Chapter 58: Addiction - 3
How much ti had passed, I wondered.
The pieces of bread that had been circling around began disappearing one by one.
The six that there had been were now five, four—
Three, two, then one.
The last one clung stubbornly, orbiting until its image gradually faded away… and finally vanished completely.
And at that mont, I regained my sanity.
“Huh? Where… am I?”
I was lying face-down on the third-floor hallway.
The hallway leading to the stairs.
Even with my tendons cut, I had sohow dragged myself all the way here.
I must have moved using the muscles in my chin and stomach—my whole body was a wreck.
Even one of my teeth felt loose… well, if it liked , it’d stay put.
“W-Where’s everyone else?”
“Over here, Mason.”
From slightly behind , I heard Arlia’s voice.
Like , she was squirming along the floor like a worm.
I turned toward her.
Arlia smiled faintly, a little out of place given the situation.
“Your eyes are back. I wish mine were too.”
“Yes. You look all right now, Your Highness.”
“It’s truly embarrassing to show you such a sight. Forget you ever saw it.”
“I will—if Your Highness forgets mine.”
We exchanged a light laugh.
“Having fun, are we?”
This ti, it was Aina’s voice.
It ca from below the stairs.
Unable to move, I raised my voice to ask.
“What are you doing down there?”
“I don’t rember exactly, but I guess I was crawling to get so bread and ended up tumbling down the stairs.”
“Oh dear. Didn’t break your neck, did you?”
“If I had, do you think I’d be talking right now?”
“But how’d you even get that far? The rope shouldn’t reach that length.”
“Judging from the cut, I must’ve bitten through it. I bet we all did sothing similar.”
At that, I looked at the rope connecting Arlia and .
Sure enough, it was severed.
‘So that’s why my teeth hurt.’
Then Arlia spoke again.
“Where’s Lady Sienne?”
“I’m here.”
Her voice ca from far behind.
Almost like she had just stepped out of the room.
“As expected of your strong willpower. You barely moved from your spot.”
“It’s not that… I think it’s just that I couldn’t see.”
“Ah. My apologies.”
“Where’s Mr. Berseum?”
A sudden unease crept over .
He wasn’t anywhere on the third floor.
“Aina, is the old man down there?”
“N-No. Don’t see him.”
“Damn it. Maybe he’s still in the room? I hope that’s the case.”
“...In the room? Ah—no! That’s bad!”
What?
How could staying in the room be bad?
Arlia spoke up for .
“Aina. How long do you think it’s been since that night?”
“How should I know? I just ca to my senses myself.”
“You’re quite knowledgeable about the human body, aren’t you? The last bit of bread in your stomach—it’s fully digested, right?”
“Of course.”
“Then, where would the waste in your intestines be by now—”
“Are you insane? Is that really sothing a Princess should be saying?”
Aina snapped, then fell silent for a mont before answering.
“If I had to guess, about three days have passed.”
“Three days… for the addiction to wear off.”
“That’s not the issue. We’re young, so we’re fine, but at his age—three days without food…”
A chill ran down my spine.
If Berseum really was still in the room, it wouldn’t be because he had overco the addiction through sheer willpower.
It might be because he could no longer move.
“N-no… please no.”
“Sir Berseum, please…”
“H-he was such a great man…”
“Old man! Old man!”
We cried out in grief and despair.
Then—
“I’m right here…”
A faint voice echoed.
It ca from the stairs between the first and second floors.
We stopped sobbing and stared at one another.
Berseum’s voice ca again.
“Stop mourning for a man who’s alive and co down here already.”
“……”
“Didn’t you hear ? Hurry up and co.”
Arlia rubbed her face against the floor, maybe trying to wipe her tears.
Her arms still couldn’t move properly, it seed.
Aina’s voice called out from the second-floor stairs—teary, but full of joy.
“The old man’s even got his energy back! When did he get all the way down there?”
Once Arlia regained her clarity, she was able to use The Light of Healing again without difficulty.
After treating her own limbs, she healed the tendons of everyone else in the group.
She even fixed my loose tooth—thankfully.
Arlia fell asleep from the backlash, but perhaps she was getting used to it; she woke up after only fifteen minutes.
I stretched for no reason, even though I hadn’t been sleeping.
“Ugh… I literally just ca back from the brink of death.”
“You’ve really been through a lot, Mason.”
“How could you even think of sothing so ruthless?”
“But thanks to you, we all made it out alive.”
“Thank you, Mr. Mason.”
I scratched my head at their gratitude.
And then, almost on cue, my stomach growled.
Grrrgle.
It was quite embarrassing—but I wasn’t the only one.
The sa sound echoed from everyone else’s stomachs in turn.
“Haa…”
Aina slumped against the wall, exhausted.
“I can’t even lift a finger. I’m starving.”
“Guess we’ll have to eat bread again.”
“How often do we have to eat it to avoid getting addicted?”
“That’s not the problem now. Honestly, if I take even one bite of that bread again, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop.”
At Sienne’s final remark, I could only nod.
We might have escaped the addiction once, but our bodies still rembered the sweetness of that bread.
If we ate another one now, we might truly never co back.
‘But…’
Before we fell into that addiction, hadn’t I rembered sothing?
Sothing I gave up thinking about because my mind wasn’t clear?
Now that I was back to normal, my brain began working properly again.
……
Ah!
