17 Chapter 3: Hollow Trust and Empty Alibis Part 4

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… After some time, I couldn't tell you how long, my mind came back to me, and I slowly woke up, gaining by bearings and surroundings again, getting a sense of deja vu.

"Look, who decided to wake up." This was my warm welcome, given by none other than Mia. Once my vision had fully returned, I noticed the layout of the room we were in.

It was a circular, empty room, large enough to fit all of us comfortably, but small enough for me to see almost everyone without needing to turn that far. All of us were up against the wall in different parts of the room and I quickly noticed why. Chains around our ankles were along enough to allow us to stand, but not to do much else.

"Oh, not again." I whined, looking down at my shackle. I looked around again, and saw that I was the last one to wake up, as per usual. Once I had stood up and fully got my head back in the game, the loudspeaker turned on.

"I apologize for the sudden use of chloroform gas. There was no other way of comfortably getting you all in here." They said, sounding at least a little bit remorseful. Poppy then called out respectfully.

"Ya could've just like, gotten us inta this room and locked the door dipshit. I think ya just have a fetish for unconscious people!" Her comment made the Loudspeaker go silent for a brief moment.

"You raise a good point. I'll make sure to write that down." They responded, sounding surprisingly shocked at the revelation, "In any case however, you all may begin the trial for contestant Ceáser Balad. You may talk amongst yourselves until you have decided on who the culprit is, and then let me know. Once that has been decided on, you will all point to who the culprit is, as a way to vote."

"If you vote for the correct person, they will be taken care of, and if you pick the wrong person, the real culprit gets to escape from here, while the rest of you will be taken care of," They explained, letting us understand the basic fundamentals of this twisted court case, "Good luck to you all. Court is now in session." After that brief speech, the Loudspeaker shut off for good, and we were all left to ourselves to figure out the mystery behind Ceáser's Death.

"So…" I started off, trying to fend of the suspicious glares, "Why don't we start with the people we know are confirmed to be innocent…"

"I am almost certain that the list you are referring to only includes Ms. Poppy, Mr. Urkstin, and myself." Liam explained, knocking himself off the suspect list.

"Well, at least that's a solid three out of ten." Joseph responded, finding the bright side of every situation.

"Right, now how about we get to one of the biggest suspects." Mia called out, in a way which I already knew who she was referring to, "Aka Nishinzu, what were you doing around the time of death?"

"...Sleeping." I replied, knowing full well that no one would believe me.

"Do we have anyone to confirm that alibi?" Mia asked, also knowing how weak my alibi was.

"...Technically no." I shot back, not letting anyone speak.

"And you knew about Balad right from the get-go, correct?" She continued.

"...Yes." I answered, already sounding a bit defeated.

"Alright, that is why you are at the top of the suspect list. Hopefully that cleared it up for you, and everyone else." Mia finished, seeming quite proud of her detective work.

"Well, hey!" Urkstin chimed in, "Can I ask a question?"

"You uh, you don't have to ask, lad." Jambo replied.

"O-oh, well, I was just gonna ask, why would Aka tell us about Ceáser the day after his death if she was the one that, y'know." Urkstin explained, trying to explain himself as best as he can.

"Hm, Mr. Urkstin does raise a fairly good point." Liam added.

"Well, couldn't she have just told us so suspicion would be taken off of her?" Akira questioned, still firmly believing me to be the culprit.

"If that was the case, do ya think that worked very well?" Poppy retorted.

"W-Well… Uh…." Akira stammered, realizing how flawed her logic was.

"If Ms. Aka had committed this crime, I think it would have been more logical to keep her knowledge of her crime, and the late Ceáser's existence a secret for as long as she could possibly manage." Liam explained, backing me up as well.

"W-Well, wh-what if she's j-just a bad k-k-k-k-killer?!" Jinju cried out.

"Really, that's the evidence you're gonna use?" I questioned, offended at the comment.

"N-No! I-I-I was just throwing th-that out…" He replied, backing down.

"All I have been saying is that she doesn't have a proper alibi, and has a connection to the victim, so she is a prime suspect." Mia restated, "If you can give yourself a good alibi, I'd be glad to take you off the suspect list."

"Fine," I responded, "How about the fact that Poppy and I were planning on getting Ceáser out of his shackle the day after we all woke up?"

"You what?" Mia responded, a bit taken back by my statement.

"Oh yeah! Kaa and I were planning on getting Ceáserino out, but then the door was locked, and there was a note that was all like, 'hurr durr he broke a rule' and we couldn't get in!"

"He... broke a rule?" Risa questioned.

"She must be referring to the rule in which you will be punished for staying out of your room past the nighttime curfew." Joseph responded.

"Well that's a bit dickish. Man couldn't get back to his cell at all!" Jambo argued, angered at the sadistic nature of the rules.

"Of course, and yet the one behind all of this found it humorous to torture this poor man for a rule he had no knowledge of." Liam said, almost as if he was reciting a tragedy.

"Wait... what if... What if Ceáser died from the punishments!" Akira called out, slamming her fist on the wall, a bit too dramatically.

"That… would fall in line with this sadistic bastard's actions." Risa replied, disgusted at the thought of the one behind this.

"Y-Yeah! H-he broke the r-rules three n-nights in a r-row, and his p-p-punishment was d-d-d-death!" Jinju screamed out, almost convinced at the idea.

"But I thought the instructions for this trial say that one of us will always be the culprit?" Ursktin questioned.

"That's true, but this tweaker prolly doesn't care, as long as there is a murder." Jambo responded.

All the while, hearing everyone agree upon the idea of a punishment death, I had been slowly trying to piece together what actually happened, and I wanted to stop this as soon as possible.

"I… don't buy that." I said, out loud.

"What was that, hun?" Risa called out.

"I don't believe that Ceáser died from his punishment." I responded, slowly piecing together the story.

"H-how? I-it all makes s-sense!" Jinju retorted, continuing to push for this explanation.

"Not all of it, I think." I answered, looking through my notes.

"Nishinzu. You'd better at least provide some explanation besides just telling us that we're wrong."

"..." I was too busy looking for the right things that I didn't even register Mia speaking to me.

"Well!?"

"Ok, ok! Sorry, I was looking for what I was thinking of." I responded, before holding up my notebook on a certain page.

On this page was something incredibly simple, but damning to understand that Ceáser hadn't died from a punishment whatsoever. Or at least, I thought it would help understand that truth.