134 – Phantom Thief vs. Phantom Thief (3)
Arthur Justice Raffles, Britain’s proud phantom thief gentleman, was quietly concentrating on his work even while grumbling to himself.
Of course, being a phantom thief or an amateur thief was just an expression he used to call himself.
In the world, he was just one of the famous thieves.
His initials A.J., Which he sometimes leaves on site to kill time. Thanks to this, Scotland Yard referred to Raffles as such and was trying to catch him somehow.
Because of his experience of stealing the treasures of corrupt rich people and politicians, the public often tended to praise him as a modern-day Robin Hood, but Raffles had no choice but to sneer at this move.
He was an extremely individualist, and unlike his middle name ‘Justice’, he was not very interested in justice. No, he rather thought of it as an old-fashioned being.
The reason he lived as a thief was solely for the pleasure of stealing from others, not for any sense of duty or to realize social justice.
It was Raffles who stole artifacts from the British Museum and returned them by mail just because he was bored.
There were criminals in every era, but it was truly a good time to be a criminal.
It was a time when thieves and villains who seemed to be imitating Fanthomas, Zenith, and Raffles themselves were running rampant in France.
As the original phantom thief, it was somewhat unpleasant, but Raffles had to deal with it like a gentleman.
Even though he grumbled, he silently concentrated on his work. The pig named Milverton had been put to sleep for a long time. Staying in the house pretending to be his butler for three days was extremely boring.
He was such a timid man that he insisted on a fastidious and sturdy safe. Of course, it was not a big obstacle for Raffles himself.
With a little manual skill and the power of tools of our own design, it was easy to uncover the secret, even if it took some time.
But he couldn’t deny that it was clerical and boring work.
This job was bound to be especially boring since Raffles originally worked for interest and looked for someone to steal.
Because he was doing things not of his own free will, but under someone’s ‘coercion’.
Yes, this was all because of the professor. Raffles once again swore inwardly at the Napoleon of crime, but on the outside, like a gentleman, he brought his homemade drill to the safe to break through the last obstacle.
Yes, thanks to the professor, I was in a position to do this troublesome work.
As much as he called himself an amateur, Raffles divided criminals into two categories. Amateurs who nobly dabble in crime as a hobby because they are gentlemen like Raffles himself, and ‘professors’ who take up crime as a profession because they are inherently mean and evil.
Of course, the professor who gave him the order was, on the outside, a man close to a gentleman. Above all, the people Raffles often sarcastically referred to as ‘professors’ were from the bottom and were of the lowly type.
This was entirely a prejudice held by Raffles because he was from an upper class background.
But the professor was different. In fact, can we compare him to any criminal in Europe?
Raffles, who often went on business trips overseas, was also familiar with various criminals in Europe. Even cold-blooded people like Germany’s Dr. Mabuse, Italy’s mafia, and France’s Fan Thomas.
Each of them created their own kingdom.
And, whether they liked it or not, most of them were reduced to a position of cooperation or submission by a professor who appeared in England in less than 10 years.
Naturally, Raffles himself had no choice but to cooperate. Because I couldn’t dare to confront the person who unified the British Empire’s criminal organizations into one.
Perhaps the professor views himself as a kind of subcontractor?
Even in this case, it is the same. I urgently called him while he was on a leisurely vacation in Paris, stayed up all night, crossed Dover, and rushed over to see that he had entrusted me with such a trivial task.
“That’s it!”
But when the safe finally made a clicking sound and revealed its contents, Raffles forgot his complaints and was amazed.
No matter how business-like the work was, I could not ignore the pleasure that these moments brought. This moment was when he felt the joy of working and being alive.
But it’s not completely over yet.
There were various piles of paper in the safe. These were valuable pieces of evidence gathered from various places by the charlatan Charles Augustus Milverton.
But this was not Raffles’ interest. Because what the professor ordered was a small letter.
Luckily I was able to find it quickly. In fact, there was no need to look for it. Because it was on top of the pile of documents. I heard a rumor that Milverton, that idiot, had ‘threatened’ the professor, and it seemed like it was probably true.
