[ The House of Mistresses - Unseen Corridor ]

After we finished our inspection of the signs of conflict inside the fourth room, we made sure that there wasn’t anything else of note before we proceed. We also took the knife by wrapping it and putting it inside my cloak pocket so that we could show it to the others as evidence.

For the fifth cycle, I stepped outside into the corridor.

Despite my worries, the process couldn’t go any more smoothly this time either, and we were able to successfully cycle to another room. And despite the previous disturbing scene we stumbled into, inside the fifth room, there wasn’t anything particularly interesting. Just another normal guest room with two beds.

“I guess. It’s time to go back to the theater room?”

After looking under one of the bed’s pillows, I turn to Eden and Frul. They seem to have found nothing interesting inside this room.

After looking at each other for a bit, we decided to return to the promised gathering point.

…..

“Huh? Is everyone already here?”

The moment our group steps inside the theater room, the sight of all four other groups of my sisters being presented surprises me a little.

The first group led by First Sister Roxxi is sitting on a bundle of blankets and pillows they seem to have gotten from one of the rooms. Second Sister Rinne's group is sitting on one of the padded benches to the right of the theater room, underneath the lamps. Third Sister Yue’s group is leaning against the audience’s seats facing the entrance. While Fourth Sister Xue’s group is placing something down in front of them.

—Well, I guess it did take us a little bit longer than it would normally have because of what we found in the fourth room…

“It seems like we have all finished our investigations safely.”

First Sister Roxxi looks at me and our group, smiling softly.

When I walk over to her, one by one, each of the groups starts to give me a brief summary of their explorations.

“We didn’t find anything too interesting,” Fifth Sister Kitsuha says, holding up a pillow, “So we just brought some towels and pillows from one of the guest rooms,”

“We found this tea set.” Second Sister Rinne smiles brightly, holding up the tea set.

‘We found this pack of cards and a game board!” Fourth Sister Xue says, holding up a game board.

“Perhaps if we can get some cooking utensils, then we would be set,” Seventh Sister Linlin says, rubbing her cheek.

—Are you people thinking of settling in here for the rest of your life already?

But then…

As I stand there, about to scold my older sisters for taking the situation way too lightly and tell them about what Eden, Frul, and I saw in the fourth room of our exploration.

“Why… are the lights flickering?” Little Eden says, looking up slightly.

My eyes instantly dart around the room, scanning the faces of my sisters. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three… all of us seem to be here.

Yet the scarlet flame inside those lamps keeps on flickering; at shorter and shorter intervals until finally—

Poof—!

Darkness envelopes everything.

….

And when it lifts.

“I-yah!”

“H-hong!

—A scream from Frul who’s standing right beside me and the barking of Bery the Cerberus.

I immediately turn around to see Frul pointing forward, her expression painted with shock.

When I look to where she’s pointing, what I see also causes me to halt.

Because right now, on the stage, [a figure wearing black and red attire] visibly hangs from the ceiling—tied to a rope.

In a panic, every single one of my sisters rushed to the stage, led by First Sister Roxxi. I automatically follow them, Frul and Little Eden running after me.

Shwing—!

A white flash passed by the corner of my eyes. One of my sisters—most likely Fourth Sister Xue—throws a card toward the rope, cutting it instantly in two.

The body falls flat onto the wooden floor.

Thud—!

My sisters directly jump onto the stage from the seats, while I, being considerably less athletic, have to climb up manually.

Once I arrive at the body, one more thing causes me to suck in a cold breath.

“...”

—There’s no head.

The body, no, the corpse, has been decapitated cleanly, leaving only the stump of the neck and certain indescribable details.

“W-what do we do? Should we check the pulse?” I ask with a pale face, looking left and right at the faces of my sisters.

“It’s a headless body, Miw,” Kanna casually gestures toward the evidence that speaks for itself, showing little emotion as usual.

“That’s… true.”

Meanwhile, my other sisters are already all over the body, inspecting it with surprising efficiency.

“Still warm,” Second Sister Rinne says, her face a rare tempered expression.

