#moriarty the patriot

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This is the second short story in A Study in Scarlet, the first official novel of Yuukoku no Moriarty. If anyone’s interested in translating the full story and needs the raw text, please message @kumoriyami-xiuzhen​!

Story description: Louis was assigned with the task of raising some fish and he learns the pains of having an aquarium. He gets especially attached to the fish they named “William”. (Can you guess which fish they named after which person?)
We also get to see Moran having an emotional heart-to-heart talk with his new best friend.
Summary length: 6,399 words (Too detailed as usual lol)

In one of the 20 small fish tanks in their residence, one fish is not doing so well. Its movements were weak as it floats at the bottom of the tank. Louis stares worriedly at it, praying that it would get better.

Rewind to 10 days ago.

After admiring the flowers grown by Fred, Louis leaves the greenhouse only to see William outside. William asks Louis if he could do something for him, to which Louis immediately replies yes, much to William’s delight.

They move to the sitting room, where William shows Louis a photo of a man in his thirties. He has beige hair, a pointy chin, chubby cheeks, and distrustful eyes that show just how hard he is to approach.

His name is Jack Stapleton, an aristocrat who owns a large number of assets and territories. He is a well-known expert in natural history and has even presented his discovery of a new species of moths at an academic conference before.

Louis asks if he is their next target, but William replies that he is just a candidate for now. He is suspected to be secretly involved in illegal human trafficking, but there is no proof of it as of yet so William is using MI6’s intelligence networks to make sure if this person is truly worth convicting.

However, supposing he is guilty but MI6 can’t prove it, that means he has some sort of means to cover for his actions. Therefore, William plans to get in touch with the antisocial Stapleton using the latter’s oddly strong interest in plants and animals.

Apparently, Stapleton has a rather fickle personality. Before he was interested in moths, but now it’s tropical freshwater fish that catch his interest. William’s request for Louis is to take care of the fish he got from overseas to capture Stapleton’s interest.

No one else is available to care for it, and they can’t invite outsiders to work in the residence either. Louis was clearly chosen for the sole reason that no one else can attend to it, but he is still rather motivated in doing it as he does not usually get to contribute to William’s plans.

However, these are foreign fish so Louis was worried that there aren’t any guides on how to raise them. William reassures him that they can replace some if they die and that he’ll prepare anything Louis will need. He has already asked Herder for help developing a fish tank for them.

Louis confidently tells William that he’ll do it, which pleases William (which in turn pleases Louis).

Two days later, Fred is utterly dumbfounded by the transformation for their rarely used reception room. They had three 5-meter tanks installed with 20-30 colorful fish and water plants inside.

Captivated by the fish, he listens as Louis explains that they were imported from Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America. Even the water was imported from the river and ponds they were taken from as Louis was worried they would not be able to adapt from the local water.

As Louis talks about Herder sending more equipment later on, he stops as he notices that there are skirmishes between the fish among the tanks. To stop them, he hesitantly puts his hand in the tank and gently waves his hand to make them disperse.

To his relief, the fish do not continue fighting, though Fred worriedly points out that having problems this early in might be a sign of how much work taking care of them will be. Still, Fred sees that Louis is deadset on doing this for his brother.

Two days after the fish arrive, the curtains in the reception room have been drawn shut, making the room a bit dim. The large fish tanks have been replaced with 20 smaller ones, each equipped with cutting-edge technology to keep the fish alive.

Moran and Fred visit the room and ask Louis how the fish are doing, and he informs them that he has finally grasped the nature of each fish properly so there should be no problems here on out.

The device on the top half of the fish tanks catches Fred’s interest, making him ask if they’re necessary, and Louis tells them they’re filters that improve the water quality. These devices are way ahead of their time, and Herder developed them just to raise some tropical fish.

Seeing all the fish originally out in the wild cooped up inside the room makes Moran propose letting them swim in an outside pond every once in a while, or even bringing out the tanks themselves so the fish could get some sunlight. However, Louis replies that the fish would find it hard to adapt if placed in a different body of water, and exposing the fish tank to sunlight would cause moss to grow and the water temperature to rise. So Louis mimics the passing of day and night using illumination instead.

Light bulbs and other devices powered by electricity are not widely used by the public yet, which just proves how frighteningly advanced Herder’s creations are.

Louis and Moran continue chatting as Fred stares at the fish, enamored by them. William then steps into the room, which prompts Louis to ask how work was coming along, to which he replies that things are progressing smoothly.

When William then praises Louis for doing a good job taking care of the fish, Louis looks proud even as he modestly gives credit to William and Herder’s help.

Moran happily watches over their interactions but then asks what they’ll do about the fish once the mission with Stapleton is over. Louis answers that they’ll give them all to Stapleton since he will most likely want them all.

This surprises Moran and makes him ask to at least keep one of the fish tanks, but these fish are just a means to an end for Louis. He is not all that attached to them.

Although they would all gladly give up their lives for William, Louis’ indifference still shocks Moran.

Meanwhile, while the two of them are talking, William gazes at the fish. The bright colors of the Puntius rhomboocellatus (snakeskin barb) in particular catch his eye.

Moran is impressed that William can say the fish’s name so easily because although he and Fred also memorized the fish in case Louis can’t look after it, he can’t really call them by that name.

On the other hand, it cheers Louis to see his brother looking approving as he sees the fish, and recommends checking out the Mikrogeophagus ramirezi (Ram cichlid) too.

William thinks its blue color is pretty and then points out the Neolamprologus brichardi (Lyretail cichlid) as a personal favorite of his. In response, Louis recommends checking out the Julidochromis transcriptus (masked juie) and the Pelvicachromis taeniatustoo.

While Moran is glad to see them getting along, his eye starts twitching as he asks them to stop throwing around such complicated names.

However, the two of them just ignore him and keep on using the scientific names of the fish.

Louis appreciates how practical some of the fish are, like the way the Corydoras paleatus cleans up the leftover feed. Meanwhile, the Chela dadiburjori tends to jump out of the tank if you don’t put a lid on it, while the Boraras urophthalmoides was troublesome to find a good tankmate for.

William brings up that the Siamese Flying Fox must be a favorite of Louis for its practical way of eating algae, which Louis acknowledges. Then Louis brings his brother’s attention to the way the Nannostomus beckfordi are flaring its gills.

Moran finally can’t take it anymore and shouts for them to stop talking, which leaves Louis baffled. The latter was just about to show William the Triple Red Apistogramma cacatuoides (Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlid) after all.

Moran explains that he and Fred can’t keep up with their conversation since they keep using complicated names as if this was some university lecture.

Although Moran puts Fred in the same boat as he says this, Fred was actually pointing at each fish the two were talking about and muttering their names to check whether or not he remembered them.

Meanwhile, Louis is puzzled at Moran’s struggle, as he and his brother memorized them easily, much to Moran and Fred’s surprise. The latter is astonished to the point that he freezes as he comments on how they were on a different level.

It’s not like Moran and Fred are particularly on the slow side either. Moran is a noble who graduated from Oxford, while Fred is smarter than the average person. Still, the two can’t hide their awe at how the 3 Moriartys can memorize such complicated names in one try.

Moran then proposes to give the fish nicknames instead of saying words that sound like incantations, which Louis thinks is also a good idea.

Looking around the fish tanks, Moran spies a group of guppies and proposes to call those “Fred”, much to Louis’ shock. Apparently, he chose that name for them since they’re small and agile. Fred on the other hand just looked dubiously at Moran’s enthusiastic explanation.

William finally joins in on the conversation, suggesting to give Fred’s name to a fish that can do camouflage such as a leaffish. Still, he does not quite understand why they’re giving guppies another name when the name itself is rather simple.

However, Moran interjects, insisting that it’s fine and they should just go with their gut feeling when giving names. He doesn’t budge on calling the guppies “Fred”.

Then he stares at a small pufferfish that had its own fish tank and calls it “Moran” for its solitary nature.

This fish actually attacked the other fish on its first day moving in, which is why it was given its own fish tank. Louis wanted to inform Moran about it but wavered, not wanting to dampen Moran’s good mood.

Moran misunderstands his hesitation, thinking Louis also wanted to give it his own name and tells him it’s too late because Moran has already named it.

Louis decides to just keep quiet and not burst his bubble. Fred, who had also seen the mess the pufferfish made on its first day here, just averts his gaze with pity for Moran and doesn’t clue him in either.

As he looks away, Fred spots some fish that reminded him of the Moriartys and points it out. Three silver and black striped angelfish are swimming closely together and it reminds him of the strong bond the brothers had.

William laughs self-deprecatingly at this, saying that its angelic name suits them the least.

However, he is countered with the explanation that they are angels in a way. The type of angels that sounded the trumpets in the book of Revelations*, that is. This satirical reasoning makes William chuckle.

(*T.N.: In the Book of Revelations, each time an angel blew a trumpet, catastrophes occur to enact God’s judgment on Earth.)

Louis then agrees with Fred and says the angelfish are very elegant, much like his older brothers. William of course is quick to add that Louis’ soul is just as lofty as these fish, so there’s no need for him to leave himself out like that. This makes Louis shyly thank William for his compliment.

Moran approves of their reasoning and calls the 3 angelfish “William”, “Albert”, and “Louis” respectively, causing William to smile, embarrassed.

With that decided, Moran announces that he’s heading out now. Fred stops him since they haven’t named the other fish yet, but Moran scratches his head, saying he just realized there are too many fish to name. They’ve already given their names to 5 of them so he’s satisfied for now.

Moran’s heedless attitude leaves Fred speechless. Normally, this would be around the time when Louis would assign chores to him, but Louis is too preoccupied with the angelfish right now.

He is currently unaware of it, but he has gotten a little attached to the 3 fish named after them.

Noontime three days later, a week has passed since the fish were brought in.

Moran happily comes in, checking in on the fish. Ever since they named the fish, Moran has gotten into the habit of hanging out in this room and watching the fish whenever he is free. Fred has also gotten into this habit, and Louis even gave him permission to feed the fish.

The moment he entered the room, Moran happily sticks his face close to the guppies’ fish tank which was located near the entrance, and greets “Fred”.

The group of guppies always sticks together so they have no idea which one was originally named “Fred”, so this is just what he calls this whole school of fish.

Then Moran moves on to the pufferfish, talking about how nice it must be to have its own fish tank. Moran speaks to it as though they are very close friends, saying that people must think it’s lonely since it’s on its own, but Moran personally thinks a solitary life isn’t all that bad. That’s the way he lived his life before, alone in the shady side of London to exact revenge on the person who declared that he was killed in action.

The pufferfish looks somewhat flabbergasted that he is suddenly being regaled with Moran’s life story. Moran doesn’t take note of the fish’s reaction at all, and passionately goes on about how back then, he was set on living on his own, but then he met people he could trust like William.

Putting his face closer to the tank, he then tells the pufferfish that although it may be living in solitude now, it will surely meet others that it could trust someday. Do not feel down in the dumps. If it keeps being resolute, it would surely—

Upon seeing two people reflected on the fish tank’s glass, Moran abruptly stops talking. He quietly turns around in dread. Louis and Alfred are standing behind him.

Moran nervously asks when they turned up, and Louis clears his throat and awkwardly explains that they’ve been there ever since Moran moved to the pufferfish’s tank.

Meanwhile, Albert sports a bewildered smile as he expresses his awe at Colonel Moran’s excellent communication skills. He could even talk sociably with tropical fish.

Previously in high spirits, Moran’s mood crashes down as he realizes that they witnessed him making an embarrassingly sincere speech to a fish. He accuses them of being mean for not interrupting him for their amusement, but Louis hesitantly points out that it was Moran who just spilled everything.

Moran acknowledges that, saying the fish’s magical charm must have made him forget that Louis is usually here in this room. It was uncharacteristic for him to make this kind of mistake, so Louis agrees that it may have really been the fish’s charm that made him do it.

But then, Albert gently proposes that maybe they should ask William to give Moran a break if he’s tired.

Seeing Albert interacting with him with genuine kindness instead of his usual teasing attitude makes Moran weakly insist not to treat him with pity.

Although he does want to sleep the whole night now that he is exhausted mentally by accidentally exposing himself like that, he eventually shrugs the matter off and starts watching the fish again.

Albert and Louis look serious are they whisper to each other. Ears reddening, Moran pretends he doesn’t hear a thing.

He walks around the room until he realizes that the fish are not being treated equally and points it out. Louis denies it but Moran then points at the angelfish’s fish tank with his chin.

Louis tilts his head in confusion as Moran brings up how their tank is a little more extravagant than the rest. Compared to the other tanks with plain designs, this tank had aquatic plants and better lighting.

Albert and Louis then start identifying the plants in the tank such as the Alternanthera ReineckiiandEchinodorus Tenellus, but Moran quickly stops them from saying complicated terms again, sick of how the brothers are easily absorbed into their own world.

In any case, Moran notices that the plants in the angelfish’s tank are fancier than the rest and claims that Louis has gotten attached just because these fish are also named after the brothers he idolizes. It’s a feeling he has gotten from Louis for a while now, ever since they gave those fish his brother’s names.

Feeling indignant at his observation, Louis insists that he has no special attachment towards these fish. He only treats them as a means to an end to his brother’s scheme.

Louis can say all he wants, but the current situation contradicts it. Moran then clarifies that he’s not criticizing Louis for his favoritism. Louis just treats these fish in particular a little warmer because they’re called “William” and “Albert”. There’s nothing really wrong with that.

Albert agrees, saying that Louis is free to treat the fish however he wants so long as doesn’t have a harmful effect on them. After all, all that’s important in the plan is that the fish are alive so they can offer them to Stapleton.

Louis wanted to flatly deny any emotional attachment to these “tools”, but now that Albert has said something, he can only stay quiet.

Before leaving, Albert then thanks Louis for the hard work and tells him to keep it up.

Moran then informs Louis that it’s okay to just have fun with it as long as all the fish don’t die. He looks around at the other tanks afterwards before also heading out.

However, as he takes a step out of the room, he glances at Louis. He feels a little uneasy at the serious expression on Louis’ face.

The next morning.

