Legacy Of Forgotten Times

"Simple, we will designate two people to pick cooperate and everyone else will betray. After that, we will plunder their antidotes so that we would have enough to make him win next round and still have enough to play the game normally," Rina explained her reasoning.

"Basically, she wants two people to commit suicide so that others could leave. It shouldn"t be a surprise coming from you, though," said Linri sarcastically. In the original event, Rina was the first person to betray others and advance to the next round. Linri was really salty about that since he almost lost cause of that! Among all the partic.i.p.ants here aside from Linri, she might be the only person that had enough resolve kill others. However, unlike himself, she would feel remorse. She had actually cried in the original event after advancing since she knew she had just killed someone. Such a hypocrite! If not for her betraying, no one else would have betrayed and she had the galls to feel remorse about that!

"What"s that supposed to mean?" Rina asked. She was frowning. She had seen Linri"s antics quite a number of times. That person was basically a mad man. He even dared to call the whole student body cowards and managed to escape from their grasp. His actions did not follow any sort of logic. It was impossible to read him! She could also feel that he had some sort of hostility towards her. However, she did not remember meeting him before today. Maybe it was because of Riku, but they did not have any problems with each other either. The clan wanted him to be the heir while he wanted her to be the one. Could it be that he was sent by the clan to get rid of her? Impossible! Her father would not have allowed that. Yes, they did not get along, but she was still his flesh and blood! It must be the elders! They always saw her as a thorn in their eyes. There were still people in the clan supporting her to be the next head. The best way to stop that would be to get rid of her completely!

"It"s exactly like it sounds! I bet you are trying to get rid of the compet.i.tion. Let"s a.s.sume that two people really agreed to sacrifice their lives for the greater good. I find that notion pretty idiotic, but let"s a.s.sume that anyway. And the next round you also find some miraculous way to make me win and advance to next round. Who is to say you wouldn"t choose to betray? Everyone would be feeling secure since they just got rid of the great demon lord and they would have a feeling of camaraderie. They wouldn"t entertain the idea that their allies would betray them and cooperate without suspecting anything, which would be the perfect time to betray someone. In that scenario, you would be the only other person to advance. Tell me, why should they agree with your idea and follow your plan? How can you guarantee that you won"t betray them? I am as open as a book since my win is in the bag, but what about the others?" Linri said as he looked at the remaining partic.i.p.ants one by one.

"What? So you are saying you can make sure that they can advance just like you?" Rina replied back with a dark expression.

"No way! I am planning to kill each and every one of you. There is no way in h.e.l.l that I would let any single one of you advance. How about this? If you really are thinking about the good of the majority, why not sacrifice yourself? Then I am pretty sure they would be willing to listen to you," Linri said and started to play with the watch on his right hand. He was clearly not interested in discussing this any further.

"Yes! Sacrifice yourself for us!" Ryan said fanning the flames.

"You!" Rina did not know how to respond. With a couple of words, Linri was able to turn the crowd against her. She wasn"t even thinking of betraying them in the first place, but he just painted her as the bad guy in the situation and she couldn"t fight back. Everything he said sounded logical, but only she knew that it was all false!

"If someone has to sacrifice herself it- it should be you," said a purple-haired girl. Linri did not recognize her... What? He wasn"t a walking encyclopedia. You couldn"t expect him to know every person attending this school, okay?

"Well then. Who is going to be the second one?" Rina asked. That was really a clever solution to her current predicament. She did not agree to be the sacrifice, but, from her words, it sounded like she did. Most importantly, she also changed the subject matter at hand. Of course, Linri would not let her get away scot-free this easily.

"Then I take it you agreed to be a sacrifice?" Linri asked, a sinister expression on his face. If a pa.s.serby saw it, they would think that he was the sc.u.m of the earth who was bullying an innocent girl.

"Yes," said Rina without hesitation as Linri frowned. He did not expect her to agree this easily, there had to be some sort of scheme she was planning. The Rina he knew wasn"t a n.o.ble-hearted person. She wouldn"t sacrifice herself for the greater good.

"Fo-for fairness" sake the second sacrifice should be a male. We girls are already a minority," said the purple-haired girl again.

"Come on! In the face of death, everyone is equal. We can"t discriminate gender here!" said Linri. He did not want them to agree so he was trying to sow chaos in here.

"You have no right to talk!" the purple-haired girl replied back with anger.

"Well, okay. It"s not like it"s my life on the line, anyway. Boys, think carefully. I bet most of you haven"t even tasted the forbidden fruit yet. Don"t tell me you just want to die yet?" said Linri.

"He is right! I don"t want to die a virgin!" screamed Jason in desperation.

"We didn"t need to know that, but okay," said Linri in a relaxed tone.

The people kept arguing who should be the second sacrifice. Linri did not make any comments, but he kept on watching Rina as she was also watching him. They were both trying to read each other"s thoughts. Linri felt like he was missing something. Why didn"t Rina seem nervous? Did she have a backup plan? There couldn"t be anything. As long as Linri betrayed she would not be able to pa.s.s the stage!

TIME IS UP!

Everyone hastily cast their votes once more. Linri did the same, but he caught onto the confident smirk of Rina. It was bugging him. There was something he was missing!

 ---

1- Linri Harclaw: 11 Antidotes

2- Rina Hagane: 10 Antidotes

3- Lilly Aldrin: 1 Antidote

4- Jason Grey: 1 Antidote

5- Matt Meese: 1 Antidote

6- Ryan Moore: 1 Antidote

7- Sasha Romanov: 1 Antidote

8- Akihito Watanabe: 1 Antidote

9- Yui Yukio: 1 Antidote

10- Hayato Kurogane: Eliminated

---

After seeing the point tally, Linri could not help but laugh out loud. So this was what he was missing! Rina actually pulled the same stunt he did last round. Linri did not honestly think that she would have the courage to do so. What if there were other people trying the same thing? What if there was one more cooperator? Then it would be death for her then and there. Honestly, Linri did not think that the others would be such suckers, letting her eat the pie for herself. Don"t you guys have any ambition? Don"t you want to live anymore? You already knew that, if you voted betrayal, you would lose this round, so why did you have to be such idiots? Were you thinking that someone would be idiotic enough cooperate and you would plunder their antidotes? News flas.h.!.+ They didn"t!

"So where do we go from here?" Rina asked with a provoking smile on her face. Now Linri was not the only one with ample supplies of antidotes. She had as much of a say in the state of the game as he did.

"First we get rid of this idiots and then talk, agreed?" Linri said. He didn"t look bothered at all which surprised Rina. She was thinking he would start to panic by now.

"Agreed."

"Okay then!"

Honestly, Linri did not know what to do this time. He had finally lost control of the game and he was thinking how to escape this predicament. At this point, it was almost impossible for him to eliminate Rina, but as for others? Huh, fat chance! They weren"t going to escape from his clutches!