"...So no one, including the masters, went outside until twenty hundred hours?"
If Shinigami was reading from Mary and the others' memories, it must be true. While this world was based on those memories, oversights could still exist.
When Kaito left Mary's room, there was a tiny sound. It was as if time, which had temporarily stopped during his conversation with Shinigami, had started moving again.
Two rooms down from Mary's. Just to be sure, Kaito closed one eye to check the map.
It was the sound of Kiss Love's room door opening and her servant coming out.
"Don't count servants in that number. Apart from Mary, you should know that magicians treat servants as objects. I did suggest getting information from their mouths, too. You're the one who denied that possibility."
Shinigami suggested that Kaito exchange information with other servants, but Kaito responded that it was impossible.
Shinigami had missed hearing his reason for this.
While Shinigami could have asked again, they prioritized seeing how the two would interact and let time flow.
"...Are you heading to the servants' quarters now?"
Kaito called out to Kiss's servant, a boy wearing a red tailcoat. His number was unknown.
"......"
Though the red servant reacted to Kaito's voice, he gave no response and continued walking ahead.
Not only did he pass by Alcaiz's room, but he went beyond the stairs leading down.
He might have been ordered by Kiss to explore rather than rest in the servants' quarters. How servants were treated depended entirely on their masters.
While Diana and Alcaiz seemed to agree with Mary's opinion, it was unclear whether they would actually let their servants rest.
"He left without answering. He didn't seem to view you as an enemy due to the earlier conflict between masters. He showed absolutely no interest."
"...That's what I expected. Most servants become like puppets who only listen to their magicians' orders. They shouldn't do anything unnecessary. I doubt they would share information about their masters."
Kaito denied Shinigami's suggestion because becoming a magician's servant meant losing one's emotions as a person and becoming something close to a puppet.
"Is that so? Certainly, the servants that Diana and the others brought did seem closer to his demeanor than yours? But Rei, the mansion magician's servant, was different. You seem to agree with that."
As Shinigami said, Kaito had also sensed that Rei was different from other servants.
It could mean that the mansion's master, like Mary, valued their servants.
Or they might have hired servants solely for this succession rights matter. While magicians assigned numbers to servants in order of employment, what meaning did the number zero carry? Was it given because she was the last servant or the very first?
"Let me tell you one thing. I couldn't find her memories either. The same goes for the other servants' memories. Numbers don't seem to count as names."
The servants' fates remained unknown. If their masters had died, they should have died due to their life contracts, but Rei's case might be different.
If the mansion master's death was from natural causes, substitution wouldn't be possible. Otherwise, there would be no need to inherit the magic.
In that case, it wouldn't be strange to suspect Rei, the servant, as the prime suspect. Still, it was practically impossible for a servant to oppose a magician.