Chapter 30
“See? If you don’t believe me, why don’t you just spill one of the secrets you’ve been keeping, Grandpa?”
“Th-then I might die if I do.”
“Don’t worry. If you die, we’ll just reset, right?”
The village chief’s eyes wobbled as if an earthquake had hit them.
Kaizen let out an incredulous laugh.
“You told me not to die before, and now you’re telling me to die?”
“Wh-what? No! That’s impossible!”
Hamma dropped the fruit he had been eating.
I leaned close to Kaizen and Hamma and whispered so the village chief couldn’t hear.
“Of course, that’s absolutely not true. The chief just seems nervous, so he said that. Don’t worry about it.”
Kaizen jumped back in shock, moving away from me at almost Usain Bolt speed. His face flushed bright red as he let out a long exhale.
‘Why is he like that? Is it really that unbearable?’
Hamma, by contrast, seemed relieved, patting his chest.
The village chief muttered to himself with a serious expression, oblivious to their reactions.
“…I wonder if I should really say this.”
After a pause, he seemed to steel himself and looked me directly in the eyes.
“Just promise me one thing.”
“A promise?”
“If what I say is wrong… and I die… then you’ll reset me without hesitation.”
His serious expression made me nod without thinking.
“Alright.”
Kaizen frowned slightly but said nothing.
The hesitant village chief took several deep breaths, gathering his courage. Then, with eyes tightly shut, he unleashed his bombshell.
“Actually… I couldn’t tell anyone until now because I was being threatened by the deity!”
“What?”
“Wh-what did you say?”
His slowly opening eyes met ours, and he let out a breath filled with awe.
“Ha…! R-really, the golden seals are gone. I spoke the secret and didn’t die…!”
Hamma, listening alongside, gaped. His ears perked up in shock.
Kaizen stared at the village chief with an unreadable expression.
“What does all this mean? Explain it slowly.”
The village chief glanced at Hamma with a pained expression, looked up at the sky, then turned his gaze back to me.
“I will… tell you everything.”
He grabbed the water glass on the tray and drank it down in one go, then set it down with a thud. His green eyes stared off into the distance, as if recalling something long past.
“The day Hamma returned from the Forest of Death… the deity descended.”
“Wait, wait a second.”
Deity? That’s not in the game setting! This was deeper than I expected.
Before the chief continued, I pulled out the rice crackers I had prepared for today and offered them.
“Eat this first, then tell me everything.”
“What’s this?”
“It has a calming effect. Eat while you talk.”
Actually, it was a lie.
The crackers were enchanted to make him tell the truth. I couldn’t yet trust the chief and needed a “truth effect” to know if he was lying.
Without hesitation, he ate the rice crackers. A Pinocchio icon appeared above his head.
‘So that’s the honesty icon.’
I hoped it didn’t make his nose grow or something if he lied.
The village chief bowed his head slightly and thanked me.
“Really… I feel at ease. Thank you, as always.”
Well, it’s just a placebo… But I guess it’s fine.
The now calmer village chief looked each of us—Kaizen, Hamma, and me—in the eyes, then spoke.
“The first person to find Hamma was a lumberjack.”
He spoke slowly, recalling the memory.
“Hamma was covered in wounds, staggering out of the Forest of Death, and was found collapsed next to a massive tree.”
“And then?”
“I hurriedly brought Hamma to my home and tended to him. That very night, a dazzling light burst forth throughout the house.”
“No way…”
Hamma murmured.
The village chief nodded and addressed him.
“The source of that light was your room. When I opened the door, you were sitting on the bed, enveloped in radiance.”
“M-me?”
“I didn’t need to be told. I knew the deity had descended upon you…”
Oh, wow. This was more exciting than I expected.
I munched on rice crackers like popcorn, listening intently.
“The deity gave me a notebook that day, saying that if I revealed today’s events before delivering it to its rightful owner, the world would end.”
The rice crackers slipped from my hands. My mouth hung open.
‘What kind of scale is this? One secret and the world might end?’
The village chief then pulled something from his robes: an old, worn notebook. On its leather cover, faint letters were embossed.
“Secret… Recipe Notebook?”
What? Why give this to me?
The chief answered seriously, noticing my confused expression.
“The owner of this belongs to Miss Romi.”
“…Huh?”
“I am finally able to say it. Seeing that I am not dying now confirms that the owner is indeed Miss Romi.”
What… is going on?
Regardless of my bewilderment, the village chief continued.
“The deity predicted that you, Miss Romi, would be the one to lift my golden seals. I… waited for that day.”
I blinked several times. So he already knew I’d be the one to remove his seals?
‘I feel like I’ve been used this whole time.’
The back of my head ached from the thought.
I lifted the corners of my mouth into a grim smile. The village chief flinched slightly.
“For all these years, following the deity’s orders to send Hamma to the cabin daily pained me greatly. But if I hadn’t done so, Hamma would have been in danger, and the world would have ended. There was no other choice.”
“What are you talking about? How does sending Hamma to a cabin relate to the world ending?”
“Perhaps… If Hamma hadn’t gone, you, Miss Romi, could not have been reached. It was all a setup to ensure you met him.”
Hearing that, I was flabbergasted.
Even if so, using him for seven hundred years like that? Does that make sense? What crime did Hamma commit? And what about me, dragged into this game world?
Rubbing my temples from the headache, I asked,
“Why was it a setup to meet me?”
“Because you are the rightful owner of this notebook. More precisely… you are the one to help the hero save this world.”
“……?”
“The deity said a saviour would appear to prevent the world’s destruction. That saviour would wield incredible magic through cooking. And Hamma… would be necessary as a link.”
That “savior” talk… I was sick of it.
At least now, I understood the gist of the events.
Hamma had been used as a tool all along, just as I had been unknowingly.
‘But something feels off.’
Until now, I had thought of the Tales World characters and myself separately. They were programmes moving along predetermined paths, not real people like me.
Yet according to the chief, I was part of the game from the very beginning.
How?
‘Could it be that everything I’ve experienced was part of the deity’s plan?’
Being dragged into the game world unexpectedly, endlessly looping, suddenly acquiring cooking abilities, and the tablet god’s words…
It seemed possible that my arrival in Tales World was not by chance, but by design.
‘I hope this deity isn’t the same as the tablet god.’
My blood pressure surged.
“That deity… dares use me?”
“I-I wouldn’t speak so recklessly, or the deity will be angered…!”
The village chief foamed at the mouth as he shouted.
But I didn’t hear any of it. Shaking, Hamma patted my back reassuringly.
“Finally, Miss Romi, you understand what it feels like to be used. Cheer up.”
“Hey. That’s no comfort at all. Speak properly.”
“Oh, just as you are. Don’t hold back only to destroy everything tonight. Do you know how hard it is to clean up afterward?”
Kaizen nodded in agreement.
“If you really can’t shake it off, there’s always a way to take down the deity instead of the Demon Lord.”
“Wha—! What on earth do you mean by that?!”
The village chief grabbed the back of his neck, looking like he might faint.
Seeing his face, I felt a little better. Their ridiculous remarks eased the shock I’d felt.
“But… what does this notebook say?”
