Chapter 31

31. "That's just like you"

My throat went dry. I felt as if Sherlock was about to see right through me.

Perhaps it was his imposing presence, but Sherlock's figure seemed to loom over me, and I felt like a drab little mouse before a great cat. I wanted to run, but everywhere I could move lay in his shadow. A sense of impending disaster crept over me, leaving me with nowhere to escape.

I felt my face going stiff.

In the midst of that unbearable silence, Sherlock told me to keep my distance from that professor and not go charging at him like a fool.

I heard every word, but when I put them together, I half understood and half didn't.

On the bus to school, my head was still a muddle. I turned Sherlock's words over and over, unable to understand what he meant. I understood them literally, but I wondered how much he knew about Professor Moriarty to make him say something like that.

Just then, my phone chimed.

I hurriedly opened it. Sure enough, the manga had updated.

The first thing that greeted me was a color illustration of Professor William Moriarty. It was exquisitely detailed, with luxurious Rococo interior decorations surrounding him. He sat in the very center. Besides Louis and Moran, who had already appeared in the first chapter, two unfamiliar dark silhouettes stood at his side.

Professor Moriarty's gaze was lifted slightly, his face devoid of any superfluous emotion. It was entirely different from his usual gentle, restrained manner. He was like a commander atop a tower, holding the lives and deaths of others in his hands, controlling the situation as a matter of course and without anyone able to defy him.

[The little professor is both beautiful and handsome. I'm so moved I could cry! He looks amazing. For this art style alone, I could follow this to the end!]

[I finally got it. I'm so moved, wuwuwu.]

[Wow, a devastatingly gorgeous opening. Prpr.]

[So happy!! An update~]

That opening really did hit me hard.

Fortunately, Professor Moriarty was still a two-dimensional character in the manga. If his real face had come at me like that, I probably wouldn't have been able to handle it.

Rather than wait for it to scroll down automatically, I skipped the opening myself.

The manga's scene was set at night.

A crystal chandelier cast a soft, shimmering light, as if countless stars had settled over the scene. Their brilliant specks reflected off the splendid interior, making every detail look dreamlike.

Small print in the manga explained in detail that this lively banquet was actually a salon gathering held by the University of London's Mathematics Department.

People moved freely through the banquet, which was as lively as a cocktail party. The young and handsome Professor Moriarty walked among the crowd. He was a new professor here, and colleagues and students welcomed him one after another. Before Moriarty could introduce himself, everyone around him already knew his name.

As the evening lights came on at the banquet, an atmosphere of joy and anticipation filled the venue.

Professor Moriarty smiled faintly. "I've only just arrived at this university, yet so many people already know me. I'm truly honored."

"Starting today, we're all colleagues at the same university. It's only right to make preparations in advance," the other colleagues said warmly

.

Professor Moriarty's presence created a distinctive atmosphere at the center of the manga, as if the entire venue revolved around him. Sometimes he nodded in response; sometimes he smiled and chatted. His smile was light and composed, like placing a piece on an invisible chessboard, and every movement carried an air of elegance.

In the lively atmosphere of the banquet, Professor Moriarty naturally drew people's eyes and attention. Whether it was his appearance or his presence, both conveyed an influence that could not be ignored.

Professor Moriarty looked around and asked, "Is there a special theme for this mathematics salon?"

"The main purpose is to discover talented students. Every year, we invite the top-ranked student from each year to attend. You could say this mathematics salon brings together the future hopes of the entire mathematical world."

"Hope?"

Moriarty pondered the word.

One of the doctoral supervisors said, "There are two international scholarship students here this time."

After those words, the manga showed two separate shots: one of Lily Schneider, a blond young man active among the crowd, and the other of Lanny, a black-haired young man sitting on a bench in the corner, staring at his phone as if cut off from the world around him.

Professor Moriarty's gaze fell directly on the silent Lanny. At the same time, four or five speech bubbles appeared beside him.

"But the one we should pay particular attention to is Lily Schneider, who comes from Europe."

"Lily Schneider's grandfather taught here. He was Connor Schneider, the distinguished professor of algebra and real analysis. Most of the related works we read now were written by him or his students. I came to this university's Mathematics Department because I admired him."

"It's such a tragedy what happened to Professor Connor."

"Who could have anticipated a misfortune like that?"

"Shh, don't discuss that."

"William, don't tell anyone outside that we mentioned Professor Schneider."

That sentence occupied the entire panel, while the bubble marking Professor Moriarty's position contained only six silent dots: "..."

[Is the little professor so absorbed in looking at Lanny?]

