🐺 Week 11 | 人狼サバイバル 1 絶体絶命! 伯爵の人狼ゲーム 🧐

Japanese Reading Book Clubs
1
Week 11 January 25
Pages 132-151
Chapter 8
Read until End of chapter
Previous week Week 10
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Home Thread 人狼サバイバル 1

We’re reading this book as part of the Children’s Book Club.

Book Cover

Discussion Guidelines

  • Please blur/hide any major events in the current week’s pages (however early they occur), like so: text here (that’s [spoiler]text here[/spoiler]).
  • If you have a question about grammar, vocab, the story, cultural things or literally anything else related to the book — ask! There is really no need to be hesitant. If it’s something you are wondering about, chances are someone else will be thankful you asked first, lots of people enjoy answering questions, you learn something new, and the thread gets more lively. It’s a win-win on all fronts!

Participation Poll

  • I’m reading along :wolf:
  • I’ve already read ahead and I might or might not be a werewolf :running_woman::wolf:
  • I have fallen behind and I’m planning to catch up later :paw_prints:
  • I’m reading this at my own pace :face_with_monocle:
  • I’m reading this book after the club has finished :spiral_calendar:
0 voters

After reading this week’s part, I think the werewolf is most likely…

  • ハヤト :eagle:
  • ウサギ :rabbit2:
  • ヤムネ :mouse2:
  • ツバメ :dove:
  • ギュウカク :ox:
0 voters

(To avoid spoilers, this poll will always contain all participants, no matter what happens to them in the book.)

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Thoughts (written while reading)

If the game works like described in the beginning of this chapter (i.e. if everyone is voted out at the same time, the werewolf loses) I don’t think the werewolf could win at all. Consider:

  • 2 people are left: 1 werewolf, 1 non-werewolf. Both will vote for the other. Everyone is voted out at the same time, the werewolf loses.
  • 3 people are left. Either all are voted out at the same time (werewolf loses) or 1 person is voted out (progress to “2 people are left”).
  • 4 people are left. Either all are voted out at the same time (werewolf loses), 2 people are voted out (progress to “2 people are left”) or 1 person is voted out (progress to “3 people are left”).
  • 5 people are left. Either all are voted out at the same time (werewolf loses), 2 people are voted out (progress to “3 people are left”) or 1 person is voted out (progress to “4 people are left”).

The only way the werewolf could win is if there was a round where everybody but the werewolf was voted out, but the only time that is mathematically possible is 2 people. So unless a non-werewolf deliberately throws the game (e.g. doesn’t vote in the 3 people situation, votes for themselves in the 2 people situation or breaks the rules after a 3 people vote) it’s not possible at all.

自「自分でゲームを作るのも、ゲームをプレイするのも、審判としてゲームに立ち会うのも、ゲームのことを考えるのも、本当に本当に大好きでね。このゲームも私が作ったものだ。だから自分が参加者だったらどうやって狼を当てるだろう、とよく考えるよ。」

Look, I’m just saying that if this is the best you can do for a rulebook, don’t quit your day job.

I’m halfway through the chapter in the middle of this bodge job of a “surefire win” of voting, and if ツバメ isn’t the werewolf I’m a bit disappointed in her. She came up with this in the morning, so she had the whole day to think about how to make sure that the vote actually goes through. The two most important things would be “make sure that everyone can trust you” (by clearly showing that you are voting for yourself) and “make sure that the werewolf can’t interfere”. And here we are, with her having put her vote quickly into the box without showing anyone else.

「そもそも、狼は君たちの中にいるわけだから、今の話は狼につつ抜けかもしれない。」

“かもしれない”? Wouldn’t the werewolf definitely overhear it?

ツバメがウサギの部屋に入ってカギをかけてしまえば、ウサギはツバメを食べることができなくなる。

Eh? Why?

「赤村くん！ 狼は黒宮さんだった！」

Thank you for your service, Captain Obvious.

「違うよ！ 私じゃない！」

Huh. If she is lying… why? The only one who could possibly be deceived by it is ツバメ, and she’s about to be eaten anyway.

Hmmm. I guess the werewolf doesn’t necessarily have to know that they are the werewolf? They could transform and have amnesia afterwards?

狼と村人が同じ数。この状況は、もともとの人狼ゲームなら狼の勝ちで決着する。だが伯爵のゲームだと終わりにはならない。
次の投票は、おれの一票と狼の一票で決着がつかなくなってしまう。
「伯爵はいったいどういうつもりで──。」

Haha. Yep.

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Chapter Thoughts

Look, she had to watch the two other participants…for some reason. Very important stuff, you wouldn’t understand.

The theory I’ve been running on for a while now is that the physical werewolf and the person designated werewolf for this game are two physically different entities; it’s the only way that makes sense to me. Which would mean this is less a game about logic-ing out who’s the bad guy, and more a game about figuring out how you can interpret the rules to your benefit.

I would like for that not to be the case, but it feels like we’re rapidly running out of characters and pages to suddenly bring in something game- and rule-changing and still be believable.

I’m really wondering about this as well, since I agree with your interpretation. Makes me wonder if the 伯爵 is going to introduce an eleventh hour addition to the rules, or some sort of caveat or something, that forces the remaining villager to consider voting against themselves. Something like, “oh by the way the remaining villager(s) have to kill the wolf” or something.

Edit:

…Hmm. This makes me feel like there’s some big part of this we’re not seeing, or misunderstanding. 伯爵 has been, so far as I can remember, very deliberate with his words.

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I hope not, since that’s the version that makes the least sense to me, but at this point I’m preparing myself to be disappointed.

I briefly considered the werewolf to be an adult, but there are no badges to vote for the adults, so there goes that theory. (And every other theory of some unseen participant.)

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I’m honestly most disappointed if it’s just ウサギ after all.

I feel like that can’t be the answer and that it’s something like @eefara said. I thought the moment the book was written in first person that ハヤト would end up being an unreliable narrator, but he saw both the werewolf and ギュウカク get swallowed whole, so unless the book pulls an “it was all a dream” move on us for that, I don’t think he can be the werewolf.

Based on the title of the next chapter (that’s not cheating, is it? :sweat_smile::joy:), we’re apparently not supposed to 100% think it’s ウサギ, but like, what else could it be? I’m half tempted to just read the rest of the book this weekend bc I can hardly take the suspense anymore. :joy:

Good thing I’ve been obsessed with playing Unicorn Overlord this week, so I’ll probably just do that instead of reading ahead.

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Not sure what to make of this chapter, especially since there are four more chapters to read. Surely there will be some weird twist. If at the next vote ハヤト votes for ウサギ and ウサギ votes for ハヤト, then from how I understand it the game is over. There must be something we are missing.

It’s also funny that 伯爵 had to point it out that their great masterplan only works if the 人狼 also votes for itself. :smiley:

That would be super disappointing at this point…

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Chapter Thoughts

I read this week’s chapter last week, so my memory’s a bit distant

Yeah, I agree that it would be a disappointing ending if it is ウサギ. I also don’t see what’s in it for the werewolf to agree to play an unwinnable game? Is the point just that 伯爵 outsmarted the werewolf from the very beginning by setting the roles. It seems a bit meaningless for him to sacrifice up to 4 kids to prove that point.

So coming up with scenarios for it not to be Usagi:

  1. There’s another participant, who we don’t know about because of the name plate switching shenanigans ahead of the first vote
  2. Wolf-usagi and non-wolf-usagi are both present in the manor at once
  3. The werewolf was 伯爵 all along.
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