.............
Order 9
[November 6th (Sat) 00:28 pm]
"Seiya.... He's Seiya Takahashi."
In front of the school gate, Yumeto laid the body wrapped in sheets on the ground.
"He received the punishment of the King's game and died."
"I see...."
Miyauchi, wearing a protective suit, let out a dark voice. Next to him is Kawashima, also wearing a protective suit.
"Okay. I'll take care of the body here. Once the Keldo virus is dead, I'll hand him over to his family."
"Mr. Miyauchi. I have a question."
"If it's something I can answer. At the request of the culprit, the information I can give you is limited."
"Were there any traces of modifying the Nano Queen's program on Seiya's home computer?"
"Why do you know that?"
"I don't care about that. Is it true?"
"...…It's true. That's why I was suspicious of Seiya Takahashi at first."
"At first?"
Yumeto's eyebrows twitched.
"What do you mean by at first?"
"Seiya's computer was infected with a computer virus. There were traces that the virus sent the Nano Queen program remotely."
"Remote control..."
"Yeah. The culprit was preparing to make Seiya-kun a suspect even before the King's game began."
"Is that so..."
"The culprit seems to have planned carefully. His goal is to increase the number of suspects and make you fight each other."
"Because of that, Seiya-kun also died. He was confined by his classmate..."
As Yumeto muttered that, he heard footsteps behind him. When I turned around, Seiichiro and Satoshi were standing there. Seeing the two of them, Yumeto's expression distorted.
Seiichiro looked at the body wrapped in the sheets and lifted the edge of his lips.
"Finally, it looks like the king is dead."
"King?"
"It means that Seiya is the king. Transfer student."
Seiichiro took out a smartphone from his pants pocket and showed the screen to Yumeto.
"You know what time it is, right? It's already past 12 o'clock. And we hasn't received the king's email. You know what I mean, isn't it? Seiya was the king, so no more orders"
"..."
"Hmm. It seems there are no objections."
Pushing Yumeto aside, Seiichiro stood in front of Miyauchi.
"Hey, Mr. Detective. I confined Seiya, but it's not a crime, is it? Seiya died because of the punishment of the King's game."
".....Yeah. You won't be charged as a crime."
When Miyauchi said that, Seiichiro let out a laugh.
"Hahahaha! On the contrary, I would like to receive an award. It's because of me that the king's game is over"
"As expected of you, Seiichiro-kun."
Satoshi nodded and crossed his stick-like arms.
"To be honest, I didn't know who the king was. There are plenty of suspicious people other than Seiya"
"At times like this, the guy who is honestly suspicious is the king. It's not a mystery novel with a surprising culprit. Either Sousuke, who has been missing for a long time, or Seiya, who is familiar with computers and is also a suspect, was the king. And the next order didn't come, that said, Seiya was the king."
"That's right. The Keldo virus in our bodies won't help until government develops antibodies, but as long as he doesn't give orders, there's no problem."
"That's right! Satoshi, go tell the other groups. Tell them that the king's game is over."
Seiichiro showed his white teeth and looked at Yumeto.
"Transfer student, you should be grateful too. It's because of me that you were able to survive."
At that moment, Yumeto, Seiichiro, and Satoshi's smartphones all ring at the same time.
Seiichiro's laughing face stiffened in an instant.
Yumeto bit his lip hard and looked at the smartphone's LCD screen.
[1/6 (Sat) 00:45 pm.
Sender: King
Subject: King's Game
Text: This is the King's Game played by the 2nd year Class A students of Akaikeyama High School.
*The king's orders are absolute, so please obey them within 24 hours.
*Withdrawal is not permitted.
*Order 9: Seiichiro Fujiwara and Satoshi Kumagai kill a total of 3 students. Students other than the king should immediately close their eyes after reading this email. Those who disobey orders will be punished.
END]
After reading the order, Yumeto immediately closed his eyes and quickly left the place. Behind him, he hears the voices of Seiichiro and Satoshi.
"Huh! What do you mean? Why are orders still being sent? Seiya is supposed to be the king, right?"
"Well, maybe Seiya wasn't the king..."
"It seems so."
Hearing Kawashima's calm voice.
"Takahashi Seiya was just a suspect. If the order came even though he was dead, there must be another culprit. The culprit told the police that if they died, they would end the king's game. They wrote it in their email."
"Then... the king's game continues..."
Seiichiro's voice hoarse.
"Ah! Whoa! Transfer student, where are you? I can't open my eye now. Where is he?"
"Until a little while ago, he was next to Seiichiro-kun."
"No, he's not here. He ran away. Shit!"
"Yumetooo! Let's talk. We won't kill you right away. There's also a detective here."
