............
[Tuesday, November 2, 01:12 pm]
There were six students in the Class 3A classroom. Chairperson Hideyuki, vice-chairperson Miki, and Hinako, Yoko, Miku, and Sakura are sitting on chairs by the window.
"I'm glad you came."
Hideyuki got up from his chair and walked over to Yumeto and the others.
"For the time being, do you want some tea? Even It's a just plastic bottle of tea provided though."
"No, more importantly, please tell us what you need."
"I see. Then let me be blunt. Why don't we give each other hints?"
"As expected, is that so?"
"Looks like you expected it. Then talk quickly."
Hideyuki looks around at Yuna and the others behind Yumeto.
"You're a group of 5, so you should know 5 hints. lf you can tell me, we'll give you 5 hints."
"Five... huh. Hideyuki-kun and others know seven hints, right?"
"Yeah, but I can't tell the other groups the other two until I know what X is."
Hideyuki said firmly.
"My top priority is to protect my friends in this group. For that reason, I don't mind sacrificing other classmates."
"Other classmates....., I think so. I also prioritize my friends."
When Yumeto said that, Hideyuki smiled wryly.
"Sometimes we have to sacrifice other classmates in order to save ourselves. It's really a devil's game. The king's game."
"It seems that the contents of the order are decided by humans."
"Oh. It must be Sousuke. I don't know why he's doing this."
"Don't you think anyone other than Sousuke-kun is the king?"
"... In that case, you should think about why Sousuke disappeared."
"For example, He know who the king is. And that's why they're imprison him"
"Or maybe he's been killed. Rather than confine him somewhere, He would be harder to find if he was killed."
Hideyuki's eyebrows moved between his eyebrows.
"Nobody but Sousuke is the culprit..."
"Souta-kun also doesn't think it's Sousuke-kun though."
"Souta, huh?"
"Yeah. He said the king was a girl."
Yumeto's gaze shifted to the girl behind Hideyuki. Miki's expression becomes serious.
"Are you saying we're kings? Don't kidding me! What's even more suspicious is that the one behind you."
"Are we suspicious?"
"That's right. If Sousuke-kun is not the king, and there is a king among us, there is a high possibility that they are among you."
Miki glares at Yumeto and the others with her hostile expression.
"The king is thinking about taking revenge on Tomoki-kun, who was bullied. Tomoki-kun didn't belong to any group."
"Are you suspicious because we weren't in the group?"
Tokisada took a step forward and lined up next to Yumeto.
"The reason I didn't join the group was because I wasn't interested in that kind of relationship. Besides, I have nothing to do with Tomoki."
"In other words, Tokisada-kun doesn't care about his classmates like this."
"Huh? Don't say like that!"
"Besides, Tokisada seems to have been dissatisfied with society. He were complaining that his father's company was about to go bankrupt."
"Oh, that's..."
"Well, Seiya-kun is more like a king than Tokisada-kun, isn't he? Narumi was also suspicious of Seiya-kun, and he met Tomoki-kun outside of school, right?"
"That's just a chance encounter!"
Seiya let out an impatient voice.
"What do you think? Seiya-kun is good at computers, and he likes games, so he's the type to play the king's game, right? Yuna will be next. Most importantly, She was protecting Tomoki-kun all the time."
After looking at Yuna, Miki shifts her gaze to Fuka.
"Even Fuka is suspicious. She's not cooperative and has a tendency to be aggressive. But the one I think is the most suspicious is the transfer student, Yumeto-kun."
"Me?"
Yumeto opens and closes his mouth with a surprised look on his face.
"Why am I the king? I don't know Tomoki-kun."
"I don't know. Actually, you may have known each other since you were little."
"...Are you seriously thinking about that?"
"Of course. Everyone thinks the transfer student, Yumeto-kun, isn't the king, but we're overlooking something important."
"Important thing?"
"The King's game started as soon as Yumeto-kun transferred to another school."
At those words, the classroom fell silent. Everyone's eyes focused on Yumeto.
"Now you understand, right? You guys are a group of suspicions."
"That's fine, Miki-san."
Hideyuki brings his right hand to Miki's mouth.
"In this situation, everyone feels suspicious. However, I think it would be better to exchange information with Yumeto's group."
"Hideyuki-kun, are you serious?"
"Yeah. We couldn't figure out what X was by ourselves. Then we have no choice but to exchange information with some group."
"But!"
"Do you think you can trust Narumi and Seiichiro more?"
"That is..."
Hideyuki put his hand on the stuttering Miki's shoulder.
"Anyway, it's already decided. I'm the leader of this group."
Hideyuki turned his gaze to Yumeto.
"Yumeto-kun, will you cooperate with us?"
Yumeto and the others looked at each other at Hideyuki's suggestion.
...............
[November 2 (Tuesday) 01:55 pm]
In the computer room, Yumeto and the others bring their faces closer to the written notebook.
"Our hints are 'i', 'no', 'ro', 'chi', and 'fu', and Hideyuki's hints are 'a', 'ni', 'u', 're' and 'ma'. What do you know?"
