I am in Mihua, and the ladies all like me

"Yes, but you have to go find it yourself."

Serabelle nodded towards the crime scene on the screen.

"It's this armor."

"Armor?" Inspector Megure was stunned.

"Yes, armor. Although this medieval armor looks very tight, there are still some gaps at the joints. If such a large amount of blood splashes on the armor, some of it will definitely seep into the inside. If it drips on the skin, it can still be wiped off. Although it cannot escape the test, it is at least almost invisible to the naked eye. But if it gets on clothes, it will be terrible. Not only can it not be wiped off, but it may not be completely washed away with water. In short, it is very troublesome to deal with in various ways."

"So Director Ochiai must be naked when he wears it. After such a large amount of exercise, it is inevitable that there will be dandruff and slightly curly hair left inside. We can then take them for DNA testing."

"As for the location..."

"It's in a closet in Kubota's office, wrapped in a sheet."

This time, without waiting for Serabelle to speak, Director Ochiai, who had remained silent from beginning to end, finally spoke up.

Chapter 23: Hammer's Art, Paranoia

"It's in a closet in Kubota's office, wrapped in a sheet."

This time, without waiting for Serabelle to speak, Director Ochiai, who had remained silent from beginning to end, finally spoke up.

His words were tantamount to overturning all his previous disguises and exposing the true crime in front of everyone.

Xiaolan and Sonoko both covered their mouths silently, as if they had lost their voice.

Iijima and the others had expressions of disbelief on their faces, perhaps because they were unwilling to believe that the director they had always respected would actually commit such a brutal act, or perhaps because they did not expect that the latter would give up defending himself so easily.

Serabelle shrugged and said nothing.

This answer was pretty close to what he had guessed. After all, most areas in the huge art museum were covered with cameras, and the only places where anything could be hidden were those few.

First, exclude the exhibition hall, then the bathroom and the accounting office, and the only things left are either the utility room or the office.

What's more, such a large piece of iron makes the target very conspicuous. As long as you are not blind, you can basically see it. It is only a matter of time to find it.

"In the cabinet in Mr. Kubota's office..."

There was no need for even eye contact. At the same time that Inspector Megure was hesitating and repeating, the two accompanying police officers had already rushed out of the monitoring room.

"So, Director Ochiai, you were planning to frame Mr. Kubota from the beginning?"

"That's right, because I can't forgive Manaka for wanting to transform the art museum into a hotel, and Kubota for secretly selling the artworks on the black market to enrich himself!"

Director Ochiai puffed out his chest. He was clearly a sinner, but the expression on his face was like that of a glorious knight who was explaining his achievements to the world after slaying a demon.

Serabelle looked up at the ceiling and raised her eyebrows speechlessly. "If you really like this art museum so much, why don't you just buy it out with your own money? Director, you've been an old employee for so many years, and the former boss shouldn't be so rude as to not give you this little bit of favor."

"Of course I do, but..."

"Not enough money?"

This is the only reason.

No one present would doubt the affection that Director Ochiai has for this art museum. If he really had such abundant funds, he would surely save this art museum at all costs.

It’s a pity that nine out of ten things in the world are not as we wish, and this world never says that it must revolve around anyone.

So we shouldn’t be afraid of young intellectuals, but we should be afraid of young intellectuals doing business…

As if she suddenly thought of something, Serabelle's eyes lit up and she snapped her fingers crisply.

"Oh, right~ I think I suddenly know why your former boss didn't include this clause in the transfer contract even though he agreed with Mr. Manaka that 'the art museum cannot be used for other purposes'."

"Huh? Why?" Sera Masumi asked curiously.

"that is because--"

Serabelle paused and pointed her index fingers at Director Ochiai.

"The so-called agreement that 'the art museum cannot be used for other purposes' was to give you an explanation, and not writing this into the transfer contract was to give an explanation to Mr. Manaka."

"Because everyone knows that this is a purely money-losing art museum, and your former boss's company went bankrupt and he's in urgent need of money. If he still insists on someone being willing to continue running the art museum, then who would be willing to take over a purely money-losing thing?"

