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After that, no one moved away from the living room, and a peaceful time for everyone else aside from me passed.

Change happened at 8pm.

“Now then, I will be relieving that girl.” (Mizu)

Silent anger was shown in the eyes of Mizu as she stood up, and around 15 minutes later…

“I-I finally managed to come back.” (Rirumu)

The useless maid returned. 

“Welcome back, Rirumu.” (Souma)

“Ah, Souma-san! I am back!! It is horrible. Hear me out! Mizu-sama showed up and suddenly began reprimanding me…” (Rirumu)

“Aah, yeah, that must have been rough.” (Souma)

As a direct victim of hers, I can’t really take her side. 

I just skip through what she said and enter the main topic. 

“By the way, how was the room? Anything strange?” (Souma)

“Room? Aah, the barrier room? Mizu-san and I didn’t enter the room, so I can’t really be too specific here though… Is something the matter?” (Rirumu)

The useless maid tilted her head in wonder, and I simply shook my head and smiled. 

“No, it is fine if there was nothing. Yup, it is good.” (Souma)

For some reason, several people are keeping in check what I say. 

They might think it strange if I inquire too much.

I easily withdraw here. 

People have left the living room a total of 2 times since the useless maid came back from her shift. 

The first pair was the useless maid and Maki. 

The useless maid tried to fix her honor the very moment she came back, and on the way to bring tea as if saying this is for her honor…

“Hiyawah! Eeh?!!” (Rirumu)

She raised a pretty intentional scream as she fell, making a big stain on her maid clothes, so she left to change. 

Maki did go with her all the way to the front of her room, and returned after around 15 minutes. 

The second pair was Fuu and Ina. 

Fuu raised her hand while wriggling and…

“E-Excuse me, I need to go to the restroom…” (Fuu)

She announced this and Ina went with her. 

Both of them returned in less than 2 minutes. 

Aside from that, there would be friendly chatting, keeping an eye on me, closing their eyes and standing in place, keeping an eye on me, smoking with an unsavory face, keeping an eye on me; they were all doing their own thing to spend time. 

 And then, 9pm.

Time to switch again. 

“Now then, it is my turn now!” (Earth)

“Ah, wait a moment!” (Souma)

I called Earth, who was heading off for his turn, to a stop and had him hold a shining thing that would make children happy, and requested something of him. 

“Eh? Okay, that’s fine!” (Earth)

I can feel gazes around stabbing me, but can’t do anything about it. 

I want to be at peace as soon as possible. 

“I will be heading off now!!” (Earth)

Fortunately, no one called Earth to a stop again, and he left to do his shift. 

I will be able to know the result 1 hour later. 

I was making a gleeful look and Mitsuki stood by my side. 

“What did you ask him to do just now?” (Mitsuki)

“I simply asked him to check the state of the room… You can go confirm with him if you want.” (Souma)

When I said this, Mitsuki shook her head and moved away. 

They are all really untrusting people. 

Mizu-san came back and left somewhere with Ringo. 

5 minutes after that, Fai-san said…

“Tch, ran out of cigs!” (Fai)

Saying this, he left for his room with Elm-san. 

It would mean that 3 users of barrier magic have left the room at the same time now. 

I look at Mitsuki wondering if that’s fine and…

“There’s no issues. I see it…all.” (Mitsuki)

She immediately answered with that. 

She is so reliable it is scary. 

The 4 probably met up on the way, Fai-san and the others came back after around 5 minutes. 

—10pm.

Fai-san left and the report I had been waiting for arrived.

Earth had come back from his shift, ran to me, and whispered to me the result. 

“Alright!” (Souma)

I pumped my fist without minding my surroundings. 

Earth looked at me and said ‘so weird~’ and left. It seems like Elm-san asked him questions, but I don’t care. 

It should go well with this…most likely. 

Exhaustion could be felt from everyone after 10pm.

Within that, Earth and Sazan began to make a ruckus saying they were hungry, and they headed to Elm and Mizu. 

I also go with them. 

It seems like almost all the remaining ingredients were used, but we used a gem that had fire magic in it, and the two had prepared a late-night meal in just 15 minutes. 

By the way, Earth wolfed down that meal, and Sazan left more than half of it. 

…If you eat little, don’t go exaggerating your hunger. 

A while after that, when it hit 10:44pm, I secretly began preparing for the coming event. 

There’s still eyes on me.

Looking at my clock would make it too obvious, so I try to keep it as natural as possible while I reserve a spell for the event that will be happening. 

And then, just when it hit 10:45pm.

Light suddenly disappeared from the world.

“W-What?!” 

“What’s going on?!” 

