The peaceful Desmond estate, today as always.

"Gulp."

I was currently standing at a crossroads of life and death.

I had said it boldly.

-I can eat it.

That I could eat the dish the young lady had made.

Just one thing, unlike the curry I knew, it was purple, and even though the fire was off, the bubbling foam was unsettling.

-I cannot throw away what my lady has made.

Since the common knowledge about curry that I knew could be different in this world, I thought I could eat it.

Still, just in case.

I had an antidote ready in my pocket.

-Bubble bubble.

I was sitting with Rosanna in the neatly organized kitchen.

"Gulp..."

"Gulp..."

There were two plates in front of us.

One plate held burnt black rice, and the other plate held the purple curry the young lady had made.

Rosanna and I had the same expression. As if wondering if we would die if we ate the food in front of us.

"Haha..."

"..."

I said to the hesitating Rosanna with a trembling voice. Because both in my past life and in my current life, I had to respect my elders.

"Rosanna-nim, you go first."

"...Haha. Ricardo? You shouldn't say that. It seems like Olivia made it for you."

"No, my lady is someone who takes care of her family first, so she must have made it thinking of her mother, Rosanna-nim, rather than me."

-Grip...

"Hahaha!!"

"Haha...!"

Rosanna and I gave an awkward laugh and lowered our heads. If we couldn't avoid it, it was better to enjoy it.

I picked up the spoon that felt unusually heavy today and said.

"Shall we eat then?"

Cleaning the messy kitchen had delayed the meal, but let's enjoy this moment, which the young lady had prepared with great care, with a spoon.

-Nod.

The young lady, who was watching us with her chin propped up, smiled with satisfaction and got on top of Gomtang.

"Then I'll go get some water."

"I'll go."

"No, it's fine, I can go with Gomtang."

While the young lady was out of sight, I asked Rosanna in a trembling voice.

"Rosanna-nim, was curry always this color?"

Was the knowledge I knew wrong?

I thought I had eaten a lot of food, but at the dish that transcended common sense, I asked to confirm my knowledge.

However.

"Of course not."

Rosanna sighed as she searched through the curry ingredients with trembling eyes.

"Ricardo."

"Yes."

"Curry isn't purple. No matter how precious the dish Olivia made for you is, curry is never purple. Don't brainwash yourself."

"Ah..."

"Her cooking skills are just like her father's...."

Rosanna let out a deep sigh.

"I brought water."

The young lady, who appeared with a clatter, was placing the cups with a bright smile. She was looking forward to seeing us eat deliciously so much, with her nose flaring and her nostrils wide, that I couldn't bring myself to say that I couldn't eat it.

"Oh, God...."

Why are you giving me such a trial? I gave a middle finger to the god who must be watching from somewhere and then started to smile brightly.

"I'm looking forward to it."

"Don't look forward to it... it's embarrassing."

"Haha..."

At the sight of the shy young lady, Rosanna and I, who had been complaining about the curry, smiled brightly and nodded as if nothing had happened.

"It seems we can't escape."

"It seems so."

The young lady was staring at our spoons with her clear eyes.

"It probably doesn't taste good...."

"No, it will be delicious."

"Well~ Olivia made this for her mother to eat, so there's no way it wouldn't taste good. If your father had come home early, we could have eaten together...."

Rosanna clenched her fists and continued.

"It's a shame."

The young lady, as if she had expected Rosanna's disappointment, smiled brightly and pointed to the pot on the stove.

"I saved some for dad and brother too."

Upon hearing the tragic news of Darvav and Kyle, Rosanna and I clenched our fists and smiled.

"Well done, our daughter."

"You did very well."

"Hehet..."

At the sight of the shyly fidgeting young lady, we gathered our resolve. We were going to eat it anyway, so we had to build up her confidence so that she would pick up a kitchen knife again.

'Cooking improves with practice....'

'The young lady's naked apron....'

Having made up my mind, I carefully picked up a spoon and started to search through the contents of the curry.

An uncut potato.

