No Game No Life - Volume 11 - Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

VERTICAL THINKING

IN THE BOTTOM

As a side note, let it be known that Sora hates death games.

To be more precise: Sora loathes the premise of death games.

Death games—an age-old genre of stories centered around a series of survival games.

In these stories, the participants are thrust into situations where they must put their lives on the line to win. Oftentimes, they are kidnapped and wake up in the game. Maybe they’re forced to play in order to pay off an insurmountable debt… But whatever the reason may be, the participants need bravery, cunning, and sometimes even a level of derangement in order to make it through the games without losing their lives.

So how do you get out of out these alive? Who do you trust? Who do you trick? Who do you betray?

Death games involve a combination of strategy and wits where the participants are driven into a corner and are constantly looking over their shoulders. There’s something fascinating about the way these stories portray the human condition through life-or-death struggles that hinge on the characters’ incredible feats of quick-wittedness.

But again, Sora was more focused on the premise.

He wondered: Is there actually a way to win games like these?

The answer was clear: NOPE.

That’s because there is no winner. Why would there be?

It shouldn’t even be a question.

In these outrageous death matches that pit people against each other in a battle of wits, bravery, madness, and whatever other emotions they have to use as weapons, only one person comes out on top—and it’s none other than whoever’s running the games.

That’s right: The operators of the death games—the hosts—are always in control.

How about the example from before, where the participant is kidnapped and forced to play in the games? The operator could easily kill them at any time. And a massive debt? What kind of idiot lends that much money to people who can’t pay it back? The only reason the operator lends money to someone like that in the first place is to coerce them into playing their little death game. The participants are the type of people who don’t even know how to file for bankruptcy; they’re doomed to fail from the very start.

And besides, after doing something so blatantly unlawful, there’s no way the hosts just let people go once it’s all over.

There was almost always a dead end awaiting whoever made it through the life-and-death challenges thrown at them.

The point is: A death game is nothing short of a death sentence.

Let’s say some guy has his head in a guillotine, and the executioner tells him, “Hey, let’s play a game. If you can make me laugh, I’ll let you live.” That’s definitely not a game for the guy whose neck is on the literal chopping block. It’s nothing other than a way for the executioner to pass the time—a whim. There’s no guarantee they’ll let the guy live, even if he’s hilarious.

…It’s already over.

Sora believed games ended before they began; there was nothing he hated more than death games.

Whoever controls the flow of the game is the victor—they’ll come out on top in the end.

Death games start with the game master on top, robbing the player of their ability to affect the flow.

How do you survive being put into a guillotine?

The answer is to never get yourself in that position. That’s it.

The only way to win death games is to avoid them at all costs.

The moment you find yourself in one, you’ve already lost…

“…Okay… Jibril, tell me…everything you know, about Fairies.”

Shiro had followed Sora back to their room, where she glanced at one corner and started dejectedly speaking to her smartphone.

She received an answer from outside the room—it was Jibril, who’d been given the siblings’ tablet after they’d synced the two devices.

“Ixseed Rank Nine, Fairy, is a race that has been allied with Elf since the Great War.”

You’re telling me there’s such a thing as friendly relations between races in this world?

Shiro was in awe at the startling news. Just then, a voice could be heard from the other side of her door:

“Huh? But I thought most of the Fairies were currently enslaved in Elven Gard?”

“Correct. Approximately sixty percent of the Fairy population are slaves to the Elves—and the whereabouts of their agent plenipotentiary are unknown.” Jibril’s answer to Steph’s question instantly erased Shiro’s awe. “Fairy is the race of flowers and Elf is the protector of the forest, meaning they are ecologically compatible. Relations between the two races were so friendly that they even developed magic together during the later years of the Great War, although that changed when the war ended, and most of the Fairies were enslaved. They never established an agent plenipotentiary… The particulars of which remain unknown.”

…Looks like any sort of friendship is just an illusion in this world, after all…

Shiro stared morosely into the distance as Jibril continued her explanation:

“In any case, Fairy follows Rank Seven, Elf, and Rank Eight, Dwarf, in terms of magical aptitude, but what sets them apart is how their magic works. They use their souls to construct a spatial phase boundary such as this one—known as a Spratul.”

There it was again, the idea of a soul. The word never made sense to the siblings.

Come to think of it, doesn’t Plum consume souls for magic…? Now we have to deal with a spatial phase boundary or whatever?

Perhaps Jibril picked up on Shiro’s confusion, for she elaborated:

“A spatial phase boundary is like a subspace of reality. The Fairies are able to use this to build a Linkernet connection—just like the Internet in your world. They provide their network for the Elves to use.”

I see what’s going on here. Foeniculum really was streaming the five of them over the Internet.

She was essentially a Y*utuber.

“Fairies are untouchable inside these Spratul spatial phase boundaries… Though their powers are limited to this space, they can use their souls to create anything at will while within it: air, water…likely even living beings as well.”

“…That’s…some bullshit…”

Not that Shiro would put it past the Ixseed.

She questioned whether the Fairies were too over the top, to which Jibril agreed:

“Indeed, but I should mention that their souls are not without limits. If that Foeniculum girl created a Spratul of this scale on her own—then she shouldn’t have much left of her soul.”

Right.

If Fairy souls were an unlimited reservoir of power, then they’d basically be able to make their own little universes. Of course there were limits.

“Also, Fairies can exchange portions of their souls over the Linkernet as a form of currency.”

 Souls that could be spent to create anything within a Spratul.

So it’s like an all-utility currency.

“Allow me to offer a simpler explanation, Masters. Think of a Spratul as a virtual space built over the Internet—and the souls of Fairies as the data used to modify that space; you might even consider their souls a form of virtual currency.”

Shiro appreciated Jibril’s easy-to-understand explanation and went back to looking through her phone.

“I believe the tips Foeniculum mentioned referred to the transfer of a portion of souls as currency.”

Tips…

Shiro went back to the app where she could see how many tips she had accrued so far.

What started as 15,000 at the end of their first stream was now at 14,900.

The points could be used to buy all sorts of basic necessities. For instance, when Shiro pictured water and tapped the PURCHASE button, a prompt to SPEND 100 POINTS appeared. When she tapped the prompt, a bubble appeared, which then popped, and a two-liter bottle of water materialized out of nowhere.

So one point equaled approximately one yen?

 But what did it all mean?

“Let me get this straight—the viewers are giving us their souls, like they would give spare change to the needy? And to a program as pathetic as this one? Their literal souls? …Are they out of their minds?”

“Rebuttal: Mutual exchange possible. Souls can be obtained as compensation for labor. Assuming Fairies have some sort of way to increase the volume of souls. They are fluid. Potentially equivalent to Immanity cash.”

Steph was right to question the Fairies’ logic, but Emir-Eins also raised a good point.

“Addendum: Immanity expend their lives working in exchange for money. Fairies convert exchanged souls back into their own life span, whereas Immanity cannot do the same with money. Their time is irreplaceable.”

 Say…

Does anybody else think this cyborg girl just dropped a giant bomb onto monetary-based economies?

W-well, different races would have different economic structures, right?

Best not to think too much about it.

“…So…I have…uh, three…questions…”

After receiving a general summary, Shiro organized the information at her disposal to make some queries:

“…Question one: Is Elven Gard…behind this…?”

“Answer: Ninety-eight-point-three percent chance yes. However, estimation made based on this space created by the singular unit known as Foeniculum. Were it made by multiple Fairy units, the scale should be much larger. Conclusion uncertain.”

Most of the Fairies were slaves in Elven Gard. Even if you toyed with the idea that Elven Gard wasn’t behind this—according to Emir-Eins, those odds were less than 2 percent, a calculation Shiro agreed with.

“…Question two: Is this…a Fairy game…?”

Each of the races had a trump card—either a game they could win against other races or one where they had a clear racial advantage.

So did the Fairy trump card involve trapping people and forcing them into couples?

Jibril was the one to answer Shiro this time.

“I don’t believe so… While the Fairies do have access to a Sanctuary—a massive expanse of flowers—that territory belongs to Elven Gard. There are also no known records of Fairies challenging other races to games.”

Fairy had allied with Elf during the War, but somehow the vast majority of them were now the latter’s slaves.

Were the Fairies ever to challenge another race to a game, it would likely be under the orders of the Elves.

Such an event would never be public knowledge—that much was obvious.

“Since the Fairies can use their souls to change a Spratul at will, it is said they engage in turf wars where they effectively paint over each other’s territories to see who can claim the most space. I’ve never heard of Fairies engaging in a game like this situation we find ourselves in, however.”

Okay… Now, for the biggest question.

“…Question three: Is there, a way…for us to get, out of here…?”

“…There likely isn’t.”

Jibril sounded apologetic, but Shiro had assumed this would be her answer. After all, it seemed only the Fairies could access spatial phase boundaries.

What Jibril said next, however, made Shiro’s eyes widen subtly.

“To be more specific: Only Fairies have the ability to access spirit corridors from within a Spratul.”

This was why Jibril and Emir-Eins couldn’t teleport.

“Even during the Great War, the sole way to attack a spatial phase boundary was to blow the entire subspace out of existence with a massive spell—something that is no longer possible due to the Covenants.”

They currently weren’t able to use any magic at all, let alone a large-scale spell. The five of them were stuck between a rock and a hard place in the fullest sense of the term.

This also explained why Fairy was able to defeat Flügel and Ex Machina during the War. By luring them into a Spratul, they were able to fully prevent any chances of defeat.

“Negative: Escape possible. Here is a concrete plan. Estimating that the space will be destroyed should its creator perish.”

“…Denied… Or more like…we can’t.”

“Negative: The Covenants prevent harming others. This clause excludes accidents. Suggested course of action: This unit will self-destruct. Should the Fairy unit Foeniculum coincidentally get caught up in the detonation of this unit’s spirit reserves, success is feasible. This unit will give her life for Master. Unit’s sole wish is for Master to reciprocate this unit’s love. Tell me: Je t’aime.”

“…Shut up…and stay, in your lane.”

“I can also do that. I’ll do anything to please my masters. Just tell me to explode, and I’ll ask, How fiery?  ”

“…Stop, trying to compete… Stand down.”

With self-destruction being the only solution both a Flügel and an Ex Machina could come up with, things were looking grim.

Racial relations in this world are basically one big rock-paper-scissors game…

Shiro winced. She was almost impressed, but it was time for her to collect her thoughts.

There was only one solution: win the game they had been thrown into.

Upon reaching her initial conclusion again, Shiro apologized to the corner of the room where she sought asylum.

“…Sorry, Brother… I lost, my cool… L-let’s just, leave the room, ’kay…?”

Indeed… Usually someone else was in charge of gathering information like this.

After Foeniculum’s launch stream, Sora realized his entourage of women no longer liked him. “Screw you guys! I hate you allll!” he’d declared before grabbing his sister and shutting himself into their room.

