東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 2: The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil

Two

𝘕𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘰𝘺𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘵 𝘶𝘱 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦;
𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧
𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵.



—3—


Everything had become a confusing whirl of sensations. First was the impact—a hard thump on my backside accompanied by a dull thud. There was the whoosh of an object moving through the air then something hard rained down from above, blocking out sight and stirring up a cloud of dust. Then, only pain and silence.

"Ahhh, ouch ouch ouch ouch...."

Slowly, as my senses re-oriented themselves, I found that I had become buried in a pile of books. Apparently, some of the contents of the shelf above us had toppled down and piled up all around us. Rubbing my butt and my head, I stood up and looked for Renko. She too was struggling to dig herself out of the pile. "Are you okay?" I asked, reaching out a hand to her.

"Ugh, not my best day," she remarked as she climbed to her feet and dug her hat out of the pile to dust it off. Apparently, neither Renko nor I were injured. Just as I was about to let out a sigh of relief, I realized something was wrong and reflexively looked around. —And gulped in shock.

"...Hey, Renko," I started, turning to look at her.

"Yeah?" Renko was still bent over, dusting off her skirt.

"Where are we?"

"What? —Huh?" Renko finally grasped the situation and looked around in dismay.

Surrounding us on either side were bookshelves filled with countless books. It was clear, however, that this was no longer the room of Usami Sumireko as it had been a few minutes ago. It was still dusty and terribly lit, but the bookshelves surrounding us towered high above now, extending into a vast, library-like space. The ceiling was so high that one could only wonder how anyone could actually access any of the upper shelves, but every inch of the towering structures were filled with books.

A dim light source suspended from the distant ceiling and a lamp hanging on the wall beside the bookshelf washed our surroundings in pale, faint light. It was a strange light, somehow different in character from either LED lamps or fluorescent tubes. Underfoot, the carpet was thick but well-worn. At the foot of many of the bookshelves were piles of books, stacked neatly, unlike the pile we had emerged from, but still heaped on the ground presumably to await re-shelving.

In any case, I didn't recognize the place. Judging from the look on her face, neither did Renko. Even if we had fallen or lost consciousness in Sumireko's room, what explanation could there be for how we could have both come to be buried in books in this strange library? Thinking back on the sensation of the distorted and unstable boundaries I had felt upon entering that room, there could be only one possibility.
"Merry, could it be that - we've both crossed over some strange boundary?"

It seemed we had indeed followed a path beyond the borders of our world, intentionally or not. Rather than the subtle gaps invisible to most that my eyes would normally detect, this one had been more substantial. So much so that even my existentialist partner had been brought along.

Renko's eyes lit up at my answer, and she immediately began to explore our surroundings with an energy that suggested she might break into a sprint at any minute. I was still dumbfounded, but for the time being, I took to re-stacking the large number of books that had scattered around my feet. It's a personal idiosyncrasy that I can't stand the sight of books strewn about all over the floor. It may seem like a silly thing to have done under the circumstances, but it's a propensity that comes out subconsciously for me.

I closed the books that had spread open and stacked them neatly, but I didn't want to try to put them back on the shelves without permission. The organization of a bookshelf is subject to its owner's own aesthetic sense after all, and I had no right to meddle. By the time I finished piling up all the books that had scattered, Renko, who had been wandering around, had come back.

"We're out of cellular range. The time display on my phone is still normal for now, but I can't see outside so I don't know if it matches the actual time here. Why are you cleaning up?"

"Because we may as well stay right here, don't you think? If we move around a chimera might attack us again."

I was referring to events that had happened not long ago, when the two of us had infiltrated the satellite TORIFUNE, but that's another story.

At my words, my partner tilted her head and muttered "Speaking of which, my being here like this with you is strange, isn't it? You didn't cover my eyes at any point did you Merry?"

"Of course not. If this really is a world on the opposite site of a boundary then you're physically here alongside me, Renko. Given that, what do you think will happen if we get attacked by a chimera again?"

"Don't say something scary like that. That would mean that this isn't a dream, right?"

