Ch.113113 – When the Cicadas Cry 3

# 113 – When the Cicadas Cry # 3

During the first semester, I developed quite a remarkable talent.

It was the ability to easily explain to others what had happened to me.

“Everyone was coughing up blood and dying, I tell you! Then when I looked out the window, the sun that had set in the west was rising again in the east!”

I explained in detail to everyone what I had just experienced.

Even to my own ears, I sounded extremely incoherent and excited, but I hoped my sincerity would somehow get through.

Yang Juhui, who had been quietly listening to my story, scratched the back of her head.

“This guy, did you just fall asleep and dream? You even had your eyes closed during the photo. Were you dozing off?”

She doesn’t believe me!

Of course, if I were in her shoes and someone suddenly said, “You all died and time rewound,” I’d probably respond with, “Ah, so that’s what you imagined.”

But there was one thing I could state with absolute certainty.

“It really happened. Really. Ms. Sua, don’t you remember? You were screaming, sitting on the blood-covered floor, crawling on all fours! Like a dog!”

“W-when did I ever do that?!”

Kwon Sua flushed red and snapped back.

She looked around at the others as if she’d been accused of something shameful.

Even Kwon Sua, who had survived with me, couldn’t remember what happened?

“This is truly baffling.”

I don’t understand why this happened to us.

Sometimes I wonder if I really dreamed it all alone, but the vivid fragments of memory in my head thoroughly denied that possibility.

I’m telling you, I saw it.

I clearly saw Yu Dahui whose heart had stopped, Yang Juhui who died bleeding from holes in her face, and Jeongseok who died floating in the bathroom.

“Hey, Jeongseok. Do you believe me?”

“Ha Yeongwon, even though we’ve been through a lot, time rewinding is something I honestly question. That’s beyond ghost stories and such.”

Jeongseok was analyzing the situation coolly as always.

He thought for a while with his arms crossed before reaching a conclusion.

“I think it’s real. Yeongwon has absolutely nothing to gain by making up such a lie. We all died just like Yeongwon said. And there’s no guarantee it won’t happen again.”

Everyone was startled by Jeongseok’s words.

The idea that we might all die coughing up blood again, as I described, was extremely shocking and frightening.

Jeongseok continued:

“Yeongwon, according to you, we collapsed coughing up blood during our bath after dinner. You and Ms. Sua were fine? Why were just the two of you unaffected? I think there might be a clue here.”

Come to think of it, when everyone was dying, Kwon Sua and I were fine.

Was there some unknown “disease” spreading like in ghost stories? While I was pondering this, Kwon Sua’s eyes widened as if something had occurred to her.

“Could it be poison?”

“Poison?”

I asked.

Kwon Sua then explained with great confidence, as if trying to convince everyone:

“It could be lily of the valley poison! I took the antidote Mrs. Danvers gave me, so I’m safe from the flowers for today, even if I get close to them or smell them. And Yeongwon has natural immunity!”

“Oh? Ohh!”

It sounded quite plausible when I heard it.

Soon, Yu Dahui, a resident of the mansion, nodded.

“Lily of the valley? You mean those flowers blooming in the garden behind the mansion? I’ve heard we shouldn’t smell those flowers carelessly. They were used as poison for disgraced women to commit suicide.”

They were flowers shaped like Vienna sausages cut into octopus shapes.

Cute flowers, but with deadly poison.

“Why the hell would someone plant such fucking flowers in the garden?”

As Yang Juhui frowned and expressed her anger, Jeongseok seemed to have reached a conclusion after deep thought.

“Poisoning. Then I think we can narrow down our conclusion to all of us being poisoned. The fact that we died in the bathroom is also concerning. There’s a strong connection between poison and bathing.”

“Poison and bathing? Explain more in detail.”

I asked Jeongseok for further explanation.

He nodded and looked at everyone.

“You know those scenes in historical dramas where people drink poison? They immediately spit blood and die, right? That’s mostly dramatized, and in reality, very few people died immediately after drinking poison. It took time for the poison to activate in the body. Some people showed no symptoms for more than half a day. That’s why they sometimes put people who drank poison in heated saunas to activate the poison and kill them faster.”

I’d never heard before that the scenes of people spitting blood after drinking poison were actually false.

That was news to me.

“So to conclude, we were poisoned for some reason, and when we entered the bathroom, the poison activated and killed us—that seems to be the case. And after this conclusion, one question remains.”

“Question? What is it! Don’t keep us in suspense, just say it directly!”

I felt like I was going to go crazy with frustration.

Yang Juhui also got angry at Jeongseok.

“Yeah! Just explain it clearly!”

“With what I’ve said so far, you should be able to figure it out without me explaining. We died from poison. When do you think we all consumed the poison together?”

Jeongseok seemed to like the Socratic method, asking questions and making others find the answers themselves.

I vaguely deduced when we might have all consumed poison together.

“Dinner time?”

“Right. We were poisoned during dinner. Now two more questions arise. Who poisoned us, and why? Why did they want to kill us?”

“Are you saying there’s a culprit in this mansion?”

Yu Dahui trembled.

As a resident of the mansion, the idea that there might be a culprit inside must have been quite frightening.

Of course, Jeongseok didn’t seem to have any intention of sympathizing with such emotions. Instead, he revealed an even colder and more frightening fact.

“It could be one of us.”

# # #

At the suggestion that the poisoner could be among the five of us, everyone began eyeing each other suspiciously.

