Sherlock Holmes is the world's greatest detective.
He was an inquisitive detective who had been granted the great title of He Who Knows by the Northern Empire of Kadath--the only title thought of as being able to surpass even that of the famed Ten Erudite Scholars, with his activities being far-reaching. The novels written by Dr. Watson, which could be called records of his adventures, usually depict his superhuman ability to solve a series of murder cases. But on top of those, he had many other cases in the UK as well as all over Europe. He was even involved in a series of political or conspiratorial cases related to the U.S, but many people aren't aware of this fact.
Mary was one such Londoner.
Mary has only ever met "liars" to start with. Since the events from many months back when she ran through the dark world, she has had no particular troubles and so she had no reason to go to B221 Baker Street nor saw a chance to.
Even so, Mary Clarissa Christie had met the famed detective by chance as a result of Charlie introducing her to him.
"Mister Holmes is interested in you."
"Eh?"
No way. It can't be!
She never dreamed that Charlie would introduce her to a man. For quite some time now, Charlie had jokingly teased about the name of a young, good-looking man from the Scholar Academy during afternoon tea saying, "I wonder what sort of person they are". But she didn't quite specify what sort of man they are, so what better way to know than to meet them?
In all honesty, Mary never had a lot of opportunities in meeting or talking with young men around her age (she had subconsciously excluded Zach Murray, an old friend of hers, as his behavior could hardly be called that of a gentleman's). Nowadays, she couldn't even fathom the idea of having wonderful encounters or novel-like romances in thinking to herself, "what if that were me?". However, she did smile when seeing Ange and Howard's relationship. As for Charlie, she had heard rumors of being popular with boys and gentlemen both in and out of the Scholar Academy so she was slightly concerned if she herself should get close to them...
"If that's alright with you, I'd like to introduce you to him. How about it?"
"Eh? U-uhm, w-well...mm, alright."
She thought on how to answer back, and simply nods with a "yes".
Before she knew it, she was going to meet with the detective in question at a restaurant specializing in French cuisine the following night and managed to get herself very nervous, which she thought wouldn't have happened had it been James or Zach. But when she got to the table with Charlie, they weren't alone. There was two of them.
"Greetings. A pleasure to meet you, young lady. I am John Watson, a doctor." Said the first.
"Nice to meet you." Said the second.
They were a gentle-looking man with a mustache and a lean man.
Mary instinctively knew that the lean, sharp-eyed gentleman was the detective in this case. In particular, she had this strange reason that James came to mind the moment she saw his face and eyes.
Then it came to mind that she felt the man in black once spoke of something that Sherlock Holmes didn't like.
"And you are?"
The detective quietly states.
"I am Holmes, Miss Clarice."
To be called out like that--
That reminded her of someone.
The First Professor of the Department of Mathematics at the Scholar Academy.
Hmm...what was the professor's name again?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
--A while after that.
--Up to the present moment.
It was a little earlier in spring when Mary Clarissa was in her final year at the Scholar Academy (though it would have been quite different had she joined a lab and moved on to the research club) and she was helping with the detective as if she were an assistant, where she got to learn things she would have never come to learn had she remained a citizen. She wondered how many cases the great detective was involved in. How many had he solved, some that were brilliant, others that were in secret?
Although it was a big exaggeration to say that she was a replacement for Dr. Watson, who perhaps became somewhat distant to Mr. Holme's activities in part due to his recent marriage, in part she did certainly acted as one.
Or was it more appropriate to say that she was forced into it?
That would have to be for another time on how that came to be. One hint from that would be the word Shadow, but that was it.
In any case, Mary was assigned to "help Mr. Holmes" on top of her homework and was able to manage that. She followed him on investigations, been present on crime scenes, and categorized and organized his investigation materials by relations and directions. She even cleaned his study room, which had a mountain of books.
That's right. A mountain of books!
His book collection was far beyond that of any invidiual!
"This is my study."
As soon as she opened the door to his room on Baker Street, what she saw was an entire 3-story building with an atrium that could be likened to a vertical library! Surprisingly, the door itself to his room was "attached" to the building next door, which had been converted into his study.
"The study in my room became too small for this."
"With this amount...uhm...yeah...
It certainly wouldn't fit in one room."
And so--
Mary Clarissa Christie was faced with a collection of books that could have filled up a small library.
"There's no way I can do this all by myself."
She carefully picked each book as she moves along, removing any dust on them while not damaging them. Although there were some exceptions such as paperbacks, the "books" were generally valuable. It's why rental bookstores like Mudie's are popular these days. Well-bounded books, in particular, such as the ones in this library could be considered assets had they been handled poorly. In other words, they had be to be handled with care.
Carefully. And with great consideration.
And thus, it took time.
She had been working on this for almost a week now, and she's still yet to finish the first floor.
On top of that, if all of these were novels, she'd have no need to pay too much attention to their categorization (at least by the authors), but this wasn't the case. The detective's collection was clearly comprised of specialized books based on medicine, natural history, occultism, and alchemy. And these also ones translated in English regardless of what language they were written in (even though Mary has studied in language analytics!) with strange bindings on the books. Corpse-Eating Rituals, Nameless Ritual Tome, The Monster and it's Kin, The Necronomicon, all of these books and their titles were so horrifying as to make her sigh softly. Had she been a kid, she would have cried after using her imagination to suspect the famous detective might have been a monster with control over such black magic books--
"Guess some gentleman are into the occult."
Mary muttered with a tilt of her head.
"I wonder how much any of this is 'real'."
She might have been able to find out if she met the black him, James. She didn't know if she'll have a chance to ask him in person, but she had a hunch she'll have that chance.
This and that. That and this. She had something to do now.
If she had at least a few more people, this would have been more effective in transporting and sorting the items by category. But by herself, she wouldn't be able to do so.
What could she do? How could she proceed from here?
"I can't exactly force Charlie yet, but I'd at least like to ask Ange and Zack."
She would have also liked to ask the two Street Children she and Zack often meet on the streets. Those kids appeared to have helped Mister Holmes from time to time, so she figured she'd strike a deal with Mister Holmes in paying them to be a part of this.
"...Yes. Yes, that's right."
She had to increase the number of people.
There was just no way one person can do it on their own--
(To be continued)
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