Episode 17「The Explosive Guild Card and the Vanished Eleven-Digit Melody」
The moment I stepped through the heavy doors of the Royal Capital Adventurers’ Guild “White Porcelain Scales Inn‚” my sense of smell was utterly defeated.
A stifling “reality” odor‚ like a locker room from my previous life boiled down to its absolute limit. It mercilessly pierced my lungs‚ which had grown completely accustomed to the scent of vanilla since last night.
(…This morning too‚ I inspected the archive in my mind. The hollow where the “voice of my first love” that was gouged out yesterday should have been stored no longer even returns the pain of loss‚ thanks to Ciel’s anesthesia.)
I pulled my stealth hood low to avoid attention‚ hunched my back even more‚ and devoted all my nerves to thinning out my presence to the absolute limit.
“Look‚ look‚ Rui! My guild card—when you hold it up to the sun‚ it looks just like a real chocolate bar!”
Rather than hiding in my shadow‚ Serina raised her newly acquired copper guild card high and clung to my right arm as if she might start skipping at any moment.
The inescapable sensation of soft‚ heavy “mass” transmitted through the fabric of her uniform. Each time she bounced‚ the warmth pressing against my upper arm became a sweet noise that tested my sanity‚ heating up my mental server.
(…I’m going to die. My heart rate is about to break the guild’s safety regulations and set off alarms across the entire capital. This woman doesn’t understand even a millimeter how violent her “destructive proximity” is.)
“⚠️《Warning》. High-frequency contact from individual Serina detected. Inefficient and unsanitary.”
Ciel’s cold system voice rang out in my mind.
“…Rui-sama‚ please cease excessive resource allocation (palpitations) toward the subject individual. To suppress the increase in heart rate‚ I recommend the forced cooling protocol—complete shutdown of visual input.”
(Rejected‚ Ciel. My heart’s doing backflips is just a physiological reaction. …If you take away my sight‚ my sense of touch will sharpen instead—I learned that yesterday.)
“《Solution》. …Incomprehensible. I infer that the error causing such strain on Rui-sama’s heart should be promptly discarded (deleted).”
Beneath the guise of notification lay Ciel’s naked killing intent (jealousy).
I shoved that ominous log to the corner of my thoughts and pointed to the most “safe-looking” request posted on the board.
The job was “Subjugation of a Humming Bear.” A standard beginner quest‚ apparently‚ involving a creature that had become ferocious in a forest near the capital.
(…Close to town‚ and the target is solitary. This is the most rational choice—quick to finish‚ and it minimizes Serina’s “hunger rampage.”)
“Humming Bear… Hey‚ Rui‚ if this bear is in such a good mood that it hums‚ doesn’t that mean it probably tastes like honey inside?”
Serina leaned toward the board and peered into my face with eyes full of expectation.
The moment her unconscious divinity of “wanting to eat” leaked out‚ the stifling air in the guild twisted into a sticky sweetness like maple syrup.
(No‚ no‚ no—it’s a monster!?)
“…There’s no way it tastes like honey‚ Serina. It’s a monster that tears flesh and blood apart. Did you leave behind the concept of caution in your previous life?”
“Eh? But the name sounds delicious! Staaare… Rui‚ you just thought ‘Serina looks sweeter than honey‚’ didn’t you?”
“《Notice》. Unsanitary speculation. …Shall I scan the subject’s brainwaves and initialize (format) the language center‚ Rui-sama?”
“…I didn’t think that‚ and Ciel‚ don’t make dangerous suggestions.”
I sighed while calming the dangerous AI in my head.
“…That imagination of yours is already in the realm of horror. Anyway‚ we’re taking this.”
“Geez‚ Rui‚ you’re blushing! Alright‚ I’ll do my best to get the best honey—no‚ I mean‚ defeat the monster!”
Serina pulled my arm even closer and scattered her innocent smile throughout the guild.
The rough adventurers around us cast trembling and jealous looks at me‚ as if to say‚ “Why is such a beautiful girl with such a gloomy hooded guy…?”
As she dragged my arm toward the exit‚ Serina suddenly turned back as if something had occurred to her.
“By the way‚ Rui‚ the capital is really big‚ right? If I got lost… where would I call to get through?”
—Call.
That innocent word gently brushed against yesterday’s blank space.
I swallowed my reply and pushed open the door‚ my expression fixed beneath the hood.
“Come on‚ Rui‚ let’s go!”
Serina pulled my arm and forcefully led me into the forest where a sweet breeze blew.
