socalfunplaces Chapter 275 No Wind or Rain at Night
Chapter 275 No Wind or Rain at Night
Before the people still on the first floor could react, the maid had already moved to the front of the owner's room and anxiously knocked on the door.
"Professor Medan! Mr. Hayden!"
Bang, bang, bang. The heavy wooden door banged repeatedly, sounding like ominous, restless bells and drums in this twilight.
At this time, Zhu Lan, Jun Sha, and Manager A Ying also went up the stairs to the second floor.
"Mr. Medan, are you alright? Miss Vinnie and I heard strange hammering sounds coming from next door. If you're alright, could you please answer?"
Zina's loud shouts echoed for a long time in the empty mansion, but no one in the room answered.
"Could it be... that something has happened?"
Seeing that Zina had knocked on the door several times without an answer, Venetian turned pale with fright and began to stammer, "There's no way Dad and the others couldn't have missed the knocking. This is definitely not normal. This isn't the time to respect their privacy. Why don't we... why don't we open the door and go in?"
The maid nodded vigorously and tried to turn the handle on the outside of the door, but she heard a click and encountered unexpected resistance.
"Oh no, they locked the door from the inside! Why is that? Hey! Professor Medan! Mr. Hagrid! Are you alright?"
Zina pounded on the door again, the death knell-like pounding even more violent, a deafening sound that could be heard by anyone in the mansion. Even Neil, in the room on the left, was startled and rushed out to check what was happening.
However, the two people inside the door still did not respond.
The door to the secret room is like a despairing seal, completely separating the inside from the outside into two worlds.
"What, what should we do..."
Venetian stamped her feet helplessly, then looked around pleadingly at the others gathered outside the door. After scanning the room, her gaze finally settled on Officer Jenny in her police uniform. Looking at the dark blue uniform that represented the Alliance's credibility, a glimmer of hope finally appeared on the curator's daughter's panicked face.
Officer Jenny, expressionless, stepped forward, twisted the handle herself, and shook her head.
"The door is indeed locked from the inside. Ms. Zina, is there a master key or similar item in this house? Or, is there anyone here who has a Psychic or Ghost-type Pokémon that can unlock doors or pass through walls?"
“The master key is usually kept by Mr. Medan himself, either in the curator’s room or on the curator’s person. Either way, we have no way to get it now,” Zina replied dejectedly.
If they could get it from Meidan now, they wouldn't have to bother opening the door.
"My Windball hasn't learned the wall-penetrating technique yet..." Professor Medan's assistant, Neil, scratched the back of his head and shook his head as well.
Officer Jenny didn't show any disappointment. Instead, she looked past the crowd in the front row and at the Sinnoh Champion who had come to the Forest Mansion with her.
"There's a match in a few days where I need to use Ghost as my main attacker, so it needs some special training. That's why I didn't bring it out today. But, I can let Roserade try out its 'Spectral Power' move."
“This won’t work.” The policewoman, who had some knowledge of locked-room mysteries, sighed. “The power of ‘supernatural abilities’ is too overwhelming and cannot be precisely controlled. Moreover, it can only be used on objects within sight, making it useless in this situation…”
Click.
The sound of a hard object colliding suddenly rang out.
Roseredo, who had appeared in front of the champion at some unknown time, lowered her arm, and her red eyes under the mask smirked triumphantly at the policewoman.
"Looks like we've had some good luck this time." The Sinnoh Champion lifted the Poké Ball and put Roseradore back inside.
"..."
Officer Jenny's composed expression twitched slightly, then she gave instructions to the group with even greater indifference—
"Alright. Now that the door lock has been unlocked, let's go inside."
They simply pushed open the door and entered the owner's room, where strange noises were said to have been coming from.
The moment she opened the door, Officer Jenny immediately felt a strong sense of unease; a sticky, cold resistance traveled along her hand as she pushed the door open, creeping back into the officer's body.
How is this going?
Officer Jenny gritted her teeth, disregarding anything unusual, and stepped forward, using her shoulder to brace against the doorway, which felt like it was stuck in mud. She pressed her entire weight down on it and pushed hard, finally breaking through the inexplicable obstacle.
The door to the owner's room was now fully open, revealing the interior.
Everyone was immediately taken aback by the scene before them—
It wasn't because some inhumane and bloody crime had occurred in this locked room, but because a round-headed, humanoid Pokémon was angrily blocking the opened door.
