Miss Holmes, the Professor Is Not a Villain

20 – The Opium Addicts of East End (3)

Moriarty closed her eyes for a moment and organized her thoughts. Of course, to others, she just blinked, but she could organize her thoughts in that short moment.

The fools would never be able to keep up with her thoughts. She was always sure of herself.

London was a city full of dull and worthless people, but even Moriarty couldn’t deny that it was a huge city.

Three years ago, Moriarty, who returned to Oxford after breaking up with Sherlock, officially began her given task in London. She had been running around for three years, but she still didn’t see the end, and for that very reason, she was very happy.

Of course, she also felt a bit of impatience, and she enjoyed the impatience. At least before Sherlock, her lovely disciple, came to her as a detective, she had to perfectly decorate this huge city, the heart of Europe, and everything in the British Empire.

Independent of Moriarty’s greed, she and her followers accomplished astonishing growth in London’s petty criminal community within a short period of three years.

A few months ago, the mysterious M-led organization had virtually taken over London’s West End underworld, and Moriarty had become one of the leading figures in London’s underworld.

But it was not enough, there were still worthless people in the city who seemed to think they were special. From an aesthetic point of view, she had to cleanse those bastards. Just like when she sorted out West End, she should throw a few of them in the Thames River, and throw a few of them on the street for a warning. That was the only way she could cleanse the sins of this city.

But she knew it was too much to handle at the moment.

The city of London was divided into three major districts. The West End that Moriarty had claimed through a struggle, the City of London, the very center of London, and finally, the East End district located east of the City of London.

Moriarty herself started everything in the West End because it was the only way.

The City of London was the base for corrupt businessmen and financiers, so it had a relatively low vulnerability, and to control them, there immediately was a need for a lot of money.

But the East End, governed by the very same Fu Manchu who just sent a letter to Moriarty, was a place where Moriarty couldn’t pierce at the time.

Everyone living in London hated the East End. A gathering of the scums among the scums.

Numerous criminals, vagrants, paupers, prostitutes, socialists, and immigrants crowded together in Sodom and Gomorrah within London.

That was the infamous East End district, and the foolish London gentlemen who considered themselves lofty hated the sin-ridden district and considered it a city monster.

Of course, to Moriarty, everything sounded foolish. The city known as London was already a monotonous, sinful city filled with mundane people. Wherever one went, abandoned children or laborers from factories managed to survive by begging or pickpocketing, and the frail Scotland Yard officers couldn’t possibly face every crime.

However, Moriarty had to admit that among these worthless people of London, Fu Manchu was somewhat notable.

This Chinese man who was reported to have migrated to London during the First Opium War was a sorcerer, involved in distributing suspicious poisons, and above all else, he was the ruler of Chinatown in the East End district.

One of the reasons why Moriarty didn’t start her operation in the East End three years ago was because the back world of East End, influenced by these Chinese drug dealers, had already maintained their own order.

Of course, perhaps if Moriarty had joined Fu Manchu’s ranks, things might have turned out differently. But Moriarty had absolutely no intention of working under fools who were even more foolish than herself.

So, why had Fu Manchu requested to meet her? Although he was using ‘M’ as his face, it was quite evident that he had asked to meet her directly.

It wasn’t especially surprising. It wouldn’t take much digging to identify Moriarty as ‘M’.

Even a considerable number within her gang knew already. Except for those she was planning to place in key positions as she grew her organization more, everyone else was going to be a target of mysterious accidents some day.

“When did he say to meet?”

“He didn’t mention it.”

“Then let’s go now, Porlock, you have time, right?”

“…Right now? Without any preparation, Professor?”

“You’re here for situations like this. That’s why I hired you.”

With Moriarty’s swift decision, Porlock, grumbling, accompanied her outside. Moriarty’s henchmen had promptly called for a carriage, allowing them to head straight to the East End district.

Fred Porlock, who managed the pub that served as Moriarty’s base for receiving criminal commission and was one of the subordinates Moriarty valued, was also a magician. It was clear he was a far more dependable weapon than the pistol tucked away in Moriarty’s pocket.

“…Even if it’s me, Professor, if the sorcerers gang up on me, I can’t protect you. Don’t hold it against me, alright?”

“No need to worry about such a situation. Just focus on escorting me, Porlock.”

“Yes, if the professor says so, it must be so.”

The journey to East End took a considerable amount of time, allowing them to exchange various stories within the carriage. Of course, most of the conversation revolved around their ‘business’.

