Chapter 140: A Case of Identity (3)"Hehe..."
Staring intently at the bush emitting ck smoke with a puzzled look for a while, Lupin suddenly sported a mischievous look on her face as she giggled.
"Hellooo~?"
"......."
"Is anyone there~?"
Turning on her heels, subtly, she began sliding towards the bush, hands sped behind her back.
"Where is that strange noiseing from?"
<em>- Rustle, rustle...</em>
"Could it be that a stray cat in heat that has snuck itself inside...?"
As she reached right in front of the bush and murmured with a smile, covering her mouth to conceal the mischievous expression she was making, the thicket started shaking a bit too noticeably.<em>- Whooosh...</em>
"Oh my."
In the following moment, a girl with dishevelled ck hair and a nk gaze suddenly jumped out from within the assortment of bushes, causing Lupin, mouth still covered, to burst out into sonorousughter.
"Not a stray cat, but a detective, eh? Well, being in heat seems to be urate though.”
"......."
"So, what were you doing in there?"
Reading the slight disarray in her breathing, Lupin pressed for an answer but was met with none from Charlotte.
<em>- Thud, thud...</em>
"Hmm...?"
She just stood there for some time, the nk gaze never leaving her, before moving towards Lupin who was still dressed in Adler''s clothes.
"Wait, just wait a moment."
"........"
"Are you, by any chance, trying to pounce on me?"
Slightly flustered by this unexpected situation, Lupin began gesturing frantically with her hands.
"I''m not actually Adler, you know? I''m just disguised as him?"
<em>- Goooooo...</em>
"Did you actually mistake me for him? Are you really Harlot Sholmes? Huh?"
However, as a billowy shadow suddenly bubbled up from behind her, blocking any hope of her escape, genuine cold sweat started trickling down her forehead and back.
"M, Miss Thief, save me..."
"... Enough with the nonsense, just answer my question."
Charlotte Holmes, in a frightening show of skill and physical prowess, fiercely grabbed her wrist and started to whisper chillingly.
"Where is Adler?"
"You already knew that I wasn''t Adler?"
"I don''t even need to read the mana I imnted inside Adler’s body to know that you’re not him, just the scent you give off is enough.”
A hollowugh escaped Lupin’s lips at those words.
"Are you so close that you even know each other''s scents?"
"........"
"Or is it perhaps one-sided knowledge?"
A mischievous sparkle started shimmering in Lupin’s eyes once more.
"Adler didn’t even seem to have realized you were lurking here even when he came out of the closet after we changed clothes there in private, quite intimately too if I may add…”
<em>- Grit...</em>
"To be honest, rather than a detective, you seem more like a heavily obsessive stalker to me.”
The following moment, the ck smoke surrounding Charlotte, leaking out of her body, wrapped around Lupin’s throat.
"... <em>Cough</em>?"
"Stop spouting nonsense when you don’t know anything."
A cold voice rang violently against Lupin''s ears as her whole body trembled, with her being choked and all, and she gasped desperately for air.
"He was the one to like me first."
"What?"
Lupin tilted her head in confusion, wondering if she had misheard the detective’s words, when Charlotte''s indignant voice pierced her ears once again.
"I’m saying that Adler was the one obsessed with me first."
"........"
"I just epted him at one point. So it’s not like I was the one following him around, infatuated like a little girl, as you may be thinking..."
"Oh, I see. I misunderstood then."
Realising that any sarcasm now could literally snap her neck in half, Lupin quickly nodded in agreement.
"... But why have the roles reversed now?"
In the next moment, however, Lupin threw out another query, utterly unable to contain the genuine curiosity she felt about the situation thatpletely flipped 180.
"That''s because..."
Charlotte, trailing off, quietly lowered her gaze and murmured.
"... Because I like him."
"Hmm."
"It''s because I ended up liking him more than he likes me..."
As she spoke, Charlotte''s face, unbeknownst to her, turned a shade of red.
<em>… Interesting.</em>
Looking at her changed demeanour with intrigue, Lupin started murmuring to herself.
<em>I thought she was like me, belonging to my kind...</em>
"So, answer my question. Where is Isaac Adler right now…?"
"... I think you should answer my question first."
With a silent snap of her fingers, she threw the question back at the detective.
"The curse, you have it too, don''t you?"
As the atmosphere around her shifted dramatically, Charlotte subtly nodded, her body tense and ready forbat.
"I thought as much."
With a knowing smile, Lupin murmured in a low voice.
"Adler, he really is the key to our curse."
"... Key?"
"For those born with a curse, he is a treasure beyondpare."
Hearing this, Charlotte''s expression darkened.
"Exin in detail. What are you talking about..."
"You''ve noticed it too, haven''t you?"
"......."
"That only Isaac Adler can neutralize our curse."
For the very first time since she came out of the mansion, Lupin’s face washed over with a frighteningly chilling look.
"... Listen, I don''t know what curse you have, but I honestly don’t see you being any less unfortunate and unhappy than I am.”
"It would be wise to take that statement back."
"Heh. At least on the surface, you seem to be living a normal life, right?"
An unusually dark voice began to creep out of Lupin''s lips.
"I never even got to enjoy a life that looks normal even on the surface."