Renko looked around again, appraisingly. Usually when Renko and I investigated the far side of a boundary, it was by means of me sharing a vision I experienced with my own eyes by covering hers with my hand. For Renko, such experiences were like sharing someone else's dream. Even though the chimera we had encountered in the TORIFUNE ruins had been all too real. That's why I was hurt and ended up institutionalized in a sanatorium for a month.

"In that case, Merry, does that mean we don't have a way back?"

"If this isn't a dream... you may be right."

Renko looked up to the heavens and sighed. I did the same. I don't know what had happened when we were in Sumireko's room, but we had certainly wandered into a strange place. The best thing to do was to stay put until we could figure out how to return.

"Okay then, Merry. Let's get a move on and figure out where we are."

I sighed in exasperation. "Renko, if you're determined to charge headfirst into danger feel free, but don't drag me along with you."

"We can't stand still in a place like this. If there are any monsters out there, they'll find us here eventually. We'd be better off if we can figure out where we are."

"You know what they say Merry, better to try it and regret it then never do it at all." She offered me her outstretched hand.

I don't think that's how the saying goes. I didn't say anything though. I knew full well that in situations like this words would never be enough to dissuade my partner. Thus, I was dragged to my feet by Renko, which is the way things usually go for our Hifuu Club.

"All right. But if things get dangerous, I'm going to abandon you and run away."

"That's terrible, Merry. We're a team, you and I. There is no Hifuu Club if it's not me and you."

"Doesn't that just make us a two-for-one deal if there's anything hungry out there?"

"There's no need to worry, what kind of monsters would live in a library? Come on, let's go."

Renko grabbed my hand tightly. I couldn't help but notice the softness of her touch. I was always powerless to resist that hand, wherever its firm but delicate grip would pull me. Hand in hand, the two of us set out, the same old Hifuu Club as usual.



"Chimeras or not, this is a terrifyingly large library. I wonder how far it goes?" Renko and I might both be bookworms, but neither of us wanted to get lost and starve to death in a library. With my head filled with gloomy thoughts like those and Renko's hand clasped firmly in my own, we wandered among the bookshelves. Time seemed to stretch on, with row after row of nearly identical books in impossibly tall shelves moving past us with no end in sight. According to the display on my phone, however, it had only been a little over ten minutes since we arrived. Even still, to not have reached or even seen the end of a building after ten minutes of wandering was worrisome in and of itself.

"Merry, you should turn off your cell phone. We're out of range anyway."

Who knows how long its charge would have to last us? I took Renko's advice and shut off my phone, thinking to myself that it would have been better if I had worn a wristwatch. Admonishing myself for such an oversight now would hardly do me any good though. Renko would just have to take the place of a watch for me, though who knows if her ability would even work here. At the very least, we'd need to get to somewhere where she could see the stars.

"Maybe this place is more of a warehouse than a library," I suggested.

"A book wholesaler? From the titles and styles of these books it looks more like an enormous antique shop, or an awfully-lit museum. We may as well try calling out." Without a moment's consideration, Renko shouted. "Heeey, is anyone there?" It felt like a sin for her to be making so much noise in a library, but under the circumstances we had little choice. Her voice did not reverberate, simply vanishing in the deep silence of the place. We waited a moment without reply.

"Eh? Who's that?" The voice came from above our heads, the wrong angle for an echo. It was neither my voice nor Renko's, but a third person's, a woman's voice.

We quickly looked above us, but nothing but an endless expanse of bookshelf awaited us there, stretching to the ceiling, even beyond the light of the lamps, into a musty darkness. Where had the voice come from?

Renko called out again. "Excuse me, is someone there?"

"Intruders? When did that happen? That's an unusual occurrence."

This was yet another voice. From behind this time. A lazy, gravelly, feminine voice, like someone half-asleep. We turned around and knew at once that beyond a doubt we had definitely crossed a boundary into a strange world, a place where the logic of the Scientific Century did not apply.

