House Owner and His Wife

"What did you call me?"

Gryph froze. After all, it had been a long time since anyone had addressed him that way. Hearing that form of address brought back some memories, and there were also many things he wanted to clear up.

"I didn't say anything. Mr. 71 must have misheard me, right? It's raining outside, so let's go in and talk."

Creak~ The rusty door hinges groaned as they rubbed against each other.

The soaked umbrellas were stored in a tall container by the entrance,

What was strange was that the inside of the villa felt rather oppressive, nowhere near as spacious as it appeared from the outside,

It was more like a Japanese-style villa. There was no spacious foyer; the entrance led only to a straight hallway and a staircase to the second floor.

At that moment,

A white-haired woman wearing a mask stepped out of the room at the end of the hallway. She wore only a turtleneck sweater, whose lower hem covered half her thighs, making her look slender and fair-skinned.

"This is my wife, Jessica.

Because she suffers from an infectious disease, she needs to wear a mask at all times. I hope you don't mind, Detective. As long as you can find and eliminate the 'Source of Peeping' inside the house, I'm willing to pay five times the price, or even more."

"Fine."

Gryph looked the masked silver-haired woman up and down, certain that he had never seen her before. For some reason, the longer he looked at her, the more he felt a slight toothache.

Led by the white-haired woman, they went to the dining hall to eat.

However, just as Gryph removed his shoes and stepped onto the wooden floor of the entrance, the 'feeling of being watched' suddenly struck him. He