His appearance resembles that of a gentleman in a tuxedo, with an extension on his top hat shaped like a snowflake, his mouth covered by a mustache, his shoes resembling tap shoes, and a walking stick made of ice in his gloved hand.
"The Ice-Treading Doll from the Galar region?"
Officer Jenny immediately recognized the elf before her. Then the resistance she had felt earlier—could that be…?
"Kro, Crocodile!"
The ice-walking puppet emitted a sound like rolling ice blocks, and its cane, made of ice crystals, spun and blocked the way between the group and the room. It was clearly guarding this place on someone's orders.
And looking past this Ice-type Pokémon, which is only 1.5 meters tall with its hat on, anyone can clearly see—
In the owner's room, the two professors and entrepreneurs who were originally thought to have met with misfortune, and who were even pounding on the walls and crying for help, were now sitting peacefully in the wooden armchair and the single sofa opposite each other.
Judging from their cheerful and friendly conversation, it's impossible for them to be associated with any violent conflict.
Especially Mr. Medan, this retired professor whose face was always etched with a stern expression, was now completely swept away, like a battlefield cleared of fog, replaced by an unprecedentedly sincere and hearty laugh. His old classmate Hayden, sitting opposite him on the sofa, was gesturing wildly, talking incoherently, which made Medan slap his thigh and laugh uncontrollably.
"I see, it's because of the sound."
Before even entering the room, Zhu Lan murmured to herself behind the group, seemingly already understanding the main reason for this farcical incident.
"Oh? How did you get in?"
Hayden caught a glimpse of the crowd blocking the doorway and immediately stopped talking to Meidan, nodding to the ice-walking puppet guarding the door.
"Kro~" The ice-walking puppet, like a comedian, made an exaggerated greeting, and with a flick of its finger on the side without the cane, the atmosphere in the room instantly underwent some indescribable change.
The people outside the door were baffled, but Officer Jenny could immediately feel that the cool, sticky resistance that had been pressing down on her completely disappeared the moment the ice-walking doll flicked its finger.
At the same time, Mr. Hayden's voice in the room became exceptionally clear—
"Aying, tell me what happened. Also, I want to know why the Sinnoh League police are here?"
I'm so sorry!
Before the steward, whom Hayden had called out, could respond, the maid following closely behind Officer Jenny quickly stepped forward, bowed her head, and apologized to Medan and Hayden—
"We heard strange banging sounds coming from the next room, so we assumed something was wrong in the owner's room. To our surprise, no one answered when we knocked, and the door was locked from the inside, so we started making a big fuss..."
"The door is locked?" Mr. Hayden looked surprised, as if even he didn't know what was going on.
"There's probably something wrong with this wooden door," Mei Dan said impatiently, waving his hand. He was clearly unhappy that everyone had interrupted his conversation with his old classmate.
"Occasionally, this happens. If you close the door too hard, it will automatically lock itself... Fashionable things are so unreliable. I have to carry my keys with me every day when I go out. By the way, you don't need to worry about Officer Jenny and the others. They just happened to come to this mansion at noon today."
"Them? By chance?" The entrepreneur looked clearly suspicious, sensing that his classmate's words contained many inexplicable elements.
"Heh, instead of all that, Hayden, you should explain why we can't hear the knocking first. I think Neil is practically wearing a question mark on his face."
Neil, the assistant, scratched his face awkwardly.
"There's nothing to explain," the big boss said with a bored shrug.
"To prevent the leakage of research secrets, I had the Ice-Treading Doll use a 'reflective wall' to soundproof this room. Isn't that how normal business negotiations are conducted? Besides, even if others don't know the inside story, A-Ying, you should at least understand what's going on, right?"
As he spoke, Mr. Hayden cast an unfriendly glance at his bodyguard and driver.
"I'm sorry, sir." Steward Aying bowed her head tremblingly and admitted her mistake. "I was distracted by the sound of the two young ladies hitting the wall, and I didn't think in that direction for a moment."
"So," Mei Dan exclaimed in annoyance, "what exactly is that sound of hammering against the wall that you're talking about?"
“I heard the sound of something hitting the wall next door,” his daughter pouted.
"Bumping into a wall?"
Professor Hayden and Mr. Medan looked at each other in bewilderment, then both looked at the wall that separated the owner's room from Venetian's room.
There's no way that could be making the sound of someone pounding on a wall!
Because there are no exposed walls there at all.
The wall between Venetian's and the librarian's room had long been completely covered by a huge bookshelf filled with all sorts of books and documents.