novelraw Chapter 13 : Chapter 13
Chapter 13 : Chapter 13
Chapter 13: What Kind of Galgame Uses a Seesaw for Affection Levels?
To skip the preliminaries—
Chang Rong had grown so skilled at skipping the preliminaries that he had accidentally skipped a little too much.
【Nikaido Hiro】: If Hasumi Leia’s autopsy report can be accepted as an “anchor,” then during the thirty minutes between Meruru’s death and the discovery of the body, you had no alibi either—just like me!
【Sakuraba Emma】: N-No, that’s not true...! At the time, I was taking care of Chang Rong-kun. Meruru suddenly said she had something to handle before that, so I...
【Nikaido Hiro】: Are you the kind of stupid dog that starts yelping in a panic the moment someone questions it a little? You were the one who personally said, “The murder happened right after Chang Rong woke up.” Nobody cares why you went to the infirmary, but everybody knows that “looking after a patient in the infirmary” cannot count as your alibi, because that guy Chang Rong was still unconscious right up until the body was discovered!
【Sakuraba Emma】: Kiang!?
(No, wait, why was everyone busy clowning around and dragging things off track at the start of the trial, but the second I zoned out for a bit, you had already finished sorting out the alibis? Are you people my high school math teacher or something, specifically choosing the exact moment I fall asleep to start speedrunning the key material!?)
Chang Rong was left utterly baffled by the sight of Hiro and Emma hissing at each other. His two wings—false testimony, in other words—had somehow knotted themselves together the moment he took his eyes off them. What kind of nonsense was this?
—Then again, Emma’s little flustered noises really were delicious, huff huff... What the hell am I thinking!? This pink-haired girl... I cannot underestimate her. She is absolutely not as harmless as she looks! Could Sakuraba Emma’s magic actually be something like 【Charm】 or the like?
Even though he still did not fully understand what was going on, Chang Rong more or less grasped the current state of the Witch Trial.
—Most likely, everyone had failed to find any contradictions in the murder weapon or the crime scene, so they had switched to discussing alibis instead. And Hissy Hiro, unsurprisingly, had still failed to escape the suspect list. It was just that Hiro seemed to have managed, by some means, to drag Emma down into it as well.
Sigh... I will never find besties like these again... No, no, this is not the time to worry about what exactly the relationship between these two is.
Though it looked like Hiro had pulled Emma into the water, the real situation was not nearly that simple.
Chang Rong secretly glanced around at the other girls in the witness seats. Most of their faces were twisted with confusion and uncertainty, because now there was one more suspect.
But there were a few exceptions.
Hasumi Leia—she had struck a very cool, thoughtful pose, but this girl definitely was not thinking about anything at all.
Kurobe Nanoka—wah wah wah, sh-she is still glaring at me...! I-I need to get a few more good person cards to save my life...!
And then there was the one who concerned Chang Rong the most: that strong-looking purple girl whose name he still had not figured out, and who looked as though she could switch between two forms.
[Illustration: strong-looking purple girl]
When she heard Hiro’s rebuttal, she did not show the same conflicted confusion as the others. Instead, she watched Hiro with an amused smile.
That expression practically said: Oh my, how cute. But this level of effort is not going to accomplish anything, you know?
...Well, that was probably the feeling, anyway. For some reason, Chang Rong just felt that this purple girl had the makings of a terrifying yuri ringmaster.
In truth, Chang Rong had also noticed that although Hiro currently looked calm and even aggressive, cold sweat was practically about to drip from her forehead.
Dragging Sakuraba Emma down into the mire could indeed spread out the suspicion for the time being, but at the same time, it would also cause the discussion to grind to a halt.
And once the discussion stalled, everyone would be forced to choose between only two options:
Hiro or Emma, one of whom would be selected as the witch and executed.
And in that case, the answer was obvious. Hiro, who had appeared at the crime scene, was clearly more suspicious.
She would still be executed. It was merely a matter of buying herself a little more time.
Chang Rong, Hiro herself, and that kimono-clad girl with the purple butterfly ornament all understood this.
The only possible reversal would be if “Sakuraba Emma really is a bad girl, and secretly committed the crime under the pretext of taking care of Chang Rong.” But it seemed that even Hiro herself did not really believe that. Honestly, he could not make heads or tails of whether those two were on good terms or bad.
