Chapter 23

23. "Notification: The manga preview has been updated."

I hadn't wanted to let Professor Moriarty into the room. But since he was the professor for my main course, I gave in and obediently opened the door.

The room was cramped, barely big enough for two or three people. When I opened the door, I stepped back with it to make room for Professor Moriarty to enter.

Honestly, the movement gave me a strange sense of déjà vu, as though a villain had backed me into a corner with nowhere to escape.

Professor Moriarty greeted me first. "I only came over to say hello. It's been a while. Have you been well?"

He seemed friendly, like a friend I hadn't seen in a long time but was still on good terms with. He also had a good sense of boundaries and didn't make people uncomfortable.

"Yes, thanks to you, Professor, I've been doing quite well."

I couldn't stop replaying the moment he'd caught me watching his recorded lecture. I desperately wanted a chance to explain and settle (cover up) the matter right then and there.

If he deduced from this that I hadn't been attending his lectures, I'd be in serious trouble.

But wouldn't bringing it up myself make me look guilty?

Professor Moriarty continued, "Would you mind if I took a look at the textbook you're reading?"

"Go ahead."

Professor Moriarty stood in front of the desk, his gaze resting on the densely packed text in the book.

To me, he looked so young—so young and refined that I found it hard to reconcile him with the elderly professor I remembered, or the consulting criminal from Sherlock.

While I was still lost in thought, I saw him glance at the recorded lecture on the screen with perfect nonchalance, as if he weren't the person on it.

Embarrassment flooded me. I wished I could equip Sherlock's rational-mind system and snuff out all my emotions before they could take root. Only then could I converse and get along with this lord of crime at ease.

My fingers moved unconsciously. They wanted to close the laptop outright, but snapping it shut would have been too rude and made me look guilty, so I tried not to look at it.

Sure enough, Professor Moriarty asked about the recording. "How was my teaching?"

I answered instantly, "Excellent."

As soon as I finished speaking, Professor Moriarty looked into my eyes and said, "Then why haven't you attended my lectures since the second week? I heard you've attended other professors' lectures, and mine were the only ones you missed. I've been wondering whether what I teach is too boring for you. You still came first in the latest quiz for this subject, so I thought it really must be because I didn't teach well enough for you to feel the need to listen."

... Help.

He'd come to settle old scores.

He'd known all along.

How was I supposed to explain?

Waiting online, urgent!

At that moment, Sherlock flashed through my mind.

I said, "Actually, it's because your lectures happened to clash with my working hours. My boss has been short-staffed lately, and he told me attendance doesn't count toward our lecture grades, so he told me not to go."

Sherlock, I promise I'll work even harder from now on.

Let me borrow your name for a moment.

Moriarty stared into my eyes, seemingly checking whether I was lying.

Not wanting to dwell on the matter, I said again, "You really are an excellent teacher, Professor Moriarty."

Moriarty smiled. "It would be rather conceited of me to say that myself. But I actually saw you enter the study room an hour ago. You were so absorbed in the recorded lecture that I didn't disturb you. That did make me think my teaching couldn't be all that bad."

"..."

I really wanted to cover my face.

Moriarty paused, then said, "By the way, when it's just the two of us, you can call me William, like you did the evening we first met."

No, no, no, no, no!

I wouldn't dare.

You could never imagine how much that last sentence made me panic.

If I could, I wanted to smash through the window and flee right then.

He continued, "When you didn't show up in the second week, I thought about contacting you. But you were always alone at school and seemed uninterested in socializing, so I thought you weren't actually interested in me."

At the same time, Professor Moriarty turned to look at my laptop screen, smiling with warm, refined friendliness. "Now it seems I was mistaken."

I knew perfectly well that he was not the kind of person to open his heart to someone and have a simple conversation without an ulterior motive.

Yet to me, he now looked every bit like a kind and helpful young professor.

The more gently he reached out to me, the more that incongruity made me squirm and fidget.

Unable to bear the mental torment, I decided to call for a break.

"Professor, I'm sorry. I really am not very good at dealing with people, and I won't make you feel uncomfortable. If you have time now, please let me buy you a cup of coffee."

After saying that, I seized the opportunity to shut the embarrassing laptop.

Moriarty smiled and didn't refuse.

On our way to buy coffee, I saw people greet the professor from time to time. Even the waitress at the coffee shop was very enthusiastic toward Moriarty.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him a popular professor.

After buying coffee, I wanted to find an excuse to part ways.

But I found it very difficult to be the one to suggest parting. If we stayed silent, we'd end up back in the predicament we'd been in at the study room—my predicament, that is. So I casually started a conversation. "Professor, you're very popular at the university."

"That's not true." Professor Moriarty was very modest, or perhaps he simply didn't care, so he disagreed with me.

My pedantic tendency to correct other people's views surfaced again.

To prove my point, I continued, "The student who just walked past us probably likes you too. There was a very subtle change in his eyes when he saw you."

Professor Moriarty's eyes flickered, and the genuine smile on his face faded a little. "Is that so?"

I noticed at once that Professor Moriarty wasn't interested in the subject and instinctively amended what I'd said. "If it wasn't affection, maybe it was more a look of recognition."

After all, he was the kind of

popular professor people would naturally find it exciting to see in person on the street. ()

Moriarty smiled and asked, half joking and half serious, "Is that your intuition?"

I found it rather puzzling that he'd think that.

Surely mathematicians are rarely willing to trust their intuition?

"Doesn't the existence of mathematical logic tell us just how unreliable human intuitive thinking is?"

As soon as I spoke, a fleeting chill appeared in Moriarty's expression.

Though it lasted only an instant, I still felt a chill run up my spine and straight to my heart.

I didn't know what had happened.

Professor Moriarty didn't respond directly. Instead, he checked the time on his phone and said to me with the poise and propriety expected of a professor, "I'm sorry, my break is over. I have something else to do. We can have a proper chat next time, all right?"

"... All right."

After watching Professor Moriarty leave, I felt a strong, mixed sense of unease. I was certain the sudden change in his attitude and mood was highly unusual. It meant there had to be some misunderstanding between us.

I anxiously took out my phone and checked the manga forum again.

Manga, when on earth are you going to update?

My fingers kept refreshing the page unconsciously, hoping a miracle would suddenly descend just as I wished. I knew refreshing over and over was pointless, but my anxiety wouldn't let me stop.

After three or four minutes of hopeless, desperate refreshing, just as I was about to give up, a bright red dialog box suddenly appeared on the manga forum. In an instant, it was like a warm, blazing light shining down on me.

"Notification: The manga preview has been updated."