Fuuka groaned at Yumeto's question.
"I can't do it. I'm not good at riddles."
"What are you going to do if you giving up, Fuka? Even if it's impossible, we'll find it somehow."
Tokisada combs his ragged hair, staring at notebook.
"Love, blood, baths, horses, towns, life or death. I don't think it's an order like 'Move to the town at the foot of the mountain'."
"But then, the number of characters is small."
Yuna bends her fingers and opens her mouth.
"In the end, it will be 22 characters, so I think it will be like, 'XX Do XX and do XX'."
"Then it's troublesome. After all, if you don't understand the remaining 12 characters, you can't help it."
"But will the other guys tell us honestly? Besides, if it's a contested order, it might be dangerous."
"Fight... huh? If it's just a fistfight, I'll do something about it."
"Is Tokisada strong in fights?"
Yumeto called out to Tokisada.
"Well. The class may think that Seiichiro is strong, but I'm better than him. Why don't we try punching Seiichiro and forcing him to give you some hints?
"Don't do that. It's dangerous."
"Dangerous?"
"Yeah. The conflict between the groups may accelerate. It has nothing to do with the orders of the King's game. Besides, depending on the contents of the orders, we may be able to cooperate with Seiichiro-kun and the others."
Yumeto traces the hint written on the notebook with his finger.
"I don't have a good impression of Seiichiro-kun and the others, but if possible, I don't want them to die. Of course, the other groups, too."
"…..It's true. I also want to beat them up, but I don't think I want to kill them. But you don't know what they will do with us"
"Yes. Maybe we should be careful."
The image of Seiichiro and the others popped up in his mind. Seiichiro was self-centered and seemed to have no hesitation in sacrificing his classmates. Satoshi tries to kill his classmate, Yumeto, and Yoji's eyes glisten at the suggestion. And Souta enjoys being caught up in the King's game. That was something that Yumeto couldn't understand.
.....Maybe the king is....
"Hey, Yumeto-kun."
Seiya, who was touching the computer, opened his mouth.
"Maybe I've figured out one of the words."
Hearing those words, Yumeto and the others gathered around Seiya.
"What is a word?"
"Well, since it's an order, I figured it would probably end with something like "Do XX'', so I combined various hints and came up with a word that sounded like that."
Yumeto pointed at the computer screen. Spreadsheet software was launched on the screen, and hundreds of hint characters were combined. Among them, there was a character combined with "ふれる(Touch)".
" 'Touch'? It's certainly an order form."
"Of course, there are many other forms of order, but..."
"No, I think it's highly possible. Can you find any other words?"
"I'll try various combinations. Wait a minute."
Seiya operates the computer in a familiar manner. Yumeto sat down on the chair next to Seiya, who was tapping on the keyboard with blind touch.
"Seiya, you're good with computers, aren't you? Can't you make software that disables the Nano Queen?"
"That's impossible."
Seiya let out a deep sigh.
"It's true that my hobby is computers, but I don't have enough knowledge to create programs. I just played online games, watched videos, and chatted, etc."
"Then, is there anyone in our class who knows more about computers than Seiya-kun?"
"Hmm. Many people have computers, but not many people know much about them. Ordinary people don't create programs. There's no problem as long as you can use the software on your computer. "
"In other words, anyone can operate with the Nano Queen."
"Perhaps. If all you have to do is type in an order, then even an elementary school student might be able to do it. So, if you ask me that, does Yumeto-kun also think that Sousuke-kun is not the king?"
"I think that might be possible."
Yumeto answered Seiya's question while keeping his eyes on the computer screen.
"Souta had doubts that there was a king among the girls. Miki-san was suspicious of us."
"If there's a king among us, would they mind if they died? We're all infected with the Keldo virus, and by order, anyone could be punished, there was an order to vote, an order to play tag."
"Perhaps they are confident that they will never be punished."
"If that's the case, I'd say the members of the committee chairman Hideyuki and Narumi's group is suspect. I don't think Hideyuki-kun got any negative votes, and Narumi-san and the others are self-centred, but they're also popular. Oh, and Seiichiro-kun too. A lot of people hate him, but they had a rule about giving positive points to votes, so maybe the leader of the group was less likely to be punished."
"Seiichiro feels different. I don't think he has the personality to start a King's game. Besides, if the purpose of the King Game is Tomoki-kun's revenge, there's no way Seiichiro-kun, who is the one responsible for the bullying, is the king."
"Yumeto-kun, Seiya-kun"
Yuna interrupted the conversation between Yumeto and Seiya.
"Now it's more important to find out what X is than who the king is."
"Ah, that's right. Anyway, more information..."
At that moment, the door opened and Yohei entered the computer room.
"Hey! How are you doing?"
Seeing Yohei approaching, Yumeto quickly turned off the display.
"Yohei-kun, why are you here?"
"I just wanted to congratulate you. Good for you that was able to successfully clear trump's orders"
Yohei narrowed his eyes and lifted the corners of his lips.
