Future Diary Survival Game-Chapter 54 : Diet - 3

Chapter 54: Diet - 3
The blast of the horn had been so intense, maybe that was why.
I could see quite a few people who looked significantly shaken.
“Uwaaaah.”
“My, my ears are bleeding.”
“Huh? What did you say? I can't hear well.”
Murmurs rose here and there.
When I looked around, there were about fifty people.
Of course, our party members were among them.
‘Looks like the bookmark string worked hard for us.’ I thought.
[Thread of Connection.]
In any case, we hurriedly gathered together.
At that moment Magireta spoke.
“Your little brother’s friends really had luck. I threw them out completely at random, yet they all ended up in one place.”
“They must have behaved well normally, so that’s probably why.”
“Hmm… is that it?”
The smile visible beneath her hood gave me a slight chill.
She looked like something was bothering her.
‘Dangerous.’
I quickly changed the subject.
“More importantly, there was something I wanted to ask you, nuna.”
“You’re trying to change the subject. Little brother.”
“Is Edgar’s gang here too? Someone like Ian?”
“There’s no way I’d answer that.”
It was fine if she didn’t answer. I already knew.
The me from the future Diary hadn't mentioned Edgar in the Diet game.
It was possible I hadn’t discovered it then, but it was more likely that his claws hadn’t gone berserk.
“I see. Anyway, since the topic came up—aren’t you favoring that guy too much, nuna?”
“Me? Edgar?”
“Yes. He can trade endlessly with infinite lives. If he put lives up as the price, he could have almost anything granted.”
“…….”
“I’m worried that if you keep making things convenient for him like that, the game will break.”
A brief silence flowed.
I was a little tense, but fortunately Magireta’s response was friendly.
No, it was more playful.
“Are you jealous?”
“Ah, yes.”
“Don’t worry. You and Edgar are on different levels.”
“Different levels?”
“Yes. Edgar was playing the game using my omnipotence. All of his action patterns were things I ‘knew.’ So he never bored me.”
“…….”
“But I had no clue at all about your ability. That’s why it’s interesting. If I were to favor someone, it would definitely be you, little brother.”
I shrugged.
Then, as I had planned beforehand, I led her questioning.
“For someone who says that… you sided with Edgar when we joined up with Sienne last time, didn’t you?”
“Huh?”
“The teleportation bead.”
I flicked my tongue quickly.
“That day I actually planned to escape using the teleportation bead. But it didn’t activate.”
“…….”
“Yet when Edgar retreated and we moved here, it activated just fine.”
In other words, the bead wasn’t broken in particular.
Edgar had pulled some trick.
But he wasn’t a supernatural.
Even if he had immortality, that had come from Magireta’s omnipotence.
In other words…
“You must have helped Edgar somehow, nuna. Right?”
“…….”
“Even if he paid with lives, blocking the function of the first-place prize was too much.”
“That’s not it. At that time…”
Magireta’s words stopped there.
That confirmed things.
She couldn’t say it.
If Magireta couldn’t reveal it first—
‘Of course.’
I opened my mouth cautiously.
“If it wasn’t a price… did he perhaps use some tool?”
“Little brother.”
“So that’s it. It was strange. Using lives as payment to disable our bead’s function was terribly inefficient. He’d have to die every time he shut off the function. While he revived, we might run away or attack.”
“…….”
“So I thought. Maybe he blocked the function using another method. For example… a tool that disables functions.”
Not only Magireta but the others were absorbed in my words.
Armelia asked.
“Could such a tool really exist?”
“From here it was my imagination, but maybe one of the first-place prizes in a future quest was such an item? All the tools Magireta offered had been first-place prizes, after all.”
“……!”
“Right. Edgar borrowed a future first-place prize. He paid on 'credit.'”
The idea had popped up thinking about the Diary Book and paying on credit.
If I were to provide evidence, I didn’t really have any.
Well, there was one.
It was the expression Magireta wore as she pressed her lips together.
“One of the hidden rules is this, right? A credit system that lets you pull in a future first-place prize.”
“Don’t tease nuna too much or I’ll be useless.”
“Sorry.”
“Hmm, now that you’ve figured it out, I suppose I can tell you.”
Magireta spoke in a low voice.
“Yes. Edgar pulled a first-place prize that would be given someday. It’s really impressive that you noticed,”
“What I’m truly curious about starts now.”
“Hmm?”
“If someone used a pulled prize and failed to come in first—what happens then?”
“…….”
“It wouldn’t simply be death or elimination, right? He’d have taken on an unpaid debt; it wouldn’t end with ordinary punishment, I’d think.”
Magireta smiled.
And she whispered.
If one failed to repay the credit, they would live forever as a plaything sitting right beside their hellish self.
I couldn’t fully grasp the exact meaning.
However, my party members and I all shivered.
It felt as if our bodies were covered in bugs.
“…Does that mean immortality wouldn’t help?”
“Of course not. At least in your world, you wouldn’t see Edgar again.”
“The future first-place prize Edgar pulled—what quest’s prize was that?”
“I can’t tell you.”
Fine.
That would be something written somewhere in the future Diary.
What mattered was that I, we, had to get first place in the quest that produced that prize.
And we had to stop Edgar from getting first place.