Now he was shaking and crying under his blanket—afraid of even Shiro.

“…Brother… I don’t know…what to do…”

Shiro wasn’t going to be able to figure this out on her own—she needed her brother.

She did her best to persuade him, but—

“Heh-heh… Oh, my dear sister. The fact that your brother got us into this situation just goes to show he’s a useless sack of crap… A loser.”

—fully convinced of his inevitable defeat, Sora answered in a heavily distraught tone.

You see—with the Ten Covenants in place, it was virtually impossible for Sora to put himself in a scenario where he could be forced to participate in a flat-out death game like the ones from his own world.

Not to mention the nature of the game he was currently forced into. This could only mean one thing:

They had already lost some other game.

What other explanation was there for them to end up in a game like this?

And thus, the forever-a-loser no longer had a purpose in life.

Sora lamented his fate, yet Shiro refused to give up on him.

“…B-but…maybe, you agreed to this game, on purpose…? Just like…when we played against…Holou…”

Oh, right.

So there were a few exceptions to the death-game premise he’d thought out earlier.

There were occasionally characters who chose to join the death game. They joined with a clear intent—to save someone else who was forced to join. Or perhaps to shove it in the face of the host, the one holding the game.

Such characters hadn’t yet been robbed of the flow of the game by the game master.

Instead of being forced to participate, they volunteered to get onto the guillotine because they had a strategy to win.

Just like Sora and Shiro’s battle with the Old Deus Holou—they had a trick up their sleeve to pull one over on her. They’d opted to lose their memories because they’d believed they could win the death game.

Unfortunately, however, that wasn’t the case here. And why was that—?

“There’s no friggin’ way I’d ever agree to be in a situation like this—it’s literally impossible… Heh-heh-heh…”

Shiro approached her lamenting brother, when:

“Ngggrah!! How long are ya gonna coop yourselves up in there?! It’s almost time for our next stream, don’cha know?!”

The Fairy girl must’ve run out of patience.

Foeniculum caused Sora and Shiro’s locked door to vanish before she started reaming them out. She flew into the room and pulled off the blanket Sora was taking shelter under.

“I’ll have you know I had this awesome highlight reel all planned out to show what you guys did on the first day, but nooo, you just sat in your rooms the entire time!! You guys aren’t even trying!!”

“Try what?! Why would we try anything in this mess?!” Sora grabbed his blanket back and met her yelling with his own.

“Well, I needja to fall in love with each other and stuff!! Like, you coulda commiserated over getting locked up outta the blue like this, and that could’ve planted the seeds of romance or somethin’!! You know what I mean, right?!”

“Hell no!! If I could do that, I’d probably have a girlfriend already!!”

“You don’t got one ’cause you don’t even try!!”

“Yeah, yeah, I don’t wanna hear it! You’re gonna make me cry, damn it!!”

 Try? Try what, exactly?

“If you don’t couple up with somebody, you won’t be able to leave or even get enough tips to eat!! Didn’cha hear the rules earlier?! Or do you actually wanna die of starvation?!”

“I probably know the rules better than anyone else!! That’s why I’m depressed!!”

Ah yes, the rules… So: They needed to pair up into couples to leave…

Or they could purchase a key with their smartphones and leave on their own…

Sure enough—the price of the key showed up as a five followed by nine zeros…

Five billion points.

This was the asinine cost of the key.

Only four of them could escape by pairing up into couples. In order to save the final contestant, they would have to buy a key. To do this, they would need to please their viewers—the Fairies—and receive tips.

The only way to please the viewers was—that’s right—to show the cast falling in love with each other.

However—there was one big problem standing in Sora’s way. And that was:

“I don’t even know the first thing about this love documentary genre!!”

He had zero clue how to please the viewers and get tips.

His knowledge on the subject was zilch—nada! This was a huge problem !

“What kind of system is this?! You think you can just scrounge up a bunch of randos and force them into relationships?! The only love that creates is a product of the process of elimination!!”

Why do people who wash ashore onto deserted islands end up in relationships?

It’s simple: Because there’s no one else to shack up with.

Why do they go and act like it’s the love of the century? And why does that move the viewers to tears? It doesn’t make any sense!!

“The only people I can think of who like throwing animals into cages and watching them mate are biologists!! It’s freakin’ creepy!!”

“You, um, must be really unpopular with the ladies to have that take on things.”

“Damn straight, Steph! Any objections? Speak now or forever hold your peace!!”

Steph shuddered at the depths of Sora’s unpopularity, but he shot her down and kept the focus on this nonsensical game.

He knew he would absolutely never agree to a death game where he would be the odd man out. Sora was convinced they’d been forced into this game, with no hope for recourse. However…

“I have no objections. My master is indeed wise. You are as sharp as ever.”

“Approval: All mating between living beings can be reduced to the process of elimination. Living creatures can mate only with those close to them. Therefore, it is inevitable that two beings of the same class and origin will fall in love. As always, Master is all-knowing. Reconfirmation: Considering these circumstances, it is incredible that this unit was able to meet Master, her soul mate. What luck.”

Jibril and Emir-Eins praised Sora, yet he found himself hit with a strange feeling.

Wait… What?

“…Sora, you’re stating the obvious…”

“ What?”

“People only fall in love with those closest to them. If you think that’s strange, then either you think love is strange or you hate when others find love, and—”

“…Brother is the…latter. Basically…he’s just…bitter.”

Steph and Shiro stared unamused at Sora, who was gasping in shock.

Even Steph…is pitying me…

…Heh…heh-heh…

“Yeah… You guys are right… Okay… I’ll come out of my room…”

Sora realized there was nothing wrong with the genre and that he just didn’t understand love in the first place.

But at the very least, the others seemed to have a better grasp of it than he did.

Maybe they would be able to please the viewers in a way he couldn’t—

“If I shut myself in this room, then Shiro will be stuck, too… Right, I’ll come out now… You four, feel free to find love with each other… I’ll just curl up in a corner like some houseplant…”

Indeed… All said and done, Sora knew the outcome would be the same—that he’d end up alone.

In hopes to at least not starve to death, he figured he should allow the others to participate.

With great sorrow, Sora accepted his fate and motioned to leave the room, when—

“ARGH! This is getting us nowhere!! Change of plans, people!!”

Foeniculum had had enough. She tore at her hair while she screamed at the group.

“I had an idea for when things moved too slowly—never thought I’d have to use it on the first day, though. Looks like we’re gonna kick off today’s stream by having you guys play a game!!”

—A game…?

The group shot the Fairy a collective look of hesitation.

“Don’t get your panties in a bunch. Think of this as an easy li’l mini game.” A cigar in her mouth, Foeniculum gave a fat grin as she continued. “If you guys win, I’ll swear on the Covenants to answer a single yes-or-no question—no matter what it is—truthfully. Them’s the terms of the game.”

“Any question?! You mean even something like, Is there a different way out of here?!” Steph asked.

“Yep, yep. I’ll answer any question ya got, as long as it can be answered with a yes or a no.”

 That’s right… Regardless of whether there were hidden rules, she would answer any yes-or-no question honestly.

Faced with this new proposal, the group looked each other in the eyes and nodded, and then:

“I’m gonna sit this one out… You four can do it…”

“What?! Wh-why would you opt to sit out?!” Steph demanded.

“Because I don’t have any questions about this game…,” came Sora’s lifeless, apathetic answer.

What Foeniculum said next would completely change his mind:

“By the way, I should mention that this game involves hooking Sora up with one of y’all, temporarily.”

“Well, ladies, you heard the Fairy!! Moping around isn’t going to get us out of this mess!!”

With enough spring in his step to stir up a hurricane—and quick enough for Jibril not to notice—Sora had burst out of his room.

“Hey, guuuys!! It’s time for stream number two—and I’m here to bring it to you!! …Okay, see, that whole thing earlier was just a fluke… I—I know! It’s everybody’s favorite li’l shit! Brought to you live from the bottom of the streamer barrel!! Flame me all you want, it’s Foeniculum comin’ atcha with your program!  ”

It seemed like the viewers had yet to forget about her mishap from the previous day; Foeniculum started off the second stream somewhat apologetically.

Sora and the others, however, were unable to speak at all.

They couldn’t see anything, either. They simply sat at the living room table and listened.

“A-anyhoo, I’ve got a great program for you guys today!! A little something that’ll get the mojo brewing between these five whether they like it or not!! Now, for our first event—I present to you !!

“The secret confession game!! Whoo-hoooo!! Bang, bang, sparkle, sparkle!!”

The Fairy energetically made firecracker sound effects as she presented her event.

Sora and the others listened considerably more attentively than the viewers did.

They hadn’t yet been told the details of the game they’d be playing.

Their only instructions had been to sit in their chairs, close their eyes, and listen without saying a word.

Sora and Shiro were seated next to each other—holding hands, eyes closed—as they waited for the explanation.

“I’ve given our contestants cards that show what they’re thinking in writing!”

Sora had his card in his left hand—his opposite hand was holding Shiro’s hand.

“The five of them will write A loves B on their cards. A has to be someone other than the card owner, and B can be anyone—including themselves—except for whoever they chose for A!”

Okay…

“For example, Sora here can’t go and write Sora loves B. But he can write A loves Sora!! And of course he can’t write Sora loves Sora. In other words—whoever can match themselves with another player wins!!”

What a sadistic concept for a game…

Foeniculum ignored the group’s inner thoughts and continued with her explanation.

“The pair who writes A loves B and B loves A will be matched up!! A and B will be a couple!! We’ll keep going until a couple is formed—and if they get a match on their first try, all five contestants will receive a bonus reward!  ”

 That made sense, then. The bonus reward was what she described before the stream started. Foeniculum was going to answer one yes-or-no question the group had.

“Contestants, I’ll make sure to keep whatever you write on your cards a secret from the other players while I share it with the viewers.   Since it’s anonymous, feel free to confess to whoever you want!! How’s that sound?!”

…So there’s no way for Foeniculum to lose this game.

“There will be no talking among the contestants before the game begins, either! If any of them speaks or opens their eyes, all five will lose!! That’d make for a pretty boring stream, so don’t go and do that, okay?”

This precluded any methods the group could use to cheat—but there was one more rule.

Foeniculum saved the most important part of the game for last.

“The pair that chooses each other will be forced to become a couple for one day!!”

Oh yeah… The point of this game was to create a couple.

She’d told Sora and the others that before they started—and she was now telling the viewers for their entertainment.

“So let’s get this show on the road! Okay, contestants, you have five minutes to think— Aaand go!!”

As soon as she finished yelling her starting call, Foeniculum turned to her viewers.

