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「But, Class Rep――」
「Yuuto-kun, if you’re this insistent on the idea, the only ones to be left in this place will be Sakura and you.」
「What are you talking about?」
「Firstly, I, who abandoned Futaba-san back then, am also an accomplice in the murder. And secondly, think about the reality of this dungeon. This place isn’t so kind as to let everyone leave neat and pretty.」
The Souma siblings who had luckily gotten their hands on 『Hero』 and 『Saint』 vocation and overwhelmed their foes with absolute power managed to reach this far without having to dirty their hands. Randou-san, Jury and Mary under the patronage of Tendou-kun seemed to be clean too, or should I say that they would have never gotten a chance for that with Tendou-kun’s cheat-like power.
「If you’re delivering judgment here, everyone in this place will be punished.」
「But isn’t it fine if it isn’t a crime, at all?」
「We do recognize crime in this place. But it doesn’t mean that we’re willing to receive punishment.」
Once a crime was committed, the culprit should be punished as fast as possible. It was the norm, a proper train of thought of a normal human.
Maybe Souma-kun felt something akin to dissatisfaction upon seeing a death row criminal still alive for decades without receiving their punishment.
But realistically speaking, the execution of the punishment and the settlement of crime didn’t necessarily come as a set. The relationship between the two parties aside, it would take a really long time. Look, without those, he was literally pushing false charges on me, right?
Anyhow, Class Rep’s suggestion was indeed the best choice for both of us. Either way, the crime of killing Reina was discovered, there was no need for me to be thorough about reasoning. It was impossible to say that I wasn’t going to kill Reina at this point, the other party was the witness after all.
「I agree with Class Rep’s opinion. I think everyone should confess to the crime they have committed before arriving here. And then, the treatment for those crimes should be put on hold.」
Sorry, but I didn’t want to become the only black sheep. That’s why I might as well drag everyone down with me. Even without that, I was also curious about what kind of crime the others had committed before coming to this place.
Nevertheless, I think that Tendou-kun might be the one whose killing score might’ve surpassed Mei-chan or Me.
「What do you think, Yuuto-kun? The only choice is to confess the crimes or confess nothing.」
「… I have no other choice, huh.」
「In the first place, no one in this place has the right to judge others. Lynching is prohibited in Japan, you know.」
In short, since Souma-kun had not committed any crime, he would be the only one to shout “Guilty, guilty” due to his sense of justice.
Now then, Souma-kun, can you still say 「Criminal must be punished」 if you’re attacked by classmates and end up killing the latter in retaliation? Or, can you still say those words if I was the one who died at the hands of your little sister, Sakura?
Though I felt bad for saying this, it was human nature to care for those who are close to them. I would protect Mei-chan from any condemnation resulting in her slaughtering the other classmates, but I would do everything to drive Sakura to death if I found that she had killed people.
「Fine. But everybody must be honest. No lying or hiding anything.」
「Ahahaha, even if we don’t confess everything, you’ve no choice but to accept that.」
「MOMOKAWA-KUN!」
「Whoops, calm down Class Rep. Our coexistence depends on Souma-kun, after all. If he has decided that he won’t forgive me, I have no choice but to leave, and when that happens, I doubt that everyone here will choose to stay. Since there is the three people escape rule, a battle royale will eventually break out to decide the spot.」
「You’re still using such a threat even at this stage, eh.」
「Nope, I am just asking for your resolution. If you forgive me, everyone will cooperate. On the other hand, if you have chosen to persecute me, it’ll be a battle royale.」
What we decided in this place wasn’t the nature of the offense committed by the others or my murder case. It was the agreement to not pursue any crime that was committed before arriving at this place until all of us managed to leave this accursed dungeon.
Without that, once a quarrel broke out due to a trivial matter, everyone would start to blame the other for their previous crime. Especially the women, they’re the kind of creatures that love to condemn by bringing past crimes out of nowhere, right?
All that was needed for the situation to spiral out of control was just a small trigger.
「Like hell I can forgive you for murdering Reina…」
「I never asked for your forgiveness, I was just asking you to endure it for now.」
「Yuuto-kun, please, calm down for now.」
「I’ve been doing that, Class Rep.」
Unexpectedly, Souma-kun replied calmly. But inwardly, he must be really furious. He might be doing his best to appease his fury with reason for now. It seemed Tendou’s punch had shown its effect too.
「Momokawa, I can’t and will not forgive you. But I’ll endure it for now. That’s why I’ll cooperate with you to get out of this dungeon. I won’t question your crime until all of us have escaped from this place.」
「Thank you for your understanding, Souma-kun. Well, let’s not beat around the bush, all right.」
Souma Yuuto, I know that you’re an honest fool of a man who would never go back on his own words. That’s why I will bet on your strong sense of justice and agree with you for now.
「But Momokawa, the crime that you commit in the future will be judged. When that happens, I’ve no intention to let you off.」
「Yeah, we will decide upon the judicial system after the start of cohabitation.」
In the end, this session was only to let bygones be bygones. Anyone who committed a crime after this wouldn’t be able to escape judgment. And with these many people, it was only a matter of time before big trouble emerged. Ah, let’s stop thinking about troublesome situations.
「Well then, on to the next topic. After this, we will talk again about all the crimes we have committed until now. And we mustn’t blame anyone for that.」
「And then, regarding the talk about the crime in this place, let me add another rule so as to not mention it again in the future―― Well, something along the lines of not pursuing the crime that is not revealed in this session.」
「What do you mean, Momokawa?」
「I mean, suppose that someone commits a crime in the future, someone might say something along the lines of “Look, he has committed the same crime again.” right?」
「Isn’t that only natural, I mean keeping it a secret is even worse.」
「We should clarify everything, we ought to begin by ceasing to be unreasonable.」
「Enough, Momokawa-kun. In short, you’re trying to say that even if the crime we confessed to here is forgiven, there’s no need to reveal it unless someone asks for it deliberately.」
I mean, the forgiveness was only on the surface. Once it was known that Person A had committed a crime without even trying to dig up the reason behind it, the crime would make the other party label Person A as a horrible person. And a bad rumor would soon propagate.
「That’s why we will get the right to keep silent. On the other hand, we also get the right to complain.」
「Yeah, that’s good enough. People who don’t file their complaints in this session won’t get another chance in the future.」
So if they choose to shut their mouths, they had to shut their mouths forever. And later, they wouldn’t get the chance to file a complaint once they missed this session.
That’s why this was the crossroad for the criminal and people who know of the crime to make their choice. This was permitted by me. Either way, it was literally impossible to punish the other in our current situation. The only difference was whether they would disclose the crime or not.
「Haah… I’ve been wondering just how many crimes you have committed for you to go this far.」
「Well, this is going to be a long story so let’s hear it slowly――」