(I finished the whole trial already, but I divided it into separate chapters.)
Ryan immediately slammed his hands on the podium. "There's no need to waste any more time. We already know who the culprit is." He pointed at Seto with a shaky finger. "It's obvious that Seto is the killer!"
Gasps and murmurs of shock filled the courtroom. "Are you serious?" Bonks exclaimed, her pink eyes wide with disbelief.
"That can't be right!" Bodil declared.
Seto stared at the floor and remained silent, knowing that anything he said would be held against him.
"How are you so sure about this?" Steven asked, his eyebrows raised.
Ryan pulled out his e-Handbook and pressed a few buttons. All of the other e-Handbooks beeped. Seto looked at his and saw a photo of the bloody message Jade had left behind. "It's messy, but there's no doubt about it. Jade wrote Seto's name on the floor as her dying message to tell us that he was the one who killed her," Ryan said.
"But wasn't Seto knocked unconscious yesterday?" Jason asked. "We had to carry him back to his room. He was sleeping the whole night!"
"Unless he faked it somehow," Jordan murmured.
"No, I didn't fake it," Seto said, choosing his words carefully. "First of all, if I killed Jade, then why didn't I remove the message?"
"That's because you didn't see it!" Annie said, fire burning in her eyes. "We didn't see it at first, and you were no exception!"
Seto bit his lip. He couldn't refute that.
"It does seem very suspicious," Steven admitted, although it didn't seem like he was fully convinced.
"Is that the only proof we have though?" Jerome asked. "It's a possibility that Seto is the culprit, but that message could have also been written by the killer. They could have written Seto's name to frame him."
Husky sighed reluctantly and showed them a photo. "I'm sorry, but the blood on Jade's finger indicates that she indeed wrote the message herself."
"But what if the killer took her hand and wrote the message that way?" Jason suggested.
Husky stared at the photo. "That could work, I suppose," he said finally. "But there's no way to know for certain."
Seto swallowed. His throat was parched, making it hard to speak. "Okay, but if I was the killer, then why did I suggest someone guard the crime scene? I could have easily kept silent."
"To fool us into thinking you were innocent, of course!" Ryan yelled. "If you'd already disposed of all the evidence, then you wouldn't need to hide anything during the investigation! Plus, you were the one who offered to check on Jade..."
"How could I have disposed of all the evidence when the trash room is closed off during Night Time?" Seto countered.
"I'm sure you had your ways..." Annie said darkly.
Damn it! How can I convince them? There has to be something!
Tyler spoke up. "This is just my opinion, but the way Seto acted when he found the body was strange."
"What do you mean?" Bonks asked.
"He seemed so indifferent about everything," Tyler replied. "Like it was nothing more than another day for him."
"It was almost like he didn't care at all," Annie muttered.
"He... did seem pretty emotionless..." Mitch admitted.
"You can't factor emotions into something like this," Jordan declared. "Everyone reacts to trauma in different ways. What we need are facts, not assumptions."
"Well does anyone have some other idea who the killer is?" Ashley asked, placing her hands on her hips. "Because Seto's the only one here with incriminating evidence..."
"Um, maybe it'd be helpful if we went over what happened during Jade's murder?" Bodil suggested hesitantly. He cleared his throat and continued. "I mean, some of us don't even know how she died... If we go over what happened, we might find something..."
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Steven said in agreement.
Jerome spoke up. "Okay, then I'll start. At around 1:15 or so, the killer entered Jade's room with an unknown deadly poison. It was a Splash Potion. We know this because there were glass shards found near her body. The killer threw the poison at Jade, killing her."
A melancholy expression crossed Bonks face. "And she must have died unable to fight back..."
Seto narrowed his eyes. That part didn't seem right. He had proof to back this up, didn't he?
>>>-BROKEN-LAMP-> ((UNABLE TO FIGHT BACK))
"No Bonks, that's wrong," Seto said, shaking his head. "Jade did fight back. At least I think she did." He held up his e-Handbook, found the picture of the broken lamp, and saw that there was an option to "Present Evidence". "This was near her body. As you can see, the shade fell off and the light bulb is shattered. These are signs that a struggle took place."
"Oh..." Bonks said, bowing her head. "Sorry, I didn't see that."
"But what if Jade just knocked it over after she was hit with the poison?" Sky asked.
"If she knocked it over, then it would have just been lying on the floor," Seto replied. "The light bulb wouldn't have been broken like that; the shade would have protected it."
