Conan: I'm Not a Model Worker in the Winery

Chapter 189 The villa at dusk - traveler
Listening to the messy noise coming from Kaito's side, Gin was not in a hurry and walked around the living room silently.

He has heard of this Dusk Villa for a long time, but today is his first time here.

Because more than forty years ago, a huge tragedy occurred in this villa, and dozens of financiers died here.

The responsibility is that no one knows what happened specifically...

Some elderly people who knew the inside story kept silent about it, for fear of breaking any taboo.

However, the unscrupulous boss was confident in Gin, and even said that there was a file on the matter somewhere, and if he was curious, he could go and find out.

But Gin just thought it was gossip and didn't try to understand it...

It wasn't until today that he realized:

What happened here back then was not simple.

As soon as Gin came in, he felt a murderous aura coming towards him - this kind of aura can only appear in places where many people have died in vain or where there has been a large number of deaths.

Evil energy is similar to negative energy, except that the former is more harmful to people and may even cause insanity if it stays for a long time.

But the difference is that negative energy is not easy to dissipate, while evil energy will gradually dissipate with the passage of time.

...In short, many people have died in this place, Gin is sure of that.

He could also faintly smell a fishy odor.

It was probably the bloodstain that was not cleaned thoroughly at that time... Although it was very faint, so faint that he could hardly feel it, it was indeed there.

Moreover, Gin discovered that this place itself was a shady place, which was very beneficial for someone like him who had already cultivated the "Qi".

Too bad it's too far from Tokyo...

"Uncle Blade, do you have anything special? Just looking at the puzzle, it seems incomprehensible..."

On the other end of the phone, Kaito's voice sounded a little confused, but his tone was much clearer than at the beginning.

Gin turned around and returned to the table. He put the brown paper with the puzzle back to its original place, and took out a deck of playing cards from the table on the other side:

"If it's special... I know a few words about this puzzle. The two travelers may refer to the hour hand and minute hand, and the king, queen, and soldier may be the K, Q, and J on a playing card..."

"Pointer?" Kuroba Kaito was a little confused.

Gin rolled his dead eyes and looked around at the walls. "Oh, yes, because there is only one wall clock in the whole house."

Fortunately, I have a watch, otherwise I would have to run around to check the time...

Couldn't that person consider the convenience when placing the furniture?
"Oh... that should be correct." Kuroba Kaito pondered for a moment, and suddenly said in surprise, "No, Uncle Ren, weren't your guessing skills very bad before..."

"That's because the puzzles you came up with are too ridiculous!!"

Gin's face suddenly darkened. Why is Kaito talking about something that is not relevant?
His decryption skills aren't that bad, okay?

But he was better at finding clues than guessing riddles.

Kuroba Kaito smiled awkwardly: "Well, I'll try something simpler next time?"

Gin: "..."

No matter how simple it is, don’t ask him to guess!
Kuroba Kaito brought the topic back to the topic at this time: "By the way, if it is a playing card, the puzzle should also include diamonds, hearts and spades, right?"

"...King of Diamonds, Queen of Hearts, and Jack of Spades?"

Gin immediately understood Kaito's idea, but...

"I can understand that diamonds represent treasure, but the Holy Grail doesn't look anything like hearts, swords, and spades!"

Gin's face darkened again.

Especially the swords and spades...whose sword is as round as a peach? !
"...Well, it's just a token of my appreciation. Don't take it seriously, Uncle Ren."

Gin listened to Kuroba Kaito's comfort, which was the same as if he had nothing, and silently picked out the corresponding three cards from the deck.

He was just complaining. He seemed to have read somewhere that Italians regarded spades as swords. However, when Gin took out the Jack of Spades, he was stunned for a moment.

How do these two cards stick together?
Gin flipped it over and found that it was still a little sticky, so he used two fingers and a little force to separate the cards.

Then, his pupils shrank slightly:

"This is……"

"Ah? What's wrong, Uncle Blade?"

Gin looked at the two playing cards with a thoughtful expression: "No, there's just a 4 of clubs stuck under the J of Spades... It was stuck with blood."

"……Blood?!"

Kuroba Kaito was startled for a moment, then he thought of something and said solemnly, "I checked that villa, and it seems that a tragedy had happened there... Is this true?"

Gin raised his lips: "I'm afraid it's more than that."

"Eh?"

"There's only a small piece of blood stuck to the cards. It's like someone dripped blood on them and then put another card on top... otherwise they wouldn't overlap so perfectly." Gin turned over all the cards. "Besides, there are only these two cards with blood stains. I'm afraid there's some hidden secret... maybe some kind of hint."

"So, have you solved the original puzzle?"

Gin changed the subject for the moment.

Kuroba Kaito heard this and did not hesitate: "Hmm... maybe we should point all the pointers to zero, and then rotate 13, 12, 11 according to the direction of the king, queen, and soldier's faces..."

"That's not what I'm asking." Gin looked strange. "I've taken the clock apart and confirmed that there's a mechanism behind it."

Kuroba Kaito: "..."

So what did Uncle Ren come to ask him?

"That mechanism seems to be spread all over the annex, and I can't move it randomly." Gin continued, "Can you tell what he wants to say from the puzzle? You haven't figured out the phrase 'the devil has descended on the castle' yet."

If this mechanism is connected to an alarm or something, it would be troublesome...

"Well... let me think about it."

Kuroba Kaito said one sentence and then fell silent again.

Gin is in no hurry either.

He could spend the whole night here—for tomorrow would still be summer.

While Kaito was thinking about the literal puzzle, Gin also picked up the two blood-stained playing cards and thought about what they might mean.

"The back of the Spade Jack is stained with blood, and the front of the Club Four is..."

Gin looked at the bloodstain carefully.

If blood is dripped on the card first and then the other card is covered, the blood on the side that was stained first should be more solid.

"Six of Clubs..."

Gin narrowed his eyes.

The one with blood on it should be the 4 of clubs... Is this related to the puzzle?
"Or does it just mean that he's going to die? Being stabbed in the back by a 'soldier'? Or is it referring to himself?"

Gin began to let his guesses run wild.

He somewhat regretted not having looked into the details of what had happened here before. Now he only knew that a group of scholars had died before and after, and later some political leaders and economists also died.

Maybe there are some others who can’t be sure…

"I don't know how he died..."

Although Gin suspected that this was a signal left by a person before his death, he felt it was a bit nonsensical and did not match the puzzle in the villa just now.

(End of this chapter)