Curious as to how Louis will act after getting called out yesterday, Moran takes Fred to the reception room with him. Fred kept on yawning and his eyes were bleary. He must have worked late into the night. However, the moment Moran opens the door, Fred’s sleepiness vanishes in an instant because of the shocking scene before him.

A corner of the room has turned into a jungle. The angelfish tank was surrounded by many South American trees. When the two entered, they felt that the room was more humid compared to yesterday.

At Moran’s surprised exclamation, Louis’ face suddenly pops up from behind one of the trees wrapped in ivy. He warns Moran against shouting since it would stress the fish out and asks why he shouted in the first place.

When Moran asks what he’s done with the place, Louis explains that he recreated the South American rainforest so his brothe– or rather the tropical fish would feel more comfortable. He ordered these things the other day and they arrived last night. Everything was set up just a while ago.

Things had escalated so quickly in one night that it left Moran completely blindsided. He points out Louis’ slip of the tongue and recreation of the South American rainforest, saying he had a feeling something would happen.

Normally, when someone’s called out for something, they’d reconsider and hold back a bit, but he sensed that Louis would wholeheartedly go for it. Still, Moran didn’t expect that Louis would go this far.

On the other hand, Louis just calmly thanks Moran for clarifying but once again claims that he is not playing favorites with any particular fish.

Moran is utterly baffled by this and wonders if Louis is just playing dumb, while Fred is impressed that Louis is utterly unfazed by Moran’s words.

In the end, Moran acknowledges that they gave him the freedom to do as he likes to the fish anyway, and just expresses his awe at Louis’ love for his brothers.

Sensing that there was no point arguing with the youngest Moriarty over his methods, Moran just gives up the fight and starts watching the fish again.

However, the trees he sees can’t help but pique his curiosity. He couldn’t resist hurrying into the thicket of trees. Fred follows cautiously.

Moran approaches the row of trees and moves the leaves aside with his hand to go in. There, they find a tank on top of a table with animals with flashy colors– a couple of small dark blue frogs with red patches.

Seeing the two stick their faces close to the tank, Louis warns them not to open it because the frogs apparently have poison that South American tribes use to coat their arrowheads.

Fred and Moran immediately jump way back at his warning. Terrified at how close they were to danger, Moran gets mad at Louis for bringing something that dangerous into the house.

Louis apologizes, explaining that while it is also to recreate the tropical fish’s former habitat, they have also brought in other animals just in case it also catches their target’s interest.

He then skillfully opens the tank a little bit and throws in some insects to feed them, leaving the other two speechless.

Seeing Louis efficiently check on the other tanks leaves Moran dazed to know how much people could achieve in a short period of time…

Moved by how amazing Louis is, Fred and Moran once again enter the thicket of trees, though this time with cautiousness.

Moran is relieved to find that the Three Moriarty Brothers’ tank hasn’t changed. Leading the fish was William, followed by Albert and Louis.

While Moran looks happy as he watches the angelfish, Fred on the other hand squints and meekly points out that one is moving a little awkwardly.

It’s not noticeable at a glance, but once Moran did observe it more carefully, the fish leading the pack did seem to be swimming a little differently compared to the rest.

Their attentiveness attracts Louis’ attention, making him come closer and see William’s oddity himself. He puts his face closer and his expression turns grave.

When Moran asks him what to do, Louis proposes moving the fish in another tank and gets Moran to fetch the smaller tank they have. Then he asks Fred to read the number on the measuring instrument in the tank.

As the two of them go about their tasks, Louis takes out the memo pad in his pocket and double checks the emergency measures he wrote for this occasion.

Once Moran comes back with the small tank, Louis then takes enough water from the angelfishes’ tank for one fish to swim in, double checks the water temperature and quality, and then adds some salt in the water as well.

Louis’ last action makes Moran’s head tilt and ask what that was for, to which Louis replies that saltwater is a good treatment for sick fish, though it’s not always effective.

He then gently scoops William up and transfers him to the other tank. While isolating the fish has its drawbacks, Louis also has to prevent the sickness from affecting the other fish.

He hears the numbers from Fred as he does this, looking more and more perplexed. Water quality and temperature are normal and the tank is clean. There’s nothing wrong with the equipment either. So it might’ve been a problem with the fish feed, or it got stressed by its surroundings…

Moran asks if it got bullied by the other fish, but Louis denies ever witnessing any. So he can only conclude that it’s because of changes in its environment as he glances at the potted plants around the tank.

Fred notices his action and comments that the fish could not have possibly been affected this quickly by them since the trees were just brought in and aren’t inside the tank anyway, but Louis doesn’t discount the possibility. Either way, Louis feels responsible for this outcome since he’s the one in charge of the fish.

The three of them look downhearted at the lonely-looking sick angelfish isolated from the rest of its species.

Three days after the fish got sick, 11 days have passed since all the fish were brought in.

Despite Louis’ attempts to nurse it better, “William” is still in a bad condition. It swims unsteadily as its fins were folded up and its shine has dulled. It also eats very little. Ever since they’ve confirmed that it was sick, its state just turned worse.

Louis bites his lip at his helplessness. There’s nothing he can do aside from watching over it as it drifts in solitude. He also feels very guilty for possibly causing the fish to get into this state because of his careless decisions.

The potted plants were put away in a corner, fearing it would have further adverse effects on the fish. However, removing these plants somehow made the fish tank’s surroundings look a bit deserted.

Fred peeks inside the room, but Louis doesn’t even turn to look at him. The former approaches and asks if he’s okay, but Louis mistakes his concern as concern for the fish and informs him that it is still in a bad state. Louis then reassures him that he’s not neglecting the other fish.

Sure enough, the other fish are looking well. Fred doesn’t try clarifying his question and just observes Louis watching over “William” for the next few minutes instead.

Louis looks fatigued from anxiety. He’s been constantly watching over the fish the whole time. Even during mealtimes, he goes straight back here after preparing everyone else’s food. Everyone comes here to check up on him in worry from time to time, but he still won’t leave the room.

No one knows when Louis has last slept in his own room; There’s no place to sleep in this room, and judging from his complexion, it looks as though he hasn’t been sleeping well.

After hesitating for some time, Fred finally toughens up and tells Louis not to push himself and rest, but Louis just stubbornly insists that he’s fine.

Fred shrinks back at Louis’ cold response but still couldn’t help asking why Louis is going so far for one fish when he previously insisted that they were just a means to an end for him.

Louis looks troubled by this comment, pursing his lips as he looks down and clenches his fist.

He and Fred had clashes while doing missions before. They had differences in opinion about whether to help a child that got injured and couldn’t run away during a noble’s manhunt on poor children.

Fred wanted to help the child, but Louis proposed abandoning the child and prioritizing the assassination of the nobles. While he knows that Louis said that because he was also worried about his brother, Fred still couldn’t help thinking how heartless Louis was for choosing to do so.

Thankfully, Moran stepped in right afterwards, but Fred always kept that moment in mind as proof that Louis could be very cruel if it was for his brother’s sake.

Everyone who is sided with the Lord of Crime is aware of Louis’ personality. And that is why Fred feels that the way Louis is wasting so much effort for one little tropical fish now is very at odds with who he usually is. So, why?

Louis finally speaks, saying that Fred is right. These fish are just tools for his brother’s plan, and he would kill them without hesitation if his brother orders him to. However…

Fred is surprised when Louis’ voice uncharacteristically shakes.

Louis then continues that he can’t help trying to do everything for this fish named “William”, even though they named him that just for fun. He acknowledges that he is being foolish for getting emotionally attached to it, but he can’t help seeing his brother when he looks at the tropical fish.

It might sound silly to those unfamiliar with the brothers’ circumstances, but not to Fred. He ends up sympathizing with Louis’ devotion to the fish.

He then points out with pain that there’s nothing else they can do for it, which Louis also acknowledges.

The room turns gravely quiet, right until someone comes in and points out the somber mood.

At the door, they see William has come inside without their notice. William sounds a little sad as he points out how worn Louis is and tells him that he didn’t ask him to do this task at the expense of his health.

Louis wants to protest but also knows making excuses was useless. Fred clumsily defends him, explaining that Louis just wants to help the fish.

William stops him and clarifies that he didn’t come here to rebuke Louis but to give something important, as he hands a small bottle and a piece of paper.

It was a bottle of fish medicine, and Louis and Fred stare at it in surprise.

Then, William goes on to explain that it was made from malachite green aqueous solution. You add some to the water to give the fish a medicinal bath. He had Herder make it in case a situation like this happens. Herder didn’t manage to finish it quickly since he prioritized developing the tank equipment.

William apologizes to Louis for the long and difficult days he had to go through, and Louis happily and sincerely thanks his brother for the precious bottle.

Meanwhile, Fred admires William’s foresight and Herder’s technical prowess upon hearing his explanation.

William just looks warmly at his brother. He then informs the latter that all the fish will be transported away from here in 5 days.

Louis tenses as he hears this.

His brother then explains that they’ve succeeded in getting a meeting with Stapleton. Their target was lured in by the tropical fish as expected and agreed to invite them to his home in exchange for all the fish they have. William will judge whether or not Stapleton is a criminal after they meet.

Louis expresses his understanding, and William continues on to say that he’ll update Louis the moment he makes his judgment.

Once William has left, Fred cheerfully tells Louis that they can finally cure the fish.

However, Louis was calmer in contrast to him. He warns Fred not to be too optimistic since it’s a newly developed medicine.

Even though he was told off by Louis, Fred only stared at his face with hooded eyes.

When asked why, Fred pulls up the corner of his own lips with his fingers and points out that Louis is smiling, causing Louis to cover up his mouth with his hand immediately.

He was obviously trying to look composed, but in the end couldn’t hide his joy. He intentionally talks loudly about using the medicine at once to hide his embarrassment, reading the instructions on the paper and putting the liquid into the tank.

All they have to do now is wait and see. Fred brightly comments that everything will go well, and Louis doesn’t negate his words this time.

And now we’ve reached the starting scene of this story.

Louis is left alone again as Fred finally leaves the reception room reluctantly to do his job as the contact person for the Crime Consultant.

Things have changed. Unlike the weak state that it has shown until now, the fish has now recovered its original sheen.

Louis prays for the fish as he stands in front of its tank, hoping the medicine and the fish’s willpower will help it. He still sees his brother in the angelfish.

Five days have passed, and it’s finally time for the tropical fish to get transported to Stapleton’s residence.

Several wagons are parked outside. Louis silently watches as everyone else carries out the tank equipment and the big portable water jars containing the tropical fish.

He has recovered from his overworked state, regaining a healthy complexion in his face and an accomplished shine in his eyes.

Louis originally wanted to be the one carrying out the fish since he considers it part of his task. However, much to his displeasure, everyone else insisted that he just stand back, relax and let them do all the work since the past few days have been rough on him.

At times, his eyes looked shiny as someone passes by him, carrying out a jar of fish. To cover it up, he fiddles his glasses every time it happens.

The fifth time he does it, William stands by his side and asks if Louis is feeling emotional.

Louis clears his throat and tries to act tough, but the moment he sees the fish tank being loaded into the carriage, he softens up and reluctantly admits that he is.

Upon hearing his reply, William looks at Louis with a soft expression.

As they were talking, the pufferfish and the guppies were being carried out.

Louis then apologizes to William for making them all needlessly worry because of his immature actions. After the fish was given William’s name, Louis went overboard with the tank’s layout and afterwards nursed the fish back to health at the expense of his own.

As he was reflecting on his actions, Moran and Fred were carrying out the tropical trees he ordered to give to Stapleton as presents.

Louis can’t look away from these trees. They represent his own incompetence after all.

Seeing his brother reflect so seriously, William acknowledges that he may have a point, since if Louis collapsed at the time, then the other fish would certainly be affected. William knows that Louis was trying to be careful not to let it happen, but he wished that Louis tried to ask him for advice before letting it get to that point.

Louis naturally feels likes he was stabbed upon hearing his faults pointed out by the brother he adores. The accomplishment he originally felt at finishing his task dissipated.

However, William then kindly encourages Louis to look at it from another aspect.

Although it was inappropriate for Louis to have attached himself to a fish at the expense of his own health, you could also say that he has proven himself as a person of integrity from the way he insisted on not throwing away the life of just one fish.

Sure, William told him that the fish can be replaced if one dies, but you shouldn’t just take those words to mean that it has a replacement and that there’s always next time.

That naive way of thinking can be harmful. If Louis just carried on, thinking everything was okay since they still have 2 angelfish left, all the angelfish might just end up dying in the end. So you could say the way Louis took that one fish’s life seriously was an appropriate thing to do.

William said all of this in an indifferent tone, showing that he wasn’t just saying it to support Louis. He was evaluating Louis’ work from an objective perspective.

This makes Louis very happy. He thought his actions were no more than foolish mistakes, but William took it to mean the opposite. His brother told him that his attachment to the fish is proof of his enthusiasm for his job.

William stops talking as Moran walks by, easily moving the tank into the wagon. Fred is also working hard in transporting everything. Albert actually finished moving all the luggage assigned to him and has left to go to work at Universal Exports.

Seeing the empty tank packed up in the carrier makes Louis think of the 3 angelfish swimming inside it.

The truth is, he had hoped to put back the isolated angelfish with the rest of its species and see them swimming harmoniously in their last day here. He regrets not being able to make it come true.

Fred emerges from the house with a jar of fish in his arms. He asks Louis if he really wants to load it in with the rest of the fish.

Upon hearing Louis’ sad confirmation, Fred solemnly nods and heads toward the carriage.

Louis looks at the jar in Fred’s hands one last time. It contains the angelfish that was sick a few days ago. The fish has regained its elegant swimming, with its scales reflecting the light of the morning sun.

The angelfish actually returned to its normal condition a few days ago thanks to the medicine provided by William. However, immediately taking it out of the medicated water was inadvisable so they had no choice to leave it isolated for the remaining days it was here.

Still, Louis had really hoped to see the Three Brothers back together one last time. He tries to convince himself that they’re just 3 fish. Those fish are not them.

If he were to ask of it, his brother probably would have let him keep those angelfish. But Louis didn’t.

