Conan Rick's Investigator

The curtain opened again, and a ball scene that required formal attire slowly appeared.

Queen Cassilda sang a song in which she mentioned "Carcosa".

This caused panic among the high priests, who sent the great prince Tyr to ask Cassilda if she had seen "Carcosa".

However, Tyr found nothing and returned to the high priest to talk with Adonis.

The two sides confronted each other. Adonis said that the end language and the King in Yellow were all empty fantasies, but the high priest firmly opposed it.

The two sides separated, and Adonis found the captain of the guard and asked him to arrest the eldest prince on the grounds that the eldest prince slandered him and accused him of plotting a rebellion.

However, the captain of the guards had a secret affair with the eldest prince, and the eldest prince used an invisibility spell during the conversation and left.

After some more trivial matters, the stranger who had just arrived in Yinti yesterday came to attend the dance.

They brought a message from the Supreme King, and after a chant-like content, the whole dance reached a chaotic climax.

Everyone had to take off the pale masks on their faces and confirm the true identities of the people around them.

However, everyone took off their masks, except for the stranger from the Brotherhood, who ignored them and did nothing.

This is what he responded to when others asked him why he didn't take off his mask.

"I don't have a mask..."

"I am the truth..."

"Remember these words, for when this city is lost to Carcosa, these words will echo forever in the streets outside. There will be no release, no end, no future..."

The Second Princess let out a scream, and then...

She is crazy.

Act One, Scene Two Ends.

……

A ball full of intrigue, an audience with a stranger broke the apparent tranquility of the ball, and just a few short messages reduced the second princess's sanity value to zero.

That's probably the summary. Qin Zhibo still didn't feel anything particularly strange.

And what follows is the second act of "The King in Yellow", which is said to be full of taboos and madness.

Qin Zhibo, who was sitting in his seat, retracted his hand that was holding the armrest. He was about to hold his breath and prepare to welcome the opening of the second act, but he found that the other seats in the theater were filled with people since he didn't know when.

These people were all dressed in modern clothing, their bodies were translucent, and some looked like ethereal souls.

Qin Zhibo glanced back and found that a familiar pair of figures were sitting not far from where he was.

Kudo Shinichi and Mao Lilan!

Qin Zhibo narrowed his eyes and confirmed that it was Kudo Shinichi and Mouri Ran, especially the "horns" on Mouri Ran's head which were so easy to identify.

Both of them stared at the stage with serious expressions.

Suddenly, Kudo Shinichi stood up from his seat and looked at the stage in surprise.

Judging from his lip movements, he might have said "La Ni".

Then, the curtain on the stage opened again, and Qin Zhibo's perspective was forcibly adjusted back to the stage by an invisible force.

……

Act II, Scene I.

The dimly lit cell is huge and is equipped with various execution instruments, torture beds, wooden cabinets, etc.

Queen Cassilda and her brother Adonis appear from the right side of the stage.

The story begins with a conversation between Cassilda and Adonis, in which Adonis believes that the person who needs to be dealt with in order to maintain the royal rule is the high priest.

In order to prevent the city's untouchables from flocking to the high priest under his "evil words", Adonis suggested that the prisoners in the city should be executed immediately to establish the prestige of the royal family, and the masked monster that appeared on the stage should be brought here for torture.

Cassilda agreed to all of them.

Adonis personally supervised the execution of the prisoners, while Cassilda was in charge of interrogating the weirdos.

There is a monologue of Cassilda in the middle of this film, which roughly means that she knows that her brother and the high priest are both very scheming, and what she wants to do is to break free from the fate set by everyone for herself and prove that these people are wrong.

To do this, she needs to first interrogate the weirdos at the ball and learn about the high priest's conspiracy.

The queen thought that the strange man was sent by the high priest to cause trouble.

The monster was brought in by the guards, but the pale mask on the monster's face could not be removed, so Cassilda could only order people to put on the hood for execution.

Cassilda began to whip the monster and asked its name.

But no matter how the execution was carried out, the weirdo would answer, "I am the truth."

Cassilda asked again whether the strange man served the high priest.

The strange man replied, "True service is for those who understand the truth, but priests are not among them."

The queen's behavior gradually turned into madness, and her methods of punishing the weirdo became more and more cruel, but no matter how she questioned him, the weirdo insisted on his own story.

Until the monster's body was torn apart by the huge torture instrument, and white blood oozed out from it.

The crazy second princess pushed the door open and rushed in, looking for the yellow seal.

Cassilda comforted the Second Princess and asked her to return to the palace first, but the Second Princess suddenly saw the robe that had been taken off the monster and recognized that the yellow mark embroidered on the front was the "Yellow Seal".

Finally, the frantic Second Princess raised her arms and shouted, "Celebrate! Great joy! The Yellow Seal is in my hand! The end is at hand!"

Act II, Scene I, End.

……

In the first scene of the second act, Qin Zhibo's impression was still indifferent.

Adonis is still scheming, while Cassilda has lost her queenly demeanor and punishes the weirdos madly.

If we could investigate her will, we would find that Cassilda was also gradually going crazy.

As for the fact that the blood oozing out of the monster is white, this shows that the monster is not human, but some other creature.

This reminded Qin Zhibo of MI-GO again. It seemed that white liquid would flow out of the body of a dead MI-GO, and this white liquid would quickly fade over time until it became an almost transparent oily substance.

After a brief thought, Qin Zhibo took advantage of the half-time break when he could move his head freely and hurried to see where Kudo Shinichi and Mao Li Ran had just been sitting.

However, there was no one there at this time. Not only that, the seats in the entire theater were also much emptier.

