174 – Preparation for Hunting (2)
“Miss Holmes! My… please! Even though it’s Miss Holmes, I’ll ask you again! Me… “I always keep my house clean and well-maintained, but it’s also a nuisance to other tenants!”
The Baker Street Special Forces were the first to enter the room where Watson and Holmes were staying, but the first to speak was Mrs. Hudson, who was frightened and rushed to protest to Holmes.
Of course Watson could see that she had really mustered up her courage. No matter how dull she may be, the way she treats Holmes is as if she is barely protesting against the unfair treatment of her superiors. Looking at Mrs. Hudson’s appearance, she will think so.
According to her lost memories of Watson, and her diary containing some of her memories, Mrs. Hudson was a ‘poor’ person who had a soft spot for her own friend, her Holmes.
Of course, Watson didn’t really think that way either.
This was true, as she had heard from Holmes again, but Mrs. Hudson was living a fairly wealthy life by amassing a large amount of her late husband’s fortune through an unusual wheat class in this area.
Previously, she had provided several conveniences to Holmes, who was aware of her weaknesses, but the current lodging for Watson and Holmes was also an extension of those conveniences.
When she lost her memory and decided to reunite with Holmes and live together, Watson expected that at best the two of them would end up living on the outskirts of London.
Holmes, who dropped out of college, and Watson, who has just received his doctor’s license but has little money to open a practice and almost no inheritance due to his debtor brother Henry and Watson’s frequent gambling.
It was difficult for two young women to live in the center of London like this.
Of course, it could have been solved if a dozen people lived together in a small room, as many workers did, but that was far from the dignified life of middle-class Londoners. Coincidentally, both Watson and Holmes were so-called well-bred girls who grew up in upper-middle-class families.
Of course, after learning about the true nature of the two people, there were more than one person who would wonder whether they could really be called respected ladies of average British society, but for now, that was the case.
In that respect, lodging at Baker Street was surprising. No matter how you look at the amount that Watson paid to Mrs. Hudson every week as a formality, the monthly rent was so cheap that it was suspicious that he was extorting Mrs. Hudson’s property.
Mrs. Hudson’s personality was apparently fine once she forgot that she was a smuggler. Above all else, her cooking skills were simple, but she was always so generous that even Watson was able to satisfy her. If it weren’t for Holmes, she would have been quite a strict person and would always keep her house tidy.
As much as she was Mrs. Hudson, she couldn’t help but be horrified when the vagabonds wandering down her street came directly into the house like this every time.
She was Mrs. Hudson, whom Baker used as part of her commando even before she met Holmes in the first place, but she was not brought into her household at that time.
In Watson’s opinion, Mrs. Hudson’s protest was justified. Therefore, without realizing it, she had no choice but to greet her landlord with a shy smile, but her friend, her friend Holmes, responded harshly.
“Mrs. Hudson, I’m at work, so we’ll talk later. “You even gave her some advice on expanding her personal business in the first place.”
“That… still!”
“It looks like Inspector Lestrade is coming to visit today… …. “If you want to talk about her wife’s business with her, you don’t have to leave.”
Mrs. Hudson, frightened by Holmes’ words, ran away and disappeared, and only then did Holmes nod and give an order to the Baker Street commandos who were waiting quietly.
Watson could tell that the boy was Wiggins.
He knew this because he was a boy who lived with Holmes for a month and came here several times. His older sister was the head of the Baker Street Special Forces under Holmes’ orders, and for some time now, Wiggins himself had been carrying out Holmes’ orders as a member of the Special Forces.
“… “I have a note from the wizard, so I brought it to you, Captain!”
“Tell your sister to behave as usual unless instructed otherwise, Wiggins. “This is conservative.”
Holmes, who received a crumpled note that appeared to be dirty trash from Wiggins, handed it to the boy, flipping a gold coin. Wiggins quickly took it, saluted like a soldier, and then disappeared.
Watson was curious about how street children were educated to behave like that, but he was more curious about the dirty note in Holmes’ hand, so Watson opened his mouth.
“So…… “What on earth is that trash?”