.....I can't believe it!
In his mind, Yumeto continued walking in the darkness.
....For now, let's meet up with everyone in the group. And I have to decide where to hide. Seiichiro-kun and the others should know that we are gathering at computer room.
Sweat dripped down his closed eyelids. Yumeto hurriedly put his right hand on the upper half of his face as he almost opened his eyelids.
"You have to be careful..."
Yumeto continued walking toward the school building with his left hand sticking out in front of him.
....................
As soon as he opened the door to the computer room, Yumeto spoke out.
"Is everyone there?"
"Yumeto-kun?"
At the same time as Yuna's voice, I heard footsteps.
"Everyone is here. We were waiting for Yumeto-kun to come back."
"Okay. Let's move from here right away."
"Where are we going?"
"I want to go outside the school building, but there's a high chance that Seiichiro-kun and the others will be at the exit. For now, let's go to the science preparation room! Everyone, be careful not to open your eyes!"
Yuna, Fuka, and Tokisada responded to Yumeto's words at the same time.
....................
Yumeto and the others slipped out into the corridor. Fuka, who was holding the hem of Yumeto's shirt behind him, put her mouth to Yumeto's ear.
"Looks like nobody's there."
"Don't let your guard down! Satoshi-kun has a knife, and Seiichiro-kun probably has a weapon too."
"I understand. Seiichiro is dangerous even with bare hands."
"He's doing boxing, right? I got hit, so I know. It's dangerous for us to talk too much, so let's move silently."
Yumeto closed his eyes and mouth tightly and headed for the stairs.
....................
Yumeto let out a sigh as he closed the science preparation room door.
"For now, let's take a breather."
"Oh. But it's unfortunate."
I heard Tokisada's voice.
"I never thought it would be so hard to see nothing. Just going down the stairs made me terrified."
"Yeah. It took me about 10 minutes just to get back to the computer room from the school gate. Normally, it would only take a few minutes."
"It's just that we rely on our eyes so much."
"Aside from that, what are you going to do now?"
Fuka's hand touched Yumeto's shoulder.
"We can't hide here forever. If no one comes out of the school building, Seiichiro-kun and the others will target us."
"They're going to target anyone."
Yumeto answered with his eyelids still closed.
"Seiichiro-kun and Satoshi-kun must kill a total of three students or they will be punished. Those two won't hesitate to kill their classmates."
"This order is also an order that someone will surely die."
"Yeah. At least two people will die. In the worst case, all of us will die. If you open your eyes, you will be punished."
"Should I cover this up with a towel or something?"
"That's right. It's 24 hours, so it might be more dangerous when you're asleep. When you wake up, you can't help but open your eyes."
"I wish there was something here to block my eyes... ah!"
I heard the sound of something falling to the floor.
"Hey! I've hit something. Is this... a pictorial book or something?"
"Be careful. If you get hurt right now, it's bad. No one can treat you, and you can't even apply medicine."
"Yeah. Come to think of it, only the king can act with his eyes open, right?"
"Yes, that means the king is among us."
Yumeto answered Fuka's question.
"If Sousuke-kun, who has not been infected with the Keldo virus, is the king, then there is no need for them to give such an order. But bluffing is not out of the question too."
"There are 15 remaining... No, if Sousuke-kun is included, the king is among the 16."
"I have no doubt about that. Our class is playing the King's game, so I'm sure they must be someone related to our class."
"Seiya-kun wasn't a king..... right?"
Yuna muttered with a depressed voice.
"I was a little suspicious of Seiya-kun. I hope he's not the king."
"That's me too. Seiya-kun was the suspect."
The image of Seiya emerges behind his eyelids. Seiya smiled with a fragile face.
"..... Now let's think about the future. I don't want us to die any more. To all of you who are in the same group."
"I don't want you guys to die either."
Tokisada's voice reached Yumeto's ears.
"Until the King's game started, I didn't care about my classmates, but now I want to be on good terms with you guys even after graduating from high school."
"In that case, we have to survive together."
"Yeah. Let's drink together when we're over 20! By then, I think our factory will recover and when it at that time. I'll treat you. Of course, Yuna and Fuka too."
Hearing Tokisada's words, Yumeto closed his eyes and relaxed his cheeks.
...................
[Saturday, November 6, 02:58 pm]
Yumeto slowly made his way down the stairs. He has his eyes closed so he can't see what's going on around him, but he can't hear any sounds. He is so stressed, he cannot open his eyes to see that his shirt is soaked with sweat.
....Calm down. Seiichiro and the others can't even open their eyes too. Rather, it should have been more advantageous for run away side.
I stick my right hand out to the side and check the position of the wall.
