Returning from the abyss

When Lu Ning woke up the next day, she inexplicably felt a chill.

The cold does not come from the temperature, but some intuitive sense of crisis.She rubbed her hands lightly, celebrating another morning when she was able to wake up.

She sat comfortably in the room, opened the e-book at hand, and prepared to finish reading Tsuburani Terakura's works today, and then... basically die.

This round is nearing the end, Lu Ning is not planning to look for Renix's legacy, Watanabe Fuko is probably doing this, she doesn't want to have any conflicts in this regard, what's the matter when she goes back to the meeting Besides.

About three and ten minutes later, someone knocked on her door.

"Who?"

"I'm Dimitri, doctor, are you still alive?"

"Shouldn't it? Mr. Dimitri?" Lu Ning asked through the door, "Let me guess... what regrettable thing happened last night."

"Yes, we need you to examine the body."

Lu Ning picked up the gun and opened the door, and saw Dimitri standing outside the door with a weak expression.He was holding a cigarette in his hand, and he hadn't had time to shave off the stubble on his chin, obviously 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 he didn't return to the main building until this morning. I don't think he would He ran away, I used the authority of the acting patriarch to check the various annexes, but there was no sign of him."

"Missing?"

"He wasn't the only one missing, Ms. Xingong Qianxia was also missing. We broke open the door of her room, but no one saw her. Everything was placed in the room, even the quilt was folded There is no trace of someone sleeping last night." Dimitri wiped his face, "We have no ability to find out where the missing person went."

Lu Ning came to the hall and saw the people gathered here.Saotome Arisa was sitting on the sofa, looking at everyone with vigilant eyes; Miria was standing next to the clock, trying to straighten her waist, as if she would not show a embarrassed posture; Huo Yinglong and Zhai Jingqiu stood close They were talking in a low voice at the door; Lian Qingyi, Gustav, and Justina were sitting around a small round table, all of them looked expressionless.

"Everyone, Dr. Lu is still alive," Dimitri said as he walked into the hall.

"It's good news." Huo Yinglong nodded.

"Could it be that everyone who didn't come..." Lu Ning was a little surprised to see this number.

"It's not that exaggerated, let me take you to have a look."

On the way, Dimitri told Lu Ning about the deceased last night.

Makalov, Schlitter, Dolores, Tsuburani Temple Sora, Kuzumi Hirayama, Suberbia.

Fortunately, other people said that Lu Ning, Dolores and Subia, was really a little surprised, because Cynthia and Felicia must be with these two people, and they would die and live. Why let the other go?
She first came to Makalov's room. The psychic was lying on his back on the floor of his room, his head was dripping with blood, and the ground was covered with fragments of crystal balls. Same on his head.However, after a little inspection, Lu Ning could see that although the wound on the head was enough to knock people unconscious, it was not enough to kill him.

"No traces of trauma?" Lu Ning checked his whole body, feeling very strange, because Makarov had no fatal injuries on his body, and there was no sign of poisoning.If he had to talk about a way of death, it would be as if he died of a sudden illness.

After the inspection was fruitless, she could only go to the next person, Schriter.

This time Schlitter died before the canvas.He pulled up a huge canvas in the room, and it could be seen that there were some completed paintings on the canvas, but they were now covered in blood.A cone-shaped rune dagger penetrated from the back of the head, nearly blasting half of his face, and a large amount of blood splashed out, forming a weird abstract painting on the canvas.

This thing can be shot with the same effect as a bullet, but Lu Ning looked at Schlitt's posture of bowing his head facing the canvas, and always felt that the murderer killed Schlitt just incidentally, and destroying the painting was the real thing to do.

However, it seemed that because 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 by the blood, and then, a voice came into her mind.

"The stars greet you, the great existence beyond the sky."

A cold feeling immediately climbed up Lu Ning's back. She saw the distorted starry sky drawn on the unfinished painting, just like Van Gogh's "Starry Moon Night", which cannot be imagined by common sense.

"doctor?"

Dimitri patted Lu Ning on the shoulder, bringing her back to reality from that cold feeling.

"Dimitri, you just..."

"Doctor, what's wrong with that bloodstain?" Dimitri asked.

"Bloodstains? Strange, why can an awl-like ritual dagger have the same effect as a blasting warhead? And it still stabs from the back, blowing up the front face." Lu Ning took a step back, not continuing to look at that A painting, "It can't be that there are some explosives in there, right? Is this also taken from the collection of Raynix?"

"Yes, and that box has been kept by Saotome Arisa. She checked it immediately after discovering Schriter's body, and it was indeed missing one." Dimitri said, "So she is very nice to everyone now. alert."

"Understood." Lu Ning nodded, "But I have never seen such a scene, please understand... I don't know magic, so at least it is hard to imagine that this kind of wound was made with this awl by physical means .”

"Okay, I understand." Dimitri obviously saw something, but he didn't tell Lu Ning.

"next."

Kuzumi Hirama did not die in his own room, but in the reading room of the main building.He sat upright in a chair with a book spread across his lap, as if asleep.The only identifiable trauma on his body was between the eyebrows, where there was a pinhole-sized blood spot, which 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's lap, it was a book called "Pulses and Growth". Lu Ning pulled the book out of his lap and folded a corner on the opened page.

