Oritis in the world of Detective Conan

Chapter 400 "Queen Bee" (Part 2)

"These are gold coins. Why are they here? Could it be Fool's Gold that threw them here?" Conan picked up a coin and shone it with his watch-shaped flashlight. "It has the mark of the Muse on it. It must be him. But doesn't he love money? Why would he leave gold coins lying around?"

"Conan, there are gold coins here too." Cameron pointed to a pile of gold coins next to a cluster of stalactites.

"Not only are there gold coins, there are also gems here..." Judy saw some rubies and emeralds scattered on the ground.

The few people who walked forward then discovered that there was an exquisite door deeper in the mine, and the piled up jewels almost covered the door.

Shuichi Akai was wary of these jewels. After all, it was strange to see so many valuables suddenly appear in a long-abandoned mine. He stepped forward and swept away the jewels blocking the door, and the gems and pearls fell to the ground with a tinkling sound.

After the jewels that were blocking the way were cleared away, the full appearance of the door was revealed to the few people. It was an exquisite wooden door decorated with real gold and silver, with some carvings that seemed to depict mythological stories, and the mark of the Muse in the middle.

"The carvings on the door depict the story of Orpheus." Conan saw two figures holding hands, one in front and one behind. "These two sitting on the throne of the underworld must be Hades and Persephone."

Conan then thought of something: "Wait, if we put it another way, Hades' name in Roman mythology seems to be..."

"Pluto," Akai Shuichi answered. "Because I noticed that the Oritis Manor likes to use Greek and Roman mythology to refer to certain things, I made a point of looking into it."

"Orpheus, Eurydice, Pluto, and Persephone..." Conan immediately recalled the card game he had played with the little girl at Delos Manor. "'Orpheus's Game'? The game Alice and I played back then was about these stories. Mr. Orpheus also said that Mrs. Delos was his 'Eurydice'. Could it be..."

Conan, eager to verify his guess, pushed open the door and walked in.

"Conan, be careful, there might be a trap!" Judy immediately followed, and Cameron and Shuichi Akai followed closely behind.

Behind the door was an exquisite room with a marble tile floor and a golden chandelier on the ceiling. The furnishings of the entire room were quite elegant. Conan's eyes were greeted by a heavy solid wood dining table with silver cutlery and plates on it.

However, there was no edible food on the plate on the left, but various jewels and gemstones. Conan saw a pearl necklace on a plate closer to the edge of the table, which slipped and fell to the ground with a crisp sound.

On the right side of the plate were different specimens, some of which were plants, but more of which were insects, with bees being the most common. Near one of the plates was a piece of sweet honey cake.

Such a strange scene shocked Conan's heart, so he slowly looked up at the two people sitting on the main seats on his left and right.

Conan's pupils suddenly shrank because sitting on both sides of the dining table were the explorer and the entomologist, or their "corpses" respectively.

[Fool's Gold: Just in case, I rearranged the scene so I don't have to worry about Aesop's coffin going to waste.]

[Embarker: Then what was the point of me putting your stand-in dolls in the coffin in the first place...]

[Entomologist: Sorry, Aesop. I'll have Campbell bring it back to you shortly.]

[Fool's Gold: How did I become a coolie?]

[Composer: Just put in more effort, and then Orpheus will pay you. Or maybe you can be a little more aggressive when you ask him to pay you.]

[Novelist: Frederick, we're old acquaintances. Why are you helping Campbell?]

[Composer: Luckily I left the last game early, otherwise I feel like you would have bullied me sooner or later.]

The explorer's "corpse" had his hands bound to the luxurious sofa chair, handcuffed to the armrests with golden chains, and a pair of knives and forks were stuffed into his hands. His chest had been completely hollowed out, with his ribs, heart, and lungs removed, and filled with gold, silver, jewelry, and various gems.

But the explorer's face was calm, and he probably didn't suffer much pain before his death. His head rested quietly on the back of the chair, as if he had just fallen asleep before dinner.

This scene was extremely impactful. Not only Conan, but also Shuichi Akai, Judy and Cameron were shocked by it.

"This..." Judy was so shocked that she was speechless.

"That guy actually... has this kind of fetish?" Shuichi Akai looked at the "corpse scene" in front of him with an embarrassed expression.

[Composer: Campbell, your reputation has been ruined. Where did you find the inspiration to create this pose?]

[Fool's Gold: I discovered that a hotel on a lake claims to ensure every guest "dies a worthy death," so I drew inspiration from their plating style.]

[Entomologist: Haha, his original idea was to dismember our "corpses" and arrange them on a plate, but I rejected that idea because it was too outrageous.]

[Air Force: Don't do something only Jack would do!]

[Jack: Why do you just assume I would do this?]

[First Mate: Look at the package you sent to the police station before coming to the manor and tell me again.]

[Jack: I admit that I have a special artistic aesthetic, but don’t think I am Nibal.]

[Prisoner: Then tell me where the victim's remaining kidney went.]

[Jack: ...]

Sitting on the other side of the table was the entomologist. Conan immediately went forward to check the situation, but found that the person in front of him had already shown signs of rigor mortis, and it was obvious that he had not died recently.

Unlike the explorer, the entomologist was trapped in a chair with beeswax. Her veil had been removed, revealing her scarred face. Her hands were taped to the chair's armrests, and her mouth and nose were sealed with orange-yellow beeswax. She appeared to have died of asphyxiation, but her face showed no signs of struggling to breathe before suffocation and shock.

She sat quietly on the chair with her eyes closed, an open insect encyclopedia on her legs, which was turned to the page introducing bees.

After realizing that the entomologist must have been dead, Conan felt goosebumps on his back: "Wait, if Ms. Meili has been killed, then who was that person we saw before?"

Judy and Cameron immediately drew their guns to guard against possible enemies around them, but the room was still quiet, with only the rapid breathing of four people and the sound of candles burning on the dining table echoing in their ears.

After confirming that there were no mechanisms or traps in the room, several people breathed a sigh of relief and began to observe carefully whether there were any clues worth recording.

Conan flipped through the insect encyclopedia: "Bees, mantises, wireworms, moths, stick insects... they all seem to be the insects Ms. Meili uses for her experiments. Is there any meaning behind placing this encyclopedia here?"