"Are you saying that when all six corners of the array are lit with red light, the vampire might appear?"
"Remove the 'might.' If two more people die, we'll have to face Viscount Augustine, the vampire."
Carefully examining the pedestal under the piano, it seemed to be a large coffin embedded in the ground. Presumably, it was the hiding place of Viscount Augustine, the vampire.
"So, what was the cause of death for the mansion's owner?"
Lilith still asked in puzzlement.
"However you look at it, it appears to be a suicide."
In general, scenes that appear to be suicides usually turn out not to be actual suicides. But, to be honest, as an experienced professional in this field, Decan felt that it was indeed a suicide. In a world like this, there's no need to make murder so elaborate.
"Why would he commit suicide?"
"Perhaps he was being controlled by the vampire that wanted to sacrifice us but, in the end, he regained a glimmer of sanity and, in his struggle, gave himself a fatal wound."
When Decan presented this conclusion, the long-stalled mission prompt finally began to update.
[Viscount Augustine, after being pursued by the Church and severely wounded, sealed himself in a magical coffin on the brink of death.]
[He enslaved the remnants of the witch and the werewolf, and placed a curse on the mansion. This curse continually eroded the mansion owner's control over his thoughts, making the owner offer sacrifices for him. If six souls of tier 3 or higher were offered within three days, Viscount Augustine would be resurrected.]
[So, many years later, one day, the mansion's owner invited a group of friends to visit the mansion.]`
[They planned to offer sacrifices to Viscount Augustine.]
[However, the mansion's owner retained a glimmer of clarity. He understood the consequences of his actions and, during a brief moment where he regained self-awareness, chose to commit suicide.]
[At the same time, he became the first sacrifice.]
[However, two individuals had already been affected by the curse of the mansion, gaining the power of the werewolf and the witch. They set about to unleash Viscount Augustine.]
[The core plot is now complete.]
[Information has been unlocked. The Rebellious Challengers’ task is to summon a tier 6 vampire, Viscount Augustine. After the mission's time limit ends, Viscount Augustine would be transported to random coordinates in the Challengers’ original world.]
"Did you really deduce it correctly?" Lilith was utterly amazed. She had been struggling with how to unravel the mansion owner's murder case, and it turned out to be so simple.
"It was all thanks to my lady's guidance," Decan said, smiling, as he stepped back behind Cornelia.
In reality, Decan's deduction had mostly been guesswork. If his explanation hadn't updated the mission prompt, he was ready to present another hypothesis until he got it right.
He was confident that as long as he arrived at the conclusion "killing six people will make the vampire appear," he could fill in the rest like a puzzle.
Cornelia, on the other hand, remained calm, as if she possessed hidden talents and knowledge.
This time, Lilith stared at Cornelia for a while, then finally smiled with understanding. She was completely convinced by Cornelia's intelligence. The Shadow World wouldn’t make mistakes when choosing detectives. Initially, Lilith had felt she was smarter than Cornelia, but now she only felt shame.
"So, what should we do next?" Lilith respectfully asked Cornelia.
Cornelia remained silent. She didn't know. She only knew they were going hunting later.
"My lady suggests we proceed according to the original plan. Let's first investigate the circumstances of the deaths of the three kingdom knights," Decan earnestly explained Cornelia's intentions.
The reason Decan wasn't rushing to expose the werewolf was because — This setting was too messy.
In case they couldn't control the enemy and pushed them to the brink, the enemy might voluntarily offer sacrifices, reaching the death count of 6 and summon the vampire right into the living room.
Although Decan could use mutually assured destruction tactics where he utilized his one-time invulnerability to make the vampire faint in pain, the vampire might not necessarily prioritize attacking Decan. He couldn't ensure the safety of others.
So, they needed to lure the enemy to a better location first.
Everyone nodded in agreement and headed toward the bedrooms.
Everyone knew that the regular challengers could only win during the day today. Otherwise, by nighttime, they would almost certainly face a losing outcome.
That's why everyone openly shared their room numbers.
Lilith and her guards were in rooms 201 and 202.
The twin sisters were in rooms 101 and 102.
Last night, Decan and Cornelia were the first to go to their bedrooms, followed by the twin sisters. Then came Lilith and her guards, with the three kingdom knights entering their rooms last; their room numbers were 103 to 105.
First, Lilith's guard attempted to attack the door of room 103 but couldn't make any progress. This indicated that the blessing on the door was intact. However, just as everyone was preparing to move to the next room, Cornelia frowned and sniffed the air.
She gradually knelt down on the floor and then moved closer to the edge of the door of room 103, sniffing more intently.
"There's a smell of blood," Cornelia stated with certainty.
"That's impossible. The room hasn't been broken into. How did the people inside meet their end?" Lilith questioned, her face filled with confusion.
The culprit couldn't have entered through the windows either because they were as indestructible as the walls, making it impossible to break in from the outside.
They proceeded to test the doors of rooms 104 and 105, with similar results. The blessings on the doors remained intact, yet there was a distinct smell of blood inside, and there were traces of cleaned-up bloodstains on the hallway carpet.
The three kingdom knights must have been killed in these three rooms.
"They were staying separately," Lilith said, biting her lip with a conflicted expression. This wasn't hard to explain. Even if two tier 4 knights shared a room, they probably wouldn't be able to withstand an attack from a tier 6 werewolf. So, they likely chose to stay separately to increase their chances of interference. Even if they encountered misfortune, they could leave more information for their companions.
But the problem was, why were three people killed in different rooms on the same night? Wasn't the witch only capable of breaking the blessings on two rooms? What was even more baffling was that the blessings on the doors hadn't been broken at all. The situation had become even more mysterious.
A locked-room murder case that would determine victory or defeat was unfolding. A successful deduction would be a victory for the regular challengers, but failure might lead to their annihilation.
However, Decan didn't need to deduce. If they wanted to know the truth, wouldn't it be much more efficient to capture the culprit and interrogate them directly?