He was the one who insisted that these fish were just a means to an end. He has no plans on taking back those words, and if he can’t manage to get a hold of his feelings now, it might cause irreversible disaster the next time he does a task.

As Louis reluctantly puts everything behind him, he meets his brother’s eyes, and the latter smiles back at him.

This time, William addresses him in a brotherly tone, praising him for his hard work and not letting any fish die.

Louis lively accepts his compliment as he desperately struggles to stop the wide smile that threatens to appear on his face. Still, his bubbling emotions make him tear up.

He did this all for his brother– to help him, to live up to his expectations, and to get a little praise out of him. Finally getting what he’s unconsciously wanted ever since William gave him his task makes him emotional.

Now that everything is all packed up, William announces that it is time for him to start his arrangements. He puts a hand on Louis’ shoulder and tells him that he won’t waste the work his brother has done.

Louis has full confidence in his brother and tells him as much, making William smile.

Then William puts on his Crime Consultant face again and goes back inside the house.

After watching him leave, Louis glances at the carriage before starting to think of the daily work he has to do now, like making breakfast.

The hard days he had with the tropical fish will be kept in the innermost depths of his mind as a faded memory.

(I call it a summary, but it’s so detailed that it’s more than 6,700 words lol oops.)

This is the first short story in A Study in Scarlet, the first official novel of Yuukoku no Moriarty. If anyone’s interested in translating the full story and needs the raw text, please message @kumoriyami-xiuzhen​!

Story description: Moran asks William for some monetary help. William decides to invite himself to Moran’s high-stakes poker game the next night “just for fun”. He also gives a short masterclass on how to cheat at poker.

Sebastian disturbs William in his study in the middle of the night, apologetically asking if he could borrow £100 (Around ¥2,400,000 by today’s standards). He claims that a girl named Marie at the bar he frequents plans to get married, but needs a large amount of money for the dowry. She came crying to him about it, and he wanted to help her out.

William mulls over his words for a few seconds before asking, “When your sleight of hand was discovered, did the opponent already reveal his cards?” To which he replied negatively since he was called out right after he revealed his hand. Then he realizes that William saw right through his lies, and can’t help asking how William figured it out.

William says it’s obvious since even though it seemed to be urgent business as Moran asked about it in the middle of the night, it looked like he didn’t want Louis to hear about it. The £100 part seemed sincere enough, and there’s only one place Moran would get into trouble in at night– the pub downtown. Additionally, Moran smells like cheap alcohol.

Based on Moran’s personality, there are only 2 ways he could get into trouble at the pub– either because of women or gambling on card games. It can’t be the former since it’s hard to imagine Moran arranging a ton of money for a woman based on what William knows of his association with girls. If it was only to help shoulder the cost of marriage, they would be no need for Moran to come to him late at night. Moran’s lies were a little too far-fetched for William.

That would mean Moran encountered a problem while playing cards. Normally, losing a normal card game wouldn’t have cost £100. Therefore, something must have happened to force him into shelling out that much money. William can only conclude that Moran’s frequent cheating has finally been found out.

Hearing William accurately reason out what had happened, Moran finally gives up, admits that William got it right, and apologizes for lying so badly. William doesn’t mind but is frankly a little surprised that Moran simply agreed to prepare that much money. Moran says he’s just paying for how much he’s swindled up until now and asks William to at least give him credit for not pummeling the other guy to the ground when Moran got exposed. He then talks about figuring out how to collect that much money somehow and walks back to the door, resigned.

William, however, stops him and asks Moran to talk about it in more detail. Moran totally misunderstands what William means by this, and thinks William wants to know more about how he decided to be mature this time around and pay up instead of just solving the answer with his fists like he usually does. He rambles on about how mature he has become and how he’s not barbaric all the time until William finally ruefully clarifies that what he wanted to know more about was about the cheating incident.

It’s a well-known fact among their group that Moran’s sleight of hand is top-notch. It’s surprising that he got found out, so William wanted to know how exactly Moran ended up in that situation.

It is then that Moran realizes how embarrassing he was for insisting on how mature he has become and tries to cover it up by pretending he was just testing to see if William would come to that conclusion. What matters isn’t that he didn’t lay a hand on the other person, but how his swindling was found out! Moran claims this makes him proud to be on William’s side.

William awkwardly agrees and thanks Moran for his words. It was clear to see that William was just forcing himself to go along with Moran’s words. As much as it pains Moran to see William be so considerate, he keeps up his facade and asks William to forget the way he acted like he was all grown up now.

William reluctantly reassures him and finally gets Moran to talk about everything that happened that night.

Four players were playing Texas Hold'em and Moran had just revealed that he had a Full House when someone asked him to wait. It was the final round and everyone had bet most of what they have. Two of the players were regulars of the pub. They looked visibly hopeless even before they revealed their cards and were easy prey for Moran.

However, the thug sitting in front of Moran was different. His name is Johnson and had a round bearded face with shrewd eyes.

Moran had just laid down his cards, on the cusp of gloating about his Full House, and was thrown off by his interruption. Johnson accused him of cheating and Moran was slow to react, especially upon seeing how sure Johnson seemed to be of his accusation.

Seeing him forget to object to this, everyone in the pub started staring at him in suspicion. Then Moran finally came to his senses and protested vehemently as he attempted to slam his fist on the table, but he drank a little too much that night and only skimmed the edge of the table.

Johnson scoffed at his pathetic state and looked at him with assessing eyes. Then he reached out and raised Moran’s gloved hand. Several cards started falling to the floor from inside Moran’s glove, and Johnson turned smug. Everyone watched as he picked up the cards and observed how Moran wore out his cards so it would look no different from the pub’s own deck.

The other players of the game felt indignant and one of them grabbed Moran by the collar. While these guys were no match for Moran, violence would just make things worse so he tried convincing them with words instead. He weakly tried to placate them by telling them he was just joking around, but that just made everyone’s tempers rise even higher.

While two of the players surrounded Moran, Johnson inquired triumphantly how he plans to settle this. Several options popped up in Moran’s head, but before he could speak, the guy holding Moran insisted he give back all his winnings today.

Moran was absolutely fine by this and the other two seemed to have decided the matter was settled, but then Johnson once again jumped in and pointed out how Moran must have been cheating them for some time now judging by how smooth Moran executed it. This made two of the players rear up again in anger, insisting that Moran pay £100 for all the other days he cheated.

Moran countered that there wasn’t even any proof that he cheated on those times, but no one believed him. At this rate, Moran could either pay the price or flee the pub. However, he doesn’t really have the patience to go through the effort of collecting that much money for some small-fry so the former was out. The latter option would be the easiest way to handle this. He could beat these guys up and leave. However…

This guy Johnson was clearly enjoying seeing Moran get cornered by these small-fry after stoking their anger. It was obvious that Johnson was going to ask the other players to give him a little reward for seeing through Moran’s cheating. While he didn’t particularly care about that, Moran really didn’t appreciate how this guy kept looking down on him.

Sure, he could just beat Johnson up right now, but Moran personally wouldn’t be satisfied until this guy suffered a more humiliating defeat.

So Moran came up with a third option and carefully pretended to be a guy driven against the wall with no way out. He first got them to see reason and convinced them that this was his first time trying to cheat. That’s why they shouldn’t insist that just because he seems used to it doesn’t mean he cheated all those other times.

Johnson saw the momentum fizzling and tried to interrupt, but Moran spoke again before he could. He told them that they should prove he’s weak when he didn’t cheat and proposed to play another round. If he won, then that proved that he truly was that strong all those other times he played cards with them. However, if he lost, it would be solid proof that he has just been winning through cheating all this time.

His reasoning was pretty absurd, but the two men he played against were easily manipulated by Moran since they were easy prey who were already worked up from his cheating. They agreed to another game and Moran added that he’d play £100 if he lost. However, as much as he wanted to play against them immediately, he had to prepare that amount first so he asks that they delay the game to another night. He would play against one of these two men, deliberately leaving out Johnson.

As expected, Johnson of course protested being left out of the game. Inwardly smiling at successfully baiting his target, Moran visibly glared at him. He pretended to be faintly uneasy as he opposed Johnson’s inclusion since he wasn’t even present the other nights he played with the two regulars.

Johnson took this to mean that Moran is planning to cheat again, and Moran weakly denies it. Seeing Moran’s unconvincing protests, he designated himself as the one to play against Moran in the next game. The two regulars of course objected at this, but Johnson gave them a fierce glare as he reasoned that they would have never realized that Moran was cheating them out of their money if it weren’t for him. He’s just going to get a small portion of the prize money, so they should just shut up and let him. The two regulars were dejected by this.

Johnson looked like a violent man and it was clear that he was used to intimidating people. Moran speculates that Johnson must have done a lot of dirty work before.

Seeing that no one else was protesting, Johnson wrapped up the matter and declared he’ll be the one to go against this cheater. He usually didn’t play against the same people twice, but he would make an exemption for him. They will play again tomorrow night and the game will be poker. The winner gets £100. Hearing this, Moran bitterly complained that he wouldn’t get any prize for winning. Johnson naturally shut him down by saying Moran should be glad this game could clear the suspicions on him.

Moran looked unhappy at this, but things actually went just as he planned. His goal was to see Johnson in tears tomorrow. Although he was trembling like some prey that about to get shot down on the outside, he was like a hunter who has set aim on his target on the inside.

Moran finishes talking all about the incident. He and William have moved to the living room and Louis, Fred and Albert were also there listening.

Louis and Fred are the first to react, talking about how he shouldn’t be so smug when it was only natural he would get caught cheating and in the end, Moran clearly just wanted revenge on the guy for seeing through his tricks.

Meanwhile, Moran just insists that they should praise him for his maturity and skill in manipulation, but Louis drags him further by pointing out that Moran didn’t even have that amount of money so he had to ask William for it.

Moran then changes targets and angrily scolds Albert for drinking wine elegantly while Moran told his story, as if it was just something to listen to as he drank wine. Albert neatly sidesteps his accusations and calmly claims that he’s actually agonizing over the fact that Moran’s sleight of hand was discovered since this might mean Will can’t depend on Moran to carry through tasks successfully. They might just assign menial work for Moran from now on.

Unfortunately, as much as Moran wanted to talk back to Albert, Moran only has himself to blame for getting caught, so all he can do is clench his fist in bitterness. Seeing him vexed like this cheers Albert even further.

Meanwhile, Louis is exasperated at Moran’s sulking. He uses Moran as an example for Fred, telling the latter not to gamble lightly like Moran does. Fred agrees with Louis and treats Moran’s story as a cautionary tale, making Moran even more annoyed.

Compared to the other three, William is sitting somberly on the sofa in deep thought, until he suddenly straightens up and inquires Moran if it was his first time meeting Johnson.

Moran confirms it, saying that he only thought Johnson was a guy who was oddly good at playing cards, but apparently, there have been rumors about this guy for a while now downtown.

When asked why he thinks he lost, Moran answers that it was a combination of a lot of things– he had too much to drink that night, got carried away since there were women around, and became too complacent at doing sleights of hands.

However, William once again emphasizes that Moran is a master at sleights of hands so ordinary people should not have caught on to it.

But Johnson did, which can only mean either of two things– that Johnson is extraordinarily observant, or that he was also cheating like Moran was. It can’t be the former, otherwise, he would’ve pointed out Moran’s sleight of hand right when he did it instead of after he revealed his cards. Which means it can only mean the latter. Something in Johnson’s own cards must have alerted him that Moran was cheating and so he called him out with certainty.

Unfortunately, Moran wasn’t able to check Johnson’s cards since he was being interrogated by everyone else at the time.

Moran is impressed at William’s ability to deduce everything that happened, and William gives credit to Moran’s detailed retelling of the event, saying that his memory is perfect even though he was drunk at the time.

Moran looks like he’s enjoying his banter with William even though it didn’t completely sound like William was complimenting him, so Louis spoils his fun by pointing out that William wasn’t really complimenting him. The fact of the matter is, Moran did get outwitted by Johnson.

William cheerfully watches them bicker, before asking Moran if for his game tomorrow night, William is correct in thinking that you either win in poker by going all-in or getting more chips than your opponent. Moran confirms it, but in his opinion, Johnson might make it an unconventional game.

William then says they should get ready for the game, and Albert jokingly offers MI6’s assistance. This makes William smile, answering that it isn’t necessary but he does enlist Fred for help.

Louis and Moran try to convince William not to meddle since this is Moran’s personal matter and has no contribution to their plans for Britain, but William just grins broadly in response and explains that he is just using this matter to cut loose and relieve his boredom.

Moran feels both amused and chilled at William is playing a high-stakes game just a way to relieve his boredom, while Louis smiles in resignation. The latter tells him to have fun and not to drink too much.

William thanks him, assuring Louis that he is worried for nothing. William is just doing this for his enjoyment.

The next night, a lot of people are in the pub waiting for Moran to arrive. Johnson is one of them and he is sitting arrogantly with his feet up. When Moran enters the pub, boos come from the people inside, along with thrilled screams from the ladies.

As Johnson tries to rile Moran up when he appears, Moran announces that he wants to introduce Johnson to someone, and two people come forward. He calls one of them “Willy” and says that the other person is just some boy they bumped into outside.

William formally introduces himself as “Willy”, claiming that he is an old friend of Moran’s who loves gambling, and apologizes for the mess his friend has caused.

As everyone else has figured out from William’s looks and clothing, Johnson points out that William is a noble. He definitely sticks out in the pub that has mainly working-class people as its customers.

Moran explains that he could only ask William to borrow money that large. Additionally, William was way too interested in the kind of poker people downtown play so he insisted on coming along.

William backs this up and politely asks if he could also join their game.

Johnson outwardly glares at him while thinking of how to scam more money out of this easygoing fellow. He finally agrees, but then starts talking about how he is at a disadvantage because he is not like William is. William must be able to calculate the odds of which cards would appear better than Johnson.

To even the odds between them, Johnson proposes they play only a single round of poker instead. Moran is opposed to this, as there is no point even betting with poker chips if that was the case. It takes all the fun out of playing poker.

Johnson pretends to be disappointed by this too but insists this is a necessary measure to even the odds between them. He then goes on to insist that they won’t be playing Hold'em anymore but something akin to Draw Poker instead.