It was a potato that showed the young lady's clumsy knife skills, as she hadn't peeled it. Besides, since she had put it in whole, it wouldn't be seasoned inside.

"It's a potato."

"Mhm. I put in a big one so you could eat a lot."

Good, this seems okay to eat.

Next was a strange root.

From the smell, it seemed like Mandrake, but it was mixed with the curry scent, creating a strange smell that was quite unpleasant.

"My lady, what about this?"

"It seemed good for the body, so I put in a lot."

"..."

Okay, I'll pass on this one.

Besides that, countless ingredients such as green onions, carrots, chocolate, and onions were in the curry. It was a combination I had never seen in my life. The fact that there was chocolate in the curry, and the fact that it contained my most hated eggplant.

"..."

Why did the young lady put in all the foods I hated?

I let out a low sigh as I picked up a limp paprika with my spoon.

"It's strange."

The moment our hesitation was reflected in the young lady's eyes, the young lady, who had read the atmosphere, opened her mouth with a sullen voice.

"...It looks tasteless, doesn't it."

"..."

"If you don't want to eat it, you don't have to."

I shook my head vigorously at the young lady and said. That there was no need to say such things for the sake of the future.

"Does the appearance matter? The taste is the most important thing."

The young lady, who was fidgeting with her fingers, smiled brightly at my words and nodded.

"That's right...!"

"Haha..."

"Hehet...!"

Oh.

"Oh? My lady's hand is..."

"Hm? Ah, I got this while peeling potatoes."

The moment I saw the band-aid on the young lady's white hand, I didn't hesitate and picked up the spoon and started to mix the rice and curry generously.

Because it was a dish made by the young lady, who had only ever held the hair of other noble ladies in her life, while getting her hands hurt.

Even though the rice was burnt black and the curry was made like a chemical, I couldn't ignore the sincerity of the young lady who had made it while cutting her fingers.

"Then I'll eat."

Thinking that I was a fool to have hesitated in front of such a delicious-looking dish, I picked up the spoon.

"..."

I put the curry in my mouth before Rosanna, who was sending me a trembling gaze.

"You...!"

I gave Rosanna a victorious smile.

"I won, mother."

I will take the young lady's first dish.

Of course, I have no memory of what happened after that.

*

Luin woke up in an unfamiliar space with a dark expression.

"Where am I again..."

He had woken up in a strange place after sleeping.

-What...

-Where are we?

-We were gathered in the lobby....

He tried to ask the other students, but they were also looking around with bewildered expressions, as if they were in the same situation as him.

"Haa..."

At the overwhelming fatigue, Luin let out an annoyed sigh. It seemed like they had been teleported.

A dense forest.

Not only the magic department, but also the swordsmanship and healing departments were mixed together, and Luin was calmly trying to figure out the situation.

He thought that Ricardo must have planned another strange class.

What is it this time?

Are we fighting undead like last time?

Or are we defeating a giant monster?

Whatever it was, Luin, who had decided not to be caught off guard like last time, stood up from his seat and moved forward to slowly sort out the situation.

"Everyone... calm down."

In a situation like this, we must be calm....

The moment the words of mediation fell from Luin's lips, Luin saw a certain sign in front of him and firmly closed his lips.

[Siege Team.]

"Uh...?"

The moment Luin's ominous question echoed through the silent forest.

"Have you woken up?"

With the gentle voice of a woman, Luin's body began to stiffen. It seemed like he had heard a voice that shouldn't be heard here.

The most frightening being he had ever thought of in his life.

The being that created natural disasters.

The voice of the being he had thought was not human.

"Why... are you?"

It was standing in front of Luin's eyes.

"Nice to meet you, student Luin."

Luin raised his trembling eyes and looked at the woman in front of him. And he took a deep breath and clenched his fists.

"Why are you here...!"

"Is this the first time we've seen each other like this?"

Elysia said with a gentle smile.

"We're on the same team this time, student Luin."

A small name tag was attached to Elysia's clothes. A name tag that said 'Siege Team'.

----------------------------------------

"I'm sorry..."