The girl was flying. No, it would be more accurate to say that she was floating in the air, drifting gently, as if underwater. Long purplish hair. Morbidly pale skin. Half-lidded, sleepy eyes that squinted myopically at us. She had a distinctly human face. Her appearance, her movements, her mannerisms—all seemed human, but even still, the moment I looked at her there was something instinctual, beyond the bounds of logic that quivered uncomfortably inside me. She felt different, as if there was something implacably, but undeniably out of place about this girl. Something inhuman.

It was not only because her feet, which should have been treading the floor, were floating about 30cm above it, poking out from beneath the hem of the shapeless purple nightgown she was wearing. Even if she had been standing on the floor, I would have had the same unsettling impression of her. That's how unmistakably different she appeared.

The hem of her nightgown flapped softly and she alighted on the ground. Standing there, she was much smaller than either of us. If she were human, she might have been in junior high school. I was surprised to find myself thinking "if she were human..." so readily, but the reaction was undeniable. If she wasn't a human though, what was she?

"Two humans? How in the world did you get in here? What is that gatekeeper doing? At any rate, there's nothing worth stealing for you in this library." The glare she cast at us when she spoke was both rude and dismissive. She clutched a thick hardcover volume in both arms as she stared. 'Humans,' she had called us, meaning she wasn't one herself. My mind swirled with questions, but before I could form a sentence, my partner, who always acts first, spoke up.

"My apologies for barging in here without permission. To be honest, we ourselves don't really know how we got here. Where are we, exactly?"

Renko's words caused the girl to wrinkle her brow in wonderment. Just then, the voice that had come from overhead before interrupted—

"Lady Patchouli!"

The owner of the voice swooped down from above, her leathery black wings cutting through the air with every movement. She was a girl with red hair. She was wearing a white shirt, a black vest over top of it and a red necktie along with a sharp black pencil skirt. She might've looked very much the professional if not for the bat-like wings that sprouted from her back and temples. The wings weren't flapping, but they fluttered and twitched as she floated in the air with far too much dexterity to be costume accessories. Upon looking at her, the word "devil" sprung instantly to mind. A very cute devil, though.

The bat-winged girl swooped down beside the girl she had called Patchouli and whispered something in her ear. Patchouli's brow creased even further at her words. The two of them muttered to each other. "In the hole in the barrier that I opened? To intervene from the Outside would take tremendous power. These two don't even look like..." The girl in purple turned to Renko. "You two wouldn't happen to be magicians?"

"Magicians? No, no, we're just regular people, albeit with a few strange abilities." Renko glanced at me. In my opinion, Renko, who considered the ability to perform simple subtraction an unusual ability, had no right to give me a weird look.

"Hmmm... either way, you must be from the Outside World."

"The 'Outside World?'"

Patchouli looked as if she was about to respond, but instead gasped suddenly, then doubled over coughing, wheezing as if from an asthma attack. The bat-winged girl helped to support her, murmuring words of concern. Brushing off the bat-winged girl who was worriedly rubbing her back, Patchouli looked up. With a wheezing voice she croaked "It's troublesome to have to explain everything. Sakuya, are you here?"

"Yes, Lady Patchouli, you called?"

I had just met two girls who didn't look like humans and were flying through the air. I shouldn't have been surprised by the appearance of someone new, no matter how strange, but when a figure suddenly appeared behind Patchouli, in a space that had been empty only a moment before, I gulped. The woman who had appeared was kneeling at Patchouli's side, in a perfectly respectful position, without any appearance of having moved to get there. She had simply appeared on the spot.

In appearance, this most recent arrival could only be described as resembling a maid. She wore a maid's apron and headband, both frilled with pure white lace. Her bright silver hair hung in braids on either side of her face, each tied with a green ribbon. Her kneeling, motionless figure was as still and as expertly posed as a statue. Looking at her, I had a sense of déjà vu. I had seen this person before -- no, not just that, I had met and talked with them before. I was sure of it.

"We have two human intruders. They appear to be Outsiders. They don't seem to have any ill-will toward our lady, so for now, please treat them as our guests. If anything happens, I'll leave it up to you and Remi to decide if they should end up in Remi's pie or as her sister's playthings."

