Chapter 52: Being a Butler Isn’t Easy~

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Chi Feichi offered to take Haibara Ai home. Returning at dusk, he came back to the Sonen residence with Sonen Kikuto.

The moment Sonen Kikuto parked the car, he heard a commotion at the gate. When he stepped out of the garage to look, his expression immediately darkened.

Chi Feichi glanced over as well.

Sure enough, apart from Akio Shigematsu and a girl bringing up the rear, Conan, Ran Mouri, and Kogoro Mouri had arrived, along with Heiji Hattori and Kazuha Toyama.

“Let’s go inside first.”

Hearing Chi Feichi’s calm voice, Sonen Kikuto gradually composed himself and nodded. Even so, after returning to his room on the second floor, he remained silent, his face still grim.

Chi Feichi walked to the window and watched the group approaching outside. “The girl at the back is your fiancée, isn’t she?”

“Mm...” Sonen Kikuto nodded.

“She’s wearing the same necklace as Mr. Sakuraba,” Chi Feichi said.

He had returned at this particular time so that, before Sonen Kikuto mentioned the matter himself, he could bring it up first—another subtle indication that he was looking out for him and standing on his side, thereby strengthening his trust.

Sonen Kikuto’s expression shifted uncertainly. Only after a moment did he say, “Uncle Shigematsu must have threatened me to call off the wedding because of that bastard Sakuraba. He watched Sakuraba grow up and treats him like his own son, so he’s helping that bastard steal my fiancée!”

“You could smash a few things,” Chi Feichi reminded him.

The words Sonen Kikuto had been about to unleash lodged in his throat, leaving him acutely uncomfortable. “Smash things?”

Chi Feichi turned around. “I’ll go bring Uncle Shigematsu up.”

Sonen Kikuto looked puzzled. “Call him up now? Are we confronting him directly?”

“Test him a little...”

...

Five minutes later, Chi Feichi left the room and went downstairs.

A con?

He was wearing himself out trying to reconcile this family...

“Feichi, you’re back! Where’s Kikuto?” Sonen Yuriko was just about to leave. The instant she saw Chi Feichi, she grabbed him. “Never mind him. Let’s go see his fiancée first!”

Outside, the group had already entered the courtyard.

Akio Shigematsu stared blankly at the chaotic scene.

The fallen leaves piled across the ground had been swept away, but among the towering trees stood several nearly bare ones, painfully conspicuous.

The row of shrubs along the path, with their branches sticking out as though chewed by dogs, was just as conspicuous.

What had happened at home during the one day he had been away?

“This...” Kogoro Mouri held it in for a moment, then laughed heartily. “Now that’s a truly unique sense of aesthetics! This must be abstract art!”

“Er...” Akio Shigematsu had no idea how to explain.

Katagiri Kaede had visited the Sonen residence before and knew what the courtyard had originally looked like. But after hearing Kogoro Mouri’s comment, she was no longer certain. “I-Is that so?”

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“You really do make things up, old man!” Heiji Hattori bluntly exposed him. Pointing at the shrubs beside the path, he said, “Come on, take a good look. The broken branches are all different lengths and clearly aren’t even. They were snapped off, not deliberately trimmed. There are even two scraps of leaves over there that weren’t swept away. Their edges are ragged and incomplete, so they weren’t shredded with scissors.”

Conan had already gone over and picked up the two scraps. Examining one of them, he said, “The base of this leaf looks as though it was forcefully cut by something sharp, but the cut isn’t very smooth. It was probably torn apart by some kind of animal.”

Then he turned and asked Akio Shigematsu in his childish voice, “Do you keep cats here, Mr. Butler?”

Shigematsu nodded. “Ah, yes, we do...”

Heiji Hattori also crouched beside Conan and examined the scraps. “The other one has marks from a bird pecking at it. This whole mess must have been caused by a cat and a bird fighting, right? Though how many cats and birds would it take to leave the courtyard in this state...?”

Chi Feichi approached from behind and happened to hear them.

Detectives really did love deducing everything. But wasn’t Conan taking things a little too far?

Sonen Yuriko winked at Chi Feichi, released his arm, straightened her dress, and stepped forward. With an imperious, appraising gaze, she looked Katagiri Kaede up and down. “Oh my, so you’re the woman who’s become my little brother’s princess? Listen carefully. I don’t care which major corporation you’re the daughter of. You’d better prepare yourself. Starting today, I’ll be laying down a complete set of house rules for this family!”

Katagiri Kaede was startled. “Er, yes...”

After their initial surprise, Kogoro Mouri, Heiji Hattori, and the others all turned their eyes toward Chi Feichi, who was walking up behind them.

Chi Feichi nodded to the group.

Kogoro Mouri was instantly speechless. Why did this kid have to turn up here too?

“Hm?” Sonen Yuriko noticed that everyone was looking past her and had not been frightened in the slightest. She turned around to look at Chi Feichi. “Is he a little scarier than I am?”

Conan glanced at Chi Feichi’s utterly emotionless eyes, then at Sonen Yuriko’s puzzled, curious face. He wanted to nod, but managed to restrain himself.

“I know them,” Chi Feichi explained to Sonen Yuriko.

