Chapter 31: Unreliable Clues, A False Path
"Just so you could survive, you had to sacrifice us? You had to get us killed?" King Chen's voice trembled, thick with a rage that shook his entire frame. "Is our life not a life?! Did Ryoko deserve to die?!"
His blood-stained fists smashed into the other man's face again and again. In moments, most of Liu Cangzhen's teeth had been knocked loose, his mouth a ruin of splintered bone and pooling blood.
The raw, obvious approach of death finally broke through Liu Cangzhen's crumbling composure. He couldn't control his fear any longer, and a garbled plea for mercy escaped through his ruined mouth.
"Don't... don't kill me... Aren't you a soldier? You... you can't kill me..."
Those words, far from staying King Chen's hand, ignited the last of his restraint. His fury erupted. He snatched a jagged shard of wood from the floor, aimed its sharpened point at Liu Cangzhen's eye, and prepared to drive it home.
"Don't kill him yet."
A young man's calm voice cut through the charged atmosphere.
The tip of the wood shard froze, stopping a mere half-inch from its target's eyeball.
King Chen's knuckles were white as he gripped the makeshift weapon. Blood from his own hand seeped down the wood, dripping onto Liu Cangzhen's cheek—a proof of the sheer force of his contained wrath.
"Fine."
With a shuddering breath, King Chen finally lowered the shard. He staggered back three steps, turning to face the wall, terrified that if he looked at the man for a second longer, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from finishing the job.
Having been pulled back from the brink, Liu Cangzhen slumped to the floor. Blood from his broken nose mingled with snot and tears, painting a pathetic mask across his face.
However—
He celebrated his survival far too soon.
Haruto produced a thick hemp rope from somewhere and tossed it to Liu Wensong.
"Tie him up. We can use him tonight."
"Alright."
Liu Wensong caught the rope and, with grim efficiency, bound the man on the floor. Liu Cangzhen, already limp as a dead dog, offered no resistance. Liu Wensong showed no mercy, cinching the knots tight and leaving the already weakened man even more listless.
"You can't... you can't do this to me! I... I was just trying to survive..."
"Actually," Haruto began, glancing down at him with an unnerving placidity, "I don't entirely disagree with your philosophy."
Liu Cangzhen's head snapped up, a flicker of hope in his eyes.
"But I don't agree with it either," Haruto continued, dashing that hope instantly. "If you had harmed someone else, I might not have intervened. But she did cook a meal for us. Besides," he added with a chillingly practical smile, "isn't this also for our own survival?"
Liu Cangzhen was stunned, clearly unable to process that Haruto's motivation was so simple, so utterly devoid of grand morality. The realization that he was truly doomed twisted his features into a mask of pure hatred.
"You're a fucking lunatic!" he roared, his voice raw and hoarse. "I should have chosen you yesterday! I should've let that mermaid kill you!"
"It's a pity you didn't choose me. Then again, you didn't dare," Haruto said, his eyes gradually turning cold. "There were too many uncertain factors about me; you couldn't get a read on me. Besides, you know in your heart that Kaguya and I wouldn't be as kind-hearted as King Chen."
He leaned in slightly, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.
"If you had really thrown that clock into my room, the very moment the mermaid broke down our door, we would have done everything in our power to break into your room first and drag you out to die with us."
A slow, predatory smile spread across Haruto's face.
"Of course, if that had really happened, the ones dying certainly wouldn't have been us. It would have been you."
What Haruto left unsaid was that it would have been a futile effort from the start. Even if the alarm clock had ended up in his room, his sixth sense as a Boundary Youkai would have screamed a warning long before it rang. Not only would the trap have been useless, but Liu Cangzhen would have earned a very personal, very thorough form of revenge.
Those words were the final blow. It was as if all the strength, all the fight, was siphoned out of Liu Cangzhen's body. He slumped completely to the floor, his eyes vacant as he stared at the ceiling, a man already defeated.
When he chose King Chen's team as the sacrifice, he was gambling on their high moral standards. He had bet that even if they figured out what he'd done, even if they hated him to their very core, they would hesitate to involve the other "innocents" in his room.
Everything had gone according to his calculations. Everything, except for one impossible variable: King Chen had survived.
