Interlude: An Indulgence Called A Locked Room
Fenrir's mother had hanged herself when she was ten years old, having been deceived by a fraud. No matter how much she cried, her mother never woke up, and her father would only say in quiet voice “Let us pray.”
“If we do that, your mother's soul will be purified and bring happiness to the world. As the High Priest says, suicide is also a type of murder. Although its energy is small compared to a true murder, if you pray with all your soul, your mother's death will surely become something meaningful.”
She wondered how long it had been since her father and mother had joined this strange religion. Before she knew it, Fenrir was also there, and every week, on her days off, she attended strange meetings. Fenrir was a girl who didn't believe in God or even souls, but without even realizing it, she'd risen through the ranks, and soon she was being hailed as a leader of the strange religion. It was likely simply because she was brilliant, and more than that, she was beautiful. When she preached, people listened in awe and wonder. Her followers increased without end. She thought adults were all idiots, hanging on the words of someone who didn't even believe in God. That was why, even after her mother committed suicide, she was told “Let us pray.” What she needed wasn't prayer, but revenge.
Fenrir used her position as leader of the strange religion to track down the con artist who'd deceived her mother. His name was Yashiro. She wanted to kill him right away, but she didn't want to be arrested. She thought it was wrong, that she would be punished for taking revenge on someone she hated so. She didn't want to go to jail. Because that would have been an act of atonement. She didn't want to atone for something she didn't feel was wrong.
As she worried over things like that, an incident occurred. The world was thrown into an uproar. It was said that a girl in the second grade of middle school had killed her own father. It was Japan's first locked room murder.
And to her disbelief, the girl was found not guilty. It was an absurd result from the perspective of common sense. However, Fenrir was pleased. If she was able to commit a locked room murder, she wouldn't be charged with any crime. That was an impossibly grand find for Fenrir, who dreamed of avenging her mother. Looking back, that may have been the moment she fell in love with locked rooms.
From then on, Fenrir began to spend almost all her time thinking about locked rooms. What kind of locked room trick would she use to kill Yashiro? That thought filled her mind. It was the first time she'd felt happy since her mother died. Gradually, her means and her end switch places. She didn't want to commit a locked room murder to avenge her mother, but to avenge her mother so she'd have a chance to commit a locked room murder.
In religious studies, there is something called an indulgence, but for her, the locked room was a substitute for her indulgence. I.O.U. one locked room murder – God. Three years ago, the incident caused by that girl had changed the meaning of locked rooms.
Fenrir prepared a plan to kill Yashiro. She liked the idea of doing it in a closed circle, isolated from the outside world. Since the police couldn't intervene, the amount of tricks that she could have used increased. So, she thought, if she was going to commit a locked room murder, a closed circle was the best place to do it.
And at the House of Snow, Fenrir met that girl, Shitsuri Mitsumura. But Fenrir never realized who she was. All she knew was that she was a girl who loved locked rooms as much as herself.
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