Now all you have to do is leisurely leave the suicide aspirant’s mansion and bring this to the professor’s loyal hound waiting outside.
Thinking like that, Raffles tried to stand up and whistle.
“Thank you for doing the troublesome work for me.”
– Swish!
I couldn’t help but be surprised. No matter how absorbed he was in his work, he could not feel any pretense of popularity as he had trained himself for his work.
A young woman’s voice came from right next to me, as if mocking me.
Without any hesitation, Raffles swung his specially designed cane for self-defense. It was a blow that could have killed him if hit correctly, but he was unstoppable.
Unlike the gentlemen of this era who respected women, he was a ‘gentleman’ who was ruthless for his work and could treat everyone equally.
However, just like that, Holmes dodged the blow from the person wearing the domino mask and laughed.
When I looked closer, I could see that the other person was a weirdo. Watson and Holmes secretly covered their faces with masks and wore dark clothes for work, but the other party was dressed in a tailcoat as if they were attending a ball.
But there was no time for admiration. I also didn’t forget to find out appropriate information through observation of the other person, just in case.
The face itself was masked, and looking at the hair, it was meaningless as it was part of the transformation technique that Holmes himself was good at using, but it was clear that he enjoyed playing cricket.
I tried to dig in and overthrow it.
However, the other person was able to quickly judge the situation even in such a short moment, in other words, he was quite intelligent.
Raffles knew he was in trouble as he saw the mysterious woman quickly dodge his blow.
‘I am not an ordinary woman!’
She was wearing a mask and pants, and anyone could tell that she was an intruder who had come to steal, but she was clearly a young woman.
She had common sense and there was no way she wouldn’t win. But she couldn’t rely on her common sense to survive in this world.
It was a world where Professor Saenim, a weakling who looked like he was going to be a pillar of wealth for the wives of rich families, was the king of British criminals, and his werewolf maid was a cold-blooded assassin everyone feared.
Raffles could already tell that he could not win, no matter who this unknown woman was. But what good does that do?
All I had to do was run away.
“Watson!”
I didn’t know if Milverton, the maid, or the servant would wake up. However, as long as the other party had documents he needed to take, blocking the author was a priority.
“Huh? Ugh!”
Only then did Raffles realize that there were two opponents. But unlike the others, the woman called Watson was clearly an amateur.
Watson swung her fist sharply at Raffles, who was panicking without realizing it and was trying to run away through the darkness.
If hit properly, it would have knocked him unconscious and broken a bone or two, but his aim was poor, as if he was not skilled at moving in the dark.
Raffles leaves the study and runs away.
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Holmes, gritting his teeth, quickly chased after her, and Watson, who was momentarily embarrassed, glanced at her and followed her friend.
For a moment, a noise broke into Milverton’s mansion, which had been silent due to secret theft. I could hear the maids and servants moving around in their rooms and turning on the lights.
But I couldn’t stop.
The opponent skillfully and quickly escaped Holmes’ pursuit, narrowly avoiding it, and began running through the garden.
However, the phantom thief Raffles was also an ordinary human, and the distance between him and his pursuers had to narrow little by little.
Holmes could feel a small sense of relief without even realizing it as he was about a span away. However, he soon had no choice but to roll backwards to avoid something, and as a result, he had no choice but to collide with Watson, who was following right behind him, and roll around on the ground.
Watson screamed and tried to make a small protest about what was happening, but as Holmes, there was nothing he could do.
“Huh! hehehehe, why… “Why did it come out now?”
“Go back to your master quickly. “I have some personal business to attend to those b*tches.”
“Damn it, I got it anyway!”
In fact, the reason Raffles was let down was because the professor’s loyal servant was watching from outside.
Because I knew the wolf maid’s skills well, I was confident that she was the only one walking around in her mansion.
But now it feels good.
Raffles left Moran and the pursuers alone to do his work and started running again to get over the fence.
Raffles tried to track him down somehow, but Holmes and Watson had no choice but to stop in front of the suddenly appearing figure.
We couldn’t recognize each other’s faces because they were wearing masks, but it was good for Moran.
Personally, I wanted to take this opportunity to take care of those b*tches who were flirting with their master.
