The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria
Book 4: Chapter 4

🔶 Day 1 <B> The Common Area

All six of us are here, in the white room that looks like it’s from a newly built hospital.

It seems Daiya took care of Iroha’s knifepoint threats as he had in the second game, because no one put a blade to my throat.

Thanks to that, things didn’t spiral too far out of control, and events followed a similar course to the second game. Unsurprisingly, we end up introducing ourselves at Koudai Kamiuchi’s suggestion again.

I mull over how to gain control of everyone as I listen to their introductions.

“I’m Iroha Shindo. My hobby is—”

Iroha is the student council president. Her watch is orange. She’s tremendously gifted. According to her, her superhuman talents are supported by exceptional powers of focus. She behaves impulsively and almost never lies. Maybe it’s part of being at the top, but Iroha can be a bit oblivious to the intricacies of how the mind works, her own included. Once she’s prepared for the worst, she’s capable of completely shutting off her emotions and even committing murder.

Iroha does like Yuri, but the feeling also appears to be the result of rationalizing the negative emotions of a complicated romantic situation to make them easier to process.

In short, her relationship with Yuri has the potential to blow up.

If I can gain Iroha’s trust, I can’t imagine she’ll betray me. She has the ability to take charge, so she would be a valuable person to have on my side.

“I-I’m Yuri Yanagi.”

Yuri is the top of Year 3, Class 1. Her watch is beige. Unlike Iroha, she’s shy, sensitive to others’ emotions, and even capable of manipulating how others see her. Yuri also has a ruthless streak, and she’s willing to use any goodwill she gains this way if it will help her survive. Sometimes she fakes the emotions she shows, making her hard to read.

But in general, she’s easily frightened and has a good heart. She would never commit a crime if she wasn’t cornered.

There is a part of Yuri that doesn’t think of Iroha as simply a good friend.

In short, her relationship with Iroha has the potential to blow up.

Winning her trust is not as important as making her feel safe by demonstrating the advantages of working with us.

“Koudai Kamiuchi here. Pleased to meet ya.”

Koudai Kamiuchi is a first-year student. His watch is green. He’s a dangerous person with no compunctions about murder, and he even seems to be enjoying all of this. The deciding factor for his actions is how much fun he expects to have, and he doesn’t appear to have much regard for his own life, all of which makes him difficult to predict. For some reason, Kamiuchi is also no stranger to violence. If it comes down to a fight, Maria or even Daiya doesn’t stand a chance against him one-on-one.

Kamiuchi has a thing for Yuri, but that doesn’t mean he actually cares for her.

There’s no point in gaining his trust, and I will never trust him, either. Kamiuchi is the one person in this who is unmistakably my enemy. If I want to beat him, my only option will most likely be to trap him so that he can’t kill anyone.

“I’m Daiya Oomine.”

His watch is black.

Daiya is the owner of this Box, the Game of Indolence, but his stance in Kingdom Royale is unclear.

I can’t possibly come up with a way to beat him.

“I’m Maria Otonashi, first-year student.”

Her watch is red. The princess.

“—Phew, ack!”

My knees buckle beneath me. I was thinking so hard, I didn’t notice Maria’s introduction had ended, and I unconsciously sighed in relief.

“…What’re you doing, Kazuki? Playing the space cadet for sympathy points?”

Maria gives me a reproachful look, and Yuri giggles at us.

All the same—analyzing the others as if I’m strategizing to beat the game doesn’t feel very praiseworthy, though I really don’t have a choice… But the actual problem is that everyone here aside from me is an NPC…

I don’t think that matters, though. Even if they don’t have any memory of the three games before this, and even if their survival here has no effect on their real versions, these NPCs are no different from the actual people.

“It’s your turn,” Maria says suddenly.

“Huh? For what?”

“Don’t play dumb. I’m saying it’s your turn to introduce yourself.”

“Oh yeah.”

I start to open my mouth—then hesitate.

…Right. I can’t introduce myself and leave it at that. If I act like I’m just as clueless as everyone else here now, that initial secrecy might give them doubts later on.

That said, it’s dangerous to come out and reveal everything I know at this point. If say the wrong thing, I could end up making them wary of me.

“…Why are you being so quiet, Kazuki?”

“Uh, it’s just—”

But the easiest opportunity to speak about the Game of Indolence without arousing suspicion is before Noitan explains the rules. I have to bring a few things to light.

The important thing is choosing what information to reveal.

I steel my nerves and start talking.

“I’m Kazuki Hoshino, second-year student. Daiya is my classmate, and I met Maria during some stuff that happened before she came to our school. And—”

I swallow once, then continue:

“—I’m the Knight.”

I can almost see the question marks in everyone’s expressions.

“…Hoshino. By ‘knight,’ do you mean a knight starting with a k?” Iroha asks.

“Yeah.”