"But he couldn't really sell the museum openly. After all, to put it bluntly, what you are doing now is nothing more than 'Although this place has been bought by you, Mr. Manaka, but you dare not run it according to my ideas, so I must kill you.' So, Mr. Manaka died on the spot."

"It's obvious that your former boss, Director Ochiai, knew you very well and knew that you had a serious paranoia. He didn't want to be suddenly pulled out of bed by a guy in medieval armor in the middle of the night and yelled at him, 'You are rich but unwilling to continue to run the museum at a loss. A treacherous person like you will only make a living if you live in this world.' Then he stabbed his throat with a sword and died suddenly at home, so he had to resort to the last resort and come up with something like a Yin-Yang contract."

"Although the probability is not high, but...what if?"

After saying this long string of words in one breath, Serabelle spread her hands.

"Besides, now it turns out that your former boss was quite foresighted, right?"

“…Ha, haha…hahahaha!”

After a long silence, Director Ochiai chuckled with his shoulders slightly trembling. Then the laughter quickly grew louder as the amplitude of his shoulder shaking increased, and finally turned into a complete laugh towards the sky.

"I never expected it, I really never expected it. I thought I was the knight in "Condemnation" who killed the devil and was covered in blood, but I didn't expect that I was the devil! What a pity, what a pity!"

At this point, no one spoke in the monitoring room anymore, leaving only the white-haired old man's sad self-mockery.

Inspector Megure took out handcuffs from his police uniform without saying a word and handcuffed Director Ochiai.

Two minutes later, the two police officers who had gone to Kubota's office on the second floor returned to the monitoring room. When they came back, they had a large bag of blood-stained medieval armor wrapped in a bed sheet in their hands. The dark red blood stains the floral-printed bed sheet into a darker brown, like a shroud.

He fished out part of the opening of the helmet from a pile of iron lumps and tapped it downwards gently, and a few strands of silver threads floated down in the air.

Inspector Megure waved silently.

"Take it away and return to the police station."

A wonderful beginning, a thrilling development, a sad ending... this is the most appropriate way to describe today's half-day experience.

Ten minutes later, the spring noon sun shone directly on the entrance of the art museum.

Looking at the police cars carrying Director Ochiai driving away in a line below, Miss Sonoko hugged her head with her hands, not knowing whether she was helpless or melancholy.

"Ah~ I didn't expect to encounter something like this when visiting an art museum."

"yes……"

Xiaolan also had mixed feelings.

Masumi Sera lowered her head and tapped her phone, looking for any good snack bars nearby.

Serabel continued to maintain a determined look on his face, his heart completely calm. He was used to seeing all kinds of strange corpses, so what happened today was nothing.

No one spoke for a moment. Just when the atmosphere was about to fall into some weird situation, several police cars suddenly drove past on the road not far away with their lights blaring.

"You're driving so fast, did something happen?"

"I do not know……"

Chapter 24: Have you bought the small umbrella?

It must be said that young people adjust their mindsets very quickly.

As the saying goes, eat when you should eat and drink when you should drink, and don't forget about anything. Two hours later, at the door of a buffet restaurant in Beika Town, Masumi Sera was saying goodbye to Ran, Sonoko and others.

"Wuhu~ I'm so full, let's go back today."

"Yeah, see you later."

"See you at school on Monday."

"CIAO~"

None of us were working professionals, and there weren't so many complicated social etiquettes, so after a simple goodbye, everyone went home.

Serabelle and Sera Masumi still went back in group 11.

They have been in Japan for almost a week and have become familiar with the bus routes. It is no longer the case that they could take a bus to the neighboring Nishitama City like they did a week ago.

However, they had a buffet for lunch, and as they could eat as much as they wanted after paying, they ended up overeating without noticing, so they just walked back slowly and digested the food on the way.

"Hey, Serani-chan, aren't your business skills a little lacking?"

Walking along the street on the way back to Beihu Hotel, the girl with tiger teeth put her hands behind her head and squinted her eyes, nudging the shoulder of the boy next to her with her elbow.