After the stomach ache incident last night.

The young lady, who was the assassin of the day, was sitting next to me with a timid appearance.

"Eat this."

"Haha... it was delicious. Didn't you try it too, my lady?"

"...I didn't try it because I thought it would taste bad."

"..."

The young lady, who had handed me a tray with digestive medicine, was fidgeting with her fingers and looking at me.

"I'm sorry... I tried to make it delicious."

"It's okay. You can make it more delicious next time."

"Mhm..."

I gently touched the young lady's fingers and said.

"Are your fingers okay?"

"...Mhm"

"My lady, you know."

"..."

"I'm happy enough just by the fact that you tried to do something for me."

"Still...."

"Because you worked hard with your pretty hands."

"Ricardo..."

The young lady began to tell me the story of her cooking.

She said that at first, she had tried to make this dish, but had given up because it was difficult, and she also said that she had made it with Gomtang, hiding her bandaged fingers behind her back.

After talking for a long time like that.

When silence fell, the young lady took out an old notebook from the drawer and sat in front of me and asked.

[Diary.]

"Want to see it together?"

"...That's."

My lips went dry.

"Haha... so this is what happened."

At a time when the full moon, risen with the night sky, reveals itself. I was sitting on the bed with the young lady, reminiscing about past memories.

[I picked up an ugly beggar.]

"Puhaha...! I have a perfectly fine name, but you call me a beggar."

"Ricardo was very shabby back then, so I couldn't help it."

"Even so... I'm hurt."

"I'm not hurt, so it's fine."

Old memories.

The feeling of looking at stories from over 10 years ago as an adult was like finding a letter in a bottle that had been thrown into the sea.

Because I had never imagined that I would be looking at a diary with the young lady, who liked eating more than reminiscing.

From the childish and innocent phrases.

To the beginning of the day drawn with terrible drawing skills. Even the smallest page was so enjoyable that I couldn't take my eyes off it.

-I'm hungry today.

Just one thing, it was bitter that half of the diary was about eating.

"Ricardo."

"Yes."

"Why did this pig only write about eating?"

"Didn't you write it, Young Lady?"

"Mhm."

"Then wouldn't you know, Young Lady?"

"That's right."

-Grumble.

"I'm hungry."

She's a funny person.

To the point where I can confidently say she's the funniest person I know.

The young lady's diary also recorded the side dishes she ate today and left a review that the soup was salty.

Especially the most absurd thing was the phrase written tightly at the bottom of the diary.

[What I want to eat tomorrow.]

Steak, chicken, hamburger.

It was the madness of the young lady who had written down what she wanted to eat tomorrow without missing a single day. No wonder the menus she wanted to eat never overlapped, I thought that was the reason.

I gently caressed the menus written tightly in the diary with my finger and asked lowly.

"There's nothing but stories about eating."

"It was a growth period."

"..."

"Eek?! Why are you looking at me like that!!"

"Then will the young lady become a giant when she turns 100?"

"Mhm."

At the young lady's words that her dream was to become a giant, I let out a small smile and imagined the young lady as a giant in my head.

-Ricardo. Give me food.

-...

'...That's a little scary.'

Thinking of the young lady's giant form, where the monthly food expenses would exceed 1000 gold at the very least, my spine felt like it was going to break.

"Eek!! Don't look at me like that!"

"Puhaha! Alright."

Only after hearing the young lady's scolding, who had seen through my absurd thoughts, did I stop my useless thoughts and start flipping through the diary again.

[Olivia is 10 years old. Still hungry.]

Beyond childhood to adolescence.

[The incarnation of hunger lives in my right hand. Ugh... I have to stop. If I move any more, that guy inside me will...]

-Thud.

The diary was closed.

"Ricardo. Skip this part quickly."

With the young lady's expression more serious than ever.

I looked at the young lady's serious eyes and smiled cruelly. Because I felt like I had definitely seen something I shouldn't have.

The dark history of life that everyone has one of. I felt like I had seen the content of the incurable disease that mainly occurs in 15-year-old teenagers and makes them mistakenly think they have awakened to something 'special'.

