SWNOVELXO Chapter 7
TN: Forgot about proper nouns. Shingami will be capitalized now.
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"We've arrived safely at the mansion. Kaito, you're being too tense. Nothing happened after all. You should be more at ease in the mansion. Being too vigilant will only make us look suspicious."
"There's no such thing as being too careful. But I'll be mindful inside the mansion. And... this is the last time you can call me by my name. Please make sure to call me 'Ichi' from now on." (TN: Ichi=1)
As twilight faded and night approached, the two arrived at the mansion.
Needless to say, it took longer than necessary with Kaito being vigilant of their surroundings.
The Shinigami had read from the deceased's memories that the incident would occur inside the mansion and suggested they move forward quickly, but Kaito wouldn't budge.
He explained to the Shinigami that he was considering the possibility of someone hiding in the forest and potential changes due to his own participation.
"...I understand. Still, it's strange there isn't even a barrier around the mansion. Perhaps their magical power is required for something else?"
Before their eyes stood a large mansion, and even Kaito could see the garden stretching beyond the gate. The size of the mansion and grounds indicated the magician's high rank–this land being at least twice as much as Mary’s.
She seemed puzzled by the lack of barriers in such a place. After all, one's residence and workshop contain lots of information that must be hidden from other magicians. Barriers should have been in place to protect that, yet it was completely defenseless.
"...Could it be a trap? I can see several statues in the garden. Could they attack us?"
"It's fine. I don't sense any magical power from them, and since we were invited, they shouldn't attack us. More importantly..."
While the statues could probably move through magic, they currently housed no magical power. It would be safer to establish barriers than to imbue statues with magic.
"There's no servant acting as a gatekeeper. The gate being open means... they're telling us to enter on our own, I suppose?"
"A servant as gatekeeper? Don't magicians make life contracts with only one servant? Mary couldn't take you with her and went alone, right?"
The Shinigami seemed puzzled–if magicians could have multiple servants, why didn't Mary take another servant besides Kaito? If other magicians had many servants, wouldn't they have not lost their lives?
"It's just that Master... Lady Mary only contracted me as a servant, but normally they should make life contracts with multiple people. However, the life substitution only works with servants who are nearby. It won't activate if there's distance between them. And this time, we're limited to bringing only one servant."
Kaito shared his knowledge about servants with the Shinigami. Though he could have just thought it in his head, he spoke it aloud to reconfirm it for himself as well.
Since time was stopped during this exchange, Mary couldn't hear it.
“In that case... it's natural for Mary to find it questionable. It seems like multiple servants would be needed to manage this mansion. Are there magicians who don't have any servants at all?"
As far as he knew, there weren't any. The fact that Mary only had Kaito as her servant was known to others. If someone had no servants at all, it would have also reached Mary's ears.
"Seems like there aren't any. I suppose there must be some inside the mansion? Should we be questioning the lack of servants? I'm looking forward to seeing how this incident unfolds."
The Shinigami muttered excitedly.
"I'll go in first. You can never be too careful."
For Kaito, this was where things really began. They were about to enter the stage of a murder case. To protect Mary, Kaito passed through the mansion's gate first.