Chapter 152: The Crawling Human (3)"Hey, how can you say that so loudly here?"


    "What?"


    "W-What if someone hears us...? This is an incredibly sensitive issue..."


    Charlotte’s piercing statement startled the client, eyes opening wide in aical fashion, and he hastily began to whisper in a lowered voice.


    "This is the mansion''s yard. And I believe you, yourself mentioned that your mother crawls around like a dog every night, not to mention, my voice isn’t loud enough for it to echo all the way to the street."


    "P-P-Please, keep your voice down... The voice carries inside surprisingly well from the front door..."


    "... As I thought, you''ve kept themission of this case a secret from your mother, haven’t you? And here I was hoping to seek her cooperation too."


    At Charlotte''s sharp question, the client couldn’t help but stutter for a moment.


    "Y-You can''t do that..."


    "Why not?""Well I, I have already asked her once just the other day. It seemed like the hallway lights were on every night recently, and I wondered if she was doing something at night so I decided to just ask her straightforwardly..."


    The client, ncing at his surroundings nervously, led Charlotte and her party towards a shabby shed in the corner of the yard while continuing his statement.


    "... It didn’t go well, she reacted quite sensitively. She said it was nothing, but something strange is definitely happening in the mansion."


    "... Then, asking for her cooperation might backfire."


    "That''s why I called you, detective... I heard you were verypetent..."


    Pausing for a moment, the client then nced at the people surrounding Charlotte— Gia Lestrade, Rachel Watson, and Isaac Adler.


    "... I-I''d like to talk to the detective alone from now on. As you know, it’s a very sensitive matter."


    "These three are my faithful assistants. There won''t be any leaks of information, I guarantee."


    "But still..."


    "They''ve been with me even on the highest confidential matters like royal scandals and national conflicts. The embarrassing secret of a university professor is nothing to them."


    Softly stating that to the client, Charlotte red at the people apanying her, prompting them to nod immediately and smile, backing up the detective’s words.


    "If you insist that much, then I''ll trust you..."


    "Then please exin what happened, in detail, of course."


    Finally easing his guard, the client sighed and leaned against the door of the shed.


    "... All this started when my mother announced her remarriage about half a year ago."


    Soon, he spoke in a sunken voice.


    "She is remarrying one of her assistants at the university. Despite her usually cold and strict demeanour, she confessed her feelings with such passion and enthusiasm that, it felt like she was not even the same person anymore at the time."


    """.........."""


    "The age difference was quite significant too. Perhaps around 30 years? Yet amazingly, the assistant epted... what is it, everyone?"


    All eyes, including Charlotte''s, began to focus on Isaac Adler at the centre with a piercing intensity.


    "Guys, this is too much of a stretch, to say the least."


    Adler, realizing the implication of their stares btedly, started to protest with a look of great injustice.


    "In London, there are so many women. I''m hardly a Casanova, and the rumour that half the women are involved with me is just a metaphor..."


    "Was the person she remarried blonde with pale eyes?"


    "Did he use the name Neville St. ir?"


    "Was his height or build simr to this young man here?"


    Ignoring his protests, the group hurriedly began to interrogate the client.


    "I haven''t met him, so I don''t really know."


    "Hmm..."


    "... But it shouldn’t be him, right? Otherwise, wouldn''t my mother have recognised him and reacted ordingly?"


    Only after hearing the client''s words did they calm down and nod in agreement.


    "Well, as I''ve continued to say... after that miraculous proposal seeded, my mother lived in a state of blissful happiness for a while."


    "That makes sense. We understand how difficult it could be to propose to someone."


    "... Ahaha."


    "... It was only a few monthster that my mother started to act strangely."


    While Adler was awkwardlyughing at Charlotte''s thorny joke delivered in a cold voice, the client suddenly lowered his voice, looking sombre.


    "One day, without saying where she was going, my mother disappeared and only returned fifteen dayster, lookingpletely exhausted."