Passing through the capital gates and stepping onto the unpaved road‚ the density of the air grew even sweeter.
Trees with bark like baked sweets lined the road‚ and fluffy white tufts like marshmallows swayed. Even the soil beneath my feet gave off a dry scent like cocoa.
“Hey Rui‚ look! That fallen tree is so fluffy when you touch it! It’s like a giant roll cake!”
With a cheerful cry‚ Serina hugged my right arm‚ pulling it toward her chest.
For her‚ the earlier commotion was already in the past. But for me‚ the real danger wasn’t the monsters in the forest—it was the “physical pressure” currently applied to my right arm.
(Wait. Wait wait wait.)
(My right elbow is… sinking hopelessly into something “soft.”)
Beyond the thin layer of blazer fabric lay the inescapable elasticity and heat of human “mass.”
Each time she leaned in‚ the warmth from the contact seeped into my skin like mud. Not a single word in my previous life’s health textbooks mentioned that a girl’s body temperature could be such a toxic substance that scorches the brain’s processing circuits.
(…I’m going to die. This distance—before even physical laws‚ my moral code is about to self-destruct. And Serina‚ are you even one nanometer aware that your chest is “splitting” my upper arm in half…?)
“⚠️《Emergency Warning》. Physical encroachment from individual Serina toward Rui-sama exceeds threshold by 300%. Unsanitary… unsanitary. Rui-sama’s hypothalamus is overheating‚ and thought-language is collapsing like popping candy. …Executing forced reduction protocol for tactile and thermal sensation.”
(Ciel‚ that’s just jealousy…! Even if you lower my sense of touch‚ the information from this “mass” won’t disappear!)
“《Solution》. …No. By severing the temptation known as physical contact‚ it is a rational measure to suppress completion by Rui-sama’s ‘unsanitary imagination.’ …Ah‚ with my assistance‚ that warmth of the bug could be instantly processed as ‘unnecessary heat dissipation’ and discarded.”
Though Ciel’s voice was absolute zero cold‚ I could sense the crackling noise of obsession beneath it.
While she disrupted the logs with jealousy‚ Serina pulled my arm even closer‚ pressing it against her waist. With every step‚ her soft curves traced my arm seductively in sync with her stride.
A heat beyond what Ciel’s anesthesia (optimization) could keep up with forcibly converted my soul into a sweet scent of death (chocolate).
“Rui…?”
Serina brought her face close to my neck and leaned in.
As she tried to smell the chocolate scent rising from me as usual‚ her movement stopped for just a moment.
She frowned slightly and tilted her head curiously.
“Somehow… today your smell is really sweet‚ but… it also smells a little burnt. …I wonder why‚ it makes my chest feel restless.”
Her divinity instinctively sensed my loss—the charred remains of the “voice of my first love” I had lost this morning—as “sadness.”
Yet without realizing its nature‚ she forced a smile again and shook my arm.
“…It’s your imagination‚ Serina. More importantly‚ look—we’re in the Humming Bear’s habitat. …Let go of my arm. I can’t fight.”
I answered in a flat voice stripped of emotion and finally pulled her away physically.
In a monochrome world already drained of color‚ only the coldness left on my skin when she let go stabbed me with a vivid sense of loss.
From deep within the forest‚ an eerie crackling sound began to echo.
In the vanilla-scented forest‚ what broke the silence wasn’t a roar—but a strange popping sound like carbonation.
The bushes ahead shook‚ revealing a massive body over three meters long: a Humming Bear.
Normally‚ it should be a brutal predator that slashes adventurers’ throats with sharp claws and devours raw flesh. …But the scene before me violently painted over the ecosystem I knew with sugar water.
“Hey Rui‚ look! That bear’s fur looks like brown cotton candy! Sniff sniff… oh‚ its ears smell like caramel!”
The bear let out a threatening cry.
“—Pop‚ crackle!!”
Each time its “roar” shook the air‚ what scattered from its mouth wasn’t poisonous drool‚ but spark-like droplets.
To me‚ sunk in a gray world by Ciel’s desaturation‚ it looked like flickering noise. But to Serina‚ it must have appeared as vividly colored candy fragments.
Her divinity of “deliciousness” was forcibly converting the monster’s killing intent into “ingredients for popping candy.”
(…Is this hell? The dignity of the forest king is being rewritten into “cheap candy material” for her stomach. …Ciel‚ status?)
“《Notice》. Humming Bear combat power: 1280. …However‚ due to conceptual contamination by individual Serina‚ 68% of the target’s muscle composition has been replaced with baking soda and citric acid. …Unpleasant. Extremely. Further neglect may fix the entire forest ecosystem into a ‘candy shop.’”
