【 ᴄᴏɴǫᴜᴇʀɪɴɢ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀʟᴀɴᴅ || ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴍɪsᴇᴅ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀʟᴀɴᴅ ғғ】

ᴀ ᴛʜʀᴇᴀᴛ || ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜɪʀᴛᴇᴇɴ

"The time limit is 20 minutes. I will be the It." She declared. "Everyone, make sure you get away from me~!"

"We're playing with this many children but she gave herself a time limit of 20 minutes. She'll probably come looking for us first." Norman deduced. "She must be targeting us, the six oldest children. Her plan must be to find us first, then go find the rest of our siblings along the way."

"I don't think so."

The other three looked at you. "What do you mean, Y/n?" Norman asked.

"I'm not sure what's going on with the three of you these days but..." You shrugged as Norman and Emma flinched. "If Sister Krone really targeting the oldest children while setting up such a short time limit, then she must have a strategy to find everyone else first and is confident in her ability to follow that strategy."

"But—"

"Let her continue." Ray cut Norman off. "I'm sure she knows what she's saying." Duh, I read the manga and watched the anime. You rolled your eyes underneath closed eyelids.

"If she's targeting us, then it means she wants this game to be like a test. And finding the other kids first will give her freedom to test us as much as she wants once she's done that." You explained. "If she were to do what you had said earlier, Norman, then she'd have the trouble of juggling all at once."

To be fair, you think that Norman was right about her plan. But when Sister Krone saw that the kids were all quiet, left fake footprints and such, she changed plans. But you will never really know.

But the real question was why were you doing this?

Simple. You were curious. How will Norman make use of this capability of yours? The capability to predict accurately and know the motives and moves of the enemy.

Will he actually make use of it? Will he see it as a coincidence? Or something to be seen as an advantage?

Or perhaps find out the truth?

Do try to impress me, Norman.

"I guess it is possible." Norman mumbled. "But if that is the case, how?"

"I guess we'll just have to find out for ourselves."

You ran alongside Ray, and you two kept looking back to see that she wasn't even going after you. Noticing this, Ray kept glancing at you in disbelief. Even until now, he's still impressed by it. I mean, I'm also impressed on how I'm making all these types of excuses. You thought to yourself.

Ray suddenly stopped to look to his right and then tapped your shoulder. "Hm?"

He pointed to the direction he was looking at, and saw several children walk back to the House, not even trying to hide anymore.

Once they left, the two of you retraced their steps and saw a pile of leaves, ones with different shapes on it. "She lured the younger ones out with this, huh." Ray muttered.

"She exploited their curiosity. Smart."

"It's still weird seeing you switch from the whole older sister thing you have with the other kids to this." He gestured to your face, which wore a dark smile.

You chuckled. "Is that so?"

"Moreover, I didn't think you'd get it right this time." He rolled his eyes and scoffed. "But then you proved me wrong. Again."

"You should've already expected that to happen, Ray."

The two of you continued running, and a faint burst of sound could be heard from afar, although your partner didn't hear it.