Russell fell silent for a moment, then offered another hypothesis.
"Then… maybe he couldn't wait. Even if he's promised everything after retirement, that's still ten or twenty years away. In that time, he'd live in his teacher's shadow. And even after retirement, people would inevitably compare his work to Nicholas Winter's to tear him down.
"So rather than let that happen, he ends his teacher early—lets him exit at his peak—and clears the road for himself."
"A solid line of reasoning," Mary shook her head, "but unfortunately, still impossible."
"And why is that?" Russell frowned.
"Because Nicholas Winter," Mary said lightly, "was never going to live long anyway."
To Russell, the sentence hit like a thunderclap.
"Wasn't going to live long?" He sat bolt upright, the last of his sleep evaporating. "What does that mean? He was only in his fifties."
This was nowhere in Holmes's file. Nowhere in the press coverage, either.
"Yes." Mary tilted her head; her eyes were clear in the sunlight—too clear, and too deep. "The exact cause isn't certain. Our private physician suspects consumption, but the usual treatments have done nothing. All we've been able to do is watch him weaken day by day."
She paused, then added casually, "Only my family, Mr. Winter himself, and Edgar knew. My father kept it quiet. An artist of that stature, on the brink of death, attracts vultures."
She glanced at him. "Like the 'blood bread' you mentioned."
Russell went still.
If this was true, then Holmes's entire starting position was wrong.
A man who already knows he will inherit everything—and knows his teacher is dying—has no need to commit a clumsy, unnecessary murder.
"I'm guessing Miss Holmes doesn't know this," Mary said, her mouth curving with a playful edge.
"…She doesn't," Russell answered silently in his mind. If Holmes had that detail, Russell wouldn't have lost an entire night of his life to violin torture.
"Then if you have this much inside information," Russell finally asked, "why not just tell Holmes?"
"Why would I?" Mary blinked, all innocence and angelic composure. "Watching a genius suffer for lack of one key fact is its own entertainment."
Then her gaze slid back to Russell, sharp enough to peel paint.
"And I'm more interested in what you, as her assistant, will do with it."
Russell's expression froze.
Why did everything always loop back to him?
After a beat, he asked, "Is that why you believe Edgar is innocent?"
"No." Mary shook her head, silver hair swaying. "That only disproves the money motive."
"Then what's your basis for believing he's innocent?" Russell pressed.
"I already told you," Mary smiled. "His eyes."
Russell exhaled through his nose.
Talking to this woman was exhausting. It felt like being led by the collar to the edge of an answer—only for her to stop, turn, and walk away.
Mary seemed to lose interest in teasing him further. The classroom returned to a fragile quiet, broken only by the professor's droning voice.
But only a few minutes passed before Mary spoke again—this time with a purer, almost academic curiosity.
"Dr. Watson."
"What now?" Russell replied weakly.
Mary sounded half like she was thinking aloud, half like she was interrogating him.
"Why does Holmes think something is wrong? From her perspective, motive, evidence, and method are all present."
"Because she thinks the emotional chain doesn't add up," Russell said, repeating last night's conclusion. "There's something supporting Edgar that overrides fear and anger."
"An emotion stronger than fear and anger…" Mary's eyes lit. "That's her inference? Interesting. Then what emotion is it?"
"No idea." Russell tossed Holmes's frustration over intact. "She couldn't figure it out, and nearly murdered her violin trying."
"I see…" Mary fell into thought, absently twirling a strand of hair. In sunlight, her concentration really was beautiful—like a painting.
Russell's mind supplied the correction immediately.
A painting mixed with poison.
A moment later, understanding flashed through her blue eyes. She turned to Russell and asked—though it sounded far more like a statement than a question:
"Could it be… martyrdom?"
"…What?" Russell blinked.
He'd been expecting greed, revenge, blackmail—something human.
Not a word that belonged in a cathedral.
"Martyrdom?" His brow furrowed. "Don't tell me Edgar got tangled up with some cult."
"We're at Imperial College," he muttered. "Not a seminary."
