A Farce—Please Subscribe
"Did that letter really come from the Witch named Beatrice and get delivered to Maria?"
"How could it? It was probably all a farce Father arranged. He most likely had Shannon put on the dress from that portrait to fool Maria. I'd say that kind of elaborate prank is exactly Father's style."
"Last night, Kirie and I discussed whether Beatrice really existed. She said Beatrice was among the eighteen of us."
"Isn't that obvious? There's no one else on this island besides us, so someone among us must be using Beatrice's name."
"There's no one else on this island besides us, right?"
"Isn't that obvious? Who else could possibly be on this island? There are only us here, only these eighteen people. So whoever is using Beatrice's name must naturally be one of those eighteen."
Kirie had used "flipping the chessboard" to conclude that the existence of a nineteenth person could be denied.
Eva had not analyzed it using such a clear-cut theory, but she had reached the same conclusion.
However, if they were right, then things became deeply unsettling.
If someone had merely delivered Beatrice's letter, it could be dismissed as a prank. But once the existence of a nineteenth person was denied, things were no longer that simple. In other words—
"If there's no nineteenth person, doesn't that mean the culprit who killed Father and the others is among these eighteen people? In other words, someone currently in this mansion killed them."
"..."
Eva smiled meaningfully.
To Rosa, that seemed like the most natural conclusion, and one she should have reached immediately.
"The culprit moved the bodies of those six people into the warehouse. But moving that many bodies into the warehouse was no small task. The metal shutter there was usually kept closed and