Do What You Know is Right

Not long afterward, light returned once more. Signaling the beasts coming closer, there were two growls followed by a loud howl.

Everyone briefly looked around, at each other before once again, Caden started the conversation.

"Like last time, we can reveal our investigations. I investigated Lily, and got innocent."

Caden saw Lily as innocent.

"...For me she was guilty."

Malik saw Lily as guilty.

"Hehe, I got Malik as good!"

Jack saw Malik as innocent.

"I also got guilty for Lily. Though all of mine so far are guilty, so it hardly matters."

Rowan saw Lily as guilty.

"Um, I think I got innocent for Lily."

Lily tilted her head to the side and smiled.

"I found Malik guilty!"

Lily saw Malik as guilty.

Rowan was the first to speak up after all the results were revealed to each other.

"Since Caden was the only person to have only innocent results, that means he must be the Naive, and thereby is a confirmed innocent person. Similarly, I was the only one to have guilty results, I must be the Paranoid. Although that doesn't necessarily mean our claims are correct, they should be listened to while keeping in mind we are innocent."

Elena clicked her tongue and crossed her arms.

"Whatever, just hurry up and figure out who it is already."

Caden narrowed his eyes slightly, putting his elbows on the table and interlocking his fingers.

"Although it isn't certain, Lily and Malik appear to be the most likely as the actual trapper. Assuming that Elena is the Fool, and Malik is the Unbiased, that would mean Lily is the Trapper. Though it could also be that Jack is the fool and Lily is the Unbiased. Regardless, the Crazy and Trapper have coordinated their stories, whether intentional or not."

Lily's eyes widened slightly.

"Then it must be one of them! I'm a hunter as well. If I'm not the crazy one, then I think it should be Malik, since I could be the Unbiased instead!"

Malik didn't seem particularly shaken up by that accusation.

"If that's the case, then we can simply investigate me and have the remaining ones go to Elena, which should clear things up quite clearly. Don't you think so?"

Caden slowly nodded.

"There is no reason for us not to use the last day of investigations. Thankfully, these results significantly narrow down who they could possibly be. Those that haven't will investigate Malik, otherwise, they will go to Elena. As for Elena herself, just investigate Rowan since there isn't much point in doing anybody else."

Elena didn't seem to understand any of that but nodded and went along anyway.

Lily didn't appear to be paying attention, instead, she was pressing the tip of her finger against the bird's beak. It playfully pushed back, though its gaze constantly shifted between the others.

Night fell once again.

Jack pondered just for a second before he flipped over the 2 of clubs, the card representing Elena. It turned to show the trapper. At this point, Jack's eyes widened a little bit.

"...Did I make a mistake?"

He scratched the side of his head. His eyes unfocused slightly as he licked his lips before swallowing his saliva. Despite making use of his parasitic flower, he hadn't eaten recently. His thoughts were drifting off a bit from what they probably should've been on.

Once everyone reappeared once more, Jack was in the process of pulling out a paper bag with the jerky inside of it. Caden stared at him, blinking a few times.

"Um, what are you doing?"

Jack was in the process of reaching down to get a piece of jerky, but stopped.

"I want to eat some food!"

Caden let out a small sigh, waving his hand.

"Just do that later. This is the most important round, since it's our last one. After our game is over, you can just eat then. It would be best to focus."

Jack pouted slightly, reluctantly putting away the bag of jerky.

"Ok..."

At the same time, Elena was holding onto the side of her head, furrowing her brows slightly. However, she got over it soon after.

Caden then waved his hand.

"My results are insignificant since I'm the Naive, but I did investigate Malik finding him innocent."

Caden found Malik innocent.

"It told me that Elena was innocent."

Malik found Elena innocent.

"I guess I saw Elena as guilty..."

Jack found Elena guilty.

"Mine doesn't matter either, but Malik was guilty to me."

Rowan found Malik guilty.

"I... what was it again?"

When it was Elena's turn to speak up, she couldn't answer immediately. Silence fell as everyone looked at her with various different expressions. Malik spoke slowly, almost as though he doubted his ears.

"You... forgot? Or..."

Elena pressed her eyelids together extremely tightly, almost like she was in pain.

"I definitely didn't forget it... but when I try to recall it slips away. I-I know I investigated Malik. Was it... Hunter or Trapper? It must've been Trapper, right? But no... it might have also been Hunter."

Lily put both hands on her sides.

"It told me that Elena was a Hunter! Looking at her now, it's pretty clear she's the crazy one, no? That means it has to be Malik! I knew you were suspicious when you rejected the win-win proposition and wanted to keep everything to yourself!"

Malik didn't respond, instead furrowing his brows for a little while. As for Jack, he scratched the side of his head, quite confused by this situation. He looked off into the distance as he thought about it to himself.

Caden slammed his hand against the table.

"Elena, you can't be serious. Your investigation is a big deal in determining who actually the Trapper is. This concerns your life as well."

Elena went silent for a while, putting both hands on her face. After a good few seconds had passed, she slowly spoke up.

"I... I think it was Trapper. It has to be."

Lily pointed at him accusingly.

"Whether or not it was doesn't matter. My results combined with Jack show that it has to be Malik."

Malik spoke up after thinking for a while.

"Is it true that the trapper cannot be anyone else but us two? Elena's actions do seem to indicate she has lost her mind."

Caden let out a small sigh.

"Assuming that Elena actually remembered properly, and nobody other than the Trapper has lied, it is indeed between the two of them. There is no other option."

Malik turned his head to Lily as though he could see her, though the blindfold seemed to suggest otherwise.

"You're the trapper?"

Lily raised her eyebrow defiantly.

"What? Did you finally figure out that you're supposed to defend yourself? We all know it's you, right Jack?"

She turned to Jack, clearly expecting a response. However, he was still looking off into the distance. While his eyes were unfocused, it seemed that many things were flashing by them.

Though the silence was a tad bit awkward, Lily was undeterred once again looking at Malik.

"We should vote him out sooner rather than later! What if there's a time limit?"

As soon as she said the word vote, tables materialized in front of each of them, in a flash of light, along with a large hourglass in the center. The sand slowly trickled down, showing that there was roughly ten minutes.

Rowan sucked in a painful breath.

"This... is really bad. We must coordinate our votes. If we don't vote out the Trapper, then all of us will lose. Looking purely at the probability, it's either Lily or Malik. Given Elena's uncertainty, there is a higher chance that Malik is the Trapper... but there's no guarantees."

Caden clenched his fist. A deep frown formed on his face, his composure that he held onto for so long nowhere to be seen.

"Shit! You two make cases for yourself, no more than a few minutes each."

Lily held out her hands and looked around.

"You heard Rowan, it makes more sense for Malik to be the Trapper. Besides, he has hardly even tried to defend himself. He doesn't know what to say."

Malik only leaned back while rubbing the tip of one of his knuckles against his chin.

"I've thought about it, but I cannot think of anything that would prove my innocence. The only thing that I know is that I'm innocent and that's about it. What should I say?"

"Not something soulless like that."

"I don't see how your argument is any different from mine."

Caden shook his head while cradling it in his arms.

"Fuck. Logically, they are both effectively the same, aren't they?"

Elena furrowed her brows, quite frustrated.

"So who am I supposed to vote for?"

Caden clenched his fist.

"This wouldn't be so difficult if you didn't have short-term memory loss!"

Jack blinked a few times, returning to the present. He looked over at Malik as a small smile formed on his face.

"Do what you know is right."