The sudden sound of splashing water made everyone turn to look behind them.
They saw Haga Kyosuke, drenched from head to toe, set down a bucket and smile at them. Then, without warning, he rushed up to the 3rd Floor along the firelit steps.
At the same time, someone came running up from the 1st Floor, lifting her skirt as her shoes clattered against the stairs.
Torimaru Naoko stopped beside Jiang Xia and whispered to her ally, "It's too dangerous here. You should get out first."
As she spoke, she secretly glanced toward the room at the end of the 2nd Floor hallway—the room she shared with Takamori Masumi. Only after seeing that it had been burned beyond recognition, with no chance that even a scrap of paper remained, did she quietly let out a sigh of relief.
But immediately afterward, her mood grew heavy again.
—Shitara Gensaburo was in the equally fiercely burning room next door. He clearly wasn't going to survive. And there was an old lady on the 3rd Floor...
No matter how she looked at it, so many lives being involved all at once had to be That Lord's handiwork.
"There are countless ways to kill someone, yet he chose a fire that would affect so many people... Could it be that he already knew about Takamori Masumi's little schemes, even though I didn't?"
How had he managed that?
Torimaru Naoko's scalp prickled. Only now did she realize that every move she had thought was hidden seemed never to have escaped someone's gaze.
Then a voice as clear as a spring called her back amid the scorching firelight. Jiang Xia said steadily, "Which vehicle in this villa has the highest roof?"
"The highest roof?" Torimaru Naoko froze. "A van. Why?"
Jiang Xia spoke to her in