[Mary Morstan pities your limited imagination — Malice +20]
Of course. Even his skepticism earned him a slap.
"Of course not," Mary said calmly. And for once, she sounded patient—like a teacher correcting a student who'd made the wrong kind of mistake.
"Faith doesn't always require a god, Dr. Watson. If someone makes one thing the whole of their life, that thing becomes their god."
Her voice was soft, but it cut through the fog in Russell's head with unsettling precision.
"For Nicholas Winter," she continued, "his god was art."
Russell went quiet.
He remembered the photograph in Holmes's file: the unfinished painting. The burning sunset. The sense of a life trying to ignite itself one final time.
"So you mean…" he began.
"I'm only offering a possibility," Mary interrupted smoothly, reclaiming control. Those blue eyes watched his face as if reading microexpressions off a ledger.
"Imagine a master who has worshipped art his entire life. In his final stage, he realizes his body is failing—soon he won't even be able to hold a brush."
"To him," Mary said, "that is more terrifying than death itself. Not dying—but being unable to complete the one final work he believes will justify his entire existence."
Russell didn't answer.
He could see it too clearly: an old man coughing blood, hands trembling, watching his vision slip away like paint rinsed down a drain.
"Then what does poison have to do with it?" Russell forced himself back to the practical. "He could paint what he can and die quietly."
"No." Mary shook her head. "You still don't understand."
She glanced down at Russell's notebook—where he'd doodled a shapeless skull earlier.
"The extreme edge of art often borders on madness."
"For a purist like Nicholas Winter," she continued, "a 'normal' final painting—made under weakness and pain—is imperfect."
"He would want ritual. He would want to fold death itself into the work."
She lifted a finger and tapped Russell's notebook lightly.
"He would need a pigment that forces him past his limit—something that drags him into a state where pain and ecstasy overlap."
"And that poisonous Prussian white," Mary said quietly, "becomes his last brush."
Russell's breathing stalled.
The shape of the answer assembled itself in his mind—ugly, elegant, horrifying.
Not Edgar poisoning his teacher.
But Nicholas Winter—fully aware of his decline—begging the one person he trusted to help him.
Not to kill him for profit.
But to finish the painting.
To use poison as a catalyst—an instrument—so that his final piece would be created in a deliberately heightened, terminal moment.
A death made into composition.
A life ended as a signature.
A martyrdom not to religion—but to art itself.
A great sacrifice.
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
I, Herta's Fiancé, the Universe's Number One Male Fist (114 Chapter (Simulpub-Full) )
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Succubus in Sixth Street (400 Chapter)
Reborn in Type-Moon, My Sister is Aoko Aozaki (254 Chapter)
MyGO!! A Story Voiced by Me (140 Chapter)
BLEACH: Blade of Purification (158 Chapter)
Konoha: Starting the Game as Yoriichi (400 Chapter)
My Real Job is Spying on Konoha, but I'm Also its Hokage (140 Chapter)
The Pinnacle of the Navy! Starting from Being Captured by Garp (172 Chapter)
Watching Yu-Gi-Oh! short videos is making the veteran players lose...(80 Chapter)
Uma Musume : The Trainer Who Just Wants to Live (200 Chapter)
Zenless Zone Zero The Random Kamen Rider (200 Chapter)
Genshin Impact: It All Began With Me Being Stepped On by Arlecchino (120 Chapter)
Naruto: I Can Synthesize Summoning Beasts (96 Chapter)
