The epitome of suspense pealed in my ears.
Haunting tones, a mix of strings, percussion and piano sounded to only my own perception.
Alongside such a backdrop, that girl with eye-catching pink hair brought all the attention in the room onto herself, the visage of a certain Protagonist naturally overlapping in my mind.
Of course, when I paid a closer look, the resemblance was not anything more than that.
Not only was the shade of pink one, two, or perhaps a few tones darker, but her eyes, which gleamed bright yellow like the beads of a snake, were also distinct.
'Jeez... I need to calm down.'
...It hadn't even been that long, but I was already seeing illusions.
Furthermore, the expression of this one, who successfully gathered everyone's eyes and who wore the same gothic attire as both myself and each one of those eyes' owners, was, when I realised, different from anything that girl would ever bear.
Calling attention to herself, despite doing it with a rather melodic voice, her expression on the contrary appeared quite slack.
That look, though stone-faced and unarguably innocuous, seemed to work wonders against the rough guy, as even he remained subdued at her stealing of the spotlight.
"Yes. Thank you. Much appreciated. My gratitude. Then, to not waste any time, shall we cut to it? I, for one, am positively unaware as to wherever we are, whoever you all are, whatever this place is, for what reason I and you all are here, and whoever is behind this nonsense. So, let us establish that first and foremost as fact. Yes? Wonderful."
Putting on an obviously exaggerated, yet incredibly sweet smile, she clapped her hands together.
"It does appear however, that as for the latter mystery, the person in question does not have any intention of revealing themselves for the time being, and so, I suppose we must compromise. Unless of course anyone would like to introduce themselves as the host, then please do~?"
Glancing around at each person in turn, she then asked a single question, her smile subtly faltering.
"Under the unsubstantiated presumption that every person in this room, or rather, this nave, believes themself to be as innocent as myself pertaining to the current ordeal, I should think that everyone here would desire to have such a belief proven true?"
Following her words which I had some trouble following, the rotund priest-dressed man pushed up his glasses.
"Indeed, I would also like to believe that everyone here is in the same boat as I. Unless there is anyone who would prefer to step forth of their own accord and admit guilt, of course, in which case I shall undoubtedly be present for any individuals' preferred absolution."
Perhaps out of the satisfaction of seeing someone speak up, the girl again smiled sweetly.
"Yes? Then, we should corroborate our stories and identify the events preceding our arrival here. For fairness' sake, I as the proposer shall go first; I remember nothing, and I woke up here on this pew just seven precise minutes ago, in fact."
Somehow, perhaps due to her sound logic or composed tone, everyone followed along with the girl's words, myself included.
――Like that, out of the twelve of us present, a total of twelve claimed ignorance. The source of thɪs content is NoveI-Fire.ɴet
What was happening just moments prior to our rousing in this place.
Somehow, in one way or another, there was not a single person who seemed to have any answers.
Regardless, the severe lack of understanding did not seem to surprise the pink-haired girl who fell into silent deliberation, unlike some of the others in the room who simply sat down speechlessly following the reveal.
In my opinion, it also wasn't really surprising.
Well, the primary genre of this work was #Mystery, so I would be more shocked if there was someone who just explained everything that was going on right at the beginning.
Still, thanks to the cheat-like knowledge I do have, I knew this was something called a #DeathGame.
Because of that, the mastermind of this "game", whoever it is, should be the Antagonist.
From what little I've experienced thus far, I think it was safe to assume that the pink-haired girl was the Protagonist; not only did she bear that unique colour combination, but her actions were also closest to that of a 'Detective' that I've seen.
So, for starters, she wasn't someone to be suspicious of.
Then, the rough guy was someone I definitely thought couldn't be the Antagonist purely due to his attitude and unfitting appearance.
On the other hand, that could be an intentional design choice to make me think that way, but going one step further, I think that in itself was a trick. For the same reason, I highly doubted it was that little kid who cried or his mother.
Needless to say, seeing as everyone woke up suddenly in a church, the clergyman guy was obviously the most suspicious, but again, that's probably just a red herring.
'Could it be that other girl? Her features are also strange...'
The blue-eyed, teal-haired girl was another suspect.
Her actions and expressions didn't seem like something the mastermind of a #DeathGame would make, so I was doubtful, but that could be a trick. Furthermore, though her features were striking and not at all ordinary, perhaps I should keep in mind that that, too, could be intentional to make me suspect her.
'...Well, I've only been here for like, twenty minutes. There's no point making any big claims now.'
Suddenly, one of the people who wasn't just moping around raised his voice―a seemingly high-school age boy―raising his hand to point at a small altar at the end of the church's apse.
"Huh...? Wait, I think there's something over there!"
Whipping their heads around to follow his gaze with their own, everyone looked. Indeed, at the converging end of our sights, there was something.
Within the semicircular apse of the church's nave, atop the altar that was placed there.
'Hm? Is that a book? And wait, is that...?'
An open book atop an altar, but that wasn't all.
Above the altar, engraved in the curved, stone wall of the apse, was some kind of inscription. Glancing around, it appeared to be that most of everyone, tentatively eyeing each other, approached.
Naturally, I also walked up, studying the book atop the altar, which was open flat but with both pages strangely blank.
Then, I turned my gaze up.
As soon as I laid my eyes on the words of that enigmatic inscription, my face swiftly devolved into a frown without me even realising it.
『"I am the Lord thy God."』
『The Congregation of Apostles is welcomed to the Lord's, to the abode of His holy reverence.』
『Twelve Apostles, unified by sin and His overwhelming, omnipresent love.』
『Obey the Holy Covenant; abide by the Commandments; hunt the sheepskin wolf.』
『Name the 「Judas」 amongst thou, repent, and bring upon His divine retribution - to consecrate thy quintessence.』
『Thou hast as many days as thou hast sins.』
...Really, this was looking to be something absurd.