Becoming Professor Moriarty's Probability

Chapter 4: The Scandal of the Bohemian Queen

A few dozen minutes before a lady of unknown identity knocked on the door of the boarding house—

"Hello, Mrs. Hudson."

"Miss Watson. You came quite early today."

Dr. Rachel Watson, who had returned home earlier than usual, was scratching her head in response to the inquiry of the housekeeper— Mrs. Hudson.

"Yes. There weren't many people at the hospital today."

"I don't know whether to be happy or sad about that."

"Ahaha..."

Watson laughed at Mrs. Hudson's light joke as she made her way to her room.

– Bang! Boom!

She frowned slightly at the sound of gunfire coming from a distance.

"What is she up to now?"

Normally, when one heard a gunshot, the common reaction would be to panic or call the police.

But at 221B Baker Street, where she resided, such common sense didn't apply.

"Holmes. What on earth are you doing now?"

The most eccentric figure in the entirety of London. The reason for the shattering of the average common sense was because her roommate— Holmes, who was significantly older than Watson in age, lived here.

"...Watson? You came early today."

Opening the door, as Watson asked with a puzzling look on her face... A young woman, sprawled out like a corpse on the armchair with a white robe loosely draped around her body, picked up a cigarette and waved her hand in greeting.

"Want to try some Arcadia tobacco?"

Watching her, Watson quietly leaked a tired sigh.

Usually, her sharp grey eyes would shine brightly with luster, but now they were dull and clouded. Similarly, her once lustrous black hair had lost its shine and looked very dry and brittle at this moment.

Yet, even as Holmes offered her a cigarette with a dark smile on her face, an unmistakable air of charm and mystery could be felt from her very being.

"What were you doing just now?"

"As you can see, I was decorating the room."

"Ah."

Had she not been shooting the wall in front of her in the shape of a phallus, it would've looked quite enchanting.

"Why did you drop your usual manner of speaking and start doing this absurd thing?"

"Well, isn't a softer tone nice sometimes?"

Watson, looking down at Holmes with a look of disdain, shook her head in disbelief and sighed once more.

The longer there was no case for Holmes to tackle, the more bizarre her behavior seemed to get.

"Wait, were you experimenting with Mana Stones again?"

Thinking about this, Watson, who was heading to her usual spot, noticed the traces of an experiment on a table in the corner of the room. She frowned and spoke up.

"I distinctly told you that excessive experimentation can lead to mana poisoning, right?"

"It's fine, Watson."

Holmes, carelessly throwing her gun onto a distant sofa, responded with a languid expression on her face.

"For the advancement of investigative science, such a risk is a trivial matter. In fact, I've been conducting the experiments safely..."