Multiverse , Leveling Up in the World I Created

The next morning, I washed up quickly and prepared breakfast.

The menu was soup, crispy toasted bread, well-grilled bacon and sausages, and omelets.

"Breakfast is delicious too. Jin really is a great cook."

"Yeah, yeah."

I had served a Western-style breakfast and wondered if it might not suit everyone’s taste, but everyone ate it happily.

After the meal, I gave everyone a shocking announcement.

"I’m sorry, but I’ve already found the inheritance."

Everyone looked extremely surprised at that.

"Ehhhh!!???"

"What?! Is that true?!"

"Then the 3 million yen is gone!"

I calmed everyone down and continued.

"I did solve it, but I left it as is. Honestly, I felt a little bad about it. So I’m planning to continue the treasure hunt. Of course, I’ll still give the 3 million yen prize to whoever finds it."

At the news that the treasure hunt would continue, everyone looked relieved.

I showed everyone a piece of paper and spoke.

"This was the clue. I found it by chance while cleaning the mansion. To be fair, I’ll read it out loud here."

"On the night when two travelers looked up at the sky, the demon descended upon the castle, the king took the jewel and fled, the queen shed tears into the holy grail and begged for forgiveness, and the soldier stained his sword with his own blood."

After I read the contents of the note, everyone listened intently and then began thinking.

"I’ll leave the note in the living room, so if anyone forgets the contents, you can come and look at it again. The treasure hunt starts now, so feel free to search thoroughly. However, you must follow the rules I mentioned yesterday."

As expected, the kids were the most excited.

"Everyone heard that, right? We stick together. No going off alone! That would mean disqualification."

"I’m definitely going to win the prize and buy that new robot toy that just came out."

"Everyone, fighting!!!"

Following the rules, people formed teams of two or more and began searching the mansion.

Ran, Haibara, and Kogoro formed one team.

Morgan and Sonoko formed another.

Finally, the Detective Boys and Professor Agasa formed a team and started roaming around the mansion.

I kept an eye on everyone to make sure they followed the rules and that no accidents occurred.

"Conan, where are you going?"

"Conan, you know the rules. We have to stick together."

"Conan!"

Conan kept falling behind because he was looking at things on his own, drawing complaints from the kids.

The other teams were already searching all over the mansion, so from the kids’ perspective, Conan’s behavior was frustrating.

"This mansion is strange. It’s an incredibly old mansion, but there’s not a speck of dust anywhere. That’s not natural. The only thing I see is the cookie crumbs Genta dropped yesterday."

When Conan expressed his doubts, Ayumi said.

"But the onmyōji brother told us he hired a professional cleaning company. And the caretakers probably cleaned it well too."

"But there’s no way they could clean it this thoroughly... Could they be trying to hide something?"

My [Life Magic] ability was indeed excellent—enough to make Conan suspicious.

Still, I was glad Conan was suspicious about it.

That way, others might have a chance to find the treasure too.

Kogoro, Ran, and Haibara were sitting in the living room, staring intently at the note.

They seemed to have already searched every corner of the mansion.

"Ah, I just don’t get it! Maybe the king and queen refer to those stone statues we saw earlier?"

"Dad, that stone statue isn’t a queen—it’s Aphrodite. She’s a goddess."

"Ahaha, was it? But this mansion doesn’t have many paintings or statues either. I can’t think of anything that would represent a king, queen, or knight."

"Hmm... That’s true."

At that moment, Haibara thought for a moment and spoke.

"It might not necessarily be a person. It could be a metaphor for the shape of the building, or the placement of the furniture."

"Oh, right! That could be it! Then we need to go to the highest point of the mansion and look down at the whole thing."

Everyone was working hard to find clues, but Morgan and Sonoko were acting like tourists, wandering around and whispering sweet nothings to each other.

"Morgan, are you wearing the sweater I gave you last time?"

"Of course. I wear it all the time."

"I’m glad. I was worried you might not like it."

"Speaking of which, I got you a scarf as a thank you. I didn’t knit it myself, but I ordered it from France. I hope you like it."

"Wow~ I love it. Thank you, I’ll wear it well."

Sonoko, blushing, clung to Morgan’s arm.

It seemed she had lost all interest in the treasure by now.

In the end, no one found anything, and when lunchtime came, everyone gathered in the dining room to eat.

"Give us another hint. This is too hard."

"Yeah, it’s too difficult."

When everyone said that, I thought for a moment and then spoke.

"Hmm... Then I’ll give you one last hint. The king, queen, and knight mentioned in the note are something we can all see. In fact, we all saw it yesterday."

"W-what?! Really!?"

At those words, everyone began thinking deeply.

But Conan simply nodded in acknowledgment and didn’t seem particularly troubled.

’That brat already solved it. Well, I did give enough hints.’

Conan had seemed to be thinking for a while about something strange in the mansion, but when he couldn’t find any other clues, he apparently solved the riddle first.

In the end, contrary to my hopes, I couldn’t even stall for time properly.

I said to everyone who was thinking.

"Let’s eat first. If you keep thinking like that, the food I prepared will get cold."

"Yeah, let’s do that."

For lunch, I served Chinese food—dumplings, jajangmyeon, and sweet and sour pork.

"This is also incredibly delicious!"

"Yeah, I was a bit put off by the black color, but it tastes amazing."

"Amazing. Where did you learn to cook all this?"

"Yeah, really."

As expected, everyone ate happily with admiration.

After the meal, I quietly called Conan aside.

"You solved it, didn’t you?"

