Alright, forgive me for not responding in song.

Honestly my first solution seems a bit too easy, and at odds with the plot but I figure I would try it first to get it out of the way.

Jessica is the culprit.

The first twlight the culprit pretended to find a key on one of the corpses. Alternatively they could have just hid inside Kanon's room at first until Gohda unlocked the door.

The second twilight, Rudolf and Kyrie were both shot and the knives used to mask the wounds. Using the tools in the basement the now much lighter kitchen island could easily be dragged via rope from the interior door. It was then locked via master key. In Jessica's case she left through the window of her room while seperated. Classic alibi trick.

The final murders all seem fairly barren, so let's just say the chains were set from the outside using said tools in the basement and then locked with the master key.

As for how they got there, Kinzo's study has a hidden passage as hinted by the mirror that connects to the guesthouse.

Finally as for good measure, The culprit inherited Kinzo's title which is why Genji whispered that during a mystery scene.

>>21353

Rudolf and Kyrie were not shot.

Jessica could not escape her room via her window without getting drenched, muddy, and possibly sustaining injuries, due to being a second story drop into a storm. She did not escape via her window.

The chain lock on Eva's room at least was set by hand.

>>21354
Hmm, I suppose Eva's room is the only real issue then. There isn't much info, unless something weird like a trap was used. Think I will have to shotgun.

A wire was set up to both strangle eva and set the window lock at the same time by pulling from the outside. The wire used snapped back into place and into the closet afterwards.

Seems like the windows were never checked actually, so perhaps it just wasn't locked.

Alternatively Eva comitted suicide after hideyoshi was killed and the culprit told them George was dead.

The chain was set by hand, but from the ouside. ;)


As for Jessica getting out of her room, During the blackout she was able to sneak by the group outside. Alternatively perhaps the passageways connect to her room as well, or its one of those rooms with another interior door to a separate room. Wouldn't put it past Kinzo.

>>21355

All windows had to be locked from the inside.

All windows in the guest rooms were locked.

Eva did not commit suicide.

Although it was dark, there was a group outside Jessica's door during the blackout. She could not have snuck out through the door.

No secret passages connect to Jessica's room.

>>21356
Hmm, I may have to try another culprit if this doesn't work.

Kanon actually faked his death and hid inside Eva's room after locking it from the inside.

A trap in the closet was set up and Eva locked the room herself.

Jessica stayed in her room and allowed Kanon to handle the second twilight.

>>21357

No one was hiding in Eva's room once the door was locked.

There was no trap in the closet.

There is only one culprit for all epitaph deaths. The culprit is the one who kills.

>>21358
Alright change of plans. In order to make theory making easier I will switch my culprit theory for now. Purely based on the fact Krauss was in the basement and could have caused the power outage more easily let's go with him. The howdunits are the same as Jessica for the most part since only Eva's is still remaining with Krauss as a culprit.

The window in Eva's room was set from the inside, but still via the wire theory.

The trap wasn't in the closet but was in the room.

Eva was already strangled by the culprit and escaped into her room, but died after hiding in the closet.

>>21359

The only way to lock a window is by hand from the inside.

There was no trap in Eva's room.

Eva was hanging within the closet. Hanging herself would be considered suicide.

You also have not explained how Kyrie and Rudolf were killed if they weren't shot.

Rudolf and Kyrie were awake, alive, and unbound in the kitchen when they entered it during the blackout. They were on high alert and would have tried to shoot anyone who came in.

>>21360
Running out of loopholes. Must have missed something. Maybe the fantasy scenes...?
Eva was strangled with the wire and then the culprit planned to hang them up, but as they were working on it Eva had yet to actually die, and tried to lock the door while the culprit stepped out. She set the chain herself. Unfortunately the culprit still had the wire around her neck which was already set around coat bar and all they had to do was pull to finish her off and thus forcing her into the closet.

As for the 2nd, Someone was already in the room and stabbed them from within the darkness. I mean since you gave the red so I suppose there was some sort of weird circumstances at least that is suppose to be part of the trick.

