The Results of the Votes

Lily briefly narrowed her eyes before smiling towards Jack.

"What do you mean by that? Surely you don't mean that he is innocent, you're on my side, aren't you?"

There was a slight disturbance Jack felt as though someone had just poked the side of his head, though other than that it was fairly harmless. He smiled back and tilted his head to the side.

"Eh? No, that's not what I meant. It was something entirely different!"

Lily let out a small laugh.

"I see, I see! Then all of us should vote, right? It's obvious that Malik simply was underprepared to take on the proper role, don't you think? That's why he's so clueless right now as the trapper."

Caden slowly spoke up.

"Don't you think you're being a little..."

Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly stopped. While most of his face was hidden, it was still easy to tell his face had frozen up, almost like somehow had taken a photo.

After a good ten seconds, he put one hand on the side of his head.

"Eh? I was definitely saying something right now. What was it about again?"

He looked over at Elena, who was cradling her head, clearly in quite some pain.

"Is this memory loss thing infectious?... Hopefully, we get out of here sooner rather than later."

Lily let out a laugh while holding her hands out.

"Then we should just vote Malik now and be done with it! After all, not even he seems to disagree with my opinion."

Rowan had opened his mouth, but as though the words were caught in his throat, he stopped speaking. He furrowed his brows before slowly speaking up once more.

"Huh... it does seem to be infectious, or perhaps is a punishment for taking too long. I had already forgotten what words I was about to say. We should do this quickly then. With all the data we have, it does point to Malik with the highest probability."

Malik didn't say anything, instead glancing over at Jack, though the blindfold made it hard to tell if he could actually see him or not.

Though Jack simply smiled, seemingly quite excited.

Elena sucked in a painful breath.

"What am I supposed to do? Someone tell me what to do."

Lily giggled.

"Didn't you hear? We're voting Malik. Just vote for him."

Elena slowly nodded.

"A-Alright..."

With the lack of resistance from Malik and Lily's coercion, three votes were cast. Elena, Caden, and Rowan had all voted for Malik. Lily similarly did the same, though not before pulling out a card and placing it on the table.

Jack didn't immediately do anything, instead staring at Malik, waiting for him to do something. In the end, he did, similarly pulling out a card and putting it down. Seeing this, Jack let out a giggle before pulling out a card of his own.

He then looked at the table in front of him. Along with all the other player's cards, there were also two indents with one labeled as 'Vote' and the other with 'Power'. He placed down a 4 in the power slot, while taking the 3 of diamonds card and putting it into vote.

The one that represented Lily.

It was fairly obvious to him that she was acting a little too strangely. However, it was as though all the others hadn't even noticed that, or that something was interrupting their judgment for that kind of thing.

The hourglass suddenly disappeared as he placed that card inside. The tables disassembled and some of the cards scattered into the air. In the end, what was left was only the vote they had made along with its power. Those cards rose above everyone's heads, revealing what each person had voted for along with its power.

Elena, Caden, and Rowan all voted for Malik, without adding any power to it.

Lily had also voted for Malik, but she added a 3 to increase her voting power.

On the other hand, Malik had used a 6 to increase his voting power. Upon seeing that, Lily couldn't help but laugh.

"You thought nobody would use a card to improve their voting power? Maybe you should've been less stingy, not that it would have mattered!"

Malik turned to her rather strangely.

"Eh? I thought I was the only blind person here. Are you perhaps also like that?"

"What are you..."

Lily's words were caught in her throat as she saw what Jack had voted for. It was her and with a power of four. Overall, there was a vote of 6 on Malik, while there was a total of 10 on Lily. Unfortunately, this wasn't a vote for a presidential election.

"Wh-What? How is this possible? But I could've sworn I successfully charmed him..."

Jack was rubbing his chin in interest, thinking back on the strange feeling of someone poking him earlier.

"You did that? That's really cool!"

Lily clenched her fists rather tightly before cursing.

"Shit! Another Hearts type? But... they're so rare. My luck really is horrible."

The other three were still in a bit of a daze, not fully understanding what was happening, Elena especially. A system prompt appeared in front of each person.

[There are ten votes for the 3 of diamonds

There are six votes for the 5 of hearts

By trial, the 3 of diamonds has been voted out!

The results of the trial show... the outcast was indeed the trapper! Congratulations to all those who voted correctly. You will now obtain the ability to command the beasts!]

With that, a deafening roar rang out as the foliage and trees acting as walls were ripped down by a variety of large beasts, some taking on forms of bigger than usual bears, gorillas, and elephants. There were even dinosaurs that eagerly appeared in front of them.

With a flash of light, a stick had appeared in Jack and Malik's hands. The tip was glowing with a peculiar orange light that was both bright, but not glaring.

Half of the beasts were looking at Malik while the other half were looking at Jack. Though it wasn't one of hostility, but rather subservience. It was fairly clear what was supposed to happen.

Elena still didn't seem to realize what was going on, still holding onto the sides of her head in pain. On the other hand, Caden and Rowan finally noticed something was wrong. Caden furrowed his brows.

"What? It was Lily? But of course it was her... she was too zealous for someone innocent. I realized that but somehow I forgot?"

Rowan cursed under his breath before looking at the massive monsters in front of him. Although he remained silent, it seemed that he was calculating his odds of survival. As for Lily, she seemed rather nervous. She smiled, though the corners were trembling slightly.

Yet, rather than fear, it seemed to be due to anger.

"H-Hey, we don't have to do anything drastic here. It's not as though you would gain anything from killing us."

Malik let out a small sigh, holding his arms out.

"I have no interest in these kinds of things. Even if the person involved is rather crude. Killing is a little too loud for my taste."

While she was letting out a sigh of relief, Jack walked over.

"If you don't have any interest, then could I have it?"

Malik handed it over without much thought.

"Sure."

Upon grabbing it, all the beasts now turned to Jack, waiting for his command. He raised both of them into the air. As for Lily, a rather desperate look appeared on her face as she realized what he was going to do.

"No! Stop!"

She ran over with the intention of grabbing the glowing twigs, but there was no way she would've been able to make it in time. Not to mention-

"Come out to play, Seedy!"

With a roar, Seedy appeared, observing the situation around it. After noticing that Lily was running over, one of its vines snapped out.

A dull thud resounded before Lily was thrown back several meters. The Azure Tit on her shoulder was scared off, flying into the air for a little while before turning into a flash of light and moving into her black deck.

Lily looked down at herself while coughing blood. A few of her ribs were broken, but despite that she was able to find the will to stand up, ready to flee. But unfortunately, there wasn't anywhere to flee.

Jack called out into the air while swinging around the twigs in his hand.

"Now it's time to play!"

As though being released from their leashes, all of the beasts let out roars and began charging at them. Finally, Elena appeared to be woken out of her stupor, right on time to see a rather horrible situation.

"T-This... I lost?"

Caden was looking on while trembling slightly. At this point, Rowan had screamed out.

"Pay attention! Our lives depend on it now."

Jack let out a giggle.

"I'm glad everyone is so excited."