"Okay, but what if the killer attacked Jade with the lamp?" Ryan suggested.
"...I don't see any reason why the killer would do that," Seto said after a moment's pause.
"To subdue her before poisoning her!"
"But that'd just be a waste of energy," Seto retorted. "Besides, since Jade was the one who let the killer in, she would have been standing between the killer and the lamp. There's no reason for the killer to run past Jade, all the way across the room, and turn around to hit her with the lamp."
Ryan tried to formulate a counterargument, but found that he could not.
"So Jade fought back against her killer, but to no avail," Ashley murmured. "Physically, she was the weakest out of all of us..." She then slammed her fist against the podium in anger. "I should have realized that the killer would target her!"
"We can't think about that now, Ashley," Jordan reminded her. "We have to focus on finding the killer. That's our main priority."
Ashley grit her teeth, but said nothing.
"So we know that she fought back, but does it matter?" Sky asked. "It doesn't bring us any closer to figuring out who did it..."
"No, but it does give us a better picture of what happened," Jason said. "Did anyone check..." A look of discomfort crossed his face as he forced the next words out. "...the body?"
"I did," Husky said. "As stated in the MonoWither File, Jade had no external wounds. All of the blood was due to her coughing it up as a result of the poison."
"How did the killer get into Jade's room in the first place?" Steven asked. "Did they break in somehow?"
"The locks have an anti-picking mechanism though," Tyler said.
"If Seto killed her, he could have just done a spell to unlock it..." Annie muttered.
Seto pondered for a moment. "MonoWither, is it possible for magic to unlock the doors?" he asked.
"What? Of course not!" MonoWither exclaimed. "It'd be too easy for you to just go waltzing around wherever you pleased! No, these locks are definitely magic-protected! Don't even try to break those spells!"
"So basically it would have been impossible for me to break into the room like that," Seto concluded.
"Maybe Jade just forgot to lock her door?" Mitch suggested.
Husky shook his head. "That'd be way too convenient for the killer. They would have had some other plan to get in somehow."
"What if the killer just knocked on the door and Jade let them in herself?" Jerome said.
"How would they know if Jade was awake though?" Sky asked. "For all they knew, Jade could have been sleeping..."
No, Jade was probably awake. She was probably...
1. In the bathroom
2. Sleepwalking in the hallways
3. Reading
"Jade liked reading at night," Seto recalled. "The killer probably knew this and planned accordingly."
"Yeah, you would know..." Ryan muttered. "How do you know she was reading last night?
"I have proof." Seto presented the photo of the book lying on the nightstand, its pages pressed against the wooden surface. "Jade was must have been reading when the killer knocked on her door, so she put the book down like that and answered it."
"But how was the killer so sure that she'd be reading at that time?" Steven asked.
"If she was sleeping, then the killer could have just tried again the next night," Seto answered.
"Why would Jade open the door though?" Bonks asked. "It was in the middle of the night. Wouldn't she question why someone was knocking on her door that late?"
Seto's face twisted in pain and he looked away. "Jade was the one who trusted everybody the most..." he whispered. "She denied that someone was planning a murder many times..."
"The killer must have known this and taken advantage of that fact..." Jordan murmured sadly.
There was a heartrending silence as everyone realized what a terrible betrayal this was. Jade was someone who had looked up to all of them, believed in them, trusted them...
In the end, they had all failed her.
"What do we do now?" Jason asked quietly. "Are there any other clues? If not, then the only suspect we have is Seto."
Seto's face paled. "There- There has to be something else-"
"Is there really?" Ryan asked skeptically. "Because if there isn't, then maybe we should vote-"
"Hold on!" Bodil said desperately. "Maybe we should go over it again! Maybe we missed something!"
"Why are you defending him?" Ryan questioned. "Did you help him or something?"
Bodil shook his head. "No, but I... I can't believe Seto would..."
"Can you believe any one of us did it?!" Ryan said, scoffing. "I can't either, but that still doesn't change the fact that someone here is a murderer. Someone here betrayed our trust and is trying to get us all executed. All of the friendships we had..." Here his voice cracked and he lowered his gaze before clenching his fists. "...they don't matter right now!"
"Why do you keep accusing Seto?!" Husky demanded. "From the very beginning, you've been blaming him based on one assumption!"
"It's almost like you're the one hiding something," Tyler noted. "Is that why you keep blaming Seto?"
