Mafia Game: Lancaster Family's Ripper (3)
“Guildmaster! Don’t look!”
Gears frantically covered Liana’s eyes, but she had already witnessed the gruesome scene inside.
The sharp tang of blood hit her senses. Beyond Gears’s panicked face, she could vaguely make out vivid red stains.
“U, ugh……”
In the end, Ilia—who had the weakest stomach—clamped a hand over her mouth and fled in the opposite direction.
“Yujin is really dead?!”
“Then what about us? If we’re trapped in this horrific mansion and can’t get out……”
“Hold on, everyone! Calm down!!”
As panic spread among the group, Liana had no choice but to step in and mediate.
“He’s probably…… not actually dead. You all know that. Even getting hit by a Meteor straight on in a Cube doesn’t kill you.”
“B-but…… the librarian said this isn’t a Cube, it’s a Dimension!”
“It’s the same thing, just a bit more upgraded. And…… would he really set it up so death carries over into reality if there was even a chance he might die?”
Yujin Feltro was a weird guy, but he was no villain.
And he was incredibly meticulous, too.
A mage who had openly shared his dream of creating games for everyone to enjoy together wouldn’t orchestrate something this horrific.
From the moment he’d joined them in playing Lancaster Family’s Ripper, safety was guaranteed.
Yes. Even the atrocity unfolding before their eyes was just a “fabricated” scene.
This was all just a game, after all.
Thinking that way dulled the shock a little.
And it wasn’t just Liana zeroing in on that simple fact.
“If anything, this is good news. The clown—the most obvious suspect—has been proven innocent, so our pool of choices just narrowed.”
Classic Hanna.
You needed that level of cold-bloodedness to manage the entire Liana Merchant Guild as her secretary.
“Let’s head to the Great Hall first. And since contact seems to be the trigger, we should all spread out and walk as far apart as possible.”
Lingering around the crime scene wasn’t going to reveal anything new.
In the end, the group followed Hanna’s lead and moved to the Great Hall.
……Though their eyes darted around with far more suspicion than the day before.
“As you can see from my outfit, my role is the cook. And my ability is—”
Hanna poked her own nose.
“An exceptional sense of smell, apparently.”
As everyone stared in confusion, Hanna explained in a calm voice.
“I can identify the two people most likely to have killed the current victim.”
“What?!”
“And according to my ability, the first one is…… security head Gears.”
As Hanna’s gaze turned to Gears, Ilia—standing beside him—jumped in fright and hid behind Kalian.
At that moment, Liana’s eyes narrowed.
She just grabbed his shoulder……?
Given how Ilia had acted so far, it was plausible enough skinship.
Aside from herself and Hanna, no one else seemed fully adjusted to the game.
She could understand the careless behavior.
And even that tiny suspicion was completely drowned out by Gears’s agitated shout.
“Hanna……!! What the hell are you saying?!”
“I’m just stating facts. If you want to blame someone, blame the already-dead Yujin. You were the one butting heads with him from the start, weren’t you, Gears?”
“That’s, that’s……!! Fine, I admit I was wary of him, but you can’t pin this on me just for that!!”
“It’s just suspicion for now……? If you’re not Jack the Ripper, you can just explain step by step. Why the overreaction?”
“Hey!!!!”
“Whoa, Gears! Chill out! It’s just a game!”
In the end, even his close friend Benders had to step in to restrain him.
In the process, Benders and Gears made “physical contact,” but no one except Liana seemed to notice.
“Right, Gears. And if Hanna’s right, there’s another suspect, isn’t there?”
“Y-yeah! Who’s the other one……?”
“That would be……”
Hanna’s eyes landed on none other than.
“The guildmaster.”
“???”
Suddenly?
Liana doubted her own ears for a second.
But looking around, everyone was already staring her down.
She hurriedly protested.
“Hanna? Sorry, but you’re wrong! Look at my outfit—I’m the head maid of this mansion. An innocent family servant!”
“The rules say Jack the Ripper can’t be distinguished by appearance.”
“B-but! Oh, right! I have an ability too! It’s called Trace Finding—I can track the movement path of anyone you designate, once per day!”
Thrown into the suspect spotlight, in her panic she pointed at the first person she saw: Ilia.
