novelAlta Chapter 186: Malfunction (1)
Chapter 186: Malfunction (1)
-Thomas Browne-
The ribbon’s smooth surface, steeped in internal energy, coiled around the Little Heavenly Demon’s neck.
The velvet ribbon bit into Holmes’s skin, and without Defense Essence he couldn’t stop it.
“Kuhuk…!“
The woven band, which had formed a small formation on its own to preserve the flower’s freshness, became a weapon meant to strangle and snap a neck, threatening the consulting detective’s life.
The Little Heavenly Demon moved his still-fine left hand to shake off the Afternoon Tea Party Leader’s hand, but it was useless.
Irene Adler executed a foot technique, lifted her left foot high, then brought it down like lightning onto Holmes’s arm.
-Kwaang!
Watching a master who had reached the ripe Peak Realm at only twenty-eight be helplessly subdued by her, Irene Adler felt an indescribable thrill.
She had felt it last time when they faced each other head-on with the meteor hammer, but the Little Heavenly Demon was an opponent Irene couldn’t do anything about.
Sherlock Holmes declared he would use only half of the internal energy he possessed, and Irene could not land even a single technique on him.
Even if it was because she fought to save a disciple and to probe him, and so could not use the secret arts she learned while serving the previous Afternoon Tea Party Leader, she still had never experienced a proper life-and-death duel, and her realm was still only at the edge of first-rate.
But Irene Adler was not a woman who crawled up to the Afternoon Tea Party Leader’s seat relying on brute force alone.
To begin with, the Kung-Fu and other manuals passed down to successive Afternoon Tea Party Leaders all had a primary purpose, deceiving opponents stronger than oneself.
In the martial world where everyone swung swords and spears, the Afternoon Tea Party hid its identity and took the fisherman’s profit through schemes, so there was no need for an overwhelmingly strong master to hold the Party Leader’s seat.
Disciples who failed to understand the Afternoon Tea Party’s survival philosophy were all weeded out.
Those who tried a coup d’état trusting their paltry individual force were crushed, frustrated by schemes.
At seven years old, Irene became the previous Afternoon Tea Party Leader’s student and began her life as a student.
If hundreds of peers entered great clans at that age, only one Kung-Fuist held a Party Leader’s seat as she did now.
Then how did Irene Adler come this far?
She deceived the strong, sent the incompetent to Africa, and smashed the elixir fields of traitorous bastards like that monocled one…
What she had to do was always the same.
Even if the opponent was the Heavenly Demon’s successor, a strong master whose achievements were unmatched among those in their twenties, she only had to make those stiff knees kneel through deception and schemes.
“How is it, great hero? Being strangled and ravaged by the hands of a woman weaker than you?“
“…Kuhuk!!”
With one hand Irene held the ribbon firmly in place, then with her free hand she stroked the Little Heavenly Demon’s cheek.
The sight of the detective’s face turning purple while both hands were pinned was too precious to keep to herself.
“You should have kept your manners. If you’d only known your place a little more and behaved, I would have held back from harsh measures too.”
The manners lesson was enough at this point.
The Little Heavenly Demon was not a stupid man.
He must already have grasped the danger of the poison within his body more than sufficiently.
Irene loosened the ribbon that had been choking Holmes’s neck, then took off her pure white gloves and tucked them into her pocket.
“As you said earlier, I have business with you, great hero, and with the one who is your master.”
She said it as she looked down at the Little Heavenly Demon gasping for breath.
“But before I resolve my business, there’s something that bothers me, so I thought I’d address it first. For example… the reason you chose today, specifically, to visit my humble abode.”
-Kwaak!
The Mistress of Green Willow pulled out the hairpin that had pierced Holmes’s right hand.
“…!”
She looked at the guest clenching his teeth and enduring the pain, wearing an expression that seemed ready to melt.
“I’m very interested in you, great hero. As you already know, I even sent people to watch you, and I added all sorts of wonderful spices to your meals. It was very enjoyable. The process of learning about a strange martial gentleman, piece by piece.”
“…Not a very fine hobby.”
“Because I’m so very shy.”
The Little Heavenly Demon’s attitude, still addressing her in a mocking tone, pleased Irene.
A man should have this much spirit.
If he had begged for his life like a coward just because he couldn’t use internal energy for a moment, she would have been disappointed.
The process of making the Little Heavenly Demon submit would be enjoyable.
Irene reined in her desire and decided to continue interrogating Holmes.
“But these past two days, the people I sent to watch the street you live on kept coming back empty-handed, you know? Some didn’t come back at all. It felt like someone was thoroughly trying to cover my eyes and ears. They say unrequited love is hard, and I only learned that at twenty-three.”
“There will be no reward, so give up early.”
“My. That doesn’t sound like something the man who brought such a grand bouquet should say.”
“That was…”
“No matter how I think about it, it doesn’t seem like you took a liking to my looks like others do. So I became curious. You tore the handkerchief, and you were rude to me at the ball too. So what scheme brought you here, even carrying roses.”
Seeing Holmes’s eyebrow tremble slightly, the Mistress of Green Willow realized his purpose in coming here was not good at all.
“Surely everything you’ve said and done so far wasn’t to draw my attention…”
In Irene’s head, abacus beads rolled without end.
