Chapter 7: Conversation
"Even though it says 24-hour service, do you really get new guests coming in at night?" Seeing the clerk rummaging for trash bags, Kagehara Tetsuya pretended to make casual conversation while thinking about how to steer the topic.
"Well guests are few and far between at night. To be honest, this inn is a bit old, so even during holidays, we don’t get many visitors," the clerk said, pulling out a bag from under the counter and starting to search through it.
"Is that so? Then the night shift must be pretty relaxed, huh? You could sneakily watch a movie or something."
"No way!" The clerk suddenly looked up, gesturing with his eyes toward the camera in the upper right corner. "That’s the boss’s eye. He often checks the surveillance footage. If he catches me slacking off, I’m done for."
"Ah—there’s surveillance? That’s pretty rough. Nights must be boring and tiring then."
"Exactly. If the pay wasn’t decent, who’d do such a boring job? Oh, here are the trash bags. Here you go."
"Thanks, but I don’t need that many. Just a few will do," Kagehara Tetsuya said, starting to tear open the trash bags himself. Then, in a tone dripping with mischief, he added, "But if I were the boss, I’d install cameras too, and make sure the coverage is as wide as possible—capturing the stairs and the doors on both sides!"
The clerk gave him a look that said ‘you have no idea what you’re talking about.’
"Then your business would go under fast."
"Huh? Why?"
"Guests would be unhappy. If the stairs are covered, their faces would be caught on camera when they come downstairs. Middle-aged people having affairs and high school girls sneaking out are terrified of that."
"Oh... I see. What about avoiding the stairs and just covering the rooms on either side?"
"Listen, you’re not getting it, are you? Guests care about their privacy, especially those coming to an inn in a remote area like this. If their doors are being filmed, they’d be caught on camera every time they leave their rooms."
"And normal guests wouldn’t like being filmed either, right?"
Kagehara Tetsuya took the trash bags and made one final confirmation. "Then why are you complaining about it being hard? If I weren’t staying here, you could slack off in the guest rooms anytime, or even sit on the stairs to rest. After all, no guests are coming, right?"
"Absolutely not. The boss says we can’t leave the counter unless it’s necessary."
"So you have to stay here the whole night?" Kagehara Tetsuya frowned inwardly. If that were the case, the police would definitely question this guy tomorrow. He had a clear view of his room, so how would he explain "Yomikawa" coming out of Kagehara Tetsuya’s room tomorrow?
He had to keep probing.
"That’s right, but I can go to an empty room to eat, and I can also go to the bathroom at other times, though not for too long."
"What time do you usually eat?"
The clerk, now fully engaged in the conversation, answered without much caution. "Around 9:50. The boss says meals can’t take more than fifteen minutes."
"Huh? That’s a strange time. Usually, it’s on the hour, right?"
"It’s because of the train. The second-to-last train arrives around that time. My girlfriend takes that train to bring me a bento, then takes the last train home. On her way back, she takes the bento box with her."
"I see." Kagehara Tetsuya nodded. Having this window of time made things easier.
But why did he feel an inexplicable sense of unease?
He was worried about the camera, but it turned out the camera couldn’t cover the stairs or his room.
He was worried about the clerk staying at the counter all night, but it turned out the clerk would be gone for fifteen minutes to eat.
Was this a coincidence?
Or was he just lucky?
"Ah—speaking of which, someone not too long ago also said my meal time was strange," the clerk said, his expression annoyed. "That girl was really nosy. She even asked me why I didn’t just bring a bento from home and whether I had to leave the counter to eat. Seriously, it was so annoying. Just thinking about it makes me want to punch her or something."
Kagehara Tetsuya, who had been about to head back to his room, immediately stopped in his tracks. Like a beast with an innate sense of danger, the clerk’s mention of the "nosy girl" triggered an almost instinctive alertness in him.
Most people wouldn’t care about such trivial details, especially the latter question.
Whether you have to leave the counter to eat. It was an utterly pointless piece of information. If it weren’t for the face-swapping situation, even he wouldn’t have paid attention to it.
Although the answer was undoubtedly yes—after all, you couldn’t eat in front of guests—that person had gone out of their way to confirm it in detail not long ago. It was almost as if they were preparing for some kind of plan, and this detail was crucial to it.
Just like himself at this very moment.
That person had been asking the clerk questions from the same perspective he was now.
The camera’s coverage, the clerk’s time away from the counter—these weren’t things that could be explained by coincidence or luck.
Kagehara Tetsuya suddenly felt the illusion of being completely seen through, as if there were a pair of eyes hidden in the darkness behind him. The owner of those eyes had already set their sights on him, and he was only just now becoming aware of it.
Was that person treating him like a puppet to be manipulated at will?
The last person who had made him feel this way was the one dubbed the "Makeup Hunter."
This was truly infuriating.
Taking a quiet breath to steady himself, Kagehara Tetsuya continued, "Huh? There’s someone that strange? May be a thief?"
The shift in his mindset caused a momentary unnaturalness in his tone, but fortunately, the clerk wasn’t particularly sharp and didn’t notice at all.
"Probably not? That person was still only a girl—maybe a high school student or a college freshman?"
"A JK student?"
"Not sure, but even though she was wearing a mask, judging from the upper half of her face, she was probably a beauty. She had long, beautiful hair too. If she was a JK, she’d definitely be popular."
"Beautiful? More beautiful than our club president? I mean Yomikawa Tsuko."
"Didn’t I say she was wearing a mask? But I doubt she’s as beautiful as your president. And your president is taller too. If we’re comparing legs, your president definitely wins, heh heh."
Kagehara Tetsuya frowned inwardly. When it came to women, this clerk became quite talkative, but there were too many uncertainties in his information. Couldn’t he have observed more carefully? It would’ve been helpful if he could provide some distinct physical characteristics.
For now, the only confirmed detail was: that person was shorter than Yomikawa.
The long hair couldn’t be taken as definitive either, since wigs were a possibility, so it could only serve as a reference.
However, he still believed that Yomikawa and this person were definitely connected—or that this person was Yomikawa’s accomplice.
The reason was simple: it was Yomikawa, as the club president, who had decided on this inn for the overnight trip.
And the face-swapping had also happened here.
When the number of coincidences reaches a certain point, they can no longer be called coincidences.
At this point, there wasn’t much more specific information to be gained from the clerk. Kagehara Tetsuya couldn’t be bothered to waste any more time on him. "Ah... it’s getting late. I’m going to head back and rest. See you!"
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