The Traveling Hero Won’t Let the Innkeeper’s Son Escape

Ed takes the two "Happy Afternoon" books Ruth puts on the table.

"How could there be two identical books in this room?

If you're placing spare time books in a guest room, you should usually have more than one. But there are two of the same books in this room, and no other types of books are available.

"Isn't it for me and Ed?

"You mean me and Ruth know... we have every book available? What are the people in this mansion doing this for?

Ruth shook his head, naturally questioning it.

"No… I don't think this book was prepared by the people at the Mansion"

"Eh, what do you mean?

"I wouldn't put a book on the table in such a conspicuous way in a mansion like the one where the maid is. Even if you put a book in the room, you should put it up on the chest and line it up."

"If the people at the mansion didn't prepare it, who the hell..."

Ed speaks that far and looks at him when he accidentally realizes something.

"No way......"

"Yes. This book - it was put down by the makers of this world."

"Happy Afternoon" is just a book at first glance. Nor is the outside releasing any strange signs. Ruth is mediocre enough to expect he wouldn't have gotten it if he'd been in a lot of shelves and mixed up.

But Ruth was convinced that this book was deliberately placed by the makers of this world.

"Oh, wait a minute. Why does Ruth think this book was put down by the maker who created this world?

"There are two reasons. One is that this book is going to everyone, not that it's impossible, but it's weird that everyone has it, right? And the other is because, like I said, it's placed conspicuously."

Even Ruth's Inn lobby, the book is on the shelf. It's only natural to clean it up if someone puts it out. Even in small villages, where guests who are not rich stay, that's about it. If you're in this mansion like a maid, you're never going to imitate putting a book right on the table.

(Yet this book was placed on the side of the couch where we could expect to carry our legs first once we entered the room. Everyone must look. It's like, 'Take it in your hand' all the time)

If you realize how strange it is, it's the heterogeneous air you feel about 'Happy Afternoon'. No one has turned a blind eye to Ruth or even Ed, who has always kept his memory of this book. So much so that I wonder if I'm even using a technique that blends into the world.

Ruth probably noticed the discomfort because he heard it from Ed, who can't help but lose his memory even if he's taken in by the world.

"Assuming.... assuming, right? What the hell is this, if the makers of this world put this book down?

A closed world, a set time to repeat, people with roles, the same book distributed to everyone - and then Ruth derived it.

- I think this book is a script.

"Hey, hon...? Dae-hon, is this the 'script' available for actors in plays or something?

"Yes. Did Ed ever see a play, or a script?

"I read it in a book, and I know what it's like. Sometimes those people were coming to my city to perform. Do you have Ruth, too?

"Yes, it was quite a while ago."

To be precise, that is a story from a previous life. Hashi village is small, so there is no entertainment there.

In the previous life of more culture than in this world, I have watched plays in school events and so on since I was a child. Although I've never played it, I've also read comics and novels about the play. Even if I didn't know the details, I knew what it was more or less like.

"This is the script... How could there be such a thing?

An unexpectedly crushed Ed changed the color of his eyes.

"…… wait. Ruth just said these two books are for me and Ruth, right?

"You said it."

"- I mean, does this book mean me and Ruth's script?

"That's what I mean."

"Uh... what's a script? If this book was prepared by the makers of this world, do you mean we play something?

Ed seems pretty confused. Ruth knows enough about that mess, too.

"Explain in order because it will be confusing. First is the rationale that this is the script. Ed, what appears in this world is that the people of the Mansion fit in one daughter, Tiana, the owner of the Mansion, Dickhout, the butler, Benno (Liner), the maid Dorte, the cook Chester, and the gardener, Iban, right?

"Yes, it fits"

"All of its members are coming out of this book."

Ruth opened the page of the book to show the page where the characters were written. There is the position now raised by Ruth, his only daughter, husband, butler, maid, cook and gardener as it is. The difference is whether there is an individual's name or not.

"So, but that's it…… our script is not……………"

"I didn't think so either.... but when Ed told you about Mr. Chester and Grandpa Iban, he said, 'Neither of you have any doubts about who you are'. At that time, I... they naturally felt like they were getting better."

"I can be..."

You guessed what Ruth was trying to say, Ed's complexion turned blue.

"I can be... I mean, I'm becoming a cook and a gardener - can't they think," I'm playing a role ”?

If Iban was in front of him and made a statement that he didn't remember in the village, he would be too shocked to care about what he "forgot" about. “I don't know why I forgot." That's a conscious priority, and he might not be so concerned about "playing the gardener”.

But Ruth was first told by Ed that he was working as a gardener. For Ruth, who hasn't seen Iban change in front of him, I'm more concerned about "the bloody hunter he's a big man and a gardener” than about losing his memory. I stuck with the idea that maybe that's why I'm playing it.

"... uh, so, Mr. Dickhout or Tiana too?

Ruth nodded as she looked into Ed's eyes.

According to previous Ruth and Ed speculations, other members are likely to have lived a different life. Then it would be natural for them to assume that Iban and the others are equally "instrumental”.

