Future Diary Survival Game

Chapter 21: Week 3 - 1

We had climbed to the seventh floor, but no one had touched the books.

They were not in the right mental state to concentrate on studying.

They had already seen countless people slaughtered up to now, but it was only the third quest at best.

Seeing that kind of scene three times didn’t make anyone used to it.

At that moment Magireta approached the seventh-floor door.

She took out a bunch of keys and searched for one of them.

Then she stuck the key into the lock and turned it.

Click. Snap.

Having finished the task, Magireta pressed herself to the ceiling and lay down like she had on the sixth floor.

“The basic room layout is the same as the sixth floor. The restroom is over there. The food is over there.”

“…….”

“Then study hard this time too. I’ll sleep a bit.”

She snored as if to make sure we heard.

I sighed and pulled out a suitable book from those in front of me.

Thud.

I put it on the empty table and said,

“Everyone, pull yourselves together. This time we’re only going to look at this one book.”

“……!”

“Memorize this book as best as you can. We have one week, so let’s do our best.”

“…….”

“So that everyone can get out alive in the next test.”

Tears brimmed in everyone’s eyes.

They cupped their faces with both hands or wiped their tears with their forearms.

“I’m glad someone like you is here.”

“I’ll study hard. I’ll really study hard.”

“Thank you so much. Sniff, sniff.”

I scratched my head.

I could never get used to praise like that.

Armelia Kerr Dneroum said,

“Sit up a little straighter.”

“Yes?”

“You deserve that kind of gratitude.”

“I only thought I might be able to use it later……”

“It’s the same. In the end, it’s as if they were saved by you.”

My face felt a little warm.

Aina snorted.

“That’s what they say.”

“Anyway, I have one request.”

“What is it?”

“That fellow there.”

I nodded toward Matets.

In the Future Diary, Aina had been eliminated in the Week 1 test.

But I had saved her with the secret conversation feature.

Still, the Week 3 test was supposed to have Armelia eliminated, wasn’t it?

Armelia being eliminated meant there would be no one to tell us the correct answers.

That was effectively the same as me or Aina becoming endangered.

“He might sneak off and read a book on the sly, trying to broaden the test scope to knock the Princess out.”

“Would he really go that far?”

“Look at his eyes. Do those look like someone who’s given up?”

As I said, Matets’s eyes blazed with a twisted kind of passion.

Aina nodded as if convinced.

Armelia spoke.

“We could just tie him to a chair……”

“That would count as preventing him from reading, which is a rule violation.”

“Oh, right. Damn.”

“In the end, we can only watch him. The three of us should take turns guarding him.”

Aina said,

“I can just guard him all week. Like I said before, staying awake for a week isn’t a big deal.”

“There’s also the Week 3 test. We might need to guard him then, too.”

“……Two consecutive weeks would be a bit tough.”

“Then let’s divide the time for now. But I’d appreciate it if you could watch him during the night hours.”

“I’m only offering because I feel bad. I don’t seem to be much help for this quest.”

I smiled faintly.

“We’re in the same boat. In the next quest we might depend on you completely.”

“…….”

“So don’t do anything stupid.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Aina grinned and added,

“You really feel like our big brother.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing. Never mind.”

So studying started again.

There was nothing remarkable in Week 2.

People read that single book until it was worn thin.

Armelia had memorized it long ago, and Aina and I had also memorized it fairly thoroughly.

I didn’t want to hand the book to Matets, but I gave up that idea.

‘If we ostracize him, he might get frantic and try to read other books.’

Despite my merciful consideration, Matets predictably showed his sordid nature.

On the third night.

Whish. Thud.

I heard the sound of a sharp piece of metal being thrust into the floor.

At the same time, Aina’s cutting voice rang out.

“Everyone, get up! Matets picked up the book.”

Because we had agreed to read only that one book during Week 2’s exam period, unlike in Week 1 many had fallen asleep at night.

Humans weren’t meant to stay up that long anyway.

About 150 of us, half-asleep, all popped up from our seats.

They all looked toward one point.

In a corner, Matets had a look of chagrin.

He was holding a book in one hand.

“Damn it.”

“What the hell is he thinking?”

“He broke the promise and is reading the book alone?”

“Hand it over here!”

I asked,

“Did you read it?”

“…….”

“I asked if you read it.”

“Ah, no. I just picked it up.”

“Aina, is that right?”

Aina nodded.

I said quietly,

“Put it down right now and go back. If you don’t, the 150 of us will each read a different book. We’ll only share information about which books we read among ourselves.”

“Grrr.”

He put the book down with trembling hands.

“Go back to the central table and sit.”

“……Fine.”

The commotion was settled that way.

It had been a small disturbance that was handled well in the end, but it drove Matets’s already low goodwill straight into the ground.

One of the remaining women said,

“I’ll kill that man after this quest is over.”

“Ma’am.”

“My husband… sniff. He was eliminated in the Week 1 test. We’d only been married half a year.”

Everyone sympathized with her feelings.

It did seem unlikely Matets would survive.

Armelia muttered,

“He’s a man I really can’t understand. Can someone go that far just to beat me out of sheer obsession? Isn’t he afraid even after creating such a huge grudge?”

“Well, because Magireta was here.”

“What do you mean.”

“Probably he was sent to the Mogiren Territory both after the first quest and after the second quest. So he seems to have mistaken it for ‘automatically returning each person to their hometown.’”

No wonder he could swagger like that.

He must have thought we wouldn’t meet outside of quest time.

Armelia Kerr Dneroum’s expression changed.

“If you say the region you want, Magireta sends you there.”

“That was information I learned because I asked after the second quest. Apparently no one asked that during Matets’s second quest.”

