Chapter 16:

Email from the Deceased and True Story of Suicide Goroawase

The Quietus Cloud, The Witch Curve, and The Five - A mathematical, historical, and philosophical tale set in a world where the sun is about to end and a cloud covers the entire earth in eternal twilight


It has now entered the end of the day, January 1st at midnight before the change of day. Meanwhile, I am still awake and haven't fallen asleep yet. When my body has collapsed on the high-end bed of the Drei Weltkugeln hotel, my eyes are still open.

Looking up at the ceiling of the room, I saw a hanging lamp. The coffer's shape where the lamp hangs looks like the same as the logo of this hotel. The logo of this hotel is three globes arranged in an equilateral triangle—with an arrangement like the mathematical arrangement of Malfatti circles. The logo follows the name of this hotel, which can be translated as 'Three Globes.'

This hotel provides a variety of room options. The room I booked at this hotel—just like Nanzu's—is a suite. The cheaper room types are already fully booked because today is still a holiday season.

The entire series of events over the past 24 hours—especially after the news of Mr. Warm’s unnatural death—has put pressure on my mental condition. As I talked to Nanzu in the car after our questioning at the police station, we were so tired, not because of physical activity but because of facing something new that we had experienced. After I chatted with Nanzu and the other two members of the Five at Auerbach’s Sky Terrace, my mood did not change.

I thought there was nothing wrong with spending my money on this hotel. I planned to check out at the very last minute of checkout time so I could fully enjoy this hotel. Perhaps my mood would improve after enjoying the expensive items in this room. One of the items that showed the room I booked was an expensive room was the object in my right hand.

At this time, my right hand is still holding a hotel remote. The remote functions to adjust the appearance of the ceiling, walls, and floors of the hotel. There are changes in appearance with two options: lighting settings to create a certain appearance, or changes in appearance with automatic wall molding rolling.

But at that time, I only held the remote—a remote that looks like a mini tablet. I have no intention of changing the view that my eyes will capture and then process in my brain. At this time, my brain is busy with a series of events that have taken place for 24 hours.

About 24 hours ago, I was still in another country. Then I returned to the Federal Republic of Deutschtonia. Arriving in the city where I live and work, Hessestadt, I had time to sleep. Then I jogged in the afternoon to the Raustrat hill. At that time I learned the news of Mr. Warm's death. Then, with the Alleinbahn, I rush to the Bavarian state police headquarters to provide information. Then have supper together at Auerbach's Sky Terrace.

While daydreaming, a voice was heard from my gadget. "Important message! Important message!" The notification from the electronic device made me forced my body to no longer lie on the bed. I immediately moved to reach for my gadget while asking myself, "What important message came in?"

I opened my gadget, an electronic device that I was currently rolling up like a hollow tube. What I witnessed then made me wide-eyed, like a philologist who found ancient parchment containing something surprising.

In the hotel room where I was alone, I spontaneously shouted, “E-mail from Mr. Warm?!”

I didn't read the email directly; at first, I just read it quickly. My eyes caught the writing in the email that the email was sent at 23:22:20, making my hand move to do something. My hand clicked on the three vertical dots icon in the upper right, then selected the menu available after that, namely the <> show original menu.

I opened the original version of the email to check at what hour, minute, and second this email was sent, because in the usual version, the time of sending the email only lists the hour and minute. In the original version of the email, I checked the time stamp listed.

I commented, "This time stamp does say this email was sent at 23:22:20. It seems like this is a scheduled email that will be sent automatically at a certain time."

My brain seemed to immediately choose to focus on the sending time listed in this email. It seems that this is because there was a factor that, a few hours ago, I talked about the Zeppenhigen language's goroawase numbers with Langfelder. I mumbled, “Two, three, two, two, two, zero ....”

It only took me a moment to come up with a goroawase guess. I said to myself, “Two three two, it seems like it could be interpreted as 'jisatsu'. While the next three numbers, two two zero, it seems like it could be interpreted as 'jitsuwa'.”

In the Zeppenhigen language, jisatsu means suicide, while jitsuwa means true story or real story. I soliloquized again, “When combined, jisatsu and jisuwa can be read as ‘suicide true story. Although in Zeppenhigen grammar, there should be a particle ‘no’ to provide context. For these two words to be translated as suicide story, the correct grammar is jisatsu no jitsuwa.”

But I immediately remind myself, “This email is not just about Goroawase guessing!”

My hand immediately scrolled the e-mail to the bottom. There, I saw a digital signature and digital irises. With the application, I made sure that the signs belonged to Mr. Warm. "This is indeed the signature and iris of Mr. Warm, the Joker!" I concluded, half-shouting.

I read the e-mail from Mr. Warm again, this time carefully word by word.

Tis true without lying, certain and most true.

Good evening, Essa Eruhi Schonewolken. This is my message for your eyes only; don't tell anyone. If you tell anyone else, including the police, it will only ruin my plan.

This is my message on the 1.1 at 23:22:20. At the time this message was sent, I was no longer alive. This is a note that will reveal the truth about my death and the key to breaking through the Quietus Cloud.

Sometimes a picture is worth more than a thousand words. This time, a comic panel is worth more than thousands of words and thousands of pixels.

At the bottom of the email, before the signature and digital iris, an illustration appears. The illustration is a picture of a manga-style comic panel showing a magical girl and a watchman who have fallen into a dump. The magical girl wearing a large witch hat appears to be carrying a magic broom in her right hand and a yellowish magic ball in her left hand. Meanwhile, the watchman is seen carrying a sword in his right hand and a shield in his left hand.

The girl's word balloon says, "Watchman, please help me hunt some bits in this dump; crack it before the witching hour ends." While the watchman's word balloon says, "Mahou Shoujo! I know where the bits you are looking for are. They are located in [               ]."

RK Awan
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