In the dim room, a middle-aged man in a black tailcoat and a magician's top hat hung in midair, swaying gently. Several thin cords dangled from the ceiling, suspending each of the corpse's joints.
The entire corpse was twisted into a strange pose, its bloodless face turned toward the doorway. One hand was spread toward them as well, like a soulless puppet silently greeting the audience outside.
As Hashimoto Maya stared at that increasingly familiar pose, his mind buzzed. Th-this damned movement was exactly the same as the puppet Jiang Xia had pulled out of the Trick Box before!
—That puppet, with its limbs broken and stuffed into the Trick Box as a "threatening letter," had actually been a small yet precise preview of the scene before them.
"Isn't that the missing troupe leader of the Fantasy Magic Troupe?!" Officer Takagi, who had just spent ages searching for him, recognized him at once. He could hardly believe it. "How could his body be here?!"
Hashimoto Maya, meanwhile, stared fixedly at the puppet strings on the corpse. This terrifying sight perfectly matched the methods he imagined Uzo would use.
"This so-called 'Hell Puppeteer' really was chosen by Uzo." Hashimoto Maya felt immensely relieved for a moment.
Good thing I didn't be lazy and ignore the ticket Miyoshi Asako sent me. Otherwise, if That Lord had painstakingly prepared the script and eagerly waited for the play to begin, only to discover at the last minute that I, the person in charge, hadn't brought in a single audience member, leaving the magnificent theater empty and unwatched...
The more he thought about it, the more Hashimoto Maya shuddered soundlessly.
When he looked again at the man hanging and swaying in the room, his eyes held a complicated sympathy, as though they were comrades in