How about this, let's just go full Battler now.
While Eva's room didn't have traps, the kitchen did. There was a trap made to launch the knifes and they were stabbed by this, or I suppose any other damage would have been fine to knock them out or at least give a window for the culprit to kill. Small knives? Big knives? Whatever you desire. The culprit could set up the room afterwards or maybe it wasn't needed.

>>21361

Eva did not set the chain lock herself.

When Rudolf and Kyrie entered the kitchen, they were the only two there.

There was no trap mechanism in the kitchen.

>>21362
Going back to Jessica theory,

Kanon distracted Rudolf and Kyrie from the interior door while Jessica entered and stabbed Kyrie. This made Rudolf react and gave Kanon a chance to knock him out or whathave you. Afterwards they stabbed the bodies more and locked the doors.

The culprit broke the chain to enter Eva's room. It was then replaced by hand but because of how it was fixed you can now, or at least it was, set from the outside.

"She did not escape via her window." Assuming Jessica took a different name, then "Jessica" didn't leave the room this way but someone else did. Everything in the basement would have made easy escape from the second floor if prepared beforehand.

>>21363
The culprit had no knowing accomplice.

The culprit did not break the chain lock of Eva's room.

Jessica is not the culprit.

>>21364
Alright, going back to Krauss then for now. I will list the full theory again so far for easy reference.

For the first twilight the culprit can simply pretend to find a key on a corpse.

For the second, the culprit tampered with the guns so they didn't actually work, or they loaded blanks into them and nobody checked. This would allow Kyrie and Rudolf to be caught off guard. Using the tools in the basement the now much lighter kitchen island could easily be dragged via rope from the interior door. It was then locked via master key.

Eva's room doesn't function like we are led to assume. Some part of the room or the locks already didn't function properly and George just never noticed. Like the chain being longer or the windows not functional even when locked. Alternatively, same idea, but the culprit changed it/broke it in order to set up the room.

Hideyoshi's room the chains were set from the outside using said tools in the basement and then locked with the master key.

The culprit used a secret passage hinted via Kinzo's mirrors to escape the guesthouse and attack the others.

>>21365

The End:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EuFDELSKR3H02ZTGvY4Y4T7SjWmjeeLj/view?usp=sharing
...or so it seemed. Beatrice was the last alive. Beatrice was not the culprit. Who is Beatrice, and how did they survive?

>>21366
Well I guess I'll just go with my gut.

"Beatrice" of this game is Jessica. She had planned to play as the witch to cause a disturbance and in turn get disinherited, and or maybe actually found the gold. Either way the culprit decided to use the witch's legend instead to frame the murders, thus becoming the new Beatrice. She was spared because, either due to the culprit's relation to her, and or because Jessica had the only other active gun.

>>21367

Jessica and the culprit did indeed kill each other. Beatrice was left alive. Jessica was not Beatrice.

Assuming something happens to the others in the questhouse after what we have seen...

Kanon was the only body checked by the culprit. Kanon didn't actually die but faked his death. Having done this escape would have been easy assuming they knew about the gold passages.

>>21370

You're partly right. However, Kanon is also Shannon. How?

>>21371
Nobody checked Kanon after the door was locked, so they could have pretend to be dead as Shannon later as well. Shannon didn't have a visable wound, just dried blood.

>>21372
Correct.

Sayo, otherwise known as Kanon/Shannon/Beatrice, was planning on pressuring folks into solving the riddle of the epitaph that night. To that end, one room and three doors were indeed prepared, though only Eva's chain lock preparation ended up being used by the culprit. Jessica, meanwhile, spoke to Kanon, and together they hatched a plan to fake murders as the Golden Witch, Beatrice.
Jessica wrote the letter found at dinner, and Kanon placed it. However, once real murders started happening, Jessica obviously didn't follow through with her plan.

