Chapter 234

The inside of the mansion was exactly what you’d imagine when you think, “Yeah, this is what a Western-style mansion looks like.”

When you opened the door, there was an entrance hall, and straight ahead stood a large staircase—an utterly standard layout.

There was a large grandfather clock installed, and a huge painting displayed on the landing of the stairs. It was, without exaggeration, a stereotypical Western mansion.

“At this point, it’s so predictable that it almost feels refreshing—huh?”

When I turned around to look at the two who should have been following behind me, there was no one there.

But a moment later, Sheele—and then Melt—suddenly appeared, not by entering through the door, but as if they had teleported in.

“Huh? You two… we entered the mansion together just now, right?”

“Y-yes… huh? Shizuma, when did you get in front of me…?”

“Huh? I thought I was the one in front…”

“…Was the entrance to the mansion some kind of transfer device…? Or maybe… did we really enter the mansion we were seeing in the first place?”

“That’s troublesome… Is it possible that the mansion itself is a different space—a complex dungeon?”

“Ehh… I thought it was just a normal mansion…”

“Let’s check whether combat really is forbidden here.”

I took out my usual bastard sword and equipped it.

But strangely enough, I couldn’t even raise it—let alone swing it.

It wasn’t just resistance… it felt like a powerful sense of aversion, as if my whole being rejected the idea.

“No good. Looks like combat really is impossible.”

“Indeed… I can’t activate techniques, not even weapons.”

“Me neither… I don’t feel like using magic at all…”

A dungeon that interferes directly with one’s will… in a way, it might be similar to ‘Eternal Autumn Sorrow That Pierces the Heart.’

This is troublesome. And worse still… this time, we don’t even know the clear goal or condition for completion.

“Let’s take a look around inside the mansion for now.”

“Yeah… Sheele, can you scout with [Observation Eye]? I’ll use [Divine Eye] as well.”

“Yes… but so far, I can only see descriptions of the furnishings. There’s nothing strange…”

“Same here. I can’t find any special traps or mechanisms at all…”

There was nothing. Just a normal mansion.

Aside from combat being impossible, there was absolutely nothing unusual about it.

So the three of us stayed together and thoroughly searched the mansion.

The hall, guest rooms. The dining room, kitchen, lounges, and game room.

A study, bathroom, toilet. There was even a washroom for chores involving water.

It truly looked like nothing more than a noble’s mansion—fully equipped with everything needed for normal daily life.

But—

“This door won’t open.”

“Yes, only this large door in the entrance hall won’t budge… What could be beyond it?”

“Judging by the size, it looks like a large space beyond it. If I had to guess… maybe a grand hall for parties?”

“That might be the case… Perhaps solving a puzzle is required to proceed.”

“Then maybe there’s a key for the door somewhere?”

“I see… Let’s go back and re-examine the rooms we already checked, more carefully this time.”

I see… It might not be exactly the same, but this feels like a real-life escape room–style dungeon.

Now that I think about it, the mansion was called ‘The Mansion of Contradictions and Mysteries.’

If that’s the case, then maybe solving a mystery really is the objective…

“If something were to be hidden, the most likely place would be… the lounge, wouldn’t it?”

“Yeah… there were lots of bookshelves. Let’s check it again.”

The lounge—we’d only stopped by briefly earlier to confirm the room, but now that I thought about it, it really was the place best suited for hiding something.

Sofas, tables, bookshelves, cabinets, even a desk. There were plenty of hiding spots.

We cautiously approached the desk first.

It looked like a very fine piece of furniture…

“Hm. There’s a letter here. It’s sealed with wax.”

“Shizuma, I found a paper knife.”

Using the knife Sheele handed me, I opened the letter. Inside was a single sheet of stationery.

Just holding it, I could tell both the envelope and the paper were of high quality.

It was almost as if it were saying, “I’m an important item—notice me.”

“…I see. So it really is a kind of attraction, and this is the introductory item.”

Only a single line was written on the paper.

‘Expose the falsehood that exists within this mansion.’

No specific puzzle was given—just instructions to find what is fake, what is deceiving us, somewhere within the mansion.

I showed the letter to the other two.

“‘Falsehood’… Perhaps there’s a hidden door, or something disguised?”

“Can’t you find that with your eyes, Shizuma?”

“That’s the thing… so far, I can see everything in the mansion, but I haven’t found anything special or unusual at all.”

The sofas and vases in the entrance, the curtains and candlesticks in the hallway, the grandfather clock, the paintings—we’d checked everything we could, like spamming the ‘Examine’ button while moving through a game.

“…Perhaps strange things or mechanisms only appear after certain conditions are met,” 

Sheele said.

“Our abilities—and yours, Shizuma—are essentially cheats when it comes to puzzle-solving. It wouldn’t be surprising if countermeasures were in place.”

“I see… So at a glance, things might appear normal.”

“Yes. For example, something might be hidden within functions that are considered ‘normal’ for an object. Even if I examine a desk, my ability won’t explicitly say, ‘It has drawers, and something is inside them.’ Yours is the same, isn’t it?”

“Now that you mention it… so there could be loopholes that bypass our abilities.”

“Hm-hm? So basically, we shouldn’t rely on powers—we need to look and think for ourselves?”

“Exactly. Excluding things just because they look normal is dangerous. From here on, we should investigate manually.”

Melt was right.

We needed to actually touch things, check them ourselves, flip them over if they seemed suspicious—thoroughly examine everything with our own hands.