"........"
"From what I see, your obsession with Adler suggests that you''ve lived a life unable to love anything. How about that? Am I wrong?"
Her words made Charlotte stop what she was about to say. She ended up just staring at Lupin with even more intensity.
"Seems about right. It must have been a truly sad life."
"... Don''t speak like you understand."
"True. There’s no way I will be able to understand.”
Not even a single trace of a smile could be found on Lupin’s face any longer.
"My curse is the exact opposite of yours after all."
"... If it''s the opposite then…"
"A curse that makes it impossible for anyone to love you, isn''t that cruel?"
Instead, a myriad of expressions flickered across her face, showing herplicated emotions.
"... As a child, I thought getting beaten was an expression of <strong>love</strong>."
"......"
"Until the day I turned eight and they abandoned me, my parents beat me daily."
Most of them were negative feelings, sad and mncholic— feelings that she rarely expressed and disyed.
"Wandering the streets of London like an orphan, getting beaten by anyone, I thought the world was so very beautiful. I thought everyone loved me."
"........"
"... Then, after copsing and vomiting blood, left ignored on the street for half a day, I nearly died before realisation finally donned on me.”
Tears brimmed on the edges of her eyes.
"I was never truly loved by anyone."
As those tears trickled down Lupin''s cheeks, she leaned her head towards Charlotte.
"... Since that day, I started to hide myself."
"......."
"I realised that if I were to turn myself into someone else entirely, the curse would somehow elude me!"
Quickly, as she dried out her tears with her sleeve, her voice returned to its cheerful and lively note.
"You know every cursees with one enviable ability, right? Mine was disguise and escape. Thanks to that, I could change my identity effortlessly."
"But then, why...
"Why was it that whenever I thought I found my <strong>true self</strong>, the curse would inevitably strike again?"
Muttering so, Lupin sighed and scratched her head in frustration.
"... Because of that, I''ve been changing identities for far too long. Now,, I''ve reached a point where I don''t even know who I truly am anymore."
"........"
"Driven to my limits by such circumstances, I was about to be incapable of loving even myself."
In the next moment,
"... But then, I secretly snuck into Britain to acquire a long-desired jewel. To think that I would receive a treasure as a gift.”
"Oh..."
"That was far more surprising than my disguise and ns being unveiled. Don’t you think?”
With incredible speed, Lupin escaped Charlotte’s confinement and was now sitting on the roof of the cottage, shrugging her shoulders.
"It was the first gift I ever received. Even when I was foolishly trying to live righteously, I never got a proper paycheck, let alone a gift."
Charlotte was dumbfounded as she watched the swift unfolding of events.
"I always had to forcibly snatch what belonged to others to survive, and the more I did, the more infamous I became; that was the kind of miserable life I had to live..."
Her expression soon turned solemn and grave.
"At one point I realised that… every time he hit me, he always looked so worried."
"........"
"Seeing someone making such an adorable face while hitting me? That was a first in my life. Not to mention, he was as handsome as it can get, so how could I not be interested?"
In the following moment, she yelled out loud.
"The only person in the world who could love me also happened to be the handsomest guy in all of London, why wouldn''t I go for him?"
"... Adler is mine!!"
At that moment, the eyes of the thief shrugging on the roof began to fill with a hint of viiny.
"That''s exactly it..."
"What?"
"I want to snatch what belongs to someone else and make itpletely mine..."
Charlotte remained silent at those words.
"That''s my way of life, detective."
"........"
"So, I''m really sorry, but I can''t tell you where Adler is."
However, a murderous aura, more intense than anything she ever exuded in her life, began trickling out of her body, mixing with the ominous dark smoke that permeated her surroundings.
"Hm, it must be about time, right?"
Tilting her head slightly, Lupin murmured in a subtle voice at that moment.
"By now, the marriage certificate must have been submitted, and he might have already be the husband of either the doctor or the professor..."
".........!!!"
Mere secondster, Charlotte started sprinting with a pale look on her face, the ominous smoke already absorbed inside her…
"Keep it up, detective..."
… Heading towards the nearest church.
"... Everyone, keep enhancing the value of my treasure."
Watching her rapidly receding back from the roof, Lupin inhaled the scent of Adler’s clothes again and murmured with a perverted smile.
.
.
.
.
.
Meanwhile, at that time… In the only church that could be found in this remote rural area,
"........."
Rachel Watson, tightly clutching the arm of her lovely fiancé, had finally reached the front of the small church. At the moment, she was caressing the pistol hidden in her bosom with a pallid face.
"I really don''t understand why London is overflowing with people who have the bad habit of fondling a pistol inside their clothes."
Her miserable countenance was due to having unexpectedlye face to face with the veryst person she wished to encounter at that moment, blocking the entrance to the church with her steely grey eyes locked in on the couple.
"... It''s useless against me anyway."
Thus began a tense standoff between the professor and Dr. Rachel Watson, neither yielding an inch.
<em>I''ve just had a brilliant idea, Miss System.</em>
What is it?
In the midst of their staredown, Adler suddenly began to murmur under his breath with a particrly bright gleam in his eyes.
<em>… Instead of letting them fight, how about I make them both my wives?</em>
Just die already.