Daily Spy Life in the Detective Conan World

Chapter 928 The Secret of the Angel's Mansion

The outskirts of Tokyo.

This forest is already close to the border of Chiba Prefecture, almost right at the boundary line.

According to the information provided by Frank, the gardener should be nearby.

In this forest, a sizable complex of buildings can be seen on satellite maps.

There are about five buildings, but the satellite images don't show them very clearly.

Through Yoru, Natsukawa investigated the Metropolitan Police Department's household registration records but found no record of any large building.

It must have been a private construction project, and the building was not reported to the authorities due to connections.

This makes it even more suspicious.

As dusk nearly fell, the blues moment, unique to this forest, arrived.

However, the beautiful moments that photographers yearn for appear somewhat eerie in this forest.

Because deep within this forest lies a strange cluster of buildings.

The complex consists of five buildings, four of which are located in the four cardinal directions (north, south, east, and west), with a shorter building in the middle.

At the very front of each of the four buildings stands a giant angel statue.

If you look closely, you'll find that all the angels have almost identical faces, with only slight differences in their expressions.

They were posed in different ways, seemingly symbolizing some kind of expectation of their master, but at this moment when the sky was almost completely dark, their faces looked extremely strange and terrifying.

Just then, a car drove up.

The gate opened automatically, and the car drove in.

Standing on a high point, Xia Chuan could see this scene perfectly. Curious about the identity of the owner, he focused his binoculars on the spot where the car was parked.

The car stopped, and a man in a black suit and sunglasses got out of the driver's seat.

He glanced around, seemingly observing.

After confirming that everything was okay, I knocked on the car window.

Then, something happened that completely shocked Xia Chuan.

The passenger door opened, and a chubby little boy stepped out.

Then, the rear door opened, and another group of children came out.

"Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, Conan, Ai Haibara, and Anya!?"

Xia Chuan rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't mistaken; these people were indeed the members of the Junior Detective Club.

Besides the six of them, there was also a little girl I had never seen before, who was probably a student at Teitan Elementary School or something similar.

What are these little guys doing here so late at night?
More importantly, as his guardian, he had no idea whereabouts of his two daughters.

"Yuriko, your ancestors' house is so big!" Anya looked around enviously; there were four such large angel figurines.

“Ania, not ancestor, but great-grandfather,” Ayumi reminded her.

Anya muttered to herself, "There's not much difference, so many generations have passed."

"Those four statues are called angels, and this place is also known as the Angels' Mansion, not the Figurine Mansion."

The only adult explained.

He was dressed in black, wearing sunglasses, and his name was Clock. He was now somewhat unsure about the "little detectives" that Lily had invited.

Can the secret of Gozo Iseya really be unraveled by these few children?
He was skeptical.

"What a huge Angel's Mansion! So, Uncle Clock, what is the mystery we're supposed to unravel?" Conan asked.

Conan rushed back last night, and after settling Shuichi Akai in, he went to school as usual today.

During recess, Sayuri approached them and said that her great-grandfather had left behind a secret that required the help of the Junior Detective League.

So they came here.

"It's not time yet, let's have dinner at the North Wing first, I imagine you're all hungry."

The clock stroked Sayuri's hair, a gesture that made Conan frown slightly.

It's a pity the other person was wearing sunglasses, otherwise he might have been able to see something.

"Did you find anything, great detective?" Ai Haibara teased.

"No."

The seven children went to the North Pavilion for dinner with the clock, and Xia Chuan took the opportunity to contact his family.

Joel told him that this evening, a man named Clock called and said he wanted to take Ai Haibara and Anya camping.

Joel figured that since Ai Haibara hadn't said anything, it couldn't be anything serious, so he agreed.

Xia Chuan was on a mission, so he was not notified.

Camping?

Xia Chuan murmured something softly and slipped into the North Wing.

The full moon hung high in the sky, and in the blink of an eye, the children had finished eating, and it was already nine o'clock.

An antique clock overhead tolls, signaling the start of the puzzle-solving process.

The clock solemnly revealed the riddle: "When the horns on the bull's head disappear and the tail becomes a head, an angel will descend from heaven and play a flute; the melody will be the location of my treasure."