Immediately, bright golden footprints stretched from Ilia’s position all the way to the Great Hall exit.
“S-see? Footprints!”
Liana pointed triumphantly at the proof of her innocence, but……
The group’s eyes only grew more suspicious.
“……Sorry, guildmaster, but we don’t see anything?”
“What?!”
“The ability probably only shows for the user. Like my ‘exceptional sense of smell.’”
“No way.”
Confusion, relief, then despair again.
Liana’s emotions ricocheted like an uncontrolled Magic Missile.
But she couldn’t judge hastily.
There was still time before the regular voting meeting, and most hadn’t even grasped the game’s flow yet.
In the end, following Hanna’s suggestion, the group agreed to reveal their roles and abilities.
The revealed info was as follows.
[Head Maid: Liana] - Trace Finding: Once per day, investigate one designated person's movement path.
[Gardener: Gears] - Magic Mushroom Spores: Once only, attach spores to a contact target. If they’re killed within two days, mushrooms bloom for Jack the Ripper.
[Family Knight: Kalian] - Ironclad Defense: Every night, designate one person for protection. The protected target is safe from Jack the Ripper.
[Count’s Heir: Benders] - Intuition: Once only, determine if a designated person is or isn’t Jack the Ripper.
[Regular Maid: Ilia] - Eavesdropping: Every night, designate one person to learn if they used their ability.
[Beggar: Rowell] - Inheritance: On the second night, inherit the ability of a killed person. If no one dies, the ability is nullified.
[Cook: Hanna] - Exceptional Sense of Smell: Once only, name the two people most likely to have killed the current victim.
In the process, Kalian revealed he’d protected Liana the previous night, and Ilia “coincidentally” used her ability on him to confirm it.
Benders and Gears “haven’t” used theirs yet.
Rowell’s wasn’t something she could actively use.
Hanna and Liana had effectively used theirs under the assumption everything was true.
“……”
Still no real leads.
“Let’s dispel the magic circles like yesterday. Any physical contact that happens is unavoidable…… so let’s keep it in mind as best we can.”
With no other choice, the group scattered.
The mansion, once just intriguingly novel, had become a suffocating giant escape room.
Especially since the game’s developer had been killed off early, leaving no one to relay key info.
If Yujin were here, he’d surely point out what they’d missed.
Even playing with her most trusted comrades, why was the tension so thick?
Liana stayed on high alert at the slightest noise, constantly glancing back to check for pursuers.
A few more minutes passed like that.
Ding, dooong—.
Time for decisions.
Liana dispelled the last remaining magic circle and headed to the Great Hall.
“Huh……”
“Ah, guildmaster……”
That’s when it happened.
Rowell appeared from the opposite direction.
Sensing something off, Liana instinctively froze.
Why do we keep bumping into each other? Our paths shouldn’t overlap.
Their paths could overlap, sure.
The problem was the regular assembly bell had rung.
The Great Hall was in the direction Rowell had come from.
Liana couldn’t fathom why she’d doubled back.
“……”
“……”
The suffocating silence broke when Rowell couldn’t take it anymore.
“G-guildmaster! Just to clear up any misunderstanding—I was heading to the Great Hall! You know I’m terrible with directions, right……?”
True, she was a notorious directionally challenged mess.
But in this climate of distrust, even that was suspect. Liana demanded Rowell keep her distance and let her lead.
She was ready to bolt and scream if Rowell tried closing in.
Sensing the mood, Rowell wordlessly backtracked without protest.
The two arrived at the Great Hall with creaking footsteps.
“Ilia! You’re Jack the Ripper, right? Why else would you go around touching everyone?!”
“Me? No!? I-I was just scared……”
“Gears, didn’t we already prove Ilia’s innocent? I nailed her ability use perfectly.”
“That’s just something anyone could agree to! I could do it too!”
“Wait, speaking of—Gears, didn’t you touch Benders in the drawing room earlier? His ability only works at night, so maybe you were trying to kill him before then?”
“Wha……!! No, I put spores on Benders instead! Like you said, Jack the Ripper’s probably targeting him! Wait, hold on…… Hanna, you’ve been gunning for me this whole time. Are you Jack the Ripper? There’s no rule saying Ripper can’t use abilities!”
“H-how absurd……!”
It was total chaos.