M*rder At The Rainy Mansion ~The Never Ending 100 Tales~ Chapter Completed Discussion

This is a story that makes me crave for more even after it ends.

It also made me want to read other stories from this author. Unfortunately, there are none...

Although it's a novel about a haunted mansion, the story itself is not that scary at all. A scaredy cat like me can read it with ease. The ghosts do not always have bad intentions. Actually, the majority of them are kindhearted. Some even want to help humans.

The characters are definitely the heart of this novel, ghost or human - each has their own uniqueness and their story interconnects with one another, as well as the mansion itself. I love how the author slowly allows us to learn about each character and their role in the grand scheme of things. A random character we didn't think has any importance to the plot turns out to be the key to the whole mystery. And in the end, you will distinctively remember each and every one of them.

The story began when the grandpa aka the owner of the mansion died, leaving behind a will that the last person living in this haunted mansion will inherit everything. And so the culling game begins...

The protagonist - Ayano - considers herself an outsider who has no connection to the family. But she's actually the heart of this place. Everyone has a connection to her and she takes care of the mansion, the people, and the dead in this place. She's quite an intelligent person and acts as the detective in each case as she knows everything about everyone here.

I quite like her eccentric character. She is written strange and indeed acts strange. She has strong spiritual energy and isn't afraid of ghosts... well most of them. If the author ever writes more about this mansion, I hope to see her come back and solve future mysteries.

For those who are curious about the mysteries but do not dare reading it, here are some spoilers for you.

Spoiler

Ayano - the protagonist is a young woman whom everyone thought is an illegitimate daughter of the deceased head of the Sudo family. But the truth is she is his granddaughter. Her mother, one of the biggest mysteries in this story, came to the mansion because she was in love with the heir - Akito - but later became infatuated with another spirit living in the mansion. She had an affair with several men to irk that spirit which is why everyone wonders who Ayano's father really is.

The funny thing is, even though the story began because the grandpa passed away, his spirit still remains at the mansion and messed with everyone. I think he's a funny old man.

The Sudo men have a tendency to be obsessed with love but unable to express it the right way. Their love is toxic. Meanwhile, the women often seek love from their husband by messing around with other men. So none of them have a good ending.

Starting with the great-grandfather generation.

The great-grandpa married the love of his life, but he has no confidence and so leaving his wife doubting if he ever loved her to the point she became a vengeful spirit. He himself became a toilet ghost as he often ran away and read in the toilet whenever his wife looked for him. As a spirit, he was kind of in a relationship with Ayano's mom and got obsessed to the point he tried to kill her so she won't be with other men.

Skip to the father generation. Akito and Ayano were a couple but he chose his family over her and got into an arranged marriage. But he couldn't forget her and still entangled her while she was in love with the spirit of the great-grandpa. She was even happy when he tried to kill her, but Akito saved her. Then his wife found out so he killed his wife and made Ayano change her identity and replace his wife. His wife also became a vengeful spirit living in the storeroom.

Takato - the ML... if we could call him that. He's the heir to the mansion and the son of Akito. He's in love with Ayano but knowing she might be related to him, he decided to enter political marriage set up by the grandpa.

We later learned that his living spirit has been stalking Ayano and in the end, he killed his fiance so he could return to the mansion and be with Ayano despite knowing they're siblings, thus repeating the cycle of his parent's generation.

I personally like Shun - a cousin of Ayano and Takato. He couldn't see any spirits so he has this by-the-book fearless character. Ayano even admits she likes this type of guy. Their relationship also grows the most in the book. It is implied that Ayano will marry Shun, but then Takato came back with the spirit of his dead fiance haunting him.

The policemen were quite the characters too. The older guy can see the dead while the younger guy can only see living spirits i.e. spirits of people who are still alive but just venture out of their bodies. This became a great plot device to deduct who's who later.

The main plot of the story is what's inside the storeroom which everyone seems to be scared of.

There are two layers to this mystery. First is the incident when great-grandpa tried to kill Ayano's mom but Akito came back to save her and ended up killing his wife instead. This turned his wife into a vengeful spirit inside the storeroom.

The second is the curse the great-grandma put on Ayano because she was angry at Ayano's mom that messes with both her husband and her grandson. But she's also the one who protects them by locking the vengeful spirit inside the storeroom, thus keeping everyone in the mansion safe.

Although by the end, the main plot got resolved, there are still quite a few mysteries here and there that were left unresolved. I guess it's up to the author if they want to explore further.

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