“Hmm. Hearing that, it seems you gave us very valuable information.”

“You flatter me.”

“In that case, after the third quest I’ll request to be sent to where Matets went. He will die by my hand.”

For Armelia that voice sounded lethal; both Aina and I were startled.

It didn’t suit her usual demeanor, but seeing it made the Princess’s dignity unmistakable.

I shook my head and said,

“There’s no need to go to that trouble.”

“Hm?”

“That fellow will be eliminated in the Week 3 test. To be precise, I will eliminate him.”

“What do you mean.”

“I haven’t been idle these past three days either.”

Those three days.

I had spent meaningful time with the Diary Book.

I cleared my throat and explained.

Three days earlier.

I had watched Matets closely.

How on earth had that bastard managed to eliminate Armelia in Week 3?

If it had been a simple memory contest, it would have been impossible.

[Indeed.]

‘Surprise. Long time no see?’

[Yes. I was bored.]

‘Come to think of it, I should’ve thanked you, I forgot. If not for your secret conversation function, Aina would have been eliminated in Week 1.’

[Mason Gear scolded you a lot. He thought Magireta had discovered the secret conversation.]

That wasn’t true.

Still, I wondered what this Diary Book really was.

It could even deceive Magireta.

I decided to postpone that thought.

‘I’ll use the searching function. Find out how Matets knocked Armelia out in the Week 3 test and give me that information.’

[Understood.]

Whoosh.

Soon the Diary Book presented the information.

[Searching how Matets eliminated Armelia in the Week 3 test using the searching function.]

[Points used: 100]

[Remaining points: 0]

I read the Diary Book’s contents carefully.

Then I let out an exclamation.

‘He thought things through pretty well. No wonder Armelia in the future diary suffered that fate.’

Once again, Magireta’s rules contained a trap.

Matets in the Future Diary had seen through that trap a step ahead of me and used it.

Then.

This time I would turn that trap against him first.

Week 2 test.

Of course, everyone got perfect scores this time.

They had read that single book on repeat for a week until they were sick of it.

With ordinary memory you could pass without trouble.

Besides, since their lives were at stake, everyone was desperate.

Rustle. Snap.

Magireta posted her usual large notice and said,

“Everyone got full marks! Congratulations.”

“…….”

“Our students really worked hard. Sniff, sniff, this teacher is truly happy.”

She put on a tearful act that didn’t move anyone.

Magireta clicked her tongue and snapped her fingers.

Clack.

And the place we arrived at.

The Tower of Knowledge, eighth floor.

As soon as we arrived everyone started murmuring.

“Huh? The look of it……”

“It’s very different.”

“What’s going on here?”

That was right.

Floors six and seven of the Tower of Knowledge were literally libraries, shelves so thick with books that you couldn’t tell forward from back.

But the eighth floor looked completely different.

It resembled a reception hall, or a ballroom, more than a library.

Armelia muttered,

“Is this really the Tower of Knowledge?”

“Princess.”

“When I visited ten years ago, the eighth floor was also packed with books. There aren’t a single book here… no, there is one over there.”

There was exactly one small book where Armelia was looking.

—If I find you disgusting when you leave, I will kill you.

Author: Magireta.

What a title.

In any case, it was thin enough that an ordinary person could finish it in about ten minutes.

Aina murmured,

“Looks like a book of poems.”

“Seems so.”

Then Magireta’s voice came from the ceiling.

“When I chose the Tower of Knowledge as this quest’s location,”

“……?”

“I cleared out the people on the tower and replaced all the books inside with ones I’d written. That was the only hand I had in it.”

“…….”

“I told you because you wondered why the eighth floor looked different. It’s always looked like this.”

Reading the Future Diary I realized it.

Magireta had just given a very important hint.

—I only had a hand in that much.

At that moment Matets spoke.

“I see. The new Tower Lord finished renovations on the eighth floor two months ago.”

“What?”

“The new Tower Lord was not a seeker of learning like me but a servant of power. He remodeled it to entertain the continent’s influential people on the eighth floor.”

He clicked his tongue as if displeased.

“They must have sent all the books that used to be on the eighth floor to the sixth and seventh floors.”

“…….”

“The sacred place of scholarship has been defiled; this is the end times.”

“Only you would say that.”

“Shut up.”

I shrugged and asked Magireta,

“But, sister.”

“What is it, little brother.”

“There’s no restroom here, is there? The new Tower Lord didn’t make one on the eighth floor, it seems.”

“There isn’t. Well, this is more like a reception hall or a ballroom. Why? Do you need to go?”

“Not right away, but you can’t hold it for a week. We can’t possibly go outside from here, can we?”

Magireta fell silent for a moment.

She must have understood what I meant.

But soon she yawned as if it were nothing.

“If you need to use the restroom, tell me. I’ll give you the eighth-floor door key.”

“…….”

“Go outside and turn right; you’ll see the restroom immediately.”

“…….”

“Any more questions? Then start studying right away!”

Magireta pressed herself to the ceiling and lay down again.

We murmured for a moment, then approached the single book.

The thinness brightened people’s faces.

Armelia asked,

“May I read it first?”

“Of course.”

Others nodded in agreement.

Whoosh.

Armelia, who could read and memorize an ordinary book in a minute, finished the poetry book in less than ten seconds.

When she placed the book back on the table someone asked, somewhat naively,

“But why is only one lonely book left here?”

“Magireta said earlier. She only cleared the tower’s people out and replaced the internal books with ones she had written. So this must be a book someone who sat here on the original eighth floor had borrowed.”

The man nodded in understanding.

I glanced at Matets.

He did not yet seem to have noticed what his future self had realized.

‘Hurry up and notice.’

That realization would drive you into hell.