C203: Water and City (2)
Chapter sponsored by Melekono and myo. Thank you for your support.
At Casey Selmore's words, Rudger shut up because he could feel her confidence. His identity, which he had been hiding until now, was discovered by Casey Selmore.
'There is a possibility that she is simply testing me.'
Rudger decided to pretend for now.
"What are you talking about?"
"What are you trying to hide? I told you, James Moriarty."
"How dare you aim your cane at me and say nonsense. Is this the detective's way?"
"It's no use pretending you don't know until the end. From the time I saw you in Theon I had a feeling of déjà vu."
Casey was now convinced that he was James Moriarty and the situation was not good for Rudger, who felt that he could no longer back down.
He tried to deal with a branch of the Black Dawn Society quietly but things got messed up from the start and he got caught by the person who shouldn't have caught him.
"I was surprised. I didn't think you would become a teacher at Theon. How did you get into Theon and how did you make the president accept you?"
"……."
"Are you going to keep quiet? That would be nice. Since we've come this far anyway, there's no point in making any excuses."
Casey's voice contained an unbearable sense of joy.
'I finally found him.'
This time it was real. All of her senses and all of her cells were shouting that the man in front of her was the one who she had been looking for so long.
It didn't make sense that he could become a teacher at Theon and that the president didn't deal with him.
Judging from her conversation with the president, Elisa Willow was not an easy opponent.
Teacher Rudger Chelici who received so much attention was a notorious crime consultant in the past?
Those who heard it would have dismissed it as nonsense. At least that's what Casey thought when he first met Rudger.
However, on the last day of the festival, Casey felt a strange sense of wonder at Rudger's behavior that informed her of the traces of the Black Dawn Society.
'It's the same as before, when I chased him three years ago in the kingdom of Delica.'
Ironically, the naturalness of the situation gave Casey a clue.
'It was like that back then, too.'
It felt like someone was showing her the way by putting pieces of bread in a maze where the exit is unknown as if he wanted her side to find out the answer.
Casey, who solves cases with her own power, felt an unpleasant feeling that was hard to express in words and she never wanted to experience that unpleasantness again.
Casey stared intensely at Rudger again and at the same time, the knot in her heart was undone.
Her extreme obsession for him has finally reached the right answer.
"I told you, didn't I? I never miss."
"……."
"Throw away the cane and raise your hand."
Rudger slowly raised his hands, putting his cane down on the floor.
"Turn around slowly and don't try anything."
"……."
Rudger turned slowly as Casey told him to.
'Yeah. Go ahead and show that smug face.'
Casey's heart was pounding as she was waiting to see Rudger's expression. Her fingertips trembled with excessive excitement as the long-cherished event approached her eyes.
What expression was he making? Defeat? Pain? Disgrace?
At that moment Casey's body froze at the sound of a mouse crying from somewhere.
It was an instinctive reaction and in the gap of that moment Rudger's body suddenly moved quickly and attacked Casey.
"Oh!"
The distance between them was more than 3 meters however Rudger narrowed the distance quickly.
'Faster!'
His body was not strengthened by mana or else she would have noticed right away.
Rudger moved only using his pure physical ability and his hand left an afterimage as Casey cane flew from her hand.
Casey belatedly realized that Rudger had thrown a dagger he had hidden.
'Dagger? A wizard?'
Losing her wand disrupted her judgment and Rudger pushed Casey against the wall.
"Kuk!"
Rudger's strong right arm grabbed Casey's wrist and a hidden dagger popped out of the back of his wristguard mounted on his left arm and aimed at Casey's neck.
From the moment her cane flew away, she drew water from the underground waterway to create countless spears at the same time that Rudger pointed a blade at her neck and surrounded Rudger with a window of water.
Their eyes intertwined in the air and Casey said with a grin.
"What a man. You're a wizard and you're hiding your skills?"
"Be quiet. If you do anything stupid, you'll get a hole in your neck."
"Do it. Will you be faster, or will I kill you faster?"
"Your bluffing won't work."
Rudger and Casey glared at each other and when the situation was about to reach its limit a rat cry reverberated through the sewer again.
Casey shuddered at the cry and the spears of water she made trembled a little.
Rudger looked at Casey who was sweating and asked just in case.
"Are you afraid of mice?"
Casey clenched her lips at the sharp remark. Her eyes, which were not shaken at all, rolled to the side.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
He said so, but her body was already responding and a slight tremor came from her slender wrists.
Then, as a rat approached her Casey's face turned pale.
Rudger lifted the mouse with his magic and brought him close to Casey.
"What, what are you doing? Get rid of it! Get rid of it!"
"……."
Rudger was dumbfounded at Casey's scream. She was really afraid of mice.
'That's why I didn't even want to fight.'
The brutal atmosphere, in which they seemed to kill each other a little while ago, flowed in a strange direction because of a mouse.
"That's lame."
Rudger said so and received the protruding dagger. He also let go of Casey's wrist.
"What are you doing?"
Asked Casey.
Meanwhile, Rudger released the mouse that ran away in a hurry.
"What are you doing?"
"The great detective is terrified of a gutter rat. I can't even laugh because I'm speechless."
"You…!"
Casey raised her eyes at the words that touched her pride.
"I can kill you with just one hand. Do you know that?"
"Try it."
"What?"
"Try it."
At Rudger's confident eyes, Casey was speechless.
"If you can kill me, why don't you do it right away? Use your water magic to kill me. Wasn't that the title you received for that?"
"Shut up!"
"Or you can't kill me? What a coward."
