When fate shuffles the cards, we engage in a duel.

Declare the start of the duel!! Julius Frauenstadt!!

-Arthur Schopenhauer-

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“Arrogant, indeed.”

The dissemination of the Explosive Gale Technique and the consequent end of war.

The conclusion derived by combining Alfred’s desires read from the fragments of his thoughts with other clues was hard to accept.

“And.”

This man seemed utterly convinced.

“…How naive.”

If he distributed his power to everyone, if everyone gained a lethal technique.

He believed the long narrative of struggle that has sustained human history would come to an end.

A notion fit for a madman. Yet.

History has repeatedly shown that those who change or destroy the world are often madmen.

So whatever this man thinks, judging right or wrong is not my task.

A question that cannot be proven without time.

Therefore, there’s no need to uselessly lambaste Nobel here.

There are others I must judge.

Like James Moriarty and other criminals.

So, I’ll do this.

-Click-

I triggered the mechanism hidden in the handle of the Heavenly Demon Cane, and a small crystal vial popped out.

I opened the cap and placed the Blue Eyes White Snake’s fang against the mouth.

-Screech!

The Blue Eyes White Snake twisted belatedly in resistance, but when I pressed its poison gland, droplets of Explosion Venom dripped from its fangs and filled the tiny pinky sized vial.

“This should be enough.”

-Swish-

I grabbed the Blue Eyes White Snake by the neck and tossed it to Nobel.

“…What are you doing?”

Nobel, catching the snake, looked at me in bewilderment.

An expression of complete incomprehension.

He couldn’t believe that someone who knew the Blue Eyes White Snake’s worth would not take its inner elixir but only a few drops of venom.

“I didn’t really need the bile or the inner elixir.”

Everything I said was true.

The reason I wanted the snake’s venom was to enhance the power of the Ulster Classic.

If I learned the change in the nature of essence through the explosive snake venom’s property, I could fuse Nobel’s explosive force with the Kung-Fu I had mastered.

As long as the white worm was in my possession, there was no need to fear the toxicity of the explosive snake venom, so taking the bile, an inferior substitute for the venom, would be meaningless.

Moreover, the Blue Eyes White Snake’s inner elixir is nothing more than a lump of benign primal qi.

Even if Watson and I consumed it, it wouldn’t cause much change.

Rather than that, it was better to extract something else from Europe’s richest man to compensate for the snake’s value.

“Of course I’m not giving it away for free. I know the Blue Eyes White Snake is valuable to you, so pay an appropriate price. I’ll be waiting.”

“…”

Nobel pondered with a grave expression and then nodded slightly.

That was the end of it.

I passed through the tea tent where the fierce fight raged, executed the Sargent Jump, and leaped high.

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-Click-

“Haah.”

A deep sigh escaped Alfred Nobel’s lips as he placed the Blue Eyes White Snake into an alloy container inside his briefcase.

“…Forgive me, Blue Eyes White Snake.”

Perhaps it was because he had experienced something unexpected.

The strange lingering feeling he felt the moment he received the snake would not fade.

He could never have imagined that, in a distant foreign land, he would meet someone who understood him for the first time.

‘…It was the eye of a gentleman.’

Unlike himself, who had to bear his father’s sins and karma, the man called Little Heavenly Demon had the eyes of a righteous orthodox martial artist, as if painted from a picture.

The orthodox martial artist Nobel imagined did not carry a benevolent connotation.

He did not know Little Heavenly Demon’s sense of good and evil.

But from the first moment he saw him, he could feel it.

He was the type who, without restraint or shackles, helped the weak and struck down the strong as his whim dictated.

He thought such a man could never understand someone like himself, condemned to walk the path of atonement until his final breath as an unforgiven sinner.

A man with fairly good vision who, in the face of the brutal reality outside his narrow world, turns away and cares only to make a name for himself in the martial world—a frog in a well.

That was what he had thought.

Until he heard Little Heavenly Demon’s words.

‘“Arrogant, indeed.”’

‘“And.”’

‘“…Pure.“’

It was the first time.

That someone else had grasped Nobel’s true intent.

Little Heavenly Demon even went so far as to call it pure.

To call the radical idea, giving the power of Kung-Fu to commoners to end fighting, ‘pure’ was remarkable.

And it wasn’t just mere words.

The Little Heavenly Demon, after painstakingly securing the Blue-Eyed White Snake, took only a few drops of its explosive snake venom, and yielded the snake itself to him.

Even Nobel, who paid little heed to the human heart, seemed to understand what that action signified.

“Does it mean he’ll watch and see where the ‘chivalry’ I harbor will head?”

He had thought no one would ever understand.

He had resigned himself to a lifetime of being misunderstood.

Yet the very moment that man, with those eyes, entrusted him with the Blue-Eyed White Snake, he felt something hot, something fierce, clawing to break free from his chest.

“…”

The man called Sherlock Holmes was gazing into the distance.

Moreover, he was already a step ahead of all others.

Perhaps even more than Alfred Nobel himself.

The Little Heavenly Demon, however faintly, believed in the possibility that the Explosive Gale Technique might bring about a new future — one where the brutal wars of this era would vanish.

