List of candidate

41.3% - Almond M. Chaveil

21.9% - Lora H. Tolcin

17.4% - Joy L. Nicam

13.3% - Ronald K. Dola

6.1% - (Monty L. Kind)

So, here I am, in front of Monty’s door.

I know she’s in there, well, there is a high chance she is in there. At least my instinct is telling me that.

And I trust my instinct.

But this time, I wish it is wrong. I don’t want to face my sister. She’s gonna be mad and she literally can kill me with a slap.

I gathered my resolve, put my hand on the handle, and opened the door.

"Please! Please! Please! Don't hang up, it's important! No! I told you I'm on your dad side! What? No, I'm not his lover! Come on!"

To my surprise, Alice was rapidly conversing with her scroll. Wait, no, it seems it’s Monty’s scroll -there are slight differences between the older and current version-, what is she doing with that? And more importantly, who is on the other side of the call?

As she saw me enter, I saw an instant surge of relief on her face, and she silently made me understand to come closer.

“Okay! Mr. Sacre arrived, he worked closely with your father for the past month, I’m passing him the scroll.”

Is it me or her voice is sweeter than usual… She covered the phone and quietly summed up the situation.

“Apparently this is Monty’s daughter, she called because it was his birthday today. She doesn’t know about, well, what happened.”

She called because it is his birthday… I don’t know if I’m mad because it is a sick twist of fate, or because it is another cliché to add in this horrible adventure.

Anyway, I took the scroll.

“Hi, I’m Samsy Sacre. I…”

“Haw and wha the heck y’all gat my dad’s scro’? ‘Was a poor ald man, y’all got na honor. If me find ya, ya’ll be kicked in the…”

For an instant, I wondered if the flux translation feature* had ceased to function, but in the end, it’s just a horrible accent. Haha, I’m such a jerk sometimes.

Sigh… I guess being a jerk can help.

“M’am, Monty L. Kind died yesterday afternoon.”

“…with a fark and… what did ya say?”

I waited a bit to let the information sink in, but before she could gather her thought too much and answer me, I continued.

"He had a heart attack, in the middle of the main street."

Shit, I really prefer situation I had a vision of, it’s way easier than this.

“I didn’t know him really well, he was always alone and invisible to society in general, but he was a good man.”

“… did they killed him?”

“…”

“Che… wha am I even…”

“Yes.”

“…”

“I have no proof, and there are probably none, but they obviously killed him, and disguised it as an accident.”

“… who’re you?”

“I am Sam, and you are?”

“Lara, Lara Kind.”

An image of a young woman with dark-blue hair and emerald eyes looking down at me and smiling passed through my eyes. Is… is this a coincidence? Or does the game master doesn't have any originality for names?

“What ya folks plan ta da?”

“I’m not sure I should involve you in that.”

"C'mon! It was ma pops!"

“You’re not surprised by his death, are you?”

“Are ya kidding? Our people are less than ant to them, h’was hated by all those fuckars! He knew, and me knew, that h’was risking thee life!”

"Yeah, I think he wanted to tell me that, but he didn't get the time."

“Ya didn’t answar me, what…”

“Okay, I’ll tell you, but not by scroll. I’ll meet you in person.”

“Da ya even know where I…”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

And I hanged up.

Phew, this conversation was quite stressful, talking with the daughter of a man that died a day before is apparently not something I like to do. That, and the flash memory of Lora I got didn’t help. Shit, I can’t believe I forgot about her… I wonder if everything is alright.

“So, how did it go?”

Can’t believe I forgot about her too.

“Pretty good, I guess. Her name is Lo, hum, Lara, and we’re going to meet her tomorrow.”

“Did you saw that in a vision?”

“Nop, well, kinda. I saw the three of us in the slump asking for direction, so I guess it’s what’s going to happen.”

"Oh, so in the end, it's the three of us… good, good."

“I-I-you know I didn’t really want to leave you girls out of it, right?”

“I know, I know.”

Holy shit, a smile, a peaceful face, and a bloodlust aura. She clearly is about to kill me.

“Lo-look! I’m sorry! Okay, I kinda snapped, I won’t do it again! I promise!”

“It’s fine.”

“Really?”

"Well, I guess now you owe me and Mar one."

“Ye-yeah…”

I have a bad feeling about that.

(A) “Mar! We’re back.”

(M) “Sam? Damn, I didn’t think I would see you so soon.”

(S) “Haha, I already apologized to Alice, and it’s not like I had a choice either.”

(M) "Of course, it's not like you can do anything without your two beloved mistresses."

(S) “Okay, first, no one is my mistress here -Alice, please, stop blushing-, and second, it was more because I was worried about you two. I can take care of myself.”

(M) “ May I remind you how many more times you nearly died compared to the rest of us?”

(S) “Aaaaaanyway, we have things to do!”

(A) “Sam got a whole new bunch of visions!”

(S) “I had 5 new vision, I already used 2, and I had another one from the first few days here. I don’t know if all of them will be useful, but at least the last one is promising.”

(A) “We’re going to the outer circle.”

(M) “Again? Why? I thought there was only homeless people and trash.”

(S) “It’s more or less true, but I have a plan, and I’ll need to do business with some people down there.”

(A) “We’re gonna meet with Monty’s daughter tomorrow.”

(M) “Sigh… I guess I’ll stay here to keep up with the situation here.”