"I understand."

"Then I'll leave things to the two of you. Make sure you seal that hole up properly."

With that, the girl with the bat wings and Patchouli both rose into the air and fluttered away, disappearing around the corners of bookshelves. That answered how anyone could reach the upper shelves, at least. Renko and I were left alone with the woman in the maid's uniform who they had called Sakuya. Without a word she rose and approached us, her face as placid as if the sights and events of the last few minutes were too ordinary to be worthy of comment.

Now that I could see her face clearly, the sense of déjà vu had gone from an inkling to a certainty.There was no doubt—she was the same maid who had given me cookies in the red mansion I had seen in my dreams. She gave no sign of recognizing me however, and her face was a perfectly impassive mask as she gracefully bowed.

"Welcome. By the order of Lady Patchouli, I would like to welcome you as a guest. I am Izayoi Sakuya, head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Usami Renko."

"Um, my name is Maéreverie Hearn."

Sakuya's greeting had been polite and formal, as if well-rehearsed, whereas ours had been rushed and inelegant. I remembered that when I had met her in the dream before, I hadn't heard her name then. Izayoi Sakuya, a very theatrical name. The maid outfit too was like a costume, and once you started questioning the details, the entire situation we found ourselves in could hardly be thought of as more than fiction. The name "Scarlet Devil Mansion" was too over-the-top to possibly be believed.

"'The Scarlet Devil Mansion,' eh? Impressive. Is this someone's home?" Renko, of course, was brimming with excitement.

"Yes, it is. This is the mansion of the Scarlet Devil, my master, the Lady Remilia Scarlet. This is the basement of the mansion, the great library of Lady Patchouli. I'll show you both to a more comfortable room for now. Miss Usami, Miss Hearn, this way please."

She turned on her heel and walked out without a sound, her long graceful strides rapidly carrying her into the murky dimness of the library's gloom. I glanced at Renko. We had no choice but to follow her, and so we hurried behind, awkwardly stepping around the drifts of books gathered into heaps here and there on the floor.


—4—


From the library, which had seemed impossibly vast, we followed Sakuya and reached the door in no time. It seemed strange, given how far Renko and I had aimlessly wandered among those stacks, but soon we were climbing dimly lit stairs and stepping out into a richly appointed hallway. The scene that unfolded before us was every bit what you might expect from a building with so grand and overblown a name.

Red. Or to be more accurate, a vivid, striking crimson. The walls, floors and ceilings all bore the color. Illuminated by glowing lamps, the lurid tone seemed so bright as to be almost startling. Further from the lights, the color sank into a rich darkness like long-dried blood. Without a doubt, this was the interior of the same red mansion I had seen in my dream.

In my dream, of course, I had only seen the mansion from the outside, or more precisely through its gate, but somehow this overblown presentation fit exactly in my mind as the sort of interior that would befit the imposing architecture of the scarlet mansion's exterior. Was this all to the owner's taste? It reminded me of one of Milne's classic novels—The Red House Mystery.

I whispered my thoughts to Renko as we followed Sakuya's lead across a thick carpet that swallowed the sounds of our footsteps. The library had been spacious, but this hallway seemed to stretch on forever, its forced perspective narrowing to a vanishing point ahead of us. Wondering how far it went, I looked over Sakuya's shoulder and was struck with a strange sense of incongruity.

"Hey Renko, shouldn't there be some windows here?"

"Good question. I wonder if we're still underground?"

The hallway we were walking down was lined with doors on the right side. If the left side had also been lined with doors, then the lack of windows wouldn't have seemed strange, but it was only an endless wall. Framed pictures were hung at regular intervals to disguise the monotony, but the entire corridor was terribly dim, with no hint of natural light.

Sakuya replied to Renko's undirected musings without turning her head. "This is the ground level. The reason there are no windows in this wing is that the mistress doesn't like sunlight."

A mistress of a sprawling mansion that hates sunlight? She almost sounded like...

"Is she a vampire?" Renko asked jokingly.