And so, for what felt like the umpteenth time, we once again searched the entire mansion carefully, using our own eyes and hands.

“Hmmm… This big grandfather clock really looks like it should have some kind of mechanism.”

After finishing another full sweep of the mansion, we stood observing the large grandfather clock in the entrance hall.

It truly looked like ‘a big, tall, old clock’—though apparently its owner wasn’t a grandfather.

“Indeed. By the usual tropes, solving a clock gimmick like this makes some oddly shaped key or medal pop out, you know?”

“Spoken like someone who’s already done their homework—that series.”

“Well, the first installment was set in a Western mansion.”

“True. But seriously, there’s nothing… No hints like moving the hands in a certain order, or notes with numbers written on them—nothing that feels like a puzzle…”

Still, the fact remained that it might not even be a puzzle.

All the letter said was ‘Expose the falsehood.’

So maybe it wasn’t about solving riddles… Maybe breaking through some kind of deception or illusion was the key.

“This is tricky… Maybe undead or zombies will show up inside the mansion eventually, or something happens when the clock hits midnight?”

“Indeed, it’s possible that something changes as time passes…”

“Hm…? Speaking of time, this clock is probably showing the actual time outside, isn’t it? It’s almost 5 p.m., so why don’t we start thinking about dinner? Luckily, there’s a splendid kitchen here.”

“Now that you mention it, I am getting hungry. Let’s go to the dining room—since we have the chance.”

“Yay! I was actually starving already!”

With Melt cheerfully bouncing along, we headed for the dining room.

This mansion was fully furnished and well equipped. If we failed to solve the mystery, it was entirely possible we’d end up living here permanently.

And perhaps these abundant facilities were… a kind of trap meant to make people who chose to stay live comfortably.

A poison called ‘comfortable living,’ one that saps the will to solve the mystery.

As if to prove that point, the kitchen was stocked with fresh ingredients.

Inside the refrigeration magic tools were meat and fish, and it was even possible that whatever we used would simply be replenished.

In a sense, this might be the greatest trap of all. At the far end of a vast forest sea, deep within a dungeon infested with vicious monsters—there stood such a comfortable mansion…

“Since the facilities are good and there’s plenty of food, maybe I’ll cook as ‘Seira’ for once.”

Just as I muttered that, Sheele quietly approached me and whispered in my ear.

“…Shizuma. Melt and I will wait in the dining room, so please cook here by yourself. If possible… don’t let Melt or me see you transform.”

“…You’ve got a plan, don’t you?”

“Like when Melt was deceived earlier, you might think I’m trying to deceive you too. But this is one of our strategies to break through this dungeon. For today’s meal… it’s fine to use ingredients from the game era, so please make the ‘dishes’ I’m about to tell you. In addition to that, also make the dish we ate in the port town.”

Food from the port town… shrimp-paste toast, perhaps?

And what exactly did she want me to make using game-era ingredients…?

“Then please make the following dishes. First—”

And so, just as Sheele requested, I secretly transformed into Seira and cooked the dishes perfectly.

As expected, [Cooking Level 10] was no joke. Compared to the [Cooking Level 4] I’d learned as Shizuma, the speed, quality, and range of dishes I could prepare were on a completely different level.

“All right… shrimp chili, shrimp-paste toast, shrimp tempura rice bowl, seafood stew, and inari sushi.”

Rice—it had been a while.

I’d only seen it so far as a game-era ingredient, but I understood the desire to eat rice again.

Sheele must have been craving it too.

I returned to my original form, loaded the completed dishes onto a cart, and wheeled them into the dining room.

“Oh, thank you for your hard work, Shizuma. I’ll handle serving the food.”

“Great, thanks. Melt—can you line up the glasses? There was apple juice in the fridge.”

“Got it! Mmm, it smells so good!”

Sheele efficiently arranged the dishes on the long table.

She placed shrimp-paste toast in front of Melt, and shrimp tempura rice bowl and inari sushi in front of herself.

Heh—she really must have missed rice.

The three of us sat down together, and as we brought our hands together to say ‘itadakimasu,’ Melt, clearly unable to wait, started reaching for the food.

“Melt, you need to say itadakimasu properly first.”

“O-okay… wow, it looks delicious.”

“Alright, then—itadakimasu!”

The moment I said it, Melt’s hand shot toward the dishes in front of Sheele.

And just as Melt grabbed that dish, Sheele swiftly seized Melt’s hand in return.

H-hey… Sheele, that’s scary. You don’t have to glare like that…

“…Just as I thought—you tried to eat this one first, didn’t you? I finally have confirmation. The ‘falsehood’ in this mansion is… you, isn’t it? Melt.”

“Eh!? What? What’s going on!?”

“Sheele… what are you saying…?”

With that, Sheele stood up, still gripping Melt’s hand.

She glared intensely at her—the pressure alone was enough to make my spine shiver.

“…Tell me. Where did you put the real Melt?”

“Sheele… what do you mean? No matter how you look at it, that’s Melt.”

“Actually, for some time now I haven’t been able to read Melt’s information—or even yours, Shizuma. It seems that using ‘examination’ on people is treated as a ‘combat action’ here. However… this Melt is a fake.”

“…And what’s your basis for that?”

“I began to suspect something while we were examining the clock.”

And then Sheele began to explain—her reasoning that led her to this conclusion, and why she had determined that Melt was an impostor.