Chapter 161: A Change of Perspective"Ugh, urgggh..."
The pain in my head was unbearable. I felt like I could vomit at any minute now.
"... Ugh."
But for some reason, I had a strong gut feeling that I shouldn’t vomit right now. Forcefully holding back the urge, I slowly opened my eyes, taking in my surroundings. Immediately, I was greeted with an extremely familiar scene.
"This is..."
Judging by the familiar background and furniture, I was currently lying in the professor’s office at the August Academy.
I hadn’t been able to visit often in recent times, but this was a familiar ce to me in this strange and ursed world.
"Ah..."
But for some reason, my body felt oddly heavy. When I lowered my gaze, I immediately understood the source of the odd feeling.
"Professor..."Professor Moriarty was embracing me tightly as Iy on the bed, her head buried in my chest.
If I had vomited earlier… I shuddered just thinking of the repercussions.
"........"
The chill up my spine was fleeting, as an unknown emotion flooded and took its ce as I looked down at the professor.
"... You’ve saved me this time too, didn’t you?”
Although my memory was a bit blurry at the moment, the figure who appeared in the study just before the tentacles caught me was definitely Professor Moriarty.
"Professor is really amazing."
How strong must the professor be? I couldn’t even fathom why such a being was impersonating an English professor, but for all intents and purposes, she was a being that simply transcended human cognition.
With just a gesture, she managed to fend off the creature that was about to devour me.
"Lately, you just seemed cute to me, but..."
<em>- Swish...</em>
No matter how cute Moriarty appeared to me, the final boss was still the final boss.
I vividly remember the beta test, where she appeared like a demon god in thest moments and turned everything into a void of nothingness.
"... You look so pretty like this."
And I, I ended up falling in love with such a being.
"........"
If everything came to an end and the destruction of this world was thwarted, I had to return to my original world.
For, as long as I existed in this world, the monsters and other supernatural phenomena would never cease. Fundamentally, I was a being that continuously attracted all forms of anomalies, after all.
<em>- Swish, swish...</em>
But then, what about Professor Moriarty and Charlotte?
Upon reflection, they weren’t the only problems.
Watson, who I had inadvertently used from the beginning to the end, Lestrade, who I somehow ended up marrying, and the three minions who had been following me around for so many days.
Not to mention all the characters who have been influenced by me, whether deeply or by the faintest margins.
"... Haaa."
Just what would happen to them once I disappear?
"Adler, why are you making such a face?"
"It’s just… something’s been bothering me for some time, that’s all…”
As I gently ran my fingers through the professor''s locks, pondering the concern that had been persistently upying my thoughts, I instinctively started responding to the sound that echoed from below.
"..... Huh?"
A dizzying spell suddenly overtook my mind and I slowly lowered my gaze.
"Seems like you''re finallying to your senses."
"........."
"So, did you enjoy that little escapade of yours, hmm?"<sup>1</sup>
Professor Moriarty looked at me with dark eyes, her voice dangerously low as she queried.
"Tha-That''s..."
"Adler. Do you know?"
A chill ran down my spine after hearing her voice and I hurriedly tried to rise from the bed. But with this damned body, I couldn''t resist the strength of the professor who had already mounted me.
"... Just a few days ago, when you hit me, it was the first time in my life that someone had beaten me so one-sidedly."
"........."
"There have been very few who seeded in attacking me, and all of them are now in the afterlife."
Murmuring this while still atop me, the professor silently inched her head forward.
"I thought we were married, and called you by your name. Was that so displeasing to you?"
"It''s not that..."
"So displeasing that you brutally assaulted me with such violence, and even went as far as to marry that brutish brat?”
"Professor…"
Chilled by her cold aura, I was shivering from head to toe. But even so, I couldn''t help but wear a dazed expression for a moment when I heard her words.
"Do you dislike me...?"
".........."
"If you dislike me so much, just say it already..."
As she spoke those words, eyes affixed on my form, her eyes quivered with a myriad of emotions.
It seemed as if she would burst into tears immediately if I admitted that I disliked her. Such an expression seemed utterly unbing of her transcendent detached nature.
"... I like you."
"Then why, why did you abandon me, huh?"
"Heugh."
Bewitched by her gaze, I eventually muttered in a dazed state. However, the professor immediately applied pressure on me, tightening her grip on my shoulders. As a result, I leaked a muffled groan.
"I even abandoned my pride to give you that childish document called a marriage certificate first, then why on earth…"
"... M-My marriage with Lestrade, it’s a contract marriage.”
Feeling as though one wrong word would be enough for me to be eaten alive, I began to sweat coldly as I made my excuse.
"I-It’s a sham marriage we arranged for the benefit of us both…"
"……"
"Let’s not even talk about having sex or engaging in childmaking… this was the first time that we even kissed, I think…? Haha…”
"... A kiss?"
