…And so.
“Kabashima-kun, you’re an excellent sheepdog,” Tama said.
Baka was running around. He was fully embracing being a dog, running on all fours. He was running around while barking.
…As a result, the pitiful sheep, trying to escape Baka, were being herded into one place while bleating!
“Woof!”
Furthermore, when Baka barked at the sheep, some of them fainted from sheer terror. Even those who didn’t were trembling and staying still. Their appearance was truly pathetic.
“Amazing, Kabashima-kun. The sheep have become so docile all at once…”
“They’re not moving at all. It makes the tags so much easier to see, which is really convenient.”
While that was happening, Tama, Yo, and Kaito divided the work and quickly removed the tags from the sheep’s necks.
“My senpai taught me! You control sheep with instinct!”
“Wasn’t your company a construction company…?”
“Huh? But, there are times when there are sheep at construction sites, right?”
“What and where on earth did you build!?”
Baka, with a full smile, circled around the herd of sheep, creating a Baka circle, keeping them docile in one place. Meanwhile, Yo, Tama, and Kaito worked together to remove the food cards.
The sheep that had their food cards removed were released from the Baka circle and immediately ran away bleating. By doing this, they were able to efficiently collect the food cards!
But.
“Ugh, 1kg of pork! This is bad, let’s take it off.”
“Huh!? Are you taking it off!?”
…There was a bit of a squabble over the selection of food cards.
That’s right. While Yo, Tama, and Kaito were motivated by “We don’t have to eat it” and “It’s better not to eat if it means we’ll die,” Baka was all about “I want to eat a lot!”
“…1kg is a bit… you know. Haha…”
“You can’t eat that much, can you…”
“Nooo! I eat a lot! I eat a looot!”
Baka let out a wail, “Wooooon!” He was completely a dog.
…Still, Baka was so pitiful as he diligently ran around the sheep, continuing to create the Baka circle, so Kaito, Tama, and Yo decided not to remove the ‘500g of Chicken Tsukune’ tag they found next, even though they thought, “It’s a bit much…”
“120g of raw Chinese cabbage… well, that’s reasonable.”
“Ten iron nails! I finally found them! I’m not eating a pot with this stuff in it!”
“Ah, 2g of mercury… I’ll take that off.”
And so, while Baka was running around, the other three diligently removed the tags.
“Ew!? ‘Meat of a Bipedal Sheep’!? There’s no way I’m eating something like that!”
“Eeeh!? Sheep, no good!?”
“No way! This isn’t about lamb!”
“Huh!? Isn’t sheep for Genghis Khan!? What’s lamb!?”
“It’s sheep!”
Kaito yelled at Baka, and with a grimace, removed the ‘100g of Meat of a Bipedal Sheep’ tag.
“Hmm… As expected of a devil’s game. So, even human meat will appear…”
“It probably won’t kill you if you eat it, though.”
Yo and Tama also made faces that said, “I really don’t like this pot…”
“…Normally, we wouldn’t be able to progress this efficiently, right? We’re lucky that the sheep are docile thanks to Kabashima-kun…”
“Well, normally the sheep would run away, and I think the premise is that you can’t check all the tags. That’s why it’s a ‘Dark Pot,’ right?”
“How many grams of a pot you don’t know the contents of to eat… If you eat too much, it could be a lethal dose, and if you don’t eat, you’ll be forced to eat everything and die… It’s a tasteless game. Really…”
Yo, Tama, and Kaito looked at each other, and then went back to selecting food cards in silence. They let a sheep with ‘4 Shiitake Mushrooms’ escape, desperately tore off a tag with ‘0.1g of Tetrodotoxin,’ and after glancing at Baka, quietly removed a tag with ‘300g of Chicken Wings’…
Meanwhile, Baka was running around energetically. He even started doing gymnastics, having fun. Forward rolls, cartwheels, side handsprings… Handstand walking, bridge walking…
…And the sheep became even more frightened by Baka’s strange movements.
The pitiful sheep were forced to be frightened for the entire time.
Eventually, the time limit ended, and an alarm went off.
『Alright everyone, take your seats! Those who do not take their seats will die!』
“I feel like Kabashima-kun wouldn’t die even if he didn’t take a seat.”
“Well, since we don’t know how we’ll die, it’s better to obey…”
In the end, everyone reluctantly (except for Baka, who was excited) took their seats in the kitchen studio. Then.