This sentence has been said seventeen times so far, but unfortunately none of Iseya Gozo's successors have been able to solve the mystery.

"This is the code left by Mr. Gozo Iseya. Sixteen people have failed to decipher it. I hope you can give the deceased gentleman a satisfactory answer."

Ai Haibara and Conan exchanged a glance. "You must tell us the answer at nine o'clock. Solving the mystery is related to time."

"Not necessarily." Conan shook his head with a smile. "Perhaps it's because some answers can only be seen at night."

For example, there was a villa where the mechanism could only be opened with a light sensor, so it had to be done at night. I believe there is a similar reason here.

"You should all know about the situation of the original owner of this place, Mr. Gozo Iseya. Now, please decipher the code he left behind."

The words of the man in black, Clock, were persuasive, or rather, Genta and Mitsuhiko had a strong desire to perform.

So, without discussing anything with the others, the two of them made an excuse to leave the restaurant.

Anya, of course, wouldn't be left behind. Although she would lose her mind-reading ability on the day of the full moon, Anya believed that with her father's training, she would definitely be able to solve the mystery.

Although Xia Chuan didn't know what he had trained the other party on, at least Anya thought so.

Haibara Ai had no choice but to follow.

Ayumi somewhat wants to be with Conan, but she'd rather solve the mystery and find the answer, hoping that Conan might treat her differently that way.

"Haibara, could the light Conan mentioned just now be related to the searchlight on the angel statue?"

During the meal, Anya noticed that the angels in the four annexes were equipped with searchlights. According to the clock, they were used to prevent theft, but if we follow Conan's line of thought, there might be a connection.

Ai Haibara shrugged: "It would be better to decipher the code first, at least to know what the phrase 'when the horns on the bull's head disappear and the tail becomes a head' means, right?"

"Those four angel statues have absolutely nothing to do with cows."

It might be related, but Ai Haibara felt that they should decipher the code first, otherwise it would be useless even if it was related to the searchlight.

This Mr. Gozo Iseya was once a well-known stock investment tycoon with countless riches; the searchlights on him could probably cover them all.

"Hey, should we check out the other two exhibits? Maybe we can find some clues."

Ayumi whispered, "Didn't Mr. Clock say that there are bull statues everywhere in the Angel's Mansion? Maybe he wants us to find a bull without horns."

"Yes, yes, that must be it!"

Anya nodded repeatedly; she had originally wanted to say something too, but Ayumi beat her to it.

The five members of the Junior Detective League begin their investigation, while the Clock observes from the shadows.

As for Conan and Matsunaka Sayuri, the nominal last heir, they returned to their resting room.

Sayuri seemed a little down. Conan, realizing he hadn't deciphered the code yet, decided to just follow her to avoid any problems.

Mr. Clock had previously mentioned that the annex still contained numerous security devices left by the owner, and he was worried about the potential danger to the other party. As for his teammates?
With Ai Haibara around, there's a high probability that nothing will go wrong.

Hidden in the shadows, Xia Chuan had been tracking the man in black, Shi Zhong.

He listened at the restaurant for a long time and discovered many suspicious points.

For example, there were sixteen people who had tried to solve the mystery, but no traces of others could be found inside the Angel's Mansion.

As the GM who has solved the puzzle sixteen times, the clock should know something, and may have even solved the puzzle.

However, for some reason, it was not publicized.

Just now, after Mitsuhiko activated a certain mechanism, the clock did not react at all. Seeing Anya about to approach the high-voltage power grid, he had to step in to warn her.

It was obvious that he knew which agencies were dangerous and which were safe.

Xia Chuan couldn't quite understand what this person was doing.

Fortunately, his goal wasn't to understand this person, but to find the gardener's secret.

"When the horns on the bull's head disappear and the tail becomes the head."

This Chinese character riddle wasn't difficult for Xia Chuan, but he wasn't interested in the treasure at the moment.

After thinking for a moment, he felt that the riddle should have nothing to do with his identity as a gardener.

According to the clock, Iseya Gozo died of a sudden illness, and the time of his death coincided with the time when the gardener disappeared.

