【Most King】Looking Back at Troubled Spring

No need for Wang Ma! "

I really want to tell Mr. Baitian that maybe this step should not be saved....

However, this result is also a matter of course.

"Thank you, Baitian-kun!"

I turned my eyes to Wang Majun, who was whistling without incident. If it was him, he must have already learned the necessary information for those detectives.

I walked towards the central glass cabinet where the treasures were displayed. The simple glass cover was kept in a state of being easily opened, and I always felt a little lonely from the side.

I lightly touched the bright glass, and it was just a layer of ordinary glass as I thought.

Wang Majun beside him also touched the glass of the showcase.

"There's so much glass in this art gallery, the windows, the display cabinets too... If every place is similar, it's hard to find something if you hide something a little bit?"

"..."

Carefully observing the glass cabinet, I could vaguely hear the conversations of the guards.

"It looks like I have to work overtime again today. The curator must be crying if such an important thing is stolen."

"Compared to this, I really want to go home earlier and eat the braised pork made by my wife~ Send her a text message and ask her to prepare it and put it in the refrigerator!"

Listening to the simple homely conversation, a familiar figure appeared in front of him.

"Ah, Mohara-kun and Wangma-kun! It's good that you are back. I didn't expect things to turn out like this. Today's internship may end early."

"Hey~ What a pity, I haven't got an autograph yet!"

"'Make it for me tonight...'Ah, new message?'My dear, let me make your favorite braised pork tonight?'Oh, oh, it's a good idea!"

"Ah—damn it, it's so badly sunburned!"

"In view of the fact that the prisoner may still be hiding in this art gallery, it's probably better for you, Mr. Mohara, to leave here early, and then leave it to our police."

"Ah-ah, what a disappointment~ Why didn't the Phantom Thief come as scheduled, and the rare holiday was wasted like this."

"But I don't know what time I have to work overtime today. It's better to tell her not to wait for me."

"Anyway, if you say so, people will come to the door to greet you in advance! I know it and explode!"

"what……!!!"

Police officers Wang Majun and Ryuzaki looked at me who was screaming, and I blinked and stared straight at the window.

A long axis arranged in a straight line runs across the center of the mind, and the leftover star sand light points extend to the left and right, and the fragments called clues are fitted one by one on the galaxy puzzle that is gradually spreading in front of the eyes.

What the outstretched right hand caught was a black and white notice letter, only the name of the gemstone and the pattern of the six-sided dice were dotted with traces of rose red.

The open left palm is a ring separated from gemstones. The simple design makes it indistinguishable from other ordinary rings.

In the pure black space, Wang Majun in front of me looked at my left and right hands, slightly lowered the brim of his hat and laughed.

"It seems that the most original sauce has reached the truth."

......

Yes.

"Wang Majun, can I trust what you said before the appearance of the strange thief?"

I turned to look at him.

If it was normal, he would definitely say some lies of "I don't even remember what I said" to get away with it, but at this time, when he could predict my words, he just raised the corner of his eyes slightly, never He observed the thoughts in my words from the shadow under his hat, and almost immediately raised the corners of his mouth.

"Well, Moyuan-chan can trust everything, there is no problem."

The hands that were held together were slightly clenched.

Everything is ready.

Sighing deeply, I turned my most sincere eyes to Police Officer Ryuzaki, and saw my seriousness and earnestness in his eyes while meeting each other.

"I know it's a silly request, and I know Officer Ryuzaki is not obliged to do these things for me, but I think that's why I'm here today."

I'm not just a trainee, but I came here as a super high school-level detective, and I have a duty to fulfill.

"Could you help me summon the high-level personnel of the art gallery?"

There is no doubt that there is only one.

"Let the truth of this case be revealed here."

