
"... I can’t wait to be beaten down like a dog."
Among the guards, there was the French Phantom Thief who seemed to be clueless about everything. However, she immediately began smirking with a depraved expression upon spotting Adler in the distance.
"Princess, a walk at this hour..."
"It''s a perfect night for murder, don’t you think?"
"... You shouldn''t make such grim jokes."
A bit further away, advancing openly with the royal knights of Britain as her escort, was the worst murderer in all of Britain.
<i>- Crunch, cruuunch...</i>
Already hidden in the park, the sole masterpiece left by Dr. Frankenstein was biting her nails while ogling at Adler.
<b>- <em>Grr? Grrr...</em></b>
<b>- Adler...</b>
<b>- Hah, haaah...</b>
There were even numerous monsters, who had been hidden across all of Britain, who had now gathered in London, drawn in by an unknown pull. Every single one of those monsters was now intently watching Caroline as she moved towards the park.
"... Is this perhaps… hell?"
It was the prelude to a monster showdown with the next Sunday as the /genesisforsaken