"I think there's actually no need to investigate carefully, the conclusion has already been reached."
Looking at the clean and tidy study in front of him, Fang Zheng was silent for a moment, then looked at the butler Genci behind him.
"It's obvious that no one has lived here for a long time... So, Mr. Genji, please tell me the truth. Is Ushiromiya Kinzo dead?"
"That's not the case, Mr. Founder."
Facing Fang Zheng's question, Genci seemed very calm.
"In fact, the master is not dead, he was just taken away by Beatrice."
"That golden witch? Are you saying that Ushiromiya Kinzo is with Beatrice now? Then I would like to ask, where does this person live? Why haven't I seen her before?"
“…”
Facing Fang Zheng's question, Genci remained silent for a moment.
"Even if you want to see her, you can't, because Lady Beatrice has no physical body."
"…Um?"
What the hell are you talking about?
"Ms. Beatrice is a witch. It is said that her human form is just like the one depicted in the painting. Sometimes she simply appears as a golden butterfly. In fact, all of this is the will of Ms. Beatrice."
"It sounds just like the truth."
Fang Zheng walked slowly to the bookshelf and took out a book on Western black magic.
"The master is a chuunibyou. Even the servants are doing this to him? No wonder you are trusted by Ushiromiya Kinzo. It turns out you are birds of a feather."
After flipping through the black magic book in his hand, Fang Zheng chuckled and looked at Yuanci again.
"You don't think you can get away with this kind of nonsense. Witch? How can such a thing exist in this world?"
"Lady Beatrice is real."
Facing Fang Zheng's question, Genci once again gave a calm answer, just like an elder telling a child that "Santa Claus is just a story."
"Then I want to meet her."
"That's impossible, Mr. Founder. You won't be able to see Lady Beatrice."
"Then for me, she doesn't exist."
Fang Zheng turned around and stared at Genci with narrowed eyes.
"Humans need to observe, observe and infer to recognize the existence of a thing. If something cannot be observed, cannot be observed, and cannot be inferred, then it does not exist - you see, it is that simple."
“…”
For a moment, the two were silent, but after a moment, the sound of hurried footsteps broke the silence.
"Mr. Genji, something bad has happened!"
Jiayin ran up panting and shouted loudly, and when he heard his voice, Genji turned around.
"What's wrong? What happened?"
"Just now I went to knock on the door, wanting to call Ms. Huiyu and the others for dinner, but Ms. Huiyu and the others did not respond, and the door was locked!"
"What?!"
Hearing this, Genci and Fangzheng were shocked, and then they immediately left the study and rushed towards the guest house.
"Ms. Eiha! Mr. Hideyoshi! Please answer me if you hear me!!"
When he arrived at the door of Eiha's room in the guest house, Genji knocked on the door hurriedly, but no one answered. Then Genji took out the key from his pocket, opened the door, and pushed it inside...
“Click.”
However, to everyone's surprise, the door was not pushed open. On the contrary, the door chain inside prevented the door from opening further. Seeing this, Genji gritted his teeth and immediately turned to look at Jiayin.
"Go find something to cut the door chain right now!"
"yes!"
Jiayin nodded and was about to turn around and leave, but at this time Fangzheng stood up.
"There's no need for that. Please move back."
“…”
Although they didn't know what Fang Zheng was going to do, Jia Yin and Yuan Ci hurriedly backed away from the door. Then Fang Zheng walked to the door and kicked it out.
"boom!!"
With a dull thud, the door suddenly opened, and Fang Zheng walked into the room, then was immediately shocked.
In the room in front of me, I saw Ushiromiya Ewa's eyes wide open, and something that looked like a nail was inserted directly into her brain from her forehead.
“This, this is…!?”
Seeing this scene, Genci and Jiayin were also shocked. They instinctively wanted to come in to check, but Fang Zheng blocked their way with his hand.
"No one is allowed to enter the room without permission!"
As he spoke, Fang Zheng walked to the bathroom door and pushed it open. He saw Hideyoshi, who was naked in the bathtub, with a long black spike piercing his head. He had no signs of life.
Soon, everyone rushed to the crime scene again, and even Conan had a frown on his face with a grim expression.