***

When I finally walked into the living room, Director Shiokawa was already sitting on the sofa inside waiting, and Mr. Charles was still standing behind him and seemed not to take a seat.Officer Ryuzaki closed the door behind us, Momota-kun who was sitting on the sofa near the door greeted me loudly when he saw me, subconsciously looked at the camera in the corner of the room, Wang Ma-kun and I nodded to each other, looking around After a circle of everyone, they came to the center of the living room.

Taking a deep breath, I turned my attention to the most authoritative ones present.

"Curator Shiokawa, Mr. Charles, thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedules to gather here."

I bowed deeply.

"Stop talking about that, is it true that you know who the prisoner is?"

Unlike when we met at noon, curator Shiokawa was wiping his profuse sweat with a flesh-colored handkerchief.It must be that a series of unimaginable events that happened this afternoon made him very anxious. There may be many follow-up processes that I don't know about behind the scenes, waiting for him to deal with.

But he still attended this reasoning detective show temporarily held by high school students, presumably there is no other solution.

Pushing out the redundant thoughts from my mind, switching my body and mind to the detective mode, I slowly raised my left hand to a conspicuous height, and Wang Majun's right hand was also raised along with me.

"The phantom thief DICE who stole the gem is this Ouma Kokichi next to me."

He tore off the square scarf tied around his hands, and the clattering silver handcuffs jumped into the eyes of everyone present.

"You, what are you talking about!?"

Hearing the sound, Mr. Baitian jumped up from the sofa with a bang, staring back and forth at me and Mr. Wang Majun with disbelief in his eyes.

In contrast, Director Shiokawa showed surprise on his face, but he didn't have much intention to accept this fact.

"...Your name is Zuiyuan, right? Your friend who dares to say that is probably without proof...?"

"Well, of course."

Putting down his handcuffed hands, Wang Majun took the opportunity to grab the scarf back and wrap it around his neck again.Taking advantage of being unnecessarily interrupted, I slowly recalled the initial scene that happened from yesterday.

"The whole thing started yesterday. At about 1:[-] noon yesterday, the glass next to the information desk on the first floor of the art museum was broken by an unknown person. The one who broke the glass was thrown in by the prisoner to steal "Snake Habitat". The teaser letter of Moonlight Pool."

Everyone present must have seen that notice letter, whether it was the original or a copy.

"The notice says

"Tomorrow at 6 o'clock in the evening, I will drive to the exhibition area dedicated to the centennial celebration of the Yanchuan Art Museum, and take away the moonlight gem "Snake Habitat Moonlight Lake"

Phantom Thief DICE

, and drew a dice pattern next to his name signature to show his identity.Regardless of the art museum, the police, or the interns, we all believed the time written in the notice letter, and prepared to protect the treasure according to this time, but we did not expect that this trust would allow the strange thief to take advantage of the loophole. "

Wang Majun beside him quietly glanced at the expression of Director Yanchuan, thinking that it would not be such a friendly look.

He coughed twice to signal his seriousness.

"Different from the 6 p.m. written in the notice letter, around 3 p.m. today, the gemstone exhibition hall on the fourth floor suddenly tripped. No, it's not right to say that it tripped. There are two tricks in play right now."

"Two tricks?"

"Yes."

I turned my gaze to him standing at the door.

"Officer Ryuzaki, do you remember what happened when we received contact in front of Sunflower?"

Officer Ryuzaki, who was suddenly asked, lowered his head and thought for a while.

"Moehara-kun is talking about contact with Oma-kun, right? At that time, he ran around in the exhibition hall and caused trouble, so we went back to the exhibition hall to stop him."

"Well, that was the first trick he used. During his escape, he quietly pasted the inconspicuous long-distance loudspeaker on the wall of the exhibition hall, thus creating an illusion in the darkness that seemed to be surrounded by countless different people. A tense situation surrounded by people."

Hearing my reasoning, officer Ryuzaki's expression became serious.

"...I'll ask them to check the walls later."

Nodding my head, I turned my gaze back to the curator's side.

"The second trick is to hack into the electronic system of the museum, and then control the monitoring, lighting, and display equipment."

