Part 52: Wolves and Sheep Puzzle

October 5th, 1986, 1:00 PM

According to Genji-san, when tomorrow morning comes, the boat should arrive. The boat had a radio. We could probably contact the police directly with that.
All of us gathered in the parlor, and decided to wait quietly until tomorrow. I proposed that we should search throughout the mansion for clues about the culprit, but Aunt Rosa rejected that, saying that if we managed to corner the culprit, or maybe provoke them, it might lead to a third murder. That was probably the right thing to do. If a bunch of amateurs like us investigated, there's no way we'd find anything. It would be wisest to focus on protecting ourselves without doing anything unnecessary, and leave it to the police after tomorrow.
We had been tense in the beginning, but other than Aunt Rosa, most of the people had spent all afternoon watching TV and were getting bored, so our sense of danger had grown much less intense. When we thought about it, even though there certainly had been six adults killed at once in the first murder, that made us imagine that some back-handed method like poison had been used. And in the second murder, it was thought that those two had become sacrifices because they were unfortunately isolated from the rest of us. From this, we imagined that the culprit wasn't a large number of adults, and they weren't someone who could kill this large group gathered in the parlor all at once.

Furthermore, Aunt Rosa was even armed with a gun. Surely, with this many people staying in this room, they wouldn't be able to touch us easily. That feeling of security, along with the passage of time, allowed us to recover from the shock of that morning bit by bit...
By the way, lunchtime had just ended for us. However, it had been a canned food lunch, a far cry from last night's dinner which Gohda-san had skillfully made for us. Aunt Rosa had also suspected that poison had been used in the murder of those six people. So, we probably couldn't deny the possibility that the culprit had snuck into the kitchen during all that confusion in the morning, and mixed poison in with the ingredients there.
...Aunt Rosa ordered all of us that, until the police came, we should not put anything into our mouths except safe foods like canned food. As a cook, Gohda-san must have felt very let down. As though he wanted to display his skill anyways, Gohda-san said that he at least wanted to bring the plates and pile them up with canned food. At first, Aunt Rosa had been reluctant, examining each one of the plates that were brought, but she hadn't been able to find anything to complain about, and Gohda's 'Chef's Pick Canned Food Combo Lunch' was born. Gohda-san said something about taste being savored not just with the tongue, but with the eyes too. I see, it's the same canned food we ate for breakfast, but it feels like something completely different...

As I was sitting lazily on the sofa, with no desire to watch TV, Maria came over, pulled a picture book out of her handbag, and held it out to me as she said that.


BGM: Melody (instrumental)
At the time, I hadn't known what it meant, and then after that, there was the uproar when Jessica's corpse was found, so I'd forgotten about it completely. The book that Maria held out to me looked like a foreign picture book or something that had been translated. When I opened it, I realized that it was a book stuffed with riddles.


It was a very simple puzzle, passed on from long ago.
Let's try posing a question. On the right bank, there are two wolves and two sheep. There is a boat that as many as two animals can ride on, and using it, you have to move all four of them to the opposite left bank. That's the puzzle.
There are two rules.

The second is regarding the wolves. When they are greater in number than the sheep in that location, they attack the sheep and it's game over.
For example, at the start of the game... The two sheep ride the boat, and go to the other side. Then one sheep gets off, and the other goes back to the first bank. When it does, there are two wolves on the first bank. And a single sheep returns there. When that happens, there are more wolves, so the sheep is attacked and it's game over. On either bank or even the boat, there must not be more wolves than sheep.
It's a puzzle about how to shuttle them across in the boat under these conditions.
The game provides the solution to the Wolves & Sheep Puzzle here, but just for fun, I'm going to move it to the start of the next post. The first person in the thread to post a valid solution will be awarded with the honor of being at least as smart as Maria.

It looked like Maria wanted to test whether I too could solve the puzzles she knew how to solve, and she kept showing me different pages, saying 'solve this one' and 'this one's hard'. What had been happening when Aunt Rosa had said the name of this puzzle...
That's right. When we'd decided to call Jessica, we had been talking about how many men should go, and Aunt Rosa had mentioned 'Wolves and Sheep Puzzle', saying that we should all go together...


