Genji nodded, then decided to tell her.
"Madam, it isn't just Goda. The Master is missing as well."
"My husband is missing?"
"Yes. Before reporting to you, I intended to inform the Master that breakfast had not yet been prepared, so I went to greet him in his bedroom. But he was not there. Rudolf and his wife, as well as Rosa, are missing too."
"They can't be found in either the guesthouse or the main house?"
"Yes. They are not in the guest rooms of the guesthouse either."
When she had first heard that only Goda was missing, she had assumed he had slipped off somewhere to loaf around. But if the other relatives were missing too, then the situation seemed somewhat less alarming.
Natsuhi Ushiromiya thought that perhaps last night's family conference had gone on all night and was still continuing even now.
Perhaps the air in the room had grown so stifling that everyone had decided to take a walk in the rain and clear their heads.
Krauss Ushiromiya certainly loved telling people to go clear their heads.
Goda had probably been called over to help attend to them.
Goda was not someone who would lose track of time. He surely knew that if he did not return soon, breakfast would not be ready in time. But perhaps the family conference was still going on even now, making it impossible for him to leave.
This explanation seemed highly convincing to Natsuhi Ushiromiya.
Natsuhi Ushiromiya remembered waking up that morning with the illusion that last night had not yet ended. Now that she knew it had not been an illusion at all, she sighed in irritation once more. The filthy vultures' feast over Kinzō Ushiromiya's estate was still continuing.
"I imagine they are still in the garden or