The Infiltrating Furball Gathers Information

Now, at the moment, I'm making my way along the ceiling of the mansion's hallway, sorting through information with Omake-sama.

Hiding my presence to slip past the servants who occasionally pass below, I keep up a conversation only we can hear.

<Now, regarding what we learned from the previous loop...... it seems Karashia's death is not the loop's trigger.>

Yeah, you're right.

In the last loop, time wound back even though she had only fainted.

I mean, let's go back to the basics.

Karashia is the one who can't endure her own misfortune, goes berserk, and slaughters everyone in the mansion.

If you asked me whether someone like that is the protagonist...... thinking about it calmly, that's a little doubtful.

In other words, Karashia is not the story's protagonist.

And her death is not the loop's trigger.

<But, that raises the question: then who is the protagonist?>

That's the thing.

What's more, since Karashia was unconscious in the last loop, the tragedy didn't happen.

Does that mean there's a protagonist who died separately from that tragedy?

<That is quite likely.>

Mumumu.

<All we can do here is plug away at it...... somehow, we must find the protagonist and prevent that person's death.>

Hmm, I guess that's the only way.

A little while of making my way across the ceiling like that, chatting with Omake-sama.

I arrived at the side of Karashia, who had been robbed of her ring by Keranko and the others and was crouching and sobbing.

For now, I drop down in front of her, put both hands on her cheeks, and make her face me.

“Eh? ......Hih!?”

Then I lock eyes with her at point-blank range and send her some killing intent.

I use 【Intimidation】.

Karashia faints and collapses.

Nice! With this, as long as Karashia stays asleep until the loop occurs, the tragedy won't happen!

If more people die, it'll become confusing as to who the protagonist was, so while I feel bad for Karashia, this is a necessary measure.

<Somehow, now that it's the third time you've knocked Karashia unconscious, you've become quite skilled at it......>

Yeah, I'm confident that I'm now the best in the world at knocking Karashia unconscious.

For now, I carry Karashia to the library from before and quietly lay her down to sleep...... and, there.

Now, what should I do from here?

<First, let's start by getting a handle on what kind of people are inside this mansion.>

Roger that, Omake-sama.

Well then, shall we begin the “protagonist hunt”?

I slipped quietly out of the library where I'd laid Karashia down, hopped up to the ceiling, and began exploring the mansion.

◇ ◇ ◇

Now, now. A few minutes after that.

The loop hasn't occurred yet.

First, Omake-sama and I took a quick lap around the mansion.

As the word “lap” suggests, this mansion is roughly shaped like a hollow square, with a courtyard in the middle.

Right now, snow is piled up, so you can't see the garden at all, though.

And this mansion is actually single-story.

Though it's as tall as a two-story building.

Because of that, the ceilings are ridiculously high.

As someone who sticks to the ceiling, it's great because there are plenty of hiding spots.

<These high ceilings are one of the characteristics of the Sancolic style, along with the eccentric red and yellow exterior. At the time, this sense of openness was very popular among the wealthy, such as the nobility.>

True, there's a huge sense of openness.

<The nobles of the time competed to build mansions with high ceilings. The ceiling height of this mansion is actually quite modest. It was an era where people said, ‘the height of the ceiling, shows the breadth of its master's heart’.>

Hee.

<That said, when the ceiling is high, warmth escapes upward, making the interior difficult to heat. Therefore, it's an architectural style that isn't really suited for cold regions like this. The Sasamosa style, which became popular as a reaction to the Sancolic style, is characterized by compactness, and its trend originated in the northern countries.>

......Omake-sama, you're strangely well-versed in those details; where did you get that information?

<From the Architecture God's Isekai Reincarnation Broadcast, of course!>

Seriously, there are so many different gods in this world......

Now, I've drifted off topic.

After a quick look around the mansion, I found that there are 10 people inside it.

First, the sisters, Karashia and Keranko.

“Mother” and the father.

The butler Doj.

Those are the ones I'd already picked up from eavesdropping.

And furthermore, there are 5 servants, men and women, such as maids and a cook.

