Chapter 154: Celestial Father (1)
When darkness prevails, people lift their eyes to the sun, the moon, and the stars.1
-Ralph Waldo Emerson-
Watson hugged the parcel Mrs. Hudson had handed her and strode into the lodging house with her head held high.
“A direct message from the magazine office. What on earth could it be?”
“Indeed. I cannot even hazard a guess.”
Perhaps it was because she had not yet checked what was inside the envelope.
Watson had not told Mrs. Hudson that she had submitted a manuscript to the magazine.
Of course, having lived through the future, I knew perfectly well the magazine would not reject Watson’s manuscript.
I would wait at ease until she confirmed the result herself.
“For now, you must both be hungry. How about a light bite to eat?” “Thank you, Mrs. Hudson.”
It was still noon.
After changing into comfortable clothes, we sat at once at the table and made a meal of it.
Only, ‘light’ referred strictly to the lunch menu.
For a full two hours, we had to tell Mrs. Hudson, who took a great interest in the Royal Palace ball, what we had experienced at Buckingham Palace.
We could not bring up provocative subjects like Sir Newton, Prince Albert, or the secret of the indulgence talisman, but there were still matters aplenty—sparring during tea time, the Sword Debate Chess match, and so forth.
There was a whole string of topics that would let her puff up her shoulders at gatherings, beginning her tale with something like, ‘You’ll never believe it, but at the Royal Palace ball our lodger…’ and then untying the sack of stories. Mrs. Hudson could not hide her delight.
“You must be tired, so rest well and I’ll see you this evening. I’ll prepare something delicious.”
In the end, Watson and I could only escape the interrogation table known as the dining table after one o’clock in the afternoon.
“How strange. I could have sworn we returned to Baker Street, yet it seems the driver mistakenly dropped us at Scotland Yard.”
When I murmured so as we went back upstairs, Watson giggled.
“Still, seeing Mrs. Hudson so excited makes me feel rather good. It feels as though I repaid a little of what we owe her.”
“Ha. Was she not already pleased simply to see you in a dress, Watson?”
“I-is that so?”
Mrs. Hudson was exceedingly pleased to hear that Watson had made it safely through dinner time.
She had actively assisted Watson’s sword-aura training.
She even overexerted herself at times, drawing her sword aura longer than usual to motivate Watson.
To her, even if it was a stopgap using the Snow Halation Iron dagger and the shawl woven from the wool of the Ancient Vicuna, the fact that Watson finished her meal while safely maintaining sword aura must have seemed praiseworthy.
Since learning Watson’s true sex, Mrs. Hudson had been acting oddly like a mother, no doubt because she had not yet shaken off the shadow of ‘that incident.’
Still, if Watson could fill even a small portion of the hole that had opened in her heart, would that not also be fate, and mutual support?
“That envelope earlier, it’s from the magazine you submitted to, isn’t it?”
“It is. It was the last place I sent the manuscript around, so I find myself wondering what on earth is inside.”
“Surely it’s a contract. They must have liked your writing.”
“It would be nice, if so……”
“If you’re that nervous, shall we open it together at tea time?”
Watson nodded shyly.
“Then let us rest a little and meet in the sitting room around three.”
The moment I entered my room, I collapsed onto the bed.
“……Hah.”
The instant I sprawled on the mattress, a sigh escaped me unknowingly.
Because I could not show weakness before Watson and Mrs. Hudson, I had endured as best I could, yet to speak frankly, my body was in a state where it would not have been strange to have collapsed long ago.
The immense Lily Essence that erupted from the indulgence talisman, the vitality of the Medicamentum Communionem, Alfred Nobel’s Explosive Kung-Fu that triggered my Direct Attack.
My sinews, bones, and meridians had been exposed to such absurd forces all day long.
And after all that, I even proceeded to play the match while moving enormous Sword Debate Chess pieces filled with black iron by Poltergeist.
Compared to that, the cut I took from the cold iron powder Irene Adler controlled with sonic arts, and the effect of the Zion Clan priest’s Signature Sound on my condition, were little more than an itch.
Now fatigue had seeped down to the depths of my Elixir Field, to the point I could hardly bear it.
I wanted to regulate my breathing and circulate energy at once to settle my condition, but first I decided to deal quickly with a few matters.
