Yuji Kudo, the manga artist behind Detective Conan.

"That's amazing. In less than thirty minutes, all three children's faces were covered with notes. They actually guessed the riddles that these crazy people came up with so accurately."

Inside the casino, all the gambling tables stopped. Whether they were employees or customers, everyone left their original seats and gathered around the table occupied by the Kudo family to watch.

"Is that what's impressive?" Immediately after that sentence, someone else said, "Isn't it this woman who's impressive because she doesn't care that the girl's surname is Kudo and still beats her so badly?"

Among those present were presidents of large companies and sons and daughters of entrepreneurs, none of whom would avoid the place at the mere mention of the name Kudo.

The prime minister who sits on the top floor of the Metropolitan Police Department, overlooking Japan, has for many years enjoyed subtly dragging the entrepreneurs he knows into his crazy schemes, and then stepping in to inject capital and supervise them in the name of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

[I heard Detective Kudo has a particular jinx to the company president. Do you think he's covering for his brother? Would those people really be killed for such abstract reasons?]

For some reason, this search result remained on the top of the East City News headlines, giving the relatively unknown Detective Kudo considerable exposure, although it also resulted in him receiving far fewer large commissions.

But it doesn't matter. There are always some stubborn presidents who dare to face the evil Kudo curse. After all, not all the presidents that Detective Kudo knows have died. Over the years, statistics show that at most eight out of ten have died.

Sitting at the table with his head completely covered by paper strips, Higashino saw through the gaps in the paper that even Conan only had his mouth sticking out. He slammed his fist on the table in frustration.

"Come on, Conan, give it your all!"

"Stop talking nonsense, I've already racked my brains as fast as I can." Conan stared intently at the two cards in his hand, his hand trembling as he hesitated between the Nohara Miss cards.

This woman was never the first to run away in each game, but she would always be the second or third time, and her face would always be clean in the end. This is enough to show that she definitely did not rely on pure luck.

"Ms. Nohara is so amazing, she must work in something related to drawing Joker cards. How cool! I want to do that someday too, hey, tell me!"

Before choosing the card he wanted to draw, Conan casually asked a question, but his lisp made Nohara-san feel itchy all over, and she began to look at the remaining empty space on Conan's face.

"There's no such thing as a job that involves drawing jokers. My job just requires me to solve riddles all the time."

Ms. Nohara remained indifferent, like a lazy cat, as if Conan was already destined to fail.

The entire casino fell silent. Conan swallowed hard, then pulled hard, staring at the clown wearing the same blue suit as Edogawa III, and fell silent.

"I'll just stick it on my lips this time, sorry."

Miss Nohara noticed several gambling games being played at the next table, so she tidied up a bit and immediately said, "It looks like the departure banquet is about to begin. How about we go to the banquet hall?" "So we haven't set sail yet, huh?" Sayoko paused for a moment, then subconsciously looked at Conan before remembering that his mouth was still sealed shut.

"Hmm?" The elementary school student was about to tear off the note to answer when Sayoko asked him a question, but the girl suddenly grabbed his hand when he touched his face.

"Uh... we can't take it off. This is all Miss Nohara's victory. We should at least wait until after the banquet."

Didn't you all take the notes down?!

“But then Conan won’t be able to see the road clearly, and the boat will start to sway when it starts moving. Plus, there are people all around, so it’s not really safe to just hold hands.” Ms. Nohara clapped her hands: “How about I carry Conan?”

"Huh?! That's not a good idea." Higashino stared at Conan suspiciously, as if the elementary school detective had done it on purpose, and then teased him in a low voice, "You're quite cunning, aren't you?"

"Damn it, I really want to punch you! Weren't you two the ones who wouldn't let me take the note down?"

Conan stared at Higashino, then looked at Nohara-san's understated yet sexy dress, and heard a terrifying whisper in his ear.

"Conan-kun, you're not really planning to let Ms. Nohara carry you to the banquet hall, are you...?"

Sayoko looked at Conan with a kind expression, but said in a tone that was anything but gentle, "This won't do. You can't embarrass the Kudo family in public, or Rize-neechan and the other cousins ​​will throw you into Tokyo Bay."

The air around them suddenly seemed to drop, and the onlookers scattered, clearly worried that the mad prime minister would kill them.

"It can't be that bad... Wait, why is Rize also your cousin?"

Conan, the only member of the Kudo family who was unaware of Rize Kuroba's identity, was momentarily confused, but then it dawned on him that Rize Kuroba was probably adopted by his younger brother. After all, the child had been living in the Kudo family for a while and seemed to have no parents. Judging from her usual speech, she seemed to only have a grandmother.

[But the fact that Yuuji would adopt her proves... that child has no family left, how pitiful.]

Conan blurted out a question that left Sayoko speechless.

"So when did that girl's grandmother die?" (End of Chapter)