“In the meantime, I’ll be reading out some comments!   Hello, Foeniculum—why, hello to you, too, Anemone.   —No one wants to hear your shitty banter! …Heh-heh. Screw you, too!   You can leave whenever you wanna, punk! …Oh snap, they actually left! I’m just kiddin’! C’mon, I’m beggin’ you here!! Don’t leeeaaave meee!  ”

While Foeniculum seamlessly transitioned to trading insults within her chat room, Sora closed his eyes—silently laying out the rules in his mind—and sank into deep thought.

The point of the game was to form a pair without discussing it beforehand.

There were sixteen different combinations between the four of them.

That meant a 25 percent chance of forming a couple if they all wrote someone down randomly… Not too shabby, those odds.

However, those were the odds if they each picked someone at random. Reality was more complicated; the players’ own thoughts and feelings affected their decisions.

Usually, this sort of game is meant to be played over multiple rounds, where the players feel each other out and adjust their answers accordingly. For Sora and the others to win, they needed to make a pair on the first round—in other words, a sudden-death match.

Foeniculum’s goal was for two of them to form a couple.

Granted, seeing as she probably didn’t want to have to answer a question from the group, she intended for the game to last multiple rounds.

Sheesh, there’s no skill involved with a game like this. It’s basically just luck.

…If you play strictly by the rules, that is.

Thus, Sora couldn’t stop himself from smirking as he began moving his fingers around in Shiro’s hand.

Did she really think we’d play by the book?

I’m going to write Jibril loves Sora. Shiro, you need to write Sora loves Jibril.

Sora relayed this to his sister with just his fingers.

A few seconds passed, and she responded in a similar fashion: Got it.

You see… They certainly couldn’t discuss their answers beforehand. They couldn’t speak or look at each other’s faces.

Magic couldn’t be used in this space—there was no way to work with Jibril and Emir-Eins.

However—Sora had Shiro. The two of them could easily overcome the game’s rules.

Able to hold each other’s hands, they could discuss tomorrow’s itinerary if they needed to.

With their two votes, they could create any pair they wanted even with their eyes closed!

That said, Sora was well aware of the risk this game posed.

Forced to be a couple for an entire day… Who knew what it could entail?

Deciding who should be paired with whom required the utmost consideration.

This is why Sora decided to go with Jibril. Even in the worst-case scenario—though, he doubted she’d ever be put in a position to harm him—Jibril would abide by both his and Shiro’s commands; she was the least risky option.

Whoever got paired with her, however, was still liable to face some risk.

Therefore, if somebody had to shoulder such a burden—who better than Sora himself?!

Just as Sora affirmed his logical, self-sacrificial decision and mentally patted himself on the back—

“That’s five minutes, folks!! I’ll be taking those cards now, thaaaank you!  ”

—Foeniculum’s voice rang out, cutting off his train of thought.

A benevolent, merciful grin spread across Sora’s face as he felt the card be lifted from his left hand.

And then:

“What’s this? Well, this is a surprise!! Looks like we have ourselves a first-round matchup!!” Foeniculum shouted.

Sora quietly readied his arm for a triumphant fist pump.

Oh, how he had thrown himself into the lion’s jaws.

Much as it pained him, this was Sora’s way to end the game without getting left in the lurch!!

Any risk that came with his chivalrous decision was worth it for that small glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel!!

His head held high, Sora was certain he’d won this game. And by win, he meant…

My first girlfriend is: Jibril !!!!

Welcome to the world, Sora, virgin, age eighteen who’s had a girlfriend, even if for just one day.

From today forward, that eternal zero would evolve into a 0.1.

Sora waited with great anticipation as Foeniculum continued her announcement— However…

“Stephanie and Jibril have feelings for each other!! A bit unexpected, but okay!!”

“““ WHAT?!”””

All at once, Sora, Jibril, and Steph cried out with shock.

“Hold the goddamn phone! How the hell did that even happen?!”

With the creation of a pair, the game had finished.

Sora no longer had any reason to keep his eyes closed or remain silent; he furiously protested the results.

His and Shiro’s cards had been ignored. Foeniculum was definitely cheating.

The person who joined Sora in protest was not Shiro, his coconspirator, but:

“Why, you—w-worthless heap of scrap metal—you tricked me! Apparently you wish to die an early death—”

“Scoff: She who was tricked is at fault. This is how the world works. Needless to say, Irregular Number is an idiot. Verification complete, stuuupid.”

Jibril’s surroundings practically shimmered from the murderous glare she shot at Emir-Eins.

Emir-Eins…tricked Jibril…?

Wait. Thinking back to when Foeniculum presented the results…

The only ones who sounded shocked were Sora, Jibril, and Steph, as if they didn’t know where these results came from.

Sora looked to Shiro and Emir-Eins and asked them, “Hey! What’s going on here ? Ahhhh, sorry; I’m sorry!!”

When he turned his head, he was met with two subzero stares, causing him to whimper midsentence.

Crap, I have no idea what’s going on!!

What just happened? And what’s going to happen?!

Sora was confused. One thing was for sure, though.

While he didn’t know how, he understood his beloved little sister had betrayed him. On the verge of tears, he wondered:

What did I do to piss her off this time…?

Shiro bored holes into Sora with her gaze—like she was putting pins into a specimen—and thought…

Or rather, she couldn’t help but think… Her brother, an expert strategist and an absolute doofus when it came to love…

…Could it be…Brother is…a moron…?

Sora seemed incredibly pensive, but—this game was actually incredibly simple.

I mean, come on. Basically—

—all the girls were going to write that Sora loves them… Right…?

All he had to do was pick one of them and write that they love him, and it was over.

And there would be nothing anonymous about it; it would effectively be a confession. Like, a full-blown confession.

This is what Foeniculum was getting at… Why didn’t Brother realize this…?

So Shiro had simply spoken. Not with her voice, but with her lips.

Brother is going to pair up with Jibril, she mouthed…

Emir-Eins—with her Ex Machina sensors—would be able to pick this up.

She didn’t need her eyes to read Shiro’s lips. So Shiro continued:

I’ll write Steph loves Jibril.

Shiro knew that Emir-Eins—who thought numerically and logically just like she did—would pick up on her intent.

She knew the cyborg would fill in the blanks.

Namely—that she would find a way to keep Jibril from writing Sora loves Jibril.

Emir-Eins would probably relay a message to Jibril along the lines of Little Sister’s orders. Write Sora loves Shiro. Then Emir-Eins herself would write Jibril loves Steph.

Thus temporarily putting a stop to Jibril’s attempts at pairing up with Sora. And—in turn—preventing him from coupling up with Jibril.

All this while fulfilling the group’s victory in the first round. It was the only course of action she could take to meet both of her goals—!!

And succeed she did.

However—with her win secured—Shiro turned to Sora and Jibril.

““ Eep?!””

The two whimpered beneath her piercing glare.

Like, in all seriousness—

Brother… If you wanted to secure a win, why not pair up with me…?

Sora loves Shiro, Shiro loves Sora… That would’ve worked perfectly fine… Right?

Why did you try to make me pair you up with Jibril…?

Same with you, Jibril… You were gonna write Sora loves Jibril, weren’t you…?

You definitely would’ve written yourself in had Emir-Eins not stopped you, I bet… Right…?

“Welp, I guess according to the rules, that makes these two a couple!!”

Fortunately for Sora and Jibril, Foeniculum broke off Shiro’s death glare.

“Jibril and Stephanie have to be a couple for the next twenty-four hours, starting—now!!”

With great excitement, Foeniculum pronounced the two women a couple—and at that very moment…

—Ba-dum.

…there came the sound of Jibril and Steph meeting each other’s gaze and falling in love.

It was perfectly audible—or at least it seemed so to Shiro and the others.

Forced to be a couple for an entire day…

With bated breath, Sora, Shiro, and even Emir-Eins waited to see what this rule entailed.

Were Steph and Jibril really going to fall in love for a day? The siblings and the Ex Machina had no idea what to expect.

The two blushing ladies stared into each other’s eyes… Was this what it was like to experience love?

…Wait, that’s it? Just as Sora began to feel like this was a huge letdown…

“  ”

“Eeeek?!”

…Jibril’s smile dissolved loosely into the fattest of grins, and Steph’s face turned beet red.

Sora had his doubts as to whether these were the expressions of two women in love. That’s when Jibril pounced on Steph quickly enough to break the sound barrier—but then…

“Whoopsie daisy!! Let’s keep it PG-13, ladies. Wouldn’t want to get our stream banned!  ”

…before Sora could even register what had happened, Foeniculum intervened, canceling out whatever was about to occur.

Jibril flew past Steph and straight into a wall.

Steph, meanwhile, sat clutching herself, teary-eyed and quivering.

Wait—does this mean they were about to do something that would get the stream banned?! What the hell is going on?!

“Um… J-Jibril, are you and Steph in love?” Sora asked cautiously.

“Little Dora and me? In love? Preposterous—Dora is my pet,” replied a visibly puzzled Jibril as she rubbed the bump on her head. “It was you, Master, who was gracious enough to let your servant own a pet in the first place. Did you forget?”

Sora and Shiro shot each other a shared look and confirmed that neither of them remembered giving—or even being asked for—such permission.

“I jumped toward her to get her clothes off—pets have no need for those—but it seems I can’t do it here for some reason, so I’ll let it slide for now. Here, little Dora. Sit. Now give me your paw.  ”

“O-okay…”

“There, there. That’s a good girl, Dora!  ”

“Urghhh…”

At any rate, it appeared Jibril and Steph mutually acknowledged their relationship.

Though she was blushing, Steph didn’t seem to dislike being stroked and ordered around like a dog.

“…Can I, uh…ask something really quick…? How long have you two been together?”

“Ever since the day after you and I played our first game together, Masters. I heard that you forced little Dora to wear a collar, dog ears, and a tail while you walked her around town, and I decided to try it as well. Don’t you just love her reactions? I adore the little face she makes when she’s about to cry—don’t even get me started about when I walk her naked—”

“Jib—erm, Master?! You told me you wouldn’t tell anyone about that!!”

“…Oh-ho? Is my pet trying to express her opinion to her master?  ”

“Eeeep! U-um! I-if you’re going to punish me, please be gentle!!”

Okay, I see what’s going on here.

Evidently, Jibril’s and Steph’s memories had been thoroughly tampered with.

Realizing this, Sora exhaled and said:

“Hey, Foeniculum!! You call this a couple?! You tricked us!”

Jibril and Steph were in no way a conventional couple—they were more like mistress and servant.

Sora accused Foeniculum of breaking the rules, but the Fairy excitedly threw his claim out the window.

“They are a couple! A subconsciously, mutually consenting couple!!”

If what Foeniculum said was true, it could only mean:

“…So Steph’s…cool with, being…Jibril’s pet?”

Had Steph not felt this way subconsciously, then she and Jibril could never have become a couple.