“By the way, when you dealt with that friend of yours earlier, I honestly thought you were gonna do it in the pub and was worried.”

“If it got done in the pub then dealing with the body would be tiresome, can’t always leave it up to Sweeney, can I?”

“It’s easy for you to say when you executed that colonel in the pub last month.”

“Colonel?”

When Moriarty asked with a blink in her eyes, Porlock shook his head as if he found it ridiculous. He couldn’t help but sigh at the fact that she had genuinely seemed to forget about the incident.

“I mean, Colonel Sebastian Moran, Professor!”

“Ah… I vaguely remember such a character, he was inconsequential.”

“There are still some from amongst those who saw it that can’t sleep well at night. Please, even if you want to show off in front of your subordinates, use a more gentlemanly method.”

At Porlock’s discontent, Moriarty finally remembered the retired colonel who was caught as a cheater in her pub.

Although she had later found out that he was quite a renowned hunter back in India, he was just a despicable man. He was greedy and it was evident he would journey down a path of crime, but he was nonetheless inconsequential.

So, Moriarty took care of it herself. She bet his limbs and lightened his body by conning him in the same way he had been trying to deceive others during the game of cheat.

Moriarty ignored Porlock’s grumblings from beside her. She knew Porlock didn’t actually consider himself her equal.

If he truly did, Moriarty was ready to remind him who the superior one was.

“……You’re too much, really. I nearly died from the effort of cutting his limbs with a saw while he was still alive, and you, the person who ordered it, forget about it. Terrifying.”

“…So he died?”

“He died before I could finish cutting off the other leg. Seems you really did forget.”

“Well, that’s a natural death.”

“Excuse me?”

“There’s no shortage of soldiers who lost limbs in the war. If he died from merely that, is it really my fault, Porlock? Perhaps the colonel lacked a soldier’s spirit.”

“Ha-ha, funny joke. Ah, yes, that Jewish madman sent another thank you note to you, professor. I almost forgot about it.”

The corpse of Colonel Sebastian Moran, who they had dealt with, was rotting somewhere. Of course, he officially remained alive.

Moriarty, possessing relevant personal information and documents, could create a new Colonel Sebastian Moran whenever necessary, with just a hint of bribery.

Having no mirror, Moriarty couldn’t see his own expression as he spoke to Porlock, although he turned a blind eye to Porlock’s desperate efforts to change the subject and pretend to look for a letter.

Silently, he took the letter and skimmed through it.

Mr. Marx had been regularly sending him thank you letters with similar content. Each time, he politely expressed sincere gratitude towards an anonymous benefactor, but always ended up demanding more money for International, as if it were his due right.

“Give me more money if that’s what you want. Obviously anonymously.”

“This crazy old man seems never satisfied; are we really allowed to keep sponsoring him like this? I still don’t understand why the professor is even sponsoring such a person.”

Receiving the letter from Moriarty and grumbling, Porlock got a smile from him.

“Some people need to be there to change the society, Porlock.”

“You mean this money-grubbing Jew?”

“Precisely, this man’s writings move people. Of course, it doesn’t matter whether that’s good or bad. What matters is that the upheaval gives people like us good business opportunities.”

Porlock still didn’t quite comprehend, his eyes betraying his confusion. But Moriarty seemed to care little – Porlock, despite being a useful wizard, was a poor friend with an ordinary mind, unfit for leadership in his organization.

However, Moriarty added a lesson as a form of special lecture.

“Think of this way, the beginning of the fall of a mighty organization or an empire starts with internal division.”

“…How frustrating it is to be ignorant… I have no idea what you’re talking about…”

“That being said, we should start expanding our scale, especially find a reliable cohort for myself.”

“Cohort?”

“I meant a friend who can lead, and also take on the role of my personal secretary.”

“Weren’t you supposed to do all the thinking? Honestly, anyone who comes will hardly do a better job than you, and everyone would agree with me.”

“Of course, I need to do all the thinking, but I also need to organize and convey those thoughts, supervise them, Porlock.”

Naturally, such a person wouldn’t show up out of blue. Moriarty hesitated momentarily but decided not to reveal more yet.

The carriage continued its journey, not stopping in East End.

They were on their way to meet the opium addicts from China, but Moriarty never expected to encounter a lone wolf girl first.

It was absolutely an unexpected twist, something even his intuition could never predict.