"…Ketchup?"
Kaguya was taken aback. She dipped her finger into the red liquid curiously, her eyes widening slightly. "It really 'is' ketchup... Why would anyone use ketchup as a weapon?"
"Technically speaking, it's probably an evil spirit," Amamiya corrected her. "Though I'm also curious what kind of spirit uses ketchup as an attack. Wasting food like this is just excessive."
"Now's not the time to worry about wasting food," Kaguya murmured, stepping closer with her lips pursed slightly. "...How's Fujiwara-san doing?"
In Kaguya's eyes, no one else was as important as Amamiya and Chika.
"The three of them are hiding in the room ahead," Amamiya whispered. "I'll check the situation outside."
He walked cautiously toward the door, pressing his ear against it to listen for any noise. After confirming it was silent, he carefully opened the door just a crack, peeking out.
The hallway was empty.
The headless knight and vengeful maid from earlier were nowhere to be seen.
Amamiya stepped cautiously into the corridor, half-expecting another ketchup attack, but nothing happened.
"It looks like the spirits have left. But just to be safe, let's wait a little longer... hm?"
Mid-sentence, Amamiya suddenly realized something odd.
Why had it been so quiet behind him?
He quickly turned around, only to find no one there.
The eerie, dimly lit room was now empty, and Kaguya had vanished without a trace.
Where did she go?
[Ding!]
[You look closely and realize your future wife has mysteriously disappeared into a secret room…]
Hey, I don't need a reminder for something like that!
[After analyzing the situation, you determine that the game doesn't involve spatial transfer abilities.]
"Not entirely sure about that," Amamiya muttered, pressing a finger between his brows as he scanned the room. "If there's no spatial transfer, then she's still in this room, right?"
"Invisible?"
"Or is there a secret passage somewhere?"
"Or maybe..."
Amamiya glanced up at the ceiling, half-expecting to see Kaguya wrapped in spider webs, her mouth sealed, with tearful eyes staring back at him.
Thankfully, no.
The ceiling was empty.
"Looks like this is more of a mystery than a horror story," Amamiya said to himself, clenching his right fist and tapping his left palm. "This is the kind of thing Chika loves from detective stories."
The room wasn't large, just a single window barely the size of a human head, reinforced with thick iron bars. Inside, there was only a bed, a chair, a simple wardrobe against the wall, and a portrait of a girl with an indistinct face.
Amamiya walked over to the wardrobe, opened it, and found it almost empty, save for a blue uniform that had been washed to a pale shade. There were numbers embroidered on the left chest: 37921.
On the bed's pillow lay a book. Amamiya picked it up and realized it was a Bible. Flipping it open, he found a line scrawled on the title page:
'"You know, some birds are not meant to be caged. Freedom shines in every feather."'
[After careful recollection, you successfully remember the source of this quote.]
"No need to overthink it," Amamiya muttered as he closed the book. He walked over to the portrait on the wall. "This game is really pushing the boundaries of copyright infringement."
Casually lifting the portrait, he revealed a hidden passage, just large enough for someone to crawl through.
"Let's hope there's no bloody scene waiting on the other side."
Amamiya turned and glanced at the door. Chika still hadn't shown up, clearly having encountered some trouble herself.
After crawling through the narrow passage, Amamiya continued forward. A few moments later, he noticed a faint glimmer of light ahead, revealing an exit leading downward.
"It looks like this leads to a room on the second floor..."
Amamiya approached the exit, peeking down into the dimly lit room below. A faint candle burned on the wall, casting just enough light to make out the outline of an iron cage in the corner.
[You carefully observe and find no immediate danger.]
"Good."
With that assurance, Amamiya leaped down, landing smoothly on the ground. He quickly scanned the room, his eyes settling on the iron cage in the corner.
The sight made him freeze in shock.
Inside the square, black iron cage, Kaguya, known as Ice Princess, knelt awkwardly, her arms restrained by chains. Around her neck was a strange black collar.
What in the world?
How had she ended up as a distressed, captive princess?
The moment Kaguya saw Amamiya jump down, her eyes brightened. "I'm here," she called out softly.
Amamiya approached the cage, squatting down to get a better look at her. He couldn't help but laugh. "Why are you locked up in a cage?"
"Don't laugh!"
Kaguya's face flushed red with embarrassment.
"I'll try to hold it in," Amamiya replied, stifling his laughter.
Kaguya bit her lower lip, her eyes misty with frustration. "It was my shadow... It suddenly moved on its own, opened the painting, and pulled me into the passage."
In a voice tinged with grievance, she added, "After I got down here, the shadow took control of my body and led me into this cage."
"So..." Amamiya mused, "you locked yourself in?"
Kaguya fell silent, biting her lip and turning her head away in embarrassment, clearly unwilling to respond. Amamiya chuckled again.
No way.
This was a moment too perfect not to capture on his phone.
After all, it's not every day you get to see someone as composed as Kaguya trapped like this in real life.
"...Are you enjoying my misfortune?" Kaguya grumbled, lightly clenching her teeth.
"I'm truly sorry," Amamiya replied with mock sincerity, fully intending to enjoy such moments in the future.
There's something to be said for the simple pleasure of witnessing someone else's misfortune.
"Hurry up and unlock this cage," Kaguya urged, her eyes wide with exasperation. She was barely holding back her frustration.
Humiliating.
Utterly humiliating.
Of all the people in the room, why was she the only one whose shadow took control and locked her in a cage? How was that fair?
"Where's the key?" Amamiya inspected the heavy iron lock securing the cage. It was thick and sturdy, not something that could be broken by force.
"I don't know," Kaguya admitted. "There are some keys on that table. See if one of them works."
"Got it."
Amamiya stood and walked over to the wooden table beside the cage. Indeed, there were several keys scattered across it, but something else on the table caught his eye.
A black whip.
Setting that aside for now, Amamiya picked up an object next to it. It was small, about the size of a car key, with a silver-white metallic sheen. Its design was completely different from the other items on the table.
"What's this?" he muttered, inspecting the strange "key" curiously.
The moment Kaguya saw the item in Amamiya's hand, her eyes widened in shock.
That… That's a prop from a comic, isn't it?
She had never seen one in person before, but the design was unmistakable.
What's it doing in the game?
"Wait... wait a second! Don't press that—"