10 people in total.

<As I thought, the number of servants is small for the size of the mansion.>

Isn't that convenient, since it means there are fewer protagonist candidates?

So, as for what I'm doing now, I'm carefully going through the mansion room by room to confirm if there are any other servants I've overlooked.

<Now, let's check the next room, Emi. Let's finish quickly before someone comes along.>

You got it, Omake-sama.

First, I look around to confirm there's no one around, then jump down from the ceiling and stand in front of the next room's door.

The plate on this door says ‘Head's Study Room’.

That means it's the room of Karashia and the others' father.

I press my ear to the door to search for sounds inside...... huh, it's quiet?

<That father has probably moved to another room. Just in case, let's sneak in and take a look inside.>

Roger!

......Wait, hm?

<What's wrong?>

I grab the doorknob to open the door, and turn it.

But...... it won't open.

The doorknob just makes a gachagacha rattle, but the door doesn't open.

It seems it's locked.

<It is the ‘Head's Study Room’, after all. Perhaps they keep important things stored there, so it's always locked when no one is inside?>

What should I do?

Maybe I'll just break the lock and force my way in...... ah.

It was then.

BAKIN!

That the knob of the door I'd been rattling snapped off, with a loud noise just like that!

<Wait, Emi! What are you doing!>

Oops, it must have been easy to break due to wear from age.

<Please be more aware of your monstrous strength and act more cautiously!>

Faced with this scolding from Omake-sama, I really have no choice but to bow my head in apology, but the situation no longer allows for that.

“......It came from over here, right?”

“What was that sound?”

Because I heard voices coming closer from around the corner of the hallway: someone had heard the noise just now!

I hurriedly jump toward the ceiling and stick to it.

The ones who show up after a bit are two maids, still quite young.

The one with the frank tone has her hair tied in twin tails, and the one with the polite tone has a bob cut.

The two of them reach the door of the head's study room and discover the broken doorknob.

They start talking it over.

“Ugh, what's this. The doorknob's snapped off?”

“What do we do? Pretend we didn't see it?”

“No, we can't do that. For now, we report it to Doj-san.”

“Ehh...... no way...... we didn't break it, but we're the ones who'll get yelled at......”

......Oho.

So that Doj is someone in a position to receive such reports.

<It seems he's not just Keranko's hanger-on.>

“Hey, hey? Let's just ignore it, okay? This room isn't even in use right now anyway, is it?”

Hm?

“Hmm, I heard the master lost the key and has been leaving it alone. But he'll probably make a duplicate key and unlock it eventually, and if the doorknob is gone then, it'll be a problem, right?”

<That father didn't just lose the signet ring proving the family head, then.>

Seriously?

Losing the key to his study and being locked out......

Then isn't that father currently unable to do his work?

Is he going to be okay?

<He certainly deserves to be called incompetent by his own daughter.>

“Th, then you go report it, senpai!”

“Senpai, my foot. It's just one day's difference. Except for Doj-san, all of us servants in this mansion basically started at the same time. I mean, even if I go report it, what are you going to do?”

“Me, well, you see, if someone else finds this and goes to report it to Doj-san, that'd be doubling up, right? So I'll stay here as the one who explains what happened! Come on, please!”

“Geez...... just how much do you hate Doj-san...... you owe me for this!”

After that conversation, the maids split up.

The twin-tail one went somewhere to look for Doj.

The bob cut stays put, on standby.

......It's become hard to go down there......

<Let's go check the other rooms. This room seems to be unused right now anyway, so there's probably no one inside.>

Yeah, let's do that.

I left the area kasakoso, making sure not to be noticed by the bob cut maid who was yawning in front of the broken door.

◇ ◇ ◇

Now, as for the results of the subsequent exploration.

To put it simply, there was nobody in this mansion besides the 10 I'd confirmed by then.

After that, I checked several empty rooms, the male servants' waiting room, the baths...... and Fateu's room.

Who is Fateu, you ask? That's probably the name of that “Mother.”