But I couldn’t imagine that the culprit could be one of us.

After all, why would any of us who had gone through such hardships together suddenly want to poison and kill each other? Soon, Yang Juhui spoke up.

“Ha Yeongwon. If everything you say is true, there’s one likely suspect. Someone who could be considered the most like an outsider. And someone who survived the poison.”

When Yang Juhui glanced at Kwon Sua, she became extremely flustered.

“I-I’m innocent! I really didn’t do anything! I’m nice! I’m a good person! I’ve never committed any crime in my life!”

Kwon Sua trembled almost convulsively as she insisted on her innocence and blamelessness.

Her attitude seemed very pure and appeared to be a sincere plea.

“She doesn’t seem to be lying.”

I wanted to believe Kwon Sua.

But Jeongseok coldly added:

“Idols are good at lying. How else do you think they make money in the entertainment industry where all kinds of people are involved? Kwon Sua has even appeared in dramas and been praised as a skilled actress. For a genius idol, acting to make lies seem like truth isn’t difficult.”

Except for the incident with Bong Jiyeon, Jeongseok seemed capable of remaining cold even if his opponent was a super popular idol. How could he be so stern after hearing such a heartfelt story?

“I really am innocent!”

Kwon Sua started crying profusely as if she truly felt wronged.

I didn’t think those tears were an act. But if they were, it would be acting skills that would make even ghosts weep, and that was chilling.

Yang Juhui clenched her fist and asked:

“What should we do? Should I beat her up until she spits out the truth?”

“Eek!”

Kwon Sua trembled like a deer facing a tiger when she looked at Yang Juhui. She probably remembered how Yang Juhui had beaten people to death in the corridor.

Yang Juhui was literally someone who could beat a person to death.

“Yeongwon! It wasn’t me! Tell them it wasn’t me!”

With a lunge, Kwon Sua hid behind me, using me as a shield.

The pressure against my back was truly extraordinary.

This was the embodiment of her will to proclaim her innocence.

“Come to think of it… Sua was with me the whole time during dinner. If someone put poison in the food, the best time would be during the cooking process. She didn’t even go near the kitchen.”

Kwon Sua had an alibi that she “didn’t have time to add poison.”

Soon, Kwon Sua brightened up.

“Right? It wasn’t me! If anything, Jeongseok is more likely to be the culprit! I heard he’s good at studying. That means he’s well-suited to commit a perfect crime!”

“Me?”

Jeongseok raised an eyebrow.

“Why do you think I would commit such a crime? I’m actually curious to hear your reasoning.”

Kwon Sua, perhaps still harboring feelings about Jeongseok accusing her, began her deduction.

“People often say women are jealous creatures, but I know how ugly men’s jealousy can be too! Jeongseok is jealous of Yeongwon! I can tell!”

Jeongseok being jealous of me?

Why?

No, there could only be one reason for a man to be jealous of another man.

“…Because I’m too handsome?”

My perfect deduction.

It seemed to hit the mark as Jeongseok became flustered.

“No. It’s true that I’ve envied Yeongwon. I often imagine several times a day—what if I had the Status Window instead. But that jealousy isn’t enough to kill someone.”

Jeongseok honestly admitted his envy towards me.

“Besides, didn’t I also die in the bathroom? What kind of culprit kills everyone including themselves? It’s possible, but Yeongwon, do you think I’m that kind of person?”

“Actually, I couldn’t confirm exactly that you died. I only saw you floating in a bathroom covered in blood, so you could have been faking it…”

But it didn’t seem like Jeongseok was the culprit.

The Jeongseok I knew wouldn’t do such a crazy thing.

I looked at everyone.

And reached a conclusion.

“There’s no culprit among us. That’s what I think.”

“Don’t be so certain. Remember what we felt during the ‘Mirror Ghost’ incident. There could be a ghost mimicking us hiding among us.”

“There are no ghosts among us.”

Kwon Sua said confidently, crossing her arms.

Jeongseok asked:

“How can you be so sure?”

“Tsk tsk, aren’t you underestimating me too much? I’ve worked hard since childhood to distinguish between people and ghosts, to the point my blood ran cold. I can easily tell ghosts from people.”

“That’s just intuition without evidence.”

“My intuition is almost always right!”

“Almost isn’t the same as perfect.”

Jeongseok and Kwon Sua started bickering.

Their already awkward relationship seemed to have deteriorated considerably because of this incident. Does a captain need to pay attention to the likability and relationships between pirate crew members?

“…Why did time go back?”

While the atmosphere was quite chaotic, Yu Dahui, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke.

Some kind of magic in her gentle voice drew everyone’s attention.

“It’s strange, isn’t it? Time rewinding. It’s honestly hard to believe such a thing happened in reality. How could that be possible?”

I was curious too.

But if this was related to some ghost or urban legend…

“Hehehe, it feels like we’re in a detective novel. Like Edgar Allan Poe. Or Conan Doyle. Or Agatha Christie.”

Yu Dahui laughed as if she found it amusing. It was quite extraordinary to laugh in this situation. She probably laughed because she hadn’t seen that hellish scene where everyone died coughing up blood.

“A detective novel… A murder in a mansion.”

Now that I heard it, it did seem that way.

“Maybe we can earn a ton of points if we solve this case well. Let’s find the culprit. And tonight, everyone skips dinner. We should stick together as much as possible!”