Shiro asked Foeniculum for confirmation, only to be interrupted:

“N-no way!! I—I’m only doing this because Jibril asked me to… It’s what she wants…”

Steph frantically tried to explain the situation.

“I—I mean, this is Jibril we are talking about! The Jibril! Who am I to turn her down?! I’d never find joy in something like this!! Th-this is a, um, regular relationship we—”

“…Dora? Had my masters been addressing you, I wouldn’t mind, but did I give you permission to speak? It looks like somebody still needs more training.  ”

“Ahhh! I’m so sorry!!”

Sora and Shiro listened as Jibril scolded Steph. There was a clear tinge of jealousy—and possessiveness—that could be heard in Jibril’s tone.

Upon realizing this, they also picked up on a subliminal level of joy in Steph’s voice.

The group came to the same conclusion simultaneously—it all made sense.

 They’re that kind of couple.

In other words: “Forced to be a couple for an entire day” only meant that two people were forced to pair up, not fall in love with each other.

The two of them could become a romantic couple so long as they both agreed to the relationship, even unconsciously.

This was the basis of their forged memories; they were already that kind of couple.

In which case—Emir-Eins asked the Fairy with utmost caution:

“…Confirmation: When the day ends, their fabricated memory will disappear, correct?”

“Not quite.   But they’ll know that their memories were tampered with. It’ll feel like it was all a dream. And before long, they’ll forget about it, just like it actually was a dream.  ”

Even when you date someone you wish you hadn’t, you’ll always remember them in some way.

Foeniculum’s answer sent a collective shiver down Shiro’s and Emir-Eins’s spines. Sora, on the other hand…

So if I’d paired up with Jibril as planned…I basically would’ve been able to dream about us becoming a couple in some shape or form!!

Me, who can’t even find a girlfriend in his actual dreams!! Who knew these rules could be so wonderful?!

Damn it! Why’d my plan fail?!

Stricken with regret, Sora desperately ruminated over why he’d lost, when next to him:

“Bwa-ha-haaa! The money’s flowin’ in now! Just look at all these tips! Thanks, everybody!  ”

Apparently, Jibril and Steph’s girl-on-girl action was quite popular.

A thrilled Foeniculum spoke to her viewers through the screen. That was when Sora calmly remembered something.

“…Now that you mention it, is this being broadcast to the Elves as well…?”

Love between an Immanity and a Flügel.

Sora wondered if this turn of events was being broadcast to the world—well, to at least the Elves…

He was conflicted: Let’s say he had paired up with Jibril—the last thing he wanted to happen was for Chlammy and Fiel to be watching them.

“Oh, the Elves can’t watch this stream—it’s set to private,” Foeniculum answered. “Fairies have a unique set of spirit corridor junction nerves. They extend through spatial phase boundaries like roots, allowing Fairies to link up with each other—the Linkernet is like a big web of these roots. I’m streaming this directly through those roots. So only Fairies who have subscribed to my channel can watch my stream.  ”

Right… Not exactly sure I follow her, but now I know what she meant by “private” stream.

Her account was locked—or a direct P2P connection between Fairies.

If that was the case, then…

“…So the Fairies giving you tips are directly connected to you, individually? Like, they’ve subscribed to your channel—as paying customers—in order to watch this stream?”

Not only that, but—like Jibril mentioned before—they were paying with their souls.

And indeed, Sora’s smartphone showed these Fairies were sending tips in chunks of 10,000 and 20,000 points.

If the points were worth as much as yen, then that was a lot of money to be throwing around…

Are these Fairies nuts? Sora questioned.

“Heh-heh-heh… Fairies will do anything to watch drama unfold between others; that’s why some went out of their way to become slaves. And we’ve got ourselves a Flügel right here—who isn’t gonna pay to see that?  ”

“Wait—did you just suggest you chose to become slaves?”

Sora had heard that Fairy and Elf were allied during the Great War.

But it was unknown why, at some point, the Fairies became their slaves. Sora couldn’t believe what he’d just heard.

“Hmm? Oh… Elven Gard keeps the Fairies a secret, so I bet you guys don’t know much about us. I’ll hafta teach ya, then!!”

Ignoring Sora’s overt suspicion, Foeniculum continued:

“Fairies crave nothing more than to hear about other people’s love lives!!”

Sora squinted as his suspicions were confirmed. That’s right…

“Those Elves live so long, and yet their romantic exploits are riddled with sex and drama—it’s why their art and nighttime shenanigans are so juicy!! Fairy and Elf have been allies since ancient times, and some Fairies have no qualms being Elf slaves—if those Elves provide all the nasty little details. We’re the race of love, created by Alram, the god of love—y’all better not mess with us!!”

Let me get this straight, Sora thought…

So Fairies chose to be enslaved by Elves—or Erofu, as I like to call them—solely for their filthy love lives and art…?

That wasn’t the end of it:

“I’ll have ya know that the only reason we even created the Linkernet was so we could enjoy watching ’em go at it.”

“…So they’re using their Internet knowing that they’re being watched…?”

“From the Elves’ perspective, Fairies are like handy-dandy flowers with built-in web access. They ain’t gonna pay attention to every li’l flower they see.”

Right. So the Ixseed were even more dismissive of lower races than Sora had imagined.

But anyway… Unable to wrap his head around this new information, Sora couldn’t help but moan. “…That’s a pretty dumb reason to willingly become their slaves…”

“There’s nothin’ dumb about it. Their drama’s like nutrition for us. A literal lifeline,” a huffy Foeniculum insisted.

Fairy, the flower race, just needs dirt, water, and sunlight to function.

And they can create all three of these in a Spratul—talk about peak eco-friendliness. But in order to use magic, they need to replenish their souls…

“And here’s the fun part—to beef up our souls, we feed off other people’s romantic escapades.  ”

Foeniculum continued her spiel, affirming Emir-Eins’s earlier suspicions. Namely:

“We need all the juicy drama we can get!! And everything that comes with it: All the bitterness, the melancholy, the glory—everything! The dirtier, the better!! ’Cause everybody knows flowers love dirt!! Am I right?! …Huh? People usually laugh at that part… It’s okay to laugh, y’know!!”

Tears filled her eyes; she seemed shocked that her joke fell flat.

Alas, Sora was in no place to hear it. He clutched at his aching head in grief.

“…Even when you consider that, did you guys really need to become the Elves’ slaves?”

“It’s not about needing to be their slaves; it was just more convenient. Elves and Fairies kinda complement each other.”

Right… Sora had heard as much from Jibril, too.

Elf was certainly a better match than Dwarf, who practically uprooted any plant or flower in sight.

But still—there were a plethora of other races to choose from, many who wouldn’t force the Fairies into servitude.

“Who else were we ’sposed to pair up with? Not like any of the higher races would give us the time of day. Plus, Dhampir are about to die out, Siren friggin’ eat each other, Lunamana are a bunch of antisocial shut-ins, Immanity can’t use magic, and Werebeasts make love like animals!! We need quality romance here!”

Now that she mentions it, there aren’t a whole lot of races in this world with quote-unquote regular love languages…, Sora grumbled to himself.

But there was something new on his mind he felt he needed to draw attention to.

“Tell me more about that last part. About the Werebeasts—are they all really like Ino when they—?”

“That’s right— It’s all in the past now!! I wanna see love so passionate, so red-hot that it sets the world on fire!!” His question was lost on Foeniculum, who was getting really worked up. “A Fairy’s bound to get sick of the same old conservative Elf drama!! We need love that overcomes the barriers of gender and race!! I bet this’ll be the new standard!! Feast your eyes!!”

Foeniculum plopped on Sora’s head as she enthusiastically pointed at the two lovers who had been cuddling the entire time.

Well, not cuddling so much as: Jibril was rubbing Steph’s belly like she was a big dog, and Steph—though embarrassed—seemed to be enjoying it.

This was the new standard of love and romance that Foeniculum foresaw.

Sora, who was still stuck on the old standard, couldn’t quite grasp her avant-garde view.

He didn’t need to agree with her, though, as her viewers gave her their seal of approval with a symphony of ka-chings.

It was the sound of their tips coming in, and the cacophony seemed endless…

“Oh yeah, almost forgot. Now that we have a couple, I needta answer a question from you guys.”

Ah…right… Sora had completely forgotten about their reward.

Foeniculum was going to answer a yes-or-no question for them.

Honestly, Sora didn’t even have a question he wanted to ask.

“I’ve got about an hour left on the stream, so just wait until that’s over, ’kay?  ”

“…No, I think we’re gonna need more than an hour. How about you give us a day…in our rooms…?”

Plus, Steph probably had questions of her own—best to wait until she and Jibril were back to their usual selves.

With that, Sora turned away from the JibSteph pair, who were getting hotter by the minute.

He returned to his room to escape Shiro’s scornful gaze.

Day Three—Nighttime.

“ Whoa?! What the heck was I doing?!”

“Hmm… More like who were you—? Uh, actually…”

“…Do you…really, wanna…know…?”

It was the day after the most recent stream. Approximately twenty-two hours had elapsed since Jibril and Steph’s forced coupling.

After Steph suddenly reverted to her regular self, Sora and Shiro timidly peeked out of their room and asked her a question.

The siblings figured they had no business in seeing the girl-on-girl—Jibril-on-Steph—shenanigans unfolding.

So they’d gone back to their room before the stream was over and played some games. There was no way for them to know exactly what Jibril and Steph had done, and yet—

“Absolutely not! I never want to know what happened!!”

“Report: Full-length audio-visual footage captured of Woman of Unknown Name and Irregular Number. Wanna see, Master?”

“Don’t you dare show him!! Y-you say something, too, Jibril! That wasn’t you in there, right?! We were forced into acting that way! It’s most certainly not something I’d ever want to do of my own volition! You know that, right?!”

“Yes, we were both under the same spell. I must say, it was quite the tantalizing experience in its own way.  ”

—judging by those reactions—not to mention the potential progression of the stream—the siblings had an idea of what had transpired.

Truthfully, it was hard for them to picture what exactly the pair had done, since Foeniculum kept things strictly PG-13. Whatever the case was, Sora and Shiro chose to respect Steph’s wishes and not prod any further.

However—with another plop on Sora’s head—Foeniculum appeared with a nasty grin and her usual off-screen demeanor.

“Geh-heh-heh… Y’all got nothin’ to worry about. I have a two-hour highlight reel from that entire day! I pulled an all-nighter to get the editing done! This’ll be perfect for tonight—you guys’ll get to see it with the rest of our viewers!!”

“You’re going to stream us?! This must be some sort of joke! It better be!!”

Sora had a Fairy on his head and a screaming Steph at his side. He thought for a moment.

Honestly, I do wanna see the footage. But I also don’t.

Steph-on-Jibril action—this was something Sora would typically like to appreciate with eyes wide open. He’d even like a copy of the video for himself to enjoy later.