I heard flustered voices inside the darkness.

However, as someone who has already experienced this in the game, I alone could move calmly. 

I extend my hand without hesitation inside the darkness and put my hand inside the adventurer bag. 

The storage control of the item boxes doesn’t rely on sight. 

My hand moved quietly in the darkness, and took out an item without issues…

“I-I am scared of the dark!!”

I lost my balance at something that suddenly crashed onto my waist. 

“Wa, who is it?! Get away from me!!” (Souma)

“I don’t like the darkness! No darkness!!” 

They must be panicking. There’s barely any intelligible conversation here. 

I gave up on trying to tear that person away from me and somehow manage to continue operating the items. 

“Kuh! [Light]!!” 

A few seconds later, Shizun-san used light magic, but by that time, I had also taken out a lantern from my adventurer bag. 

I used fire magic and light up the lantern. 

“Damn it… I should have been the first one to illuminate the place.” (Souma)

I looked down while complaining.

“…It is your fault, Sazan.” (Souma)

“Feh?” (Sazan)

I directed a begrudging gaze onto the self-proclaimed great mage of darkness.

The reason why the room suddenly got dark is because of what you would call a blackout in modern terms. 

It seems a device used to send mana to the residence had malfunctioned, and it came back on in around 5 minutes without doing anything. 

A commotion happened when they noticed that Fuu was not present once the lights came back on, but she was trembling below the table. 

She looks like she is level-headed, but there’s this part of her that’s really fitting of her age which makes her cute. 

Really different from Sazan whose age doesn’t fit this. 

After all that happened, there was understandably no one who left the room.

Soon after that incident, it hit 11:00pm, and Fuu said she was scared of going alone, so she went to do her watch duty with Ina. 

Fai comes back, switching places with the two.

There wasn’t really much conversation. 

There was barely any movement from 11 to 12, but Shizun-san, who hadn’t moved at all until now, left the room together with Elm-san for around 5 minutes. 

His surveillance is gone, but I am not in the mood to be happy about that. 

I pass my time doing nothing of interest.

Time slowly passed, and as the moment approached, I could feel everyone getting restless.

However, that will end soon too.

I wait patiently for that moment. 

And finally, the long awaited 5 minutes before 12. 

“…Now then, let’s go.” (Shizun)

Shizun-san spoke with a heavy tone, and everyone in the room followed after him silently. 

“Ah, father…” (Fuu)

“Souma-san!” (Ina)

We reunite with Fuu and Ina in front of the barrier room. 

We open the room with Shizun-san’s key. 

The door opened with a creak and…

“…That’s a relief. The barrier is still there.” (Shizun)

Shizun-san sighed in relief. 

Comments like ‘Keh, I knew that would be the case’ and ‘It really was just a prank’ rang in the place. 

“Father, it would be best to confirm at least…” (Fuu)

“Yeah, you are right. Let’s confirm the inside just in case.” (Shizun)

However, Shizun-san nodded at the words of Fuu as if rethinking it, formed barrier magic with his own hands, and went to pour it onto the red and blue crystals. 

The barrier protecting the Immortal Oath slowly dimmed, and deep in…

“I-Impossible…!!” (Shizun)

There’s a column without a shadow of a ring anywhere. 

“The ring is…gone?!” (Fai)

Fai peeked from behind and said this with a face as if he couldn’t believe this. 

From there, the commotion spread like a ripple. 

“Impossible. I had an eye on the location of all the people in this mansion. There wasn’t a single person who stayed in this room for more than a minute…” (Mitsuki)

I hear Mitsuki say this dumbfounded and direct my gaze to the side. 

…The right corner of the room.

The ‘not yet’ that I wrote with Shiranui is gone cleanly. 

 

Maki’s Memo:

Exit Record:

[18:00-19:00 – Watch: Elm]

18:20-18:30: Fai and Souma.

18:40-19:00: Souma, Rirumu, and Maki.

[19:00-20:00 – Watch: Rirumu]

19:10-19:15: Souma and Elm.

19:35-19:45: Souma, Mitsuki, Elm, Ringo, and Maki.

[20:00-21:00 – Watch: Mizu]

20:30-20:40: Rirumu and Maki.

20:45-20:50: Fuu and Ina.

[21:00-22:00 – Watch: Earth]

21:05-21:15: Mizu and Ringo.

21:10-21:15: Fai and Elm.

[22:00-23:00 – Watch: Fai]

22:05-22:20: Souma, Mizu, and Elm.

22:45-22:50: Blackout.

[23:00-00:00 – Watch: Fuu+Ina]

23:15-23:20: Shizun and Elm.

23:55-00:00: Everyone.

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