And so, Tsuchiya immediately began sharing information.
“The room that the three women and I entered was the Room of the Twin Maidens.”
“……Twin Maidens?”
Baka tilted his head, wondering what that was, and Mina, with a wry smile, explained it properly.
“There were two identical women who called themselves demons. They called themselves the ‘Twin Maidens’.”
“Heeh.”
“And then, the Twin Maidens announced the theme of what they were thinking… and then, we had to ask up to 20 questions that could be answered with YES or NO, and guess the name of what the Twin Maidens were thinking. Oh, and if we could guess correctly within 12 questions, they said they would give us a ‘bonus reward’.”
“Heeh…”
Even after the explanation, Baka didn’t understand at all. All he understood was, “There were twins! And they did something that sounded difficult!”
“So, well… at the beginning of the game, we were each put into separate cages. Like hanging birdcages. While inside, we had to ask the twin demons questions.”
Baka thought, “If I had been in that room, I wouldn’t have been any help!” And he was probably right.
“The answers were limited to five times. Once someone gave an incorrect answer, they couldn’t answer again until everyone else had given an incorrect answer. And the cage of the person who gave an incorrect answer would be locked. So, the person who answered incorrectly would be trapped in the cage.”
“Hiee…”
Baka imagined it and got a little scared. Being trapped was scary. Well, in Baka’s case, if he got scared of being trapped, he would just break out, but getting scolded by the boss would be even scarier…
“And if someone answered correctly, the person who answered correctly would be given the key to the exit and the keys to everyone’s cages. …And 120 seconds after that, the floor under the cages would collapse. Under the cages, there were a lot of poisonous snakes. Well… in other words, if you were trapped in the cage, you would die.”
“Poisonous snakes… scary…”
When Baka got scared, Mina nodded deeply, saying, “It was scary.”
“…In other words, even if you answer incorrectly, if your companions answer correctly afterward and open your cage, you’re fine. But if your companions betray you, you’ll be snake food, huh? …I don’t really want to imagine that.”
Kaito, remembering that he had been disliked by everyone until just now, made a bitter face. So Baka encouraged Kaito, saying, “If that happens, I’ll save you!” Kaito didn’t look at Baka, but just nodded slightly. …He was probably embarrassed. Baka was happy and poked Kaito’s ear.
“Even so, that sounds like a difficult room. I definitely wouldn’t have been any help!”
When Baka gave his impression, both Tsuchiya and Mina gave a wry smile.
“Yeah… well, actually, I wasn’t any help at all either. Haha…”
“Tama-san did almost everything. Tama-san was amazing…”
I see. It seems that Tama solved the quiz. Tama is smart after all!
“Tama-san guessed the answer within 12 questions. Oh, the answer was ‘Marshmallow’…”
“Marshmallow!? Marshmallows are delicious!”
“Marshmallow, huh… If that came up with the theme of ‘food,’ it would be quite difficult. Is it white? Is its size smaller than a palm? Do you need cutlery to eat it? Is it a confection? Even if you get this far, you can’t differentiate it from anman or snowball cookies. Even if you ask if it contains eggs, cookies, bouches, and dacquoises remain. If you ask if it’s a baked good, you can narrow it down a lot…”
While Baka was thinking about marshmallows, Kaito seemed to be thinking about the problem itself. Well, Kaito was definitely more suited to the Room of the Twin Maidens than the Room of the Scales.
“No, that’s…”
But Mina said,
“Tama-san said, ‘If any question that can be answered with YES or NO is fine, then tell me the answer. Let YES be ton, and NO be tsu, and do it in Japanese Morse code’…”
“So, the demons had a hard time. While diligently looking it up, they were like, ‘NOYESYESNO, NONOYESNOYES…’ and so on…”
Baka had a lot of question marks floating above his head. And next to him, Kaito was…
“That woman, is she a brainy musclehead!?”
He shouted in shock.
“A brainy… that’s a contradictory yet accurate expression… hmm.”
“Well, we were all surprised… but, well, we were all saved because of that…”
…Baka thought for a moment, and then thought.
“Tama is amazing after all!”
Well, in other words, Baka didn’t really understand what was going on!
“Well, that’s how we escaped safely. And as a bonus, the Twin Maidens gave Mina-san’s doll, saying, ‘We reluctantly present this bonus’.”
“The bonus for answering correctly within 12 questions was this doll, right?”
“I see, so that’s why it was ‘given directly’… That was quite an interesting room.”
“It wasn’t interesting at all. I didn’t understand it at all… Oh, but I would have liked to see Tama do something amazing.”
Well, anyway, the three women and Tsuchiya were saved. And they also got the Mina doll. The twin demons seemed very reluctant, but well, that’s that.
“So, since we cleared it with one question, we had quite a bit of time left even after detoxifying the three women. We chatted leisurely by the Antidote Device for about an hour, and then came back. That’s how it was.”
He didn’t really understand, but at least all four of them came back safely. That was enough. Baka smiled and said, “That’s great!”
“I see, so you guys had extra time too!”