"Tyler, what are you implying?" Mitch hissed, his voice unusually deadly.
Ryan was silent. His face was devoid of color and his eyes seemed vacant.
"Ryan, you have an answer, right?" Jerome asked quietly.
Hunched over his stand, Ryan stared at the floor. A gloomy shadow crossed his face. "I'm sorry Seto... I just... want this to be over..." Ryan whispered. "Trials, murders, executions... It's all too much... I just want this to end already... I don't even care what happens anymore... Whether we get this right or not... I don't care..." He closed his eyes. "I just want this to be over, okay?! I don't want to do this at all!"
"Hey, hey, stop getting off track!" MonoWither yelled in annoyance from their throne. "Spare the sentimental stuff for later; we have a crime to solve! Wouldn't it be a shame if we made you guys all vote now just because you ran out of time?" The deadly words hung heavy in the air like toxic smoke.
"We're still no closer to figuring this out," Sky murmured anxiously. "It's hopeless! We'll never find the killer!"
"Don't think like that," Ashley said. "I think I've got an idea."
"You know who the killer is?" Jordan asked hopefully.
"No, of course not, but I was thinking about the blood. Could some of Jade's blood have gotten on the killer?"
"But since Jade only coughed up the blood, most of it probably ended up on the floor, unless she was close enough to cough some blood on the killer's clothes," Husky noted. "Other than that, there's no evidence that suggests that the killer ever came into contact with the blood besides trying to frame Seto, which we haven't even confirmed yet."
Mitch and Seto both looked at each other, remembering the same thing at the same time. "There were bloody fingerprints on the light switch and the wall around it. Mitch and Jerome showed them to me," Seto said as he presented the photo.
"Jade couldn't have made those marks, she wouldn't have had the strength to go across the room," Annie realized with a start. "So that means..."
"...the killer is the one who made the marks," Jerome finished.
"But why would the killer touch the wall and the light switch?" Steven wondered aloud. "Were they trying to turn off the lights? It looks like they had a lot of trouble doing it for some reason..."
Seto stroked his chin, thinking carefully. "No, I think they were trying to turn the lights on."
"What makes you say that?" Jordan asked.
"I remember Jade once said that she liked reading with only the lamp on," Seto recalled. "After the killer attacked her- I say after, because poisons are usually thrown when the victim's back is turned to prevent the victim from dodging them, so Jade wouldn't have been able to defend herself beforehand- we know she swung the lamp at least twice: the first time knocking off the lampshade, the second time shattering the light bulb. After the light bulb broke, the killer was left in total darkness since the lights on the ceiling weren't on. The killer must have felt their way along the wall until they found the light switch and turned it on, but didn't think to wipe the traces off afterwards. It was foolish of them to overlook something like that."
"How did the killer get blood on their hands though?" Ashley asked.
"Well it's probably not from the killer themselves," Seto reasoned. "I don't think the glass from the light bulb cut them, since if it did then the killer would probably have noticeable cuts or torn clothing. If Jade was trying to attack the killer, she might have tried to grab onto them before her strength gave way..."
"Okay, but how did Jade get that much blood on her hands?" Tyler questioned.
"Lots of ways," Seto murmured, shivering as dreadful thoughts entered his mind. He shook his head to clear it. He had to stay focused. He couldn't let his emotions get in the way. "She might have wiped her mouth with her hand, coughed into her palm, something like that."
"Sounds like you know a lot about how people react to getting poisoned..." Ryan muttered.
Sadly, I do.
"Okay, but how does this help us in any way?" Bonks asked in a shaky voice, pink eyes filled with fear. The descriptions had clearly disturbed her.
Seto rested his hands down on the podium stand. "Well, I think this is sufficient proof that I'm not the killer."
Everyone was stunned. "Wait, really?" Sky asked.
Seto nodded. "Yes. Annie and Ashley can back me up."
"We can?" Annie asked, confused.
"When we were checking the elevator shaft, I used a light spell so that we could see what was inside. If I was the killer, and the light bulb broke, then I wouldn't have tried turning on the lights like that." Sweat dampened Seto's forehead as he prayed that his argument would hold.
Ashley's eyes widened in realization. "It wouldn't make sense for you to waste time trying to find the light switch in the dark when you could just use that spell..."
"Exactly! So I'm not the killer!"
"Hmm, I think that's a sound argument," Tyler murmured thoughtfully.
