They had played their game early that day, and there was still some time before noon when it ended.
They had yet to eat lunch, and with their stomachs empty, they all felt weak.
That was also why they had made no major moves over the past few days. One meal a day was only enough to cover their minimum needs, so they had spent the rest of their time in their rooms, conserving energy as they waited for the cargo ship.
But now was no time to rest easy. The five of them, excluding Saul, split into two groups: Song Nan, Annie, and Sofina in one, and Phil and Bailey in the other. They went their separate ways to look for rooms they could open.
Even the pattern on Mrs. Caster's door was different from the others, so they began searching at the point farthest from her room.
They had not gone up to the third floor without thinking it through.
Judging by the servants' movements earlier, they appeared to live only on the first floor. The visiting guests and the chef lived on the second, while Mrs. Caster and the silver-haired butler lived on the third.
As long as they avoided those two rooms, the chances of being discovered would be fairly low.
There were very few rooms on the third floor. Aside from Mrs. Caster's and the one next to it, there were only three in total.
They tried the doors and, sure enough, they were all locked.
Song Nan had the keys. She first unlocked the room at the end of the hallway, and the dust stirred up by the opening door made her choke.
Song Nan pressed a hand firmly over her mouth to keep herself from coughing aloud.
Seeing this, Annie pulled her aside and walked in, waving the dust away as she went.
Before they got a good look, they thought it was a storage room. But once inside, they found it was a bedroom, exquisitely decorated and seemingly intended for a girl.
Mrs. Caster had said earlier that the Caster family's last two masters had been dead for many years, so this might have been Miss Caster's room.
Seeing Annie go in, Song Nan and Sofina followed her inside.
The room was dim, its thick curtains blocking out the light completely.
None of them had anything to light the room with, so they drew the curtains, revealing a giant tree outside that blocked half the window like a tentacled monster.
Sunlight filtered through the branches and bars onto the floor, forming a strange, fragmented pattern.
Sensing the gloomy atmosphere, Sofina could not help swallowing.
She took an involuntary step back and felt her foot touch something.
Looking down, she saw a brown leather notebook, as covered in dust as the room itself.
She gave it a somewhat disdainful kick, sending it sliding across the floor until it struck the dressing table.
The faint sound made Song Nan and Annie turn to look at her.
Ignoring Sofina's panicked hand-waving, Annie spotted the leather notebook on the floor and took two steps forward to pick it up.
Song Nan came over too. Neither of them minded how dirty it was; they casually wiped off the dust and opened it.
It was a diary. Judging by the childish handwriting, it had probably been written by the room's owner.
The entries at the beginning all seemed normal, describing a little girl's everyday activities, such as reading and practicing the piano. Her parents and older brother were mentioned occasionally as well.
But as they read further, her brother appeared less and less often, until he disappeared entirely. She only wrote that her parents had taken her to play at that place again, and although she was happy to spend time with them, she still missed her brother very much.
The diary never specified where they went or what they did. Each time, it used vague references.
Things like underground, darkness, strange uncle, and it hurts so much.
The three of them, having seen and heard much of life's darker side, immediately thought of some unpleasant possibilities.
Song Nan's expression grew grave. Could the Caster family really have sent their own daughter away to be abused?
But on further thought, she felt there was no need. The Caster family had amassed a fortune selling arms; surely they would not have had to use their daughter as a bargaining chip.
There was not much else in the diary, and the entries ended five years ago.
After reading it, Annie raised a question. "Why is Mrs. Caster never mentioned in the diary? If her brother got married, there's no way his sister wouldn't have attended."
According to the diary, the last time she saw her brother was a year before the final entry. In other words, she had not seen him at all during the following year.
Could her brother have married Mrs. Caster during that year?
It was hard to say. Song Nan could not draw any conclusions from so little information either. All she knew was that the Cast family must be hiding a huge secret.
"You said before that the Caster family had a history of hereditary illness. Could Miss Caster have been separated from her brother because of it?"
That made some sense. Perhaps Miss Caster had fallen ill, and the two had been separated to prevent her brother from being affected.
Annie had only learned a little about it before and did not know what the family's hereditary illness actually was.
Before they could think any further, a faint voice suddenly called from the doorway.
Bailey stood there, beckoning to them.
Song Nan frowned at the sight of him, but forced herself to hold back.
Thinking there was nothing else to see there, she left the bedroom with Annie and Sofina.
Bailey had called them over because he and Phil had found the study.
But since Song Nan had the keys, Phil had sent him to fetch them.
Seeing the leather notebook in Song Nan's hand, Bailey wanted to ask what it was. But when his eyes met hers, he immediately turned away and focused on leading the way.
They went to the other end of the hallway. As they passed Saul, he told them no one had appeared, and only then did they feel at ease going to find Phil.
Phil was guarding the door.
It was a double door, unlike the doors to ordinary rooms in size. Phil was wealthy himself and familiar with the way studies in villas were laid out, so he was certain this was the study.
Seeing this and confirming that no one was inside, Song Nan stepped forward with the keys to unlock it.
They were afraid the sound of opening the doors would be too loud and alert the people in the villa.
Phil and Bailey each took one door and carefully pushed it open.
Fortunately, the doors seemed well maintained and made hardly any noise.
As soon as they opened the doors, they saw a massive oak desk in the center of the room, with several yellowed books and newspapers scattered across it.
Several ink-stained quill pens lay haphazardly on the desk, and a kerosene lamp stood at one corner.
The five entered one after another and began searching the study.
The desk was naturally the most conspicuous thing in the room. Phil, Song Nan, and Annie all went over to it, each picking up various objects to examine.
Phil picked up the newspapers arranged by date and checked when they were from. They were all old papers from M Country, five years old or more.
He quickly skimmed their contents and discovered that they had one thing in common: all of them had published stories about missing people. From over ten years ago to five years ago, newspapers from three or four months of nearly every year had reported missing-person cases.
Why did the Caster family collect these newspapers?
Could all these missing people be connected to them?