ATP 26

I’m going to carry you guys. Just give me a ride up to the boss room.

“Alright. Let’s do that.”

“Thanks. I’ll make sure I’m not a burden.”

As a sign of goodwill, I handed Tesilid a fruit fresh-cream cupcake.

“…We definitely fell into a dungeon, right? Then why am I eating this well? I’ve never even had something like this on a feast day.”

“You fight better when you eat well.”

“And food you give me doesn’t even trigger the sin of gluttony no matter how much I eat….”

“Really? Then have more. Adding chocolate tiramisu and peach milk tea!”

“……”

I even showed him that I had digestion potions prepared and fed him all kinds of delicious things.

Meanwhile, I opened the system and examined the mansion map.

The four annexes, divided into east, west, south, and north, formed perfect symmetry.

Each annex’s first floor consisted of a reception hall, banquet hall, kitchen, guest bedrooms, and maze-like corridors connecting them all.

Let’s see. To get to the boss room….

To fully take advantage of being a transmigrator, I checked the original novel in the integrated library.

Thanks to the bookmarks I’d set in advance, it was easy to find what I needed.

[Bookmark 473 — Sweet Potato Sprout Era Flashback Scene #ToyMansion #Childhood #BattleRoyale]

Hmm. According to the original, the young protagonist is still fighting while suffering from poison, steadily losing stamina… Yep, you reap what you sow.

By the time I had fully reviewed the content, Tesilid—who had just finished the chocolate tiramisu—told me something important.

“The presence of the clown doll is gone. I think we can go out now.”

Just as we carefully opened the wardrobe door and stepped out—

<Ah, ah! Testing the intercom! Can you hear me, children? Hide-and-seek is over!>

A voice echoed from somewhere—it was the butler, Rodrigo.

Looking around, I noticed a bronze relief shaped like a human face on the fireplace, its mouth moving.

<Oh ho, let’s see the results. Perhaps because there are many stigma-bearers, the east annex is doing the best. Compared to that, the west annex is in shambles. As expected, maybe that weakest silver-haired brat couldn’t manage alone. Anyway, congratulations to the surviving children! Clap clap clap!>

The bronze relief twisted into a grotesque grin.

“Let’s listen first, then break it.”

“Good idea.”

Agreeing, I grabbed a poker and got into position.

<With that in mind, we’ve prepared a banquet! We’ve laid out sweet foods that will fill your mouths with cavities, so please come to the banquet hall within one hour. Of course, there are no rude children who would be late to mealtime, right? I’m sure there aren’t, but just in case… everyone, please look at the nearest fireplace!>

We were already looking at it. It was clean, without even a spark.

<The Orshu Count’s mansion boasts a centrally managed chimney system with the latest air control technology! What does that mean? It means that the moment the banquet begins, hellfire will pour out through every fireplace and spread throughout the mansion! Except for the banquet hall, of course.>

Hellfire was a living flame—a formless monster that burned everything in its path.

<So if you don’t want to become cookies in an oven, you’d better arrive on time. That concludes the announcement! See you soon, children!>

Crunch!

The moment the bronze relief shut its mouth, Tesilid smashed it to pieces. My poker became useless.

Brushing off his hands, Tesilid frowned.

“What are they plotting this time?”

The third game in the original was “Hallucinatory Make-Believe.”

Children who ate desserts laced with demonic hallucinogens would go mad and massacre each other.

“They’re going to mess with the food. A lot of the kids were dragged here starving—they won’t be able to resist the smell of freshly baked bread. We have to stop it.”

“Is there a way?”

“Yeah. Let’s strike first.”

Tesilid looked at me, urging me to explain.

I smiled, already imagining messing with that ridiculous demon butler.

“Let’s go wreck the kitchen.”

✠

“Grrrrrr… thud!”

A giant teddy bear wearing a chef’s hat and frilly apron collapsed to the ground.

It was the last monster in this place—the head chef.

“Good work, Tesilid.”

We stepped over the scattered dolls and crossed the kitchen.

On the worktables were piles of cookies and cakes iced in bizarre colors.

I warned him again.

“Don’t eat them.”

“Thanks to you, I’m full. I don’t want anything. And those colors are unsettling—like poisonous mushrooms. Are they actually poisoned?”

“Not poison—hallucinogens. Eat them and you’ll go insane and attack others.”

“How do you know all that?”

“Secret.”

Tesilid’s expression hardened as he looked to one side of the kitchen.

His gaze landed on a container of cutlery—knives and forks sharpened to a terrifying edge.

It didn’t take much imagination to guess what would happen next.

“Ailet, if we leave things like this, the other annexes will turn into hell. We have to go stop them.”