    "......."


    "When I asked where she had been, she said she''d been to Prague in Bohemia and wouldn''t tell me anything else."


    "Bohemia... That brings back some distant memories."


    Hearing the mention of Bohemia, Adler couldn’t help but murmur, possibly reminded of an incident from months ago. However, he soon shut his mouth tight after sensing Charlotte’s cold gaze trained on him.


    "After that day, my mother''s personality gradually became sinister and irritable. Although she still retained her intellectual appearance, she seemed to only be a shadow of her former self…”


    Even in such circumstances, the client resolutely continued the story.


    "One day, I was just cleaning the dust off a disy case in the room, and she suddenly flew into a rage for no reason."


    "... What was inside it?"


    "Usually just experimental equipment. Nothing seemed particrly special about the case that day, but the next day, she cleared everything from the case and put it away somewhere.”


    Charlotte listened with interest, then quietly nodded her head, urging him to continue.


    "And then, just some days ago, our dog, who had been with us for over a decade, suddenly attacked her."


    "Hmm..."


    "But the decisive and bizarre reason that finally convinced me to approach you, detective, happened just two days prior."


    From that point, the client''s voice began to tremble with fear.


    "I woke up at two in the morning, feeling thirsty, and was heading to the kitchen when, well, my mother was... crawling down the hallway like a dog.


    "It wasn''t just that. I tried to convince myself it was just a horrible nightmare after going back to my room while shivering in fright, but… I was unable to fall asleep that night.”


    Upon hearing the new piece of information, Charlotte and co tilted their heads with a look of intrigue in their eyes. Meanwhile, the client, with a pale face, whispered,


    "My mother was peeking through my bedroom window, staring at me with a sinister smile..."


    """........."""


    "And you know…?"


    Slowly raising his head, he ended the conversation in an uncharacteristically calm tone.


    "... My room is on the third floor."


    And with those words, a sense of silence enveloped everyone.


    "I thought about calling the police, but I gave up immediately. They wouldn''t understand, and it would tarnish my mother''s reputation. But I couldn''t just leave this disaster of a situation alone."


    "Well done. This is indeed a case that needs a detective’s expertise."


    Charlotte, with a spark in her eyes for the first time in a while, spoke in a confident tone. This prompted the client to query her with a renewed glimmer of hope in his eyes,


    "W-Well then… may I ask how you intend to solve this case?"


    "Well, for starters, I intend on conducting a stakeout."


    "Pardon?"


    "Tonight, I’m going to see for myself if your mother is really crawling around the mansion as you say."


    Saying so, Charlotte quietly took in a small puff of her Acadia cigarette.


    "... Then everything will be clear."


    "........"


    Beside her, Adler, who had been smiling brightly until a moment ago, now wielded a gaze that was gradually gleaming with an eerie dark hue.


    "... We should intervene before it''s toote."


    "Pardon?"


    "Should I buy some snacks for the stakeout?"


    .


    .


    .


    .


    .


    The sun, which had been faintly visible through the gathering clouds, had eventually set, and the streets of London were gradually enveloped in darkness.


    "... You spoke so critically regarding my hiding skills, yet you still ended up hiding in the bushes anyway.”


    "I''m not like you, Inspector. I still have themon sense and awareness to not tantly disy my hair or baton when hiding. Besides, there are only bushes in the surroundings, where else could someone hide if not here?."


    Holmes and herpanions, crouched inconspicuously within the decorative bushes of the yard, were intently observing the mansion with keen eyes, not letting any detail go unmissed.


    "Isn''t this a bit too much...?"


    "... Shut up."


    "You''ll just disappear and cause trouble again if you’re left alone."


    "Don''t forget the contract, Adler."


    Incidentally, Adler was now gasping for each breath, as he was squeezed among three women forming a triangle in the bushes to contain him.


    "... So, what do all of you think is going on here?"


