A Rondo of Fate and Mystery [Solved]

Gameboards
#1

Well, let’s see if anyone wants to read a gameboard that was haphazardly put together to celebrate this year’s Umineko day. Sadly, creating a gameboard with the intent to encourage people unfamiliar with Umineko to solve it went about as well as I expected: Utter silence… But I think it would be a waste to just let it die unsolved, so in a last attempt before shelving it, I present it to you:

"A Rondo of Fate and Mystery"
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12682491/1/A-Rondo-of-Fate-and-Mystery

General Setting: It is an obvious crossover between Umineko and the mobile game Fate/Grand Order. You don’t really need to know any Fate characters, they are awfully flat anyway, it’s just intended as a backdrop that these characters stumble over a very familiar guest house amidst a storm, where a murder mystery happens. Discussed within the story however is the fact that the Fate universe obviously uses magic. Therefore a few bonus rules apply:

  • A ‘Heroic Spirit’ is immune to non-magic attacks and thus can only be killed by another ‘Heroic Spirit’, a demon or an awfully strong mage.
  • ‘Heroic Spirits’ are also able to switch into spirit mode, in which they are invisible and can phase through solid walls. Therefore the side of the witches is forced to contain them with Red Truth, obviously, making things even more easy for the human side.
  • A ‘demi-Servant’ as in the case of Mashu is just a human possessed by a Heroic Spirit. The first rule applies to her, but not the second since she can’t turn into a spirit.

Admittedly, it was not meant to be challenging, it was meant to gently introduce people unfamiliar with Umineko to the narrative devices used in it. Which means that anyone who has read Umineko will immediately see through everything. Therefore in order to not get immediately steamrolled by you, I’m only going to surrender if you manage to get the Whodunnit, the Howdunnit and the Whydunnit right. I still bet that I will get a checkmate in less than 5 replies…

Well then… I hope you have fun with this little adventure in any case! :wink:
And of course I also hope someone will bother to cross swords with me here!

Sincerely,
Toth

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#2

Sure, I can give this a shot. Since you said this is not difficult, let’s go with the most obvious solution that follows the narrative conventions of Umineko.

Mashu and Nitocris are the culprits. Nitocris committed the murder itself, whereas Mashu transported the corpse to the attic and threw it through the window. In case Nitocris is not strong enough to kill Robin instantly, Nitocris simply opened the lock for Mashu to come in and mash Robin’s face in while he slept. Ronove is a neutral party who was with Mashu when she transported the corpse and kept quiet about it. If there were locked doors on the way, he might have opened them. They did this because Mashu was so happy to meet another mystery enthusiast that she wanted to create a murder mystery for him to solve.

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#3

Thanks for taking your time. :slight_smile:

Where to start, where to start… I think it would be prudent to confirm Ronove’s location at the time of the moving of the corpse: At the time the body of Ritsuka left the bedroom he was found in, Ronove was still in the study. Of course he carried the key to the attic with him at this time.

Edit: Had to change the red from the bedroom to the attic, because I am an idiot who forgot which room was searched by which room. The first red given by Beatrice in the story was of course the correct one.

#4

The door to the attic was not locked when Mashu carried the body to the attic.

#5

Even more fun: In the abovementioned timespan, Mashu was with Ronove!

#6

I originally thought that Nitocris carried the body to the attic herself. The attic door was unlocked, so getting past it was not a problem in the slightest, but I wonder if she had enough time to do so at any point during the narrative?

I suppose more plausible would be Nitocris removed the body from the bedroom and left it in the corridor - Mashu picked it up and carried it all the way to the attic.

#7

Since Ronove arrived alongside Mashu, he would have seen a corpse and mentioned it, wouldn’t he? To defeat both blue truths, let’s just say:
Nitocris never went up to the attic (on the second day that is) and Mashu rushed up the stairs on her own, without carrying a body.

Just as shown in the narrative. :wink:

#8

Ronove wouldn’t have mentioned anything since he’s on the witch side.

In any case, that red is not quite specific enough. Mashu had carried the body to the attic before the instance of her rushing into the attic that was described in the narrative. The above red could refer to the latter, thus leaving an opportunity for Mashu to be the one who transported the corpse.

We could also expand Ronove’s role into a full accomplice instead of a bystander who keeps quiet for the benefit of the witch side. It was Ronove who carried the corpse.

The above blues assume it was indeed Nitocris who first moved the corpse from the bedroom to the corridor. Anyhow, I have to take a short break now, I’ll be back in like 15 minutes.

#9

Uh… I better put a nail into this coffin, since you seem hell-bent on tackling the wrong mystery:

The timespan in between Nitocris leaving Battler behind and Mashu and Ronove arriving was definitely too short for anyone to carry a corpse to the attic, return and enact a scene like described.

I’d prefer you to think about where the corpse went: Ritsuka’s corpse is not in the attic!

