Why it never ends

Chapter 1233 Reasoning
After leaving Packart's room, Hersta felt a buzzing in her ears. The hallway was so quiet that only her heartbeat could be heard.

She swallowed repeatedly.

Hesta was glad the conversation ended early. In those few tens of minutes, she repeatedly recalled the incident that Rico had mentioned: Pacate forgave the murderer who killed her son and took the initiative to get a reduced sentence for him. As a result, the man committed another crime after his release, and his methods were even more cruel than before.

—I thought the death of your child and the murder of another innocent person would teach you a lesson…but I didn’t expect it wouldn’t?

These words were almost on Hester's lips, but a certain intuition made her choose to remain silent. At least before she couldn't help but speak, she closed the door to Pakkat's room from the outside.

Thankfully, I didn't say anything.

She came with the intention of understanding Packart, and if she had to resort to hurting him at the end of the conversation to feel balanced, she would feel like she had lost in some way. As for who she had lost to or what she had lost, Hester couldn't figure it out yet, but she didn't want to put herself in that situation—especially, she didn't want Packart to notice the turmoil in her heart, even though it was probably already obvious.

Hershta stood alone against the wall for a while, waiting for the intense emotions to slowly subside over time.

She thought she could now calmly discuss this issue with others, as if she could play the role of an absolutely impartial outsider... but she still couldn't.

Perhaps never.

……

Outside the study, Zoe was getting a little impatient—she had arrived fifteen minutes early, only to find Hester five minutes late.

"Ah." Zoe exclaimed softly as Hester appeared. "I thought you'd forgotten your appointment this afternoon!"

“I was held up by the previous mission,” Hestia said. “Where’s Simoya?”

“I saw she was very busy, so I told her she didn’t need to come,” Zoe said. “Anyway, we were together the whole time at Mrs. Brownbo’s dinner party, so I can just come and tell you what happened by myself. It’s not complicated.”

"Come in," Hershta said, opening the study door. "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."

"Hmph." Zoe strode forward and sat down opposite Hesta. She took a note from her pocket and placed it on Hesta's desk. "These are the names of the guests that Simona wrote down."

"...So many people?" Hesta was somewhat surprised when he saw the list. "Didn't you say you only invited seven guests? I thought there would only be eight including you?"

“The names with hollow circles are those who didn’t come; their name tags were removed after the banquet started,” Zoe said. “Then there were some guests who weren’t mentioned before but showed up directly; these people had solid circles after their names. Those without any markings were the invited guests who attended as usual—Simoia wrote them all down, saying you might need them… She’s so meticulous.”

Hershta glanced at the list and, as expected, Kendall hadn't attended at all that night. Hershta suspected that Mrs. Brownbeau might have lied about some eye-catching guests to lure people to her party, hoping to attract those who wouldn't normally be interested.

Besides Kendall, three other somewhat familiar names caught Hershta's attention.

Tangan (solid circle), Vera (hollow circle), and Wilsson (solid circle).

Hester remembered meeting this Tom Ahn—the vice-chairman of the Witton Interest Party—once. He had chaired the impromptu meeting that night, the night of the Liberal Party's terrorist attack in District 12. He seemed to know Simona well, and perhaps even Kenday. As for Vera, it seemed Boheng had mentioned that name a couple of days ago; he wondered if it was the same person.

“This Wilsing,” Hersta pointed to the last line of the list, “is the one we’ve met before—”

“Yes, it’s that Wilsson from Deep Anchor,” Zoe said. “I contacted Victoria that night to ask if I should report it, but she didn’t reply, so I didn’t do anything.”

Hershta fell silent.

“…It should be alright.” Zoe looked away. “I know that recently a group of our people have been specially transferred here to hunt them down, but the few of us haven’t been assigned to the combat team, so in principle I can remain inactive.”

"Did you talk to her?" Hester asked. "Did you ask her what she came for?"

“She asked,” Zoe said. “She said she thought you would come.”

Hershta scoffed. With the AHgAs already launching their offensive against Deep Anchors, Wilsin still dared to swagger into the city...

They still use their real names.

“And this Vera,” Zoe added, “Although her full name isn’t written, Simoya suspects she might be a member of a revolutionary party in the south.”

"Algorithm Major?"

“You know that?” Zoe glanced at Hester with some surprise. “You even know that?”

Hester calmly put the note into his drawer: "And then, what happened at that dinner party?"

“Strictly speaking, it wasn’t really a dinner party—the main event of a dinner party is the meal, right?” Zoe said. “But from what I observed, hardly anyone touched their knives and forks during the meal. I was starving afterwards, and thankfully Simona gave me two cookies—”

"Why are you all gathered together if you're not going to eat?"

“Playing a game, a deduction game,” Zoe replied. “Do you know why nobody ate anything that night? Lady Brombo came up and announced that everything in the castle that night, from the room layout to the menu, was exactly the same as the night Duke Brombo was poisoned.”

At this point, Zoe tilted her head slightly: "But I think the food served—even the drinks—is definitely safe. It's just that since she said so, if someone still eats it up, it might seem a bit silly, or trigger the game's punishment too early."

“A deduction game,” Hershta frowned even more. “Deduction about what… It’s not about deducing how the Duke died, is it?”

“Yes. That’s what she said,” Zoe said. “Simoia said that Mrs. Blambeau definitely didn’t have any feelings for her husband, otherwise what normal person would use her husband who has been dead for many years as a game script? I think she probably killed him herself, but we wandered around the castle all night and didn’t find any evidence.”

"You wandered around the castle all night... did the others do the same?"

“Hmm,” Zoe said. “We wanted to talk to Mrs. Brownbo, but every time we went to her room, there were other guests in the bedroom.”