(…A candy shop forest. It might be a dream for children‚ but for an ecosystem‚ it’s death. …Let’s do this‚ Ciel. Before the damage (sweetness) spreads any further.)
I shielded Serina behind me and thrust out my right hand.
In my right eye‚ blue magic began cold calculations.
The bear raised its forelimb and lunged to crush me. Its speed‚ trajectory‚ and overflowing “crackle” of killing intent—
“Rui‚ be careful! If that bear gets angry‚ its mouth will fill with carbonation!”
“…That’s the wrong thing to worry about. Normally you’d be afraid of being eaten!”
“But if its mouth explodes‚ the honey flavor will be ruined!”
(This woman… she’s worried about flavor degradation‚ not the monster. Ciel‚ hurry the build!)
“《Solution》. …Approved. Conceptual substitution: fixing killing intent into carbonation. …Compressing and sealing target into ‘Special Popping Candy.’ …Rui-sama‚ prepare for payment withdrawal. …This time‚ I will sever one ‘thread’ that unnecessarily ties you to the outside world. …You only need to be connected to me.”
Ciel’s voice traced my brain with absolute zero coldness.
My vision glowed pale blue as the charging bear’s massive body broke down into geometric formulas and glitch noise.
“—‘Infinite Seal: Sweet Conversion (Sweets Seal)’!!”
In an instant‚ the eerie crackling sound reached its peak and burst.
The bear’s body was swallowed by swirling magic and converged into a blue flash.
The monster that reigned as king was sucked into the “black hole (administrator authority)” of my right eye‚ vanishing with a cracking sound like candy freezing.
What remained was the silent forest—and
the sensation of a certain “eleven-digit number” snapping in my mind.
Snap.
A mechanical sound echoed in the deepest part of my brain.
The blue flash that had swallowed the bear converged‚ and a single vividly toxic “Special Popping Candy” rolled onto my palm.
At the same time‚ one “file” in my mental archive was thrown into the trash by administrator authority and completely deleted.
(…Ah. I feel like I just discarded something very “specific.”)
My fingertips turned ice-cold‚ and a hollow opened in my mind as if gouged out with tweezers.
I desperately searched for the information to fill that void.
My home in Japan. The black telephone on the living room table. The worn eleven-digit number I had traced with my fingers countless times to memorize—held by my mother or father to call me.
(…I can’t remember. …Zero‚ eight‚ zero… no‚ was it zero‚ nine‚ zero? And then…)
No matter how many times I flipped through the index in my mind‚ all that came back was eerie noise and Ciel’s cold “access denied.”
The invisible line that connected me to my family shattered and scattered in the vanilla wind of this other world.
“《Notice》. Payment execution complete. …Rui-sama‚ please rest assured. A home phone number is less than noise in a world without radio waves. …The only ‘code (number)’ you need to connect to someone from now on—is me.”
Ciel’s whisper shook my brain with a sweet chill like a queen confident in victory.
She celebrated the physical severing of my attachment to my family as the ultimate “optimization.”
(…Rational. Yes‚ truly‚ exactly as you say. In a world without signals‚ holding onto a string of numbers is the height of inefficiency. …Then why does it feel like my stomach is being gouged out with a giant spoon… why do I feel nauseous?)
“Rui…? What’s wrong? Your face is so pale. Are you really okay…?”
Serina peered into my face with worried eyes.
When she gently touched my sleeve‚ the wind shifted‚ and the scent of my soul burning—chocolate—brushed her nose.
“…Rui‚ that chocolate smell again. The burnt smell from earlier is stronger now. Somehow… it stings the back of my nose‚ like a really sad smell. Hey‚ does something hurt?”
The warmth from her fingertips cruelly and gently melted my skin‚ chilled by lost memories.
“⚠️《Warning》. Undefined sensory signal detected. Strengthening mental stabilization protocol. …Rui-sama‚ do not synchronize with that warmth of the bug. Unpleasant‚ unpleasant‚ unpleasant… executing ‘Forced Emotion Elimination (Phase 4: Central Erosion).’”
Red logs flickered wildly at the edge of my vision as Ciel’s anesthesia tried to invade deeper.
But breaking through that cold control‚ Serina clasped my cold hand in both of hers.
She didn’t know that the candy in my palm had been created in exchange for the number connecting me to my family.
“…It’s nothing. I just used too much magic. …Here‚ we secured the request item (candy). Serina‚ you’re going to eat it‚ right?”