"Are you sure this room is locked?"
"Yes, there's a door chain inside, a perfect secret room."
Hearing Conan's question, Fang Zheng nodded and then asked in a low voice.
"Has anyone left before?"
"No, I was with Battler, Shujika, and Jouji the whole time. No one left during that time... What about you?"
"Mr. Genji and I have been in the study, and he hasn't left."
"By the way, why do you want to kill people in this way?"
Looking at the corpse in front of him, Fang Zheng was puzzled.
"And judging from their appearance, it seems that they were killed by a single blow while awake. If it was a crossbow or something like that, it would be fine, but this thing..."
Fang Zheng stretched out his hand and gestured.
"It's a bit crazy to use it as a murder weapon. Wouldn't it be more convenient to use a fruit knife?"
Having said this, Fang Zheng turned around and looked at Xia Fei, Yuan Ci and others.
"Have any of you seen anything like it?"
“…”
Facing Fang Zheng's question, everyone looked at each other and shook their heads.
"In short, first protect the scene, then...what's that smell?"
At this moment, suddenly, a pungent smell came, Fang Zheng frowned, and the others also showed surprised expressions. Soon, Jiayin came out.
"Maybe there's something wrong with the boiler. The boiler here is very old. I'll go take a look."
"I'll go too."
Granny Xiongze followed Jiayin and left, while Fangzheng and Conan began to inspect the entire scene again. In fact, there was no trace left at the scene, only a letter stuck in the crack of the door, which only contained a sentence like "Praise my name". So neither Fangzheng nor Conan took the letter seriously.
"Something is wrong. Something is wrong with this murder."
Conan was also frowning at this moment, muttering to himself as he looked at the naked body in front of him.
"how?"
Hearing Conan's words, Fang Zheng glanced at him.
"You don't think this is the apparition of the Golden Witch, do you?"
"If there really are people other than us on the island, then it's not unreasonable, but what I can't understand is the criminal's method of committing the crime..."
"Yes, it is indeed quite weird."
Fang Zheng once again looked at the nail inserted into Ushiromiya Ewa's forehead.
"It was a fatal blow. There was no sign of struggle or resistance. It was as if she was lying on the ground, and then suddenly the nail appeared out of nowhere and pierced her head."
"So did Mr. Hideyoshi. He didn't even have time to climb out of the bathtub."
"So the question is, why did the murderer use two different methods to kill? You have to know that it was only two or three hours from the time Ms. Huiyu and the others went back to their rooms to rest until the body was discovered. In comparison, last night there were a full six or seven hours to set up the murder scene. Since the criminal could draw a magic circle on the door out of boredom, he could also use these nails to pierce the victim's forehead."
"Maybe there aren't enough nails?"
Conan looked at the spike on his forehead in confusion.
"This nail looks very complicated, like some kind of work of art. I don't think there are many of them. Maybe if the murderer used them on the victims yesterday, they wouldn't be enough."
"Then the question is, what are these nails..."
“Boom boom boom!!”
At this moment, hurried footsteps sounded again, and then Fang Zheng and Conan saw Battler running over in a hurry.
"Oh no! Something happened to Jiayin too, and we found a dead body!"
“…”
Hearing this, Fang Zheng couldn't even sigh.
"Anyway, let's go check it out first."
Soon, in the underground boiler room, Fang Zheng saw Kanon being rescued by Doctor Nanjo, and a charred body on the ground. According to Genji's identification, the charred body was the missing Ushiromiya Kinzo. Kanon, like Huiyu and Hideyoshi, was pierced in the chest by a long nail, and was currently only breathing out but not in.
In this depressing atmosphere, everyone was also panic-stricken. Finally, at Genji's suggestion, they came to Ushiromiya Kinzo's study and planned to hide there for a night. As for Kanon, she was taken to the room by Doctor Nanjo for treatment, but unfortunately she could not be saved in the end...
Under the pressure of the crowd, Genji finally couldn't bear the pressure and admitted that Beatrice really existed. However, according to Genji, this woman should have died a long time ago. As for whether she and Kinzo had an illegitimate child, Genji said he didn't know. He just said that Kinzo was very sad after losing Beatrice, so he was obsessed with black magic and other things all day long, trying to revive Beatrice...
