"All right, this isn't the time to argue. The priority is finding out where Stock went."
It was Saul who brought the conversation back on track.
He usually had little presence among the group, and the others wouldn't listen to him.
But someone might have died, and Saul was the only police officer among them, the only one who knew what he was doing.
So when Saul spoke, even Brussels, who had wanted to argue back, fell silent.
"What's going on here? Something this big happened, and nobody came out to see?"
"Could Stock have been killed by someone in the villa?"
Brussels was the one who spoke, and the others fell silent at his words.
"Right, didn't the chef tell Stock to find him in the kitchen last night? Could he have killed him?"
Song Nan spoke up.
Her words reminded the others as well.
"Damn it! I'll go find him right now!"
Brussels clenched his fists, ready to knock on every door and drag the chef out.
His thin clothes couldn't conceal his muscles, which looked intimidating when they bulged.
But before anyone else could agree, a click sounded, and a door at the end of the corridor slowly opened.
A pair of polished leather shoes stepped onto the red carpet. Their gazes traveled up from the neatly tailored trouser legs, and the man they had been discussing appeared before them.
"My, my, the guests are awfully excited this early in the morning."
Xie Qi casually shut the door behind him, clasped his hands behind his back, and smiled at the guests filling the corridor.
Seeing Xie Qi emerge, Brussels, who had been so aggressive a moment ago, silently lowered his fists.
The chef before them wasn't particularly tall or fierce-looking. He could even be called handsome. Yet they instinctively felt he was not someone to be trifled with. Apart from Stock, who might already be dead and hadn't known better, none of them wanted a direct confrontation with him.
When no one else spoke, Saul could only steel himself and step forward to ask:
"Sorry to disturb you. Bailey was the first to discover that Stock wasn't in his room, and there was blood all over the floor. We wanted to know whether you saw him last night."
"Stock?"
Xie Qi tilted his head and thought carefully for a moment before an expression of recognition appeared on his face. "Oh~ you mean that very plump guest. I didn't see him last night~"
"You're lying! Weren't you the one who told him to find you?"
Bailey, who had been sitting on the floor the whole time, seemed finally to come to his senses. He used the wall to pull himself up and demanded an answer.
Perhaps he was too nervous to notice the inconsistency in Xie Qi's words, but everyone else had heard how Xie Qi described Stock, and their expressions turned ugly.
"Hmm..."
Xie Qi stroked his chin and looked over Bailey's still-trembling legs. Smiling, he said, "I was indeed in the kitchen last night. Unfortunately, perhaps that guest wasn't hungry. He didn't come to see me."
"Do you have a witness?"
Saul stepped forward, blocking Xie Qi's appraising gaze. A bead of sweat ran down his black face.
"A witness..."
Xie Qi seemed troubled. He pressed a finger to his temple and rubbed it vigorously.
Just when everyone thought he couldn't find an excuse, the head chef clapped his hands and spoke in a delighted tone.
"I have lots of witnesses. Look behind you. They're all my witnesses~"
"Aaaahhh!!!"
Bailey was the first to turn around. He was already somewhat on edge, and when he saw the villa's servants filling the space behind them, having appeared at some unknown point, he pressed himself against the wall and let out an inhuman scream.
The others were startled by him and turned to look.
This time, even the usually composed Song Nan could barely stand it. She clenched her fists tightly and held them in front of her.
Phil pressed his lips together and lowered his eyes, his thoughts unknown.
Annie gripped the hem of Phil's clothes tightly, hiding behind him with her head lowered and trembling.
Brussels and Saul were relatively calm, but the horrifying sight still shocked them, and their hearts began pounding uncontrollably.
On closer inspection, the servants looked much as they had when the group first saw them, all wearing the same fixed smiles.
But when the group had seen them at night, they could still sense the vitality of living people. Now, standing stiffly in the distance, they looked like figures in a wax museum, exuding an air of death.
"W-when did they all come up here?"
Saul swallowed hard and turned to Xie Qi, who seemed almost friendly by comparison.
"What a strange question, guest. What do you mean, when did they come up..."
After locking the door behind his back, Xie Qi strolled leisurely toward Saul and the others.
When they saw him coming, several of them hurried aside. Even as Xie Qi passed them, they didn't dare look up and meet his eyes.
When Xie Qi stopped in front of the servants and turned around, the stairs leading down were to his right, and he stood directly in front of them.
After savoring the guests' terrified expressions, Xie Qi finally stopped keeping them in suspense.
"They were here from the beginning, of course~"
Seeing his words frighten them even more, Xie Qi chuckled and continued:
"All right, now that all the guests are awake, let's begin today's game~"
As he spoke, a door across from him opened. It was Sofina, who had yet to appear.
Her appearance meant that all seven remaining people were now present.
"At a time like this? Someone's dead! And you're still in the mood to play games?" Brussels pulled Sofina to his side and mustered the courage to shout at Xie Qi.
"Hmm... How can you be so sure he's dead? Perhaps he wants to play hide-and-seek with you?"
Xie Qi spread his hands and shrugged innocently.
"What kind of joke is that? We're in no mood to play your lousy game!"
Hearing this and seeing that the guests had all become resistant to him, Xie Qi thought it over with a troubled expression, then said:
"In that case, after the game, I'll tell the winner where that guest went. How about it?"
Xie Qi felt he had already been very merciful, but the people facing him weren't buying it.
"So you do know where Stock is, and you still claim you didn't kill him?"
Saul frowned deeply too, but with the villa's other servants present, even if he wanted to seize Xie Qi, he couldn't fight ten people alone.
"If we all attack together, maybe we can catch that guy?"
Brussels edged up beside Saul and whispered in his ear.
But perhaps noticing their little maneuver, Xie Qi stepped back and hid himself among the servants.
Then he spread his arms and said happily:
"Don't be so nervous. Today's game is very simple. I call it a role-playing game."
He then extended an index finger from each hand and crossed them to form a cross. "Ten-Person Sea Survival Journey. What do you think? Very immersive, isn't it~"