"I also think what Seto said makes sense, but does anyone else have any objections?" Husky asked.
"I don't," Annie admitted.
Ryan sighed. "Me neither, I guess..." he said.
Slight relief washed over Seto as everyone nodded in agreement. "See, I knew Seto wouldn't kill anyone!" Bodil stated, smiling.
"I'm glad Seto isn't the killer," Sky said, also smiling for a few moments before frowning, "but then who is? Now we don't have any suspects at all..."
"We know the real killer framed Seto by using Jade's hand..." Mitch murmured.
"Unless the killer somehow disguised themselves," Tyler said.
There was a moment's pause as everyone turned their heads to stare at Tyler. "How would they even be able to do that in the first place?" Jordan asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Uh... I'm not so sure actually..." Tyler said after thinking about it for awhile. "Heh heh, sorry..."
"Okay, so the killer framed Seto by writing his name, but who?" Jerome asked.
No one could answer that question. "Is it true?" Sky whispered. "Is this really hopeless after all?"
"What if we don't find the killer?" Jason said, starting to panic. "We'll all be killed!"
"We're all going to die..." Husky whispered, a dark shadow crossing his face. "Everyone except the killer..."
"D-Don't talk like that!" Tyler yelled, sweating profusely. "If you do, then I'm going to start losing hope..."
"Wait!" Bonks suddenly cried out, startling everyone. Then she cleared her throat nervously. "Sorry, but I was just thinking... Did the thief have anything to do with this? Because they were the only one we know who was trying to murder someone."
"The thief and the killer might not even be the same person," Mitch noted.
"But- Bu if they are, and we figure out who the thief is, then that'll lead us to the killer, right?" Bonks asked.
"I don't think it would hurt to try..." Jerome said finally. "We've got nothing else."
"I personally think that the thief and the killer are one and the same," Seto murmured.
"How do you know for sure?" Sky asked.
"Potions are 80 WitherCoins. To obtain that amount, I think..." Seto shook his head. "...no, I'm positive that you'd have to steal from other people."
"That makes sense," Bodil admitted quietly.
"Now, I recall MonoWither mentioning 'MonoWither's Special Poison', which he said costs 100 WitherCoins, but there's really no reason to believe that the thief even bought that."
Annie's eyes widened. "Actually..." she said, reaching into her pocket, "I was examining the remains of the Splash Potion when I found this." She pulled out a bundle of tissues and delicately unwrapped it to show a particularly large glass shard. She held it up to reveal the label printed on it: MONOWITHER'S SPECIAL POISON. "I wasn't sure if it was important to the case, but I kept it anyway just in case," she explained hesitantly. "I didn't know it was worth more than a regular potion..."
"Well of course it's worth more than a regular potion!" MonoWither remarked from their throne. "It's our one-and-only special poison, personally crafted with tender love and care! Oh, we're so glad its buyer took the effort to purchase it and put it to good use..."
"Shut up!" Sky snapped, startling everyone. "Stop talking about all this like it's just... just... fun and games to you!"
"Oh, but we're your hosts! It is fun and games to us!" MonoWither stated giddily.
"What MonoWither basically meant was that the thief and the killer are indeed the same person," Seto said with his fists clenched, trying his best not to let MonoWither aggravate his nerves. "Therefore, if we take this fact into consideration, then we might find something vital to the case."
Jordan piped in. "Before we get to that, I think we suspected Seto to the point where we overlooked the obvious things to discuss. No doubt this was the killer's plan when they framed Seto for the crime. For example, Bonks' suggestion that the thief could be related to the killer should have been thought of earlier, but we didn't because we all subconsciously believed that Seto was the killer. Another thing we should have thought of earlier, and I think we should talk about first, was our alibis for the time of the murder; which, now that I think about it, we don't even know."
"1:18 a.m. It said on the MonoWither File," Mitch replied.
"I thought alibis were ruled out because the killer could be working with someone," Steven pointed out.
"No, we said that for the thief, not the killer. We know now that the thief and the killer are the same person, but still: I don't think the killer had an ally."
"Why not?" Ashley asked.
"I was thinking about what would happen if someone were to help another person murder someone," Jordan said, turning to MonoWither. "MonoWither, only the murderer gets to leave, right? But what about their ally? Would they be executed as well or join the killer?"
"Good question, Jordan!" MonoWither remarked. "Allies are allowed, but only the one who lands the killing blow gets to leave!"