"……Death is too merciful for a man like you."
"You shouldn't speak so confidently when your legs are weak and you can't even stand properly."
"Hey, it's just….."
As soon as she tried to make an excuse, Rudger pressed her forehead with his fingertips.
Casey slumped and the spears of water surrounding the area also disappeared.
"If you want to catch me, I hope you can grow your courage a little more. The famous detective being afraid of mice discourages me."
"………Are you in such a position to be this confident? If you were caught, you should think about running away first."
Casey spoke in a threatening tone, but even that felt like a whining for Rudger.
"Do you think I can't do it? I can plaster your identity on the front page of tomorrow's newspaper right away!"
"No. You won't."
"Why are you so sure? That kind of bravado……."
"Because your pride won't allow it."
"……."
Rudger hit the nail on the head and Casey was speechless.
"Wow, don't make me laugh. I…."
"If you didn't really need your pride, you wouldn't have followed me secretly for three years."
Casey could have spread the rumor like James Moriarty is alive, and he lives in disguise but she didn't.
"Because you're a woman who hates to borrow someone's hand to handle things."
The words stabbed into Casey's heart and she gritted her teeth while stared at Rudger with blazing anger in her eyes.
"Did you know everything?"
"Yes."
"You knew and you used me?"
"Are you angry that I've been using you? It's funny to argue about that now. In fact, isn't it you who knows better than anyone else?"
"……."
"If you really wanted to catch me, you would have casted a spell right away when you had a chance a while ago."
But Casey Selmore did not.
Was she not paying attention because she was excited about achieving her goal?
Rudger didn't think so.
"Casey Selmore, you didn't chase me purely for the purpose of being a detective."
What Rudger would say next, was clearly pictured in Casey's head.
"You chased me with a personal grudge and your feelings were shallow like a child's."
Casey couldn't make any retort while her lips quivered and her gaze was lowered.
"Was I wrong?"
She couldn't argue with him because everything Rudger said was true.
It was a disgrace that the man she hated the most actually understood her better than anyone else.
She suddenly remembered what she had said to him before.
-Yes. I thought you might understand me.
However, she criticized Rudger for committing evil, saying that he was wrong when he actually didn't.
"You know, you know everything……."
Her thin clenched fist trembled but no more words came out of her mouth.
She was still angry and felt insulted that he used her but she knew that Rudger wasn't the only one who deceived her.
Casey Selmore deceived herself more than anyone else.
"I'm disappointed."
"……."
"At least I thought you would be different, but I guess I was wrong."
Rudger stared coldly at Casey Selmore. She looked as if she was about to shed tears as she lowered her head, shaking her fists.
"Then what about the Black Dawn Society……."
"They're annoying, so I wanted to take care of them by borrowing your hand, but I didn't trust you. It's commendable that you came this far, but I don't think you can take care of them properly."
Casey Selmore reached for Rudger but was quickly subdued. Rudger restrained her arms with one hand and kept them close to the wall.
He looked down at Casey whose eyes were wet with complex emotions. However, he didn't think of giving her any words of sympathy or consolation because he had work to do.
"I don't intend to fit in with your pretentious play. Get out of here if you don't want to be swept away."
Whether she leaves or not, what's going to happen won't change.
Rudger, who let go of her held hands, turned his back.
"Don't you mind leaving me like this?"
Rudger came to a standstill.
"I know who you are in Theon……."
"I don't care."
It wouldn't matter anyway since the president knew about him.
"……The president knows about me."
Casey, who was quick-witted, saw at once that he was involved with the president, that's why her threats won't work.
No matter what she says, if the president will come forward and protect Rudger so she would be the only one going to look stupid.
"If you really want to aim for me, prepare a dagger that I can't avoid. That way, you can at least engrave a scratch on my skin."
Rudger's comments were even arrogant and it was like he was declaring 'You can never beat me.'
"If you can't, just play detective games full of justice like before. Don't bother me."
"James Moriarty. No, Rudger Chelici. What the hell are you after?"
"……."
Rudger left without answering Casey's question.
Although she didn't ask for an answer, it hurt her pride to be ignored so openly.
"Sigh."
Left alone, Casey sighed and picked up her magic wand that fell on the floor, then suddenly burst into laughter.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
Laughing almost like a madman, she soon relaxed her shoulders and sighed.
"Really. It's hard to pretend to be shocked."
Casey said so and took out a piece of paper that she had put in her sleeve. The paper, which would have originally been white, was stained blue with Rudger's magic.
"What? Guess I'm wrong? Am I disappointed?"
After saying that, Casey immediately added her back story.
"… … I'm actually good at it. However, this was different."
Her teeth grinded just thinking about the man's verbal abuse; however she was convinced that his words weren't wrong.
She was just pretending to be okay because what she heard from him definitely shocked Casey.
"I…."
Casey sighed as she stared at the paper containing Rudger's magic.
"Sigh. It's not like that. What am I worried about?"
She looked up where the hideout of the Black Dawn Society that she was chasing was since she originally came to attack that place.
'You don't have to do that.'
The man said he would step up and she believed he didn't lie.
She thought he belonged to the Black Dawn Society but he was actually hostile to the Black Dawn Society.
'He'd better be honest and take care of everything up there.'
Considering the man's skills, it would be natural for her to pray for the rest of the people above.
Still, she came this far and her pride did not allow her to leave without doing anything.
"Yeah. Do whatever you want and I'll take care of things on my own."
As soon as her words were over a loud sound echoed through the underground sewer.