If we think about it that way, then is the current gardener Mr. Clock?

After following him for about an hour, Xia Chuan still couldn't figure out anything about him; he seemed to be just an ordinary person.

Suddenly, he remembered a sentence he had heard in the restaurant earlier: "You can inspect the other three buildings at will, but you cannot go near the East Building. The master also said before his death that the mystery has nothing to do with the East Building."

"The East Wing?"

Xia Chuan glanced at the clock, then quietly disappeared into the darkness.

The clock was unaware that it was being followed and continued to focus its attention on the children.

Especially the little lily.

Upon discovering that Sayuri had entered the South Building and gone to the room where Iseikawa Gozo had died, he couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache.

Not long after, he heard sobbing coming from inside.

"Here!"

Matsunaka Sayuri turned around in surprise, and just as she was about to take the handkerchief handed to her, Conan pushed the door open.

Conan, who was standing at the doorway, didn't hear the clock at all. When he saw the other person take out a handkerchief as if to cover Sayuri, he immediately rushed out.

"Hey, Mr. Clock, do you know where the toilet is?"

"there."

The clock's tone remained calm, only tinged with a hint of helplessness.

"Little Lily, come with me, I'm scared to go alone!"

Conan made up a random excuse and took the person away.

"So he really was a gardener."

At this moment, Xia Chuan, who had sneaked into the East Wing, was in a study.

There was only one computer in the room. By hacking into the computer with hacking software, Xia Chuan managed to log directly into the Gardener's dark web account.

On the computer, a number of special software programs were also found. Xia Chuan had some hacking skills and was able to figure out the general idea.

These software programs are either voice changers, regional language translators, or internet gateway software.

"Such advanced springboard software, even the tracking program left by Noah's Ark took so long to find, who is behind this?"

Xia Chuan muttered to himself as he searched for valuable information in the study.

"Ok?"

He suddenly noticed something rather unusual.

It was a wall clock.

This clock is somewhat special.

The times shown above are not regular numbers, nor are they Roman numerals; they are actually the twelve Earthly Branches timetable.

There's only one pointer, which is very special.

"Could it be that the coded message represents more than just treasure?"

"When the horns on the ox's head disappear, it means that the character for ox no longer has the protruding horns on top, and it becomes 'noon'."

Without hesitation, Xia Chuan opened the glass panel and set the time to noon.

"When the tail becomes the head, the angel will descend from heaven."

He adjusted the hands again, setting the time to six o'clock in the evening.

"Click."

A muffled thud suddenly came from the quiet study.

Looking in that direction, a gap opened in the study floor, gradually widening until a square passageway appeared before us.

Below, you can see a series of staircases.

The stairs were fairly clean, with only a thin layer of dust.

After climbing several dozen steps, we finally arrived at a door.

This is a European-style stone door, carved with a scene of God conversing harmoniously with angels.

Xia Chuan only glanced at it before finding the mechanism to open the door.

“Angels will descend from heaven and play their flutes.”

"What an interesting mechanism."

Xia Chuan pressed his hands on the raised part of the relief and pulled it down!

The stone gate began to sink, and a melodious flute sound rang out from all around.

The so-called angel descending from heaven actually means that the stone door needs to be pulled down to open, and the sound it makes when it opens has been deliberately changed to a flute.

And so, Xia Chuan easily entered the secret room that seemed to have been unoccupied for some time.

The study door was opened a crack at that moment.

A furtive figure slipped in quietly and closed the door.

Before he could even light up the room, he discovered that the computer screen was on.

Before he could even go over and check the computer, the man was startled by the strange flute music.

After a short while, they finally saw the tunnel by following the sound of the flute.

"What is this?"

Moonlight streamed through the gauze window, revealing the contours of Conan's face.

That's right, it's him!

Since we can't come to the East Pavilion, it means there's something here that the original owner cared about a lot, which might help solve the mystery.

So he came here.

Upon seeing the tunnel, Conan almost held his breath; the place looked as if someone had just been there.

Could it be that besides the seven children and one adult, there are other people in this Angel's Mansion?

With this question in mind, Conan walked down without hesitation.

(End of this chapter)