"If it ended up like this, there was no point in stealing the cards from you guys. It seems that Kanon and Riko didn't get even a single card, and then, Ai committed suicide, right?"
"... You know a lot"
"If it's just this information. However, it's hard to gather information about X."
"It reap was you saw."
Tokisada clenched his fists and glared at Yohei.
"Rather than that, you were able to show your face here. A traitor."
"A traitor.. huh. Because that's what you guy think, so I left your group."
Shrugging, Youhei looked around at Yumeto and the others.
"You have to do whatever it takes to survive. After all, depending on the contents of the order, we might fight each other."
"You....."
"I didn't come here to discuss such things, Yumeto!"
Yohei called out Yumeto's name.
"I have a message from Narumi."
"Message?"
"Yeah. Mine is just one character of hint, with all of your. why don't we exchange character each other?"
"Only one character ..."
Yumeto stands up from his chair and looks at Yohei in front of him.
"Just one character means you're completely unwilling to cooperate, right?"
"Depending on the contents of X, you may need a scapegoat."
"Is that us?"
"You guys aren't the only ones. Same with other groups. We are participants in the death game. In order to survive, it is natural to sacrifice others."
Yohei moves his hands like a politician giving a speech in front of an audience.
"However, we should cooperate when we can, right? Depending on the contents of X, there is a possibility that everyone will be saved."
"I agree"
"Then, let's work together. If I understand that it's an order that will save everyone, I'll let you guys know what X is about."
"..."
"Oi oi, what are you worrying about? I can't help it then."
Yohei took out a smartphone from his pocket and showed Yumeto its screen. The command of the king game is displayed there. The character of the last hint was "ge".
" 'ge'...…?"
"Yeah. That's a pretty good hint. 'ge', so it might have something to do with the shoe cupboard or the gardening club."
"That's all I can tell you."
"Because I think I did something bad to you guys. It's a service. So, can you tell me your hint too?"
"…...I agree"
Yumeto turned his gaze to the smartphone that Yohei was holding.
"I can tell you, but before that, I have a request."
"Hmm? What? Or maybe, do you want to work with Narumi and the others? If so, I'll talk to her."
"No, I want you to lend me that smartphone."
"Ah? What is it?"
Yohei's smiling face twitches.
"Why do I have to lend you my smartphone? You have one too, right?"
"No, I was curious about that email."
"Email? This is an email from the king that has been sent to everyone. Even the contents should be the same except for the last hint."
"But you can rewrite only the last hint."
Yumeto said in a calm voice.
"I heard that we can copied and pasted the king's email, rewritten the last hint to another character, and displayed it on the screen."
"... Huh? Do you even doubt that?"
"Yohei-kun has a criminal record. So, would you mind?
"No, it's an invasion of privacy. There are emails you don't want people to see."
"Your life is more important than your privacy, right?"
When Yumeto reached out, Yohei quickly put the smartphone in his pocket.
"Tch! I thought I could trick you."
"As expected, the hint was a lie."
"Oh. "Ge" is the character I rewrote. I thought that if things went well, I could confuse you guys."
Hearing those words, Fuka suddenly walked up to Yohei. She glares at Yohei with sharp eyes and hits him on the cheek with her right hand. A loud popping sound resounded in the room.
"Get out of this room. This room is used by our group."
"...Okay. Take it easy a little."
"That is so obvious! Don't complain about slaps."
"That's true."
Yohei pressed his cheek and turned his gaze to Yumeto.
"Even so, you've grown, Yumeto."
"It's all thanks to you, Yohei-kun. You taught me that I can't survive if I think naively."
"Haha, that's right. Well, I hope we both can survive. This is my true intention."
After saying that, Yohei left the computer room.
"He really is the worst."
Fuka lifted her well-proportioned eyebrows and clicked her tongue.
"I'm glad that Yumeto-kun noticed, but we almost lost track of the contents of X because of the false hint."
"That must have been the strategy."
Yumeto turns on the display.
"I don't think he's trying to give other groups false information to give their group an edge like this. I don't know whose idea it is, but Narumi's group can't be trusted."
"The same applies to other groups. Cooperating with Seiichiro and others is absolutely impossible."
"Yeah. Whether or not we can cooperate will be decided after we understand the contents of X."
"But is this hint enough?"
Fuka looked into the screen of the display.
"Even if Seiya-kun's predictions were correct, just 'Touch' wouldn't help."
"That's why I'm thinking of asking Iwamoto-sensei to give me some hints."
"Oh, I see. Iwamoto-sensei will tell us. He's a teacher, so you can trust him."
"Yeah. Maybe other groups are asking Iwamoto-sensei for hints."
Yumeto thought of Iwamoto who was exhausted.
....Iwamoto-sensei may have heard hints from other groups. If they tell him that, we might know what X is about.
"Okay! Let's find Iwamoto-sensei and ask him for a hint. Worst case, even one character is fine."
At Yumeto's suggestion, everyone there nod their heads.
...............