They were left speechless.
"So that letter was a trap after all. How did the culprit get it in here? There were only eight of us in this study at the time, weren't there?"
"Anyway, let's stop worrying about how the letter got in here. The culprit has only one goal: to make us suspect one another inside this impregnable study and make us send the lambs out as living sacrifices ourselves."
"If that's the case, then the culprit is targeting the people who were thrown out."
"Mom, what do we do? The four of them are in danger."
"..."
It was no wonder Natsuhi Ushiromiya fell into bitter silence.
Even if all of this was the culprit's trap, the four people they had just driven out of the study being in danger had nothing to do with the four of them who remained inside. Nor was there any way to prove that those four were innocent. Since they had already prepared themselves to abandon those four to their fate, then no matter what happened, they should not leave this place. That was the safest course of action.
Then, the telephone suddenly rang noisily.
It was the antique internal phone sitting on Kinzō Ushiromiya's desk.
They had only just started discussing it when the phone rang. Of course, they assumed it had to be someone who had been driven out calling them.
"Why is the phone ringing? It was broken. It shouldn't work."
"That doesn't matter. What if Maria is calling for help?"
"If the phone was unable to connect before because the culprit tampered with it, then this call is probably..."
At those words, the ringing phone, which had initially sounded like someone screaming for help, instantly became a terrifying call from some mysterious figure.
Natsuhi Ushiromiya hesitated, unsure