“If demons can’t do it, why can’t a human like me?”
“How dare you!”
Duke Winterly trembled with fury.
It looked like he was shivering, either from anger or the cold.
I shrugged as if to ask, “What are you going to do about it?”
“If we’re late to the birthday party, what will you do? Even if you’re going to kill me, think of it this way: at least use me before you do.”
“If you survive, that is.”
At that moment, Duke Winterly sneered as though I was laughable, lifting one side of his mouth in a mocking grin.
It happened in that instant.
He seemed to move farther away from my sight.
No, the entire banquet hall was shifting, leaving me alone and pushing further back.
Soon, everything around me began to glow brightly. I found myself in a space surrounded entirely by ice.
Ice walls, ice ceiling, ice floor—nothing but ice.
It looked like a long corridor, with no end in sight.
‘What’s going on here?’
Just then,
Bang!
With a loud sound, a luxurious table appeared.
Surprised, I paused for a moment, then moved closer to the table.
Upon examining what was placed on it, I saw three bizarre, complicated cakes, similar to the ones I had seen in the banquet hall earlier.
They were small pieces.
On top of the cakes, I could see some writing.
[Choose and eat one of the cakes that isn’t poisoned.]
[If you don’t eat anything within 5 minutes, you will die.]
‘Ah...’
Finding a non-poisoned cake within 5 minutes?
If I choose the wrong one and eat a poisoned cake, will I die?
Are all of these poisoned?
I scrunched my face a little before a thought came to me.
I had a skill that might be useful in this situation.
I had never used it before, so I couldn’t be completely sure, but I thought it might help.
Quickly opening the system window, I searched for the skill.
< Additional Class: 'Animal Care Expert'—Level 218 >
< Poison Detection of Food: Never feed poisonous food to your beloved animals! Detect poison in advance to protect their lives! >
‘This is it.’
It was a skill for detecting poison in food.
I had put in the effort to level up my Animal Care Expert class to level 218, and now I was going to make use of it.
The problem, though, was that these cakes weren’t food for animals.
But hey, just because they’re cakes doesn’t mean they’re not food, right?
I used the skill immediately.
The skill began sensing the food in front of me.
Will it work? ...It should, right?
I waited anxiously, and just a few seconds later...
Beep!
With a warning sound, a red exclamation mark appeared over two of the cakes.
Ding!
< Two unsafe foods detected! >
Yes! It worked!
Only the cake in the middle didn’t have a warning symbol.
Even though I couldn’t trust demons, I could absolutely trust the system!
I picked up the non-poisoned cake with one hand.
Even though it wasn’t poisoned, eating food from the Demon Realm didn’t exactly excite me, but there was no choice.
I quickly took a bite of the cake and swallowed it. Suddenly, everything around me began to spin, and then boom! a firework-like explosion went off.
Neon-like letters appeared in the air.
[How did you guess? Lucky you. You won’t survive next time.]
With the words, the table vanished.
At the same time, I grimaced.
“Ugh... The taste of this cake. It’s terrible.”
Even poison would taste better than this.
Could this be why Duke Winterly vomited out all the cakes earlier?
I quickly grabbed some water from my inventory and drank it.
What’s going to come next?
At that moment, my hair blew in the wind. My body moved forward, against my will, at a quick pace. I paused for a moment and then stopped.
Boom!
With a sudden noise, another table appeared.
This time, there were various fruits and ingredients on it.
[Choose the Demon King’s favorite food. If you choose wrong, you will die.]
What is all this...?
I looked at the table in confusion.
I could easily recognize chocolate, strawberries, and eyeball candies.
But the rest—things that looked like slimy slimes and dark, seaweed-like objects—were completely unidentifiable.
Could all of these be food?
Is this the food of the Demon Realm?
I frowned even more than before.
Updat𝓮d from freewēbnoveℓ.com.
What kind of food do demons eat?
But the bigger problem was that I had no idea what the Demon King liked to eat.
I didn’t even want to know.
I muttered aloud.
“Duke Winterly, do you know what the Demon King likes from this selection?”
As soon as I asked the question, words appeared before me.
[Of course, I don’t know. Who could possibly know the Demon King’s tastes after he has appeared for the first time in five hundred years?]
“...Are you kidding me? So if I get it wrong, I die? This is impossible!”
[It means you’re going to die anyway.]
...Wow. Demons really are exhausting.
But a competent holy knight knows how to turn even absurd situations into opportunities.
What could the Demon King’s favorite food be?
I didn’t have much hope, but I started thinking carefully.
Since the Demon King and my father share the same birthday, maybe they like the same food...?
Thinking this way, I began recalling my first encounter with the Demon King.
Then, I realized something.
As soon as he returned to this world, there was something he ate at our house in Neverland.
My father had never touched it, but it was there, just for use as a cooking ingredient, brought by Marsha.
‘Could it be that...?’
I was more than 90% sure.
It was the food he drank as soon as he revealed his true form. It had to be his favorite food.
Feeling like I had already figured out the answer, I shouted at Duke Winterly.
“Do you know? I’ve actually met the Demon King before.”
“Who the hell are you to...?”
I heard his voice this time.
Where was it coming from?
I blinked once, and when I opened my eyes, Duke Winterly appeared right in front of me. His ice-cold eyes were burning with anger, just like before.
“I’ve never even met the Demon King! Not just me, but many in the Demon Realm haven’t seen his face yet.”
“I saw him when he was in the human world.”
“What?”
Duke Winterly raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
But when I mentioned that the Demon King had been in the human world, it seemed like he wasn’t entirely sure whether to believe me.
“At that time, I figured out one of his favorite foods. The Demon King ate it right after his return. I happened to see him.”
“Is that really true?”
His reaction seemed like he wasn’t entirely sure.
If I pressed a little more, I might be able to get him to let me make a cake for the Demon King’s party.
I said with a slightly disappointed expression.
“After tasting the cake, it felt like it came from hell. It was really bad. Oh, wait, this is hell, isn’t it? Even if I make it carelessly, it will be better than this...”
“You filthy human. What’s this food you saw the Demon King eat?”
“You want me to just tell you, without even asking for anything in return? If I get to make the cake for the Demon King’s party, I’ll tell you. That way, I’ll make the cake to capture his attention. The Demon King will surely like it. Then you’ll send me and my companions back to the human world.”
“Hmph. That’s only if the Demon King actually likes your cake. Just don’t let him know it was made by a human.”
“So, we have a deal?”
When I asked, my face lighting up a bit, the ice room started to move away in the distance.
The surroundings began to change to another space.
Lights flashed from all directions.
Endlessly long shelves, cooking tools, ovens, and ingredients were now visible.
It was clearly a kitchen.
The kitchen was so large and fancy it was almost unbelievable. It seemed to have everything. Even the Pluto Ducal House kitchen couldn’t compare to this.
I smiled at Duke Winterly and gave my command.
“This kitchen seems a bit lacking for my talents. For now, bring the most expensive wine you can find.”
Wine.
The Demon King’s favorite food must be wine.