153. Intelligence Gathering by the Infiltrating Furball

 

* * *

 

So, I’m currently clinging to the ceiling of the manor’s hallway, moving around while organizing information with Extra-sama.

Occasionally passing by servants below, concealing my presence as we continue our inaudible conversation.

<Now, from the previous loop, it seems Karashia’s death is not the trigger for the loop.>

Yeah, that’s right.

Even though she was just unconscious in that last loop, time still rewound.

Speaking of which, fundamentally…

Karashia is the one who goes berserk from enduring her miserable circumstances, massacring everyone in the manor.

Is such a person really the protagonist? Objectively considering it, that seems rather doubtful.

In other words, Karashia is not the story’s protagonist.

Her death is not the loop trigger.

<However, that raises the question of who is the protagonist then?>

That’s true.

Moreover, in the previous loop Karashia was just unconscious, so the tragedy didn’t occur.

Does that mean there’s a protagonist who dies unrelated to that tragedy?

<That possibility is high.>

Mmm.

<We’ll just have to do this methodically… Somehow find the protagonist and prevent that person’s death.>

Yeah, we have no choice but to do that.

Continuing my conversation with Extra-sama, I crawled a bit further along the ceiling until arriving at Karashia sobbing in a dejected huddle after having her ring taken by Keranko and the others.

For starters, I dropped down in front of Karashia’s face, placed my hands on her cheeks and turned her to face me.

“Eh?…Hih!?”

Then from point-blank range, I met her gaze and unleashed my murderous aura.

Using 【Intimidation】.

Karashia fainted and collapsed.

Alright! If Karashia remains unconscious until the tragedy occurs, it won’t happen!

If more people die, it will become unclear who the protagonist is, so while unfortunate for Karashia, this is a necessary measure.

<You know, we’ve gotten quite practiced at knocking Karashia unconscious by the third time…>

Yeah, I’m confident I’m now the world’s best at making Karashia faint.

In any case, after carrying Karashia back to that library and discreetly letting her sleep there…

What should we do from here?

<First, let’s identify what kind of people are in this manor.>

Understood, Extra-sama.

Then shall we begin our “protagonist search”?

After discreetly leaving the library where I left Karashia, I leapt up to the ceiling and began exploring the manor.

 

* * *

 

A few minutes later.

The loop still hasn’t occurred.

First, Extra-sama and I took a quick lap around this manor.

As the word “lap” implies, this manor is roughly U-shaped with a courtyard in the center.

It’s covered in snow right now, so the courtyard can’t be seen at all.

And this manor is actually only one story.

While it has the height of a two-story building, the ceilings are simply unnecessarily high.

With me clinging to the ceilings, the extra height provides more hiding spots which is convenient.

<Those high ceilings are actually one of the key features of the Sancolic style along with the gaudy red and yellow exterior. That open feeling was highly popular among the wealthy aristocracy back then.>

It certainly does give an incredible sense of openness.

<The nobles of that era competed to build manors with higher and higher ceilings. The ceiling height of this manor is quite modest. It was said “the height of the ceiling represents the breadth of the master’s magnanimity” in that era.>

I see.

<However, the higher the ceilings, the more heat escapes upward making it difficult to warm the interior. So this architectural style was not really suited for cold regions like this originally. The Sasamosa style that became popular as a reaction against the Sancolic style emphasized compactness and actually originated in the northern countries.>

…Extra-sama, you seem oddly knowledgeable about these details, but where did you learn all this from?

<Of course, from the Architecture God’s isekai reincarnation broadcast!>

This world really does have all sorts of gods, huh…

Well, getting back on track.

From our quick look around the manor, we identified 10 human inhabitants.

First, the sisters Karashia and Keranko.

The “Mother” and father.

The servant Doj.

I was already aware of them from eavesdropping.

Additionally, there were 5 male and female servants like maids and cooks.

10 people in total.

