Why Won't the Game End
“What is wrong with this guy……”
If Hwang Juyeon were a wolf, she couldn't kill Yu Hyeonjae.
The moment she did, she'd be advertising the fact that she herself was a wolf, and she'd be exiled the very next day. And if there were another wolf out there, that wolf would turn around and exploit her kill to try to take out Hyeonjae instead — and by doing so, avoid all suspicion for the murder.
So Hwang Juyeon had to identify prey before her fellow wolves did. Someone who wasn't Yu Hyeonjae.
Which meant that, in the end, protecting Yu Hyeonjae was the only way for her to protect herself.
“Will she pick me?”
It wasn't as though Hwang Juyeon gained much from my death — but if I survived, I could vote for her the next day, couldn't I? On the grounds that I'd suspected her. On top of that, Yu Hyeonjae had already manufactured the atmosphere that she looked suspicious, so she'd be losing the war of public opinion.
She'd probably think that if she handled this carelessly, she risked taking two or more votes and getting exiled.
Still, God, please let it not be me.
“Once again today, the darkness recedes and the bright light rises.”
It really didn't happen.
“Hm……?”
“Huh?”
“No one…… No one's gone!”
Nothing had happened at all. All six of us, myself included, stood there staring at one another in confusion.
Don't tell me nobody went hunting last night? Why would anyone do that?
“That's strange.”
That infuriating mouth opened again.
“Surely no one who killed a person on the first night hunting was available would suddenly hesitate on the second. Unless……”
Yu Hyeonjae looked at Hwang Juyeon as if he'd just arrived at some frightening realization.
“Did you do it to deflect suspicion? Because I expressed a little doubt in you earlier?”
“What are you even saying, CEO? If anything, all I see right now is you desperately trying to pin this on me.”
Hwang Juyeon shot back her response quickly, enunciating each word as if suppressing her emotions.
“It's true that my initial suspicion lacked any real basis. But with things having turned out this way, I have no choice, do I?”
If either of them poked a little harder, the tension between them was going to blow.
Lee Nahyeon, Lee Jinsu, Jeong Jiho, and I just stood there like shadows, mouths shut, watching.
“To begin with, Hwang Juyeon-ssi was the one who first singled out Seon Yuhan-ssi and…… ah.”
Yu Hyeonjae abruptly stopped mid-sentence and looked at me.
“Come to think of it — how about now, Seon Yuhan-ssi?”
“Oh.”
“Huh? He can talk! Why didn't you say anything before, Yuhan-nim? Was it really the penalty?”
“Ah…… Yes. That's right.”
I stared at Yu Hyeonjae for a moment, then looked away.
“So you really did pick a wolf and got it wrong? Who did you choose?”
“……CEO Yu Hyeonjae. That's who I picked.”
That terrifying bastard.
“Whoa. Then you're confirmed as a lamb, right, CEO? And Yuhan-nim too, I guess.”
Ha.
They say what corporate types do is similar to this? These bastards couldn't play politics half this hard if they tried.
“……Don't tell me the two of you coordinated this?”
The magician's glinting eyes drove into us like arrows.
“Trying to frame me? You two, sitting right next to each other?”
Ah.
Don't do that. Don't say things like that.
“Hwang Juyeon-ssi. You know perfectly well there was neither the time nor the opportunity for that. You must be getting anxious.”
Because if she pressed it, it would only make her look like a wolf making its last desperate struggle.
“As much as it pains me to say it…… I no longer feel safe around you. I'm sorry, Hwang Juyeon-ssi.”
In the end, Yu Hyeonjae signaled to the host, and Hosu approached as if he'd been waiting for exactly this.
“I vote for Hwang Juyeon-ssi to be exiled.”
The first vote. The first declaration of a wish for someone else to die.
“Very well. Hwang Juyeon-nim, one vote. Hwang Juyeon-nim is currently the top vote-getter and is scheduled for exile.”
“Are you insane — you're all insane? Fine. Fine! I'm voting too. Yu Hyeonjae, I want YOU exiled!”
“Very well. Yu Hyeonjae-nim, one vote. Hwang Juyeon-nim and Yu Hyeonjae-nim are currently tied as top vote-getters and are scheduled for exile.”
“Ah. So that's how it works.”
So when the vote tied, both of the tied parties got exiled. Lovely.
“And by the way — the fact that you voted without a moment's hesitation says it all, doesn't it? Hwang Juyeon-ssi really is the wolf. Aren't you?”
“No, I'm not! Even when I suspected Seon Yuhan-ssi earlier, that was honestly because he and Choi Jaeha-ssi didn't get along, and then Choi Jaeha went and died right after. Of course that looks suspicious. Ask her whether she killed him and she won't even answer — it looks like she's cooking up an excuse. And as for no one dying last night, I genuinely had nothing to do with that.”
“You speak as though someone simply had to die.”
If anyone on this floor deserved to be exiled first and slaughtered, wolf ally or not, it was this man.
I didn't even want to deal with him.
“Besides, if Hwang Juyeon-ssi were a lamb, she would naturally have kept in mind that a penalty exists for failing to correctly identify a wolf. Yes — of course, I did suspect Seon Yuhan-ssi at first for not speaking. But I immediately recalled that there was a penalty for missing the wolf. How could anyone forget a rule that buys you one more day of life, so long as you simply don't guess wrong? No one would. Unless they were a wolf.”
“……Host. I'd like to vote too.”
But right now, she was my ally.
“For Hwang Juyeon-ssi.”
“Ha!”
“Very well. Hwang Juyeon-nim, two votes. Hwang Juyeon-nim is currently the top vote-getter and is scheduled for exile.”
“See? I told you they coordinated it! A pack of identical bastards huddling together, going after the woman who looks easiest to kill! You psychopath freaks.”