"..."

"Huh? Display device?"

Bai Tian-kun repeated it, and I nodded greatly.

"That's right. Mr. Baitian still remembers, the row of long floor-to-ceiling windows facing the jewel."

"Ah, it's the one that can hit spaceflight—"

"That! It's just an ordinary piece of glass, the same as the one that was shattered."

Seeing that Mr. Baitian was about to talk about the universe without anyone else, I hurriedly increased my voice to overwhelm his words.

"But in fact there is not only a layer of glass, but also a display screen of the same size as the outside of the glass. Moreover, the direction is towards the interior of the museum."

"Hey—? There's still that kind of thing! ...But how did you know there was a display screen there?"

Generally speaking, it is really undetectable, but what we have experienced today is not ordinary.

"When the lights went out, we were in pitch blackness, but it's very strange when you think about it. After all, it's still very bright at 3 pm, and even if you turn off the lights, it's impossible to turn the exhibition hall into total darkness. It means that something is preventing the sunlight from coming in through the window - or rather, preventing the 'image of the scene outside' from continuing to play."

I looked at Director Shiokawa.

"The scenery seen from that window has always been the image scrolled on the display screen, am I right?"

The eyes that I thought were very unreliable just now gradually changed color, is it complicated?Still vigilant?Director Shiokawa wiped his gold-rimmed glasses with a handkerchief, put his hands on his thighs while putting them on his nose.

"You're right, the screen occasionally performs some atmosphere-enhancing performances to set off the display. I originally thought that such things would not have anything to do with today's events, so I didn't tell you..."

"...But the strange thief took advantage of this psychology and made everything move in the direction he had imagined. After creating a performance in the dark, everyone mistakenly thought that the prisoner had escaped. After that, he just needs to act like a normal person. Just walk out of that room with your own feet. And this—”

The icy tap of shaking the handcuffs speaks truth.

"It's today's Kaitou DICE—that is, the whole process of Wang Majun's crime."

As soon as I finished speaking, Mr. Charles quickly came to us with a stern face and grabbed Wang Majun's empty left hand fiercely.

"Then hand this bastard over to the police, hey, where did you hide the gem!?"

"It hurts, hurts...! Really, it's rude not to listen to someone's words to the end? Not to mention that you don't want the gems back anymore."

"What the hell—"

"Huh? I didn't lie to you."

Wang Majun's too cold words even made Mr. Charles take a step back.He flicked his hands casually and twisted his neck, ignoring the hostility in front of him, he raised his eyes and blinked twice as if secretly excited.

"Then it's time for me to appear, the most original sauce?"

"Well, please."

"Hey, hey, what's going on? Isn't the Phantom Thief Ouma?"

If I were in Momota-kun's position now, I would probably have the same reaction.

"That's true. But what I said just now was only about the crime of 'today's Phantom Thief DICE', not the crime committed by the culprit in this case."

"……what??"

As if taking over from me, Wang Majun also took a step forward.

"In this case, let's explain the bloodletting for a fool like Momota-chan! It's rare to have such an opportunity, how about the feeling of combing from scratch like Mohara-chan?"

... Cough, cough, this is not my patent.

Regardless of the expressions that can be understood or not understood at the scene, Wang Majun raised the index finger of his left hand and nodded back and forth to everyone in front of him.

"From the conclusion, I am not the one who sent out the notice letter. This is not a lie."

"Hey...?!"

"Hakuda-chan is very noisy! In fact, it was only yesterday afternoon that I heard for the first time that a strange thief was eyeing the treasures of this art museum. Originally, I had no interest in this kind of thing, but——after knowing that he was called" After DICE', we can't ignore it."

The arc across the cheek put the index finger under the lips, Wang Majun smiled and looked in the direction of the curator.

Although I have obtained my permission in advance, it is still a bit disturbing to disclose it on this occasion.

But now we can only move on.