They’ll each draw 5 cards instead of 2. Each player has one chance to throw away up to three cards to draw some more from the deck to replace them. Compared to Hold'em where there are community cards (cards shared by all players in the center of the table), it is much harder in Draw Poker to predict your opponent’s cards since all cards in the opponent’s hand won’t be revealed until the end of the game.

William is intrigued by his proposal. True enough, this type of game does rely more on luck and the probability of certain cards appearing is harder to predict.

Although William denied being able to calculate the probabilities of cards appearing earlier, the truth is back when he was a child, William had been able to do exactly that the moment he saw the cards on the table.

Whether it was truly just because of William’s appearance that he proposed to do this, it does prove to William and Moran that Johnson’s a little different from the average player. However, that doesn’t exactly mean that he is an extraordinary player.

They have already expected Johnson to prepare some sort of plan like this beforehand, but for appearance’s sake, Moran to protest for William, claiming it’s unfair that he’s suddenly changing the rules when the rest of them are all here to play their usual game.

Johnson just tries to provoke William in response, asking if the esteemed noble will be backing out now since he would become a laughingstock if he were to lose that much money to a punk like Johnson.

At this, William just shows a faint smile and takes a seat in front of Johnson. He politely thanks Johnson for letting him play and adjusting the rules for him at short notice, while also adding another £100 to the table aside from the one Moran borrowed for him as an entry fee to his own participation. He agrees to the rules and offers Johnson to choose another person to join in since William and Moran being friends gives them an unfair advantage, and Johnson does just that.

William then proposes that they have the young man he and Moran bumped into the way here as their dealer, but Johnson is opposed to it, saying only an idiot would believe that William and the boy aren’t acquainted. So Johnson looks around the pub a few times for someone who didn’t look invested in their game, then chooses a young man located outside the pub whose face cannot be seen because his hat was pulled down too low. William and Moran evaluate the young man for a bit before agreeing.

The young man was called into the pub and was just asked to be the dealer without any explanation. He seemed uncomfortable with the unsettling atmosphere within the pub and turned his gaze downwards, making his expression harder to make out.

Right as they were about to start the game, William speaks up again, saying that he heard that the £100 was supposed to be his friend’s payment for his suspected cheating on the other days he played with them. Johnson confirms it and calls this high-stakes game an occasion for the cheater to be sanctioned. He then claims that criminals are doomed to be put on trial like this. Small fries like Moran cannot win without cheating and are sure to meet an ugly end in his opinion.

Clenching his fist at Johnson’s cheap remarks, Moran is glad he set up this game to get revenge. He’s very much looking forward to the moment the lowlife Johnson goes from looking triumphant to dismayed.

Meanwhile, William tries to urge Johnson to be more lenient in giving sanctions on Moran. After all, the Bible clearly states that one must not judge others. There’s no need to make large bets when they could all just play for fun.

The crowd jeers at this, and naturally Johnson does not agree with him either. He insists that destiny will be the one to decide the winner of this game. In other words, the fate of this game is in God’s hands.

At this, William asks if whatever the result of this game will be considered divine providence and Johnson confirms it, saying that evil people will receive divine punishment. The cards are going to show this to them and he likens it to an amusing tragicomedy.

Then William asks if Johnson is prepared to acknowledge the results, Johnson finally gets annoyed at all the questions William keeps throwing him, and angrily answers that yes, he is obligated to accept whatever outcome there is.

William smiles ominously at this, claims he’s relieved to hear it, and talks about looking forward to this divine punishment.

Satisfied that “Willy” is finally amiable to the game, Johnson acts all devout, preaching about God in the Old Testament would even burn whole cities to death if its people would do wicked things.

William knows they too will be judged for their actions someday. However, he’s going to prove who is more sinful among the two of them. He keeps silent as he tries to push down his dark side that almost showed on his face.

The game begins and the young man deals the cards among the four of them. The panicked way he distributes 5 cards to each player makes the onlookers jeer at him.

First up is Johnson, who looks at his cards expressionlessly. Meanwhile, the person he picked to play with them grimaced as soon as he saw his own cards. It is clear that he doesn’t have the deceptive skills to win the game.

On the other hand, Moran doesn’t show any reaction to his own cards like Johnson. He starts observing his opponents right after checking his cards.

However, Johnson isn’t looking at his own cards, but rather staring stupidly at someone with his mouth agape instead. And this someone is William.

William did not look at his cards, let alone touch them. He doesn’t seem to sense everyone else’s bewildered reactions and just kept grinning calmly.

Johnson asks him why he isn’t checking his own cards and William keeps his smile pasted on his face as he replies that since Johnson said God has already decided on the winner, then William would rather just wait and see what the outcome was.

Betting a large number of chips without even checking one’s own cards is actually a technique some poker players use to make their opponents falter. However, it’s pointless to use this technique to make their opponent back down on a one-round game like this one.

Johnson then informs William that those words are just a metaphor and wonders if William is giving up his right to change some of his cards.

Williams confirms that he will do exactly that and will simply accept God’s will.

Johnson is utterly flabbergasted by this indulgent noble. He doesn’t know if “Willy” is just an incredibly easygoing character, so if £100 is nothing but small change to him. Either way, it’s easy money for him.

He then goes on to put down 2 of his cards to exchange for new ones. Afterwards, his friend also asks the dealer to change 4 of his own cards. He goes pale as soon as he sees his new cards. His reactions are so plain to see that it makes Moran suspicious of him.

Meanwhile, Moran only changes one of his cards. William of course doesn’t move to change his own cards. It’s as if he’s already thrown the game.

This game should be relying only on luck, making it a fair game for everyone regardless of their social status… if he weren’t involved.

Johnson glances at the young man chosen to be their dealer. His victory had been set the moment he was chosen, that is why he can say this is an occasion to punish Moran.

First up to reveal his cards is the player Johnson picked, who had a High Card. In other words, none of the suits or even numbers match. Moran is relieved to know that this man wasn’t just putting up a weak act.

Next up is Moran’s hand– 4 of Hearts, 4 of Spades, 4 of Clubs, 2 of Spades, and 2 of Diamonds. A Full House.

Seeing him miraculously pull of the same thing as yesterday, the two other players he went up against yesterday stand up and want to accuse him of cheating again. However, they were monitoring Moran’s hands the whole time and did not see any suspicious movements. So they could only dejectedly sit down.

Since Johnson claimed the results are all set by God, Moran declares that God must love him then for him to get these cards.

If this were truly just a game based on luck, it should be next to impossible to get anything better than Moran’s hand. However, Johnson is unshaken by this. He proceeds to say that winning against all odds is the real miracle and reveals his own hand– 2 of Diamonds*, 6 of Hearts, 6 of Clubs, and 6 of Diamonds. It’s a Four of a kind, which is considered one rank above Full House.

*T.N.: This seems to be an error by the author, since 2 of diamonds already appeared in Moran’s hand…

Moran grinds his teeth at this. Johnson gleefully talks about how cruel God is to give Moran hope to think he’s won only to bring him down like this. He then gives his cohorts behind him a thumbs up. This dramatic development is something Johnson and that person cooked up.

This trick has a big weakness so he has to pick his opponents carefully when carrying it out. However, when they do execute it successfully, the rewards are rich.

At first, he only tried doing this trick once as an experiment and got his friend to pretend to do “it” on coincidence. He was a little worried about pulling it off again here, but it looks like no one caught on to their trick.

While inwardly mocking all the intelligence of the crowd hyped by the turn of events, he starts glaring at the sole calm noble in the pub and loudly prompts him to reveal his hand. As he does this, Johnson was already making plans to drinks with his cahoots somewhere else, assured of his victory.

William calmly declares that the judgment which Johnson beckoned has arrived and turns over his cards for everyone to see.

At that moment the whole pub went speechless. “Willy” has 7 of Hearts, 8 of Hearts, 9 of Hearts, 10 of Hearts, and J of Hearts. It’s a Straight Flush.

It’s turnaround after turnaround. If we’re talking about winning against all odds, William has achieved just that. The crowd in the pub was going wild, while William and Moran are staring at Johnson.

Stunned by William’s Straight Flush, he then grabs the dealer by the collar, accusing him of fixing the match. Everyone was bewildered into silence by his reaction.

William stands, asks him to unhand the young man, and reveals that he is a good friend of his. Johnson is shocked by this, and the dealer uses that opportunity to take Johnson’s hand off him and beckons someone else to come into a pub– someone who has the same face as him and looks ashamed of himself.

Johnson and his cohorts went pale as soon as the man went in.

William then explains that the newcomer is someone who should have been the dealer, while the dealer they had used in the game (Fred) was William’s friend who dressed up to look like the newcomer.

He reveals that they were aware of what Johnson was going to do right from the start. That’s why he lost in such a spectacular fashion. He knew right from the moment Johnson pointed out that his friend (Moran) cheated that Johnson was tricking everyone. He heard that only his friend had revealed his cards and no one else, so William suspected Johnson had the same cards.

Johnson argues that it doesn’t prove that Johnson was cheating, but William quickly shoots him down by saying Johnson should have questioned his friend why they had the same cards if that were the case. Instead, Johnson groped around Moran’s hand. He obviously knew he would also be expected of cheating if he revealed that he also had the same cards.

To clear himself out of suspicion, Johnson didn’t reveal his own cards and instead searched at the place Moran would most likely hide the cards.

Johnson steps back and groans upon hearing “Willy” accurately deduce his actions. Willy then goes on to explain that he figured out how Johnson cheated when Johnson uttered that he never plays against the same people twice.

On one hand, you can just interpret this as some rule Johnson personally set for himself, but you could also take it to mean that his method is more likely to be seen through if he did it twice. William only needed to think of which methods can’t be used multiple times.

Taking the deck of cards from Fred, he starts smoothly demonstrating different kinds of tricks, such as Second Dealing (dealing the second card in the deck, instead of the top card) and Bottom Dealing (dealing the bottom card instead of the top), while making it look like he’s dealing normally.

Then he demonstrates another method by putting the deck on the table and then flipping his hand, only to reveal another card still in his hand. This method is called Palming.

The crowd is very impressed with his smooth execution and explanation of these tricks and claps for him, much to Moran’s strained amusement.

True enough, William certainly was doing this for his own enjoyment. Day by day, William has been orchestrating crimes and death in London, but now he was just having fun by entertaining these people in the pub.

William thanks the crowd for the applause, and then continues on to say that this would only be effective if he himself was the dealer. There are other factors to take into consideration such as the atmosphere of the betting place, and if he could even get the opportunity to be the dealer.

However, if he could somehow manage to get an accomplice pretending to be a stranger to be the dealer, claiming it was to make sure it was fair for everyone, then he could get that accomplice to fix the game for him.

This makes the two easy prey he played against yesterday remember that Johnson did choose someone outside the pub to be their dealer. This newcomer looks remarkably like that youngster, now that they looked more closely at him.

The newcomer gave a big reaction after being found out, which just further proved it. This also explains why his method could not be used twice.

Moreover, if Johnson truly wanted to play a game purely based on luck, it would have been much simpler to just draw the cards in order and bet on who has the bigger card, but he seems to be insistent that it has to be poker. Even the day before he made sure that cards would need to be dealt.

William then thanks the crowd for listening with a bow. The crowd starts staring at Johnson with the same loathing and scorn he had for them earlier for not being able to detect his trick.

Johnson then asks about the boy William and Moran brought with them from the start, and William reveals that this boy really was just some stranger he met on the street. If Johnson chose him to be the dealer, then it would have become a game truly based on luck.

Will tells him that God saves those who have faith. Johnson lost because he doubted someone else’s kindness.

When Johnson claims that his mistake was in misjudging Willy, William corrects him, saying it was his friend (Moran) he misjudged. He then compliments Johnson for seeing through his friend’s cheating and his unerring skill of observation that helped him get away with his trickery up until now. It must have been tough to choose his opponents so he could change the dealer without protest from them.

Johnson made some fatal errors last night– he dismissed Moran as some weakling, got greedy and volunteered himself as the rematch representative, and used the same method again.

Then William asks if he hasn’t realized how Moran purposely pretended to be driven to a corner last night so he can lure Johnson into playing a match with him again, aiming to reveal Johnson’s own trickery.

Johnson stares, stunned at Moran, while Moran tells Johnson off for getting overconfident after pulling it off successfully too many times and his habit of looking down on his opponents. His cheap pride made it easy to pull the rug from underneath him.

Moran then ends his speech by calling him a damn rat that had just a bit of cunning. This sentence coming from someone he viewed to be lower than him hurts Johnson’s pride and makes him see red.

He signals at his subordinates behind him with his eyes, and they all stand up menacingly in unison. The crowd backs up in fear while William, Moran, and Fred stay calm in the center of the ring the crowd ended up forming.

William comments on how appalling it is that Johnson is resorting to violence now that he’s lost in an argument, and Johnson replies that he did not grow in luxury like William so he does dirty work on an everyday occurrence, which taught him that physical threats are useful at negotiations.

Then they pull out knives from their pockets and break the bottles in the pub to use as weapons to attack William’s group.

William is disappointed at their response and starts preparing for a fight, but Moran interrupts and asks him to leave the fighting to him. This was his mistake to begin with and he wouldn’t be satisfied until he beats them up himself.

Upon seeing the fierce smile on Moran’s face, William and Fred stand back to let him do as he wants.

Their unfazed demeanor gets on Johnson’s nerves. At his signal, Johnson’s subordinates rush to attack Moran. The numbers are against him but Moran is not bothered by this at all. He showed the kind of ferocity that would scare even tigers into fleeing.

The four of them are in a carriage on the way back home and Moran feels all happy and refreshed after the fight. Judging by his good mood, you can tell that he had no trouble fighting all of them alone.

Johnson and his subordinates were beaten up so badly that they could only trudge away from the pub in silence. Johnson’s dealer seemed to have sensed their defeat coming a mile away and ran right before the fight even started.

The pub became a mess because of the fight, but the onlookers were satisfied with the exciting turn of events and cheered on happily for Moran. Only the pub owner seemed to be in despair.

