The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria
Book 3: Chapter 10

Day 2 <C> Private Meeting with Daiya Oomine – Kazuki Hoshino’s Room

Daiya sits on the table, fiddling with his portable device.

“Did you know, Kazu? Our devices won’t work for anyone but their owners,” he says, then starts going through my bag on the table. He pulls out my portable device and shows me how he can’t use it.

“…You’re very calm.”

He’s the complete opposite of Iroha and her desperation.

“It’s because I know I won’t be targeted for Murder.”

“Huh…?”

Daiya smiles.

“Don’t be boring and ask how I know. We’re all aware it’s because I’m the one who chose the Murder target.”

“I’m the King.”

He says it so naturally that I almost take his words at face value—but that’s exactly what I shouldn’t do. I know this is another one of his tricks.

I rack my brain for an arguable point.

“…Um, if you’re the King, then I guess that would mean you know Iroha is the Revolutionary, right? If so, why didn’t you pick Iroha right after <C> period started? Why did you choose her after your Private Meeting with Kamiuchi?”

“During <B> period, Shindo did sound like she could be the culprit, but the truth is, I wasn’t entirely sure. I was just about as suspicious of Kamiuchi as she was.”

“Kamiuchi?”

The Kamiuchi who got so emotional after Yuri’s death?

“So you thought his anger was just an act?”

“He’s a dangerous guy in his own way. Even you must have felt like he’s tricky and hard to pin down, right?”

I give a small nod.

“Try to remember. The first person Shindo picked for a Private Meeting was Kamiuchi. That basically means she was on guard against him more than anyone else.”

Iroha had chosen Kamiuchi first…

“…By the way, Daiya, I get the feeling you know Kamiuchi from before.”

“Yeah, I do. We went to the same middle school. I didn’t really remember his face, though.”

“……Huh? But Kamiuchi doesn’t seem to know you.”

“That’s probably just because a mere peasant such as myself is beneath the notice of the great Lord Kamiuchi, don’t you think? I just have good grades, but he’s famous. I could tell you all the juicy rumors I’ve heard about him, but we don’t need to do that now, do we?”

So I guess for the time being, I should take it that Daiya and Iroha had heard enough bad things about Kamiuchi to put them on guard against him.

“Now then, I’m going to share one other extremely interesting tidbit with you.”

“…What is it?”

“The Revolutionary didn’t want to kill Yanagi.”

“…Huh?”

My mouth hangs open.

“Hoo boy… Do I really have to lay everything out for you? The King has another command aside from Murder, you know.”

“Ah!”

That’s right—he also has Switch Places.

If the King used that command, it could result in Assassinate killing an unintended target.

“The Revolutionary was trying to kill me, not Yanagi.”

Daiya had smelled the danger in the air, so he used Switch Places on the first day. That’s why Yuri, the Double, had gotten killed instead of him.

If that’s true, then it would be hard to say for sure that Kamiuchi’s anger was all an act, even if he really is the Revolutionary. After all, it would have been Daiya’s fault he killed Yuri, the girl he liked.

“I ascertained during my previous Private Meeting that Kamiuchi isn’t the Revolutionary. That means it’s impossible for the Revolutionary to be anyone other than Shindo.”

If everything Daiya says is true, that would mean Iroha killed Yuri accidentally.

And if that’s true…then it slightly changes the meaning of Iroha’s confession earlier.

She was forcing herself to find a reason why she had no choice but to kill Yuri so she could rationalize her guilt away.

—That might be one way of interpreting things.

“B-but…if so, then why were you being so vague during <B> period? If you just told us all that you were the King, it could’ve done away with the suspicion on you, right?”

“Revealing my own Class is about the stupidest plan I’ve ever heard of.”

“But you just told me…”

“That’s because I trust that you would never kill me.”

“Huh…?”

My eyes go wide, and Daiya scowls as if to say, Dammit. He then looks away from me, almost like he’s embarrassed.

…Did he say he trusts me? Daiya trusts in something?

“…I’ll explain why I said what I did during <B> period.”

Daiya launches into his explanation as if his last remark never left his mouth.

“I’ll start with my first goal: narrowing down the suspects. If I were the Revolutionary, I would naturally have known that Yanagi died because of Switch Places. I brought up the topic of why anyone would go after Yanagi so I could make the suspect slip up. That ended up failing, though.”

I nod and beckon him to keep going.

“And then there’s my other intent: to keep people from guessing I’m the King.”

“…Why did you need to do that?”

“The Revolutionary made me the scapegoat, namely so that I would be targeted for Murder. But if I’m the King, then that’s pointless. Obviously. After all, if I’m the King, then only I can pick who to Murder.”

The one who was actually selected for Murder is Iroha and not Daiya.

“So what do you think the Revolutionary would do if I not only didn’t work as a scapegoat but was a huge pain, since I was onto their lies?”

Daiya smiles as if this topic is pleasant.

“Kill me with Assassinate.”

I gulp audibly.

“That’s why it’s better to have them suspect as little as possible that I might be the King.”

I recall what Iroha said:

“You would have noticed all of this if you were the King or the Double, so I know you aren’t either of those Classes. So what does that leave us with?”

Yeah, now I see.

That exchange was meant to make Iroha think he wasn’t the King.

“……Oh.”

The speed of Daiya’s mind threatens to overwhelm me.

But—if it does, then maybe it’s okay to go along with what he says. He said he believes in me, and I can’t believe he was just acting… Or maybe I just don’t want to believe he was.