"That's right, a living sacrifice! A living sacrifice!!"
Hearing this, Battler seemed to have thought of something, and he shouted loudly, then rushed to the portrait of Beatrice in the study.
"That must be the case. Grandpa wants to revive Beatrice, so he called us here. On the surface, he wants to distribute the inheritance, but in fact, he wants to use us as living sacrifices! Look, this inscription says that on the first night, the six people chosen by the key will be offered as sacrifices, and on the second night, the two people who are close to each other will be torn into pieces... It all fits!!"
"What do you think?"
Hearing this, Fang Zheng looked at Conan.
"Indeed, it is consistent with the inscription, but I always feel that something is not right. This is just my intuition, but I feel it is too deliberate."
Conan also expressed his opinion at this time.
"Deliberately?"
"That's right. Generally speaking, the purpose of the closed room method is to make people mistakenly believe that the victim committed suicide, thereby clearing the suspect. But now because of the deaths of the six people before, we have confirmed that there is a murderer, and this closed room is not arranged to look like a suicide. So what is the purpose of this closed room? Why did the criminal have to plan all this as a closed room murder? Is it just to make everyone admit that there is indeed such an elusive witch? Put all the murders on the witch?"
Conan just couldn't figure it out, and Fang Zheng couldn't understand it either.
And at this moment...
"Everyone, step back!"
Xia Fei's scream interrupted Fang Zheng and Conan's thoughts. They looked up and were shocked. In front of the painting, Xia Fei was holding a gun, aiming at Genji, Granny Xiongze and the doctor standing in front of the table.
"What's going on?"
Fang Zheng stared at Xia Fei warily and asked, while Rang Zhi beside him hurriedly explained.
"We were just looking at the inscription here, and then Maria said that Beatrice had sent a letter, and when we looked at the table, we found that there was really a letter there!"
"oh?"
Fang Zheng and Conan also hurriedly looked towards the table at this time, and sure enough, they saw a letter on the table that was basically the same style as the previous one.
"The letter just now isn't there yet."
“That’s right!”
Holding a gun, Concubine Xia walked carefully to the dining table. She stared fiercely at the three servants in front of her and roared loudly.
"So, this letter must have been placed here by one of you!"
"We didn't do such a thing!"
"Battler-kun, read the letter!"
"Ah, yes."
Hearing Xia Fei's order, Zhan Ren hurried to the dining table, picked up the letter and began to read.
"…There are only two possible outcomes to this game. Either I win or you all win. Once the time limit is over, I win. I hope there is no misunderstanding about this…"
"It was one of you who put this letter here!"
Xia Fei raised her gun and pointed it at Genji, Granny Kumazawa, Dr. Nanjo and Maria one by one.
"When I put the can on the table, there was no letter. After that, I, Joji, Shu Zhixiang and Battler went to the painting. Mr. Fang Zheng and Conan were discussing the case at the coffee table. But the moment we looked away, the letter appeared on the table. So it is certain that this letter must have been placed there by one of you!"
"this……"
"There were only four of you at the table. You must have seen who put the letter there. If you can't tell, then it means that the four of you are accomplices!"
At this moment, Xia Fei was obviously hysterical. She held the gun tightly and stared at the four people. Conan wanted to step forward and say something, but was pulled back by Fang Zheng.
Afterwards, the four of them left the study under Xia Fei's threat. After the four of them left, Xia Fei signaled Zhan Ren to go up and lock the door, and then she breathed a sigh of relief.
But the good times didn't last long. After just a few minutes, the phone rang. Xia Fei walked over to answer the phone, but on the other end of the phone, they could only hear Maria singing...
"what is going on?!"
When everyone rushed out of the study and came to the dining room, they saw the bodies of Genji, Grandma Kumazawa and Doctor Nanjo. Their heads were smashed and there were long nails stuck in their calves, abdomens and feet.
"I see! I understand!"
Seeing this scene, Conan suddenly realized.
"The prisoner acted exactly according to the inscriptions on the stele! The places where the nails pierced corresponded to the descriptions on the stele!"
"But who did it? And how did they do it? This restaurant was also locked just now."
