-Bang!

Casey unknowingly slammed the door shut.

"It's rude to close the door so loudly."

Hearing the voice from beyond the door, Casey sighed and opened it again.

"...Sister."

Although Casey was surprised to see her standing there with perfect timing, she decided to question this situation since it had come to this.

"What are you trying to do here?"

"What am I trying to do? I have no idea what you mean."

"Stop playing dumb. Why am I assigned to the same room as that person?"

"Well, because there are no other rooms available?"

"What?"

Casey frowned.

"What about my old room? That was my personal room."

"That one? Of course, we cleared it out."

"Why did you clear it out without my permission!?"

"Well, you see, the room's owner hadn't shown any intention of coming home for years, so it was just sitting empty. Don't you think it's too unproductive to have the servants constantly going in to clean and organize an unused room?"

"Just for that reason?"

"Just? It's a very valid reason."

"I'm a direct descendant of this family. Even if it's for the servants, that action crossed a line."

"Little sister, I am the head of the family."

That statement was essentially warning her not to argue based on position.

Mariass asked with her still fluffy smile.

"Why, don't you like it here?"

Instead of answering, Casey stepped slightly aside and pointed at Rudger.

"Oh my. Your fiancé was here too. That's fortunate."

"It's not fortunate at all. Why do I have to share a room with him?"

"You're engaged, so it shouldn't matter, right?"

"Even if we're engaged, don't you know there are lines that shouldn't be crossed?"

"I arranged it this way because you two seemed very close. The room is spacious, so there shouldn't be any inconvenience."

"That's, that's not the issue!"

"If that's not it...Could there be other reasons why it's difficult to stay together despite being engaged?"

Just slightly raising her eye corners was enough to make her previously kind-looking smile turn heavier, putting pressure on Casey's psychology.

"From what I saw earlier, you two were being all lovey-dovey, so sharing a room shouldn't be an issue after going that far, right?"

"Hmph. Even so, sharing a room is a different matter. We're not even living together yet, this makes me more uncomfortable."

"Shouldn't you be grateful instead?"

"What?"

Mariass lowered her voice so only Casey could hear.

"You, with your very high standards, brought this man as your fiancé, which means you must like him very much, right? So your sister is trying to support you with this opportunity."

"Wh-what...Sister, I can handle things myself without you doing this."

"Handle things yourself? When exactly?"

"Ah, enough. And he's quite perceptive, so tone it down. Don't you know forcing things could actually make our relationship worse?"

Mariass didn't answer.

Instead, she stared intently at Casey's pupils to determine if her words were sincere.

This was her sister's behavior when trying to verify if she was lying.

In her childhood, Casey couldn't resist such gazes from her sister and always ended up confessing the truth.

'But not anymore.'

The path she had walked until now was not insignificant enough to keep losing to her sister.

She was originally gifted with outstanding intelligence and talent.

She had grown significantly internally after experiencing several major incidents over the past few years.

Casey met Mariass' gaze with unwavering eyes.

Seeing this, Mariass slightly raised her eyebrows and drew a curve on her lips.

Casey, who thought Mariass would call her impudent, found this seemingly pleased response puzzling.

"...Anyway, change the room arrangement."

"I understand your position. But I can't change the room."

"What? Did you actually hear what I said?"

"Don't whine. Your sister's ears work fine."

"Then why."

"There are no empty rooms right now. We're currently renovating the aged parts of the mansion, so accommodations are limited. Especially the building where the servants stay needs to be completely rebuilt."

"You could have them commute."

"Not a few people have been working exclusively for our Selmore for decades. You wouldn't know since you've neglected our family's affairs."

Casey was left speechless at the sharp criticism.

When Mariass, as the head of the family, was doing this much for the mansion's servants, what could she say?

This was Casey's weak point.

As someone who bore the Selmore name but wandered the world absorbed in detective work, she had no grounds to argue.

"Then have a good day."

"It's not good at all because of you, sister."

Casey shot back at Marias as she closed the door and left.

If she didn't do at least that much, she felt she would have to keep dwelling on this sense of defeat.

The door closed quietly with a ‘thud.’

Casey couldn't move away from the door for a while.

Beyond the verbal sparring with her sister, she had just realized the reality that she had to share a room with Rudger right now.

"It seems your sister is still suspicious of us."

Having already sensed it from Marias and Casey's behavior, Rudger spoke while slightly examining the window.

The sky visible outside was still gloomy, looking like it could pour rain at any moment.

Casey also walked over with a sigh and slumped down on the bed.

Though the plush feeling indicated it was a high-end bed, the fact that this king-size bed was the only one awkwardly present in the room weighed heavily on her mind.

Regardless of anything else, having to share a room with Rudger just for today made her head complicated.

"What should we do now?"

"Let's organize our upcoming matters first, if nothing else."

"Aren't you flustered at all?"

Casey glared at Rudger who was speaking so comfortably.

While her head felt like it would explode from complexity, Rudger, sitting on the sofa, looked completely at ease.

"Getting flustered won't change anything anyway."

"Ah, really? Is sharing a room with a woman so normal that it's nothing to be surprised about?"

"Why is the conversation suddenly going that way?"

Rudger turned to look at Casey with an incredulous expression.

"If not that, then surely you must be tense about sharing a room with a beauty like me."

"I won't deny that you're beautiful, but..."

Rudger smirked with an expression that anyone would describe as mocking.

"Your personality makes you completely unattractive."

"What?! What do you know about me!"

"You don't know much about me either. When I speak as if things are too natural, this is actually my first time in this kind of situation in life."

"What? First time? What is?"

Casey asked back with a face that suggested she hadn't heard properly.

"Don't tell me, sharing a room with a woman?"

"Is that a problem?"