—Of course, I do not think Sakuraba Emma is the killer either. Even if I do feel like Emma has huge pink-on-the-outside, black-on-the-inside potential, when I woke up, I remember she seemed to be reading slips of paper while fiddling with bottles. It looked like she was sorting and organizing medicine.
Judging by the amount of work, it probably was not the kind of thing she could finish in just a few minutes. And when I opened my eyes, she happened to be right beside me. So analyzing it from the angle of “she stayed in the infirmary the whole time” makes more sense.
For a moment, the discussion on the floor fell into a deadlock. Hiro could not firmly pin the suspicion on Emma, but Emma also could not produce a more detailed alibi. Only time continued to pass mercilessly.
Just as everyone was starting to feel somewhat lost, the doll-like young lady in the green lace dress with twin tails suddenly raised her hand.
【Tono Hanna】: O-Oh, right! I just remembered—Meruru seemed to have called me earlier!
【“Hooded, Masked Delinquent”】: Hah!? Why are you only saying something this important now!!
【Tono Hanna】: Eek!? I-I only...
(Hm? Perfect chance!)
The moment Hanna was scolded by the white-haired punk girl, Chang Rong practically sniffed out the perfect timing to farm favorability.
【Chang Rong】: Speaking so violently to an elegant young lady is hardly proper behavior, Miss—Satou Tadashi?
【Satou Tadashi (?)】: Hah?
【Milia】: I-I actually do know a classmate with that name, Mister...
【Hasumi Leia】: The costume designer on one of my previous productions had that name too.
My, my, did you really investigate even something like that, Chang Rong? If your enthusiasm gets too excessive, I might start feeling a little scared~
(If you are going to pretend to be scared, at least press the corners of your mouth down a bit.)
【Nikaido Hiro】: No, this idiot definitely just picked the most easily duplicated name he could think of.
【Satou Tadashi (?)】: What the hell is wrong with you!? Don’t go slapping some random name like that on me, kora!
【Sakuraba Emma】: Um... if Chang Rong-kun does not know Arisa’s name, you could have just asked me... She is {Shidou Arisa}.
【Chang Rong】: See? I still matched one “-tou,” did I not? So my guess was actually pretty accurate.
【Shidou Arisa】: I’m gonna kill you, asshole! Are you screwing with me, asshole!?
(Good. Just as expected, this girl really is the kind of firecracker who explodes the moment you poke her. And thanks to that, I successfully drew everyone’s attention over here. So next—)
【Chang Rong】: In any case, Shidou-san, what I mean is this: even while terrified and tense in the face of the current situation, Miss Tono still preserved her elegant and noble bearing. I will not allow you to trample so casually upon such a high-flower quality.
【Shidou Arisa】: What kind of nonsense are you even talking about...?
【Chang Rong】: There is no need to worry, Miss Tono. Please speak of whatever it is you know. I shall protect your right to speak. I will not allow those vulgar and lowly people to lay a finger upon your beautifully porcelain-like person.
(I did not really expect this doll-like young lady’s favorability to increase all that much because of it. After all, she probably was not short on “knightly simp” types like me who fancied themselves her protectors. Even so, I still had to try. Even just making enough of an impression to be remembered would be fine.)
【Tono Hanna】: Uu...! E-Even if you say that, I will not be happy, desuwa...!
—Huh? Why did it feel like her favorability had suddenly shot up by an absurd amount?
Looking at Tono Hanna, who had gone red in the cheeks and was now frantically hiding her face behind her feather fan, it was Chang Rong who ended up dumbfounded instead.
He had only tossed out a casual basic attack, so how had the other side immediately blown Flash, Golden Body, Cleanse, Barrier, hello-thank-you-soup-dumplings-goodbye all in one go?
Could it be that this young lady was actually the sort who was usually starved for affection?
Whatever. In any case, this should mean I can get another “good person card” vote out of her.
Huge win!
Still grinning to himself, Chang Rong glanced toward the speaking stand—and then—
【Shidou Arisa】: Who are you calling vulgar and lowly, huh!? You tmd, I am absolutely going to kill you!!!
【Nikaido Hiro】: ...How disgusting. So very “incorrect.”
【Hasumi Leia】: N-No, did you not say you were only devoted to me, Chang Rong? What exactly is the meaning of this...!?
Huh?
It seemed that although he had managed to get a good person card from Tono Hanna, he had also made even more enemies because of it.
Chang Rong felt as though he were sitting on a seesaw: he raised Tono Hanna’s favorability on one side, only for the three sisters on the other side to come crashing down, ready to beat him up as a group.