“Let us see……”
I took the handkerchief from the Henry Poole martial garb hanging on the rack and tossed it onto the cabinet.
It was the one Irene Adler had newly given me in place of the torn handkerchief.
A liquid containing dissolved Gentleman Powder had soaked into its surface.
It was because I had used it when catching the poison needle fired by the Special Maid Corps.
“I have become entangled far earlier than I expected……”
In truth, I had planned to postpone making a connection with Irene Adler until I had built more strength.
It had been intentional that I did not go to return the handkerchief she gave me at the Debutante Ball.
Who could have imagined we would meet again at the Buckingham Royal Palace ball?
“She appears to want something from me.”
She was the type who wanted to hold the initiative in every relationship.
That she invited me to her manor and handed me a new handkerchief even after being embarrassed by me meant she had some scheme in mind.
The problem was that I had not yet conducted a detailed investigation into Irene Adler here in London.
In other words, I had no idea what she wanted.
She was no easy opponent, so I had meant to approach in the safest manner possible. Yet, in any case, my luck was wretched.
“Well, it could not have been postponed forever……”
There was a reason I had not rashly touched Irene Adler thus far.
If she was, even in this world, a client receiving Moriarty’s crime consulting, there was a chance I would draw his attention if I moved carelessly.
It was true that, if necessary, I had kept the option of revealing my existence to Moriarty and threatening him.
But this was not the world I knew. It was London Murim.
For the safety of both myself and Watson, I had to refrain from forcing a contest before grasping the enemy’s capacity.
However.
One cannot find a quarry’s tracks without entering deep into the forest.
“……Still, if Moriarty has vanished from sight, this meeting may offer me a chance that leads straight to him.”
Perhaps now was the optimal time to make contact with Irene Adler.
The problem was that I had only one body, yet tasks were piled high.
First, the servant of Sir Harcourt who went mad while trying to draw Moriarty’s face weighed on my mind.
By now, it would not be strange if Sir Harcourt had read the note I sent and taken action.
The trace of the sculptor Beppo I found at Buckingham Palace also troubled me.
Then, of course, the proposal from Tsar Alexander III of Russia, whom I encountered at Henry Poole & Co..
I could only wonder what he might propose, having taken note of me.
He said he would depart within three days of the ball’s end, so I would have to visit soon.
‘I have not yet received Master’s letter said to be held by Sir Newton and Sir Fawcett, either.’
My master, the Heavenly Demon Red Dragon Phileas Fogg, was a man with many secrets.
He had never told me the purpose of his journey around the world.
The whereabouts of the maid Jean Passepartout were still unclear.
Nor had I determined why the lock code of the Savile Row manor had been changed.
If I read the letter my master entrusted to those two masters, would I obtain a clue?
“……And in between investigations, I must also master the Ancient Tomb Clan secret manual.”
In one month, I must go with Her Majesty to see Prince Albert.
If I failed to make the manual my own in time, I would lose the opportunity.
And there was more.
I also had to ask Yan about the strange pill the White Worm spat out last time.
And the elder of the Yan Clan would likely soon come to ask me about the Worm Poison Immortal’s zombie.
“……”
Merely recalling what I had to deal with made my head already start to throb.
The priorities were, of course, set.
Having experienced the future once and returned to the past, if I could not manage even this much, it would be a problem indeed.
Yet to know, to a degree, what would happen meant that worries increased in equal measure.
And had I not already witnessed how events I once experienced were being distorted into forms wholly unlike my memories by the alien force called Kung-Fu?
No matter how sharp my mind, it was not easy to calculate countless variables and predict the future.
As in Sword Debate Chess, it was best to take a grand view and handle what lay before me one step at a time.
There was no time for complaint.
As much as the world had changed into something unfamiliar, I too could gain help from many and grow.
-Click
I opened the hidden compartment in the handle of my Heavenly Demon Cane and took out a small vial.
When I fed the White Worm the Blue Eyed White Snake’s venom within, the creature immediately neutralized it without exploding, and began to savor it.
Judging from its plump body wriggling, it would brew an antidote for the Explosion Venom at the latest by evening.
Next, I placed the Medicamentum Communionem and the Millennium Nitroglycerin into the safe.
The safe contained the unprocessed horn of the Unicorn Salamander, but it was wrapped in a silk pouch that blocked energy, so the Millennium Nitroglycerin would not react and explode.