#10

No need to make things easy for me. Even before I made my first post, I had considered the possibility of the corpse never going to the attic in the first place, but I decided to keep things simple and work on a theory as close to the narrative as possible. Now that I’m free from that shackle…

The corpse could be in literally any location that was already checked by Battler. It could’ve been transported in a nearby room, a servant could’ve broken the bars in the bedroom window and thrown the corpse outside… One could’ve even assumed that the corpse actually never left the bedroom in the first place, as the only people who “saw” anything of the sort were Nitocris and Mashu, but since his body leaving the bedroom was referred to in red, I’ll leave that be for a moment. In any case, there are a number of spots the corpse could’ve been dumped into in a span of a short moment by Nitocris.

And I might as well throw this in here at this point already. The “corpse” may have moved on its own, as well. I recall Mashu being the one who inspected the body, meaning there is no guarantee of Ritsuka being dead when they first entered the crime scene. Ritsuka himself could’ve leisurely relocated himself anywhere he wanted to with no pressing time constraits to deal with.

#11

Not really, actually. I am kinda astonished how large you think that timespan is in which she went out while Battler was still searching the room. To take matters more clear, because apparently the chapter break blurred things, I will recount (once again) what had happened after Mashu’s run-in with Beatrice:

After Battler found Mashu in the attic, they went downstairs and met up with Ronove and Nitocris, together they went to check the bedroom of Ritsuka and Robin. The door was locked and had to be unlocked by Ronove. Inside the room, Ritsuka’s corpse didn’t exist in any place whatsoever. And they all saw that the window bars were still intact.

Wait… are you building arguments from the basis that Servants have super-speed? I just realized that I actually haven’t thought about that at all. Just to prevent you from going that way: If Nitocris or any other Servant would have used their magic to destroy the corpse, it would have ruined the carpet. The carpet everywhere in the mansion is fine!

Now to your second blue truth… damn, I really should phrase my reds in a way to deny you more broadly so that I won’t have to do this.^^

After they found the corpse of Ritsuka, Ronove locked the door. It should be obvious that even if he had been alive, he wouldn’t have been able to just sneak out. I should also note that Ritsuka is dead.

#12

I’ve been working on the assumption that the bedroom Battler and Nitocris were in is next door to the murder scene, meaning that a servant who can pass through walls could plausibly accomplish at least throwing Ritsuka’s corpse out of the window in a span of ten seconds. Anyhow, I had completely forgotten that the window bars were still intact, so I guess I might as well leave the Nitocris corpse transportation theory to rest for now.

Regarding Ritsuka’s magical escape act, Ritsuka had a key. Perhaps it was already in the room by the time the “corpse” was found, or perhaps one of the culprits brought the key with them inside and left it there, I don’t remember the specifics if the narrative gave any. After Ritsuka left the room, he locked it behind him. He went to a room he’d agreed on with Mashu, and Mashu murdered him there when they were supposedly searching for the culprit.

#13

There are only two keys to the bedroom of Ritsuka and Robin. The single one that was picked up by Mashu after the discovery of the crime scene and the Master Key Ronove has. There are no other keys.

#14

Repeat this in red, if you will. Mashu took that key she found outside the room and did not return it there until Ronove locked the door.

#15

No problem at all. Mashu took that key she found outside the room and did not return it there until Ronove locked the door.

I thought this much was implied by the narrative itself. I can even go a little further: After they discovered the crime scene, they all gathered downstairs where they formed groups to search the mansion. Mashu sneaking away during this would have been noticed. After they formed the groups, Mashu, Ronove, Battler and Nitocris went immediately upstairs and to the rooms the narration says they were searching.

#16

I have to confess I don’t remember all details of the narrative particularly well, so my apologies if I miss obvious things because of that.

After going upstairs, Mashu and Ronove were not in Battler and Nitocris’ line of sight for most of the time. It is entirely possible they went and unlocked the door after they had gone back upstairs to search for the culprit and gone separate ways with Battler and Nitocris. The part of the narrative claiming they were searching could be unreliable as it was not witnessed by a reliable observer.

#17

I guess I could let that stand. The blue truth itself is fine, but it doesn’t change anything… … because Ronove serves only Beatrice. He would not have made himself an accomplice to anyone other than her. And with that Beatrice I mean the omnipotent one who crashed the party in the last chapter, who didn’t exist in the story before that.

It’s… kinda hard to define things when you merge Mystery and Fantasy perspective this way. I hope you get what I mean! Because, I just want to say that Ronove is not an accomplice and would have refused to go along with any murder plan you think Mashu had cooked up.

#18

Beatrice is Mashu. She became Beatrice when she heard of her legend and was inspired to create a locked room murder in her name. Thus, Ronove could’ve followed her orders.

#19

…

okay, you obviously didn’t get what I was saying^^…

Ronove would never acknowledge Mashu as Beatrice.

There, easy!^^

#20

Either Ritsuka or Nitocris was acknowledged by Ronove as Beatrice, for the same reason as in the previous blue.