Inner Circle

“Sorry babe, but Ravel shouldn’t pick you. We’re gonna lose if he does, because the last one from the light faction is me, so that makes you a knight of darkness…” Eleona sadly claims, looking at Fantasia.

“Not you, too, Eli… I’m the good guy…!” Fantasia tries to defend herself.

“I’m just glad I’m coming,” Seko states, sounding almost petty.

“H-hey, Ravel, I think you should bring Big Sis with us… For some reason, I trust that she’s genuine,” Leanna joins the discussion.

“Aww, isn’t that cute? ‘For some reason’? Aren’t you the Detective?” Silveria looks at her suspiciously.

“And why do you care? Are you watching her body language so that you know, as a servant of darkness, who to kill even after the light wins?” Ravel makes a valid point.

After that exchange, everybody began arguing loudly, causing Lordo to laugh. This is what he loves to see when people are engaging in a game like this.

After several minutes of baseless accusations, usually aimed at Fantasia because of how Zhang raised the Objection before, Ravel stands up and slams his hands on the table.

“Enough! I’m the Chief of this round and I’ll go with whoever I choose! Fantasia, please accompany us! I cannot imagine myself going anywhere without you!” Ravel speaks with a determination in his eyes.

“What a weirdo…” Fantasia face palms herself, finding his reaction too over the top.

“Noooooooo, you’re making a mistake!! Let’s take Eleona instead!” Zhang protests.

“Object-“

“Don’t!”

Yutaka tried to raise the objection but was stopped by Bisha. “I know who the Detective is. Let them win this game and we shall take the victory after that!” She explains.

With that comment, Bisha essentially confirmed that the five people who Ravel chose were truly on the light side. When he takes the cards and shuffles them, to nobody’s surprise there are five cards stating ‘Mission Cleared’, winning 2:1 against the evil darkness.

“Phew~, this was really intense,” Silveria reveals her card to be that of the evil darkness. Eleona, Yutaka and Bisha follow her suit.

“Yay, we won!!” Fantasia is about to flip her card but is stopped by Lordo.

“Don’t show it yet! The villains still have a chance to guess who the Detective is and turn the tide.”

“Well? You said you know who the Detective is, so tell us?” Yutaka inquires.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Bisha smirks.

“Yeah, it’s Zhang, right? He made all the good calls except the one where he accused Fantasia, but that was just his way to confuse us,” Yutaka says without any doubt in his voice.

“No, no, it must be Leanna. She said that ‘for some reason’ she trusted Fantasia, I think that was her way of signaling Ravel,” Eleona shares her point of view.

“I’d also wagerit’s Zhang, pretty evident to me,” Silveria adds.

“Ahhh, my sweet wittle sweetheawwwtss~, you’re not gaming veterans like me, I see! It’s Ravel!” Bisha confidently proclaims.

What? But it’s not me, what is she doing?

“How do you know?” Eleona wonders.

"There's no other explanation. Ravel had to choose all five individuals from the light faction. What were the odds? Only the Detective, who is aware of everyone's roles, could have accomplished that! And the way he ultimately chose Fantasia despite everyone's objections... It's as clear as day!"

“I don’t know, Bisha…” Eleona expresses her doubts.

“We need to agree on a single name if we wanna kill somebody,” Yutaka reminds his teammates.

“Alright, I’ll trust her on this, she probably played this game many times,” Silveria allows Bisha to decide their fate. “But if you peasant have got this wrong, you’re gonna pay!” Silveria emits dark aura as if she literally became a leader of the evil darkness faction.

“If Silveria trusts you, I’ll trust you, too, Bitcha!” Yutaka happily says but is met with Bisha’s glare. “Apologies, I’ll never do it again,” his expression turns gloomy and serious.

“I don’t want to hold this up. Let’s go with Ravel, then…” Eleona remains unsure of the choice.

“Well then, Ravel! We’re killing you! Show us your Detective card!” Bisha’s never been more focused on a tiny piece of manufactured paper.

Ravel slowly reveals his general Light Faction card. Bisha’s focus fades and her gaze gets stuck at a table. She’s silent and pouting.

“Fuck yeah!!! Ahahah!” Zhang reveals that he was the Detective all along.

“So it was very obvious to you, huh?” Silveria cracks her knuckles

“I’m sowwy,” Bisha doesn’t even budge.

“We’re not such veterans as you, huh?” Yutaka’s left eye starts twitching, almost losing his nerves.

“I’m sowwy.”

“Ravel obviously wasn’t thinking rationally when he chose Fantasia as the last member, he just followed his heart, hehe,” Eleona explains.

“Pfffft!! Ahahah! This was such an incredible game!” Fantasia burst out laughing, Silveria cracks a smile as well upon seeing her.

Everybody shares a laugh and they demand another game of Accused.

I’m happy you had fun, Fantasia, but…

***

The group caught the last train of the day from Trnava to Bratislava, riding home together. Everybody in the coupe thinks back to many games they played.

“I can’t wait till tomorrow! You’re gonna obey our orders!” Seko is excited for the last day of the school.

Ravel is, however, lost in thoughts.

“Why the long face?” Fantasia rubs his knee to get his attention.

“Oh, it’s nothing, don’t worry, love,” he automatically responds without thinking.

“So you’re calling me ‘love’ in front of all these people? Daring, are we?” Fantasia teases him again.

“Yeah…”

Ravel has a defeatist aura around him.

I thought that only Seko had a problem with her… Zhang as the Detective knew that Fantasia was with us, but he still chose to pick on her… Yutaka refused to take her on the mission even though it was completely irrelevant since he knew the evil would prevail. It felt… personal.

Fantasia rests her head on his shoulder without uttering a single word.

Her face looks so… satisfied. But today was a complete failure… My inner circle won’t accept her.

Ravel glances around and observes the other pairings. Yutaka and Silveria talk about the hockey championships, she’s seemingly not as antagonistic toward him as before. One can only wonder why that is. Eleona and Zhang converse about a medical research that Zhang has read on the internet. He explains how this new discovery could treat her hyperpigmentation, touching her arm gently, which makes them both blush. Seko and Leanna attempted to find a suitable date for a joint running session.

You’ve found your female Li’l Joes, too… So then why… why won’t you let me be happy with this girl?

Does it mean I have to cut off my closest friends? … No. If I wanted to cut off everybody who didn’t treat Fantasia right, I’d have to transfer schools with her a couple of months ago.

Ravel sighs, and his aura of defeat dissipates. He is now determined to confront reality.

“Yutaka, please come with me for a sec,” Ravel leaves the coupe, expecting Yutaka to follow him.

Yutaka reluctantly goes after him and finds him in the next coupe all alone.

“What’s going on? You made me leave the best convo I ever had with Silveria.”

“Yutaka…” Ravel gestures him to sit down on the opposite seat. “Why do you all hate Fantasia?”

CHAPTER 35: END