    After a long while of silently surveilling the mansion, Lestrade, perhaps out of boredom, quietly posed a question among the group.


    "We should be quiet rig..."


    "... From a medical point of view, I’m afraid it’s a serious case of sleepwalking.”


    Charlotte was about to frown and send a warning, but Watson, equally bored, began to voice her opinion in a whispery tone.


    "Sometimes, in severe cases, patients are found kilometres away from their homes. It’s entirely possible that thest time she went to Bohemia was due to a severe bout of sleepwalking..."


    "Watson. Don''t you know that sleepwalking is the mostmon and surest excuse used by cheaters?"


    Charlotte suddenly joined the conversation, as if the warning she was about to give was a lie.


    "I was just discussing a possibility."


    "... Yes, I did consider sleepwalking as a probable cause. But the distance between Britain and Bohemia is well over a thousand kilometres; it''s on a different dimension from just a few kilometres as you have mentioned."


    "Hmm..."


    "If the sleepwalkingsted for weeks, it might be possible, but I''ve heard that there''s no disease that makes you sleep that long from Professor Moriarty."


    As she firmly dismissed the sleepwalking theory, Lestrade and Isaac Adler quietly listened and then posed their questions in quick session.


    "Is there a possibility she''s suffering from a mental illness?"


    "... Perhaps, she was being manipted by that assistant?"


    "Whatever the case, it''s unclear right now."


    Charlotte nced at Adler and sighed before saying,


    "We''ll learn more now..."


    "... Oh, look over there!"


    "Shhh."


    Just then, a faint figure appeared in the window of the dimly lit mansion.


    "Keep your voice down, Watson..."


    "Uh..."


    Charlotte, who had silenced Watson, now squinted and started to survey the situation.


    <em>- Swoosh...</em>


    And then, the professor began lowering her posture after surveying her surroundings.


    ".........!"


    In the next moment, the eyes of the three young women simultaneously widened.


    <em>- tter...</em>


    The professor, disappearing from their direct line of sight due to crouching down, was now shockingly crawling out on all fours through a small door meant for a dog in the front door and entered the garden.


    "What the..."


    "Grrrgrgrrr!"


    Gone was her intellectual demeanour from the morning, reced by a vulgar look as she crawled through the ground. And her current indecent performance was witnessed by Charlotte and co, all of them gazing at her with astonished eyes. At that moment, a sudden bark from a door could be heard in the distance.


    "Grrrr..."


    "... Hmm."


    Alerted by the growling of the dog tied up outside in the kennel, the professor quietly fixed her gaze on the animal.


    "... Oh, my goodness."


    "My word..."


    Soon, an utterly vulgar act unfolded before their eyes, causing Inspector Gia Lestrade to blush quietly and avert her gaze. It was an act so vulgar that it was omitted from the case files that Watson usually wrote.


    "... By the way..."


    Then, realising something, she spoke with a serious expression.


    "Where has Adler gone...?"


    "... Haah."


    Just seconds ago, Adler had been squeezed between them but now he had disappeared. Charlotte''s expression crumpled as she watched the scandalous scene unfolding before her, her mood going from bad to worse.


    "We should have just cut off one of his legs, it would have healed anyway..."


    "Grrrrr... Grrrr..."


    "... Hah, hahh, aaah~!"


    .


    .


    .


    .


    .


    "........."


    Isaac Adler had vanished from the scene only to be rediscovered as the dawn broke and the dreary London sky began to faintly brighten with the sun slightly peeking up from the horizon.


    "Would you care to say something?"


    "........"


    "Mr. Adler?"


    Hunched down in a shabby shed in the yard – neither inside nor outside the mansion – the first word Adler flicked Charlotte''s way, with a swishing tail, was as follows—


    "... Meow."


    Astoundingly, in that brief span, Adler had transformed from a man to an animal, just like the professor.


    "Meooow..."


    "This is utter madness."