"Do you know why Mr. Kuzumi Hirayama came here in the middle of the night to find this book to read? He is an accountant, so it should have nothing to do with magic."

"This book is not a magic book or a spell-casting material." Dimitri said, "It may be one of the many knowledges collected by my father. I don't know why Kuzuhira came to find this book."

"Well, still nothing? You don't mind if I take this book away and study it?"

"Please feel free." Dimitri didn't care much.

Yuangu Sikong, the writer who Lu Ning talked to and even exchanged some information yesterday, still failed to escape the fate of death today.He was lying on his own bed, his head was chopped off, and his death was the same as Felicia's death in the previous round. This almost iconic killing method almost declared that this person was killed by a tourist.

But of course Lu Ning couldn't say such a thing.

"The beheading was done with heavy sharp weapons, such as axes and machetes. The murderer probably had a lot of strength. No weapons were seen at the scene, so they must have been disposed of."

"How did the door get opened?" Dimitri pointed to the door behind him, "Mr. Tsuburani Terasa will definitely lock the door at night, even if you take the key to the servant's room to open the door, you will still be heard .”

"Is there a convenient way to open the door in magic?"

"Doctor, magic is not convenient. We have explained that it requires a lot of preparations to realize it. It is definitely not something you can do on a whim."

"Then what if murder is premeditated? Ah...forget it." Lu Ning patted her head, "We should at least reach a consensus, that is, the common key of the servant room is actually a hidden danger."

"...That's right."

"How many universal keys are there? Who owns them now? I know one of them on me, but what about others?" Lu Ning asked.

"There are ten universal keys in total. Except for one on Uncle Escher, the others are all in the servants' room. Now, you, me, Felicia, Cynthia, and Huo Yinglong each have one, and the others are needed. Confirm." Dimitri immediately replied, "Lionwood took back Escher's hand, but I don't have the impression that anyone took the one on Lanewood."

"Let's go to the servant's room first. If I'm not wrong, I probably won't be able to examine the remains of Subbia and Dolores right now."

"Ha... Indeed, Felicia and Cynthia do not allow others to approach."

"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, you'd better tell it. After all, no one on this island is more capable than you, the acting patriarch."

Dimitri looked at Lu Ning.

"Do you want to know? Doctor? My biggest question now is not why these people died, but why you are not dead yet."

"Your malice is quite serious."

"It's not malicious, but more and more people are dying now. It's really hard for me to understand. 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 it is a murderer, I will be the first to kill you." Dimitri took out a cigarette case from his pocket, "Of course, there is also the lawyer who is similar to you, and now you are the ones who have nothing to do with our family. It's too late, doctor, I want to know what your origin is. You can survive the battle with the magician, which 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 ready to answer Dimitri's question, so the two walked to the servant's room and glanced at the remaining universal keys there, there were three in total.

"Three plus five, and the one from Escher, and there is another one that has gone somewhere." Lu Ning took off the three keys and handed them to Dimitri, "It's up to you Take it."

"Oh?"

"You are the head of the family here. Although I am not satisfied with the information you hide about magic, I still recognize your character." Lu Ning said, "Next, I hope you can find out where all the keys are. Clearly, of course, the one in my hand will not be returned to you for the time being."

"Okay." Dimitri put the key in his pocket, "Then I will truthfully report back what you investigated. Also, I have a personal question, and I want to ask you."

"please say."

"After being attacked by that magician, you have never been attacked again. I don't think that magician will give up easily, so have you actually killed that magician?"

"What do you think?"

"It seems so." Dimitri nodded, "But I don't think it's a problem, and this is also the consequence that magicians have to bear."

After speaking, Dimitri took out a cigarette, lit it with a flick of his finger, and walked back to the hall with a slight wobble.

Lu Ning looked at the key cabinet in the servant's room.

For convenience, people usually take the common key, but usually the key is placed in the hands of the servant, as long as it is needed, it can be called.The remaining keys in the key cabinet belonged to those rooms that had not been used.

Including annex.

The used room keys will be handed over to the occupants of the room. There are quite a lot of rooms in the main building. Lu Ning recalled that everyone lived in one by one. It took about half an hour to check, and she found that there are still Two room keys were missing.

One on the fourth floor and one on the third floor.

Lu Ning memorized the room number, went upstairs and began to look for the room according to the number.The room on the third floor is near the end of the corridor on the right, a room next to the balcony. After Lu Ning opened the door and went in, she saw that the room had obvious signs of being used. Since there was no servant to clean it, the smell of food in the air was even worse. It hasn't gone away yet.

And the room on the fourth floor is in the corridor where Renix is ​​located, just opposite to Justina.This room is not as obvious as downstairs, but after Lu Ning's careful search, some scented wax blocks were found behind the table and in the corner under the bed.

The users here did a more careful cleaning after use, and it can be seen that they are not the same person downstairs.

What still needs to be figured out is why these two people risked being discovered to use the empty room in the main building.