<For the size of this manor, the number of servants does seem quite small.>

But that just reduces the number of protagonist candidates, which is convenient for us, isn’t it?

So what I’m doing now is carefully checking each room in the manor to confirm there aren’t any other servants we’ve overlooked.

<Alright, we’re checking the next room, Emi. Let’s do this quickly before anyone shows up.>

Yes, Extra-sama.

After checking that no one is around, I dropped down from the ceiling in front of the next door.

The plate on this door reads “Master’s Study Room.”

The father of Karashia and the others’ room, huh.

Pressing my ear to the door, I listened for any sounds from inside but… it’s quiet, isn’t it?

<That father must have moved to another room. Let’s enter and check inside just in case.>

Understood!

…Eh, wait?

<What’s wrong?>

I grabbed the doorknob to open the door and turned it.

However… it didn’t open.

The doorknob just rattled without the door budging, seeming to be locked.

<It is the “Master’s Study Room” after all. Perhaps it’s always kept locked when unoccupied to secure any important contents?>

What should we do?

Should I just break the lock and force my way in… Oh.

It was at that moment.

Bakin!

That loud noise was the doorknob I had been rattling suddenly breaking off!

<Hey Emi! What are you doing!?>

Oops, I guess it had deteriorated and become fragile over the years.

<Please be more aware of your monstrous strength and act carefully!>

While I had no choice but to hang my head in shame at Extra-sama’s scolding, the situation soon changed in a way that made that pointless.

“…Didn’t that sound come from over here?”

“What kind of noise was that?”

Because the noise we just made was noticed, and voices were approaching from around the corner of the hallway!

I hastily leapt up and clung to the ceiling.

Shortly after, two young maids arrived.

The one with a frank way of speaking had her hair in twintails, while the polite-speaking one had bobbed hair.

The two made their way to the door of the Master’s Study Room and discovered the broken doorknob.

They began discussing it.

“Woah, what’s this? The doorknob is broken?”

“What should we do? Pretend we didn’t see it?”

“No, we can’t do that. We should report it to Mr. Doj for starters.”

“Eh- I don’t wanna… Even though we didn’t break it, we’ll get scolded…”

…I see.

So this Doj is the one who receives such reports, huh.

<He doesn’t seem to just be Keranko’s lackey after all.>

“Hey, hey? Let’s just ignore it, okay? This room isn’t being used right now anyway, right?”

Mu?

“Well, it has been abandoned since the Master lost the key. But they’ll probably have a spare made to unlock it eventually, and then it’ll be a problem if the doorknob is missing, right?”

<So that father didn’t just lose the signet ring proving the family head.>

Seriously?

To be locked out of his own study because he lost the key…

Doesn’t that mean the father can’t do any work right now?

Will he be okay?

<It’s no wonder his own daughter calls him incompetent.>

“Then, then the senior maid should go report it!”

“Senior? Haven’t you only been here one day longer? All the servants in this manor started around the same time except for Mr. Doj. And if I go report it, what will you do?”

“Well, if someone else finds this and reports it to Mr. Doj, it’ll be redundant, right? So I’ll stay here to explain the situation! Please, I’m begging you!”

“Geez, really… How much do you hate Mr. Doj… Fine, you owe me one!”

After that discussion, the maids split up.

The one with twin tails went to search for Doj somewhere.

The bobbed-hair one stayed put.

…It’ll be difficult to go down now…

<Let’s check another room. This one doesn’t seem to be used currently, so there’s probably no one inside anyway.>

Yeah, let’s do that.

Being careful not to be noticed by the bobbed-hair maid yawning in front of the broken door, I quietly crawled away.

 

* * *

 

As for the results of my subsequent exploration.

To summarize the conclusion, apart from the 10 people I had already confirmed, there were no other inhabitants in this manor.

After that, the rooms I checked were some vacant rooms, the male servants’ quarters, the bath, and Fateu’s room.

Fateu? That’s likely the “Mother’s” name.