“Oh, you startled me. For a second, I thought you were saying you were ‘the night,’ as opposed to ‘the day.’ Anyway, is ‘knight’ a metaphor for something? Or maybe it’s—”

She gets cut off midsentence.

“H​e​Y​ ​h​E​y​ ​h​e​y​. S​e​E​M​s​ ​l​i​k​e​ ​s​o​M​E​O​N​e​ ​i​s​ ​g​I​V​i​n​g​ ​h​i​m​S​E​L​F​ ​a​w​a​y​ ​h​e​r​e​ ​s​O​ ​I​ ​m​i​G​H​T​ ​a​s​ ​w​e​L​L​ ​t​E​L​l​ ​y​o​u​ ​a​b​o​u​t​ ​K​i​n​g​d​o​m​ ​R​o​y​a​l​e​.”

“A​n​Y​W​a​Y​ ​I​ ​w​i​s​h​ ​y​o​u​ ​a​l​l​ ​G​O​O​d​ ​l​u​c​k​.​ ​D​o​N’T ​l​e​t​ ​t​h​e​ ​g​a​m​e​ ​E​N​d​ ​w​i​t​h​ ​S​O​m​e​ ​b​O​R​I​n​g​ ​o​u​t​C​O​m​e​ ​w​h​e​r​e​ ​Y​o​U​ ​a​r​e​ ​a​l​l​ ​m​u​M​M​I​f​i​e​d​.”

Once he finishes explaining the rules of Kingdom Royale, Noitan disappears.

“So how about you explain yourself, Hoshino?” Iroha asks. She was giving me frequent suspicious glances while Noitan was talking. “How is it that only you knew about Kingdom Royale at that point? And why are you the only one who knows your Class? None of us are supposed to know it right now.”

Yep, this is what comes of revealing my Class. As of this moment, I’m now a villain who somehow possesses information none of the others have access to.

I’m the villain whom Iroha tries to uncover each game, even threatening us with her knife.

“…But…” Yuri’s the one to respond to Iroha’s question, not me. “He can’t be telling us his Class to get the advantage, right? Clearly, keeping quiet and fooling the rest of us would’ve been better for winning the game…”

“I mean, I guess that’s true, but what’s your point?”

“What I’m saying is that I wonder if Hoshino purposely put himself at a disadvantage to keep the game from going according to plan for the one who created it.”

Excellent. She understands why I went to the trouble of revealing myself as the Knight.

“…So he put himself at a disadvantage… Okay. I guess I can see that.” Iroha’s stern expression softens slightly as if in understanding. “So the problem now is, why did he do it?” she says, fixing me with a sharp gaze.

I answer with a calm nod.

“There’s something I need you to believe.”

The other way to win the game.

“If no one kills anyone else for eight days, you can survive.”

Daiya had told me this.

“There’s a way out of Kingdom Royale without fulfilling your victory conditions.”

Everyone waits with bated breath.

“We won’t all end up mummified. That outcome doesn’t exist. Basically, if we can all make it to the <E> time block of day eight alive, then the game is forced to end.”

This is my goal, and I’m sure everyone prefers this strategy as well.

I mean, it’s not like everyone wants to kill one another in Kingdom Royale. If they wanted to survive, or to save everyone else, they had no choice but to murder. The only reason Yuri and Iroha took others’ lives when they were players was because they decided it was the only solution.

Presenting them with another option will prevent that first murder. That’s why I have to make sure I tell them that, at least.

“Now that you mention it…Noitan did say something to that effect, didn’t he? That he didn’t want us to go and do something boring like getting mummified. If you think about it from another angle…maybe that’s what he was getting at,” Yuri says quietly. If she’s searching for a reason to believe me, she’s taking my revelation the way I hoped.

Obviously, it’s easy to accept information that suits your purposes. All I need to do is keep revealing facts bit by bit like this, and then eventually, I can tell them about the Box and Daiya being the owner.

Yeah, this is going well.

If everyone works toward the same goal, we can’t possibly have any murders.

That is—

“Gotta say, I’m not convinced.”

—as long as there aren’t any naysayers.

Among us is Koudai Kamiuchi, who needs us to kill one another so he can enjoy the game of Kingdom Royale.

“Do you have something to add?”

At Iroha’s question, Koudai Kamiuchi smiles lightly and replies while scratching his head.

“Well, I think it’s obvious my man Hoshino here is involved with Kingdom Royale somehow. But is that enough of a reason to just buy whatever solution he throws at us?”

I look at Yuri’s eyes, and I can see the unease in her expression deepening.

“For all we know, this whole ‘solution’ of his could be a big fat lie. Hoshino could just be saying this because that’s what he wants us to believe, right?”

“That’s…not true.”

“Easy for you to say. Got any proof?”

I fall silent. How do I explain? How much do I need to say to get him to believe me? I can’t possibly tell if he will, even if I reveal everything.

“Why can’t you explain yourself? If you’re really trying to lead us with good intentions, you shouldn’t have anything to hide, don’t you think?”