At the same time, he would effectively be watching the people around him pair into couples while he was left all alone…

Sora was slightly in denial—but more than anything else, he felt sad.

“…So, Foeniculum…why aren’t you participating again?”

If you joined in, I wouldn’t end up being the fifth wheel.

I would’ve been brazen enough to watch the JibSteph action myself.

Sora made no effort to hide his accusatory tone.

“What? Here’s the deal—Fairies don’t do romance,” a puzzled Foeniculum answered. “Us Fairies—we’re basically flowers. We reproduce with pollen, so we got no need for love.”

“Hold the phone. You mean to tell me, like…that Fairies have a set of both stamen and pistils?”

“Uh, yeah? What, you wanna see?”

“…Stop, right there… By stamen and pistil…do you mean, like…metaphorically? …Or literally?”

Shiro squinted with suspicion as she asked the Fairy, but her question seemed to go unheard.

Foeniculum had something much more important on her mind—and she communicated it to them with her usual passion.

“I’ll lay it out for ya: Us fairies like watching!! We like being the fly on the wall—the flower in the pot—that watches while others have big, fat, passionate love affairs!! Us jumping in on the action? Completely out of the question!! It’d soil all the juicy drama!!”

“If I might add, Master: Fairies fuel their souls with the love of others. If they were able to fuel their souls with their own love, that would make them perpetually self-sufficient…and that would be quite nonsensical.”

“You’re the last person we need calling BS on other races.”

Flügel were the same in that regard: They didn’t need love for procreation. It wasn’t a reason to never experience love… If anything, there might just be certain racial limits.

Either way, Sora let out a sigh as he accepted their assertions and submitted to this philosophical notion.

“ And? Since we’re all here—I think now’s as good a time as ever for your question.”

Foeniculum wanted to answer their question before the next stream, which was going to start soon.

Sora had the same answer as before, though.

“Well, I don’t really have a question for you…”

“I do!! Let’s ask her if there’s a way to get out of here—or for more details about the situation we’re in!”

“Then you go ahead and ask, Steph…”

“Do you think I’ll be able to get any pertinent information out of her with just a yes or a no?!”

Steph stood proud in her assertion that she was incapable. Sora lamented to himself.

Ugh… I don’t have any actual questions, though.

But if he had to ask something, it wasn’t so much a question as a confirmation:

“…Okay, let me ask you something, then, Steph.”

“What? Me?”

“Do you wear those clothes to sleep?”

“Huh? Well, no, I wear pajamas… Oh, if you’re talking about the pajamas I bought after coming here, don’t go thinking I wasted money on them!! I bought cheap ones, and—”

Steph made excuses for herself, but that wasn’t what Sora was interested in.

“That’s what I thought. You’d never sleep with all those accessories; they’d poke you in your sleep. Now, look at Shiro and me. We have our phones, tablets, and games. There’s one important thing, though, that we’re missing.”

The lack of a certain article of theirs didn’t warrant a question.

“So just checking here… Foeniculum—”

“—Shiro and I are no longer the monarchs of Elkia—right?”

“Yes…that’s correct.”

Foeniculum’s answer caused Steph, Jibril, Emir-Eins—and even Shiro—to open their eyes wide in shock.

“Oops, almost time for the stream!! I’m gonna be watching the highlight reel with the viewers and taking comments, so you guys can chill out for the day!! Next game will start at eight o’clock tomorrow night—wait here and don’t be late! I’ll be back in two hours!! Adios!!”

Foeniculum rattled off her good-byes before poofing away.

And then:

“Wait, what, huh?! Wh-wh-what is the meaning of this?!”

Steph acted as the representative for the group as she walked up and practically screamed at Sora in shock and horror.

It is what it is… Sora was down in the dumps, back at square one.

“I ignored it earlier because I was still half asleep, but Shiro and I don’t have our crowns…”

Sora wore his on his arm, and Shiro used hers as a hairpin. They were both missing.

Realizing this, Steph and the others began frantically searching the room for the missing crowns, but Sora ignored them and said:

“I take mine off before I go to bed, so I figured maybe it was back at the castle, but I knew something was off when I saw you in your usual getup, Steph. And it’s not like I usually sleep with all my devices in my arms, either.”

Therefore:

“…When we woke up, the game had already started—and our belongings were transported here with us. Our crowns weren’t included in our belongings—the only logical conclusion is that we lost the Elkia throne.”

“What—? Huh—wait just a second. Isn’t that a gigantic problem?!”

“Yeah, it’s a huge problem.”

Something big definitely happened during the gap in their memories.

But what was it? Steph and the others asked Sora with their eyes, but he could only shake his head.

“I don’t have any ideas beyond that. Most likely our memories got erased so that we wouldn’t know anything else.”

“…Master, what do you mean by that…?”

Jibril, Steph, and Emir-Eins all stared at Sora, begging for an explanation.

Truthfully, Sora was quite down about it as well.

Having to explain what he already knew was, well, quite a dismal position to be in for him.

As much as he wanted to sigh and return to his room—

“Brother…?”

—he couldn’t ignore his little sister’s gaze. He still sighed, then continued where he left off.

“…………Shiro, what’s your last memory from before we were locked away in here?”

“…When…Emir-Eins, got left in Elkia…I think?”

That’s right: Ex Machina had paid a sudden visit to Elkia—to see Sora.

They departed after a brief kerfuffle, leaving only Emir-Eins behind… This was Sora’s final memory as well: He nodded quietly as he noticed Steph, Jibril, and Emir-Eins doing the same.

However, this didn’t necessarily mean they had all their memories up to that point. And that was because:

“Yeah. I think our memories might’ve been altered from somewhere before then, too.”

The four ladies gazed wide-eyed at Sora as he took out his smartphone to show them what he meant.

“This is my scheduling app. It’s unnaturally blank for a period before the Ex Machina came.”

Whenever Sora schemed, he always made sure to record his ideas into his scheduler.

The problem was—there were large blank sections in spots where he should still remember things.

He had no idea what he’d planned for those periods. They’d been erased from his memories.

But there was never a day when Sora and Shiro didn’t write down their plans.

Not only were their memories missing, but any record they had of making plans was filled with holes like a sweater in a moth-infested drawer—plus:

“They’ve messed with our phones as well, so it’s hard to know whether the date on the screen is correct—but it says it’s been thirty-nine days since Emir-Eins stayed behind in Elkia with us.”

“…Affirmative: Internal observation equipment matches with this timeline.”

Emir-Eins agreed that thirty-nine days had indeed passed: There was no way the siblings had been sleeping that entire time.

Therefore—the conclusion was simple. This all meant:

“Due to something we were planning since before the Ex Machina showed up, we were chased out of the kingdom, and—”

This was a big and…

“—we made some kind of mistake and…lost. That’s why we’re here.”

Lost…?

Sora and Shiro…lost? Did Blank really lose?

Steph, Jibril—and even Emir-Eins—heard the words leave Sora’s mouth but stared blankly, unable to process them.

Sora wanted this conversation to end—so he repeated himself to press the conclusion.

“Do you need me to spell it out for you? Someone eliminated all our memories and records so that we’ll never be able to know the truth, and now we’ve been thrown into a game we can never win—that’s where we are right now.”

“ What? What do you mean by a game we can never win…?” Steph asked.

It all began to make sense. The group’s memories had been thoroughly erased, so that they could never figure out what happened.

But why did this mean that Sora thought the game they were playing was unwinnable?

Sora could tell by their gazes that Steph and the others thought it was a bit of a leap in logic, but—

“…If you really wanna know, I’ll get the answer out of Foeniculum for our next question.”

Sora had no more energy after the exchange. He slumped over as he left the group with these words.

According to Foeniculum, they would be playing another game the next day.

It was likely something to help prop the five into new couples in exchange for another yes-or-no question.

So they could use their next question—which was more like a confirmation—to get all the information they needed to know.

What’s more: Another game was another chance for Sora to couple up with someone.

“Hey, I’m gonna hole up in my room for the rest of the night… See ya tomorrow…”

Steph, Jibril, and Emir-Eins watched helplessly as Sora—along with his sister—returned to their room.

Day Four—Evening.

It was not yet eight o’clock, when Foeniculum had their next game scheduled. Lured by a delicious smell, Sora and Shiro poked their heads out of their room.

The living room had changed quite a bit since they’d last seen it the night before.

“Oh, Sora and Shiro. Perfect timing. I was just about to go get you two.”

Standing in the now dine-in kitchen was a smiling Steph, and she was cooking.

There was a table, silverware, and various cooking utensils… It was actually starting to look like a home. The siblings knew she must’ve procured these with their tip money using the tablet they’d left with Jibril.

“St-Steph, d-did you spend my key fund on this…?!” Sora couldn’t help but cry out. He was convinced he’d be the one buying a key to get out of there.

Wh-what does she think she’s spending all this money on?!

We can literally just eat bread!! Sora lamented to himself, when—

“There’s no need to worry; I’ve calculated it all out, and this will actually save us money.”

—Steph retorted proudly.

“If we’re going to spend longer than a week here, then instead of buying water and prepared food every time we need to eat or drink, we can make a well in the garden and use basic utensils to prepare our own meals. It’s much cheaper this way.”

O-oh… Huh.

Sora looked at the tip counter on his smartphone app and internally acknowledged Steph’s culinary prowess.

Even though Steph bought ingredients and remodeled their entire living room, their counter was at 1,871,000 points—down from 1,984,000 after last night’s stream. They’d acquired a stable supply of water and a week’s worth of food for just a bit over one hundred thousand.

It was more than evident that Steph knew what she was doing when it came to handling money—and moreover, when it came to living in the real world, a department the gamer siblings were lacking severely in experience.

Acquiescing to this, Sora and Shiro sat at the table. They were greeted with two plates of food.

“A weak mind starts with a weak body! I’ll see to it that you two eat properly. Though, it’s not much… We could only afford the bare minimum in ingredients and seasoning; nothing fancy…”

Steph finished with an apologetic look, but her spread told a different story. There was rice, a main dish, a side dish, and even a small dessert.

For the past four days—actually, for most of their lives—the siblings had subsisted on white bread, instant noodles, and C*lorieMate blocks. This spread looked like a genuine smorgasbord to Sora and Shiro.

They figured they might as well eat it right up. They grabbed their knives and forks, when—

“Oh my… I can’t help but notice you’ve set five plates, Dora.”

“Well, of course. These two are for you and Emir-Eins.”

“Rejection: This unit does not require food to survive. Such morsels are vital for our masters’ health. Meaningless waste.”

Jibril and Emir-Eins gained sustenance via spirit energy.

The two of them didn’t need to eat, but with a smile, Steph gave her retort.

“You needn’t worry about waste. I knew you would say something like that—so I’ve prepared modest portions for you two using the scraps from our dishes. I have tea for Jibril, and I’ve heard that you like coffee, Emir-Eins.”