All from a single exchanged punch.

Sherlock Holmes had grasped Nobel’s Solid Vision, his unwavering creed, something he had shared with no one save his brother.

The Blue Eyes White Snake could be found again someday.

But this meeting was a destiny that would not repeat.

“Hmph… He said I’d pay a price, did he?”

A faint smile touched Nobel’s lips.

“Little Heavenly Demon. You seem to have forgotten one important fact. That is, you are dealing with Europe’s wealthiest magnate.”

In the martial world, etiquette demands that one repays chivalry with chivalry.

Nobel resolved himself

To return, no matter the cost, the favor of the only man who was both rival and kindred spirit.

To repay his bitter first defeat.

Without Fail.

-Boom!

Nobel’s right foot slammed into the garden soil.

Ring of Destruction.

A violent shockwave devastated a 15-yard radius, engulfing several martial artists in the blast.

“Having transcended the very threshold of gratitude… I shall answer you with my Deck of Banknotes!”

Holmes’s demand for a price had borne unforeseen fruit.

It was the moment when a mad magnate etched his name onto both the patron list of the consulting detective… and the waiting list for the dueling stage.

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As soon as I returned to the music room, Her Majesty the Queen looked at me with a pleased face, so I bowed deeply in greeting.

Immediately, Watson rushed to me with acupuncture needles and first-aid medicine.

“Come and sit here at once! Holmes!”

She, proudly saying she had already received permission from the royal attendants to proceed with treatment, began emergency care the moment I sat in the empty seat.

“Oh dear. You’ve expended a large amount of energy and your Elixir Field is depleted. First, sandwiches and tea!”

She said that, and as elixir tea and an inner-elixir sandwich passed my throat, she began inserting needles all over my body.

“Take it slow… There’s still plenty of time before tea time ends, isn’t there?”

“I clearly told you not to overdo it. Why do you always pick fights with the top-tier masters! Men like you really…!!!”

-Snap!

“Ugh.”

A heavy strike, disguised as reproach and discipline, slammed my back so fiercely that it jolted me fully awake.

Amid it, as I slyly scanned the room, I began to understand what had been happening in the music room while I participated in the Battle Royal Garden Party.

The expressions of the noble ladies, looking at me with gloom and resentment, told me a lot.

That the man who had thrown the bag containing the gauntlet to Alfred Nobel was sighing in relief—

“Watson. You proposed a bet, didn’t you.”

“Th-that…!”

“Will you tell me what you wagered?”

“…”

“I’m sorry. I already know, but I asked anyway.”

The Snow Halation Iron dagger I had gifted Watson had vanished along with its sheath and holster.

“So you lost the stake—apparently you bet on whether Nobel or I would take the Blue Eyes White Snake.”

“Actually, that’s not—”

“Sorry. I didn’t live up to expectations.”

That Watson couldn’t send a telepathic message meant the royal attendants had taken measures to prevent the bet’s details from leaking to the involved parties.

Had I known the wager’s contents, I wouldn’t have yielded the snake to Nobel.

Well. Regretting it now is pointless.

In any case, Watson’s loss could be fully compensated if Nobel paid the price.

“It seems that you are all gravely mistaken.”

It was then.

Her Majesty the Queen, who had been smiling quietly, spoke in a clear voice.

“I believe I said: Whoever takes the Blue Eyes White Snake’s inner elixir shall be the victor. Since the snake’s belly has not been split, the outcome is not yet decided.”

“…?!”

A man presumed to be Nobel’s brother sprang to his feet.

His eyes darted busily, suggesting he had tried to send a telepathic message but was blocked by a formation or similar barrier.

However, it seemed difficult for me to immediately go down to the garden and split the Blue Eyes White Snake’s belly.

“I beg Your pardon, Your Majesty, but the inexperienced little detective lacks the strength to face Mr. Dynamite and seize the Blue Eyes White Snake again.”

“Then you had best pray.”

“Pray, you say…?”

“I mean pray that Nobel does not split the snake’s belly.”

“Yes!”

Nobel’s brother threw both his mysterious prosthetic arm and his intact arm into the air and cheered.

And the next moment, his elder brother leapt high from the garden and returned to the music room.

“Brother! Hurry, the Blue Eyes White Snake’s inner elixir!”

Judging from his chattering brother and the room’s atmosphere, Nobel calmly opened his mouth.

“What foolishness is this, Emil? Why on earth would I split a perfectly healthy Blue Eyes White Snake’s belly?”

The moment Nobel finished speaking, the atmosphere in the hall turned 180 degrees.

“I cannot fathom it…”

“Both of you refuse to take the inner elixir?”

“If so, what on earth did you fight over the spirit beast for?”

The bewildered nobles began whispering, but Her Majesty’s voice soon quieted the commotion.

“I ask you, Alfred Nobel. Do you truly intend not to take the Blue Eyes White Snake’s inner elixir?”

“Yes. This snake holds no meaning for me unless it is alive.”

When Nobel answered, Her Majesty’s eyes gleamed with interest.

“Then, may we conclude this wager as a draw?”

A clear, refreshing voice rendered the judgment.

A silent outcry began to fill the music room.