“The blood is also fresh,” First Sister Roxxi points out after covering her nose with the sleeve of her dress.

My other sisters, like Fifth Sister Kitsuha and Tenth Sister Tsukiyo, are also carefully inspecting the headless corpse limps with no trace of fear in their eyes.

In this sort of situation, the maturity of some of them really becomes apparent. Compared to Kanna, Frul, and I, who only became angels of House Lucianna in the last 200 years. The first four sisters of our house have been with Lady Lucianna ever since the Holy War, and the rest joined not long afterward.

—Perhaps to them, a sight like this is nothing.

“Whose body is it?”

“From the look of it…”

Ninth Sister Miho looks at everyone around her with a hard frown.

“Ours?”

“Eh?”

—Ah, is that it? The headless corpse is wearing the same clothes as all 13 of my sisters, the black and red court attire only given to the angels of House Lucianna that represents the second-highest authority below Lady Lucianna herself.

“But aren’t we all standing right here?”

“““...”””

My question stumps everyone, and the whole room descends into complete and total silence

It seems…

We have a dilemma on our hands.

—————……….

Unable to come to an obvious conclusion, all 15—and a half—of us, including Eden and Bery the Cerberus, eventually come to stand around the body at the center of the theater stage, and stare down at it with intense curiosity.

“How did the body just appear here?” Third Sister Yue asks the obvious question first.

—About this, I think the flickering lights from earlier should have told us everything.

“It has to be because it was already in the corridor, right? When we tested it earlier, every ten minutes or so everything that’s still in the corridor gets teleported here,” says Tenth Sister Tsukiyo.

“So that should mean that the body must have been outside during the last cycle before we returned to the theater room,” says First Sister Roxxi.

She then pinches her chin and examines the corpse from head to toe with only her eyes.

“The real question, rather, is the existence of this body in the first place. Not only that we don’t know who it is, but we also don’t even know where it could’ve come from or what could have caused this person to end up like this.”

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At my feet, the headless corpse remains entirely still; the black painted nails on its hands reflect a little of the red lantern’s flame.

“None of you noticed anything strange while exploring, did you?” First Sister Roxxi glances in my group’s direction at the corners of her eyes. "Anything that could be a clue as to how this person came to be here… without a head.”

Pa—!

Suddenly, the sound of Second Sister Rinne clapping her hands reverberated inside the wide theater room, causing everyone to look at her.

“Ah, I suddenly remembered. While we were standing outside to wait for Nana to open the door for us, I heard something that sounded like footsteps.”

“Footsteps?” I ask with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, aside from it being kind of creepy, we didn’t think much of it. It could have come from inside the rooms also… ah, I just realized that wasn't as useful as I thought.” Second Sister Rinne hollowly laughs; a typical gesture of hers whenever she gets embarrassed.

First Sister Roxxi looks over to the other two people in Second Sister Rinne's group. Sixth Sister Nana and Tenth Sister Tsukiyo.

“Aside from those footsteps, did you hear any other sounds of struggle?”

“Mmmm~” Both of them shake their heads.

Nobody else seems to have anything to add either.

“Maybe this person was just walking around and poof~! Her head fell off!” Frul puts her hands up to do a very vivid neck-twisting movement.

—Actually now’s probably the time to bring that up.

“Actually, in the fourth room we took a look inside, we found this bloodied knife.”

Slowly, I bring out the kitchen knife from my cloak pocket.

It's been wrapped in some paper towels I took from one of the guest rooms, so I unwrap it before placing it down beside the body.

“And signs… of fighting,” Little Eden adds. Bery the Cerberus groans lightly.

My sisters look at the knife with interests.

“Linlin?” First Sister Roxxi casts Seventh Sister Linlin a glance.

With a nod, Seventh Sister Linlin picks up the knife and turns it around in her hands, inspecting its blade and comparing the marks to the ones on the body.

Eventually, she looks back at the rest of us.

“It’s possible.”

