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Chapter 227

What exactly did they think of me?

Anyway, it was a relief that, due to these circumstances, people did not see me as more of an idiot than Ludwig. I had taken the hit to earn Achievement Points, yet the penalty was relatively small.

Of course, I was still rather taken aback when Harriet had suddenly burst into tears.

In the end, despite all my preparations and planning, taking the midterms had been inevitable.

The next thing to look forward to was the group mission for the second semester.

After that were the final exams, and then the festival and the winter vacation.

The traditional clash with the Orbis Class, usually planned for the festival, had been completely canceled. I wondered how the student council would fill the vacancy of one of the festival’s main events, which was the face off between the Orbis Class and the Royal Class.

It would be nice if they didn’t bother the Royal Class too much.

Mr. Effenhauser has already posted the notice about the group mission.

The previous mission had been advantageous for those with great physical strength. Not all missions were like that, though. If so, talents like Luis Ankton with his scholarly abilities, or Lanian Sesor with his musical talents, would not be able to stand out.

The first semester’s mission was one in which physically strong and quick-thinking individuals had thrived.

In the second semester’s group mission, smart individuals would have the advantage.

The theme of the second-semester group mission was “deduction.”

Despite making small changes to how the game was set up and the ruleset, it still resembled the original, which I took inspiration from, just like how I wrote the deserted island group mission after watching “Law of the Jungle.”

It was a bluffing game, much like the game Mafia.

‘I think bluffing games were in trend when I first wrote this arc back then...’

I realized more and more each time how half-heartedly I had written this novel.

***

The group mission would run for a full week, just as before.

Since the week before the group mission had essentially been a recovery period, I felt like my physical condition was almost back to normal. Ellen sensed this as well, and asked me several questions.

“Are you okay now?”

“Yeah, more or less.”

“Can you exercise too?”

“I don’t think I should overdo it, but I should be able to start slowly.”

Why did her eyes seem to sparkle so brightly? Was it just my imagination?

“...”

“What’s up?”

“Let’s start trying out Mana Reinforcement bit by bit then.”

Ellen and I were learning about Mana Reinforcement from the Yoga Master teacher, and she was suggesting I should try using Mana Reinforcement occasionally during training moving forward.

“... Sorry. Even though I forced myself to activate it back then, I still can’t get the hang of it.”

“... Why exactly?”

‘Ugh, I really don’t like you! I get that you’re exceptionally talented, but I’ve got my own talents now too, you know?

‘Why are you treating me like I’m slow? Seriously, my progress has been insanely fast, all things considered! Even Mr. Effenhauser recognized me as the best talent in the Temple.’

“Maybe I’ll get it someday...?”

“... I’m looking forward to that.”

Ellen seemed keen to see what would happen if we added Mana Reinforcement to our sparring sessions in the training grounds.

Having a mentor who cared so much about their student...

The sentiment made me want to cry, even though I sometimes felt utterly depressed by being treated as insignificant.

In any case, having such a long period of rest was sure to have resulted in a significant loss in muscle mass. If I could get a handle on how to access Mana Reinforcement in return, that would be considered a fair trade.

I’d achieved something as crazy as Ellen had, even without the talent for it. Both Ellen and I were unprecedented existences.

The few weeks of struggle was a small price to pay.

Once this group mission was over, my own personal training and our sparring sessions had to resume.

This was a group mission, but it also involved a game of Mafia.

Of course, this game was not played sitting in the same spot like the actual game.

“Wow... what is this place?”

“This place is creepy...”

“Aside from that, why is it snowing now?”

“No wonder they told us to dress warmly...”

—Whoooosh...

It was October, and although fall had come, it wasn’t yet supposed to snow.

However, we were surrounded by a snowstorm in the ancient castle, Epiacs, located in the extreme north.

We had left the capital and come to this eerie, snow-swept castle where this semester’s group mission would take place.

It was a silent castle that rose out of the snowy landscape. Rather than being beautiful, it exuded an old, sinister air, and the snow only made it feel even more ominous.

As I had written it, the class would spend the summer at the seaside and the winter at a hot spring.

This was supposedly that hot spring. Of course, that part of the story would only take place after the mission was over.

For now, the main focus was the mission.

[New Event Update - Group Mission]

[Description: Do not get eliminated until the end of the mission.]

