Hm… maybe..🤔 fuck it.
-
Without question, the three doctors and the West Asia Branch Commander alike were people long accustomed to comfort and privilege.
So when confronted with cockroaches packed lid to lid, not one of them could keep still.
Everyone, please relax. Do maintain your composure.
Ling Ke offered this with a smile. There are still two courses to follow. You may reserve your hesitation until youve seen them all.
His reassurance achieved nothing of the sort.
Because Edelweiss Even and the others understood perfectly well that if the first course was already this absurd, then what came next could only be worse.
Second course!
Ling Ke spoke without hurry. The maids lifted the second set of covers in unison.
As expected, it was worse.
The pink-white mass on the plates was something everyone present recognized at once. Honkai beast body tissue.
Perhaps because they had already steeled themselves, the reveal of this second course drew no gasps from Edelweiss Even and the others. They had moved past shock into a different register entirely: curiosity. What could the third course possibly be? What could surpass Honkai beast body tissue in sheer absurdity?
The smile had not left Ling Kes face.
He did not draw it out. He gave them the answer almost immediately.
Third course!
The maids moved on cue, lifting the final cover before each guest.
This time, every face changed.
???
Every person seated at the long table, Edelweiss Even included, wore the same expression of bewilderment.
For no other reason than this: the third course was utterly ordinary.
A few slices of meat, arranged on a bed of greens. The kind of plate one could order at any Western restaurant. Artful knife work. Nothing more.
Edelweiss Even and the others exchanged glances, baffled. Then, as one, they looked toward Ling Ke.
He only smiled and gestured with an open hand.
Everyone, please, choose for yourselves.
I will not interfere.
He obviously had other intentions. He even added, with care: Todays «banquet» is one where I treat my guests with courtesy.
Therefore, so long as «guests» commit no rudeness, they may leave here safely.
I do hope everyone appreciates my kind intentions.
At that, the table fell silent.
Dr. Antonio, seated at Ling Kes right hand, swallowed hard.
He genuinely did not know how to choose.
Ling Kes intentions were transparent. The first course, cockroaches with their legs removed. The second, Honkai beast body tissue. The absurdity had escalated with each dish. Which meant the seemingly normal third course almost certainly concealed something worse.
And yet.
Cockroaches were no different from eating filth. He physically could not force them down. And if he tried and failed, if his body rejected them, that would constitute rudeness.
Going by Ling Kes own words, rudeness meant death.
As for the Honkai beast body tissue, eating that meant no life left at all.
So then.
Time is money.
Ling Kes voice cut through the silence without warning. Several people flinched bodily.
He turned his gaze on one particular guest. I believe Dr. Moniz understands that saying better than most.
The words had barely settled before his expression changed, warmth falling away like a dropped mask, replaced by something incomparably cold.
The speed of it was terrifying.
But what followed was worse.
A flick of his right hand, almost idle, almost nothing, and five threads too fine to see lanced outward, wrapping with surgical precision around the neck of every guest at the table.
Leashes. Collars.
And then, with what could only be called thoughtfulness, he gave each thread a few gentle tugs. So they would understand immediately, viscerally, the single relevant fact:
Their heads could be taken at any moment.
Thirty seconds remain.
Ling Kes voice carried weight now. Choose one of three, or take all three.
Timing starts.
He produced a pocket watch and held it before him.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The grand hall had gone so still you could hear dust settle. The mechanical heartbeat of the watch filled the silence, each click impossibly loud. And at their throats, that constant, ice-cold pressure against the skin kept Edelweiss Even and the others on the edge of panic, scalps prickling, nerves screaming.
Just over ten seconds passed.
Ding.
Dr. Egas moved first.
He snatched up his knife and fork and stabbed a slice of meat from the third course, bringing it toward his mouth in one swift motion. At the very last instant he hesitated, fork suspended, jaw locked, but then he caught Ling Kes expression. That half-smile. That knowing patience.
He opened his mouth and ate.
He chewed. He swallowed. He felt nothing. No pain, no wrongness.
Only then did he exhale.
With his lead taken, the rest no longer hesitated. Every one of them chose the third course.
Seeing this, Ling Ke let out a single breath of laughter.
Heh.
The smile on Ling Kes face deepened.
And at the sight of that deepening smile, every heart at the table skipped.
I wonder, he said, how everyone finds the taste of this third course?
It is something I prepared with great care.
The corners of his mouth lifted just slightly. Of course, I must also extend special thanks to Miss Edelweiss Even.
He turned a meaningful look toward the golden-haired girl. After all, it was her selfless contribution that provided the most special ingredients.
!!!
Edelweiss Even went rigid.
She stared, blank-faced, at the meat slices on the plate before her.
Ugh
She clapped both hands over her mouth.
An expression of pure horror.
Tears spilled unchecked from the corners of her eyes.
She did not want to die. She truly, desperately did not want to die.
But the moment she understood what those meat slices actually were, her body answered before her mind could.
Ugh!
Her bodys reflex was beyond her power to suppress.
She vomited.
Ah. Truly a pity.
Ling Ke released the threads from the other four guests necks, leaving only Edelweiss Evens in place.
He walked to her side, unhurried. His right index finger rose, one thread still connected to its tip.
He bent down beside her and spoke in a whisper meant for no one else.
Miss Edelweiss Even, why so agitated?
A smile. Words delivered one by one, in a volume that belonged only to the two of them: That really was just ordinary meat, you know.
Taken from the cafeteria.
You
She had been fooled. Fooled by a single sentence from the person standing over her.
She had believed, truly believed, that she had eaten
Please rest assured. The current me pays very close attention to etiquette.
I would never serve dog food at the table.
!!!
Edelweiss Evens breath caught like something had closed around her throat.
She, beyond those particular proclivities of hers, was also especially fond of keeping dogs. She had two, back in her dormitory. She would hold them while she slept.
She heard exactly what lived beneath his words.
You, youre not human! Youre a devil!
You
Shwing.
The hysterical scream cut off mid-syllable.
Edelweiss Evens head separated from her body and rose into the air.
Blood erupted from the stump of her neck like a fountain.
Whether by design or indifference, no one present could tell, but the girls head landed squarely in the dinner plate before her.
She died unable to close her eyes.