Yuji Kudo, the manga artist behind Detective Conan.

"Wow, Conan is amazing! He's fantastic at riddles!"

Although they were sitting in a casino on a cruise ship, the three Kudo children occupied a booth to play a puzzle game involving drawing Jokers. Some dissatisfied customers wanted the waiters to kick them out, but they shut up after learning the surname of the girl in the middle.

Seeing all this, Conan mentally raised the danger level of his younger brother in this era by one level, while effortlessly crushing his daughter and brat.

[Speaking of this kid, his reasoning ability seems to be on par with mine, but he's really lacking in other areas.]

On the way back to the agency last night, Conan heard a singing voice that was even worse than his own for the first time.

"You definitely cheated!" Higashino brushed aside the pile of white paper strips that looked like hair in front of him, then stared intently at Conan, wanting to understand them and verify his guess.

The Kudo family members are all quite talented in reasoning and puzzle-solving, so when the three of them play together, there won't be a situation where one person can't solve the puzzle and therefore the whole game is unable to draw a card.

After three rounds, Sayoko, who had an extra one, and Higashino, who had two, combed the slips of paper into a middle part and looked at Conan with hostility.

"Miss! This table is not a gambling table."

A sudden sound from the side startled the three people playing the game. They all turned around and found a woman wearing a long red dress and a black lace hat with cutouts watching the game curiously.

"These three guests are just using our table to play." The waiter tried to ask the lady in red to leave, but she clearly wasn't going to comply.

"Please provide me with a chair. I'd like to join them in playing. This puzzle-solving game of drawing jokers looks quite interesting."

The woman took off her hat, revealing long black hair underneath: "You won't mind, will you? Perhaps you can let me join you since I'll order you some juice."

"I don't need the juice, but not to brag, but these puzzles are all pretty... weird."

Sayoko noticed that both Sanseki and Conan were looking at her, indicating that she should make the decision. After hesitating, she said, "How about you try to solve one? If you can, we can do it together. If not, even if you join, you'll just be watching us play. This..."

“Nohara Maki, this is my name. That's perfect. Shall I draw from this stack of cards?” Ms. Nohara casually picked one from the middle of the deck. “These cards are very well made; were they provided by the cruise ship?”

"It was made by one of my father's elders. That old man liked to tell strange riddles."

Ms. Nohara flipped the card over and read it aloud herself.

[In the fish kingdom located next to underwater ruins, the previous king's fraud was exposed, so a sea bream succeeded to the throne. Who was the previous king? A. Octopus B. Squid C. Crab]

This riddle...

Conan saw that Sayoko and Higashino were both deep in thought, then turned to Ms. Nohara. He thought that this woman would give up, but to his surprise, she showed a look of delight.

"What? This riddle is actually quite simple."

"Huh?" Higashino and Sayoko were both stunned, then stared at Conan.

Why are you looking at me like that...?

"Squid plus His Majesty equals Squid His Majesty, which is the same as the statement about being fake, so choose A, right!"

The woman flipped over the cards, saw that she was right, put her hands on her hips, sat down with a satisfied hum, and prepared to draw the Joker card.

"Then let's get started."

(End of this chapter)