Chapter 108: Antinomic Dual Cognition

Still, fortunately, through today's portion of future intelligence, he had resolved the doubts from the night before.

The reason Emilia's and Ram's rooms couldn't be opened was indeed due to the influence of the manor's rules.

It was just that these rules were truly full of malice toward human residents.

Imitation Humans could come and go as they pleased, but human residents could not.

From this one could imagine: if by nightfall the true Imitation Humans still hadn't been screened out...

Then once night fell, an Imitation Human would slip into a human resident's room, and it would be like catching a turtle in a jar—as easy as cracking open a can and eating.

"So..."

Natsuki Subaru murmured. At this moment, the thoughts in his heart aligned perfectly with the words surfacing on the Gospel before his eyes.

[So, this is when you'll need to make use of the "Execution Gun." Carefully discern the Imitation Humans' lies, and then, before they make their move at night, kill them!]

[In any case, that's all the information that can be disclosed today.]

[From now on, every night visitors will come to call. Carefully discern their identities, and then—shut the Imitation Humans out!]

[Good luck to you, there in the past. At this time tomorrow, I'll bring fresh information.]

After the last line of writing surfaced, it lingered for a few seconds, and then all the writing across the entire page was instantly erased, vanishing without a trace.

Natsuki Subaru stared at the blank page, unable to gather his wits for a long while.

But unfortunately, there was now an urgent task that demanded his completion.

At this thought, Natsuki Subaru set the black Gospel back in its original place, then picked up the "Ordinary Handgun" lying quietly on the desk beside it.

Last night he had already confirmed that between Emilia and Ram, one of them must be lying.

In other words, between the two of them there had to be an Imitation Human.

So his next task was to... discern the truth, and then use the handgun to send that Imitation Human who dared deceive him off to meet its maker!

Natsuki Subaru's gaze was resolute, a faint trace of anger surfacing on his face.

Damned Imitation Human, daring to disguise itself as the people closest to him!

At this thought, Natsuki Subaru grabbed the handgun and immediately ran toward the second floor.

Now that he had finished reading the future intelligence, in all likelihood the second floor's lockdown had been lifted along with it.

Just as before, when he'd had to finish selecting the first-night survival reward before he could view the information conveyed from the future.

"Thud, thud, thud!"

Natsuki Subaru ran at top speed up to Emilia's room, only to come up empty.

The open door suggested that the room's owner had already opened it and left—or perhaps because... she was already dead.

But fortunately, glancing inside through the open door, Natsuki Subaru saw no corpse of any kind.

Only then did Natsuki Subaru let out a breath of relief.

"But if Emilia isn't in her room, then where has she gone?"

Of course, once he'd calmed down, Natsuki Subaru recalled how, the night before, Emilia had been full of hostility toward Ram, firmly convinced the other was an Imitation Human—and a flicker of understanding rose in his heart.

Emilia must have gone over to Ram's room!

At this thought, Natsuki Subaru sprang into action at once, anxiously dashing around several corners and arriving, gasping for breath, before Ram's room.

And the moment he got there, he saw Ram standing in the doorway of her bedroom, locked in a standoff with Emilia.

"Lady Emilia, may I ask what you mean by this?"

Her face dark, Ram looked at Emilia, who was blocking her doorway and refusing to let her out, her eyes full of bewilderment.

"Lady Emilia, did you enter the manor after I returned? After all, earlier I saw that the door to your room was open."

Seeing Emilia keep a cold face and say nothing, Ram's demeanor visibly grew colder as well.

She began speaking on her own, voicing to Emilia her suspicions of her.

"If I'm not mistaken, you only knocked on the manor's door after dark, didn't you? I'm sorry, but this forces me to think a little harder about it——"

The eyes with which Ram glanced at Emilia were full of cold intent.

"After dark, those Imitation Humans begin to grow active. So how can Lady Emilia prove that she isn't an Imitation Human who deceived the guest and slipped into the manor?"

"Turning the tables on me? But I don't recall when we ever gave those raving creatures outside such a name. Imitation Human... heh, the name does suit them rather well."

Emilia narrowed her eyes, keenly seizing on the opening Ram had let slip.

At this point, Natsuki Subaru, who was hiding in a corner off to the side observing the two of them, heard these words and suddenly realized that something was wrong with Ram.

The term "Imitation Human" was something he had only learned yesterday from the Gospel, yet Ram had just blurted it out directly.

At this thought, doubts swarmed up in Natsuki Subaru at once, and his level of suspicion toward Ram rose sharply.

So he stepped right out from around the corner.

Facing Emilia and Ram, who turned to look at him in unison, Natsuki Subaru asked Ram with feigned puzzlement.

"Ram, is 'Imitation Human' the name you gave those monsters outside? It feels... quite fitting."

Natsuki Subaru probed without betraying any emotion.

The exact words he had seen on the Gospel at the time were:

[I should tell you in the past about the new name we gave these raving creatures———"Imitation Human"!]

It wasn't hard to tell that the term "Imitation Human" seemed to be a name everyone in the manor had come up with together.

So if Ram now, in a fluster, admitted it was a name she herself had coined, that would be quite suspicious.

Natsuki Subaru fixed his gaze tightly on Ram's face, not missing the slightest subtle change in expression.

Faced with his sudden, out-of-nowhere questioning, a trace of surprise appeared on Ram's face, but then, as if recalling something, she let out a sigh.

"Guest, you don't remember because you've lost your memory. The term 'Imitation Human' is a name all of us in the manor came up with together for those monsters outside."

As she spoke, Ram cast a glance at Emilia, who was watching the show off to the side, and turned the spearhead toward her.

"Because they can disguise themselves as humans—for instance... this 'Lady Emilia' standing before my eyes right now might just be one of those monsters in disguise!"

Ram said coldly.

Seeing Ram openly set out to slander her and sling mud at her in front of Natsuki Subaru, Emilia instantly grew flustered.

"You're lying! No one in the manor ever came up with such a name. You're taking advantage of the fact that Subaru just got contaminated and lost his memory, fabricating these Memories of the Nonexistent out of thin air!"

Listening to the two of them quarreling before him, Natsuki Subaru instantly fell into deep thought.

Was this... right?

At first, hearing Emilia look so unfamiliar with the term "Imitation Human," he had prematurely assumed that Ram's mention of "Imitation Human" was a slip that exposed her.

But then Ram said that the term "Imitation Human" was one they had coined long ago.

Only then did Natsuki Subaru realize with a jolt that he merely knew the term "Imitation Human" was one everyone in the manor had come up with together.

But he had no idea at all when it had been coined!

Was it before he lost his memory, or after?

Damn it, that line on the Gospel was too vague—there was no way to judge!

Natsuki Subaru clenched his fists, knitted his brows tightly, and kept turning over the information on the Gospel, sinking into a tangle of indecision.

Emilia's and Ram's statements had once again fallen into mutually conflicting contradiction.

At this very moment, Natsuki Subaru felt as if he had returned once more to the night before, when he'd discovered that what the two of them had seen and heard conflicted with each other.

This morning he was bound to reach a verdict—but who should be the target of the Execution Gun's execution?

Natsuki Subaru was now caught under enormous pressure.

After all, right now he had no Return by Death, no chance to start over.

Once he chose wrong, then... the consequences....

____

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