Moran is in high spirits after venting his anger as he got on the carriage with William and Fred. The latter looks exasperated at Moran’s satisfaction from beating up his target. After all, Moran boasted about he was all mature now yesterday but still ended up acting like a brute today.

William looked a little worried because, in the end, Moran’s matter wasn’t really wrapped up properly so he can’t go back to that pub again anytime soon.

However, Moran is not bothered by this since there are many other bars in London. He does think it is a bit of a shame though since he considered the ladies in the bar top-notch.

William is amused at Moran’s obstinate personality. Meanwhile, Fred and Moran comment on how William seemed to have a lot of fun tonight. Moran talks about how William usually operates in the background, so it’s rare to see William enthusiastically giving a speech as he shows off his skills.

Their comments make William reflect on his actions and admit that he was a little too flashy earlier, but it should be okay to do it for just one night. He sounded rather riveted as he said this though, perhaps from being able to cut loose for the first time in a long while.

Moran mischievously asks if William actually wanted to join in on the fight earlier, but William denies it, saying he was invigorated by just watching Moran go wild. Playing cards just to have fun was satisfying enough for William.

William and Fred believed Moran would succeed so they just watched the fight go on from the sidelines, but those who don’t know him would definitely find it odd to see a noble calmly watching a fight closeup.

Although this all started because of a mistake he made, Moran feels accomplished that he got to provide a way for William to relieve his boredom.

However, he then noticed that they left empty-handed. Apparently, William gave all the money to the pub owner to compensate for the mess they made. Moran then regrets going all out in the fight earlier since was the one who caused all that mess that had to be paid for.

Placing a hand on Moran’s shoulder, William asks him to be Louis’ assistant if he wants to compensate for it. Shuddering in fear at this, he says he’d rather be suspended than do such a thing.

Then William proposes doing the chores while he’s in suspension, and of course Moran is also opposed to this, saying that’s practically the same thing as being Louis’ assistant. He then reminded William about how he earlier preached about not judging others earlier. Moran felt as though William seems to have ill intentions as he proposed these things, and asks if he has done something to warrant it.

William denies it, saying he’s actually thankful to Moran for the opportunity to have fun tonight. He proves this by declaring that he’s having so much fun right now.

Hearing William say those words sincerely made Moran realize exactly what he means. He grows pale at the thought of being the target of William’s teasing for the rest of the night.

William then brings Fred into the conversation, informing him of how Moran gave a passionate speech about how mature he’s grown last night and cheerfully asks if he wants to hear all about it later, much to Moran’s protest.

It’s rare that Moran gets teased to death like this, so Fred takes him up on the opportunity.

Moran is disappointed at Fred’s betrayal (and William’s, for telling Fred about it when William promised him yesterday that he’d keep it a secret), but he sensed that resistance is futile once he sees William direct a gentle smile at him.

And that’s how the Lord of Crime had fun the whole night.

Note: It wasn’t very clear here in the summary since I wasn’t translating their lines word per word, but Moran and Fred’s names were never revealed to anyone in the pub. Johnson just kept referring to Moran as the “damn cheater” while Fred was always just a “young man” for everyone else. William just kept referring to Fred and Moran as his “friends” (or whatever term you prefer for the word nakama). William was the only one who used an alias (Willy).

Also, for a demonstration of Second Dealing and Bottom Dealing, check out 2:45 onwards of this video:

[Previous Chapter]

Milverton manipulated William and Sherlock into coming to him to get Sherlock to catch William for him.

On the other hand, Louis is being held up by Harry downstairs. Harry informs him that Sherlock is also up there, and unfortunately Loius can’t defeat Harry so easily.

On the second floor, Milverton starts gloating about everything he has planned. If William kills Milverton, the whole country will find out who the Lord of Crime is. However, if William lets himself get captured by Sherlock, Milverton offers to hand him over to the government without revealing that he is the Lord of Crime.

As for Sherlock, if he captures William, Milverton offers to give back the evidence he is using to threaten Mary. He then implores Sherlock to catch the Lord of Crime.

Milverton cackles, amused, because everything is going as he planned.

However, Sherlock did not act as Milverton expected. Once Milverton has finished talking, Sherlock asks, “Are you done?”

And comments that if this was a comedy act, Milverton would surely not be the King but the Jester. Sherlock then informs Milverton that he has made 2 miscalculations.

First off, Sherlock explains that he is not the type of person Milverton thinks he is. Among all the cases he has tackled, there is only one person he finds particularly unforgivable– The one who cackles from a safe place as he manipulate others into doing bad deeds. And that person is Milverton.

The Lord of Crime being here just proves that Milverton has done things that the Lord of Crime would kill him for.

Sherlock starts laughing, delighted that Liam truly is the Lord of Crime. He hoped it would be. He would not have accepted anyone else to be the Lord of Crime.

Milverton finally panics, because Sherlock and William are only focused on him. He wasn’t aware of any connection between the two. They should be on opposite sides of the law.

Milverton wonders if this is the other miscalculation Sherlock was referring to. He then asks, all flustered, what exactly Sherlock means.

Meanwhile, Sherlock directly asks Liam if he minds his name being exposed to the public, as Sherlock does not care what happens here as long he is able to help his partner with his marriage.

William replies that getting his name out there has always been the plan.

Now Milverton really is in a bind. He tries to trick Sherlock into thinking that he has arranged for Mary’s evidence to be exposed beforehand, but Sherlock was immediately able to tell that Milverton was lying.

This is the first time Milverton has ever been in a pinch, and he desperately tries to come up with a way to escape. Behind him is a balcony which is on a cliff with the sea below it, and the weather is terrible.

There is no guarantee that he will be saved, but it is the best chance he has. He hurriedly turns back to jump down to the sea, but he was shot several times in the back as he does so.

And the one who shot him was Sherlock.

William now has his gun pointed at Sherlock. Unfazed, Sherlock just tells him that now William’s name will be plastered all over the media. He then lights up a cigarette and and throws the match to the curtain, starting a fire in the villa.

Up until now, Sherlock has been the one dancing on top of William’s palm, but he bets that William never expected him to kill Milverton.

He then claims that everything won’t go according to William’s plans. He won’t let it. This is where the real fight between them will begin.

William then chuckles and replies with the same thing he told Sherlock on the train– “Catch me if you can, Sherlock.”

And leaves the room.

Downstairs, Harry and Gosling give up on fighting Louis and Fred after seeing Milverton fall down to his death.

Meanwhile, Sherlock burns all the blackmail material. Since William did not kill him, Sherlock surmises that he still has a role to play in William’s plans.

Due to the fire Sherlock started, the whole villa is now burning. Once he was out of the villa, he tells John who arrived with the police that he took care of the evidence about Mary. Sherlock then confesses to the police that he used the gun he is holding to kill Milverton. They won’t find the body though since it fell from the cliff. He then asks them to arrest him.

Sherlock also apologizes to John, seeing as it seems he would not be able to attend their wedding.

Meanwhile, in a carriage, William was feeling down after making Sherlock into a killer. Louis comforts him, telling him it was not his fault.

William had not meant for Sherlock to kill someone this early in the game. Vigilantism should have been Sherlock’s biggest hurdle.

However, now that Sherlock has killed one person, he should be able to kill another. William is now sure that Sherlock would kill William as William hopes he would, much to Louis’ alarm.

Since things are advancing faster than expected, William says they need to start passing judgment on all the demons on their list.

[Previous Chapter]

To prepare for their heist, John enthusiastically gathers all the tools Sherlock took from his previous criminal cases, such as crowbars, diamond glass cutters, a lantern with a shutter to turn off the light fast, among other things.

He even prepares different colored eye masks for both of them and tennis shoes with rubber soles to make it easier to sneak around without noise.

John says he’s doing all these things so Sherlock won’t be caught, since many people in London depend on him.

Sherlock gets back to Baker Street at this moment with lunch for John and Ms. Hudson. He had apparently looked up a map around the area where Milverton’s villa is. The villa is located in east of Brighton, up at the Seven Sisters cliffs along the coast.

From its location, it is easy to spot at a glance when someone approaches it. John is relieved that they found out when Milverton won’t be present so they can sneak in easily. He then tries to think of other things he needs to prepare, but Sherlock asks him to take a break and eat lunch with him up on the roof.

As they were eating their sandwiches, Sherlock asks John why he was getting married, and the latter explains that Mary has all he wants in a wife.

Sherlock doesn’t really object to her, but he doesn’t understand why John needs to marry her to be with her.

To this, John replies that he wanted a “result” wherein he is being acknowledged by someone.

John has always been insecure of his own abilities. Unlike Sherlock, he is not a genius who can solve difficult cases by himself. All the cases they have worked on up until now were Sherlock’s achievements. They are Sherlock’s “results”.

Meanwhile, John feels as though he has not achieved anything yet in his life. He wanted to be acknowledged by someone, and marriage would mean the other person is acknowledging him. They would be acknowledging each other.

Sherlock feels a bit exasperated when he heard this, because he claims he’s been acknowledging John this whole time.

Sure, he’s quite capable alone, but Sherlock has had way more fun solving cases with John around. He’s been happy having John as a partner who could appreciate solving mysteries the same way he has, so he feels a little lonely now that John will be leaving Baker Street.

Sherlock then admits that he has been testing and appraising Mary, and he has finally realized why. He wanted to see if she can make John happy. Sherlock supposes that this much be what friendship is like.

John is touched and shocked that Sherlock considers him as a friend, and reassures Sherlock that he does not plan on quitting being his partner after he has gotten married.

Sherlock asks John to promise that whatever happens this point out, John should prioritize this own happiness. If John is happy, then Sherlock is happy as well. John acquiesces.

The next night, Sherlock and John arrive at east of Brighton. The weather is windy and a storm could come at any moment. The perfect weather for sneaking.

As they went through the forest and arrive at the coast, they could finally see Milverton’s villa. Sherlock and John decide to go around the back to the west side of the villa since there is nowhere to hide at the right side.

At that moment, they saw a light and heard a couple of gunshots coming from the villa. Sherlock comes to a conclusion after a bit of thinking, and realizes there had been some miscalculations.

He then orders John to call for the police. Meanwhile, he will try recovering the evidence in the midst of the chaos.

If he can’t manage it, he will meet up with John and the police and search for the evidence while everyone is preoccupied.

When he approached the villa, there were more signs of a fight inside. He rounds the villa and climbs to the second floor. The room he went into happened to be Milverton’s room, but there was no safe inside it.

As he heads to the next room, Sherlock hears voices from the other side of the door.

He peeks through the half-open door, and saw Milverton’s back. Then he was shocked when he saw who Milverton was talking to.

As Sherlock enters the room, Milverton comments that Sherlock arrived right on time.

It seems Milverton had been planning to get the three of them together this whole time. He was going to explain further, but Sherlock beat him to it.

He calmly deduced that Milverton had threatened Mary all along to get her to approach him with this case, and he must have done something similar to the other person in this room to get him to come here.

Milverton confirms it, and says he must understand why Milverton has called him here– To catch the Lord of Crime, the person in front of Milverton.

Lightning strikes, and a glimpse of William pointing a gun to Milverton could be seen on the other side of the room.

[Previous Chapter]

Sherlock comes up with  a plan to sneak in to Milverton’s estate and steal the evidence. He originally intended on doing it all alone, but John protests when he hears about it, saying they were partners so they are in this together. Moreover, this is Mary’s problem so John should have a hand in this as well.

Sherlock reassures him that they will be able to steal it perfectly. After all, he has always thought that he would be able to pull off a crime more effectively every time he solved a case.

Two days later, Sherlock enters a plumbing company in disguise, pretending to be a customer who was satisfied by the company’s service on his home before. He gives them tickets to a popular circus which expire that same day.  

Since they did not have any urgent tasks that day, everyone in the company decided to close up and go to the circus instead.

Once the plumbing service closed shop, John and Sherlock put up a sign on their door, saying that anyone who needs urgent assistance should head over to the H&W Plumbing instead.

Meanwhile, at the Milverton residence, Wiggins and his fellow Irregulars sabotage the plumbing there, making water burst out of the pipes all over the estate.

Agatha, one of the servants there hurriedly goes to the plumbers for help, and finds that they were closed that day. She sees the sign on the door and heads on over to H&W Plumbing.

H&W Plumbing is a fake company Sherlock and John set up. Sherlock uses John to make Agatha flustered, as John is Agatha’s type of guy. Sherlock came up with the plan just in case they wouldn’t be able to find the evidence. He will have John become all chummy with the maid to get information out of her.

Sherlock then heads over to Wiggins. The latter informs him that Milverton, his secretary and 2 bodyguards are all not present in the residence. Realizing that now was the best time to steal the evidence, Sherlock and John then head on over to the Milverton residence.

Once they were there, Sherlock recruits the maids to find all the bursting pipes in and outside of the house. John invites Agatha do the work with him.

Meanwhile, Sherlock sneaks into Milverton’s study and finds a safe. However, inside of it was just documents for his company and no blackmail material.

Once they have fixed the leaks all over the house, they all meet up again and John asks Sherlock if their job is all done now. Sherlock replies, “Not yet.”

Realizing that Sherlock did not find the evidence, John starts flirting with Agatha to make it easier to get information from her.

Sherlock asks her to sign the form needed to prove that the plumbers completed their work, but unfortunately on the head of the house can do so. She informs then that Milverton won’t be back until 2 days later.

This makes Sherlock realize that Milverton has a villa. Agatha cannot reveal the address, so Sherlock gets her to mail the form to Milverton for them instead.

After they leave, they sneakily follow Agatha as she puts the envelope has has into the postbox. Sherlock retrieves the mail and finds out that Milverton’s villa is in Brighton. They decide to sneak in once Milverton leaves in 2 days.

Meanwhile, in the Moriarty residence, they find out that Milverton not only had a hand in Whiteley’s affairs, but also the Jack the Ripper incident. William declares that they must eliminate Milverton as soon as possible.

However, based on Fred’s investigation, Milverton has ordered all the media companies he owns to publish that William is the Lord of Crime if Milverton dies. Milverton has obviously done it to prevent William from killing him.