Rather than replying, Sakuya turned on the spot, facing us with a cold smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Right this way, please," was all she said before opening one of the numberless doors and gesturing for us to enter.

For some reason, a chill ran down my spine when I saw that smile, and I grabbed my partner's hand without thinking. Renko stayed silent, but gave my hand a squeeze. Entering the room Sakuya had indicated, I breathed a sigh of relief. The room beyond was a very spacious waiting room. A leather sofa, mahogany table, and a crystal chandelier overhead all gleamed in shades of red, but apart from the color scheme, the room was very much as one might expect from an establishment calling itself a 'mansion.'

"The lady of the house is still resting at the moment, so I'll ask you to wait here for the time being. Shall I bring you some tea?" Sakuya asked as Renko made her way over to the sofa. We glanced at each other before nodding our heads. "I'll be right back then."

Sakuya bowed elegantly, but she didn't leave. Instead, upon rising up, a tray with a teapot and cups appeared in her hand. It was as if she had simply conjured them in an instant.

With us both visibly confused and unable to understand what had just happened, Sakuya poured the tea into cups. Handing them delicately to each of us, she said "Well then, please call me at any time if you require anything" and then ,in the very moment she finished speaking, she vanished entirely from the room. There wasn't even the sound of her opening or closing the door.

We stared blankly at the door for a moment, then timidly picked up the porcelain teacups. "I don't think it's poisoned..." Renko offered hesitantly. I took a determined sip, and instantly the rich aroma spread across my tongue and tickled my nostrils.

"Oh, it's delicious!"

"It really is!"

I exhaled, finally beginning to feel at ease with the warmth of the tea spreading through me. I turned to Renko, who was sitting next to me. I was happy to have met someone I had seen before, but there were still too many impossibilities here for my mind to keep up with. I desperately needed to wrap my head around the situation, but every time I considered another aspect of what we had just seen, it all began feeling like an impossible dream once again.

"Renko, what the hell is going on, exactly?"

"I don't want to hear that from you, Merry! Wasn't it you who brought us here?"

"No, it was—"

I raised my eyebrows and dug into my memory. "It was the notebook we found in your great aunt's room. A jewel—an amber with an insect inside spilled out of it, and at that moment the borders in the room warped. Collapsed. Turned inside-out. —Wait, the amber!"

I hurriedly searched my pockets. Renko did the same, but the amber jewel was nowhere to be found. There was no sign of the "Hifuu Club" notebook either.

"Do you think my great aunt had anything to do with this?" Renko asked.

"I don't know. I think we can't dismiss the possibility that she might have. There was probably a gap in the border in that room to begin with and it opened on us by chance."

Renko glowered for a moment then seized her cheek and pulled hard. It was a rather cliched way to check if she was dreaming or not, like something out of a cartoon. Dissatisfied, she crossed her arms. "It all seems real enough for now, at any rate. This doesn't feel like the times you've shared your dreams with me in the past either, Merry."

"It's always been real, Renko. For me, anyway. You're the only one who ever felt otherwise."

"Let's leave the discussion of Relativistic Noology for another time. If we're really here and we don't have a way to return, then we need to figure out a way to fix it."

"What do you mean, 'fix it'"?

"You'll have to do what you do best, Merry. Find a rift."

"I haven't seen any trace of one since we got here. This whole building is strange though, in a way I haven't seen before." The mansion was strange in a lot of ways, actually. The dimensions of that library as an unsupported underground space or the length of that hallway both seem improbable. If we weren't in a dream then what could explain the construction of this place?

"Let's not worry about the odd physics for now. We've seen several stranger things than that here in this mansion already." Renko crossed her arms behind her head and stared up at the chandelier. "Why were we transported from my great aunt's room to the library in the basement of this mansion? What exactly were that floating girl called Patchouli, and that flying girl with the wings? Were they humans? Even that Sakuya is doing strange magic tricks."

"Could they even be called magic tricks?"

"If not magic, then what? Psychic powers? Teleportation, perhaps? My aunt Sumireko was said to be capable of similar."

"Could she possibly be related to your great aunt?"

