The Cake That Feeds Yasmin

The laptop screen flickered for a moment with no change at all — then, one character at a time, it began to spit out its answer.

…And a rather interesting answer it was.

It exists?

So it really was an easter egg, not just dummy data?

If that was the case, then most of what had been written in those materials was probably true. A plot hook that elaborate was unlikely to be pure fabrication.

Which meant Noah's Perfume Bottle Project was essentially a kind of hibernation device — limited to Major Units — that would let them survive the end of the world. With it, even if the main story collapsed, at least I could make it out alive.

…Of course, if circumstances allowed, I wouldn't just save myself. I'd load as many of them onto it as I could.

Having to abandon the protagonist still sits a little wrong, though.

He wasn't a Major Unit, so as far as I knew, he couldn't join the project at all. The best outcome, obviously, would be not running to something like this in the first place — holding the line properly, without sacrificing anyone.

It's only insurance…

With that thought, I pressed the payment button. A question appeared, stating that answering it would complete the transaction.

…So it really was a system that bought information with information, just like I'd heard.

Even the kimchi chocolate Gourmand had gotten worked the same way — it hadn't handed her the item itself so much as told her where to find it. Some kind of information broker, maybe, planting laptops like this to gather clients without ever revealing themselves? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I'd never seen anything like it. Kind of fascinating.

…Information on the protagonist?

I hadn't expected that question at all, and it threw me. Though, given that he was one of the hottest topics around right now, of course they'd treat it as high-grade intel.

Do they already know the Royal Guard is the one who opened this?

Maybe they were tracking the location. Thinking about it that way, a question like that made a certain amount of sense. Hmm. It was information that would spread eventually as we kept recruiting allies anyway…

…They said they'd ask for more if it wasn't enough, so maybe I should keep it as brief as possible?

"Jasmine?"

"Eek!?"

I'd been wrestling with the dilemma when a voice suddenly called my name from behind and nearly made me jump out of my skin. Right — he'd been sleeping here with me.

"Sorry. Did I startle you?"

"A little."

"What are you concentrating on so hard?"

"…It's nothing important. I was just testing out this laptop we got yesterday."

Yeah — better stop here for now. Sorting through what I knew would take time, and I still had to decide how much to hand over. Leaving him waiting alone while I did that would be worse than just getting ready to head out.

Well, it's not like there's a time limit.

It wasn't urgent information either. Just a contingency option for the worst case. So that could wait until evening…

"Hahnya!?"

I'd been leaning into the clean, pleasant sensation of a comb gently working through my hair — and then the teeth dug a little deeper, scraping lightly against my scalp, sending a ticklish, spine-tingling shiver through me.

…I really needed to stay focused and on edge whenever he did this, instead of letting my mind wander.

"Hwaaah…"

"Want me to carry you?"

"No. I can walk."

My legs had gone a little weak, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that was all. Give me a moment to collect myself and they'd come back. It was strange, really — at first, being stroked like this had been a little frightening. These days, though, I didn't feel properly awake until he'd done my hair once in the morning.

Had I just gotten used to it?

"Today we should hand out the gifts we've stockpiled and do some moderate power-leveling."

"Yeah."

It was about time to start preparing for the next Deadly Battle. The difficulty would be the same as last time, but it was a new boss with a fairly complex pattern set — which meant the combat roster would have to change, so we needed to get ready early.

"Hoo…"

"Good morning."

Tobacco came into view, exhaling a plume of smoke, so I greeted her. She waved a hand vaguely in return. Good — at least the recent bizarre food experiments hadn't wrecked her health.

Worrying about a Major Unit over something like that was a little ridiculous, honestly. But the fusion dishes had been so extreme it was hard to tell whether they were food or poison. Anyway, she was alive. That was what mattered.

"What, you want one too? You smoke?"

"No. I don't."

…More precisely, Jasmine didn't smoke. Maybe it was the different body, but the urge just wasn't there. And everything available here was unfamiliar to me anyway, which didn't help.

"That so? What about you, Teach?"

"I don't smoke either."

"Hmph…"

Truthfully, as long as you weren't a Minor Unit like the protagonist, smoking wasn't a big deal. Major Units naturally detoxified over time. No addiction, either — so Tobacco was just enjoying the taste of tobacco itself.

"Everyone's waiting. Go on in."

"Okay."

Inside, a rather impressive spread of food had been laid out. …So that was why they'd told us not to eat breakfast before coming. Of course, it was all recipes we'd taught them, so the dishes themselves were familiar.

