Chapter 64: Mother Yukari is Peeping, After All
"Why is the surveillance camera pointed at the stairs?" Yotsuya Miko murmured, her brow furrowed in thought.
Logically, the place most deserving of monitoring should have been the master bedroom on the third floor. Yet, one of the feeds was trained on a perfectly ordinary staircase. Was the Castle Master afraid someone might sneak up to destroy his equipment?
"I'm not sure," Wu Wenwen admitted, shaking her head. The placement struck her as just as bizarre.
"Could there be a secret passage hidden in the staircase?" Miko mused, her mind grasping for possibilities. "One that leads to a hidden room on the third floor?"
"It's possible!" Wu Wenwen's eyes lit up with the idea.
But just as quickly, Miko deflated, dismissing her own theory. "Haruto already knocked on all the walls on his way up to the third floor. He said they were all solid."
"Not necessarily," Lin Xuelao interjected, her head tilted slightly. "If the Castle Master was thorough, he could have lined the inner walls of the third floor with sound-absorbing material and thickened the walls around the secret passage. To the casual knock, it would sound identical to a solid wall. An ordinary person would never be able to tell the difference."
Miko's frown deepened at the explanation. Then, a spark of realization ignited in her eyes as she turned to Lin Xuelao with a hopeful expression. "Then, Lao Lao, can you hear the difference?"
Lin Xuelao shook her head gently. Just as a flicker of disappointment crossed Miko's face, she added, "I'm not sure. But I can try."
Miko was momentarily rendered speechless, shooting Lin Xuelao a half-exasperated, half-amused look. Why did everyone she knew enjoy a dramatic pause so much? A quick glance at the time showed it was still a while before noon.
"Let's go take a look in a bit."
Lin Xuelao nodded in agreement.
"Perfect," Wu Wenwen chimed in. "Xie Lin and the others are all on the third floor anyway, so we can meet up with them. Brother Haoran is taking a page from Haruto's book and keeping the butler occupied on the first floor."
Miko's gaze drifted towards the end of the second-floor hallway. She could understand the camera aimed at the courtyard; it confirmed what Haruto had deduced last night—the butler, being the Castle Master, had no way of knowing they hadn't arrived at the castle when he claimed.
But the final camera, the one aimed at the public washing area, left her completely baffled.
'Was it to peep on people showering?' she wondered. The thought was absurd. Besides, the guest rooms clearly had their own bathrooms, so who would even need to use a public one?
also, could a man who was half-human, half-ghost, who was willing to kill to feed his wife, and who still cherished her even after she had become a monstrous entity, truly harbor such a filthy hobby? It didn't fit the profile at all.
Lin Xuelao wore a similarly puzzled expression, clearly wrestling with the same inconsistencies. She, too, could find no logical reason for that particular camera's placement.
"You guys have a bathroom in here!?"
Wu Wenwen's sudden exclamation sliced through their thoughts, inadvertently answering their question. Realizing how loud she'd been, she quickly slapped a hand over her mouth, glancing cautiously at the two figures still sleeping on the bed. Seeing they hadn't stirred, she let out a quiet sigh of relief.
"Your room doesn't have one?" Miko asked, surprised by her friend's intense reaction. "Is the layout different from ours?"
Wu Wenwen shook her head, a trace of longing in her eyes. "The room layouts are basically the same—the furniture, the beds, the balconies are all identical. The only difference is the lack of a bathroom. As far as I know, no one else's room has one. Only yours is specially equipped."
At first, Miko didn't quite grasp the significance. So what if they had to go a few days without a shower? But then, the pieces clicked into place, and she understood the critical implication.
Every seemingly arbitrary detail in an instance had a purpose. It was just like the last world, where a single, isolated guesthouse stood on an endless beach—its uniqueness was a clear signal of its importance.
Perhaps the bathroom was, in fact, a trivial detail. But in a game of life and death, who would dare gamble on that possibility? If they guessed wrong, the price would be their lives.
When the butler had first led them into the castle, he had specifically emphasized the importance of bathing and changing clothes. As guests, maintaining proper etiquette and a tidy appearance was a fundamental requirement. It was just like the rule about not sitting in the host's seat at the dining table—these were hidden traps, and violating them was not an option.
Seeing the undisguised envy in Wu Wenwen's gaze, Miko hesitated for a moment before speaking. "When Haruto wakes up, I'll ask him for you. See if you can come over here to take a bath."
"Thank you! I'm so grateful!" Wu Wenwen bowed deeply, her voice thick with excited relief. It was a perfectly understandable reaction. Showering in the public bathroom on the second floor was almost certainly a death trap, whereas the private guest room was a relative sanctuary.
What had been mere suspicion was now a near certainty, all thanks to the knowledge that a camera was pointed directly at that public bathroom's door.
"So," Miko prompted, changing the subject, "did you discuss anything else?"
"There's one last thing: we need to steal the butler's keys. As for the method..." Wu Wenwen's voice dropped, a hint of reluctance in her tone. After a moment's hesitation, she whispered, "This was Brother Haoran's idea. He said we should find someone to 'accidentally' spill tea on the butler's clothes. While he's changing or bathing, we steal the keys. If possible, we take his clothes too. If not, we just block him in the bathroom so he can't get out."
Hearing that the plan came from the tattooed, burly man, both Miko and Lin Xuelao's expressions turned strange. They could instantly imagine the rest.
"Are you sure that won't just enrage the butler?" Miko couldn't help but ask.
"Probably... right?" A flicker of awkwardness crossed Wu Wenwen's eyes, but she quickly added, "But that Zhang Katao guy said he has a sealing-type item. As long as he sticks it on the door, it can block it for a full two minutes."
Even so, no one could be sure if the butler would figure out who trapped him, or if he would simply hunt them down afterward regardless.
After listening to all the information Wu Wenwen had gathered, Miko returned the favor, recounting everything she and Haruto had discovered in detail. Wu Wenwen was stunned, her eyes growing wider with each revelation.
"The butler isn't the butler?"
"He's the Castle Master?"
"And he's using the blood words to set us up?"
"The real ghost in this instance is his wife, and... and the two of them are kissing and hugging and... being all lewd?"
The first few points were shocking enough, but when she heard the last one, Wu Wenwen's expression twisted as she pictured the grotesque scene.
"We should head up," Miko reminded her, pulling her back to the present. "If we don't get back soon, it'll be bad if your teammates accidentally take something from the master bedroom and get caught by that guy."
Wu Wenwen nodded nervously. But then, as if remembering something, she looked back at the two sleeping figures on the bed with a worried frown. "What about Haruto and Kaguya? Will they be in danger if no one is here watching over them?"
Miko, already at the door, offered a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about them. Even if something happened to every single one of us, they would be the last ones standing."
As she spoke, her gaze subconsciously drifted to the parasol hanging by the headboard. But her casual glance was met by a single, purple eye that had bloomed open on the fabric's surface.
She froze. A chill that seemed to originate from her very soul shot up her spine and into her skull, rooting her to the spot.
"What's wrong?" Lin Xuelao asked, her brow creasing with concern as she sensed the sudden shift in Miko's demeanor.
"No... it's nothing." Miko's voice trembled slightly as she shook her head. The eerie, cosmic eye had already vanished. She said nothing of what she had seen, instead turning and walking quickly out the door.
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