He’s my friend, after all.

Is it all right to trust Daiya? And if Iroha is the Revolutionary, is it also safe to say she’s the owner?

“Kazu.”

Daiya summons me out of my silence.

“Kill Iroha Shindo.”

“—That’s…”

“If you use Magic, neither you nor Otonashi will have any more dangerous bridges to cross, and you can find the solution to this Box. All it takes is one little act of determination on your part to free yourself from everything. No, you have to kill her. Are you prepared to let my resolve go to waste?”

I know that the suggestion Daiya cut me off with is the smart answer.

But…

“I won’t use Magic.”

That answer won’t change.

“If you’re saying Iroha is the owner, then I’ll find some way to persuade her to reveal the Box.”

“Even though your hesitation may end up killing you and Otonashi?”

“That’s right.”

Daiya snorts in derision at my quick declaration.

“I commend you on keeping up your patented ‘good boy’ act even in a killing game. Guess you’re planning to have faith in her being a good person, too? That’s about the worst case of sugarcoating I’ve ever seen. Take a look at my arms. Your rotten values have given me goose bumps so big I could use my skin as a washboard. What’re you going to do about that?”

“…Sorry.”

For some reason I apologize, even though I’m the one being slandered here. But…I don’t know, it just feels like another one of those back-and-forths we always have in class.

“But I knew all that,” Daiya says, pointedly rubbing his arm. “I knew what you’d probably say.” He has a resigned smirk on his face.

“…Heh-heh.”

“You freak me out. How the hell is your brain wired that you laugh when someone’s making fun of you?”

Come on, though. It’s so totally Daiya to show me respect while he’s insulting me.

And that’s when I become certain.

Daiya is telling the truth.

Day 2 <D> The Common Area

The Revolutionary—and the owner of the Game of Indolence—is Iroha Shindo.

That’s the conclusion I’ve reached. I have to find some way to get through to her and keep her from doing anything else crazy.

It should be possible. She’s not such a horrible person to just totally disregard the lives of others, after all. That’s why there has to be some way out of this, no matter how difficult it may seem.

Or so I thought.

How could I have been so incredibly naive?

“Ah— Aaaaah…”

Someone is gasping.

A red puddle grows, threating to reach my feet. I stand rooted in place, not even thinking of avoiding it.

“Kamiuchi!”

Maria’s yell snaps me back to my senses. I realize what exactly it is at my feet.

“Ah—”

That spreading red puddle…is blood.

I know that. I understand. But I’m trying not to process why it keeps growing and growing, growing and growing and growing and growing and growing and growing.

I slowly kneel down and gently touch the face near my feet. I’m answered with an almost teasing smile.

That expression is so typical for the one making it that I can’t help but say the name:

“……Iroha.”

Splish, splish, splish…

What’s that sound?

Splish. It’s footsteps. Each step leaves a red footprint on the floor. Splish, splish. The guy making that sound goes and sits in a chair as if nothing has happened at all.

Even though he plunged a knife into Iroha.

“Kamiuchi, why…?”

“Why? Hoshino, you sure do say some funny things. I did it because if I left her alive, she would’ve killed us all. Naturally, I had to stop her, right?”

“But there could’ve been another way…”

I stop short in the middle of what I was going to say.

Kamiuchi’s hands are shaking hard. He, too, notices this almost ridiculous level of trembling and suddenly begins giggling (“Heh…heh-heh-heh…”) in a way that’s completely inappropriate for the situation.

I’m sure Kamiuchi learned in his Private Meeting with Daiya that Iroha was the Revolutionary, and he got it into his head that he’d be killed if he didn’t do something.

But to think that would drive him straight to violence… Ah, now I get it. Daiya and Iroha were right to be on guard against him.

“Ungh…,” she moans.

Maria, who had been standing somewhere in a daze, snaps out of it and rushes over to Iroha. She begins looking over her body, trying to find a way to treat her—

—and then steps away without saying a single word.

“……I see. A scapegoat…,” Iroha says, then with a big cough, spits up some blood. “Whoa, I’m coughing up blood… I really screwed up… How lame…,” she whispers in a nearly inaudible voice.

“……”

I can’t say anything.

Even though there’s a woman coughing up blood in front of me, dying before me, I think:

This might be for the best.

“I’m sorry.” Iroha’s eyes close… She’s too weak to keep them open any longer. “……I’m sorry for cursing you…as I planned.”

In a small voice, as if mustering the last of her strength, she struggles to say:

“…I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.”

“—What?”

Those are her final words.

She’s sorry she couldn’t save me?

I continue staring at her motionless form as I come to grasp the meaning of her words.

Iroha knew there was someone dangerous among us who would murder Yuri without a second thought. Knowing this, she had no choice but to kill that person.

She took the forefront in Kingdom Royale, a game where the more you stand out, the more suspicious you are. With her strong sense of responsibility, she did this to turn the situation in a better direction, regardless of the danger she was placing herself in.

—She was prepared to let her life fall into ruin.

To protect her own life.

To protect all our lives.

“……Ah.”

I reach down and touch her face once more.

But she doesn’t show me that teasing smile again.

She’s motionless. Not breathing. Not alive.

And despite this, the Game of Indolence has not ended.

“……”

I stand up.

Slowly, so slowly, I turn my head to look at him.

Daiya Oomine is touching the earrings in his right ear with a blank expression on his face.