“I’m impressed,” I hear a slow clap as we shed light on the eminence in the shadow, New Guy, “You caught me. Truly, I thought that I could hide beneath your eyes, but I guess the legacy of the heretics is not for nothing isn’t it?” His voice is playful, sardonic even, exuding none of the warmth that it did before. A complete turnabout from the New Guy I knew.

“Wait, hold up,” Laffer holds his hands in hol’up, “You were actually the spy?”

“What?” New Guy is incredulous, his aura of mystery dissipating like wisps in the wind, “Didn’t you find me out?”

On my part, I’m also incredulous, “New Guy… You actually…” I’m at a loss for words, “You actually ate his horse shite?”

“What? D-Didn’t he investigate me and gather evidence?”

Did Laffer present any evidence? That’s right, I didn’t think so. “New Guy, you’ve been here longer than I, yet you still can’t grasp his theatrical spirit?” Honestly, I’m astounded.

“N-No, but didn’t he call on the help of Traveller to connect the dots?”

Dots? What dots? “The only dots would be that of Traveller’s eyes!”

Salutations. The Traveller in the room gives me a tip of their hat at my mention.

Godsdamn man! I knew Laffer theatrical talent was profound, but if you know him well enough, you should know when he’s just making a fuss! Especially when he’s straight up accusing you of the single worst sin in the cult!

If I recall correctly, traitors are given the single most wretched and tortuous punishment. Apparently, it varies, but according to Lacer, the traitor would be flayed, as their essence is slowly corrupted, left to slowly putrefact. At the end of the process spanning seven days, the traitor would have their body cut and broken, and their soul ripped and shredded. They would rather cease existence than continue on for even a moment.

Therefore, an accusation of this level was no joke, not to mention admitting to the fact.

New Guy… My friend, even if you were a traitor, I would’ve turned a blind eye as a favour for what you did for me, yet… you outed yourself!

“Wha? No! You guys are just playing me for a fool! I know you found me out!”

“Yesn’t!”

“Tsk! Do you really pity me that much?” New Guy starts a rant, “Then I’ll prove it!”

“Go ahead!” Laffer yells back.

“Oh right, Traveller, may I ask that you exit the scene. I’d like for this situation to be somewhat impartial,” Flushing out all his previous energy, New Guy gives Traveller a request in his customary calmness.

It is of no matter. Traveller waves their hands, My stay has been long due. We will meet if we meet. Adieux.

With words of farewell, the Traveller leaves the room via… Wall? I dunno. He kinda just went through the wall. Noclipping, apparently.

“Okay, let’s start shall we? I’ll prove it,”

And to my surprise, he actually proves himself, retelling the story of how he first got in here and now moving on to his subsequent operations here.

“Y’see, after finding out about rumours of demi human travellers being murdered on the south western roads, and looking at the maps, those were on one of the routes from the city of Sharne,”

Sharne, huh? I used to live there.

“I judged that it must’ve been the heretic that popped up near there, considering that they were both accompanied by an ashen white bird. And it seems I was correct, considering you were welcomed with open arms here,”

Wait what? Are you saying that murderer’s me? “Your info’s wrong. I didn’t kill any demi humans on my way here,”

“Can you truly say such a thing with the utmost confidence when you can barely even make sound judgments even at the best of times? Sharne’s Spiteful Sleeper?”

“What are you on about?”

“He’s talkin’ about your delirium,” Laffer whispers to me.

I’m not an idiot, I know an insult when I see one, “I’m asking about that stupid title,”

“Why that would be your epithet in Sharne, dear Jeffrey. What a surprise you don’t even know your own sobriquet,” He smiles with the signature look of superiority, “The Spiteful Sleeper, an elite guardsmen of Sharne, with over 400 confirmed kills, including executions. You are an individual with heavily conservative values who wouldn’t hesitate to even put a child in the gallows if you believed them at fault. It’s no surprise you became a heretic in the end, huh?”

He speaks in that pragmatic, matter of fact tone, like he’s reading my biography that makes it hard to argue. But damn, he’s really making me out as the bad guy.

So much so that Laffer, man of much horse shite, is convinced.

AY ay! Don’t gimme that look! I haven’t killed 400 people nor have I touched a child! Well… The kills might be accurate… But I don never, NEVER offed a child!

That’s my bedrock bottom line.

“Anyway, moving on, Jef— No, Spiteful Sleeper, you may not have noticed, but it was me who set up the conflict between you two, hoping to instigate an infighting, but that was to no avail. Honestly, despite how you guys act in public you're surprisingly civil,” He snorts, “So anyway, that was when I passed on your information to a vigilante corps made up of firm believers of the gods to subjugate you bastards. But seriously! They failed horribly and I even had to cover my ass lest you get suspicious of my disappearance,”

Hmm, guess that was why I didn’t see him at all when those guys were beating my ass, but on another note, “If you wanted us dead, why’d d’you heal me? It’s proof that you ain’t a traitor,”

“Hmm?”

“You healed me,” I reiterate, punctuating each word so he can fully understand me.

“Pft, that’s obviously to relieve myself of suspicion,”

“Are you stupid? Did you not see how hesitant Wills was to simply give Jeffrey a potion? If anything, you going out of your way to heal Jeffrey was very odd,” Laffer interjects on my behalf.

I back him up with a couple nods.

“Wait really? Don’t you guys have like an unbreakable camaraderie?”

“It doesn’t extend to the healing of others,”

Hol’up! It's only now that I realise how messed up these values are, and this… THIS catches me off guard. You tellin’ me that you’d readily risk your hide for me, but healing me is a no go?

“No, it was just that potions actually might’ve killed you instead. We’ll die if we drink potions,”

Oh, okay. I feel like I should’ve been made aware of this earlier but I’ll shelve this for now.

“Hmm? If that was the case, then how was it suspicious that I healed Jeffrey?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s ‘cause ontop of being unable to drink healing potions, we’re physically incapable of learning healing magic. So we simply cannot heal each other,” He gives a grating shrug, "Thus, our help never extends to the healing of each other,"

New Guy's face stiffens as his eyebrows twitch.

“Ahhh~! What a blunder,” He palms his forehead, “Nonetheless, there is no use crying over spoilt milk. Needless to say, I incited the blood cult into taking extreme action in a bid to eradicate you guys, but to think you were actually diligent enough to track and storm their hideout at a moment's notice! I thought you were simply savages with naught but a single brain cell split amongst you, but you have surpassed all my expectations,” He inhales a deep breathe as if to soothe his irritated spirit, “As a stopgap measure, I tipped the city guards off about the your movements so that they would take you down after you were weakened by the blood cult. I’m sure I emphasised the fact that there would be heretics in that warehouse, but no. Those incompetent bastards arrived early, then fought the wrong cult as you played cleanup,”

His words, they all make sense, and fit perfectly with the scenarios at hand. I have to say, “I have no doubts,”

Seeing New Guys triumphant look as I move to get the rope evokes a really bitter feeling in me. I lost. He bested me in every way.

Truly, just who is New Guy? No actually though, who is he?

We straight up spend an hour here and I still don’t know.