Bernkastel's Last Bow [Complete]

[midsummer]

I was wondering whether I should ask for clarification about the seal on the envelope Krauss opened, since if it was an ordinary wax seal, it would’ve been highly improbable for anyone to have been able to pour molten wax on top of the letter to seal it while having dinner, and could’ve given me a reason to discard the “letter was prepared during the dinner” -approach. But I figured it would’ve been possible to bypass that issue by sealing the envelope in advance and cutting a hole in it through which the letter could be placed inside. Since the envelope wasn’t examined in detail, such a cut could’ve plausibly remained hidden until the culprit got their hands on the envelope and destroyed it, or somesuch.

Anyhow, now that you’ve directly confirmed that the letter couldn’t be written during the dinner, that point becomes moot. So, it’s time to refocus. Sadly, I have to get going for now, so the only thing I have to offer are my troll theories that I thought of a while ago.

The envelope actually contains a million letters that all contain a different number that Krauss guessed. Krauss just happened to pick the one that actually read his chosen number by coincidence. Also he somehow managed to not notice the 999999 extra letters in there. Maybe the paper was really thin.

Or… there was only one one letter, and it read that Krauss guessed 11037. However, there’s a red truth confirming that the letter would’ve included Krauss’ chosen number even if he had chosen differently. There is no contradiction… because the culprit wrote, in very tiny font in some extremely compact notation, all numbers Krauss could count in the letter with some extremely faint ink that is almost impossible to make out, and thus Krauss didn’t notice it. That way, all numbers Krauss could’ve guessed are “included” in the letter, even though only 11037 is visibly written in the paragraph talking about what number Krauss chose.

[Blackrune]

Hm, this really seems to suggest some person doing something in front of the door and leaving behind the thing Krauss stepped on.
Could’ve been a pen.

Of course that would create the new problem of how they even got the letter into the room then.

[DWaM]

Well now I’ve seen everything.

The envelope actually contains a million letters that all contain a different number that Krauss guessed. Krauss just happened to pick the one that actually read his chosen number by coincidence. Also he somehow managed to not notice the 999999 extra letters in there. Maybe the paper was really thin.

The envelope can, of course, hold only one letter.

Or… there was only one one letter, and it read that Krauss guessed 11037. However, there’s a red truth confirming that the letter would’ve included Krauss’ chosen number even if he had chosen differently. There is no contradiction… because the culprit wrote, in very tiny font in some extremely compact notation, all numbers Krauss could count in the letter with some extremely faint ink that is almost impossible to make out, and thus Krauss didn’t notice it. That way, all numbers Krauss could’ve guessed are “included” in the letter, even though only 11037 is visibly written in the paragraph talking about what number Krauss chose.

I mean, given that Krauss could’ve literally chosen ANY number, that would leave you with… about an infinity of tiny numbers to fill up. And that’s not even brining up why the culprit would go through such an effort. (Which is to say, that is not the solution.)

Hm, this really seems to suggest some person doing something in front of the door and leaving behind the thing Krauss stepped on.

Could’ve been a pen.

Of course that would create the new problem of how they even got the letter into the room then.

It is with great pleasure that I use the emoji you’ve haunted me with.

[Ushiromiya_Battler]

Nobody in the dining room would have been able to write a letter in the period since Genji set the letter to the point where Krauss picked the letter on the table to read it.

So, someone outside of the dining room could have done it? That means someone outside of the dining room could have listened in, and then had the letter replaced through some trick. Hmm.

Hm, this really seems to suggest some person doing something in front of the door and leaving behind the thing Krauss stepped on.
Could’ve been a pen.

Of course that would create the new problem of how they even got the letter into the room then.

How would a pen help with this kind of trick? I’m confused. The problem is that this sharp thing is far too vague for me to even begin assuming what it could be. Oh, Krauss stepped on something small and sharp. Oh, look, now it’s gone. I can easily suppose that this has something to do with the trick, but without any legit hints that is incredibly hard to do so it might as well not be there at all.

[Blackrune]

I mean it mostly just suggests something was going on in front of the door and the first thing that came to mind was someone listening in and writing the letter. As I said, leaves a whole lot of other problems…

[DWaM]

Oh, Krauss stepped on something small and sharp. Oh, look, now it’s gone. I can easily suppose that this has something to do with the trick, but without any legit hints that is incredibly hard to do so it might as well not be there at all.

You’re right. It’s near impossible to deduce what the object actually was.

But then again, perhaps the point isn’t for you to precisely identify it…?

[selkie]

What if the thing on the ground was a stake. There was a matching one on the ceiling, and a string tied between them. Right when Krauss removes the letter from the envelope, Shannon who’s been hiding behind the dining room door loads up the new letter and shoots it from the makeshift bow, through the slit in the door and into Krauss’ hands, knocking the old letter to the other side of the room! It happens so fast he is unable to actually see it.

