Chapter 59 : Weight Loss - 1
Chapter 59: Weight Loss - 1
“Ohhh……”
I had just assumed there would be a modest stock of food left, but I was wrong.
On the first floor stood an enormous dining table.
Silver candlesticks were lit, and the dishes and bowls were neatly arranged.
Most importantly, every bowl was filled with “cooked food.”
“Am I dreaming right now?”
“Don’t worry. I’m seeing the same thing.”
“C-can we eat it? No—please, let us eat!”
“Calm down. Calm yourself. We don’t know yet if that food is safe.”
At Berseum’s last words, my body flinched involuntarily.
Right. What if those dishes contained addictive substances too?
What if it brought an addiction even worse than the bread?
No. Magireta always left a mouse hole—a safe way to clear the game.
This must be that mouse hole. I wanted to believe that.
“You all managed to find your way here.”
Just then, Magireta appeared.
At some point, she had already taken the highest seat at the table.
“What are you waiting for? You must be hungry. Come in.”
“……”
“Look at how gaunt your little brother has become. It breaks your sister’s heart.”
“Are these free from addiction symptoms?”
“Well? You’ll find out once you eat them, won’t you?”
Damn it.
What now?
That was when—
Armelia suddenly raised her voice.
“Magireta. Let’s make a deal.”
“What did you say?”
“I’ll give you my necklace. In return, you must answer one question truthfully.”
“W-wait, Your Highness.”
I hurriedly stopped Armelia.
“What are you doing right now?”
“I intend to get a definite answer from Magireta—whether those dishes contain addictive substances or not.”
“But that necklace…”
“It’s fine, Mason.”
Swoosh—
She gripped my hand tightly.
“Without Magireta’s guarantee, we must never eat that food. That would be the same as choosing to starve.”
“……”
“My necklace for your lives—there’s no question which should take priority.”
I fell silent, overwhelmed by an indescribable emotion.
Meanwhile, Magireta crooked her index finger.
Srrrk—
Armelia’s precious necklace, filled with memories, floated into the air.
Soon it rested on Magireta’s hand.
“Hehehe. Normally, no matter how precious a necklace may be, it wouldn’t be enough to earn an answer from me…”
“……”
“But you’re different. You’ll remember everything—your feelings when you received it, the expression of the one who gave it, the words exchanged, the atmosphere of that day. Losing something like that will hurt, won’t it?”
“……”
“Good. I’ll answer. Ask your question.”
Armelia opened her mouth to speak.
I quickly whispered to her.
“Wait. Don’t just ask if the food on the table has addictive substances.”
“Hmm? But that’s what we need to find out.”
“No. We’ll have to keep eating here later on. You must ask—‘Until the end of the game, do all dishes that appear on the 0th floor contain no addictive substances?’”
At my words, Armelia’s lips parted slightly.
Then she asked exactly as I advised.
Magireta answered plainly.
“They don’t.”
That was the signal.
We dove at the table like predators pouncing on prey.
Aina let out a cheer of pure joy.
“Food!”
We ate until we were completely satisfied.
For a moment, I wondered if filling our shrunken stomachs so suddenly might cause problems, but—
“I’ll adjust that for you later, so just eat first!”
At Aina’s words, I decided to enjoy the meal without worry.
As soon as a bowl was emptied, it was immediately refilled.
Even dishes left untouched didn’t cool down.
Above all, the food was unbelievably delicious.
After nearly an hour of what could barely be called eating—it was more like inhaling—we all slumped back.
“Ah… my stomach hurts.”
“How can the one who said she’d adjust us be the first to complain about stomach pain?”
“Such splendid dishes. I’d love to learn how to make them someday.”
“The teacher would be Magireta, then.”
“I’d like to learn them just to throw the food at those stray mutts.”
Satisfied, we went up to the first floor.
There, the 45 remaining participants were still swimming in mountains of bread.
Magireta floated above the ground, laughing mockingly at them.
Armelia murmured bitterly.
“They’re disqualified, aren’t they?”
“Most likely. The addiction has reached their very bones. They won’t recover. They’ll never let go of that bread until the game ends.”
“……”
“Unless one of us becomes a supervisor…”
But the Appointment Ticket was in Magireta’s hands.
Even if she didn’t fight back, stealing that ticket from a demon like her was impossible.
Berseum sighed.
“Don’t be too disheartened. This quest is beyond your control.”
“I’m not particularly discouraged. Just… a bit disappointed.”
“Heh. That’s because you’re an upright one.”
Sienne changed the subject.
“Anyway, today makes the twelfth day, right? Since the game lasts four weeks, that leaves sixteen days.”
“That’s right.”
“For the past twelve days, we’ve been starving, so our body weight must have dropped quite a bit. We just ate to our hearts’ content, but it should still be fine to relax a little.”
I agreed.
All that remained was to occasionally eat the dishes from the 0th floor while maintaining our weight properly through balanced meals and exercise.
We had even deliberately raised our weight slightly before this quest began, so in truth, this quest was practically over for us.
Suppressing the bitter feeling inside, I looked toward the other participants.
“Ugh, sob sob… Please… please make me stop.”
“Bleeegh.”
“I’m already done for. I’ll just keep eating bread until the game ends and die.”
“What weak words. I’m only going to eat this one more piece and stop.”
