Berry Berry Berry Strawberry
“We really ought to start with what happened on the second floor.”
Yeo Jeonghyeon spoke up in my place, since I still had no grasp of the situation whatsoever.
The unprecedented phenomenon of people’s stats rising simply because I had encouraged them. I didn’t have the faintest idea why.
Well, I don’t even know how everyone else escaped the second floor.
The place I’d entered was the Easy Mode second floor. Everyone else had chosen Hard Mode. Maybe that difference was what had caused this whole anomaly.
For now, I decided to keep quiet, read the room, and just listen to Soli and Yeo Jeonghyeon’s conversation.
“So everyone saw Seha on the second floor, then?”
“That’s right. She appeared so out of nowhere that I just thought she looked similar — but looking at her now, even the clothes are completely identical.”
“Right? I was sure the moment I saw Seha’s outfit. And she’s wearing the exact same thing today, so she must really like it.”
“I agree. That pure white dress suits Miss Seha’s image perfectly.”
Hehe. Everyone’s praising my dress design — that feels nice.
I’d originally made the dress imagining Silaea’s gown. Once I’d finished it, the image in my head had locked in so firmly that changing the design was impossible. But with reactions this good, there was no need to feel disappointed.
It feels a little empty around the bottom, but as long as it looks good, who cares.
Being made of natural materials, it breathed well, and the way the hem brushed softly against my skin felt pleasant too.
No — this is not the time!
Listening to the two of them chat, I suddenly snapped back to myself. Getting all giddy over a few compliments about my clothes… I felt a little pathetic.
I need to change the subject.
At this rate, the conversation was going to stay stuck on my appearance. Just listening to the two of them was proof enough.
“It was such a waste that Seha had been hiding that face all this time.”
“You’re talking about the gray hoodie Miss Seha always used to wear?”
“Yes, that one! Even when I bought her clothes, she’d say they were uncomfortable and switch right back to the hoodie. From the sidelines, it was honestly frustrating.”
“Looking at her now, I completely understand how you felt, Miss Soli.”
They were chatting away so cheerfully, perfectly in sync. It wasn’t that I minded the compliments — not at all. But doing it so openly right in front of the person in question was a little ridiculous, wasn’t it?
In the end, I tossed out a question just to escape the embarrassment.
“So how exactly did you see me on the second floor?”
I’d been curious about that from the start. They’d been talking about things only the Hard Mode people knew among themselves, so I couldn’t figure out why my name kept coming up.
Soli answered my question.
“Seha has no idea what happened on our side, huh. It seems like everyone was given a different role on each floor.”
That was probably because I’d been the only one to pick Easy Mode. Same as the first floor — while everyone else was fighting ogres, I’d been playing with slimes. That much I already knew.
But the explanation Soli added next was genuinely shocking.
“In the elf village I arrived in, Seha was being worshiped like a god. And looking around, it seems like it was the same for everyone else.”
“A god? You mean an actual god — not a metaphor?”
“Yeah. There was a statue of you standing right in the village square, and everyone prayed to you at set times of day.”
What on earth is she talking about?!
Was the new Divinity stat that had appeared on my status window foreshadowing this? Or had they just mistaken someone with the same face and the same clothes?
Even that last shred of hope was casually dismantled by Yeo Jeonghyeon’s next words.
“I went to the library to uncover the identity of the elf god. Of course, the records I found in the ancient texts were nothing but abstract information.”
“Don’t tell me that information was…”
“For example — that the elf god restored the relationship between the dark elves and the original elves. Or that she faced the primordial calamity and purified the seed of the elves.”
That’s completely my story!
The first one was probably about me going all the way to the dark elf village and bringing them back. The second must have been about my fight with the elder.
Then does that mean…?
“Then does that mean—!”
My inner thoughts and Soli’s voice overlapped perfectly — and right then:
“You called for me?”
Oh, right. I’d pressed the server call button earlier. I’d completely forgotten while talking with Yeo Jeonghyeon, who’d shown up so suddenly.
“I’ll have the seaweed soup set meal. Seha, what about you?”
“Hmm… I already filled up pretty well at breakfast…”
I could keep eating if I wanted to, but lunch was supposed to have even more impressive dishes, so I figured I should hold back. I started browsing the dessert menu with a light heart.
Oh, they have Baskin Robbins!
A premium ice cream menu I never usually bought because it was too expensive caught my eye. Dad always went for Alien, or Almond Bongbong — even mint chocolate.