BGM: At Death's Door
And when the number of wolves and sheep was balanced, we were safe, but when a situation came up where that wasn't the case, the wolves bear their fangs... is that what she thought...? At the time we had found our parents corpses, Aunt Rosa had already suspected that the servants might be 'wolves'. She had sniffed out the possibility that, while she didn't know whether it was all of them or a group, some 'wolves' were hiding among them.
That's no surprise. That murder scene was very elaborate. It was easy to imagine that there were multiple culprits. And because she had reached that conclusion, when we went to Jessica's room, where Jessica had been alone with a servant, Kanon, and had been killed, it isn't hard to imagine why Aunt Rosa had suspected the servants so persistently...











The servants put the utensils and empty cans on the serving cart and started to head out into the corridor. Behind them, Aunt Rosa was talking to Doctor Nanjo about something in a small voice.


Doctor Nanjo closed the book he had been reading, stood from the sofa, and followed after the servants... Aunt Rosa stuck her head out into the hallway, and after seeing them leave completely, she closed the door, and spoke.



With that one sentence, Aunt Rosa's gaze grew sharp. Apparently she had picked up on the sarcasm. She laughed lightly.






BGM: Lure




Only the master key could have locked the door to Jessica's room. In that case, we can only suppose that one of the servants locked it...
...No, wait.




...That's right. If there was a trick that could lock the door without a master key, this would be a good disguise aimed at casting doubt on the servants. If the culprit wanted us to isolate ourselves and attack us one by one, this trick would also be effective at giving rise to paranoia. However, there was no way to lock that door without using a master key...







George-aniki realized that she was referring to aunt Eva, and seemed a little disturbed about how he should take that sarcasm...







...And if he could get out after those who discovered the body left, the closed room murder would work perfectly...




































But that was only for an instant. She immediately lowered the gun, laughing impishly... But to me, the time I spent staring down the barrel of the gun had felt like an eternity.






An unsatisfied expression rose to George-aniki's face. He probably couldn't forgive the damage done to Shannon's honor.
...What about me...? Several bits of circumstantial evidence hinted at the servants' participation. I didn't want to believe that one of them was the culprit, or possibly colluding with the culprit, but in the current situation, that was nothing but wishful thinking. Who should I believe?
In the first place, who was the culprit? Were there accomplices? If so, how many?! It seems that I've only been suspecting the people involved. I had quickly forgotten that 19th person, the guest, Beatrice, who had come yesterday and boldly called herself the Golden Witch. I hadn't actually seen her face. I'd heard that she was like a double of the witch in that portrait, but because I hadn't seen her directly, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't really feel like a 19th person was on this island. So I had unconsciously been hallucinating that the culprit was one of the 18...
Damn it... Come out, Beatrice. If you're the bad guy, then act like the bad guy, and show yourself, laughing in a high-pitched voice and looking down on us. Just like the bad guy in one of those dramas who, even though they are exposed as the culprit, aggressively says 'is there any proof?'



It was only accented by the sound of Shannon and Kumasawa washing the dishes. Gohda was using the leftovers from breakfast and lunch as ingredients for a soup. Rosa had suspected that poison might have been added to the food, so they had decided to eat canned food, but it hadn't really been satisfying. But Gohda thought that she was being too careful. So he was spontaneously creating a soup to be served only to those that wanted to drink it.
Shannon and Kumasawa were washing the dishes that the food had been arranged on. On the inside, they thought maybe Gohda should be the one to wash them since he had been the one who wanted the food on plates in the first place, but they left their complaints unsaid for the time being. Genji and Nanjo were facing each other across a crude chess set which had many years of experience.
...It had still only just begun. And because the opening game of the experienced players had been endlessly refined, it looked like a ceremony where they just moved specified pieces in a specified order.









The atmosphere in this place accepted that, but their hunger wouldn't be overcome by that momentary emotion.



When Kumasawa cackled, Shannon and Gohda also laughed. It seemed that, in an area where only their fellow servants were gathered, they could be very relaxed. Shannon didn't like Gohda's occasional dishonesty, but she knew that there was no falsehood in his childish smile when he cooked food, nor in his desire that people enjoy his food. So even though it was a little aggravating to be made to wash the dishes, she couldn't really hate him. However, they couldn't have dreamed that Rosa was calling them wolves in the parlor at exactly the same moment that they were spending their time peacefully like this...

