When Lu Ning got up the next day, she felt an inexplicable coldness.
The coldness does not come from the temperature, but from some intuitive sense of crisis. She rubbed her hands gently, celebrating another morning when she could wake up.
She sat in her room, opened the e-book at hand, and prepared to finish reading Sora Tsuburaya's works today, and then... basically die.
This round is coming to an end. Lu Ning has no plans to search for Rennix's inheritance. Watanabe Fuchiko is probably doing this. She doesn't want to cause any conflicts in this regard. What will happen when she goes back to the meeting? Say it again.
About thirty minutes later, someone knocked on her door.
"who?"
"I'm Dimitri, doctor, are you still alive?"
"Shouldn't it be? Mr. Dimitri?" Lu Ning asked through the door, "Let me guess...what other regrettable thing happened last night."
"Yes, we need you to check on the body."
Lu Ning picked up the gun, opened the door, and saw Dimitri standing outside the door, looking a little weak. He held a cigarette in his hand, and he didn't have time to shave off the stubble on his chin. It was obvious that he no longer paid attention to his personal image.
"You don't look in good spirits."
"Haha... Doctor, I thought I would be killed last night, but I woke up today. I don't know whether I should be happy or continue to be nervous."
Dimitri made way for Lu Ning to go out. His voice was a little hoarse: "Yesterday we asked Mr. Yu to investigate some things, but until this morning, he has not returned to the main building. I don't think he can do anything at this time. He ran away, I checked all the annexes with my authority as acting clan leader, but no trace of him was found."
"Missing?"
"He is not the only one who is missing. Ms. Asaka Shinomiya is also missing. We opened her door, but we didn't see her. Everything was placed in the house, even the quilts were folded. There is no trace of anyone sleeping last night." Dimitri wiped his face, "We don't have the ability to find where the missing people are."
Lu Ning came to the hall and saw the people gathered here. Arisa Saotome sat on the sofa, looking at everyone with vigilant eyes; Milia stood next to the clock, trying to straighten her waist, as if this would not show her embarrassed posture; Huo Yinglong and Zhai Jingqiu stood close by There was a low conversation at the door; Lian Qingyi, Gustav and Justina were sitting around a small round table, with nothing to show on their expressions.
"Everyone, Dr. Lu is still alive." Dimitri said as he walked into the hall.
"That's good news." Huo Yinglong nodded.
"Isn't there everyone who came..." Lu Ning was a little surprised to see this number of people.
"It's not that exaggerated. Let me take you to see it."
On the way, Dimitri told Lu Ning about the deceased last night.
Makailov, Schritt, Dolores, Sora Tsuburaya, Heima Kusumi, Subobia.
Fortunately for others, Lu Ning was really surprised by Dolores and Superbia, because Cynthia and Felicia must have been with these two people, and they would actually die and live. Is there any reason to let the other one go?
She first came to Makailov's room. The psychic was lying on the floor of his room, his head dripping with blood. The floor was covered with fragments of the crystal ball. It looked like someone was holding a crystal ball and smashing it on it. Same thing on his head. However, after Lu Ning checked it a little, he could see that although the wound on the head was enough to knock someone unconscious, it was not fatal enough.
"No traces of trauma?" Lu Ning checked his whole body and felt very strange, because there were no fatal injuries on Markailov's body, and there were no signs of poisoning. If I had to talk about a way to die, it would be as if he died suddenly of a sudden illness.
After checking to no avail, she had no choice but to check on the next person, Schritt.
This time Schritt died before the canvas. He pulled up a huge canvas in the room. It could be seen that there were some completed paintings on the canvas, but now they were all covered in blood. A cone-shaped rune dagger sank into the back of his head, nearly exploding half of his face. Large amounts of blood spattered out, forming a weird abstract painting on the canvas.
This thing can actually be shot with the same effect as a bullet. However, Lu Ning looked at Schritt's bowed posture facing the canvas and felt that the murderer only killed Schritt incidentally and that destroying the painting was what he really wanted to do.
However, it seemed that she had been paying attention to the painting for too long. Suddenly, she seemed to be able to see the original appearance of the painting covered with blood, and then a voice came into her mind.
“The stars send you greetings, the great being beyond the heavens.”
A cold feeling immediately climbed up Lu Ning's spine. She saw the twisted starry sky painted on the unfinished painting, which was just like Van Gogh's "Starry Night" and was impossible to imagine with common sense.
"doctor?"
Dimitri patted Lu Ning's shoulder, calling her back to reality from the cold feeling.
"Dimitri, you just..."
"Doctor, is there something wrong with that blood stain?" Dimitri asked.
"Blood stains? Strange, why can an awl-like ceremonial dagger have the same effect as an explosive warhead? And it still penetrates from the back, blowing up the face in front." Lu Ning took a step back and stopped looking at that Painting, "There can't be any explosives in there. Is this also taken from Rennix's collection?"
"Yes, and that box has been kept by Arisa Saotome. After she found Schlitt's body, she immediately checked it and found that one was indeed missing." Dimitri said, "So she is very jealous of everyone now. alert."
"Understood." Lu Ning nodded, "But I have never seen such a scene, please understand... I don't understand magic, so at least it is difficult to imagine that this kind of wound was made with this awl using physical means. .”
"Okay, I understand too." Dimitri obviously saw something, but he didn't tell Lu Ning.
"Next."
Kuzumi Heizhen did not die in his room, but in the reading room of the main building. He was sitting in a chair with a book open on his knees, as if asleep. The only identifiable trauma on his body was a blood spot the size of a pinprick between his eyebrows. This was probably the fatal injury. However, Lu Ning did not find the murder weapon. The needle was at least hard enough to penetrate the skull, or it had some magical effect.