"Ah, Chef! You're here!"

"Welcome, Teach."

"Chef!"

Huh. This almost felt like playing the game — like watching the final stretch of the main story.

…Which, timing-wise, wasn't far off from the truth.

"Thanks to you, Teach, everyone's gotten so much brighter."

"…Really?"

"Yes."

The event preparations hadn't exactly made the mood bad, but before the festival, things had apparently been walking a pretty precarious line. …Come to think of it, in the original game story, Aroma — who'd roughly understood the situation — had pushed hard to force the event through.

Cocktail had been watching the guild from a slight remove, so she must have been comparing then and now. Wow, those cocktails she'd mixed looked genuinely ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠delicious…

"Oh, right — Jasmine and I are on non-alcoholic today. They told us not to drink because we get drunk too fast."

"Ah."

That was a little disappointing and a relief at the same time. Honestly, if I caused another scene here, I'd never live it down.

"By the way, Master — didn't you say you had a wish to ask of me last time?"

"I did."

"When are you going to tell me what it is?"

More than anything else, the content of that wish was eating at me. After all the strange things I'd seen lately, I just wanted to know already so I could stop fretting about it.

"I think the preparations are pretty much done."

"They are?"

"Yeah. Make some time for me."

What kind of preparations could possibly take this long? The first time I'd heard him mention a wish, my affection gauge had actually gone up because I'd briefly thought he was about to confess — and that still irritated me. Thanks to that, my affection was already past the mid-thirties without me doing a single thing.

What even is the criteria for this thing going up?

I thought of him as a decent friend. That was it. So why the affection kept climbing like this was beyond me.

"Ah, I'll clean up. Don't you have an appointment with the Chef?"

"Ah — right, I do."

Still, I had no idea what kind of favor required this much buildup. I'd made the promise, so unless it was something truly impossible, I'd go along with it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— but the longer he dragged it out, the more I started worrying about what might come flying out.

"Hm?"

I'd assumed we were heading to the dorms, but the protagonist turned toward the Royal Guard guild instead. At this hour, everyone should have gone back to their rooms.

Huh?

"What? Why is everyone still here?"

"We were doing what Master asked. We already gathered today's batch, actually."

"Thanks."

"Gathered…?"

I had no idea what these people were talking about. They handed the protagonist a small cake box — and the cream decoration on top of that cake… wasn't that a jasmine flower?

"Isn't that an Affection Gift?"

"It is."

And not just any Affection Gift — my exclusive affection item. I hadn't been farming them because there was no real reason to, so why were they holding a bunch of them? I couldn't make sense of any of this, and it left me thoroughly bewildered.

"…You said gifts collected this way were fine."

"What?"

"And receiving Affection Gifts can make you stronger."

"Ah."

Now I understood. The favor he'd been going around asking for was securing my Affection Gifts — because he wanted me to use them to get stronger.

He really doesn't know when to quit.

Since we'd decided not to use Choco, a specific character's Affection Gifts could only be used by that character. Unlike other currencies, you couldn't just write off investing in this body as a waste. He'd thought this through pretty carefully.

"When you said you had a favor to ask… was it really just for me to accept these?"

"Yeah."

I wasn't sure whether to call it impressive or a stupid waste of manpower. Plenty of thoughts crossed my mind — but none of them were reasons to refuse.

"Haa… so that's what you've been up to."

"Is it not okay?"

"That's not what I meant."

We'd already confirmed thoroughly with the others that Affection Items farmed this way didn't cause memory problems. And raising the affection number itself wasn't a bad thing — the stat boosts from affection carried over to Variation characters too.

"Are you really fine with just that? Nothing else you want?"

"Yeah. This is enough."

It was genuinely strange. A dozen things I would have asked for in his position were already spinning through my head. When he'd first mentioned a wish, I'd braced myself for something ridiculous — looks like that worry had been completely pointless.

"In exchange, once my performance goes up, my body heat spikes too — so let's do it back at the dorms, in the bathroom."

That was the best place to dump cold water on myself right away.

…And I really didn't want the others seeing me panting and flushed because my body was burning up. I wanted that to stay a secret between just the two of us.

"Sending them now."

"Okay."

The moment he pressed the button, a mountain of cake boxes began stacking up in front of my eyes — and the instant I touched one, a sensation like something was about to tear my back open slammed down through me.

…Along with a deeply dangerous kind of dissonance I had felt once before.