"No way, is that possible? With that face?"

Rudger severely frowned with displeasure.

"Someone might think I've been going around playing with women just because of my face. Considering my circumstances, you should know I haven't had such leisure."

"Ah, um. Sorry."

Casey apologized honestly.

Yet internally, she was considerably surprised. To think he had lived alone until now with such a face.

While thinking it was truly a waste of talent, she found herself strangely relieved.

'What am I thinking about?'

Casey shook her head to clear away the random thoughts.

What was important now was coordinating with each other while avoiding Marias' gaze.

"What should we do now? If my sister deliberately put us in this situation because she suspects us, we should probably respond somehow."

"That's what I'm curious about in the first place. I thought we'd just meet, talk a bit, and be done, but at this rate, it looks like we'll be held up for several days."

"...I thought it would end quickly too. But it seems my sister won't let us go until she's convinced."

"What if we just try to leave?"

"If you've exchanged words with my sister a few times, you should know she's not the type to give up over something like that. Wouldn't she become even more persistent?"

"This is troublesome."

Rudger shook his head as if thoroughly fed up.

"Still, your sister seems to treat you quite specially as her younger sister. Were you close?"

"Close? Is something wrong with your eyes? Sister is dying to eat me alive."

"It doesn't look that way at all. Well, I can see her personality is a bit twisted, making her expression methods wrong."

"You're saying that because you don't know, but guess why I have a phobia of mice."

Casey, who feared nothing in the world, had one thing she was afraid of - mice.

For the genius detective who was perfect in everything else to be afraid of mice was strangely funny, and he had been curious about the reason.

"Looking at the context, could it be your sister's doing?"

"It was when I was young. I was playing hide and seek with my sister, and she was it. I hid in a box in the family's underground storage. Thinking she'd never find me there. But my sister found me easily."

Casey shuddered as if the mere memory made her sick.

"But you know what's ridiculous? Even though she knew I was hiding there, my sister didn't say she found me. Instead, she caught several mice that had snuck into the underground storage and put them in the box I was in."

A clueless young child suddenly becoming entangled with mice in a dark box, it was natural for trauma to develop.

"I was crying and screaming like crazy. The mice tore out some of my hair, and my favorite dress was ripped. You know what's even worse?"

"What else is there?"

"What my sister said to me while I was crying and screaming. 'Didn't we agree not to hide in the underground storage? So why did you break the promise?' Isn't that funny? After doing such a horrible thing to her younger sister, far from being sorry, she said it was natural for me to be punished because I did wrong. I got trauma because of that."

"...That's quite harsh."

"Though later at night, she secretly came and left me the stuffed animal I had said I wanted to buy."

"So she did show some sign of apology."

"Why does the tone keep changing? I'm telling you I still freeze up just seeing mice because of my sister!"

"Giving you the doll you wanted was a sign of regret, wasn't it?"

"I don't know!"

Though it was a childish complaint, it wasn't hard to understand Casey's feelings.

Marias Selmore probably didn't think things would get this serious when she put the mice in.

However, her reason for doing it was simply that Casey didn't keep her promise.

She cares for her sister, but because of that, she's severely strict.

The fact that she's been like this since childhood suggests she has an obsessive attachment to promises and rules.

'I can see why Casey Selmore made this request to me as soon as she received the letter.'

Given her sister's tendency, if Casey had stubbornly refused to return to the family until the end, she would have come to find Casey herself.

Thanks to Casey's story about the past, Rudger could guess the outline of what kind of person Marias Selmore was.

He should have liked it, but conversely, that was the problem.

'At this rate, we might have to stay in the mansion until she's satisfied.'

For now, he was playing along with the role of fiancé.

But he had his own purpose for coming here, so he couldn't help wanting to get an answer as quickly as possible.

"This is bad."

"This is bad."

The thought held in their minds unconsciously leaked out.

The two who had unknowingly muttered looked at each other briefly.

Protesting gazes questioning why the other was copying them crossed in the air before dispersing.

"Is there no way?"

"That's what I want to ask."

"I asked first."

"You're the smart one, you think of something."

"You're the family member, you should know better."

"What family member. We're nothing but sworn enemies."

While bickering, the two quickly racked their brains looking for a solution.

"There's a way. We attack sister and knock her out. Then we escape."

"That's too personal."

"What? Don't you know siblings have thoughts of killing each other implanted in their heads? The fact that we don't actually kill each other shows we have a good relationship."

"Isn't your sister a high-ranking government official in this country? I don't want to become a state criminal."

"You're already a criminal in several countries, what difference does adding one more make? Ah, fine. We can do something else, right? So stop looking at me like that."

"We just need to completely convince your sister anyway."

"Convince her that you and I are really engaged?"

"That would be it."

"What do we need to do to thoroughly convince my sister?"

Rudger voiced what came to mind.

"Show affection in front of her?"

"What. Something more than wiping tea with a handkerchief? Like kissing?"

"Are you crazy? I'd rather kiss a pig."

"What, hey?! I don't want to either!"

Casey slumped her shoulders.

"Having my target right in front of me but sitting in a room racking my brains about overthrowing my sister."

"Wasn't that old business finished? And right now we're seeking ways to convince your sister, when did I say anything about overthrowing?"

"It's the same thing."

"Don't casually include me in your personal agenda."

"Haa. I wonder if some case won't break out somewhere?"

It was then that Casey muttered this, Rudger jumped up from his seat and rushed toward Casey.

Casey was bewildered, going "Uh, uh?" at his action.

Before she could react, Rudger pushed her down onto the bed.

Casey looked up at Rudger with wide round eyes.

-Crash!

Right after, the window shattered, and a bullet grazed past where Casey's head had been moments ago.