“Then—”

“Wait, don’t jump to conclusions.” Eleventh Sister Hyong-ran brings up her hands to prevent me from speaking. “Even assuming that the fourth room Miw found is the place where the fighting happened. How did the body get teleported here?”

Ninth Sister Miho immediately says: “The person who did this could’ve simply dropped the body in the corridor and immediately gone back inside one of the rooms and hid?”

“If they had done that, why not keep the body inside with them?” Seventh Sister Linlin points out, putting the knife down.

For a while, everyone falls into silent, perplexed contemplation.

—Until...

“Perhaps this was their intention... For the body to appear here?” Fifth Sister Kitsuha quietly speaks up,

“Are you saying that this is some form of a threat?” First Sister Roxxi asks.

"Maybe…. At least it would explain the rope." Fifth Sister Kitsuha calmly shrugs.

“There really isn’t anything conclusive." Second Sister Rinne takes a deep breath.

I cross my arms and let out a soft sigh.

It seems like we hit a dead-end, huh?

While we’re all busy thinking, Sixth Sister Nana raises her hand and brings up an entirely different point.

“—Um, I-I was wondering this for a while, but we can safely assume that the reason why the House of Mistresses is in this state has something to do with Lady Lucianna, right?”

“Of course, no one else has the authority to create this kind of thing inside her domain,” First Sister Roxxi answers affirmatively.

Sixth Sister Nana continues to say: “That is, if we’re really still inside Lady Lucianna’s domain. With us being unable to contact her, can we really be so sure? And if we’re not—”

“We are still in Lady Lucianna’s domain…"

Everyone immediately turns their heads to the source of the voice. Which is none other than me.

When all of my sisters' eyes are on me, I continue to speak.

“Frul and I tested it out. Our bodies still have the same survivability as usual.”

The looks in their eyes show signs of admiration.

—Somehow, it’s a bit annoying.

Inhaling, I suppress the twitching at the corner of my mouth

“Ne...”

Just then, someone starts to say something.

“If there really is another being inside the House of Mistresses, shouldn’t they also be unable to get out?”

I look to my left, it’s Fifth Sister Kitsuha again, pinching her chin with a deep, pondering look.

"So why would they want to threaten us? With us being the angels of this domain, you would think that they would want to cooperate, no?"

“Maybe there’s a reason why they can’t?” Second Sister Rinne tilts her head.

“Maybe they’re incapable of reason, like that dog over there?” I point at Bery the Cerberus

“Hong!?”

Fifth Sister Kitsuha looks around silently.

“Or maybe there is no such thing as ‘another being’ here.”

“But this body has to belong to someone, right?”

“Exactly."

As Fifth Sister Kitsuha narrows her scarlet eyes. The fires in the lanterns sway.

"Aside from Kanna, Frul, and Miwari, don’t we all have basically similar builds?”

"..."

The air in the room, instantly drops a few degrees.

In a single glance, I can tell that simultaneously in all our minds—one single thought occurs.

Kanna looks over the headless corpse at her feet, her eyes narrowing.

“Should we really have checked the pulse after all?”

"""..."""

—Nobody replies.

We simply stand there, looking.

Eventually, it's Seventh Sister Linlin who reaches out to the corpse’s wrist and feels for its vital sign.

After a short, unbreathing while, she looks up.

“The heart is still beating, which means the owner of this body is still alive.

“The body is missing its head. Which means there's a chance that the head is still out there somewhere.

“Since this resilience is a characteristic unique to an angel within a god’s [Domain], we can also assume that the body belongs to an angel of House Lucianna.”

Fifth Sister Kitsuha draws a short breath, and begins to say solemnly.

“If that’s the case then…

“How are there still 14 of us standing here?”

"..."

Suddenly, the entire room is once again drowned in silence.

What she’s implying, it’s quite clear. But still, something like that…

None of us wants to be the one to say it.

—But then… from behind us, a monotonous but pleasant voice resounds.

“So you're implying... that one of you… has been attacked and replaced."

I turn around to see the figure of Little Eden, standing there with her back towards me and my sisters.

"Little… Eden?"