"But what if the killer did have an ally and they didn't know they wouldn't get anything out of it?" Annie asked.
"Ugh, there's no allies in this particular case, okay? No allies for the killer, no allies for the thief, absolutely none!" MonoWither said with annoyance. "You guys are taking so long! You're like a fanfic writer who takes forever to update, like Jade! Well, we guess that now she's dead those fanfics of hers will be discontinued forever..."
Quite a few people looked visibly angry at MonoWither's statement, but said nothing.
"So I guess alibis can be verified by other people," Jason murmured.
"Ryan and I were in Mitch's room," Jerome stated. "We didn't feel safe being alone, so..."
"...there's our alibis," Ryan finished for him.
"I guess that rules out Mitch, Jerome, and Ryan," Husky concluded. "Anyone else?"
No one spoke for a moment. "Well, I was sleeping in my room, but I don't think anyone can confirm that," Sky said hesitantly.
"Same for me..." Tyler said.
"I guess that's it for alibis during the murder, then," Jordan declared. "We should move on to the thief and discuss all we know about them first."
Steven nodded. "Two days ago, Dave received a note telling him to go to the trash room at midnight. The thief then blindfolded Dave, stole his WitherCoins, and then left him there. We found him a little bit before 7 yesterday."
"Later that afternoon, at around 3," Seto continued, "I was heading over to the shop for clues before the thief attacked me by hitting me on the head with an unknown object. While I was unconscious, the thief stole my WitherCoins as well as the note and the blindfold. Since I was found at around 4 by Husky, Jordan, and Jason, they had a time window of about an hour to dispose of the evidence and go somewhere else."
There was silence as everyone chewed over these facts. "Well, didn't we say that I was in the clear as the thief?" Steven asked, tapping his fingers nervously. "Doesn't that mean I'm not the killer?"
"Yeah, we just need to confirm that you didn't lie about what happened to Dave," Ryan muttered.
Steven looked horrified. "I wouldn't do that!"
Dave hurled a stick at Ryan, missing by quite a few feet as it clattered onto the floor in the center of the circle. Where the zombie had even gotten that stick, no one had a clue.
Bart suddenly began to tremble violently where he stood as he emitted a unearthly growl that sent shivers down everyone's spines. The Enderman stared down at Ryan, continuing to snarl at the poor man. Ryan looked like he was about drop down to the floor and faint on the spot. "On- On second thought..." the Super Duper Minecrafter Level Warden stammered, tittering while scratching the back of his neck, "...I take that back, Steven couldn't have done that. My bad."
Bart immediately relaxed and resumed his usual indifferent manner, although he still glared at Ryan with disapproval.
Seto blinked rapidly. "...Anyway..." he said, quickly diverting the topic. "Maybe we should discuss alibis for yesterday afternoon at 3, since that's when I was attacked."
"I was in the main hall talking with Jason," Husky said.
"We were still in Mitch's room," Jerome said, gesturing to Ryan and Mitch.
"Seto, you saw me enter my room right before you walked out of the hallway, right?" Ashley asked.
Seto nodded. "I saw you. Also, Bodil can be accounted for, since he was still in his room before I left the hallway."
"That leaves Tyler, Sky, Jordan, Bonks, and me as suspects for the killer," Annie murmured. "What now?"
Seto turned to face Jason. "Who found me first?"
"Well, Husky and I were heading back to our rooms when we saw you lying there. Husky told me to find any other people in the building, but I only found Jordan. He was in the conference room for some reason..." Jason said, his eyes widening as a thought crossed his mind. He was not the only one with the same thought.
Jordan seemed to realize this as well, but his face did not change one bit. He merely smiled placidly as he gazed back at the pairs of eyes that were now looking at him with suspicion.
"What were you doing in there by yourself?" Sky asked, eyebrows raised.
Jordan blinked at him. "Is that important?" he asked curtly.
"Well of course it's important!" Ryan yelled. "For all we know, you could have gone there after knocking Seto out!"
"And why would I do that?" Jordan countered. "Wouldn't it have been better to return to my room instead of remaining out there in the open?"
"Jordan, just tell us why you were in there..." Steven said quietly.
Jordan sighed reluctantly. "I suppose there's no use hiding it or lying about it. To tell you the truth, I was looking for MonoWither's prize."
The reaction was a mix of horror and surprise. "You mean the bag of 30 WitherCoins?" Jerome asked.
