episode_0258

When asked if the wolf had taken the grandmother and left the house, Kate shook her head, denying it. And when asked if the wolf was still inside the house, she also replied with a firm no, shaking her head.

It was a sudden change in attitude from the subject who had come to us asking to defeat the wolf that had taken the grandmother. Witnessing the scene in real-time, I was simply dumbfounded.

“Was it not the Red Riding Hood, but the shepherd boy?”

In fact, the wolf had not come to us from the beginning, so I couldn’t help but think that we had taken a pointless detour. At that moment, Ethan posed a new question to the girl based on a new hypothesis.

“If it didn’t carry the grandmother in its mouth, did the large wolf perhaps pick her up or carry her away in its arms?”

“…!”

Yes, the werewolf.

I momentarily forgot that this was a medieval fantasy world. In this world, there existed hybrids of humans and animals called werewolves.

Among them, a design that would be particularly favored by those with considerable wealth… No, a werewolf breed that exhibited more animal traits than human traits could easily appear wolf-like to a child’s eyes.

And if the werewolf had kidnapped the grandmother, there was a good chance she was still alive…

“No.”

“…Really? Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’m sure.”

“…”

…Well, it wouldn’t be that easy to solve.

Honestly, the werewolf seemed like the most likely option, but since it wasn’t, there was no point in pressing further. I couldn’t accuse her of lying with those innocent eyes staring back at me.

Setting aside the possibility that Kate had seen a werewolf, I corrected the misunderstanding between her and me.

“Did the wolf and the grandmother perhaps leave the house holding hands?”

“No.”

“…Then, did the wolf carry the grandmother on its back when it kidnapped her?”

“Um, no.”

“…Then did the wolf kidnap the grandmother by wrapping her body with its tail?”

“What does that even mean?”

“…It’s nothing.”

It seemed like I had presented all the possible choices a wolf could make, but Kate kept repeating “no” at the end of each question. At this point, I started to wonder if she was just teasing me. It wasn’t like she was randomly asking irrelevant questions.

If it didn’t carry her in its mouth, wrap her with its tail, or carry her on its back… were there any other options?

When the thought crossed my mind that Kate’s grandmother might not have existed from the beginning and was just a figment of her imagination, Ethan asked Kate a question about the grandmother kidnapping incident.

“…Then why do you think the wolf kidnapped your grandmother? Isn’t it possible that the wolf just came in and out of the house when your grandmother wasn’t there?”

“B-but… the, the wolf said that… she kidnapped her….”

“The wolf said that?”

“Yes. Your grandmother was kidnapped by me, so if you want her back, wait quietly for two nights…. But, even after sleeping for two nights, my grandmother still hasn’t returned….”

“…”

“…”

…It seems pretty certain that it was a werewolf after all, considering what Kate just said.

And thanks to Kate’s recent statement, I was able to glean another piece of information. Kate had not actually witnessed the moment the wolf kidnapped her grandmother.

She simply believed the wolf had kidnapped her grandmother based on what she heard. Perhaps the wolf… no, the werewolf hadn’t actually kidnapped her grandmother, and she was just not returning home for some other reason.

‘Maybe it’s really possible to find my grandmother after all.’

Instead of delivering the heartbreaking news that the young girl had lost her last remaining family member, it was much better to endure some hardship and conduct a thorough investigation.

With that thought in mind, Lily entered the open room in the house to find traces of the Were Wolf who had intruded into the house.

“Is this where Cat’s grandmother stays?”

“Yes!”

“And this is where you saw the Were Wolf… I mean, the talking wolf?”

“Yes!”

…It seems like we can finally communicate now. When I kept saying no, it felt like my clothes were about to burst.

After searching through the slightly messy room of the grandmother, possibly due to the intrusion of the Were Wolf, Lily picked up a mysterious thin string that was lying on the floor.

‘…What is this thin piece of cloth…?’

At first, it seemed like a necklace mixed among the fallen clothes, but it didn’t seem to be that. The string had loops on both sides, so it didn’t seem to be made to wear around the neck.