Demon Slayer: The Great Swordsman's System, Disciple of Yoriichi (140 Chapter)
My Wife is a General, but I'm an Emanator of Abundance! (160 Chapter)
Type-Moon: My Nine-Fold Path (140 Chapter)
Uma Musume: They're Peeking at My Diary, and All of Tracen is Panickin (Ending)
The Wild History of Type-Moon world (70 Chapter)
Reborn in Conan, But I Refuse to Be the Bad Guy (80 Chapter)
Ruan Mei is begging me to go back? But there's no going back anymore (140 Chapter)
Just a Slacker at Tracen Academy (165 Chapter)
Survival in Blue Archive (70 Chapter)
Kimetsu no Yaiba: Doma Wasn't Hated Today, Either (100 Chapter)
The Vibe of This Chat Group is a Little Off (100 Chapter)
Heartbreak Simulator: I Broke Them and Made Them Cry (80 Chapter)
The Talentless Trainer Doesn't Want to Restart (80 Chapter)
A Journey Starting as a Quincy (80 Chapter)
Uma Musume: The Master of Romance Obstruction (80 Chapter)
Uma Musume: You Can't Be a Hero Without a Little Chemical Enhancement (40 Chapter)
Honkai Impact 3rd Your Boyfriend is Really Amazing (40 Chapter)
Warhammer 40K: My Fiancée, Fulgrim (180 Chapter)
Classroom of the Elite: Trying to Capture Me! (120 Chapter)
Genshin Impact My Named Senji Muramas (150 Chapter)
A Chef, the Vice-Captain of the Rocks Pirates? (160 Chapter)
Naruto : My Uchiha Girlfriend is Too Tsundere (130 Chapter)
Type-Moon: Reincarnated in a Lostbelt, I Became the Alien God (90 Chapter)
The Way These Horse Girls Look at Me Is Terrifying! (160 Chapter)
Naruto: Tsunade's Deskmate (130 Chapter)
I Just Want to Live a Normal (50 Chapter).
Genshin Impact: A Hundred Confessions? It's Just a System Task (70 Chapter)
OnePiece : Starting as a Veteran of the Roger Pirates (60 Chapter)
Uma Musume : I Have Special Horse Taming Techniques (190 Chapter)
Uma Musume : My other self is a Horse Girl (130 Chapter)
Jujutsu Kaisen : All Affection Stats Maxed Out (200 Chapter)
Satou Kazuma's Decision to Live by Swindling, Starting from Re:Zero (60 Chapter)
Bleach : Ichigo! Take Over the Soul Society (89 Chapter)
Crossover Anime: The Master of Plagiarism with a 'Love Obstacle (140 Chapter)
Arknights Succubus Nurturing System, But I'm a Quiet Office Worker (90 Chapter)
Genshin Impact: Using My Personas to Break the Hearts of Players (50 Chapter)
One Punch Man : i am King? (150 Chapter)
Genshin: My Stats Are Irresistible (70 Chapter)
Naruto: Master of Dream Fulfillment! (70 Chapter)
Why Are All My Chat Group Friends Spin-Off Characters? (123 Chapter)
Arknights : Batman System (30 Chapter)
Chat Group: Swapping Bodies with the Bad-Ending Herta from the Start (72 Chapter)
DanMachi: Why Did My Dungeon Turn Into a Soulslike Game? (92 Chapter)
Losing Money on Uma Musume...What Do You Mean You Actually Won? (93 Chapter)
I'm Gotou Hitori—Who Are You? (40 Chapter)
Were You Ever Even a Uma Musume? Stop Making Things Up! (75 Chapter)
Moon Project: A Full-Time Love Adventure for the Lobotomy Corporation (75 Chapter)
The Leisurely Days of the Hyuga Main House (65 Chapter)
Arknights : A Draco Surviving in a Matriarchal Terra (105 Chapter)
Arknights: What if My Luck Is Too Good? (100 Chapter)
Honkai: The Romance System Only Shows Up After I Marry Mei (55 Chapter)
Arknights: Who Are You Calling Repressed, X?! (95 Chapter)
The Chat Group Only Arrived After I'd Cleared the Game (42 Chapter)
Gojo Satoru Flat-Out Refuses to Admit He's a Supporting Character (40 Chapter)
Chat Group Isn't Supposed to Be Like This! (30 Chapter)
If You're Moriarty…then Who Am I? (40 Chapter)
Uma Musume: Since I "Can't See," They Take Turns Stealing My Underwear (36 Chapter)
If there's a particular novel you're enjoying on Patron, please give it a 'like' so I know to focus on it