I ask, slightly hesitantly.

"No... Don't call Eden... Eden… “

Eden reaches for the front of her large, round hat, and tilts it forward.

“From this point on... Eden is…

"—[Mister… Detective.]"

"""..."""

—Golden-haired little girl… are you sure you’re not just having a little too much fun with all of this?

“Ooohhhh~! Are we playing some sort of game?”

Immediately, Second Sister Rinne jumps on the opportunity to break the heavy atmosphere.

“Mr. Detective, Mr. Detective. Do you have any idea which of us is a fake?”

Frul is… probably actually playing along.

“No… but to figure it out… is very simple."

"“Ooohhhhhhh~~!”"

The two of them gasp as they stare at Ede—sorry, Mr. Detective with sparkly eyes.

Tipping the front of her hat down slightly, Eden turns to us.

“All of you… just need to cut off all your heads.”

““—Eh?””

“If you survived… that means… you’re cleared.”

“““...””” Everyone.

“Eden… is joking.”

“““...””” Everyone.

Even so…

Kids are... kind of scary, huh?

“It’s not a bad idea.”

“““Sister Roxxi!?”””

Several of us snap at First Sister Roxxi for even considering the possibility.

She turns to us with a light smile.

“Although we might not be able to go so far as to cut off our head, just some minor injuries should be enough to prove it, no?”

“““That… /Well…/Ehh…”””

Immediately, the voices of protest on our side die down.

So in the next few minutes, we go around cutting each other's wrists. Including mine.

But in the end, there’s nothing suspicious that can be found.

“It seems like we’re all cleared, I’m glad,” Second Sister Rinne says.

Fifth Sister Kitsuha, however, is still showing a skeptical look on her face while rubbing her recently healed wrist.

“Or the other possibility; the person pretending to be one of us also has the ability to fool this domain into giving them its blessing.”

“If they can do that much then would it be right to assume that the appearance, memories, and habits would also carry over as well?” Tenth Sister Tsukiyo blurts out a terrifying possibility.

Fifth Sister Kitsuha looks around before asking: “While you all were exploring, did any of you notice anyone acting strange?”

Awkwardly, Sixth Sister Nana puts up her hand.

“I mean… Aren’t we all a little strange? Normally?”

—I agree with this statement completely.

First Sister Roxxi thoughtfully hums.

“How about this? In order for all of us to have a chance to interact and observe the behaviors of the rest. We should switch out members of our groups before continuing to explore the rooms like normal.”

“W-wouldn’t that just give the pretender more opportunity to attack?” Sixth Sister Nana asks.

“We just have to pay more attention to what someone did and when.” Putting her hands in her sleeves, she continues to say: “And if something really happens to someone. Surely we’d be able to gain more evidence just by process of elimination, if not catching them in their act entirely.”

First Sister Roxxi looks at everyone carefully.

“Of course, we can start doing it after the next cycle. For the sake of gathering more information.”

So even with all of these things happening, all of my sisters are still fully intending to continue the exploration of the House of Mistresses.

I suppose the alternative is to sit here and wait while doing nothing...

—Although that’s probably the safest thing to do. It’s um… very boring.

That part at least, I’m willing to admit that I’m not so different.

But still…

If one of us has really been replaced...

What would I...

“Hey… Miw.”

“Hmm?”

While the rest of my sisters are busy talking, I feel a tugging on my sleeve.

When I turn, a pair of small hands land on my cheeks.

“Caught you…”

Eden’s voice resounds in my ears.

“...”

After a moment, I silently pull Eden’s hands from my cheeks.

“...Although that was very cute. Why exactly did you do that?”

“Is there a need… for a reason?” Eden tilts her head slightly and asks.

—Sis! How could a prim and proper Order Angel be so willful?

—I almost had a heart attack!

I sigh, recollect myself, and look back at the mysterious headless body lying on the stage.

I should probably put the body in a proper place before I leave for another round of House of Mistresses’ exploration, huh.

After thinking that, I walk over to the rest of my sisters and join in their discussion.

—————……….