As for the book on Kuzumi Heima's lap, it was a book called "Pus, Blood and Growth". Lu Ning took the book out of his lap and folded the corner of the opened page.
"Do you know why Mr. Kuzumi Heimai came here in the middle of the night to find this book to read? He is an accountant, and it should have nothing to do with magic."
"This book is not a magic book or spell-casting material." Dimitri said. "It may be one of the many pieces of knowledge my father collected. I don't know why Heizhen Kuzumi came to find this book."
"Okay, still nothing? Then you wouldn't mind if I took the book and studied it, would you?"
"Please feel free." Dimitri didn't care much.
Tsuburaya Temple Sora, the writer with whom Lu Ning had talked and even exchanged some information yesterday, still could not escape the fate of death today. He was lying on his bed, his head was chopped off, and his death was the same as Felicia's death in the previous trip. This almost iconic killing method almost announced that this person was killed by a tourist.
But of course Lu Ning couldn't say such a thing.
"The beheading was carried out with heavy sharp weapons, such as axes and machetes. The murderer was probably quite powerful. No weapons were seen at the scene, so they have probably been disposed of."
"How did the door get opened?" Dimitri pointed to the door behind him, "Mr. Tsuburaya Temple will definitely lock the door at night. Even if he takes the key to the maid's room to open the door, the sound will be heard. .”
"Is there any convenient way to open the door in magic?"
"Doctor, magic is not convenient. We have explained that it requires a lot of preparation to achieve it, and it is definitely not something you can do on a whim."
"Then what if the killing was premeditated? Ah... forget it." Lu Ning patted his head, "We should at least reach a consensus, that is, the universal key to the servant's room is actually a hidden danger."
"...That's right."
"How many universal keys are there in total? Who has them all now? I know one of them, but where are the others?" Lu Ning asked.
"There are ten universal keys in total. Except for one on Uncle Escher, the rest are placed in the servant's room. Now, you, me, Felicia, Cynthia, and Huo Yinglong each have one, and the others are still there. Need to confirm." Dimitri immediately replied, "Escher's one was taken back by Lanewood, but I don't have the impression that anyone took the one on Lanewood."
"Let's go to the servants' room first. If I'm not wrong, I probably won't be able to examine the bodies of Superbia and Dolores now."
"Ha... Indeed, Felicia and Cynthia don't allow others to get close to them."
"Mr. Dimitri, I always feel that you don't care much about the truth, and you don't have any hope for my test results." Lu Ning glanced at him, "If you know something, it's best to tell it. After all, there is no one on this island who is more capable than you, the acting clan leader.”
Dimitri looked at Lu Ning.
"Do you want to know, doctor? My biggest question now is not why these people died, but why you haven't died yet."
"You are quite malicious."
"It's not malicious, but more and more people are dying now. It's really hard for me to understand that you are a doctor who has nothing to do with magic. You were attacked by an unknown magician and then spent two nights alone... I If he is the murderer, he will definitely kill you first." Dimitri took out a cigarette case from his pocket, "Of course, there is also the lawyer similar to you. Now it is you who have nothing to do with our family. We are both together, doctor, I want to know where you came from. The fact that you survived the battle with the magician is not something ordinary people can do."
"You have concealed so many things, why do you still think I will tell you everything?"
Lu Ning was not prepared to answer Dimitri's question. The two of them walked to the servant's room and took a look at the remaining universal keys there. There were three in total.
"Three plus five, and the Escher one. Besides, there is another one that I don't know where it is." Lu Ning took off the three keys and handed them to Dimitri, "It's better you do it. Keep it."
"oh?"
"You are the head of the family here. Although I am not satisfied with you hiding the magic-related information, I still approve of your character." Lu Ning said, "Next, I hope you can find out the whereabouts of all the keys. Clearly, of course, I will not return this handful to you for the time being."
"Okay." Dimitri put the key in his pocket, "Then I will report back truthfully what you investigated. In addition, I have a personal question I want to ask you."
"Speaking."
"After being attacked by that magician, you were never attacked again. I don't think that magician would give up easily, so have you actually killed that magician?"
"What do you think?"
"It seems so." Dimitri nodded, "But I think it's okay. This is also the consequence that magicians need to bear."
After saying that, Dimitri took out a cigarette, lit it with a flick of his finger, and walked back to the hall with a slight stagger.
Lu Ning looked at the key cabinet in the servant's room.
For convenience, people usually use universal keys, but usually the keys are placed in the hands of the servants, and they just need to call out when needed. The remaining keys in the key cabinet are for rooms that have not yet been used.
Including annex.
The used room keys will be handed over to the guests in the room. There are quite a lot of rooms in the main building. Lu Ning recalled the places where everyone lived and compared them one by one. After spending about half an hour checking, she found that there were still many rooms here. Two room keys were missing.
One each on the fourth and third floors.
Lu Ning memorized the room number and went upstairs to find the room. The room on the third floor was near the end of the corridor on the right and next to the balcony. After Lu Ning opened the door and entered, she saw that this room had obvious signs of being used. Since there were no servants to clean it, the smell of food in the air even It hasn’t dispersed yet.
The room on the fourth floor was in the corridor where Rennix was, just opposite to Justina. This room was not as obvious as downstairs, but after Lu Ning's careful search, he found some scented wax blocks behind the table and in the corners under the bed.
The user here did a more careful cleaning after using it, and it was obvious that he was not the same person as downstairs.
What still needs to be understood now is why these two people risked being discovered by using an empty room in the main building.