“Wha…!?”
“Well, I guess we could have expected this…”
With a clanging sound, restraints popped out of the chairs and bound everyone to their seats.
“Huh!? What’s this! It’s annoying!”
…And then, with a crack! the restraints were torn apart.
“…Well, I guess we could have expected that too…”
“Hey, should I take these off for everyone? Is it okay? Wouldn’t it be hard to eat with these on?”
“…I’m fine as I am. They’ll probably come off automatically when the game ends. If they don’t, then you can take them off then.”
“Okay! Got it!”
Baka replied energetically and returned to his seat, which had its restraints destroyed, and waited for the pot with excitement.
…Then, a slope appeared in the studio, and sheep came trotting down it.
While bleating, the sheep gently placed the food they were carrying on their backs into the pot.
“The sheep are making the pot! How cute!”
“Cute…?”
Baka excitedly enjoyed the sheep’s cooking performance. The sheep were still afraid of Baka, and they ran away as soon as they made eye contact with him.
But, in this way, the pot was completed. A large earthenware pot was automatically covered, and then it simmered…
“Huh, is it already cooked!?”
With a pop, the lid opened. …And there, already perfectly cooked, was the pot!
“Wow! It looks delicious!”
The contents of the pot were quite normal.
Chicken Tsukune, daikon radish, Chinese cabbage, green onions, shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, tofu, and carrot twists…
Baka cheered and excitedly said, “I want to eat! I want to eat!”
『Alright! It’s now a 30-minute meal time! The order in which you can take food from the pot will only come around 5 times! Please be careful when serving yourselves!』
“Okay!”
Baka gave a cheerful reply to the words displayed on the monitor. And then.
“So, can I go first!?”
“Yeah, sure, go ahead.”
“Serve yourself with the assumption that you’ll finish it all. We’re making this pot with the assumption that you’ll finish it, okay?”
“Okay! I understand!”
Baka declared, “Itadakimasu!” cheerfully and plunged the ladle into the earthenware pot.
…And so.
“That was delicious! Thank you for the meal!”
The pot was successfully finished.
Baka ate about 60% of it. Even the chicken tsukune, which seemed like too much, was completely consumed by Baka’s stomach.
“We’ve also filled our stomachs a little.”
“That was delicious.”
“Normally, this shouldn’t be a game that ends with us saying, ‘That was delicious’!”
Kaito was holding his head, but the monitor displayed a congratulatory message, “Congratulations! You finished it!”
Yes. The pot was finished. Normally, finishing it would have been quite difficult, but for Baka, it was just a delicious snack.
“It’s good that we weren’t on the other team…”
“Yeah. Depending on the personnel arrangement, this would have definitely been a game where people died.”
“As expected, being with Kabashima-kun makes the game go smoothly.”
Yo, Kaito, and Tama stood up from their chairs, which had automatically released their restraints, and stretched.
Even though they were supposed to be facing death, there wasn’t much tension. At least, everyone except Baka was somewhat on guard… but that had also faded, as their stomachs were comfortably full from the pot.
Then.
“Huh? There’s still something left at the bottom of the pot!”
Baka, looking into the almost empty pot, made a “Huh?” face.
“…A key?”
“Yeah. Look.”
And then, he reached into the pot and pulled a key out of the remaining broth.
The key had a ‘♂’ mark on it. In other words, it was the Mars key.
“It comes out when you finish it, this key.”
“So, it won’t come out unless you find the sheep very efficiently…”
“No, if one person is forced to eat everything, then it’ll probably be found afterward.”
Tama’s calm words made Kaito make a bitter face, “I don’t really want to think about that…” It seemed that Tama was better at these kinds of imaginings than Kaito.
“Um, so, if there’s a key, that means that in this room too, there’s a locked door like the one Kabashima-kun and the others found earlier, right?”
Yo looked around. Then, among them, Kaito quickly crouched down…
“If that’s the case… it’s around here.”
Looking at the side of the platform in the center of the stage where the pot was placed, he grinned.
“Bingo. Look.”
Kaito pointed towards a small door with a keyhole.
“Shall we try opening it?” Yo promptly inserted the Key into the keyhole and turned it.
With a click, the door creaked open. And inside…
“…This is…”
There was a Hibana Doll. However, it was different from the Mina Doll and Venus Doll they had found so far.
…On the Hibana Doll’s face, it was written, “Poisoned to Death.”