"As I introduced before, Wang Ma-kun is a student of Hope's Peak Academy just like me, and his title is 'super high school-level president'. That means there is a group under Wang Ma-kun who is commanded by him. Organization, which just so happens to be called DICE."

"Hehehe, it's a good thing he just stole the name of the organization. If some big secret is revealed to everyone in the art museum, everyone here may not be able to get out alive."

Reaping the astonishment of everyone present, Wang Majun seemed to be very satisfied with the performance.

"Well, all in all, in order to confirm who this phantom thief DICE is, I also designed some plans and came to investigate for myself. At this moment, I heard that Mohara-chan is going to come here for an internship today, so I just mixed in with them They also ran in together."

According to Wang Majun, when he declined Baitian-kun's invitation at the beginning, it was because he already had a ready-made plan, but it seemed to have been changed later, and it finally became what it is now.

"According to the preview, the real Phantom Thief DICE should appear here at six in the afternoon, and then stage a farce similar to what I just did? Then the problem comes—"

The examining eyes swam in the floating air.

"Who is the real Phantom Thief DICE?"

Silence enveloped this small living room, and the spearhead of my guess failed to point to the correct opponent in the suspicious atmosphere, and was cut off by the crosshair I picked up the tip of the arrow.

After all, such speculation is meaningless.

"From the very beginning, Kaitou Dice was an unfounded character."

The sound of gasping for breath echoed in my ears, and I just slowly expressed my doubts so far.

"Actually, I've always wondered why the criminal would use the identity of 'monster thief' to commit crimes. If it is to ensure the success rate, it should be more low-key, not to mention breaking glass and issuing notices. gone."

Then, his purpose must not lie in the successful theft.

"The purpose of shaping the prisoner of 'Phantom Thief DICE' is to publicize the fact that "Snake Habitat Moonlight Lake" is being targeted by an unknown person as much as possible, and try to expand the attention of this matter."

Whether it is outside society or inside society.

"..."

I figured out what the prisoner was thinking at this moment, how many more steps would it take to expose his real body to the public?

Or maybe it's time to take a step back...

"Ah-ah, it's so tiring to describe logically like this!"

To my surprise, Wang Majun cut my words with a horizontal knife.Ignoring the refusal of my waving hand, regardless of Sanqi 21, he shouted out very rascally.

"I said, don't you need to pretend anymore? Mr. Charles who wanted to hand me over to the police just now?"

Being named too abruptly, everyone's eyes, including Director Shiokawa, were focused on Mr. Charles, and he frowned even more when he was invited to the stage.

"Little devil, you can sue for defamation."

"Wow, the lines are so familiar! I feel like I'm going to be shot by an angry rocket launcher in the next second! ... What, this is Japan, and the methods you are used to don't apply."

Staring back with an indomitable aura, Wang Majun's words continued.

"Besides, I don't want to be lectured by the first person to break the rules of the game."

"..."

"Wait, what are you talking about!?"

As if finally unable to sit still, Director Shiokawa stood up somewhat stumbled.

However, the truth I am going to tell him next may be a kind of betrayal for both of them.

"Curator Yanchuan, I'm afraid that Mr. Charles brought "Snake Habitat Moonlight Lake" from France just to let it be stolen by the 'strange thief' here."

"What did you say…?!"

The dangling body almost fell back to the seat again, but fortunately, Mr. Baitian ran over to support him with quick eyes and hands.

Hehehe laughed out loud, and Wang Majun raised his tone as if to further provoke the past.

"Even though I'm not a real phantom thief, I still know the backside of the dark society very well? You guys have made such a big deal of enthusiasm. Once it's stolen, the news will spread to every corner of the world... Of course, including the more fanatical ones." What about collectors?"

When the word collector was mentioned, the corners of Mr. Charles' eyes visibly twitched.

This means that our thinking is not wrong.

