I'm in Detective Conan, and the system has appointed Batman.

Chapter 129: The Case in Progress?

Chapter 129: The Case in Progress?
A moment later, Daisuke Torakura and Kogoro Mouri walked out of the corridor together.

It's clear that this horror novelist, who loves to cosplay as Dracula to scare people, is still trembling and hasn't recovered from the previous fright.

He sat down on the chair next to him and spoke to the student next to him, Toshiya Tadokoro.

"It's getting late, and it's inconvenient for Mr. Mori and the others to leave right now. Please tidy up the rooms so they can stay in the guest rooms tonight. Oh, and it's almost time for dinner, so I'll leave that to you."

After listening, Toshiya Tadokoro nodded and left the living room.

Meanwhile, Kogoro Mouri returned to the table where Chen En and the others were sitting.

He whispered to the person next to him.

"Mr. Torakura has entrusted me to investigate the matter of Mrs. Torakura Etsuko's extramarital affair."

"The fee alone is one million yen, and other labor costs can be reimbursed by Mr. Torakura. Well, although Mr. Torakura seems strange, he is quite generous."

If it weren't for Daisuke Torakura's intervention, he would have been far more generous than any of the other clients Kogoro Mouri had dealt with.

It's likely that Kogoro Mouri will have a big argument with Daisuke Torakura about how he startled him in his room.

—So it really was a commissioned investigation into infidelity?
This is consistent with the content of the commission that Chen En just judged.

However, since Daisuke Torakura was able to sense that Etsuko Torakura was having an affair, why would he agree to let Shuichi Hamura, who clearly had a special relationship with Etsuko Torakura, come to his house as a guest or even stay temporarily?
That's really a bit strange.

Chen En pondered in his heart.

While Tadokoro Shunsuke was still preparing dinner, the editor-in-chief of the Horror Times monthly magazine, Doi Fumio, had already sat down next to Torakura Daisuke with his full briefcase.

He pushed the briefcase in his hand toward Daisuke Torakura and whispered something to him.

This appearance is truly suspicious.

Not only Chen En, but even Conan's attention was drawn to Torakura Daisuke and Doi Fumio, who were secretly plotting.

The relationship between these two is clearly abnormal.

However, Conan hasn't yet noticed exactly what's wrong; he just has a vague intuition about it.

Half an hour passed quickly.

Shunsuke Tadokoro pushed the food cart into the living room, placed the prepared dishes, red wine, tableware, and wine glasses on the table, and then stood aside, looking more like a restaurant waiter than Daisuke Torakura's student.

Without further ado, everyone began to eat.

After the meal, Torakura Daisuke picked up the briefcase that Doi Fumio had given him, immediately stood up, and simply said,

"I'm going back to my room to start creating now."

"Tadokoro, go to the archives and bring up a VHS tape of a vampire movie. I want to watch it later to get some inspiration for my novel, okay?"

————Collection Room.

That was on the first floor of Dracula's villa. Chen En had noticed that place when he followed them directly up to the second-floor living room, and he also noticed that there was a basement there.

However, the basement only contained various books and nothing special.

As for the collection room... that's actually a bit strange.

When Chen En sneaked into the collection room before dinner started, he smelled the odor of oil paint, but there was no paint in the room, only fake wooden stakes that had been painted.

If nothing unexpected happens, the spot where the fake wooden stake was painted with oil paint should have previously been occupied by a real wooden stake.

If a heinous murder were to occur, the missing wooden stake would most likely be the murder weapon. However, Chen En was still pondering who had taken the stake.

The wooden stakes had already been removed before they arrived.

In Dracula's villa, anyone other than him, Kogoro Mouri, Ran Mouri, and Conan could be the real culprit who secretly hid the wooden stake and was preparing to kill someone.

However, at this point, perhaps only that one person is the most likely suspect. ——————

Before going to deliver the videotape to Daisuke Torakura.

Tadokoro Shunsuke casually asked Kogoro Mouri and Conan if they wanted to go to the collection room.

He mentioned that the collection room contained many vampire-related items.

Given Ran Mouri's boldness, she naturally refused outright.

However, Conan was so interested that Ran had no choice but to accompany him and Shunsuke Uedado to the collection room to see what was inside.

Kogoro Mouri and Chen En remained in the living room.

Unlike Chen En, who seemed to be deep in thought, Kogoro Mouri had already picked up the newspaper next to him, crossed his legs, and leisurely enjoyed his post-dinner reading time.

It was as if the one million yen commission for investigating the affair was already in his pocket.

— Kogoro Mouri believes he is very capable of investigating extramarital affairs.

Furthermore, the interactions between Torakura Etsuko and Hamura Shuichi were far too obvious.

Therefore, with just a little effort, he could find evidence of the affair between Torakura Etsuko and Hamura Shuichi, and then take the one million yen commission!

Thinking of this, Kogoro Mouri couldn't help but smile.

If this weren't a private setting, he probably would have burst into laughter, celebrating his grand plan.

Regarding Kogoro Mouri's thoughts.

Chen En knew nothing about this, and even if he did, he wouldn't make any further comments on Kogoro Mouri's thoughts. Generally speaking, based on Chen En's experience, Kogoro Mouri's requests were impossible to complete.

Either the client was killed, or the target of the investigation was killed.

It would be strange if Kogoro Mouri were to actually receive that million yen commission.

------

In the collection room, Tadokoro Shunsuke simply glanced at the numerous movie tapes on the bookshelf and quickly selected a vampire movie called Blood Mirror.

Just like how Tadokoro Shunsuke had already decided what movie he would show Torakura Daisuke before he even arrived.

Conan noticed this, but did not suspect anything.

His gaze swept over the various vampire-related items in his collection.

For example, he scanned the capes, evening gowns, wigs, prop hands, and so on, and finally his attention fell on the wooden stake—for some reason.

Conan always felt that there was a smell of oil paint near the wooden stake.

But strangely, there are no oil paintings in the collection room.

Just as he was thinking, Tadokoro Shunsuke's voice came over.

"Miss Mori, could you please check if the windows in the collection are locked?"

"If it's locked, please come upstairs with me. I need to lock the collection room later."

Ran Mouri quickly walked to the window and glanced around.

After noticing that all the windows seemed to be locked, he took Conan and went outside.

The sound of the collection room door locking followed.