The Insane Regressor: Throne of Pride

When the first toll of the Black Bell sounded that night in Evernight Palace, its peal echoed throughout the entire palace as though an unseen force were carrying it into every corner and crevice, ensuring that everyone could hear it no matter how far they were from the palace’s center.

The accusation window officially closed, and the light of the corridor lamps faded away.

The mirage mist appeared before Ravian, awaiting his choice, but he ignored it.

Ravian remained seated on his bed and did not stir, even after the first toll.

Moving immediately after the doors had closed would be a pointless risk. Someone might have remained standing behind their door, watching the corridor through the keyhole or waiting to hear any unusual movement. There might even be someone already standing in the corridor who had yet to enter their room.

Fear was still at its peak.

Ravian needed everyone to settle down before he made any move.

The few minutes between the first and second tolls passed in frightening silence.

Then—

Riiing!

The second toll of the Black Bell rang out. Only the final toll remained.

Ravian rose.

At the sound of the second toll, one of the closed bedroom doors in a certain corridor opened without the slightest creak. One foot stepped out, followed by the other, and a pair of crimson eyes surveyed the corridor.

The corridor was somewhat narrow, measuring only around three meters across, yet it stretched as far as the eye could see. Expensive-looking oil lamps lined both sides at evenly spaced intervals, though their flames had now gone out.

The passage was completely swallowed by darkness. Ravian could barely see a few meters ahead before his gaze met impenetrable blackness.

Ravian’s heart pounded hard and loud inside his chest.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

He closed the door to his room behind him and stood in the corridor, looking calmly to his right and left with a stillness that matched the night itself. His eyes narrowed as he tried to make out both ends of the corridor, but even after sharpening his focus, he struggled to see them clearly.

’I don’t see anyone. It seems my luck isn’t that bad, at least.’

Ravian then turned right and began walking on tiptoe without looking back.

With every step, he made certain that his footfalls were light and soundless. He also kept out of the line of sight of every keyhole he passed, lowering his body beneath it whenever he approached a door to avoid any unpleasant surprises.

Thick pillars rose on both sides of the corridor every few paces, and he passed many rooms belonging to the mirage servants. Unlike the participants’ rooms, these bore no numbers, yet Ravian avoided their keyholes as well.

After nearly a minute of moving swiftly down the long corridor and covering dozens of meters, he reached the first of the participants’ rooms on his right. A small golden plaque mounted above the door bore the number 710.

’Mirai’s room,’ Ravian thought as he looked at the first room to the right of his own. The numbers increased the farther one went to the right, which meant his room was number 709.

Ravian passed her room without hearing so much as a whisper from within.

He continued until he reached the next room.

That was all the plaque said, but Ravian knew exactly who was behind that door.

...

Sylvan sat on the edge of his bed, staring listlessly at the rain falling beyond his window.

’Stop spouting that nonsense. It won’t fool anyone here.’

Sylvan recalled what Rayan had said to him earlier in the meeting hall.

’But isn’t this strange?’ Sylvan thought. ’First, of all people, Kaiden is the one who dies inside his locked room, without any evidence that anyone entered it after Mirai and Aldric inspected the safeguards in his room.’

’Before that, Rayan calls me away for some task at the exact moment I’m about to go with them to inspect Kaiden’s room.’ Sylvan’s mind was racing in earnest now. ’Then, the very next day, Kaiden dies under mysterious circumstances, and Talia finally loses control of herself—earlier than I expected—and makes her accusation.’

’An accusation that relied entirely on Aldric and... me.’

Sylvan felt as though he were on the verge of realizing something, yet every time he thought he was about to grasp it, something was still missing.

’Every intelligent member of our group is already all but certain that Mirai is the Mage.’ Sylvan scratched his head angrily. ’Even someone of average intelligence could easily guess that there is no way the palace would make the head servant the Killer and give her the keys to all our rooms, allowing her to kill us one after another in our sleep every night.’

And Sylvan was right about the group’s suspicions. Since the first day, many suspicions had surrounded Mirai’s role and authority. Yet it was precisely because of that authority that almost everyone—Garrick and Talia being the only exceptions—had guessed that Mirai was the Mage among them. That was why they had tried to avoid angering her, hoping to win her favor so that she would protect them.

The only two who had not reached that conclusion—Talia and Garrick—were the ones who had attacked her most fiercely.

But a guess alone was not enough.

That was precisely why Sylvan, Bran, and Kaiden had kept watch on her from the first day.

Yes, on the very first day, Sylvan, Bran, and Kaiden had secretly agreed in the garden to work together and move as a group at night. That way, even if one of them was the Killer, he could not kill one of the other two without exposing himself to the third as the Killer. It was an extremely simple plan, one that had surely occurred to the rest of the group, but they had chosen not to gamble with their lives.

For Sylvan, however, the high risk promised an equally high reward.

That was why, on the first and second nights, the three of them decided to watch Mirai’s room and see whether she left it during the night. The first night passed without incident. Mirai never left her room, and everything went smoothly, so they had all but removed her from their list of suspects and needed only to confirm it.

That remained the case until they learned how Elena had died. The mystery surrounding the method of her murder made them suspect Mirai once again.

And on the second night, when they were supposed to wait for Kaiden in the corridor near Mirai’s room after the first toll...

Kaiden never came.