“Watson, sometimes I envy you because I think the world would be truly beautiful if you lived like Watson.”
“What… “What are you talking about again?”
“Watson will be comfortable because it really looks at the world in a simple way. “Unfortunately, this is the message that someone I recently semi-condemned finally sent me.”
Watson wanted to protest against Holmes’ playful taunts, but first his friend unfolded a crumpled piece of paper and showed it to him, so he had no choice but to look at it.
Of course I didn’t touch it. At first glance, it was paper that was part of a cigarette pack that was randomly discarded on the street.
But on that dirty paper, small numbers and alphabets were faintly written like a cipher.
“That’s… Was it that Porok? “The wizard who works for Professor Moriarty sent you, right?”
“Okay. Working under a teacher and trying to betray him… “To put it in these terms, you’re a rat.”
“Holmes.”
Watson opened her mouth at Holmes’ mischievous expression, and she lightly shrugged her shoulders.
But it was also half serious. It was a necessary tool, but that didn’t mean the other person was a good person.
“This man is what you might call a kind of necessary evil, Watson. We needed an insider to take over a castle that could not be destroyed from the outside, and this man was only chosen for the time being. “Of course I won’t just use you, because when we eventually achieve our goal, I will help you avoid a death sentence, even if it means spending a few years in prison or being taken to Australia.”
Of course, Fred Forlock does not think that the price of cooperation will ultimately be that. However, no matter how great a collaborator he was in taking down an evil organization, he could not make all the sins committed by the other party go unnoticed.
But that wasn’t what Watson focused on. It may seem cold, but in fact, Watson was not interested in what happened to the wizard Porok.
“Then what about the professor?”
“… “What does it mean?”
“Ah… no… …. Of course, Professor Moriarty is a bad person…… I know I have to stop him. That… So, Holmes, I’m helping you. That… by the way… …. Then, after we achieve our goal, the professor… Are you going to be executed?”
A moment of silence.
However, Holmes awkwardly broke the silence and continued.
“So… I won’t. For a teacher, death can never truly be a punishment. Therefore… I have to survive until the end, survive in hell… “We have to make them live together.”
Watson could not ask for the specific method. Of course, even if asked, Holmes couldn’t give an answer right away. Because she didn’t know yet.
However, both of them consciously avoided thinking about the answer and focused on the note again.
“So, what is that password?”
“I suggested a rudimentary method. Now Watson, I don’t know because you have no memory of this man, but he is typically an ordinary opportunist everywhere. That doesn’t mean he’s not a villain. He committed many evil deeds by helping the teacher, and is also credited with creating the current organization. However, such people always place importance on preserving their own position. Finally, this man got the idea that I might be a safety net for the place, so he gave me a little bit of information as a test.”
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“… So what is the password?”
“You saw the mixture of English and numbers, Watson. “Watson, I’m sure you’ve read it too, right?”
“… Bible?”
In response to Watson’s answer, Holmes nodded his head and moved to his desk to continue speaking. Of course, at the same time she picked up a blank piece of paper and started writing down something with her pen.
“It’s a rudimentary method. Information is conveyed by combining words corresponding to each Bible, chapter, and line. Actually, there is no need to do this. If it is discovered that this friend is leaking information little by little, the teacher will also find out, so the password is meaningless. But it’s still fun, right? I said that we should exchange information with each other through specific lines and words of the Bible. “The wizard is also a human being who has committed many evil deeds, so just imagine him looking through the Bible to send a password.”
“… Shall I bring you a Bible?”
“No, it’s in my head.”
Watson wanted to ask how on earth that was possible, but since Holmes spoke first, he had no choice but to listen in silence.
“Extremely dangerous. E.D. Expected to die within this week. It seems like they still don’t trust me, so they sent me literally meaningless information. Yes, someone will die. Because people die.”
“… “How can we stop it?”
“Well, Inspector Lestrade came just then. “I don’t know if it’s actually telling me that E.D. Is dead, but my intuition tells me that’s the case.”
After a while, as Holmes said, Inspector Lestrade came to the room of her two ladies and informed her that there had been a murder.
