[Sherlock Holmes] How Do You Become a Detective with a Villain's Face?

Ace was deeply troubled.

As someone determined to become a great detective like Sherlock Holmes, the first problem he faced wasn't a lack of theoretical knowledge, useful connections to get him cases, or enough money to survive the poverty of a detective's early days.

It was his face!

Yes, his face. He was devastatingly handsome. Eight out of ten young ladies would sincerely say he was remarkably good-looking, and the other two would say his looks rivaled those of a god.

But none of them wanted to date him.

They saw him and immediately felt he was going to rob and murder them.

Ace: ...

When Ace appeared at a crime scene, the police would say, "He must be the murderer! Grab him!"

The victim would say, "He must be the killer's accomplice! Or the mastermind behind it all!"

After he revealed that he was a detective, everyone said, "He's lying. That's definitely a fake identity. He looks like a bad guy!"

Just as Ace was about to despair, he finally ran into Sherlock Holmes at a crime scene. "He looks fearsome, but he's definitely not the murderer. He's also a detective, though a rather incompetent one."

Ace, whose identity had been confirmed by his idol but whose detective skills had been denied: ...

Furious, Ace unleashed his full power. Drawing on his extensive theoretical knowledge and superb powers of deduction, he announced the truth of the case: "This opera singer was jealous of her colleague's beauty, so she gave her a potion containing a large amount of arsenic, claiming it was a beauty treatment, and intended to poison her. But she accidentally drank it herself and achieved the feat of killing herself!"

Holmes: ...

Although it was indeed an accidental suicide, every part of the reasoning was wrong!

"It was simply a case of an actress who had been taking arsenic for a long time to improve her looks. This time she took a slightly larger dose, not realizing enough had accumulated in her body to poison her to death."

Ace: !!!

Though his entire chain of reasoning was wrong, at least he'd gotten the cause and outcome of the death right. Holmes felt that taking this not-quite-so-incompetent detective under his wing was probably a good thing.

But Holmes soon realized that something was wrong with Ace's brain. No matter how he taught him, Ace's reasoning always went completely astray from the truth, yet somehow he still managed to deduce the outcome of the case!

Holmes: ...

Saved on 2025.2.21

PS: 1. The CP is the original Sherlock Holmes. Chapters are written ahead of time. Updates at noon, and daily updates after the book goes premium.

2. Set in a loosely fictionalized Victorian era. The author's intelligence is limited, so I'll do my best to minimize plot holes.

My profile has two completed stories with similar themes, The Magician of Sherlock Holmes and Fishing with Sherlock Holmes. If you enjoy this story, feel free to check them out.

Also, here are two upcoming stories I'd like to recommend: After Keeping the Empire's Marshal as a Caged Bird and The Protagonist Hears My Thoughts and Decides to Seduce Me. Here are their blurbs.

After Keeping the Empire's Marshal as a Caged Bird: Yolanda has always lived a secluded life. Then one day, he decided he needed a partner.

But there was no one else on his entire planet. Where was he supposed to find one?

Yolanda combed through ancient books and found a summoning circle. He gained a partner, though this partner was bigger than him and on the verge of death.

But Yolanda had healing magic!

Since he'd summoned the man and saved his life, that made him Yolanda's partner!

All his partner had to do was dress up nicely every day, do the laundry and cooking, and fulfill his partnerly duties by giving him kisses. Yolanda would grow crops and support them!

So why did his partner's expression keep getting grimmer?

Leo, the Empire's marshal, was surrounded by the enemy. While covering the retreat of the main force, he was attacked. Just when he thought he was about to die there, someone suddenly summoned him away.

The person who summoned him healed his wounds, but treated him like a caged bird, like a slave. He made Leo dress up in gaudy outfits every day and do the laundry and cooking. He even tried to take advantage of him!

The worst part was that he could use magic and had bound Leo with a master-servant contract!

Leo was absolutely going to escape this terrifying place!

The marshal, much later: This is actually pretty great!

A little scene:

Yolanda said with a serious expression, "Since we're partners, we have to sleep together every night, and we can't wear clothes! The book says partners can't wear clothes when they sleep together!"

Leo felt utterly humiliated. "Then just let me die!"

Yolanda took off his clothes first, his face earnest. "No. You were so hard to summon."

Leo: ...

Leo immediately turned away, too embarrassed to look at Yolanda, his face bright red. "Even if I die, I won't do something like that!"

Yolanda pressed close to him. "I saved your life. You're my partner. You're mine, body and soul. Now take off your clothes and let's sleep together."

Leo, forced to comply: !!!

Then Leo and Yolanda lay under the covers and chatted innocently.

After all, every video Yolanda had seen was the censored version. The kisses he'd seen were nothing more than lips touching lips.

The Protagonist Hears My Thoughts and Decides to Seduce Me: Britt unexpectedly spent a passionate night with someone.

The other man was incredibly handsome. As someone who had transmigrated into a book, Britt didn't feel he'd lost out at all. He immediately told the man they could pretend nothing had happened, that he didn't need hush money, and that he could even pay him.

But the handsome man said he'd fallen in love with Britt at first sight and pursued him relentlessly.

Only then did Britt discover that he had a special constitution. He was on the verge of death, and the only way to save his life was to be intimate with the handsome man.

What could he do? He had no choice but to accept.

Merlin unexpectedly spent a passionate night with someone. He'd intended to kick out this guy who seemed to have deliberately thrown himself at him, but he never expected to hear the man's thoughts!

"That guy is so handsome! But I wonder if he's as handsome as Merlin, the protagonist of this book. Sigh, I wonder how far the plot has gotten. Is it when the teacher gets killed, when the younger sister dies, or even when the academy is destroyed? Why does even the hero of a power fantasy have to lose so much?"

Merlin: !!!

Merlin immediately decided to disguise himself as someone else and pretend to have fallen in love at first sight, pursuing the man so he could get more information out of him!

But after changing the teacher's death, Britt immediately enrolled at the magic academy! What was Merlin supposed to do now, when he'd been interacting with Britt in his real appearance and was also a famous figure at the magic academy?

Theme: Don't judge a book by its cover