[DWaM]

Well then.

Maybe I haven’t seen everything.

Of course, I’m a humorless fool so naturally I shall respond to this joyful theory with the utmost seriousness.

What if the thing on the ground was a stake. There was a matching one on the ceiling, and a string tied between them. Right when Krauss removes the letter from the envelope, Shannon who’s been hiding behind the dining room door loads up the new letter and shoots it from the makeshift bow, through the slit in the door and into Krauss’ hands, knocking the old letter to the other side of the room! It happens so fast he is unable to actually see it.

It would had to have been pretty small - smaller than a stake, surely. Small enough for most if not all people to not really notice it until (or if) they happened to step on it. Stake is a bit too much. More importantly though – I do have to wonder when the string between the two stakes would’ve been tied together - given that people would’ve probably noticed and even walked into it as they walked into the dining room to begin with. Plus, they would’ve also seen the door being opened for Shannon to casually string it.

Plus, you know.

Krauss would’ve undoubtedly noticed someone just knocking the letter out of his hand.

And does kind of go against the red about switches.

Forgive me. It is done.

[selkie]

Alright, this is a struggle. Brain dumping. Compiling the most key reds we have received:

The only two people who knew that Genji was to present the family with the letter before he actually did so were Genji and Kinzo.

Kinzo’s ruled out by default, so Genji is the only one who could possibly prepare anything beforehand.

Nobody in the dining room would have been able to write a letter in the period since Genji set the letter to the point where Krauss picked the letter on the table to read it.

This implies that in the switched scenario, only the servants can be culprits. Not including Genji, Shannon is the only one who even comes in the room let alone in Krauss’ awareness zone.

Krauss would have noticed a hand reaching for the letter within his area of awareness from the time the letter was originally placed by Genji at the very beginning, to the point where Krauss picked it up to read it.

The most frustrating. Krauss can’t be distracted by anything enough for a swap to take place, which wouldn’t be as frustrating except…

The letter, if it was indeed switched, had to have been done by hand. Which is to say, the act of raising the statuette and taking the letter placed by Genji before dinner began would have had to have been done by hand. In addition, the act of placing a letter back also would have needed to be done by hand.

The letter was handwritten, using a normal pen.

All mechanisms have been ruled out by these, essentially.

It must have been done by hand, but a hand couldn’t have done it. Therefore it must have been staged, but the number makes that impossible.

Some peculiarities:

• Kumasawa leaves the kitchen just before the toast, to ‘change sheets’. Pretty suspicious.
• The sharp object. It must be relevant, but perhaps not as relevant as we’d like if ‘the point isn’t to precisely identify it’. Still, the fact that it’s sharp is peculiar. Also, is it relevant that he stepped on it with his right foot specifically? As Blackrune pointed out, it can’t have anything to do with rigging the cart because it’s at the exit.
• The seating arrangement is absolutely bizarre. Even if you ignore that the Ushiromiya family is ‘supposed’ to sit by generation, it’s still very odd. Maria and Nanjo next to the head, Battler sitting next to Eva rather than George, Kyrie and Rudolf being the only couple sitting across from each other. Considering that nobody in the dining room wrote the letter during dinner, though, I don’t know what to do with this.
• The statue. Is it relevant, or just some detail? Could any ol’ rock have replaced it? It can’t be a remote stamp or something like that, because the letter was handwritten using a normal pen…

My last idea is that perhaps writing on the envelope can bypass the ‘handwritten’ clause, ink bleeding through, but that’s only enough to get by with the blank number idea, implying it was staged.
Genji is the only one who knew about the letter before hand, and thus is the only person who could have prewritten events and staged them. However, because he doesn’t enter the field of awareness after the number game, he cannot be the culprit. So, we can rule out prewriting.

We have yet to rule out the statue moving outside the field of awareness, as ridiculous as that would be, but since the family can’t write the letter it would have to leave the room and come back, which is absolutely ridiculous. It’s safe to say anything that violates common sense awareness is just going to get a white text denial like above.

A traditional mentalist trick (which it feels inspired by, especially with Battler’s game) like this with actually unpredictable input usually involves the magician swapping the letter, but since Krauss is the only one who can possibly touch the letter this trick is unprecedented afaik.

That’s all I got. I’m losing sleep.

[Blackrune]

Ruling out Kinzo by default? I’d challenge that, if anything his door being found ajar makes him suspicious. I’ll believe it once it’s proven he’s actually dead at that time and those murders could not be pulled off after his death.

As for other points that may or may not factor into this:
The renovations of the mansion. Clearly the dining room got renovated in some way, so it’s not out the question to suspect some more outlandish thing with the room there. It’s specifically pointed out things were ‘more bright’ than usual in there. That might factor into how whatever happened was missed, who knows.