Jordan nodded. "But unfortunately, I never found it."
"Can you prove that?" Ashley murmured.
Jordan pursed his lips together. "I'm afraid not."
"If you didn't plan on murdering someone, then why would you look for it?" Mitch asked skeptically.
"To protect us from the thief," Jordan replied. "I had no intention of ever buying something from the shop and murdering someone. I don't blame you at all for suspecting me, but just keep in mind what I said earlier: Don't let your assumptions cloud your judgment."
There was an uncomfortable silence. "Let's not jump to conclusions just yet," Seto urged. "There's not enough concrete evidence. Plus, there's still a lot we haven't discussed."
"Like what?" Tyler asked.
"Like what weapon they used to attack me. It wasn't found near my body, so the thief must have taken it with them. It would have been large enough to knock me out for several hours."
"Maybe it was something from the shop?" Bonks suggested. "I remember when I went into the shop for the first time a few days ago, MonoWither said that they had decided to start selling crowbars for 30 WitherCoins..." She shuddered at this awful memory.
"Maybe, but as Jason said before, the thief probably wanted to save as much money as possible. MonoWither's Special Poison cost 100 WitherCoins. They wouldn't have much to spend on other things."
"I think the thief disposed of the weapon using the incinerator in the trash room," Ashley said. "Bodil, remember what we found in there?"
"Oh yeah..." Bodil replied. "We found this burnt rectangular pile of metal..."
"Wait a minute, did you just say a rectangular pile of metal?" Steven asked, his eyes wide in realization.
"Um, yeah, why?" Bodil asked, confused.
"Bart, Dave, and I went to the computer room during the investigation and noticed that two laptops were missing. We didn't think much of it at first, but now..."
"Why two though?" Mitch asked, tilting his head. "If my guessing is right, and the thief used a laptop to knock Seto out, then why were there two missing and not one?"
Steven's face grew melancholy. "Because... the other one was used by Seth..."
Seto shivered when he remembered the reason why there was nothing occupying the space to his right except for a black-and-white portrait.
"So... the thief grabbed a laptop, knocked Seto out with it, and disposed of it in the incinerator," Sky concluded in a hollow voice.
"They probably burned the blindfold and the letter along with it to get rid of the evidence," Jason said.
"Does this lead us any closer to finding the killer?" Jerome asked.
Ryan scoffed. "No, it just means there's a bunch of valuable pieces of evidence that we don't have because the killer was smart enough to get rid of them."
"Hmm," Seto thought aloud, concentrating. "The thief stole 38 coins from Dave and 7 coins from me... That's 45 coins... Which means that the thief must have obtained at least 55 coins in order to buy MonoWither's Special Poison."
"The thief must have found MonoWither's prize of 30 WitherCoins then," Bonks said.
"And Jordan is still our prime suspect for the thief..." Ashley muttered.
"I didn't find the bag of coins," Jordan insisted, his calm demeanor beginning to waver as his hands shook and beads of sweat formed on his forehead.
"Prove it then!" Tyler yelled.
Jordan looked helpless before his eyes widened in realization. "Wait, the thief told Dave to go to the trash room at 12:00 midnight two days ago, right?"
"Y-Yeah, they did..." Steven replied.
Relief washed over Jordan. "Then I have an alibi for that time. Jason, you can confirm it, right?"
Jason nodded. "I... uh... I couldn't really fall asleep that night, so I went to Jordan and we talked for a bit... It was around 11:45 or so... I left at around 12:10..."
"Meaning that I didn't steal from Dave, and thus, I'm not the thief," Jordan stated. "Any objections to that?"
"No," Ryan admitted. "But now we're back to square one..."
"We don't have a clue who found the prize..." Tyler murmured.
"Or who found the chest it was in..." Bodil said quietly.
Seto's face paled as his mind processed what Bodil had just said. "Bodil?" he asked, shocked horror lacing his voice.
"What?" he replied, confused.
"How... How did you know the prize was in a chest? MonoWither only said that the prize was a bag of coins..."
All eyes immediately turned to stare at the SDML Traceur. Bodil looked like a deer in the headlights as his eyes widened in horror. "That's- That's what I meant to say!" he stammered. "I meant to say 'bag', not 'chest'! Who found the chest the bag of coins was in- I mean-" He immediately clamped his hands over his mouth and trembled on the spot, realizing the two big slip-ups he had made.