"Yeah, I did. But I want to give the 3 million yen to someone who needs it."

"Who?"

"The person whose family finances are strained because they bought a yacht."

He was talking about Ran.

Conan certainly didn’t need the prize money, coming from a very wealthy household.

"You don’t have to worry about that. I’m taking good care of her."

At my words, Conan adjusted his glasses and said with a serious expression.

"Whether you take care of her or not doesn’t matter to me. I’ll take care of her in my own way."

At that, I chuckled and said.

"Alright, do your best."

From then on, Conan tried his best to join Kogoro’s team.

"I want to search for the treasure with Ran from the afternoon."

But the Detective Boys weren’t about to let that slide.

"W-what? Are you betraying us?"

"It’s not betrayal. I just want to gather some intel from another team. We haven’t been able to search as much of the mansion as the other teams."

Then Ayumi asked Conan with a look like she was about to cry.

"Are you doing this because of Ai-chan again, like last time? Do you like Ai-chan that much?"

Conan was flustered.

"Th-that’s not it."

"Then why are you so desperate to join the detective’s team? We’ve always been fine together."

At Ayumi’s words, the other kids immediately agreed.

"Yeah, yeah. There’s no need to do espionage. We’ve always done fine together."

"Right. We can do this on our own."

With the kids unanimously opposing him, Conan had no more excuses.

After that, Ayumi kept a close watch on Haibara and stuck right next to Conan.

Every time Conan tried to move, she followed, making it look like it would be hard for him to slip away anytime soon.

Conan looked very troubled by this situation.

But I found the whole situation quite entertaining.

’Ayumi must be struggling too, having to defend against NTR so hard. Fight on, Ayumi!’

In the end, no one found the treasure by dinnertime, and everyone gathered again in the dining room to eat.

"Come on... What could be ’something we can all see’?"

"Right, and he said we saw it yesterday too..."

At that moment, Haibara thought for a bit and then spoke.

"Could it be referring to playing cards? We played card games yesterday. A deck of cards has kings, queens, and knights, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t that fit?"

At those words, Ran was surprised and praised Haibara.

"Of course! Could it really be playing cards? Ai-chan, that’s amazing!"

But Kogoro shook his head and said negatively.

"It can’t be a riddle that simple. I thought of playing cards too, but it has nothing to do with the first line of the note—’two travelers’—and there doesn’t seem to be any connection to this mansion either."

"Hmm... Is that so?"

Watching this, Conan looked like he had just eaten a hundred sweet potatoes at once, a frustrated expression on his face as he rubbed his forehead.

Haibara’s guess had been correct.

The answer was right in front of them, but no one realized it—a situation that seemed extremely painful for Conan.

I felt a little sorry for him too.

It was true that Kogoro’s deductive skills had improved, but this time he was overthinking it and couldn’t reach the truth.

In the past, he wouldn’t have even thought of playing cards in the first place.

Conan, apparently unable to bear it any longer, started fiddling with his watch.

He seemed to be planning to use the tranquilizer gun while everyone was gathered in the dining room.

And he was planning to use it on Ran.

But I wasn’t about to just watch that happen.

Pfft!

Ting!

I quickly blocked the tranquilizer dart Conan fired with a spoon.

Then I looked at Conan with a gaze that said, "What do you think you’re doing?"

Conan looked very troubled.

"Hey, come here for a second."

I took Conan outside the dining room to talk.

"What exactly did you shoot? What were you trying to do to Ran?"

"Sigh... I forgot you’re a master swordsman. I was just trying to help Ran solve it."

This guy started making ridiculous excuses.

"I didn’t see clearly, but it looked like you shot some kind of needle."

"Honestly, you’re frustrated too. You know this isn’t going to end at this rate."

"So you shot Ran with a needle to do what?"

"I was going to put her to sleep for a while. It’s a tranquilizer dart. Then I was going to use voice modulation to make it seem like she solved it herself."

At those words, I frowned and stared straight at Conan.

"You little... Sigh... Listen carefully. I don’t care if you play detective all you want. But this crosses the line. Forcibly putting someone to sleep is a crime. Illegal drug use, assault and battery, and depending on the case, it could even be attempted murder! As a detective, shouldn’t you know that much?"

When I laid out the facts, Conan looked flustered.

"No, that’s not..."

"You’re disqualified for cheating. From now on, if you give hints to anyone else, that person will be disqualified too. And since you tried to commit a crime with that watch, I’ll confiscate it for a while."

"What?!"

"If you refuse, I’ll reveal that you’re Shinichi."

"This watch was made by Professor Agasa to deal with the Black Organization!"

"Then use it only when dealing with the Black Organization—why were you trying to use it on someone you know? That excuse won’t work. Hand it over now."

"Sigh..."

Conan let out a heavy sigh and reluctantly handed over the watch.

’Souvenir get!’

I cheered inwardly as I pocketed the watch.

We went back into the dining room, and I informed everyone that Conan had been disqualified for cheating.

"What? Why Conan?"

"Conan, what did you do?"

I explained the reason.

"Conan offered to bring Ran’s underwear in exchange for more hints. So I disqualified him. Bribery is also a form of cheating."

At those words, people laughed and were surprised.

Ran looked utterly dumbfounded and even gave Conan a knuckle sandwich on the head.

"Conan, I didn’t expect that from you. To go that far..."

"He must have really wanted to solve it."

"Well, the riddle is hard, I suppose."

Criticism and mockery rained down on Conan, but he couldn’t even defend himself—he just glared at me resentfully.

’Hehehe, what can you do now?’