novelraw Chapter 11 : Chapter 11
Chapter 11 : Chapter 11
Chapter 11: Why Am I So Good at This?
“In any case, although we lost a bit of time, from this moment on, let us all work together and find the person who killed Meruru!”
After the uproar caused by the “Mysterious Owl-Sneaking Guy” incident, Leia once again declared, in a tone that allowed no objection, that the Witch Trial proceedings were beginning.
At that moment, the girls surrounding the execution platform all felt, to varying degrees, that the situation before them was somehow unreal. Leia’s leadership, however, did manage to make some of them willingly stop trying to analyze their own circumstances and instead focus on the problem in front of them together with her.
And while everyone was still confused and disoriented, Chang Rong hurried to take a look around.
The number one murder suspect, Hiro, simply had no information about the case itself. As for Chang Rong, she had at least spent some time with these girls already—though who knew what Hiro usually even did. Her credibility score was already nearly catching up to his old trash-talking account.
Then again, he had no right to mock Hiro. After all, he had only transmigrated into this damned death-game world less than twenty-four hours ago. He did not even know everyone by name yet.
If he wanted to collect as many “good person” points as possible, then he needed to figure these people out as quickly as he could.
Nikaido Hiro—judging by appearances alone, she seemed like the sort of classically Japanese girl who was easy to approach while still keeping everyone at arm’s length. In reality, she was a righteousness-obsessed lunatic, the kind who could sit at one table with cops in Kengan and at another with kids in GBC, and she liked baring her teeth and hissing at people.
Hasumi Leia—a dashing, princely girl who stood a head taller than him. Apparently, before she landed in prison, she had been a modestly famous idol. She had a flair for performance far beyond ordinary people, but at the same time, she also seemed a little dense. Still, unlike Hiro, hers was a “normal kind of uprightness.”
[Illustration: Hasumi Leia]
Sakuraba Emma—a girl who looked soft and timid, yet seemed far more proactive than expected. She was willing to take the initiative to believe in other people’s kindness, and had even volunteered to come to the infirmary and look after him, a “dangerous stranger.” She and Hiro also seemed to be friends in the middle of a major falling-out. She was so kind that it was suspicious, but every now and then, a strangely dark murderous glint slipped out and made up for that.
[Illustration: Sakuraba Emma]
Noah—full name Johgasaki Noah. At a glance, she looked like a little girl made out of a painter’s palette. Her round little face was adorable, and her hair felt nice to the touch too. Really now, Noah had recognized my overwhelming personal charm at a single glance, so why could that idiot Hiro not get it?
[Illustration: Johgasaki Noah]
Tono Hanna—dressed like a green sunny-doll, no, wait, a green porcelain doll. Her movements were stiff and proper, and she kept inexplicably adding desuwa to her speech. She looked like some sheltered noble young lady. She might make a good next breakthrough point.
[Illustration: Tono Hanna]
Sawatari Coco—not even worth a proper keycap compared with Chu Pingfang. Just like Hiro, I cannot understand why she keeps hissing at me. Back during the voting session in the drawing room, she threw three hisses and one hard charge straight at me and tried to pin the blame on me. But the fact that she jumped in my face so blatantly only proved that she was not anyone important. Just a zako, a pure little loser brat. Small fry, small fry~ Ignore her!
[Illustration: Sawatari Coco]
Tachibana Sherry—the mysterious blue-haired girl who always seemed to spawn bundled together with Tono Hanna. From the hat, the magnifying glass, and the catchphrases, she gave off the feeling of the detective archetype. But this girl was far too cheerful. She practically felt like she belonged to a completely different story from everyone else. Maybe, like the guy next door who watched too many detective shows, she was actually “a blood-soaked killer with severe PTSD who got too deep into detective manga and started thinking she was one.” …Even so, I still need to ask her about my situation.
[Illustration: Tachibana Sherry]
Kurobe Nanoka—someone who looked even more like the detective type than Tachibana Sherry. More importantly, why the hell was this girl still carrying that gun so openly while participating in the Witch Trial!? Warden, would you please look at her? Look at her! Is this really the sort of person who ought to appear in a battle royale scenario? Damn it, the terrifying memory of having a gun pointed at me still has not faded. I had better stay away from her for now… If necessary, I can only bring out the Ripple Dash technique I half learned. (By which I mean, dash.)
[Illustration: Kurobe Nanoka]
Those were the only names he knew. As for the rest, he had no information on them at all. At most, he could make out a sliver of their personalities—“blonde gyaru,” “hooded, masked delinquent,” “purple person who looks like she has absurd stats,” and…
Only after everyone started circling around the trial court did Chang Rong realize that a white-haired, long-haired little girl had been hiding in the corner the whole time. She wore an overly loose blue lace dress. Her right eye was hidden beneath the hair that hung down, while her left eye was only half open, like a student struggling not to fall asleep in class.
Noah had mentioned earlier that she seemed to have hurt “An-An,” and when he had just crawled out of the infirmary, Emma had also seemed to say that both “An-An” and “Margo,” like him, had been carted off there before.
If someone could be injured by a cute little angel like Noah by accident, then that An-An could only be an even frailer bean sprout. There was a ninety percent chance it was this girl.
[Illustration: “An-An”]
Perhaps because the girl herself did not seem to like interacting with too many people, Chang Rong had somehow completely failed to notice her presence at the crime scene and during the great drawing-room battle (?) alike.
From her appearance, she looked like the sort of person who would get fluffy if you made her angry, but considering he already had Noah, it was probably better to leave this one aside for the moment.
After roughly sweeping his gaze over all the prospective witches in this “battle royale,” Chang Rong had also settled on what he would do next.
First, he would gather information from everyone else’s statements and get a full picture of the case. If he found any key point worth questioning, then he would speak up. After all, even if he wanted to help Hiro during the trial, his current credibility score was in the negatives. It would mean nothing. The only thing he could make use of was 【Indisputable Logic】.
The other thing was to find some way, during the Witch Trial, to build a good relationship with that young lady Tono Hanna. He was already acting like the princely lady’s rabid admirer anyway, so becoming the young lady’s probationary butler on top of that hardly mattered. Once your debts were piled high enough, one more was nothing.
Tono Hanna seemed to be very close to Tachibana Sherry. If he could earn her trust, then half the “allies” on the field—Hiro, Emma, Leia, Noah, Hanna, and Sherry—could vouch for him. At the very least, it would stop that mysterious sniper girl from insta-headshotting him the moment he stepped out after the trial… probably.
Having sorted out what he needed to do in this Witch Trial, Chang Rong shook his head hard and focused his attention, preparing himself to face this deadly debate that concerned more than one life.
…That said, why am I so good at this?
Chang Rong still had at least a little self-awareness. Someone who could get completely thrown off by something as simple as deciding whether to solve the big questions or the small questions first on a math exam should not, under circumstances this extreme, be able to analyze the situation this methodically. No matter how he looked at it, it felt like the hand of fate was pushing things along.
Or perhaps he had actually experienced—
“###### ending…”
The faint voice from the Warden perched on his shoulder made Chang Rong freeze on the spot.
Ending?
“#### one ## ending…”
“One” what ending?
For no clear reason at all, a few words surfaced in his mind.
The same ending.
His head began to ache again. Gritting his teeth, Chang Rong endured it and strained his ears, desperately trying to catch more.
And this time, he really did hear it:
“Click the bottom left corner to binge straight to the grand finale. Next episode: Dong Zhuo offers a clever stratagem, Lü Bu Eats Jingzhou…”
—This bastard was slacking off at work and watching short videos…!