[Reward: 1000 Achievement Points]

A reward of 1000 Achievement Points was quite substantial.

Honestly, if the group mission was just part of school life, it would have been tolerable, even if I might not have enjoyed it.

At this point, though, it just felt like a waste of time to me. My body was just about recovered, and all I wanted to do was exercise.

Even so, with Achievement Points on the line, it was not time to be slacking off. I had to give it my best.

“Everyone agrees on eliminating Reinhart, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

“Of course.”

“Agreed.”

.

.

‘This wasn’t what I had in mind...’

Although some specific terms and rules differed slightly from the original, the underlying concept of this group mission was a game of Mafia.

A mission to prove one’s deductive reasoning, thinking, and logical abilities.

On the first day, without reason or evidence, I ended up getting eliminated from the game.

***

Of course, it wasn’t like I didn’t argue for my defense.

After listening to the explanation of the rules, we had a meeting inside the ancient castle on the first day.

There was one mafia member from each class, which made it two in total.

Although the term had been changed to “assassins”, it was essentially the same as Mafia.

Out of twenty-two people, two were from the mafia.

Before everything properly began, I found myself the center of everyone’s attention.

‘... Why are they looking at me?’

Everyone seemed to be staring at me unusually seriously, for various reasons.

“This is my first time playing this, but in such situations, it seems like reducing the number of variables is the correct move, right?” Charlotte said.

“Hmm... that makes sense,” agreed Vertus.

“In a situation where there’s no information to identify the culprit, the best course of action seems to be to eliminate someone who might cause trouble later.”

Everyone nodded, agreeing with Charlotte’s point.

“Indeed. Reinhart tends to be a bit unsettling, even if he’s an ally.”

The way Vertus agreed with her and the reactions of the rest of Class A gave it all away.

‘You two are the mafia members, aren’t you?’

Thus, I was eliminated.

[Event Failed]

I was instantly eliminated from the group mission.

***

Of course, since it was a group mission, the rules differed slightly from the Mafia game I was used to.

One member each from Class A and Class B was designated as an assassin.

The assassins, in a way, were the wild cards. If they won, they would receive the highest score regardless of their class.

During the mission, we couldn’t leave the ancient castle.

Every night, the assassins could assassinate two people. Of course, they did not actually point at people to assassinate them like in the real Mafia game.

Whether they passed someone randomly and “killed” them, or approached their target to declare their “sentence”, they had to be physically present to execute the kill and escape the scene.

The rest of the “survivors” had to build the case based on the scene of the murders, the alibis of the other classmates during those times, who the victim met last, who had unclear alibis, and who was where during which time.

The class had to deduce who the culprit was based on such reasoning.

If a suspect was identified and the survivors were in agreement, a decision could be made on whether to execute that person in that location. Class A was allowed to single out one person, and Class B could choose another.

The assassins had to kill two people per day, and the civilians could also execute two people per day. Of course, the civilians could choose not to execute anyone.

Whether or not the executed person was an assassin would not be revealed. Even if only one assassin remained, they could still assassinate two people every night.

The class that correctly identified and executed the assassin would earn extra points. Naturally, if an innocent civilian was executed, there would be a penalty.

However, the discussion itself also formed part of the evaluation. The more uncooperative and indecisive the participants were, the worse their evaluation.

The mission favored those who could make rational deductions and correctly identify the culprit. Hence, the mission favored smart individuals.

In any case, the group mission would end once victory for either the assassins or the civilians was confirmed.

Subsequently, a comprehensive evaluation would be conducted to determine the winner between Class A or Class B.

In the original storyline, no one was eliminated on the first day, but this time, I was the only one eliminated.

In the game Mafia, especially when played with acquaintances, the person who died on the first day was usually someone annoying or an easy target for everyone.

I seemed to be the former.

Despite it being a group mission, both Class A and Class B had combined forces to hang me without any reason or evidence on the first day, supposedly to eliminate potential variables.

Moreover, no one defended me, and Charlotte had outright suggested eliminating me.

Harriet, Ellen, and the rest seemed to think that eliminating me first would simply be less troublesome for them, regardless of their chances of winning or losing.

“Teacher, isn’t this unfair?” I protested to Mr. Effenhauser.

As soon as the execution was decided, I was summoned outside the mission area using the recall artifact like in the deserted island mission.

