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The waiter who appeared before Tim and the others was none other than Darren, the real Kaitou Kid.
It had to be said that security at the Vanafor Family Estate had been extremely tight over the past two days, and Darren had spent considerable effort sneaking in.
The Vanafor Family's commemorative banquet was scheduled to run for three consecutive days, with hundreds of guests invited in total.
Obviously, to ensure that all of these distinguished guests received proper service, the number of servants normally employed at the estate was far from sufficient. After all, a banquet on this scale could not be held every day.
So Ms. Samantha had brought in a large number of people from the family's servant training institution.
As a result, many of the waiters at the banquet were unfamiliar faces, even to the estate's internal staff.
Without a doubt, this was excellent news for Darren.
As long as his professional skills were solid and his service attitude impeccable, even without deliberately altering his face to match a specific waiter, simply wearing the uniform was enough to keep suspicion at bay.
Of course, the cautious Darren still did his best to avoid eye contact with the other waiters, and there was no chance he would reveal his true appearance.
Thus, while acting as a waiter and serving drinks to the guests, he quietly observed the layout of the estate and, when no one was watching, set up several small traps that were difficult to detect.
Not long ago, he had happened to see Tim entering the venue with his father, Jack, so he took the initiative to approach them.
In fact, he had no choice but to go over. Because Darren had been deliberately keeping his distance from the other waiters, he was the only one near Tim and his father. At a moment like this, pretending not to notice them would have been a dereliction of duty.
"I'll take this glass, and bring a glass of orange juice for my son while you're at it."
Jack picked up a glass of wine from the tray, then ordered orange juice for Tim.
In most states, people could legally own their first rifle at eighteen, but drinking was not permitted until twenty-one.
Tim, still a high school student, naturally could not touch alcohol.
"Certainly. Please wait a moment."
Just as Darren was about to turn and head to the beverage area for the orange juice, Tim suddenly called out to him.
"Wait. No need for the orange juice. I'm not thirsty right now."
"Is there anything else you need? Please feel free to ask. We will do our best to meet the needs of our distinguished guests."
Darren asked politely.
"It's nothing major. I just have a few questions I'd like to ask."
Tim spoke with a calm expression.
"Please go ahead, though I am only a member of the service staff and may not be able to answer them."
"It's fine. The questions I want to ask happen to be related to you. Many guests are attending today's banquet, and they'll be staying here for two nights. Do you have enough staff?"
Hearing Tim's question, Darren remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he could not help praising him.
Heh~ He went straight to the key point. He had only been here for a few minutes and had already noticed this. As expected of the smartest Robin.
"Please rest assured, the Vanafor Family will not allow any guest to feel neglected."
Darren answered indirectly.
"Do this many waiters usually work at the Vanafor Family Estate?"
Tim pressed on.
"Of course not. A large number of staff have been temporarily transferred here for this week. However, please be assured that all the waiters at the banquet are professionals, and the quality of service will not decline."
Darren answered honestly.
With his suspicion confirmed, Tim immediately fell into thought.
"Then, if there's nothing else you need, I won't disturb you further."
After saying that, Darren carried the tray and moved on to the next guest who had just arrived.
"Hmm? What's wrong, Tim? What are you thinking about?"
Jack, holding his wine glass, noticed that his son had been silent for a while and asked curiously.
"Nothing, just some minor, unimportant things."
Jack did not pay much attention to Tim's evasiveness. For a long time now, Tim had often fallen into deep thought at odd moments, and he was more or less used to it.
Suddenly, Jack spotted an acquaintance at the banquet and cheerfully tried to introduce him to Tim.
"Ah! Look over there, Tim. That's former diplomat Mr. Tom Hudson, an alumnus of mine. He has a very beautiful daughter. You two should get to know each other. Hey, Tim? Where are you going?"
Before he could finish, Jack saw his son running off.
"I saw a friend. I want to go say hello."
Tim replied without looking back.
"A friend? From which family? A boy or a girl?"
Jack wanted to ask more, but Tim had already vanished into the crowd.
The aging father shook his head helplessly and went over to chat with Hudson instead.
As for Tim, he quietly made his way toward the estate's internal monitoring room.
This place was, of course, not open to the public, but Robin's infiltration skills were no worse than those of any master thief in the world.
Using a small trick, he lured the personnel inside the monitoring room away. Then, with lightning speed, he plugged a USB-like device into the server and pulled it out just as quickly.
He slipped away without a trace. The entire process took less than ten seconds.
After leaving the restricted area, Tim took a communicator from his pocket and put it to his ear.
"Can you hear me, Oracle?"
Tim asked in a low voice.
"All set. I've hacked in. The entire monitoring system of the Vanafor Family Estate is now under my control."
Inside the clock tower, Oracle smiled with confidence.
"How is it on your end? Any discoveries?"
"I have a lead. There's a high probability that Kaitou Kid has already entered the estate, and most likely he's disguised as one of the waiters at the banquet."
Tim explained his deduction, and Oracle agreed with him.
"I see. Disguising himself as a temporarily transferred waiter would indeed make him hard to notice."
"The fact that Kaitou Kid's Notice clearly stated the date of the operation makes it easy for people to fall into a trap, assuming he'll only appear on that day. Before the banquet officially began, security at the estate was probably much looser than it is now. Kaitou Kid must have used that window to sneak in."
Tim's reasoning was largely accurate.
If the thief had tried to infiltrate the estate today, facing GCPD officers and Vanafor Family bodyguards at peak alertness, even if he managed to blend in eventually, the effort and risk involved would have been on an entirely different level.
"By the way, if we secretly have the police gather all the waiters in the Vanafor Family Estate and search them, wouldn't we be able to catch Kaitou Kid in one move?"
Oracle suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
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