Yuji Kudo, the manga artist behind Detective Conan.

"Wow, sir, this restaurant is something else today!"

Higashino, who was lying on the table with his arms around his head, looked excited and a little smug. He looked at Uncle Kudo, whose cheeks were already red from the alcohol, and then gave Conan a briefing on the messy relationships in the restaurant.

"The woman sitting opposite Date Kyo is none other than the now-famous wakame queen, Yuko Haneda, whose family background is absolutely outrageous!"

"Her surname is Haneda... Could it be?" Conan raised his eyebrows, a guess forming in his mind.

"That's right, her father was Taiko Meijin Haneda Hideyoshi, and her adoptive grandfather was Yoshitsugu, the one who started the civil war in Hokkaido!"

"But this is too outrageous!" Conan tapped the table.

Putting aside the fact that celebrities like Date Kyo and wealthy heiress Haneda Yuko would be in such a low-end restaurant, Haneda Hideyoshi's wedding was organized by the Haneda family and Amuro Tooru, who was wearing the mask of Yoshigoro. Who doesn't know the relationship between Yoshigoro and Haneda Hideyoshi?

As a result, Yoshigoro, who was assigned by Yuji to declare independence in Hokkaido, has an adopted son and granddaughter who are living quite comfortably in the southern region. Wouldn't the families of the soldiers who died on the battlefield be indignant about this?

"This is easy to understand, right? Do you think all those current councilors don't know Ji Gang? He went from being the deputy minister to a councilor, and he sat in that position for a very long time."

Higashino, with an air of experience, patted Conan on the shoulder: "To put it bluntly, whether it's a member of parliament from the south or an official from the northern government, everyone has spoken in the same meeting room before. Where does all that hatred come from? Everyone leaves a bottom line for the other side so that if one side wins, everyone on the other side can take their place."

"How do you know so much?" Conan was a little annoyed by Higashino's "I know everything" expression and blinked, saying, "You seem like an adult."

"Huh...huh?! I'm not! I look like a little kid! Oh dear, I even got addition and subtraction within five wrong in class today. First-grade math is so hard..."

Just like Conan before, Higashino awkwardly changed the subject about age, then pointed out the point that had gotten to him earlier. "When we were on vacation at Orange Island, we ran into Fujiwara-san and Haneda-san, who were on a date there." Worried that Conan might not know who Fujiwara was, Higashino added, "He's the son of the tofu vendor downstairs from the police station. He's in the third department after entering the police academy. Speaking of which, he and Inspector Hagiwara are childhood friends."

These parents are all best friends; they must have all met when they were kids. Any two of them could easily be childhood sweethearts, right?

"According to the melodramatic plot, the next people to come in will probably be Attorney Shiratori's girlfriend and Officer Fujiwara."

Although the request was made by Matsuda to Kudo, Conan always subconsciously felt that his younger brother was involved. Given that guy's perverse sense of humor, it would probably end up just as he guessed.

"What a coincidence! Do you think reality is about drawing comics and making movies?"

Higashino placed the second bowl of curry in front of him and picked up the large chicken leg with his chopsticks: "If you guess right, I'll give you this chicken leg."

"I still want to eat what I ordered myself. I don't like the chopsticks you used."

"These chopsticks haven't been used yet, and I don't want you to eat my saliva!"

"Then I'm definitely going to eat there." Conan gestured for Higashino to look towards the door: "See if those are the two people?"

"Huh?" The boy paused for a moment, then turned his head and noticed the third couple being led in by the waiter.

"...How is that possible?!" (End of Chapter)