After the Undercover System Went Haywire, I Switched to Grinding Suspicion Points Chapter 288

Usuha Izuki glanced at the old lady with ulterior motives.

Under her feigned calm expression, Usuha Izuki began speaking in riddles: "I naturally have my reasons."

The old lady: "............"

What exactly are those reasons?! What did that look just now an?! What exactly do you know?!

Suspicion value up up up...

Forget the old lady—most of the people present were detectives, and hearing Usuha Izuki's vague answer, the suspicion values they gave would have made the system laugh itself silly if it hadn't already seen the world.

Even so, the system was still as excited as a mouse that had fallen into a rice jar: [Those 20 minutes in the rain weren't wasted! So worth it!]

Usuha Izuki: [Don't ntion those 20 minutes!]

Mouri Ran helped introduce the current situation and the people in the castle.

The invited Mouri father and daughter and Edogawa Conan need no elaboration. Mouri Ran first introduced the old lady.

"This is Ms. Chikama Koudai." Mouri Ran tactfully smoothed things over. "Her car broke down earlier, so she ca up with us. That's probably why she was curious about why you walked here."

Matsuda Jinpei raised an eyebrow: "Huh? Chikama Koudai? The armchair detective who supposedly can solve cases just by sitting in her armchair and listening to others describe them...?"

The Old Lady Chikama smiled sweetly: "Not so exaggerated, everyone's too kind."

Mouri Ran then introduced the high school student next to her: "This is..."

"I'll introduce myself." The high school student also smiled. "I'm Hakuba Saguru, a high school detective. Please treat well."

With him taking the lead, the others also introduced themselves in turn.

"Motegi Harushi." A middle-aged man with a butt chin like Crayon Shin-chan's father said. "Of course, also a detective."

He was obviously a hard-boiled detective. When Edogawa Conan had just arrived, he'd heard Old Lady Chikama saying he was shot by the mafia in Chicago last week—his experiences seed quite exciting.

A woman with slightly curled hair said: "I'm Guntia Ikumi. I used to be a prosecutor, but now I'm just a detective."

Hakuba Saguru, learning and applying imdiately: "There's also Mr. Oogami Zhushan, famous for his obsession with gourt food, nicknad the Gourt Detective. I heard the chef couldn't co, so he went to the kitchen to cook himself. You'll probably et him later."

As he spoke, he looked appraisingly at Matsuda Jinpei and Samukawa Shinryu.

He had actually co for Phantom Thief Kid, but unexpectedly t such suspicious characters before seeing Phantom Thief Kid... Though being too suspicious made him think Phantom Thief Kid couldn't possibly be disguised as the other party.

That aura was really hard to imitate.

Matsuda Jinpei also followed this format for self-introduction: "I'm Matsuda Jinpei, this guy's driver. Sorry, I'm not a detective."

Everyone's gaze shifted to Usuha Izuki.

Usuha Izuki remained expressionless: "Samukawa Shinryu, skilled at solving puzzles. As for being a detective..."

Everyone patiently waited for the rest.

"I can be a detective."

Everyone: "............"

"What does 'can be a detective' an..." Mouri Kogorou looked very speechless.

—No, to be precise, the Mouri Kogorou standing before everyone was actually Phantom Thief Kid.

He had heard about this banquet that borrowed his na to invite others and wanted to figure out what was going on, but he hadn't been invited.

So at a gas station before eting Old Lady Chikama, he had knocked out Mouri Kogorou and disguised himself as him.

After all, thanks to Edogawa Conan, he felt quite familiar with Mouri Kogorou. He didn't need much investigation to disguise himself—his previous understanding was sufficient.

Now he felt he might not be that familiar with Mouri Kogorou after all.

This Samukawa Shinryu was obviously not a good person. When he glanced over, those sharp eyes almost made Phantom Thief Kid think he'd been discovered!

And this guy even said "can be a detective"... Can being a detective be a "can be"? It's not Schrödinger's cat!

As soone who often posed riddles to others, Phantom Thief Kid had never disliked riddles and was always enthusiastic about decoding ciphers, but now he felt he was starting to reject riddlers too...

The maid led the newly arrived people to their rooms, while the others went to the living room to wait for the dinner announcent.

After all, Matsuda Jinpei couldn't keep bending over to wipe his pants in front of everyone at the door earlier, so he could only roughly wipe with a towel. Only in the room could he properly tend to himself.

He rummaged through his suitcase for new pants and socks to change into, wiped his shoes clean, then went next door to find Usuha Izuki, discovering that although Usuha Izuki had changed his socks, he hadn't changed his pants—he was using a hairdryer to dry his pants.

Matsuda Jinpei: "...Can't you just change to another pair?"

Usuha Izuki argued confidently: "No, looking at this weather and atmosphere, if sothing's going to happen, it'll definitely explode tonight. Maybe the pants will get wet again later, so I'll leave them like this for now. Otherwise I won't have enough changes of clothes."

Matsuda Jinpei: "...???"

He stared at Usuha Izuki for several seconds, his mouth twitching as he asked: "You really think a murder case will happen here?"

