Professor Agasa, who had just gone to report the crime, frowned and pushed open the door to come in. Before Conan could ask any questions, Professor Agasa said, "They said it might be a prank by a thief, and they said they will send someone back here to investigate the day after tomorrow."

The three of them were rummaging through drawers and cabinets looking for the code. Just as Conan was about to stop them, Ayumi held up a playing card and said, "There's a code on the back of this playing card too!"

Conan, who had just been thinking not to disturb the scene, instantly changed his expression upon hearing this: "Alright! Ayumi and I will take care of the first floor, Genta and Mitsuhiko, you two go to the second floor! We'll split up and search!"

The three of them responded excitedly.

Dr. Agasa watched all this, squinting his eyes: "It smells delicious!"

After a period of searching, a total of ten codes were found: playing cards, a French dictionary, a record, a toy airplane, a glass, a portrait, a puppet doll, as well as the previously found plate, candlestick, and vase.

"It would be great if there was a longer one, something like an article," Conan said, stroking his chin. "Like a diary or a letter."

Dr. Agasa seemed to remember something and said, "I remember now, there really is such a letter!"

“For the past ten years, every year a strange letter without a sender has been sent to my aunt. My aunt felt something was wrong and consulted me. The contents were all written in hiragana and were either 'Hello teacher' or 'Please take care of yourself' or similar phrases.”

“There are patterns around those hiragana greetings, drawn like lace.”

What happened to those letters afterward?

“If I don’t understand it, I’ll give it to your dad…” Professor Agasa had barely started speaking when he realized what he was doing and quickly said, “I gave it to a mystery novelist who lives nearby. At first, the novelist kept making excuses because of work and seemed uninterested.”

"But after seeing the letter, he became more and more excited."

“After he took the letter, he immediately closed the door. A few minutes later, he ran to me with the letter. He told me to give a letter he had written to my aunt. He also described me as the sun, saying that thanks to me, all his depression had been swept away.”

Yuan Tai quickly asked, "Is there anything special about that letter?"

Professor Agasa stroked his beard: "I'm not one to read other people's letters, so I didn't read them and don't know what they contained."

“It should be a code interpretation chart.” Based on Conan’s understanding of his father, Conan concluded that the letter contained a code interpretation chart. “That novelist must know that these codes all represent hiragana.”

Amidst the puzzled looks of the crowd, Conan nodded: "The reason why all the new ones are written in hiragana is because the surrounding patterns also need to be interpreted in hiragana."

"The coded messages on the letter and the ones found here were probably created by the same person. As for why they used coded messages, it's probably because they didn't want anyone to know the contents of the letter. Perhaps someone is persecuting him."

Professor Agasa seemed to remember something else: "I remember now, my aunt did say that there was a strange guy who often peeked into her mailbox."

Conan also had his own guesses, and he became more and more interested in this villa that held hidden secrets.

After careful consideration, Conan got a clue and quickly solved the problem by deciphering the kana represented by the black sun. Following Conan's reasoning, he also successfully created a solution table by guessing the characters.

Following the solution sheet, they quickly deciphered the codes on the items.

Following the clues, the group discovered a hidden code inside the heater. Conan solved the code using the solution chart.

He didn't show any joy after deciphering the code; instead, he looked rather heavy-hearted. The code in the fireplace had brought him back to square one.

Aside from Conan, everyone else thought the codes were fake, just a prank. But Conan didn't think so; he believed no one was that bored, except for Mitsuyu.

Conan sat cross-legged on the ground, pondering the code.

Professor Agasa and the three members of the Detective Boys put all the found items back in their original places.

Naturally, Conan, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground blocking the way, was disliked by everyone.

Suddenly, Conan had a flash of inspiration. He realized that everything was found in this room. Connecting everything according to the clues, all the lines intersected at the center. It was because of this intersection that Ayumi kept passing by Conan.

As luck would have it, Conan was positioned right at the center point. Since there was no floor, then...

"It's on the ceiling!" Conan looked up at the ceiling and was pleasantly surprised to find a groove at the base of the chandelier.

Now that they had made a discovery, they were ready to try it out. Conan quickly called out to Professor Agasa, "Professor, hurry up and put me on your shoulders!"

Although Professor Agasa was bewildered, he still put Conan on his shoulder. Conan turned the chandelier, and with a "click," a loud noise came from the second floor of the villa above everyone's heads, as if a heavy object had fallen to the floor of the second-floor room.

Upon reaching the second-floor room, they discovered a staircase inside. Even Professor Agasa, the nephew, was unaware that such a hidden mechanism existed within the villa.

The group climbed the stairs and surveyed the entire secret room. Upon seeing something, the three members of the detective team's pupils constricted, and they broke out in a cold sweat. Ayumi's eyes even welled up with tears. Pointing to the table beside her, she cried out, "Here...here are dead people's bones!"

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!