True, they didn’t need to eat, but they were still capable of doing so. What’s more:

“Good food is like nutrition for your heart. If you two have hearts, then you need to eat. If you’re not going to eat with us—well, I’ll have you know it’s bad for our hearts if the three of us eat while you just watch.  ”

Granted…while Steph was the worst of the five at gaming by a long shot, when it came to domestic matters, she refused to let anyone else get a word in edgewise. What is she, our mother? thought Jibril and Emir-Eins as they begrudgingly sat down to eat.

“…Staaare.”

“…Is there something on my face, little Dora?”

“Oh, no… While I am admittedly forcing you to eat this… Seeing as I was limited with what ingredients I could buy… I was just curious what you thought about…the taste…”

“…Sigh. Well… It’s edible… I suppose?”

“! That’s fantastic!”

…Meanwhile, Sora and Shiro ate silently during the exchange. Nom, nom.

“…I’ve always wondered this, but weren’t you technically royalty, little Dora?”

“I still am royalty, and there’s nothing technical about it!!”

“You shouldn’t have ever needed to prepare your own food, so why are you so good at cooking?”

“Huh? Ah… When I was a child, I made some treats for my grandfather, which he complimented me on.”

…Nom, nom.

“I started making him different things, and before I knew it, cooking became a hobby of mine. The ladies-in-waiting were my teachers… Although, they used to tell me A princess doesn’t belong in a kitchen all the time. Hee-hee.”

“Is that so…? My, this tea is wonderful.”

…Nom, nom. Gulp. Wow… That was good.

Sora finished his meal, politely put down his silverware, and—

……Now, then…

—waited for the most opportune moment to…sob.

“WAHHHHH! SHIROOOO!! THIS DAMN COUPLE IS KILLING ME HERE!!”

“What?! What couple?! Where?!” Steph hollered.

“Nay, extrovert! I see through your thin veil of feigned ignorance!! You may have thought you could pull the wool over the eyes of an introvert, but it shan’t work on I!! The two of you are oozing with an anxious albeit warm aura—something seen only in the honeymoon phase of coupling!!”

Make no mistake: Their aura was blinding—so much that it made others hold their tongues!

Just like the aura from those kids in class who start dating in secret!!

Though Sora knew absolutely nothing about love, he wasn’t so oblivious to not pick up on this.

It’s a silent aura that scorns all onlookers—quietly screaming Mind ya own business!!

“Alas!! You two relish in the haughty warmth provided by such an aura—all without even sparing a thought for those like me who shiver in the chill of solitude beneath a blanket of vanity and resignation in our insistence that we neither need nor can ever obtain a significant other!!!! BEGONE, HAPPY COUPLE! REMOVE THYSELVES FROM MY PRESENCE THIS INSTANT!!”

“…Brother…shut up…”

“GRAGH! Wahhh… I haaate this… I’m just gonna curl up and die… Maybe I’ll serve a purpose when I decompose into soil…”

Sora had buckled onto the floor after getting punched in the stomach. Shiro gave a pointed stare.

“…It’s been, way longer…than one day…right?”

“Affirmative: Twenty-four hours passed at eight forty-three PM last night. Another nineteen hours and twenty-three minutes have passed since then.”

“…Then why, are Steph and Jibril…still a couple…?”

“Whaaat?! Jibril and me?! A couple?! We’re back to normal already!”

“Yes, Lord Shiro. I won’t deny we showed you ourselves at our worst after the game ended, but we are already—”

“Negative: Zero confirmation of Irregular Number ever showing signs of interest in Woman of Unknown Name. Likewise for compliments regarding Woman of Unknown Name’s cooking. Report: Feelings detected between Irregular Number and Woman of Unknown Name.”

“I told you: There’s nothing between us!!”

“Command: Silence. This is an urgent matter of high importance. The Fairy’s claim of a singular day of forced love may be dubious. Request: Answer this promptly: Are the two of you clinically sane?”

““ !””

Steph and Jibril gasped in unison at Emir-Eins’s question, when—

“Oh? Did I forget to tell you guys? Sorry ’bout that.”

—a Fairy happily smoking a cigar appeared out of thin air to answer the Ex Machina.

“Whoo-hoo! Thanks to you two, our viewership is through the roof! I’ll be one of the top streamers in no time at this rate! So as a reward, I’ll answer your question!”

Foeniculum continued with a grin:

“This space I made works to increase love between two people as time goes on.”

 ,

“There needs to be some existing love for this to work, though. You can’t create something from nothing, after all. But you see, even a day of forced love is enough to create that very something—more than enough to turn a zero into a one. And once you have ‘one,’ it’s only a matter of time before it becomes two, then three, and…the rest is history! How much longer can you guys deny your love for each other? Now that’s a sight worth seeing!”

The four ladies looked at Foeniculum in fear, like she was the grim reaper about to swing her scythe. They let out a collective internal scream:

So this was the Fairy’s goal all along!!

The secret confession game they played before had been way too easy.

No lasting love would be born from such a short-lived coupling!

However—there were hidden goals behind that single day of love!!

It likely wasn’t the last game they’d play that paired two of them up—that would effectively lay the seed for a real couple to be born. It didn’t take into account the group’s own feelings!!

How did I not pick up on this?! I shouldn’t have been so naive!!

It’s not a space that only couples can leave—it’s a space that forces you into a couple against your will!!

Foeniculum didn’t give a rat’s ass about their feelings—this unit’s feelings for Master; my feelings for Sora; my feelings for Master; my feelings for Brother!!

The four ladies felt a long, cold shudder run down their spines. Meanwhile, the direness of the situation seemed to fly over their male companion’s head.

“S-so there’s still a chance I can come out of this with a girlfriend?!”

The virgin—whose IQ fell into the single digits when it came to love—looked at the Fairy, his eyes shimmering with hope.

“So with that outta the way…it’s time for today’s game! We’ll be playing with new rules this time, but the stakes are the same. Y’all get to ask a freebie if you win. And to win, you just need a single, one-off couple to form—you guys up for it? Why wouldn’t you be?!”

“You bet we are!! We need to ask you more questions, after all!! Right, guys?!”

Sora, hyperventilating with excitement, agreed to the terms, but the ladies were still trying to collect their thoughts.

This set a new pretense for the game as opposed to the one they played two days before.

They didn’t mind being coupled up—if it was going to last only a day.

But if that single day of being a couple would stand to blossom into a long-term relationship, now that was a different story altogether. None of the girls wanted to pair with each other—only with Sora.

It went without saying that if one of them went after Sora, then the other three would do everything in their power to stop her!

Not only that—they also needed to pair up the other two ladies while they went for Sora…

This was truly a mind game of the highest caliber!!

“…Jibril… I have an…order for—”

“Obstruction: Assertion of Irregular Number’s individual rights. Stripping her of those is bad. That’s cheating, Little Sister.”

“…To think the day would come when I owe this scrap heap my thanks… My apologies, Lord Shiro.”

“Oh, I see what’s going on here. You’re all going to team up against me!!” said Steph. “Bring it on!!! I refuse to be the eternal loser!!”

It was more than evident that Sora was out of sync with the rest of his group.

With a new, cutthroat premise, the team began the fourth day’s game…

And then, Day Five Nighttime.

Sora and Shiro had waited a day after last night’s simple coin guessing game ended before leaving their room.

“…All right,” Sora began, “I wasn’t gonna ask, but I figure I might as well: What happened?”

“Nothing! Nothing whatsoever!! Everything is just peachy!!”

Despite her insistence otherwise, something was clearly up with Steph, who rounded on Jibril and Emir-Eins.

“Report: Woman of Unknown Name interrogated us. Presumed angry and jealous that, despite having good relations with Irregular Number yesterday, Irregular Number and this unit are now a couple. Much to this unit’s chagrin.”

“I already told you, I’m perfectly fine the way things are!! Jibril can get together with whomever she pleases!!”

Last night, they had played a guessing game with a coin. There was no real strategy involved, and naturally, Sora was single for another night—while Jibril and Emir-Eins ended up becoming a couple for a day.

Jibril and Emir-Eins—a Flügel and an Ex Machina, the definition of sworn enemies—were forced to be a couple.

According to the rules, they formed a relationship they could both rationalize subconsciously. No one thought this coupling would be even remotely possible, and yet it was—and in the most unexpected way, too.

“Could you please leave us be, little Dora? I was merely ordered by Master to hug this heap of scrap metal. During the time we spent as a forced couple, there wasn’t a single moment where I felt any feelings—not even a sense of camaraderie—toward it, nor do I plan on ever having them.”

“Affirmative: This act is to please Master only. The premise of this embrace is this unit’s love for Master.”

Evidently, their memories had been reworked so that Sora had ordered the two to embrace each other.

For Jibril, she was simply ordered to do so by Sora.

For Emir-Eins, she was told by Sora that hugging Jibril would float his boat.

With this as their pretense, the Flügel and Ex Machina couple would go down in history as the first of its kind.

“Observation: Pleasure detected in Irregular Number as she hugs this unit. So gross.”

“I’ll admit that I felt a hard-to-describe sense of disgrace when Master ordered me to embrace garbage… But please refrain from overstepping your boundaries. You wouldn’t want me to accidently destroy you now, would you?  ”

The two detested each other as much as usual, but Steph continued reprimanding them:

“Then, do you mind explaining why you two are still holding hands?!”

““ ?!””

The pair had long since returned to their usual selves, and yet…

Even with Steph in their faces, they never let go of each other’s hands.

Until she pointed this out to them, that is—but it was already too late.

“…I, get it… At first…you did it, for your master…and hated it…but then you, were…actually into it…and before long…doing it, for your master…became nothing more, than an excuse…”

“Waaait, Shiro. Where’d you learn about that scenario…? Uh, actually, n-never mind. You don’t need to say it.”

This wasn’t the type of logic you see in a nice, wholesome manga… It was more like something out of her brother’s magazines.

Sora almost asked his sister to explain but quickly chalked it up to something she probably saw in some shoujo manga. Yeah, let’s go with that.

Anyway, it went without saying that Sora was familiar with this plot device as well.

This raised a new—albeit microscopic—red flag.

His route for getting together with either Jibril or Emir-Eins was on its way to disappearing. The only route left was the one he was paving to hell—no, it was more like laying track for a bullet train at this point—which brought tears to Sora’s eyes.

“Master, I implore you: Please order me to lose my memories of the past day.”

Jibril knelt before the teary-eyed Sora, her hands together in supplication and her head bowed low.

“If there really is a chance—even a fraction of one—that I’ll fall in love with this industrial waste, I beg you, please erase my memory before time can work to expand these feelings, or—”

With a cheerful smile, as if she was saying good-bye to an old friend, Jibril finished:

“—if you cannot do that, then please end my life.”