[Ushiromiya_Battler]

It is always possible a part of the letter was pre-written and that Genji simply added in other parts once he left the dining room (thanks to him messing with someone’s food and having an excuse to leave the dining room) and then somehow managed to switch out the two letters after that.

The only problem is, obviously, HOW?

I also didn’t notice the part about the renovation and things being more bright. I need to re-read.

EDIT:

Wait, what if the point of the object is not to identify but it is a clue that someone was standing outside of the dining room listening in? Like maybe Kinzo? Hmm

[selkie]

I suppose that’s valid, if the murders are pulled off entirely by traps or somehow Kinzo’s corpse was faked, although the latter seems unlikely.

Even if Kinzo is responsible for the letter, there’s still no way for him to pull off the swap.

The renovations are a good detail, I had disregarded that. It’s also maybe of note that the map of the seating arrangement specifically notes lamp placement for some reason?

@Ushiromiya_Battler, I don’t really understand why the letter would be prewritten and also swapped? Ah no, I see what you mean, he has it prewritten so there’s time to write the letter period.

I think the idea of the object certainly indicates someone was outside that door at some point. Kinzo, Kumasawa, and even Shannon are all viable assuming it wasn’t there when the family first entered.

[Ushiromiya_Battler]

@Ushiromiya_Battler, I don’t really understand why the letter would be prewritten and also swapped?

Assuming the culprit didn’t have time to write up everything. Also, take into consideration the order of the events. The letter begins with a speech, whereas in reality the event happened last so it makes me feel like Genji, who certainly had knowledge of the speech, could have written in it way before.

[DWaM]

I think the idea of the object certainly indicates someone was outside that door at some point. Kinzo, Kumasawa, and even Shannon are all viable assuming it wasn’t there when they entered.

I think it would be important to take this time to establish that the object would’ve been somewhere near the door, but inside of the dining room.

It’d be a shame for you to believe someone was crouching at the door from the outside when Krauss’ foot had felt the sharp thing inside of the dining room.

My mistake for not specifying that when I said it happened as he was stepping out. My apologies.

[Ushiromiya_Battler]

Huh.

Just as I was stepping out, my right foot happened to step onto an unfamiliar shape. A somewhat sharp one, at that.

This made me feel like it happened upon him stepping out. Oh well. Thanks for clarifying.

[DWaM]

Understandable confusion. I worded it that way to simply make it clear it happened right as he was leaving the room, hence that the object must’ve been near the door.

[selkie]

Alright, well, that changes everything.

First thing we should straighten out is whether or not it’s possible for the object to be the cause of the cart mishap. When Shannon serves food, does she go straight from the door to Battler? Or does she begin handing out plates starting with Rosa, making her way counterclockwise around the table before reaching Battler? This seems like fair information to ask for without needing a blue wedge.

[Blackrune]

Kinzo was listening in at the door and wrote the letter. The floor had a secret feature that made it possible to subtly tilt it. That way Kinzo could make the letter slide to one side of the table, out of the area of awareness. The table was very polished, making this possible. Then, during a moment nobody paid attention he reached through the door and switched the letter just in front of him. After that he just had to tilt it so the letter would slide back.

[DWaM]

First thing we should straighten out is whether or not it’s possible for the object to be the cause of the cart mishap. When Shannon serves food, does she go straight from the door to Battler? Or does she begin handing out plates starting with Rosa, making her way counterclockwise around the table before reaching Battler? This seems like fair information to ask for without needing a blue wedge.

As the narration states, the cart started at the southwest door. It then went in a straight line and crashed down around Battler’s seat or so. In other words, the cart never went past the main door to the dining room. It was only after the cart mishap that the plates started being handed out.

And the actual order of that happening is irrelevant.

Kinzo was listening in at the door and wrote the letter. The floor had a secret feature that made it possible to subtly tilt it. That way Kinzo could make the letter slide to one side of the table, out of the area of awareness. The table was very polished, making this possible. Then, during a moment nobody paid attention he reached through the door and switched the letter just in front of him. After that he just had to tilt it so the letter would slide back.

A tilting mansion huh. Well, no good, I’m afraid. After all, there’s still distance between the table and the door. And even putting aside the fact that Kinzo stepping into the room and reaching for the letter would be embarrassingly noticable, let’s say that When the dining room door is being opened, everyone in the room at that time is aware of it happening. In other words, Kinzo setting the door ajar and then reaching with his two meter long hands to switch the letter will do you no good here.

[Blackrune]

Gotta give me something better if you want me to stop tilting.
Same thing, except either Shannon or Genji wrote the letter while outside and switched it after having it slide to the edge of the table. Both of them only returned just before the toast. Genji in particular walked back in right after Battler’s game.