Chapter 28: KAZI: Another Gate 3
Another player, another scenario, another choice and another outcome. Without a proper guide, no one scenario could be the same. There was always a minute difference, even as the scenario attempted to converge towards one path.
"Let me guess, bandits attacked?"
The shock on Fujiwara's face was plain to see. Kazi's deduction was correct. The players beside him displayed confusion.
"What? Bandits?" William repeated. "What do you mean?"
"Remember those marks on the trees that led us here?" Kazi said. "Those weren't made by locals. I could tell. The blades weren't deep enough to be an axe, which is what's typically used. They were local swords. My theory was confirmed when I saw the marks in the courtyard. They were different marks." With a small smile, Kazi tapped his nose. "I have a pretty good nose and I smelled metal, fire, and blood. Not from the forge, not from some accident, but from the room where you said the students were sleeping. Yeah, they're sleeping alright, after getting attacked. So please, stop being dishonest with us and tell the truth. We won't bite."
Fujiwara was silent, too gobsmacked to muster a defence. In the end, he opened his mouth, closed it, sighed, and hung his head in defeat. "Yes, it is as you say. Bandits attacked our school. We...without Muramasa Sensei, we cannot defend ourselves."
William and Sun-young, his two party members, and six new friends: David Tremblay, Elena Petrovna, John Smith, Marta Kowalska, and Aisha Al-Mansoori. Noor Chodhry was here too, someone who he met at the First Gate. The mage talked her talk without holding back.
"Are you kidding me?" Noor shook her head. "All this tea, all this nonsense about needing help to forge stuff, and you were actually planning on using us as bait?"
"N-not bait, they're...coming in three days. I just thought...we could...you could..."
"We'd help you make enough weapons to kill those guys," Kazi finished. The air stirred after he said that word—kill. "I assume the other students will make a full recovery in three days?"
"I hope, I think—"