When I fail to offer up a counterargument, he presses further.

“So you’ve got nothing… I see. Well, as it turns out, I’ve found a good theory.”

“…Huh?”

“You’re a spy. If we assume Hoshino is actually a plant trying to mess with our heads even more, then everything falls into place nicely.”

The word is a powerful one. It recasts everything that came out of my mouth and instills distrust.

I can see the growing wariness in Yuri’s eyes.

Iroha furrows her brows.

With no knowledge of the past games, neither girl has a reason to trust one of us over the other.

“……Ngh.”

This is bad. I’ll never become the king like this, much less convince them to believe me. On the contrary, they’ll probably come to see me as an enemy.

My head droops under all the cold stares. I can’t think of a single word that could get me out of this mess.

Is this it?

Is this how it ends?

Is there really no way for me to beat the Game of Indolence?

Koudai Kamiuchi’s lips twitch up; he’s assured of his victory—

“That’s enough, Kamiuchi.”

—but his malicious grin vanishes at the sound of her voice.

Maria.

Just the way she speaks up at all sets my mind at ease. I smile.

That’s right; she always saves me. Everything will be okay. I’ll be fine now—

“—Oh.”

…No. What am I feeling relieved about?

Relying on her like this has always led to the worst-possible outcomes. I should have learned that more than well enough by now from the previous games.

But…even though I know this, even though I have to help Maria instead of letting her help me, here I am falling back on her again.

“Quit trying to set up Kazuki.”

Koudai Kamiuchi’s eyes widen, and he spreads his arms. “Hey now, don’t go getting the wrong idea. If anything, Hoshino’s the one trying to set us up.”

“If so, then why are you inviting confusion?”

“…What do you mean?”

“You don’t understand? That proves you don’t have a reliable character.”

“Whoa, whoa… Why is that?”

“I’ll tell you why. If you looked at this like a normal person, you would want to go along with Kazuki’s plan whether you believed it or not. And even if you were to raise doubts about his idea, you’d most likely pick a different way of confronting him about it.”

“You sure? If Hoshino is fishy, I should call him out, right?”

“Not like that. What Kazuki is suggesting will prevent any mutual bloodshed. Even if you don’t know his intentions, his plan repudiates a certain kind of situation that you should want to avoid as well. And yet, here you are strongly denying what he says. You’re vehemently contradicting someone who has a plan to prevent us from killing one another.”

Koudai Kamiuchi shuts his mouth.

“You do understand the danger of such an act, don’t you? In one sense, it could set us on the path to murder. Even if you are trying to warn the rest of us, you should be taking more care… Unless you’re actually trying to get us all to play the game.”

Koudai Kamiuchi is quiet for a moment, then begins to defend himself with a rueful grin.

“…Well, I can’t deny I overdid it a bit. All the same, why doesn’t Hoshino have anything to say for himself?”

“Even you must be able to tell that where we are isn’t exactly normal, right?” she abruptly retorts.

Koudai Kamiuchi presses his lips together in a frown. “Yeah, I guess so… Your point?”

“We’re actually in a hyperspace dimension created by aliens from Sirius so they can observe the ecology of earthlings.”

“……Uh, what?”

This must be exactly the reaction she expected. Maria smirks. “Do you believe me?”

“…No, of course I don’t.”

“Then what do you believe is the reason we’ve been drawn into this space?”

Koudai Kamiuchi scowls at Maria’s question.

“I don’t care if it’s a lie or a tall tale or whatever. Give us an acceptable explanation for why this place exists.”

After thinking a moment, he replies, “…Nah, I can’t.”

“So if Kazuki does know the truth, and it turns out to be something as outlandish as my little story about aliens from Sirius, do you really think he would share it right here and now? Do you think he could say it if he knew that it would unquestionably put him at a disadvantage?”

“……”

Having weathered the verbal beatdown, Koudai Kamiuchi steals a quick glance at me.

His mouth has that same little smirk as always. But in his eyes—

“……Urk.”

—there’s a gleam of madness he can’t quite conceal.

It was only visible for a second, so it’s possible I’m the only one who noticed it. A seemingly carefree grin rises on Koudai Kamiuchi’s face, and he flings his arms wide dramatically.

“Fine, fine, I lose. Sorry, I got too caught up in trying to get to the bottom of my suspicions and didn’t think about the rest of you enough,” he says, and I can tell his expression puts Yuri and Iroha at ease a bit.

But I know the truth. That smile is dangerous. It’s an artful disguise for his insanity. I was deceived and failed in the past because of it.

But for now, I’ve been spared from the worst-case scenario where everyone turns against me.

Still—

“There’s nothing to worry about, Kazuki. I’ll protect you.”

My hands clench.

No. It won’t work like this.

If Koudai Kamiuchi can overcome me so easily, if I’m this weak, then this Box is absolutely going to overwhelm me.

And Maria will lose her life to the Game of Indolence.

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