I am in Mihua, and the ladies all like me

You should know that the amount of sleep most people need is actually about the same. The so-called insistence on getting up early is nothing more than being able to overcome sleepiness.

In the past few days, Mary Akai has figured out her daughter's class schedule. Whenever Sera Masumi has physical education class during the day, she will come over in the evening after the latter falls asleep.

For example, yesterday, Friday, was the day we had physical education class.

Last night, the two of them tossed and turned until one or two in the morning before they went to sleep, and had to get up again at six or seven in the morning. Even Serabelle herself felt sleepy, but Akai Mari was able to wake up.

Is this the strength of the legendary elite MI6 investigator?

A certain trainee investigator marveled inwardly.

Of course, the premise is that Serabelle doesn't know that Akai Mari gets up early just to force herself to avoid being noticed by her daughter, and that she will definitely take a nap after lunch to replenish her energy.

"...I understand the logic, but why did you wake me up so early in the morning, Masaharu? Even if we had an appointment to visit an art museum today, we shouldn't have to get up so early. Could it be that the art museum follows the schedule of a breakfast shop?"

"Well, that's not the case. The museum opens at eight in the morning and doesn't close until five in the evening."

Masumi Sera recalled the relevant information he had looked up yesterday and added another sentence.

"But I think it's better to leave early, since Lan and the others have already left, right?"

"……what?"

"If you don't believe it, see for yourself."

The girl with tiger teeth was holding someone who was lying on the bed with her hands and legs like a crane. As she spoke, she took out her cell phone from her body, opened the social platform app and lowered the screen in front of the latter.

Serabelle looked closely and saw that the avatar at the top of the page was a headband, with a very rustic ID called "Tokyo's No. 1 Affection", and the latest update was sent three minutes ago, with only a simple sentence - today's destination, art museum!

There is also a photo attached below the post. The background is in front of the gate of a building called "Medieval Art Museum". In the center is naturally a certain young lady, and next to her is a unicorn JK who looks sleepy and yawns, and a certain death god elementary school student.

Oh, that kid with glasses is here too?

Although there was no basis for this, Serabelle had a feeling that today's trip to the art museum would not be very peaceful.

……

The art museum is located right at the junction of Haido Town and Beika Town, slightly closer to Beika Town, so it is not far from Haido Hotel.

Serabelle and Sera Masumi walked there. It took them only half an hour from getting up to arriving, and they also had breakfast on the way.

On a weekend morning, the bright sunshine shone obliquely from the sky. At the entrance of the art gallery, which was exactly the same as the one in the photo, two girls and a little kid with glasses were already waiting there.

One of them had a rosy face, while the other two had black lines on their heads.

"Sorry, sorry, we're late."

As soon as they met, Masumi Sera greeted him in a familiar manner.

Hearing the familiar voice, Xiaolan and Conan, who had been waiting for nearly half an hour, suddenly saw something bright.

The eyes of a certain young lady from the garden were so bright that they almost shined, but she still remained reserved.

"No, no, we actually just arrived."

Just arrived... hehe... just arrived...?

Conan and Xiaolan in the back twitched their lips slightly, thinking that if they hadn't been standing here for half an hour, they would have almost believed it.

But we are all good friends, so it is impossible to expose the truth. The most we can do is complain a little in our hearts.

At the same time, the sound of the art gallery door opening was finally heard above the stairs.

As the first group of guests since the museum opened today, when Serabelle and others bought their tickets and entered the exhibition hall, they found that there were only a few staff members busy in the huge exhibition hall.

"Wow~ This painting is so beautiful!"

Xiaolan walked along the guardrail one meter away from the wall to one of the paintings and couldn't help but express her sincere admiration.

Serabelle casually glanced over following the sound. The painting was of a sunflower... Of course it was not Van Gogh's Sunflower, but just an ordinary oil painting of sunflowers.

The painting is very similar, not ugly.

After all, this is the limit of his artistic appreciation ability.

Before Yuanzi had the time to choose a work that would reflect her artistic taste, she saw that her best friend had already given a reference answer, so she immediately followed suit and wanted to say a few words to show off her artistic taste.

But before she could open her mouth, a kind old man with white hair and beard, who looked like the chief examiner of the spy family, with a slender figure and elegant manner, came over from the other side and smiled when he heard what she said.

