Vol 2 Chapter 1 Part 8

I entered the party room. There were waiters in white clothes and a spread of Japanese, Chinese, and Western food was laid out on long tables covered in white tablecloths. It was like a hotel buffet.

“Wow, it all looks so good!” I exclaimed.

“I’m ready to stuff my face. Holmes, can we start eating yet?” Kaori asked.

We looked at the food, starry-eyed. Holmes smiled at us and said, “My grandfather is going to give an extremely long speech now, and I believe there’ll be a toast after that. Once that’s done, you can eat as much as you want.”

An “extremely long speech”… Kaori and I exchanged glances.

“It’s a buffet, huh? You said the catering was being handled by a traditional Japanese restaurant, so I was expecting something different,” I said, looking around the hall.

Holmes nodded. “Yes, I think this format works best for parties. I was surprised, though.”

“Huh?”

“Right when the preparations were finished and I was about to go to the showroom to call over the guests, everyone suddenly came in.”

“Yes, the manager said the party room was ready.”

“My father said that…?” Holmes asked dubiously. Then the owner, who was standing in the middle of the hall, cleared his throat. Everyone stopped their conversations and gave him their attention.

“Thank you everyone for coming to celebrate my seventy-seventh birthday,” his speech began. Just like Holmes said, it was…really long. He talked about how much hardship he went through to inherit the Yagashira manor, how deep his love for art was, and even the shock he felt the first time he encountered a Shino tea bowl…

“And now, I’m turning seventy-seven. I’ve only made it this far because of the support from my family and friends. Thank you very much. Cheers!”

It was finally time for the toast. Relieved, we all shouted “Cheers!” and raised our glasses.

“You’re still going strong, huh? I’ve been thinking of asking you to come back to TV,” I heard the producer say.

“Shimizu, I know I owe you for all the trouble I caused, but I ain’t going on TV ever again,” the owner said sullenly.

“Don’t say that. There’s talk of an Heirloom Hunt remake.”

“Today’s a happy occasion. I don’t want to get angry, so don’t talk to me about work.”

I see, I thought, watching them from a distance. So the TV producer did have an ulterior motive for coming here. The world of showbiz is a tough place.

“Hey, Masamune guys. Can you teach me how to pantomime?” came Akihito’s happy-go-lucky voice from our side of the room. It was comforting to hear the other end of the spectrum. Akihito was good at providing that kind of relief.

“Sure. Let’s start off simple, with a wall.” One of the members, Masataka, raised his hands and pretended he was placing them against an invisible wall.

“Even I can do that much,” Akihito responded, immediately doing the same. But in his case, it didn’t look like there was a wall there at all. Despite that, Kaori still said, “Akihito’s good at it too!” She was probably looking at him through her hot guy filter, making her more lenient in her evaluation.

“Then there’s making light objects seem heavy.” Muneyoshi took a balloon out of his inside pocket and quickly inflated it. He then bounced it towards Masataka, who staggered when he caught it as if it were a bowling ball. His trembling arms and pained expression really made it look like he was holding something heavy. He’s not a world-renowned professional for nothing.

“Take it, Akihito!” He passed the balloon to Akihito, throwing it with all his might.

“Wh-Whoa!” Akihito fell on his rear with a thud. Their acting had been so realistic that he reacted as though it really was a bowling ball being flung at him. That too was amazing in a way, and Kaori and I laughed.

Suddenly, the three men were interrupted by a crashing sound that came from somewhere not too far away.

“Hey, did you hear the sound of something outside breaking just now?”

“Yeah! It came from the showroom!”

The sound of something breaking in the showroom… In other words, one of the pieces of art broke? I suddenly felt a chill in the air. However, it seemed like we were the only ones who heard, since we were near the door. The other guests were still chatting away.

“Aoi, you still have the key, right? Wanna go take a look?” Akihito asked quietly. I nodded and we left the party room to go to the showroom. There were five of us in all: me, Akihito, Kaori, and the Masamune duo.

“O-Okay, I’m opening it.”

“Y-Yeah.”

Hopefully it was just our imagination, I prayed. But I still had a bad feeling as I nervously turned the key and slowly opened the door. I looked around the room and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Just as I was sighing in relief, Kaori pointed and said, “A-Aoi! Over there!” Turning to look, I was shocked at what I saw. The owner’s treasure—the Chinese celadon jar, of which only a few dozen of its kind existed in the world—was shattered in pieces on the table.

I gasped. It was so shocking that I couldn’t even bring myself to speak. The windows were closed. The door was locked, too. There was no one inside this room. Despite all of that, the owner’s treasure—no, a world-class work of art—had suddenly been destroyed. I couldn’t believe it.

“A-Aoi, did you really lock this door when you left?” Akihito asked me, his face pale.

I felt my panic growing. “I-I did. I locked it properly, I swear.” I even double-checked since the responsibility was so great. I was confident in that.

“B-But how could it break by itself?” Kaori asked, wide-eyed in disbelief. “And it was only the Chinese celadon—the most expensive piece here.”

“Right, it’s like this one thing was shot with a gun…” said one of the Masamune members.

“Yeah,” replied the other.

“Could it have been intentional?” came the voice of the producer, Shimizu, who I hadn’t noticed was standing behind us.

Surprised, I turned around and stared at him. “You don’t mean…someone broke it on purpose?”

“No way!”

As we were murmuring amongst ourselves, Yoshie appeared. “What’s the matter, Aoi?”

“Y-Yoshie…it…” I pointed at the shattered celadon jar.

Yoshie gasped. Her eyes wide open, she covered her mouth. “Wh-Who broke it? This is a terrible disaster!” She looked around, her face pale.

“N-No one was here. We were in the party room when we heard the sound of something breaking. The door was locked.”

“Wh-What about the windows, then? Everyone, check the window locks!” she shouted hysterically, trembling.

“O-Okay.”

We split up and checked the windows. The Masamune duo gave their report:

“All of the windows are locked properly and fully intact.”

“Besides, even though this is the first floor, it’s really high off the ground. It’d be impossible to sneak in without a ladder.”

Yoshie put her hand to her forehead. “Wh-What do we do?!”

“I-I’m going to get the owner.” I turned to leave the room, but Yoshie panicked and grabbed my hand. “N-No, Aoi! This is seriously a disaster!”

Then, Shimizu chuckled. “Wasn’t this the goal all along?”

“Huh?”

“Seiji always brags about this jar when he has guests over. Someone here probably hates him and plotted to destroy his most precious treasure. It’s not a locked room murder mystery, but you could call it a locked room antique destruction mystery.” Shimizu had a twisted, almost mocking grin on his face.

A locked room antique destruction mystery… We stood frozen in place in front of the completely destroyed celadon jar.