...

A tear drooped out of my eyes as I glanced between the two bodies. One exposed and bloody, the other concealed by cracked bricks.

"WENDY!!!"

"And? She broke the rules." A familiar voice echoed over the room, sending a reflex of fright down our backs.

"That's...     The punishment...?"

"Yep! So, I suggest you get to investigating. Obviously, by investigating I mean investigating Delphine's death. Not this silly wolf's death."

A couple more clicks were heard to the left of the staircase, the floor underneath the bricks soon sliding away swiftly. The heap fell through, thus marking a very improvised funeral for the wolf as the floor closed back up.

"..." I looked around, taking into account everyone's sorrowful faces. Their eyes weren't anything like last night - They were staring down and melty.

...I guess it's time to begin.

Don't worry Delphine. We'll find out what happened.

) INVESTIGATION - START (

My focus cracked back to me when I felt a long vibration in my obviously weird dress pocket. Grabbing my handbook and flipping it on, I noticed some kind of notification at the top of the screen. Letting curiosity take my hands, I tapped on it. An article popped up on my page, with quite a few doughy sentences in it. Once I started to read through it, my ears drooped.

Playgroup File 1:

Victim: Delphine Donkey, Ultimate French Teacher
Time of death: 00:26 am
Time of discovery: 07:13 am
Discovered by: ???, Pedro, Peppa
Location of death: Library
Cause of death: Blunt force trauma

...This may be helpful.

*'Playgroup File 1' has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.*

Looking next to me, I noticed that George was there, who was also reading through the file on his handbook. A slight note of confusion rang through his face as he turned to me.

"Peppa...       What does this mean?"

"I think it's a file for the basic details of Delphine's dea-"

"I knew that. What I mean is the part where it says 'Discovered by'. Who is '???'...?"

"...I'm not sure...      Maybe Monopotato's trying to make this harder for us?"

"Probably..."

*'Third Discoverer' has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.*

Putting the handbook back into my dress pocket, I lifted my head up, making eye contact once again with the donkey's corpse.

"What now?"

"I guess...       We check out her body..." I shakily replied to George, trotting weakly to the body. The other pig followed behind me.

My steps were shaky as I neared her body. The stench of dried blood rang in her surroundings, mainly from her forehead. Speaking of her forehead, it was drenched in blood, crisped up and ambient.

"There's s-so much blood on her head...      This must be the injury that killed her."

"Yeah...        But there's also blood leaking from her leg..." My brother noted, making me rotate my view to check. It was true - There was a bloodstain on the donkey's left shin.

*'Injuries' has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.*

"Hold on...     What's this?"

"Huh?"

George had kneeled down by the corpse, and was now delicately grasping something that had been in Delphine's hand. It seemed to be long...      And sharp.

And masked with an immense amount of blood.

"Eugh...     What a mess."

"Wait..." I cautiously tripped to George's side, looking closer at the long item.

...

This looks like a scalpel...     Like those ones that I found in the nurse's office...

*'Bloodied Scalpel' has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.*

"What would it be doing here...?"

"I don't have a clue..." The pig in the blue shirt sighed, letting the surgical blade fall to the floor. "Maybe we should stand up...? There's something behind me that's disturbing my feet..."

I glanced back, realising that what George was talking about was a ladder, laying face flat on the floor. Taking a closer look, I noticed that there was a little bit of blood on it.

Not that far from Delphine's leg wound.

"Peppa?"

"Sorry. It's just...       The ladder behind you. Why is it on the floor?"

"Maybe someone pushed it?" My brother theorised, getting off the coarse rug-like floor.

*'Ladder' has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.*

"...Is that everything around her body?" I questioned.

"Hm..." I looked around, noticing the other few people that were studying the body. Aiming my gaze to the right, my eyes eventually landed upon a rectangular object.

"A book?"

"Hm?"

I hopped over the upper part of the ladder, grabbing the book in one hand. I squealed at the crisp touch the underside had, dropping the stack of pages back to the floor.

"I-It's soaked in blood!"

"Unfortunately, yes." 

I flipped round to meet eyes with Freddy, who had his hands firmly in his stone grey jeans, the bagginess fluttering with every step.

"Did you...    Already find it?"