"Do you like this work, young lady?"

"Eh?"

Xiaolan was slightly stunned and turned her head. The old man raised his head and looked at the paintings on the wall, his tone hinting with emotion.

"I like this painting, too. No, I like all the works here, just like my children."

"Well, may I ask who you are..."

"Oh, sorry, I'm the curator here, my name is Ochiai."

"It turns out to be Director Ochiai."

"Although it may be a bit rude to ask--"

There was still someone saying hello over there, and here, Serabelle looked around.

"But this art museum is not going to continue to operate?"

Chapter 20 Death's passive ability can no longer be hidden

"Not open? Why?"

Yuanzi was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and couldn't help but cast a questioning look.

Although today is the weekend, they are the only few people in the entire exhibition hall. But after all, it is only eight o'clock in the morning and the art museum has just opened, so it is normal that there are few people coming.

It would be a bit too much to say that other people’s art galleries will not be open for long just because of this.

“It’s true.”

Conan, who had been following Xiaolan, spoke with his head turned sideways.

Looking in the direction he was facing, I saw several staff members in the exhibition hall taking down the paintings on the wall one by one.

This is very interesting. The store had just opened in the morning, so logically they should have wiped each piece clean and hung up the artworks, but a group of staff were taking them down and packing them one by one.

It seems unreasonable no matter how you look at it.

"Well, to be honest..."

Director Ochiai was not angry. He was about to explain, but when he turned around, he saw one of the staff members trying to take down the painting on the wall with his bare hands. His face suddenly changed.

“Uwaaaaaaah! Kubota! What are you doing?! How many times have I told you to wear gloves when handling artwork? You just can’t remember, right?!”

"Yes, I'm sorry..."

The person who was loudly scolded by Director Ochiai was a short middle-aged man who was already quite old. His slightly long middle-parted hair looked a little messy due to the fright. He quickly loosened his hand on the painting frame and looked at the former with a sad expression as he angrily came to him.

"That's enough, you don't have to do it anymore!" Director Ochiai waved him away, then turned to another staff member who was wearing gloves and handling artworks in accordance with the operating standards, and said, "Iijima, I'll leave this to you."

"Yes."

Kubota left, looking rather grim as he left.

The two girls, Sonoko and Xiaolan, watched with complicated expressions as the middle-aged man's back disappeared at the entrance of the exhibition hall. No one could have imagined that Director Ochiai, who looked like a kind old grandfather the previous second, would become so emotional after encountering something related to art.

The time difference was so short that they almost passed each other. Kubota had just left the exhibition hall when another group of people walked in from outside, with an unconcealed mocking smile in their tone.

"Oh, even on the weekend it's still quiet as usual."

The first person to enter was a middle-aged man with a big belly and a fat face, followed by a young, slightly plump man with glasses who looked like a secretary.

As he entered the exhibition hall, he looked around, but it was more like he was sizing up the venue rather than looking at the art paintings hanging on the walls.

"Boss Zhenzhong..."

Noticing the newcomer, Director Ochiai's expression suddenly turned reluctant.

But the middle-aged man didn't even look at him, and just continued to scan the venue.

"This place will be closed in ten days. I'll have to trouble you to take good care of it during this time. Of course... this also includes these broken things."

After saying this, he ignored the indignant Iijima and the helpless Director Ochiai, turned around and left with his secretary, laughing, apparently going to see other exhibition halls.

After the two of them walked away, Xiaolan walked forward with some concern.

"Well, so the news that the museum is about to close is actually..."

"Ah, it's true." Director Ochiai sighed softly, "The previous owner of this art museum sold the art museum to Mr. Manaka because his company went bankrupt."

"But it was obvious that the previous owner sold the art museum to Manaka because he said he was willing to continue running it. But after buying the art museum, Manaka said he wanted to turn it into a restaurant!" Iida said angrily.

"Isn't it possible that such an important matter concerning the livelihoods of all employees in the museum is not written in the transfer contract?" Serabel was a little confused.

"Because the previous boss trusted that guy Manaka quite a bit, he didn't write it. Who knew he would be such a person who would forget his loyalty for the sake of profit!"

Oh, that's okay, no wonder the company went bankrupt... a trainee investigator thought.

