i_s_l_a_n_d_rp | (no subject)

... [ Tenses. She's not as good at hiding her emotions as he is. ] Come on, don't assume things so quickly. This is the first game. Though asking you to sit back and enjoy the show is a pointless thing for me to do, kihihi. You'll deny me at every corner, with every possible move you can make. It's going to be a difficult chess game.

As for the keys, I won't confirm in red just yet how many are floating around. I want to keep you guessing. I won't tell you if it's the only thing that unlocks this shutter or not, and I won't tell you the precise location... I'll save that for the next piece. [ Better take one last look at that crime scene, because she's shaking the smoke from her pipe once more and the memory dissolves, we're back on the island. ] The first twilight is a suitable enough second piece.

Of course I'll deny you. And I don't need to assume. I just know you aren't the kind to make obvious mistakes. The first epitaph requires two people. The key who chooses the sacrifices and the one who kills them for the key. Either you are told to kill these people by someone, or you never touched them yourself, be it magic or otherwise. And the second line says it's the survivors, which means it has to be someone in the family. I can't imagine a 'magical ritual' would allow for such errors.

[He looks around, taking a good look at the scene.] So it's not a locked room murder. That means the murderer could do this, at least with what's known so far. The symbol...well, I have to check, but I think I might have seen it somewhere. I'll have to look it up before I say what it is.

... Kuhihihi. Just remember, in both Anti-Mystery and Anti-Fantasy, there is more than one way to read that Epitaph-- it really is the most valuable piece I handed over to you. Have you made any progress in solving it?

There might be some helpful resources in the library, some non-helpful ones... I've heard of some of the islanders having devices called laptops, so I'm sure you can figure out that little symbol. If not... I believe Maria will be kind enough to give you an explanation in the fifth piece.

Bits and pieces. It's already proven to be helpful in this regard, but I still need to know more about Rokkenjima before I could make any conclusions with any weight to them. There's some ideas, but that's all they are. While that's acceptable for some things, I'd rather not make any declarations for the riddle without something to back up an idea.

Maria could? Ah, so it's something of the occult.

... A good idea. You might not even have enough pieces to solve the riddle halfway until the third game. Though you might surprise me and have a burst of intuition, so we'll see, we'll see!

Naturally. A blood circle like that is just occult-looking at a glance, right?

I might, but even then, I'd want to see something to confirm it first. [Even when he thinks he knows a murderer, he watches them for a bit to be sure they are or see actual proof.]

But it could have been utter nonsense of a circle as well.

So it'll be a good, long while before you can understand the true meaning of that little riddle. If you do solve it, anyway.

I can guarantee that's not the case.

I'll solve it. I can be patient until I have all the pieces.

Good. It's no fun if it means nothing and it'd be even poorer craftsmanship of a murder scene.

Good. Patience will probably be your second most important tool in my game.

Why would I diminish my magic with something fake? [ cackle! ] I'd just shame myself, really.

It always is in any mystery.

And if you're going to use the effort to make it in the first place, might as well make it right. It enforces the idea it's magic better for the murderer's protection.

... Protection? You call such a brutal-looking circle an act of protection?

The protection of their identity, yes. The more signs they put of 'magic,' the more likely it will be for people to come to the conclusion magic did it because they don't see another obvious alternative.

I guess, if you really wanted to view it that way. Battler would take your side on that standpoint as well, hoh.

It's that or because they're clearly lost their mind, it's a compulsion.

It was too elegantly drawn for that circle to be a compulsion. But that's just my opinion.

Compulsion as part of insanity would demand some perfectionism, but it's less likely with the other evidence.

So it is more likely just to make people think it's a witch.

... Plus, if the circle didn't exist, the bodies wouldn't be found immediately, would they? Nothing would draw attention to the shed if there weren't a circle. The typhoon was happening at that time as well, so it wasn't as though the servants would stumble on the bodies accidentally in order to retrieve something from that shed to do yard work since it's illogical during such a furious storm.

So you can think of a circle as a beacon. A call for the bodies to be found.

There is that too. Though any signal could do, but it does work at doing both, doesn't it?

...when did it start raining, anyway? It was for the proposal...did it break at all during the night?

You're right, it does.

It began when Maria was searching for her rose, remember? And no, there wasn't a single break in the typhoon's storm. So your dear hypothetical murderer also had the task of hauling all those corpses through a typhoon to the shed. Not easy.

...that's right. It was then.

It's not impossible to transfer the bodies. Maybe it even helps, since it provides cover. The footprints might have even been washed away during the heavy rain, but it's not the body transfer I was asking about.

The question is...when did they make the symbol on the shutter?

Hmhmhmhm...! That I won't answer. I'll leave it to you to theorize about it-- you never did find out if it was blood or paint, did you? Kihihi. It's as much of a riddle as the corpses it hid, isn't it?

Blood, paint, it doesn't matter if I determined either way. I couldn't say if the paint was human blood or animal blood without a test.

But either way, it takes time for that to dry. It couldn't have been painted after the rain had started.

... Unless they took hyper precautions, like using a quick-drying paint, dried the shutters and hung a tarp from the gutter to block out the rain while they painted, indeed, it's hard to fathom such a circle not being washed away during the night. Once you put it that way, it's really unlikely that it's blood. It'd be washed away quickly.

Blood takes 15 to 30 minutes to dry under normal temperatures. With the cold of the rain, it'd take longer. This also applies to other painting materials. Either way, it'd take time. If they did it after the rain had started, it'd either have been before the bodies would have to be brought here, giving it time to dry after it be was put up to drag the bodies here or afterwards, while it had time to dry while it was up. But that'd also take time...

Of course, they could have done it another time. Like before they were going to meet Maria in the rose garden and put a tarp on it so no one would notice it.

...

That would mean you're most likely accusing one of the servants of painting the circle, am I right?