Conan: The Magician of the End of the Century

Chapter 31 Armored Knight
"Hohohoho, it seems that you all like this painting very much."

"I also like this painting very much. To be exact, I like all the works here very much, just like my children."

"May I ask who you are?" Seeing the old man's smooth talk, Xiaolan asked doubtfully.

"I'm really rude. Actually, I'm the curator here, and my surname is Ochiai." The old man introduced himself with a smile, and the smiling eyes under his white eyebrows quickly swept across the group of people.

Although it was very concealed, Ishino still found that the other party's line of sight paused slightly when passing him and Kogoro Mori.

"So it's Mr. Curator, no wonder." Xiaolan showed an expression of "So that's it".

While the rest of the people were paying their respects to Director Ochiai, the other party observed the behavior of the staff not far away from the corner of his eyes, and suddenly showed a terrified expression and shouted loudly.

"Huada! What are you doing!"

Hearing the curator's furious scolding, he was so shocked by the man named Kubota that he almost lost his grip on the painting in his hand, and then he heard the curator's roar again.

"How many times have I said that you must wear gloves when you hold the work, have you listened to it?!"

"Yes, sorry..."

"Okay, you don't need to do it." Curator Ochiai stopped the other party's explanation impatiently, and greeted the staff on the other side, "Iijima-kun, I'm counting on you here too."

"Okay, curator." The staff member named Iijima stopped to put down the work in his hand, and came over to take over Kubota's work.

"Tsk." Kubota walked away with a displeased face, and this scene was noticed by Ishino and Conan at the same time. Mori Kogoro didn't pay attention to the matter here, but looked around and didn't know what he was looking at.

"Heh, it's still the same as usual, there is no popularity."

At this time, a strange voice came from behind the Ochiai curator, and I saw a fat middle-aged man leading a man with glasses coming from the aisle and standing behind the curator.

"The real boss..."

"Anyway, this place will be closed in ten days, please take good care of this place during this time." The man called Zhenzhong's boss looked at him with a smirk on his face, "Take good care of these dusty garbage and waste products. .”

"Mr. Designer, where are the drawings?" Boss Zhenzhong greeted the man behind him with a displeased face, and led him aside to talk.

"Is this art museum going to disappear?" Xiao Lan asked worriedly after hearing the conversation between the two, and Xia Mei who was beside her also showed worry.

Seeing the expressions of the two ladies genuinely worried about the museum, Director Ochiai reluctantly explained the reason to everyone.

It turns out that this Mihua Art Museum was transferred to the boss Zhenzhong by the former boss who was facing bankruptcy due to the financial crisis not long ago.

Originally at the time of the transfer, the boss of Zhenzhong promised to continue to operate the art museum, but he did not expect the other party to turn his face and refuse to admit it.

"That bastard wants to convert this 50-year-old art gallery into a hotel...Damn it!"

Hearing that Director Ochiai was explaining to everyone, Iijima beside him couldn't help interjecting, his face full of anger and unwillingness.

"Iijima-kun..."

Director Ochiai was about to speak out to appease Iijima, when suddenly there was a "bang boring" sound not far away, causing everyone around to look up at the source of the sound.

Kubota dropped a medieval knight's armor helmet on the floor tiles while carrying it, and the boss at the side, Manaka, opened his mouth before the curator Ochiai spoke.

"You are Kubota, I've heard rumors about you, you'd better get the money ready early, hahaha..." Without waiting for Kubota to say anything, he led the designer away from everyone's sight .

Kubota, who realized what the other party said, smashed his helmet on the cart angrily, and pushed the cart away with a look of resentment.

However, Director Ochiai didn't care about this, but comforted Iijima with kind words, and led him to say goodbye to everyone.

Regarding this, Conan on the side said it was difficult to understand, but Ishino, who knew the truth, had already drawn up a plan in his heart.

Looking at Xia Mei's somewhat sad expression beside him, Ishino gently hugged her waist, and comforted her softly in her ear: "Don't worry, I will find a way to keep this art museum."

Xia Mei turned her head in surprise, and met Ishino's confident and gentle smile. Knowing that the other party was not simply comforting herself, she also smiled: "Well, I believe in you."

"Then you continue to visit here, I'll go for a while, and I'll be right back."

"You go, I'll wait for you." Xia Mei didn't ask what Shi Ye was going to do, she believed that Shi Ye would be able to handle everything well.

On the other hand, Conan saw Ishino leaving suddenly, and was curious to follow up to find out, but Xiaolan directly stopped him: "Conan, don't run around."

Xia Mei noticed Conan's actions, squatted down, touched Conan's head, and looked at him with a smile: "Conan-kun, can you take my sister to visit other venues?"

Seeing that the other party lacked interest in the exhibits in this venue, Xia Mei suggested so.

"Okay, okay..." Facing the opponent's sudden offensive with a smiling face, Conan was defeated without even using the backup urine escape plan, so the group began to walk to other exhibition halls...

……

Not long after Director Ochiai left, Ishino came to a passageway with a "No Entry" sign.

Ignoring the words on the sign, Ishino walked directly through the corridor and came to the entrance of an exhibition hall with the title "Hell Exhibition Hall".

After observing at the door for a while, Ishino walked from the bright corridor into the dark exhibition hall.

The moment Ishino's shadow was completely submerged in the darkness, a small stone that he picked up on an unknown side of the road suddenly appeared between his fingers, and it was shot at the surveillance camera next to him silently, making it undetectable deflected direction.

After the stone hit the camera, it returned to his hand after a rebound, and the tiny collision sound during the period was also covered by the footsteps he deliberately made.

When passing by the huge painting called "Punishment of Heaven", Ishino turned around and stopped to watch it for a full minute with the faint light shining into the house from outside the door.

After making sure that there was no sound in the house, Ishino continued to walk towards the deepest part of the exhibition hall.

It was only when he walked to the medieval knight's full body armor placed against the wall at the deepest point that Ishino stopped and stood opposite the armor.

There was another full minute of silence. Ishino had a higher evaluation of Director Ochiai's concentration and strength in his heart, so he decided not to test anymore, and stretched his hand to the note stuck on the wall beside him.

Just as Ishino's outstretched finger was about to touch the note, the armor that had been in place until just now suddenly burst into trouble, raised the long sword in his hand, and slashed hard at Ishino's outstretched arm.

At this critical moment, Ishino's other unstretched hand suddenly grabbed the sword-wielding wrist of the armored knight, and then, taking advantage of the inertia brought by the opponent's huge mass, with an extremely elegant posture, he used his strength to dodge Stand two meters away from the opponent.

"Director Ochiai, let's have a good talk, shall we?"

(End of this chapter)