Chapter 191: Albedo's Painting
Conan Edogawa had to admit, the painting Albedo had created was truly beautiful. The colors were bold, the technique was masterful—it was almost flawless.
But watching Ran gaze at another man with such open admiration, praising him without pause, stirred a familiar unease in Conan's chest.
"Wait a minute," Sonoko suddenly exclaimed, her voice cutting through the air. "These red things on the trees... what are they?!"
She had spotted several jarring red splotches near the maple trees in the painting and assumed Albedo had made a mistake. She lifted her head to point it out to him.
However, when her eyes focused on the actual scenery, she froze. The trees before them were festooned with red handkerchiefs, a perfect mirror of the scene on the canvas.
She scrambled over to the nearest tree, her voice trembling with disbelief. "How can this be? There are red handkerchiefs tied everywhere!" A wave of dread washed over her; she could already feel her carefully planned romantic date with Makoto crumbling into dust.
"This must be from that TV drama you mentioned," Noelle observed, piecing it together with Sonoko's earlier explanation. "That's why so many people came to tie handkerchiefs." She glanced at Sonoko, who stood before the rock with a completely dejected expression, and a flicker of worry crossed her face.
"Well, no wonder there are so many," Kaeya remarked, an eyebrow arching in amusement. His voice was laced with a teasing sympathy as he addressed Sonoko, who was still staring blankly at the sea of red. "Miss Suzuki, given the circumstances, I'm afraid your grand plan might be a bust. Why not just call it a day?"
"But I already sent the email to Makoto!" Sonoko wailed, turning to her best friend in desperation. "I told him I'd be waiting for him under the Winter Maples!"
"What am I going to do, Ran?!"
Ran looked around at the countless red squares fluttering in the breeze and tried to offer some comfort. "There are so many handkerchiefs nearby. As long as you stay right here, he'll definitely find you. You don't have to worry about missing him, um..."
Her voice trailed off as she turned back to Sonoko, only to be met with a glare so full of resentment it stopped her cold. Ran flinched, a bead of sweat trickling down her forehead.
Clearly, that was not the right thing to say. Sonoko was adamant: she had to meet Makoto under the specific red handkerchief she had tied herself. Anything else would be completely meaningless.
Just then, Conan remembered something he hadn't had a chance to mention earlier. "The maple tree I climbed a little while ago had red handkerchiefs tied all over it, too," he piped up, inadvertently dealing another crushing blow to Sonoko's morale.
Now the odds of Makoto finding her specific handkerchief had dwindled to practically zero.
As Sonoko stood on the verge of total despair, racking her brain for any possible solution, Lisa's voice cut through her panic like a ray of hope.
"Little one, if you're determined to meet your beloved under your own handkerchief, just like in the drama, I might have a way~"
"Beloved..." The word sent a hot flush creeping up Sonoko's cheeks, and for a dizzying moment, she completely missed the rest of what Lisa had said. When she finally snapped out of her daze, her eyes lit up with renewed purpose. She leaned in close to Lisa, her expression a mask of desperate hope. "A way? What kind of way?"
Ran and Conan also turned their attention to Lisa, their curiosity piqued.
"You just need to make all the other handkerchiefs disappear," Lisa said with a serene smile.
"But... there are so many of them," Sonoko lamented, though she found the logic sound. "It would take forever to untie them one by one." Even as she spoke, a stubborn fire lit in her eyes. If that was what it took, she would do it. Nothing would stop her from achieving her goal.
"Oh, it won't take much time at all," Lisa chuckled. "Since I'm the one suggesting it, I naturally have a method to save you the trouble." As she spoke, she produced a small glass bottle.
It looked utterly ordinary—a simple, transparent vial with a cork stopper pushed firmly into its neck. It was more than half-full of a colorless, transparent liquid that looked no different from water, perhaps ten or twenty milliliters in total.
Lisa held the bottle delicately between her thumb and forefinger, extending it toward Sonoko.
"What is this?" Sonoko took the bottle, her brow furrowed in curiosity as she held it up to the light.
"This," Lisa said, a mysterious smile playing on her lips, "is some rather useful stuff. It's a reagent that can dissolve fabric without damaging anything else. While it doesn't work on all materials, common items like these handkerchiefs should dissolve quite easily."
"Ehh?! There's really a reagent that magical?" Sonoko's eyes widened in astonishment as she turned the unassuming bottle over in her hands.
"Hold on, Lisa," Kaeya interjected, his usual playful tone sharpened with a hint of disbelief. "You just carry something like that around with you so casually? Aren't you worried about the bottle breaking?"
Conan hadn't thought much of it at first, but Kaeya's words made the implications click into place. His gaze shot to the bottle, and his mind instantly pictured a disastrous scenario involving spilled liquid and dissolving clothes. A hot blush crept up his neck and flooded his face.
"Where is your mind wandering?" Lisa shot Kaeya a look, rolling her eyes. "The bottle is specially made; it's not going to break that easily."
"Then thank you, Lisa!" Hearing that the vial was sturdy, Sonoko breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing she needed was for this miracle solution to work on her own clothes. "By the way, how much do I owe you for this?"
Although a part of her was still skeptical about whether the reagent was truly as effective as Lisa claimed, she was desperate enough to try anything.
"It's free." Lisa held up a hand to stop Sonoko's protests. "No need to be shy," she explained with a warm smile. "To be honest, I only formulated this reagent recently and haven't had a chance to see how it performs in practice. Today is the perfect opportunity to test it out. All I ask is to see the results for myself. You don't need to pay, Sonoko."
Since Lisa put it that way, Sonoko didn't refuse again.
"Then let's head back to Sanka's Inn right now and borrow a spray bottle!" Sonoko declared, turning to grab Ran's arm, ready to dash down the mountain and return later to deal with the handkerchiefs.
"Wait a moment," Albedo called out, stopping them. He carefully lifted the painting he had just finished from the easel and presented it to them. "I took the liberty of adding a few more strokes to include both Miss Suzuki and Miss Ran. I hope you don't mind."
He then turned his calm gaze to Ran. "I heard from Klee that you've been very good at taking care of her when she plays with the Detective Boys." For Klee to return from an outing without a single explosion having occurred was a truly rare and noteworthy event.
"So, I would like to give this painting to you, Miss Mouri, as a token of my gratitude for looking after my sister lately. I hope you both like it."
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]