novelAlta Chapter 184: You Just Activated (4)
Chapter 184: You Just Activated (4)
-British Proverb-
To prevent any possible information leak, Irene Adler sent the elders out the back door, then sat alone at a long table and waited for an uninvited guest.
Irene was confident she could subdue Sherlock Holmes, but her opponent was the Heavenly Demon’s successor.
The Little Heavenly Demon already knew that at the royal ballroom, Irene Adler had attacked him with sound skills.
She had tried to correct his manners by the most covert means, but for some reason, the Little Heavenly Demon noticed, and even counterattacked using a phonograph.
The very fact that he realized she had struck with a secret sound skill was shocking, but the problem was what came after.
If he were an ordinary Murim person, he would have questioned Irene Adler on the spot and shamed her.
Yet the Little Heavenly Demon did not even challenge the Mistress of Green Willow. He accepted the handkerchief she offered, clothes torn and bleeding, and answered the invitation.
Irene thought.
Perhaps the Little Heavenly Demon had noticed her identity.
Even if he had not realized the Afternoon Tea Party existed, and that its leader was the Mistress of Green Willow, if he did not at least vaguely know her dark side, he would not have come to the estate alone like this.
The fact he did not bring the black cane-sword that was the Heavenly Demon’s sacred token showed he was unguarded.
“Either he wants to become the Afternoon Tea Party’s new client, or he has other business…”
Perhaps it was both.
However, no matter what Sherlock Holmes wanted, Irene Adler had no intention of caring why he came until she repaid the humiliation she suffered tenfold.
“There is certainly a reason why that man wants to meet me…”
It was true they each had business with the other, but what Irene Adler wanted from others was always a relationship where she gained unilaterally.
Even if not him, she could not even imagine conceding anything to anyone else.
“…He came right into my mouth without fear. How should I teach him a lesson?”
Though she had retired, she was Europe’s greatest diva.
Irene Adler gained her position amid everyone’s cheers without ever ruining a stage even once.
More than any Kung-Fu attainment, it was the great pillar that upheld her confidence and pride.
Yet with only a few movements of his hands, the Little Heavenly Demon ruined Irene’s stage, performed before high officials from across Europe, elders of great clans, and even prominent noble houses and members of the British royal family.
Before she was the Afternoon Tea Party leader, as a great musician, Irene could never forgive the Little Heavenly Demon.
“The martial world is full of those who swaggered over a little skill and got put down. What confidence does he have?”
Irene’s lips drew a soft arc, yet through the slight gap between them, the sound of teeth grinding leaked out.
Irene acknowledged that Sherlock Holmes’s mind ran deep and his Kung-Fu was extraordinary.
A man who was neither a noble house’s young master nor a great clan’s disciple had reached the Transcendent Realm at only twenty-eight.
No matter what fortuitous encounter made him the Heavenly Demon’s disciple, it was impossible without outstanding talent and steady training.
His arrogant manner, staring at others with eyes that seemed to pierce the depths of the heart, was likely because he held confidence in all he had achieved so far.
“He does have a usable head, that much is true…”
The phonograph the Little Heavenly Demon recorded a new sound skill into and then smashed had the exact same form as the one Irene had previously kept inside her detachable Twin Meteor Hammer.
The item she used when retrieving the subordinate she sent to steal the royal decree from his hands.
She still did not know how the Little Heavenly Demon erased the Lion’s Roar recorded on the phonograph.
All she could do was confirm again that the Heavenly Demon’s successor had learned several special Kung-Fu principles unknown to the world.
The outstanding abilities the Little Heavenly Demon displayed across many areas further fanned Irene’s ambition to subjugate him and call the vanished Heavenly Demon back to the martial world.
-Tak.
And at last, Sherlock Holmes walked into the estate through the open door.
The man approaching the table prepared for luncheon with the elders held a massive bouquet in his arms.
This was the residence of the woman who attacked him at the royal ballroom.
It was enough to suspect a trap, yet for some reason, there was not a shred of wariness in his steps.
It was confusing.
Should she take it as an expression of boldness?
Or should she think it was carelessness born of arrogance?
Irene concluded it was the latter, then greeted him without changing her seated posture.
“Welcome.”
“Thank you for inviting me, Mrs. Norton.”
With that reply, the detective’s features, hidden by the massive bouquet, were revealed.
Even surrounded by hundreds of roses, his fine features were not obscured by the flowers.
The man the Afternoon Tea Party leader had to tame first, to complete her great work of vengeance.
Irene Adler silently picked apart the Little Heavenly Demon’s face and imagined herself putting a collar around his neck.
A proud face that did not show the slightest disruption even when scratched by cold iron sand and bleeding at the royal ballroom.
Yet for some reason, the smile plastered on that shameless face was far more friendly than expected.
No matter how much he was a Manito who took benevolence as a hobby, considering what happened at the royal ballroom, he should not have been able to smile that warmly.
‘He wants something.’
She could tell just by exchanging eyes with the Little Heavenly Demon.
Irene realized the Little Heavenly Demon had a purpose in coming to Green Willow Manor, and the Little Heavenly Demon realized Irene had her own reason for letting him inside.
They confirmed they were both hiding cards from each other.
Now it was time to dig them out through a probing battle.
The first to strike, for the purpose of checking him, was Irene.
“Your confident look is pleasant to see. You must have lived a happy life, welcomed wherever you went.”
Disliking the Little Heavenly Demon’s attitude, Irene warned him with a smiling face not to act arrogant.
It was true she said he could come anytime, but she never imagined he would shamelessly show up without even sending a letter or telegram.
If surveillance had continued, she could have uncovered his scheme, but to think she would be obstructed by another force.