That would be the surest way to beat Edgar to death.
Then Magireta asked.
“Anything else you’re curious about?”
“No.”
“Then let’s start now. There are many other people; we’ve been too friendly among ourselves.”
Friendly among ourselves—what was that.
But undoubtedly—
Murmur murmur.
The longer our conversation lasted, the more anxious the participants became.
Sienne, who couldn’t see ahead, asked.
“Where were we right now?”
“It’s an open lot. Behind us is a three-story building, and about fifty people, including us, have gathered here.”
“That building must be the game location.”
“Probably.”
Just as if she had overheard our conversation, Magireta spoke.
“Splendid building, isn’t it?”
“…….”
“I remodeled it just for today’s game. Feel free to enjoy the fine facilities to your heart’s content.”
Ttak.
She snapped her fingers.
Then, a bulletin board appeared in the air.
<The Fifth Quest. Diet.>
For the next four weeks, a diet will be carried out.
First, measure the current body weight of all participants.
Anyone who eats food brought from the outside world will be eliminated.
A “Supervisor” will be selected among the participants. The Supervisor has the authority to distribute bread to the participants.
If no Supervisor is selected, all participants may freely obtain bread.
The Supervisor is decided by the one who obtains the “Appointment Ticket.”
Anyone who takes another’s bread through threats or violence will be eliminated.
Anyone who picks up bread but does not eat it within the day will be eliminated.
After four weeks, if you have lost weight compared to your current weight, you pass. Conversely, if your weight is equal to or greater than your current weight, you are eliminated.
At the same time, the Diary Book opened.
<Hidden Quest. Survive Armelia Kerr Dneroum in the “Diet” quest.>
<Hidden Quest. Survive Aina Noel in the “Diet” quest.>
<Hidden Quest. Survive Berseum Ferux in the “Diet” quest.>
<Hidden Quest. Survive Sienne Katrin in the “Diet” quest.>
I carefully studied the bulletin board.
‘Supervisor?’
That part wasn’t written in the Diary Book.
Of course, since I had only read the last page, it might have been recorded on another one.
But at least, the me from the future Diary had not made use of the Supervisor rule.
I tried to search through other pages.
However, before I could, one of the participants spoke up.
“Um, how exactly do we choose the Supervisor?”
“Don’t you have eyes? It says to get the Appointment Ticket. And I never gave trash like you permission to talk down to me.”
“S-sorry. I just… I was wondering where the Appointment Ticket actually is.”
“Right here.”
She rummaged through her clothes and took something out.
I couldn’t see well, but Aina, who had the sharpest eyesight among us, said,
“It’s stamped with a seal. The design of the stamp is Magireta’s face.”
“What a dreadful sense of taste.”
“Under the seal, it says, ‘You are hereby appointed as the Supervisor.’”
Then Magireta waved the ticket lightly in the air and continued.
“Here. Come take it.”
“Y-you have to hand it over for us to take it.”
“What are you saying? Did the rule say, ‘The Appointment Ticket will be located here or there’?”
She fluttered the ticket again.
That movement made it clear to me.
‘So that’s why the future Diary didn’t mention it. The Supervisor.’
Of course.
Who would ever dare to snatch a ticket from Magireta?
To even attempt such a feat, one would have to be the strongest on the continent…
Ah.
Come to think of it, there was one, wasn’t there?
The strongest on the continent.
And in our party, no less.
Then Sienne asked,
“If someone attacks you to get that ticket, will you retaliate?”
“No. I wouldn’t do such a disgraceful thi—”
Before Magireta could even finish her sentence—
Flash.
There was no other way to describe it.
Something had definitely happened just now, but the process vanished and only the result remained.
Sssk.
A fine crack appeared on Magireta’s neck, and blood slowly seeped out.
Then, with a thud, her head dropped to the ground.
“Uh…?”
Someone let out a dumbfounded sound.
Clack.
Sienne sheathed her sword.
“I’ve always wanted to try that. Glad I got the chance.”
“L-Lady Sienne, was that you?”
“Yes, Your Highness the Princess.”
“It didn’t look like your sword could even reach that distance.”
“Sword masters who reach the realm can use aura. Ian probably used something similar.”
Come to think of it, during the third quest, Ian had attacked from behind the throne—clearly from a distance longer than his sword’s reach.
We blinked for a moment, staring at Sienne.
But soon, all eyes turned back to Magireta.
The participants’ voices were growing louder, filled with heat.
“W-wait, is this for real? Is it real?”
“She’s dead. That witch is dead!”
“Uwaaaah! The game’s over! We don’t have to die anymore!”
“Bwaaah. Whoever you are, thank you so much!”
Hope sometimes numbs the mind.
Would Magireta really die just from having her head cut off?
Even though they must have known better, the participants shed tears of joy.
Feeling a sense of dread creep in, I spoke.
“Get up, nuna.”
“…….”
“I know you’re waiting on purpose. You’re planning to push everyone into despair when their hope is at its peak, right?”
“You’re such a good little brother.”
Then, Magireta’s severed face opened its eyes.
The headless body that had been floating in midair descended.
It reached out, groped around, and picked up Magireta’s head.
Then, like setting a strawberry atop a cake, it gently placed the head back on.
“You ruin my fun too often, little brother.”