A chilling atmosphere filled the room, and the voice of the woman in the white robe seemed to emanate from the deepest hell, echoing in everyone's ears. Although wary, Conan remained calm and spoke first, asking, "Who are you? Why did you say you've been waiting for us for so long?"
The woman slowly rose and walked unsteadily toward the group. Ran Mouri instinctively stood in front of Conan, adopting a defensive stance and watching the woman warily. The woman stopped a few steps away from the group, her gaze sweeping over them one by one, and said softly, "My name is Evelyn, and I was once one of the owners of this castle. For many years, I have been trapped here, waiting for someone who can break the castle's curse."
"A curse?" Ai Haibara pushed up her glasses and asked calmly, "What curse? And what does it have to do with this so-called mystery of the century?"
Evelyn sighed and slowly began to recount that long-forgotten history. It turned out that the castle's builder was a nobleman obsessed with the occult. After the castle was completed, he performed a forbidden ritual, attempting to control powers beyond human comprehension. However, the ritual went out of control, releasing an evil curse that not only consumed the nobleman himself but also enveloped the entire castle. Since then, strange phenomena have frequently occurred within the castle, and the curse's power intensifies on every full moon.
"What does that have to do with the posters we saw?" Nightshade asked, frowning.
“Although I am trapped here, I have been searching for a way to break the curse. I managed to get that poster out of the castle. I know that only people with wisdom and courage like you can solve this mystery and break the curse,” Evelyn explained.
Conan pondered for a moment and asked, "Then do you know where the clues to break the curse are?"
Evelyn nodded and pointed to an old box in the corner of the room: "My ancestors left some notes, which may contain the key clues to breaking the curse. But this box is sealed with magic, and I have been unable to open it."
The group approached the box and examined it closely. The box was made of an unknown type of black wood, covered in intricate runes, and emitted a faint, mysterious light. Lin Yu took out his high-tech equipment, attempting to scan the runes and analyze the sealing principle.
"The energy fluctuations of these runes are very strange, unlike anything I've ever seen before," Lin Yu said while operating the instrument.
Conan searched the room for other clues and discovered some blurry murals on the walls, seemingly depicting the scene of the forbidden ritual from years ago. In the murals, a crowned man stood in the center of a huge magic circle, surrounded by various strange symbols and lights. At the edge of the magic circle were some small characters, but due to their age, they were difficult to decipher.
"Ran, Ai, come and take a look at these words. Can you recognize them?" Conan called out.
Ran Mouri and Ai Haibara approached, and the three of them carefully deciphered the blurry handwriting. After some effort, they managed to make out a few keywords: "moonlight," "stars," and "key."
"Moonlight, stars, a key—what does all this have to do with the seal on the box?" Ran Mouri asked, puzzled.
Meanwhile, Lin Yu also made progress. "I've discovered that the arrangement of the runes seems to have some kind of connection with the constellations, but I'm not sure what the specifics are yet," Lin Yu said.
Conan's mind raced as he connected the celestial phenomena with the clues of moonlight and stars. He suddenly realized that the position of the moon and the arrangement of certain stars on a full moon night might be the key to breaking the seal.
“Evelyn, do you know if there’s a place in the castle where we can observe the stars?” Conan asked.
Evelyn nodded: "Yes, there is an ancient observatory at the top of the castle tower."
The group immediately headed to the observatory at the top of the tower. Inside, a huge, ancient telescope stood, and the surrounding walls were covered with star charts. Conan observed the night sky through the telescope, trying to find the celestial arrangement related to the sealed box, by combining it with the star charts on the walls.
After careful observation and comparison, Conan discovered that on this night of the full moon, the positions of the moon and several specific stars formed a unique pattern, and this pattern had a similar structure to the runes on the box.
"I think I know how to break the seal," Conan said excitedly.
They returned to the room, and Conan, based on the observed celestial patterns, touched the runes on the box in a specific order. With each movement, the runes lit up, their light growing stronger. Suddenly, the box emitted a dull thud, the seal was broken, and the lid slowly opened.
Inside the box was an old notebook, its pages yellowed and the edges torn. Conan carefully picked it up and opened to the first page, which read: "To break the curse of the castle, one must find the lost key, hidden in the Shadow Corridor, and undergo three trials."
“Shadow Corridor? What’s that place?” Nightshade asked.
Evelyn thought for a moment and said, "I remember there is a passage in the castle's basement that leads to the Shadow Corridor, but it is full of dangers, and it is said to have all kinds of traps and mechanisms."
"Looks like we'll have to go to the basement," Conan said, his eyes filled with determination.
The group arrived in the basement and, guided by Evelyn, found the entrance to the passage leading to the Shadow Corridor. A thin layer of mist hung in the air at the entrance, and the interior was pitch black, emanating a faint, eerie atmosphere.
Conan took out a flashlight and led the way into the passage. The passage was narrow and winding, with strange lights and shadows occasionally flashing on the walls, as if something was watching them from the darkness.
After walking for a while, they came to a spacious stone chamber. The floor of the chamber was covered with various patterns, and in the center stood a huge stone platform with a sword burning with blue flames on it.
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