Detective Conan: I, with my magical powers, am going to destroy the world!

Chapter 543 The Secret Passage Under the Coffin

Conan's mind wasn't on the food at all; it was completely occupied with deductions and the case.

"what!"

The silence was suddenly broken by the scream of the maid, Hikaru Hinohara.

"What happened?!" Conan's eyes lit up immediately.

He sensed the presence of a case.

"No, no, something terrible has happened!" Hikaru Hinoki shouted, "Master, he..."

Torakura Sakuya's room was the innermost room after turning right at the exit of the restaurant corridor. When everyone arrived, the maid was slumped at the door, pointing into the room with a look of fear on her face.

"It seems the master is dead!"

"Please," the Torakura family members who followed behind said discontentedly, "don't talk nonsense, okay? You know that our eldest brother has been sleeping in a coffin lately."

"No, no!" the maid said, still unsettled. "When I opened the lid, there was a wooden stake sticking out of the master's chest, dripping with blood!"

"A wooden stake?" Everyone exclaimed in surprise. "Big brother, isn't this joke a bit too much?"

Torakura Mashin stepped forward to examine the closed Western-style Christian coffin, but the lid could not be opened for a moment, as if it were firmly fixed from the inside.

Is the lid locked?

“No,” the maid said, tears welling in her eyes. “I just opened it. The master was wearing a black cloak, and he was showing sharp teeth. There was a wooden stake stuck in his chest, and blood was everywhere. How could this happen?”

Torakura Mashin exerted force again, but this time he easily lifted the lid. However, there was nothing inside the coffin, and there was not a trace of blood on the velvet cloth lining it.

Conan quickly looked inside and found bloodstains in the crevice on the other side.

"How could this be?" the maid exclaimed in disbelief as she looked at the empty coffin. "Master has disappeared!"

“Hey, hey,” the eldest daughter of the Yincang family said suspiciously, “did you really see the master? Nobody has time to joke with you.”

"I think what she said is true; there is indeed blood here."

Conan turned to the maid. "Have you been here the whole time?"

"Yes," the maid nodded repeatedly, "the master is really inside, and no one has come out!"

"How could this be?" the members of the Torakura family exclaimed in alarm. "Has our eldest brother really turned into a vampire?"

“It’s not impossible,” the eldest daughter of the Torakura family said, glancing at the coffin. “There are rumors that our Torakura family ancestors were possessed by vampires. Coupled with the strange behavior of Sakuya recently, perhaps he has also been possessed by a vampire.”

"Haha, just kidding, right? Just kidding."

The atmosphere at the scene was tense and somewhat eerie.

"Yeah, Big Brother must be joking. Maybe he's testing us. The invitation only said the inheritance would be discussed after dinner. He should be coming out soon, right?"

"Maybe…"

The Torakura family members discussed returning to the restaurant, but Akatsuki and Conan remained at the scene.

Conan reached into the coffin, touched the bottom, and finally lifted the velvet cloth to reveal a sliding door underneath. There was also an entrance to a tunnel in the ground beneath the coffin.

After removing the floor tiles, a narrow staircase can be seen by the light.

Conan's eyes lit up immediately. "There really was something wrong with the case from six months ago."

"Um, Mr. Kaze..." The maid, Hikari Hibari, who had run back, saw Conan inspecting the coffin and Akaso Kaze standing beside him, and stammered from outside, "Dinner's gone cold. Shall I reheat it?"

"But my older brother still didn't show up."

After dinner, the eldest daughter of the Torakura family suggested, "Why don't we take some photos first? Last year, just when we were about to take them, Sakuya suddenly ran into the room."

“That’s right,” the others said happily. “If everyone is having a good time taking pictures and making noise, our eldest brother might just suddenly show up.”

Akatsuka led Conan over, while behind him, the maid Hikaru Hinohara hesitated, biting her finger as she thought about Conan's earlier incident of rummaging through the coffin.

"Um, Mr. Feng, could it be that you are...?"

"Excuse me," Conan suddenly asked the Torakura family, "what are you doing?"

“When the family gets together like this, we always take photos to commemorate the occasion. We’ve been doing this for three generations.”

"is it?"

Conan's mind lit up.

That's perfect; he can go and explore that secret passage and perhaps gather some clues.