To prevent that from being published, they would have to kill all the people he has ordered to do so around the same time he would be killed.

Do the Moriartys have the power to do that? Yes. But will they? No. It would mean killing a lot of innocent people just to prevent the circulation.

William says they will kill Milverton even if it means that William’s name will be exposed to the public. This has always been part of the Moriarty Plan after all.

[Previous Chapter]

Sherlock announces that Milverton 9s the one blackmailing Mary. John only knows of the guy as a bigshot businessman who owns a number of major media companies.

Sherlock then informs John of the other side of Milverton that the public is clueless about– his terrible hobby of enjoying watching people fall to ruin during the peak of their life. Sherlock even calls him the absolute worst trash there is.

The truth is, Sherlock has taken cases where Milverton was involved, and they were horrible ordeals for Sherlock.

Back then, Milverton’s methods had Sherlock baffled because Milverton would always demand for an amount that he knows the other person could never be able to pay with the assets their own or the connections they have.

Normally,  if you’re blackmailing for money, you’d ask for amount that would be just the around the amount that the other person could barely afford to get. However, Milverton has never actually gotten cash from blackmailing.

From this, Sherlock was able to deduce that Milverton’s goal is not the money but the ruin of the other person.

Sherlock believes that Mary is being blackmailed because he found out about the treasure of Agra somehow. Now that Mary has reached a turning point in her life (marriage), he took it as an opportunity to blackmail her.

However, Sherlock believes that Mary is being blackmailed not with the treasures of Agra, but something else.

This is when Mary admits something that happened while she was a university student.

For the longest time, Mary had been attending a boarding school, so she decided to go to a university in Paris to widen her horizons. She was very ignorant about a lot of things back then and got mixed up in a student movement for Paris Commune (“A radical socialist, disestablishmentarian, and revolutionary government that ruled Paris after the collapse of the Second French Empire” according to Wikipedia).

Even if she only handed out flyers, the French government would not let off easily if evidence was ever reported to them. Even if John did not mind what she had done, the French government certainly will. After all, the club she joined was pretty much an antigovernment organization. And that is the weakness Milverton is using to blackmail Mary.

To save her Sherlock and John will try to negotiate with Milverton. A few days later, Milverton comes to Sherlock’s office.

Sherlock explains that the treasure of Agra he asked Mary for had sunk in Thames River and cannot be recovered anymore. He asks if she can just pay the price equal to that amount.

Milverton replies that it ultimately depends on their sincerity. He then starts calling Sherlock’s office as his own, and puts the ash from his smoking pipe into the teapot and then serves John tea with it.

Then he gets his assistant to pee all over Sherlock’s violin, and asks Sherlock to play a piece for him. John of course protests at all his actions, but Milverton replies that if they want to negotiate, they need to show that they would give it a sincere effort. However, they so far have done no such thing.

Milverton then announces that he is hungry so Sherlock gets Ms. Hudson to fix something up for him. Before Ms. Hudson entered the room with food on a tray, she chastises John, telling him not to fold so easily to Milverton’s demands.

Upon seeing Ms. Hudson, Milverton beckons her in to his office. Fed up with the whole situation, Ms. Hudson storms in, slams the tray of food onto the table and tells him not to order her around because this is her house.

Milverton responds by kicking the table, knocking all the food down the floor and stepping on the sandwich she made. He does not care at all if food for satisfying one’s empty stomach. He personally does not feel satisfied unless he does something like that, which makes Ms. Hudson burst into tears.

Sherlock then says it’s a waste of food. He picks up the sandwich and takes a bite, much to Ms. Hudson and John’s shock.

On the other hand, Milverton is amused by this. He asks Sherlock if this is his way of striking back at Milverton, but Sherlock plays dumb about it.

Milverton then says that it won’t work on him. Sherlock’s power of deduction can never win against Milverton’s power because Milverton knows everything about all the people in London, from their addresses, to their jobs, their loves, and their affairs. Who has commited crimes, who has grudges, who is on the verge of killing someone… When an incident happens, he can immediately tell who is responsible. There’s no need to deduce any of it.

Sherlock then comments that if someone had that kind of power, he wished they would use it to stop crime… and then says rather provokingly that obviously that’s not possible if the person who has that ability is the trashiest sort like a person he knows.

Milverton is absolutely entertained by Sherlock’s response and says he’s glad he met with the latter. He then informs them that he is not willing to compromise. The treasure has to be given to him at noon that coming Saturday. Sherlock agrees and as Milverton was leaving, asks if there really is evidence about what Mary has done.

Milverton confirms it, saying he has it securely stored in safe at his house.

After he leaves, Sherlock reveals to John that his real violin has been in the cabinet all along. In the past, Milverton ruined his ashtray, much to his dismay, so now Sherlock knew to prepare beforehand.

Since collecting all the treasure from the bottom of Thames river is impossible, Sherlock jokingly suggests to steal that amount of treasure from the British Museum instead. At least that way, Mary and John would become accomplices together.

John for a moment considers it possible with Sherlock’s help, but of course he wouldn’t want to make trouble elsewhere just so the two of them could get married.

So Sherlock proposes they steal the evidence from Milverton’s estate instead.

[Previous Chapter]

At a harbor in Thames River, London, Sherlock and John was monitoring a steamboat named Aurora from afar.

The hunting dog led them to the harbor, where they found out that someone paid a hefty sum for a boat ride on Aurora, but that person asked to wait on their call before departing. Sherlock deduces that they must be waiting for night to arrive before escaping.

So Sherlock had Lestrade prepare a high speed patrol boat for them. They boarded that boat and waited for Jonathan Small to appear and escape on Aurora.

John questions why they had to chase Small instead of just catching him immediately. Sherlock explains that Small would just target Mary when he gets out of prison again for the treasure. To prevent that, they need to make Small give up on treasure.

Small finally boards Aurora and the boat departs, with Sherlock and company following them. Once they get close to Aurora, Small finally notices them.

Sherlock yells at him, telling him that they know he’s involved with Bartholomew’s murder and how they took the Treasures of Agra.

Small replies that he has no plans on handing over the treasure and gets Tonga, Bartholomew’s murderer, to shoot a poisoned needle at him. John pushes Sherlock and himself out of range, and both of them shoot back at him.

Tonga is shot and dies, falling into the river. Since the boat can’t go any faster, Small realizes there’s no way he can escape and threw away all the contents of the chest into the river. If he can’t get the treasure, he’d rather no one else will.

This is what Sherlock had been aiming for the start. Small gave up on the treasure himself and got captured.

On their way back to Baker Street, John is relieved, saying that Mary is finally safe now, but Sherlock doesn’t seem convinced.

Once they got back, they told Mary what had happened. Mary inquires about the treasure and Sherlock replies that Small threw them all down the river. It was thrown near the wetlands, so it would be difficult to recover any of them without time and help from a lot of people.

From there, Mary breaks down and finally admits that someone threatened her to hand over that treasure, otherwise they would annul her marriage with John.

When asked who it was, Mary refused to say. However, Sherlock already had an idea who it was. He says there is only one person in London who would do such a thing. Charles Augustus Milverton.

[Next Chapter]

[Previous Chapter]

Sherlock and John finds Bartholomew’s corpse with a slip of paper that had 4 crosses drawn on it.

Mary and Bartholomew’s twin brother Thaddeus catch up to them, and the latter notices that the Treasures of Agra is gone.

The last person to meet Bartholomew is Thaddeus and he panics, knowing that the people will mostly suspect him of being the killer even though he didn’t do it.

Sherlock calms him down and gets him to contact the police and explain the situation.

Once Thaddeus leaves, Sherlock tells Mary that this is their last chance to turn back before they get any deeper into the case. 

Judging from the way Bartholomew died, it was clearly done by a professional. He proves this getting John to look behind the corpse’s left ear, which was pricked by a poisoned needle. If they continue, they would definitely be targeted too.

Both Sherlock and John try to persuade Mary not to pursue the matter any further, as they can’t guarantee Mary’s safety. However, Mary insists on finding the perpetrator, otherwise Thaddeus might really end up being blamed as the murderer.

Sherlock is impressed at how good Mary was at coming up with counterarguments. She claims that her aim is to help someone, but Sherlock knows that she simply wants to find the perpetrator to find the treasure. However, he still can’t figure out why she needs that treasure so much.

To find out, Sherlock gives Mary a condition. They didn’t need to find the treasure to prove Thaddeus innocence in the matter. To see if Mary truly wanted to help Thaddeus, he asks her to figure out how it prove it herself.

Mary looks around the room before telling Sherlock her deductions. She surmises that there must have been 2 people responsible for these murder. One of the murderers came in through the secret attic. It was from there that they shot the poisoned needle at Bartholomew.

The other is the man with the artificial leg who Sholto feared, judging from the tracks on the window and floor. Also, she believes that one of them must have been Jonathan Small, the sole British name in the map his father had.

She then goes on to say that the Treasures of Agra must have been the possession of those 4 people signed on the map. They were in prison while Sholto and her father had been prison guards there. They must have negotiated with the two into helping them escape in exchange for a share in the treasure, but Sholto must have taken the treasure for himself.

Lastly, she claimed that the symbols on the paper left next Bartholomew’s corpse must have been to signify that the four of them have a right to that treasure.

Everything Mary deduces was in line with Sherlock’s deduction.
It is at this time that Assistant Inspector Greyson turns up. (Sherlock emphasizes the word “assistant” when greeting him, much to the latter’s annoyance.)  When Mary tries to explain the Small was the real perpetrator, but Greyson was adamant that it was Thaddeus.

As the police tries to take Thaddeus to the station, Mary rushes forward and tells him that they will prove his innocence. Then, in a low voice, she asks if he told them about the treasure and he whispers negatively.

Now they have no choice but to catch the real killer to prove Thaddeus’ innocence. However, Mary can’t figure out where Small went.

Sherlock urges her to look at the killer’s footsteps again. It seems that the killers must have knocked over one of the chemicals that Bartholomew was using as an experiment, and stepped on it. This chemical has a strong smell and cannot be washed off.

So Sherlock gets Wiggins to bring over a hunting dog. They use this dog named Toby to follow the smell stuck on the shoe of the killer.

Mary is wearing heels, so John convinces him to go back to Baker Street while they hurry to find the killer.

Upon hearing the circumstances, Hudson imagines all she could do if she had that amount of money, like buying clothes and going on overseas trips. However Mary said she did not need that amount of money. All she wants is to live peacefully with John.

Ms. Hudson remembers Sherlock telling her that Mary was hiding something, but Ms. Hudson doesn’t believe Mary was lying just now.

After retiring to the room Ms. Hudson offered her in Baker Street, Mary thinks about how she doesn’t need the treasure, but she must get her hands on it, otherwise she’s going to lose John.

[Previous Chapter]

Sherlock hears Mary mutter, “So the Treasures of Agra does exist.” And so does John. The latter asks her about it without an ounce of subtlety, much to Sherlock’s alarm. 

She explains that she thought so because the map she found from her father’s notepad looked like a treasure map. John easily accepts her explanation, but Sherlock doesn’t seem so convinced.

Curious, Thaddeus inquires about the map so Mary shows it to him. He is then alarmed when he sees the 4 cross symbols on the map, because he has seen them before prior to his father’s funeral service.

Thaddeus then shares what he knows.

11 years ago, Thaddeus’ father quit the military and started living at Pondicherry Lodge in Norwood. Apparently, he had great success in India and returned to Britain with a large amount of money and jewels, along with a couple of Indian servants. 

However, his personality had completely changed. He was very scared of going out alone, and was especially fearful of men with artificial legs.

Then around 6 years ago, Sholto received a letter from India, seeming to be very shocked upon reading it. He fell very ill and had been bedridden since then.

When his condition became incurable, Sholto calls over his 2 sons to tell them his shocking last request.

The truth was, he became rich not because his business bloomed in India, but because he and his subordinate, Mary’s father, just happened to obtain some treasure while he was still serving in the army. He kept it a secret from the army and returned to Britain with the treasure.

A year later, Mary’s father also returned to Britain and came to Sholto’s place to discuss how they were going to split the treasure. Out of greed, Sholto refused to do so and argued with Mary’s father.

Mary’s father had a heart condition which got aggravated by their argument. He had a seizure, hit his head on the treasure chest as he fell, and died on the spot.

Sholto was in turmoil. If reported the incident to the police, it would only look like he killed Morstan. What’s more, he feared that the treasure would be found out if he did so.

While he was spending a long time panicking about it, his butler Lal appeared in the doorway to check on him. Sholto tries to convince him that he did not kill Morstan, and Lal tells him not to worry. After admitting that he heard the two of them arguing and Sholto punching Morstan, Lal tells him that he will definitely keep quiet about it. Since no one knows that Morstan came here anyway, he advises Sholto that there’s no need to inform anyone that he has killed him.

His servant believed that the sound of Morstan’s head bumping into the chest was the sound of Sholto punching him. Sholto even more sure that the jury would never believe that he didn’t kill Morstan. So he and Lal hid the corpse.

After telling his sons about the incident, Sholto asked them to return the treasure to Morstan’s daughter.

John condemned Sholto for what he had done, but Mary was very calm about it, saying it was inevitable.

Thaddeus continued on to say that just as Sholto was about to tell them the location of the treasure, Sholto suddenly panicked, shouting, “He’s here!” However, when his sons looked at the window he was staring at, there was no one there. Then, when they looked back to their father, he had already passed away.

That night, while Sholto’s sons were preparing for his funeral service, someone raided his room and searched all the cabinets and tables. Thankfully, nothing was stolen, but there was a slip of paper left on top of Sholto’s corpse. It had the same symbols as the map Mary showed him.
Thaddeus had no idea what those symbols meant, but believed that there must be a reason his father was afraid of it.

After that, the two brothers searched the whole grounds but couldn’t find the treasure. All that was left was the pearl necklace that Sholto brought out from the treasure chest because he couldn’t stop looking at it.

Thaddeus wanted to send it to Mary as his father requested, but his older brother became overcome with greed and initially refused. He was eventually able to convince him to send her a pearl every year since the incident. Because of that however, he and his brother now live apart.