...Go down the stairs and when the wall ends, that's the entrance. After that, if I run into the shoe cupboard and opens the door...
Yumeto moved slowly, still keeping his left hand on the wall. After a few minutes, the wall ended. Yumeto realized that he was at the end of the entrance.
He takes a deep breath, closes his eyelids tight and starts running. The moment he opened the front door, he heard an air-ripping sound behind him. Yumeto realized it was the sound of a knife being swung.
"Who are you?"
The owner of the voice was Satoshi.
"..... No, it doesn't matter who you are. Anyway, it shouldn't be Seiichiro-kun."
"It's me."
Yumeto spoke while backing away.
"If you say that, Seiichiro-kun seems to be in a different place."
"Yumeto, huh?"
I heard the sound of the soles of his shoes stepping on the sand.
"Seiichiro-kun is guarding the back door. If we do this, we won't fight each other. Anyone who moves should be killed."
"There should be Souta-kun in the same group as you guys?"
"If it's Souta-kun, he'll call out to us, and it's impossible for us to kill him."
At the same time he said that, I heard the sound of waving a knife.
Yumeto continues his movement while imagining where he is.
"Well, but I'm glad I found you."
"Why?"
"It's because I want to kill you, isn't it?"
Satoshi's tone changed.
"Because you stole Wakaba from me."
"You're the one who killed Wakaba-san!"
"Wakaba, who fell in love with you, deserves to die."
"Deserves to die?"
Instinctively, Yumeto stopped and shouted.
"Wakaba-san was killed by you regardless of the king's game. She was stabbed with a knife..."
"A traitor deserves to die. I don't need that dirty woman anymore."
"Dirty..."
Yumeto bit his lip hard and glared at Satoshi, who was probably in front of him, through his eyelids.
"I don't want to die in the first place, and I don't want you to kill me."
At the same time he said that, the tip of the knife cut Yumeto's bangs by several centimeters.
I can hear Satoshi's high-pitched laughter.
"Hahahaha! Don't be near me like that. you should have just run away without talking."
"Because this is the strategy."
"Strategy?"
"Oh. It's now, everyone!"
When Yumeto shouted out loud, he heard several people's footsteps coming from the school building.
"Ah, damn it!"
"It's already late. If you can get out of the school building, there are mountains of places to hide."
Yumeto quickly left the place.
"You! Don't be silly!"
The sound of Satoshi wielding a knife can be heard.
"Where are you? Where have you gone?"
Yumeto didn't reply and started walking toward the clubroom building.
..................
Yumeto and the others are gathered in front of the incinerator near the clubroom building.
"It's 07:43 pm right now. I checked the time signal, so I'm sure."
I heard Fuka's voice.
"It should be dark by now, but I closed my eyes so it doesn't matter."
"That's right. The only problem is that it's going to be cold outside from now on...."
Yumeto keeps his eyelids closed and furrows his brow.
"If it's something like this, I should have taken a blanket with me. Also food."
"It's okay for about a day. It's dangerous to go back to the school building now."
"I'm fine too."
This time, I heard Yuna's voice from the opposite direction.
"I don't have much of an appetite in this situation..."
"You should eat properly. The king's game should continue next time."
"Does that mean the king will not be killed by Seiichiro-kun and the others?"
"Yeah. Because the order said 'students other than the king should close their eyes'. Then you can afford to run away. In other words, unfortunately, the next order will come."
"Is that so... even after clearing this order..."
Tokisada, blindfolded with a towel, opens his mouth to Yuna, who lets out a sad voice.
"Right now, the priority is to get away from Seiichiro and the others, rather than worries about the next order. I don't think they will give up."
"Someone may have been killed already."
"When we were ordered to touch the stone pillar, they were cooperatived with Narumi's group, but this order has nothing to do with it. Anyone other than them will probably be targeted."
"Not knowing the situation is troublesome."
Saying that, Yumeto licked his dry lips.
"I think they will probably continue to target the students inside the school building, but if other groups are also escaping from here, there is a possibility that they will come over there."
"Then, will Yumeto and I move as planned? If we guide them to Mt. Akaikeyama, they'll gain a lot of time to find us more."
"But it's dangerous."
"It's the same even if we're gathered here, isn't it? There still has 17 hours or more until the order is finished. If possible, let Seiichiro and the others do useless actions as much as possible, and it will buy us time."
"Yes. If they think our group is hiding in Mt. Akaikeyama, the chances of them coming here will be reduced..."
Yumeto turned his face to where Yuna and Fuka were.
.....Seiichiro and the others may target girls who are easy to catch. Tokisada-kun and I must protect Yuna-san and the others!
...................