I turned my head and looked at Hwang Juyeon, straight on.
So she was the kind of person who could make a face like that.
No wonder I liked her.
“The CEO is certainly a lamb — I couldn't in good conscience drag him into exile with me.”
I wasn't going to apologize.
Where in the world would you find anyone cowardly enough to stab a knife into someone's back and then say sorry? Hwang Juyeon deserved not to be subjected to that kind of revolting deception.
I must not look away from what I was doing. I must not move my mouth to say I had no choice.
“The sun has set for the day. How desolate the ranch feels, with Hwang Juyeon-nim's empty spot left behind.”
I killed Hwang Juyeon, and Hwang Juyeon died.
That was all.
I would not forget the look in her eyes at the final moment — the two eyes that glared at us, hurling down their curse.
It's a conjecture I would never voice, since it wouldn't comfort a single soul, but Hwang Juyeon really had been the wolf who killed Choi Jaeha.
For a long while after that, no one died at night.
Lee Nahyeon and Jeong Jiho must have cried all night right after Hwang Juyeon's exile — they greeted the morning with the rims of their eyes and the tips of their noses bright red, and for the several days that followed, nobody died in the night.
As for Lee Jinsu, he was always a man of few words and awkward movements, so it was hard to say either way.
Truthfully, Hwang Juyeon had been the only one among us with the decisiveness to go hunting from the very first round. Yu Hyeonjae, being no wolf, was out of the question.
Yu Hyeonjae spoke loud enough for everyone to hear — and at the same time, shifted his gaze slightly, as though the words were meant for me alone.
Lee Jinsu.
And we had more than enough power to exile Lee Jinsu at will.
Lee Nahyeon and Jeong Jiho hadn't even voted back when it was Hwang Juyeon.
“I'm sorry? But — Jinsu-nim isn't really suspicious of anything, is he?”
“Then what, you think Jiho-gun is the wolf? Or Lee Nahyeon-ssi?”
“No, that's…….”
Lee Nahyeon, who had pushed back so abruptly with her sobs barely swallowed, eventually tucked her tail.
“I'll vote.”
I threw my vote at Lee Jinsu.
Whether Lee Jinsu was a wolf or not, I couldn't say for certain. But I knew exactly how to guarantee a win.
“Very well. Lee Jinsu-nim, one vote. Lee Jinsu-nim is currently the top vote-getter and is scheduled for exile.”
If we exiled everyone except the people confirmed to be lambs, we would win.
“You two, seriously…….”
Lee Jinsu, receiving the vote, didn't even look surprised. He only shook his head.
He showed no sign of intending to pay us back with votes of his own.
“You're horrifying.”
I know.
“I know.”
My silent answer and Yu Hyeonjae's toneless one landed on top of each other.
“The sky is darkening little by little.”
The thirteen-minute day was drawing to a close.
“Host. Let's hold the vote, shall we?”
Yu Hyeonjae opened his mouth — he had been abstaining, presumably to guard against a vote someone might throw out at the last moment.
“I'd like to exile someone. Lee Nahyeon-ssi.”
What?
“Very well. Lee Nahyeon-nim, one vote. Lee Jinsu-nim and Lee Nahyeon-nim are currently tied as top vote-getters and are scheduled for exile.”
“Huh?”
“Is there any need to waste time?”
Yu Hyeonjae whispered it as if stating some simple, eternal truth — that the sun and moon rise and set every single day.
“You already know, don't you. All we have to do is be the ones left standing.”
We were horrifying past the point of disgust, the lot of us.
“Wait — hold on, I'll vote too, for Yu Hyeon—”
“—The sun has finally hidden itself within the darkness. What could have become of Lee Jinsu-nim and Lee Nahyeon-nim, who left the ranch behind?”
Night had fallen.
“……It's not over? It's still not over?”
Only three of us remained now.
Me, Yu Hyeonjae, and Jeong Jiho.
I knew that I was a lamb. I knew that Yu Hyeonjae was one too.
Which meant, in the end…….
So that's it. I have to kill her, don't I.
Before she kills one of us.
If she couldn't kill one of us this round, then eventually we'd have no choice but to kill her.
“When the moon passes, the sun is sure to rise.”
And that was exactly what happened.
The child killed no one.
Even knowing she had to. Even knowing that if she didn't, she would die.
“I'll…… vote.”
Don't hesitate. Don't regret. Don't make excuses.
If you do any of that here, then what does that make Hwang Juyeon? What does it make Lee Jinsu and Lee Nahyeon?
“F-for Jeong Jiho.”
“Very well. Jeong Jiho-nim, one vote. Jeong Jiho-nim is currently the top vote-getter and is scheduled for exile.”
“As will I. Let's have Jiho-gun exiled.”
“Very well. Jeong Jiho-nim, two votes. Exile is confirmed.”
Not scheduled. Confirmed.
With two of three votes cast against her, exile was all but certain — no matter whether Jeong Jiho voted for one of us here or not.
“……So it seems they exile her immediately.”
Even Yu Hyeonjae hadn't expected this, judging by the way his eyes widened slightly.
“Yes, that's right.”
The host approached the one marked for exile.
“What a shame. And here I knew you'd be such a delightful playmate.”
Hosu murmured it softly, and pressed his lips to the young wolf's forehead.
And the child was erased from the world — as if she had never existed at all.
“…….”
I had been staring blankly at the scene when, all at once, my body shuddered as if waking from a dream.
The last wolf was dead.
So then why.
‘The moment either faction achieves its victory condition, Shepherd's Silence ends immediately.’
Then why hasn't the final game ended?
Why.
“…….”
Why is Shepherd's Silence still going on?
“Ah. Finally.”
I couldn't even muster the courage to turn my head.
Because the man sitting beside me right now is—
What the hell is this lunatic trying to do?