The work of removing the art paintings from the exhibition hall was still being carried out bit by bit. After taking a look around, Serabelle and the others went straight to the next exhibition hall.

Walking in the quiet corridor, Sera Masumi stretched out his long arms and leaned back to stretch.

"But there is nothing we can do about it. It is normal that classical art galleries like this can no longer operate. After all, everyone lives a fast-paced life these days. Who has the time to spend every day in an art gallery to cultivate their sentiments? What's more, the fees for art galleries here are not expensive."

It is indeed not expensive, and can even be considered quite cheap. A normal adult ticket only costs 1,000 yen and allows you to come in and wander around without any time limit. Students can get a 50% discount, and those who are still in elementary school like Conan can get free tickets.

Serabelle made a rough calculation and found that even if all the visitors every day were adults and the only staff members in the museum were the few he had seen before, at least forty to fifty people would be needed every day to cover the employee salary expenses.

And this does not include other additional expenses such as water, electricity, and rent. If they were included, it would probably take two hundred people a day to barely break even.

But it is obvious that this art museum does not have such a large number of visitors, so huge losses are basically inevitable.

"Well, in the final analysis, it is unreasonable to make a profit from something as niche as art by making it popular." Serabelle glanced sideways. "Let me give you a simple example. If there is news that a painting by a famous artist was unearthed somewhere in the world and was authenticated as an authentic work, then where do you think the painting will go next?"

"Auction?" Miss Sonoko blurted out without thinking.

"The only option is the auction." Serabell shrugged.

"But those who can participate in auctions of that level are either rich or noble. Ordinary people don't have the qualifications or the leisure to participate, let alone understand things that are not in the same dimension as themselves. If you ask ordinary people on the street who they know of a famous painter, nine out of ten will probably say Van Gogh. If they ask for a musician, it will be Beethoven. But if you really want to use Van Gogh's Sunflowers as a selling point to open an art museum and only charge 1,000 yen for admission, then the daily revenue may not be enough to cover the security costs."

Everyone was speechless, but the same thought came to their minds.

There is one thing to say, indeed.

The space inside the art museum is quite large, with five or six large exhibition halls alone.

In addition to the outermost painting hall that Serabelle and others first came to, there is also the "Earth Room" used to display pottery, the "Sky Room" where various sculptures of angels and gods are placed, and the "Umihara Room" with various ship sculptures and pirate flags on the theme of the ocean.

Each exhibition hall has a different style, and the lighting, music and layout complement each other to highlight their own characteristics to the fullest, allowing people to immerse themselves in it as soon as they enter.

It can be seen that the designers of this art museum did put a lot of effort into its construction when it was first established, but as the saying goes, art is ultimately just a toy circulated among a small circle of upper-class wealthy people for fun.

Two hours later, after visiting all the first few exhibition halls, the group of five finally arrived at the last exhibition hall.

The style of the last exhibition hall is completely different from that of the previous ones. The entrance to the last exhibition hall is quite narrow, only the size of an ordinary door. Looking in from the outside, the light is extremely dim, and various medieval armors can be vaguely seen standing on both sides. It is called - Hell's Room.

"Is this the place with medieval armor that can move on its own?" Yuanzi peeked inside, rubbing his hands together, eager to try it out.

"Yoshi~ Then let's go in and find out what's going on. It's a good opportunity to make a quick decision and then go have lunch together!"

She hasn't forgotten the appointment they made in front of the cafe last week.

No one had any objection to this and they just left.

As she stepped into the hell, Serabelle sniffed and hummed in confusion.

Why... there seems to be a faint smell of blood?

Chapter 21 I bet one dollar that the criminal is him, no more

The layout of [Hell's Room] is completely different from all previous exhibition halls.

If the previous ones can be considered proper exhibition halls, then this final hell exhibition hall can almost be called a storage room.

Just like in the most common single-family houses in Japan, there is always a very small number of houses that are forced to take root in an area with extremely strange shapes for various reasons.

This is roughly the feeling that this "Hell Room" gives people.

Its area shape is actually more like a hammer, similar to the one held by Thor in Marvel movies.

Serabelle and the others are now entering from the end of the hammer's handle, passing through a long and narrow corridor with various medieval armor or demon sculptures placed on both sides.