novelraw Chapter 12 : Chapter 12
Chapter 12 : Chapter 12
Chapter 12: Your Little Clique Left Me Out!
A note before we begin:
Because there are a lot of people speaking during the trial section, the dialogue will sometimes use a [Name] + line format. Otherwise it gets too easy to mix up who is saying what.
(The protagonist’s inner thoughts, meanwhile, will be marked with parentheses.)
That said, with my level of intelligence, there is actually no way I can write a proper serious deduction debate. I’m just going to muddle through it and push the plot along.
So if it feels ridiculous, please just pinch your nose and bear with it.
Just assume the protagonist turned on his Radiant Eyes.
Turned on his Radiant Eyes.
I came here to be a master prankster in this damned death-game setting, not to be Chen Butang.
———Questioning Begins———
【Sawatari Coco】: I mean... even if you call this a discussion, there is really nothing to discuss, right? That girl was caught red-handed. The criminal and the evidence were all right there!
【Hasumi Leia】: Even so, we still have to discuss it properly. Isn’t there a saying that puts it well? Three ordinary idols can equal one me.
(Pretending to be her crazed fan earlier was definitely the right move, but it looked like I might have inflated this girl’s ego a little too much. She was already starting to joke around like some kind of combined Mega-Leia...)
【“Blonde Gyaru”】: U-Um, if we decide that now... wouldn’t that be a little too hasty? It is not like we can say for sure that Little Hiro is the killer, right?
(Although her clothes were the most aggressive out of everyone here, this girl seemed to have been playing the peacemaker the whole time. Maybe her “vote” would be surprisingly easy to win?)
【Hasumi Leia】: Exactly, Milia. And even if Hiro is the killer, we at least need to figure out what actually happened.
(Milia, huh? Not only did her personality not match her appearance, even her name sounded absurdly wholesome. Anyway, better remember it for now.)
【Tachibana Sherry】: Yup, yup! Exactly right! In that case, allow me, the great detective Sherry-chan, to analyze and organize the full chain of events in this case for everyone~!!
(This girl is absolutely not the detective archetype. Going by the script, the first person to offer testimony either gets obliterated as cannon fodder or gets hauled to the witness stand and sent off to stomp the sewing machine. More importantly, what was Hiro doing?)
【Nikaido Hiro】: ......
(She was hissing in her usual natural way while thinking about something.)
【Tachibana Sherry】: Ahem! Heh heh heh~ The victim in this case was Hikami Meruru. The culprit was truly vicious! With one strike, they perfectly took out our only healer! If someone gets their throat cut in the future, won’t there be nobody left to heal them!?
【Tono Hanna】: Even Meruru would not be able to heal an injury like that, desuwa!
【Nikaido Hiro】: Ugh...
(Why did such a lame joke suddenly make Hiro shiver?)
【Hasumi Leia】: Let me explain instead. Hikami Meruru’s body was discovered in Noah and An-An’s room. At the time, the whole scene had been covered in Noah’s white spray paint, and thanks to that, checking the footprints was easy. And the conclusion was equally obvious—
【Nikaido Hiro】: There were only my footprints and Hikami Meruru’s.
【Hasumi Leia】: Precisely. The crime scene photos have already been sent to everyone. You can all check them in the group chat yourselves. Next, regarding the murder weapon: as shown in the image, this strangely shaped ruby sword was covered in Meruru’s blood. Meruru’s cause of death was repeated stab wounds through the chest inflicted by this very sword. Do you have anything to say about that, Hiro?
(Hang on... huh? What images? What group chat?)
【Nikaido Hiro】: I have never seen that thing before.
【Hasumi Leia】: Such a decisive denial. Though perhaps, under the circumstances, that really is the optimal answer. Next, the condition of the corpse... I know this is cruel, but in order to prevent another victim, and in order to find Meruru’s killer for her sake, please try to suppress your fear and see whether you can spot anything in the corpse photos that I may have missed.
(Hang on a second—)
【Hasumi Leia】: However— ahem. I actually already conducted a slight examination of the body beforehand. Judging by the state of the corpse, the time of death should have been roughly twenty to sixty minutes before the point when we found it. It was only a rough inspection without any instruments, of course, but I can say with confidence that the odds of the body having been dead for over an hour are very low.
【Nikaido Hiro】: ......You examined the body? You did that?
【Hasumi Leia】: Heh. It was just a few superficial tricks I copied for the sake of performing stage roles better in the past. Nothing worth boasting about. Not worth boasting about at all, okay?
(My phone, my phone— tch, do not look at me with those “I did something good, praise me, Master” eyes at a time like this. What are you, the golden retriever from the band anime set next door!?)
【Chang Rong】: As expected of Leia-sama!
That spirit of dedicating yourself to your craft and continuously refining your performance is a gulf those shallow idols could never cross in a lifetime!
【Hasumi Leia】: O-Oh-ho...
I’m not that amazing.
【Nikaido Hiro】: (...These two are hopeless in every possible sense.)