Krauss, his mind finally snapping under the strain, began his rampage. He started with the wife who he felt constantly belittled him, as well as the servants who knew the secret of Kinzo's death. He shot Shannon in the chest, but due to her disguise allowing her extra protection, as well as a great deal of luck, she only sustained some broken ribs and non-lethal bleeding. While Krauss was inspecting the bodies, Shannon slipped off her maid outfit to become Kanon and hide, dropping his hat in the process. Krauss discovered this, but didn't notice that Shannon's body, which would have been slightly covered by the open door, was now a pile of clothes. Krauss chased down Kanon and strangled him. However, falling victim to one of the classic misconceptions, he only strangled the boy to unconsciousness, then took his key. After Krauss had left, Kanon regained consciousness and debated what to do.
Krauss painted sigils on the doors and made the other guns nonfunctional. (Fun fact, in my head they were music symbols, but I could never find good bloody-looking music symbols and I didn't want to try to make them).

In the morning Kanon made a gamble and faked being dead, and luckily Krauss was expecting it of him and didn't truly investigate. Krauss faked finding Kanon's key on him, not knowing the boy also had Shannon's key. Gohda went to get the others, and Krauss went to the basement, which allowed Kanon time to leave, lock the door behind him, and get into the parlor and get Shannon's outfit on again. The parlor was discovered by the rest, and while Shannon debated calling out Krauss for having lied about the key, in the dark she hadn't been sure who the murderer was or if they had accomplices, so she resolved to try to find out first.

For the second Twilight, Rudolf turned out the lights. He knocked out Eva and tried to knock out Krauss, then went to the kitchen. Kyrie knocked out Rosa and Hideyoshi, and went there to meet him. They had resolved to hole themselves up in there, safe. However, Krauss with his boxing training could take a hit better than the rest, and saw Rudolf leave. Thinking quickly, he grabbed a tarp and made it into the kitchen before they could lock the door. They tried to fire their guns, but as Krauss had disabled them before passing them out, nothing happened, and Krauss stabbed them, using the tarp to shield himself from the blood. He opened the outer door to let the bloody tarp get blown away by the wind, and used some wire he found in the basement to pull a lightened table over through the crack of the inside door to block it. He kept the wire handy.

For the fourth twilight, Kinzo was always dead, and Krauss had the key to the study at that point, so he let himself in and painted a sigil on the mirror. It was an actual truth, as the mirror was a door to a secret passage to the guest house library (which he knew of, as he had been the one involved in making the guest house), and Kinzo's corpse was hidden in it. Sayo had been lost in the dark like everyone else.

For the next three, Krauss snuck back to the mansion through that secret passage. Hideyoshi was resting in the VIP room, near-unconscious from the concussion. He waited until Eva left him to get something (which she had to unlock the door to do) before getting in and killing him. He then used the length of wire from before, bending the end into a loop, to set the chain lock from outside. He then hurried to Eva's room, surprising her and using the wire as a garrote to strangle her before she could shoot. He hung her in the closet. He was going to leave the chain lock undone, until he realized this room's lock was strangely longer (thanks to Beatrice's separate preparations.) Gohda was by himself and short work was made of him. Once everything was set, Krauss returned to the guest house called George from a different phone, and put on a reasonable-enough impersonation of Hideyoshi that George rushed off to find the bodies. Sayo had not approached the three because she had no evidence and they were likely to shoot anyone they weren't expecting. Afterwards Sayo was certain Krauss was the only culprit, but needed a plan to take him down.

Eighth twilight Krauss snuck back through the passage and shot George in the head, then returned to the guest house. It all happened too fast for Shannon to intervene, and she wasn't going to be able to take an armed Krauss on her own, so she hid again.

Krauss returned to the guest house, and Jessica stormed off. This was good, and gave him the chance to pick off the remainder one at a time by surprise.

In the mansion, Sayo met up with Jessica as Kanon and explained it all. By the time he had gotten her to believe him, Krauss had arrived. They confronted him about his actions. Krauss, insane, defended it, and went to shoot Kanon. Jessica dove in the way, taking a couple shots, before flying into a rage and beating her father to death. Kanon held her as she died. Sayo then contemplated all that had occurred, the truth of all the evil, and allowed the bomb to go off.

Epilogue:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QBF6TT6ciwK9qgzm7qVVRX8k5kc0OYiS/view?usp=sharing