"No, no way. Regardless though, the first step is going to be for us to meet this 'Scarlet Devil.' Maybe we can ask her about this whole situation. I don't know who she is, but I have to imagine she can't be an ordinary human, right?"

"Probably not. I remember Patchouli had said something strange, something about Remi's pie?"

"Sakuya had said this was the house of Remilia Scarlet, didn't she? 'Remi' might be a nickname. What about that bit about pie? That's a kind of western pastry, right? Like a sweet with fruit inside? I'm sure I could find lots of information about it if I looked in that library."

"Some are sweet, but you can also put other things inside."

"Like what?"

"Like us, I think." It was somehow scarier to think of such a gruesome threat being couched in the guise of a sweet pastry rather than a meat dish. Who, or what, exactly was the "lady" of this mansion?

"Don't say something so scary with such a straight face, Merry."

It couldn't be helped. The current situation was quite frightening no matter how you looked at it. In this unknown house the inhabitants looked human, but weren't. The maid might have some sort of psychic powers. We were like lambs being gently and courteously led to the slaughter. Was this mansion really more like a restaurant with our names on the menu?

"Don't worry. As long as the lady of the house is someone we can communicate with, it will work out. Probably." I couldn't guess how much the exaggerated shiver she responded with was honest. We didn't seem to be in any immediate, mortal danger but the vague uneasiness of not understanding the current situation was exactly the sort of thing that could slowly wear you down.

"By the way, Merry..."

"Yes?"

"I just remembered, didn't you mention that you got cookies from a red mansion in one of your dreams
before?"

"Oh, you remembered. I had thought you would have forgotten about it, so I hadn't brought it up."

"By any chance, did you get them from..."

"From Sakuya, yes, I'm sure of it."

"That's why you had such a strange expression when Sakuya showed up then. That makes sense." Renko took a sip of her tea then deliberated for a moment. "Sakuya didn't have any reaction when she saw you, I wonder if she doesn't remember your face?

"Well, she did just hand me the cookies through the gate, maybe she wouldn't recall...."

"Can you tell me the story of that dream one more time, as best you can remember? Your dream might be the only source of information we have."

I searched my head for the thread of that dream from long ago. Dreams are usually forgotten the moment you wake up, but the memory of the dreams of other worlds I had seen and brought things back from were still vivid. That was part of the reason why the distinction between dreams and reality had started to become so blurred for me. I tried to recall...

"Yes. The first thing I remember was being in a dark forest..."


—5—


As I emerged from the dark forest, my vision was enveloped by a blanket of white fog. The clinging fog filled my world with white, as if it were blocking not only my vision, but all of my senses. I walked forward as if swimming through a featureless void. From the milky white nothingness, a bright red shape began to emerge. Its blurred outline, which initially appeared out of focus, soon coalesced into the shape of a large mansion.

Suddenly, a breeze blew and the fog shredded away. Before I knew it, I was standing on the shore of a small lake. On the other side of the water, against the green of the mountains, smothered by the white mist rising up from the surface of the lake, the bright red mansion stood in silence. The imbalance of the primary colors, like a child's drawing, somehow seemed to fit in perfectly with the scenery. Perhaps the artificiality of the scene made it appropriate in a dream.

What kind of people would live in such a mansion, I wondered? Driven by curiosity, I headed toward the house. Perhaps I could drop in for a visit. Would it be rude of me to show up without warning? Would the mansion in front of me accept me in the first place? Why was I worrying about such things in my dream?

Repeating these questions to myself, I approached the gate. The iron of its bars was cold, hard, and heavy, as if it would reject any intruder. I tried grabbing the gate and shaking it, but it didn't budge with my strength. I knew this was not the kind of house you could just barge into.

Then, beyond the gate, I saw a woman dressed in a maid's outfit. She was coming toward me from the mansion's entrance, crossing the cobblestone path between flower beds filled with colorful flowers. The maid was a tall, thin woman with her silver hair in short braids. Her graceful bearing, which brought to mind the word "elegant," seemed appropriate for this large mansion.