“Let’s go down. To the first floor.”
“Huh? Are we really going to eat bread again?”
“I’ll explain once we get there.”
We staggered down to the first floor, clutching the railing for support.
With every step I took, it felt like my whole body was screaming for bread.
I was so hungry I could’ve collapsed right there.
By the ti we finally made it down, the maddening sll of bread filled the air and stabbed at my nose.
Drip.
Without realizing it, I wiped the drool running from my mouth.
“Everyone, don’t go diving into the mountain of bread.”
“...I’ve already lost the urge to, after seeing that.”
Aina pointed with a weary face.
The mountain of bread.
There, the forty-five other participants—everyone but us—were buried.
“It’s truly a miserable sight.”
“Could you describe it for too?”
“The participants are clutching bread in both hands, eating with blissful smiles, Lady Sienne.”
“So are so full they’ve tossed off their pants and shirts. Those over there are eating, throwing up, and eating again.”
There were many other sights equally painful to watch.
“Soone… please, soone stop !”
“Kuheheh… if this keeps up, I’m gonna get eliminated for sure. I know that, I know, but still…”
“So good. So good. Heehee.”
“W-water… my throat’s choking. Soone get so water.”
“You can get it yourself.”
“It’s a waste of ti to go back upstairs!”
Arlia let out a long sigh.
“If we hadn’t overco the addiction, we’d be in there with them.”
“……”
“But Mason, we’ve co all the way down. What now?”
“We eat.”
Everyone tilted their heads in confusion.
I calmly explained.
“What was Rule Number Three?”
“Huh? That was…”
If you eat food brought from the outside world, you are disqualified.
“Right. We can’t eat food from outside.”
“Yeah, that’s why Magireta turned all our supplies to ash.”
“But if you flip that around—it ans we can eat food that’s inside this building.”
“You an the bread, right?”
“Far from it.”
I spoke quickly.
“Nowhere in the rules does it say we can only eat the bread Magireta made.”
“……!”
“And Magireta never said we’d be disqualified if we ate anything else inside.”
“B-but still…”
“We just assud that because of the mountain of bread and because all our outside food disappeared, that ‘of course we could only eat the bread.’”
At that, everyone’s expressions changed.
After a mont, Arlia hesitantly spoke.
“But in reality, there’s nothing else edible in this building, is there?”
“……”
“Of course, we haven’t searched everywhere, but I doubt only specific rooms would have food.”
Then Berseum lightly clapped his hands.
“Ah! Maybe you an we should catch and eat the mice or bugs crawling around here.”
“Ah—ugh… honestly, at this point I think I could, but…”
“That’s not it, Your Highness, so don’t worry.”
“Right. I’d thought of that too. But my sensing ability only picks up human presences. You’re not suggesting we eat people, are you?”
“Of course not.”
I pointed toward sothing.
The golden letters “1F” engraved near the entrance when we first ca in.
“That must an ‘first floor,’ right?”
“Right, but?”
“But high-ranking imperial buildings usually start from the ground floor, the 0th floor. You’d know better than , being a noble.”
“...That’s true, but it’s not like there’s a law about it. Wealthy rchants and commoners build houses starting from the first floor all the ti. Even the Tower of Knowledge starts from the first floor.”
“Then rember what Your Highness said when we first ca in.”
—This place looks like a villa nobles or royalty might use.
—In what sense?
—High-status people don’t usually have their front doors level with the ground. They make a show of how many steps they have, as if bragging about their status.
—……
—Even so, this is over the top. It’s the kind of scale only royalty would use.
“Ah!”
“Exactly. Just by looking at the lavish hall on this floor, it’s obvious this was once a mansion used by a high-ranking noble.”
“Then…”
“Right. This building originally started from the 0th floor. There’s another level below this hall.”
I pointed toward the stairs.
There were no steps leading down.
That area was blocked by a wooden floor.
“Rember what Magireta said before she summoned the bulletin board?”
Then Arlia, as if recalling it just now, repeated it fluently.
‘Isn’t it a splendid building? I remodeled it for today’s ga. Enjoy the fine facilities to your heart’s content…’
“Exactly. From the beginning, Magireta gave us a hint. Her ‘remodeling’ didn’t just refer to rearranging the rooms on the second and third floors. She erased the very fact that this building starts from the 0th floor.”
“……!”
“So what I’m saying is—”
I smiled faintly.
“Let’s tear up that floor.”
Shing.
Without a word, Sienne drew her sword.
All I said was to tear up the floor, but she radiated killing intent like she was facing her mortal enemy.
“Lady Sienne, calm d—”
“Move. I’m hungry.”
“Ah, y-yes ma’am.”
Taah!
Even though she’d been too weak to stand before, I didn’t know where that surge of strength ca from.
In any case, when Sienne swung her sword, the floor split apart with a crack.
And what appeared beneath—was a staircase leading down.
It even had a neat railing, just like the ones above.
“It’s not a basent. As expected, this building starts from the 0th floor.”
“……”
“Your Highness, you ntioned the stairs at the main entrance were abnormally high—fit for royalty.”
“Mm.”
“That’s because the original front stairs, which should have connected to the 0th floor, were raised to reach the first floor instead.”
Just as I finished explaining, I suddenly felt dizzy.
Soone’s stomach growled again.
No more words were needed.
I took the lead and descended the stairs.
And then—I saw paradise.
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