Serabelle looked sideways in confusion: "I don't understand. Is there something wrong with the case just solved?"

"Of course I'm not referring to the ability to solve cases, but also to professional accomplishment..."

Sera Masumi smacked his lips slightly, looking very disappointed with his friend, and even put his hands down.

"The business ability I'm talking about is in terms of customer operations. Didn't you notice that when we were having dinner just now, Sonoko-chan looked at you with stars in her eyes? If it was in the game, the admiration index would have almost reached the critical point. It's a pity that Serani-chan left without doing anything."

"What do you expect me to do? Go up and give her a French kiss? But I'm not French, I'm British..." Serabelle slowly typed the question mark, feeling that her brain waves didn't match.

He was just talking nonsense for the sake of complaining, but the girl with tiger teeth became more serious.

"Although the French kiss was a bit too much, it's still okay to make an appointment to hang out together next time. By the way, we can exchange contact information and add each other as friends on social platforms, so that we can chat more and then we can make appointments to hang out more often in the future."

"And after a while, the little stars in her eyes should turn into little hearts, right?"

"Hehehe, Serani-chan, you really understand."

"Go! Go! Go……"

Serabelle said she didn't want to pay any attention to her and simply changed the subject.

"By the way, Masumi, have you noticed the little boy with glasses named Conan?"

"Conan? Oh, you mean Edogawa." The tiger-toothed girl was stunned for a moment before realizing who she was talking about. "Is there something wrong with him?"

"I don't know if it's my illusion."

As if what she was about to say was too bizarre even for herself, Serabelle paused for two seconds and then held her forehead with one hand.

"Let me put it this way, Masumi. We ran into them on our first day in Tokyo last weekend, and we also encountered a murder case. After that, I was out and about for a whole week without encountering a murder case. But today, we were visiting an art museum together, and we encountered a murder case again. So is there a possibility... Never mind, just pretend I didn't say anything."

"Feudal superstition is not advisable, Serani-chan~"

Masumi Sera patted his shoulder and spoke earnestly.

"Besides, why not call mom and ask if we should bring anything back?"

"That's right, Zhenchun, wait for me for a moment."

Serabelle thought about it and felt that it made some sense, so she stopped, took out her cell phone and made a call.

The call was connected in less than two seconds.

"Hello? Sister Mary, we are on our way back now. Is there anything missing from the hotel? Do you want me to bring anything back?"

"...Not yet. If I really want to talk about it, did you buy the one last time?"

A calm voice came from the other end of the line from a girl with short light blonde hair, but her voice was slightly lighter when she mentioned "that".

Serabelle blinked rapidly, and her gaze casually glanced at the girl with tiger teeth who had also stopped and was holding her phone with a look of surprise, and then she spoke as usual.

"I already bought that last time."

"Okay, that's all. Come back early and be safe on the road."

The call ended simply and Akai Mari hung up unilaterally.

As soon as Serabelle put away her phone, Masumi Sera next to her immediately came over curiously, rubbing her shoulder.

"What was that 'that' Bernie-chan just mentioned? Did you buy anything?"

"Um!?"

A golden exclamation mark suddenly appeared above Serabelle's head.

I thought she didn't notice it at all, but I didn't expect she could hear it anyway.

"That" of course refers to the small umbrella. The box that Akai Mary brought from England was used up on Thursday. After that, Serabelle bought three more boxes, and now all of them are in the drawer of his bedside table.

But it was impossible to say this directly. After all, to Sera Masumi, he was probably just a brother. But his mother asked his brother on the phone if he had bought an umbrella. What kind of thing was this...

"Oh, it's nothing, just an insole." Serabelle thought quickly.

"Insoles? Have you bought insoles?" Sera Masumi didn't understand at first.

"Of course not real insoles. The insoles I'm talking about are the ones you girls wear a few days every month."

"Oh, isn't that called a sanitary napkin? Why is it called an insole?"

"…Because many people in MI6 used it as an insole when they were on missions in winter. It is soft and warm, and especially has excellent water absorption."

After learning some useless little knowledge, Serabel coughed lightly.