In any case, Irene Adler’s goal was to make this man submit and find his master, the Heavenly Demon.
Separately from that, twisting those neat features with pain and humiliation would surely be immensely satisfying.
“It is true I have lived without any setbacks, but how could I compare with Mrs. Norton in receiving others’ adoration and respect.”
Meanwhile, Sherlock Holmes walked to the table and brought his nose to the bouquet, drawing in a breath.
A face that still did not lose its composure.
Irene smiled brightly, imagining that face drenched in tears.
“If I had lived a life where applause and cheers never ceased wherever I went, I would surely have become arrogant beyond control.”
Words like, You already look that way, tickled her palate, but Irene held them back.
Once this tedious probing ended, she was confident she could strip away that man’s disgusting mask of hypocrisy and make him crawl on the floor like a worm.
“I could not think of a proper gift to see Europe’s greatest diva without notice, so I prepared a bouquet. I do not know if it will please you.”
The Little Heavenly Demon quietly placed the roses at the center of the table.
Precisely at the spot from which the round glass dome covering the estate ceiling could be seen overhead.
“……”
To be honest, that bouquet had been bothering her for a while now.
Irene Adler had seen more than enough people who expressed affection for her, whether male or female.
She was aware she possessed exceptional beauty, and she knew how to use it for her aims.
But no matter how she thought, for a man who clearly held ill feelings toward her to bring a bouquet woven from hundreds of lavish roses without even avoiding the eyes of Serpentine Avenue’s loose-tongued noblewomen.
He surely had some purpose, yet she could not even guess at it.
However.
‘Whatever scheme he holds, the result is already decided.’
She had a card prepared to secure a certain victory in this fight.
Previously, she had infiltrated a Kung-Fuist disguised as a maid into 221B Baker Street.
The maid brought in fourteen fast-acting poisons with faint or absent color and scent, hard to distinguish, and mixed them into the meals of those living in the boarding house.
Those fourteen poisons were so weak that they could not cause any ill effect to a peak-realm gentleman’s meridians or mind.
That was natural.
Because it was not prepared to ruin the Little Heavenly Demon Sherlock Holmes’s body.
According to the maid’s report, the Little Heavenly Demon seemed to start noticing the poison’s presence at some point.
Yet he swallowed it all with sheer nerve.
Whether he had another purpose, whether it was part of training, or whether he simply wanted to warn whoever sent the maid, Irene, who never thought she could feed him all the ‘ingredients’ at once, welcomed it.
This was why Irene confidently let the Little Heavenly Demon Sherlock Holmes, who committed the discourtesy of arriving unannounced, into the estate.
She held the power of life and death over the Little Heavenly Demon.
He approached now with shoulders squared, but once he heard the truth, he would shed tears and beg for his life.
Just imagining that stubborn, arrogant handsome man kneeling before her and pleading to be spared made her gums feel parched.
She already held the key to victory before the fight, so there was no need to be impatient.
Now she needed to show the winner’s composure.
Irene did what she should as the owner of the estate.
“You wonder if I will like it? Great hero, you are overestimating me. If I may say, I have never received such a beautiful bouquet as a gift.”
Hiding her pitch-black intentions, Irene smiled sweetly at the Little Heavenly Demon.
Even in that shameless lie that no one would believe, her sweet low voice lent it credibility.
“For now, please have a seat. I will have the butler bring out the food.”
At Irene’s words, the Little Heavenly Demon gave a light nod and sat on the opposite side of the long table.
The probing was over.
No matter what the bouquet was prepared for, that alone could not stop the secret measure she had prepared.
Certain of victory, Irene propped her chin on her interlaced fingers and brought out the main point.
“By the way, do you remember the promise we exchanged?”
“A promise, you say…”
“My. I did not think you would forget.”
Irene continued, watching the Little Heavenly Demon with narrowly opened eyes.
“…You promised. That if you returned the handkerchief, I would wipe ‘something else’ for you.”
Irene’s voice took on a chilling tone.
After her stage was ruined at the royal ballroom, she found the Little Heavenly Demon, handed him a handkerchief, and declared.
That when they met next time, she would personally make him bleed, and she would wipe that blood with this handkerchief.
“Ah… I remember.”
The Little Heavenly Demon took out the filthy handkerchief he had kept in his suit breast pocket.
“Was I supposed to return this?”
“…You could have used it a bit more cleanly.”
“My apologies. I have had no leisure of mind lately.”
“……”
Coldness began to circulate around the table.
A brief silence followed, and the Little Heavenly Demon soon sensed Irene’s killing intent and rose from his seat, but.
Before that, the Qi Frequency Irene Adler released first awakened the lethal poison sleeping inside his body.
“Kugh!”
As the Little Heavenly Demon collapsed into his chair, spewing a mouthful of blood, Irene rose and kicked the table hard with her foot.
-Kwaang!
The far end of the table slammed into the Little Heavenly Demon’s solar plexus.
Dark red blood dripped and pooled on the empty plate set before him.
“I told you.”
The Little Heavenly Demon, pinned between table and chair, struggled for breath.
Irene approached him, picked up the handkerchief that had fallen to the floor, and wiped the blood at Sherlock Holmes’s lips.
“That next time we met, I would wipe your blood.”
What had been on the handkerchief she gave the Little Heavenly Demon twice was a colorless, odorless elixir that combined fourteen poisons into one to complete the worst poison passed down in the Afternoon Tea Party, the Seven Insects Seven Flowers Paste, Lucky Seven.
Irene grabbed the Little Heavenly Demon by the hair, yanked, and met his eyes.
“Surely London’s only consulting detective did not come here without knowing it would come to this, did you?”
“……”
The detective’s eyes, looking up at the Afternoon Tea Party leader, were steadily losing their light.