Chapter 17

17. "The Person Outside the Window"

Less than ten percent of the manga had shocked me so badly that I couldn't sleep that night.

Yet I had no choice but to keep reading.

Although seeing myself in the manga made me feel so embarrassed and awkward that I didn't really want to read on, it gave me a lot of information and updates that were vital to my survival. I still needed to know as much as possible about what the people around me were thinking. Even if my face turned bright red, I had to finish it.

Things were far more dire than I had imagined.

Not only was the whole Holmes family watching me now, but I had also somehow made enemies of the Moriarty camp.

If I hadn't read the manga, I wouldn't even have known that I'd already been caught in a vortex I couldn't escape. I'd even been happily getting ready for school. Before bed, I'd made a schedule for orientation day a week later, planning to use the lunch break to borrow the books recommended for my major from the library.

In any case, before I continued reading, I decided to look up what kind of person Moriarty from Moriarty the Patriot was.

Judging by Louis and Moran, two characters I wasn't familiar with, Moriarty didn't seem to be the kind of villain who would hurt innocent people. Before setting off an explosion, he would first try to draw innocent bystanders away. But Moran's actions also told me that their secret identities came before everything else, and that they didn't mind making sacrifices.

I started by making a post: [Are the main characters of "Moriarty the Patriot" good guys or bad guys?]

If they were good guys, there was a pretty good chance they wouldn't kill an innocent citizen (me).

Then I wouldn't have to be so anxious...

But if they were people who would stop at nothing and innocent citizens were just tools to them, then my chances of dying would go up.

Perhaps because the manga had just been updated and a new character had appeared, my post got a lot of attention. I didn't have to wait long for the first comment.

[Good and evil, right and wrong don't matter. If you think this world is all black and white, you're underestimating humanity.]

The very first reply left me speechless.

[You could say they're all good people, or you could say they're all villains. If I were there, I might be even more extreme than Moriarty!]

[The little professor is innocent!!! prprpr]

[In the original, they all execute villains in their own ways, giving vulnerable people bullied by the nobility a chance at revenge and redemption. What they do isn't legal, but it's understandable. Even Sherlock thinks Moriarty is a righteous thief and has actually helped him.]

[Come on, discussing whether the protagonist is a good guy in a story starring Moriarty is so boring! It's adapted from the original, so he's bound to be on the villain's side. There's no way he'd be a saint. His willingness to sacrifice himself and his resolve to give everything already mean he can't be judged simply as good or bad. If someone like him were whitewashed, he'd actually lose his appeal.]

[As a fan of the little professor, I wanted to pull out a knife when I read the first sentence, but I quietly put it down after reading the last one. That's a pretty fair take.]

An extremist?

A psycho?

I pondered that.

[By the way, have you all read the first case in the Holmes manga? Everyone's background has been moved from the late nineteenth century to the twenty-first century, so what roles do Moriarty and his group play in modern society? Does the eldest brother still have his job? What does Mori

arty do? Is he a full-time criminal consultant, or did he take the professor route from the original? Teaching at a small university?]

[No idea, but the art style is cleaner and the characters are more handsome than in the original. Louis looks so good!! I love him!!]

[His glasses turned me on so much too.]

[So I'm not the only one who thought so!!]

[And that big shot who walked past on the street!!! Oh my god, have you guys finished reading? I really want to discuss it with you!]

[You mean the person who spotted Louis and Moran, then moved into 221B Baker Street right afterward? At first I wondered if that was Watson, but his character setup is way too Mary Sue.]

[What! Is that person Watson?!]

[No, Watson is someone else. That person seems to be a student visiting Britain for the first time.]

[Looks like he's got quite a background. Everyone at Scotland Yard seems to listen to him, and even Officer Donovan, who's always needling Sherlock, is very patient with him.]

[Wow!! That's amazing! I'm going to check it out too!]

W-what had I missed?

Had I already ended up in a different world from everyone else just because I hadn't read the remaining ninety percent?

As the people on the forum chatted, they began to go off topic.

Once they went off topic, there was no bringing them back.

I'd originally hoped to get some reliable information about Moriarty the Patriot. But now they'd been moved to a new era, so their original patterns of behavior in resisting the class system would have to change with the times too.

A sudden thought struck me: were Moriarty and the others actually watching me from somewhere nearby?

Surely not.

I glanced out the window without thinking.

Before I could get a clear look, I got a fright.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a patch of light at the window, with a huge dark shadow looming against it.

For a moment, it looked like someone was lying against the window, watching me. The person had a nose and eyes, and it was terrifying. But when I looked closely, the scene outside was peaceful, and the figure in the window was only my own reflection.

I'd scared myself for no reason, leaving even myself speechless.

My nerves must have been too tense lately.

I'd better focus on doing what I could for now.

I rubbed my temples, let out a gentle breath, and worked up the courage to continue reading the manga.