It seemed like the sound made by a servant outside the back door when they were carrying a mountain of trash bags on a rainy day, or maybe when a servant was returning from work wearing a raincoat. So after hearing that sound, at first, none of them noticed anything out of the ordinary...

BGM: Play
As the servants all looked at each other, they checked to make sure that each one of them knew what that sound meant.

The servants knew the mansion's layout well. So they understood how incomprehensible it would be for someone from the parlor to actually go outside in this typhoon, go all the way around, and come up to this back door. Then was it Kinzo? They couldn't imagine that Kinzo, who never left his study, would dash out into the middle of this typhoon and come to the back of the house, where only low class people came in or out.


Shannon and Kumasawa drew close together, fearfully looking at the back door...

As Gohda fearfully approached the back door, he called out. And he checked with his eyes the location of a butcher's knife set in a nearby sink. He didn't pick it up yet. Because there was still a possibility that this was a member of the family. However, that possibility wasn't possible...
There was no response from across the door to Gohda's initial question. Maybe his voice had been so quiet that it hadn't reached through all the wind and rain outside.



Genji took a knife with a classical design from a stationary box placed near the chess set. It was something to be used instead of a paper knife to open envelopes for statements of delivery and bills. But it was fundamentally a knife. So the blade on it could injure someone...
Genji hid it in his sleeve with a well-practiced manner. Then they both approached the back door, Gohda silently signaling his approval.
Gohda cautiously approached the back door, and slowly started to open it...

The shadow of a person suddenly shuffled into sight, landed on its knees, and fell over. Gohda fell backwards onto his backside and couldn't get up. That human shadow was soaked with rain, smeared with mud, and drenched with blood...


It was Kanon. His breath was feeble, and the puddles of mud he left quickly became drenched bright-red. When Nanjo held him and turned him face up, there was a deep, gruesome scar right in the center of his chest, as though a spear or something had been stuck there. Even now, deep-red blood poured out from there...!






Part 53: Wolves and Sheep Puzzle II
Wolves and Sheep Puzzle solution:Both wolves take the boat to the far bank.
One wolf takes the boat to the near bank.
Both sheep take the boat to the far bank.
one wolf takes the boat to the near bank.
Both wolves take the boat to the far bank.
Transport successful.




After appearing in this horrible state, he had said not to tell Rosa. That could only mean something very disquieting. An eerie impatience rose to their faces...




No matter how much Nanjo tried to wipe off that gushing deep-red blood, he couldn't wipe it he couldn't wipe it he couldn't wipe it all away...! And each time, the wound was aggravated, causing Kanon to cry in anguish...













BGM: Stupefaction

Disregarding Nanjo and Kumasawa, who were struggling hard and stained with blood as they tried to stop the bleeding, Genji and Gohda faced each other... Because if what Kanon had said was the truth, Rosa was the culprit who killed Jessica.

Kanon screamed even more hatefully... His hate-filled voice made it seem like he was seeing Jessica being harmed right before his eyes.





...Her expression was complex and tragic, as though she didn't know what to believe...
Shannon ran. To where? The inside of the mansion had been scrupulously cleaned, so it probably wouldn't be easy to find. She might find it if she searched the rose garden, but she would probably lose it all in this wind and rain...
That's right... the boiler room isn't cleaned very often. If she went there, ...she might be able to find it... Shannon ran downstairs to find that in the underground boiler room...

...For the time being, Kanon had at least gotten over his painful gasping. Nanjo apparently didn't think of this as that great of a trend, and didn't let his eyes off Kanon for a second. Kumasawa firmly gripped Kanon's hand, and kept encouraging him so that the willpower keeping him alive didn't fall asleep. Genji and Gohda seemed bewildered at the truth that Kanon had risked his life to deliver...









Video: Kanon
BGM: Closed my Heart
Kanon, who they thought had been sleeping quietly, suddenly started talking brightly. Almost like he had been awake the whole time and had suddenly opened his mouth. He looked firm and steady, and Nanjo was slightly relieved, but thinking of the deepness of that wound, he just couldn't wipe away a certain creepy feeling. He knew because he was a doctor. It wouldn't have been unexpected if Kanon had lost consciousness after losing so much blood. And yet somehow, he had preserved his awareness so clearly. Was it youth? Or was it tenacity? Sometimes, the power of human life surpassed common knowledge...
When they had stopped the bleeding, Nanjo had groped around a bit inside the bleeding hole with tweezers, to make sure there were no foreign objects inside the affected area, and the great depth of the wound had surprised him. The wound had certainly reached as far as his lungs. And yet, and yet...
...No, on the other hand, the fact that he is alive is fortunate... But Kanon had spoken clearly. He had hatefully said that the one named Rosa had created this wound, and was repeating curses and enraged words.