It was too narrow to be considered clothing. It seemed to serve a functional purpose as clothing.

Expressing doubt about the use of the black cloth piece in the shape of an ‘H’ made of thin strings, Cat cautiously asked me.

“Um, Lily?”

“Yes?”

“Why are you holding our grandmother’s underwear…?”

“Underwear? …This?”

“Yes. The thing you’re holding, that’s our grandmother’s panties….”

“……Eek?!”

Shocked at the mention of this thin piece being women’s underwear, I quickly threw away the ‘H’ shaped string I was holding.

This, this is underwear?! A piece of cloth that would immediately reveal the lower body if the wind blew and the skirt fluttered, this piece, or rather, this string being called ‘panties’ was probably all Cat and the owner of this string knew.

How perverted must one be to confidently wear such underwear, and if Cat’s words were true, then the owner of this underwear was clearly….

‘…It’s a relief that I haven’t met Cat’s grandmother yet.’

If I had seen her face, I would have imagined her wearing this underwear in more detail.

“…Lily, is that your preference?”

“Oh, no, Ed!”

“…Alright. If you need anything, tell the maid. Lily will probably buy you anything you ask for.”

“Oh, I told you no!”

Who sees someone as a perverted exhibitionist just for looking closely at underwear.

Due to Ethan’s absurd suspicion that I was looking at underwear because I didn’t know it was underwear, my head suddenly felt hot for no reason.

‘…Now that I look at it, all the clothes scattered on the floor seem to be the clothes worn by one person, Cat.’

The black string that I didn’t know was clothing aside, the other clothes had subtle signs of tearing around the back and waist.

Considering the circumstances, it was likely that these were the clothes the grandmother was wearing on the day she disappeared.

‘If they were going to kidnap her, it would have been faster to just take her without undressing her. Why did they tear all the clothes like this?’

If the claim that the Were Wolf kidnapped the grandmother was true, and if that Were Wolf was a peculiar one with unusual tastes.

If he felt lust for Cat’s grandmother in the middle of the night, and when he was about to attack, Cat appeared and he hurriedly ran away?

‘…That can’t be true, right?’

The developers I know from the “Luminor Academy” may not have created a release virgin route, but they were skilled individuals who were good at making “sellable games” in their own way.

They were guys who knew where the unique and charming heroines, multiple capture routes, and otakus were cheering and getting excited. So, a game made in a small country on the outskirts of Asia would be translated into various languages and sold on Steam.

Those perceptive guys wouldn’t have created an episode like this “Grandma Lover.” They knew very well that there would be quite a few guys who would hate this kind of thing.

So, let’s think again, excluding “that reason” for now. A werewolf that broke into the house in the middle of the night could only have a rational reason to tear off and remove the clothes that Cat’s grandmother was wearing.

“Did he try to unwrap it before eating…?”

Here, the “before eating” refers to the literal meaning of a meal. Not a sexual innuendo.

However, the werewolf in this world is treated like an ordinary person, and there would be no reason for him to eat humans.

And if he really did such a thing, there should have been some evidence of resistance or scattered blood somewhere in the house, but no such evidence was visible at all.

Even in the torn clothes, there was no sense of resistance. If he had tried to force something, the clothes wouldn’t have been torn so neatly.

“Wait, looking closely at this clothes….”

Looking at the torn top and pants, there was one common point in the two torn clothes. That is, both sets of clothes were torn along the “seam.”

If it had been torn by an external force, it would have been a bit difficult to tear neatly along the seam like this. Normally, the fabric would tear or fray unevenly, or be shredded into pieces.

Tearing in this way required applying a uniform force to the entire garment and pulling with almost the same intensity.

It was as if the clothes were wrapped around a large balloon and inflated from the inside until it burst, rather than being torn in this way….

“…Ah! I got it!!”

“Eek?! Uh, sis?”

“…Lilith?”

Cat’s testimony, the talking wolf, and the torn clothes from the inside.

…The mystery was all solved. The truth is always one!