Earlier, untieing the ribbon binding the rose bouquet and checking the count had been an act.
From the start, she knew the Little Heavenly Demon had never held goodwill toward her.
Irene kept guessing what the visitor’s intentions were.
Even tearing open the bouquet Sherlock Holmes brought had been to check whether he had hidden some projectile or other dangerous item inside.
But there was nothing hidden in the rose bouquet.
Were the roses truly nothing more than a tool to win her favor?
Then what was the Little Heavenly Demon trying to buy her favor for?
‘Perhaps he knows of my true identity.’
Few besides close aides knew Irene Adler was the Afternoon Tea Party Leader, but if he knew how to erase a phonograph recording and the secret hidden in Zion Clan’s Indulgence Talismans, he might have identified the Party Leader’s identity that the Afternoon Tea Party had concealed as well.
If he knew she was the Party Leader, it made sense he would approach her to obtain necessary information through a deal.
The discourtesy he showed her before may truly have been possible because he had no interest in women.
“I’ll ask bluntly. What scheme are you up to?”
Thinking there was no way he would speak easily, Irene once again stimulated Lucky Seven with a faint Qi Frequency and made the poison flare.
Only after the Little Heavenly Demon spat blood once more did he slowly open his mouth.
“…I heard you stole a precious spirit-beast egg.”
“Ah. So that was it.”
The Mistress of Green Willow clicked her tongue as if disappointed.
The secret hidden in Fabergé’s masterpiece.
The Little Heavenly Demon visiting the estate without notice.
Only now did every puzzle piece find its place.
“So, in short, you want the egg back.”
The Little Heavenly Demon had surely come here under commission from the Tsar visiting London.
She had guessed yesterday that what came out of the fake egg adorned with gold and jewels was a spirit-beast egg.
However, because the Leader of the Church Of Asteroid, who had planned to buy it, broke the promise, the egg would by now be cooking in the kitchen, soon to become Irene’s summer restorative meal, and Irene had no intention of changing her plan.
In any case, now that the news had run, the Tsar could not stay long in London.
With everyone in London already noticing and watching his visit, it would be difficult to send assassins.
Even if the visit had not been revealed through the Homeless Clan newspaper, there was almost no chance he would send people to try to kill a former prima donna in front of the high officials and rich living on Serpentine Avenue.
For a newly enthroned emperor to ignore diplomatic relations and commit such a thing, his rage would have to reach the crown of his head and paralyze his reason.
But in Irene’s view, Alexander III was not such a barbaric man.
Above all, by now he would be too busy dodging the assassins searching for him.
“I don’t understand how important a mere spirit-beast egg could be for the Tsar to come to London in person. And you, great hero, are lighter on your feet than I thought. A man who calls himself a detective, trying to steal a lady’s lunch just because the Tsar handed you a few coins.”
A petty act unbefitting of one in the Peak Realm.
Irene blamed her own eyes.
She had unnecessarily overestimated this man.
“…Lunch?”
“Yes. Right now, that egg is being carefully prepared by the chef.”
“You’re insane.”
Hearing Irene’s reply, Holmes spat it out as if chewing it to pieces.
“Did I hear wrong? Could you say that again?”
Irene aimed the sharp hairpin at the Little Heavenly Demon’s throat.
She couldn’t understand why a man called the Heavenly Demon’s successor, caught for theft, still carried himself so boldly as if he had anything to be proud of.
“What you stole is the Vermilion Phoenix’s egg. The one that laid it is flying toward London to find its lost chick.”
“Vermilion Phoenix… you say?”
“If you heat the egg, the hatching comes sooner. It means the time when the Vermilion Phoenix burns London draws even nearer.”
At the unexpected answer, Irene frowned.
Even in the secret documents passed down from Party Leader to Party Leader, there were a few records about the Vermilion Phoenix.
She immediately checked whether the Little Heavenly Demon’s story was trustworthy.
If what was in the egg being cooked in the kitchen was the Vermilion Phoenix’s young, she could understand the Tsar’s obsession.
However, the claim that the adult was flying toward London was not easy to believe.
She knew spirit beasts had various abilities, but taking his words at face value and moving the precious egg elsewhere felt uneasy.
Perhaps he intended to frighten her into taking the egg out.
Having thought that far, Irene came up with a perfect solution.
“How nice. If this information is true, I can sell it for a high price. I’ve prepared several safe houses underground in London, including beneath this estate.”
The Mistress of Green Willow answered with a bright smile.
“If I bring the people I usually trade with there and wait a day or two, I’ll be able to see whether what you say is true, great hero. If it’s false, that’s fortunate, but if it’s true, I can avoid great danger.”
“…You mean you don’t care if London burns?”
“Of course. I love information asymmetry. London burning, not bad. There’s no business as profitable as establishing a new order where order has vanished. I should move the egg elsewhere for now. I still don’t have the confidence to face the Vermilion Phoenix up close.”
Thanks to that, he heard something nice.
Seeing Irene smile as she said that, the Little Heavenly Demon snickered.
“A perfect plan. If only you’d moved a little earlier.”
Just then, the pendulum clock chimed for twelve.
-Hwaryeok.
The spark that appeared on the table changed into a massive blaze.