"Excuse me," I called out to her.

She caught sight of me, and a soft smile appeared on her pretty face.

"Oh, hello." She smiled at me in a distant, but almost friendly way.

Through the iron fence of the gate, I called out, "I'd like to see the master."

The maid nodded her head, "I'm afraid not. It's time for the young lady to take her rest."

Looking up at the sky, the dazzling blue and white expanse spread out in panorama surrounding the midmorning sun. It seemed that the young lady must be very spoiled indeed to be sleeping in the daytime like this.

The maid asked me if I was alone today. I thought it was a strange question, but I nodded yes. Then, she nodded and took a small bag from her pocket and held it out to me through the gate.

"I don't want to make a lot of noise, and it is the young lady's order that no guests be allowed in while she is asleep, so I am sorry, but could you please leave us for now? If you wish to see the young mistress, please come again in the evening."

Smiling, the maid dropped the bag into my palm. The contents of the bag, which clattered softly as it landed, turned out to be cookies.

I nodded with a slightly disappointed heart. The maid tilted her head and said, "The mistress and her sister will be happy to welcome you and your friend anytime."


—6—


"What did you do with those cookies?"

"We ate them together, Renko. You said that if I ate food from another world, I might not be able to return from it but you ate them too."

"Oh yes, that's right. Those were delicious, weren't they? I see, they were something she made." Nodding in agreement with herself, she said "Hey, you don't think I got stuck here with you because of that, do you?"

"You think you got pulled into another world because you ate some cookies? I think there's probably too much of a time gap for it to be that."

"Yes, I know, but if this is all your dream Merry, then it may be relevant. Could you have pulled me in here from my great aunt's room because you thought the connection was important? Nah—probably not."

Shaking her head, Renko muttered to herself as she pondered. I sighed and rose from the sofa to wander around the room. A book sitting on the bookcase in the corner of the chamber caught my eye. Although we had just emerged from a seemingly endless labyrinth of books not long ago, it is my nature as a book lover that when I see a book that catches my fancy, I can't help but become curious.

Most of the books lined up on this shelf were thick, leather-bound western-style books that looked like they existed more to be interior decorations than reading material. Their spines were neatly aligned in orderly, matched rows but unlabeled, like volumes of encyclopediae or collected works of some kind. What had caught my eye was a slim volume sitting in the corner of the lowest shelf, an old green hardcover that looked rather incongruous compared to the others. As I pulled it from the shelf, Renko spoke up behind me.

"Anything interesting over there?"

The book was an original edition of Agatha Christie's classic mystery 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘞𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘕𝘰𝘯𝘦, first published in 1939 and still bearing the original publishing title. I hadn't read it since junior high. I flipped the book around to show Renko the cover.

"Oh, the original. Have you read it in English, Merry?"

"I read the Japanese translation by Hisae Aoki. Probably the same version you read, right?"

"Well, not to brag but I had heard there was an issue with the translation, so I read that one, the original Kiyomizu translation and then the original English."

It was a very Renko thing to do. I remember hearing that when this book had first been translated into Japanese by Kiyomizu there was some fuss over a mistranslation, but that had long been corrected in all subsequent printings. I had only ever read the Aoki translation myself. Like a normal person.

"Hey Renko, if there were eight people living in this mansion, then with the two of us there would be exactly ten, right?"

"Well let's not start losing people until there are none left then. Why would you bring that up?"

It's normal for my mind to go to dark places given the circumstances we find ourselves in. However, I don't think there are eight people living in this mansion. We'd only met three so far, and two of them might not even be what could properly be called "people."

"Well I don't suppose you could solve a mystery in a mansion full of people who can fly and teleport anyway."

Somehow, I suspect Nishizawa Yasuhiko would be furious at me for saying that.

"Luckily, we're not characters in a murder mystery, Merry. We're just the Hifuu Club."

As we were chatting, there was a knock on the door. It was Sakuya who opened it. She stood in the hall and, opening the door wide, gestured as if inviting us to leave.

"The young mistress has awakened, and is expecting you both."
Renko and I shared an uneasy glance.