[In such an exciting setting with so much history, Professor Moriarty didn't even react?]

[If someone who might expose my crimes at any moment were around me, I'd do more than tune everyone out. I'd be thinking about hiding first.]

[Why would the little professor hide? But isn't that picture of Lanny too small? Even his profile is just a line.]

[After all, that person called Lanny seems to have seen their team commit a crime. Even if the little professor is wary of him, he can't just kill him to silence him right away. Naturally, he has to observe him carefully!]

When I saw that comment, I couldn't help feeling relieved.

Thank goodness the Moriarty of this world wasn't a criminal mastermind who killed without blinking.

The fact that I had managed to stay alive until now was entirely thanks to William Moriarty's characterization in this manga.

When someone addressed him, Professor Moriarty quickly came back to his senses and smiled at his colleagues. Clearly, he hadn't missed their conversation either. A trace of gloom crossed his eyes, and his words carried a gentle chill, while his smile held a subtle hint of something else. "I understand this isn't an easy subject."

[What Professor Moriarty means is that he's going to cause some serious trouble.]

[What exactly was that tragedy?]

I badly wanted to skip straight to what I most wanted to know, but I was afraid of missing even the slightest shift in Moriarty's thoughts.

Besides, the scene's introduction had only taken a few panels on one page, so I patiently read on.

Presumably to highlight Lily Schneider, an important character in this manga case, the manga also showed the math problem from when Professor Moriarty and I first met—the one I'd thought was a social game. Unless the first player went easy, the second player would have little chance of winning.

I hadn't known William Moriarty at the time, so I hadn't paid attention to how he had happened to get numbers that mirrored mine. But this time, from Moriarty's perspective in the manga, I could see that he had taken the initiative to swap with someone else and then with me.

That was enough to show that he had known I was there and had been testing me.

In another panel, Lily Schneider won a decisive victory. When he stepped onto the podium, thunderous applause erupted around him, as if everyone were lifting high a star about to rise.

Moriarty asked the young man beside him, "What do you think of that young man?"

"He doesn't drink."

Moriarty instinctively looked at Lily Schneider's wineglass. Although he picked it up along with everyone else each time, he avoided actually drinking, so the level in his glass had not changed.

Moriarty fell silent. "..."

[I went back to check the manga. Lily really didn't drink.]

[What's wrong with not drinking? I didn't drink at university either! I thought alcohol tasted awful.]

[They specifically pointed it out here, so there must be something wrong.]

Seeing this, I couldn't help feeling a jolt in my heart. I had only made that remark without thinking at the time.

It was because I thought it strange that Lily Schneider, such a social butterfly, walked around with a wineglass but never drank. Still, it wasn't something I should concern myself with or speculate about, so I hadn't given it much thought.

The manga continued—

With his background as the grandson of a distinguished professor and his outstanding performance at the mathematics salon, Schneider quickly made his way into the upper ranks of the mathematics professors. In the process, Moriarty discovered that Schneider was secretly investigating the truth behind his grandfather's tragic death several years ago. Once, one of the professors who knew what had happened got drunk and accidentally let something slip, allowing Schneider to discover the truth.

It turned out that the shooting back then had not been an accident.

The killer, who suffered from epilepsy, had been used.

The Mathematics Department professors had ostracized him when he first enrolled. As time passed, the pressure on him grew until he eventually had an epileptic seizure at school. At the time, something else happened to coincide with it: the old professor accidentally discovered that the current professors had falsified data and proposed that they publicly apologize. Unwilling to see their reputations ruined, the professors decided to use the student. They got him to return to school and told him that the old professor was the real culprit.

They knew full well that the old professor could not abandon all the students when the gunshots rang out, and so, just as they had intended, he died under the gun.

And so a planned murder was disguised as a random incident.

"What do you want to do, then?" Moriarty asked.

"Because they let something slip, I know they'll come after me sooner or later.

Right now, I'm using the demand for top marks to pressure them into cooperating, pretending I'm just a student who wants high grades as a smokescreen, while I gather evidence. But I'm afraid I'll run out of time."

Schneider held his chest as he spoke. "Because of my family medical history, I have advanced heart disease. When I came to this university, I had already been told I didn't have much time left. Time and tide wait for no man. If my death can drag everyone into hell..."

A single exposure of the falsification might be covered up and disappear just like that.

To leave evil nowhere to hide, Schneider was willing to offer his blood as a sacrifice.

Schneider's gaze grew resolute and steadfast, as if his deeply buried determination had been ignited at that moment. He clenched his hands and smiled. "I do it gladly."