The room for taking photos was the collection display room. The maid, Hibari Hikari, wanted to ask Akatsuka Furuya a question, but was called over by the Torakura family to help take photos.

"Hurry up," the eldest daughter of the Yincang family said impatiently, "what are you dawdling about?"

"Coming, coming!" Maid Hikaru Hinohara rushed over in a panic.

Conan checked that no one was paying attention, then turned and left.

Chi Chufeng followed behind him.

Conan returned to the villa owner's room and noticed that the coffin's position had unexpectedly changed. It looked normal, but Conan sensed that it was no longer in the same place as before.

To be precise, the coffin appears to be closer to the wall.

Chapter 544 The Terrified Little Maid

Conan lifted the rug beside him and, sure enough, found the secret passage that was originally located under the coffin.

He entered the secret passage, went down the stairs, and pushed open a movable door at the end, discovering that the outside was a storage room, the secret door disguised as a whole wall of storage cabinets.

So that's how it was. Six months ago, the villa owner created an alibi in this way.

"But," he asked, puzzled, "how come the police didn't notice it back then?"

"They probably moved the coffin."

Chi Chufeng looked at the secret passage and explained.

"The coffin was placed next to the carpet, which was hidden by the tables and chairs. There were two gaps in the middle of the carpet, and the middle part should be able to be pulled off."

"By shortening the carpet, the coffin will appear above the secret passage. Conversely, if the carpet is lengthened, the secret passage will be hidden, and the police could easily miss it if they simply move the coffin."

Conan immediately understood Akatsuki's analysis and pondered for a moment, then said, "So, this whole thing is also one of that master's tricks?"

Chi Chufeng smiled without saying a word.

In the showroom, everyone from the Yincang family except the villa owner gathered around. The man with the buzz cut set up his camera and directed the group:

"Brother Ma Xin, move a little closer to the center, and lower your chin slightly. Okay, big sister, when are you going to finish your hair? No matter what you do, it won't make you look younger."

"Long-winded!"

Once everything was ready, the man with the buzz cut instructed the somewhat absent-minded maid, Hibari Hikaru, "I'm going to join the queue now. You can help me press this shutter button."

"Ah, okay."

Maid Hikaru Hibari was somewhat afraid of dealing with these Torakura family members, and timidly stood in front of the camera.

"Um, one, two..."

Yin Cang's eldest daughter tidied her hair one last time and tried to smile for the camera, but after waiting for a while without seeing the maid take a picture, she frowned and said, "What are you dawdling for?! Hurry up!"

The maid trembled as she pressed the shutter, then quickly pointed behind the crowd in terror and cried out, "Master! The master just appeared!"

"What? You must be joking."

"It's true! Right behind us, swaying like a ghost."

"What happened?" Chi Chufeng appeared at the door like a ghost with Conan. Before he could speak, the maid screamed in fright again.

"Please," the eldest daughter of Torakura said angrily to the maid, "you better know when to stop! Do you think Sakuya is some kind of monster who won't turn into one? Stop making such a fuss!"

"But…"

"I think we should split up and search again," the man with the buzz cut said in a deep voice as he glanced at Chi Chufeng and packed up his camera. "If this continues, our brother will really be treated like a monster!"

"Damn it, what exactly is my brother planning? Isn't it time to discuss the inheritance?"

The Torakura family rushed out of the exhibition hall, but no one told Akatsuka what had happened. Fortunately, the maid Hibari Hikari remained at the scene, her teeth still chattering.

"How could the master..."

"Don't be afraid, I'm here. What's wrong with your master?" Chi Chufeng asked softly.

“When the photo was being taken just now,” the maid Hibari Hikaru said in a trembling voice as she came to her senses, “I saw the master suddenly appear behind everyone, but he disappeared after the photo was taken.”

Conan followed the direction the maid was pointing.

Did you take any photos?

"I don't know either. Mr. Kishi took the camera with him."

Maid Hikari Hikara clutched her chest, her fingers clenched, and leaned worriedly against Akatsuka Kaze.

"Could something have happened to the master? Has he been possessed by a vampire?"

Conan fell into deep thought.

On the one hand, he was not quite sure what the maid meant by ghost, and on the other hand, he was also somewhat confused about the purpose of the villa owner.

Is it just a ploy to scare everyone?