"So, but here, there's a woman and a brother out there, and they put that in and they're seven.... me and Ruth have a relationship... ahh"

"That's right, I'm here. Both the woman and her brother have existed from the beginning.... That's us. Me and Ed have been in this mansion since the beginning as sisters and brother sisters. - We had a role, too, at some point."

Ruth, who plays “Sister Woman” to get her to stay at the Mansion, and Ed, who plays “The Brother”.

According to Ed's story, Ruth had decided to stay at his sister's brother's setting every time. And if he doesn't lie about his sister and brother, he says he has a past where he was reluctant to go inside the mansion.

Ruth wasn't aware that we were playing. I thought it was something I had no choice but to do.

However, given the preconditions, I realize that the very idea of "Let's Play Women" may have been planted. Ruth herself created a reason to be convinced that she wanted to be a woman naturally and in this. At that point, Ruth was entering the role of "Woman" and going on stage.

"So, are we all moving on to this script, and, uh... being part of it?

"No, I think that's the tricky part of this world. They've been given the script, but they're not following it."

"I don't know what that means............?

"I want you to remember what it's all about... This story is about a woman and her brother who got lost and were supposed to be staying at the mansion, and they change their behavior by engaging with the people at the mansion and giving them advice, right? That makes the whole mansion happy and has a happy ending"

"I mean, these two - Ruth and I, the protagonists, the others don't change their behavior unless" woman "and" brother "move correctly, and the story doesn't go as scripted?

"I think that's highly probable"

This world is' staged ', people with roles are' characters' in plays, and books handed out to each are 'scripts' to play. All the time, time repeats itself because the protagonist fails without progressing as scripted. It may be treated like a 'rehearsal'. "No, again from the beginning."

Ed was stunned by Ruth's assertion, which was not an exaggeration.

"Does that mean that the makers of this world are making this world and locking it up to let us do theatre?

"Yes."

"You can't talk like that!

"I know. I'm aware that I'm telling a story that doesn't clap. Honestly, I don't think it's possible. But if that's the truth, the only reason you can guess is that Mr. Benno's gone."

"Mr. Benno?

"I don't remember Mr. Benno, but he was the same 'butler' as Mr. Reiner."

"Yes."

"Based on that, reading this book, I can deduce that he disappeared from this mansion because he 'finished his role'."

"Finish the role?

"This story has become one story overall, but if you look closely, it's divided into a few chapters. And the main character in the first chapter is the butler. He was seriously worried that he was helping. So my husband asks me to get ready for one of my daughters birthday parties. I try to make it a good one...... I don't like lying to him. He treats her too much with a secret birthday party. He's inexperienced and wonders what to do... so the main characters' women and younger brothers give him advice."

Ruth continues her conversation pale as she follows with her eyes the contents of the book.

"The two of them, speaking from the butler, both head to the owner of the mansion and tell him that one daughter doesn't want a secret birthday party. As a result, the butler is asked by his husband to prepare another. In the meantime, one daughter tells me she relies on a butler. I felt the two of you recognized his existence. He starts his work confidently - that's the story involved with the butler. Surely Ed said that Mr. Benno said, 'Mr. Dickhout and Tiana asked me to stick around and entrust me with the birthday party facilitator,' right?

"... I said. It was also the last time the birthday party changed from something secret to something that invites all the mansions. So………"

"Yes, Mr. Benno followed almost the same path as the muscles in this book to solve the problems the butler has. I mean, he's finished his role in this world. That's why he disappeared."

"And then Mr. Reiner came in because there was no one left to play 'Deacon'?

"That sort of thing."

Ed pulled out of his tense body and sat deep in the chair.

"To be honest, I didn't think it was possible when I heard it was a play, a script. … but with that hypothesis, I can explain whether we are repeating the same time all the time or why Mr. Benno is gone. So the producer wants us to move on with the script we created."

"Yeah. And if you don't move on, you won't let me go."

It is a mystery that this producer is doing such a troublesome thing, like directing a theatre.

But I've come to understand that producers want to be in this world - gradually. An outsider's sister and brother for the Mansion will want to make a story like "A Happy Afternoon" that will lead the people of this Mansion to happiness and end in a beautiful way.

Until each of them solves the problem and plays a role, the producers will not return Ruth and his actors to the real world. The only reason the producer can't get the desired results is because it doesn't make sense to have made this world.

"But why doesn't the producer control the consciousness itself and move us freely? If you don't imitate what we want, it's easier to make your favorite story, right? It doesn't make sense."

"Right, totally unreasonable. But I think that's what producers want."

"... What do you mean?

"Producers don't want to make scripted plays that go the way they want. I must have created more than a script."

Given that Mr. Benno disappeared from this world, even if he did not follow the exact same path as the script, it is conceivable that what this producer is really looking for is not a play as the script suggests, but something else.

I don't know if the reason for asking for “something” is because I'm not convinced by the stories I've made alone, or if there's another intention, but that must be why I'm letting Ruth and the others go free.

Imagine the producer enjoying it. Look at Ruth and the others trying to solve their problems in the same way while following a completely different path from the script.