Pearl raised a hand to silence them and finally made each one speak individually after they changed their answer at least 3 times each already. In the end, all seven claimed, with wavering certainty, that yes, they had seen a quest notification.

"Ain't y'all just a buncha wankin' bollocks!" I said, turning on my Scottish mode when I'm half-drunk "Now ye two, Olga? Did ya see anythin'?

"No I did not, there was no notification or pop up like it usually would." She shook her head with certainty.

"Hailie?" I asked.

"Um… I don't think so… I don't- No, no, I don't see anything." Hailie Sonder, my favorite little Priest stuttered.

"Welp…" I tipped my mug back, finished it in one swallow, and…

buuuuurrrrrrrrrp

…belched loudly.

The sound drew glares from every direction, some people was visibly disgusted by my stomach gastric, some even covered their nose (since when does burping make noise you bastards?) and some just straight up telling me to sod off. But I didn't care, my head was already busy turning over the possibilities, and numbers are way more fun that hoomans.

Alright, let's rethink this… Three sides of the story.

- The seven survivors swore Olga attacked an innocent NPC without provocation. They all claimed they received a quest in their UI, which would suggest legitimacy by the sheer number of testimony.

- Olga insisted she had seen the figure channeling magic, a kind of red magic, specifically, and when she told him to stop, he grew hostile. So she cut him down via decapitation… Everyone else attacked her, so she retaliated. She claimed there was no quest notification, implying it was a player posing as an NPC.

- Hailie… poor wittle baby Hailie said she had only heard screaming while her eyes was on the exit. By the time she looked over, one of them was already charging at her, so she closed her eyes, terrified, and kept them shut until the fighting stopped. No quest notification on her end either.

While the weight of these conflicting accounts settled in, Pearl and I exchanged a look of confusion and unknowing of what to do. I decided to pour another drink, with whatever bottle I find, hoping that it doesn't kill me, because grinding back to level 42 will be a hassle and I'll have to use way more undocumented exploits than I am currently just out of spite.

"By the way Pearl…" I suddenly recalled something that Pearl once said, "You-"

"Hold on!"

Before I could continue, one of the guild members seated below—jury, spectators, whatever they were—raised his hand.

"Red magic? Isn't that unusual? Shouldn't it normally be cooler colors? Blue, white, green?"

Jesus christ… What kind of novice question is this?

Pearl nodded, folding his hands together.

"Magic colors aren't reliable evidence. There are far too many variations. Red could mean blood magic, fire magic, dragon lineage, certain curses, certain branches of dark magic, sorcerer magic, warlock magic, crimson paths… the list goes on. And Olga killed him before he finished casting, so there's no way to know for sure. Too many possibilities to narrow down." He glanced my way. "If anything, the most common assumption would be Sorcerer, it's a straightforward progression from Mage, such as me."

That seemed to satisfy a few people, but the crowd wasn't done tearing each other apart as another voice rang out from the benches:

"Why would Hailie lie at all? She has no reason to take sides. She only met all of them at the same time today, no history, no ties, no favoritism. Her testimony should stand as the cleanest one."

Yeah, that's right people! My precious baby girl is getting her much-deserved recognition.

Murmurs of agreement rippled, and I thought that point was going to stick. But then another counter-voice broke through.

"There was a gap between Olga killing everyone and the two of CJS and Pearl arriving. That's plenty of time for intimidation, coercion, anything, you can't discount it. Besides, the biggest question is how she's still alive after both ErikDop and Olga?"

That suggestion soured the air again. People shifted uneasily in their seats. And then came the final wrench:

"If there's even a chance the figure wasn't an NPC, then what if it was a player using illusion magic? Hailie could've been manipulated into seeing ErikDop as an attacker, and that would explain why her account doesn't match either side."

"Why target a Priest, though?" someone else interjected. "If you wanted to sway perception with illusions, wouldn't you focus on Olga and another DPS? Not waste effort on the healer who can't deal damage?"

The arguments spiraled out of control, with points and counterpoints piling up, building like a storm with no eye in sight. People shouted, interrupted, doubled back on themselves. The logic unraveled faster with every suggestion.

I rubbed my temple, exhaling slowly. Everything is a shitshow, I thought, and somehow, I'm sitting in the middle of it.

During the midst of the loud exchange between the jury of more than 50 men, I took the opportunity to look over at Pearl.

"So… Do you remember when you said you knew that this was going to happen, before we depart for the dungeon after I received the distress call?"

"..." He nodded slowly.

"What did you mean by that, you knew what was going to happen?"

"In truth, CJS69Real, I feel like I should not tell anyone who's not formally a member's of the guild New Destiny, because this is sensitive information." He took a deep breath, removing his square eyeglasses to clean it, "Excluding Hailie, among the 8 of them… 7 who died were from the old Destiny guild, while Olga came from Omnitetris before the great merge. So when I saw that they set out, I have fear that trouble could brew between them, I just didn't know that it would be this serious."

"Huh… Interesting." I gasped, nodding as I stared, "So 7 of them were in the same guild, and now all of them were slained by Olga… Alledgedly."

We paused for a second.

"There is no good way to go about this case, it seems." Pearl sighed.

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