Ms. Mustang looked at me with sympathy.

“This too was a rational choice made by your classmates,” Mr. Effenhauser said calmly.

Mr. Effenhauser seemed to accept it as a natural choice.

“It is?”

‘No way! I’m innocent! How does hanging an innocent civilian help the civilians?’

“They probably thought you might resort to non-mission-related methods, and wanted to avoid confusion early in the mission.”

So, they decided to eliminate me and avoid future trouble just because I might have caused chaos with foul language if things didn’t go my way.

‘True enough...’

If my opinions were not accepted, I might have caused a ruckus and insisted I was right.

Whether civilian or mafia members, they were right to kill me...

Though I was indeed an innocent civilian, I wasn’t an innocent classmate.

So, I was eliminated despite the lack of evidence, since everyone realized that executing me was the right choice to eliminate the possibility of chaos.

Ultimately, Charlotte and Vertus were right.

So, does that mean they weren’t the mafia members?

“Then, who are the mafia members?” I asked.

“Mafia members? What do you mean?”

I broke into a cold sweat. “Oh, sorry. I mean the assassins. Yes, the assassins.”

‘Oh boy.’

Mr. Effenhauser, looking unperturbed, spoke as if it were no big deal to give the information to an eliminated participant.

“A-1 and B-1.”

‘Damn it. It really was those two.’

Both maintained a good public image, had stern personalities when necessary, and had brilliant minds. A collaboration between those two cunning characters.

It seemed there was no hope for the civilians.

***

In the original story, the mafia members were Vertus and Dettomorian, a duo that was hard to imagine.

Originally, the condition for a mafia victory in the Mafia game was when the number of remaining mafia members was equal to the remaining number to the civilians, but this version was larger in scale.

If even one assassin was alive by the end of the last meeting on the fifth day, it would result in a mafia victory.

The number of surviving assassins did not matter.

At this point in the original story, Vertus even faked his own assassination to cause further confusion, leaving the rest to Dettomorian.

Although it might have been possible for the assassins to avoid being assassinated completely, since they had to kill two people each day, it was ultimately impossible.

The process was quite complicated, but in the end, our idiot Ludwig finally identified the assassin.

The reason Ludwig survived was quite ironic. It was the exact opposite of my situation.

If I had been eliminated because they feared I’d cause chaos, in the original story, Ludwig was seen as harmless and idiotic by both the civilians and the mafia.

Because the assassins were clearly criminals with high intellect, Ludwig, who was an idiot, wasn’t suspected as being an assassin.

Since all his deductions were wrong, which created confusion, it was beneficial for the assassins to keep him alive.

Thus, he survived until nearly the very end, and through sheer persistence rather than intellect, he finally uncovered the assassins’ identities.

I wondered how things would play out this time.

The assassin pairing of Vertus and Dettomorian had been changed to Vertus and Charlotte.

Since those two had a notoriously bad relationship, it was possible that things would not go smoothly.

In the original narrative, the smart ones were assassinated first.

Therefore, Harriet and Louis Ankton were the first to die.

Now that I had been eliminated, I had failed the system-assigned event.

A thousand points...

I regretted missing out on that, but even if I’d survived longer in the mission, I wouldn’t have lasted much more. Considering my past actions, executing me right at the start was probably the right decision.

In reality, this was a battle of wits, not physical abilities. It wasn’t as if I could have wielded a sword to stop the assassins.

In any case, I now had a lot of free time until the mission ended, and it felt awkward to just sit around doing nothing.

“Can I go back to the Temple now?”

“No.”

I thought about going back to the Temple to train alone, but that wasn’t allowed. Then again, since the entirety of the Royal Class was out on their own group missions, the whole dormitory would be empty at this time.

After the deserted island mission, we stayed, ate and played in well-organized bungalows.

This time, because of the snowy surroundings, the accommodations weren’t as enjoyable.

Epiacs was an ancient castle located in the polar snowfields. The mansion we were currently staying in was located nearby, and it did not have any of the spine-chilling vibe of the castle I had just left.

The group mission felt more like a class trip disguised as a mission, and this mansion had its own hot spring. Though not grand, it had an indoor training ground and staff to prepare meals.

***

That night...

“What the...?”

“... I got eliminated.”

Ellen had been summoned to the mansion.