The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria
Book 4: Chapter 5

🔶 Day 1 <C> Kazuki Hoshino’s Room

YOUR CLASS IS THE KNIGHT.

That obvious message is displayed on the monitor.

Everyone else must have seen this screen, too, by this point. All I can do is pray they somehow got Classes that’ll work out well for me.

“Hey, dumbass, don’t go blabbing about secrets. What’re you going to do if the game is completely boring, you hypocrite? I want a refund.”

Noitan keeps needling me after he appears, but of course I don’t have a reply for him.

“Pick who you want for a Private Meeting, scum.”

Noitan and his bloodshot eyes disappear, replaced by portraits of the six players.

A Private Meeting, huh? There’s really only one person I would pick. My hand reaches almost reflexively for Maria’s picture—but then stops.

Choosing Maria isn’t a mistake. I’m absolutely going to need her help if I want to save her.

But…I reached for her reflexively. Before even really thinking.

Is that because I decided in an instant that my choice was correct?

…Of course it wasn’t. Even after that mess just a bit ago, I’m still unconsciously relying on Maria.

That’s why I need to pick someone else, regardless of whether it’s the right or wrong choice.

I need to sever my reliance on Maria.

“I’ll fight this battle on my own.”

I’ll choose the opponent I’m going to defeat first.

My arm is still hovering, and I reach out again. I’m going after—

“O​h​ ​h​O​.​ ​A​n​ ​u​n​E​X​p​e​c​T​E​D​ ​c​h​o​i​C​E​.”

—Iroha Shindo.

I will be the king.

The first step to that end will be taking control of Iroha.

🔶 Day 1 <C> Private Meeting with Daiya Oomine – Kazuki Hoshino’s Room

Though I’m completely focused on my Private Meeting with Iroha, my conference with Daiya comes first. This means he chose me more quickly than I chose Iroha.

It’s a bit of a letdown, since all I want to do is talk to Iroha, but I quickly regain my composure.

This is one person I can’t afford to slip up with.

Daiya enters my room immediately when the time arrives. His intense stare is fixed on me even before he sits down on the table.

“…Are you really Kazuki Hoshino?”

“Huh?”

That’s a strange question.

Even though the others are the copies, the ones who aren’t real, Daiya doesn’t realize this.

Wait, if he’s asking me this, he must be unaware that he is the owner of the Game of Indolence. Daiya’s NPC is competing under the same conditions as the rest of the NPCs.

…Wait a second. That means—

“……Daiya, what do you think of this Box?”

“You’ve got a lot of nerve ignoring my question and asking one of your own… But fine, I’ll give you an answer.”

Daiya spits out his response in obvious displeasure:

“It’s a worthless piece of garbage.”

I knew it.

“It accomplishes nothing, just makes people play a killing game. It has no reason to exist.”

This Daiya thinks the same way as the Daiya in the second game.

What he’s saying is almost exactly the same as what he said back then. It makes complete sense now that I think about it. Daiya’s NPCs don’t retain memories. If they don’t have any additional information, naturally they’re going to do the same things.

And I’m certain the Daiya in the second game—

“Who the hell would play a disgusting game like this?”

—wanted to put a stop to Kingdom Royale.

In other words, the Daiya NPC here with me now shares that goal. You could even say he’s my ally.

No, Daiya isn’t the only one on my side. None of the other NPCs, aside from Koudai Kamiuchi, should be actively wanting to kill anyone else. The ones who actually did so in order to survive were the players who believed they had no other options and knew that all the others were NPCs.

…I might have a chance of winning this after all.

“Daiya, there’s something I want you to hear me out on, okay?”

“What is it?”

“You’re dangerous.”

“…What the hell? I know I must seem like a dangerous person to others. I’m sure I could kill someone if it came down to it, after all… Is that it? Why say something like that now? You hoping to give me a lecture for my perilous ways?”

“…No. I wasn’t saying you’re a threat. I meant it in the sense that you’re the one at greatest risk—basically, the one with the highest chance of being murdered.”

“What kind of crap is—?” Daiya suddenly cuts himself off. “No, maybe it isn’t crap… Whether I’m first in line or not, I can understand how my personality would make me an easy target. Others might decide I’m a threat because of it.”

“That’s not all,” I say, and Daiya regards me silently. “It’s also because you’re the owner.”

“What? Cut the crap. I know I’m an owner, but there’s no way in hell I’m the owner of this Box.”

Right—Daiya criticized this Box for being unproductive during the second game, too. That coming from a guy who used a Box just because he was bored…

Maybe all that stuff about trying to break the tedium was just a lie? Could he actually have had an ulterior motive he didn’t want me to know about? And maybe not even the Daiya NPCs can see through the real Daiya’s intentions?

…I don’t know, but it’s best to set all those complications aside for now.

“…Regardless of whether it’s true or not, Maria thinks you’re the one behind Kingdom Royale. If that idea spreads, I think there’s a good chance everyone will get the wrong idea and decide that if they crush your Box—if they kill you—that will solve everything.”

That’s the actual reason why Daiya was killed so fast during the second game.

“…Well, it does sound plausible. I have to say, I never thought someone would warn me off getting killed instead of killing someone else.”

Daiya fixes me with a sharp look as he speaks.

“There’s definitely something off about you. An idea like that would never come from Kazuki Hoshino even on his best day. Even if you did come up with it, you’d never be able to voice it with as much confidence as you did now. What’s up with you? It’s almost like you’ve seen this before—” He pauses. “…I see now… I fell for it. That must be why I thought your attitude toward Shindo and the others was off. This…isn’t the first time you’ve played Kingdom Royale, is it?”

Daiya never fails to impress.

One could easily come up with several other likely scenarios, but his ability to arrive directly at the truth with so little to go on is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

“…That look on your face tells me I’m right. But I don’t really care about the truth. It’s enough for me to know what you’re trying to make me do by getting that answer out of me. So, c’mon, spit it out.”

Daiya’s tone is authoritarian.

“Just as long as you’re prepared to be used.”

I choke back my words at that.

I had intended to use this Private Meeting to figure out how Daiya would act. Put another way, this meant I had not yet decided what to actually do with him.

However, I’ve learned that I share the same goal as the Daiya NPC.

Could this be the best chance I’ll get for us to work together?

I mean, I can’t really imagine any other situation where he would listen to me this earnestly. If I can convince him of what I’m saying, I may be able to keep him from being such an easy target. Even more importantly, I’d have his intelligence as a resource. That would be a huge step toward the finish line.

There are risks, of course. If Daiya really felt like it, he could easily use me just as he said he would. The thought doesn’t stem from weakheartedness; it’s just a fact based on my experiences during the first game.

Still—

“I know all about how the Game of Indolence works.”

No, this is no time to keep quiet about things. I think…it was bound to turn out this way from the moment I revealed myself as the Knight.

“There’s a lot I want to talk about, but for now, I’ll stArt_by telling you how things went during the three other rounds I’ve played of Kingdom Royale. In the first game—”

And so I begin my explanation.

Daiya listens, barely offering any comment at all.

Unable to finish my story in the remaining time, the Private Meeting comes to an end with a promise to tell him the rest during the next one.