"Conan! Conan, where are you?!"
"Stop hiding and come out already!"
The patter of rain carried the children's shouts far into the distance. The gardener following behind them caught his breath and stopped walking.
"He definitely isn't in the courtyard. I maintain this whole area, and there's nowhere anyone could hide."
"We also had the servants search the castle." Mamiya Kito stood before the main entrance, watching the group return while wiping their drenched hair, and gave them a discouraging answer.
He covertly scrutinized the silent camper for a while, then thought better of it and looked away.
Other children and the two young men had already gone back to inspect the camper. If the missing child had been inside, there was no way they would have missed him.
"Could he really have gone into the tower?" Professor Agasa looked up at the old, damaged structure atop the tower and frowned. "Surely not..."
"No. I just checked the entrance. The lock hasn't been opened." Mamiya Mitsuru shook his head and answered with certainty. "We inspected it thoroughly after the incident. No one could just go in casually."
Professor Agasa let out a heavy sigh.
Well, Shinichi did tend to lower his guard toward his surroundings when he was too focused on deducing something or engrossed in a mystery. But if he had been acting on his own, he was not really a child. There was no way he would voluntarily run somewhere dangerous.
Honestly, Shinichi, if you were going to do something on your own, you could at least have told me...
"Then the forest is the only place left." The gardener rubbed his neck and suddenly looked at Tangze, who stood silently beneath the eaves, staring out at the rain. "By the way, where are the people from your