“Execution: Initiating memory-wipe sequence. Error. Initiating self-destruct sequence.”

Jibril and Emir-Eins—sort of agreeing in a way—were more or less on the same wavelength, when:

“Oh, my bad! Forgot to mention—you can’t tamper with your memories or hurt yourselves here.”

As always, Foeniculum abruptly appeared out of nothingness.

“You guys don’t have any say in changing your memories; this is something we decided at the beginning of the game. Don’t be mad at me, ’kay?  ”

Jibril and Emir-Eins turned pale with despair upon hearing the news.

Sora, on the other hand, grew distraught—another one of his suspicions was affirmed.

Foeniculum, as cheerfully as ever, continued:

“Who’d wanna put a stop to some Flügel–Ex Machina romance anyway?! Do you have any idea how incredible a hook it is?! We can’t have you wiping your memories!! This ain’t a joke!! You guys need to lean into this love! Go big or go home, y’know what I’m sayin’?! Geh-heh-heh-heh!”

She finished with a vulgar laugh to match her smile.

“Look, I got tonight’s stream coming up. So are you guys gonna hit me with a question or what?”

Just like two days before, she was probably going to show her viewers another highlight reel.

Foeniculum was acting especially impatient, which the group took to mean she wasn’t yet finished editing the JibEm footage.

“………”

Steph, Jibril, Emir-Eins—and even Shiro—all shot Sora a shared look.

A mere two nights ago, he’d declared this game impossible to win. Sora said he’d make that clear in the next question-and-answer session. He chose to repeat himself.

“Like I said… I don’t really have any questions…”

Therefore, he wasn’t asking a question but seeking a confirmation of what he believed to be true.

Sora exhaled deeply before saying:

“My question is: We can’t win this game no matter what we do… Right?”

“What?! Huh? Wait… What do you mean by that?!”

There was a long silence before Steph took the initiative to break it.

With a defeated look about him, Sora explained to the group how this game really worked.

“I’ll spell it out for you… To start off: There’s no way for us to escape this game.”

No—that’s not right. Sora shook his head and spoke again.

“Let me rephrase that… It’s really easy to escape from here—all you need to do is hold hands with your proclaimed significant other and cross through the gate. That’s too easy. We could just form consensual couples by the Covenants for four of us to escape. That’s the problem, though—it’d only work for four of us.”

No matter which way they sliced it, a fifth member would have to stay behind.

“Whoever’s left behind can’t fall in love with anyone, and that means they won’t earn any tips on their own.”

Four people leaving the space would also throw a wrench in Foeniculum’s plans.

It’d bring an end to the stream—and any tips it brought in. Kaput.

“So first we gotta get a key. The only way to do that is to amass an exorbitant number of points—five billion, to be precise. We good so far?”

“Y-yes… But you knew this before we even started, right?”

Steph was correct—Sora was onto this fact from the get-go.

Everything he was about to explain contained circumstances he was fully aware of. Hence why he’d been so depressed the entire time. In other words:

“However… There’s no way we’re ever gonna raise five billion points.”

They’d raised 8,970,000 points in tips over the past five days. It would take years for them to reach five billion at this rate. Not only that:

“In fact, a group that can raise five billion…can also raise six, even ten billion. Who’s gonna let a golden goose like that fly the coop?”

“ ”

The conclusion was simple.

“Foeniculum has no intention of ever letting us out of here.”

“…B-but…Brother… There’s, no way…we’d ever agree to—”

Shiro was right. Their memories had been erased, so they couldn’t possibly know the truth.

What Sora did know: There was zero chance he’d ever agree to be locked away under conditions like these.

“There’s only one answer—and that’s we lost. That’s how we ended up here.”

Elven Gard was the most probable culprit.

The siblings must have lost to them, been removed from the throne, and been thrown into this situation…

In other words, this game was the punishment, the terms they had to fill for their earlier loss.

Therefore: Sora asked—read: confirmed—one other thing.

“Just think back to when she explained the rules. Foeniculum only ever described our way out of here—she never mentioned a way we could win… Why do you think that was? It’s because there’s no way for us to win.”

“……………”

A space that only couples can leave.

That only mentions leaving this space: this Spratul.

It doesn’t mention what’s outside this space; it might even be another Spratul…

It wasn’t possible to save up five billion points, and even if it was, Foeniculum had no reason to ever let the five escape.

Even if the group was to sacrifice one of its members and get out of the Spratul, all that awaited on the outside was their overall defeat.

Which brings us back to the beginning—this is a death game.

There was no victory for the group; they’d lost the moment they participated.

They were only there because they lost in the first place. This was just some entertainment before the guillotine met their necks.

…If the guillotine really was going to fall; if this really was their end…

…then the most Sora could ever wish for was to have a girlfriend before it was all over…

A teary-eyed Sora looked off in the distance—but this was when Foeniculum hit him with an unexpected answer:

“ Nope.”

………

 ………

 …………Come again?

“I’ll say it as many times as ya need me to. I swear on the Covenants—the answer to your question is no.”

She stopped her video editing and met Sora’s eyes—they were as dark as the night.

Foeniculum looked straight into his eyes as she answered him. Her eyes were lime-colored; Sora stared back at her wide-eyed when he noticed—

“…Welp, it’s almost time for the next stream. I’mma zoom on outta here!! Your next game is scheduled for eight PM tomorrow—don’t be late, ’kay? See ya!”

Foeniculum disappeared with a poof and a smile—the way she always did—leaving the party behind.

There was a brief period of bewilderment before the four female members eventually turned their attention to Sora, who was in the fetal position and biting his nails.

“…Brother?”

“…Uh, wait… Shiro… I need time to think…”

Hooold on. Whoa, whoa, whoa… What just happened? Did she say…no? So there’s a way for us to win this…?

Well, that changes everything—

“…Sorry. After that whole speech I gave, it looks like I was wrong about everything. I need to clear my mind and think this through a bit,” Sora mumbled to the girls, who silently watched as he brought Shiro back to their room.

No way… No frickin’ way. Is that really what’s going on here?

Day Seven Nighttime.

The group participated in another game the day after Sora learned he’d misread the entire situation.

Another day had passed since that game, bringing the group to their seventh night in the Spratul.

Sora and Shiro left their quarters, only to witness some intense carnage in the living room.

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you! I was forced to do what I did last night; it was against my will!!”

“Oh, is that so?   You don’t have to explain yourself to me. You were on my case two days ago, but it looks like you’re quite friendly with that lump of garbage now. My only wish is for you to bring it out with you to be collected for disposal.  ”

“Vindication: Free will is not observed during the forced-couple period. Irregular Number and this unit have already proven this concept. No legitimacy between Lady Dol and this unit. Assuming Irregular Number is jealous of this unit. How unsightly.”

“…Wait a moment—by Lady Dol, are you referring to me?”

“Goodness, she’s right. What happened to Woman of Unknown Name? Is this some sort of pet name?  ”

“Deliberation: Negative. Fact: This unit knows Stephanie Dol’s name. Therefore, all prior reference as Woman of Unknown Name has been an error. Error has been merely corrected. No affection involved.”

“You’re literally one letter away!! I’m Stephanie Dol—”

“Conclusion: This unit is still her master’s maid. The aforementioned female is his close associate and the chief minister of the Commonwealth of Elkia. Therefore, she is of higher social status than this unit. Thus, it is only suitable for this unit to refer to Stephanie Dol as Lady Dol. This unit is in the right. She loves her master.”

“Whyyyyy does everyone insist on calling me by the wrong names?!”

The group had played another simple psychological game the night before.

Steph and Emir-Eins had emerged as the couple from that stream.

The moment Sora had the chance to ask another question, he left the game with Shiro at his side to retire to their quarters for the day. He had no idea what happened after he left, especially between the new couple—he was in no place to even think about it.

Setting aside the love triangle that their games had forcibly manufactured, Sora had spent the last twenty-four hours racking his brain as hard as he possibly could…

“Hmmm… We’ve gotten more viewers, and tips ain’t looking too bad…but it seems like the Flügel-on-Ex Machina pair had more impact. The problem is Stephanie: You’re too easily won over, and that’s killing the whole vibe. Gawd, we gotta do something to get this shindig going, otherwise we’re up shit’s creek!”

With a cigar in one hand and a drink in the other, a strangely irritated Foeniculum gave it to them straight.

“…Foeniculum: It’s time for our question.”

The others must have sensed something in Sora’s voice, in his expression, in his eyes.

Foeniculum and the girls—along with the Steph-centric pandemonium—stopped and turned their attention to Sora.

 He’d thought it over for two nights.

The only conclusions he was able to come up with were that their memories were erased and that rules had been set to make sure they couldn’t recover them.

He just couldn’t figure out why their memories would be erased to this extent or why they’d agree to restrictions like these.

Therefore, this situation could only have stemmed from a different loss—a mistake they’d made.

Sora knew for a fact that, at the very least, they’d never cede this much power over the flow of the game to an opponent.

Despite that—there remained a path to victory. If there really was an answer to all this that couldn’t be reached with preconceived notions—then…

“FYI…this isn’t a question. I’m just confirming what I know. So you don’t need to answer me.”

…Sora decided to rely on his usual methodology.

Namely:

“Foeniculum—you’re on our side, aren’t you?”

I don’t have any proof, but my gut says she’s not our enemy.

“  ”

Foeniculum followed his wishes and remained silent, answering him with only an expressionless gaze.

Her lime-colored eyes, however—they were just as Sora had seen them two days prior. They were absent of ill intent; they lacked even a tinge of animosity or malice.

The only emotions her gaze showed were anticipation, trust—and anxiety.

Able to confirm what he felt instinctually from their shared gaze, Sora decided to ask his question.

“Here’s our question: You’re participating in this game with us—and your conditions to win are the same as ours, right?”

Foeniculum was no executioner.

She was definitely the host of the stream, but still—if anything, she could be the final example of winnable death games…

 When the game master and the players are in cahoots…

This was Sora’s instinctual conclusion, and the answer was:

“ Yes, that’s right.  ”

Foeniculum replied with the boldest of grins, to which Sora gave a wry chuckle.

“Oh…well… Sorry it took us so long to figure it out. We’re finally on the same page.”

“Um… Would you mind filling us in?”

Steph stepped forward to request an explanation for the group. Sora began scratching his head in self-reflection.

He couldn’t believe how much he’d lost sight of himself—this conclusion should’ve been easy to reach had he been more levelheaded. That’s right:

“Okay, so this proves Foeniculum is not working for Elven Gard.”

She mentioned that Fairies are addicted to Elf drama. That some even willingly become slaves to get their fix—but she said all this like it wasn’t her business. My biggest hint was—I’ve never felt an ounce of ill intent from her.

However: If Foeniculum really was on their side, then why did they have to lose their memories to this extent?

