George crouched down to match Maria's eye level, just as he usually did when speaking to her, and spoke in an exceedingly gentle tone.
"Maria, why were you singing at the wall?"
"It was Beatrice. She told Maria to keep singing here, facing the wall."
"Beatrice came here, right? Uncle Genji and the others were still alive then, weren't they?"
"Everyone came to sit in the parlor, and Uncle Genji even locked the door."
"The door was indeed locked. Then how did Beatrice get into the parlor?"
"But Beatrice is a witch. Locks make no difference to her. She turned into a butterfly and slipped through the crack in the door."
"Stop joking around. How could that be possible? What kind of nonsense are you talking about?"
"You definitely don't believe me, right? That's why I didn't want to say anything. Even if I said it, you wouldn't believe me anyway. But Beatrice really is a witch. Her incredible magic can do anything. So a mere locked door couldn't possibly stop Beatrice."
"And then? What happened after Beatrice appeared?"
"Beatrice said so. She said Grandfather's study was protected by powerful magic, and she couldn't get in no matter what she did. So she had to choose three more living sacrifices from the four people in this parlor. Everyone said no. Old Woman Kumazawa kept saying no, no, and she got so worked up. But Beatrice was still going to choose. Then Beatrice said she wouldn't choose Maria. Do you know why? Because Maria has the Scorpion Amulet with the Mars Fifth Magic Array on it. This amulet carries Lin Yan's heartfelt wish for Maria's safety. Thanks to that power, Beatrice couldn't do anything to Maria. That meant the living sacrifices could only be the other three people besides Maria. Then