"...Ketchup?"
Kaguya was stunned. She reached out and dipped a finger into it curiously, her beautiful eyes widening just a fraction. "It really is ketchup... Why would anyone use ketchup as a weapon?"
"To be precise, it should be an evil spirit." Natsuki corrected. "I'm curious too—what kind of evil spirit uses ketchup as its weapon? Wasting food like that is a pretty serious offense."
"This really isn't the time to be talking about wasting food." Kaguya couldn't help but chide him, her lips pressing together in a slight pout. "...How is Fujiwara doing?"
In the ice queen's eyes, no one mattered except Natsuki and Chika.
"The three of them ducked into the room up ahead." Natsuki lowered his voice. "Let me check the situation outside first."
Natsuki moved to the door. He pressed his ear against it first, listening carefully to the sounds on the other side. After confirming there was nothing, he cracked the door open just a sliver and peered out with caution.
The hallway was completely empty.
The Headless Horseman, the ghost maid—all of them had vanished without a trace.
Natsuki cautiously stepped halfway out, one foot on the hallway floor. No ketchup came flying.
"The evil spirits seem to have all left. To be safe, let's wait a little longer... hm?"
He stopped mid-sentence, suddenly realizing something.
From just a moment before—why had there been no sound at all from behind him?
He spun around quickly.
Behind him was nothing but empty space.
In the dim, eerie room, at some point it had become utterly vacant. Kaguya had vanished without a sound.
So then... where had she gone?
[Taking a closer look: your future wife has mysteriously vanished in the sealed room...]
Hey now, something like that hardly needs a prompt!
[Through analysis and reasoning, you have determined that spatial teleportation does not exist as an ability in this game]
"I'm not entirely sure about that." Natsuki pressed his fingers to the center of his brow, his gaze slowly sweeping the entire room. "No spatial teleportation... so that means she's still somewhere in here?"
"Turned invisible?"
"Or maybe there's a hidden room inside the room?"
"Or perhaps..."
Natsuki silently raised his head and looked up at the ceiling. In his mind, he pictured the ice queen dangling overhead—wrapped in cobwebs, her mouth sealed shut, tears streaming from her eyes as she hung there helplessly.
Well then.
The ceiling was completely bare. There was absolutely nothing up there.
"It seems like this isn't a horror story after all, but rather a logic puzzle?" Natsuki clenched his right fist and gave his left palm a light smack. "This is exactly the kind of detective segment Fujiwara loves."
The room wasn't large. There was only one window—about the size of a human head—fitted with iron bars as thick as a finger. Inside sat nothing but a bed, a chair, and a simple wardrobe pushed against the wall. On the wall hung a portrait of a woman whose face could not be made out.
Natsuki walked to the wardrobe and opened it. Inside, as expected, it was completely empty—save for a single blue uniform that had been washed so many times it had faded to near-white. On the left side of the chest was a number: 37921.
A book rested on the pillow beside the bed. Natsuki picked it up and found it was a Bible. He opened it, and on the title page, a line of handwriting greeted him.
"You know, some birds are simply not meant to be kept in a cage. Every feather on them shines with the light of freedom."
[Through careful recollection, you have successfully remembered the origin of this quote]
"No need for careful recollection." Natsuki closed the book and walked over to the portrait on the wall. "The game is really pulling this off—the copyright infringement risk is way too high."
He casually lifted the portrait aside. Behind it, a passage just wide enough for a person to crawl through revealed itself.
"Let's hope there's no chocolate sauce waiting when I come out the other side."
Natsuki glanced back at the door. Chika still hadn't appeared—she was obviously running into trouble of her own.
He crawled into the passage and followed it forward. Before long, a sliver of light appeared ahead, leading to a downward exit.
"This should be some room on the second floor..."
Natsuki thought quietly, leaning over the edge and peering down. The room below was dim. A single candle flickered against the wall, casting just enough light to make out the faint shape of an iron cage tucked in the corner.
[Through careful observation, you have determined there is no danger below]
"Good."
Natsuki dropped down, landing steadily on the floor. He then surveyed the room.
The next moment.
His eyes snapped to the iron cage in the corner.
Inside the black, square cage, the ice queen was kneeling on the ground in a duck-sitting pose—knees tucked neatly beneath her, hands bound in iron chains, and around her neck hung a strange black collar.
What on earth...?
How had she gone from being in the same room one instant to becoming a fallen slave princess the next?
Kaguya spotted Natsuki drop down and her eyes brightened. "I'm over here."
Natsuki walked up to the cage, crouched halfway, and looked at the ice queen inside. He couldn't help but laugh. "How did you end up in a cage?"
"Don't laugh!"
The ice queen's pretty face flushed crimson, embarrassment and indignation radiating from her in waves.
Natsuki nodded: "I'll do my best to hold it in."
"It was my shadow." Kaguya bit down on her lower lip, a mist beginning to gather in her wine-red eyes. "Just now, my shadow suddenly started moving on its own. My body lost all control. It lifted the portrait and crawled into the passage."
Her voice turned plaintive: "After coming down here, the shadow took control of my body and walked me right into the cage."
"So in other words..." Natsuki pondered. "You locked yourself in there?"
Kaguya: "..."
Looking at the ice queen—jaw clenched, face turned away, stubbornly refusing to say another word—Natsuki laughed again.
He really couldn't help it.
It really did feel like he should whip out his phone and snap a photo.
The pet princess trapped in a cage. Something like this could never, ever happen in real life.
Kaguya bit down on her teeth. "...You're gloating!"
"My sincerest apologies."
Natsuki offered a genuinely earnest apology. Next time, he'd do it again.
Gloating, after all, was simply part of human nature.
"Hurry up and open the cage. Let me out." Kaguya's eyes widened. Her self-restraint was very nearly at its breaking point.
The humiliation!
The greatest shame of her entire life!
Both of them had been in the same room. So why was she the only one whose shadow had taken control—forcing her to lock herself away with her own two hands?
This was completely unfair!
"Where's the key?"
Natsuki inspected the padlock on the cage. It was thick and heavy—brute force wasn't going to budge it.
"I don't know." Kaguya shook her head. "That table over there seems to have a lot of keys on it. Take a look and see if any fit."
"Mm."
Natsuki stood up and turned his attention to the wooden table beside the cage.
Sure enough, the table was covered in keys. But something else caught his eye far more readily.
A black leather whip...
Natsuki extended his right hand, reaching past the whip to pick up a small object resting beside it. Roughly the size of a car key—a silver-white piece of metal, its design and style completely at odds with everything else on the table.
"What's this?"
Natsuki turned the "key" over in his hand, examining it from all angles with curiosity.
Kaguya, seeing the object in his hand, instantly widened her eyes.
That was... the strange item from the manga?
She'd never seen the real thing, but the design and style were an exact match.
Why would it show up in the game?
"Wait—wait a moment... don't press it—"
[Author's Note]
Apologies—I really couldn't manage to write the second update today.
That gallstone suddenly started acting up again. It feels like my ribs are in agony too—it's absolutely miserable. I'm gritting my teeth and enduring it. I have no mental energy for anything right now, so today I can only take the day off.
My deepest apologies.
Purple sweet potato pudding purple sweet potato pudding purple sweet potato pudding purple sweet potato pudding.
I hope none of you ever have to experience this kind of pain. I absolutely cannot take it.