"Oh my...?"

The young lady was shaking her head violently as she looked at the diary.

-Whoosh. Whoosh.

"No."

-Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.

"This is a no-no."

At the young lady's interesting reaction, I smiled cruelly and began to ask. If this was the legendary 'Grimoire of Darkness'.

I already knew because I had secretly read it when I was young, but seeing the flustered young lady, I couldn't help but want to tease her more.

I thought the young lady's puberty was dominated by her appetite and that she wouldn't have one, but after secretly watching the young lady laughing while looking at the mirror alone in her room, I realized that everyone is the same.

-Fuhihit... I am the witch of hunger.

-...Pfft.

-I will fill the world with hunger.

-...The witch of pfft.. hunger.

-I have to endure it. Eeeeek... my magic is dangerous...!!

-Kuh... Kuhuhuh..

Knowing the young lady's great dark history in many ways, I became a little greedy and said to the young lady.

"I think something was written there."

"...Don't remember."

"The hunger of..."

-Whoosh...

"Oh?"

She was ripe.

The young lady was ripe like a ripe tomato and couldn't say a word.

"Young Lady?"

I poked the young lady with my finger. I thought she might have fainted from shame.

"...Eek."

"..."

"Eeeeek..."

If I tease her, she might break down, so I should avoid digging any further. It's better to save it for later to tease her again and again.

I smiled faintly and pretended not to know to the young lady.

"I forgot."

"Hwii..."

"I think I'll remember if I look again..."

"Don't look. I'll die if you look."

The young lady, who had snatched the diary, quickly flipped through it and wriggled her hands and feet. It seemed like she was trying to show it after skipping the part where she had chuunibyou.

"Here. Look from here."

"I think that part would be fun too."

"Eeeeek."

"I'll endure it."

She was truly the cutest person in the world.

-Flip.

'Hmm...'

-Flip...

As I flipped through the diary, I felt like I had forgotten something. It felt like I had written something in the diary, but I couldn't remember it, a nagging feeling. It had been 2 years since I had peeked at the young lady's diary, so the memory didn't come back easily.

I'm sure I wrote something important... like a letter...

"Next page."

Just as the thought was about to surface, I couldn't recall the memory because of the young lady's words chiding my hesitating hand.

I felt like I had written something that rivaled the young lady's dark history notebook.

'I don't know...'

As the diary neared its end, the young lady's expression was not good.

Usually, she would have been whining for a late-night snack or a trashy drama at the time of looking at her diary, but at the young lady's lack of reaction, I shrugged my shoulders and then let out a low sigh.

It seemed like she was hiding something... but I couldn't figure out what she was hiding.

The young lady's expression right now was like.

"..."

She looked like someone who had discovered a post-it note with 'fool' written on it on their back. It was also hard to ask the reason because I felt like I would be scolded tremendously if I asked.

"...Young Lady?"

"...Mhm?"

"Is something wrong?"

"No. Nothing's wrong."

"Haha..."

I really don't know.

The young lady was flipping through the notebook with a calm expression. Every time she flipped through the diary that contained the day's events, she would smile once, and whenever she saw the story about fighting over chocolate, she would show a benevolent side, different from her usual self, saying that such a thing had happened.

And I.

'This is scary.'

I was scared by the young lady's unusual reaction.

Because it was a sign that something bad would happen when a person was strangely calm, different from usual.

"Young Lady, if you're going to scold me, I'd feel more at ease if you did it now."

"No. Why would I scold Ricardo?"

"..."

Whatever it was, I hoped the young lady would cheer up.

The content of the diary was gradually getting closer to the present. We were approaching the record that was the beginning of all the tragedy.

[Academy Entrance Ceremony]

My expression began to harden at the title written largely in the diary.

Even for me, who thought that what's good is good, I didn't want to look at the academy story with the young lady.

It was a story forgotten over a long time.

The pain about Mikhail.

The regret about an unrequited love.

And the incident of receiving unwanted hatred.

