"I don't know."

"Don't you really know? It was very popular more than ten years ago. ”

"Does it matter?"

"There is a character in the book called 'Tokisha', a witch with a crystal clock. She is a prototype of a realistic person. And now the figure on the mural in front of us is the prototype of Shisha, called 'Elena Quasimodo', a real medieval witch in history! ”

"That's it! I've never heard of it. "I was amazed to look at the mural again.

"Because this information is relatively unpopular. I especially like this work, and I have consulted a lot. Natsume gently stroked the clock in his hand.

"This clock is the object that comes from inside."

"Wow." I borrowed the clock and looked at it carefully.

On the back of the clock is engraved a text in English.

"But it's just an imitation."

"But it also carries precious memories," he said. This is a collection that only sells once every five years. When I was a kid, I had to wait a long time, save a lot of money to get it sold.

However, on the day of the sale, it was not grabbed in time, and the last clock was bought by a neighbor first. Later, I begged him to sell me the clock, and it took almost a year to get it.

It has been with me ever since, and it is my most important thing. ”

- The most important thing, that's good.

I turned sideways to check the clock on the screen.

The edges of the two tables overlap with a shimmering light.

I took the dial away from my eyes and saw Natsume looking at me with a slight smile in front of me.

I gave him the clock back, and then saw him turn and walk away.

"Wait, Natsume, where are you going?" I asked.

At this time, a voice came from behind him: "What are you talking about, life?" I'm packing it up here. ”

I turned my head to see Natsume digging through the drawer under the table in the back.

- Wait, what did I just see?

I looked back and saw that the "Natsume" I had just handed to the dial was gone.

There were footprints on the dusty floor, one by one around the edge of the wall to the door.

I hurriedly ran out alertly.

"Wait, life, where are you going? Life! Natsume was in a trance for a moment, and followed closely.

I followed the footprints that left traces of dust, and before I knew it, the footprints were gone.

And I came to the end of the hallway.

The space here is a bottomless darkness that seems to swallow up all the light.

There was a damp and cold smell in the air, which made people shiver.

- Clocks and watches...... Robbed?

The unparalleled feeling of loss blends with the surrounding atmosphere.

It wasn't until Natsume's footsteps caught up that the eerie silence was broken.

The light of Natsume's portable lamp illuminates the surroundings.

This portable lamp is amazing, the light color changes.

From purple to green and back to blue.

There were a few beetles in the light window.

Under the light, I noticed that the walls around me were hung with strange murals.

The mural depicts a giant shark with its dorsal fin sticking out of the water as if it were about to devour everything.

The illumination of the light makes the mural look eerie.

"I'm sorry, I lost your clock......" I kept apologizing to Natsume on the way afterward.

Although Natsume said that it was okay, she definitely felt uncomfortable inside.

At the same time, the man who snatched the clock looked very similar to Natsume, which was really bizarre and terrifying.

The more I thought about it, the more angry I became.

- No, no, that person should still be here, and I must get the clock back today!

……

When I arrived in the hall, it was already noon.

Immediately another thing happened.

The grumpy uncle was clamoring to get out.

"Wait, calm down." Natsume went up to persuade him.

"What, do you want me to stay here and wait for death to calm down?" Uncle said angrily.

"But the rules say you can't go out, and it's not necessarily safe to go outside." Natsume continued to persuade.

The uncle said, "So what! I've had enough, I'm leaving today anyway! Whether you like to play this kind of bullshit game or not, it's my business! ”

Ignoring the dissuasion, he put on his hazmat suit and walked out the door.

Because he was closer to me, he threw his yellow rope and auxiliary items directly at me.

Watching him go, I was faintly uneasy.

……

I spent almost a day in the mansion searching everywhere.

It's also a murderer, a clue to find a secret treasure, and a person who stole Natsume's clock.

Before you know it, it's late at night.

Suddenly, I saw Alice rushing to deliver the news - someone had been murdered again, and the body was hidden in the warehouse where the goods were stored in the big house!

I hurriedly rushed to the scene with her to check the situation.

In the middle of the dimly lit warehouse, a corpse with its hazmat suit torn and its face shattered to a bloody crunch lay in a pool of congealed blood, emitting a rancid stench.

The corpse was covered with eerie black runes.

The corpse's face was obviously brutally disfigured, and although it was so rotten that it couldn't be seen in its original form, judging from the civilian clothes worn under the protective suit, the corpse was the uncle who left at noon!

All of us, except for Hong Ying, who wasn't there, stood here in the doorway, surrounded by corpses from a distance, looking at each other.

- The second ......

I heard that before they entered the warehouse just now, the warehouse was locked, but the hooded man found a few sets of keys in the kitchen during the day, and after trying them one by one, he was lucky to find the right key and opened the door.

The uncle's body was later discovered

"What's the matter, isn't he gone?" The hooded man said in horror.

Natsume went to check and found that the man had died about six hours earlier.

There are no traces of the murderer's crime around.

"So he was murdered shortly after he went out." Natsume said.

"How so...... How can this be......" The goth woman retreated in panic and said to everyone, "I see, this must be a trick!" You're all extras, right? ”

"What nonsense are you talking about? Who would make such a joke? The hooded boy retorted angrily.

"Stop, stop arguing just yet, and look at the current situation." The man in the hazmat suit opened his mouth to intercept them, so that they would not continue to argue.

"I don't understand why the body is dumped in the warehouse of the house and not in the wild?" Natsume wondered.

At this time, the hooded man had a box in his hand, and he placed it on the empty table near the door, approached the corpse, and picked up Natsume's words.

"Another thing I don't understand - why did the murderer throw the body in the warehouse and lock it, and just throw away the key? The key was found in the kitchen, which means that it is possible that the murderer put the key back after finishing the crime. ”

"Is it possible that the key is spare?" I stepped forward and asked.

"No, I've seen the records of the mansion, which says that there is only one key to all the rooms." The hooded man replied.

"But it can't be ruled out that there is something hidden in the shadows."

"If you can even find the secret key, that person probably knows everything about the mansion." Said the hooded man.

Natsume asked, "You mean, the murderer is a person who knows this place very well...... But aren't we all new here? How can such a big house be visited and familiar in two days? ”

"So—this is just a guess, I was thinking the first time it happened, maybe there was a tenth person hiding in the shadows besides our group of contestants." ”

- The tenth man!

"That person may be the murderer who is familiar with the house - and has a connection to the mysterious man. Maybe the old man and uncle were the ones he did. ”

Everyone was lost in thought.

This is indeed a speculation that cannot be ignored.

Just then, Aris noticed an envelope on the table.

The envelope was left behind by the shadows.

Alice was ready to get it.

The hooded man suddenly hurriedly raised the gun in his hand, pointed at Alis, the man in the protective suit, and the goth woman standing at the door, and said loudly: "Stop! Don't move! ”

Alice was frightened and hurriedly retracted her hand.

None of the three men at the door were armed and did not dare to move in horror.

Natsume and I, who were standing next to the hooded man, were also stunned.

"What do you mean?" The goth woman asked.

The hooded man said fiercely, "I now conclude that the murderer is one of the three of you." ”

I stopped him: "Wait, calm down?" Why did you ...... so suddenly?"

"I'm not unfounded." The hooded man was stunned and pointed his gun at the three people opposite, and said, "When I put the box on the table just now, there was no envelope on the table. ”

He glanced at me and Natsume, "After that, I walked with the two of them to the corpse, and the letter was placed on the table after that. It must have been one of the few people at your table who had secretly put the letter up—and the man who put it was an accomplice of the mysterious man. ”