Since no one seemed to be inside, I entered and looked around – it was outfitted with women’s items like dresses, accessories, and cosmetics.

Overall, nothing particularly strange about that room.

There was also a room called Sarelka’s room.

Peeking inside after gently opening the door, there was a plump man with navy blue hair glaring at some documents while scratching his head.

On the wall was the sword Karashia had been holding when she caused the tragedy – the magic sword “Agzeliary.”

Meaning this man must be Karashia and the others’ father.

<So the current head of this manor is named Sarelka, and his wife is Fateu. We’ve finally gotten the names of the main figures.>

Well, just knowing their names doesn’t mean much though.

The problem is, all 10 of the people I’ve currently confirmed died in that first loop.

The father Sarelka was killed first, while Keranko, Fateu, and Doj definitely died too.

Plus, the number of servants I saw lying dead in the hallway before reaching Keranko’s room was 5.

In other words, all the servants I confirmed during this exploration were killed in that tragedy.

But isn’t that strange?

In the first loop, Karashia was the last to die.

But her death wasn’t the trigger for the loop.

Yet these other people died before Karashia.

If the deaths of people other than Karashia triggered the loop, shouldn’t the loop have occurred partway through the tragedy?

<There was likely some time lag between the protagonist’s death and the loop occurring. For example, “The loop occurs 5 minutes after Keranko dies.”>

Ah, I see… A time delay… That would explain it then.

But… Something still bothers me.

I feel like I’m overlooking something.

What if there’s some suspicious item causing the loop, you know?

Is that possibility ruled out?

<I can’t say for certain. But if there was such an amazing item, I think I would be able to sense it as suspicious just from a glance.>

Hmm.

But from our quick look around the manor, there weren’t any suspicious items like that.

<In any case, the premise of “the loop occurring when the protagonist dies” itself doesn’t need to be doubted yet. If that’s the case, then our course of action narrows.>

To ensure no one dies and simply keep watch over the manor’s inhabitants?

<Right. Even if Karashia is unconscious, something will still occur that causes the protagonist’s death. If we prevent that something from happening, the loop shouldn’t occur.>

But you know, apart from Karashia, there’s no one else who really seems like a protagonist candidate, is there?

While Karashia herself is questionable as a protagonist in many ways, Keranko, Fateu, and Doj definitely don’t seem to have protagonist-like personalities. And the manor’s master Sarelka doesn’t either, right?

The other servants also seem to lack enough distinct characterization to be protagonists.

<But that’s just an outward impression. For example, Keranko may seem like a selfish younger sister abusing her older sister at first glance. But perhaps there are actually circumstances behind her acting that way, and she’s a protagonist-like character at heart.>

Haah? What kind of circumstances?

<I’m just hypothesizing here! When conducting this kind of exploration, it’s important to observe things without preconceptions. I learned that from the Detective God’s isekai reincarnation broadcast.>

And so, as Extra-sama and I were debating while clinging to the ceiling of the hallway, what suddenly appeared before me was a manor with an outwardly “strange” appearance.

First, the roof was bright red. Bright crimson red. Additionally, the window frames and other key areas were also painted red.

The walls were coated yellow, with red polka dot patterns drawn here and there.

With only pure white snow piled up around it, its outward appearance stood out bizarrely.

<…Well, we’ve looped again.>

Yeah. We did.

…We failed.

If I had stuck with observing someone, I could have at least confirmed if they were the protagonist or not.

In any case, I was able to loop again while retaining my memories this time too.

I should be glad about that at least.

But this situation continuing is bad.

I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep looping while retaining my memories.

<Don’t panic. Let’s just do what we can.>

…You’re right.

For now, I opened the manor’s front entrance doors.

At this hour, none of the manor’s residents were near the entrance, so I could brazenly infiltrate without being spotted.

The spacious, unadorned lobby welcomed me.

<Alright, time to take action.>

…Understood.

Then shall we continue our protagonist search?