Kanon sat up on the bed, speaking to Genji, who made no effort to believe Kanon's story.






The gruesome hole in his chest was immediately exposed...


Kanon showed off his gaping wound, which was still slowly spitting out foamy blood. Everyone averted their eyes reflexively.



Kanon held up two fingers, showed them to everyone, and slowly started to stick them into the gruesome wound right in the center of his chest... Plunging, slimy, squishy, wet. The finger, went in deep, to the base... *squish*, *gloop*, *bloop*...

That finger was completely sticking into his chest, up to its base, and then he slowly pulled it out in exactly the same way... The fingers he pulled out, were stained a sticky, solid, deep-red color, and there was even a thread hanging... The finger was, up to its base, covered in deep-red...


At that time, the door was opened vigorously, and Shannon appeared. Even after she saw Kanon, stained with fresh blood, her impregnable expression didn't falter.



It was only natural. Everyone believed he was Kanon. So they couldn't understand the meaning of Shannon's question. When they looked, they noticed that Shannon was holding a handkerchief in her hand. It was filthy, and looked like it had wiped up some trash or dust.
And while holding that, she approached Kanon... and drew close to his legs.








When Shannon brought that handkerchief close to Kanon's thigh, ...something happened in an instant. It happened all at once. The human eye couldn't have followed it.
Kanon jumped like a wild goat, fleeing from the thing Shannon was holding. Then, from his arm, some kind of afterglow flashed purple and drew a locus.
That arc, which drew three beautiful purple trails, traced across the throats of Nanjo and Kumasawa, who had been tending to him.

The third purple locus should have traced across Shannon's throat. But Shannon wasn't there. Because Genji, who had been behind her, had wrapped his own arm around Shannon's neck and pulled her back.
This all happened in an instant.

In the instant Gohda tried to think fast in an attempt to understand this scene, the frozen moment in time shattered.

BGM: Red Dread
Kanon jumped and kicked off a picture frame that had been hanging from the wall behind him, springing forward just like a cat, and aiming for Shannon's throat again. But Kanon's target once again disappeared from in front of him. Because Genji had pulled Shannon again, and the two of them had fallen onto the ground as though hiding.



Gohda wasn't an idiot either. Even if he couldn't fully understand what was going on, he at least realized that if this 'Kanon' wasn't seized, his own life would also be in peril. He sprung at Kanon with his huge body, pushing him up against the wall with his weight and physical strength.


Another purple trail was drawn from the tips of the fingers on Kanon's right hand. And when he raised that hand like a sword, aiming at Gohda's back, there was a loud *thunk*. Because Kanon's raised hand had been pinned in the wall. He couldn't tear his palm away from the wall.

Under normal circumstances, it should have been surprising to see someone as old as Genji handle a knife so skillfully, but in this abnormal space, no one payed it much mind.


Genji took the handkerchief with the spiderweb stuck to it from Shannon. And he approached Kanon, who was pinned to the wall by Gohda's massive body and the knife.

When Genji pushed the handkerchief up to Kanon's face, there was a sound just like the one you hear when you set meat on a red-hot iron plate. Of course, the smell was the same too.
As he was burned and inflamed, festering in filthy red and black, and cried out in his death throes, Kanon's body burst open and scattered.

Those butterflies began to softly fade into nothingness, as though water, no, as though the air itself was evaporating... and afterwards, all that was left was the three of them sitting on their butts, stained with blood.
However, not everyone was just stained with blood. Some of them were lying on the ground, vomiting blood themselves.

A slit so sharp that it looked like it could cut your finger if you touched it opened wide, causing large amounts of blood to keep pouring out...




Gohda looked at his own hand. The bright-red blood left from his scuffle with Kanon, definitely remained. And yet, Kanon was nowhere to be seen. Because he had disappeared. He had turned into gold butterflies and scattered.
Gohda kept screaming alone, without a clue about what was going on.