Mary then tries to inquire about the treasure, but Sherlock interrupts her, saying that they have solved the case of her father’s disappearance and the mystery of the pearls.

John protests, saying that they should solve all the mysteries, but Sherlock told him that it’s better not to be involved any further. He brings Mary and John out of the room and explains that the treasure’s origins seem to be sketchy, so Mary might might get arrested by the empire for treason if she takes that treasure.

Sherlock was trying to manipulate Mary into admitting her real aim. Just as Mary was about to, Thaddeus storms in and tells Mary that giving the treasure to Mary was his father’s last request, so he really wants Mary to have it. She swiftly accepts his offer.

Sherlock was pissed that he didn’t manage to squeeze the truth of her, but is now sure that getting the treasure of Agra has been Mary’s real aim from the start.

They all then head to Ponticherry Lodge, where Thaddeus’ brother lives. His brother has apparently found the treasure recently in a hidden attic there.

Thaddeus then notices that the lights in his brother’s room were off when they arrived.

When they entered the house, Sherlock hears a woman crying, and it turns out to be the housekeeper. She explains that Thaddeus’ brother Bartholomew wouldn’t respond when she called out to him, so she peeked in the keyhole and saw on his face an expression she’d never seen him make.

Sherlock and John hurries to Bartholomew’s room, forcefully opens the door and finds Bartholomew dead. A slip of paper with 4 crosses was near his corpse.

[Next Chapter]

[Previous Chapter]

(Interestingly enough, the official English title for this arc is “The Sign of Mary”, while the Japanese title is “The Sign of the Four”, which is the title of the Conan Doyle novel this arc is based on.)

John brought his fiancé Mary to Baker Street. He met her thanks to the case he and Sherlock took on for Mrs. Cecil Forrester 2 months ago. Back then, Mrs. Cecil invited them to come over for a meal as thanks for their help, but Sherlock was not interested in going so John went alone. That was where he met Mary, who was a live-in governess (tutor) in the Forrester household.

Ms. Hudson noticed that Sherlock was looking at her appraisingly so she makes an excuse to get herself and Sherlock out of the room to have a private talk with him. Outside the room, she tells Sherlock that he seems to not have noticed it, but he’s being jealous right now, much to Sherlock’s denial.

However, in Ms. Hudson’s point of view, Sherlock looks as if he had his good friend taken away from him. Ms. Hudson then asks Sherlock not to say or do anything that might drive her away, like use his power of deduction on her. Sherlock reluctantly agrees.

Once they come back into the room, John eagerly talks about their plans for a simple wedding ceremony and how he wants Ms. Hudson and Sherlock to attend.

However, Sherlock notices that Mary has been acting odd and hasn’t been smiling the whole time, even when John is trying his absolute best to keep their conversation going. So he asks her if there is anything else she’d like to say to him apart from their engagement.

As Sherlock has guessed, Mary admits that there is something she wanted to consult Sherlock on, but had been holding back since she didn’t want to make it seem like this is the real reason she came here.

At John’s behest, Sherlock then listens to what Mary has to say.

There is a mystery she would like  Sherlock to solve, and presents him with a box with 6 huge pearls inside. She explains that someone kept sending her a pearl every year for the past 6 years. However, the sender has never revealed their name.

When asked for more details, Mary begins by talking about her father’s disappearance 10 years ago. Mary’s father was appointed a job in India and took a holiday from that job to come back to the country.

Her father definitely checked in at the hotel they were supposed to meet at, but was gone by the time Mary was there. He has been missing since then, and even getting the police to search for him and announcing it in newspapers didn’t help. Mary believes that he must have gotten dragged into some trouble.

When asked if her father had any military friends in the country, Mary answers that she can only think of Major Sholto, who was in the same squad as her father. However, when she tried to contact him back then, Sholto told her that he was not even aware that her father was in Britain.

Then she talks about another mystery. 6 years ago, there was a notice in The Times (A British newspaper in London), asking for Mary’s whereabouts. The person who sponsored the notice did not reveal his name or leave a contact address.

Mrs. Forrester’s recommended that Mary post her current address in an ad. Right on the day she did so, a pearl was delivered to their address, and she received one pearl every year since then.

Sherlock then asks if there was anything else that happened, like for example, did someone threaten her? Mary gives a reaction at that, but replies negatively. Instead, she presents a letter she received a month ago.

In the letter, the sender writes that Mary has suffered an injustice and they would like to make up for it. They would be waiting at the third pillar from the entrance of the Lyceum Theatre at 19:00 every night. She is allowed to bring 2 friends with her if she is uncomfortable going alone.

Sherlocks believes it to be dangerous, but they might find out about the mystery of her father’s disappearance this way. Then, he also warns Mary that her father might actually be involved in something troubling, rather than just dragged into it.

However, Mary still wants to know the truth regardless. And so Sherlock agrees to take on the case and tells her to meet up with them again tomorrow. There’s something he needs to check out.

Once John and Mary have left, Sherlock tells Ms. Hudson that Mary is still hiding something from them. She was still acting suspicious the whole time, making him wonder what she is hiding and why. Sherlock finds Mary more of a mystery than the case itself.

The next day, as Sherlock leaves the British Museum Reading Room, he thought about needing to wrap up Mary’s case quickly so he can focus on the Lord of Crime. However, there is still something nagging Sherlock about this case– Mary’s reaction when he said the word “threatened”.

The time appointed in the letter arrived and everyone headed to the meeting place. Sherlock then shares that Sholto, the friend of her father, died a week before the first pearl was sent to her.

On the other hand, Mary shows him a map that she found while checking her father’s notepad.

In the map was a floor plan of a place as big as a fortress, 4 signatures and 4 cross signs.

Once they arrived at the meeting place, a servant of the letter’s sender approached them.

That servant brought them to the residence of Thaddeus Sholto. Mary tries to asks him to get straight to the point, but he says he can’t right now because he needs to go his Family home and meet up with his brother.

When asked why, Thaddeus explains that his brother seems to have found the Treasures of Agra, their father’s legacy. Upon hearing this, Mary mutters, “So the Treasures of Agra does exist.” Much to Sherlock’s shock.

[Next Chapter]

[Previous Chapter][INDEX]

(This chapter is a breath of fresh air after the previous arc, thank God)

Milverton is absolutely thrilled upon hearing the news that the Lord of Crime killed Whiteley. It is certainly a development that exceeded his expectations.

He sees right through the reason why the Lord of Crime had to kill Whiteley– because the Lord of Crime had no choice but to cover up the crime Whiteley had committed due to Milverton’s manipulations.

Unfortunately, Milverton doesn’t care at all what happens in Britain. It doesn’t matter at all to him whether or not the citizens had equal rights because it has no bearing on his hobby of manipulating a good person into becoming a bad one.

He then surmises that the Lord of Crime must be trying to look for him, the mastermind, and expose him to the public.

Based on Moriarty’s actions during this incident and the Jack the Ripper incident, Milverton has no more doubts about Moriarty being the Lord of Crime.

Meanwhile, Fred is out on the streets when the latest newspaper has been published. It features Whiteley being killed by the Lord of Crime. All the citizens now consider him as the enemy.

At Baker Street, Ms. Hudson was about to inform Sherlock about the news but then discovers what a mess Sherlock’s apartment has become. John is not around so no one has been cleaning up and it makes Ms. Hudson furious at Sherlock.

She leaves the newspaper on Sherlock’s desk as Sherlock is too busy experimenting to listen to her. Curious as to why Ms. Hudson was so insistent that he read the news, he glances at the newspaper and is utterly shocked to read that the Lord of Crime turned up. He is entertained by the unexpected event, only to become shocked again when  he discovers that the Lord of Crime killed Whiteley.

Based on the his previous actions, Sherlock finds it hard to believe that the Lord of Crime would murder an innocent man like Whiteley. Reaching a certain conclusion, he excitedly calls out for John, only to remember that John won’t be back until nighttime.

Sherlock then sees the time and realizes it’s almost time for him to meet with his brother. They are to meet up in Diogenes Club in Central London, a club founded by Mycroft.

Sherlock heads on inside the building and talks to the receptionist, who was very troubled about it all. Club rules state that there must absolutely be no talking unless in the Stranger’s Room, no taking notice of another person, and 3 offences gets you kicked out from the club.

Realizing there was no point trying to talk with the man, he heads further in the building, only to find a room with people sitting in comfortable chairs with newspaper in hand and each minding their own business.

Sherlock then decides to mess with them, yelling, “Is there anyone in danger of being booted in the club because they already violated the rules twice?”

Everyone turns to him in shock. He glances at them all and singles out a person he believes to be one. To get a rise out of the other person and get him kicked out of the club, he uses his powers of deduction to expose the other man’s extramarital affair. It causes the other man to cough in shock,  which fortunately for him doesn’t violate the rules and get him kicked out.

On his way out, Sherlock then kindly reminds him to get the smell of perfume out of his clothes and wear his wedding ring before going back home.

Sherlock finally gets to the Stranger’s Room and meets his brother. Mycroft asks him what he thinks of the club and tells him he can join if he wants, much to Sherlock’s revulsion.

Mycroft explains that he created the club for the unsociable Sherlock, to which Sherlock replies that though he is unsociable, he does want to talk.

Mycroft then goes on to challenge Sherlock to a deduction game on the men they can see outside the window. Sherlock does well, but Mycroft is more observant than him. The latter is very smug that he won the game (again!), much to Sherlock’s annoyance.

Finally, Mycroft gets to the point and asks Sherlock what he has deduced about the Lord of Crime. Sherlock explains that Whiteley must have committed a crime because the Lord of Crime would never kill an innocent man.

Moreover, that crime must have been murder, remembering the massacre in Whiteley’s residence lately. Based on Whiteley’s character, he could never be threatened to kill his own family, which meant one of the policemen must have done it. And Whiteley killed that man in revenge.

When asked why the Lord of Crime would take credit for Whiteley’s crime, Sherlock replies that he had no choice but to, if he wanted everyone to have equal rights.

Mycroft is very impressed by Sherlock’s deduction. He then informs Sherlock that the Lord of Crime is now in danger of being assassinated by the government now that he’s an enemy of the whole country. If Sherlock wants to catch the Lord of Crime, he must hurry because there is not much time left. 

Sherlock replies that he will definitely catch him, and Mycroft asks if he has an educated guess on the identity of the Lord of Crime and the person who manipulated Whiteley.

Sherlock answers that he has an idea of who is responsible of manipulating Whiteley. As for the Lord of Crime, he specifically names William.

Mycroft didn’t react at all to Sherlock’s guess, causing Sherlock to wonder if he got it right or not.

When Sherlock gets home, he is ambushed by Ms. Hudson who badgers him for not cleaning up his room. She exclaims that this is the reason he won’t ever get married, among other things. She then goes on to say that John won’t be around forever to clean up for him because he might get sick of Sherlock, or even find a wife.

Both Sherlock and Ms. Hudson pause on that last thought and laugh, because they think that would be impossible. It is at that point that John arrives and proves them wrong. With him was a girl named Mary Morstan, and John reveals that he and Mary are getting married.

[Previous Chapter][INDEX]

(The end of the arc! And the beginning of a new development…;;)

Whiteley was naturally very angry at Sturridge, and asks him why the latter is even confessing to him. To ask for forgiveness? Why kill his brother, when he’s crippled and can’t even run away? 

Sturridge explains that he had to kill Whiteley’s family in exchange for his own family’s lives who have been taken by unknown kidnappers. He knows that what he did was unforgivable, so he offers the knife to Whiteley and asks to do whatever Whiteley wants with him.

Whiteley is very conflicted. He very much wants to kill Sturridge for revenge, but doing that would be irreversible and not what his brother would’ve wanted him to do. However, without his brother, Whiteley doesn’t have a reason to live anymore… 

He almost stabs Sturridge, but then shifts the direction of the knife to the floor at the last second because he doesn’t actually have the guts to do it.

…Or so he thought until he remembers his brother again and goes blind with rage, swiftly stabbing Sturridge in the neck.

And now that he did something he can’t undo, he believes everything is over for him now.

At the Moriarty residence, Fred approaches Albert with an envelope. The delivery man said the sender didn’t show his face and just paid him £1 to deliver the envelope to the head of this House. In the envelope is a handkerchief with the letter “W” embroidered on it and a note asking to meetup at a graveyard in Chiswisk. 

Everyone at the Moriarty residence then heads over to the meeting place. Whiteley is there, telling Albert that he only wanted to meet up to give back the evidence. When asked for the reason, he explains what happened earlier. Whiteley knew that if he was arrested, then it would become impossible for equality to ever be realized. 

He can’t just turn himself in, and he can’t live on pretending nothing happened either. So he plans to compensate for his crime with his life.

Upon hearing this, William says that if Whiteley is really set on doing so, then the latter should give his life to William instead, much to Whiteley’s shock.

The next day, people were camped outside the Houses of Parliament, waiting for Whiteley to arrive. They have heard that everyone in the Whiteley residence had been killed, even the guards from Scotland Yard. Moreover, the killer was still at large.

When Whiteley arrives, reports swarm over and ask him to comment over what happened. He proclaims that he will keep fighting to promote equality for this country even if his opponents have killed his family andguards. The masses are very empowered by this, and start calling Whiteley the “White Knight” of the country.

As Whiteley was waving at them, a man clothed in black suddenly swoops in, stabs Whiteley in the chest, and then flies up the building with the help of a wire. 

It was William. He announces that he is the one who killed Whiteley’s family and guards, and introduces himself as the Lord of Crime. Then he dares everyone to catch him if they can.

The scene then flashes back to last night. William tells Whiteley that he wants the latter to be known as a white knight even in his death, because the country needs hope that equality can still be achieved.

If Whiteley tells them the truth, all the commoners hoping for the abolishment of the class system will fall into despair and the path to equality will be closed up.

To prevent that, the Moriartys will take credit over what happened instead, and let Whiteley die as a white knight of the country. William asks him to do this as his final atonement for what he’s done.

Whiteley of course protests and asks him why they would put themselves in the wrong like that, and William replies that it is because they are the Lord of Crime.

Back to the present, William flees and the police attempts to capture him.