“Oh, is that so?” Sonen Yuriko turned back and saw Katagiri Kaede looking timid. She laughed. “All right, I was only joking. I’m Kikuto’s elder sister, Yuriko. I usually live overseas, so I won’t be around to nag you. You can relax. This is my cousin, Chi Feichi, and he’ll soon be your cousin too. He’s staying here for the time being, but with his personality, he’s even less likely to nag anyone...”

“Miss,” Akio Shigematsu came forward to greet her.

Once Sonen Yuriko started complaining, she could not seem to stop. She continued talking to Katagiri Kaede. “Besides, his father will be coming to pick him up in a couple of days. Soon enough, you won’t have to look at his icy face anymore.”

Seeing Chi Feichi’s unconcerned expression, Akio Shigematsu said nothing. He merely greeted him, “Young Master Feichi.”

Chi Feichi nodded in acknowledgment.

Akio Shigematsu looked at the excessively talkative Sonen Yuriko, then at Chi Feichi, who silently watched them, and sighed inwardly.

For all these years, he had sorely missed the former butler of the Chi family.

One of them had spent every day facing a family of people who were secretly chatterboxes; the other had spent every day facing a family of solemn, taciturn people. When the two of them had been together in the past, they could talk and provide each other with a little comfort.

Being a butler was no easy task.

He had only heard that the Chi couple had gradually stopped returning home, and that Young Master Feichi had moved to a place near his school after entering high school. The servants and butlers at the house had long since been dismissed. He had no idea where his old friend had gone...

“Speaking of which, you’re quite something,” Sonen Yuriko said with a laugh, nudging Katagiri Kaede with her elbow. “You came around here so often that you actually managed to tame my womanizing little brother.”

Akio Shigematsu came back to himself and hurriedly explained, “That’s not it, Miss. In fact, the young master was the one who fell in love at first sight!”

“Really?” Sonen Yuriko asked in confusion. “Why didn’t you tell me that before?”

“Well...” Shigematsu hesitated.

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“Still, weren’t you the one who brought them together?” Sonen Yuriko did not wait for an answer. She stepped forward, winked, and lowered her voice. “If things work out well, you might even receive some kind of reward from my father!”

“Mm...” Shigematsu replied uneasily.

Chi Feichi suddenly spoke. “Uncle Shigematsu, could you come with me for a moment?”

Shigematsu froze and glanced toward Kogoro Mouri and the others. “I can, but...”

“Cousin Kikuto wants to see you,” Chi Feichi said.

“All right, all right. I’ll take them over there and tell them what happened here while I’m at it.” Seeing Shigematsu’s predicament, Sonen Yuriko took over. She looked at Ran Mouri and Kazuha Toyama with a smile. “There are two lovely young ladies here as well. Perhaps one of them can even settle Feichi down...”

“Don’t try to play matchmaker. They’re both taken.”

Chi Feichi offered the reminder, then led Shigematsu away.

Heiji Hattori looked at Kazuha in confusion. “When did you become taken?”

Kazuha Toyama was covered in mental static as she cursed the idiot inwardly again and again.

Kogoro Mouri said irritably, “What nonsense! My daughter has absolutely nothing to do with that detective brat!”

Ran Mouri’s face turned scarlet, her eyes becoming tiny dots. Did her father’s outburst count as giving himself away?

...

The courtyard rang with laughter and conversation, but the atmosphere in Sonen Kikuto’s room was oppressively heavy.

Akio Shigematsu followed Chi Feichi inside and immediately saw the wreckage covering the floor.

Every ornament in the room had been smashed to pieces, the fragments scattered chaotically everywhere.

Sonen Kikuto sat on the sofa in the corner. Only after Chi Feichi closed the door did he lift his eyes to Shigematsu and say in a low voice, “Uncle Shigematsu, I know everything.”

A flicker of panic crossed Shigematsu’s face. “Young Master Kikuto, I...”

“I know about Kaede and Sakuraba, and I know what you were thinking,” Sonen Kikuto interrupted. “Did you really think you could keep something hidden from everyone forever? You watched me grow up too. I want to hear you explain it to me yourself.”

Shigematsu hesitated. Seeing the confidence on Sonen Kikuto’s face, he felt increasingly uncertain and could only sigh. “That’s true. Nothing can be hidden from people forever. The master already knows about my relationship with Madam too, I suppose...”

Sonen Kikuto’s carefully composed expression nearly collapsed. He almost sprang to his feet.

Wait. What did this have to do with his parents?

Why did that sentence sound so deeply wrong?

Chi Feichi sat down beside him and pressed a hand to his shoulder, signaling him to remain calm.

Sonen Kikuto did sit back down, but his mind was already racing through a succession of melodramatic television plots, along with doubts about his own parentage. His expression became extraordinarily complicated.

Seeing the change in Sonen Kikuto’s face, Shigematsu believed that the truth had indeed been exposed and sighed. “At first, I didn’t know Miss Kaede had come here to find Sakuraba. I thought she liked the young master, so I tried to bring the two of you together. I only found out the truth recently, but by then the marriage had already been arranged, and you had given up your playboy ways for Miss Kaede. I couldn’t bear to tell you the truth, so I thought I could use the company as leverage to force you to back down...”

“You threatened me over this? Did you ever consider that using the company to pressure me would only make it harder for me to accept?” Sonen Kikuto could not stop himself from leaping to his feet. “No, forget that for now. Tell me—what exactly is going on between you and my mother?!”