“A, a second time…?”
“Answer me.”
Tama’s unusually sharp gaze made Baka flinch.
“Eeeeh… I don’t get what you’re saying. What do you mean, ‘second time’? Does this Game happen multiple times? Is it something I just don’t know about?”
While flinching, he asked what he didn’t understand.
Tama had said, “second time.” She had also asked, “Have you participated in another Death Game before this one?”
In other words, Tama seemed to know about “another Death Game”…
…As Baka was floundering, Tama stared at him with her cat-like eyes… then, with a soft, small sigh, she quietly looked down.
“…It’s no use asking, is it? Forget it.”
“Ah, okay. Forgetting is my specialty!”
If she told him to forget, he would forget. Baka was better at forgetting than remembering, so he felt a little relieved. It was more reassuring to be told something he was good at than something he was bad at.
…However.
“Uh… hey, Tama, are you okay? You don’t seem very energetic… I mean, I’m a Baka, so I don’t know what to do, but…”
Somehow, Tama didn’t seem well. That’s why Baka was worried. He didn’t know what to do, but he was still worried, and if there was anything he could do, he wanted to know. He didn’t know if he could do it, but he was willing to try his best.
“…If you think so, maybe we should go deeper in first.”
However, Tama smoothly evaded the question and looked towards the back.
Beyond the Lion’s corpse… towards the goal of the Labyrinth.
“I feel like we’re progressing faster than expected… but a third of the day is already over. We have less than 60 minutes before we die.”
“Gah! That’s bad!”
“Let’s proceed through the Labyrinth. Kabashima-kun defeated the Lion… so all that’s left is to make a path to the goal. It should be over in about 20 minutes.”
And then, Tama immediately headed towards the wall. She was probably going to move the lever there.
She would move the Iron Bars with the lever, changing the path of the Labyrinth, and then head to the goal, or so it seemed…
“Tama! Then I can be useful! Watch me!”
Right now, Baka was incredibly motivated because he wanted Tama to feel better.
“Who the heck is the Baka who breaks Iron Bars with tackles?!”
“Huh!? Did you call me!?”
“I didn’t call you, you Baka!”
And so, Baka went straight to the goal, smashing all the Iron Bars he encountered to make a path. It was like Moses parting the sea, but in reality, he was just a Baka who didn’t listen to people.
“…This was probably designed to take almost the full 90 minutes. We would have gotten more lost, and it would have taken longer if we had to avoid the Lion.”
“Yeah… well, I was surprised. Haha…”
But Baka was smiling broadly, thinking that this was fine.
After all… Tama, who looked dumbfounded, was smiling a little!
And so, they proceeded through the passage at the back of the room, climbed a short staircase, and continued through another passage… and thus, Baka and the others reached the goal. Baka took the lead, stepping into the back room, saying, “Whoa, so this is the goal.”
The other three followed behind Baka. This way, even if there were traps, Baka would break through them with his muscles, making it safe.
The room was much smaller and darker than the Iron Bar Labyrinth room. Also, there were chairs, desks, and a jumble of miscellaneous items piled up in the corners of the room, giving it a cluttered impression. But there was something glowing faintly in the center, and those were the most noticeable things.
“I guess this is the Antidote Device.”
It was a strange machine. It looked a little similar to the machines Baka had seen at the construction office, but there were many differences.
First, there was a chair. A magnificent chair. It was completely different from the crude pipe chairs in the construction office, a fluffy chair that looked comfortable to sit on.
Next, beside the chair, there was an arm that extended like a shovel car, and in the position where a shovel would be on a shovel car, there was something like a helmet.
Furthermore, there was a glass-like part on the main body of the machine where the arm extended, and four glowing orbs were visible inside.
And below these devices… on the floor, there was a faintly glowing magic circle. It was quite stylish!
“Well… I guess we just have to sit in the chair. So, who’s going first?”
“I’ll go first!”
At Yo’s call, Baka raised his hand energetically. Baka thought that it was his job to be the first one in situations like this.
“No, I’ll go first. You don’t have any complaints, right?”
But, pushing aside the energetic Baka, Hibana slowly sat in the chair.
And as soon as Hibana sat in the chair, the arm moved, and the helmet covered Hibana’s head.
“Ooh,” Baka said, his eyes shining as he watched this scene. Then, an arm-like thing extended from the back of the helmet and touched the jewel on the collar.
…Then, the jewel glowed faintly, and then.
“Ugh!”
Hibana’s expression tightened.
“A, are you okay!?”
Yo immediately checked on Hibana, and Hibana twitched her eyebrows once more… then, she returned to her sullen face and just replied, “Yeah.”
…As this was happening, the arm returned, the helmet came off, and then Hibana stood up.
“H, hey, Hibana. Was that okay just now? Did it hurt?”