Among the audience who were as helpless as souls, Qin Zhibo saw a familiar person again.

Kanami put...

Kanami sat in the third row of seats, her body slightly leaning forward, her beautiful eyes fixed on the dark stage that had been temporarily closed for the intermission.

At this time, the curtain on the stage opened again, and Qin Zhibo's gaze was forced to the stage again.

The final act begins.

……

Act II, Scene II.

It starts with a trivial conversation between two guards, and then Queen Cassilda appears.

She fell into infinite grief because she had learned that it was her order to execute all the prisoners in the city that killed the third prince who was imprisoned for forging documents.

Cassilda collapsed on the throne in pain, while Adonis continued to slander the Third Prince, saying that it was the Second Princess who ordered the arrest of the Third Prince, and that she was undoubtedly a traitor.

As for the person behind Camilla's actions, it was the high priest. The high priest saw that the second princess was easily emotional, so he wanted to control her naiveté in order to seize control of the kingdom.

At Adonis's instigation, Cassilda revised the law and ordered the royal guards to rush into the originally sacred and inviolable temple and capture the high priest.

The collapse of rituals and music began from then on.

The captured high priest began to angrily expose Adonis's lies and deceptions, and Adonis also accused the high priest of being a nihilistic dreamer who fantasized about the "King in Yellow", a god that did not exist at all.

Caught between the two, Cassilda's will gradually wavered.

At this moment, the eldest prince Tyer, who had been offline for a long time, finally came back, but his eyes were blind and festering.

It was only because he walked out of the battlements and saw the terrifying beauty outside the city. That was a beauty of the future and was about to be staged inside the city.

Adonis believed that the eldest prince was spreading rumors and misleading the people, so he wanted to order the captain of the guard to arrest him, but the captain of the guard had an affair with the eldest prince and refused to obey the order.

Cassilda, who had begun to distrust Adonis, also rejected Adonis's suggestion and allowed the captain of the guard to take the blind prince out of the city to escape.

At this time, Adonis remembered that the eldest prince had just said that there were war flags outside the city, so he quickly ordered the guards to block the city gate and not let anyone in.

The crazy second princess entered the stage at this time, holding the "yellow seal" in both hands, and said that she was instructed by her uncle (Adonis).

Unable to bear it any longer, Adonis snatched the guard's rifle and shot the second princess.

Queen Cassilda finally determined that Adonis was the traitor, and asked him to raise his sword, and the two had a one-on-one duel.

Sister Cassilda's swordsmanship was obviously superior. She easily defeated Adonis in the duel while communicating and knocked the sword out of his hand.

However, just as Cassilda was about to deliver the fatal blow, a light suddenly burst forth on the stage.

This light did not seem to come from any kind of light in the known world. It was an almost eerie purple-red light.

At the moment the light burst out, the royal banners on both sides of the throne suddenly changed, being replaced by banners with yellow seals.

Everyone was horrified. Cassilda dropped the sword in her hand in fear. Adonis quickly picked it up, but did not dare to act rashly. He looked around in surprise.

The wall scenery representing the city walls and palace began to collapse, smoke spewed out from the cracks, and the sound of endless gongs surrounded the stage.

Until the yellow light replaced the gradually subsiding smoke, a tall figure gradually emerged.

The King in Yellow, she appears!

The King in Yellow was about three meters tall, his tattered robe and hood fluttering in the air with his figure.

Her face was hidden behind a flowing yellow silk veil, and her hands were covered with majestic yellow silk gloves.

Every time she took a step forward, the rags around her fluttered in the wind.

She spoke to the surroundings in a deep and commanding tone.

(To Cassiluda): You see? Do you see the truth now?

(To the High Priest): You long for the revival and continuation of the Empire. I assure you that our Empire will last forever, and you will never see its end.

(To Adonis): Your dynasty has devoured its own descendants and will never rule again. What has your reason and your faith brought you?

When the Yellow King pointed his finger at Adonis, Adonis instantly became hysterical and cried incoherently.

"No! No! This is mine! Mine!"

"I won't let you take me away from me again! Don't even think about it! Everything is mine!"

He raised the sword in his hand and swung it hard at the King in Yellow, but the sword quickly bounced and twisted the moment it touched the yellow clothes, and hit himself instead.

Adonis died instantly.

When the high priest saw this scene, he was so frightened that his faith collapsed. He wanted to cast an invisibility spell to escape, but the King in Yellow also raised his hand and pointed at the high priest.

"You long to witness the beginning of a new era, and I assure you that we are that new era."

"Yes, we have already arrived, but we do not need priests, because the eternal dead will serve us. Where will your fanaticism and faith take you?"

The moment the Yellow King spread out his hands, the high priest died instantly, and gray smoke came out of his body.

The King in Yellow looked at Cassilda one last time and promised her that she could survive.

But Cassilda insisted that it was the Yellow King who killed her child, and believed that by finding the eldest prince, the dynasty's rule could be continued.

The King in Yellow: "Tyre is the first of all kings, and I am the last of all kings."

Cassilda: "I won't give up my seat!"

The Yellow King: "You have abdicated."

Cassilda: "You will conquer all of Hastur?"

The Yellow King: "We are Hastur. It is we who liberate Yinti from the plague of humanity. We condone those who continue to parasitize here."

Cassilda: "Yinti is not your city, Carcosa is!"

The King in Yellow: "Now, this is Carcosa, and Carcosa has come upon you all."

Cassilda knelt on the ground, wailing and begging, "Don't do this to us! King! Don't!"

The lights on the stage suddenly went out, plunging the theater into darkness.

The final act.