"Then, Mr. Charles, who holds the genuine copy of "The Snake Habitats in the Moonlight Pool", can produce countless counterfeit copies that are difficult to distinguish between real and fake. Collectors can sell multiple high prices without paying any price and get huge profits."

Compared with us outsiders, Director Shiokawa raised his index finger excitedly or angrily.

"Charles, I trust you so much...how, how can you do such a thing that tarnishes the artwork! Just for this little money...!!"

"Master, curator, be careful! If you get too angry and suffer from something—"

"It's okay, Baitian-chan! That curator is not only in good health, he must be secretly laughing in his heart now!"

"what??"

Momota-kun looked over Mr. Charles to me, and I gave him a firm look back.

"With such a well-planned criminal scheme, it's hard to think that there's no help from someone familiar with the local environment. And the best person for that help—"

Before I could utter my guess, he had already called out first.

"You, do you want to say that as the curator, I help him do such a dirty thing!? This is my ancestral art gallery, what good does it do me if something like theft happens?!"

"Of course there are?"

Using perhaps the most cheerful tone since today, Wang Majun strode forward without warning and dragged me to the curator Yanchuan. The tone opened up.

"A real work of art can be understood at a glance. The outstanding temperament that can only be brewed after long years of sculpting and carving is like a tailor-made crown, which can set off the nobility even more. But the uncle's Artworks with this kind of temperament in the museum—”

Tilting his head slightly, his eyes widened innocently.

"Looks like there's nothing there?"

Beneath that mask was a maniacal laugh smeared with black silt, trampling any lie in its path.

The next moment Momota-kun failed to support him, Director Shiokawa just fell back on the sofa.

"how come……"

I'm afraid this is a fact that only Wang Majun can see through, and it's a whim that occasionally tends to one side in his unpredictable mind.

But it is undoubtedly an important step to cut through the boundless darkness before dawn and usher in the first dazzling light in the morning.

The figure of the curator, whose greatest secret has been exposed, and who has to fall into bewilderment and pain, is reminiscent of desolation.The movement of trying to close the eyes tightly and then slowly open them is to reflect this figure in the eyes more carefully and seriously.

Choose to believe or to doubt, it is up to me at this moment.

"Director Shiokawa, your motivation for helping Mr. Charles should be the equal distribution of the rewards. What happened to this art gallery and what kind of operating losses caused you to make the worst decision to sell the works, presumably for art works I don’t know anything about it, and I’m not qualified to judge you.”

But even then, as a detective, no, just as someone who was there for him.

"If you value art museums sincerely, and your love for artworks is not false, you should not choose to do this kind of thing in a way that is tantamount to trampling on their value, or even demeaning your own heart... ...!"

"..."

Curator Shiokawa just stared at the ground silently, and after a long, long time, he managed to force dry words out of his throat.

"...In this world, you can't just do whatever you want..."

......

There was a slight throbbing pain in the heart.

This feeling was also deeply engraved in my heart.

How many times have you pursued persistently, how many times you thought you had found the truth, and only when you crossed the finish line did you find that there were endless towering cliffs in front of you, and you would stumble and fall to the bottom of the valley if your feet were slightly unstable, without any mercy at all.

However, a creature like a detective may be born obsessed with the so-called "truth".If there is a problem in front of you, you want to solve it. The more complicated the puzzle, the more you will arouse your thirst for knowledge.

This process will undoubtedly not be smooth sailing, but——

"Watching other people pursue their favorite things and move forward courageously, no matter who they are, they can't help cheering for him...at least I think so."

Raising the corners of his mouth with his most common arc, presumably it won't be a wry smile this time.

"..."

Curator Shiokawa looked up at me, my smile, and what kind of expression was written on that face, it is difficult to describe completely for a while.

Then he took off the pair of gold-rimmed glasses and rubbed his eyes vigorously, the red and swollen marks seemed to become more and more obvious.

No one said anything to him anymore, and he gave up arguments that no longer needed to be said.

In this way, the farce about "Phantom Thief DICE" came to an end.