piratefiction Chapter 181: You Just Activated (1)
Chapter 181: You Just Activated (1)
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
After watching that string of farce, Ulrich Zuckerberg explained in detail how to place the mediums to me.
However, civil engineering was a delicate art. If it differed from the blueprint by even an inch, its efficacy would be thrown off.
As someone who wasn’t even an expert, there was no way I could place the mediums perfectly without relying on tools.
That was why Ulrich, with tears in his eyes, lent me the feng shui compass he claimed to cherish.
‘To be honest, the item I said I would gift you before is also a watch. I’m working closely with Vacheron Constantin to research ways to add various functions needed by those of the martial world.’
‘Looks like I’m about to receive a precious gift.’
‘For the record, this was a gift from the Patriarch twenty years ago, so please understand its functions are entirely different from the watch I intend to give Great Hero Holmes. It’s specialized for unfolding formations.’
The compass watch Ulrich lent me, unlike how it looked like an ordinary pocket watch, was designed to provide the information needed when constructing formations.
In addition to the watch’s original function of telling precise time down to the second, it had a perpetual calendar that sensed the flow of Natural Qi and indicated seasonal nodes, and a compass dial that displayed the twenty-four directions and the owner’s position.
Inside the cover were numerous intricate mechanisms and movements.
It wasn’t only its functions that were outstanding.
The beautiful compass watch, shaped like a pocket watch and engraved with the Eight Trigrams and the Taiji, fit in one hand, and its weight and feel suited me perfectly.
For a moment, Moriarty’s pocket watch that sent me back into the past came to mind, but I pushed the thought away at once.
With this, I could know the distance between the other mediums and the core medium, and which direction to place the rose bouquet.
If they could make such a refined movement twenty years ago, what incredible thing were they researching now?
It struck me anew. I hadn’t expected to feel the Zuckerburg Family’s depth from seeing a treasure like this.
I could only look forward to the gift Ulrich said he was preparing.
“…To think I have to go to Green Willow Manor looking like this.”
Ah. No. This won’t do.
No matter how I tried to calm myself by recalling Ulrich’s kindness, it was useless.
“Haa…”
Departure time was drawing near, yet I sat on the sofa, doing nothing but sighing again and again.
It was true that jackal of a woman had earned my respect with her brilliant mind, her boldness, and her attainment in Yin arts.
But to go find Irene Adler while holding five hundred roses, when the wealthy residents of Saint John’s Wood along Serpentine Avenue might be watching, was no different from opening the gates of hell with my own hands.
In the worst case, I might be mistaken for a lover having an affair with a woman publicly known to be married.
Considering that Blood-Flower Ghost Pen, who had earned renown sixty-five years ago with fierce martial arts, a handsome face, and genius writing, was exiled for repeated affairs and debauchery, it was easy to predict what misunderstandings and infamy in matters of relationships could do to my life.
“And for her to pull that there, at the royal ballroom of all places.”
That day, in front of everyone, Irene Adler personally handed me a new handkerchief and invited me to her estate.
No matter how I looked at it, it was a declaration that she would personally teach me a lesson the next time we met, yet the Murim people, bewitched by the Mistress of Green Willow’s beauty, saw that scene and mistook it for me winning Adler’s favor.
I couldn’t bear it. I was truly curious what expressions they would wear if they learned Irene Adler’s identity and her vicious true face.
But such a thing would never happen.
Because today, Irene Adler would die by my hand.
“Let’s hope they arrive in time…”
Ulrich and Yan had finished the tasks they’d each taken on.
All that remained was whether the two people I’d asked for additional cooperation would agree.
-Knock knock-
“Mr. Holmes, you have a guest!”
…They’re here.
/
Now it was time to move in earnest.
Irene Adler ignored the opinions of the Afternoon Tea Party elders in attendance and declared she would let Holmes into the estate.
“What a fascinating man. Truly.”
It was a unilateral decision, yet the elders did not dare oppose it.
The Party Leader’s authority was absolute.
That those gathered here held the rank of elder was the result of proving their ability and loyalty to Irene Adler, so it was only natural.
The only exception was Wilson, the Deputy Party Leader, a meritorious retainer who had supported the faction since the previous leader’s days.
Above all, this was Irene Adler’s estate.
Since they had gathered here by her invitation, every elder here was a guest.
No guest could complain about whom the owner chose to bring into her home.
That was the way of the martial world.
However.
-Nod-
Among the elders Irene Adler had appointed, Newens Tea House Master, the one with the highest standing, exchanged glances with the others and nodded.
Even if they could not defy the Party Leader, an Afternoon Tea Party elder could at least voice worries born of loyalty.
He intended to offer counsel to the Party Leader on behalf of them all.
‘The Little Heavenly Demon is a dangerous man…’
Newens Tea House Master had seen the man who came to Green Willow Manor once before.
Running a storied tea house before the Royal Physic Garden, Kew Garden, he had seen the Little Heavenly Demon bring a cross-dressing woman after the Debutante Ball ended not long ago.
At the time, the Afternoon Tea Party members were already gathering information by monitoring the Little Heavenly Demon’s every move under the Party Leader’s orders, so the tea house master quickly realized the person he brought was a woman in disguise, a military medical officer.
It was a perfect chance to earn merit, so the tea house master did not miss it and watched the two as they entered the training hall beyond the reflecting mirror.
And astonishingly, the Little Heavenly Demon succeeded in treating, at least partially, the companion suffering from Nine Yin-Qi Nails.