“You’ve been saying that for the last five hours.”
I turned away and spoke to my companions, who were wearing the same bitter expressions.
“Let’s go up.”
Time passed once more.
We deliberately avoided going down to the first floor as much as possible.
Not only because we couldn’t afford to eat too many dishes from the 0th floor, but also because it was too painful to look at the tragedy unfolding on the 1st floor.
Instead, the group spent their time in their rooms—repairing tools, reading books, or training.
As for me, I was just sprawled across the bed.
[Mr. Mason, shouldn’t you be doing something productive like everyone else?]
‘I am doing something productive enough.’
[I seriously don’t see how.]
‘I mean it. I’ve been thinking about a lot of things. About this quest.’
[Huh? Isn’t the quest basically over?]
I was referring to how we might save the people on the first floor.
As proven during the last Sudden Quest, the more people who appeared in my Diary Book administrator page, the better.
You never know when someone might offer a valuable insight.
And since people on that page could die as the quest continued, I needed replacements anyway.
[Is that so? Hmmm.]
‘That’s the first time I’ve heard you hum.’
[Mr. Mason seems to be someone who must justify every good deed. You could just say, “Because I want to save them.”]
‘You still don’t know me very well.’
The Diary Book denied it quite firmly.
[On the contrary. No one knows you better than I do, Mr. Mason.]
‘I’ve been meaning to ask—do you really know me that well?’
[Who knows.]
‘Forget it. What’s the point of asking now.’
Anyway, back to the problem.
No matter how much I racked my brain, there was only one way to save the people on the first floor—
for me to become the Supervisor and control the distribution of the bread.
But the Appointment Ticket was in Magireta’s hands…
“Huh?”
Suddenly, a possibility flashed across my mind.
I jumped up from the bed and shouted down the hall.
“Everyone, please gather for a moment!”
At my words, the others stopped what they were doing and came out.
Soon, everyone gathered in my room and took their seats.
I spoke.
“It’s a slim chance, but… I have an idea worth trying.”
“What do you mean?”
“We might be able to save the people on the first floor.”
At that, Armelia’s face brightened.
Berseum and Sienne both smiled quietly.
Aina looked a bit indifferent, but she didn’t object or speak sharply like before.
Sienne asked,
“So you mean… you’ve found a way to get the Appointment Ticket?”
“Probably.”
“But taking it from Magireta is impossible with our strength.”
“True. That’s only if the ticket is still with Magireta.”
Everyone stiffened at my words.
I continued explaining.
“When the bulletin board first appeared, one participant asked where the Appointment Ticket was.”
“I remember. Magireta said it was right here and pulled it out from her bosom.”
“Do you also remember what was said afterward? Of course you do.”
“When that participant said, ‘Then you’ll have to hand it over,’ Magireta replied, ‘Does the rulebook say the ticket must be located anywhere specific?’”
“That’s it.”
It wasn’t that the person who took the Appointment Ticket from Magireta would become the Supervisor.
There was no such statement in the rules.
Only that the person who obtains the Appointment Ticket becomes the Supervisor.
“The rules never say where the ticket must be located. Which means—it doesn’t have to be inside Magireta’s clothing.”
“B-but she did put it inside her chest at the end, didn’t she?”
“Yes, she did. But why did she?”
“……?”
“For someone like that witch, wouldn’t it be more in character to dangle it around in her hand and taunt us with it? So why has she never taken it out once since the game started?”
The expressions of my companions grew serious.
I went on.
“For someone of Magireta’s level, teleporting a ticket she once placed inside her clothes somewhere else should be easy, right?”
“Hm.”
“In any case, there’s nothing to lose. Let’s search this entire building, top to bottom.”
“Indeed, nothing to lose.”
The others agreed one after another.
“Well, we didn’t have anything better to do anyway.”
“And moving around will help us lose weight.”
“Don’t say ‘lose weight,’ say ‘reduce body mass.’”
“What’s the difference?”
After that, we scoured every corner of the building.
We thoroughly searched the rooms of the other participants on the 2nd and 3rd floors as well.
They were all buried in mountains of bread anyway, so it didn’t matter.
Two days passed like that.
Just when I started to think it was hopeless—
“Found it!”
Armelia’s voice rang loudly through the corridor.
It came from one of the rooms on the second floor.
When we rushed over, Armelia was jumping up and down, holding the ticket in her hand.
Then, upon meeting my eyes, she quickly straightened her clothes.
“Hmph. Found it.”
“That sounded very different from your earlier ‘Found it!’”
“Ugh.”
“Anyway, where did you find it?”
Fanning her face lightly with the ticket, she answered,
“It was stuck right there on that wall.”
“On the wall?”
“The back of the ticket was the exact same color as the wall. It was a kind of camouflage.”
“You found it well.”
“I memorized the layout of every room. Finding the difference was easy.”
How could she possibly call that easy?
Berseum stroked his mustache and spoke.
“Well, congratulations. That means…”
“Yeah. That means you’re the Supervisor now.”
“Ugh!”
Suddenly, Magireta appeared out of nowhere.
Please, I wish she’d stop doing that without warning.
Magireta carefully inspected Armelia’s ticket and confirmed it was genuine.
‘So she just wanted to check it herself, huh.’
Then she cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted,
“The Supervisor has appeared! I’ll be lowering the glass walls now!”