"Throw him into a new guest room," Haruto ordered, his gaze withdrawing from the broken man. "I have an idea that needs to be verified tonight." He walked over to the guest room opposite theirs and kicked the door open.
Following his command, Liu Wensong and the remaining newcomer worked together, hauling the bound and silent Liu Cangzhen into the empty room like a sack of grain.
Haruto looked around, noticing King Chen was gone. Kaguya simply tilted her head toward the broken guest room on the right.
The group stepped inside.
The moment they crossed the threshold, a bloody stench so thick it felt physical assaulted their senses, mingled with a nauseatingly rank, fishy odor.
Several corpses lay strewn by the bed. Their bodies were entirely, unnaturally blood-red.
Just like the newcomer who had died on the first day, their skin had been completely flayed from their bodies.
King Chen knelt before one of the skinless corpses. His eyes were bloodshot, his shoulders slumped. He paid no mind to the disgusting fish mucus sliming the floor or the horrifying visage of the dead. He just gripped her hand tightly.
His head was bowed, his body trembling, but he remained silent. Haruto and the others didn't disturb him, simply waiting quietly in the doorway. After a long moment, he finally stood up, turning to face them with a bitter, apologetic smile.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
"It's fine," Haruto said, waving a dismissive hand. "It's still early. Let's lay them to rest first."
Beside him, Liu Wensong's eyes were filled with guilt. Even if they were just randomly assigned teammates, the perpetrator had come from his group. The shame was his to bear.
The group worked in grim silence, carrying the three bodies to the entrance of the pension. There, they dug three shallow graves, giving the remains what little dignity they could.
On the way back, Liu Wensong finally broke the silence. "About yesterday... I'm very sorry," he said, his voice low.
"It's not your fault," King Chen replied through gritted teeth. His bloodshot eyes and tightly clenched fists, however, betrayed the rage still simmering beneath the surface. "You weren't the one who did it, and you didn't know."
Haruto paused. "This question might be a bit rude, but it's very important. How did you survive last night?"
A fresh wave of pain washed over King Chen's face. "...The one who was supposed to die was me. But to save me, Ryoko... she used that card the young man gave her. She wounded the mermaid, but it also caused the creature's resentment to transfer to her."
Fresh blood seeped from between King Chen's knuckles, gathering into droplets that fell to the wooden floor. He took a deep, shuddering breath, forcing himself to regain some semblance of composure. He turned to Haruto, his gaze heavy with resolve.
"This life belongs to you now, young man. If you need anything from me, you just have to ask."
"Alright," Haruto replied without a moment's hesitation, accepting the debt as if it were a simple transaction.
Beside him, a complex look flashed in Kaguya's eyes. Even Yotsuya Miko, for all her inexperience, could see the truth of the situation.
King Chen no longer intended to live for himself. If the need arose, he would trade his life without a second thought to ensure their safety.
When Liu Wensong heard that the simple card Haruto had given away could actually wound one of the mermaids, he couldn't help but stare in shock. He knew such ghost-repelling artifacts existed, but they were incredibly rare and almost always had a limited number of uses. To just give one away because someone had helped cook a meal...
'Generous' wasn't the right word for it. It was extravagant to the point of absurdity.
Though a pang of envy struck him, Liu Wensong was a man who knew his place. He kept his thoughts to himself.
The daylight hours were short. Liu Wensong, the other newcomer, and King Chen decided to head to the seaside to gather food.
Meanwhile, Haruto, Kaguya, and Miko stayed at the pension, partly to guard against any sudden developments and partly to see if they could uncover any new clues.
After confirming that the blood-red words on the blackboard hadn't changed, Haruto led the two girls to the dining area. While lounging in the guest rooms was comfortable, it was a death trap. If real danger appeared, they wouldn't even have time to escape.
"I don't think the blood-red words on the blackboard can be trusted," Haruto said abruptly after they had settled at a table. "Just like that Ouija spirit."
"Haruto-san, are you saying the hint about surviving for four days is fake?" Yotsuya Miko's pupils shrank in alarm.
Kaguya, however, shook her head, a thoughtful frown on her face.
"No, that's not what he means," she clarified. "He's saying they can't be trusted, but that doesn't mean they're necessarily fake. The information itself might be true. But just like the Ouija spirit from your first instance, if we believe every word of it without question, we'll most likely end up dead."
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