"Yeah. It came from one of the high shelves on this floor. Specifically, the second highest of the bookshelf next to Delphine's body."

"...Next to Delphine's body..."

...Maybe that fell out?

*'Book' has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.*

"Thanks Freds...   Did you find anything else?"

"Don't call me Freds. And yes, I did."

"Seriously?" George sputtered, shocked. "But Danny calls you that all the time!"

"...W-We don't talk about that." The fox heated up a bit, gripping his pockets. "Anyways, here's what I found."

Freddy pulled out a crumply sheet of paper, seemingly from a notebook of some kind. He showed it to us, as we started to read through it.

"...This is an invitation."

"Yep. To talk about 'the photograph that we found while investigating', it's asking about a meet-up in the library...       There's a couple French references here, though."

"Yeah, makes sense. Rendez-vous...    That's without a doubt French."

"Where did you find it?"

"In the dorm hallway."

"And did you find any other pieces of paper?"

"No."

"...Weird...       Then why is it torn?"

"I believe that those parts that were torn out contained specific names. The culprit didn't want us to know."

"Well...     We can definitely determine that one of those names was Delphine's."

*'Letter' has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.*

"Thanks Freddy. This really helps."

"Don't mention it."

"Now." George put his hands on his hips. "What else is there...?"

"Maybe there's a clue around the tables?" The fox suggested.

"Good idea!" I rushed to the tables near the children's books, searching over and under the round surface.

Nothing.

I looked to the next one.

There was something there.

Hopping over to the neighbouring table, I took a look at the item. It was a notepad, with a deep purple colour, and gold rings supporting the pages. A dark brown pencil laid caught in the rings.

Interested, I flipped to the first page.

And realisation struck me.

...

...What?

*'Wendy's Notepad' has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.*

Left in confusion, I dropped the notepad back on the table, running back to George, who was conserving with Suzy and Rebecca.

"Oh, hey sis? Did you...    Find something?"

"...No. What's going on here?"

"I'm asking these two for their alibis. Basically what they were doing at night."

"I don't have much for night..." Suzy spoke, "I was sleeping. However, after I had finished helping Edmond tidy up the poker game last night, I decided to check on the nurse's office. And when I got there, the scalpels were all messed up. Plus, there was one missing."

*'Suzy's Alibi' has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.*

"Ok...    And Rebecca?"

"I just went straight to sleep...     During the night, though, I did hear two bangs. I'm certain everyone did: They both woke me up. After the second bang, I heard a soft creeping noise in the hallway."

"You could hear that?"

"Yah. I've got big ears, Peppa."

*'Rebecca's Alibi' has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.*

"Well...       Thanks girls. See you at the...     Playsomething trial."

"See you there." Suzy nodded, staring at my eyes for a while before walking away.

"...Is there anything else we can check?"

"Maybe the motives." George noted. "He did say that whoever managed to kill and get away with it would be able to make one phone call before they escaped."

"There's also the photos..."

"...Oh yeah. Those family pictures."

"You also got them?"

"Yeah...? I thought you knew already?"

"No?"

"Well, everyone has them. I heard a discussion about them during the poker game last night."

"...That's really helpful, George. Thanks."

*'Motives' has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.*

"Is there anything else?"

"Yeah. The second floor. There's got to be something there." The younger pig nodded as he ran to the staircase, soon hopping up the gradual steps. I chased after him, as we soon reached the sight of last night's poker game.

"...Now then. What's here?"

Twisting my head around the balcony, my eyesight tried to pinpoint on something, however nothing major stuck out.

I looked closer.

One the tables? Nothing.

On the shelves? Not much. Just books.

At the edge? Just something dark in colour.

...Dark in colour?

I turned around, kneeling to make better contact with the dark item. Grasping it in my hands, I gave it a feel. It felt a bit tough, but also velvety. It also had the feeling of ruggedness, like it had been tugged upon.

...Fabric of some kind?

*'Dark Fabric' has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.*

*Ding dong bong bing...*

The series of chimes caught me off guard, making me instinctively pocket the fabric as I looked up. Then, the host's voice sounded out again.

"Investigation time has concluded! Please may all students reunite next to the IT room. Then, we will proceed onto the Playgroup Trial. Failure to follow this order will result in punishment. Cheerioooooooo!"

____________________