The Insane Regressor: Throne of Pride

"Huh? I don’t think Aldric left his room... Besides, neither the Killer nor the Traitor can open the rooms at night, just as the nightmare explained before. That means either Bran or Garrick was the victim, and the other is the Traitor," Mirai said, reassuring Ravian. "There’s no doubt about it."

Sigh...

Ravian sighed, releasing her shoulders as he steadied his breathing.

It would have been dangerous if Aldric had been the Traitor’s victim last night. In that case, Ravian would not merely have needed to avoid the Traitor; he would first have had to determine which of Bran and Garrick held the role.

Then he had to establish genuine communication with the Traitor—an exchange meaningful enough for the nightmare to acknowledge, rather than merely seeing him from a distance or calling out when he could not hear. Most importantly, Ravian had to be the last participant to communicate with him before nightfall.

If he succeeded and Mirai and Aldric remained hidden somewhere the Traitor could neither reach nor speak to either of them afterward, then the Traitor would become Ravian’s final victim once night fell. According to the agreement he had reached with Mirai, she would not use her power as the Mage to stand in his way.

Ravian would not need to overpower the Traitor with his own hands.

The nightmare would take care of the rest.

The moment the Traitor died, the number of participants would fall to three while the Killer remained alive, ending the game with Ravian’s victory.

Ravian glanced at Mirai from the corner of his eye before the two resumed walking.

The plan was simple.

But its simplicity did not make it safe.

Communicating with the Traitor did not mean approaching an ordinary participant and exchanging a few words with him. It meant voluntarily stepping within reach of a man who could kill him effortlessly while Ravian did not even possess the right to defend himself. After successfully establishing contact, he would then have to escape alive while ensuring that the other participants remained hidden until the first toll of the Black Bell.

A single mistake would turn the entire plan against him.

If the Traitor found Mirai or Aldric after speaking with Ravian and communicated with either of them, Ravian would no longer be the last participant to have spoken with him. And if the Traitor caught Ravian before he was ready to escape, the plan might never even reach nightfall.

Even so, they had no better option.

Mirai’s eyes shifted toward Ravian’s back as she walked behind him, and she whispered in a voice barely louder than her breathing, "Are you certain you can get away from him after speaking to him?"

Ravian did not look back as he answered, his eyes inspecting every corner they passed.

"Yes."

Mirai’s steps faltered for a fraction of a second.

Then Ravian continued in the same calm tone, "I have no proof that I can, but that’s the only answer I can give you."

Mirai could not tell whether that was confidence or madness, but she could not bring herself to question him. She resumed walking behind him and tightened her grip around the keys until their metal edges pressed painfully into her skin.

Then she remembered something.

"You never told me," Mirai said. "How did you kill Sylvan yesterday? We saw him enter his room at night, just like the rest of us."

"Oh?" Ravian let out a deliberately exaggerated gasp without turning around this time. "And how did you know he entered his room? Did you and Aldric check on everyone every night?"

This time, Mirai was not surprised. Instead, she shook her head helplessly.

"You even knew about our alliance?" she asked.

"Not really." Ravian shrugged. "I only realized it yesterday. The plan you used yesterday was far too simple to be the only one you had devised after two people died within the span of a single day. Then I noticed the two of you exchanging signals from time to time, so it was easy to guess that something was going on, even though I never completely figured it out."

Mirai nodded, only to freeze when she realized what he had done.

"Wait! Rayan, I was asking you how you did it. How did we end up talking about the plan Aldric and I made?"

A faint smile appeared on Ravian’s lips, but he did not turn to face her irritated outburst.

"Tsk, tsk. Girls these days have no patience whatsoever. I merely wanted to learn your plan so I could use it myself another time if I ever needed it," Ravian said, shaking his head in feigned disappointment as though lecturing his student, despite Mirai clearly being older than him. "As for how I did it... Hmm, how should I put this?"

"Just tell me, Rayan," Mirai said, poking him in the back as they continued walking.

"Fine, fine... Look at your key ring." Ravian turned briefly and pointed toward the metal ring packed with keys in her hand.

"Huh? My keys?" Mirai repeated, lowering her gaze toward them.

She noticed nothing unusual at first, so she began searching through them one by one with one hand while the other remained clutching Ravian’s coat as she walked.

A few seconds later—

"The fuck?! What is this key? It’s not one of mine!" Mirai nearly shouted as she held up a strangely shaped key she did not remember.

"Shh, shh!" Ravian whispered, spinning around and quickly covering her mouth with his hand to smother her cry. "Keep your voice down. The Traitor will hear us at this rate."

Mirai gasped behind his palm, her eyes widening as she realized how foolish she had been. Several seconds passed without them hearing any approaching sound, and once she had calmed down, Ravian finally removed his hand from her mouth.

Mirai looked at him, the shock still plain on her face.

"This..." She pointed toward an otherwise ordinary-looking key on her Head Servant’s key ring. "This isn’t one of my keys. Sylvan’s key was swapped in for one of mine. I can’t find the missing key—"

Mirai stopped in the middle of her sentence, her eyes widening in horror as she stared at Ravian and realized what had happened.

Ravian raised his hand in front of her mouth as a precaution in case she tried to scream again.

Fortunately for both of them, the scream never came.

"How..." she said. "How did you take it from me?"

"There’s no need to dwell on something that has already happened, Mirai," Ravian said, lowering his hand from in front of her mouth. "I only told you to satisfy your curiosity."

Mirai stared at him for a while, unable to find any words to say, before nodding in understanding of the situation they were in.

Yet one question continued to torment her.

’How did one of my keys open a participant’s room? I tried using them before, and none of them worked.’ That was the part that nearly drove Mirai out of her mind.

’Or...’ A thought suddenly occurred to her. ’Was my entire role as Head Servant created by the nightmare solely so the Killer could exploit it?’

She looked at Ravian.

’There’s no way he could have guessed that,’ Mirai thought. ’He merely tried using whatever was available to him, and it happened to work.’

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