His fingers brushed lightly over a photograph of the old Professor Schneider in his youth. The old professor's gaze was firm, as if telling him not to bow before hardship.

Moriarty looked at Lily Schneider. "Your determination is admirable, Schneider." His voice was calm and gentle, but the emotion it contained could not be ignored.

Sure enough, the professor who had accidentally let the truth slip had already begun planning to kill him.

He deliberately fostered an atmosphere in which students returning late to school would be attacked by thugs. Once again, he sought to use a random incident to create the impression that Schneider had died accidentally after an altercation with a thug on his way home at night. To that end, the professor also studied how to mislead the medical examiner about the time of death, and murdered Lily Schneider on the roof of the teaching building.

When Professor Moriarty realized Lily Schneider had not contacted him, an ominous feeling welled up in his heart, as if terrible news had already arrived before him. Standing in the classroom, he had a vision of the tragic incident that had taken place there several years earlier. Anger and disgust churned in his heart. He

couldn't keep a mocking smile from curling his lips, as if ridiculing those evil people.

Just then, the black-haired young man knocked on the classroom door, pulling Professor Moriarty back to reality, and entered carrying a computer.

"Professor Moriarty, there's something I'd like to tell you—"

The young man wore a dark blue sweater, which made his cool, pale skin and his whole appearance seem even fresher and neater.

His gaze was focused, fixed directly on Professor Moriarty. His voice was equally firm and strong. "It's about the recent attacks on several students at the school's back gate. Using the victims' characteristics, the times, locations, methods, routes of movement, and types of weapons, I made multidimensional function graphs."

[Huh? What did you say? What kind of functions?]

[Everyone, quiet, don't talk, or I won't be able to take this in. QAQ]

[It feels like my brain is being forcibly pushed into working...]

[What's with this person?!]

[Is this person even believable?!]

The black-haired young man in the manga paused briefly and continued, "I discovered that these points are all random. That means this isn't the work of one person as we imagined, but a group carrying out these deliberate actions in their own ways. Moreover, with security on heightened alert, when I removed the other dimensions and considered only the time factor, the frequency of criminal activity and time produced a positive higher-order function graph."

At this point, the young man frowned slightly and continued his explanation. "In other words, with security on heightened alert,

the intervals between criminal activities have shortened. That goes against common sense. Normally, when criminals find security has been tightened in the surrounding area, they lie low rather than hurry to act as they are now."

"Something is going to happen, Professor Moriarty."

The young man's gaze burned.

[6]

[I don't understand, but it sounds impressive.]

[I don't get it, but it sounds amazing.]

[Guys, bring out the translator!]

[So, Lanny collected information about passersby being attacked, analyzed the data himself, found that criminal activity was becoming more frequent over a short period, and realized a premeditated crime was going to happen?]

[It's actually not pseudoscience?!]

[Math can be used for deduction and solving cases in the first place! Though I don't know how, that's all.]

A thought welled up in Professor Moriarty's mind, but his expression remained unchanged. He said calmly, "Shouldn't you tell the police or someone in charge at the school about this?"

[If they can avoid security in time to commit crimes, it must involve someone inside the school.]

[I bet Lanny noticed, but didn't think he needed to explain in that much detail.]

[Math can be used like this? How terrifying!]

The young man was noncommittal. "Because you're the only person I trust at this school, you're the only one I want to tell."

Professor Moriarty gazed deeply at the young man, then said softly, "Actually, I know the truth behind this, but are you willing to work with me?"

[Wow, did the little professor trust him so quickly? (excited)]

[That can't be it. The little professor can handle it himself. All he has to do now is expose the student's death; he doesn't need someone to help him specifically. I just don't know why he said that?]

[I bet the little professor is going to test him, to see if he knows who he is?]

Professor Moriarty said, "Too much is involved in this. Schneider has already become a victim."

His words brought a silence, and the young man's expression grew grave. "..."

"If I said I needed to make you a criminal suspect, would you agree?"

The young man frowned, but asked without hesitation, "What exactly do you want me to do?"

"When the police investigate you, insist that you have no alibi and steer their thinking toward your recent grades. Can you do that? When they actually investigate, I can be your alibi."

This plan had been developing for quite some time. From the deeply buried evidence, Moriarty had already pieced together a terrifying plot. The crimes their perpetrators believed were deeply hidden were exposed by him one by one, forming a bewildering mystery, and he was the one who would unravel it.

