After Nine in the Evening — The Young Man's House
"Even though Haru smelled the scent, why didn't he head to the cafeteria? How stupid is this kid? Rei saw the corpse again—he's smart enough to figure it out!"
It was clear from the voice that the person responding was a woman.
"Calm down. At least we tried. You told your father what I said, right?"
"I told him. He listens to me."
"I see. So Rei figuring it out only means he understands the second trap. Him figuring out who did the killing doesn't change anything, so there's no problem."
"You're right. Besides, an aggressive rule is coming tomorrow."
Morning — Rei's Side
We had slept longer this time. I figured it was normal because of all the running. When I woke up and checked my phone, I saw it was eight o'clock. I wasn't in a position to wash my face and hands. After everyone woke up shortly after, we set out together to reach the temple before nine. When we arrived, the old man greeted us in the same way once again.
When I looked around, I noticed it was sufficiently crowded again. I figured a rule notification would come after worship. Today, we weren't officially friends. According to my observations, an excessive number of hooded priests could come to the temple—I hadn't even heard them talk much among themselves.
After everyone finished worshipping, I stepped out to the temple garden alone, anticipating the notification sound. When the worship ended, a notification came to my phone. I checked whether anyone was watching me, then looked at the notification.
The God of Friendship has added a new rule!
From now on, non-player individuals can send you friendship invitations, or you can send friendship invitations to them. If you form a friendship with a non-player, you and your friends will be eliminated from the game!
"It looks like a rule that could be useful."
My friends came to the garden shortly after me. Haru called out to me.
"You saw the rule, right, Rei?"
I nodded in confirmation.
"Let's split into groups of two again. No one should take on anyone else as a friend on their own tomorrow."
"Alright."
Lie and Rei, Haru and Akari split into pairs. After putting some distance between us, I whispered to Lie inside, telling her there was something I wanted to do. So I told her to blend into the crowd. Lie nodded, walked away from me, and tried to blend in.
I quietly made my way to the storeroom in a short time. When I entered the room, I took the priest robe out of my inventory and put it on. I had bought a copy of it when I went to the market on the first day to bring food for my friends. After putting on the robe, I continued walking through the corridor where the rooms were. As I passed by the old man, he spoke to me.
"Did you lock the back door, son?"
My face wasn't visible, so he couldn't tell who I was. I nodded to confirm to the old man. Then I kept walking through the corridor. At the end of the corridor was one of the two entrances leading to the lower corridors. The back door the old man asked about was the second lower corridor entrance.
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I headed toward the first entrance. Priests were passing by me; since I was wearing the robe, they paid no attention to me heading toward the entrance. I moved into the lower corridor. Looking around, it resembled the narrow underground corridors used in ancient times. I could pick up a faint, strange smell in the air. The place was eerie.
I moved a bit further down the corridor. Some of the rooms looked like magic chambers. The corridors were long, and I hadn't run into anyone else. I passed by one room, but when I caught a smell from it, I turned back to look. I didn't want to open the door—I thought there might be an alarm system.
When I looked through the door's window, I saw five dead bodies lying on the floor. Some were almost decayed. One had no visible marks, while the others appeared to have taken various wound strikes. When I saw the bodies, my pupils dilated, but I knew when to stay calm.
After looking at the corpses for a short while, I understood another game they were playing.
I see. So what I saw was meant for Haru. They hadn't wanted to target me—I stumbled into the cafeteria by coincidence...
According to what Haru said, he had smelled an appetite-stimulating scent. This means the girl named Yua had deliberately fixed her eyes on him beforehand so he would talk to her. She was deliberately looking at Haru so I would tell him to talk to her.
Before talking to Haru, she probably applied the herb Haru mentioned onto herself. This way, the scent clung to her. When Haru talked to her, he would pick up the scent, and his appetite would increase. With his appetite increased, Haru would want to go to the cafeteria. Seeing that the cafeteria worker wasn't there, Haru would take advantage of the situation and enter, just like I did. Once inside, he would pick up the smell from the refrigerator, then encounter the corpse.
Encountering the corpse, Haru would examine it like I did. The corpse had been deliberately placed in the refrigerator so it wouldn't look like it had been killed long ago. Since the body was cold, it would be harder to tell. But they also used the refrigerator to make it seem like they were trying to hide it.
After this, Haru, whose sense of smell is sharp, would surely check the food when he saw no wounds on the body, just like I did. He would pick up the poison smell from the food. Even if the man had been killed by poison, he hadn't been poisoned at that moment. The poisoned food had been deliberately placed there. Figuring out the situation, Haru would then leave, like I did, and return to the hall for a potential complaint. Before this, the young priest was waiting for Haru to come back. When Haru returned to the hall, the priest would chat with him, just like he did with me. Haru would pick up the scent on him. The young priest had probably deliberately applied the scent to himself. Realizing this, they wanted to steer Haru into reporting the young priest for the murder. Haru, filing the complaint, would be eliminated due to a false report.
Because, firstly, the young priest probably didn't commit the murder...
While thinking to myself, I kept looking at the corpses.
And secondly, this corpse had also been killed before the game started. They're storing the bodies of the people they killed before the game here. They take bodies from here as needed and use them for traps. Just like the previous trap, this murder also can't be reported. This murder was also committed before the game.
If I'm right, if Haru had reported the young priest, he would have been eliminated from the game. That was the trap they wanted. But from what I understand, Haru resisted despite feeling hungry. Instead, I coincidentally went to the cafeteria and did what they had planned for Haru to do.
But I didn't go and report it. They deliberately targeted the people they thought were weaker. Since they realized I had figured out their first trap, they targeted Haru. But I coincidentally went to the cafeteria, so I ended up walking into the trap. I wasn't caught in it because I didn't report the priest. Since they didn't think I would be caught in the trap, they must have targeted Haru.
But was this planned in advance, as I thought? If my assumptions are correct, this trap was planned a day ahead. Even Yua's glances at Haru must have been arranged as the beginning of this trap. This means Yua is one of them.
I had started hearing sounds, so I quickly left the lower corridor. In a short while, I re-entered the storeroom. I took off the priest robe. I kept thinking to myself.
The trap was well planned, but luckily Haru didn't go to the cafeteria. But still, the trap might not have worked anyway—Haru isn't stupid enough to report it immediately. If they had targeted Lie, I think Lie wouldn't have been able to act logically enough to figure out the situation. If they had targeted Akari, she's not stupid either. Besides, she had been acting quiet throughout the game, so they had no information about her intelligence level. That's why they must have targeted Haru.
They think I'm intelligent, so they're targeting my teammates. I need to be careful. I've completely understood their traps.