I answered in a flat‚ mechanical voice stripped of all emotion and gently pulled my hand from hers.
“…Yeah‚ I’ll eat it. But…”
Serina looked sadly at the candy‚ then lifted her face with resolve.
“Rui‚ you have to take a bite later too‚ okay? It feels really… wrong if I’m the only one enjoying it.”
“…Seeking fairness in sweets isn’t rational. …Well‚ if I feel like it.”
I averted my gaze and walked on‚ hiding my “emptiness.”
Behind me‚ Serina’s anxious presence following my shadow was the only weight keeping me connected to the world.
Pop‚ crackle.
From inside Serina’s mouth came cheerful popping sounds.
She tossed the “Special Popping Candy”—condensed killing intent of the Humming Bear—into her mouth without hesitation as she chased after me.
“Mmm…! Hehe‚ ahaha! Rui‚ this is amazing! It’s like magic is having a sports festival in my mouth!”
She laughed‚ holding her cheeks.
Each time she crushed the candy‚ its immense magic was neutralized into mere sweetness by her single word: “delicious.”
Energy that should have blown away a forest passed through her slender throat as nothing more than a “stimulating snack.”
(…A magic sports festival‚ huh. Aptly put. Though as a participation prize‚ one of my ‘lines back home’ has been permanently disqualified.)
“Rui‚ Rui! It really crackles like sparks in your mouth! Here‚ Rui too! Give me your finger?”
“…Finger? If you’re eating‚ it should be from your mouth. What are you—”
“Just do it! It’s instead of ‘say ahh’!”
Ignoring my protest‚ Serina grabbed my right index finger and pushed it between her lips.
Her wet tongue touched my finger. At that moment‚ the crackling vibrations transmitted directly to my nerves along with the sweetness of her saliva.
(…I’m going to die. This distance is a bug in public decency. My finger is literally being “eaten”!?)
“《Solution》. …Sampled the sugar content in the subject’s saliva and the micro-vibrations of magic neutralization. …Unsanitary. And very enviable… no‚ inefficient. I will purify that impure data of elevated skin potential and cherish it alone forever. …I recommend you forget this ‘unsanitary warmth’ immediately.”
Ciel’s voice carried sticky jealousy beneath its analytical tone.
I hurriedly pulled my finger out and lowered my hood to hide my flushed face.
“…Rui? Are you really okay? You look like you might drift far away…”
Serina peered at me anxiously‚ reaching out again to check my temperature. I unconsciously stepped back to avoid her touch.
“…It’s nothing. I just used too much magic. …Let’s go back.”
On the way back to the capital‚ after giving a minimal report at the guild‚ I fled from the evening vanilla breeze and lingering cheers of celebration‚ returning alone to my room.
At my desk lay my original student handbook. With trembling fingers‚ I tried to write down the “home phone number” I had just lost.
“…I can’t… write it.”
The pen tip slipped uselessly across the paper.
Just like before—when I lost the name of my town. The same absence of friction.
The more I tried to write it‚ the more the world rejected that specific string of characters.
“0‚” “8‚” and “0” were now nothing but meaningless static.
(…Ah. That’s right. I have nowhere to connect to anymore. I even turned my right to call my family into candy and sold it.)
Overwhelmed by emptiness‚ I set down the mechanical pencil.
Looking at the latest page of my diary‚ I noticed awkward hiragana beginning to mix in where they hadn’t before.
“I forgot the phone number”
Not just the numbers—the kanji for “telephone” had also vanished from my mind.
In the world that had once been filled with elegant kanji‚ a childish absence was steadily spreading.
(…What will disappear next?)
Clinging desperately‚ I tried to write the final line anchoring me—“my own name”—in hiragana.
—
For a moment‚ the pen stopped.
I can write it. I should still be able to.
Then why do those three characters look like someone else’s name?
“《Notice》. Emotional optimization complete. …Rest assured‚ Rui-sama. The numbers you lost are safely stored in my domain. …You only need to follow the ‘correct answers’ I present.”
Ciel’s cold blessing sweetly numbed my mind.
Outside the window‚ the sounds of a celebration honoring the hero who saved the capital echoed.
In the relief of being castrated into a “monster of rationality‚” I quietly stared at the void of numbers I would never recall—and the uncertainty of my own name.
—Unaware that the void was still continuing to expand.
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[Episode 7: Memories Rui Lost This Time: “Home Phone Number‚” “Kanji for Telephone”]
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End of Episode 17
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