"...What on earth are you thinking?!"
Kaguya couldn't help but shout. The girl's hopeless nature once again took the upper hand. "No matter how you think about it, it should be blood—not that kind of thing!"
"The human body produces many different kinds of fluids." Natsuki presented his case with perfect logic. "I think this is entirely feasible."
Using Chika's own words as justification: that kind of thing could be drunk in a survival emergency. Right now they were simply using it to fill a bottle. Completely unproblematic.
Natsuki placed his right hand on his belt and spoke with a perfectly straight face:
"I've actually been curious for a while whether you can take your clothes off in the game. This is the perfect opportunity to test it out."
"Human, what on earth is going on inside your head?!" The wooden butler had heard enough. It came bustling forward, indignant. "Don't touch my bottle!"
Natsuki looked down at it: "Then what if I dirty you?"
"...What?"
The wooden butler looked up in surprise.
The next moment.
Natsuki simply reached out and grabbed the wooden butler's body with one hand.
"Useless human." The wooden butler didn't seem the least bit concerned. "Inside this castle, I can—wait. What's happening to my body?"
The wooden butler was stunned to discover its body had completely lost the ability to move.
A smile played across Natsuki's face: "Zhang San. Caught you."
Back in the hall earlier, Chika had renamed the wooden butler to Zhang San. As long as the target hadn't been switched, the renaming effect persisted.
So Natsuki could seize the wooden butler with one hundred percent certainty.
"This guest, even if you've captured me, it's no use." The wooden butler quickly regained its composure. "I am merely a puppet. I don't possess human senses. Pain means nothing to me."
Natsuki nodded in understanding:
"Then I have no intention of torturing Mr. Billy for information."
"Wait." The wooden butler's yellow wooden eyeballs clicked and spun in surprise. "How do you know my name?"
The prompt before Natsuki's eyes was exceptionally clear.
[As a puppet, Mr. Butler absolutely despises being told someone is "messing with Billy," because that is in fact his name]
[Maintaining cleanliness and tidiness, and presenting a proper appearance, are the most basic qualities of any puppet. Mr. Billy cannot tolerate any stain soiling his clothes]
[Having OCD is not a disorder!]
After reading the prompt, Natsuki understood immediately. The puppet Billy was, in fact, a cleanliness obsessive.
Enjoying cleanliness wasn't strange in itself—raccoons washed their hands all day long, after all. A puppet having OCD was entirely within the realm of reason.
"Mr. Billy, you've been wearing gloves this entire time. It's because you don't want to get your hands dirty, isn't it?" Natsuki said.
"Human, what are you planning to do?"
"Very simple." Natsuki produced a marker pen—the kind guaranteed to write a perfect tally mark in a single pass—and gave the tabletop a casual flick. A flawless 正 leapt onto the surface. "The ink from this kind of oil-based marker is very difficult to wipe off. Would Mr. Billy like to give it a try?"
"Human, this sort of trick won't work on me." The wooden butler's voice was low and firm.
"Then I'm writing on you now."
Natsuki yanked the white gloves off the wooden butler's hands. Pale yellow wooden fingers were exposed to the open air.
As the marker pen drew ever closer, the wooden butler's eyeballs spun frantically back and forth—until at last, unable to bear it any longer, it spoke up in surrender:
"Human, you win. Get that pen away from my hands!"
Natsuki shrugged and pocketed the marker pen. "A shame Mr. Billy doesn't have any hair. Otherwise I'd have loved to part it right down the middle."
Tucking the wooden butler under his arm, Natsuki brought it over to the cage and asked: "Where's the key to open the cage, Mr. Butler?"
"Actually, no key is needed." The wooden butler's voice was low. "You have been able to open it this entire time."
Natsuki: "Explain."
"I'm afraid I can only say this much. Those are the rules." The wooden butler said. "Please examine the iron cage closely, esteemed guests."
"What do you mean?"
Kaguya's dark brows pinched together as she studied the cage that imprisoned her—the freezing cold steel, the firmly locked opening. For the life of her, she couldn't see how it could possibly be opened at will.
Natsuki was examining it just as carefully when suddenly the corner of his eye twitched: "...I think I've figured out how to open it."
"How do I get out?"
Kaguya couldn't help but look up at him, her expression bewildered. She still hadn't spotted the way out.
"The method really is simple—it doesn't even require a key." Natsuki spoke as he reached out, gripped the cage, and heaved it upward with both hands. The cage, which had been sitting inverted on the ground like an upside-down box, was lifted clean off the floor.
"It's not even that heavy." Natsuki looked down at the ice queen. "You can come out now."
Kaguya: "..."
The cage had only five sides. Like a box turned upside down and set on the ground—one push upward and you were free. Absurdly simple. No key needed whatsoever.
The humiliated girl puffed out her cheeks, her pride wounded beyond all repair. Embarrassing. So embarrassing. Embarrassing. Embarrassing!
Something this obvious—why hadn't she figured it out?!
Kaguya bit her lower lip and silently crawled out from beneath the cage.
"Try the keys." Natsuki handed her the string of keys from before.
To prevent the fallen slave princess from escaping, beyond the cage itself, Kaguya's hands were still shackled together by iron chains, and the strange collar remained fastened around her neck. All of it needed to come off.
The humiliated girl silently accepted the keys and tried them one after another from start to finish. Very quickly, she reported:
"No luck. They won't open."
Natsuki turned to the wooden butler. "Mr. Butler, how do we open the handcuffs?"
"Opening the handcuffs doesn't require a key either." The wooden butler's eyeballs rotated. "In fact, the string of keys on the table was placed there solely to add a bit of... entertainment."
Deliberately setting keys in such an obvious spot—dangling hope before someone, only to crush it—this was clearly meant to be a cruel little joke!
Natsuki: "Then what's the method for unlocking them?"
The wooden butler offered a hint:
"When the forest ends at the water's source, there lies a mountain. The mountain has a small opening, faint as though a light shines through. He abandoned his boat and entered through the mouth. At first it was extremely narrow, barely wide enough for a person. After walking several dozen more steps, it suddenly opened into a vast expanse."
"Oh? The Tale of Peach Blossom Land?"
Kaguya was well-read. Of course she'd encountered this classic text.
Natsuki's expression was flat: "Speak plainly."
"Very simple." The wooden butler said. "When you humans find yourselves unable to successfully enter or exit due to narrowness and dryness, what do you usually do?"
Natsuki silently produced the marker pen: "Do you know just how dangerous it is to tell dirty jokes?"
"The virtuous see virtue; the dirty-minded see filth. Human, the dirty-minded one here is clearly you."
Kaguya's dark brows furrowed in genuine confusion. She couldn't make heads or tails of what the two of them were saying to each other. The girl's level of innocence was still lower than that of an elementary schooler.
Natsuki: "Mr. Butler, I'll give you one more chance to choose your words carefully."
The wooden butler's tone shifted to weary resignation: "Please recall Newton's First Law, esteemed guests."
"The First Law... the law of inertia." Kaguya suddenly understood, her eyes widening. "Friction?"
"Reduce the friction between the handcuffs and her hands?"
Natsuki looked at the girl's snow-white, slender wrists. He understood Mr. Billy's hint just as well. His gaze quickly landed on the glass bottle sitting on the table.
"So the liquid inside this bottle isn't water at all, but... hand sanitizer?"