I agreed with the goal. The problem was how.

“There’s not much time. We can’t go to the other annexes and clear their kitchens in that time.”

“……”

“This isn’t the moment. We need to head to the banquet hall now. That butler said once the banquet starts, hellfire will be released everywhere except the dining hall.”

“Then, since we’re going anyway, what if we go to the banquet halls in the other annexes? Even if the banquet starts, if we subdue the children until the hallucinations wear off, we can reduce the damage.”

His desire to save even one more place was genuine.

That’s why he’s the protagonist. Even if he’s frustrating.

“Hmm. The paths to other annexes aren’t certain. If there’s another gatekeeper like the chef, we’ll lose time—and we could end up in danger too.”

“Ailet, I won’t force you into danger. I’ll go alone—”

He was really talking nonsense now.

“Alone? Do you even know the way?”

“……”

“You don’t. You got to the kitchen because I guided you.”

“If you draw… a map…”

“There’s no paper. I can’t draw. And I don’t want to.”

“……”

“Don’t even think about doing something reckless.”

Faced with my ironclad stubbornness, Tesilid finally gave in.

“Then… we can only watch? And be satisfied that we at least stopped the west annex?”

“No?”

“What? Didn’t you say there wasn’t a way?”

“I never said that.”

At that, light returned to his sea-colored eyes. I began rummaging through my satchel.

“We don’t have to go there ourselves to save them. In the end, we just need to deal with the hallucinogen, right?”

From my bag, herb baskets much larger than the bag itself started pouring out.

Of course, these weren’t travel supplies—just things I’d been storing because of their expiration dates.

“…You actually came here to smuggle herbs into the Holy Nation, didn’t you? That’s enough to fill a cart.”

“You caught me. I bribed you earlier, so pretend you didn’t see.”

The ingredients were plentiful, and this mansion dungeon boasted a state-of-the-art air control system.

Everything was perfect.

“Let’s go play with fire, Tesilid.”

✠

In the Orshu Count’s mansion, the incineration yard housed a peculiar monster.

A formless creature that barely kept its flames alive, burning scraps of skull in the ashes—at first glance it looked like a bonfire.

This was Hellfire, Helberos.

It had been 200 years since Helberos left its warm homeland, Muspelheim, and came to the Orshu estate.

Since then, it had handled garbage incineration, kitchen fires, and heating.

To be honest, this wasn’t a good workplace. It came expecting to be fed high-quality firewood three times a day, but all it ever got was corpses as fuel.

And even those were rare.

<If not for the contract… I want to go home…>

As it curled up in hunger, someone banged on the metal incinerator.

“Helberos, time to work. Light up the mansion. Except the banquet hall.”

It was Rodrigo, the mansion’s butler—a truly vicious slave driver.

<I’m too hungry… no strength…>

“Here, eat this. A corpse.”

A useless adult corpse was tossed in.

<I’m a vegetarian…>

“Shut up, you fallen demon! Want me to throw you into Niflheim?”

Niflheim—the eternal frozen land opposite Muspelheim. Helberos hated the cold.

Trembling, it swallowed the corpse. Its flames grew slightly larger.

Rodrigo turned to leave, then added:

“Oh, and heat up the bathwater too. Those human brats came in covered in dust—it’s unpleasant.”

<……>

Not even the count, but the butler’s bathwater too… what a miserable life.

Grumbling, Helberos flicked a spark into a hole in the wall—connected to the bath pipes.

Then it got to work.

After burning the corpse and regaining some strength, Helberos slithered toward the largest pipe.

The first place it reached was the mansion’s central hall—the dance hall.

From there, pipes spread out to all four annexes.

Fwoooosh!

As it popped out of a fireplace, Helberos froze.

<Hu—huh? A… special meal…?>

The fireplace, which should have been empty, was filled with piles of hay.

Of course, Rodrigo wasn’t the type to prepare special meals—but Helberos was too hungry to care.

<Th-this is amazing! Delicious…!>

After so long, it was eating plants again. And not cheap weeds—these smelled like high-quality medicinal herbs.

Helberos devoured the piles from every fireplace in the dance hall.

Its tiny bonfire body swelled into something like a dragon’s breath.

After consuming an entire cartload of dried herbs, it let out a loud burp.

Buuurp—dark smoke tinged with herbal scent poured out.

<Ah! It’s already time…!>

It dove back into the pipes, racing through them like a runaway train, spewing black smoke.

Now overflowing with power, it didn’t even need to stop at each fireplace to spread fire.

From every connected fireplace, crimson flames poured out like lava—

Along with thick herbal smoke.

Thanks to that, the entire Orshu mansion was soon filled with the scent of antidote herbs.