Fang Zheng checked the body and still had no clue. At this moment, Zhu Zhixiang, Zhi and Zhan Ren also surrounded Maria and asked her who the criminal was. However, no matter how they asked, Maria would only say that the criminal was Beatrice...
Frankly speaking, seeing Maria looking like she deserved a beating, Fang Zheng also wanted to slap her.
But wait…
"Where's Madam Xia Fei?"
Fang Zheng subconsciously glanced around, and then he realized that Ms. Xia Fei had disappeared. Hearing Fang Zheng's question, the others turned around in surprise, and at the same time, Maria spoke.
"As for Aunt Xia Fei, she just went out while reading the letter."
"What?!"
Hearing this, Zhu Zhixiang rushed to the door of the restaurant and wanted to open it, but for some reason, the door was locked from the outside and could not be opened at all.
"Mom, mom, what are you doing! Open the door!"
"I'll do it!"
Fang Zheng hurriedly walked to the front door of the restaurant and kicked it hard again, opening it heavily. At the same time...
"Bang!!"
Gunshots rang out.
When everyone rushed out of the restaurant, all they saw was Ushiromiya Natsuhime, lying on the floor of the entrance not far away, with a bullet wound in her forehead, already dead.
"What the hell is going on?!"
Fang Zheng and others hurried to the body of Concubine Xia of Ushiromiya and looked around, but they could not see anyone. Not only that, they did not find any letters beside Concubine Xia.
And at this moment...
“Ding…ding…ding…”
The clock struck twelve midnight.
The next moment, everything in front of Fang Zheng and Conan became pitch black.
The whole room was gone.
The world seemed to be swallowed by darkness, and then a small figure appeared in front of the two.
"On the ninth night, no one survived."
Maria raised her head and looked at Fang Zheng and Conan with that disgusting smile.
"How is it? Beatrice is amazing, isn't she? She's a witch."
"So, you mean to say that all this was committed by Beatrice, a witch?"
Conan was now staring at Maria with a serious expression, and the latter nodded "innocently".
"That's right, Beatrice is a witch, so she can enter and exit locked rooms freely and kill people at will. This is all witch magic. What do you think? Are you still unwilling to believe this?"
"you……"
Hearing Maria's question, Conan clenched his hands. Of course, he didn't want to believe Maria's lies, but Conan really couldn't find any reason to refute. After all, he had just carefully investigated those crime scenes, but didn't find the slightest clue...
“Hahahahahaha, I see.”
However, just as Conan was thinking hard, Fang Zheng laughed as if he had suddenly realized something.
"I understand, Conan."
"Mr. Fang Zheng?"
Hearing Fang Zheng's words, Conan looked at him curiously, and Fang Zheng smiled and patted his head.
"You see, we initially thought that the purpose of this game was for us to solve the mystery and find the truth about the Rokukenjima murder case."
"Isn't that so?"
Conan felt a little depressed when facing Fang Zheng's words, while Fang Zheng nodded.
"Strictly speaking, that's true, but the setting of this game is a little different. We not only have to find the truth, but we also have to see through the lies!"
"lie?"
"That's right."
Fang Zheng said this while looking at Maria.
"Look, the information we got only says that there was an explosion on Rokukenjima and everyone died except Ushiromiya Ewa. But the police haven't been able to fully verify how they died. So, the entire Rokukenjima is actually a mystery, an unknown X. The known facts are who died and who is alive. The unknown facts are how they died, where they died, when they died, and the cause of death. We don't know anything about it, so..."
Having said that, Fang Zheng suddenly stretched out his hand and pointed at Maria.
"Even if someone fabricated a scene and a cause of death, we can't confirm whether it is true! In other words, what we originally thought happened on Rokukenjima where we are now is very likely just a fabricated lie! Because they want us to believe that it was the work of a witch, they made these boring inscriptions, puzzles, and secret rooms. It's like in an RPG game, where I can't just kick open a door and have to decipher it. This is just a fabricated lie that fits the setting of 'witch killing'! In other words..."
Fang Zheng stared at Maria, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, revealing a ferocious smile.
"In fact, everything we saw has never happened in reality!"
As Fang Zheng finished speaking, the next moment, the world shattered.
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