I’m curious what mint chocolate tastes like, but I already know what I’m picking.
“I’ll have the Berry Berry Berry Strawberry!”
I’d always loved strawberries, so I raised my hand and ordered the ice cream with full confidence.
Once Soli and I had finished ordering, it was Yeo Jeonghyeon’s turn. Caught between us and forced into ordering on the spot, he looked flustered.
And then:
“I’ll have the Nilla Nilla Nilla Vanilla, please.”
“….”
“…Pffft!”
The moment the server finished taking all our orders and left, the laughter we’d been holding back exploded between us.
“Jeonghyeon — what on earth is ‘Nilla Nilla Nilla Vanilla’?”
“Didn’t Miss Seha just say ‘Berry Berry Berry Strawberry’ a moment ago?”
“What Seha ordered is an actual Baskin Robbins menu name. For vanilla, you just say vanilla normally.”
“Is that so? I had no idea.”
Unlike the dependable figure who usually led us, Yeo Jeonghyeon looked a little embarrassed. Had he, like me, never been to Baskin Robbins before?
Caught off guard by our reaction, he ended up making excuses.
“My apologies. I’ve never been to a Baskin Robbins, so I made this mistake.”
Come to think of it, wasn’t this guy a politician?
With looks like a pretty-boy parasite, he couldn’t possibly be short on money. Or maybe he had so much money that ordinary franchise ice cream just didn’t satisfy him.
Yeo Jeonghyeon was trying Baskin Robbins for the first time just like me — but the reason was deeply unfair.
I don’t like this one bit!
Teasing him further on this topic would only stoke my own jealousy. In the end, I had to swallow my tears and steer us back to the original subject.
“We got sidetracked — what were we talking about earlier?”
“We were discussing the records I found in the library.”
In short: that I had been venerated as the god of the elves. Part of the reason was that I’d saved them, but the decisive factor had to be the World Tree seed Eveline had given me.
Then was the Divinity stat something that appeared because the elves worshiped me?
That was when Soli posed a question to us — half of it already sounding like a conviction.
“So what we can take from this is that our timelines got all jumbled and mixed together?”
Something my intelligence couldn’t begin to process. Unlike me, Yeo Jeonghyeon understood immediately and responded to her words.
“Exactly. The reason we couldn’t meet each other when we moved to the second floor must have been because of shifts in the timeline. Until now it was only a theory, but…”
“Seeing Seha confirmed that our timelines were different?”
“Precisely! I’ve actually developed a more detailed hypothesis, but I’ll present that at the meeting tomorrow.”
Hmm… so when we arrived on the second floor, the time at that location was different for each of us?
I’d arrived in the village while the elder was still alive. Everyone else had arrived much later, in an era when I was already being worshiped as a god.
Well, I could hear the details tomorrow.
I was just about to dig into the ice cream that had somehow already arrived at the table when—
“Please wait a moment.”
The server stopped me, picked up the strawberry ice cream I’d ordered, and from their fingertips a white powder began to rise.
Shalalala~
With the elegant grace of a fairy, they sprinkled the powder over the ice cream.
“Wow! So the newly renovated cafeteria does stuff like this too?”
“Right? I’ve never seen this before either…”
The server handed us our ice cream and left. In my hand was an ice cream that looked sweeter than anything I’d ever seen.
They always say you should be suspicious when a stranger gives you white powder…
But this was from a server, so it should be fine. Without hesitation, I took a big bite of the special Berry Berry Berry Strawberry.
“Seha, how is it?”
“Mmm…”
How was I supposed to describe this taste? The word “ice cream” alone couldn’t begin to capture it. Thanks to the powder the server had sprinkled, the texture was incredibly chewy compared to ordinary ice cream — and the tart strawberry juice within it hit my tongue with intense force.
“Whoa, this is insane… I can’t even put it into words!”
“Really?”
Yeo Jeonghyeon seemed just as deeply moved by the ice cream. He sat in silence, savoring his vanilla little by little. Watching him nibble at a cone ice cream with a spoon was a slightly undignified sight.
“Then can I try just one bite too?”
“Of course!”
Seeing our reactions, Soli had gotten curious and asked if she could have a taste. The old me would have called her a free-bite freeloader — but the me of now was different. After all the help Soli had given me, I couldn’t even share a little ice cream?
I casually held out the hand holding the ice cream — and that was when a single worry flashed through my mind.
Isn’t this an indirect kiss?!
I awkwardly pulled my outstretched hand back.