But immediately, the bone-chilling cold in her voice returned with a vengeance.
"Did you really mix tongues with that brat?"
"... You didn’t know?"
Feeling my mouth dry up, I asked in a whispery voice.
"Professor... Aren’t you always watching..."
"Recently, the connection with your vision has be somewhat unstable."
"Aha."
That meant, I just fucked up. Bad.
"... Are you prepared?"
"Wha-What do you mean...?"
As I struggled to collect my thoughts, the professor started whispering in my ears with a bone-chilling voice.
"Why are you asking when you already know?"
Just then.
Um, I require your attention for a moment.
I wanted to ruminate a bit more about this but,
I felt it was necessary to inform you about this matter...
A system message with a timid-themed font appeared before my eyes.
Warning!
<b>– Probability of … —</b> 99.99999999999999999%
I thought 100% would be too grim, so I maximised the system disy value as much as possible.
Seeing the ridiculous message, where the front characters were truncated due to the excessivelyrge number at the end, I couldn''t help but let out a hollowugh.
I mean, you do realise that we are headed straight for a bad ending at this rate, right?
"Ah..."
In a situation that was nothing short of a death sentence, how was I supposed to escape?
"Wait."
It was often mentioned that the human brain shines brightest when encountering a crisis. In just a few seconds, just as the professor’s face came progressively closer to mine, my mind considered countless possibilities and finally settled on a brilliant n.
<em>Let''s think about this from a different perspective.</em>
.
.
.
.
.
"Why haven''t I thought of this until now...?"
".......?"
Until just moments ago, Adler had been trembling like a herbivore under attack by a lioness. Out of the blue, however, his demeanour changed drastically, prompting a puzzled look to wash over the professor’s face as she straddled him.
"Professor."
"What is it?"
"Pardon me for my action."
At that moment, Adler, with a bright voice, wrapped his arms around her back.
<em>- Smooch...</em>
".......!?"
The next moment, his warm lips touched the professor’s neck, transferring warmth.
<em>- Nibble, nibble…</em>
"... Huh?"
But he didn''t just stop there; as Adler bit into the professor''s neck with his mouth and began nibbling on her skin, a confused groan escaped her lips.
<em>- Swoosh...</em>
"Ad-Adler."
As the situation continued, Professor Moriarty, looking stunned, tried to pull back, but surprisingly, Adler wrapped his legs around hers, trapping her.
"What are you doing...? What in hell is this…?"
"I''ve just realised something."
Confused by the situation, the professor asked with a baffled look on her face. In response, Adler removed his mouth from her neck and began whispering in a barely audible voice.
"If I participate actively, it''s like an affair, isn’t it?"
".........."
"... So, professor."
He hugged her body, starting to heat up from arousal, even tighter and whispered shyly into her ear.
"Are you prepared?"
And then a silence began to hover in the office.
"I, I am..."
"... Yes?"
"That wasn’t my intention..."
Adler listened in attention as the professor’s words, shaky and barely audible, cut through the growing silence.
"I''m sorry, I couldn’t hear you well."
<em>- Swoosh...</em>
"... Could you please speak clearly and slowly for me?"
While tenderly stroking the frozen professor''s head, he leaned his head toward her this time around.
<em>- Smooch...</em>
The moment he cautiously kissed the professor’s lips.
<em>- Bam...!</em>
"... Khuhuk!?"
Knocked back by a palm to his face, Adler was sent crashing into the bed.
"..........."
"........???"
He coughed and gasped for air briefly, then sat up on the bed. When his eyes settled on the professor’s face, looking down at him with a cold gaze, he became puzzled.
<em>- Creeeak...</em>
"What’s going on?"
In that situation, as she emitted a cold chill and clenched and unclenched her fist, she angrily stormed out of the office, leaving Adler utterly bewildered by her actions.
"S-Something’s off..."
Still perplexed, he rose from the bed and began scrolling through the system messages that had appeared before his eyes.
"... Ah."
Then, Adler suddenly stopped moving altogether.
Warning!
<b>– Probability of being Killed —</b> 99.99999....
"... It was actually probability of being killed."<sup>2</sup>
His face quickly turned grim.
"So this is how it ends......"
.
.
.
.
.
Meanwhile, at that time,
".........."
After leaving the office, Jane Moriarty dashed into a nearby restroom and sat on the toilet with a vacant look on her face.
"Ugh..."
Her hands sped over her face, already heating up and donning a progressively brighter shade of red, as she murmured to herself in a whisper.
"How despicable..."
For a brief, infinitesimally small, moment, her serpentine grey eyes flickered to gold before returning to their original dull colour.<ol>1. Referring to how Adler went along with Charlotte and Lestrade and almost lost his life to the tentacle monster.2. For those who have a hard time understanding, the truncated part was being Killed. But Adler thought it was the other thing.</ol>