The Insane Regressor: Throne of Pride

”Elena fell beneath the pipe, but her feet were angled toward it while her body lay stretched in the opposite direction, as though she had recoiled from it before collapsing.”

Ravian explained this as he pointed to the position in which they had found her upon entering, then indicated the unnatural angle of her feet, which showed that she had lost her balance while abruptly trying to run in a direction opposite to the one her body had naturally been facing.

Both Aldric and Sylvan listened intently as they examined everything he pointed out.

Aldric then raised his eyes to the perforated copper cover set into the wall and nodded.

”That’s exactly right,” Aldric said, smiling at Ravian.

He then turned to the others, while Ravian stepped back and gave them space... They had only needed a thread to pull on.

”The killer had no reason to enter the room,” Aldric said, excitement coloring his voice at the discovery. ”It was the communication. It reached her through here, and when she realized where it was coming from, she tried to move away from the pipe.”

Bran approached the wall and tapped the copper once with his knuckle.

The echo came back from more than one direction.

”It’s not a single pipe,” he said. ”This branch rises first, then connects to something larger behind the wall.”

”None of us heard a voice in our rooms,” Kaiden said. ”If the killer had shouted at random into the network, all of us would have heard it.”

”Then the killer didn’t shout at random,” Sylvan said. ”They knew which branch led to Elena.”

His gaze shifted toward Ravian.

Everyone noticed, but Ravian merely met his gaze.

”The Correspondence Office uses the pipes for communication and message delivery more than any other place in the mansion, and the laws of space don’t function properly there,” Sylvan said. ”Couldn’t it have come from there?”

’Hmm? A partially correct guess, but you’re an idiot,’ Ravian thought as he regarded Sylvan with a bored look.

”And how exactly could I have communicated with her alone without any of you hearing anything? Not to mention that those spatial delivery mechanisms only work for messages and can only be operated from inside the office; I entered my room at the same time as the rest of you entered your rooms, immediately before the Black Bell tolled.”

Ravian dismantled the entire accusation in a single response, leaving Sylvan nearly speechless as he tried to process it all.

But Ravian was not finished yet.

”If anything, doesn’t your accusation look like an attempt to divert suspicion away from yourself?” he asked, pointing at Sylvan, his voice cold and sharp.

At once, everyone’s suspicious gazes shifted from Ravian to Sylvan.

Sylvan quickly raised both hands in surrender.

”It was only a theory. Why are you all taking it so seriously?” Sylvan said, his expression plainly tense.

That only deepened the others’ suspicion. Throwing an accusation at Ravian, of all people, at such a critical moment—when he had been the one to uncover the first clue—was the height of recklessness, and even Ravian had not expected Sylvan to make a move like that.

’His instincts are good...’ Ravian judged as he watched Sylvan lower his gaze to the floor. ’But he’s impulsive. He won’t be much of a threat.’

Ravian then continued.

”And the storeroom and cellar where you work are connected to the service passages,” he replied. ”There are also pipes in the kitchen, the guest rooms, the stable, and every one of our rooms. If having a pipe near my workplace counts as evidence, then the same evidence points to everyone here,” Ravian explained, indicating each of them in turn.

”We can spread the suspicion evenly if you’d like, but it still won’t give us a single witness.”

Sylvan clenched his jaw, but Aldric raised a hand before he could respond.

”Rayan is right.”

Sylvan glared at him, but Aldric continued, ”I didn’t say he’s entirely innocent. I said that what we have doesn’t allow us to accuse anyone. The killer only needs to be the last person to convey meaning to Elena; they don’t need to stand beside her or reveal their true voice. Anyone who found a suitable branch of the network could have done that.”

”But how did the killer know she would be the only one to hear it?” Kaiden asked.

”The echo,” Bran answered this time.

Everyone turned toward him.

”If the branches differ in length, the sound takes a different amount of time to return from each one,” he said, tapping the copper again, though more lightly this time. ”I don’t know how someone could identify a specific room from that...” Bran continued, feeling along the pipe as he peered inside it. ”But what surprises me more is that the killer managed to convey exactly what they wanted to her and no one else while keeping it hidden from everyone.”

He then turned toward them, his eyes grave.

”That person is terrifying.”

”...”

Naturally, silence fell over the entire group as they grasped, even if only partially, the method by which Elena had died. It was enough to fill them with unease.

Ravian kept his gaze fixed on Bran for a moment longer.

The man rarely spoke, but every time he did, he added something worth remembering.

”Then the killer can do it again from their room,” Talia said.

”No,” Aldric said, looking at the pipe again. ”Not if we block the route.”

He rose and pointed toward the perforated copper cover.

”We’ll stuff cloth into every pipe opening inside the participants’ rooms and offices, then cover each one with a sheet of paper sealed in place with wax. If any seal is broken, we’ll know which room it was in and be able to estimate when it happened from the traces left behind,” the elderly Aldric said, resting a hand against his chin in concentration.

Kaiden smiled without mirth.

”That only blocks the sound. The mansion still has message slots, servants carrying objects, and windows facing one another. The danger remains all around us.”

His voice sounded almost hopeless, especially as his gaze drifted toward Elena’s corpse and he recalled how she had died.

”I know,” Aldric said. ”That’s why we won’t repeat yesterday’s arrangement with only three people. This evening, all eight of us will enter our rooms one after another in an order determined by lot. Everyone’s last public communication will be known, and from the first toll until the third, no one will communicate with anyone else again or touch any object another person leaves for them.”

”That’s all we know for now, at least,” Aldric said, his frustration at their helplessness plain in his voice.

But it seemed someone had something more to add.

Talia stepped forward, looking at Mirai with undisguised suspicion.