With that, the spoils obtained from the Royal Palace ball were more or less sorted.
The Ancient Tomb Clan treasure Her Majesty staked as the wager would take some time to arrive, so I would consider at leisure how to store it.
Considering the treasure’s size and use, to bring it into my room I would likely have to discard my current bed first.
Now that I thought of it, Ulrich Zuckerberg also said he would prepare a gift that would astonish me. If the promise came from the next head of a Kung-Fu Noblesse, perhaps it was fair to anticipate it.
Perhaps because this world was more sensitive to debts and grudges than the one I originally lived in, there were many who kept saying thanks and trying to give me things.
It was true that, thanks to that, my work as a consulting detective felt more rewarding than before, so it was not something to complain about, and yet…
“Good. Now I can breathe a little.”
I wanted to remain lying down, but my condition had recovered to a degree, and it was time to move again.
I had to congratulate Watson on her manuscript being formally accepted into print.
This was not merely celebrating another line added to her career.
Considering how my stories had become popular in many nations before my regression, this attempt would be of no small help in finding John Watson.
Earlier I suggested we check the magazine’s reply over a light cup of tea, but on a good day one cannot omit drink.
When I came into the sitting room with a whisky bottle hidden behind my back, I saw Watson sitting with her knees together, her eyes shining brightly.
“Come here at once and sit, Holmes.”
“The moment of truth. The instant you open that envelope, we shall learn whether our adventures may give delight to someone else.”
“Is that not a trifle exaggerated?”
“When it is being decided whether your childlike masterpiece may venture into the martial world, should we not make at least this much fuss?”
“A child, to a maiden not yet even married. You truly have no words you cannot say, do you Holmes?”
Watson smiled as though embarrassed, and the moment she tore the envelope, a loud commotion came from outside, and someone pounded hard on the lodging-house door.
“……A visitor?”
3:10 p.m. Poppins, a close attendant of Queen Victoria, rode in a carriage in urgent haste toward Baker Street.
The Queen’s order to her was to summon the Little Heavenly Demon, Sherlock Holmes.
If they failed to find Alexander III’s treasure, the contest of nerves between Great Britain and Russia unfolding across Eurasia might escalate into a ‘real war.’
If it was the Little Heavenly Demon, who displayed outstanding ability in such matters, perhaps he could resolve the affair before the Tsar’s patience ran out.
The moment she arrived at 221B Baker Street, the court maid leapt down from the carriage and knocked at once.
The one who opened the front door to receive her was a woman with a neat, composed air.
After confirming Poppins’s attire and carriage, she immediately understood whom she had come for and lowered her voice.
“You have come from Buckingham Palace. You are here for Mr. Holmes, yes?”
“Yes. It is a matter of moments, so we must be quick.”
“I am sorry.”
But the answer that followed was beyond Poppins’s expectation.
“Mr. Holmes has just departed in another carriage.”
“……?!”
A few hours earlier.
Edward Henderson, Commissioner who oversaw Scotland Yard, finally tracked down Home Secretary William Harcourt, who was in hiding somewhere in London, and delivered a single note.
It was said he had received the request from the Little Heavenly Demon.
On the front of the note was written an instruction to open it where there were no eyes.
Wondering what it was, Harcourt cautiously read the message inside, then immediately unfolded lightness skill and ran for Westminster Palace.
“What kind of nonsense is this……”
The note read as follows.
<No matter how vast the martial world, there exists no Kung-Fu that turns a man into a madman merely by making him recall someone’s face.>
<Therefore, the ruined servant is of the Church of Asteroid, whose—having changed face by Kung-Fu—>
Even amid rising anger and confusion, Harcourt somehow maintained his composure.
If, as the Little Heavenly Demon said, the servant who went mad with brush in hand was a fake, the best course was to lull him and then subdue him.
Thinking so, he entered the room where the servant was being guarded.
“Whoever it is, it seems a sharp one is attached to you.”
From the mouth of the ruined servant, Clark, flowed an alien voice.
“……Who are you? Reveal yourself.”
And in the next instant, with a mocking chuckle, the servant’s face began to twist.
- TL/N: Fun fact: The Church of Asteroid in Korean can also be translated to the Sun, Moon, Star Religion… This author really knows how to cook. ️