“Huh? It was similar to when I was poisoned. They’re injecting some kind of antidote, right? That’s it… or rather, were we actually injected with a new poison? Damn…”
“Actually, it seems like it’s a curse, not a poison.”
“It’s not that different. I don’t know what’s going on with this collar, but it feels like something’s stabbing into me.”
Hibana slowly moved away from the chair. It had probably been about a minute since she sat in the chair. Well, it seemed to be something that ended quickly… but if it hurt, it was a painful thing.
Baka also remembered his vaccinations and made an indescribable face. Baka hated needles. He hated pain, and more than anything, the needles often broke because they couldn’t withstand Baka’s steel body…
“Well, just get it over with. It hurts a little, but that’s it.”
“I see… Well then, excuse me.”
As Hibana moved away, Yo immediately sat in the chair. And just like before, the helmet covered him, the arm touched the collar, and then Yo also made a slightly pained face.
…And so, Yo also seemed to have finished his detoxification safely. Next, Tama sat in the chair in the same way and underwent detoxification.
“Alright! Then it’s my turn!”
And so, it was finally Baka’s turn!
…Or so he thought.
“No, I don’t think Kabashima-kun needs it…”
“Huh!?”
Baka tilted his head, stopped by Yo. He thought that if he didn’t do this, he would die, but was he wrong?
…As Baka was confused.
“You don’t need it, you Baka, since you ripped off your collar.”
“Huh, why!?”
“We were injected with poison when the first bell rang on the first night. Kabashima-kun, who had already destroyed his collar by then, wasn’t injected with poison in the first place, right?”
Tama also explained, and Baka finally understood.
That’s right. Baka was a Baka, so he had forgotten, but only Baka had not been injected with poison!
“Does that mean I didn’t even need to enter this door!?”
“W, well, that’s what it means…”
Next to Yo, who was making an indescribable face, Baka was dumbfounded…
“…But, if I hadn’t come in here, I wouldn’t have seen the Lion.”
Well, he was still glad he came in here! He was convinced of that. But at the same time, Yo didn’t seem to be convinced.
“Um, Kabashima-kun. Just to confirm… you really shouldn’t have to do the ‘Game.’ And this ‘Game’ seems to be life-threatening. You’re participating in an unnecessary game and unnecessarily putting your life in danger… and you don’t think anything about us for not stopping you?”
Yo had a somewhat apologetic look on his face. Tama also looked a little apologetic. Hibana was facing sideways, so it was hard to tell. But Baka had already made his conclusion before looking at them.
“Huh? Yeah! The Lion was fun!”
Baka was filled with excitement from seeing the Lion and was very satisfied. And he wasn’t thinking about anything else! That was all there was to it!
“…Ah, are there no Lions in the other rooms!?”
“…I don’t think so.”
“I see… but I also like tigers! Ah! I also like rabbits and chicks! And giraffes! And hippos!”
Baka is frolicking. Seeing Baka like that, Yo and Tama exchanged glances, their faces saying, “I guess this is fine,” and “I’m starting to think so too.” Hibana, with a completely exasperated look, said, “This isn’t a zoo in the first place,” but Baka, oblivious to all of that, was just excited about what they might encounter next.
“…There’s still time left, isn’t there? About 45 minutes, I guess.”
As they were doing that, the clock’s hand moved to about halfway through ‘noon.’ That meant there were about 45 minutes left.
“It seems we can’t go back to the Great Hall during that time. Look.”
Yo pointed towards the back of the room… there was a door. But the door showed no sign of opening. Probably, this door would only open when the night bell rang.
“So, we just have to wait until then, huh? Ugh, how boring.”
Hibana leaned against the wall next to the unopening door, looking at it listlessly. Well, just waiting was boring. Baka was debating whether to say, “Shall we play tag or something?” but right now, there was something else that bothered him more.
“I see. There’s time, huh? Then, um, is it okay if I sit on this?”
If there was time! Baka excitedly asked, but everyone made a grim face.
“U-um… we don’t know what might happen… I think you shouldn’t. It seems like poison and antidote are being injected from the collar, but if something similar to poison is inflicted even without the collar, it’ll be troublesome.”
“I see…”
Somehow, the way the arm and helmet moved looked cool, so Baka wanted to try it out, but it couldn’t be helped. Baka decided to give up on using the Antidote Device.
“Well, we have some time. Since we have the chance, let’s talk a bit.”
While they were doing that, Yo found some suitable chairs from the cluttered part of the room, placed four of them, and sat on one.
“Let’s organize the situation a bit. And also… let’s confirm how we should move from now on.”
Yo said that… his expression clouded slightly, his lips tightened, and then.
“…We should think about what to do if there are casualties when we return to the Great Hall, starting now.”
That’s what he brought up.