For them to be thrown into a situation this overly dire—the only conclusion was that they were forced into it.

“So we messed up somewhere along the line and lost. Probably to Elven Gard.”

Whether it was to Elven Gard or not—Sora couldn’t be sure.

But they’d lost to someone in order to find themselves in the situation at hand. That much he wouldn’t budge on.

However, despite the direness of their circumstances, if there really was a path to victory—if Foeniculum really was on their side—then…

“This means…in order to make a comeback, we swallowed these incredibly difficult terms and agreed to play this game with Foeniculum.”

This posed the question: What if our host has the same terms of victory as we do?

There was only one logical answer. If Foeniculum really was on their side—then the only way out of this game was what she’d explained to them at the very beginning.

Namely: Make as much bank as possible.

Otherwise, in order to escape with all five of them intact, they needed to purchase a key.

We really do need to raise five billion in tips—it’s our only shot at victory.

“…Um… I think I might be missing something here. So we still don’t know any of the important details? Like what our mistake was or who we lost to…?”

Steph sounded doubtful—but she wasn’t alone: Jibril, Emir-Eins, and Shiro appeared to reciprocate her sentiment.

The four of them stared at Sora, bewildered. He responded by shaking his head.

The details Steph brought up weren’t actually that important. Quite frankly, Sora couldn’t care less about them.

He simply—

“Right, Foeniculum. Mind if I ask another question for Steph and the girls?”

“Hmm? You only get one question. I can’t guarantee you’ll get a straight answer outta me this time.”

Foeniculum was no longer bound by the Covenants to answer him honestly.

She went out of her way to make sure he knew that, causing Sora to smirk as he responded, “Nah, I’m pretty sure we can trust you, seeing as we’re on the same team.”

This Fairy talked way too much, for starters. Whether it was about how the stream worked or Fairies—she answered every question the group had for her.

She’s probably beholden to a rule that keeps her from telling us information unless we ask for it…

Those were similar to the restrictions placed on them for this game, after all.

“Either way, I already know the answer to what I’m about to ask you. I’m just double-checking for Steph.”

With utmost confidence, Sora continued:

“Here’s our next question: Elkia is on the verge of collapse, and depending on whether we can win this game, it’ll barely survive by the skin of its teeth… Am I right?”

“ !!”

Everyone with the exception of Foeniculum and Sora himself gasped.

Sora didn’t care who they’d lost to or why.

The five of them had been taken out of Elkia and forced to play under these rigorous circumstances.

This was more than enough for him to know that Elkia was in danger.

Sora had asked his question confidently, but—with a bold grin—Foeniculum replied:

“…The answer’s no to that one.”

 Huh?

Did I miss something else? Sora asked himself, but:

“A lot more than just Elkia is at stake here. We’re talkin’ all of Immanity and a bunch of other races that’re on the chopping block.  ”

 Uh…yikes?

Sora listened to Foeniculum’s answer in a cold sweat.

He looked into her eyes, which showed the same anticipation, trust, and anxiety as before.

“I really need y’all to pull through for me here. I got a lot at stake as well—it’s a once-in-a-lifetime gamble,” Foeniculum warned the group with a serious expression before poofing away.

“Soraaa… Soraaa…? Exactly what kind of mistake did we really make…?”

Evidently, their mistake had far worse consequences than he could’ve ever imagined.

Sora ignored Steph, who was wincing as she questioned him. He paced back and forth, deep in thought.

What the heck kind of mistake did we make?

With no memories or way to contact the outside world, there was no point in even thinking about it.

Not only that, but considering what they’d have to do to turn the tables on this impossible game meant one thing—they didn’t have much time.

Thus, Sora focused every brain cell he had on figuring out a way to acquire five billion points in tips as quickly as humanly possible…

After the stream on the seventh day, Foeniculum sat in her private chambers she’d carved out of a corner in space, cackling to herself like a madwoman.

“Hyeh-heh-heh-hoh-haaa!! Gweh-heh-heh, look at all this soul moola!!”

Why wouldn’t she be cackling? Her followers—which started at eighty-seven—were now over one hundred and twenty thousand.

The tips—Fairy souls—had reached numbers Foeniculum had never seen before.

“Ahhh, I’m gonna be a top streamer—well, at this rate, at least. I’m still somewhere around the middle in terms of rankings!! I’m kinda like a celebrity! More souls must make for a bigger heart; bet I can even be nice to all my shit-talking haters—nah, actually, screw ’em. Yeah, I’m not one for lying to myself.  ”

She checked her screen—the stream was currently turned off—before giving a hearty Up yours with both her middle fingers to the sky.

Looking down on those who looked down on you—was there a better feeling in the world? Nope!

“Take that, losers!! Y’all can suck it!! Gyah-haaa!!”

Foeniculum hooted and hollered while she pranced around the room—before stopping on a dime.

She then took another peek at the screen.

Her eyes fixed on the amount of soul tips Sora and the gang had accumulated, she looked at the total and whispered, “…With this many souls saved up, I bet no one’d notice if I used a few for myself, r-right…?”

She could afford super-rare clips of that famous Grand Magus or a special kinky virtual-space patch for professionals…

There were all sorts of things that made her swallow her tears and decide to forgo due to lack of funds, but she could afford them now. Like, all of them.

……

“N-no, I probably shouldn’t!! But…they’d kinda sorta be like research, in a way… Th-that’s it—it’s an investment for future streams! Capital expenditure! I’ll need the right equipment to make it to the big leagues!!”

Foeniculum justified her shopping spree, when—

“Thou shall not waste.”

“GYA-HAAA-HOOO?! Of coooourse I won’t; jeez, it was just a joke!! All right, all right, so I almost gave in to the ol’ devil on the shoulder there, but I didn’t in the end— Oh, it’s you.”

The Fairy had prostrated herself onto the floor, ready to beg her viewers for forgiveness. But the voice wasn’t coming from her screen.

Realizing who its owner was, Foeniculum sat up with a pout.

“I can’t believe I got on the floor and begged for nothin’… So anyway, what’s up?”

“The confession has begun. There isn’t much time. Make haste.”

Foeniculum scoffed at the voice’s blunt remarks.

Yeah, yeah, I know already. No need to remind me.

Yes… The truth Sora and the others would never be able to recall.

What had been completely erased from their memories—the situation on the outside, born from a poison…

Namely, they needed to save Elkia—which was trapped in the spatial phase boundary Spratul via a Sprite Tune created by Fairies working for Elven Gard—before the spies confessed everything. That was the situation.

In order to do that, they had to interfere with the spatial phase boundary by using more energy than it took for the boundary itself to engulf Elkia.

The power they needed: souls to the tune of five billion.

However:

“I know that. But these things take time. You got any idea how hard it is to keep this a secret from the Elves? I gotta use the Covenants to stream this privately to make sure my subscribers don’t blab about it.”

After all, Foeniculum’s plan went directly against Elven Gard’s.

She couldn’t advertise her stream publicly, and since it was kept a secret by the Covenants, there was no way for it to spread by word of mouth, either. It was taking a while for her channel to really catch on—even with how quickly it’d blown up by now.

But that was neither here nor there.

“I bet this coulda gone a lot faster if you hadn’t erased all their memories and forbade me from talking to them. If you wanna complain to someone, maybe you should find a mirror.”

That being said…

Fairies were interested solely in authentic love and passionate, organic romance.

Had the group known what they were getting into, they would’ve ended up pretending to love each other.

There was no way Foeniculum’s piece-of-crap, keyboard-warrior viewers who thought they’re hot shit—er, Fairies with good taste—would take interest in saving Elkia from destruction.

So…the current method at least kept things natural, in a way. She had to admit that…

Nope! Everything is fine!! We just need to up the intensity, that’s all!! Foeniculum told herself as she took out a cigar.

Smoke escaped her mouth as she asked the voice, “…Now that you mention it…can’t Dragonias see the future? What’re you so antsy about?”

That’s right—the owner of the voice was none other than a dragon.

 Ixseed Rank Four, Dragonia…

According to lore, Dragonia existed in the past, present, and future—all at the same time.

They were like a living hurricane of spoilers—a strange, unfortunate race.

Needless to say, such beings should know about the near future, at the very least.

Especially this guy. Foeniculum furrowed her brow. However…

“I cannot see the future.”

She met this succinct answer with wide eyes.

She wasn’t surprised at the answer itself. According to Elf research, there were schools of thought that believed Dragonia surpassed even Old Deus in power.

What shocked her was—as impossible as it seemed—she felt the slightest hint of anxiety in the dragon’s voice.

“I saw that the Great War would continue for an eternity. But it ended.”

The impossible future became a thing of the past.

This meant that the future was neither eternal nor definite, and what’s more—

“I shall repeat myself: This is the first instance I have interfered with time.”

—the future was uncertain, and the dragon was playing a role in directing it.

Therefore, his interference of time could bring about any number of results.

“I confess to thee: I am nothing but a fool. The future is unknowable.”

Though the dragon didn’t speak much, his words were fully understood.

……Ya don’t say.

Foeniculum exhaled smoke out of a twisted smile and replied, “That means I know somethin’ you don’t. Guess you Dragonias ain’t all you’re cracked up to be, eh?”

It now made sense to Foeniculum how Sora and the others could defeat an Old Deus. It was this easy for her to out-know an even higher being. After all:

“The future’s already set in stone. There’s always just two possibilities.”

Yep, and they are:

“It’s heads or tails—ya either win or lose. That’s it!”

Foeniculum continued with a victorious grin. “And I’ve put all my chips into winning. If I lose… Well, there ain’t much of a future for me then. That’s why I gotta win! So really, I guess there’s only one future.”

She spat out her cigar, glared right at the dragon’s voice, and—scolded him.

“I’m gonna win… That’ll be the next past you see, got it?”

“Let this be known: Any victory shall amount to nothing more than a draw.”

“Yeah, yeah, tell someone who cares.”

“But I shall admit that it is the future I hope for.”

And then, as if it had all been a dream, the voice vanished.

In the very last moments of its presence, Foeniculum almost felt like the voice was chuckling—but it was probably just her imagination.

She gave a long exhale before loosening up her shoulders.

She could feel her entire body getting stiff, and now, of all times. “Jeez…,” she grumbled to herself. “Dumbass lizard doesn’t even have to show his stupid face to wear me out… But…he had a point. We’re not gonna make it in time at this rate…”

Though the tips started off much stronger than she originally expected, it was still far too little than what they needed. What Foeniculum did with the points didn’t matter. It was going to take a few years to get to five billion.

I need to do something, she thought.

“…Welp, now what? …Hmm? Is something burning—? Gyaaaah! My cigar was still lit—the flowers are on fire!! Somebody get me some waterrrr!!”

And as she ruminated, she started screaming at the top of her lungs…