(My phone— found it. The “PrisonSpace” chat app— damn it, I knew it, I am not even in their group chat. Your little clique is isolating me!)
When he had first entered the trial chamber, Chang Rong had actually felt a little emotional.
Emotional because reality and games really were fundamentally different.
For example, this kind of courtroom sequence always had an indispensable “Evidence and Witness List” menu in games. But in reality, he had not seen anything like that anywhere, and thinking about it, of course he would not.
But the moment Leia said, “You can check the images yourselves,” Chang Rong realized something was off. And everything she said afterward more or less confirmed one thing: they really did have some sort of 【Evidence and Witness List】, and it was inside their phones.
After muddling through Leia’s expectant gaze, Chang Rong immediately pulled the phone out of his pocket to check. However, there were no group chats at all inside the “PrisonSpace” app on this phone. Instead, there were only two private chat logs.
“Warden, um, could you maybe add me to the group? You should have authority for that or something, right?”
“All one saw was that City Superman, Super-Homelander, blasting out a super wave—” A broken, intermittent voice was still dribbling out from some part of the Warden’s body.
This damned bird was still slacking off!
He had no idea whether the cache had been cleared or the phone itself had frozen, but both those chat logs had completely blank avatars and IDs. Only the messages remained.
He opened the first one—
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I want so badly to see that child. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I can’t keep my promise.”
Just staring at the words alone made an indescribable discomfort spread through him. Chang Rong hurriedly closed it and opened the second log.
The second log—
“I’m willing to, but I’m sorry. I can’t keep my promise.”
A promise again... A promise?
Had the original owner of this body promised something before?
Come to think of it, I feel like I promised something too, did I not? Hm... I cannot remember.
If I cannot remember it, then forget it. Nine times out of ten it was probably some stale nonsense like “I promised to bring food for a friend and ended up bringing only chopsticks,” “I washed my clothes and forgot to take them out so mushrooms grew in the washing machine,” or “there was an exam tomorrow, but I spent the whole night playing VALORANT and calling everyone Mom instead of studying.” Better deal with this Witch Trial first.
What was I supposed to do just now? Oh, right, join the group and check the evidence... Forget it. That stupid bird of a Warden had gotten so dumb from slacking off that it did not look remotely capable of helping. And if I suddenly turned to the others at a moment like this and said, “Please add me to the group chat, thank you nya, I’ll post lots of lewd pictures as repayment nya,” they would probably just take me for an idiot.
This body apparently had pretty high intelligence stats. I might as well analyze things directly from their testimony.
Once that thought occurred to him, Chang Rong stopped dwelling on the “your little clique didn’t invite me” matter and prepared to fight shoulder to shoulder with Hiro, pull off a top-secret prison, zero-evidence, knife-only witch kill, and dine in style.
Then he looked toward the speaking stand—
【Nikaido Hiro】: There is one more person without an alibi, is there not? Sakuraba Emma. That would be you!
【Sakuraba Emma】: Eek!?
【Nikaido Hiro】: In order to kill Meruru, you went so far as to use me as the fall girl, did you...?
【Sakuraba Emma】: N-No, that’s not true! I did not do that...!!
The sight of Nikaido Hiro and Sakuraba Emma suddenly accusing each other made Chang Rong wonder whether he had somehow skipped an entire first playthrough.
(While I was checking my phone... did I maybe miss a tiny little bit of irrelevant, completely unimportant, padding-filled discussion— my ass I did!)
“Um... uh, sorry to interrupt, but could you repeat the testimony from earlier a little?”
At this point, Chang Rong had no choice but to steel himself and raise his hand.
“Oh, of course, no problem, Chang Rong. What part are you confused about?” Leia replied with the utmost enthusiasm, smiling as she brushed back her hair.
“Could you start from... 【Even so, we still have to discuss it properly】...?”
“Isn’t that practically from the very start of the Witch Trial!? You bastard, so you really are the mastermind! Are you trying to drag things out like this until we all get executed? Are you screwing with me, asshole!?” The hooded white-haired delinquent had veins bulging on her forehead.
“What the hell is this guy even talking about??” This time, even Keycap Coco’s Uchiha-style hissing was completely understandable.
“C-Could it be that Gorilla Girl and I really did release the mastermind? I-I am a sinner, desuwa...”
“It’s okay, Hanna-chan. Even if you get nailed to the pillar of shame as a sinner, I’ll stay right there with you~~”
The Tono Hanna whom he had been planning to win over now wore the expression of some champion of justice after the Holy Grail had exploded, while Tachibana Sherry beside her cheerfully added the finishing blow in the name of justice.
As for the rest of the girls, every single one of them had their suspicion of Chang Rong go UP UP.
The facts had proven that games and reality really were completely different.
At the very least, in reality, nobody would patiently reread testimony word for word over and over again, then stand there and watch while the other side pulled out a lawyer’s badge and exhaustively cross-checked every single statement one by one.