Still the Queen Claudia with another purpose?
Leon's thoughts drifted, and for a moment he had no clue.
"So there really are lone wolf players, and there are actually at least two."
Rossweise said this, smiling lightly as she looked at Leon, "Who do you think it could be?"
General Leon instantly replied, "Of course Claudia, what, me?"
A veteran lone wolf player's essential skill: Blame anyone anytime.
The Queen raised her eyebrows and continued to ask, "But you just said my sister might be a lone wolf too."
"Your sister could be, Claudia could be too. Doesn't it say 'at least two' up there."
"Mm... you could be one too."
"Your Majesty, I beg you to spare me, I'm truly a good guy."
Rossweise snorted with a laugh, resting her beautiful chin in one hand, her charming eyes gazing at Leon, and slowly said, "But I... like bad men a little more."
"I'm the lone wolf, Your Majesty."
Rossweise gave him a light punch on the arm with an annoyed expression, "What's that? Who's like you."
General Leon's heart: 'Everyone saw that, right? I told the truth. She just doesn't believe me.'
The couple exchanged a glance and smiled, then turned back to examine the last intel card.
"Special scene can trigger 'Collective Fate'? I don't really get it. That kind of rule wasn't in our home Werewolf games," Rossweise said.
"But from the literal meaning, it's like one person completes some task, and its effect applies to everyone. That's probably it, right?"
Rossweise nodded, "Makes sense."
The couple didn't pay much attention to that intel card, and then laid out the item cards they had gathered all morning.
There were three cards:
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[Super Influence]
[Effect: After using this item card, your vote count becomes '5']
[Note: Can only be used once]
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[Detective]
[Effect: Can be used on any player to check whether that player has 'killed' another player in the past six hours]
[Note: Can only be used once, no distance limit]
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[Avenger]
[Effect: If you personally witness a 'kill', then you gain one 'kill' ability, lasting for fifteen minutes]
[Note: No 'kill' type item cards found, cannot kill other players barehanded]
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Compared to the riddle-heavy intel cards, item cards had more straightforward uses and were rarer, so after a whole morning, the couple had only found these three.
But if you count the earlier [Mint Iced Tea], then that makes four.
"They're all here."
Rossweise glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall, calculated the time, and said, "Our bond stronger than gold is about to expire, so let's split these things now."
Leon was stunned, "Why does it sound like we're dividing assets in a divorce..."
Rossweise rolled her eyes at him, then poked his chest hard with her finger, "You want to divorce me? Dream on. I will, torment, you, forever."
She poked with each pause.
Almost turned General Leon into a beehive.
"Alright, let's divide."
Rossweise looked at the pile of cards on the table, then handed [Mint Iced Tea], [Super Influence], and [Avenger]to Leon.
She only kept [Detective] for herself.
"Tea was decided earlier, for your use. As for Avenger, same reason, since you like wandering around, the chance of you personally witnessing a 'kill' is higher than mine, so it suits you better," Rossweise slowly explained the reasoning behind her allocation.
"Then what about Super Influence? You should keep that."
"No, you keep it."
Leon blinked, suddenly overwhelmed by emotion.
'Even though we bicker, deep down she cares about me.'
Leon opened his mouth to thank her, "Than—"
"If I had it, I wouldn't be able to resist voting you out with all five votes next time we have a meeting. Instant KO!"
"..."
The emotion vanished instantly.
Just like this morning at the meeting table, the flirting from hours ago didn't stop them from clashing fiercely during meetings.
And now it's the same.
Even after acting together for six hours, gathering and analyzing plenty of intel, it didn't stop Her Majesty from continuing to vote against Leon in the next meeting.
All your lone wolves and queens and such may have in-game missions; But this Queen is different. Her life's mission is to solo kill Leon Casmodeous in every game and contest.
The two tidied up the cards, then Rossweise stood up, patted Leon on the shoulder, "This afternoon we'll be acting separately. Still the same words, before I find a 'kill card,' don't go dying on me."
With that, the Queen clicked away in her high heels.
Leon smiled at her tall figure, then lowered his head and gathered up his item cards.
Then he too left the kitchen.
The game was still ongoing.
As clues surfaced one by one, everyone was getting more immersed in this undercurrent-laden battle.
Yet only one-third of the game had passed.
What comes next... would be even more full of the unknown and danger.
———
After dinner, Leon planned to go back to his room to rest a bit and prepare for the evening's actions.
He wanted to move the Black Holy Stone hidden in the shared kitchen to a different location.
But just then, the shadow stone in Leon's pocket transmitted the voice of an NPC:
["Someone has opened the castle's alchemy room and released a contagious disease. Please proceed to the[Doctor]'s room within one hour to obtain the antidote."]
["If you exceed the time limit, you will be eliminated."]
Leon slightly frowned, "Alchemy room... contagious disease..."
Leon remembered the intel card he and Rossweise found around noon about "special scene triggers collective fate."
'Could it be... this alchemy room is the 'special scene'?'
'And the contagious disease is the 'collective fate'?'
Holding that suspicion, Leon headed for Big Sister Isa's room.
By the time he got there, Luna and Little Light had just left.
"Daddy, did you get sick too?", Luna asked.
"Yeah, came to ask Aunt Isa for the antidote."
"The antidote is really sweet, Daddy, you must try it!"
Leon grinned, 'Haha, actually Daddy tasted it back in the first round.'
'Can you guess why Daddy got sick?'
''Of course it was your mom's doing.'
"Alright, Daddy knows. By the way, did you two find any useful clues this afternoon?"
"Oh, we found—"
Luna was about to share but suddenly hit the brakes and quickly changed her words, "Nothing, Luna and Little Light didn't find anything!"
Though the second daughter's face screamed "I'm lying," Leon still smiled and played along, "Alright then, take the antidote and go to bed early. Don't stay up late."
"Yes, Daddy!"
The two little ones left hand in hand.
Leon then pushed open the door and entered.
"You're the last one to come to me for the antidote."
Isa sat formally behind a wooden table, on which sat the final antidote.
Judging by its color, it still seemed to be orange-flavored.
Leon walked to the table, looked down at the candy, but didn't take it immediately. Instead, he asked,
"Sis, you should've noticed the shadow stone's message too, right? It was someone opening the alchemy room that got us infected."
Isa echoed the complaint, "Damn bastard. Why open the alchemy room out of nowhere? I'm swamped."
"Then who do you think... opened the alchemy room?"
Leon thought his smart elder sister might offer some insight.
But Isa shook her head, "No clue... everyone came to me for the antidote. Even I, the [Doctor], had to take it or be eliminated. So who opened the alchemy room... I'm really not sure."
Leon seemed thoughtful and, after pondering for a bit, said, "So if we figure out who opened the alchemy room, we can find a [Wolf], right?"
"Mm, I think so too. Do you have any clues or intel about the [Wolf]?"
Leon thought for a moment and replied, "There's intel about the [Queen]. It says she loves the [Princess] deeply but has another motive. So I suspect Claudia is one of the [Wolf] faction."
"Makes sense... we'll interrogate her properly at the next meeting."
"Mm."
"Alright, take the antidote. Don't let the time run out," Isa motioned with her chin toward the candy by Leon's hand.
Leon picked up the candy, hesitated a moment, then popped it into his mouth.
"Meeting at 8 p.m., don't forget," Isa reminded him.
Leon nodded, then turned and left Isa's room.
As soon as he closed the door, Leon quickly rushed back to his room.
He ran to the bathroom and spit out the candy.
Rinsed his mouth, then pulled out the [Mint Iced Tea] Rossweise gave him.
He opened the bottle cap and downed it in one go.
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