"Mr. Moriarty!"
Louise's eyes went wide, brimming with delighted surprise.
"You really came!"
"I never break an appointment, Your Highness." Russell said with a smile.
Louise gazed at that familiar figure, then suddenly thought of something and asked:
"Oh, that's right—what about Mr. Watson? Is he... is he all right?"
At this, the corners of Russell's mouth curved up faintly beneath his mask.
"Rest assured, Your Highness, he's fine." Russell said. "You care about him a great deal, don't you?"
"He... he's a good person, very kind to me." Louise nodded. "Just like a big brother, so... I don't want you to hurt him."
"He'd be overjoyed to hear you say that," Russell chuckled. "Don't worry, he was just a little tired, so I sent him off to rest for a while, and I'll look after you in his place."
"R-really?"
"Of course. I don't like hurting people—you know that."
As he spoke, he hopped down from the windowsill into the room and made his way toward that storage cabinet.
"Now then, just as the letter said, I've come to return what's yours. That music box—I've fixed it for you."
"Really?" Louise looked at Russell in disbelief.
"The genuine article, guaranteed." Russell gave a slight nod. "And what's more, I've already hidden it somewhere in your room."
"When... where is it?"
"It's right—"
Just as Russell was about to walk to the storage cabinet and unveil the answer for Louise, hurried footsteps suddenly rang out beyond the door.
Then the door was flung open, and Charlotte's figure appeared in the doorway.
"Moriarty!"
Charlotte stood in the doorway, the pitch-black muzzle of a gun leveled at Russell.
"Get away from the princess."
The instant he saw Charlotte appear, Russell instinctively clicked his tongue.
"Good evening, Great Detective."
He turned around and, with unhurried composure, gave the girl in the doorway a bow.
"Come now, I'm hardly some unpardonable villain. Is it really necessary to point a gun at me?"
Charlotte paid no heed to his banter, her gaze sweeping swiftly around the room before settling at last upon Louise, who stood safe and unharmed to one side.
"Your Highness, please stay behind me." Charlotte said, all the while keeping her gun raised.
Yet, faced with that seemingly menacing pistol, Russell betrayed scarcely any sign of panic.
And so, he gave a soft laugh and then took a step forward.
"Don't move," Charlotte rested her hand on the trigger, "unless you'd like your head blown open."
"I'll wager there are no bullets in your gun, madam."
Russell said, then took yet another step forward, his eyes fixed intently on Charlotte's expression.
Sure enough, the very moment his words fell, Charlotte's brow furrowed briefly.
Just as he thought.
The smile at the corner of Russell's mouth deepened.
He watched Louise leave the scene under the escort of the other guards, and only then, unhurriedly, turned his gaze to Charlotte.
"Looks like I called it. Which is to say, you don't actually intend to hurt me—am I right?"
"That depends on your next answer—and your conduct."
Charlotte said coldly.
"Where is he?"
"Who?"
"Russell."
"Oh, him." Russell put on an air of sudden realization. "Take a guess?"
Charlotte's eyes turned cold in an instant.
Under Russell's watchful gaze, she drew a bullet from her pocket, loaded it into the chamber with blinding speed, and then leveled the gun at him.
"I'll ask one more time—Russell, where?"
"He's inside Buckingham Palace—where else?"
Russell still maintained that same effortlessly composed bearing.
"Blanks are only good for frightening those without the eyes to see, madam."
At this, the look Charlotte fixed on Russell grew ever more wary and hostile.
This fellow's powers of observation... were exceedingly keen.
"Bang—!"
She pulled the trigger into the air, firing off that blank round.
Then a glinting golden round—this one tipped with an actual bullet—was pinched between her fingers and loaded.
"This is your last chance, Moriarty."
Charlotte raised the muzzle.
"Where. Is. He?"
However, the answer she received was still that same displeasing one.
"Take a guess?"
Faster than her movement, what surfaced in Russell's mind was a prompt from the System.
[Hostility from Charlotte Holmes. Malice Points +200]
"Bang—!"
Charlotte pulled the trigger without the slightest hesitation, and Russell reacted in the very same instant.
The bullet shrieked out, grazing right past Russell's edge and burying itself in that expensive wall.
Charlotte hadn't aimed at Russell's head, but had fired at his arm—and even that single shot Russell dodged with the greatest of ease.
"I thought you'd go for the head."
Russell said. Charlotte gave no answer; having fired her one and only bullet, she simply flung the weapon in her hand straight at Russell while launching her whole body forward.
In the same motion, she drew a pitch-black cane from beneath her trench coat, its shaft carving a fierce arc through the air, striking straight for Russell's lower body.
This string of movements flowed like water, dazzlingly swift, brimming with undisguised, lethal decisiveness.
This reaction carried far more pressure than his first exchange with Mary back then.
No wonder the System had wanted him to upgrade Fighting.
Without hesitation, Russell twisted aside to dodge, and through his deft footwork slipped around behind Charlotte.
"I'm not particularly fond of wrecking other people's rooms, so—how about we take this outside?"
He stood in the middle of the corridor, beckoning to Charlotte with a crook of his fingers; at some point a similar cane had appeared in his other hand.
"Perhaps if you beat me, you'll learn where that Mr. Russell is."
"Then you'd best pray you still have the strength left to speak by then."
Charlotte twirled the cane in her grip, then pointed it at Russell.
As her voice fell, the cane in the girl's hand swept a fierce arc through the air, its tip thrusting straight for Russell's throat.
Russell sidestepped to evade it, his own cane parrying in turn; the two pitch-black shafts collided in midair with a dull thud.
"Decent force,"
Russell stepped back, opening up the distance, his tone carrying a touch of leisurely appraisal.
"I'd always assumed Bartitsu was just aerobics."
"Aerobics is more than enough to deal with the likes of you."
Charlotte gave him no chance to catch his breath, her assault like a driving storm, ceaseless and unrelenting.
The cane seemed to come alive in her hands—chopping, thrusting, sweeping—each blow precise and fierce, striking straight for Russell's vital points.
Russell, for his part, never took the initiative to attack, but met each move as it came.
For one thing, he didn't want to hurt Charlotte.
For another, Charlotte truly was trickier than he had imagined.
She really knew her stuff.
"Your skills aren't as good as I imagined."
In the midst of the exchange, Charlotte didn't neglect to speak.
"Looks like those fellows on Fleet Street have mythologized you a touch too much."
"And your temper's a touch worse than I imagined."
Russell parried a horizontal sweep, then leapt back, opening up the distance.
"The illustrious Great Detective, of all people, fond of solving problems with brute force."
"For dealing with a liar who won't tell the truth, it's the most effective method there is."
Charlotte pressed in close once more, Russell meeting each move as it came; the two traded blows back and forth in the empty corridor, cane-shadows interweaving, evenly matched for the moment.
After yet another clash, the two retreated, opening up the distance for the time being.
"Where is Russell?"
"Rest assured, he's perfectly safe—sleeping soundly at this very moment."
Russell said.
"Of course, if we drag this out any longer, I can't promise he won't catch a cold."
Hearing this, Charlotte let out a slight breath of relief, then once again raised the weapon in her hand.
Just then, a burst of hurried footsteps came from the far end of the corridor, drawing nearer and nearer.
Mycroft, leading a squad of fully armed royal guardsmen, had at last arrived, fashionably late.
"And here I thought this was meant to be a one-on-one duel."
Russell turned his head to look at Mycroft and gave him a slight bow.
"Good evening, Mr. Mycroft—and thank you for your help with the operation last time."
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