Nobody seemed to be inside, so I snuck in and rummaged around, and it was full of women's things like dresses, accessories and cosmetics.

Well, nothing about the room struck me as particularly strange.

Also, there was a room called Sarelka's room.

When I slowly opened the door and peeked inside, there was a plump man with navy-blue hair, jiggling his leg while glaring at his papers.

On the wall hangs the sword Karashia held in her hands when she caused the tragedy.

The demon sword ‘Agzeliary’.

In other words, that man is Karashia and the others' father.

<Which means the head of this mansion is named Sarelka, and his wife is named Fateu. We finally have names for all the main players.>

Hmm, but you could also say it's just that I found out their names.

Troublingly, all 10 people currently confirmed died in the first loop.

The father, Sarelka, was the very first one killed, and Keranko, Fateu and Doj were well and truly dead too.

Furthermore, the number of servants I found lying dead in the hallways before I got to Keranko's room was 5.

In other words, the servants I confirmed in this exploration were all killed during that tragedy.

But isn't this strange?

The last one to die in the first loop was Karashia.

But her death was not the loop's trigger.

And yet, the other people died before Karashia died?

If the death of someone other than Karashia was the loop's trigger, shouldn't the loop have occurred in the middle of the tragedy?

<There is probably some kind of time lag between the protagonist's death and the occurrence of the loop. For example, ‘the loop happens 5 minutes after Keranko dies’.>

Ah, I see...... so there's a delay...... then I guess that explains it.

But...... something's nagging me.

I feel like I'm overlooking something.

Like, maybe there's some suspicious item, and that's what's causing the loop!

Is there no such possibility?

<I can't say there isn't. But, if it were such an amazing item, I think I'd know it was suspicious just by looking at it once.>

Hmm.

But even looking around the mansion, there were no such suspicious items.

<Regardless, I don't think we need to doubt the premise that ‘if the protagonist dies, a loop happens’ yet. And if that's the case, what we need to do narrows itself down.>

Does that mean I just have to keep watch over the people in the mansion so that no one dies?

<That's right. Even if Karashia is unconscious, something happens and the protagonist dies. If we prevent that something from happening, the loop shouldn't occur.>

But look, there's no one else who seems like a protagonist besides Karashia?

Even Karashia, if you ask whether she seems like a protagonist, there's a lot about her that's questionable, but Keranko, Fateu and Doj don't have protagonist personalities no matter how you look at it, and the same goes for the master of this house, Sarelka, right?

As for the other servants, I feel like their personalities are too thin to be protagonists?

<But that is merely an impression from the outside. For example, at first glance Keranko is a spoiled younger sister who abuses her older sister, but perhaps she actually has her reasons and is only playing that part, with the heart of a protagonist underneath.>

Hah? What do you mean, some circumstances?

<It's purely a hypothetical! When conducting this kind of exploration, it's important to observe things while eliminating preconceptions. I learned that from the Detective God's Isekai Reincarnation Broadcast.>

And so, as I clung to the hallway ceiling debating with Omake-sama, what suddenly appeared before me was a mansion with an exterior that could only be described as, well, ‘strange’.

First off, the roof is bright red. Bright, bright red. Also, the window frames and other key spots are painted red too.

And the walls are slathered in bright yellow, with red polka dots painted here and there.

With pure white snow piled up all around it, the exterior stands out all the more bizarrely.

<......Well, we looped.>

Yeah. We sure did.

......I blew it.

If I'd stuck to someone and watched them, I could at least have checked one person, whether they were the protagonist or not.

Anyway, I was able to loop while safely retaining my memories again this time.

I'll just be glad about that, plain and simple.

But it's bad if this situation continues.

How long will I be able to keep my memories through the loops?

Because I don't know that.

<Don't, rush. Let's do, what we can.>

......You're right.

For now, I open the mansion's front door.

At this time of day, none of the mansion's residents are near the entrance, so I can walk right in without anyone catching me.

A spacious, unadorned lobby welcomes me.

<Now, let's get moving.>

......Roger.

Well then, shall we continue the protagonist hunt?

That was an information-sorting chapter.