Although Samukawa Shinryu didn't like explaining and always liked saying incomprehensible strange things, based on Matsuda Jinpei's understanding of Samukawa Shinryu, this attitude basically ant he was certain there would be a case.

Earlier when he insisted on walking, the things Samukawa Shinryu said made Matsuda Jinpei think there was so probability it was Samukawa Shinryu having a paranoid episode or making snowbound mountain lodge references—after all, without seeing other people and just looking at the environnt, making such judgnts was normal.

But now that they'd t everyone, Samukawa Shinryu's behavior suggested there might be undercurrents he hadn't noticed... The possibility of sothing happening had rapidly increased.

Thinking this way, even though Usuha Izuki hadn't given an accurate answer, Matsuda Jinpei's sense of responsibility as a police officer kicked in: "I'll go investigate..."

Usuha Izuki didn't stop him, since he still had ti to dry his pants—he knew they wouldn't stay here for many days, so to save trouble, he'd brought little luggage, bringing clothes and pants he didn't plan to keep, intending to wear and discard them without feeling bad.

When Usuha Izuki finally dried his pants and headed to the living room, the others were already enjoying themselves there.

So played cards, so played chess, and so even played billiards.

"Samukawa-san." Edogawa Conan was the first to notice Usuha Izuki entering and imdiately greeted him. "Isn't Matsuda-san coming with you?"

Since Matsuda Jinpei hadn't ntioned being a police officer during his self-introduction, Edogawa Conan instinctively changed his address.

Usuha Izuki answered: "He said he'd look around."

Edogawa Conan didn't continue asking—he had only wanted to start a casual conversation with Samukawa Shinryu anyway.

Since discovering that Samukawa Shinryu = the consultant the criminals ntioned, he'd been very conflicted, not knowing how to define Samukawa Shinryu.

Haibara Ai identified him as an organization mber, but since Haibara Ai had never seen Samukawa Shinryu in the organization before and was just going by feeling, this was questionable.

And Samukawa Shinryu's consulting for criminals was quite brazen, suggesting he had so backing.

He had discussed this issue with Haibara Ai: "Do you think it's possible he's cooperating with tropolitan Police, and after criminals consult him, he turns around and reports them? So when that Italian robbery gang just found the gold coins, the police arrived—it didn't seem like a coincidence."

Haibara Ai had no good feelings toward Samukawa Shinryu and couldn't listen to such neutral statents: "According to your account, that robbery gang only sent a Japanese person to ask Samukawa Shinryu to decode a cipher—do you think they'd tell Samukawa Shinryu what that cipher ant?"

Edogawa Conan sweated: "This... according to his account, they just handed over the cipher paper, and he decoded it in one second..."

Haibara Ai rolled her eyes: "Exactly, so Samukawa Shinryu had no idea what their cipher represented. That person's appearance wasn't exposed either, and no one knew he was a robber. How could Samukawa Shinryu report it? 'I just decoded a cipher, I suspect there's sothing wrong with what the cipher reveals, please dispatch officers'?"

"Is it possible he could tell from looking at the person that they weren't good people, were bank robbers, so he guessed the cipher represented the location of stolen goods?"

Edogawa Conan was still trying to find excuses, since Samukawa Shinryu's behavior was too outrageously brazen, and tropolitan Police not managing it at all was even more outrageous! If both sides not only had tropolitan Police requesting help when needed, but also Samukawa Shinryu proactively reporting on his end, it would feel much more reasonable.

Haibara Ai looked cold: "According to your account, you also saw that person. Could you tell at a glance he was a robber?"

Edogawa Conan: "............"

He did think sothing was off about the person, but saying he could tell he was a robber was indeed impossible...

Haibara Ai slamd the table: "Anyway, that guy definitely has problems! Maybe he's an organization assassin! Stay away from him!"

Edogawa Conan was in pain because he felt like he was trying to solve a puzzle without logic.

Before he could figure it out or find a trustworthy police officer to ask about Samukawa Shinryu providing consultation to criminals, Edogawa Conan encountered Samukawa Shinryu here. After thinking about it, he felt suddenly becoming distant would be strange, so he decided to interact with the sa attitude as before.

"Does Samukawa-san know about the things that happened in this 'Twilight Mansion'?" Edogawa Conan asked. "Soone ntioned it briefly before you and Matsuda-san ca in. If you don't know..."

Usuha Izuki suddenly pulled a playing card from Mouri Ran's hand amid her surprised cry.

"Is the young man going to substitute?" The curly-haired woman sitting across from Mouri Ran said boldly. "This young lady doesn't need it—she's been very lucky, winning until now."

"No, it's just this playing card..."

Usuha Izuki applied force with his fingers, tearing apart what appeared to be a single card, revealing the culprit that had stuck them together—a patch of dried blood.

Thinking that the card had just been in her hand, Mouri Ran couldn't help but scream.

Edogawa Conan quickly went to comfort Mouri Ran, then suddenly sensed sothing and instinctively turned to look.

The dark-haired, red-eyed young man rarely had his mouth corners slightly upturned, lightly tossing the cards so they spun back to the table.

Standing very close, Edogawa Conan heard his murmur that was nearly buried in others' discussions.

"The old crow's golden nest..."

Edogawa Conan: "...?"

—What old crow? What gold?