He had already carefully devised a seemingly coincidental scenario in which he would stumble upon the killer's scheme, leaving them unable to disguise it as another accident. Every detail had been thoroughly considered, and every action proceeded step by step. In this plan, with Schneider as the spark, Moriarty would become an utterly cold executioner and thoroughly punish those criminals.

["I'll be your alibi" sounds so good~]

[They're accomplices!!]

[Pfft, that's cooperation. Why call them accomplices? Hehehe!]

[That's not right. What if Professor Moriarty deliberately harms him and doesn't say Lanny is innocent?]

[The little professor wouldn't be that low.]

[But Lanny doesn't know whether the little professor will harm him. He doesn't know what kind of person the little professor is.]

"I don't have any friends at school. I keep to myself, and nobody's interested in me. I stay alone in the library. That alibi should be easy to establish." The young man agreed quickly.

Moriarty was surprised inwardly, but didn't show it. "Aren't you afraid I'll go back on my word?"

For the first time in the manga, the young man Lanny showed a faint smile. "I think you're a good person."

Those words seemed to open a door in Professor Moriarty's heart.

His eyes flickered with complicated emotions, and a gentle smile unconsciously touched his lips.

[The little professor looks like he's accepted Lanny.]

[Does Lanny really not know what kind of person the little professor is? How could he agree to that?]

[This young man has a good eye and sharp insight. You can tell at a glance he's a teammate the little professor will recruit.]

[I can't wait to see Lanny's face when he finds out later that the little professor is connected to that bombing. It'll be spectacular~~]

By the time I reached this point in the manga, I let out a complete sigh of relief, and even my shoulders relaxed considerably.

Although it hadn't covered the coffee incident, I could rest easy as long as Professor Moriarty wouldn't treat me as an enemy.

Next, all I had to do was watch the clash between Sherlock and Moriarty.

I looked up to check where the bus had reached. It was another three minutes to school.

I lowered my head again to read another bit or two of the manga.

The next part of the manga covered the time I was taken into the police station. The police also took my advice and went to find the professors in the teaching building. Professor Moriarty came to provide my alibi as agreed.

However, just then, an unexpected person appeared.

At Scotland Yard, the students led by Lucian crowded together and protested to the detectives. Professor Moriarty stood to the side, observing.

"Lanny has an alibi. It's me."

"Me too!"

"I saw him reading in the library with my own eyes."

As it turned out, after Watson heard what had happened, he hurried off to find Lucian and asked him to provide the alibi I needed.

Detective Lestrade tried to quiet them down, warning them that giving false testimony was against the law. But the students clamored to speak. "I'm sure I saw him."

Another person chimed in. "Lucian said today that Student Lanny wanted to make friends. Once word got around, we were all excited. A lot of people were secretly watching him, hoping for a chance to talk to him. From one to three this afternoon, he was reading a... I don't know what book it was, but he was definitely reading one."

"He was sitting in a corner of the library and seemed unwilling to talk to anyone. He was wearing a new sweater today. You can find fibers from it there. The school library was cleaned during that period, so you can verify it."

Someone said, disgruntled, "What does that prove?"

Another person said angrily, "This is why I've always argued that we should take pictures of Student He. Photos have timestamps now. Look, without a photo, you can't even provide an alibi. Do you see the problem?"

As Detective Lestrade tried to stop them, he couldn't help adding, "Taking pictures of someone without permission is against the law. No photos."

The noise before Moriarty was like a marketplace. He recalled the young man's words—"no friends," "a loner," "no one is interested in him"—yet now countless alibis were coming forward, each vying to be heard. In an instant, he remembered Lanny alone in the library study room, writing complex mathematical formulas on the whiteboard as he worked through problems. His slender, resolute figure seemed to belong to an ethereal realm, making it impossible to look away.

The corners of Moriarty's mouth lifted slightly, an elusive hint of amusement rising within him.

Just what I'd expect from you, Lanny.

[Just what I'd expect from you. You don't even realize how charming you are!]

[Just what I'd expect from you, being so popular at school~]

[Just what I'd expect from you. You even knew to guard against Professor Moriarty.]

[Just what I'd expect from you 666]

[So what exactly is the little professor thinking now? Does he think Lanny really is popular, or does he think Lanny was guarding against him?]

[I think the little professor might have believed him at first, but after all this, he thinks Lanny can't be trusted again.]

The bus had reached its stop, and the driver was urging the passengers to get off. I knew I should get off, but I couldn't put down my phone. Even though I knew I wouldn't miss any of the story, I couldn't wait to see what happened next.

Let me take one more look!

What exactly did Moriarty mean?!