Chapter 141: A Case of Identity (4)"W-Wait, step back, please."
"... Hmm."
Despite the professor''s deadly advice, Watson didn’t let go of the pistol she was clutching tightly inside her coat; instead, she spoke to her in a trembling voice.
"If you don''t step back... I''ll, I''ll shoot."
"How interesting. Go ahead and shoot then."
"I''m not joking, okay? I will really shoot you?"
"I''m not joking either. Even just shooting once is enough, so go ahead and give me your best shot.”
However, Jane Moriarty merely sported an amused expression in response to her threat, bobing her head from side to side in mirth.
"... Oh, before you take your shot, however, I’d like to remind you that there’s something called self-defence in the Britishw.”
"Enough...""Or perhaps, would you prefer a duel? That''s legal too."
"Just shut your damn mouth already!!"
Watching the professor’s behaviorced in utter ridicule, Watson was unable to contain her emotions any longer and screamed at the top of her lungs.
"No matter what you say, Neville is my husband!! I will never hand him over to a vile criminal like you!!"
With her thoughts delivered, Rachel Watson pulled her fiancé, standing beside her, tightly into her bosom.
"Ugh..."
"What on earth have you done in the past few days that Neville has be so frail? Tell me!"
Buried in her considerably tall and shapely frame, Adler couldn’t help but give a faint troubled look towards Watson.
"Look, Rachel… I''ll join the professor for now... I think it’s best if you step back at the moment an..."
"Isaac is mine, Miss Watson."
Just as he was quietly whispering to Watson, Professor Moriarty suddenly interjected out of the blue.
"He''s not yours to im."
""...........""
As her statement ended, a momentary silence started settling between the trio.
"... Isaac?"
In that silence, Rachel Watson began to mutter in a low voice, staring intently at her fiancé.
"It''s strange. It''s just you and Neville St. ire here other than me..."
"........"
"Just where is this person named Isaac you speak of...?"
She gazed down at her fiancé nestled in her bosom, suspicion beginning to frost over her eyes in a terrifying chill.
"Come to think of it, you were with Adler earlier…"
"Um..."
"... Perhaps, both of you are swapped right now?"
Her voice started to tremble ever so subtly.
"That, that can''t be..."
"Then why did the professor call you Isaac?"
"Ma, Maybe you heard wrong....."
"Isaac, just what are you doing with that woman right now?"
Though Adler, transformed into Neville, desperately tried to make excuses, the professor''s carefree voice emanated from the front and rendered all his efforts futile.
"Are you nning to cheat on me before we even marry?"
"........"
"Come here and quickly embrace me. Do that and I won''t ask about the odd behaviour you''re exhibiting."
When he saw her smug expression and stubborn demeanour, it seemed unlikely for the professor to agree to his n.
"Uh, um..."
Caught between Watson— holding him in her arms with a cold re, and the professor— who was extending her arms forward, Isaac Adler broke out into a cold sweat and started desperately racking his brain for a solution to this horrifying dilemma.
Game Over Alert!
Be careful, or don''t. I don''t really care anymore.
To make matters worse, the message that popped up in a brusque font made Adler, who was still intensely racking his brain for a way out, tremble in fright.
"Isaac."
"........?"
"You don''t have much time to think."
The professor''s voice, as leisurely as ever, pierced his ears.
"I''ve been quite amodating to you, haven''t I?"
"Wait."
At the end of her voice, however, the light in Isaac Adler’s eyes started shining with a ray of hope— a contrast to the desperation that he had been exhibiting.
"... Look at this."
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.
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.
<em>- Thud, step...</em>
".......?"
Having escaped from Rachel Watson''s embrace, Isaac Adler trudged forward with heavy steps, staring intently at Professor Jane Moriarty before him.
"Professor."
"What is it?"
"Could you repeat what you just said?"
Reaching right in front of the professor, Adler put his hands behind his back and grinned as he questioned her.
"Can''t we do this after embracing each other first?"
"No."
"Then I guess there''s no helping it..."
The professor, slightly crestfallen at his firm response, soon began to recall and repeat the words she had spoken mere moments before.
"I''ve been quite amodating to you..."
"Before that."
"Don''t you have much time to think?"
"Before that."
As she faced Adler''s continuous demands with a puzzled expression, she blurted out the next words.
"Isaac..."
<em>- p!!!</em>
A sharp sound echoed at the entrance of the secluded church, loud enough to ring in one''s ears.
"........?"
Realizing that her head had sharply turned to the side, Jane Moriarty began to numbly caress her cheek which had already started burning up.