Slowly dying on the ground, Whiteley thinks about how the Moriartys themselves chose to become the necessary evil for the country, and how he wishes that he could’ve seen for himself the world created by the Moriartys.

Whiteley gladly gives his life for the sake of the country’s future and believes that the Moriartys can change this country for the better. The chapter ends with Whiteley mentally telling the Moriartys that he’s leaving the country in their hands.

[Next Chapter]

[Previous Chapter] [INDEX]

Whiteley contemplates what he’s going to do with the evidence to make negotiations go smoothly. While he was having a meal at his residence, Patterson comes to report about an policeman named Bart Fowler who was found dead a few hours ago.

Bart was the one who killed the hitman that attempted to murder Whiteley. Bart’s mother was suffering from a serious illness and he needed a large amount of money to pay for her medical fees. Just recently, he paid the hospital £500 in full.

Whiteley concludes that someone must have paid Bart to kill the bomber to prevent the latter from saying anything, but then Bart himself was killed for the same reason.

Due to this development, Patterson proposes to increase the guards patrolling Whiteley’s residence, but Whiteley rejects it. He explains that there will just be higher risks as these new guards might be bribed the same way as Bart was. He prefers to just keep the 2 policemen he picked before.

After Patterson leaves, Whiteley states that offense is the best defense, and goes out alone with the evidence in hand to negotiate with the House of Lords.

When he arrived at the meeting place, it was not a member of the House of Lords that were there to greet him but Milverton, who introduces himself as an agent of the House of Lords. Whiteley then presents the evidence he has of the House of Lord’s wrongdoings and says that if they ever lay a finger on his family and friends, or reject his election amendments bill, he will reveal to the public all the wrongdoings of the House of Lords.

He will not expose them as long as they agree to those two demands. He also informs him that the documents in his hands are just one of the many copies he has of the evidence. 

Upon hearing all that Whiteley has to say, Milverton tells him that he will relay it all to his client.

Once Whiteley has left, Milverton laughs in amusement because he didn’t expect that someone would try and intimidate him, the King of Intimidation. Unfortunately, he says threats don’t work on him and Whiteley won’t be able to expose the House of Lord’s wrongdoings because he plans on stealing the evidence Whiteley has.

How? By turning Whiteley into a murderer. No one would believe anything a murderer says, after all. It would make the evidence he possesses useless.

At the Whiteley residence, Sam finds their maid dead and panics. Sturridge, one of the policemen Whiteley selected, then turns up holding a knife dripping with blood behind his back. He continuously apologizes to Sam as he kills him, telling him that he too has a family he has to consider.

Meanwhile, back in the Milverton residence, Harry and Gosling, the two people who were responsible for the policeman Bart’s death, inform Milverton that they have finished all the preparations. Harry then goes on to comment that Milverton sure does like to use underhanded means to take care of things. When asked whether he is condemning Milverton for that, Harry denies it because they too are having fun doing it.

Milverton then asks Harry if he has ever read the Bible, and continues to talk about the Devil that appears in it. He explains that the reason the Devil tempts people into doing evil is simple. Making people do evil things gives them the greatest pleasure.

Since the beginning of time, doing evil have always been enticing for humans. The bible depicts it as the forbidden pleasure. Pursuing that forbidden pleasure is the real evil.

He then goes on to say that evil goes far beyond humans’ set rules and ethics. The Lord of Crime is just evil based on the social norms set by human society.

Then, Milverton claims the he is evil itself. Corrupting people into doing evil gives him no greater pleasure.

When Whiteley gets home, he finds his secretary, maid and younger brother all dead. Sturridge then turns up with the knife laid on his hands. He remorsefully confesses that he is the one who killed all of them, which causes Whiteley to yell at him with wild eyes.

And with that, Milverton claims that he has created a new villain. He believes that Whiteley should now have fallen to the dark side. It gives Milverton no greater pleasure than to drag a politician loved by the masses into becoming evil.

Sidenote: The original Charles Augustus Milverton in the Conan Doyle novels was known as the “King of Blackmailers” (恐喝王) where as YnM’s version calls him the “King of Intimidation” (脅迫王).  There are probably better ways to translate the latter… Should I have gone with ‘threat’ instead? I don’t read the English scans so Idk what English fandom has gone with, and Wikipedia’s entry for 脅迫 is linked to the Intimidaton (and Threat) wiki in English. ;;;

恐喝 means using another person’s weakness or secrets for extortion.

脅迫 means threatening another person and filling them with fear to make them do what you want. In criminal law, it means threatening someone harm through words and/or action.

The meanings are similar and can both be translated as blackmail, with slightly different nuances…

[Next Chapter]

[Previous Chapter]

William tells Albert that he has finished making the preparations to test Whiteley’s character. They plan to give Whiteley enough evidence to put the House of Lords into a tight spot and see if he will use this as a way to climb up the ladder, or if he will only use it to get his bill passed. Is he really someone who can be entrusted this information with?

Meanwhile at the Whiteley residence, Whiteley is eating breakfast with everyone, even inviting the two policemen he handpicked last time to eat with him. He then asks their maid Maggie for that day’s newspaper, but she makes an excuse about the paper not being delivered that day. Whiteley sees right through her and reassures her that he didn’t mind reading bad press about himself. 

His younger brother Sam then comes into the room in a wheelchair. Whiteley has been receiving numerous threatening letters and his brother is very worried that he and Whiteley’s lives are in danger.

However, Whiteley refuses to yield to these people who use cowardly means to take him down. He wants to show Sam that he can make the world into a place where Sam can live without struggle using his bill.

Whiteley then heads to the opening ceremony of the newly-constructed park he worked so hard on. William and Albert also attend the ceremony.

When Whiteley and his secretary Marcus arrive at the venue, Marcus is surprised to see more sponsors up on stage than was previously planned. What’s more, they are the parliament members who are against Whiteley’s bill.

Just as Marcus feared, the parliament members uses this ceremony to horribly misrepresent Whiteley in front of the masses. They claim that Whiteley was the biggest obstacle in construction of this park, and that negotiations to make amendments for citizen’s right to vote were already being handled by the House of Lords and the House of Commons behind the scenes. However, due to Whiteley presenting his bill out of nowhere without consulting any of the other members of the House of Commons, those negotiations are now at a standstill.

The citizens then start doubting Whiteley but decide to wait until Whiteley speaks before making a decision.

When it was Whiteley’s turn to give a speech, he did not defend himself at all and instead said that everything they said was true. The citizens gets mad at this, and feel disillusioned.

After the ceremony, Marcus asks Whiteley why he did not defend himself. He was very frustrated that Whiteley’s honor was dragged through the mud.

However, Whiteley doesn’t care about his honor. It is during this time that kids in wheelchairs come into the scene. The ground of this park is smooth and does not have any bumps at all, making it accessible for those who use wheelchairs. Seeing them enjoying themselves, Whiteley then says that he has achieved his goal. Whiteley only wishes for these children’s happiness. His own honor does not matter.

Albert then approaches him and asks for a private audience. Once they move to a more secluded area, Albert explains that his own standing in the House of Lords has not been great ever since he accidentallyuncovered the opium cartel owned by one of the higher ranked members while rescuing his brother from kidnappers. 

So he asks Whiteley for a favor, handing over the envelope that contains evidence of the House of Lord’s illegal acts. Albert tells Whiteley that it is up to the latter to decide how to use it.

After Whiteley leaves, William approaches his brother. Albert informs him that they were able to figure out the type of person Whiteley was thanks to the stage William had set.

Meanwhile, at London Underground’s construction site, the police officer who killed the hitman that tried to assassinate Whiteley was murdered under Milverton’s instructions.

And the murderers’ next target is Whiteley’s younger brother Sam.

[Next Chapter]

[Previous Chapter]

(LOL RIP, LH only had the latter half of chapter 35. Unfortunately I couldn’t find raws of the first half, but no worries, I found a detailed JP summary of the whole chapter and used the CN scans as reference…)

While he was out to shop, Watson overhears that the children in town like to pretend to be the Lord of Crime as a game lately. However, the townspeople disapprove of this, saying that those children should use the recently much talked about young Member of Parliament (MP) as a role model instead of mimicking the Lord of Crime.

At the British Empire’s Houses of Parliament, the House of Commons is currently holding a session. Adam Whiteley, the much talked about young MP, proposes a bill that will give all citizens the right to vote instead of just several of the wealthy people.

After exiting the Houses of Parliament and answering the media’s questions, Whiteley is about to board his carriage when notices a strange smell coming from it. He finds a bomb underneath and quickly warns everyone around to evacuate at once. His carriage explodes in the next instant.

Whiteley looks around and captures a man he finds suspicious. He then claims that he can tell just by looking at a person’s face what they’re thinking as they are looking at him. And true to his words, the police found a fuse and a pistol from the captured man’s bag.

Whiteley’s life appears to be targeted by people who would be inconvenienced by the amendments he is trying to pass for the upcoming election. Not to be put down by this, he instead uses this opportunity to exclaim that his dream is to bring equality into reality, which garnered him even more support from the commoners. The commoners then start yelling that people should cease relying on the Lord of Crime, and instead support Whiteley, the true representative of the people.

At the company Heim (sp? ハイム Haimu), a journalist attempts to write a newspaper article on Whiteley’s case, presenting him in a good light. Unfortunately, the editor-in-chief says that Milverton, their president, would not approve of the way the article was framed and asks the journalist to rewrite it. Their newspaper is considered Quality Press (which according to Wiki is a “category of British newspapers in national circulation distinguished by their seriousness”), and is not aimed towards the common people.

At the Milverton residence, Milverton is looking the published newspaper which has an article speculating that Whiteley might have staged the assassination attempt himself.

No matter how good a person Whiteley truly is, no one but the people who were actually there with him could attest to that. The truth that everyone will believe is whatever is published in the newspapers. Milverton claims that this is his power.

Milverton believes that the person who hired the hitman for Whiteley is from the House of Lords. He decides to finish off the captured hitman and use it as leverage for negotiations with the House of Lords.

The next morning, the hitman was found dead in his cell from an injury to his neck caused by a pen. Patterson then informs Whiteley about the matter.

Whiteley thinks that if the hitman was only in it for the money, then it was unlikely that the latter would commit suicide. However, if the hitman was murdered, then that means there is a traitor within Scotland Yard.

And so Whiteley asks Patterson if he could choose the people who will be in charge of the investigation himself. He glances at everyone in the room and picks two investigators– Sturridge and Robinson.

If the investigation goes well and they can prove that there was connection between the hitman and the House of Lords, Whiteley thinks that he can use this information as a bargaining chip to get his bill passed.

Patterson sees right through Whiteley. However, he worries that Whiteley would decide to announce the evidence publicly instead of negotiating for his bill behind the scenes. This matter could turn out very messy. After all, there’s a possibility that it would make the commoners go off the rails and start a revolution, which would then ruin William’s plans to unite the nobles and the commoners.

Patterson then goes to the Moriarty’s and informs them of the situation. William and the others decide to wait and see what Whiteley will do first. The Moriartys might not even have to push through with their plan at all depending on whether or not Whiteley can succeed in bringing equality to the British Empire.

Meanwhile, Milverton returns from his meeting with the House of Lords. The House of Lords asked Milverton to get rid of Whiteley. To do this, Milverton decides to paint Whiteley as the villain, and oust him from his hero status.

[Next Chapter]

Hello YnM fandom! I’m slowly catching up to the manga right now, and figured I might as well make an English summary as I do it. Since 33 seems to be the last scanlated chapter, here is Chapter 34.

William knows that Baxter has no intention of paying back the money, so he planned on using the trial to punish the latter. He claims to have a plan that will allow him to cut a pound of Baxter’s flesh.

On the day of the trial, Baxter starts brazenly apologizing to William until chastised by the judge. The judge asks William if he really doesn’t want a lawyer, and William confirms it.

Through the trial, William demands Baxter a reimbursement of £600, but Baxter’s lawyer states that Baxter has zero assets so it is not possible for him to do so.

William then inquires about the house Baxter is currently residing in, which is worth at least £5,000. Baxter could sell it to get the money. However, Baxter claims that he’s only borrowing that house from a friend, so he cannot sell it.

Next, William asks why Baxter will not sell the trading company he is operating to get the money. Baxter answers that the company is bankrupt and basically just a shell corporation now.

Upon finding out that Baxter has no way of reimbursing him, William says Baxter doesn’t need to pay back the £600 anymore. Instead, he demands a pound of flesh be cut from Baxter as agreed in the contract. Baxter acquiesces.

Baxter’s lawyer then intervenes. He agrees that William is allowed to cut a pound of Baxter’s flesh, but no drop of blood is allowed to be shed as William does it, as it wasn’t in the contract. Inwardly, Baxter thinks he has won, since you can’t cut someone without also shedding blood, and William has already said Baxter doesn’t have to pay him back anymore.

In response, William calls up a witness to the stands. It is a waiter named Bremner at a steakhouse Baxter frequents.

William asks Bremner if Baxter usually requests not to count the weight of the meat’s blood for his order of half a pound of steak. Bremner replies that he’s never had a customer say such a thing in his 20 years in the business.

From this, William explains that while it does indeed only state only a pound of flesh in the contract, Baxter himself must be aware that blood is also included in that pound of flesh. Baxter interjects, claiming it is a far-fetched argument, but the judge deems it reasonable.

And so William puts the knife close to Baxter. Backed into a corner, Baxter weakly admits that his whole testimony was a lie and he does own a house and a company. If William is willing to forgive him, he is willing to give William half of his fortune.

William demands all Baxter’s fortune be given to him, and Baxter has no choice but to agree. William then informs the judge that they have reached a compromise, so he will now be withdrawing his charges.

Back in the present time, William and the others discuss how even if Milverton finds out about the orphanage from the judicial records, they have already taken measures to conceal where the Sister is now.

As it is evident that Milverton is targeting himself, William declares Milverton as an enemy that needs to be eliminated.

Meanwhile, Milverton is convinced that the young plaintiff in the judicial records has replaced the real William. From this, he surmises that the Moriarty bothers are rumored Lord of Crime, and sees them as his enemies.

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Sleeping William

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