It was undeniable. One only had to look at how the military medical officer’s gray hairs had lessened.
The elders who heard the news were, quite literally, overturned.
‘A Super Junior who inherited the Heavenly Demon’s martial lineage treating Nine Yin-Qi Nails.’
‘Then the rumors about his master, the Heavenly Demon, may also be true.’
‘Then—’
‘As the Party Leader says, it might even be possible to defeat the Leader of the Church Of Asteroid…?’
‘If it’s true, isn’t this a chance to fulfill the Afternoon Tea Party’s long-cherished wish!’
Originally, many elders considered the Party Leader’s plan, to find the Heavenly Demon and achieve revenge for the previous leader, absurd.
But what about now?
Even those who had insisted they should bow flat out of fear of the Church Of Asteroid’s Leader began thinking they might be able to ease the grudge of the previous Party Leader who had been unjustly killed.
However, there was still a problem that had to be solved to bring the Little Heavenly Demon to their side.
Because the air flowing between the Afternoon Tea Party Leader and the Little Heavenly Demon was deeply ominous.
Sherlock Holmes, the Little Heavenly Demon, had already clashed in force with the Afternoon Tea Party Leader at the royal ballroom.
Even if it had unfolded secretly beneath the surface, it was undeniable that a rift of feeling had formed between them.
That the Mistress of Green Willow had handed another handkerchief was a declaration of war, and that the Little Heavenly Demon accepted it meant he would answer the provocation.
With such a clear hostile relationship formed, the only way to tame him was to subjugate him through schemes and force.
Of course, no one here doubted the Party Leader’s ability.
Irene Adler was a woman who would not choose means or methods to achieve her goal, and her schemes were more than sufficient to deal with the famed strong under heaven.
However, she was not the type of leader who considered the losses of her own side.
The man the Party Leader had decided to welcome into the estate was a detective.
And the Afternoon Tea Party was a Kung-Fu criminal organization unlicensed by the British government, in simple terms, an underworld group.
The problem was that because the Afternoon Tea Party occupied the rather unique position of a mysterious faction that treated information as both weapon and commodity, the moment their membership became known to outsiders, the members’ room to move would narrow.
Like Irene Adler, the elders each held positions in the bright side of the world, and outside the clan they lived their own lives without revealing any ties.
In such a situation, they could not even guess what problems might arise if they showed themselves to a detective hostile to the Party Leader.
The Party Leader, who had provoked the Little Heavenly Demon and summoned him to the estate, wanted to crush his pride at once, but for the reasons above, the elders wished the two had arranged a separate meeting instead.
“…I hesitate to say it, but I do not think there is any need to allow into Green Willow Manor a discourteous man who came without notice, relying only on the Party Leader’s tolerance and favor.”
In the end, the Newens Tea House Master spoke with difficulty, reading Irene Adler’s expression on behalf of the elders.
“His bouquet is courtesy enough. A handsome man like that brought hundreds of roses. How could I just send him away? A woman’s pride won’t allow it.”
But Irene Adler only crossed her legs and grinned. It was as if the elders’ worries meant nothing to her.
“…There are many reasons to bar him besides his discourtesy.”
“Oh?”
“Around the time news of the Tsar’s London visit spread, Butler Agency agents began watching Baker Street without a single gap. The timing is far too perfect.”
“I know.”
Irene Adler looked the tea house master straight in the eye, her sharpness glittering, and answered.
“He’s got something up his sleeve. Just look at the item the Church Of Asteroid’s Leader asked to have stolen. It’s suspicious. If what the Tsar crossed into London to find is the spirit-beast egg I discovered, it all fits.”
“…You mean the Little Heavenly Demon is moving under the Tsar’s commission? Then all the more, we must not let him in—”
“It’s fine. I’m the one holding the reins.”
Irene cut off the counsel flatly.
“It’s not for nothing that I even planted people at Baker Street and fed him fourteen kinds of fast-acting poison that show no immediate effect.”
Fourteen poisons.
The elders’ expressions brightened sharply as they realized what Irene Adler had prepared.
“The Seven Insects Seven Flowers Paste has already been administered.”
“…As expected. You moved while already seeing several moves ahead!”
The tea house master clenched his fist.
The Seven Insects Seven Flowers Paste was an extreme poison made by mixing the toxins of seven flowers and seven insects according to a secret recipe passed down in the Afternoon Tea Party, and it had two characteristics.
First. Even with the same Seven Insects Seven Flowers Paste, the antidote formula changes depending on the mixing ratio.
Second. Until it is exposed to a specific sound wave, no symptoms appear even after it has been administered.
On the day she attempted to steal the royal decree, the Little Heavenly Demon likely checked the poisons left in the boarding house after the maid fled, but without knowledge of the Seven Insects Seven Flowers Paste, he would have done no more than detoxify the fourteen poisons one by one.
The Afternoon Tea Party Leader had already fastened a sturdy leash onto the Little Heavenly Demon, and the other side knew nothing.
If he refused to follow the Mistress of Green Willow’s orders, the Little Heavenly Demon was a dead man.
The match was all but decided.
Irene Adler’s confidence had a basis.
“I’ll wager on it. The Little Heavenly Demon will pay the price for walking into a trap unprepared.”
Winning before the fight began was her way.
A faint haze of Essence began to wrap around the Mistress of Green Willow as she smiled and smiled.