We were both struggling to not open the box that had been locked with time.

Of course, I wasn't saying that I would hate or dislike the young lady just by reminiscing about the academy days. It was already in the past, and even if that situation came again, I had the confidence to do better, but I didn't have the confidence to run away.

Just one thing.

The one thing I was afraid of.

"Shall we skip it quickly?"

I was afraid that the young lady would feel guilty, rather than me. I thought she would become depressed if she were to remember her academy days again.

Even at my carefully suggested recommendation, the young lady shook her head and said calmly.

"No."

That she wouldn't hide.

"..."

What kind of wind had blown?

What kind of stimulus was there?

At the young lady's unusual atmosphere, I bit my lip and began to place my finger on the diary that recorded the academy days.

[I hate Ricardo. I hate that beggar interfering in everything.]

-...Squeeze.

[Why did he have to follow me to the academy and embarrass me... I really hate him. Really! Really! I really hate him.]

"Young Lady...?"

"..."

[Today...]

And from the moment I flipped through the diary.

[I saw Ricardo crying.]

I caressed the diary without a word.

It was a diary I had already seen once.

A diary I had secretly seen once without the young lady knowing.

...Strangely, my heart felt tight.

I don't know if I'm feeling this way because I don't want to see the fact that the young lady hated me, or if it's because I don't feel the sincerity of my best efforts.

"..."

My lips keep getting dry, and I can't help but steal glances at the young lady's expression. With the fear that she might still have these feelings...

"Haha..."

I put on a cowardly smile.

"Shall we stop looking?"

I ended up saying that we should stop here. While saying that there was no need to look at the stories of the past when we were remaining as warm moments for each other.

"It's such an old story, it's not fun."

I ended up saying words I didn't mean.

"It's all in the past."

I said to the young lady, who was staring blankly at the diary, that we shouldn't bring out the pain that time had made us forget.

"It's all resolved."

We had hugged and apologized to each other, so I also asked her not to look for these feelings again.

Otherwise.

-Squeeeeeze.

It felt like the young lady was going to cry.

"Young Lady."

I gathered my trembling heart and said to the young lady. That we no longer needed to think about 'repentance'.

"Want a late-night snack?"

The young lady, who would have nodded with a smile on a normal day, had no answer. She just bit her lip as she stared blankly at the words written in the diary.

-Squeeeeeze...

I don't think I can do this anymore.

"Sniffle..."

I don't have the confidence to look at the young lady's faintly trembling shoulders.

"It's all in the past now. We've reconciled and reflected..."

I didn't want to open the box locked with the key of time and cause more pain.

"Stop..."

"Ricardo."

However.

"Next page..."

My wish seemed to be far from enough to break the young lady's resolve.

The memories containing my inadequacy were being turned one by one by the young lady's tightly held hand.

"Young Lady..."

The young lady, whose fingertips were trembling, gently pressed the back of my hand with an emotion I didn't know. While asking me to turn the page because it was okay.

"..."

Unable to overcome her delicate fingertips, I squeezed my eyes shut and turned the page of the diary.

One page.

Two pages.

Three pages.

After turning several pages.

My hand stopped at the sight of one title.

[A way to turn everything back.]

"I can't do this anymore."

Because I didn't want to show her any more bad memories. It was a waste of time to tell her stories full of only good memories, and I didn't want to make her dig into a small story in her life.

I didn't want to give any more sadness to a person who laughed more heartily than anyone when she laughed, appeared more noble than anyone when she was a noble, and shone more brilliantly than anyone when she shined.

However.

"Move your hand."

The young lady was telling me to look at that memory again.

"..."

"Hand."

"..."

"Move it."

I moved the palm of my hand that was covering the diary and squeezed my eyes shut.

And that moment.

My eyes trembled greatly as I saw a small piece of paper flowing out from the shaking diary.

'No way...'

The young lady, ignoring my flustered eyes, bowed her head, picked up the letter that had fallen to the floor, and said.

"Ricardo."

Without looking at my eyes.

"Why did you write this...?"