“Did you, Kabashima-kun?”
“Yeah! Kaito is smart, so…”
Next, Baka’s report began. …But.
“When I asked Kaito what his favorite Eevee evolution was, he said he’d never played Pokémon…”
“W-wait a minute, Kabashima-kun. Isn’t the story going way off track?”
“Huh? Isn’t this about what happened in the room?”
Baka immediately started talking happily, so Tsuchiya stopped him. But Baka just looked blank!
“…Kaito-kun. Can I ask you to do it instead?”
“Ah… it seems like that’s the only way…”
And so, Tsuchiya and Kaito exchanged a distant smile, and then Kaito began to explain the game. Baka was happy, thinking, “Kaito is smart after all!”
Now then.
And so, Kaito roughly finished explaining the rules of the Room of the Scales, and said, “Basically, Baka jumped and carried Kaito, and we were able to escape. After that, we cleared it again and got the Key and took out the Venus doll.”
…In other words, the fact that Kaito tried to kill Baka but ultimately couldn’t bring himself to do it was completely sealed. But Baka didn’t notice it, and he didn’t even remember it anymore, so he was just proudly saying, “That’s right! Kaito is smart!”
“I see… so you got 300 kg of Gold Coins and a giant acrylic coin as well.”
“Yeah! It’s cool, right!”
Baka was just being boastful. Tsuchiya couldn’t say anything anymore, and just said, “Ah, yeah, that’s great, Kabashima-kun,” and rejoiced with him. Baka was smiling.
“That means… it’s probably best to put the Mina doll and the Venus doll in the place where the Venus doll was.”
“Yeah. There’s a chance that the dolls could get damaged by an accident. Since there’s a locked door where we can store them safely, there’s no reason not to use it.”
“Ah, um, then I’ll go ask Venus-san for permission.”
And so, a conclusion was reached regarding the treatment of the dolls. Mina quickly got up and headed towards where Venus had gone alone. Seeing her off, Tsuchiya, Kaito, and Baka sighed.
For now, the doll problem seemed to be solved. And they had a general understanding of each other’s situations.
…Which meant.
“After this… we should think about what to do for the next game.”
It was about time they thought about the next thing.
After all, there were less than 30 minutes left of the daytime.
…Then.
“Kabashima. I have a proposal.”
Kaito suddenly looked at Baka and said nervously.
“…Would you team up with me for the next game too?”
“Huh?”
“Oh…? What brought this on? Kaito. You don’t have a collar. So, I thought you wouldn’t want to participate in the game if you didn’t have to…?”
Baka didn’t understand Kaito’s proposal, and neither did Tsuchiya. As they both tilted their heads, Kaito looked down awkwardly and said,
“…Well, it’s possible to stay in the Great Hall. But… I just can’t trust that Yo guy.”
“Eeh… Yo is a good guy.”
“Think carefully. Do you really believe that Yo was left alone in the Great Hall? Considering what Tama-san is saying now, it’s reasonable to think he’s hiding something. Staying with someone like that is just… well…”
Baka thinks, “Yo is a good guy!”, but Kaito doesn’t seem to think so. And neither does Tsuchiya.
“Hmm. Then perhaps it might be safer to participate in the Game. Is that what you’re saying? Well, I can’t say I don’t understand.”
“Yes. Well… I may not be able to solve things as brilliantly as Tama-san, but I do believe I have a decent amount of knowledge. If it’s something that requires brains, I should be able to handle it. And if that doesn’t work…”
“I’m here! That’s what it means, right!?”
Even Baka understands this.
Kaito is the brains! And Baka is the muscle! That’s how it is!
“Yay! We’re a great team, right!? Right!?”
“…Are you okay with that?”
“Yeah! I’m good! Yay! I got a partner! Yay!”
Baka was overjoyed.
He completely forgot that Kaito had almost killed him and was just excited.
Baka had already taken a liking to Kaito. Seeing Baka happily exclaim, “We’re friends!”, Kaito was dumbfounded, but eventually sighed in exasperation, thinking, “This guy is a real baka…”
…And then, Kaito suddenly stood up.
“Kabashima. Come with me for a bit.”
“Huh? What is it?”
Baka, without any suspicion, stood up in response to Kaito’s call.
“Hmm… Just the two of you? Am I not allowed?”
“Tsuchiya… you can come if you want. I don’t want to be suspected unnecessarily. But what you’re about to see, I need you to keep it to yourself. That goes for Mina-san too.”
Kaito said, then added in a small voice.
“…I’m going to use my Unique Ability. I thought I’d show it to you.”
“Huh?”
As Baka tilted his head, Tsuchiya also stood up, looking puzzled.
Kaito walked across the Great Hall… and arrived at the door of the room where Amagi and Hibana had gone.
Then, as a sea-colored light appeared in Kaito’s hand, a faint silhouette was projected in front of the door.
“My Unique Ability is ‘Replay’. …Once a day, I can see what happened there at that time.”
“There’s no point in looking at the room’s gimmick. But… it’s meaningful to see if Yo really didn’t enter the room at the entrance.”