(S) “No, I already took care of that too. I went to the MFT tower to question someone and she was… surprisingly cooperative. She will be our contact while we’re out of town.”

(M) “What do you mean, ‘surprisingly cooperative’?”

(S) “Nothing…”

“Hahaha, yeah Sam! Tell them what happened!”

Valentine and William were still both in front of the giant screen, with the first enjoying the situation may be a bit too much.

“Val, I think this is kind of embarrassing for him.”

"Of course this is! He beat up the worst masochist I have ever seen! Haha, he really has weird luck!"

“’Masochist’ might be a bit too much…”

"Oh, come one, he kicked her two times and she was on the edge of orgasm. She practically fell in love with him, if it's not hardcore masochism, I don't know what is!"

“You don’t know that!”

“Sigh… my dear William, you still can’t read people emotion…”

“Hey! I’m just giving her the benefit of the doubt.”

"Yeah, yeah. I just hope her and Sam will meet again at some point. And they'll meet another girl soon, must be my lucky day! Oh, I know! I should prepare my popcorn bucket!"

She stood up from her seat and started walking toward the exit.

“Come on! Do you have no shame? A man died yesterday!”

She stopped.

Slowly turned around.

Facing Will, with a confused face.

"Shame? What is that? "

We left the hotel room a little before the sunset, and passed the gate around the same time the first ray of light appeared.

In my head, I thought it would have looked like a secret infiltration mission, or at least something serious and silent, but the girls weren't really in the same boat. Mainly because Marie had finished one of her devices.

“Look! This one is worth 1 too!”

“Again! Maybe you shouldn’t have calibrated the reference on your power level.”

“It is just a prototype, at least we know how much of a cheat you are.”

“Hehe, I guess it was too be expected.”

"But I have to say, your result was quite surprising, Sam."

As I really didn’t want to get involved in the conversation, I faked being occupied looking for the place I saw in my vision.

"Meh, he's ignoring us, what was his number again?"

“28.”

“Oh, well, he’s a Seer, so maybe it’s to compensate his cheated powers.”

"My class seems to revolve around constructing things, so I do not thinks it is about his class. Maybe it is my the strength i-talent that is putting me above..."

“Oh yeah, your title! ‘Mason of Chastity’! It’s hilarious how much it suits you!”

"Hey! You are the one talking! At least for me, it is a choice."

“You wanna fight, Blondy?”

“Bring it on, Stupid.”

“Girls! I think I found it!”

It wasn't exactly true, but I had to say something before things get out of hand. We were deep in the slump, at a place we didn't go two days ago, and I could sense some figures gazing at us from afar.

“Sam… is it really the place you are looking for?”

“Well, the truth is that I am not really sure about the exact location. The thing I’m looking for is…”

With a strong feeling of déjà-vu, I grabbed a stone flying toward my face, and saw a little girl on the edge of my field of view. She was shocked by my catch of the stone coming from what should have been a dead angle, but rapidly gathered her resolved and grabbed another projectile.

I approached her as she was arming her second throw. This time, I didn't try to dodge, and the rock hit my face. Shit! I thought it wouldn't hurt ‘cause it's just a little girl, but it hurts like hell!

Shit! I should have use flux! I am so stupid!

Shit! My fucking nose! Shit Shit shit!!!

I thought I would do the cool and scary guy act, but now I'm rolling on the ground in pain. Shit, is she have super strength too or something? Argh, and she got me precisely in the nose too!

After a few seconds, I managed to finally calm down and stand up. I heard the two other laughing their asses off on my back, and to my surprise, the kid wasn’t alone anymore, an adult had arrived, and was scolding her.

She then looked at me, and came to my encounter, bringing the girl with her.

“We’re really sorry, please, she’s just a kid, she didn’t want to…”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine! I accept your apologies.”

I said that, but the kid was still glaring at me, even though her mother -I assume- forced her to say ‘sorry’.

“Actually, I would like to ask you something…”

And that's how we arrived at what I foresaw yesterday. Sigh… most of the time I only see an instant or just a few seconds during my visions, but as I was holding my bleeding nose, I realized it doesn't tell me that much.

Anyway, she ‘luckily’ knew where Lora was, and pointed a direction to follow.

Two hours later, the three of us arrived in front of a pile of junk and trash forming a house. It looked surprisingly sturdy, and there was a sign a few meter in front of the door, with the word ‘Kind’ written on it.

Without further due, I knocked on the piece of wood they were using as a door, and Lora promptly opened it. She was a young woman in her twenties -I have to say, way younger than I expected- with short brown hair and small cunning brown eyes. She was a bit smaller than me and got huge bags under her eyes

“I’m Sam, we talked yesterday.”

"C'mon in."

I have to say, the interior was better looking than the outside. The furnitures were in good shape and the rooms were cleaner than the street.

We got in what seemed to be the living room, and sat down on what we found. She offered us tea, but I politely declined -to Alice disappointment apparently.

“So… what’s ya plan? Da ya even have one?”

“I do have one, but first, I need to be clear, this is not revenge.”

“But…”

“The circumstance make the murderer impossible to find, unless we manage to have a confession or something.”

“I don’t need no evidence! They’re all guilty!”

“And that’s why we need to beat them at there own game.”

“What?”

“I’ll win The Presidency, and I’ll fight for what Monty’s believed in.”

“Che, ya’re a crazy person, how would ya da that?”

“That’s simple, we’ll blackmail the government.”

*See chapter 3