"You, what in hell i..."
<em>- p...!!!</em>
"... Ughh?"
Just as she was about to say something, her voice sharp, Adler''s palm struck her other cheek.
".... ???"
Utterly befuddled by an act she had never experienced before, the professor held her swollen, bright red cheeks and stared at Adler with a stunned expression.
"Do you know what déjà vu is?"
"........"
"This situation feels just like that to me."
Adler began to whisper in a cold, forceful tone, the like of which he had never shown her before.
<em>- Squeeze...</em>
"... Uh?"
As he gently grasped her neck and applied slight pressure, the professor''s body trembled while her eyes gazing at him turned nk and unfocused.
"What’s so urgent that you had to rush here right now?"
"You..."
"Let''s drop the professor act now, shall we?"
As Adler whispered softly in such a situation, she stopped speaking and only stared quietly at him.
"Right."
"......"
"You look cuter like this."
As Adler gently stroked the professor''s head, her eyes began to tremble violently, lost in utter confusion.
"... Cute, you say?"
"Yes."
However, Adler suddenly punched her lower abdomen right at that moment, far more lightly this time around.
"... <em>Cough?</em>"
Although it was a punch too gentle for it to be an attack, it was an unexpected blow delivered at the perfect timing. Thus, Adler’s fistpletely burrowed into the professor’s lower abdomen.
<em>- Brrrr...</em>
As a result, the professor’s body began to tremble once more, eyes still brimming in confusion.
"You should have discreetly excused yourself as per our agreement."
".......?"
"Dressing up and ying such pranks, aren''t you taking me too lightly?"
Isaac Adler, sighing near her ear and pping her lower abdomen with his palm, ryed those words to her in a subdued voice.
"Apologise."
"I''m sorry."
"Can''t you speak properly?"
When hemanded in a cold voice, a low voice leaked from her mouth after a considerable internal conflict.
"... I''m sorry."
"Right."
Only then was Adler satisfied and promptly stroked her chin with affection. With his other hand, he drew his golden mana to create some sort of a construct."Our contract isn''t over yet."
"......."
"So you have to stay quiet until my n is finished."
It was none other than a cor shining in a golden hue.
"Adler..."
"Don’t bother calling my name properly now, I’ve already noticed.”
As Adler tried to put the construct around her neck, Professor Moriarty stepped back in vehement refusal.
"... Are you going to struggle, even now?"
".........."
However, Adler immediately whispered sternly and pulled her hair, causing Professor Moriarty to lower her gaze in silence and ultimately offer her neck to him.
<em>- Click...</em>
Thus, the cor made of Adler’s mana was locked around her neck.
"Let''s go. Follow me quietly and don''t resist."
"......."
"... You have to stay quiet until the wedding is over, is that clear?"
Holding the leash, Adler began leading Professor Moriarty towards the church with a light smile on his lips.
"Once it''s over, you can do as you like."
"... Neville?"
Meanwhile, Rachel Watson witnessed the whole fiasco from a slight distance, her gaze nk.
"Rachel, what are you doing?"
"Uh, umm?"
"Come here."
Cold sweat drenched her face and body as she watched the situation from her spot. When her fiancé finally called her, while cing a cor on the fearsome Professor Moriarty, she got startled and replied in an awkward tone.
"Aren''t we supposed to get married?"
In the following moment, Adler quietly approached her and gently took her hand.
"How did this… happen?"
"... There’s no limit to the power of love, don’t you know?”
Watson''s brain, which had been malfunctioning and sputtering to make sense of this nonsensical situation, haltedpletely at his words.
"I fought with the professor and won for you."
"... Ah."
Watson''s eyes, forgetting even the recent moment when the professor had called him Isaac, began to fill with hearts again.
"We should get married before the church closes."
"..... Darling."
The professor, now with a cor around her neck, still had a stunned expression as she absentmindedly gazed at the scene.
"Adler... I was merely calling you by your given name..."
<em>- Smack!!!</em>
"........ That hurts, a lot."
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Meanwhile, at that moment,
"What the hell is this...?"
Having used her inexplicable abilities to move to the roof of the church, Lupin was waiting to witness the scene of Charlotte Holmes crashing the wedding. The scene she saw, however, waspletely out of her expectations and left her utterly bewildered.
"What am I even looking at...?"
She was staring down at the scene on the ground, her face a picture of utter confusion.
"I though I told you to drop the tone.”
"... It hurts."
"Yes, just like that."
Adler, who had just pped the cheek of a being feared by all the supernatural entities of Britain, was stroking her red and swollen cheek while pulling on the leash.